a harvest

Sarah is at it again: inspiring me and filling me with ideas of splendor and greatness. A few months ago we came across some "green" or "eco friendly" toys that were very very cute. For some reason we were both drawn to (and terrified by) the plush vegetables with faces embroidered on them. I mean, a lot of people already have a complex about eating animals (who, as you may have noticed, also have eyes and mouths), so why confuse young children even more by personifying their produce?! I think that unless you're going to raise your children as Jains, leave the cute faces off their veggies.

Anyways, in my (somewhat embarrassingly eager) excitement about sewn/stuffed produce I embarked on a cyber-hunt for instructions and ideas to fill a little green farm basket I found at an antique store. My original plan was to use old cotton fabric scraps for the veggies, but when I came across the LittleCrickets shop on Etsy, I was quickly convinced to try it with felt. Before I found LittleCrickets I didn't know felt could be used for anything more than Halloween costumes and Sunday School flannel boards!

The rest of the process was pretty un-extraordinary. I purchased a bunch of felt in varying bright colors, learned how to do a blanket-stitch, and whipped up a virtual cornucopia on a few lazy afternoons. Around the same time my mother showed up with a box of fabric remnants she scored at a yard sale and I was thrilled to find a red and white checkered print to create the consummate picnic napkin accessory.



(Luke and I probably need to wash our windows)


So Sarah's little guy, Sam, turned 1 this month. All his friends and loved ones gathered in an orchard on a cool autumn day to celebrate his milestone (and his incredible pumpkin hat). It was the perfect day to gorge on apples and the perfect day to gift a harvest.

an open letter to My Body

"I see myself as still water. I reflect things as they are." -Thich Nhat Han

Dear My Body,

As you know, we spend a lot of time together. In fact we spend all of our time together. Whether or not I am mindfully aware of your functions and activities, we are inextricably joined together and affect one another. This morning I woke up and showered you and fed you and moved you around, do you remember that? I certainly do, though now looking back it was probably more of an incredible sequence of events than I ever considered at the time. And so I want to thank you for being my window to the world.

For all the things we have experienced together I would think that we would be more at peace with one another than we tend to be. Perhaps like any close relationship we take one another for granted and find fault. Often, for example, I think you should look differently than you do. I guess I expect a lot from you. And sometimes you make me feel crappy and I just don't understand why! I feel a tad nauseous or sluggish or inexplicably grumpy. Then we begin this cycle where I try to bribe you with something tasty and/or sugar-laden, but you don't want that, and then you make me feel even more irritable and terrible.

Do you see where this is going My Body? Perhaps I'm just realizing what you've known all along, but we are in a marriage relationship. We are bound to one another until death do us part. And no matter how much we try to deny it, the decisions I make will affect you, and you , in turn will affect me. Your welfare is my welfare. My good health is your good health. So let's renew our vows, shall we?

I, Joy, promise to help you, My Body, to have a vibrant, unhindered and sexy existence. I promise to give you regular times of movement and activity. And I promise to let that movement connect with mindful enjoyment and not held down by the drudgery of duty. I swear to no longer turn a blind eye to the crap I might choose to fuel you, and rather choose foods that I can trace back to their origins or even better, use you, My Body to create. And I promise to listen to you: if you're truly hungry I will eat, if you're truly full I will abstain, if you are truly tired I will rest and if you are truly energized I will move. Let my life and choices be your life and choices. Let us be one.

Thanks for not giving up on me yet, and thanks for second chances.
With love,
Joy