Roxy and Ringo are not required to keep 6 feet from each other. No, they’re allowed to sit side by side and get right into each others faces.
What has captured their attention?
Inside Looking Out
Darn!
I sent this photo to my friend to thank her again for my favorite socks. “Rhonda,” I tapped, “I love these socks you gave me so much I’m darning the holes in the heels & toes to get a few more miles out of them.”
“DARN!” she came back, “Your mom would be so proud of you darning socks!!!! Do your grandkids know you do that?”
When my husband noticed me sitting on the couch with this basket in my lap threading a needle he said, “Are you crazy?!” He used to toss his holy socks in the trash until I found out. Now they get laundered and go straight to my studio. Can’t have enough studio rags.
The truth is, I find mending a soothing activity. It goes back to when my children were young. It was calming to sit on the sofa in the evening after they’d been tucked in. Just me and my basket of thread in this quiet space sewing up holes in socks and jeans.
These days I mend my dogs’ toys, over and over again – stuffing the fluff back in and using the strongest thread I can get through the eye of a needle. Very satisfying.
Message in a Typewriter
Recently I was rearranging some tables in my studio and noticed an old typewriter tucked underneath with boxes of supplies. I’d found this portable Royal Caravan at an estate sale for $7. When I first showed it to my young grandson a couple summers ago he went crazy over it, mesmerized by a keyboard that clunked with each punch of the key… and so slow…! It occupied him for hours just examining the mechanics of such an ancient tool. I had forgotten about it until I opened the case and found this message:
Someday he will be a grown man, busy with lots of responsibilities. I know that, so I’m cherishing our times together now.
