Miss Potter Strikes Again

If you have been around MySister’sJar for any length of time longer than three days, you are probably aware of my fascination with the movie Miss Potter.  I  L O V E  it.  That is all.

All around me little hints of my favorite film show up to bring a smile to my heart if not also to my face.  A wooden hedgehog in a craft store yesterday.  My watercolor paint brushes standing lonely in a smudged jar.  A vintage, faded-yellow-with-time envelope that was mailed to my grandmother in 1928.  A stuffed Peter Rabbit in his blue jacket with brass buttons in TJ Maxx.  Everywhere.  Even at the river last Monday.  I took a picture of my shadow because it reminded me of Beatrix.

I imagined Beatrix saying her first lines from the movie, “There’s something delicious about writing the first words of a story.  You never quite know where they’ll take you.  Mine took me here….” as she was sitting beside crystal blue water in the Lake District.  Here she is wearing the outfit for my shadow:

Okay, it was mostly the hat, but it DID remind me of my fellow author/artist/lover-of-nature bosom friend, a couple generations removed.  My nature journal brings joy to my soul.  I cannot draw nearly as well as Beatrix, but it is inspiring to try.  The smell of the eraser.  The rainbow of colored pencil crayons in the RIGHT order in my prisma-color box. The challenge of copying some little tidbit that God created in nature for US!  Yes, for us to admire and marvel at… and draw in our nature journals.  :o)

Do you have a favorite movie that shines reminders to you everywhere?

Christmas Creativity

My sister asked me to make an apron for her in April or May.  She sent me a picture of what she wanted…. black with tiny polka-dots and a few faint ruffles on the bottom edge.  Black didn’t seem practical for baking…. flour, butter and sugar will show up like a fly in the milk.  But black and pink are so cute together! I’ve been wanting an apron myself for quite some time, so the idea appealed to me.  My sister-in-law, Jennie, came for a visit in March and brought me beautiful Beatrix Potter Benjamin Bunny fabric…. perfect for an apron for a Miss Potter super-fan!

June rolled around and we were off to a cabin for vacation.  Before we left I gathered fabric, ric-rac, ribbon, thread and I found a pattern that looked fairly straight forward.  The creative juices were flowing…. but sewing time didn’t present itself at the cabin.  Bummer. 

December rolled around and my sister was coming for Christmas!  I had great expectations, but I didn’t actually get the apron sewn before gift giving commenced.  It was more of a last day of December gift.  She loved it and so did I.  I just had to share how cute it turned out.  Now hopefully I’ll get mine done before next Christmas baking season!

The Number Two

Interesting how life comes at you. This week was obviously brought to us by the Number Two at the Crosby household. In retrospect, I’m wondering if there is a pattern that rotates week by week through the numbers zero to nine, and I just never noticed???

What is she talking about? you ask yourself. Let me briefly explain the twos of this week.

Two flat tires on two different cars two days apart…. weird, I know. Rick called me one evening and shouted in a half-frantic voice over a very loud vibrating noise, “I think my tire is going flat,” BLAM! “Yep, my tire just blew. I’ll call you later.” I never said a word to him, I just listened to the story as it occurred in real time. Two days later Rick woke me up at 5:00 a.m. (two and a half hours TOO early) to tell me that my van had a flat tire and he had to go to work. Of course, it was one of the days I had to drive somewhere….

Emails have arrived this week from two different ladies, both introducing themselves as our new adoption case worker at our new agency, Gladney Center for Adoption. I still haven’t figured that one out. I’m simply glad for double man-power aimed at Zaza’s file in Texas.

We have two extra kids for the next two days.

And my all time favorite TWO of the week,  the two Beatrix Potter Collection books.  I was digging through the books at Goodwill and came across said BP book FULL of her original illustrations of bunnies in jackets with brass buttons.  Slowly I paged my way through Benjamin, Jemima Puddle Duck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and all the others. They were all there in full glory.  Already piled in my cart were important and pertinent books that corresponded to our current and upcoming homeschool units.  So with a sigh, knowing we did not NEED it, I put Beatrix and her friends back on the shelf. (Did I fail to mention that Miss. Potter is my all time favorite movie?)  The next day I received a wrapped gift from my friend Darla.  She smiled and told me it was for Zaza’s birthday, because we don’t know when her birthday is yet and we’ve known and loved her for a year and a half, so we obviously missed her birthday.  Yes, it was the exact same hardcover Beatrix Potter Collection book that I longingly drooled over.  Inside her garage sale find Darla wrote, “For Zaza!  It’s your mama’s favorite book!”   :o)

If next week is brought to us by the number nine, I’m hoping for nine days under 85 degrees, nine coupon books in Sunday’s paper, nine phone calls from long distant friends and gas for 99 cents.