Two years ago yesterday I went for a walk in the woods and made a wish on my birthday. Though I didn't know it then, that night, that very night, my wish (at last, at last, for I'd made the same wish for many, many, many, many birthdays) began to come true. And now she is here. My birthday miracle. The miracle of my life. My wishes are all for her now. Darling, darling, darling wonderful girl. Thank you.
Happy New Year to you, and thank you so much for all of your kind Christmas wishes! Oh, it's been so lovely and slow here. Slow like only the week between Christmas and New Year's ever is. It's the only one like this in the whole year. How I long for a snowstorm to keep it going, keep the glacier-pace of these quiet, messy, wonderfully slow days going! Alas, it's already January 2. And we have only moss on logs and gray skies for our winter so far. No snow in sight; we might have to go and find some.
A sweet day downtown :: Shopping and noshing :: An a capella concert with Aunt Susie :: Brunch with dear friends :: Wrapping presents and writing cards :: More Swedish meatballs :: Foggy morning on Mt. Tabor :: Knitting tiny sweaters :: She ate half a dill pickle :: A night walk in the neighborhood :: Tea and Judge Judy :: Late afternoon naps :: Christmas movies at night :: Runny noses :: Very gray days, with all the lights on :: Reading Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford and laughing out loud (several times, but the scene where Paul rides the horse was hysterical [and the one where he complains about the kids]) :: Cards from old friends making me miss them :: The Psych musical soundtrack on repeat :: Candlelit baths and cookie plans. I need to make some, stat!
Snow! And ice! And freezing temperatures! Everywhere! Do you have them too? I've been quite elated (except for that part where the weather cancelled our plans to go out of town of a day or two — wah) by the cold and am enjoying every minute of it. I love it. We've only really had one day of snow and many days of cold, but they say there might be more snow on the way today.
What do you think of my hawk picture??? Weirdest thing: Meems and I were setting out for a long walk on Sunday afternoon. About a block away from the house I saw the light shining through those seed pod things and wanted to take a picture of them. I debated going back for my camera; I almost didn't. We went back, got it, took a snap of the pods, and we continued on our way. It was strangely quiet. Amelia was asleep in the stroller. It was sunny and very cold, and for some reason (I guess no one wanted to go out in it) I could hardly hear any traffic (usually it's quite loud) and we hadn't seen a single car. I thought about what our neighborhood was like when it was just woods. I used to think this about my neighborhood at home, too; when you look at those giant oak trees, you feel like you can see settlers. The sun shone low in the sky behind bare branches. We walked another few blocks when suddenly there was the most awful and startling noise: bird violence, and in the air. I'd never heard the sound before, but I knew what it was somehow. I thought I'd seen a swoop and a flash some ways up the road but I couldn't be sure. We turned the corner and there, in the middle of the street — a Cooper's hawk, straddling a bluejay, the pair of them all giant wings and eyes. I stopped in my tracks, and an oncoming car rolled quietly toward us all, and stopped a few feet from the birds. We were all frozen, when suddenly the jay sprang back to life and made a break for it. He darted, low and sharp, toward the houses, stunned to be flying. The hawk casually hopped into a tree and looked around: Oh well. He cleaned something off his chest. I dove for my camera, tucked into that (maddening) net basket under the stroller and started snapping pictures as fast as I could. He was about twenty or thirty feet from me, not more. I snapped and snapped, amazed that he sat. Snap snap snap. I could see a very bundled couple walking their dog coming toward me. Snapsnapsnap. I tried to wave them off, knowing they would flush him, but they didn't understand my waves and points. He sat in the tree until they got right up to it, oblivious to him, and then he flapped off. They noticed the camera and said something polite like, "Oh, how nice, a crow" and I was apoplectic with frustration, excitement, and delight, sputtering, "It was a HAWK!!!" Oh! I showed them the photos on my camera's little LCD screen. Wow! Cool! We each told our only hawk stories from the neighborhood — it's so rare to see one! They watched one divebombing at the park a few years ago; I saw one other in our front yard tree one afternoon, and thought I was hallucinating. It made my day.
