Finished!

Nearly two years of knitting, and my first sweater is complete! It was cast onto my needles in February 2007 and knitted during many alone hours, a few car rides, in two yarn shops, propped up in bed, on an airplane, in front of the t.v., while visiting family in WV/VA/NC, during a move, and draped across my growing belly. I tried it on last night, and while it doesn't quite cover the belly, I'm content to just enJOY it folded there in all its finished glory!

Tree Topper

Christmas Cards

I didn't quite get around to creating our usual Christmas photo card this year. Gini sent me a box of these, though, and they couldn't be more perfect...my favorite word, my favorite color, and sparkly glitter. I'm hoping to find a few moments to send a couple out in the next few days. Thanks, G!

Little Pink Hat

This was my first project using double pointed needles.

I am so pleased with how it turned out!

Christmas Cookies

We're off to a Christmas party tonight. These Chocolate Peppermint Cookies are coming with us. Of course I had to sample one (or two) just to make sure they're edible. Scrumptious!

I found the recipe here.

Simple Wrappings

brown craft paper tied with JOY ribbons

Baby Shower by Mail - Part 5

I found this gift on the front porch as I was leaving for the grocery store yesterday. There was no way I could leave it unopened the whole way there and home again! With not much room to spare between the steering wheel and my belly, I tore into the polka-dotted paper showering the Jeep with pastel glitter. Inside I found these cute little footed sleepers and a sweet note from Cookie. When I got home, I draped the sleepers over a kitchen chair and set the card up for Lee to see. The sight of those little footsies dangling there makes me smile every time I pass them, so I've left them there. Why not enJOY their cuteness for a few more days before putting them away in her room? I didn't clean the glitter up in the Jeep, either. It's just so sparkly and fun. Lee took the Jeep to work today. Wonder if he's enJOYing the shimmer too ;-)

Thank you Cookie, Danny, Abby, and Emmy!

Grab 'n Go

I baked these blueberry muffins for Lee's breakfast treat this week. YUM! This batch includes King Arthur's white whole wheat flour as opposed to their all-purpose, fresh blueberries, and sour cream. The sour cream worked well, but next time I'll try the vanilla yogurt option for its added health benefits instead. I also sprinkled some demerara sugar on top before baking, adding a delightful crunch!

You can find the recipe here.

Breakfast Treat

Whole grain pancakes with bananas and pecans...delish!

Sometimes...

only a teacup and saucer will do!

I'm sipping Winter Chocolate Rooibos today and enJOYing Martha's Christmas Cookie issue. I don't subscribe to her magazine, but it often calls to me from the rack at the grocery store checkout. Her recipes and crafts tend to be a bit more than I'm willing to tackle, but I'm drawn to the gorgeous photos...perfect for illustrating my journal.

Rearranged

Our Pumpkin Spice centerpiece from Thanksgiving was beginning to droop. I snipped the ends off each stem, peeled away the roses' curling outer petals, gave them a fresh drink, and added a few fragrant sprigs of rosemary. Now we can enJOY it for another few days.

Busy

We turned our kitchen table and added a leaf to accommodate us all for Thanksgiving dinner. Even though it's just the two of us for awhile now, I asked Lee to leave it that way. Now I really have some room to spread out. I'm packaging up some December treats, working on my December journal, and writing thank you notes. It's a good place to be on a frosty December day.

Baby Booties

I adore these baby booties for two reasons:

*They're so darn cute!

and

*I followed the pattern all by myself, learning three new skills along the way...yarnovers, mattress stitch seaming, and I-cord.

I can't wait to see them on her little feet!

Baby Shower by Mail - Part 4

Box #4 arrived all the way from Hawaii! The wrapped package that I'm holding contained children's books...three sweet animal tales from the islands. There was a bag for mama with a tub of Alba Botanica body cream and a hibiscus flower rubber stamp...two favorites of mine!

Baby H also received a couple of footed sleepers. The fleecy white one has ears on the hood and paw prints on the feet...too cute! I can't wait to snuggle her in them.

