Blizzards & Banana Bread

Day number two of snow, snow, snow! This morning Laura and I made Grandmama’s banana bread. We’ve made it so much this winter, that she knows the recipe almost by heart. She works right beside me on her trusty big girl stool, shown here next to the remains of an egg that someone (who shall remain nameless) rolled off the counter – oops! When my mom bakes, her kitchen is a well oiled machine.  She can be smack in the middle of 30 dozen cookies (which she did in her spare time Thursday) and her kitchen is cleaner in the middle of that than mine is after I’ve finished scrubbing it for hours (which I did… oh, wait – never).  I, however, create such a crazy whirlwind of chaos around me (in my kitchen, when I’m cooking, that is) that my husband thinks the aftermath could be an art form.

We saved one loaf for our family, and decided to spontaneously serve the other to our neighbors, as a treat when they came in from the great car shuffle at noon, when our apartment’s parking lot gets plowed.  Hope you’re warm and cozy this February night.

Wine Crates, Repurposed

Our little abode is quite a hodge-podge, almost equal parts Ikea and garage sale vintage treasures. One of my favorite little finds is an incredibly sturdy wine crate we found just before our wedding, as we were on the hunt for items to fill our first apartment. It’s held lots of different collections and served several functions, but right now it’s part side table, part shelf.If you have  an affinity for wine crates, check out the collection that Grace from Poetic Home put together last spring.  The inspiration she shared on repurposing wine crates, along with the many other tastefully selected treasures she highlights on her site, has made it one of my favorites.  Here’s a few more inspiring ideas to get your creative engines running!{a} Through Poetic Home, I stumbled upon this image, one of many lovely photographs of the home of Tracy and Michelle (by The Selby)

{b} Design Sponge offers a fun tutorial on creating a display case from your wine crate.

{c} Delightful Rachel, from Heart of Light, created these lovely little outdoor planters using wine crates.

With Thanks

I snapped this photo while little Ellie-bean was sitting pretty in the morning sun, surrounded, no doubt, by the slew of baby toys her helpful sister saw fit to arrange meticulously around her.  She started to crawl this week, as in move forward, intentionally, even occasionally lifting her belly off the ground. These last eight months have flown by.  I remember telling my husband, just before Christmas, that it was all down hill from here: that six months was the ideal baby age – blissfully immobile but fully engaged with smiles and coos.  No tantrums, all cuddles.  But I think I feel that about each stage (tantrums and all), that each moment we’re in is the sweetest, and that I don’t want to give it up, only to be surprised at the new joys around the corner.

We’ll be moving in a few months.  Ted started a new job this week, our normal routines have been thrown to the wind, and we’re in the middle of the complex chaos and waiting game of attempting to purchase a short sale. So many of the things that have been constants during the formative years of our life together are changing. But somehow, the simplicity and contentedness of little Ellie’s sweet presence has reminded me today that I have a lot to be grateful for.

I’m thankful for these sweet girls.

I’m thankful for a husband who shares his heart with me freely and loves me deeply.

I’m thankful for family & friends who love and encourage me, despite my many shortcomings.

I’m thankful that regardless of this house, I belong, and have found a home in Christ.

I’m thankful for the sunshine pouring in my windows, and that my girls took naps today.

I know it’s easier to be thankful in some situations, or seasons, than in others, but I want to encourage you today to embrace a posture of thankfulness.  It’s like a good sugar scrub for your heart: exfoliating the grime and sweetening up your perspective. So, tell me, what are you thankful for?

Breakfast of [very sensible] Champions

Funny little story today… We live on the late side of life at our house.  (Those of you who know me are either rolling your eyes or laughing, depending on where you fall on the early to late continuum.) So, when my girls roll out of their little beds around 9:30 (don’t be too jealous, we pay for it with our late nights…), I usually have a simple breakfast ready: toast or cereal, some fruit, maybe some previously made & frozen waffles, if they’re lucky.  But recently, I gave my ever increasingly opinionated three year old an open ended “What would you like for breakfast?” … just for fun!

