A week in Maui

Years ago, Hubby and I (and Ellie as a baby bump) took a "baby moon" trip to Maui.  At the time, a dear friend lived there.  She pointed us to all the best spots at the perfect times to enjoy an incredible trip well off the tourist trail, which we loved.  We have held that trip in memory as such an amazing, relaxing time that we have talked about going back ever since.

Alas, my dear friend does not live there anymore, but we are finally close enough (relatively) to consider a trip once more.  On a whim, we looked up vacation rentals and found one during the first week of our Spring Break, a little cottage right on the beach in a quiet, residential area of Makena.  Swoon.  Feeling crazy, we nabbed it (Hawaii $$ = eep!), booked flights (12+ hours!), and wondered just what we had gotten ourselves into.

Quite simply, we got ourselves into this:




The temperature was absolutely perfect: not hot and only cool late at night, warming quickly with the sun each morning.  Sunshine blessed us every day but one.  The sound of the waves lulled us to sleep each night.  Our internal clocks reset so that we all woke early to greet the day and closed the evenings watching the constellations rotate through the skies until we sought our beds far earlier than we could have expected.  It was a rhythm of waking and munching, snorkelling and water play, out for big breakfast, downtime during midday sun and later back to the beach for more playtime, more munching and happy exhaustion.

Aaaaaaahhhhhh.

We returned as jet-lag-wearied-but-oh-so-contented travellers to a forecast of snow and temperatures hovering around zero.  Spring is coming to our neck of the woods, but it has not arrived yet.  Until it does, I am trying to hold the sound of the ocean in my ears and the memory of sun on my skin.

Whew

I've been wanting to blog today, but instead I have been creating and recreating a photo book on Shutterfly for the past two hours (Hello, perfectionism.  I remember you.).  I spotted an email with a last minute photo book sale promotion code*.  Last week, our family made the trek to Maui, and our Eleanor discovered she loves to snorkel.  We wanted to make a book of photos for her as a remembrance.  What a trip it was.



*you have 1 hour to save a bundle with the code "STORYTIME" or if you miss that, you can go for "SHIP30" for free shipping when you spend over $30.  The first one just saved me $30, so be speedy if you can!

Finding inspiration

I find myself milling around on blogs more than I have in a long while, and I often come up short on satisfaction.  I haven't found my peeps in Blogland.  When I was the stay-at-home mother of tiny people, finding my online peeps was so much easier.  Mothering school-age children changes my focus quite a bit.  At this point, I find myself returning most often to the bloggers who post daily simply because I know they will be there with something new to share (like a friend) except they are often the mega-successful bloggers who really don't need me or notice I'm visiting (not like a friend).  Le sigh.

Up late in the night with jet lag (when all the best thoughts come, yes?), I realised that my own blog isn't particularly what I would want to read either…but it could be.

Years ago when I started blogging to connect with family and friends, I felt such a passion for it.  I couldn't wait to share.  Time passed, things changed, and public readers gave me concerns about my children's privacy.  I switched to more general topics, less personal posts…and the passion waned.  I haven't given up.  I still blog, though rather infrequently.

These days, I am in need of a new project.  I always wanted to recreate my blog, buy a domain name, run the hosting, learn coding to make it look absolutely perfect…and then crash and burn with the realities.  It simply isn't going to happen that way, but it doesn't have to be all or nothing.  I'm going to start making small changes and see where that leads, finding and indulging inspiration along the way.  I hope you'll come along!



image source

Sewing projects to welcome in Spring

In just over a week, our school will be out for Spring Break!  Yes, Spring!  Pay no attention to the freezing temperatures and snow on the ground.  Who cares that there is an icy bite in the air when you can see light in the sky before 7am these days?  The birds are singing, the chickens are laying eggs again, and Spring is definitely coming.  Hooray!


Yesterday, I went through the girls' summer things to see what we would need for our upcoming warm-weather get-away.  I was happy to see they needed very little, just some new swim, sandals and summer pjs.  A search of my usual sites offered up $30 cotton pjs on a 3-week delay.  No thank you on both counts.  Time to sew!  I found two men's large organic cotton t-shirts that I will cut and sew into simple pillowcase nightgowns.

Thinking about Spring drew me back once again to my beloved Liberty Tana Lawn.  Oh, how I long to sew with this gorgeous stuff, but the price makes it scary for me to cut.  After five years of waffling, I  finally jumped in and made a purchase.  The theme of the Spring Kids' Clothes Week is "Mini Me".  I plan to make Citronille's Suzanne (now available in English!) for myself and both girls (I was very tempted by this for my dress, but I just couldn't face the price tag).  I also want to sew more Oliver + S class picnic blouses for them and a Shearwater Kaftan for me.  Whew.  I better start tracing and cutting patterns now…

What creative projects are you working on?

Happy Mardi Gras, y'all!

Today is Fat Tuesday!  If you happen to live in a part of the country (world?) where this has no meaning, it's the last, biggest day to indulge before the start of Lent tomorrow, Ash Wednesday.  In New Orleans, parades will roll all day long as locals and tourists revel until they can't revel no mo'.  Those in the know might tell you the party really gets started the Thursday before Mardi Gras, when the Krewe of MUSES rolls through the streets of New Orleans.

I've been a lucky member of this krewe for almost ten years.  When I was first up for a coveted rider spot on the floats, I thought it would be an incredible once-in-a-lifetime, bucket-list opportunity…and it still is, every year when I return to the fabulous group of women on my float and the city that still pulls our heart strings.  See the woman on the light blue float looking directly into the camera with a deliriously happy look in her eyes?  That would be me.  Oh, I know what it means to miss New Orleans!  I feel blessed each time I return for a visit that I once called that place home and even more blessed that some of its residents still claim me too.

Wishing you a day of indulgence in what makes your heart happy!
Happy Mardi Gras, y'all!