what she brings home from school

tashi came home yesterday with this project she'd completed in handwork class. i'm in awe.

i grew up with a mom who knit profusely, though she did not crochet or sew. she was a single mom who worked full time (and more) and managed a business. it was a happy thing when she was actually at home with me, but she had a relationship with her knitting. i don't know how many times i would try to talk to her as a child, and she would "shush" me because she was "counting stitches."

i tried knitting when i was about tashi's age. i could do it and all, but, not only was i impatient, i think i felt resentment toward the craft because my mother was so often absorbed by it.

my mother continues to make amazing sweaters and hats. and my daughter has been knitting since kindergarten. when tashi was learning how to knit she would ask me to help her cast on or fix a dropped stitch. i didn't know how to help. it broke my heart.

and now she crochets.

for the first time since i was tashi's age i'd like to learn how to knit again. i found some instructions in a martha stewart magazine. perhaps i'll give it a try this week while tashi is away, so i don't have to ask her to "shush."

what gets me through a day at the office

a photo essay

















oops, i forgot to take a picture of the espresso machine!

a touch of spring

it's a lunchblog update.

i've spent much of it trying to figure out how to post a photo directly from flickr. looks like i might have some success here.

today's lunch is salad and a hamburger. yes, that's what i said. and today is friday. yay for friday.

on sunday tashi is going away on a bus with her class and her teacher to upsate new york. oh my god! every year at the charlottesville waldorf school, the third graders take a big trip to hawthorne valley farm in ghent, ny, a bio-dynamic farm where they camp for a week! i didn't really start getting nervous until last night, when we were gathering up her things to pack. i miss her already! she is very excited and ready for this experience. but i'm not sure if i am. funny how that is. at the same time, i'm hoping dan and i can take advantage of the time alone together and actually go to the cinema and perhaps see a band and maybe go out to dinner. imagine that.

blessed spring

wishing you and yours a wonderful spring equinox. grow. open. shine.


(i did a google search to find some spring images but ended up settling on the photo i took of some magnolia blossoms yesterday. i really wanted to use this but was concerned about copyright infringement. i love her witchy, whimsical, fantastical images; check out more of paulina stuckey-cassidy's work here)

march on the pentagon

yesterday, dan, tashi and i joined the march on the pentagon.



it couldn't have been a colder day, but we bundled up in our layers and joined the thousands who came out to oppose this atrocious war.



we're entering the fifth year of this war, can you believe it?



during the march an anti peace protester looked at tashi and said, "i'm sorry you have to see this." as if seeing a nation's complacency and support of a mislead war would be better?



everyone is up in arms about suicide bombers while america's part in this war is nothing other than slow suicide.



may we all join together to reclaim the life of our planet and all who inhabit it.



this morning i dowloaded all the photos, which can be viewed here.



peace out.

sleeting into the weekend

just yesterday i was marveling at the magnificent magnolia blossoms but today has brought us sleet and slosh.

the little guy doesn't seem to mind though.

media meme

i was tagged by have fun do good to take part in the media consumption meme. i'm not much of a media junkie, but i'll give it a whirl.

books: i love reading. but i don't love listing favorites. i enjoy the escapism of fiction, the beauty and braininess of poetry and the lifestyle inspiration i find in non fiction. recently i joined librarything but as you can see, i'm moving along slowly. i don't have much time to read between working full time and being a mom. and i spend entirely too much time writing in this blog. of course i read a ton to tashi, but that is a whole other catagory.

books i've read in the last year include Beyond the Sky and the Earth by Jamie Zeppa, Sleeping in Caves by Marilyn Stablein, Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald, The Cypriot by Andreas Koumi, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Brick Lane by Monica Ali, some of The Iliad by Homer, and currently, Huerfano by Roberta Price.

i move from poetry book to poetry book reading poems at random and not necessarily from first to last. i love alchemical, lyrical, imagistic poets and a just a few of my favorite female poets include HD, Diane di Prima and Laynie Brown.


magazines: i used to subscribe Hip Mama until it stopped publishing. i used to subscribe to Mothering but since tashi is no longer a baby or toddler it feels less relevant. they have a great website/discussion board however. i currently subscribe to Cookie which is a fashionable magazine for parents. i find some of the products they promote absurdly overpriced and i have to laugh at the moms hanging around at home in dresses that cost over a grand. but it's a treat in the way any glossy fashion magazine can be, and even more so since it caters to parents. i recently ordered a free copy of Blueprint and picked up a whole stack of Martha Stewart Living from a freecycler.

