a pieced and quilted life

pictures for you mama, and some other random (knitting and best friend) stuff for everybody else.

 

they could barely open their eyes with the sun in their face... 

if i post a lot of pictures of my chil'ren here its because my mama demands them, regularly. she calls me up in the mid of morning and blurts out:

"send me some pictures of the kids"

it is so much easier for me to just direct her here...even though sometimes, most times, probably just to make me work a little bit harder she asks me to email them to her, and also text her some too.

if i don't have any new (and i mean within the last 48 hours new) from when her demands begin she says something like:

"geez...we don't have any new pictures...come on...i need to see some pictures of my babies...noo, some current ones"

i want to tell her that they haven't changed too much from the last set. that they are past that baby stage where they change every couple of weeks and each new month there is a list of facial features and such that has changed.

we know what they look like now. probably for almost forever. i still look about the same as i did about 26/25 years ago. well maybe i have more big people teeth, and my face is not as chubby, but still the thick eyebrows, the resemblance of my daddy...its all still there.

but still...here are almost new pictures for you mama:

 

the kids in downtown riverside

*little ones are taller than they appear in photos...especially the boy*

and i'm sorry to say that last night while brushing her teeth, yali dropped her sixth tooth. and no, i haven't taken a picture yet. so i guess she doesn't look the same...

other random stuff?

i finished some short knitting projects!

 

 

 

  

i finished my arm warmers...that are waaaay warm. and i finished my neck cowl...that is waaaaay too big...booo.

i blocked both projects to feel all knitting official...and now i'm anxious to start something new. some body please give me some suggestions...i need cheap, cute and fairly fast.

and also...i met my best friend's son for the first time...teo.

 

  

eddie roscoe, stephanie and baby teo

i can see he has so much of eddie's (my best friend, not my husband) personality...he's free, inquisitive and has the most friendly and giving spirit. within seconds of meeting me, he picked up leaves and were handing them to me. he looks like mama though...and he's a cutie.

eddie was my bestest of best friends at la verne...we have stories for days! almost all of my best memories involve in some way or another eddie roscoe. i really can go on and on with good things about him, but he'll probably read this...so i won't. hehe. let's just say he is my dearest friend. a farmer. a deeply thoughtful and spiritual guy. funny as heck...was great at keeping my gas tank full when i was broke and putting $2 in the car was fine with me, and he let me use his shoulder to cry real snot and tears on many of occasions back in the late '90's.

and...this is the kicker...he missed the taj mahal to kick it with me. yeap thats a darn good friend people. and, this is the other kicker...he gave all his clothes away to the locals there. all! i picked him up at the airport, and all he had was his backpack on his back and his harmonica in his hand. i dropped him off on his way there...so i knew he had more...when i headed for baggage...he informed me that he had given all this belongings to the locals he'd gotten to know.

he explained to me all he needed was the clothes on his back...and he'd surely acquire more soon enough. he also explained to me that clothes would be much harder for them to get than him...and finished by saying it was the least he could do after all they had given him.

i'm telling you people...he's a great guy.

...and isn't it ironic his name is eduardo...edward? him and his wife stephanie are great people, and geez i'm happy to call them my close friends.

okay...enough jiber-jabber....time for schooling today.

have a good one!

peace and luv,

ki

dear yarn, ♥☺☀✌ luv, ki.

nothing fancy...a few new skeins of yarn... 

dear yarn,

i'm sorry you have taken a back seat to fabric, words & sentences turned into paragraphs, vegetable plants, baking and acrylic paint in recent years. i have forgotten you in some ways and i'm sorry.

i forgot how soft and pleasing you can feel between my fingers...like slack dough, you too can be molded and formed into nourishing things. i forgot that i could turn you into fabric to be quilted; that you too can be the visual accompaniment of words or stories. i've forgotten how bright and visual you can be, that you too can be called hansa yellow, magenta, cobalt blue and titanium buff. i forgot i could weave words with you and meanings like poetry and prose and plain old sentences mixed all together into stories of healing and insight. i forgot that with you i can grow things my soul can consume too...things that can warm from the inside out like vine-ripened tomatoes, blanched, de-seeded, peeled, and stewed with carrots, honey and olive oil for pizza sauces and spaghetti sauces and enchilada sauces.