I was ready for her best shot: candy hearts with hot chocolate, leftover apple cake, pizza. I wanted to see what her little imagination could dream up.  She thought for a minute, and with all the seriousness someone in pigtails can muster said, “I think I’ll have something that won’t make a mess and that has lots of fiber.” All I can say, is that she most certainly did not get that good sense from me!

We’ve have, however, had lots of talk of fiber lately, as we’ve been pureeing plenty of mangoes for her baby sister’s, how shall we say, irregularities? (Better than prunes, according to our pediatrician!) But, you never realize how much they pick up on and incorporate into their little brains, until these little gems pop out, just when you least expect it.

Here’s a shot of our favorite way to slice a Mango – cut lengthwise, sliced into a grid, and popped inside out. Yum!

Poetry & Pictures

As a little girl, poetry rolled off my mother’s tongue and spilled into our lives, making mundane moments ethereal. I’m thinking I like my peas with honey, among other things. I’m so pleased to bring a new feature to the blog today, one that stems from this love of poetry and will be returning each month for your reading pleasure! I recently learned that a very talented friend resolved in 2010 to write a poem each month.  (I so often think that loathing the task is a prerequisite of a New Year’s resolution, but this is pure delight!)  I’m so thrilled that she’s letting me publish them here!  Hope you have a moment today to make a cup of tea, find some sunlight, and soak in Molly’s lovely poems – one for January, and one for February, accompanied here by a photograph courtesy of another gifted friend, Janeen Messner of J. Singer Messner Photography, and a little chickadee I sketched just for you! Happy Monday.

Little Farmer’s Delight

This is the mobile that started it all. I came across it at Crabtree & Evelyn, when Ted and I were in Enlgand on business the spring I was pregnant with Laura.  We didn’t know the baby’s gender, and this little mobile (suspended from the fan, with all it’s little beads and pins) became the inspiration that linked my childhood across the street from a dairy farm to our new nursery’s decor.

In our small home, the girls’ bedroom doubles as sleeping quarters and play room, so I’ve really tried to make it an inviting, fun, creative place to play and rest.  The baby crib was gifted to us by a family whose youngest had graduated to a Thomas bed. My mom and I sewed the gingham curtains together.

I painted four little animals on canvas with acrylic, and my parents found this tree, a (sadly, no longer available) Pottery Barn Kids wall sticker. (It helped me overcome my grief at not being able to paint – apartment rules.)

My dad built these cedar “shudders” to flank the large mural I created.  The little train was inspired by one of my husband’s favorite spots, the Moodna Viaduct.

The bright canopy from Ikea transformed Laura’s toddler bed into a royal sleeping chamber.

Our very talented, and dear, dear family friend Ruth quilted Laura’s gorgeous bedspread, with hand stitched Noah’s Ark animals on the large white squares.  Laura at play at her farm stand: at ten dollars, it was my garage sale bargain of the year.

Thanks for visiting.  Hope you’re inspired to be creative & play at your house this weekend!

A Lesson from Laura

I was driving with the girls this week, listening to the news to find out just how much snow was expected (a foot, it turns out), when a report came over the airwaves regarding an explosion at a gas plant in Connecticut.  As I reached for the dial I glanced in the rear view mirror, hoping to see Laura spaced out or tuned into to something other than the words streaming over the radio.   “What does it mean that two people were killed, Mommy?” Of course.

I try to be straight forward and simple in my answers about the tough things: honest, but age appropriate.  After a fairly simple explanation, only slightly complicated by 37 “Why, Mommy-ies” I asked if she wanted to pray for the families of the men who had died.  I often pray about things as they come up throughout my day, and recently I’ve been making it a practice to do so aloud, and inviting Laura to join me if she wants. It seems like a simple way to show her my faith lived out. And as she usually does, Laura said she wanted to pray with me, “but with just [me] talking.”  So I prayed a simple prayer, asking God to comfort the families of those men, and with amen, thought I had ended our little conversation.

“So what did God say?” Laura asked after a few seconds. It hit me like a ton of bricks.  All this time I’ve been praying with her, she expects that I am hearing answers back, that prayer is a two way street. And she was right! Scripture says that God’s Word, written throughout history, is living and active (Hebrews 4:12)- it applies to our little lives and questions and requests.  And it also says that Jesus’ sheep know His voice (John 10:4). Perhaps the question is if we’re listening.

