Summer

Usually I am not one for summer.
Never have been a summer girl. I prefer the cold and wet rain.
It's ironic that I live in a place where it is summer all year long.
But this summer has been different.  I have embraced the heat, (maybe cause it has been the most mild summer I can remember in 10 years) and learned to love being cooped up in the house on most days.

With our new schedule for the boy it forces us to stay home most days.  Which has been a great thing this summer.
He is at that age where we could just pretend all day long and have fun.

Thus the tent being made, that led to word banners being made for teaching tools.  He enjoys the construction of the words and gluing the letters in place.  It is a sneaky way of making learning fun.

As he sits in his peter pan costume cutting and exploring art, he turned a paper plate into a beautiful dream catcher just like mom was working on.

We dug rocks in the back yard for gold, lifted things with all our might as Superman, and ate dinner with our friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

We fell asleep hard when we finally gave up...

and gave me some time to crochet some silliness in the evening.
We are changing the boys room to more colorful and pretend playland. So I made this archery target for his wall to shoot his pretend bow and arrows at.

 I think he will love it.

This summer has been about self discovery, and regaining my love for life and the little things.  I used to spend my days out shopping and searching for something...never knowing what,  just searching.  Finally my search is over and I found what I love.  Being at home with my family spending silly time together and playing.

My New Passion

I have discovered the joy of embroidery again.
It is my new passion.
This summer has just been a lovely one with simple days of staying at home and playing pretend, which is not only great for my boy but it makes my mind come up with all sorts of things to make for our days of pretend play.
Using all things I already have, no money spent which is a good thing now.
So as I make things for him, I jot down the ideas I work on at night for myself.

I started with vintage hankies and  haven't stopped.  I am in love with how they are turning out.  So many possibilities and this is why I had a stack of vintage hankies sitting and waiting. :) 

I also have a stack of vintage slips and aprons waiting to get stitched

 This is such a great take along, as we sit in therapy waiting for the boy I can ease my nerves by embroidering.  I watch my husband as he fidgets and say "you really need to get a hobby for when you wait"  It makes the time pass so much easier and faster.

I have so many ideas flowing through my head.
Thanks to a special someone out there in blogland that felt my frustration of not finding embroidery hoops and they magically appeared in my mailbox.
I can't thank you enough for keeping my imagination going and supplying me with them  I started on some dream catchers but they will be a bit different than all the others I have seen out there.  You will just have to stay tuned. ;)

I also have to say that I am thrilled that I have heard from moms and grandparents of newly diagnosed Autistic children.  It makes me so happy to be able to reach out and help others.  Telling our story so as to comfort others and let them know you are not alone.  It took me a long time to talk about it all and now that I have shared it is helping others share.  This is one of those things that you can't do on your own, it takes a village of help and support around you.  Something we are just now getting after a year of searching.

So I am hoping that others don't have to wait as long as we did.  There is hope and the earlier help is given to the child the better,  they will have a better chance of coming out of the haze and live life.  As Temple Grandin says "Different Not LESS"

For Those Who Don't Know...

I feel I am late on the train on this one but since I am a mom of a high functioning autistic child and didn't know, then I imagine most parents or for that matter just society itself is not aware of how a high functioning autistic person sees things and lives life.
 (above is my boy at a 1 year, full of life and happy at 3 we lost him to autism)

Last week browsing the book store or as my son calls it the "Library"
I started reading Temple Grandin's new book.  I immediately was so drawn in to her story and how the mind of an autistic person works from an actual person who lives with this condition.

So I rented The Temple Grandin Movie HBO did a few years back.
HOLY MOLY...A copy of this movie should be given to every parent learning their child has autism.
To know how the mind of my own child sees things, processes it and lives in this world.  Why had this never been shared with us by all the doctors, therapist, and teachers.  I connected in 2 seconds with this film and now can better understand my own child.

It is a dream to share this movie with every person on EARTH.  I strongly recommend it.  It gives hope, insight and truth.

I cannot thank Temple Grandin enough for doing this film and sharing her story and struggles.  It was a life changing film for our family. So  many things that my son does makes so much sense now.

A year of not getting answers from highly paid "professionals" and in a free movie, an hour and 49 minutes later I have answers....Can I get a refund on my therapy sessions????

A new light has been shed on things and we are so happy.

Happy campers you might say...we finally got a makeshift tent up with twinkle lights yesterday and my boy fell in love.  He also fell fast asleep in his new nook.  It made me sigh as I sat there and watched him, he became calm and happy and relaxed to just sit there playing, reading and then falling asleep. 
Life is good

Shades of Grey Monday

Again we start our day with the clouds and I absolutely am getting spoiled by it.
It will soon be gone but I just love my days to start with the dreary clouds.

