Practical Advice

From Practical Magic. Go read some Alice Hoffman, right now.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You*

One year ago my friend Claire and I met at our favorite breakfast place in Atlanta. Since Claire lives in North Carolina now, and I’m up here in DC, holiday trips to the Flying Biscuit are our primary way of staying up to date on the others’ life. On this trip, Claire brought me a garbage bag full of t-shirts. T-shirts from our youth group days that I had volunteered to turn into a quilt.

When I sat down to look at my new toys, I was immediately struck by two things: 1)There were not a lot, maybe 10 in total, definitely not enough to make the full size bed quilt we had discussed and 2) oh sweet Jesus were they ugly.

Whoever was in charge of t-shirt design for the Glenn Memorial UMC Youth Group** from 2000-2006 was not thinking in terms of future t-shirt quilts. The clash of bold colors, the jumble of different fonts, including comic sans, and the clip art. Oh the clip art. It was just not pretty. And it hurt my brain to think of how to put them together. It was going to take time and wine to make this quilt happen.

I had plenty of wine, but not so much time: the t-shirts went on a tall shelf and sat there for a good long while. When I finally brought them down I was struck again by how ugly they are, but I was also struck by a lot of feelings.

The Strange Fire t-shirt? With the Indigo Girls lyrics? I still have that shirt. In fact, I’m wearing it right now. It’s old and stained and torn and it’s my very favorite piece of clothing.

This shirt, the Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord Fall Retreat 2002? I wore that in college and all of my friends called it my pole dancing shirt. It wasn’t as awesome as the Strange Fire one so I gave it to a friend who still proudly wears it.

DSL for Faith Journey? Ahhh, 2001. A simpler time. A time when everyone wanted to capitalize on this new hip thing called the internet. No more dial-up required!

In two weeks, Claire and I will meet up at our favorite breakfast place to catch up: She just got accepted to an MFA program that I can’t wait to hear about, there are some exciting things happening in my life too, and of course, there will be the quilt to remind us both of how far we’ve come together.

*May the Lord bless you and keep you
May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace
Amen

**I’m pretty sure a large part of the problem is that there were multiple people designing the shirts and our fabulous Youth Minister gave us, the kids, the autonomy to design the shirts ourselves and with the exception of the Indigo Girls shirt, 15 year olds are idiots.

Sunshine

Let’s talk for a minute about my friend Sunny. Sunny is fearless and, as I am filled with fear on a daily basis, I am in awe of her.

After we graduated from college, Sunny moved to Colorado where she took an unpaid internship with a chef who wanted to work on Farm to School projects. Sunny worked on school food reform during the days and waited tables at night for almost a year until she managed to write a grant that funded a salary. And a year later, when her partner needed to relocate for his master’s program, Sunny went with him. To Mississippi. A state with absolutely zero food reform programs in place.

So what did Sunny do? She started a consulting business, got herself hired by the local school district and is currently the leading voice for healthy school food in the state.

Sister is doing it for herself. So for her birthday I made her a little something.

I drew a picture…

And turned it into a pattern…

Which I attacked with fabric, scissors and a sewing machine until it turned into this…

That was then quilted like so…

Add in the name of her company…

And voila!

My original intent was to make a table cloth that she could use at farmer’s markets and out and about in the community. It’s a bit narrow for that (and doesn’t lay quite flat) but I have it on good authority that it’ll hang proudly in Sunny’s apartment, hopefully as a reminder of what an inspiration she is to me.

Close My Eyes and Leap

October was not a good month for me. Especially at the beginning, I felt like I was spinning out of control, unmoored and untethered, reaching for things that were just beyond my grasp. And it was frustrating.

I needed a project that I could do, all on my own, from start to finish. Something where I could feel like, in just this one thing, I was in charge. Reaching deep, I put on my Wicked soundtrack (really, just Defying Gravity on repeat) and got to work.

So if you care to find me (and all the stuff I make)
Look to the Western Sky (or Etsy)
As someone told me lately
Everyone deserves a chance to fly (methaphorically, by opening an Etsy shop)

That’s right. Starting today, you (or someone you know) can buy the do-dads and trinkets that I spend my free time dreaming up.

I spent most of October ignoring the personal projects I’ve been meaning to finish (what else is new there though?) and building up a decent stockpile of assorted goodies that I feel good about telling people to buy.

There’s a little bit of everything in the shop, lots of it featured here on the blog first. For instance, everything in the pictures today is currently for sale.  All of these can be yours or your loved ones with just a few simple clicks of the mouse. I’ll be adding inventory whenever I finish something new that doesn’t have a predetermined home, but I’d also love to take custom orders. If you have a great idea but not the time or know-how to make it come true let me know, maybe we can work something out.

So hop on over, take a look around and let me know what you think.