Little altars everywhere.
Everyone has a place that’s sacred to them, and every place there is, is sacred to someone.
Some people find the sacred in buildings set aside for it — churches and cathedrals, mosques and synagogues, temples and shrines.
Others feel it in things of beauty, or of deep meaning to them — a musician in the sound of a symphony, an artist in her paints.
Others still find it in nature — the deep green woods, the sweeping plains, the heights of the mountains.
That’s me, nature girl that I am. And when I really need to renew, refresh, re-start, I head outside. And I wanted to celebrate this.
I’ve been thinking a lot about altars recently — go ahead and read those links, I’ll still be here when you get back — and the two ideas came together Wednesday, as I hiked the woods of Evansburg Park here in Worcester.
The path I walked is a mile loop, long enough to lose myself for a while. And when the mood took me, when it felt right, I stopped to build an altar.
I built them under trees and on stumps, on cut branches and logs and stones.
I used what I found within arms’ reach or a few steps, chose what caught my eye and lingered in my hands. Moss and stones and nuts and feathers, twigs and leaves and the earth itself.
I was drawn especially to the logs and cut stumps — wanting, perhaps, to heal the scars left in the earth.
I don’t know if any of them are still there. I suspect that some, at least, have already been carried off by the wind, or by opportunistic squirrels.
It doesn’t matter. They’re not there for posterity. It was the making of them that was important, not their permanence or the lack of it.
Where do you find the sacred? And do you build altars?
Posted on February 13, 2012 by Kate | View this Post | 14 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
Today they were helping with the photography…only not.
Helpful cats are helpful. (Emily’s been sleeping in there daily. For weeks. The cat hair doesn’t bear thinking about.)
(Also note the mess. That’s been handled, at least. The cats, not so much.)
Note the cranktastic ears. Also the thoroughness with which she’s embedded herself into the cables. I’m not even sure how she did that. (Or how she got out afterwards without bringing it all with her.)
YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE THE FLASHY THING. IN MY FACE. MOM. THIS IS UNCOOL.
Bless em. (or is that ‘bless their hearts’?)
Posted on February 9, 2012 by Kate | View this Post | Add your Thoughts
He’s a big help. Just ask him.
And for once, I’m not talking about Loiosh.
Apparently I needed to sort my jars of herbs and infusions.
…or at least they all needed to be moved. Riley was very careful with each jar, and a good thing, too, because I was mostly laughing too hard to catch anything if he’d dropped it.
Note his sippy cup, placed carefully among my herbs.
He helped with the filing, too. (I guess the sippy cup is an important part of the whole ‘helping’ process.)
Wow, do I love that kid. Best Nephew Ever.
Posted on February 7, 2012 by Kate | View this Post | Add your Thoughts
Samson, Redux
No great revelations here, and it’s not a year yet since he passed, but I found some pictures of Samson that I wanted to share.
Buddy’s Bar-B-Q, down in Knoxville, delivers their various meals in lovely boxes shaped like (and the perfect size for) kitty houses. Wade had at one of them with a box knife to add a door and some windows for my boys, and they all enjoyed it, but Samson? He loved the thing.
It was his hidey-hole, his Sekrit Lair. He’d lurk inside, burst out to ambush Loiosh or Chocolate. Or he’d just curl up inside and pretend the rest of the world (especially those humans) wasn’t there. It was his safe place, and his favourite napping spot.
I miss my Samson. I wish Emily had gotten to meet him, too. I think he’d've loved her just as much as he loved Loiosh.
Posted on February 2, 2012 by Kate | View this Post | Add your Thoughts
Owlsherst 12th Night
It’s been a loooong time since I’ve posted a real show report, and, well, I ain’t gonna do too much to make up for that right now. But you can have some pretty pictures!
I went to a 12th Night event (that’s an SCA thing) out near York, PA. It’s a small group, but one I was pretty familiar with when I lived here last, and I ran into a couple of folks I hadn’t gotten to see in way, way too long. My sales were pretty good, especially for people who haven’t ever seen my products before, and I had a good time, too.
There’ve been some changes, though. They certainly didn’t have a musical group this big the last time I was out that way.
They sound great, too. They played for a couple of hours, with some medieval music I was familiar with, and a bunch I’d never heard before. Good stuff!