my family can feed on you too. you too can become a part of them, and add something meaningful, healthy, necessary and beautiful to each little cell of them.

you know, like the way the seeds i sow turn into veggie burgers or corn on the cob, or the way the paint i push becomes the painting the kids point to during our art lessons, saying "like your painting mommy? over their mommy?" or the way the words i write when its early in the morning and all i hear are birds, my typing fingers, jazz, and passing clouds makes their way into my soul as healing, or the way i turn flour, yeast, water and honey into fleeting recollections for edward of panaderias and future memories for the kids of their black girl mama baking the food of their mexican papi?

yeah, all those things i can do with you too. i see that now. 

maybe i didn't know it all then. maybe i didn't see all that i could do.

not just with you, you know, but with me. it all, maybe i didn't see it all.

but i do now. i see.

and i want to work with you. i want to feel you in my fingers the way i feel words in my mouth dancing around waiting their turn to speak. that feeling. you and i. speaking out.

we can speak out and say, "i luv you babe" to edward when he pulls on a sweater in the office when the a/c gets too chilly for him. we can say "i'm your black girl mama and will always love you and support you" to yali and mykey with scarfs and knitted toys and zig zag blankets i'll knit while talking with their papi in bed. we can say "thank you mama" and "thank you papa" and "thank you auntie patty" to mama, papa and auntie patty with little christmas gifts or mother's day, father's day, or birthday gifts. we can say "i'm so happy you are my sister nina, and i luv u and u inspire me" with little special things we together can knit for her and the kids. we can say the same thing in a round about way to my big brother...though not so sweet and sappy...more manly. we can say "i'm grateful you are not my in-laws but my second set of parents" to edward's mom and dad...cause like granma used to tell me having a loving relationship with your in-laws is a blessing...one that i am grateful for daily.

us two, we can do and say a lot. we can talk to the world.

dear yarn, i'm happy i've rediscovered you and all the wonderful things i've discovered that we can do together. 

i hope you'll fall in love with me too, and keep me around.

luv, ki.

a few cones of weaving yarn.. 

i decided that writing a love letter, setting intentions is the most proper way this morning to say how much i've (re)fallen in love with yarn. how could i have forgotten yarn? sigh. yarn is as alluring and sexy as fabric, paint, sweet bread dough, and healthy vegetable plants. 

i've rediscovered yarn. and knitting. and man. oh man. i'm in love. and so is nina.

i'm taking it slow...trying to be friends first, confidants you know, with knitting and yarn before i take the greatest leaps...but i know i'm just about there. there being seriously infatuated. hopefully it will develop into a long, seasoned love...like the one i know with e...but if not...nothing is better than this feeling of being infatuated.

yarn is dangerous, it's addictive, expensive and beautiful. like many i just can't help myself now. sigh.

i think, well at least i'm going to blame it all on writing. the life change that writing has provoked in me. a need for slow, tentative things to busy my hands with as words and sentences percolate in me. something to do when spending time with e...or waiting for the kids to get done with a worksheet...or something to do when bread dough is rising or cornbread is baking...something to keep my hands busy and productive.

that's what i'm blaming it on. oh and nina.

 

a cowl in progress just about done.

i have a ravelry account...friend me. i'm quejimenez.

and i've found some awesome resources for knitting...knitpicks, lion brand, vogue knitting...i've found some awesome patterns. in fact this cowl is from her. her patterns are amazing.

i'm starting with small patterns...doable stuff, until i can graduate myself (and finances) up to this, and this, and this, and so many other things.

me and nina are starting with these...want to join us? 

are you in love with anything new? 

luv...ki