interior decor

so interior design is like totally one of my hobbies... and i'm not the best person in the world at it, but i do get a fair amount of pleasure from seeing it well done, and from doing it myself! :)

that much being said...

check out the awesome "lily" chairs!

Crazy Quilts and Memories

sittin' in bed, got my new converse on and some comfy jeans. got ugandan earrings, a bright yellow scarf and some definite swag going on! (hehe) close at hand is my veggie pizza and a mountain dew (my first in a month!).
today is a simply beautiful day. my windows are open as i am typing this and i can hear the rumble from the cars outside, every once in a while the whir of a bike going past, and the lazy rotations of my fan overhead. there's a dog barking somewhere down the block and the neighbors are talking as they come out to get in their car. my room is glowing with a sort of yellowish light from the windows, but its bright daylight and i don't even have a light on in the room with all the sun streaming in through my full windows on the east. i like having an east bedroom. it comes in handy all those times that you know its time to get up for work... but you still don't wanna do it. at least you can tell the sun is up too, and it prompts you out of bed a little easier. or at least it does to me. my room is a little messy today. there's supplies all over my desk from some craft projects (i'm not really sure why they ended up in here instead of in the craft room... but oh, well!)

across the foot of my bed is a sorry looking piece of fabric rags. or at least that is what it looks like from here. its actually the undercarriage of a very old, very beautiful crazy quilt. my great grandmother pieced it together many years ago from legit old fabric scraps she had around the farm. i can't really explain how beautiful it is. she made it as separate blocks and then sewed the blocks together. its a crazy (no pun intended) mix of wools and cottons and weights a ton even though i don't even have the back on yet! i'm not even going to put batting in it; i think its heavy enough without it. the colors are what captures my heart i think about this quilt. the blocks are mostly dark with one center color thats a light cotton floral print, then the crazy stitches are every color under the rainbow running their intricate fingers in every direction! something in me has always loved crazy quilts. i think its something about the complete randomness that i simply can't get enough of. i like things like that. they kind of un-nerve me, but i like them. example: going anywhere and doing anything without a clear agenda, totally scares me to death! i want an ETA, and a ETD, i want a schedule of activities, and i want to know i won't have to scramble the 5 min birds to make it happen! don't get me wrong... i love flexibility (i think everyone ought to!) and a i am big fan of spontaneity. i just don't do those things naturally. when i do, it seems like i get into trouble more often than not, so i just avoid it like the plague now. i take great delight in things that are not organized though, but that are still tasteful. crazy quilts fall into that category.

this particular crazy quilt i find quite captivates my heart. it was made by my grandma's mom. my grandma passed away a little over a year ago. i had moved out in her general vicinity thinking that i would spend more time with her. i remember quite vividly the last conversation that we had together sitting on her porch talking one evening. the last time i saw her, i went over to check on her one morning. she had a rather large hematoma that i had dressed the night before with a massive pressure dressing, but it wasn't stopping the flow of blood very well, so i went back the next morning to check on it. she was lying there in bed. on the very edge of it actually, because that is all she would fit on. my grandma had many amazing attributes, but she was also a hoarder, and a small sliver of the bed in the room that had been my grandpa's before he died, was all she had to sleep on. she looked so peaceful with her silvery-white hair swirled the way she always wore it. i always loved the fact that my GrandmaW didn't have the typical short cropped "granny" hair that everyone else's grandmas always wore. i've seen pictures of her as a teen and 20-something, and this lady was knock out gorgeous! i always wished i was as pretty when i grew up as she had been. (tough luck on that unfortunately! :P) something struck me i guess about the way the morning light came in the window making her white hair almost angelic against her peaceful dreaming face. she had a couple strands of pearls hanging from the lamp next to her bed and they added to the dreamy effect as if i was gazing at some beautiful scene out of a book. i stood there for a moment, not wanting to wake her.

looking around my room right now i can pick out at least 15 things that i have from her. there are at least 5 necklaces that i wear on a regular basis. there's the mirror that she gave me when i turned 18, one that she said her mom had given her. its hanging on the wall where i brush my hair every morning. there's a beautiful brooch that she gave me with deep emeralds in it. emeralds are my birthstone and green is my favorite color. she was always forgetting things, but she remembered that. there's a string doll with snaps for eyes and long braided pig-tails. the years and rough play by a little girl haven't been very kind to her, but i've managed to stick most of her threads back into place. there's also a beautiful pansy doily cloth that she embroidered. she made it when she was 16, and she gave it to me on my 16th birthday with that story. she loved flowers dearly, so we always talked about them, and she remembered that i loved pansies.

my grandma used to live next to us when i was small and she would baby-sit us. somehow she would acquire these random toys, and we got to play with them when she came.

my grandma was well known for working on quilts. she had a million different quilt groups she belonged to, she would make rag rugs, and she loved a good craft project. she taught us how to make paper boxes (the prettiest ones you can make out of holiday greeting cards) and my mom had her come help us for sewing class make our very first nine-patch potholders. i guess that's maybe why this quilt is so special to me. knowing it was made by her mom, i know how much she would love seeing that i had finished it and was able to use it. i'm not sure she would totally approve of the patches that i am going to have to put on it in order for it to make it usable, but i think she might see their usefulness. i got that silky binding for it (you know, the kind you use for baby quilts) and i am going to run it all the way around the borders after i get all my little green patches sewed down firmly with stitches of my own craziness.

i can't wait to see the finished product displayed prominently on my bed! i think Grandma would have liked that, and my also mom said as much today, getting misty eyed as she told me. i can't help but think it too.

The Winds of Change

I can feel it in the wind and I turn into it

Letting it hit my upturned face with its full force

As I inhale deeply of a new kind of weather.

The chill has taken to the air and it gives me hope.

Hope that this desert of a summer will not really last forever as I had feared.

Hope that change is on its way, along with the turning tides of seasons.

And hope that God is showing me light at the end of the tunnel.

These lasts months have been torturous for a myriad of reasons

Which suddenly seem to not matter in the least.

Hope does that to a person.

Makes them forget how bad the struggle they are coming through has been.

Somehow that Beulah land on the other side makes it fade

Like some bad dye job when saturated with too much sunlight

When its no longer recognizable which color it was to begin with.

Oh how that refreshingly cool breeze flies straight to my soul

And works its redeeming powers of hope and faith and long-lost trust.

An eternal reminder that God lovingly brings us through seasons

Even summers of dryness like the Sahara,

And is faithful to cool us with the joys of fall gusts.

With the hint of cool moisture hanging on their every breath against my face

Giving me strength to not only press on, but to feel like moving.

Alone in the middle of the wind and the dead of the night

Me, a whirlwind of desires and hopes newly revived,

Dancing like a fool in the midst of a gathering autumn storm.

Random, I know...

you may find this strange... but i actually really like this... so much so that i am considering wearing something of this sort for my wedding out of sheer randomness so i can laugh at how ridiculous i look later on in life when wicked sweet things of this nature go completely out of style!