molly irwin

hold it up to the light

It's the choice of a lifetime, I'm almost sure.
I will not live my life in between anymore.
If I can't be certain of all that's in store
This far it feels so right.
I will hold it up; hold it up to the light.

The search for my future has brought me here.
This is more than I'd hoped for, but sometimes I fear
That the choice I was made for will someday appear,
And I'll be too late for that flight.
So hold it up; hold it up to the light.

It's too late to be stopped at the crossroads.
Each life here, each a possible way
But wait and they all will be lost roads.
Each road's getting shorter the longer I stay.

Now as soon as I'm moving my choice is good.
This way comes through right where I prayed that it would.
If I keep my eyes open and look where I should
Somehow all of the signs are in sight
If I hold it up to the light.

I said God, will you bless this decision?
I'm scared, Is my life at stake?
But I see if you gave me a vision
Would I never have reason to use my faith?

I was dead with deciding afraid to choose.
I was mourning the loss of the choices I'd lose.
But there's no choice at all if I don't make my move
And trust that the timing is right.
Yes and hold it up; hold it up to the light.

-- David Wilcox, from Big Horizon

even better when you hear him tell it.

Happy weekend.

things i heard today

"My favorite part of school was lunch." -- Joan, age 6

"Hey ... the eighth letter of the alphabet is H and my name begins with H and I'm eight." - Helen, age 8

"You supposss sing cows in da bawn" -- Marty, age 2

real people are fascinating

[Helen makes bubbles, May 2008]

I am the gal who chats with people in the grocery store check out line.  I like to float among groups at parties, not hunkering down in any one spot for long, but skimming the top of conversations interacting a bit and moving on.  That's me.

Being away from my writing here on a more frequent basis has me thinking about why I keep a blog.  Truth is I love it. 

As a former sales professional, I thoroughly enjoyed the face time with clients and prospective clients, in most cases having easy conversation in the process.  Sometimes I would just click with somebody and that made the job an absolute pleasure.  I miss this. 

Being at home to raise small ones is very important to me, but can be isolating, especially in a town where most of my relationships were professionally based.  And the fact is ... those parties I mentioned, those are very infrequent these days.  This has become my little party place.  This is my spot for conversation starters and ideas and sharing and connections.  And while I do have those things in the 'real life', the blog is an extension of my social self and I'm very thankful for the medium.

I'm most appreciative of the interaction here.  Some of you come in and read and are not grocery-store-check-out-chatters, leaving no trace but a bleep on the stats page.  That's perfectly okay and you are welcome here all day long.  Some however, have said hello, or offered advice or affirmation, or shared a photo or a story of their own creating what I believe is a spark of something intended as friendship - and I am taking it just that personally and twirling through the grass as my daughter does, clutching something special and meaningful.  And I thank you.

Celebrities ... I'm not much for following their happenings.  But real people, well -- I think everyone is attractive in some way.  I really do.  Real people sharing real things, that amazes me.

This is why I blog, I think.

Exercising the writing muscles doesn't hurt either.

----------------------------------------------------------

What's been going on?

• Paul caught a 36" striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay last week - delicious!
• We went strawberry picking (brought home 16 lbs. of them) with the kids and some friends
• our neighbor gave us a jar of clover honey from the bees they keep in their backyard, which we quickly devoured over toast
• I'm enjoying Hideaway, by The Weepies, as highly recommended by Andrea Scher
• I wrote a two page letter to my daughter today, prompted by this post by Kelly Rae Roberts  (via Ali)  I want her to know exactly what she is like at eight years, and eight months -- instead of wondering
• A whole lot of work was accomplished for Pattern Builders (which needs to be a bigger priority in my life and has been occupying a big chunk of my brain lately.)
• I'm playing around with facebook (yeah ... I know, like I have time for that.)
• I'm working up a layout for my new site, called Inklings, to highlight a weekly art project through the summer
• The kindergarten memory book is headed to the printer this Friday and I can share some of that here next week.

I'm very glad to be back here -- with you.

----------------------------------------------------------

edited:  i don't mean to call anyone out who is not commenting.  That's not my intention at all.  If you are more comfortable lurking then, by all means, please do that.  Ashley, yes you do leave plenty of nice remarks for me, thank you.

did i say saturday?

Boy, I go away for a week and return to a new interface with typepad.  I know it looks the same to the reader from the outside, but in here ... well, it's all spanking new and easier than ever to view and formulate a post.

