The Heart of the Matter

I hit places where I need to step back and assess…step out of the forest so I can get a bigger view of the trees, the landscape, the beauty that is my life.  It does feel like I “hit” these places due to the speed with which I run from tree to tree each day and go careening around in circles, only to “hit” a spot I’ve come to many times before.  It sometimes takes the form of a wall, a rock, or just plain weariness.  I find myself saying,”Stop the world, I want to get off!”  And so, a step back, or many steps, is helpful, needful, imperative.  In these places I often find myself asking WHY. Why do I do what I do?  I ask this of all the things I do for family, for work, for art, etc.  Why?  What is it all for?  To be a good mom? (or have someone pronounce me so?) To make money? To help those I love achieve the things they want to achieve?  It takes a while, this untangling process, and there are a few things that help me.

One is to draw.  To stop as much of the careening as I can and slow down enough to “just draw”.  Slow, observed, continuous line drawings where I get to really gaze at the things/people/stuff around me.  It is in drawing that I get to actually see the beauty of my every-day.  It enables me to slow down the running around that goes on inside me, even if I appear quite calm to others on the outside.  It allows me to inhabit THIS moment, tracing its contours, rather than worrying, planning, or concerning myself with the next and following moments which seem to require so much of me.  It is in the act of drawing that my running around slows into a comfortable walk where I can hear the clock ticking, the breeze blowing, children breathing, music playing.

The other thing that helps me is to pull out a book or two in which I have found encouragement before.  Often this is one of Julia Cameron’s books, The Artist’s Way or Walking in this World.  Sometimes I pull out Danny Gregory’s Everyday Matters.  The story of how drawing grew out of tragedy, how drawing was a tool for healing in his life, is a story I like to recall again and again.  But this time, a couple of other points stuck with me:

Danny writes,”My drawings began as  a way to count my blessings.  To study, capture, catalog the things that, despite it all, make my life rich.  First my immediate surroundings:  The sun that falls on my notepad.  Jack’s new paintings on the fridge.  The slow tumble of a dust bunny under the dining table.  I try to feel these blessings, to become part of them and their source, whatever that is.  And that communion, not these drawings, is the reason why I draw.”  (pg. 23)

And again,”Despite all these indignities and the lousy drawing that I made, I had fun.  That’s the point of it all, a point I have been prone to forget during the months it took me to fill this book in my occasional detours into would-be professionalism.  All these attempts to create functional reasons for my drawings all ended up in frustration and, for a while at least, led me away from the real purpose of all this “work”, which is very simple and something I have craved and searched for these many years: to be.” (pg. 80)

These quotes “hit” me right where I needed it. I wish I didn’t find myself in these weary places…yet they actually end up being a blessing.  These are the times when I get my compass realigned, my trajectory reset, my heart decluttered from all my attempts to be a “professional”.  I’m so glad there are those who have gone before us and who have been brave enough to share their story with us.  Danny Gregory strikes at the heart of the matter in his Everyday Matters.  I wish I could remember these things everyday.  Somehow I forget them, and go careening around again, only to “hit” a place where I need to be reminded once again.  Ahh…the rhythm of life…it’s a wonderful thing.

Going Owling

I have never actually gone owling…except through the pages of a book.  For years, my husband and I have read to our kids a wonderful book titled Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, with exquisite watercolor illustrations by John Schoenherr.  As you read this book and gaze at the images, you feel as if you too are going owling along with the little girl and her father.  You’ll even find yourself, as we do, reading the book in hushed tones, as if you were out on a cold, wintry night, walking silently in the snow, trying not to scare away an owl so that you can see it in the evergreen woods.  I absolutely LOVE children’s books and their illustrations!  What I love even more, is when a book has a stuffed animal or character to go along with it.  A child, snuggled against his mom or dad’s shoulder, holding the stuffed animal, while they read the book, is an image that makes me swoon.

The crocheted owls I’ve designed and made here are not exactly like the owl in Owl Moon.  Not even remotely.  I  got the idea for these owls from some fabric versions I saw on Flickr.  I could hardly stop making them, and then the purse came along soon after that…ooh, what fun!  You can purchase the downloadable PDF pattern here at my yarnworks site.  I would SO love to see your versions of these sweet and oh so simple, little owls.  If I weren’t so color starved these days, I would have made some of them in soft browns, creams, pale blues and greens.  But no, I must have color…these owls would be spotted a mile away in the deep winter night with or without the moon shining!  Perhaps you have a child or a grandchild who would love a gift of this book and an owl of their very own.  Or maybe, like me, the kid inside you  would like to have a flock of them sitting around.  I hope you enjoy!