City peeps. We need to get out more, don't we!!! :)
*The dancing photos are from ScanFair, and yes, I'm still fiddling with CHAI. I can't stop.
**Her peasant dress and blouse are from Alice à Paris, and her booties are from Misha and Puff.
"Hi, sheep." Like your coat. ;)
Saturday, November 30, 2013, at Kirchem Farm and Becks' Farms, Oregon City, Oregon.
Good morning, dear friends. I hope you had a slow and peaceful and lovely Thanksgiving weekend. Ours was wonderful. It wasn't all that slow (and Andy had to work Saturday and Sunday) but it was wonderful. The weather has been cold and crisp and mostly clear. Most of the deciduous trees have lost their leaves now, and though it's dark and damp, the sky feels more open now, and I like that. We cooked and ate our ways through the weekend, and have been tumbling into bed as early as possible. Mimi is still waking up at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. She goes back to sleep after eating, but I don't right away, really. I doze and turn. Then we all get up around 5:00 (just when I'm pretty much completely back to sleep). Eeeesh, I'm tired, it's true. The bed is so cozy (I have the flannel sheets on now). I could probably sleep until 10, and I've never done that in my life.
This beautiful baby girl is growing so fast. She took four or five wobbly steps on her own over the weekend. She ate spinach, carrots, quinoa, stuffing, turkey, beans, cheese, potatoes, and apple. She is such a good eater. That's her, sleeping off her Thanksgiving dinner outside, after our walk. I love her so much.
Today, oh today. It's our first day alone together in the house in I don't know when. Andy and Aunt Susie are at work. Greta took most of last week off and will be back in tomorrow. I've been making little animals in my spare (ha!) time, getting them "right." I've made a kitters, a fox (he's a boy), a mousie, and a doe. They make me happy. They each have their own outfits: for the girls, a Liberty dress, a pair of boots, and something knitted (a cowl, socks, a scarf); for the fox, jeans and a gingham shirt and a scarf. Then there are two other sets of clothes and things: One set is for cold weather, with a duffle coat, sweater, pants, and a satchel; the other set is a nightgown, teddy bear, and mattress/sheets/wool blanket/pillowcase/comforter. I know, I'm insane. These will all be kits and patterns. They won't be available until sometime this spring. But slowly and surely they are coming together and I'm pretty excited. Amelia seems to love them all but has a preference for the fox and the mouse. So funny. I lay them all out on the table and she picks the mousie. She says, "Hi!" and smooshes her face into mousie's face. Over and over: "Hi!" Waving. Oh dear girl. You are the sweetest thing.
I'm looking forward to decorating for the holidays this year. We have a little tree that we are going to keep on the sideboard instead of on the floor this year. He's the cutest little thing. I spent alllllll day Saturday making a photo book of the last year and sending it in to be printed, hopefully in time to arrive for our little party mid-December. I used Artifact Uprising (and the funny thing is I scoured the internet hoping to find a discount code early Sunday morning to no avail; not ten minutes after I'd given up did they send an email saying that everything was 10% off through Monday at midnight. Score! [Use the code MERRY to get the discount.]) I don't know if you can get a book done today or not, but you might be able to take advantage of that coupon. I've ordered one of their books before, a softcover 6" x 8" and it was really nice. The books I made over the weekend are 100-page hardcovers. It was a big project and I'm very happy to be done, but it does feel really great to have finally gotten sooooooooo many photos organized and printed. I'm excited. I bought books for family, and two copies for us. I thought I would have one for us and save one for Amelia, for when she is grown. I want to do one for her every year. I also got our Christmas cards done. I was kind of a machine. But I hate waiting until the last minute on this stuff.
So, half of my Christmas shopping is done already. I actually went out by myself on Wednesday and got a bunch of things I knew I wanted. My car was broken down (my poor little nineteen-year-old car) and I took the bus and the streetcar downtown. It was kind of an exciting (I never go out!) and exhausting day. I like Christmas shopping early. I was hoping to be completely done by now!
