Finding Contentment

I was telling a friend about some money concerns last week, and she told me that the years when her family had no money were her best childhood years.  It's like the people who refer to The Depression as the "good ol' days."  Priorities shift and you realize what is really important. 

I guess that got me thinking about the simple pleasures in my memories.  My best memories of our courtship  were the simple things...  eating chinese food while watching t.v., getting Slurpees, walking around downtown (that's where we met), and as I was driving through Denver on the way to a meeting this morning, I was reminded of one time when we had a picnic at Cheesman Park.  I got home this afternoon, and there was an air of lethargy in the house so I forced all my grumpy men into the car. We took some sandwiches and a blanket and went to Cheesman Park.  It was a warm January day but it is still January.  One child was shivering before we even had our food unwrapped, so we ate quickly.  Before we loaded back up in the car, we decided to take a little walk to the acropolis.  Pretty soon, we forgot all about being cold as we strolled through the park.  On our way along the path, we discovered a playground where BFJ had played as a child.  We sat on the see-saw, took some pictures - it was beautiful light.  Then I went over to the swing and swung.  And remembered what it was like to be a child.  And whooped on the way up, and my kids laughed, and swung, and my husband got to use the camera. 

And on the way back to the car, I remembered one of my best days as a child, when my dad was stationed at Fort Bragg, and my family went to the park by the officers' club and swung on the swings.  I remember the light, late afternoon like today's, and hope that this day will be in my kids' memories when they grow up.

Word.

You know those people who have a word for the year? Yeah, I'm one of those people. My word came to me in December, I knew exactly what it was going to be. I even said it out loud on, New Year's Eve, to someone other than my husband. What's my word? contentment. 

Somewhere, in the first few days of the year, I saw a post about word(s)-of-the-year and everyone left their own word in the comments.  Many people had similar words about striving toward new and great goals, but only one person had one like mine.  Jillayne's word was content.  I commented on Jillayne's blog, and she replied.  And then I realized that I didn't know exactly what I meant by contentment.  In the meantime, I had joined a group on Ravelry based on The Compact, about using what you have instead of buying more, which I thought went right along with my word.  But as everyone was talking about not spending money, I realized that was not my goal at all.  Mind you, the goals of the group are worthy goals, they just weren't what I'd been thinking of.  I wondered, what do I mean?  And simultaneously Jillayne's email made me wonder, what does contentment meant to me?  So I've been pondering, and I've finally come back around to what my original, albeit unspoken, goal was.  I want to find contentment with me.  Oh I've got lots of ways I could improve.  Lots.  But for this year, I am going to work on being happy with who I am, and where I am now.  I am going to stop worrying that I'm getting wrinkles, or that other people have cleaner houses and more disposable income, or jobs with titles and business cards. 

Due to dwindling harddrive memory, I have been going through my 30,000 pictures and moving as much as possible to a secondary harddrive.  I've seen a lot of old pictures of myself, and I realize that (I should probably be a blonde but otherwise,) I'm really okay with who I am.  And while I, like many of you, sometimes cringe when my picture is taken (why didn't I put on make up today?), my kids need to know that I'm content with who I am.  So that's my word. 

 

October - that's the last time a picture was taken of just me.  Here I am eating a Honeycrisp apple recommended by Candace and I wanted her to know how much I enjoyed it - so much I had to take a picture of me eating it!

Funny, when I started writing a post tonight, I thought it was going to be about the book I'm reading; maybe next time.

BBR Photo Shoot Reveals

Now that the patterns have been released, I can finally show you more from my photo shoots last October.  Marly, Natalie and I had fun zipping around town taking pictures of the latest Bijou Basin Ranch patterns knit up in their latest new colors!  I especially liked this set at the 'Pec (El Chapultepec, famous for "hot burritos and cool jazz.")  As always, Natalie was a great model.  Natalie also brought along several bags and pieces of jewelry from her friends at The Sassy Factory. 

The bright colors of this wall really brought out the brilliance of the yarn. 

...and I loved the taxi-hailing pictures.

 

Marly designed this piece and Natalie spotted this red and orange art installation.  I ended up with some of the red yarn, you know how I feel about red! 

Later in the week, Marly and I met up with Ashley to shoot the remaining pieces, including this sky blue top.  I purposely tracked down this blue building I frequently drive by. 

If I had to pick a second favorite color, it would likely be green.  I like the warmth of this color, especially. 

I think this is one of my favorite pieces of the set.  I love the idea that it has sleeves, but you can wrap up in it too.  Sounds perfect!

For more information about the yarn, patterns, and designers, check out the whole collection at Bijou Basin's website. 

Ice

 Winter finally arrived in the Denver Metro area, a week or two after Christmas.  I took this photo of a lovely ice sculpture which was forming under the leaky downspout last week. 

Finale!

Finally!  I tried several times to download this picture, I don't know why it wouldn't load.  Anyway, the finale of my handmade gifts! 

My mother-in-law had forwarded me an email about our foremothers' necessity of aprons and all the things they were used for, and she said she could use one.  I took the hint!  Immediately, I found a cute pattern at the fabric store but it took me over an hour to find three fabrics that I thought would go well together.  The pattern actually calls for four; I couldn't find a fourth but as the fourth was for the lining I got the appropriate yardage from one of the first three.   The pattern came together pretty easily considering I had left this to the very end to sit down and do.  I thought it turned out really cute.  I like the button, too! 

Pattern:  McCall's Retro Aprons, M5643

Fabrics various.

I just may sew more things this year.  Hopefully some new curtains are next!