Tinkering around the studio today.
Coming across some more things take to Market, Vintage Marketplace that is.

Loving this Vintage Rayon seam binding I stumbled across ages ago and found stashed in my glove compartment of my car, lol Yikes...hoarding 101
Time to get it to shop so someone can enjoy it more than my glove compartment.

Little by little I am making a dent and can start seeing the end of the piles.

I didn't get to making our tent this weekend so that is also on the agenda today.
This morning is quiet and the boy is at school, the husband I sent golfing to get out of my way ;)

I am getting a lot accomplished...I keep flipping to CNN to see the Great Kate Wait whilst going back to watching Elementary episodes DVR'd

Needing to go purchase fiberfill to finish up some projects tackled this weekend. Waiting for some daylight to come out to take photos for Vintage Marketplace. 
Just another day, loving the grey....

Full on Inspiration

Maybe it is all the rain, or waking to gray mornings.
Something is definitely got me inspired to sew and make silly things.

My brain is traveling at lightening speed I am trying to write down and sketch out all my ideas. Before they disappear.

We did not leave the house yesterday. We played, we watched movies and I made new gadgets.

A compass for the boy as we always need something to guide our way...I made a few that have different directions embroidered so we don't always have to go the same way ;)

I have a few handmade shows coming up this year and maybe that is why my ideas are on overdrive.  I started a sign last night for my booth out of vintage hankies.  I embroidered VINTAGE onto them and will sew them all up for the banner.

This got the ball rolling and I have so many other things to add some embroidered words to...it is the easiest thing to sit and do in the evenings without bringing my whole studio downstairs to be with the family.

Today is another gray day, the lamp light brightens the house and I am already b-bopping around.
It fuels me more than coffee ;)

I've Lost my Edge

Last evening we experience our first real severe thuderstorm since leaving St. Louis 10 years ago.
It caught me off guard.
Growing up in the midwest thru storms and tornado warnings it was just exciting and fun to watch the storms come on.  The lights would go out the storm whistles would blow, you would grab your favorite things and the flashlight and head to the basement to play until it all blew over.

The evening was completely normal and we sat in our living room sewing and watching tv.  All the sudden I heard an unfamiliar sound in the desert. A crack of THUNDER..we instantly ran for the front door to see what was coming and at that moment the lightening almost got us.  I have never seen such a storm here.
Quickly we shut the door and took cover, literally...
My boy has never experienced a really good thunderstorm and this is how I found him once coming back into the house.
Shaking and hiding under his precious blankie.

We are in for more monsoon weather all week but boy oh boy have I lost my edge for a good storm...its been so long even I was a bit shaken :/

...As I tried to settle him from being scared

Good Luck?

Last night it was my goal to sit and make a new playset for my son to use as imagination time, pretend play.

As I started on the making of a felt campfire set, I got one piece of the flame set done.  I had the logs I made from last years Christmas scene and I set up the flame on the logs.
My son roared into the room and elated by the scene I had set up immediately sat down and said CAMPFIRE!!!

I continued in making fish, a fishing pole, a hobo bag.
He immediately threw the fishing line over his shoulder and took off to hike to find a stream of fish.
He was in heaven...
as we sat in my craft room around the campfire, a cricket appeared.
Out of nowhere, on the second floor of our home.
It was like we were really out by the pond.
Supposedly crickets are a sign of good luck.
I guess this is a good sign, for the week we have had was long and hard on the autistic side of life.
But today we awoke, bright, happy and ready to go to school.
He packed his fish and fishing pole in his backpack and off he went.

I am going to try to get a tent up and the rest of the camp scene set for when he returns home.

When he connects with the things I make him, makes me the happiest mom in the world.  We may have our hard days but these moments are the ones we remember.

mon ami

Yesterday was just a laid back kinda day.
I got to sit for hours piecing and sewing vintage linens together to cover my jars.
My jars are all hand crocheted first then I layer them in all kinds of vintage fabrics, photos, trinkets and collections.
Some I keep simple others I go crazy on like an old memory jar.

Truthfully I adore the simple side.
Less is More for me.

I will be putting these in my shop but I am making a collection of them for a show I will be doing this winter.
So excited to finally have the energy and want to do a show.

I pinned all of them together and then sat last night in my comfy rocking chair and sewed them up by hand.

Speaking of my friend...thank you to those that contacted me in my IN Search of post.  It really meant the world to me!!!

Today is another sorta laid back day for summer and I will list a few things for Vintage Marketplace and then probably sew some more.