This week has flown by and it's no wonder. I keep thinking that it is Wednesday when it is actually Thursday. That can be a good and a bad thing I guess. Good because the weekend is closer and bad because, well, the weekend is closer. I haven't been able to really check anything off of my personal life list because of work. I have been working morning/noon/night to hit my deadlines this month. I apologize for not posting more often but I will fix that in the coming months. I'm cooking up a little project to share with you over the summer so stay tuned.

All that said, it is time for the Mid-Week Lift! You'll probably be reading this on Friday, which is not a day that is considered mid-week, but I am posting this on Thursday night so I still hit my blog deadlines. Technically. You get the effect of the Lift on Friday. Oh, well!

Here it is...



By Associated Press
Updated: 5/29/2008

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y.

Town board members who had drawn the line at hanging clothes to dry outside are cutting residents some slack: It's OK for them to use clotheslines now.

The Southampton Town board has lifted a ban on clotheslines that had stood since 2002, when some homeowners complained the laundry on their neighbors' lawns was making the town look shabby.

But no one objected when the Long Island town board voted Tuesday night to repeal the clothesline ban.

Town Councilwoman Anna Throne-Holst said being able to hang her children's clothes on a line outside instead of drying them in a machine will keep her electricity use down.

''If you have three teenage sons like I do, your energy bill is going through the roof,'' she said.

Other residents said they had ignored the ban despite a possible $1,000 fine or six-month jail term. No Southampton resident had been sanctioned for hanging out a clothesline.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Hopefully your town doesn't have the same rules. Laundry hanging on a line reminds me of my grandmother and her lines of laundry. This inspires me to hang out my laundry sometime for that fresh line-dried smell. Hm, maybe not my unmentionables. Too many neighbors.

Stay on the path!

Fabulous Giveaway!

Check it out everyone! Em, over at Em and the Gang, has offered up a wonderful giveaway to one lucky blogster who comments on this post. One of us will be the lucky recipients of a LOVELY Emmeline apron from Sew Liberated and handmade by Em herself.


These are just examples of what the Emmeline looks like, but aren't they SO cute? These will certainly make wearing aprons in public come back in style. Hint, hint to all you family members out there, this Emmeline apron pattern is on my wish list.

Have a happy Thursday and good luck!

On the path...

A Mid-Week Lift - Prom Bling

It's that time again - time for the Mid-Week Lift. Is it the middle of the week? Yes! Do you need a lift? I do. I found the perfect story for this time of year. It's prom time this spring and you may see scads of well-dressed teens haunting steak houses and Chili's restaurants this time of year on their way to Prom.

I remember for my senior prom I went stag with a group of friends and we all met up at my friend's house before going out to eat. I was very financially challenged at that particular time in my life, relying on babysitting money and the occasional monetary gift at birthdays and holidays to get me through the year. So, I was very proud to have found a really wonderful plum-colored dress at an even better price. Walking up to house in all my stunning loveliness, I was dismayed to hear my friend's brother-in-law (our driver for the evening) exclaim, "You look just like Barney!"

Yes. He. Did. My evening wasn't as fun as I had hoped it would be from that point on. Oh, well. Perhaps I should have been as innovative as this girl. I give her full marks for a)being so totally comfortable with herself that she would show up in such a FUN dress; and b)for being so totally crafty. Read on...

By MECHELE COOPER, Blethen Maine News Service May 19, 2008
Courtesy photo

Vanessa Randall of Wayne made her prom dress out of 3,000 gum wrappers.

WAYNE — Walking into the gym on prom night with a girl on his arm draped in a chewing-gum-wrapper dress was definitely different.

Max Pistner, a Maranacook Community High School senior, said he thought it was "very cool" that his girlfriend, Vanessa Randall, made her prom dress out of 3,000 gum wrappers.

Randall, a 17-year-old senior from Wayne, started collecting Wrigley gum wrappers three years ago to make the dress. Friends, relatives and co-workers saved wrappers for her.

Pistner, who lives in Manchester, said he was just glad she got the dress done in time. She started sewing it together only a week before their recent prom.

Randall said she reinforced the dress with duct tape inside along the edges and used elastic braids around the straps and collar and in between some of the chains down the back so she could easily slip into the dress.

She came up with the design after drawing sketches all year.

