I believe in being creative. It’s not just something that I want to do, but something that I insatiably crave. I make something almost daily. I believe that every person has the ability to be creative in some way. And that our creativity is what draws us out of ourselves. When I find myself in moments of personal crisis, I run to my projects and it’s creating that saves me, usually from myself. Life always flows out of being creative. And I think we all need life to flow through us, especially in crisis.

Sometimes creating is about the finished product, but its always about the process. Wrapping the yarn around the needle, methodically creating each stitch, sewing together tiny pieces of fabric to create a rich, colorful story, chopping vegetables and stirring together sauces, each stroke of the paint brush, each letter typed – its so easy to pour all of yourslef into each movement, to let your mind go blank and feel the rhythm, to have time to think but also be distracted, so profound and healing thoughts aren’t forced, but come to you as you stitch, chop, paint, type… create.

I’m reading the book Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist. She is talking about creating and she says we create because we were made to create.

“We were made to be the things that [God] is: forgivers, redeemers, second chance-givers, truth-tellers, hope-bringers. And we were certainly, absolutely made to be creators.”

That definitely explains this need I have. And the peace I find in Making. And the connection to God that I feel when I finish something and sit back and look at it and think, “wow, I made that.” And I think about how after he made us, even though he knew we were gonna mess it all up, and need him to come along and redeem us, he still sat back and said, “I made that. And it’s good.”

Pasta with arugula, sausage and fresh basil

Half pound of short pasta, such as penne
1 large, yellow summer squash, sliced into rounds
1/2 cup basil, sliced into thin ribbons
6 links Italian sausage, I prefer turkey
Olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
Red pepper flakes
Ricotta cheese
Parmesan cheese
Arugula

Bring a large pot of water to boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente. In the last two minutes of cooking, add the summer squash. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile grill the sausage until cooked thru and slice. Tent with foil to keep warm.
In a large skillet, heat 3-4 tbs olive oil. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes to taste. Once the oil is heated thru, turn off heat and add the pasta/squash, sausage and basil and stir until pasta is coated, adding pasta water as needed to reach desired consistency.

Serve pasta mixture on individual plates over a bed of arugula. Top with a dollop of ricotta, sprinkle of parmesan and extra red pepper flakes.

My garden is doing really well. I finally tied up my green beans, which were threatening to take over. Now that I don’t have to water, Ive been terribly lazy about the whole thing. I noticed when i took this picture that I have one cherry tomato ripening. Mmmm. Can’t wait for the whole crop.

PS here are the previous photos from a little over a month ago.

Um, so, I love having sewing classes at my store.

Last week Eden took the kids sewing class and is now addicted. She completed her pillowcase and my machine made it out alive. (when i dropped her off for class, I tried really hard not to worry about turning my machine over to her, but I still did… a little.)

When it turned out that I needed to have the kids with me all day at Tangle Saturday (Jim always ends up having out of town shows on the weekends I work.), Eden asked if she could sew something. She whipped out these blankets for her and Honor. I cut and pinned and she did the rest, including most of the pressing.

Notice the pillowcase she made too.

These blankets are just super-simple, two layers (one flannel, one quilting cotton) sewn inside out and then turned. I was worried that they would be weird without batting, but ended up being great for this time of year. They both have drug them around everywhere.

Now she wants to sew blankets for everyone she knows. I’ve gotta teach this kid to quilt…

Monday: grilled chicken w/ two bean potato salad
Tuesday: spaghetti and green salad
Wednesday: grilled pizza w/ arugula salad
Thursday: fish tacos and cuke/jicama slaw
Friday: cold soba noodles w/ tofu
Saturday: ?
Sunday: chicken kebabs w/ arugula corn salad

My friend Brooke and I have always experimented on my hair together. When I was a sophomore in high school, we somehow talked my mom into letting me bleach my hair. I ended up with a delightful shade of orange hair just in time for my moms wedding. Oops. For the two years that I kept my hair bleach blonde, Brooke touched up the roots for me every time and endured the squirming and whining as my scalp burned. (She even dyed it black that week in the middle where i thought I’d like to look like Angelina Jolie in hackers.)