I’ll leave you today with the final words in the book, Owl Moon:

When you go owling

you don’t need words

or warm

or anything but hope.

That’s what Pa says.

The kind of hope

that flies

on silent wings

under a shining

Owl Moon.

Struck by a Super-Rocket!

Jennifer knew

As well as you

That everything has its place,

But she just didn’t care

a whit,

a bit,

so her room (studio)

was a real disgrace.

These are the opening words to my favorite-of-all-time book from when I was a little girl.  The Big Tidy-Up, written by Norah Smaridge is a large, wonderfully illustrated book (Les Gray) featuring Jennifer and her messy room.  It really could’ve been my biography at the time…my room was every bit as messy as her’s…and we even looked alike!  Though I’m much better about keeping things tidy now, I still  allow my studio/sunroom space to get very UNtidy from time to time.  Well, no, let me rephrase that:  UNtidy is actually the USUAL STATE of  the room.  Big Tidy-Ups are few and far between, much to my husband’s dismay.  Early in the book’s description of Jennifer’s bureau drawer, it states that her room looked like it had been struck by a Super-Rocket.  Such is the state of my drawing table (above) AND  studio desk (below).

But what’s a girl to do???  Crag 2 crag creativity does NOT lend itself well to neatness! I go along happily for a good while, not even noticing the super-rocket look to things.  And then, one day, I’ll come downstairs and SEE it.  And it will bug me until the Big Tidy-Up begins.  Jennifer in the book:

picked up stuff,

blew away fluff,

shook out the mat,

hung up her hat,

swept the floor,

tidied the drawer,

made the bed,

smoothed the spread,

And worked and worked for most of the day

Until every last thing was put away.

And so, I tidy, I stash, I rearrange, I sort, put away, put back, and clear out the studio.    For what?

FOR THE CREATING TO BEGIN AGAIN!! Aaahhh, yes.  That’s why we clean, isn’t it?  To wipe the slate clean so we can make more marks on the paper, pull out more stuff to make things, start new projects, dream, and create!  Jennifer at the end of the book, hangs up a very big sign, “Come In!” on her bedroom door.  I do SO wish my studio HAD a door (it would be nice to create in a closed off space so I could leave my mess and not worry about who sees it!).  But alas, my “Creative Space” is our sunroom, right off the kitchen.

It would be great if this post had before AND after drawings…ha! AFTER will just have to wait.

I’ll leave you today with the cover of this wonderful book.  Maddie and I, we read it together all the time…great rhyming, colorful illustrations, a perfect book.

P.S.   Strangely, Maddie’s room is exactly like my room of old…is UNtidiness a genetic malady?:)

Happy Little Squares

Years ago, I remember watching entranced as Bob Ross painted his “happy little trees” for us.  Watching one of his landscapes unfold and come alive right before your very eyes was indeed mesmerizing.  So too are these little crocheted squares.  They are made from a Lucy pattern, she calls her Summer Garden Square.

I’m quite tickled about these squares and what they are becoming…you’ll have to wait and see how it evolves.  I’ll give you peeks as I go along.  But for now, I’m over the moon about the colors in my basket (yes, ANOTHER basket of yarn…yeesh! but I do love baskets filled with lovely yarns so I can see them ALL at a glance and pick and choose at happy will.  And no, I haven’t lined this one…yet!).  I walk around the house doing laundry, picking up stuff, making meals (er…assembling them:) and every time I walk by my basket, I smile and pause, gaze a moment longer, smile again and go on my merry way.

Happy is the person who has palettes of paints and baskets of yarn to bring a smile to their day!  (Ancient proverb:)

I just had to give you another pic of these cheery squares!

Weathering Creative Crises

Here’s how Webster defines the verb form of “weather”:

Main Entry: ²weather

Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): weath·ered; weath·er·ing \ˈweth-riŋ, ˈwe-thə-\

Date: 15th century

transitive verb 1 : to expose to the open air : subject to the action of the elements
2 : to bear up against and come safely through <weather a storm> <weather a crisis>intransitive verb : to undergo or endure the action of the elements

Imbedded in this definition is a key to how we can weather creative upheavals, blocks, and crises. But let me back up a minute and tell why this subject is of interest to me.

