Spaces we Ignore, But we Never Forget

When I was a little girl, I had my very own key to my very own house. 

It was a brown house, it was made of wood, it was square, it had a cool roof and I built it with my Dad.  I guess it became what us adults might call a "playhouse". But, when I was a little girl, I had my very own key to my very own house, you see.

It had fold down bunk beds
A fold down work table
2x4 shelves everywhere 
Operable, push-out windows
A spy window in the front door
Styrofoam insulation 
Quilted curtains 
Carpet  
And my very favorite…
 
a secret trap door

This place was MY place. It had a lock on the door, and I had the key.
 
If I wanted to paint it, I would paint it. If my friends and me wanted to write on the walls, we would. If I wanted to sleep in there all by myself, I would. I would take my walkie talkie and my cat, and we would sleep down there. It was just my size. And it was mine.

My Dad taught me innumerable skills when we were building that house of mine. I remember my frustration with him when he told me we couldn't put a roof on it until I used the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the length of the rafters. I remember how I would cry and beg him to just do it for me. But I also remember how trigonometry was sort of a breeze in High School, I also remember how it feels to get head-high deep in a subject and know the ins and outs of something. I now know that if I ever want to do anything in this world, I can. If ten year old me can draw scaled blue prints, calculate the length of her own house's rafters, hammer all of the nails, and put on every shingle, I can absolutely handle anything else that comes my way. Absolutely.

I think it was there that I learned about independence. I remember how scared I was, as I took the short trek from my parents' down to mine. It's maybe a 20 yard distance, but you know, there were mountain lions, snakes, scorpions, raccoons, dragons, skunks, javelina and scary lizards out there just waiting for little old me…right? It was on those walks that I learned to navigate the line between my vivid imagination and what was real. It was on those short walks that I learned that if I was too scared, I could always go home, but the best thing to do was to do it on my own.

Today, when I wandered down there to that house of mine again for the first time in years, I found little reminders of these lessons scattered everywhere. The lanterns still had batteries in them, the books were still next to the bed, the lipsmakers still in the medicine cabinet. Shoot, there was even still trash left in the trash can. So I sat in that little time machine of mine, I walked around and bumped my head on the ceiling, and I took pictures of those little spots that were so big to me then. The spots in that tiny space that taught me lessons. The places that I may have ignored in the passed 10 or so years, but I have never forgotten. The glow-in-the dark paint still in the tube, the magnets still neatly placed inside the medicine cabinet, the little birdhouse that I was making, the book that I read in there when I was in college and was scared to grow up…the bracelet my friend made from a toothbrush. All of those things make all of me.

And I gotta say, when that time comes in my life and I'm ready to have kids of my own, we're going to build them their own 'houses'. I want to teach them what my Dad taught me, when we built mine together. I want them to know that anything is possible, that they have the power within them to do anything they want. That I'm here to help, I'm here to guide…but their best friend is themselves, and their own beautiful minds can take them anywhere.

Oh, and that toothbrush bracelet I mentioned way up there? I'm rocking it right now as I sit in my queen-size 'adult' bed, in my 'adult' apartment, and I don't think I'm going to take it off. When I look at it now, as I go about my 'complicated' and 'hectic' 'adult' life, it will remind me that I really haven't come that far…that I'm still doing the same stuff that my Dad helped me learn when I was a little girl…when I had my very own key to my very own house.

This is the bracelet...reminding me to not take life so seriously...in the middle of my grownup jewelry. That's what adornment is all about to me, but that's for another post ;)

I think this post about lessons I learned from my Dad shall join this post about lessons I learned from my Mom <3
I hope you are all having a great day.
xoxo,
Adie

It's a beautiful day

I'm sitting here enjoying this amazing Arizona Spring day, about to head out to a little sewing group and an early Easter dinner so I thought I'd check in and give you a teeny tiny update: 

One:                                                                                             
I'm a little late on posting this, but my Android-owning self hopped on the Instagram train the other day!! Find me using this screen name: @adie_ if you'd like :)

Two:

Happy happy happy Spring, and for those that celebrate, happy Easter!

Three::

Remember when I was freaking out about Titanic 3D here? Welp, I don't know if Danielle and I could have enjoyed it more. For those of you that have seen it too, wasn't it MUCH crazier in 3D? I have a strange fascination/mortal fear of large vessels inside and outside of large bodies of water, so when key horrible events were happening related to the above, I was seriously shaking in my boots (Danielle and probably half of the theater can attest to that!)
Aside from that, I also really loved that Danielle and I made a point to re-analyze the movie even though both of us have seen it countless times throughout our lives. I guess it was really special to re-watch it through our new life 'lenses' and see which heart strings were tugged now that we're older and have new priorities in life.

Four:

I'm making headway in Patti Smith's book, Just Kids. It's amazing, and I'm really going to hate the day I finish it. The writing comes across with such ease that it seems like she is one of my good friends. When I read books like that it really infiltrates my life. So much so, that I have to resist the strange urge to tell her life stories as if they are my own, or those of a good friend..."Oh, you're reading a Ginsberg book? Well, when I first met him, he thought I was a boy and bought me a sandwich!" ahahaha ;) If you haven't already, I really recommend it.