Misty & David, thank you so much for your thoughtful words and delightful gifts!!

A New Toy

Linda, Erin, and I escaped on Friday afternoon for a few hours of girl time outside of the kitchen. We spent a fun hour browsing in a bookstore/gift shop and then stopped at the local tea room for a light lunch and yummy pots of tea. We don't often get to spend time as just the girls, so it was a rare treat and highlight of our holiday together. All three of us were able to find some fun gifts for the people on our Christmas lists including each other.

Earlier in the week we'd been talking about how many fun wooden toys are available these days. As luck would have it, we stumbled upon the most beautiful hand carved Noah's Ark set. Linda happily snatched it up for her granddaughter and brought it home. I envision many happy hours of play for daddy and his girl in the years ahead.

Thanksgiving 2008

My heart is full. It was a wonderful few days filled with lots of yummy food, a hilarious game of UNO, some hands of Gin Rummy, a bit of Christmas shopping, a few football games, some video games, tons of baby talk & belly watching, and most importantly, time together with family.

(Click on the speech bubble beneath the slideshow to see picture captions.)

Wise Words

Write the wrongs that are done to you in sand, but

write the good things that happen to you on a piece

of marble. Let go of all emotions such as resentment

and retaliation, which diminish you, and hold onto

the emotions, such as gratitude and joy, which

increase you. -Arabic Proverb

Wishing you a Thanksgiving week filled with gratitude and JOY!

Happy Birthday Joy Jottings!

I started hanging out in this little space one year ago today. Lots has happened since then, and yet, it doesn't seem like a whole 365 days ago. I spent the last half hour scrolling through the past twelve months of JOY. Here are some of my favorite posts:

Christmas Toes

The Day After

Happy Birthday Anna!

Puppy Love

The Last Few Days

The Joy of Creative Space

Sauerbraten, Spaetzle & Red Cabbage

Salad & Me

A Visual Feast

They're Crafty

Her Perfect Little Foot

Pumpkin Scones

100+ Favorite Things

Over the past year,

*I've had fun playing with light and color in my digital photos.

*I've enJOYed connecting with friends and family through my words & pictures. Your emails & blog comments have been a highlight for me.

*I've definitely become more attuned to the little JOYS of each day.

*I've been forced out of my comfort zone, having to take words out of my journal and "publish" them here.

Thanks for joining me on this little adventure. The next year promises to be an exciting one at our house, and I hope to capture more of our JOY right here.

Tiny Tote

Baskets, bags, decorative boxes...I love to have pretty places to stash my stuff. My SIL, Erin, gave me this sweet little bag last year for my birthday. It was filled with an assortment of teas and shortbread cookies which are long gone a year later! Now it holds all my writing paraphernalia - my pens, my journal, stamps, my gratitude wrap, colored pencils, and address labels. I like having it all in one place, easily carried to wherever I happen to be writing at the moment. And those polka dot handles...perfect!

Art & Motherhood

I clipped that little phrase from a favorite magazine and pasted it to my journal. It's what I've been thinking about lately. The day is coming when I won't be able to spend the morning knitting, or the afternoon baking, or the evening painting, cutting, and pasting. And, will I ever read a book again?

Recently, while reading Jane Brocket's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity", I came across two quotes that spoke to me.

"Short stories that have been written in between dusting, bed-making, answering the door and homemaking are also wonderful for reading in one sitting while you wait for the cookies to brown, while children play, while the bread rises..."

How about while rocking our baby? I've never been a short story kinda girl, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Brocket goes on to quote Elizabeth Gaskell, an English novelist who wrote amidst the bustle of raising a large family. Gaskell said in a letter to a friend that all women should "have the hidden refuge of Art to shelter themselves in".

After our girl and I have gotten used to each other and found some sort of rhythm in our days, I hope to find time -even just a little snippet here and there- to journal, knit, bake and read. Both of us will be the happier for it.

