For my B ~

I wish I could say all the things, do all the things, that could make you understand just how wonderful my life with you has been.  But, because I fear I shall fall far short in using my own words, I offer these...

"... I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years [35 years for us, my love!].  I know that my achievement is quite ordinary.  I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from his home, and certainly I am not the first.  Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept.  As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination." 

 ~ From:  The Third and Final Continent included in The Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri                       

While not exactly the author's intention, on reading this passage, I immediately thought of you my love; of our life together.  Though in many ways ever so ordinary - getting to know one another completely, sharing meals (my first hummus, fresh asparagus, Greek and Cuban foods), seeing bits of the world through the eyes of the other, helping each other grow, building a family, a home, a life - it has been the most spectacular existence I could ever have imagined for myself.  

Likewise, from the first time I ever heard it, Jewel's song expressed exactly what it feels like to have your love, your physical presence in my life:

Running fast through a fairy tale
Dark woods; starless night
Feel cold air in my lungs
Full moon, you follow me-you say
"Why do hearts so often stray?"
You pierce me like an arrow
Beneath the blanket of night
Longing for flight

When you fall into me
It feels so sweet, like dreaming
Press yourself into me
Let me feel your breathing
There's a voice in your heart
Softly calling
Come to me you will see, just give in
To this sweet temptation

I awake, do a double take to see
Where it is that I lay-it could be
Day or night, I'm not quite sure
Your absence is a thorn
Your flesh, your skin
Is the only flag there is to believe in

I can love you like nobody else

When you fall into me
It feels so sweet, like dreaming
Press yourself into me
Let me feel your breathing
There's a voice in your heart
Softly calling

                                             ~ Sweet Temptation, Jewel

YOU have loved me like nobody else.  YOU have always been my very best friend, my biggest cheerleader, my fearless (and relentless) advocate, my lover, my all.  Even though I am the planner, you have never failed to remember and create amazing moments no matter the crazy we may be struggling through - a hot air balloon ride on my 30th birthday, flowers at my table in our fav Italian restaurant (even if it is in San Francisco!!!), and all that is silly and wonderful today.  Thank you on this most special of our days, and on all the others in between, for being you; my beautiful boy.  For loving me.

I love you with all that I am ~ for always. your les.

The good wolf...

 

I thought this little allegory spoke volumes....

A grandfather is talking with his grandson. The grandfather says, “In life, there are two wolves inside of us which are always at battle. One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery, and love. The other is a bad wolf which represents things like greed, hatred, and fear.”

The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second, then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”

The grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”

Who do I feed?  Who do you?  Society?  As Jam says, "Hmmmm..." 

Live and think chaotically! ~ les

A message of comfort....

 

          "Self definition is the first step toward self control - and peace."

                                                                                     ~ James McBride.

This little fellow may help a bit as well -

My heart aches for those suffering in Maui and elsewhere.  Much love, les

Sew Chaotically! ~ Quilt #6 - An Everyday Quilt

 I love the sashiko patchwork quilt I made for our bed.  However, it is heavy and very warm for summer, so I decided to put together a simple one out of scraps I had from Freddo's and other bits and bobs.

I think the colors and pattern turned out really well for the room and what was in my head.  It was easy and quick to stitch the top together.

I made binding for the edges.  The quilting was simple and linear.  I was a bit worried about tunneling given that pattern but it has been washed several times and hasn't been an issue.  Still, lessons were learned!!!  I used an old sheet for the backing.  Lots of quilters love using them.  Perhaps their sheets are better than mine, but I will not be doing that again.  It didn't give me the extra space to manipulate the backing as I would have liked and it was not easy to keep smooth. Finally, I will NEVER use Hobbs Heirloom batting ever, ever again!!!  It comes in a roll and when you roll it out flat it is all warped with bulges and stretched wonky from being wound tightly upon itself.  Plus it was not one piece, but a patchwork of irregularly shaped pieces the factory had smished together.  All this combined to make a smooth layer almost impossible!!!  Not a fan!  (Much prefer Quilter's Dream, both the 80/20 poly/cotton and the bamboo/silk blends!)

Still, we have enjoyed it this summer and I am very happy with how it turned out!!! Now on to the next one!  Sew and live chaotically! - love, les

For sweet Jam!!!!

 I have picked so many dandelions in the past few months!!!! It has been WONDERFUL!!!  So when I saw this on IG, it was perfect!!!!

headspace-hotel ~

Dandelions symbolize everything I want to be in life.

Main-river ~

Fluffy and dead with a gust of wind?

Headspace-hotel ~

Unapologetic.  Hard to kill.  Feral, filled with sunlight, bright, beautiful in a way that the conventional and controlling hate but cannot ever fully destroy.  Stubborn.  Happy.  Bastardous.  Friends with bees. Highly disapproving of lawns.  Full of wishes that will be carried far after I die.

