Showing posts with label Salvation Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salvation Army. Show all posts

Monday, January 26, 2009

Heart Handmade: I Made It!

Y'all, I received SEVEN Valentines in the mail today! (And one etsy order). The big news, though, is that I mailed out TWENTY-FOUR Valentines today (and two etsy orders from my pumpkinbear etsy shop).

I glued patterned paper (sheet music or scrapbook paper) to the fronts and backs of 4"x6" pieces of recycled cardboard (cut from pizza boxes or record album covers), except for a few cool-looking record album covers that I cut down to 4"x6" and glued front-and-back. Then I cut and punched hearts of different sizes from more sheet music and scrapbook paper, and punched 1" circles in some of the cardboard Valentines. I glued hearts to the cardboard Valentines in whatever pattern I felt like (a different pattern for each one), glued pages recycled from a tiny little quote book on some, and wire-wrapped beads (some vintage amber beads, some a Christmas present from my mother) to dangle in the 1" circles of some of the cardboard Valentines. I hot-glued tinsel or thrifted bead strands around the edges of most of the Valentines, and cut and glued each Valentine a custom envelope recycled from an old atlas.

The US Valentines cost $1.17 to send, the Canadian ones cost $1.18, and the Australian one only cost $1.40. I have got to start sending more things to Australia.

Here are just a few highlights:Today was the day that Willow also finally got to wear the Salvation Army sweater I bought for her. It's about four sizes too big and has a big pull-mark on the back, so I thought I was buying it as a pillow top for her or perhaps her best little friend, but noooooo...
See? It's a knitted horse. With a real yarn mane. And a blue button eye. Of course she's going to wear it. Every. Single. Day.

And speaking of true love? This Saturday, my dear friend Molly and I are driving up to Indianapolis (By ourselves! Without my babies! Without my husband! Has not happened since before Sydney was born!) to see Old Crow Medicine Show:

If you're jealous (which you are), you should totally come and meet us there. I'll be the 30-something lady in the jeans and T-shirt, acting like she hasn't been out in public by herself since 2006.

I am so freakin' happy.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Clothing for Dancing In

Y'all, you will never believe what I found at the Salvation Army today while hunting for red and pink buttons (the Valentine quilts, they are tooling along):
Five dollars each, handmade white satiny poofy lacy elaborate dresses exactly the size of a four-year-old (a tad long-ish on the two-year-old, but she cares not). One dress even has a little tag in the back that reads "Made for you with love by Grandma."

Were they flower girls dresses? Baptism dresses? Easter dresses? I surely hope that Grandma, who made them with love for some little girl just Willow's size, never knew that they got donated to the Salvation Army along with some other junk.

Grandma would be pleased, though, don't you think, to see the reception they're getting in our house:
Before I show you my favorite of Willow's photos from yesterday, I should ask you: You do know the whole purpose of photography, don't you? It isn't just to look, or to capture--it is to see. Seeing is something much different than merely looking, and it is why unobservant people generally take very poor photographs. To see something so truly that you can take a true and beautiful photograph of it--to do that you have to know what you're looking at, to understand it, to accept it, to love it. When you do that, then, with luck and skill, you can take a photograph that will help other people see this something, too.

I am, and this shouldn't surprise you, my friends, much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it. I like to quietly see and capture, but I very rarely trust another person to see me, to know me well enough to capture a true photograph (if you want to hear a funny story about that particular little neurosis of mine, ask Matt to tell you about our wedding photographer--sheesh!).

It's stunned me, then, this week that I've daily put my fragile and expensive camera into the hands of my little girls (the lens still works with a few little scratches, right?). Because my girls, every day with my camera, they've shown me that they see. They've taken photos of their toys, their room, each other, and really captured their subjects, shown them true and beautiful through their young eyes. But most of all, my girls have shocked me by the many photos they've taken of me. Here, for instance, is my favorite of the photos Will took yesterday:

Those girls, they see me.

P.S. Check out my denim quilt tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.