"I came up with how it was going to look like the week before the prom," she said. "The theme of the prom was Japanese, so I was inspired by that in making the collar and flower pattern around the middle and back."

Her father, David Randall, an artist and sculptor, said his daughter got the idea from an article she read about a Lewiston girl who made her prom dress out of Starburst candy wrappers.

"We had that newspaper article on the refrigerator. That was the inspiration for it," he said. "Vanessa wanted to do something different and came up with the gum wrappers. She was really enthusiastic about the whole thing. My only concern was that she wasn't going to get it done in time, but she kept at it."

"She has a lot of creative energy and uses it in a great artistic way," said her mother, Ellen Randall. "She is following her dad's footsteps in creating art."

She said her daughter enrolled in a yearlong internship program in Germany, where she hopes to study art. Last summer, she studied fashion design under the auspices of the Early College program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Vanessa said she will continue to fold gum wrappers into chains and turn them into her own designs, possibly one day to profit from her work.

"I have some extra that I was thinking of making corsages out of and accessories like purses," she said. "I might be able to sell them on the Internet."

Go, Vanessa! I'm sure we'll be hearing about her in years to come.

Stay on the path...

Another Year and a Reason to Celebrate

My 32nd birthday was on Sunday and another year is another reason to celebrate, right? I am alive and healthy and I have a wonderful family and friends and extended family. Sometimes I still feel like I'm 23, just out of college with no idea what I'm doing. Most of the time, though, I am comfortable in my own skin and with who I am and where I'm headed.

We officially celebrated on Saturday with a walk to the art festival and some homemade cake from my MIL. It was chilly but sunny and Chandler and Ava loved listening to the musicians at the fair. It was really hard to pull them away, but we eventually got to visit the booths and get a snack.

I was pampered with a massage for my birthday as well as a date out with my husband. Here are a few of my spoils from the weekend:

A silver necklace from my parents:


Some cute jammies from my sweet hubby:


A leather handbag from MIL:


Oh, and I forgot to share my mother's day gift with you:


This beautiful necklace was made by Tammy Fakler over at Joyfully Crafted. These sterling silver discs were beautifully hand-stamped and it was a wonderful gift. I wear it almost every day. Check out her Etsy shop and I'm sure you'll find a great gift in there.

I hope you had a great weekend and don't worry, I'm still crafting. I really need to take some photos and share the projects with you soon.

I WAS Tagged.

I FORGOT! I was tagged by my e-friend, Em over at Em and the Gang. I met her through Amanda's quilt-a-long and she is a great e-friend although I think she could be a great in-person friend too, if we weren't separated by hundreds of miles. Details.

Anyway, I was tagged by Em quite a while ago and never responded. So, here are the rules:
1) Write your own six-word memoir about yourself.
2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you'd like.
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible, so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4) Tag five more blogs with links.
5) And don't forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Here is my sentence:

"Artsy, crafty, dreamy mom in love."

And here are some people I'm in love with:


They didn't cooperate for their Easter pictures, a lot of shots turned out blurry, but they were having a good time. Sigh! I'm in love.

I'm going to try and tag these people:
My shutterfly SIL, Keely.
My bookworm friend, Beth.
My super-quilter and e-friend, Cheryl.
My new e-friend, Troye.

I guess that isn't five people, but I don't know that many! I just read blogs, but I guess I should start commenting and making more friends.

Thanks, Em!

On the path.

A Mid-Week Lift

So, I've noticed that a lot of other bloggers out there have catchy names for days of the week: Friday Favorites, Works for Me Wednesday, Watercooler Wednesday, Manic Monday (insert Bangles tune here), and so on. I have also noticed that some bloggers refer to themselves in the third person all the time, and we could all probably have a really great psychoanalytic discussion about it, but I suppose that is a discussion for another time.

Well, I've decided I'm going to introduce my own catchy blog day: The Mid-Week Lift. Don't we all need a lift sometimes? A little bounce in our step (without drinking Diet Pepsi Max - even if it claims to have ginseng)? A little tidbit of information that makes us feel like there are good things happening in our world?

I feel like I am surrounded by sensationalism and bad news because it sells. Then I find myself down about the world and life in general and at the least, grouchy and restless.