movies: i watch at least a movie a week if not two or three. i feel like movies are my guilty pleasure. we have no babysitter so I rent everything. we can rent movies for free from the university, but in particular i love charlottesville's indie video shop, sneak reviews. i'm just not that interested in netflix.

i have a very short term memory with movies. when someone asks me my favorite movie i almost always draw a blank. for a while i was on a jim jarmusch binge and then i was on a robert altman binge. every once in a while i try another bollywood film hoping it will be good and not ridiculously sappy and formulaic. one of my favorite movies that I saw this past year was, Breakfast on Pluto. i also loved water, of the earth and fire trilogy. i like all sorts of movies: documentary, period piece, experimental, foreign. and imdb is a great resource though i dislike their new layout.

music: i like all sorts of music from indian classical to emo from avant jazz to girlie singer songwriter from folk to opera. i was even a deadhead once. recent cd's include belle & sebastion's the life pursuit, akron/family, a couple of mixes by cheb i sabbah, ben harper's fight for your life, and neko case live from austin, tx.

radio: aside from npr where ever i am, in berkley it was kpfa and kalx, in ann arbor it was wcbn, in charlottesville it's wtju. at work i listen to pandora regularly and love all the new music it's introduced me to.

tv: mostly i hate tv. but sometimes, especially lately, i find myself channel surfing. we didn't even own a tv until my mom insisted on buying us one a few years ago. it's mostly a vehicle for dvd's. last week i watched an entire episode of lost for the first time. now i want to see this week's. i like to catch the medium once in a while. i used to like x files but that's all gone. when i'm feeling nocturnal i watch david letterman or saturday night live. if i had cable i'd probably watch the daily show and i'm curious about ugly betty.

web: i use firefox.

communication: i used to use eudora but now that i have a new laptop i'm not sure what i'll use. i check webmail through my earthlink and university of virginia accounts. at work i use mulberry but don't like it much. i used to have aim but now i guess i'll use ichat for instant messaging. at work i use trillian and sometimes skype.

i'm too tird to tag anyone and i bet anyone is too tired to be tagged.

wigging out on saturday

i awoke on saturday and walked into tashi's room only to find this stranger in her bed

she was hard at work

making this

later we drove 50 miles south to sweet briar college where dan's sister sue was attending a conference on migratory birds. sue gave tashi an ant farm. on the way to dinner tashi and sue imitated ants

while we were searching for an eatery in lynchburg tashi considered purchasing a new wig

but the shop was closed

a friday full of pretty things

this week was spring break at uva and employees were kindly given today off.

i was able to rise from bed this morning and instead of joining tashi and dan in our mutual frenzy to eat, shower, dress and be out the door within 30 minutes, i was able to bake and serve oven pancakes, pepare tashi's lunch box without brushing my teeth at the same time, and then go about doing quiet things around the house once they had departed. i blogged in my pj's and showered once the hot water had fully returned to the tank. it felt so sane.

once dan returned from taking tashi to school, we drank espresso at higher grounds while listening to the smart barrista and his customers have political debates. i guess the barrista thought we were nice because he gave us a giant chocolate chip cookie for free. i can't eat cookies that early in the morning, but dan enjoyed it.

after dan went to work (poor boy chose to work even though it could have been a day off for him too), and after i picked up a few fun (!) used cd's at plan 9 music, i went to an upscale shop called verity blue. dan and his band played at a private party the owners threw, and in return were given gift certificates. dan gave me the gift certificate, and even though for the most part it was just a chip off the prices of most things, i was able to cover the cost of these nice deruta italian "blue arabic" ceramic items which were marked down.



i guess the oil & vinegar set is missing its little tray and the sugar bowl is missing its creamer. but for free, i can't complain.

after that excursion i went to the downtown mall to seek out pregnancy and childbirth books in the used bookstores. why? because i am resuming my roll as a doula and i want to broaden my library. i also picked up a couple of beautiful flax linen garments at a shop that had marked down many items. mmmmm flax linen. so soft. so sturdy. so affordable, when marked down by 70%!!!!!!!!

after a delicious lunch at himalayan fusion, a drove up toward the lovely blue ridge to pick up tashi from school. i saw horses and cows and pretty plantations.

i never pick up tashi from school any more. she is in after care two days a week, and usually dan picks her up while i race home to start dinner. another two days she rides down with friends, and on friday she is picked up at 2:30 dismissal by dan.

i was so happy today to be able to pick up my girl from school, to see the other moms picking up their children, to talk to tashi's teacher and some of her little pals, to experience the bustle and excitement of the schoolyard, to ride back down the hill with tashi while she told me about her day.

