July Desktop Calendar

What a beautiful day it is. The sun is shining, the crops are growing and it smells the glorious green of early summer. This morning, I woke up and took the kids to the kitchen table for breakfast and I saw the light. It was playing between the tree branches and leaves. It was golden against the vibrant, alive grass. I am grateful to be home.

I did make a little desktop background for July to keep our national park trip alive. I took this photo in Joshua Tree National Park, we were able to drive through on our way to the Grand Canyon.

You should be able to directly click onto the image (it will open in a expanded preview window), right click the preview image and save it into your images file or desktop. And you can share a bit of the beauty we experienced.

Blessings!

I Arise Today

One of my favorite poems, I hope it gives you some light today!

New Resolve

I'm wondering why everything in my life begins with a good house scrubbing. But, it does.

I think I put my excuses to bed here yesterday and I went home thinking. I can do this. So I did. I threw open the windows and doors. I tied on my Grandma's apron. And I set about to cook dinner, do laundry, vacuum and dust. Scrub and wash.

We had a peaceful, simple family meal. And Isabel says, in her impromptu like fashion, "Let's do our 'Mostly I love about yous." which means we say what we love about each individual person in the house--  Lucy-dog included. And we had extra time to read library books and snuggle before bed.

I finished up all my tasks, post-bed time. 

And as the dishwasher hummed--  I sat down at the end of the night, listening to music across the kitchen table from Eric, I penned a few letters while he paid bills. A tiny date in the midst of the week.

I'm content. I just needed to realign myself, my home, my priorities.

I can't think of a better evening. Scrubbed house, gleaming heart? I think so.



*This is a little painting I made for a friend, remind me to tell you about my project!

The rules we live by::

For Today:

I keep this little note tacked up on my computer screen. It helps me remember who I am, what I'm about and how to live my life. Even when it's hard to do these things.

Kerry is giving away a spot in Revisiting Sanctuaries today. Stop over!

How To: Make your own 'pot holder' rug loom.

I've been wanting to make a loom for years, but I hadn't thought about it in a long time until, the Des Moines Farmers’ Market, on Saturday. I saw the most amazing woven alpaca, bamboo and cotton shawls. (Of course I neglected to take a picture). After a few minutes of chatting, come to find out this woman makes all of these beautiful shawls on homemade looms. Then proceeds to tell us HOW to make them. I make mental notes.

Then I see this on Design Mom’s blog today, seriously, today. And that gets my wheels turning. Let’s start with fabric instead of yarn. Then the task of making a loom might not be so daunting.

After dinner, while the kids were still in their baths (and husband was upstairs with them). I ran down to my studio in the basement and I grabbed what we had. A just-about-ready-to-be-thrown-out-white-board, box of rusty finishing nail-- hey, if I’m not sure this will work, I’m not buying anything-- and a hammer. Throw in a roll of blue painting tape and I ran back upstairs.

So... I took the blue tape and cut it into squares. I hate measuring and this look to be about the exact size apart I would want the nails to be apart.

Taped one whole side, nailed at each tape juncture.

Proceed all the way around the frame.

Place one extra nail at the start peg and finish peg of your loom to hold a tied loop, when finished loop can be untied and excess can be woven back into rug.

Thread as you wish.

And that folks is how you make a loom in 20 minutes. However, nailing will be loud, and may keep your kids up. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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Are you new here? We'd love to meet you!

Some of my favorite posts: 

1. We bought a Coffee Shop

2. 2014 theme for the year--Repeat the Sounding Joy.

3. Join our Weekly Family Meeting

4. Gluten Free Recipes

5. Road trip (with a Report)

Connect with Mary on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram.

I love:: valentines (11)

I think I succeeded in making Valentines, with Hello Kitty's no less! Last night, Eric took the kids to go get some groceries and run errands, so I cleaned up the house, vacuumed, baked cookies and packaged up these lovely little Valentines. We were running a little short on time (when am I not), so I took the empty house as a sign to get done as much as possible.

When Isabel got home she said, "Oooo I love them! They are just what I wanted! BUT, wasn't I supposed to help??"

Ooops. I started to say, "Well..."

And then she shot in with a cheerful, "There's always next year..."

And that was that.

As a little freebie, I've loaded the tags here.

Christmas Tag Templates

As an early Christmas Gift to you, I've designed just a few sheets of Christmas Tags to add to your gift giving goodness.

I print mine out on sticker paper, but you could on any paper, really!

Thank you for such a wonderful year, I have appreciated the notes and encouragements from a wonderful group of people who have a special bond-- whether it's through knitting, crafting, green living, parenthood, rhythm of life or family. I hope you all a blessed season.

You can find them on my flickr photostream. Here's a link to individual pages,

Oh, My Deer!    Happy Tree.    Green Sleeves.    Awesome Ornaments.

I'd love to know if you use them!

Fun to use, please do not sell. For personal use only.

New Year's Resolution and a Cookbook Template

One of my resolutions is to be a better keeper of our family's history.

While I have some family members out here for an extended holiday vacation I thought we'd do a fun bonding activity and make a cookbook.

I put together a cover and inside pages with photoshop, printed out several pages (one for each member of the family). It has a place for an illustration and a recipe, those who don't want to draw can add another recipe or we could cut out magazines, clip art... for a more three dimensional page. I'll also suggest that they write where it came from or the story behind it.

I just want to have handwriting and thoughts of each person. I'll scan these pages into the computer and make a pdf for everyone to print off. Or maybe for next Christmas give the printed version as gifts.

I thought I'd give you an opportunity to make your family cookbook. The front page can be personalized and here is the inside page.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Let me know if you make a cookbook too!