Catching Up in no particular order: Prom

Kicking off the I-can't-believe-it category of events this spring was Juliana's Senior Prom. So many little details I didn't expect to fall over myself to photograph. The corsage was one of those details, but I love that photo and so glad we have it.

We had a blast shopping for her dress, just the two of us. Of all places, we decided to walk into the Jessica McClintock store which gave me such a nostalgic trip! I had several Gunne Sax formals (I'll bet you did too) until I started to make my own. It came down to deciding between this darling confection and an equally cute but slightly more sultry black corset dress. I told her that she had the rest of her life to wear a sultry black corset number but a limited amount of years to wear layers tulle. Surprisingly, she agreed.

She is so good at keeping her jewelry understated when she dresses up. She wore her favorite star studs that we gave her for Christmas last year. But she can't help herself when it comes to shoes. My feet hurt looking at that full shot of her with the shoes.

I adore the photo of everyone in the foyer waiting for her to come out. Waiting on a girl. The little girls were beside themselves with giddiness and wanted so much to be a part of every detail. They were right on her heels as she rushed around getting ready and whispering little giggly secrets to each other once Nathan arrived to pick her up. It's fun I imagine to see such a grown up girl get all dressed up like a real live princess in your own house when you're as little as they are. Must give you some reality to fuel your daydreams.

And then they went. And so did prom.
xoxo, Anna

Back Around Again

Goodness.

Life really takes the life outta you, ya know? Having just returned from Quilt Market I am awash with things that I want to post for you which is piled up on top of the stack of things I wanted to post for you before I left, and I am standing underneath, looking up at a very threatening pile of prettiness.

Before I left I had imaginary posts about prom, charity quilting, new studio pics.

As I left there were imaginary posts about Roman turning one, stuff I was sewing for market, the process of shipping 2000 lbs to Minnesota, and a few other things that are escaping me now.

While I was gone there were imaginary posts about everything we did, said, saw, heard, ate, laughed, hoisted and sang while we were gone. And the cute shoes I was wearing. And all the places Jeff photographed Roman around Minneapolis which are all logged in a phone that he left in a plane. And fun book parties and book signings where there was a drink named after me (quite strong and pink, thank you) and where I signed someone's book Anna Market instead of Anna Maria. There is alot of talk regarding just how much I can juggle between work and family, yet I want to redirect that conversation into how much I cannot write and talk at the same time.

Now that we're back posts are mounting on the imaginary blogpostpile about family, Juliana's graduation, wonderful reviews of Handmade Beginnings to point to, lots of market pictures to upload, and there are most certainly people that should be slapped for being so wonderful and nice. I'll get to that eventually.

So that is the tippity toppity of the stack and all that I can see in it from where I'm standing down here. Now the task of pulling one thing out at a time without being buried by it all.
It will be fun. Thank you for waiting and so much more very soon! xoxox, Anna

Roman would like to say a few words

But I am the only one who can understand his limited vocabulary so I'll say them for him. Roman and I have a date we'd like to announce! We'll be signing books in the Twin Cities next Saturday and if you're anywhere within a 500 mile radius you are expected to be in attendance, no exceptions! Here's the details:

Handmade Beginnings Book Signing at Treadle Yard Goods
Saturday, May 22nd from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
1338 Grand Ave St Paul, MN 55101, (651) 698-9690



And since Roman will be my date for the evening, (along with his dashing father) he might even let you tickle his little chubby toes. Roman that is. Which is very generous when you consider that he's also allowed me to publish his crib quilt pattern.



He has his own copy of the book that I let him rough around a little bit, but I try to intercept before a page gets torn. Its quite sweet to watch him stop on pages of items and people that he recognizes. My little bundle of book inspiration. Sigh.

Now I have a date with some Perle cotton and a new quilt. I am hoping it will be a 48-hr date, but I know better.

xoxo, good weekend, AM

ps! the flood relief quilting plan is still hatching and we'll break it all to you here soon- thank you for your support!

Bullets for Breakfast

* this is a bullet post
* the above is my new favorite breakfast of one egg fried in olive oil served on toasted cinnamon wheat bread
*Jeff makes this for me a few times a week
*up there when I was typing "fried", I first accidentally typed "friend" which I think says something about me
*I love the new bread we buy at Publix (above) that only has like 6 ingredients: whole wheat flour, water, honey, raisins, salt and cinnamon
*we've been trying to buy foods with fewer ingredients, as in all natural if we can help it
* it's hard but I feel good knowing what I'm eating
*Juliana's senior prom was last week and I took lots of pictures that I'll share soon
*her HS graduation is the evening I get back from quilt market, and I am happily occupied doing quilt market things instead of crying about her HS graduation
*I just barely got through prom photos without crying
*I'm saving the prom crying for when we can do that together here over the photos
*I'm hoping you're game for that
*I gave up diet coke and any sodas at the beginning of the year after drinking them since I was like 14, and I haven't fallen off the wagon once, and I don't even crave it anymore
*I do drink Perrier now and that is pricey
*the kids were out of school all last week due to how many schools have been cleaning up flood damage
*so all week we were flooded with children rather than getting quilt market prep done
*I was ahead of schedule
*after the kid flood I got behind schedule
*I'd say now I'm right on, but this post might push me 15 minutes behind
*I keep having to find the asterisk key and that makes me type s*l*o*w
*there are houses just a street or two from us that have just been devastated by the flood
*I finally muscled up the courage to go running on my regular route and passed house after house that had tons of ruined belongings pulled out to the road waiting to be hauled off
*I am trying to figure out a way to help flood victims and I am thinking about beginning an effort to make some quilts for families who lost everything
*holler if you're with me, I could use some seamstresses/quilters
*Isabela wrote me a beautiful note for Mother's Day about why she loves me
*A favorite sentence in her note was "I love how you do your OWN work your OWN way"
*My cell phone is hosed
*Or possessed, it makes sounds all by itself
*Jeff and I went to Verizon today to try and buy the Droid for me but they don't have any available until June
*that made me sad
*I wanted options
*Verizon girl had too many but none of them made me happy
*I asked questions about simple things and Verizon girl gave me not simple answers but more like paragraphs of words from pamphlets
*I began another question with let me ask you a simple question, and then she excused herself to go get some more information
*Upon returning, she replied well I have one option for you but its not really an option
*I am not kidding
*I can't remember what I said to her after that but Jeff thinks maybe I shouldn't have a tall black before going into the Verizon store to ask questions
*people get the impression that I am sweet
*Jeff would like to talk to you about that
*I want to thank Kathy, Beth, and Blair for writing such nice reviews of Handmade Beginnings
*I'll be visiting with Erin tomorrow, so come visit us there
*bring a tall black coffee or whatever makes you happy
*xoAM

Just a Sprinkling

So somehow I failed to mention that yesterday was the official publication date of my book. We had been, as you know, slightly occupied over the weekend, it goes without say. When Roman and I posed for this author photo last summer at Nashville's famed Dragon Park as it turns out we were battling the weather then a bit too, which fluctuated between a sprinkling and a steady rain. Occasionally we had to duck under an umbrella and deal with raindrops appearing in some of the shots. And Roman kept a very quizzical look on his face as he experienced one of his first encounters with raindrops on his head. (Yes I tried the hood. It had results similar to this only more 3-month-old-like.)

I have had the best time reading through all your entry comments for a chance to win the book! You guys seriously crack me up. Before I tell you the winners, let me first say there are tons more chances to win a copy of Handmade Beginnings as it blog-tours for the rest of the month making stops at the blog-homes of several good friends. Not to mention a chance to win a grand prize of a Singer sewing machine and loads of fabric here! And amazon, now has the Nesting Cubes posted as a free project for you to try out! (Bonus points if you can get a baby to do this.) So here is the tour schedule which Craftzine so kindly kick-started yesterday:

May 3~ Craft
May 4~ Indie Fixx
May 5~ Sew Mama Sew
May 6~ Pink Chalk Studio
May 10~ Wise Craft
May 14~ House on Hill Road
May 16~ Purl Bee
May 18~ All Buttoned Up
May 19~ Alabama Chanin Journal
May 20~ Homemade by Jill
May 21~ True Up
May 22~ Oh, Fransson!
May 23~ Prudent Baby
May 24~ Sew Liberated
May 25~ Handmade by Alissa
May 26~ Hazelnuts
May 27~ Petite Purls

Thank you for all your comments and excitement for my book. It really is so encouraging and the icing on the book-writing cake. I have been warmed by everything that you write here in regards to your family, your babies, your losses, your hopes, and all else that comes with growing a whole family and nuturing a tiny new life. It inspires me as a mama and a maker more than you could know. I like thinking that we are raising our children together, in a way, and am comforted daily by your good company. Thank you, thank you.