I'm just enjoying the weekend so much with the family and will be sharing more of our 'eat locally' adventures when I am back in full force on tuesday.  Monday is a holiday in the US, and we are going to be enjoying the outdoors in one way or another.

Happy memorial day weekend.

the [not] work[ing] space

This is why I haven't shown my work space before.

It's in our basement with lighting that's less than ideal for photos.  Not to mention this day was particularly rainy and gray, adding to the dimly lit image of disorganization. The inspiration board is in progress ... always in a state of shift.  My current selections are annotated here. 

Lately this space could be considered more of a 'not-working' space than a work area.  More and more I think the computer needs it's own little table -- like a traditional typewriter stand -- to keep the desk area free and clear, available for papers in progress.  Otherwise this piling is inevitable.  It's distracting.  I need to find a way to keep my creative pleasures at hand while advancing my career objectives.  I'm workiing on that ... always. 

So, with several big projects needing more of my attention right now, I'll be taking a short break from the blog for a week.

I'll be returning next Saturday, May 24 with several fun things to share.

chronicles of near and far

I've been collecting images of where we live.  Not just photos of our own home, but of our town and its lovely colorful houses, gardens and the funky unique places around here that create the backdrop of the lives we play out. 

Just as do people, towns, cities and surroundings age and evolve over time.  This hamlet in which we've settled inside the capital beltway -- one that has managed to preserve its certain charms -- won't remain unchanged.   I haven't quite decided how I want to organize this story just yet, but in the meantime I'm gathering bits and pieces, perhaps to interweave with other family events, or maybe to be a stand-alone little book that we can flip through at times, just to remember the place where we bought our first home and the kids are small.

And the far part ... while out and about today I happened across a tiny volume, a beautiful photographic travel essay called Wanderlust, by Troy Litten.  After the mental volley over whether or not to buy it I finally succumbed on returning home by adding it to an Amazon order.   With so many photos of several small family car trips awaiting a plan, I found its style completely fun and incredibly inviting.

There are just so many projects spinning around in my brain today.

right now I'm ...

so very filled up with visual inspiration.

Have you seen this beautiful ad for Anna Maria Horner's new line of fabrics in Home Companion?  Maybe it's because I've seen bits and pieces of it, and the red and white dress (modeled on her daughter) on her flickr stream for the last few months, but I have to tell you when I came across the page it just sort of jolted me ... in a very good way.

Where my scrapbook/memory pages are concerned I prefer simple design.  I like them to look like my graphic design projects.  Where textiles and home decorating are concerned, I'm beginning to really like splashes of color and pattern and handmade items, and new + old, and sentimental with lots of references to nature.  I'm longing to make something - big time.

fresh inspiration

for the weekend. 

We're off on a family visit and I'm looking forward to some browsing in the car in between passing out snacks and mediating disputes. 

Hoping your weekend is inspired as well ... blessings!

easy peasy

Words + photos week is in full swing at the Irwin home.

Last night in a couple of minutes I wrote a paragraph -- a short account -- about our drive to school.  I felt compelled to take a photo of the kids in the rear view mirror on the way to school yesterday.  We were all enjoying each other so much and I wanted to "snap" that.  There's a childrens' book series called Cam Jansen where the character Cam has a photographic memory and when she wants to make a mental note of something she says "click" out loud.  This had been one of those moments.

I typed the story right over a photo enlargement, mounted it on cardstock, added a date stamp and a circle accent and called it GOOD. 

The photo was over-saturated as I was shooting into the sun and had my camera set to manual in order to have the correct lighting for inside of the car.  It was an ideal situation to add text directly over the picture.

Is this going to garner any praise as a scrapbook layout?  No, probably not.  Do I really care?  No.  Is it my favorite thing ever?  No.  It's beyond simple, but it's done and that's the important thing.  Really.  There is always tomorrow to create the next story to satisfy that drive to make it better.  Isn't there?

What is accomplished is I've satisfied my primary goal of capturing that moment for myself and the kids to keep as they grow.  That is what matters to me.

Oh, and I have four other things in the works as well.  Can you say liberating?

toot, toot, toot *

It's pretty nice to have one of my photos recognized as the daily click at Shutter Sisters.  That is one collective inspiring bunch of women, so thank you very much ladies.

-----------

* my own horn