I have experienced a plethora of creative crises, ranging from minor to major in the 12 or so years that I’ve been actively pursuing art.  The forms these crises have taken have been anything from switching to a new medium, jumping styles, shifting artistic passions, to out ‘n out stand-stills where I felt I could not move forward in what I thought I wanted to accomplish.  With each crisis, big or small, comes its own set of questions, doubts, fears, and complications.  But there are some common elements that are helped by a few basic thoughts.  My thoughts are all bound up in this definition…”to bear up against”.  Or, I prefer, “to bear up under”.  What does this look like? What does it mean to “bear up under?”  How do we do this in the midst of creative upheavals?

My first thought comes from a theologian, Martin Luther, who said at his trial for the doctrine’s he believed in, “Here I stand, I can do no other.”  I have completely extrapolated this statement to my own purposes in the creative journey.  When I find myself “stuck” creatively…it helps to remember…Here I stand, I can do no other.  It reminds me of the exhortation of quicksand.  Though I’ve never been in literal quicksand, I have been stuck in  creative quagmires; and I’m told that when you encounter quicksand, you should BE STILL!  Stop flailing around! It will only make you sink much faster!!  The crazy thing is that our knee-jerk reaction to quicksand is to fight, to struggle, to flail and scream and grasp and grab.  It helps me to remember that in these times, I need to stand and wait it out.  I need to stop flailing.  My efforts to grasp and grab my way out of the creative quicksand only worsen the situation.  Just stand, just wait.  I’ll weather the crisis better if I do no other.

My second thought is close on the heels of this, which is to say, that I’m not very good at “just standing”.  I’ve gotta DO something.  So it helps me to remember to “do the next thing”.  Often when I’m stuck creatively, I have virtually hit a roadblock or a detour.  At the time, I don’t know which one it is: a detour which will eventually land me back on the original path? Or a roadblock, which will set me off on a completely different path, the old one never to be revisited again.  This is where my dislike of the word “against” in the definition comes in…working against these roadblocks and detours is futile, indeed it is much like flailing around in quicksand.  I need to “bear up under”.  I need to simply do the next thing.  When I am unable to do the creative thing I want to do but am finding it too hard to move forward, it is good to look around me and find what I CAN do.  This might be a load of laundry.  Perhaps baking some bread.  Perhaps it is picking up a creative outlet once enjoyed long ago…or trying that new one you’ve always wanted to try.  Maybe it is to take a nap.  So many times I’m stuck because I’m tired.  I need rest.  We all do!  When you find yourself hitting the proverbial wall creatively, look for “the next thing”, something, anything you CAN do and do that.

My third and final thought is that I need to find/contact friends who are on this journey with me.  It is best to find someone who is NOT stuck (sometimes they have a way of pulling you down further with them) but someone who has “weathered” a few of these before and can speak to/encourage you/come along side you in the midst of the mire.  This is where creative friends are vital!  “Two are better than one…if one falls down, his friend can help him up.”  We need each other to stand and bear up under the prevailing weather.  And just because I’ve “weathered” a few of these, doesn’t mean I won’t face them again! No indeed.  They are an ongoing part of a creative person’s life.

I really don’t think I need to draw out for you all the parallels to our everyday life and the crises that we encounter.  So much of this applies to our everyday lives which are often frought with difficulties and hardships of varying degrees.  Wind, rain, snowstorms, earthquakes…we all endure these things, both creatively and otherwise.  Some may be more “seasoned” or “weathered”…but we are all in it together.

Here we stand…we can do no other.

P.S. The above paintings are  pastel over watercolor paintings I did two years ago.  I stood in a nearby field in the presence of this grand tree and made several charcoals of it.  Back in the studio, I worked a few color versions.  I loved this tree.  It had certainly weathered a lot in its years.  I kept thinking how children used to swing in its branches, how storms had wreaked havoc with it, and how this grand tree, which once stood in the front yard of an old home was now going to be mowed down to make way for a CVS Pharmacy.  So sad.

P.P.S. I apologize for such a long post…I should have told you to grab a cup of coffee or tea before sitting down to read this one!

P.P.P.S.  And, of course, I would make you wait until the VERY END to announce the WINNER of the drawing for a set of my new notecards!  Can we have a drum-roll please…………….I drew from the names of those who commented (and thank you all for commenting and playing the game!)….the winner is……Crystal Neal!!!  So, from here…Crystal, I need you to place a comment on this post to say you know you are the winner, and so I can get your address from you to send you your set of notecards!  You have a couple of days to let me know you have read this.  If I don’t hear from you, I’ll need to pick a new winner….so, I hope you get this announcement, buried as it is in this extremely LONG post!!:)

Me? Really?