Then there are moments in my life where someone has done something kind for me or have gone out of their way to help and I am encouraged all over again that we humans aren't so bad after all! There are so many resources out there to find stories about those Good Samartians, but they are not on the major networks' landing pages, that's for sure!

In that spirit, I give you The Mid-Week Lift. I know that there are only a few of you who really read my blog (and I, yours) so if you are interested in sharing the love, please do. Just be sure to post something totally uplifting (remembering my guidelines) - maybe even a good personal story! Then link back to my blog if you like.

Oh, and since I've named this the Mid-Weed Lift, it doesn't matter exactly WHEN you post the good news, just sometime in between Monday and Friday. That gives a little more flexibility to those of us who are busy reading other people's blogs to really worry about our own (like me!).

By Associated Press
Updated: 10/9/2007

DEERFIELD, Mass.



John Carney was dumping a load of brush at the local waste transfer station last week when he noticed a man's gold wedding band partially buried in the sand.

Intrigued by the ''Ed and Linda'' and ''June 9, 1996'' engravings inside the band, Carney decided to do some detective work.

With the help of local librarians, the 57-year-old South Deerfield man went through the Deerfield town report for 1996 and looked up weddings. He found a listing for Ed and Linda LaCoille on June 9 of that year.

Last week, he returned the ring to the LaCoilles' house. Ed Lacoille had lost the ring more than six months ago.

''I never expected to find it again,'' Linda LaCoille said. ''It was amazing.''

It was the second time in just over a year the ring has been returned after being lost. Ed LaCoille said he lost the same band a lake in Maine while on vacation. He left a note at the lake house for future renters.

A couple of weeks later, the ring was returned by mail.

LaCoille said he recently lost weight, which may explain why the ring keeps slipping off his finger. He's keeping it in a box now until he can get it resized.

''The chance of it being found a third time is outrageous,'' he said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


There. Don't you feel slightly happier now?

On the path...

Mother's Day

I hope all you mothers out there had a good Mother's Day! I did. I'll post my goodies when I can get a good picture. I also got a long nap - yea!

So, I thought about doing something sentimental and mooshy gushy for Mother's Day but decided on using the humor of Billy Collins. I love this poem by him. Love to all you mothers out there!

"The Lanyard"

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the pale blue walls of this room,
bouncing from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past --
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sickroom,
lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,
set cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift--not the archaic truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hands,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Billy Collins

Sad.

It looks like someone finally beat me to the bean bag section of Etsy. Well, there was no section, that's why I made some bean bag chairs. This makes me even more unwilling to hawk my wares there. I don't know why I'm so afraid of selling my stuff to people. I know they are good handmade products, but I'm so critical of my own work. Above is my cute little alien chair. He looks lonely, no?

Well, I'm going to put them up anyway and we'll see what happens. I think that I may return to my first love and what I'm good at: fine art. Mainly watercolor. I don't have much time to sketch and paint, but I can make time if I really wanted to. Who needs to cook and do laundry?

Speaking of changing course, I'm probably going to be changing my blog. Now that I have my feet thoroughly wet in the blogosphere I am ready to get the rest of me wet. You know the feeling when you are standing there in the water, trying to get used to it and you are trying to decide whether or not to ease in or just dive under and get it over with? I'm at that point. There are so many things I want to do with this blog but I am still trying to figure out if Blogger is for me or if I should find another home. I don't want to lose you!

So, I'm continually writing down my ideas and doing research. We'll see what happens, no?

Thanks for staying on the path with me...

Apologies!

I must apologize for my absence in blog-land. Last week I went on yet another business trip for a couple of days and came back with a lot of things to do for work so I've been in my office churning things out since then. How have you been?

I have had a craving for fruit and chocolate lately so I'm really having fun with the fresh strawberries and pineapple drizzled with chocolate sauce. Yum! It really satisfies my sweet tooth.

Well, there are babies, babies everywhere. So, I'm working on a couple of cute outfits as well as these super-cuties. Check them out! They look scary to make but are so easy. Give it a try! I just googled how to make a loop in knitting and off I went. I have a couple finished, except for the face, so I'll post those soon.

Oh, and I also got a quilting foot for my birthday - an early present from my hubby. So, even if my quilt-a-long quilt looks crappy, my quilting will look fun!

Back on the path...