Berlin's Whimsy

Holding Back.

I still love my curtains----so bright and cheery and they practically glow in the afternoon light. I finally got around to hanging up my crystal prism that showers my room in rainbows at the end of the day...

Alas, I'm holding back here in my writing these days. Some stressful and ugly things are occurring behind the scenes but I cannot write about my thoughts nor observations right now because of a negative and hurtful comment left on my blog last week by the young woman that my husband left me for. Yes, apparently she is reading my blog and she doesn't like ironing---or so it seems ;-). As everything evolves through divorce proceedings, I cannot risk sharing personal nor substantive information here.

I apologize because I do tend to write the best about subjects I feel passionate about (good or bad) and I had hoped that by sharing my own experiences, those of you who have contacted me might find pieces of my writing helpful.

Instead, I'm keeping it light around here and focusing on my salvation: my crafts & my children. Even when things become very stressful, we all need to enjoy some sort of respite and positive focus.

Please do follow along with me as I find the whimsy between the dark clouds. If you have a question or personal comment, please email me directly (my email is listed on the sidebar under the copyright info & within my ABOUT info).

Added: I deleted the negative comment from that "Ironing" post so please don't think poor Kirsten is the one that left the comment I'm referring to in this post! ;-)

Earth Hour 2008

I was going to take this time to write about our visit today to a local Fiber Festival----it was so much fun! However, we are participating in Earth Hour 2008 and turning off our power for an hour. We will enjoy an hour (or more) of games, knitting, and talking by candlelight. I wish I would have remembered to remind everyone before now, but I also believe that we can all enjoy an Earth Hour anytime. In fact, our family might do so once a week...

More about the Fiber Festival in the coming days...

Happy Wall.

Recently my embroidery and sewing was for me. For my Happy Wall. Do you have a Happy Wall---perhaps a Happy Corner? My room isn't especially large but it acts as my sanctuary from the joys, as well as the stresses of motherhood.

And now I'm calling it what it truly is: my craft room. I suppose if ever I had a room specifically set aside for my creative endeavors it would look a lot my room now, minus the bed for sleeping!

My wall is a work in progress. I finished my bright and cheery curtains with their red and white gingham but I also wanted a bit of embroidery to display beside my happy curtains.

In coming up with ideas, I quickly settled on birds and trees.

It's spring and they are so much on my mind these days.

They chirp and squack outside my window and they show off their bright spring colors at our feeder.

I believe we all need a Happy Wall (or corner, or space, or room) to call our own---a bit of inspiration or visual serenity. A place that makes our eyes and our heart peaceful and fullfilled. A place to relax and feel full in our worlds----perhaps to even feel embued with our lifeforce whether that is creativity, parenting, or just the fullfillment of words within a book.

As I finish up a few more projects, I now have my Happy Wall to gaze at in between stitches.

Smell's stories.

Fragrance is important to me and apparently I'm not alone. I remember hearing somewhere, sometime, that fragrance is one of our senses most linked to memory. There is a physiological reason for this.

For me, fragrance's memory link is strong. In the spring, a whiff of opening blossoms and the earth waking up from its winter nap fills me with joy. The smell reminds me of my college days when the campus was full of flowering trees and I anxiously awaited the coming summer.

The smell of mint brings back memories of working outdoors near mint farms. Some nights, the sticky sweet smell almost brought tears to my eyes. And when I used to dread a full day of housecleaning in the bleakest months of winter on the coast, I mixed up a bucket of natural soap with a few drops of mint oil for its vibrant pick-me-up quality.

I will always associate the soothing fragrance of lavender with ironing and sewing. And my kids in the bath as their crazy energy slowly submitted to the warm water spiked with lavender.

And I even love the earthy and bitter smell of wool's lanolin (and no, that isn't a sheep----it's an alpaca). Lanolin's smell evokes memories of the most peaceful of activities: handspinning. I love the smell of the lanolin as I watch the fiber slowly twist into something useful between my fingers.

What about you? Do you have certain fragrances linked to memories?

**I received a couple requests for my recipe for the lavender linen spray I mentioned yesterday. I know there are probably better recipes out there, as this is the simplest recipe of all: Fill a spray bottle with distilled water and add a few drops of essential oil. Shake it up and let it sit. Before each use, shake it to distribute the essential oil. That's all I do!