A couple of day’s ago, I got an email saying that Danny Gregory had named me an “officer” in the Facebook group Everyday Matters.  The note inside the email said that Danny had named me “Ballpoint” in the group.  To be honest, I did not know what in the world this was???  And though I’m still unsure of what it all means, if anything, I discovered that over on the Facebook page for EDM, there is a list of officers on the left.  There was my name, under “Ballpoint”, listed with many other artists whom I admire.  So, Happy Day!  To be included in that list, was certainly an honor and I’m tickled about that little “Ballpoint” heading over my  name.  Thank You to Danny and whoever else was a part of that decision.  If anyone knows more about what that means…please let me know.  I think maybe it is just an honorary title and doesn’t require anything particular on my part.  But if there is, I don’t want to miss what that might be.  So, Thanks a Bunch!

On December 6th, one day prior to our daughter’s diagnosis with Type 1 Diabetes, Vicky gave me this lovely blog award.  In the midst of all the goings on, it was a little bright spot, and I’ve thought of it often since.  Part of my procrastination in posting about it was that I needed to pick 5, only 5, blogs to pass the award on.  Oh my, that puts me in a pickle!  Well, I’ve finally narrowed it down, but it certainly doesn’t mean they are the only ones I think of highly.  The rules are: I need to pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know I left this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word. So here we go:

1. Where is your cell phone?    Me-Me purse
2. Your hair?    salt&peppered
3. Your mother? artist
4. Your father?    actor
5. Your favorite food?    French
6. Your dream last night?    none
7. Your favorite drink?    coffee
8. Your dream/goal?    creativelife
9. What room are you in?     livingroom
10. Your hobby?    toomany!
11. Your fear?    rejection
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?    righthere
13. Where were you last night?    GlennHighSchool
14. Something that you aren’t?    acook
15. Muffins?    multigrain
16. Wish list item?    moreyarn
17. Where did you grow up?    BooneNC
18. Last thing you did?    drinkcoffee
19. What are you wearing?    mygreenknittedsweater
20. Your TV?    whatisthat?
21. Your Pets?     Lucycat
22. Friends?    wonderful
23. Your life?     blessed
24. Your mood?     joyful
25. Missing Someone?     familyinBoone
26. Vehicle?    Mazda5
27. Something you’re not wearing?   hat
28. Your favorite store?    yarn&artstores
29. Your favorite color?     limegreen
30. When was the last time you laughed?    thisam
31. Last time you cried?    watchingHaitinews
32. Your best friend?    Randy
33. One place that I go to over and over?    WinstonSalem
34. Facebook?     yep
35. Favorite place to eat?    MacaroniGrill

I leave this award, in no particular order, to:

Jennifer Lawson

Stephen Hall

Sandra Torguson

Karen Margulis

Raena

Well, I could have kept on going and going, listing favorite blogs that I think are Over the Top.  Alas, I am limited to 5.  Once again, a BIG THANK YOU to Vicky for honoring my blog in this way!!

****Please, please don’t forget to leave a comment here to register your name for a FREE set of my new art cards!!!  You never know, your name just might be the one drawn out of the hat!  I’ll let you know late Saturday.

They’re Here! They’re Here!

Ooh, they are finally here! And ready for you to obtain, if you’d like, over at the yarnworks site.  It is a set of 8 cards, 4 images (so you get 2 of each image) plus the envelopes of course!  They are blank on the inside so that you can use them for any occasion! They are a mere $16, plus shipping, and then tax for those of you who live in NC.  Isn’t that odd how only the North Carolinians have to pay the tax?  Well, be glad, if you live outside of my home state of NC. Anyway, I hope you like them.  You can see the four images here on the left.  These are original paintings in watercolor (yes, I said “watercolor”), ranging in size from 15″ x 22″ to 22″ x 30″.  I have been influenced and inspired by the work of Bob Lysiak and Skip Lawrence. I have taken workshops from them and learned to use watercolor in a thick, almost opaque manner.  The wonderful thing about using watercolor this way is that you still get the luminosity of watercolor (where the light bounces THROUGH the paint) as opposed to a flatter color like you have with acrylics.  I’m in the process of updating my artwork website, so you can see more work done in this style.  I love the large shapes as a perfect playground for all the color…the yummy, yummy color.