December goes so fast. I'd like to get the house ready this week, and then sock in. Thank you for all of the awesome Netflix and other documentary suggestions! I'm tucking those away until January, when the Christmas movies are over. I'll make my list of those favorites this week. My sister said she heard is was going to snow? I can't imagine; the weather has been so mild. But I've got tea and little mouse sweaters to knit and fake fireplaces and snuggly walking babies (she just took five more steps, chasing the dog, as I wrote this — today is the day, I think!) and road trips and tiny, critter-sized Pendleton blankets to source, so I'm busy. I'll stare longingly at Mt. Hood (I took that photo from the side of Mt. Tabor, here in town) from afar and we'll plan a trip there for after the new year.
Thank you for being here, with your enthusiasm and kindness and interest and generosity, all these many (eight!) years. I've very grateful. I wish you all a wonderful, warm, peace-filled start of the holiday season.
Xoxoxoxoxox, a (and a and a and c and the b :)
On yesterday's menu we had butternut squash soup from the book. It was awful. It was a lot of work and ultimately tasted raw and boring and made me mad. Don't make it.
Earlier this week, however, we made Cat's suggestion, Honey Sesame Chicken, which, everyone, including Amelia, agreed was delicious. So I think I've made four things now and three of them have been good so I am pretty psyched. I know, I'm still talking about this! What's really tricky is that every single time I have put a bunch of stuff into the crock pot and turned it on, I have looked at it and said, "Gross." Because it really does not look like it's going to work. So far, 75% of the time it has. The other 25% of the time, you're hungry and mad. But I will keep trying, because the schedule is just too tempting. IT works great. Just gotta keep trying to find those seven or eight recipes I can rely on. . . . The Honey Sesame Chicken stays.
I've been something steaming hot to drink every afternoon. Today I made hot chocolate. But usually I make tea. Some people asked what my little hot-pot thing was in a photo a few posts ago. It is this little milk frother/steamer. It is awesome. It holds 12 ounces of milk, and you can froth it or just spin and heat it. Much, much better than the microwave or the stove. I've been obsessed with the chai from Townshends lately. My favorite is the Masala Chai. What I do is pour 6 ounces of milk and 6 ounces of water into the little pot (with the flat disk, so it doesn't froth), add 1 and a half tablespoons of tea, and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Then I press the button with the three plumes of steam coming up (that means "make it hot"; two plumes mean "make it kinda hot"). That takes about six minutes, so I leave the tea to steep in it for two more minutes while it's still on the hot plate, and then I strain it (I use this strainer). It is so yummy. They have about ten different chais there and I am working my way through them all. So far I have tried the Kashmiri chai, the Bond Street chai, and the Pumpkin Spice. Masala is my favorite.
My girl is so sweet. She napped today for quite a while while I played with the dog and read. I've never seen anyone who wakes up happier than she does. All sleepy and drowsy and fuzzy and smiley. Oh my gosh I love her so much.
What I also love about these November days is that they are already playing Christmas movies. MY FAVORITE GENRE. I watch Christmas movies every day, from the minute they start playing them. I should make a list of my favorites. I will. But someone asked me which Netflix documentaries I have watched and these are the ones I can remember (though I swear there were more that they have taken off of streaming and just made DVDs now?):
You've Been Trumped — Trump builds a golf course in Scotland. Ugh. This guy.
First Circle — Three families in the foster care system. Heartbreaking. Discouraging.
Park Avenue — Disparity of wealth in the U.S. Depressing. Discouraging.
Somewhere Between — Adoptees from China. Very moving. I cried.
Fatherhood Dreams — Gay men who are fathers. Very moving. I cried.
First Position — Young ballet dancers in competition. LOVE.
No Impact Man — NYC couple with toddler give up electricity and more for a year. (I think this one is only on DVD now, but it was good.)
Nursery University — I don't even know what to say!
I love documentaries. I like that the Netflix thing suggests ones to watch, too. I need that. What are your favorites?
Today it's freezing! Frost! Excited! Can't wait to go out.
