- photos I’m anxious to get onto the page

- new product I’m inspired to use

- a design task or challenge I’ve set for myself -- like solving a puzzle, it's  a fun approach for me.

"Embroider Me" | Supplies: Sweet Storytelling by Sahlin Studio; Flair Box 3, Popup Studio Brushes by Paula Kesselring; Antoinnette by Shannon Hegarty; Stitch Medley by Quirky Twerp; Pure Happiness by Designs by Anita; Just Linens 1 by Maplebrook Studio; Etc by Polka Dot Pixels; Westchester by One Little Bird; Homespun Stitches by Kitschy Digitals; Storytelling Alpha 2 by Amanda Heimann; Felix Titling, Jane Austen, Traveling Typewriter fonts

This is a page inspired by a design challenge. My class “Scrapbook Page Layers” starts next Tuesday, and in the 3rd week of class I’ll be covering layering techniques and ideas for canvases as well as how combining favorite foundations offers great layering opportunities. Thus this page – a combo of grid and band foundations.

As I laid out the design, I started selecting papers without knowing what the subject would be. As things came together, I saw that this was a page that demanded just one (or maybe two) photos I loved for their look and the feeling they evoked. It wasn’t a design that was going to work for event photos or any of my messier everyday life photos.

So . . . I chose a photo I love and repeated it in black and white --- but what was my message? Well . . . that I love Isaac and our relationship. A poem I’ve loved for a long time came to mind and I used it to drive my embellishment and title choices.

SILLY SONG by Federico Garcia Lorca

Mama,
I wish I were silver.

Son,
You’d be very cold.

Mama,
I wish I were water.

Son,
You’d be very cold.

Mama,
Embroider me on your pillow.

That, yes!
Right away!

I forget why Neil did a “quick” clean on this when the first snow fell over a week ago. Maybe it was that we thought it would melt. It didn’t. And it’s a glare of ice – until today. Now it’s a glare of ice under fluffy snow that we’re hoping will melt a little and be a bumpy mess that will give us some traction.

Only stuck once though – and I got out with a bunch of cardboard under my tires.

Something I think will make my life better today.

Because we all spend too much time looking for chargers – for phones, cameras, nintendo ds, geocache gps, rechargable batteries. I’ve had my eye on it at Barnes & Noble since Christmas—and I see it’s marked down today. I've liked the functionality of many I've seen, but not the faux wood or the finish -- love this bamboo, though.

I’d like to order it, but I gave my membership card to Josh last week and he’s not here and I can’t find his wallet and it seems a shame not to grab that additional discount.

Something I thought would make my life better last year

What is it? That’s a good question. It came with my “Beach Body” kit. Right. Enough said.

Something Isaac got for Christmas that upset him.

It’s a dammit doll – I didn’t know what it was as he opened it or why he looked so upset. He got rid of the instructions to bang the doll when you’re angry and handed the tender care of it over to me. And now it’s in my “basket.”

Something that’s making me a nag.

In less than one week, Joshua has lost 2 hot mugs – one of them is a really expensive one. He keeps telling me he’ll find them but it’s hard because this is finals/midterms week and he rode a different bus Monday and he’s only at school in the morning and only in one or two classrooms each day. . . . and so it goes on and so I nag.

Something cool that came in the mail

These are for fun stuff going on in March.

Something I made yesterday

An image to promote my class that starts on Tuesday. (Registration closes Monday 1/23).

OXFORD – James Oby “Jim” Hodge, 70, of Oxford passed away Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011, at his home.

He was the husband of Barbara C. (Hendrickson) Hodge for 51 years. Born Feb. 23, 1941, in Norwich, he was the son of the late Grant and Louise (Spicer) Hodge.

The land that comprises Oxpres Farms, a dairy farm with barns and land in both Oxford and Preston, has been an ever-present part of Jim’s life. At 7 years old, he walked alongside his father and brother, E. Donald Hodge, herding their dairy cows from downtown Oxford to this newly purchased land. When their father died in 1960, 19- year-old Jim and 23-year old Donald became partners in operating the family farm they came to call “Oxpres Farms.”

After retiring from farming in 2005, though lung and heart disease confined Jim’s movements, he still got around the farm on a four-wheeler rigged to hold and oxygen tank, riding through fields and pastures to visit his brother, his sons and his grandchildren, all living on the land he’d known since childhood. He loved the Atlanta Braves,  watching the birds, evening chats with his sons, the regular traffic that a farm brings even after retirement, talking politics and pulling a good prank.

In addition to his wife, Barbara, Jim is survived by one daughter, Deborah A. Hodge and husband Neil Niman of Durham, N.H., two sons, Mark G. Hodge and wife Pepper of Oxford, Matthew J. Hodge and partner Julie Micha of Oxford; eight grandchildren, Joshua and Isaac Niman, Sara, Hannah, Emma and Ethan Hodge, Kassidy and Jenna Hodge, one brother E. Donald Hodge and wife Barbara J. Hodge; four sisters-in-law, four brothers-in-law and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his nephew Terry S. Hodge.

A memorial service for Jim will be held on Jim’s farm in the spring. There will be no calling hours.

Memorial contributions in Jim’s memory may be sent to the Oxford Fire Dept. Emergency Squad, PO Box 172, Oxford, NY 13830 or to Hospice and Palliative Care of Chenango County, 21 Hayes St., Norwich, NY 13815

I took this photo on November 1st when my Dad came home from the hospital in one more of his incredible turnarounds. He was so very tough -- as is my mom. I love them both immensely, and I am committed to making important changes in my own life so I can be just as tough and live just as productive and rich a life.