desimms clips 4u

* hihowdyho *I'm sorry this post title sounds like a surgery documentary that I would cover my eyes through. *That Anna (the other one) is too nice. What started as her making fun of me to my face (which is what helps her keep her job) ended with her saying very nice things on my blog. *She was promptly scolded for that. *Kidding. I wuvher. *If you were to photograph the inside of my brain right now, I am certain it would look exactly like the above. *That is my book cover. *Kidding again. *Last night I walked by Isabela hunched over the dining room table trying to draw something with her left hand and I overheard her mumbling I wish I was both-handed . * Good thinking , I told her. Then I spent five minutes staring at the ceiling and wondering if I were both-handed would I also then have enough coordination to be able to type with one hand and sew with the other? Which would do which? Hm. *I am so looking forward to getting on the other side of my book deadlines for many reas...

Hi Folks! Anna here. And by Anna, I mean Anna Michelle, not Anna Maria. That's right, today while Anna Maria Horner is in crazy-person-writing-a-book-on-a-deadline mode you get to sit through the ramblings of her intern Anna Michelle Johnson. Some of you may have read our interview from this past summer, and know that I started habitually reading this very blog several years ago - which means that I was completely, totally and absolutely over the moon when I had the opportunity to become an intern. I had a general idea of what a day in the life at designer's studio would look like, and the thought of working alongside someone as known and recognized as Anna Maria was literally a dream come true for me. So naturally I felt every initial fear and insecurity that would expectedly come from a young girl meeting and working with her role model. Luckily for me, those feelings were all completely unnecessary, and quickly overcome. Unlike my expectations, AMH has made it evident from ...

This past week amongst 7,253 things that I did, I asked my mom if she wouldn't mind going through our old family photo albums and pull any pictures that had anything that she made shown in the picture. As expected she relished in the task and a few days later I got this big manila envelope (in fact it blew right in with the tornadic weather yesterday) filled with some of my favorite photos, as well as some I couldn't remember ever having seen. What a joy to see. I'm working on a meaningful way to try and save some of them long term and also include in my upcoming book. It got me thinking about the documentation of handworks, especially as my mom remarked on the phone this morning that the process unearthed several memories of things she had made but couldn't find photos of. It made me thankful for this space, obviously, where I document small and large works. Today, after being begged since my waking hour, I sat down with the kids to watch an episode of Phineas and...

While I am not especially good at chronicling photos or artwork into albums or folders of and for my family there are certain scraps and bits of things that I hang onto. Not for any certain reason other than they feel especially poignant. And I am most certainly not great at organizing them, but they just get tucked here and there. I was cleaning out my closet on Saturday (just typing that doesn't quite cover how much that actually required of me). In the process this little card floated on the air down from the very top. A handwritten index card from a 6yr old Nicolas. Translated from his lovely phonetic spelling it reads: Whenever Juliana isn't here I will be there if you fall down. Nicolas turned 14 yesterday. I am so happy to have this postcard from his inner heart, his child heart. He was and is a gorgeous boy. Such a treasure to watch the rest as it unfolds. (And in my mind I can still hear little-him whispering words out loud very carefully in order to spell h...

I guess this is becoming an unofficial ritual with myself as I reflect on the year, no order of importance, some restating, some revelations, but each entry a recollection of what it was to live and breath through another year as me. In 2011... :: I became particularly practiced at goodbyes to my oldest without tears :: I realized that the reason we had to say goodbye so often was because we said several hellos, through many -sometimes quick but always welcome- trips, and that is good. :: Through trips, calls, texts, emails, skypes, phone photos, I discovered that I am as needed (maybe more) as always. :: I traveled to the other side of the country alone for the first time ever for 3 days (within 15 minutes of arriving my sweet husband called from the emergency room to ask me Roman's birthdate - Roman had fallen off of Isabela's shoulders and hit his head on the concrete- I think my reply to Jeff's question was something like"what's his birthdate? which one of you...

(photo is one corner of the girls new room do over, more soon) :: Candy Cane JoJo's + coffee = breakfast (my own special mathamathicals) :: Cookie Crisp cereal was eaten at lunch yesterday by someone. :: And potato chips were layered into a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for dinner. :: Okay, it was me. :: My appetite is 9 years old lately. :: I'm not pregnant. :: Nicolas will not put the guitar down. :: That is generally good except :: There is no other first song to learn on the guitar except Smoke on the Water (or CatScratchFever depending on your generation. But its the same song (almost) and it doesn't seem to ever go away.) :: He did teach himself the Tetris theme music which is awesome except :: It makes me anxious and want to organize everything in the house to maximize space. :: Kristen Wiig could be the funniest person on the planet. :: Roman met our friend the Question Mark. :: It started at my brother's house over Thanksgiving when I asked Roman to ...

