projects

so, as I mentioned before I tend to find little projects that I want to do either browsing through Etsy and thinking "hey I could totally do that", or picking up a craft book at New Seasons while waiting for my sandwich to be made and finding cute ideas to try out. Here are a few I'd like to at least attempt...

1. crocheted vases
2. needle felting

3. an oil painting... you never know unless you try right?

4. making kombucha and other fermented goodies

5. making an awesome peacock costume for halloween

fresh-picked blueberries, ice cold beer and free-roaming chickens

...does it get any better than that? Not much. emily and I recently spent a scalding hot day on sauvie island, picking berries and lounging by the river... it was such a wonderful day that I wanted to take mark there to show him the little piece of heaven em and I had stumbled across. so, last weekend mark and I went to kruger farm for some local beer, produce and awesome scenery. here's some of the pictures mark took while there (two of which are featured on the captured by porches website... pretty cool huh?)

becoming...

Today I was inspired... I'm not sure if it was the unexpectedly gloomy weather, my morning of sipping tea and reading Margery William's, The Velveteen Rabbit, or my afternoon spent shopping at my favorite stores with one of my favorite friends, but I have finally decided to set up a blog for myself. I'm also not completely sure where I will take it from here, but the possibilities make me smile.
I do hope this doesn't end up like my numerous diaries I so fervently started as a young girl, only to set aside after a week or two and reopen years later. I'm really great at starting new projects, crafts or whatnots and then quickly disposing of the evidence. Last winter, I bought myself a bunch of yarn, watched some knitting how-to videos on youtube and set to knitting scarves I intended to sell on etsy... I even set up an etsy account and proceeded to make about 6-7 scarves. Did I ever sell a single one of those? Or even try to? Of course not. And then, once the weather warmed up a bit I thought I'd make some jewelry instead... A couple pairs of earrings and three necklaces later I had decided they were actually not that cute and probably no one would want them anyways. Needless to say they are all still hanging with my other necklaces in the closet.
I think its the idea of creating that is so enticing to me, however, I seem to let myself down too easily when I realize I'm no Anne Frank or Sabrina Ward Harrison. Thus, the thought of starting a blog has always seemed a bit daunting to me as I've just assumed I'd be disappointed with the outcome, but I guess I've gotten to the point where I realize its really the act of doing that I get the most joy from, not the end result. So... I will use this blog as a place to create and if the end result isn't terribly impressive, or if I never write another entry, at least I enjoyed my afternoon writing this one and smiling about the idea of what it might become...

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day... "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all because once you are real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." -a little excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit