A Peine For Your Thoughts

I’m starting something new over here because I’m so excited about so many things and I want to share them all. Every single one! And it’s good to be inspired on Friday. It’s annoying to be inspired on Monday, because what’s the point of being inspired when you have five whole days of sitting in your too-short desk chair in front of you?

If you stopped by on Monday, you might have noticed that I made curtains. Nothing could have thrilled me more. I will be honest with you and admit that when I was young, I owned two electric devices that made me a bigger nerd than the book I insisted on lugging to restaurants. The first one was a metal detector, which I used with my dad on the weekends to locate every single pull tab from every single can of soda consumed in the history of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I kept them all in an empty peanut butter jar, and I think I did this because my parents wouldn’t let me drink soda when I was a kid. These old dirty pull tabs were the only pull tabs in my life. Sniffle.

The second one was a sewing machine, which I used to make scrunchies and a very large cream vest with patriotic long-eared bunny rabbits on it. I loved America and I loved bunnies. And I loved vests. Why wear a plain old black mock turtleneck when you can spice it up with a vest? I submit for your approval the statement that vests are the most useless piece of clothing mankind has ever created. I know Drew is drawing up divorce papers right now, because no one loves a good, solid vest more than Drew. No one.

After the vest-capade of my youth, I put the sewing machine away and never had the urge to dust it off again, until two things happened.

One: I got married, and my mom made me this unbelievably beautiful quilt. I was lucky enough to marry the most precious man ever, but if I hadn’t, it would have been kind of  OK. Because I got this quilt:

Our beloved wedding ring quilt.

I put it in my favorite room of the house, the guest room. This room drips with creative inspiration because not only is the quilt handmade by my mom, but the bed was painstakingly refinished by my Papa.

A guest room full of creative ingenuity.

I walk in this room and want to be a better person. I want to make all my own clothes and make my own chicken stock and grow my own vegetables.

Two: My friend Annie read my post about beginning the process of learning to touch my own toes and said, “Hey! Why don’t I make you a pilates bag so you have something cute to carry your mat in!” Everyone else walks into class with their mats unrolling and flopping around, but not me. Not anymore.

I am trying to take a picture of this bag and Truman wants me to throw that toy for him SO. BAD.

All this inspiration should make me want to learn to take better photos because these photos are pitiful. They don’t do the quilt or the bag justice. The bag did not come with a dog. Annie wouldn’t do that to me. Here’s another photo. I only had a second, because he brings that toy back really fast.

My new pilates bag from Annie.

Annie has her own Etsy store, RoseKnits, which is packed with cute stuff just like this. And she does custom orders!  

So that’s what’s inspiring me this Friday. My mom and my friend Annie making something fabulous out of nothing reminded me that I used to know how to do that. If they can create beautiful wedding quilts and bags made specifically for my pilates mat, I’m sure I could learn to make something besides a patriotic rabbit vest!

I walked out of my guest room after taking these pictures, my head buzzing with ideas of all the wonderful, creative things that are going to fill my house and all the houses of my loved ones, and I discovered Truman had pooped at the top of the stairs again.

Taryn Maxwell Peine, this is your life.