Dreamland

Four Rules of Stuff + a giveaway.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know I've been working on going through my stuff.  Just need a little order in my life, I guess.  On Saturday morning I devised Gina's Four Rules of Stuff:

1. Use your stuff.  Make what you have work.  Repeat after me:  Necessity is the mother of invention.

2. If you won't use it, give it to someone who will.

3. Don't buy more stuff until you've tamed what you have.  (This one seems to be the hardest for me and I am repeating it like a mantra.  Especially difficult at the Treadle Yard Goods sale this weekend. I was only there to get more thread to finish a current project, I swear.)

4. When you need/want something, you don't have to add it to your own ever-growing list of stuff to make.  You can actually buy it from someone else.  Can you believe this is a relatively new idea for me?  I'm very proud of figuring this out.  Which leads me to the giveaway:

Melissa from Two Little Tots has graciously offered to give a crayon roll to one lucky reader of my blog.   In keeping with rule number four, Melissa is making four hooded towels for me -- two for my own kids (who have loved theirs since birth, basically) and two for long-overdue baby gifts.  See, I don't have to make them myself!

Enter before Wednesday night, and I will post the winner on Thursday.  Answer this question in your comment:  Do you remember having any special little thing of your own when you were a wee one?  I remember the plaid taffeta skirt my mother made me for my birthday.  It had a ruffle on the bottom, very fancy.  I love knowing that when I was four, that's what made me really happy.

List: advice.

I have been soliciting advice wherever I go these days.  Part of the mission of this blog is to help me determine if I should keep at my art or turn the corner to who knows where.  Here is some of what I've heard so far:

1. Stay the course!  (from my dear friend and mentor, Katherine)  She reminds me of the flexibility of working for myself, the demands of family life, the challenge of learning something brand new, and all of that mixed together.

2. Interview a librarian (from my sil, Carol)  I have a list going already of librarians to interview -- one at an art museum, another at a theater, a corporate librarian, and I'm guessing I could easily find someone at SPPL, where I am a regular patron.

3. "You just have to get over that." (from my former neighbor, Ann, whose children I used to babysit) My first job was elementary teacher -- such an obvious contribution to the community; when I turned to art, I struggled with the place for art in the world we live in (and still struggle).  I said to Ann yesterday, I wonder if I am just looking for the prestige/validation of an advanced degree, to which she replied, "You just have to get over that."  She also suggested looking into art therapy as a potential career.

4. This blog post.  I'm drawn to a creative life, but am I reading the map right?

Do you have any advice for me?  I'm all ears!

List: what's in the bento box.

I am always looking for new ideas for the kids' lunches.  They both prefer a lunch from home (to hot lunch) and neither likes sandwiches.  Any ideas?

Here is what my girl is getting in her bento box today:

rice in the shape of a puppy

teeny container of soy sauce

two baby carrots

teeny container of ranch dressing

three raspberries

one pickle

small container of goldfish pretzels

three tortellini on a skewer

one strip of tortilla with peanut butter rolled up and on a skewer

two small apple slices

teeny container of runts (candy)

Plus water bottle and chopsticks.

This sounds like a lot more than it actually is.  She has her daddy's metabolism. 

List: Cookbook authors.

My favorite cookbook authors:

Ina Garten

Betty Rosbottom

Marion Cunningham

Sarah Leah Chase

Bert Greene

P.S. I can't remember why I chose "list" as one of my summer categories.  I ran out of list ideas weeks ago.  Do you have any (list ideas, that is)?

List: Lisa's garden.

Here are my favorite plants from my friend Lisa's amazing garden.  (I should say favorite non-edible plants, as she has more berries than you can shake a stick at!)

veronica

feather reed grass

coreopsis

List: favorite read-aloud books.

a family of readers + a lot of summer road trips = a list of favorite read-aloud books:

The Bed Book by Sylvia Plath (picture book)

Would You Rather by John Burningham (picture book)

Ramona books by Beverly Cleary

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander

Half Magic series by Edward Eager

The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales (picture book - & my kids' choice, not mine!)

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate deCamillo (J. says also The Tale of Desperaux)

Mrs.Frisby and the Rats of Nimh

poems by Calef Brown

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

List: 5 projects.

Here are five things I've really been wanting to get around to:

photo wall:  I have always wanted a wall crammed with photos in a miscellany of frames and sizes (like the Stocks had on their stairway and like the Rosses have in their kitchen). 

sunhat:  Is it too much to ask that I could find (or, ideally, make) a sunhat that fits, in a color that suits me?

clothesline:  'nuf said.

travel kit:  Every spring when I go to NY, I lament that I don't have a sweet little bag with lots of neato dividers in it for all my girl stuff.  For some reason, it doesn't really bother me the rest of the year (which may be why it stays on the list).

bookshelves:  a family of readers + six big tubs in the attic + changing our minds about what will go where = another project I still haven't gotten around to.

List: two things I'm good at.

1. following through on someone else's great idea

2. generating great ideas (but not following through)

List: top ten reasons to host a potluck every Tuesday night all summer long.

reconnect with old friends

get to know new friends better

playtime for the kiddies (just like in the old days)

tidy house at least once a week

actually follow-through on inviting friends to dinner

maybe someone will look at my scrapbooks!

motivation to complete a few projects around the house (another list?)

try new foods & flavors

maybe I'll take up gardening

I'm in charge of dessert

Thinking about.

Thinking about our lovely Father's Day weekend up north, despite the ground being so saturated it was actually soggy.

Thinking about the boy curled up next to me, his amazingly long eyelashes, his warm golden skin, and the whole summer ahead of us.

Thinking about potluck night tonight.  And lemon bars.

Thinking about my daughter's awesome audition last night and how empowered she felt afterwards. 

Thinking about how I can ever repay you-know-who for you-know-what (and you know who you are).

Thinking about the strength of my husband's character, how he continues to step up to the plate day after day.

Thinking about this awesome idea.

Thinking about switching to a weekly blog.  I sure loved my monthly postcard series.  Maybe a weekly blog is more my speed.  (And yours?)