Essential Oils can be found at:

Liberty Naturals (a great source for high quality oils at reasonable prices, as well as spray bottles & containers)...

Mountain Rose Herbs (this is a wonderful company and be sure to poke around their site for many other great natural products and ideas---they have wonderful tea)!

Calming Chore.

I have my chores that I dread and others that are somehow calming. Like ironing----when I am forced to submit to it, I find myself calm and relaxed. Enjoying the movement and "erasing" of the wrinkles. I use a homemade lavender spray that adds to my peaceful mood.

Visually, the long swaths of white linen and its interwoven strands and little nubs of fiber here and there are comforting. Yep, I could probably spend a quiet afternoon ironing linen.

Bread Machine Tips---Daily Bread.

Though I was an artisan-style bread baker, I love my bread machine. I was hesitant at first to use one but I finally relented when I just didn't have the time to make our daily bread from scratch. I prefer to bake my own bread. Many of the commercially produced breads include dough conditioners and other strange ingredients to maintain their product's consistency. I like that I know what I'm putting into our bread. I feel that bread is one of those comforting gifts in life---true foodie alchemy. And when my bread machine dies, I'll probably continue on without it, but for now, I'm thankful...

Bread machines have a tendency to bake bread too fast resulting in a bread that lacks the yeasty depth of flavor that handmade ones do. They also tend to dry out readily. After experimenting with my machine based on my background in baking, I found a few tips that improve bread machine bread.

1) If you can control the timing of your bread machine's phases in some sort of custom setting, do it (this is why I love my Zojirushi). Bread increases in flavor and performance with time and if you can increase the time it ferments or rises, it will improve the flavor. Here is what I have my bread machine programmed for:  Knead for 20 minutes; First Rise is one hour and 11 minutes; Second rise is 45 minutes; Bake for one hour. I always use this custom setting. Remember, time is bread's bestfriend----time adds flavor among other good things.

2) Bread is a living thing and various conditions can change the way it acts. Things such as humidity, barometric pressure, and the flour you are using can change the way flour absorbs water changing the way the bread reacts even when you are using the same recipe repeatedly. For this reason, I check the dough in the bread machine when it is nearing the end of the kneading cycle to be sure the dough is the right consistency. You want your dough to be on the wet side---if you pinch it, you don't want the dough to cling to your fingers but you do want it a bit sticky (stick and release). Creating a dough that is too dry is a common mistake in baking bread. If the dough seems dry, add water to it by the tablespoon-full. If it is too wet, however, add a bit of flour.

Also, check to see where your dough is lying in the bread pan---you don't want it on one side or another (the Zo is really great about setting the dough up to rise in the correct position in the pan).

This is my daily bread recipe. It's based on a recipe from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook (highly recommended---in fact, all of the cookbooks by Beth Hensperger are wonderful). This is a basic formula that I then add varying ingredients to depending on the grains I have on hand. My kids love it, too.

Crunchy Daily Bread

(Makes a 2 lb loaf)

1 1/2 C. water

1/4 C. honey

1/4 C. molasses

3 T. canola oil or butter at room temp.

3 C. bread flour

1 C. whole wheat flour

1/4 C. wheat germ

1/4 C. flax powder (we use the organic white flax powder from Costco---love it!)

2 T. vital wheat gluten

2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 tsp. SAF yeast (or 1 T. bread machine yeast)

Crunchy Add ins:

3 T. millet

3 T. sunflower seed

3 T. amaranth

Layer the ingredients into your bread machine pan according to the manufacturer's directions (my machine requires first the liquids and then the dry ingredients). Set the machine for your custom setting, or for a Basic Whole Wheat. Check in on your machine as it nears the end of its kneading cycle and add liquid or flour depending on the dough's consistency. Let the machine do its thing and remove your bread after it is finished baking. Cool just a bit and enjoy your nutritious bread!!

 

Ninja Bunny Foo-foos

When I made these bunnies, I knew they would enjoy many adventures. Fighting roving marauders and even each other is just all in a day's work for these bunny foo-foos (as they are now called). They sport new clothing items and eat homemade food pellets. They also have some other bad manners that I won't share (what is it with bodily functions and children?)! As I listened to the bunny's exciting adventures, I quietly hoped my stitching holds...

They enjoyed watching The Sound of Music last evening, as did I. I love that movie!! I can watch it over and over and it always makes me smile.

