author intrusion

am i official now? i just don't know.

Claudia Mair Burney just emailed me to let me know two of my audio books are now available on iTunes.
Tiger Lillie and Club Sandwich. iTunes? Whoa baby!

photo

saga of the capris: part five and final

I'm sure you're almost as glad as I am that the saga of the capris is coming to a close. Here are some pictures of the final outcome. (From top to bottom, front, back, and favorite spot of the project for me: the knee.)

This took me hours and hours. Had I chosen simply to patch, I think it would have taken about twenty percent of the time. I learned the process as I went and the stitching picked up its pace the further in I got. This project went far beyond patching to a lot of embellishment, but honestly, folks, some of us crazies still want to look stylish, even if we are patching our jeans! Can I hear an amen?

What I got out of this:

1. It's a good feeling not to spend extra money if you don't have to.
2. I loved these capris from the get- go, and now I get to wear them a lot longer.
3. It's been great to work with my hands again. I think humans need that in one form or another. I found it settled me somewhat, and I loved having a project to grab when going to the pool or a place where we were just going to sit and talk.
4. It's really satisfying to create something pretty. That's all, just something pretty.

Anybody else start on their own project? Please share!

lisa

In the Library Reviews - Interview with Lisa Samson

Link: In the Library Reviews - Interview with Lisa Samson.

Interview with Lisa Samson about "Quaker Summer

Joyce: In the Library Reviews welcomes Lisa Samson!

You packed the pages of Quaker Summer with a variety of ideas and people. Readers will meet Quakers and Episcopalians, drug dealers and saints, young people and the very old. I almost feel that this novel is like one of Heather's cakes, combining different ingredients to bring forth a delicious result! What do you want your readers to take away from this eclectic mix of faith and faces?

exile

Last week the Old Testament lectionary readings centered on the story of Moses. Something struck me when hearing how Moses laid aside his princely privileges (or had them laid aside for him) so that he might abide in the wilderness, tending sheep, raising a family, learning about the ways of God from his father-in-law. He was placed into exile.

God uses the same device in the lives of other great people told about in scripture. Consider Abraham, told by God to leave Ur, to sojourn in a foreign land. Joseph, ripped away from his family to become a slave, a prisoner, until rising to second in command of Egypt and saving his people from extinction.  David? Remember all of those years running from Saul? Yeah, those must have been comfy-cozie times. I'm sure he looked back on those days and just yearned for their return! How about Jonah? Elijah? Elisha? And pick your prophet! How about the ladies, then? Esther, forced to leave the comforts of home and subject herself to the king so that she might be ready to plead for her people.  Ruth? She cast her lot with Naomi and left her land and her people, thereby becoming, after marriage to Boaz, an ancestor of the Messiah. Mary: forced to journey to Bethlehem and then to Egypt.

So many of these stories mirror the story of Christ who laid aside the glory of heaven, his own glory and the outward cloak of recognizable deity so that He might dwell in exile in order to save His people. His very own creation  became his wilderness, his slavery, his prison, his hide-out cave, his belly of the whale, his foreign land. But he was sent to do the will of his Father.

I think about my own life, so much that made me comfortable left behind. Big house, nice neighborhood, kids with good friendships, family close by. It was a good life and there was nothing wrong with it. But one day I prayed, "God, I want to know who you really are. Not just who I want you to be." That was about seven or so years ago, and man, I just didn't expect to end up in Lexington KY, away from so much I held dear.

And though God threw me into exile, I can't claim any sort of spiritual superiority, but I do know that I've come to know him in ways I wouldn't have in my former life. And here's the kicker, I have a feeling that I've got a while yet here in the wilderness, the cave, the belly of the whale. God has so much to show me and I'm a very slow learner, prideful, and sometimes just plain obstinate. But here is where I should be and where I will stay until he moves me forward. It feels counterintuitive to the ways of God peddled today by those who would tell us that our comfort and prosperity are signs that God is blessing us because  of our abundant faith. And sometimes, I think, having muddled away years and years at writing and never "breaking out", watching a small handful writers who, quite frankly, don't work as hard as I do, meet with explosive success, that maybe those people are right. Maybe my faith is so small, that I don't believe strongly enough, that my word offerings aren't good enough. Can I say this quite plainly?

Those people are wrong. And this sort of preaching and mindset that comfort = blessing and riches = favor and a nice house with nice things denotes wisdom has been so damaging to the people of God. Let's live a little, shall we? Which hero of the Bible did anything other than the unusual? I can't find one.

Has God begun taking you into exile so that you might serve him in ways as yet unknown? Truthfully, I'm not sure where the Promised Land is for me, or what that big job He has for me to do here in exile will be, but I can look at what he did in the lives of His children of long ago and know that he has his plans. I can either grumble my way through this exile like the children of Israel did during their wanderings, or simply set my eyes on the mark in the way St. Paul told us to. The attitude is always up to us. (And mine isn't always as good as it is today, just so you know! ha!)

Would love to hear your stories of exile. Thanks for stopping by today.

Pax Christi,

lisa

forgiving and forgetting

Ty and I heard a wonderful story at mass yesterday morning.

In France in the 1600's a nun, Sister Margaret-Mary, was having visitations from Christ. The priest who ministered to the convent, Father Claude, would listen to her confessions and they'd talk. She told him of the visitations, how Christ had such great love for the world, He wanted everyone to know the full depth of His heart.