And now…to offer a FREE set of these cards to you!  Simply place a comment which includes your name, on this post sometime between now and Saturday, February 13th.  At that time, I will draw a randomly selected name from these commenters and I’ll post who the lucky winner is.  You must check back to see if you have won so you can “claim” your free set of cards.   Ooh, how fun is this?  OK, ready…set…go!

Butterflies, Chicken, and Love Language

Some years back, Dr. Gary Chapman, wrote a book called The Five Love Languages in which he proposed that we each have a distinct love language, or maybe two or three.  These are things that others do for us in which we feel loved and cared for.  Some of them on the list are: receiving small gifts, quality time spent with you, affection, etc.  I’ve only read parts of the book, but have had lively discussions with friends about it and some fun thinking about my kids and what their love languages are.  It’s helpful to focus on things that the recipient will really appreciate.

Two Wednesdays ago, I went for my day of teaching at Redeemer School.  One of the staff wished me Happy Birthday…to which I hesitantly replied, “But it’s not my birthday.”   She said that I needed to go to the teacher’s lounge and look at the table of goodies.  She was sure it was for me and my birthday.  I was gobsmacked to find a paper wishing me a Happy Half-Birthday, a card, a wrapped present, and plates of unbelievably decorated cupcakes!!

My secret pal (who is not a secret to me now:) had made these incredible cupcakes for me and the entire staff and faculty!  We all oohed and aahed, discussed how we thought she might have made them, and yummed our way slowly through our cupcakes.  I was bowled over by the time, exquisite creativity, and care taken to make these for me on my “half-birthday”…a REAL surprise and treat!!

These days of teaching leave me exhausted.  I usually stop by Starbucks for a bit of quiet and refueling before I go home to engage with my kids and husband, and begin the dinner/bedtime routines.  On this same day, my husband was cooking dinner!  Lemon chicken was roasting in the oven along with vegetables and rice.  The smell in our home was heavenly.  I kept walking around murmuring, “thank you, thank you, thank you”.  Later that evening, he tweeted, “After 20 plus years of marriage, I’ve finally realized my wife’s love language…cooking for her.  Who knew?”

Who knew indeed?  I didn’t really even know this until he said it.  But now it makes perfect sense:  I ALWAYS feel loved and special when someone makes food or bakes for me!  I’ve always felt that the best food in the world is food I have not had to prepare!  I have never relished cooking.  I DO cook.  Or rather, I assemble food (you know… open a jar of this, a can of that, pour it all together and voila!)  But I do NOT get my goodies from cooking.  Nope.  Never have.  It feels like labor, work; even the whole deciding WHAT to cook is tedious and mind-numbing for me.

I have catalogs of memories of dishes and baked goods that others have prepared for  me.  Beginning with the incredible dishes my mom made growing up: homemade spaghetti, oven baked bass in a scrumptious sauce, artichokes with butter sauce, homemade breads, granola, cookies of all kinds, and of course, my birthday cakes-red velvet, hummingbird cake, chocolate cake.  Then there are the meals that good folks brought to us when each of our children were born…I can remember them exactly and many of them I have recipes for, but they never seem to taste as good when I make them.  And then there are the meals we have enjoyed in people’s homes…oh my those are good times!  In recent memory, there’s a birthday cake that a knitter friend made for me, complete with a lime green VW bug decorated on it (one day I WILL own one of those cars), and ALL the wonderful dishes my husband makes in the winter time.  He actually loves to cook…but mostly in the winter months.

You would think, that as much as I love food, I’d love to cook it.  I don’t know why I don’t.  Perhaps it has to do with the fact that when I cook, there are four differing and opposing opinions as to how good it is; or maybe that I’ve spent hours in the kitchen and once we sit down to the table, in less than 30 minutes, I have nothing to show for my efforts except a huge pile of dishes.  I’ve TRIED to make myself like cooking with Pampered Chef gadgets and cool, new cookbooks.  But to no avail.  I am content to enjoy the fruits of other folks’ labors…their’s tastes better anyway AND I get to have more time for painting and knitting:).

Value Show…er, Snow!