Five:

Mixed blessing alert! I didn't pass a placement test for school (for those of you that don't know, I'm getting my post-baccalaureate certification in Elementary Education...more on that in a future post) which would have allowed me to take my final 3 classes in the program. This means that I will have to push back those classes until the Fall, which is when I'd planned on finishing the whole shebang and when I'd hoped to be doing my student teaching...a big fat delay in my whole process. BIG BUMMER, right? 
Well, I'm just saying fughheettabooout it! I can' change it, so I might as well embrace it as a beautiful opportunity to work harder in the studio. So, I've decided I'm going to produce a Spring/Summer Adiemade update. Keep those beautiful eyeballs peeled, because I have a few great one of a kind and other special pieces in the works. 

I'd better get back out there and enjoy this beautiful weather! I hope you all are as well and are having the most amazing day evvaaarrrr!!
xoxo,
Adie

Happiness is

 

A 60 degree day on the 3rd of March
A "Hello, life is beautiful" kind of day

One filled with children
with love
and with chocolate
Lots
of
chocolate

Where there are hammocks and swings
teepees and chickens
soda pop and fresh baked cookies
cows and horses
and ipods and wiis
beer and spagetthi
ponds and wiener dogs

Where this family that you totally love...
discusses "remember when"s and "that one time"s
And you listen
and you're grateful

for that little kid over there spilling soda on the floor
for his killer score in the Michael Jackson Experience
for the...I hope it's chocolate...stuck to your laundry

the Adele sing along sessions
the underdogs
learning the Thriller dance with your boyfriend's Mom
and all of the laughs
and every single smile

 

Today was Addison's sister and neice's birthday party in Skull Valley. It was beautiful. Just what I needed. Happy birthday to Shauna and Sophia! Love you!
xoxo,
Adie

Hi, 2012!

So, I took forever to begin writing this post.
I really wanted it to be amazing...it's a post about the new year, after all. I wanted to encapsulate my year of 2011. I wanted to scrawl and scratch out all of it. The beautiful and the ugly. The tiny, stunning memories I wanted to hold on to forever.

I wanted to write about how much better 2012 will be, because it's always supposed to be 'better', right? Oh boy. I wanted to do that.
But, you know what? I'm not gonna.

Because, when I sat down to get it all out, to shower the interwebs with all of 2011's beautifully complicated intricacies as I bid it adieu and welcomed in 2012, all I could come up with was this:


"2011 was...hhmmm...like any other year."

Good, bad, ugly, serendipitous, beautiful, horrible, incredible, normal, new, old....all the time. 
In 2011, I lived. 

It's a strange place to be in, this 5-days-into-a-new-year sorta place. It feels like we're commanded to be either saying goodbye to the past or welcome the future with open arms. I mean we have all of the "year in reviews", the "best of" stuff, the resolutions, all of the "this year I will....", but where is the RIGHT NOW?


Well, you guys, here is my now:


Hearing my sweet love saying, "I love you. You make me happy." while he cooks a beautiful meal with this beautiful song filling my heart and my ears. Squeezing him tight in our cute, cramped, yellow paint filled kitchen. It's out of a movie and it's right here.

This sweet boy of mine and a small group of friends sure did have a beautiful time saying hello to 2012, though, I'll tell you what. But this year felt different. Maybe it's because it was 'drama'-free. Maybe it's because I'm getting older. Maybe it's just because. But this time it was all about being present. Being present and grateful for it all.

 So, this year, if I 'resolve' to do anything, it'll be to be more grateful for all of the beautiful moments I experience every single day of every single week, in every single month in every single year....while they're happening ;)


xoxo,
Adie

A little late...

Hiiiiiii!
So, this is awkward... I know Christmas was soooo last year and all, but I'm finally out of the holiday craze cloud, missing you all and ready to share the few holiday pictures I've been squirreling away for the past few weeks or so! Yay!


Better late than never, as they say ;)

This year, Addison and I decided to have our lover's Christmas celebration early, and boy was that siiiiccckkk! The whole time we were sipping on our "Christmas eve" drinks getting in the spirit, I kept thinking to myself "How cool is it being an adult and just deciding we can have Christmas early if we wanna?" So rad.

On the real Christmas morning, we celebrated with our families and then finished off the night with a trip to the world's largest gingerbread village which just so happens to be in my hometown! I swear that it gets bigger and better every year, and this year was no exception. My heart seriously melts when we walk through those little houses, and I feel a huge amount of calm (as silly as this probably sounds) when I think about the time people take out of their lives to bond with each other in making these candy confections. Amazing! 


So anyway, just in case some of you were out there sitting in front of your computer thinking, "man, I'd really like to look at some more Christmas pictures...like, bad", then you're in the right place ;)

Lover's Christmas Eve (2 days before the real deal)

Biggest Christmas tree you've ever seen, I know

 

 

Christmas snowglobe/music box collection. At my Dad's.

At the world's largest gingerbread village. Prescott's downtown courthouse! <3

 I hope everyone is finding this year to be beautiful and inspiring, and I'll be back soon soon soon (as in probably tomorrow) with my photographs from New Years! xoxo
-Adie