Following instructions

As yummy as the feel of this yarn is, the instructions make my heart smile every time I see the label:

Knit, Relax, Smile. Repeat!

Sometimes we just need simple instructions to get our creativity flowing. Eliminate the complicate. Stick to simple. Simply put, this sweet skein is going to become a gorgeous little scarf. Now the question is...what pattern should I use?


Suggestions?

Hello Creative Peeps

Hello again, yes, it is me. I've been absent from here for too long--and have no idea who, if anyone might still stop in to see if anything is alive here in The Dresser Drawer. In short, life has been hard these last many months, and while I have been journaling, reading, knitting, writing letters and posti, playing with some collage, poetry, stamps and taking pictures, what I haven't been doing is blogging about it. Well, that is not quite true. I have still been blogging on my hope blog partners4hope. 

Wilbur, the-marvelous-white-cat-in-residence, is as fuzzy as ever and equally amusing & personable (yes, that is an orange  peanut butter M&M he is balancing on his head.) Wilbur helps me keep my sanity. His zen-like presence is very calming--most of the time.

This is, again or still, a time of contemplation and discerning for me. I will share more soon. 

Check the right hand column and you will see my montage of art and creativity books from my Goodreads page. I am currently perusing more than a few books on creativity, crafting and business. If you are interested in finding a copy of any of these--or other books, you can click the Powell's Books graphic and search their site for new or used copies. If you haven't ever been to Powell's in Portland--I highly recommend a trip there.(And, yes, it is true they buy books too, in person and online. There are easy to follow directions. 

Java on my mind

My journal has a coffee cup on the cover... I SEE coffee cups everywhere: in art on the walls and in garden art....and then lately I've taken to reading my coffee grounds? Well, sort of. The last picture here is the inside of my morning coffee cup--having had a cup of Starbucks VIA. I figure that when my 'coffee stain' is in the shape of Australia enough times then it will be time to grab my passport and go.

I got started thinking the other day about all the kinds of houses I'd like to live in someday...apparently I need to live a long time because I have a long list. Here are the ones I can remember at the moment:

• a houseboat
• an adobe house
• a barn converted
• an east coast beach house
• a straw bale house

I am not saying I need to own all these at one time or another, I am just saying that I'd like to live in them. 

More soon. Just thinking out loud here a bit. 

This n' that

The last few weeks  have been a crazy whirl of moving from one thing to another. I did manage to start and finish two crocheted cuffs--in burnt orange and a deep pink.(These were meant to be worn on someone's wrist, but yes they work on water bottles or coffee cups as it turns out.) The patterns were based on a free Lions Brand pattern (# 90452AD).
 http://www.lionbrand.com/
I also made a collage coffee cup cuff. If I were upstairs I could mention the name of the adhesive I used. It was a trial run with it and it worked great - dried clear and less brittle than the old collage stuff.

Things I will mention just for fun:

• I am re-listening to Sue Bender read her book, Plain and Simple in preparation for a short class later this month
• I am reading a book a friend lent me that seemingly everyone else has read already: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• I am totally enjoying the daily calendar a friend gave me for Christmas: "little gifts of KINDNESS: simple reminders to live kindly."  The drawings are whimsical and the suggestions are real. It is amazing what beginning your day with this tiny moment of focusing on some small action of kindness to "the other" does for your heart. 

Experience

I had an experience. I got experience. You know, "experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."  I had an unpleasant experience. It involved an egg. Oh, I was the one who broke it. I meant to break it. I also meant to cook it. It was cooked perfectly in fact--right before it blew up in our microwave, that is when it was cooked perfectly... You see, I had about an hour at home today between my morning things and my evening things. It was wicked arctic cold outside. I wanted a nice poached egg to go with my toasted sesame bagel...I had the perfect recipe to do this. I have a friend who does this all the time. It wasn't suppose to blow up. But it did. I didn't have my egg. I had an experience. It was messy and the egg was perfect--except for the blowing up part and the cleaning up part. I still want my poached egg. Maybe tomorrow. I have more eggs. Goodnight.

Thankfully found...

At long last--Buddha's hand found in an impossible place.
Reattached with the help of wonderous Super Glue...
The Nook is a mess...Buddha and the broken shelf have called into
question the contents of the closet. Where will Buddha sit?
No time to do it tonight--the Saigon Rose rings the dinner bell.

Today was the start of a clinical trial for my sweet babboo.
A nine hour appt. and then some...and that is just the start.
Life remains an uncertain quantity with many small beauties
and gracious moments to celebrate along the way.

Just a few days later...

A few days later these red berries stopped me again...

standing out against the grey and cold

their beauty simple, brave and strong.

Today would have been my mom's 91st birthday,

she would have liked these better than a bunch of roses.

Happy Birthday Mom! It has been 9 years and I miss

you more each year.

He is just a bag-kitty

Yep, just a bag-kitty and more what's more--he slept in the bag all day!

I just thought I would share this sweet image. This is Wilbur.

I invite you to take a moment and just enjoy the craziness of this cat.

The comfort of colors

There are few things more beautiful than the colors of changing leaves. This branch is in my back yard and makes me stand at the window and gawk.

Trees are good listeners. They have the time. Not going anywhere afterall. Even the smallest of them have a majesty about them. More on this musing later.

where ARE we?