Post Disclaimer: All photos reference the THAT of which I am thinking and not the THIS of which I am doing. There are too many THISs to photograph. Doing:: Replacing six 10 1/2 ft structural porch columns on the front of our house :: waiting impatiently to have this installed in the dining room :: and two of these and one of these in the hallway :: attending to the lingering details in Nicolas's room and the girls' room after having renovated both :: considering which day to buy our Christmas tree and therefore decorate the whole house Thinking:: About picking up all the little sunshine crochet squares I started last winter on the couch with Juliana and lots of Whoppers :: Wondering if I need all those things again to be able to do it :: Yes, I do :: I was originally inspired by an amazing blanket that I saw either on etsy or flickr or both.... I think by a talented (Northern?) European woman.... and she had it styled on a modern gray couch.... anyone? I have seen sever...

I had the fortunate experience as a growing young girl to have yearly visits with my 3 cousins (my only American cousins) in northern Indiana. Outside of cousins being pretty much the best part of any holiday, we were particularly lucky to have the perfect match up of ages, temperaments, and genders... my mild mannered sister Eleni paired up with my mature and kind cousin Liesl, my spirited brother George was the perfect match for my fiesty and mischievous cousin Curtis, and being the baby in my family I was plopped together for better or worse (always better) with sweet, bubbly Meghan - the other baby. And we were essentially the giggle girls. My cousins, I assumed from a very early age, had it so much better than us. They lived across the farm from my grandparents. My imagination pondered the luxury of just walking across a few acres of field and cornstalks to see your grandparents. Pie, potatoes and chocolate sheet cake just minutes away and likely once halfway there, you'd...

I took this just for you. In all my early morning no makeup, no hairbrush, no shower glory. Ahh photobooth, I loves ya. I tried to turn to the side so you could see the Versace Medusa insignia thingy. Stay classy , Anna.

If I were a checkout clerk at a grocery store, I would be the annoying kind that strikes up a conversation about the combinations of things that people are buying. I know I would. I would try not too, of course, but clerk-me would not be able to resist. Because of this, I often wonder what our clerks and baggers think of some of our purchase lists. Very often any amount of weirdness in our choices is buried in a pile of keeping this family eating, and also very often buried in a pile of tag-along helpers when we do our shopping. We might be one of the only families of 8 that chooses to shop in large herds. The local Publix is just a hop, skip and a horse away from us, and right next to some of the kids favorite food, so we are often all here. Mostly split up all over the store, one in the bathroom, Jeff or I fetching a few from the cookie counter, there is always someone using the blood pressure machine at the pharmacy without permission and typically Roman likes to push the cart....

Ever since I started blah-blah-blahing about the mess I am making in the front yard, I have patiently worked little by little to transform roughly 1500 sq ft of former grassyland into mulchyland. Its been over a month now since I began the process of killing grass with plastic sheeting, pulling up said plastic (whilst holding my nose), cutting and layering cardboard over the dead sod, shoveling 10,000 lbs of topsoil (one shovel at a time) over that, and finally laying 15 cubic yards of mulch over that (that was me + a shovel too (I am 5lbs lighter and super strong now)). That blue vintage iron bench would be my cherry on top. The bench is Demacopoulos family vintage, as in, I grew up with it on my back porch. Now its blue. And is inspiring lots of plant choices for the whole garden. A few things that I learned about this process is that you absolutley HAVE to avoid any slits or cracks in your cardboard or by golly those little crabgrass stinkers will creep right though. Though ...

In a matter of days what has been an extraordinarily good summer will officially change into something that I am going to, for now, optimistically categorize as just late summer. With the four middle children off to their schools since Monday, I have insisted that summer is not quite over yet. Juliana is home still, if only till this weekend, so I trick myself into believing that its not over. Roman will begin a school too, in his own little environment most days with other little ones .... which I am sure will be welcome to his nature, the little-one-of-many boy. I didn't quite wish summer away as I have in the past, exhausted with people, focused on making work work. And shockingly, everything worked out just fine. Every single moment here this warm stretch of 100 days or so, has been made up of the needs, wants, musings, cheer, cries, projects, messes, meals and laughter of so many people. This chorus of bodies has very often been overwhelming, with a business that doesn...

It took me creating a new little embroidery- specifically for a table scarf- to tidy up my dining room, the whole house really, and share some pictures of it with you. I don't remember where I left off in showing the changes that I've made to the mess hall. I know you've likely seen it in its Raindrop blue stages here a few times. I also vaguely recall talking about how I wanted it to be cream colored by thanksgiving one year (didn't happen, it was all I could do to stuff a turkey that year)... and then I still picture these pictures of my boy on crutches sitting against cream walls. Anyway. The curtains are not new, but a patching of two fabrics that I created a few months ago, after deciding that no single fabric was doing the job for me. And I found myself hopping from the one turquoise fabric to another red fabric , deciding on neither, making something out of a whole other piece with some patchwork thingermagiggins across them only to take them down afte...

My friend Kathy was kind enough to ask me to share a look at my sewing space, so you can see that over here today , as well as lots of other very inspiring sewing spaces for the rest of the month! Anyway, it goes without say, that I have been chomping at the bit to get this place in order enough to share some looks at what the new attic studio has been turning into. I am a firm believer in slow realization for any kind of living space. In other words I think the best spaces are those that get decorated, adorned, furnished, over time after use and function come to light. You can certainly fill a space in a matter of days, but really making it come together in the best possible way for me takes time and doing it wrong a few times, shifting, etc. The only problem with this method being that it makes me and my room a bit camera shy until it gets where I want to be....wherever, or whenever that is. But you know. Every space in my house is a work in progress. So with this new space ...