May your day be filled with puffers and those who love them. 

Les

Sew Chaotically! ~ Quilt #5 - The Colors of Water

Quilt #5 for Freddo and Irina!!!  My first quilt went to Bentie, in 2021.  Then there was Sashiko Ta-dah for our queen bed! The third was a special celebration of home for dear Jo Jo!  Such sweet fun went into my fourth quilt, made for precious Jam!  Part of the fun of quilt making for me is trying to embrace the personality and style of the user.  For Fred and Irina, I checked in for fav colors and styles and came up with this chunky abstract pieced queen sized top... 

She was a big girl!!!  But, with B's help, I got her racked and ready!

With the linear lines and varied blues, I thought wavy visible quilting lines would make a nice contrast.

It was such a pleasant quilt to stitch through the cold months of 2022, plus I had the best supervisor ever!

I was able to pass it on to its owners for Christmas this past year.  It was fun to add some contrasting quilted pillow covers.

I hope it feels like a hug with a zillion stitches of love.  Sew Chaotically!! ~ les

December/January/ February/March Reads

December:  

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak. 1939.  Nazi Germany.  At her brother's grave, Liesel finds and keeps, The Gravedigger's Handbook, beginning her fascination with books and reading.  Her story of living with a foster family, their harboring of a Jewish man, her friendships, how they and others resist and comply with Nazi rule are an intense and poignant telling of the events and that moment in time, but speak volumes for us today.  I found Death as a character, while crucial in giving scope and providing narration, strange and disruptive at times.  However, it is a book that stays with you forever ~ and should. 

January:

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz - Lucy Adlington.  True story of amazing women and the horrors of those able to use others so completely.  Difficult to read in many ways.  But, apart from the absolute cruelty man is able inflict that others are miraculously able to withstand, the telling could get repetitive and disjointed at times as the author would interject each woman's arrival no matter the time or events surrounding it, rather than provide a cohesively linear story.  Not at all saying I could have done any better and I am sure the method was rooted in the desire to maintain facts and authenticity based on papers and interviews that had been used, which I really do appreciate.

February:

The Librarian of Auschwitz - Antonio Iturbe.  Based on the true story of Dita Kraus.  I will never understand how cruel some humans can be.  I cannot imagine living through such things.

World Travel, An Irreverent Guide - Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever.  Not the book I thought it would be.  More of a list of cities/countries with a bit of travel data and Anthony's comments lifted from prior shows and books with no new material from Anthony.  Still, it is always nice to hear his voice.

March:

Resistance Women - Jennifer Chiaverini.  I wanted to love this more than I did.  It was a LONG haul.  While I was thrilled it was a real accounting of brave strong women during unspeakable times - it often felt trite and repetitious.  Through the lives of the characters - Mildred Fish, an American married to Avrid Harnack - a German economist who returned to Germany before all the horrors began;  Martha Dodd, daughter of the American Ambassador to Germany; Greta Kuckoff a German and aspiring writer; and the only fictional composite - Sara Weitz, German, Jewish student - we get lots of details but I never felt I knew the women.  Perhaps, simply my own fault, but it felt more like reading a report than a novel into which you breathe with the characters.  Still - filled as it was with details of these incredible women and their group of resistance fighters - it gives the obviously damning and horrible view of those who committed atrocities but almost more horrible - the inaction of those who stood quietly, and therefore complicitly, by - doing nothing - while their neighbors and friends were removed from their jobs, homes, families -  first to undesirable areas in town, then tenements, to compounds, to camps.  Much like The Dressmakers of Auschwitz - making it clear that while hatred and prejudice were key in the events of Hitler's Germany - basic greed combined with the desperate economic conditions of the depression - fueled many of Hitler's directives and the willingness of the populace to follow them.  Removing Jews from their jobs opened up positions for other Germans.  Their removal from their homes and the distribution of their possessions directly benefited those ruling and the citizenry as well.

Heavy reads in these months.  They were painful, so the going was slow.  Due to my own poor education in these matters, I had rather missed how large a role financial greed, obviously combined with the desire for power and general racist hatred, played in Nazi Germany.  There is so much to learn from Germany's Nazi past as well as how it has risen from such horrors.  Despite pushback from right wing extremists in recent years, Germany has laws against promoting Nazi sentiment on-line and off, wearing the SS uniform, supporting Hitler, using swastikas and hate speech, as well as publicly denying the Holocaust.  So much we could learn here... Man's incessant need for power and to tear down others is incomprehensible to me.  

Wishing you all the freedom to be who you are, love who you wish, worship as you desire, and tend to your own damn business.  I know I got enough on my plate without worrying about what somebody else has on theirs!!!

Live kindly if chaotically!  ~ les