JANUARY COMFORTS

My daughter recently shared in her blog http://nikki-fancythat.blogspot.com :) that January tends to make her feel blah. This same sentiment was repeated by a few friends of mine, too. It made me think about why I've always liked January. For one, the holidays, with all their blessings, are behind (whew!). As is the frenetic activity--leaving January with the luxury of Time. Time to reflect and time to put one's home and inner self in some order. Time to think of what's next. I love making New Year goals (less guilt involved than making resolutions :). This year's involve focusing on creating more (sewing, blogging, bread baking, etc. and learning more (tai chi/yoga, more Mongolian language, tech stuff, essential oils/herbs, etc.) Oh, and reading through the Bible (found 3 great plans to choose from here: http://www.navpress.com.

Anyway, January & February tend to be the coldest months here in Mongolia and this has been an exceptionally cold month. A few days ago when I took this picture out my front window, it was -47 F! A few of my "likes" that bring me comfort during these slower, chilly days are pictures of my family which are all over our apartment, a new deluxe Scrabble game my sister sent us for Christmas :) , my sewing corner that I try to be in most every day--even if it's just 15 minutes...and my friends, of course! Then there is my French press. Dealing with my hypoglycemia has forced me to cut waaay back on my coffee consumption. So, I try to make my 2 cups with breakfast a coffee moment. This does the trick.

Comments

Nikki Schreiner said…

Hey, the blog looks great! good job. And thanks for the link ;) The little tools are only there on your own screen when you're signed in to Blogger, so you can edit things easily if you want to. The rest of us can't see them :)

January 12, 2010 at 10:52 PM

Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

I'm so tickled to be a part of this year's Bloggers' Quilt Festival ! My entry was done in Outer Mongolia (literally! --read on). This quilt is one of my favorite recent projects that I named "Renegade Geisha's" --renegade because two of the geisha's don't conform to the rest (mainly because I ran out of coordinating fabrics!). Can you find the two renegades? ;) The quilt incorporates fabric origami and the quilt itself is from Fantastic Fabric Folding --many projects from this book were a big hit with the Mongolian class pictured below. Due to my husband's work, we live in Mongolia; and I was privileged to teach classes at a local quilting studio. I've included a picture of the class where we were working on the geisha blocks. The students spoke almost no English and I speak what I call Monglish--a lot of English sprinkled with Mongolian. Regardless, we all had a blast! ...and, I'm very pleased with this quilt of mine!

Much Needed New Winter Robe - Vogue 9232

Last spring I chucked my 20-year-old bathrobe, giving me no choice but to replace it come winter. Granted, I never took it to Mongolia, so it only got worn when I was home in the US. But still. For summer I made several light weight robes, but I knew I liked the style of my old RTW one. When I saw reviews for Vogue 9232--on PR (all 3 of them), I knew I'd found my pattern. Interestingly enough, the pattern is actually for a caftan-type dress; but all 3 reviews were done up as a robe. Sham's review in particular had great tips. On a trip to Colorado Fabrics in early summer I spotted a beeeuuutiful pink sweatshirt type fabric. The outside is more like a thick knit and inside is dreamy soft. And it's baby pink! Which is hard to tell in the pics as we in Colorado have had lots of rain and no sunshine. And OK, I'm no photographer. But seriously, this is like stepping into a pink cloud. I made a small through the neck, shoulders and sleeves

A Stitch Sisters Kimono for Dubai

My husband had meetings come up quick in Dubai and of course I tagged along! We were going to be there a week and I wanted a lightweight kimono-type pullover for the pool and getting out of the shower. I had snagged a gorgeous white linen/cotton (guessing on this) here in UB that was perfect. My inspiration came from Lisa's over at Lisa's Carolina | Handmade . I'm not good at pattern drafting and this was a quick FREE measure and cut tutorial of Stitch Sisters--find their Patternless Pattern Link here . I'm so happy with this! It basically took me an afternoon. The directions are great--and they include 5/8" seam allowances--yay!--as I wanted to turn under and top stitch them since I don't have a serger here. I left off the ties. Shapeless worked for this. I also raised the neckline by about 1.5" The neckline was a little trickier as I didn't have any bias on hand and there is no "running out" anywhere here. So, I used

Scenic Route

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