Here's today's bullets, look out: :: I am so thrilled, honored, humbled, excited (and all those other things that make me sound nice and modest) to be over visiting with Amanda for her soulful mothering series today. I wrote about my messy kids. Ha, no not really. Well, sort of. :: I have a new blog banner, get outta your reader and get over here to see it, you. :: And a new front page. :: I updated my FAQ page :: I updated my about page to include the facts that I have actually written two books, not one, and have 6 children not 5. Hasty, you say? I think it was time. :: I created a new slide show of my Quilt Market booth :: I (finally) have slide shows for Innocent Crush and Loulouthi up on the fabrics page . :: I now have a Loulouthi flickr group waiting for your projects. :: There's a Little Folks and Folksy Flannels sale going on in the shop now (yay!) :: I have a Sample Room ! I do, I do, I do! At least while it lasts. :: I love tabouli. :: The kids capt...

But a topic that I have been thinking about a lot lately. And that is DO. What I do. What we all do. But maybe perhaps also kinda what I've done . I speak of course about my work. The window that my website, and especially, for the past five years, my blog, provides into my process, which has transformed over the years, has generated lots of emails, phone calls, handwritten notes of asking how . How do I do it? Sometimes its very specific, like how did I get into fabric design, etc. - a topic that (maybe its just me but) I feel has been covered well over the past few years in the creative blog realm-, how did you get a book published, how do you care for all those kids and run a business, etc. But often just a very general how, which I sort of sometimes don't know how to answer except to say that I am still figuring it out. I will admit that the approaches can be a little overwhelming sometimes given my schedule with work, and of course my family, but I always, always ...

My favorite part about reading the comments from my last post was the utter gentleness that each of you who had constructive criticism exercised in your words. I am here to tell you, that yes, I know. I know. Really. I do. That intro piece is not right . Which is partly why I loved it so much yet definitely have not embraced it as a finished work. It entertains me, and even makes Nicolas laugh after a few days distance. I am thankful that the snazzy interwebuals allow me to share the process in all its quirky glory. And really. An animated intro? Not my biggest goal in life. Silly to begin with perhaps, but sometimes we just can't help ourselves. I will look back on this like I do the photograph of myself at age 2 wearing nothing (really, nothing!) but a football helmut and a little undershirt that was very tight on my chubby belly.... a family favorite yes, but not quite right to share with the whole world. Ahem. But speaking of works in progress, off to my corner of the ...

I played baseball with my brother in the backyard as often as he would agree to play with a girl. This would only be when I could catch him between Atari, playing army with Steve Beck up the street, his daily ingestion of $1.49 Totino's frozen pizza, and better offers to do more fun things with cooler kids. I was tomboyish, but not a typical tomboy. I liked playing with the boys best because they seemed to argue less, but I also liked figuring out things that were pretty too, like fancy barbie clothes and flower doodles on my math folder. It took me a while to dress like a girl though. Most of it seemed a fuss, got in the way of doing more important things like catching pop flies. (If you're here for anything of value, please skip down to the last part of this post, I'll turn my back.) It took me a while to figure this all out. Girlness. And clothes. And how girls wore clothes. And what seemed most important was that if I was going to do that, I didn't want t...

Eeech. Jeff just emailed me a picture of a scaly, little, skinny ankle, with a surgery scar, some inkpen marks (from surgery I guess) and what looks the bulge of screw heads near the surface. The subject line was "Nicolas wants you to see this". Of course he does. He loves flaunting anything scary or disgusting in my face. They are at the orthopedist right now getting the cast off in favor of I'm not sure what- waiting to see if it'll be a splint or another cast. I feel like I'm gonna lose my Luna bar. But I don't think its because I'm grossed out. I think its because I'm scared that he's actually healing. I want him to heal. I want him to heal. You know what he'll want to do after he's healed right? Right. Eeechblechdahblunchech. I took these pictures just a few days after he got the cast. Mopey boy. As sad as its been, there has been safety in that little leg cage, at least for me. I have had so much sympathy for this kid. ...

I feel like I can only remember the last few weeks of this year. The weeks that I've been waiting for in a sense. All of us together in this house playing, cooking, eating, sleeping, teasing, caring. Being together. But just like last year, as I think a little harder, season by season, child by child, I can make out the changes, the growth, the moments and the in-between that made 2010 what is was. In 2010: :: I made as much as I could and when it still wasn't enough, I asked for help :: That's new, but it welcomed new employees to my business and new friends to my flock :: I've decided on some things that I simply don't want to do with my time, so I hired someone for that too :: I am now sure that if my work doesn't allow for personal creation time, that I must take it by force, and I did that a few times :: I killed so many situations with kindness that my cheeks are killing me from smiling :: I determined that its still the best policy :: My cheeks will g...