And my winners:

Lisa said...I can't choose just one, I love the photo of Reuben trying to take the jacket off (how cute is his belly?) and also the one of Roman and his Daddy - my daughter does the same face squishy thing when we hold her like that. The book looks just beautiful. Congratulations! 2:44 AM

and

SplendorFalls said...I'm choosing the picture of Claire because I'm still laughing over nationwide ovulation. BWAH! That's just too funny. Cheers! Mary Claire 8:42 AM

Congrats, and email me your mailing address!!

xoxo, AnnaMaria

Under Water

The weekend began with being glad that I wasn't going to have to water the garden. So much of Nashville is under water after just two days of rain. One headline after another. Everything from the loss of life to Naomi Judd's buffalo running free in Leiper's Fork. This town and the surrounding towns have just been taken over by water and more water.

After planning a Saturday out shopping (and also a visit to see Natalie signing her book at Textile), in no time we rather found ourselves quickly hoisting my freshly painted Quilt Market booth walls off the garage floor and up onto a dry spot. Even though we are fortunate to have a home on a pretty high hill, we did spend a good part of the weekend getting water out of our basement, garage and crawl space. We have a pretty dry house, but maybe once or so a year, if it rains really badly, the drains become overwhelmed and the runoff from the backyard can't be absorbed fast enough. Nicolas, who opted for a basement bedroom a few months ago, spent the last two nights upstairs with us, due to a few inches of water on his floor. Jeff went to Home Depot to look for a pump of some sort once our downstairs began taking on water. He reported the place to be a zoo, so many people desperate to dry out their homes, and was able to come home with a large capacity shop-vac and 3 condensation pumps. The sump pumps were all sold out. I vacuumed as much water from Nicolas' floor as I could. Jeff built a little makeshift wooden device to hold the three pumps in a series and submerged them in the crawl space rain water. He continued to monitor the crawl space all evening and successfully got water pumped out of it at about 2 gallons a minute. Pretty slow, but it kept it under control. I was really amazed at just how much water had come down in one day. Houses just aren't built for this.

Slowly throughout the day we were getting news of power outages, water shortages, and flooding much worse than ours. At about 8pm we finally took all the kids out for pizza at Mafiaoza's after being pinned in all day. All the televisions in the restaurant were turned to local news channels covering the storms and while we couldn't hear them, we were shocked to see video of I-24 being covered in water, cars submerged, homes and buildings being swept off their foundations. Then the heartbreaking news of people dying after being swept away by flood water. Suddenly our basement water situation seemed much less frustrating. I covered Roman's head with a pizza box to keep him dry as we all dashed to the car with full bellies. Feeling too fortunate.

Then about 5am Sunday morning, the emergency siren in our community began sounding to warn of tornadoes. I sat up in bed and prayed Nicolas' room was still dry because that's our tornado hunkering room. Before I could even get out of bed Nicolas was standing there in our doorway in the dark telling us to get up. I went with him to turn on the news to figure out how close the system was. It was eerie still outside. No rain. Once we saw circular winds on the news doppler coming ever nearer to our neighborhood, we gathered the baby (who had already woken early, most likely from the siren) and woke the rest of the children to go downstairs. It's always Isabela who thinks to get Leo and Lemon. So there we were: our babies, our bird, our dog all packed into a thankfully dry basement bedroom. And I was glad and content and thankful. But the wet dog smelled like a wet dog. And the kids all feared and complained that daddy wouldn't stay in the room with us during the warning like they always fear and complain. Jeff instead was walking around under the house, and in the attic, surveying the situation like he always does. We were able to come up after the warning was over to an intact home. Like we always do.

Later in the morning I heard that some water mains had broken and that our water supply could be compromised, so I filled a few large containers with filtered water just in case. Then I thought back to everyone's last bath and figured they were clean enough so we can skip any baths. We made cookies. We made soup. We made blanket forts in the playroom. We called and checked in on friends and family throughout the day. We watched neighbors being rescued by boat from their homes on television. We went to rescue one of Nicolas' friends whose home was filled up to the top few basement steps with water, boxes of belongings floating around, and parts of their ceiling falling in. On the way to his house we took a small detour to view our almost daily walking path that follows the Little Harpeth, and we were stopped about a 1/2 block away because the Little Harpeth was not so little anymore, and overtook the yards surrounding it. It made my heart hurt, and I thought about one of the houses there that I know was just moved into. Oh. Can you imagine just moving in? And then this? God bless them. And all.

The sun is shining this morning like nothing ever happened and all is glistening. Rugs are drying on the driveway and 5 times as many roses are blooming as Friday evening when I watered the garden.

Hoping you are safe, and thanks to many of you for the "just checking" emails. xoxo, Anna