Assortment

With What You Have | 19

 

Words about contentment inspired this series that celebrates ingenuity, creativity, and resourcefulness. Join me in the comments and share what you've done with what you have.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It could have become a pillow cover. That's how I'd pictured it from the beginning when I won the fabric remnant ages ago in an ebay auction. But, for one reason or other, it never became that. Probably because it had to be this. 

A cosmetic bag. 

Using zipper chain left from the sofa slipcover project, and some natural linen for lining, I stitched together something useful, something beautiful, and oh so right to go with my mustard colored weekend bag. Of course it had to be this. 

Ah, travel. It opens up new places; it brings us back to favorite old ones. We carefully choose our destination, we thoughtfully consider our itinerary, we select our wardrobe and accessories, and we place them in bags that will be the only pieces of home we carry with us for those many days. Shouldn't these things that hold our portable lives be as lovely as they are useful? I think so. We should unzip our traveling life and smile at what's inside. 

Even (especially?) if it's a remnant of fabric made into a handmade bag for the potions and lotions and pastes. 

Do what you can with what you have. 

 

Zippered bag tutorial here

On packing a weekend bag

My thoughts exactly

 

 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the newly-released Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet, the first & second have released, the third and fourth are coming soon. Peruse the collection here. 

 

  

By The Last of Daylight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An hour, then another - and far later, one more. Time in uneven chunks was doled out in the library shed today, and good thing, as helter-skelter had become the way of things in there. Oy. Boxes were filled and loaded into the truck for donation, layers of dirt and leaves were swept, the trash can filled.

By the last of daylight, I organized the potting supplies, stacked the empty clay pots, dusted surfaces, and set the framed print in better view (Yes to art in sheds!). I drilled screws into the wall from which to hang the yardstick and grass sheers. 

Cleaning out a shed doesn't seem very glamorous, I know. But, at the end of the day, when you're standing there inside, seeing it set to rights like that, it really kind of is. 

 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the newly-released Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet, the first & second have released, the third and fourth are coming soon. Peruse the collection here. 

 

 

From the Cockpit

 

 

We were heaped on the bed, the whole lot of us last night, to see the video of him and what he does every day. We had an idea, of course, because he's so good at telling us the stories and painting in our minds how things go from a jump-ship cockpit.

But there's nothing quite like seeing it as if you were seated right behind him and his co-pilot, hearing them talk, hearing the radio comm between the smokejumpers on the ground and the smokejumpers on board, seeing the veils of smoke through the windscreen, seeing the charred land through the open tailgate at the rear of the plane (and smokejumpers sitting there, kicking their legs while the trees whiz by - don't worry, they're tethered in). 

This was a paracargo mission. Nearly 2 million acres have burned in Alaska so far this season. There are smokejumpers on the ground all over the vast state where there are very few roads, fighting the blazes, protecting structures, homes, and land. Re-supply missions of food, water, gear, and, we even heard on the radio, Copenhagen and Ezra's socks are bundled and shoved out the back of the plane, parachuting to hopefully land on an X marked on the ground. 

This is where the skill of the pilot is honed and tested, every mission, every time. While carefully monitoring air speed and altitude (150 - 350 feet above the earth), and considering winds on the ground as well as terrain, he directs and calls the cargo drop as he's flying the plane. Turning base - long final - short final - standby - KICK! Two jumpers on board give it a heave at the directive and out it goes, the static lines pulling the chutes open as the cargo falls. Cargo away.

The next minutes seem to drag like an eternity with only the drone of the engines and the whipping of wind making a fuss, and the pilot hopes he compensated enough for wind drift, he hopes the bundles won't land in the nearby trees, or worse, the nearby river. Then, finally, over the radio the voice of the jumper on the ground cracks through, Nailed it!  

We whoop and cheer from the bed. We rewind and watch it again. We can't stop proud-smiling. We can't stop loving him for all this. 

 

More about our smokejumper pilot here.

Alaska, on fire.

More about smokejumpers in this new book. 

 

Have a beautiful Monday, friends!

 

 

Have you been looking for a tastefully designed, small house plan that lives large? You may just find what you've been seeking in the newly-released Shelter Collection - four small floor plans designed for gracious living in 900-1400 square feet, the first & second have released, the third and fourth are coming soon. Peruse the collection here.