Baby Shower By Mail - Part 3

The mailman brought more fun to our doorstep today! Inside the box were some sweet outfits for our girl, a pretty toile(!) pacifier ribbon, and a monogrammed insulated cup for mama's favorite hot beverages.

Thank you Michelle, Keith, and Allyson!

100+ Favorite Things

Lamy Al-Star fountain pens, teapots & mugs, Anne Lamott, Harris Teeter, my mom's pound cake, paper crafts, Le Pens, Jane Austen, mail art, Walkers shortbread, handwritten letters, baby kicks, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, poetry, Linda's cherry nut bread, fall, digital photos, tea with milk & honey, Anna's Ginger Thins, knitting, Gini's sense of humor, Moleskine journals, napping with our pups, dark chocolate (especially Scharffen Berger), Paper Source, novels, Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion, etsy.com, blogs, pillowtalk with Lee, homemade bread, Ghiradelli hot chocolate, gift cards, Charleston restaurants, rubber stamps & ink, ravelry.com, homecomings, color, Jane Brocket's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity", stickers, Christmas, aprons, scones & lemon curd, Somerset Studio, candles, laughter, tea rooms, King Arthur Flour & The Baker's Catalogue, Dicken's Village, coffee ice cream, words, Michaels dollar bin, toile, fiddling, handmade papers & stationary, smoothies, music, trail mix, polka dots & paisleys, vintage, chocolate chip cookies & milk, Lee's cosmos, getting my hair cut, Kansas City steaks, flip flops, root beer floats, red wine, my dad's Christmas decorations, hoodies, big purses, long walks, quilts, butterflies, farmer's markets, cookbooks, crunchy peanut butter, yoga pants, the beach, Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products, Four Seasons resorts, stars, tupelo honey, The Swag, mochas, sunshine, "The Wind in the Willows", bookshelves, cupcakes, watching football with Lee, "Jane Eyre", slipper socks, coffee shops, live theater, Charles Dickens, Grey's Anatomy, smores, "Stitch 'n Bitch", my diamond studs, English movies, Alba Botanica body cream, banana bread, baskets, The Chocolate Fetish's Velvet Sin truffles, little towns with cute main street shops, fires in the fireplace, pumpkin bread

November Evening

Reading, crafting, waiting for dinner...together.

New Toys

Tomato Vodka Sauce

Grilled chicken, bacon, and portobello mushrooms in a creamy tomato sauce over whole wheat pasta served with homemade bread for sopping up the extras...thanks to Arinn for the delicious recipe!

Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies

I only baked six tonight. The rest of the dough is waiting in the fridge. We'll have a fresh batch each night after dinner for the next few days.

YUM!

December Journal

Over the past few weeks I've been collecting supplies for a new project. I'm using a mix of stuff from my stash and a few new purchases to create a holiday journal. Christmas is my most favorite time of year. It often passes me by in a whirlwind, though, and when January rolls around I feel like there just wasn't enough time to enJOY it all. By creating this little book ahead of time, I'll be able to savor the season by adding a few words and a photo for each December day to my previously decorated pages.

I got the idea here.

The View from Here

Yesterday

This Morning

This Afternoon

Autumn Leaves

We've had a string of dark rainy days. While the sun hides above a blanket of clouds, this little tree shines brilliantly in the back corner of our yard.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~Albert Camus

Getting Ready

The nursery furniture was delivered this morning, and it's just as gorgeous as I imagined it would be. Aside from my growing belly, the presence of a crib in our house makes it all the more real to us. Now it's time to hang pictures, fill the drawers with her tiny clothes, and start stocking up on diapers!

Handmade

Inspired by the heart Anna drew for me, I created this set of stationary. The hearts are snipped from scraps left over from the baby quilt my mom is sewing for us.

Beneath the notecards and envelopes is a blanket that my great grandmother crocheted. It boggles my mind to think of the hours that Bambil must have spent creating each square and then sewing them together. The blanket is large enough to cover a full size bed! I recently had numerous holes repaired in it, and I imagine she'd be pleased that her handiwork has been restored to its original loveliness.