That moment, those words, that brutal innocence, is exactly why when some of Jesus’ followers tried to prevent a bunch of kids from bothering their master teacher, he chided them:

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” Luke 18.16-18

Perhaps the single, greatest gift of motherhood is the opportunity to see life through the eyes of your child.  For me, rediscovering faith, through Laura’s perspective has caused me to confront the places in my faith that have become routine or stale, instead of the beautiful, life giving relationship He offers. So today, I am praying, and I’m listening.  Thanks, kiddo.

Inspiration

Here’s a little peek into the design process & inspiration for annieathome: a sweet letter from my grandmother; tied with leftover ribbon from our wedding invitations; a page of Real Simple Thoughts on Home, torn and tucked away since 2004; an antique postcard from my collection – signed by some Hugo & Florence on their European excursion fifty-some years ago; hand drawn elements and pressed flowers. {The project was homework for the BYW class I ‘m taking this winter. So much fun!}

Love Letters

Are you working on Valentines at your house?  Yesterday I went rummaging through end table drawers and my antique trunk, hunting for letters and scraps for a project.  Given my affinity for the past, I shouldn’t have been so surprised by the number of dear, sweet letters I came across.   Okay, I admit, I do not have a mile high stack of love letters, per se.  Some are from my grandmother, a college roommate, my childhood pen-pal.  I’ve always had a love for the correspondence, and these letters are a slice of my personal history, representing seasons of life and the people I love.

Reading through my little stash of stamped treasures brought me back to an age old truth that has encouraged me again and again as I spend my days pouring into the lives of my daughters and those around me.  In Scripture, Paul writes to the church in Corinth to affirm his credentials for his work:

Do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:1-3)

Did he rely on his achievements and success? His performance review report or his gleaming resume? No, Paul’s letters of recommendation were the lives of those he had impacted with the love of Christ.  This week we’ll be pasting doilies on paper hearts and sprinkling glitter into pink envelopes, but my real love letters are those I write each day, not with my favorite Sharpie pen, but with love, written on the hearts of my children, my husband, the woman walking in the cold that I offer a ride to, or the friend who needs to vent. And my heart is overwhelmed with thanks for those who’ve “written not with ink” on my heart over the years – mothers, sisters, mentors and friends. (Hmm… maybe some letters of appreciation are in order!)

Happy letter writing, my friends, with ink & without!

Unique Fiber Arts Interview

Did you read about the Valentines Day Giveaway at Unique Fiber Arts that I posted yesterday?  Well, I’m back today with an interview with Debbie Reagan, the creator of these beautiful Waldorf dolls.  If you’ve ever thought about working from home, opening an etsy shop, or just think these dolls are as adorable as I do, read on. (Be sure to click “read more” at the bottom of this post for the full interview!)

Annie: How did you get into making these gorgeous dolls?

Debbie:   I sought to learn an new art technique in doll making and had always wondered how these beautiful dolls were made. Last year I began to search the internet and found sources for the materials (that are mostly from Europe) for making the dolls and after even more research I found 2 experienced Waldorf doll makers online to learn from. The quality is so superior to any doll I have ever made before that I knew this is something I wanted to spend my time making and I couldn’t wait to share them with others…

Annie: I love Etsy.com, and from time to time have played with the idea of selling handmade little works of art. What has that process been like for you?

Debbie: I was so blessed to be able to stay-at-home to raise our children for 17 straight years. During that time I experimented with various home business opportunities. I am a great advocate for home based businesses for young moms who stay-at-home to raise their families. It is a great way to spend your time and to help earn extra money for the family while building valuable skills that keep you marketable.

I love the business side of things and I love people and while I could make money selling things to people, I found that I most loved being a craftswoman and artist first. The work of my hands satisfied me more than selling other people’s products. I first began to work for other successful sellers of handmade baby and children items when our first child was a baby. It was a way to begin to learn from a seasoned artist as I created items for her store. She paid me a few dollars for my work, but the greatest value for me came from being exposed to a successful business woman and her store, without having to commit to being a business owner myself. It was a great start….