being an 8am to 5pm (often 6pm) office working mom was never my ideal. i am approaching my one year anniversary at my administrative job. it makes time pass in a frightening puff of things lost and gained.

but today time stood still as i breathed in the spring air beside the schoolhouse and recalled the magic of being there for my child at the ring of the bell.

my world of sloppy stitchery

this is a little purse i made a while back. it's the first bag i've ever sewn. i didn't follow a set of instructions, just my own whim. the front pocket is made from a little mirror purse i picked up in india. the rest of it is a pair of dan's old jeans. i may line the outer top rim with some ribbon to cover the messy stitching. oh dear and look where i put the handles. i wasn't even thinking! but it's kinda cute. just a little.
i do love the inside pocket which is a jeans pocket. dan's pocket. and no, it's not actually falling apart there on the left side. i just didn't sew that little part.

i like this outer back pocket because it's a great place to slip your sunglasses. oh dear, i can't believe i'm showing you this.

one of the best aspects of this purse is the little mirror reflections it sends all over the room.

sparkles sometime outshine sloppy stitchery.

fourth in a series

mid monday

i haven’t written a lunchblog update in a while. today’s meal is a smoked turkey/avocado sandwich with chipotle mustard on fresh asiago bread. i am listening to bhangra music on apna radio live from the punjab.

it’s extra quiet today at the university of virginia as it's spring break. the sun is shining, the wind is blowing and the crocuses are blooming.

last night i watched the devil wears prada. i just love meryl streep. it was a good story with lots of pretty dresses.

the photo is one of a few i have on my computer here at work. it was taken at the albemarle county fair last summer. a sign of things to come.

silly shots

i really like my new computer. i love the feel of the keys under my fingers. i love it's quiet whisper. and i love the fact that the computer takes pictures with its photobooth feature:



sewing machine, mess and loki the cat sleeping



tashi peeking through the doorway puppet theater i made her for christmas



zoe and dan both with big hair



truly photobooth

i don't have any software loaded on the computer so i can't seem to do things like resize photos. things might be a little chaotic for a bit.

and yes, my work room/guest room/catch-all-room is very yellow. too yellow. the house came this way and since it's a rental, my heart's not in giving it a make over.

baby mac

i took the plunge today and purchased my very own laptop.



i thank my great aunt phaedra for making it possible, dan for being able to speak the jargon, and tashi for waiting patiently for us at cavalier computers. what a wonderful day!

nettle love

seasonal fun(k)

i picked up these earrings recently at a fun little store in downtown charlottesville called cha cha's. the store is full of 1950's kitsch, sparkling accessories, chandeliers made from small dolls, buddha alarm clocks, gnome lights, melamine dinner ware and anti republican sentiments.

cha cha's had an awesome 50% off sale recently and i picked up some jewels. the photo is a bit blurry but it still lifts my spirits which want to sink.

i have a tickle in my throat and a sniffle in my nose and i'm absolutely exhausted. today was damp and cold and i think it may have got the better of me. i just poured some boiling water on to a heap of nettles in a quart jar so that it may infuse all night long while i sleep (soon). tomorrow i will begin to fortify myself against the change of seasons.

i do look forward to the season of open doors and windows, but fear our transition may be turbulent. here's to spring showers followed by warm sunny days.

third in a series

fairy house

the other day tashi and i were looking at a book called fairyhouses. it was full of photographs of miniature houses made from twigs, berries, moss, stones, pods and other bits of nature. when we got back home tashi wanted to make a fairy house but it was dark, wet and cold outside. so we used what we had on hand and built a little fairy house under a small table. we piled up some stones, pulled a poinsettia leaf as a welcome mat, and filled a shell with water (an outdoor hot tub of course). tashi sprinkled everything with sage.



on the left, the upturned shells are seats, with a small flat stone for a coffeetable. there is a houseplant made of coral, a fireplace, and the beautiful shell with a spiral, well, it's an entertainment center of sorts. on the right there is a stove. it's cut out of the close up, but next to the stove is a shelf full of red berries. provisions.

wannabe

these are a couple of books that i picked up recently.



if there is one garment i would love to be able to sew, it's the skirt. but it doesn't take much to confuse a novice sewer like me. last night i was looking over the directions to one of the skirts in sew what and breaking out in a sweat of anxiety.

i purchased see and sew for tashi. i may just love the retro images more than anything.



i will surely learn just as much from the book as she will.



wish us luck!