What a busy week we've had. Lots of coming and going and people in the house and then us going out and then coming back. Activity. In my mind I'm making a fox and a kitters and a smock dress and leg warmers and duffle coats for tiny animals. Well, not just in my mind — in real life, too. But more often in my mind, and only occasionally in real life. Testing out designs to see if they work is kind of crazy! There's no way to do it but to do it, and there are a lot of fails. The coat prototype took all day. I think I made five kitterses before I had one I liked. That's a lot of blanket stitch. But blanket stitch is weirdly satisfying. I really don't know what it is about blanket stitch. It's such a great stitch.
So, new projects! I will tell you about them as I get myself organized. I have a new sketchbook, so that's a start.
Today it's gorgeous out. All sunny and bright and breezy, with some leaves still falling and fluttering, shadows flickering. Yesterday Amelia and I had a very long walk. We sat in the coffee shop for an hour and people-watched. She fell asleep. I just sat. It was really fun. I can't remember the last time I've sat in a coffee shop alone without working, or without writing, or without talking to someone, or without eating (I had a hot chocolate), or without reading the paper, or without texting. Just sitting. Sunday morning. Lots of people out. The weather was perfect. You can tell that everyone is out, trying to soak it up before it starts raining again. We took the short way home, through the shops and restaurants, and it was so nice to be out with everyone.
Any favorite crock-pot dinner recipes out there? This is iffy territory for me. Crock potting it has been hit or miss. This always seems like such a good idea but it never sticks. Is there a reason for that, or do I just not have the right recipes? I've got one standby I think I'll make tonight, but if you've got any links to any real HITS, let me know?
I send my sincere gratitude out to all veterans and those in the military and their families today. Thank you for eveything you sacrifice to keep our country, our homes, and our families safe. Thank you.
I bought a new sewing machine a couple of days ago! It's a Pfaff Ambition 1.0. I was sold on it almost entirely because of the way it makes buttonholes. You put the actual button you are going to use in the back of the buttonhole foot and pick which type of buttonhole you want to make, line up the bottom of the buttonhole, and press a button. Automatic stitching commences. Done. The buttonhole is done. WHAAAAAAAT! You may have known that sewing machines do this, but I did not!!!
My old machine was ten years old. It was . . . okay, not great. This new machine is only my third sewing machine in over twenty-five years of sewing. My first one that I took to college and had until I got the second one ten years ago basically did a straight stitch and a zig-zag stitch, period. My second one did a bit more (it is also a Pfaff, but pretty near the bottom of the line — can't remember the model number because it's in the shop now). When the guy at the shop looked at it he actually congratulated me on being able to sew on it — it apparently has so many problems he was pretty amazed I was getting straight seams at all. So that's being fixed and I will keep it, as a backup machine. I'm ridiculously excited about the new one. It purrs. It really does. I thought that was just an expression of speech but it turns out its for real. I think this is the first thing I've owned that is not a cat that actually purrs. Excited.
I made Amelia a little brown dress from a couple of vintage patterns (mostly Simplicity 9532). (I would've used just one but it didn't have all the pieces, so I had to mix and match.) The fabric was old — it's been in my stash forever, and I think it was from the '80s. The shape of this dress is one of my very favorites. If you start looking at sewing patterns you will start to notice that even within the same basic dress shapes, there is a lot of variation in the shapes of the pattern pieces. I had two patterns for dresses that looked pretty much exactly the same in the cover illustrations. Turns out, the skirt front and skirt back on one was about 50% wider than the other, which obviously results in a much more gathered, much fuller skirt. I've been looking at the pieces a lot and trying to come up with my favorite set of basic pieces for a wardrobe for Amelia. If you have a bunch of patterns it's pretty fun to actually mix and match sleeve shapes and skirt widths and yoke shapes and make new combinations. Well, I think it's fun at least!
