A few items... and a contest at the end....

Before I do any more blogging of the inane kind, I want to send a shout-out to Aimee', over at SewSensible. She had a drawing not too long ago for FOUR free sewing patterns. Her stuff is SO SO SO cute... boutique style little girls and tween stuff. Be sure to check out her blog over on my sidebar! It's so fun to see her posts about creating the patterns, and what's even more cool, she is a Mother of 8 kiddos, and best of all, a Sister in the Lord!





Now, all that being said, I won! Thank you Aimee' for the darling patterns, I cannot wait to use them, and have been perusing fabric websites like a crazy woman in preparation. :-)



Aimee's advertises her patterns as being quick and easy. I promised I'd post pictures when I create with them, so here's my official blog promise to do so... my tentative plan is to make as many of Kiki and Debris spring and summer clothes as possible for next year. I won't be starting for a while, since we have a wedding in the family coming up, and I need to get busy on Kiki and Debris flower girl dresses for that, but afterwards I will be SewSensibly sewing like a crazy woman. :-)




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Ok, on to my next item... I got a groovy new piece of furniture! My grandpa made it for me... I am SO excited! This kitchen has been a challenge since we moved... it's significantly smaller than my last one, as far as counter and cupboard space and also, I was very spoiled with a ginormous walk in pantry at my last house. That being said, I like this kitchen better for many reasons. I LOVE the view from the window, I love my window treatments, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my floors, and most of all, I've enjoyed taking this kitchen and making it my own. It has challenged my design skills constantly, and I've just loved coming up with organization, ideas, and whatnot to make our home the way we want it. Our last house was severely lacking in personality. Anyway, I've really needed a little bit more space, so I asked my grandpa for help, and he totally outdid himself...



Check it out...

I'll admit, I've been running my hands over this butcher block every time I walk by, it is beautiful!! I've been oiling it every day since I brought it home, and wow, the wood texture just pops with a little oil!!As you can see, I have a cookbook problem. A very bad cookbook problem. I cannot resist them. I have no fortitude when it comes to resisting cookbooks. None whatsoever.Anyway, I have to let it sit for a couple months, since some of the wood is still green, and then I will be varnishing and sealing the wood, with the exception of the butcher block. But, I just couldn't wait that long to post pics of it...

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So, we've been socked in with fog for three days straight now. It's a good thing I like fog. Ya know what else I like? Haiku! Regardless of the mysticism and such that originally clouds it, it is a great, easy and fun intro to writing poetry, and it keeps my dull mommy brain sharp to willy nilly write these things in my head. And, it is so much fun to read a bunch of different folks haiku about one subject, it gives great insight into other's heads. And, I adore looking into other's heads. It's one of my favorite things. So, anyway, I digress. This morning, as I was drinking my coffee and being trampled by toddlers, I wrote a haiku in my head about fog. So, as I'm looking out my window while typing this, I come up with the genius plan on this here spot to have a haiku contest.

Here's mine:

thick as split-pea soup

fog clouds hover undaunted

elsewhere sun shines bright

Here are the rules:

Leave me your haiku in the comments.

IT HAS TO BE ABOUT FOG. Or autumn weather would work too.

Generally they have 17 syllables, in a 5-7-5 phrasing, as seen by mine above. I will be relaxed about this. If you come up with an awesome one that is say, 4-8-4, or 3-6-2, or whatever, and try very hard to make it 5-7-5, with no success, I will believe you and enter it in the contest anyway. I'm not much of a rule follower.

Here's a few suggestions for a good haiku tho:

IT DOESN'T NEED TO RHYME.

Avoid, or sparingly use pronouns, the words 'the', 'like' etc. These things are generally implied, not stated.

Always use present tense.

That's as much help as I'm giving. :-)

I will stick them all in the random-pull-out-pot on Friday morning, and announce a winner in an artsy post I have planned for Friday. I will be making the prize, I do not have it made yet. Believe me when I say it's very cool. I'm going to make the winner an apron, one of my very own design. I'll take a picture of mine, to show you a sample. If you're a guy, well, this would make a great birthday or christmas present for a special girl someone in your life. The above fabric may or may not be the one I use. I have some other pretty fabrics sitting around here that I might use instead. We'll do sizes in small, medium, or large, or extra large.

Keep in mind that mine was just used as a towel for pretend elephant showers by a few toddlers, so it's a little wrinkly. I will not pull out my iron for this.

Ok, have fun!