The Color Purple

Square the Purple Treasury on ETSY

This week I received a pretty pleasant surprise over at ETSY. Upon logging in, I discovered that I had a conversation (email) waiting for me. I rushed to open it, thinking, "YAY! Order!", but in all amazement, it wasn't an order, but a notification that one of my items had been chosen by a user for her Treasury. Treasury? I'm still an ETSY newbie, so I had to ask an ETSY vet what the heck an ETSY Treasury was. From the looks of the collection, it looked like a bunch of "favorite things". My assumption was right. One of my blankets had been chosen to be a part of a collection of items that are square in shape, and purple in color. AND, I learned that, and I quote, having an item placed in a Treasury is the "ONLY way to ever make the front page." Score! Maybe Baby Squares will get lucky.

In other exciting Baby Squares news, the Facebook fan page now has 70 fans! And I branched out again.

Antique White, Lavender, Pastel Blue, Pastel Pink $10 ea

Introducing: Newborn Slumber Caps. And yes, that is a granny stitch! I was SO happy to have found this pattern. These little hats fit perfectly with the blankets in my shop. Now that I have the pattern down, I am looking forward to making Emma a nice hat and scarf set for back to school this Fall. Who knows, by the time winter hits, maybe a few of her classmates will be wearing my designs as well. A part of branching out is not being afraid to put business cards in the hands of people with kids! And even better if they see the work manifested before them.

These Slumber Caps have become a fun little obsession and should be available in the shop next week. They are such a stress-free project that I am considering donating a couple to my favorite foster babies! If you no longer have any infants at home or in your immediate circle, perhaps you might considered purchasing one and doing the same.

Summer CURLabration and Hair Inspiration

via Essence Magazine's Hairstyle File

This Saturday, Emma and I will be attending our very first natural hair meet up, put on by Cassadie of Natural Selection. I am extremely excited about this. Firstly, to be able to be in a room, look around, and see heads that will look like mine, and secondly, to be able to expose my daughter to a room full of beautiful women who will have hair that looks like hers. And if we're lucky, she'll be able to meet some little naturals as well.

I have been playing around with some looks for myself. I'll either be brushing my curls down and hoping for a few waves OR I'll be spritzing, running some Eco Styler Gel through and hoping for a few curls. I wont have a fresh line, but that's ok. I'm experimenting early. The Eco is in, has dried, and the curls are forming. I'll play around with laying them down and make a decision based on what I think looks best. For Emma, we're gonna go with a variation of the braid-hawk that Jada rocked at the 2010 BET Awards, and this cutesy pony-hawk featured on Beads Braids Beyond. My cornrowing skills still need a LOT of work, but, like I said, we'll be experimenting early, and choosing the best of the best of what I can come up with.

I'm looking forward to emerging from this meet up inspired, and with a few more kinky-curly haired friends.

Old Dogs and New Tricks

I would think that, if one has spent the last few weeks in physical therapy, recovering from a stroke, and has a blood clot on one's brain, one would not actually consider making a 2,124 mile drive. Alone.

I would think that, if one insisted on spending a day and a half in a car, that one would allow one's wife to catch a plane and come a do all of the driving, or at least be able to lend an extra pair of eyes to the road.

I would think that, if one had a blood clot on one's brain, that one might want to have it surgically removed. That possibly, one would want to exhaust all possibilities toward staying alive. That one could swallow one's pride long enough to fight harder to stick around to see one's 9 year old son grown up.

Maybe if one was younger, and healthier, and in less pain, one would have the energy to make such investments in one's self. But because one is a lot older, cancer, diabetes and now stroke ridden, it is more comforting to live out the rest of one's days in the ways that one chooses. On one's own land perchance. Tilling, and planting, and harvesting, solely for the greater good of one's family. Or, in one's Nevada bedroom, in the arms of one's beloved...

And I worry about her. When something happens to him for which there will be no more recovery. What will happen to her?

Identity Sharing

One of the hardest things about being homeless is becoming a victim of the transference of mannerisms. To look up one day and realize that your laugh-speech-gestures are not your own, but those of the people that you are sharing a space with, is one of the most frustrating things ever. I first became aware of the fact that my identity could be stripped during my teenage years. I had been working a summer job, spending lots of time around the same group of people, and one day, I heard it. I laughed a co-worker's laugh. I was surprised when the sound came out of my mouth. I wondered if anyone else had noticed it. And as an adult, I have my moments when I notice that I am not entirely myself. Again wondering if anyone else has noticed. Then I start wondering about the possibility of transference beyond mannerisms.

I see that my daughter is just as impressionable. Her laughter-speech-behavior is being oppressed by the laughter-speech-behavior of a very troubled child. Every time I hear one of his phrases come from her mouth I cringe, then I fear that she might be losing her own identity, and then I get furious that I plucked her out of her comfort zone and planted her in the middle of chaos. I find myself hating the fact that we are subjected to forces beyond our control. I will truly be elated to come to the end of this adventure.

When All Else Fails

Since I've managed to completely kill A Place of Comfort, I've decided to do what I should have done in the very beginning, create a new blog. Seems like I have so many already, I didn't want to add yet another to the mix, but alas, here we are. The fact that I managed to break my site feed for all of my followers... probably twice, is a huge indicator that I'm not lying when I say that I am existing within a very disordered life. And that would be, Disorder, in every since of the word. I suppose that having no followers at all isn't an extremely bad thing, but I've made friends, and I'm lonely over here without them. If you can hear me, I'M LONELY WITHOUT YOU!!! Please find me here, so that my words don't bounce off this screen and haunt me. I'd much rather them bounce from me to you, and from you to me... that way I don't go completely insane... without witnesses.

Reason for the Change:

It was time. I started A Place of Comfort because it was what I needed in my life. A place where I could carve out some time for myself, and get back to doing what I've always loved to do: write. 2 years later, I can't exactly say that I have rekindled my passion for writing, I can't say that I have fully utilized the space for doing me... I can't say that I grew while in that space. I think I spent the first year trying to find my voice. Was I suppose to be a "mommy blogger" because I was a mother? Was I suppose to always be writing for an audience? Was A Place of Comfort suppose to become a business? I didn't know what the rules were. It took a while to figure out that the only rule of the blogosphere is to be yourself. With new realizations come the need, the desire for new beginnings, new spaces to thrive and grow. Thus, Chasing Metamorphosis.

Frankly, I am dying to emerge from my cocoon.