Birdie

I may have gone slightly overboard with the camera on this one.

It went kind of like this. On Friday, instead of parking myself on the sewing room floor and gazing blankly at stacks of fabric and hoping for inspiration..... I sat on my red couch with a few old "Country living" magazines and a cup of coffee. I flipped through until I found something warm and wonderful, ripped it out, and then ditched the rest of the mag into my recycling bin. Sometimes there is just way too much stuff around.

One of the pages that I ripped out contained this lovely set of photos and inspiring write-up explaining the project. I loved the images of the birds and branches. So, I got Jane to draw me a birdie because mine came out looking like a walrus.

And it birthed this bag.


This bag makes me happy for a bunch of reasons. First, it was wonderful to lose myself in a project again. That doesn't happen every day. Second, those mustardy circles were a gift from my friend Lory. Love them. The fuzzy mustard side pieces came from Mrs Rickert. The coordinating branch, bird, and interior came from an unknown woman who last summer left boxes of fabric on her deck after her garage sale and phoned me with the invitation to pick them up. The buttons make me think of special people like Valerie, Ida, Loretta, Lettuce.... and it frightens me to think that I may be losing track of who brought me which buttons. I hate that. But I love it because the generosity is overwhelming.

This weekend, the chunky blocks of ice melted off our street and driveway. Pools of water sat there, shining in the bright sunlight. My Sam took his bike out of the garage and crossed the street to refresh his riding skills on the sunny church sidewalk. Then he and his siblings celebrated with a springtime slurpie at the Co-op.

Ah.... At long last. Hope for a bright spring and good-bye to the longest winter ever, EVER.

The birds are coming back. Do we dare to hope for change for Darfur? Things don't look too good for the people we would like to feed. The expulsion of aid agencies across Darfur is critical and deadly for many, many people. Do what you can to get involved politically. If you've not already done so, revisit this post for direction on how to implore our government to do what it can.

The bag..... bids begin at $45, and I will leave the auction open until 7:00 am tomorrow morning. This is in response to readers who can not be at their computer in the evening and hope for other oppurtunities to bid. I appreciate your feedback, it helps make this project effective.

Happy Bird-day!