And I never noticed how many of Fraulein Maria's clothes I love! This time, as I watched the movie, I imagined coming up with some of those jumpers for myself... My daughter wants one, too! Now, if only I could sing.

Woodland Easter Rabbits.

I'll admit something (are you counting airhead moments on this blog? Oh, please don't, I'd hate to hear the total!)...

I didn't realize it was Easter weekend until two days ago. I thought Easter was next weekend!

So, my confusion was probably for the best. Easter was always "our holiday," which meant that we hosted a weekend full of family---my in-laws. It was always a big to-do. You can probably imagine my ambivalence this year; another point in my life that diverges from what I knew for years. I didn't have much time to fret about it this year with my confusion of dates.

We're making the best of it in spite of our lack of planning ahead and our mixed emotions. We colored eggs, we looked at chicks (in hopes that we might bring home a few in the coming weeks to raise!), and I finished up these little woodland bunnies. They aren't much but my kids still enjoy little toys with personalities.

These bunnies are a version of Mochimochi's Woodins. I loved the little Woodins in their knitted log but with less than 48 hours and no suitable yarn, I couldn't knit two of them.

Instead, I used some felted sweaters that I've been saving for projects. This little woodland stump must suffice. For some reason my mind seemed to be thinking woodland creatures when I embroidered the little stumps, consequently they don't look very Spring/Easter-like. Ah well, I think the bunnies like hiding in them just fine.

One Needle.

I met a wonderful elderly quilter yesterday while visiting my friend at her yarn store. I was reminded of that innate goodness of hand crafts and their ability to bridge generations.

This woman spoke of her grandmother who had created a beautiful quilt in the 1800s. This quilt was made up of basic fabrics in only a few colors: that's all they had back then. Each little piece of fabric was significant and treasured. They probably were cut from clothing or household items such as feed-sacks. She saved up these bits until she had enough fabric to make this quilt.

She pieced her quilt together with the ONE NEEDLE she owned. ONE NEEDLE. This part of the story struck me as I thought of my multiple pincushions at home with needles of various sizes poking out every which way. Each one of those needles is just a means to an end for me. If one becomes dull, or maybe I don't even like the way it feels in my hand, I toss it out without much thought. The same goes for thread. This woman in the 1800s saved her thread. She had thread that she used for basting and when she was through, she wound it back up onto the spool for next time.

I thought about all of this, how I take stuff for granted. There's always more stuff to replace stuff. I'm just as guilty as anyone else who has grown up in the era of disposable this and that. However, I have always bought the very best I could afford so that it would last. But still, that concept of ONE NEEDLE is novel for me, a place for me to understand how far we've come from our simple and frugal roots.

I heard that in the past money was the limiting factor for people----we lived so simply that we were not outgrowing our resources. But it's different now; even little old me, truly without much money at all, can still make a negative impact on the resources in the world. It's scary.

But it doesn't have to be that way for me. That story made an impact. I think about my evolving interest in living more simply and creating comfort and love within my family through the basics: simple good food, comforting crafts, encouraging stories, enjoying nature. I think about the quiet and peace that comes from hand crafts and the stories we all shared yesterday through our common interest in something that has faded away in our society. Perhaps these things will return, much as knitting has gained such widespread popularity.

When I returned home, I read Meg's beautiful birthday post on her blog, Montessori by Hand. I had not watched the clip she recommended: The Story of Stuff. It was a fitting cap to my day. My children watched it, too, and we had a wonderful discussion. My son said something so simple yet profound. He said, "I know why families aren't as happy now. It's because we have all of this stuff to occupy our minds." He said this in reference to our family, too. We're just as guilty of distracting ourselves from the real beauty of life.

Lots to think about for me. It's a process but I feel it's a good one. A journey to becoming more real on the planet and engaged with one another.

Wool is Good.

It snowed today. Again. It's supposed to be Spring. My kids said, "I think Mother Nature is mistaken!" Maybe they're right.

It was my son's turn to go cross-country skiing today at school. While we gathered up supplies----long underwear, gloves, hat, coat, etc----it just seemed like he needed something more. He is oh-so-skinny and I worry about his warmth. I looked at his skimpy shirt and almost said aloud, 'You need a woolen sweater. That would be perfect.' No go---I haven't knitted him a sweater! Nor socks. I'm working on them.

Sigh, I'm a knitter whose kids do not have woolen sweaters. No Mom of the Year award around here...!