Under the Tulip Tree

Hanging Little Pictures

I decided to change my living room and dining room around a few weeks ago. Our dining room was being overrun by, well, everything, so I moved the piano into the living room, some bookshelves out completely, and a giant bookshelf over. I had lots of little photos around so I decided to hang them in a rectangle over the sofa in the living room.

I've had these pictures for years — photos of me as a baby, Michael as a little boy, my Grandma Ieronemo when she was young , and my mom and sisters and me at Alicia's bridal shower. I still love looking at all of them.

Some make me smile, like the one of my dad with his band from the 60's. Some break my heart a little bit, like the one of my dad smiling, a few months before he died. But it's nice to have all of my favorite people together here on this wall.

I first saw this idea in an issue of Martha Stewart awhile ago and found some instructions from their website here. I know there are better instructions somewhere but I couldn't find them online.

Here's what I did:

1. Taped together sheets of newspaper to create the size and shape of the rectangle that I wanted.
2. Put the paper template on the floor and arranged the pictures starting with the corners and outside edges first.
3. Outlined each picture frame with marker onto the paper template and wrote little notes in each space so I would remember which picture went where.
4. Measured the placement of each hook on each frame (or pulled the hanging wire tight) and made a mark in its corresponding spot on the template. (That was sort of tedious.)
5. Taped my paper template up on the wall using a level to make sure it was all straight and good.
6. Hammered the nails right through the marks on the paper then ripped the template off of the wall being careful not to rip the template too much because I needed my notes to tell me what picture was going where.
7. Fussed with all the frames until they were relatively straight.

What do you think?

To You

My Fall Garden

I love gardens in the fall. They are so humble and honest. There's no showing off, no urgency. You can take your time in a fall garden.

One of the things that I like about living here is that I can garden all year. Late fall and early, early spring are my favorite times of year to garden. It's cool and overcast, and the ground is soft and workable. I don't have to worry about sunburns or spider bites, and I don't have to contend with poison sumac or red bandit bees (yikes!).

Our big tulip tree loses blankets and blankets of leaves every fall and after the big wind storm we had last week, all of its leaves were officially lost. When I raked them all up this weekend (three huge yard cans and five lawn bags full), it felt good to unearth everything and see how the plants were doing.

I trim everything but the roses and the ornamental grasses back in the fall. Some things get trimmed down to the ground — some things just get a little trim, like the spireas and the azaleas.

I'm trying to grow moss to cover this whole section between the dry creek/path and the main garden bed. Slowly by surely it's making its way. Last year each of these little puffs was only a couple of inches across. I'm hoping that as the weeping cherry tree grows, it will provide the garden with just a touch more shade. I think the moss will be even happier then.

I worked outside until I couldn't lift my shovel anymore. I love that feeling. My legs and shoulders are still sore, three days later.

Bakery Morning

One of the many wonderful things about having a husband that works from home is that we can go out for breakfast together on a rainy Friday morning. It has been a dreary, rainy week here but it never looks dreary in this bakery. I don't know why. The light must be different here or something.

It's back to work now for one, back to laundry for the other.

Handmade Birthday Love

I have a crafty family. Some of us are professional crafters, the rest of us just make crafts for our family and friends. Arden is a particularly crafty girl and her birthday brings out the handmade in all of us. Here's a little sampling of what my family gave her this year:

Girls' Best Book of Knitting, Sewing, and Embroidery along with some new supplies from Aunt Alicia

T-shirt silk screened by Uncle Andy featuring the restaurant they created together—The Pony Pal Cafe (they serve pancakes all day!) 

Little slippers crocheted by grandma

New drawing pens in a pouch from dada (new drawing already completed, of course!)

I supplied the non-crafty birthday presents this year. Though I did make her a yummy maple cake for dessert after her dinner of pancakes and maple syrup. I believe an entire bottle of maple syrup was consumed that day. But that's what birthdays are like around here.

11 Years Ago Today

On a cold and blustery night in November 1998, my dearest Arden was born. From the moment I first laid eyes on her, I knew she was an old soul. I was terrified to be her mother. I had absolutely no experience with babies and was paralyzed with fear. She cried a lot and seemed completely miserable for the first three months of her life. I cried a lot, too, and tried my best to give her what I thought she needed whenever she needed it. Michael went back to work and people went back to their lives and it was a very lonely time though I was never, for a second, actually alone. The days were impossibly long that winter, and when I thought I would never come out the other side, the clouds started to clear.

I started walking. I walked with Arden for miles every day, rain or shine. We walked all over town, looking at houses I wanted to live in and at gardens I dreamed of tending. I never planned my route and almost never had a destination. People I knew would see me miles from home and ask me (incredulously) if I needed a ride. I would smile, wave them on, and get back to the business of walking. After many months, Arden had outgrown the backpacks I carried her in but by that time, I didn't feel the need to walk as much anyway.

When I look back at pictures from those early months, I'm amazed at how happy I look. I remember how hard I was struggling but in the pictures, it just doesn't show. Maybe it never does. I used to tell myself that I will be a better mother when my children are older and that babies are just too hard for me. How wrong I was! I can see now that I am much better at holding tight than I am at letting go. I hope I look back at this day, another eleven years from now, and remember how hard I tried and how happy I was in this picture.

Happy Birthday, Arden. I'm so glad you're mine. xox, Mom.

Camera Study in the Woods

Notes from the field: The kids didn't have school on Wednesday so we headed out to the woods near our house to play with my new camera (Nikon D90). It was late in the afternoon and it was already starting to get dark. The two of them were running around like chickens so I couldn't keep them in focus. They did slow down for a couple of shots though. They look so tiny next to the trees, don't they? These were all taken on the manual setting. I've been using my old Minolta since I was in eighth grade so there is much for me to learn about this new camera. There's much for me to learn about digital cameras in general. It feels really good to take pictures again.