A couple months ago when Brooke and I were at the lake (as we are every Wednesday in the summer) we noticed a girl with a blue under layer in her black hair. As we admired it from afar, we talked about how it would be fun to do on ourselves. Once we were convinced we would indeed like to do it, we combed the whole lake to find the girl and ask her how it was done. She gave me explicit instructions and a few days later I found myself squirming once again as my scalp burned.

We first had to bleach out our hair. It turned kinda orangy but definitely lightened up a lot.

Then I applied blue and Brooke chose vampire red, which was supposed to be a really dark red that she was hoping would be more subtle than blue.

Turns out Vampire Red is actually fluorescent red and the dark blue was hardly noticeable unless in direct sunlight. We ended up wanting each others hair.

Brooke:

So after several weeks of taking blue showers, and dealing with my hair fading to green, I decided that I’d like to go ahead and go red. After using hair color stripper twice, we managed to remove enough of the blue and get it to take the red. (my worst case scenario in this is that my hair would turn purple and I would just dye dark brown over it. I hate purple.)

I have to say that I like it so much better now!

My sister sent me with the directive to get all of Grandma’s good recipes, especially the fruit cake which is actually pretty amazing. (I found out because it has brandy in it. Can’t believe my grandma would go to a liquor store! She said she would go in and pray no one from church would see her!)

There were years that my grandma’s baking paid the bills – she is especially famous for her whole wheat bread. It’s quite delicious hot out of the oven with lots of butter. There would always be fresh bread waiting at Grandma’s house whenever anyone went to visit. The bread is a recipe I grew up on, and when I have time, I still make it. (I foresee a day of baking in the future to stock up on bread for the busier fall/winter season.)

This is a recipe that I don’t ever remember Grandma making, but I ate it for breakfast every day I was there – topped with whipped cream (for the calcium, you know.)

Grandma’s Healthy Jello
4 packages gelatin (I would use kosher)
4 cups fruit juice
1 can fruit cocktail (the kind in juice not heavy syrup)
3 bananas sliced
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Sprinkle the gelatin over 1 cup of juice and set aside. Meanwhile, bring the remaining 3 cups if juice to a boil. Add boiling juice to the gelatin mixture and stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Pour into an 8×8 baking dish and stir in drained fruit cocktail. Leave setting out until cooled and add nuts and bananas. Refrigerate until set.

More recipes to come.

•A Chow Life I bookmark every single recipe and I love the stories that accompany the recipes.

• My new quilt. I feel like such an adult having all matching bedding for the first time ever.

• Bittersweet on it’s way to me.

• The twinzies wearing baby legs.

and being cute in general.

• Honor eating a jaw breaker.

My mom and I went on a trip last week to visit my sister and then my grandma and she bought the kids giant jaw breakers for the trip. As kids, my sister and I enjoyed a few giant jaw breakers on trips to see grandma so it seemed appropriate.

• The kids traveling. (They were angels.)

• A new swimming suit on it’s way to me that will hopefully, actually fit the girls.

When I was a kid we would have epic 4th of Julys. Our whole block would get together and have a huge block party with games and a parade for the kids, lots of food and combined fireworks. As an adult, I always strive to make my independence parties as epic as my childhood. But as much as I try making the holiday special, it just never seems to live up. Sometimes it’s hard to make things as amazing as you want them when you’re dealing with broken families and unwilling participants.

This year was not epic, but it did end up being pretty fun. We spent the evening hanging out with Jim’s mom, sister and niece. The menu was delicious if I do say so myself. Carne asada, homemade refried beans, aunt ann rice, chips, salsa, guac, jarritos and homemade ice-cream. Jim and Honor picked out a pretty amazing array of fireworks and Jim had us rolling with his jokes as he lit each one off in the alley. I told him that it was possibly the funniest he has ever been.

Afterwards, the kids and I raced to the baseball field to see my friend, Carrington, perform with her 1940’s singing group. The city had a pretty cool fireworks display this year, but I forgot that we were to be subject to the onslaught of patriotic country music. I kept thinking how much more powerful the fireworks would have been if we could have watched them in the dark, quiet, alone with our thoughts – that would have been an amazing end to the evening.

Finished picnic quilt

Plastic bagel – new edition to main street

Tag sale find

Amy Butler’s new yarn and patterns

My new hat