Here in the Triad, we’ve been wowed two weekends in a row with snow!  Amazing.  As I tucked in my youngest on Thursday evening, I was trying to keep her from getting her hopes up too much that we would have lots of snow…telling her they were predicting freezing rain, sleet, and more rain.  Not much snow.  Well, to our delight and amazement, we awoke to 2-3 inches of the stuff.  Well, I didn’t exactly awaken to it…I’m an early bird, 5:30 ish is when my internal alarm clock goes off, and there was a dusting of snow on the ground then.  I got to watch it come down; heavy, wet snow pouring in around 7 or so.  It seems the world is transformed into a value show, contrasts of dark & light, lots of light values, a few midtones here and there.  Gotta draw/paint that.

A year ago, during a snowfall, I made this drawing from the same view out the window of my studio.  I wanted to see if I could indicate, with line only, the values there.  It doesn’t matter whether you draw or paint them, the values are really evident in a snowfall…you don’t even have to squint.  You can, however, see the connections between the values better if you squint.

Isn’t it funny how we “see” better as artists with our eyes half-closed?

I wonder if that works the same in Life? The concept behind “squinting” is to simplify the information we have in front of us.  With our eyes wide open we simply take in too much detail, the value range is too wide, and we can’t see the “connected whole”.  Everything is chopped up into bits, whereas, when we squint, we see how it all works together to make a pleasing whole and unnecessary details get taken out of the picture, quite literally.  I’m not sure that  we have something as simple as squinting to help us with this in life.  But I do know that I get bogged down in the flotsam and jetsam of life, rather than dwelling on the pleasing whole, the forest instead of the trees if you will.  Taking a step back and looking for the grander call on my life and the overarching themes in our collective life here, helps me move forward and engage in the flotsam and jetsam that each day brings.  There has been a good bit of flotsam and jetsam these days with the kids home from school because of the snow…millions of mittens, hats, wet clothing, boots, toys everywhere, sibling spats, and “will you take me here or there?”  Today I’m going to try to “squint” at my kids, rather than seeing them as unending, “Mommy will you…” machines.

P.S.  As I re-look at the watercolor sketch I made in the wee hours of the morn yesterday, I see some values are just TOO dark…really, I SHOULD HAVE squinted!

Have No Fear

Many years ago, when I was setting about to teach myself to draw and paint, two guys who had graduated from the Savannah College of Art & Design, encouraged me in my endeavors by saying, “Just have no fear…”  I don’t think they realized how much I would recall those words.  Every painting, every sketch, every knit or crochet project or design, every new creative endeavor…starts in my head with, Have No Fear Jen.  It’s only paper, it’s only canvas, it’s only string.   Somehow we can get so strangled by fear of…well, what is it, anyway?  Fear of it not being “good”?  Fear of it being a failure? Fear of messing it up?  Fear of not being original?  Fear of not having anything to say?  Fear of not improving?  Oh my, these are just a few.

Of course, I could blast through every one of these and “explain them away” for you.  I’ve read a good bit on creativity and it’s traps, I’ve learned to recognize and talk myself through them.  But somehow, when faced with a blank page, a basket full of new yarns…all our reason goes out the door, and the deer in headlights look comes over our face.  Have No Fear…just begin…one baby step at a time…just move forward.

One place this fear shows up is when we tackle something we are not as well-versed in or something we have not made before.  I faced this as I stared at a basket (remember this basket from the hexagons in Crag2Crag?) that I wanted to line with fabric so the yarns wouldn’t get picked.  Now, I can sew.  I’m fairly well equipped when it comes to sewing.  But I had a small amount each of four fabrics (which I had purchased to make these birds), no pattern, and I had never lined a basket before…or at least I can’t remember when I have.  And, of course, I didn’t want to JUST line the basket…I wanted it to have pockets on the outside for my scissors, hooks, and anything else needed for the project in the basket.  *Headlights*.  Will the idea work? Will I have enough fabric?  Will it turn out alright, or will I have butchered the fabrics so that I can’t really  use them for anything else?

Just begin. It’s only fabric.

An hour or two later…I had it…the thing I had envisioned, plus or minus a thing or two.  One MUST be flexible along the way and allow for altering the original plan.  This is KEY!  I like to think, in creative matters, that mistakes or roadblocks are merely opportunities for a wonderful new idea or outcome.  But you’ve gotta bend to it.  Life is that way too.

And so now my basket is lined with fun fabrics which have places for “stuff” around the outside.  One spot that gave me pause, was how to deal with the liner where the handles meet the basket.  What came out (ribbons tied on the sides) works well and is pretty to boot.

And with the leftovers, I was able to make the birds from a free pattern found here…I’m not sure WHY I made them…just for fun…and with no fear.