a different point of view

The last couple of weeks have seemed such a blur.  It seems to have rushed by amid of flurry of track meets, field trips, volunteering in the library at school, guitar lessons, and school carnivals. Today it all came to a happy and welcome close with the last day of school.  There was a chapel service and Seany's kindergarten graduation, followed by cake and tearful good-byes to his amazing teacher.   We then spent our first hours of summer vacation enjoying a lovely day at our favorite book store with a dear friend and her daughter, followed by a yummy lunch. 

Last weekend we drove to Chicago as a family to watch Brenna run with her teammates in the state track meet.  (The boys and girls teams each brought home the 2nd place trophy!)  It was held at Condordia University.  I thought the campus was lovely.  It was surrounded by beautiful old shade trees and lovely old neighborhoods. 

A track meet can be a long and grueling day (even for the spectators).  Little Sean just does not have the patience to sit and watch race after race after race.  Fortunately for us, there was a small playground near the track and we would take him there periodically throughout the day to help alleviate some of his boredom.  While he and Brooke were playing, I began to notice the interesting patterns and textures on some of the nearby buildings.  These pictures are a collection of images that caught my eye that day.

Now that school is officially over and we have the summer to look forward to, it seems as if I can finally take a breath and just enjoy whatever we want to do without so much of a sense of urgency. 

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and that you, too, have quieter, more relaxed days to look forward to.

blessings and happiness,

Athena

little pretties

Don't you just love vintage hankies?  They're so small and yet so full of lovely details. 

From the simplest shades of white and cream, sing the beauty of intricately stitched borders.

I wonder what woman or young girl might have made these dainty embroidered flowers and beautiful crocheted trims. 

I also love the colorful printed flower patterns.

In preparing for my sister's wedding this June, my mom and I are hosting a bridal shower in her honor.  It will be fun and lovely and I know we will have a wonderful time.  My mom and I both love planning parties and decorating for them.  As part of the take home favors, each of the ladies will receive one of these endearing memories of our past. 

I lament sometimes how far womankind has roamed from the quiet lovely ladylike things in life.  The lost arts of letter writing, hand stitching, flower tending, and hankie carrying of the by-gone days of our great-great grandmothers.  So on Sunday, June 5th when we celebrate my sister and honor her upcoming nuptials, we'll also pay homage to a little piece of our handmade past. 

blessings and happiness,

Athena



a little bit of beauty...

I've been away so long.  It's so embarrassing to come back after such a long absence and try to come up with a plausible reason.  The only explanation I can offer is that I felt like I was in sort of a creative "funk".  I felt like nothing I created or worked on was worthy of merit or worth sharing here.  I know that's not the right way to feel, but I did.  I think I'm "over it" now, and hope I won't ever let that happen to me again.

So, as my apology, I thought I'd like to share a little bit of beauty from my fledgling garden here at the new house. 

I'm most excited about the peonies.  I've always wanted peonies and never had them at the old house.  I think they're so beautiful and so fragrant.  They're like roses on steroids!

In the early days of spring, we were sooo blessed to have a Bluebird couple come to make their new home under the rafters of our deck.   Mrs. Bluebird would work on building the nest and Mr. Bluebird would "stand guard" on the handrail of our deck, keeping an eye out for danger.  We felt privileged to hear his beautiful song as she constructed their new home.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to be quiet and respectful of their shy and timid ways, a group of House Sparrows did not feel the same.  They harassed the poor Bluebird couple, finally resorting to destroying their nest and throwing it down off the deck support post.  

  Fortunately, poor Mrs. Bluebird hadn't even had a chance to lay her eggs yet, so there weren't any babies or eggs destroyed.  But the poor couple decided they needed to find a less hostile place  to start their brood.  We were so sorry to see them go.  And we really missed their beautiful song.  We know how rare and precious it is to see these quiet little birds up close. 

I've even planted a couple of trees, but I don't have pictures of those yet.  We're still getting a little more rain than we'd like, so I'll try to share those next time. 

It's nice to be back in blog land.  I sure have missed being here. 

blessings and happiness,

Athena

seeing green

Happy (early) St. Patrick's Day!

blessings and happiness,

Athena

yum :)

Well, my suprised worked!  Yesterday after picking up the children from school and making another run to the grocery store, I came home and baked my suprise.  I must say I think they were the best batch I've ever made.  They really turned out quite nicely.  I even called my Mom to tell her what I was making and she was equally suprised with the ambitiousness of my clever undertaking.   :) 

Just in case you'd like to forget about the winter blahs and would like to enjoy a special treat, I'd thought I'd share her recipe with you.

