a rug for alyx

Before Alyx and Tarron headed for Missouri there was some serious cleaning out going on.

Selling stuff online can be a worthless expenditure of energy and after unsuccessful attempts, her scrubs came to me.

 I took out the trusty scissors, cutting board and rotary cutter and started cutting.

A rainbow rug is what she requested.

I'm not sure this will really work, but I lined them up the best I could in color order.

Then wrapped each in a rubber band (was running out of plastic resealable bags at this point) and labeled each with a number so I can just put this together without thought.
I tend to work on these while visiting or, occasionally, listening to an audiobook when my brain is exhausted from working.
With them all labeled, I just grab the next pile and start working my hands.

I prefer to do circle rugs because they don't have straight edges.
Straight edges are incredibly challenging for me.
This one will be straight and already at this writing ... I need to tear apart several rows to straighten that bugger out.
Eventually I'll get this down!
Fabric doesn't go in the trash around here ... it just ends up being another rug.

hi there

One day I'll actually get motivated and change my little 1/4" profile picture.

In the meantime .... age is creeping up on me.

And this is really me.

The black sweatshirt is my staple.

The rug strip in my hand is my steady sidekick.

My hair (which really needed a trim) has come to a sort of color that I think would be great on a furniture piece. Brown with hints of red mixed with a silver that isn't merely streaks anymore.

Laugh lines circle my eyes which now need glasses or head straight to a headache from strain.

For today ... this is me.

Tomorrow will produce a few more grays, a few more lines.

Perhaps it will bring another joint that yells and howls once in a while.

For sure it will produce another rug or ten because I can't sit idle ...

not even to flip the page of a book.

I'd love a chance to visit with each and every one of you who come here to read

my, of late, sporadic posts.

A cup of coffee shared outside where the breezes blow silver strands of hair,

the birds sing to us and the visits range from the most light hearted to the deepest matters of life.

But for today, thanks for visiting.

I appreciate you.

sorta a sofa table

but not meant to be next to a sofa.

My friend Ronda purchased her first home and had a space that needed something.

Right inside the door ... a place to drop a bag and keys.

So, because she didn't have a tape measure, I used a piece of paper (bad idea) to measure the width needed and used my foot (even badder idea!) to measure the length.

Mix a bad memory together with an unknown shoe size (some are just chunkier than others) and you end up with a table that was really cute ... just a little too long.

The best part of projects like these are the wood pile.

Not the kind where you toss logs in the stove, but the kind where you run and grab leftover pieces and put something together.

My kind of wood pile.

Using an idea from the rogue engineer, I adapted a bedside table pattern into this one.

Which means I just say "ok ... now I need  a piece this size!"

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

Sometimes I have to take it apart and rework it.

Sometimes the glue works so good that it gets a bit challenging.

The top of the table is made with 2x4's surrounded by 1x2's. All pieces were put together using my favorite little kreg jig tool. Yup. My dear Alaska friend ... I've learned to love that thing!

The table legs themselves are made of 1x2's .. left over from another project ... and stained Dark Walnut.

The bottom shelf is made of 2x3's which makes the bottom shelf a wee bit narrower than the top.

And then there is paint. I have a small paint supply that is really fun to peruse when I'm working on something. In the mood for green or yellow? Yup. Got that covered.

This house needed red and grey.

This was my first attempt at using candle wax between layers of paint and I have to say ... 

I may be buying candles just for the wax. It is so much fun!

I seriously love the look!

Please excuse my wimpy flower and the rest of the patio décor in this photo.

Kind of like it .. just really wish it wasn't an inch too long.

I'm moving my tape measure to my purse.

celebrating 90 years

In my last visit here, I said I was traveling.

Jari and I went to Minnesota for the weekend to celebrate a very special milestone.

90 years is quite the milestone for this dear mother.

She climbed up on the counter (albeit with a little assistance) to capture these photos.

At 90, should I live that long, I can only hope to be as young and sharp as she is.

Will my favorite cake be the Princess Torte?

Will my fingers still itch to work with dough though my hands are no longer willing?

Will I thoroughly appreciate a new handbag to match my outfit?
Will I care if I have an outfit for the occasion?

Will the scent of flowers fill my heart with spring?

We had many dear visits with many dear friends and family in the days we were in Minnesota. Some of them were short and over a table in a restaurant. Others ran late into the night when the eyes would no longer stay open more than a slit.

Yet, I have to say, that this visit here (and Mummu must have run inside for a moment when I took this) melted my heart and wanted to wet my cheeks. All five children and spouses gathered on the porch with parents, discussing matters of faith. We spent part of the day singing favorite songs in both Finnish and English, warming hearts with shared faith and love.

The conversation on the patio was translated and often Mummu would chime in with words when translation became difficult.
Will I be able to still offer words in both languages when I reach that age?

I hope that when I'm celebrating my 90th, this is the scene that surrounds me.
She is truly blessed.
So are we.

crafty crazy

Last weekend we were celebrating the 30th birthday of a dear son-in-law.
I know.
That might just make me feel a tad bit old.

During the evenings visiting I was chatting with someone who was surprised that in our "foot loose and fancy free" stage of life Jari and I aren't running off to do things on weekends.
(Is that just the longest worst written run on sentence you've ever read?!)

I talked about it with my dear hubby and spent some time thinking about it.

