Earlier this week, I wrote a post about finding community and friendship among the blogging community.  Now, along with many others, I am grieving the loss of a very special person and pioneer in the online crafting community, Kathreen Ricketson.

I first “met” Kathreen a couple of years ago after reading a post she wrote waxing poetic about her darling chooks.  I immediately emailed her…  I don’t even remember what about.  Chickens, I suppose.  What I do remember is that post made me fall in love with chickens.  I still dream of some backyard chooks of our own.

Since that first email, I have had the pleasure of working with Kathreen many times guest-posting on Whip Up, as well as occasional inclusion in her newsletter.  Last year when I struggled with Post-partum Anxiety and had to back out of my commitment to guest post, Kathreen graciously responded with the kindest note, making me feel valued and comforted at a time when I was at my most vulnerable.

Although I’ve never had the honor of meeting Kathreen in person, I’ve always been grateful to know her, and I also know I’m not alone when I say with a heavy heart that we’ve lost not only a beloved member of our online community but a friend as well.

Kathreen and her partner Rob have been survived by their two young children.  A fund has been set up in their name.  Find out how you can help here.

(a hand-picked bouquet from my mother-in-law.  Isn’t it gooorgeous?)

I felt absolutely moved, as well as empowered, by this post.  Please read:
http://www.unexpectedproject.com/anopenlettertowomenfightingpmads/

xo,
Carrie

A Confession:  In my real life I have very few close friends.  Actually, I’m a bit of an introvert (and by “a bit”, I mean big time).  In our pre-marriage, pre-baby life B and I had a very close knit group of wonderful friends.  But you know how it goes, people grow, people move, people live their lives.

Now, as a mother, I’m rebuilding my “tribe”.  One of the most surprising ways I’ve found to do this is through the blogging community.  Through the vastness of the internet, somehow, I’ve not only managed to meet different women from all around, but I’m also managed to make some amazing friends.  Friends that have truly been there, seen me through the most difficult of times, and have still chosen to remain a part of my “tribe”, even in this atypical form.

So, on the day after Mother’s Day, I’d like to send a very sincere thank you and much love and light to Kari, Katie, and Shelly.  I hope you know how much your friendship means to me (near, but usually far).

xo,
Carrie
PS  Katie, for some reason I couldn’t manage to link to your site.  My apologies for that!

This past April, we spent about a week on the shore of North Carolina.  We rented a house with some friends and had the most wonderful time.  We kept things low key and simple.  Just perfect for our first family vacation.

PS  As you might notice from the banner above, this space has had a name change (same url).  What do you think?

…and today is her first birthday!

Paige is a shepherd/collie mix and the newest addition to our family.  She’s playful, smart, and super sweet.  We adopted her last Saturday and already love her to pieces.

Happy Birthday, Paige!  We’re so glad you’re ours!

Here we are again.  I love May.  (and November.)

My husband and I sometimes joke that May is the reason we live where we do.  We moved to this little city of ours on the 1st of May five years ago and everything was in bloom.  So very lovely.

Happy May Day to you!

~Carrie

PS  We’ve had a new addition to the family.  I can’t wait for you to meet her!  (A baby, yes, but not a human baby.  *wink, wink*)

Spring has a funny way of appearing slowly and then suddenly around here.  Just look what appeared by the garage only a few days ago:

Daffodils!  Aren’t they lovely?  They came up last year but they didn’t bloom.  Newbie flower gardener (but lover nonetheless) that I am, I had no idea what they were.  This year they blossomed but we only got four blooms.  Does this perhaps mean they need to be thinned?  It’s just a small patch to begin with, but dense for sure.  Any daffodil experts out there?

The roses are also coming along, having  just had their Spring pruning.  The hostas are reappearing.  (I have mixed feelings about the hostas.)  The grass is suddenly green and I’m finding myself staring at the blueberry bushes we planted last year, wondering just what to do.

Meanwhile, B is planning for the raised beds.  (Vegetables!)

Oh, the joys of having your own little space for dreaming and planting!

PS  I know it’s been a while and I have much to share with you.  I’ve hit a rough patch but am getting through.  I hope to get back to regular posting soon.  For now, please do enjoy the daffodils and thank you so much for your patience.

I’ve had to patch a lot of knees lately.  So cute!

Ooops!  I didn’t mean to be away from this space for so long!  After many attempts to “make time”, I came to the realization that what I really need to do is just step back for a little bit longer.  I’m working on a pretty big project right now and I’m giving it as much attention as I can.  (I can’t wait to share it with you!)  I’ll be back mid-April…

In the meantime, here are some up-coming posts to look forward to:

• bread:  just how we like it
• beginning our homeschooling journey
• knitted dinos (yep!  that’s right!)
• our first family vacation

Until then, I hope you are all well.  Happy Spring!

~Carrie

PS  I’m aware that the photos for recent posts are not showing up.  (Since mid-January maybe?)  I think I know what the issue is and hopefully will have a few moments to fix it soon.  Thanks!

PPS  I could really use some good fiction for our vacation.  I almost never read fiction anymore and miss it!  Any suggestions???

original image can be viewed here

I take a lot of photos.  A lot.  Unfortunately, many of them stay stored digitally for far too long before they are printed.  However, I could not resist our holiday photo this year.  I mean, how sweet are those little faces!?!

This is not a difficult project, but it does require some time and patience.  I worked on it after the kids were in bed over the course of a couple of nights.

Materials:

• print out of a photo or image of your choice on regular copy paper (not photo paper)
  I ordered a large engineering print from Staples.  The image will be reversed.  If your image has words, numbers, or anything you want to keep true to the original, you might want to flip your image on your computer before sending it to the printer.
• canvas about the same size as your photo
  (ours is a canvas board from a craft store)
• Mod Podge
• gel medium
  (I used Golden, matte.)
• sponge brush
• spray bottle

How To:

1. Coat your canvas in an even layer of the gel medium.
2. Quickly lay your photo image side down over the gel medium.  Do your best to smooth out any wrinkles.
3. Leave it there for a few hours.  I left ours until the next evening.
4. Use your spray bottle to wet the paper a little at a time and gently rub it away, leaving just the image on the canvas.  Some of the image will probably rub away too.  This is just part of the process.  I’ll be honest here, this part of the project is tedious.  I had plans to make six of these for holiday gifts.  I ended up making one gift and one for our own home.  It was totally worth the effort, but I had no  idea how much time it would take to get all that paper off!
5. Once your canvas is free of paper and dry, coat with mod podge and let dry.
6. Viola!  Done!  Display and enjoy!

I have so many photos of him curled up here, doing this very thing.

He calls this spot his “nest”.  I really couldn’t have thought of a better name myself.