hopeful

Back in November, I posted about my favorite coffee cup and invited readers to post about their beloved products. Then, a few months back, Better Homes and Gardens ran a feature in their Innovations issue wherein they asked people who were famous "innovators" (i.e. the founder of Pinterest, the founder of Spoonflower --...

Remember my earlier reference about buying all the material for a quilt and then never getting around to making it? Case in point: Five years ago, I planned a baby quilt for my brand new niece Claire. I was eight months pregnant myself at the time and foolishly thought I'd get it done before Finn entered my life. It didn't...

While I'm generally a great big wimp when it comes to cooking without a recipe, I'm pretty good about substitutions. Many a baked good in my kitchen has included a tablespoon of mayonnaise instead of an egg, and I'm pretty good about concocting combinations of milk and yogurt to resemble various thicknesses of cream. I...

I love gardening in May. Everything is promising, everything has potential. I can stick a handful of seeds in the ground and anticipate eating from their bounty in August. I can pat the rich, dark soil around a pepper plant and admire the soft strength of the leaves. In May, nothing has failed. There are no infestations...

It's May now, and my thoughts are very much on the fact that come August, I'm going back to work full time. I have mixed feelings about this, admittedly, but am very blessed in that I have the wonderful opportunity to go back to a job that I absolutely love working with people I adore and doing work that I believe in....

I'm a self-taught quilter, and I'll admit up front that many of my techniques are pretty questionable; I'm sure there are specific ways to do many of the things that I've figured out as I go along, but I don't know them. That said, I've learned a few tricks over the years and thought I'd share some of that today: I...

So says my sister Sarah shortly after I started this blog last fall.  She then teasingly reminded me that I still hadn't finished the baby quilt promised to her youngest child, Charlie, over a year and a half ago and suggested that I write a blog entry about finishing that. She was just giving me a hard time, but...