Father Claude, testing to see whether or not her experiences were real, said, "Ask Jesus, next time you see Him, what I confessed at my last confession."

A while later he came back to the convent and he asked Sr. Margaret-Mary if she was still seeing visitations of Christ.

"Yes, Father" she replied.

"And did you remember what I asked you to ask Jesus?"

"Yes. You asked me to ask Him what it was you last confessed."

"Exactly. And what did He say?"

"He simply said, 'I've forgotten.'"

(Lisa here) Well I just started crying right in church. I mean, how beautiful a picture of the God who says He remembers our sins no more. How many times I beggar my relationship with Him by recalling over and over again what He's already forgotten.

family portrait

We never have family pictures taken. I don't know why this is. The last time was for a church directory when Gwynnie was about 18 mos. old.  I'm always hit with this when I go to people's homes who have lots of pictures of their kids and their family around and about, and, of course, lots of other pictures too. I wish I was more like that.

This week in Atlanta, we spent the night at Will's sister's house. Beth and her husband are professional photographers and Beth asked us if we wanted a family portrait done. Of course we said yes! And here is my favorite of all the shots, right on the train tracks of Norcross, Georgia.

the gift of bread

As rewarding as watching your child taking her first steps or say his first word, there's something extraordinary in watching your teenager turn into the young woman/man God is calling him/her to be. One really exciting development in the Life of Ty has been seeing her become a baker of bread. For some reason, this just tickles me to no end, and gives me a nice dose of that Mommy pride and thankfulness.

This morning, we had fresh baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast and in the picture to your right are the loaves of ciabatta that are rising on our counter as I write. I've told her, "I don't know why God's given you this gift of baking bread, but I truly believe it's going to come into play in your life someday." I really do.

So, if you're ever in Lexington, well, we've got Ty's bread, Will's red sauce and a big kitchen table. We like to share all three in the house of hospitality known as Third Street House. The more the merrier.

The Capri Saga: part . . . four?

Really? Four posts on a lousy pair of capris?  Good heavens!  Ha!

Anyway, here is where I am on these pants.  I snipped around the holes to make it clean and then did a blanket stitch around it to secure the fabric from fraying. (See the knee hole.) The article on the web said to satin stitch, but I don't trust satin stitches by hand as much blanket stitches, for some reason. It's too easy to have an uneven tension on your stitches.

(Okay, little known fact about me. Years ago, before I started writing, my friend Jennifer and I made about forty beautiful little white muslin dresses that she sewed and I embroidered on the placket. I really like to embroider [not cross stitch because the repetitive action makes me nauseous after a while]. So both of us are not salespeople at heart and our Tea Time Garment Company clothes ended up on our own children and being given away!) Back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

So blanket stitch it is.  Step two, sewing on the patch.  This is what you see by the pocket. Instead of cutting out a square or something, I used two pieces of fabric cut from the paisleys in the material. I pinned on accordingly and secured with the blanket stitch again. It's a little rough because it's been years since I've embroidered, but I'm starting to feel the muscle memory coming back. I'm also planning on embroidering the denim around it and maybe even adding an extra paisley or two on the pocket.

I'll check in and show you all the jeans when I'm finished. This is actually fun. I feel creative and thrifty all at the same time!

The saga of the tattered capris: part III

Okay, so, heavy with Dan's comment that there isn't a woman alive that looks good in capris, I've been thinking, well, maybe I should just figure out how to make do with what I have instead of getting something new, or used, that's only destined to make me thoroughly unattractive! ha! Just messin' with you Dan.  So I've decided to put my creativity to work. I've clipped away most of the excess thread on the hole near the back pocket. 

I bought a little bit of quilt fabric today for patching (don't know where it was made) and some embroidery floss (made in France) for decoration. (Total price: $2.25)  I'll keep you posted as I go!

Just Living: Fair Trade Clothing, Day Two: The Search for the Capris

Oh my goodness! I've found a lot of skirts and wraps and dresses and cool batik pants, but capris?  Not so much. And way out of my price range.  Here are the two in the running:

Cropped Twills from Fair Indigo:

Cropped Trousers from Fair Industry:

The big problem? The price. $59 for the cropped twills, $49 for the trousers. I like the trousers better and if I go this route, I'll probably order these.

So here's the thing. Yes, it's all fair trade, but isn't $49 for a stinkin' pair of pants a lot of money? Surely there are better options for me, price-wise. In the comments yesterday, Alana mentioned thrift stores. And while I really want to support the whole fair trade thing, and maybe you do too, what if we just can't afford clothing at these prices. For years I've been a Target shopper and I almost always buy my clothes at the back of the department where they are clumped together on the sale rack.  Shoot, for the Christys, my entire outfit, shoes, jewelry and all, came to $51. That's Target for you. So to pay for one pair of pants what I paid for an entire outfit, shoes and all, just puts a lump in my throat.

So I'll be heading to the thrift stores this week to find those capris. But hey, if I was just looking for other clothes, cool shirts and skirts etc., there is a plethora of wonderful stuff, fair trade, on the internet. Just google "fair trade clothing". If you go to the sale sections, you'll find some great buys.

And hey, how about sewing clothing yourself? Do people reclaim old fabric? Erin Wilson, fellow blogger, makes gorgeous bags from vintage fabric, all with a story behind them. Check out her site! I bought two for Christmas gifts.

Stay tuned! Trying to buy justly isn't easy. This is just going to prove it. Thanks for taking this journey with me.