What brings us joy?

For some it is travel hither and yon. For others it is weekends of outdoor activities. For yet others it is fine dining and all that other good stuff.

I like and appreciate all of those things, but I don't need them.

What quiets me is this. Pure bedlam.

Have you ever seen such a disaster?! We live in our workspace so it all has to be cleaned up when the day(s) is done.

Creating for me is joy.

Learning how to use another tool and accomplish something is joy.

This stresses me out a wee bit. The pile (and this picture is at least a month old) of projects to redo has grown and grown and grown. In fact, it grew to the point where a threatening storm had us moving things to fill up hubby's man cave.

I look at it and I want to just call in sick to work. Just kidding. I can't do that.
I am seriously looking forward to a week of vacation the end of May.
Work 'til you drop kind of vacation.

A day spent with my hubby working side by side.
Now that. Is. Joy.

And some things just make you smile.
How can you not?

With all of that being said ....
I'm traveling this weekend.

Have a good weekend!

missing her

The birth of my first daughter should have been an indication of what was ahead.
She did not want to come into this world and, although I think it had a lot to do with the doctor and my lack of knowledge at the time, did it in her own way.
Slowly.
From a young age we sort of butted heads.
Often.
Sort of like her dad has done with some of his kids who are so much like him.
I'm sure I didn't realize it then.

Then came the teen years.
Oh my.
There were some serious trials that grew some very non brown hairs on my head.
She knows this.
I'm not spouting anything here that we haven't discussed on the patio.
At one point, I seriously wanted to pack her stuff and shove it out on the front step.
Maybe not even pack it.
Just throw it.

Her dad and I prayed, we cried, we sought advice.
And we lived through the experience.
So did she.

Then we left the place we were living and moved to, what seemed like, a million miles away.
She was left behind, having already reached adulthood and doing her own thing.
Her own thing that was so very different from our own.

Maybe in the space and time of that separation, we both changed.
Perhaps that allowed us time to appreciate each other for who we now were.
Because time and life does change us.
It changes our perspectives.
It changes the way we view others.
It changes the way we react to situations.

And then she moved to where we had moved.
Her dad helped her drive the long road trip and along the way, in a car where there were no other options, they found their place with each other.
One of the greatest blessings.
To find and appreciate each other as adults.

The past four years have been such a treasure to me.
We enjoy each other's company.
We see each other often.
Oh, we don't spend our time out lunching and shopping.
That isn't needed in our relationship, although it might be nice once in a while.
We spend some not so quiet moments filled with the noise of little people.
We spend moments sitting on the patio visiting about the difficult things in life.
We are able to share and cherish successes.
We are able to share heartaches and hurdles.
In my heart, we have become friends.

She spent two weeks out of town recently and I felt lost without her.
I kept waiting for her to come over.

And now she, and her family, have moved away.
Oh, I would be the last person to say "don't go" or "you can't leave us".
For I believe that when doors of opportunity are opened for us, it is for us to go through them and discover what waits on the other side.
A door has opened for them and they will go explore it.

Last weekend, the father/husband/grandfather took off driving
and the rest of the family left the middle of this past week.
They spent the last leg of this Arizona journey with us.

Oh, I will miss the little man with whom we are blessed to have a beautiful relationship.
I dare not even discuss not having him around on a weekly basis.
I am going to learn to love Skype or some equivalent.
(Even though it grates me to sit in one spot for too long.)

I am going to miss my daughter so very much.

I am going to miss my friend.

And then when I have a weeks vacation that allows me to hop in the car ... I am going to go explore the beautiful state of Missouri.

For opportunities are everywhere ... for all of us.

joy on the piano keys

A few times in my life I have written a wee bit of music. 

It was usually at times that were extremely stressful for me and allowed an escape from hurts of the heart and mind. 

I've played them here and there .. often at home.
Very often with my daughters on their various instruments.
I'm so very fortunate to share a love of music with all 3 of my girls.
So. Exquisitely. Fortunate.

(This particular photo collage has been evading me for the past several years. I can't believe I just found it!)

One piece was written to a poem and has been sung at nearly every Kuoppala family event for quite a while.

Over the years, Tia has been plunking piano keys. Sometimes in secret in her room on a keyboard when she was too self conscious to be heard by anyone else. Sometimes in the living room. Several years ago, she started plunking a song that has become hers. There are no notes other than those she has in her head .. so it is only she who can bring life to the piece.

I love when she sits at the piano and her fingers breath a life into notes that exist only in her heart. 

Her friends have heard this piece many times and one friend has said for a long time that she wants to walk down the aisle at her wedding to that piece that Tia created. 

Guess who got engaged recently?

But my dear daughter cannot play at the wedding as she is in the wedding. So this mama has the honor and privilege of playing this special piece of the heart.

I know how I wrote my own music. One painstaking note at a time transcribed to written form. It is one thing to do your own but someone else's??

One day I was contemplating how we were going to accomplish this and had the thought "there has to be an app for that!"
There is.
It doesn't give me all the notes but it does give me the melody and the rest we can work through together. She played ... the app recorded and analyzed ... it worked its magic .. and gave us a musical score. 

Being as there were wet eyes in the room last weekend when she played the song for friends and family of the bride ....

I might need a tissue holder in addition to a page turner/holder the day of the wedding.