Mom's Lemon Bars

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

1/2 cup contectioner sugar, sifted

1 cup butter

In a large bowl, sift together the flour and confectioner sugar.  Cut in butter until mixture clings together.  (I like to use my hands -- it's easier). 

Press in well-greased 9X13 glass baking pan.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  This first part makes the crust.

Ingredients for filling:

4 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (for me this was 2 lemons)

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups granulated sugar

While crust is baking, beat eggs, granulated sugar and lemon juice together.  Sift flour and baking powder together and stir into egg mixture.  Pour over baked crust and bake at 350 for 25 additional minutes.  (You don't have to wait for the crust to cool). 

After lemon bars are baked and out of the oven, before they have cooled completely, sprinkle with more confectioner sugar. (If you wait too long, the sugar won't stick to the top of the lemon bars).  Slice into pieces and enjoy!

blessings and happiness,

Athena

lemon bars ... maybe

So this morning after taking the children to school and Brenna to the orthodontist and then Brenna back to school, I headed to the commissary.  Grocery shopping is my least favorite chore and I really loath going, but it's definitely nice having a full pantry.  (And my family's usually happy about it, too.)

After I got everything unloaded, in the house, and put away, I thought, why don't I surprise everyone and make some lemon bars for a nice after school treat.  Now, let me just say this would be a really BIG surprise for my family, because unless it comes in a box or I can put it in the slow cooker, I don't make it.  I rarely make anything from scratch.  So unless it's Christmas or Thanksgiving, my family doesn't get to enjoy real homemade lemon bars. 

This of course, is a real shame, because they're fabulously good.  That's because it's my mother's recipe and my mother is a fabulous cook.  In any event, I began feeling awfully proud of myself for being so daring and generous as to make something from scratch for my family for no reason at all.  As I pulled out the recipe and began collecting all my ingredients, I discovered that as luck would have it, I was low on sugar.  I only need two cups, but I don't have enough.  So, now I have to go back to the store, uugghhh...

It reminds me of the time when my Mom and I were doing some baking for Thanksgiving last year, and we discovered my only jar of baking powder was three years past the expiration date!  I know, she was horrified, too.  That shows you how often I use baking powder!

As always, my hat is off to you real talented cooks out there.  Maybe by tomorrow I will have successfully assembled all the ingredients I need and happily surprised my family to boot. 

blessings and happiness,

Athena

new beginnings and new work

This is the beginning of a very pretty shawl.  I'm using the Dream in Color yarn I got from the yarn club the other day.  I guess I needed something fresh to work on for a while, because I've had some challenges with the Debbie Bliss sweater.  Despite doing two gauge swatches and being very careful with following the pattern, I'm now on version three.  My first two attempts turned out to be first, too large, and then, too small.  Hopefully, the third one will be just right.  It definitely had both Madeline and I puzzled the other night, because my gauge is spot-on.  So we decided to go up two sizes in the pattern in the hopes that that will fix the problem.  We'll see...

In the mean time, I just wanted to work with something new and this yarn is nice and fresh and green -- it reminds me of spring.  We're still waiting for signs of spring here, so hopefully, this will keep me going until we see the real thing.

So along with making a fresh start on something with my knitting, I'm also making a fresh start with something in my art.  As I mentioned the other day, I feel like something new and big is growing and sprouting in my little art world.  New ideas are sprouting and growing in my little noggin. 

So here it is...

I'm writing a book!  A children's book.  A children's chapter book to be specific.  The kind of introductory chapter books that still have pictures.  I really want to do the illustrations as well.  I hope to share the whole process here with you.

This is a realy big deal, a really big leap of faith into the unknown for me.  I feel in my heart that this is something I've been meant to do for a long time, but I'm only just now getting the courage to do it. 

Not only am I a bit nervous because I've never done this before, but also because I occassionally have a little voice of Doubt that likes to taunt my brave little steppings out into the big world. 

It says things like, "Who do you think you are?" and "You've never even taken a creative writting class, let alone have a degree in English.  What makes you think you can write a book?!" and "You don't have a fine arts degree or any formal training; what makes you think you can illustrate a book?" and even more ominously, "How on earth are you going to find a publisher?"

So, there it is.  My big exciting (scarey) announcement.  I feel oddly that I'm finely heading into the purpose and destiny I was meant for.  Like for the first time in my life, I feel like I'm doing exactly what I'm suppossed to do.  

Please pray for me.  For courage and wisdom and inspiration and grace and favor, to complete the work, that the work will be good and worthwhile and be published.  And that it will bring happiness and joy to the children who read it.

I thank you as always for listening reading.  I thank you in advance for your prayers and encouragement.  I thank you for going along with me on this crazy artful journey.

blessings and happiness,

Athena