Baby Shower by Mail - Part 2

Lee found a big box on our porch this afternoon. It was filled with packages wrapped in paisleys and polka dots...my favorite patterns! LouLou enclosed a picture of me consoling a crying

Baby H. Anna insists that her name is Alicia...we'll see ;-)

Inside were useful gifts for baby along with gourmet tea and dark chocolate especially for mama.

Thank you Arinn, Ben, Anna, and Jane!

Beauty for Breakfast

Reading about Writing

Over in the corner I have a small bookshelf filled with books by Dillard, L'Engle, Lamott, Yolen, Ueland and numerous other authors writing about writing. I ran across this quote today by one of my favorites.

"Learn to write about the ordinary. Give homage to old coffee cups, sparrows, city buses, thin ham sandwiches. Make a list of everything ordinary you can think of. Keep adding to it. Promise yourself before you leave this earth, to mention everything on your list at least once in a poem, short story, newspaper article." ~Natalie Goldberg

Painting in the Sky

I've been off sightseeing with family for the past week. We stopped in at a local antique shop one afternoon and came out to find these colors arching across the sky. I especially love the juxtaposition of blue sky and grey with the full rainbow in between.

Stitching

It was a crisp morning, sunshiny & blue-skied, perfect for a drive. With the Indigo Girls as company, I drove down the coast for a knitting class. I spent a few hours in a tiny shop by the water learning to sew my sweater's shoulders together and picking up stitches with which I've begun the neckband.

Here it is! It may not look like much, but I am 12 rounds and a bit more seaming from being FINISHED! I'm off to knit, and quite possibly to follow Jake's lead closing my eyes for a quick snooze.

Lemon Squares

A departure from my usual chocolate desserts, I chose to take these yummies with us to a party this evening. The recipe was extremely easy, and they turned out to be just what I was craving. This one is definitely a keeper.

Gorgeous Colors

I'm loving these new postcard stamps that I got at the post office today.

Frozen Strawberry Yogurt

Blend:

1 cup partially frozen strawberries
1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt

Serve in a pretty glass 'cause it's just more fun that way.

Recipe adapted from Frances Price's Healthy Cooking for Two (or just you)

Layers

Paint

Ink

Glue

My little bits of mail art are almost ready to be sent out into the world. A handwritten note on their backs, and they'll be off to friends & family.

Cups & Bowls

In my cup I enJOYed a free sample of The Republic of Tea's Pomegranate Vanilla Rooibos, a perfect caffeine-free tea for a late afternoon treat.

My bowl held Chunky Monkey Oatmeal...bananas, cinnamon, walnuts, chocolate chips, and creamy vanilla yogurt. Mmmmm!
You can find the recipe here.

Pumpkin Scones

One of my most favorite things about this season is the spicy scent of autumn baked goods. I love how the oven heats the house with the warm smells of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Last week I baked pumpkin chocolate chip bread, but the recipe only called for half a can of pure pumpkin. What to do with the other half? I stuck it in the freezer and began searching for a recipe for this week's fall treat. These pumpkin scones were just the thing! The recipe is here. I tweaked it just a bit, using demerara cane sugar & white whole wheat flour and omitting the sugary glaze on top. Rather than cutting the dough into the traditional triangles, I shaped them by hand into six puffy rounds. Not only does the house smell delectable, but our tummies are full and happy on this dark Saturday morning.

Baby Shower by Mail

I certainly am the luckiest mama-to-be with the most wonderful friends a girl could ever wish for! Since we're all spread out across the U.S. now and the logistics of getting us all together for a baby shower were nearly impossible, my favorite group of mommies have planned the next best thing. They've divided up the remaining few months and are showering us with boxes of goodies every couple weeks until Baby H arrives. The first package was delivered yesterday afternoon. I opened the box and left it on the table until Lee got home so we could open the presents together.

So! Much! Fun!

Thank you Karen & Pete!