when i see a sewing machine i get a little lurch in my belly. my own sewing machine doesn't illicit the response as much.... it's when i see one from a distance sitting, waiting, ready to be useful. yesterday i saw a sewing machine set up on a little table, sitting in a living room window. it was just a glance as i drove past the house. and there was a rush of emotion. this happens if i see a dusty and unused sewing machine at a yard sale or the goodwill too. or a picture of a sewing machine in a magazine. it's hard to see them sitting silent and static. i want them all to be my friend. and i want to go home and start making things. memories of my grandmothers invade me and i hear the hummy clacky sounds and see them bent over the little lighted machine. and i know that my relationship to sewing is one of the many gifts from the women i am lucky to have as my ancestors.

my love affair with journal writing is something i can't explain. i don't remember my life before i had a journal. it comes from before i could write, before i could read. when i was 4 my mother would sit me down for a few minutes everyday and ask me to tell her what i was feeling about my day. and she would write it word for word in a little red diary. my first journal. from then on i always had a pen and paper and piles of books around me. my parents still chuckle, 40 years later when they see me with my ever present backpack or shoulder bag loaded with books and pens and paper and my journal and my camera. i am never without a pen and paper in some format. boxes of journals chronicle my life.

i've been making journals this weekend. beautiful old papers and photographs and letters and labels all converging on a moleskin book. they are really quite lovely. and i love making them.

edgar and i had the most lovely walk through the harbor tonight, just as it was growing dark. the lights sparkling off the water. the boats clanging in the dusk. and rising above it all, the sounds of a straggling marching band leaving the neighborhood bar where they'd been all afternoon since the end of the university football game. the stadium is not far and saturday afternoons in fall are often energetic and loud. it's wonderful. but tonight was something a little magical as the marching band left the bar, drunkenly playing drums and trumpets and singing 'oh when the saints' as they wove up the hill in a pack back to campus.

i should be in the shower. but instead, i'm sitting on the porch swing while my husband sits beside me and plays the guitar. he's singing and i'm butchering every song i attempt. it's a magnificent friday afternoon. and hot like summer although it's late in september. we've been painting at the latest house we're working on. i started a little work in the paper room at the studio today, but cut it short to take tom some lunch and help him paint. we are hot and sweaty and a bit covered in paint. but these moments on our back porch with a guitar and cats and edgar seem pretty idyllic. floyd is chasing the squirrels who are trying to bury crabapples. and tom keeps picking all my favorite ryan adams songs to play.
i hope the weekend is a wonderful one. for everyone.

yesterday we wandered around picton. it was our anniversary and we took the afternoon off for a drive along the lake and a quick little ferry hop over to prince edward county. the vines were lush. the light was amazing. we ate dinner at our favorite little spot tucked on top of a cliff called the lake on the mountain. the moon followed us home.....a massive harvest moon in a pink and blue sky. and we had a bottle of veuve clicquot chilled and waiting for us. it was a perfect end to the summer.

i love what i do. i am happiest when i'm searching for the right colour or the right image or the right paper or fabric. i'm just happy to be immersed in all the materials that intrigue me. and the best pieces happen from that. and that is how i'm spending my days now. happily at work in the studio. i have lisa and denise from 'willow' to thank for that.

'willow' is a lovely shop on princess street in kingston. they are carrying quilts, napkins, pendants and journals from my studio. i feel very fortunate to have my items among the lovely items they carry. it's more convenient to find my stuff there and i'm sure you'll find other treasures besides.

i am still happy to sell from my studio, but it will be by appointment. i was never able to keep the hours that i set for the store because our lives were always a little too full.