I wrote to the lovely Lindsay a month or two ago and asked her if she wouldn't mind if I copied the adorable matryoshka costume she made for her adorable daughter, which I'd seen on Pinterest. She very kindly said yes and I was thrilled. It was so much fun to make. I drew the design with a fabric marker and then painted it with fabric paints — my first time using them. Then I lined that painted panel with more white cotton and stitched the whole thing like a pig patch to the front. I took Amelia up to visit Daddy at work for Halloween and she had a blast. She was very serious in her costume, which cracked me up. We had a very long, very fun day and she conked out by 6:00 p.m., so no trick-or-treating this year (and Aunt Susie stayed downstairs to answer the doorbell for the neighborhood. Her favorite costumes were the "Sleeping Cowboy" (ha!) and the "Gothic Prom Girl." It was definitely my favorite Halloween so far!
(Oh, and her knitted booties [which are some of the only things I can get to stay on her feet!] are from Misha and Puff. I just love them.)
Fall continues to roll through the city. The rains have started this week — rain in the forecast every single day now. For the first time, I feel a little sad about that: It will change my daily morning walks with Amelia a bit. I have rain gear, yeah, but walking around in the gray old rain definitely won't be as nice walking around through the golden sunlight, under a canopy of red trees, through the crunchy dry leaves, over the snapping acorns, smelling the delicious scents of woodsmoke and frying onions and crab apples. It'll be walking through mud and very cold water falling on your head. Aw, well. That's what chai and cinnamon buns were made for. At least I'll feel like I've earned them now.
Ohhhhhh, dear. It's getting dark so early now. The light is changing. In the afternoons, the light in the kitchen is just gorgeous, all rosy and glowing and warm. But by six p.m. it's dark. And at six a.m. it's dark. And those dark hours always seem to sneak up on me somehow. Every single lamp in this house, either table lamp or overhead, is on a dimmer switch. I tweak them throughout the day, if necessary, and sometimes don't turn them off until afternoon. I'm remembering our winter routines: oatmeal in the morning (which Amelia and I both love), soups in the evening, and pick out all of your colors for anything you're making at midday. Never pick them out by lamplight. Unless you like to live on the edge.
Knitting and sewing, knitting and sewing. My sister Susie and her fluffy cat Ellie, recently relocated from Charleston, South Carolina, have moved in with us. Aunt Susie babysits for an hour or two every morning and Amelia is beside herself with joy over her new playmate. I go back to the studio and sew. I have so many ideas. It feels so good to have time to work on them. Getting time to work on them a bit gives me energy and also sort of calms me for the rest of the day. During nap time I stitch hems by hand or tack down linings while she sleeps beside me under the big quilt. (I have to remember to bring eeeeeverything out there with me before she falls asleep; woe to the hand-stitcher who forgets the spool of thread when she still has three-quarters of a hem to stitch, and a sleeping baby's head on her lap.) When she wakes, we go into the kitchen and cook for dinner. She sits in her high chair eating diced apple and watching me. We talk. She doesn't have any actual words yet but she never stops talking in her own Amelia language, which includes lots of pointing and lots of saying "Uh oh!!!" Adorable. Little lovey. I like cold weather because she's snuggly and warm.
It feels good to slow down. It's been, really, a pretty intense year, and I think I'm just realizing how intense it actually was. In my mind, I'm formulating my plan for this next year and already it feels so good. It's slower, quieter, more deliberate. It's like a stash-busting plan: Dig into what you already have and do more with it: fabric, yarn, dry goods in the new pantry, recipes, time, these spaces, quilts, my people. But without rushing. Afternoons. Make tea and chill out. It's okay to do that. I have to keep reminding myself. Slow and steady is what I like. Let this baby girl grow and change and whirl through the woods and the rooms with what seems like lightning speed, and give her big soft arms and a pile of quilts to nest in when she gets tired. The fake fireplace is glowing and fake crackling. I have plans for an Earl Grey latte. Greta cleaned the office yesterday and it is bright and shiny. There's more wool than I know what to do with. And my sister is home. Happy.
My name is Alicia Paulson
and I love to make things. I live with my husband and daughter in Portland, Oregon, and design sewing, embroidery, knitting, and crochet patterns. See more about me at aliciapaulson.com