I had a rather surreal moment yesterday when I stopped in at my bank.
I stopped in at my bank of many, many, many years.
I stopped in at my bank, in person, to do something quite simple.
I stopped in at my bank in person, my bank of many years to arrange for a new ATM card for my daughter.
I was told, at my bank of many many years, that I needed to call their Customer Service line--on a phone--so they could verify who I was and then--and then, they could help me with my very simple request.
I blinked. I smiled. I asked the very nice real person in front of me why someone could not verify who I was, in person?
She smiled and said the people on the Customer Service line--and I was welcome to use their phone--would look up my account on their computer and ask me a few questions.
I blinked. I smiled. I looked around and counted more than a few computers.
I asked again, why that couldn't be done, in person, in the bank here.
It went on from there...it didn't get any better than you are likely imagining in your own mind.
I now know that something is terribly wrong in the world of banking...if they can't verify who someone is when they are standing right infront of them.

The long and the short of it...

You know how it is when the days just seems to slip through your fingers...
I have spent a lot of time on the phone and writing letters lately.
It saddens me when one comes back unexpectedly--and hope it is only a USPS mistake.

My dad was in a car accident the last week. He is okay, but his car is totaled and it certainly rattled him. Not a good way for a trip to have coffee with friends to end--but we are so mindful it could have been much worse.
After all the paperwork, the waiting to see what the insurance would do, then the looking for a new-to-him car, he called tonight to say he is in possession of his second "the-last-car-I-will-own." All this while I am reading the wonderful book, "Drive: Women's True Stories from the Open Road" a truly awesome book full of life, questions, relationship of oneself to the adventure of the road.

Tomorrow we have a family/friend group walking in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk in Bellevue WA. We each walk with a variety of names and faces imprinted in our hearts. And, we pray for good weather! Never stop hoping. More soon.

I've been writing myself out of my journal recently.
There has been so much in me, near me, around me. So, I pick up my pens, sometimes a glue stick, certainly a rubber stamp or two and I just start in on the pages.
Hence, I have been scarce here.
Today is the anniversary of my mother's funeral. It is also the day her youngest sister finishes up some potent radiation for breast cancer...odd to have those fall on the same day.
There is no silence around the house to take this in--neighbors have workmen pounding on something--so the prayer garden is out of the question.
It is almost time to dress and leave. I am reading Psalm 23 in a memorial service in awhile.


I added a very courageous poem on the connected Hope blog. That is really my entry for today, but I just thought I would say a little about where I am at the moment. Thanks for listening.

the rain has come and it smells so good

It rained all morning--with a sizable BOOM of thunder thrown in for good measure. And yes, the rain smelled so good, and sounded so comforting in that northwest way--but truth be told, I miss summer already. My large ball jars of ice tea, the flowers, warm night with beautiful skies and the standing around outside in birks or flip-flops, whatever your thing is. I am grateful for the sun and warmth but this isn't Arizona, so we knew it would wander away one day. Ah well, that day was bound to come and with it--the rain that smells so good. Welcome back.

strange or tiny garden sights

Well, the top picture is our garden's version of cauliflower--gone ever so slightly amiss in some very alien way. The second picture is a beautiful, if still unripe, green pepper that a baby snail was unable to pass up. You can see Tiny Snail, as I called him, hunkered down in the fold of the pepper just as happy as can be--if snails are happy. There is something in the swirly shape of the snail shell that has always suggested happiness to me, or if not that, then contentedness at least. I spoke only briefly with the little guy before removing him and sending him 'elsewhere.'

The garden has been slumping down on itself over the last half of the summer. We've had such an unreal heat most of the summer that it kept me from spending much time out there--even less working out in the garden. I did water off and on--a task shared with my sweet baboo--though he focused on the edible plants and I tried to catch the whole back yard. Though I do admit to having sat in the prayer garden a few mornings and enjoyed the quiet, the sun and my cup of coffee and a book... and while I looked at every each of the prayer garden and noted where it needed attention and water...I didn't do it that day. Procrastination.

Last night we started getting some rain, not just drizzle, but some rain. Starting in the evening, through the night and all morning. It has taken until after 2:30 before the sun came out. But it feels like September. Today it does. Who knows about tomorrow. It has the feel of the change of the season.

at the Saturday Market

Meet Daisy-the cute-puppy. Below her is the bee hive in action. The zen sand was right by where we parked and has nothing to do with the Saturday Market, but it was such a calm sight.....oh, and the flowers I made me think of Sarah in Virginia...

These were just some of the sights....I also smelled some de-lic----eooooouss soy candles. Yes, I stopped and held the Creme Brulee one to my nose and declared that this candle could make me make things in my kitchen that I did not need to eat....I talked with wondrous women who were preparing to walk the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, and a very talented stay-at-home mother/potter who tempted me dearly with her ceramic blue fountain made using shell formations--I love the beach, and shells, the sea, the tide, sand, rocks, and did I mention shells?

Before leaving the market I also found a pink hand painted sign that said "Princess" and was perfect for the 'Princess Birthday' party we were going to the next day....fancy that.

Ever Feel Like This?

My son took this picture recently--I am guessing in Boston, since that is where he is--today. I don't know who the dog is, but I am guessing he was getting a good belly rub when the picture was taken and that seems like a good trade for a portrait, right?

I had a birthday recently--you know, one of those 'significant' birthdays before a significant birthday. On that day:

• I saw the sweetest baby calf sleeping in the dirt next to its momma
• I bought a broken fan (and returned it)
• I listened to someone with a heavy heart and a lot of hurt
• I had dinner with some good friends and a few great family peeps too
• I had the-most-delicious cedar planked salmon and roasted veggies
• I shared dessert with my sweet baboo
• my car window was not shattered in pieces on the ground (it was the car next to ours--which was also missing...hmmm)
• I got to drive someone home and have a great conversation
• I drove home the back way without tons of traffic and listened to nothing but the sound of my life