Researching for a Frida project

Doing some research for a project on Frida and I could't resist drawing this photograph.....

Working on my people skills

This weekend instead of sketching random items sitting around and the same corner of our living room I decided to practice drawing people.

Thursday afternoon I drew this girl.

She reminds of 1968 Claire Randall Fraser in Voyager.

And then today I decided to try drawing this picture of Obama from his college days.

                        

                                                      

I'm feeling nostalgic.  The primaries are making me miss him already. 

                       

3 DIY recipes that could change the way you clean and freshen your home....

I have an amazing nose, so I’ve been told.  So consequently I have a very low tolerance for unpleasant smells.

I find the chemical smells in the more frequently used cleaning products over powering, especially in winter when the house is closed up.  Take for instance the all purpose sprays used in kitchens, I feel like I’m being slowly poisoned with each spray and wipe.  For that reason the past couple of years I’ve been making my own.  It’s so easy, economical, and smells so much better.  And I don’t feel choked to death each time I use it.

The ingredients are:

½ cup white vinegar

3 cups water

¼ tsp tea tree oil

10 drops lavender oil

It all goes into a spray bottle and then shake it up.  I use this as my kitchen all purpose cleaner.  Counters, tables, cabinet doors, refrigerator spills, it works great.

The second recipe I make I found about a year ago here….

I have to say, in all my years of mopping floors my floors have never been cleaner.  It's the convenience of my Swiffer, but much more economical.  The ingredients are:

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

1/2 cup rubbing alcohol

and a combination of essential oils.

I use 10 drops lavender and 10 drops tea tree.

I just use a cheap pack of washcloths from Wal-mart.  I love that you can turn them over if you need to for another clean side and just toss them in the wash when you're finished.

Finally, I hate canned air fresheners, and I especially hate plug-ins.  But I do love to have the house smell fresh and clean.  A few years ago I was looking for simple, easy Christmas gifts to give to co-workers and I stumbled across these natural room fresheners here...

I especially love the lime, mint, thyme and vanilla.  I put it in a small crock pot and leave it.  When I'm finished I let it cool a bit then store it in the refrigerator and use it once more.

Now there's three easy ways to bring some natural freshness to a long winter.  

Where I live.

At the end of this month we will mark 31 years since we moved into our rural home in Kansas. 

Every day, twice a day, (except those blissful days I don’t leave the house) I drive by an overgrown, abandoned baseball field equipped with modest lights for evening games.  It was one of the first things I noticed when we moved in.  At the time I thought they might still mow it to use the coming spring and summer.  But to my disappointment they did not.  Instead we drove our kids 12 miles into town where they went to school to play ball.  And I was left to imagine scenes of evening games with local boys taking the field and neighbors filling the stands.

Last week while driving by that field and listening to Cyprus Avenue, (a local NPR music show) I heard the song Baseball by Sam Baker.  I won’t write all of the lyrics (beautiful that they are), just the refrain:

Another Saturday comes and goes

Another south wind comes and blows

Another baseball field another pop fly

Another bunch of boys another blue sky

Once again I started thinking about those imagined ball games in my abandoned field.  And then it occurred to me that one of the beautiful things about where we live is that you can drive down the street and except for the occasional glimpse of a satellite dish or a car in a driveway; on many stretches of our road you really can’t tell what year it is.  It could be 40 years ago, 50 or even 80 years ago.  Not much changes.

When we moved in we were definitely outsiders.  Our neighbors were born and raised here and were finishing raising their families, as their parents and grandparents did before them.  We were the youngest, our oldest child hadn’t started school yet and our youngest wouldn’t be born until the following year.

Our closest neighbor was an elderly couple whose adult sons lived around the corners in opposite directions with their families.  That first year the elderly husband died and the nearly 100 year old church that sat next to our property ceased to have services.  Over the years to come that lovely elderly woman became a surrogate grandmother to our children and our youngest child’s closest playmate.   I once asked Hali just what did she and Mrs. Finch do all that time they were together.  She replied, “You know, play cards and talk old lady talk.”  She was about seven at the time.

Time passed and we bought the church next door, the one where Mrs. Finch grew up attending as well as her family.  The church then became a place for birthday and slumber parties for our children, their high school graduation parties, then college graduation parties, one of our daughter’s weddings, some of our grandchildren’s birthday parties and many family holidays.

Now as I look up and down our road we are the long-timers.  While we once had imagined how some of our kids would stay and raise their families here it’s come to pass that they’ve all moved to the city.  I’m not complaining they are all within a 20 to 30 minute’s drive.

So while much of what can be seen doesn’t change, lives do.  And maybe our time has come.  Maybe it’s time for someone else to raise a family here.  Now we are thinking of selling and moving into our motor home to travel to wherever the winters are warmer and the summer are cooler, (and possibly the state government is better).  Living in our motor home we’ll still have the means to always come back to be close to our kids.

When the day comes that Paul and I close the door for the last time I’m sure will be a hard one.  Hell, it’s just frightening.  I think of some of the circumstances the other people faced when they left this little community and in comparison we are lucky.  We are still married, still healthy, and making the choice of our own free will.

So there you have it.  My sentimental ramblings are over.  As a complete coincident, someone posted this video that some college kids made in 1966 of the town we live closest to.  While many of the businesses are gone much of the town still looks the same, except the fashions and the vehicles it could be 2016.    If you care to take a nostalgic look you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W3uLtS6H_g 

Being honest with myself.

Since this is the last day of the first month of the year I started to think about the resolutions I made and evaluate my progress.  Most of all this year I wanted to try to improve my overall life.  I made vows to make small changes. The most important ones were:

           

Take control over clutter; hang up my clothes as soon as I take them off

                  and don’t leave dishes in the sink.

            Practice more mindfulness and meditation.

            Do more yoga and sit-ups.

            Be more creative in my cooking.

            Write a little every day.

            Drink less alcohol.

            Be kinder to the earth.

            Sketch daily.

            Paint as often as I can.

With that last one I intended to knit less in order to accomplish it. 

All in all things have gone pretty well.  With exception to the last one I’ve been able to stick with it. But what I haven’t done is knit less.  I had thought that after the intense knitting marathon I ran between Thanksgiving and Christmas; (see below picture from my facebook page), I was ready for a break from knitting.

But instead what I now know is that I am a knitting addict.  And my most problematic time is while watching television.  I can’t sit still to watch television. In order to stay awake my hands must be moving.  And January has a lot to watch; my favorite and new PBS shows, new episodes of favorite network shows, and Paul and I have started binge watching Homeland.  Yes, we are late to that party but now that we’ve arrived we can’t leave until it’s over. 

Pictured below is what I have knitted since December 31st, one month's time.

KC baseball hat, Sooner hat, and stocking cap.

A cable cowl and scarf.

And what might be just a little crazy, a sock for our vintage caged trouble light.

There's also one more very large project I've started but there's no picture yet.  

So now I know that what I believed to be a brake from knitting was only a break from knitting for children and grandchildren.  And no matter the aching knuckles and knitter's elbow as long as I sit down to watch TV, I'll be knitting something.