Continuing the musical theme, one of the other merchants had some gorgeous musical instruments for sale, too. I saw several of his stringed instruments being played in the band (and that’s him to the far right, in the picture above).
In addition to all the lutes and such, he also had a couple of simple wood pipes that I was really tempted by, wooden spoons, and some lovely handforged knives.
Right next to me was a merchant whose wares I’ve admired before — he makes beautiful, accurate wooden chests and chairs.
Beautiful, comfortable, very functional — and portable. Yep, the thing folds. Gotta love centuries-old technology!
Posted on January 31, 2012 by Kate | View this Post | 2 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
Project Log: Wrist Rest Cover
I have a wrist rest for my keyboard — as do most folks who type a lot. It’s the older style, without the gel, and they’re difficult to find these days. I plan to keep this one forever.
But, alas, the plasticized ‘fabric’ it’s covered with does a number on my skin if they touch. Which they do, see, because I use the thing.
So I had this solution. I took a scrap of linen and wrapped it around the wrist rest, and attached it neatly with rubber bands, and figured I’d come up with a more permanent solution later.
…that was probably five years ago. So it got to looking like this (fair warning: gratuitous cat picture):
I finally got sick of this last weekend, just before the trip to the mountains with my family, so I gathered my materials and laid my Plans.
I have an old, beat-up flannel shirt that once belonged to my dad. I wore it until its holes had holes, then kept it for sewing projects, because the fabric was so soft. I’ve already used part of it to cover my mouse pad, but I didn’t think to take pictures of the project. Suffice to say it came out looking pretty good.
I used one sleeve for the wrist rest, since it was just the right length:
I knew if I simply wrapped the wrist rest in the flannel it’d slide all over my desk, so I had to leave the grippy part on the bottom uncovered. Instead of wrapping the fabric all the way ’round I folded it over and pinned it to the bottom edge of the wrist rest, and started whip-stitching it on, like so:
I didn’t sew all the way to the end. I knew I was going to have to fold it over neatly somehow, and I wasn’t sure how yet.
Instead of dealing with that, I turned it over, pulled the fabric tightly across the top, and pinned and sewed as before.
Eventually my fingers got tired — it’s hard to pull a needle through something as dense as a wrist rest — and I experimented with the ends, finally coming up with this, which turned out pretty neat:
Over the weekend (and with plenty of breaks for another project, about which more later) I got the rest of it stitched up. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Here’s a view of the bottom, with the grippy part still quite available to keep the thing in place on my desk.
And here it is back in use (cat optional). You can see my mouse pad, covered in the same fabric, to the upper right:
It’s more comfortable for my wrists, I don’t have to worry about the rubber bands breaking and flying across the room (which used to happen disturbingly regularly), and wow, does it look good.
Posted on January 26, 2012 by Kate | View this Post | Add your Thoughts
Up to the Mountains
Not Colorado’s mountains, alas. But the Appalachians are pretty, too, and even more importantly I got to spend the weekend with my family.
My Aunt Ann has an absolutely beautiful, luxurious cabin in the mountains, and she’s generous enough to share with us from time to time. We went up there last weekend — me, my mother, my sister, my nephew, and of course Loiosh — and had a wonderful time.
Riley wanted to see his picture in the viewscreen of my camera, but he doesn’t yet understand that I have to take his picture first, so there were some Unnecessary Closeups:
Riley and Mom spent a bunch of time playing with beads — or, as I like to call it, ‘sewing practice’:
Mom made dinner Friday night (her wonderful lasagna), and I cooked on Saturday — an African-inspired peanut stew that I really ought to post the recipe for sometime. We took a few walks in the (very, very cold) woods, got plenty of naps (my sister especially enjoyed hers), and spent some time in our favourite hobbies — Mom and Aunt Ann doing crosswords, and I got in some sewing (about which more later).
And Loiosh spent most of the weekend (when not being chased around by Riley) napping atop the couch.
My sister got artistic with her iPhone — I think this was Instagram? Or one of those? Either way, it’s a beautiful portrait of my boy.
All in all, a lovely weekend, and a lovely break.
Posted on January 24, 2012 by Kate | View this Post | Add your Thoughts
Gratitude
Remember that ‘depression’ thing?
Surprised by how long it took me to get around to that ‘gratitude’ thing?
…okay, so sometimes it takes me a little bit to catch on.
- So I’ve got this kitten. Who’s almost a cat, these days. And oh, she loves me.
- I get to see my nephew ALL THE TIME.
- Free rent. And utilities. Also the fact that it’s been almost two months and my mother and I still haven’t killed each other.
- Did I mention the cats? I take Loiosh to my mom’s store once a week to help keep an eye on Riley. And he puts up with it.
- There’s a laundry room right in the house. No laundromats!
- I’ve gotten some truly awesome sewing projects done (about which more later).
- Getting back in touch with old friends. A lot of them. Like, zillions.
- Also, best nephew ever.
- My whole family is right the heck here. RIGHT HERE.
- Weekends at the cabin in the mountains.
- Sometimes my mom cooks, and I don’t have to.
- Also, she really likes my cooking.
So yeah…it’ll do. It’ll do.
Posted on January 19, 2012 by Kate | View this Post | 2 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
Cats & Packing Peanuts
I’ve been catching up on some old pictures lately…these are from before I moved. Trust me, Emily’s a lot bigger now!
I’d run out of packing peanuts, and my dear friend Lisa suppled me with a few. By which I mean a whole freakin garbage bag full.
Needless to say Mr. Loiosh was pretty excited, specially after I moved some of em to a more easily accessible tote (which, as you can see, he promptly knocked over):
Emily, of course, was curious. What are these? Why are you so excited about them?
…so of course he had to show her (she is as addicted to them now as he is — fortunately neither of them eat them, they just chew em up and leave me a mess.) But in the meantime, he’d already focused on bigger game…
…the rest of the bag, which, just after this shot was taken, he knocked over, thus causing me to holler, chase him around the apartment some, and then clean the hell up. Scaring the crap out of poor Emily in the process, of course.
…yeah, that’s my cats.
Posted on December 30, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | Add your Thoughts
Project Log: Too-Short Jeans
A year ago, I was visiting my mother for Christmas, and she took exception to the fact that I had no decent pants to wear to the family Christmas dinner.
…alas, she was kinda right. I had sweatpants and jeans, and my jeans would’ve been fine except for the big hole in the knee. What can I say? High fashion has never been my forte.
Fortunately she had a pair of jeans that would fit nicely around my belly — of course they were too long (she’s about six inches taller than me), but that’s easily fixable with scissors, right?
I trimmed them off to the exact right length, tucked them into my boots, and off we went to Christmas dinner, and all was well.
…except for the part where they were the exact right length, which made things difficult when I got around to hemming them. No matter how tightly I rolled the hem, they were gonna be too short.
Fortunately, I had a solution. Or at least, a shirt.
I’d acquired an old swimsuit coverup from friend — she never wore it any more, and I didn’t wear it either because, well, I’m not near as boob-tastic as she is, and the neckline was…overly generous. Plus, the fabric was a little scratchy.
But I was intrigued by the gold trim, so I folded it up and tucked it away, figuring it’d come in handy with some sewing project, someday. And with the jeans, the day was here.
A simple solution, I thought. I’d trim off the sleeve cuffs and sew them around the bottom of the jeans legs, thus finishing off the cut hem without needing to turn it, and also making it pretty. Perfecto!
Except for the part where they weren’t quite long enough.
I spent far more time than was strictly necessary trying to convince myself it’d be pretty easy to just slim the jeans legs down at the bottom until the cuffs would fit. Fortunately I failed, cos wow, that woulda been a pain in the butt.
And I wouldn’t have come up with this:
That’s from the side slits in the shirt. I cut them out, trimmed them evenly all around, and cut slits in the side of each jeans leg to fit, then painstakingly sewed them into place. This was by far the hardest part — the fiddliest part, anyway, and I’m glad I’m patient when it comes to this sort of thing.
I’ll note here that the whole thing was sewn by hand. I do okay with sewing machines these days, but for anything remotely tricky, give me a needle, thread, and all the time I need to put each stitch precisely where it needs to be.
After that, sewing the cuffs around the rest was pretty trivial, and it all fit really well when I was done.
And now I have really lovely hippy jeans that fit me well, get me lots of compliments, and are just fun to wear. One of my favourite sewing projects ever.
I love the idea of messing with jeans — anything from sewing patches on to totally reconstructing them into something else. I’ve just started playing with the idea, here — so if you’ve got a project of your own to show off, I’d love to see it.
Posted on December 27, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 6 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?