wanderCRAFT

Coping with Infertility and Pregnancy Loss: Blogs, Books, Movies, Music and other Resources

2013-06-07T14:16:00.001-04:00

In the past couple years, I've benefited so tremendously from other women sharing their stories online. Now after I've had time to deal with things privately, I feel a responsibility to 'out' myself as infertile and as someone who has experienced pregnancy loss. Plus, keeping quiet it is tiring and I'm tired enough. Our prognosis is good but we've had really painful setbacks in the last few

Collage

2013-04-29T20:38:00.001-04:00

One of my 35 before 35 goals was to fill a journal up with collages. I'm on my way. For me, collage is just a way to unwind and play around. I try not to think about it too hard. Yet, it's a fun puzzle - cutting out pieces and moving them around until they start to feel right. Eventually I say good enough, turn the page and start the next one. It's a low pressure way to play around with style,

Unbound

2013-04-21T19:53:00.003-04:00

One of the best weekends I had last year was camping with a group of friends on Lake Michigan. Despite growing up in Michigan, I had never heard of Nordhouse Dunes before the trip. It's a wonderful place to spend time. Our first night, we walked down to the beach in the darkness, then laid down in the sand to look up at the starriest sky. A few of us swam under the stars. It was early September

The In-Between Season

2013-04-16T20:53:00.000-04:00

This long, dark winter is extending into spring. January 2013, Higgins Lake It's still quite chilly most days but today there was green grass in the park. Soon enough the treetops will be green too and it'll be time to go back to the beach and to enjoy the sun. Early September 2013, Lake Michigan

My Night with Eleanor

2013-02-16T14:57:00.002-05:00

We celebrated my grandma's 86th birthday on Tuesday. My friend Elizabeth writes some really funny posts about her grandma. My grandma is also the kind of person who is hilarious without realizing she's being hilarious. I wanted to remember some of the conversations we had the other night so I thought I'd share. It's important to know first that she's a devout Catholic, and there was big news

Keeping the mood up

2013-02-06T00:57:00.001-05:00

This brought me some happiness in January. Getting the record player out of the basement. Cleaning out the horribly cluttered shelves in the dining room and filling it with speakers and records and cookbooks. Getting these prints on the walls and setting up the little calendar a friend bought me at Renegade Chicago in December. There was the moment I finally figured out how to put the

35 by 35

2013-01-11T01:06:00.002-05:00

Rather than resolutions this New Year, I wrote a list of 35 things I want to do before I turn 35 in late August. Writing down these intentions was all inspired by my brave and adventurous friend Sarah, whose list of 100 New Things To Do in 2012 allowed me to go along on adventures I probably wouldn't have done on my own, like going to roller derby and drag queen bingo and riding the highest

The View this Fall

2012-10-22T00:37:00.004-04:00

This fall, my creative time is pretty much reduced to taking pictures on my android photo and editing them in Instagram (@wandercraft). It provides about 5 minutes of creative time a day, which is better than nothing. Right now, I'm appreciate it both for the limited editing choices and for a chance to think a bit more about composition in my photos. I also like saving up little snippets of life,

All Kinda Perfect

2012-08-28T07:30:00.000-04:00

For my 34th birthday, I wanted to head way up north on a trip that was long overdue to see one of my favorite people. We've been back in Michigan for over two years and I had not been to the Upper Peninsula in that time, which I realize means I hadn't really been home until now. Right as we moved in to our new home, I bought an old plastic Polaroid camera at a neighbor's estate sale for a couple

Natural Detroit:: DIY Urban Garden Tour

2012-06-17T00:32:00.002-04:00

One of my closest friends came to spend the night. She came in the fall, and we had our first Detroit weekend together. Luckily she enjoyed it enough to come back. Last time, we made a fire in our fire pit in the backyard, biked with the dog along the river, and scored some 'real deal' tacos in Southwest Detroit from a taco truck that were so good I've looked for it on every drive I've made

MAKE: Encaustic and photos

2012-05-18T13:27:00.000-04:00

I've been playing around a new medium - encaustic paints. Encaustic paints are a combination of beeswax and damar resin. Since sometime last year I have been slowing reading up on them and ordering or finding supplies to make my own paint. I love all things bees (minus the stings) so this art form really interested me. You can buy the pre-made and tinted paints from a company or on Etsy but

Eight Vancouver Views

2012-05-14T22:47:00.000-04:00

During most of the time we were in Vancouver last week, Matt handled the "real" camera. I was happy with my Instax (I'll post the instants once I washi them into my little trip journal). When I did take over the manual camera for awhile, this is what I saw. I'll be back soon with a few more details. It was a pretty laid back week but we did some worthwhile tourist-ing.

A very pink walk in the park

2012-04-20T16:37:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning it was my turn to walk the dog. I grabbed the camera because the park has been this magical spring dreamland the last couple weeks. The park is particularly dreamy before the city gets around to cutting the grass. It reminds me of my favorite books as a child where bunnies frolicked with little girls in fields filled with dandelions and long grass. As I was looking through the

Winter Walk

2012-02-20T23:42:00.000-05:00

I've been missing winter. I was telling a Southerner last week that it didn't feel right to me as a Northerner to go through winter without experiencing a proper, bone chilling deep freeze. Then I told him about the winter when they shut down the university for a couple weeks and the roads were like snow tunnels, and the winter when a dog in Matt's town ran over the frozen Straits of Mackinac and

Make in 2012

2012-01-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

For the last couple years I've chosen one little word to guide me through the year. When New Year's rolled around this year I tried to remember my word for 2011 and I couldn't remember! So, my word clearly didn't stick with me - guiding me through my every move in 2011. I had to look back at my blog posts to remember if I'd even chosen a word in 2011. But, I did indeed

2011-11-23T12:39:00.001-05:00

We call her... Kaia Puppers Pupper Pup Kaia Girl Muffin Kaia Muffin Muffin Girl Miss K Miss Kaia Muchacha Huntress Monster Beast Beastie Matt and I often joke about how funny it is to us that we keep this beast in our house and take her for walks around the neighborhood on a string. Like we're keeping a wild animal captive and promonading her for our own pleasure. She

Inside/Outside November

2011-11-06T18:41:00.001-05:00

I spent the afternoon playing around with TTV. For my first try, I got blurry photos but I think maybe I like it that way.

Scandinavian Travel, In Retrospect

2011-10-29T14:50:00.004-04:00

I started writing this when I looked at the calendar and it had been a month since my husband and I spent our last day in Norway. Now, another month has passed. We returned to a very fast paced fall where the weeks have slipped by, faster each one. I think of our trip a few times a week though and the shifts I've experienced in my thinking as a result of traveling. ***** This vacation to

This was our Friday night

2011-09-25T22:58:00.002-04:00

Matt and I have been rolling this concept around for awhile, to each pick our favorite shot of the week. We've been thinking it could be an interesting challenge and a new way to see the year ahead of us. Some of what we see in a given week is the same, but we see it differently. Other days and even weeks take us in completely different directions. He's taking photographs more than me lately but

Summer in the City

2011-08-10T21:21:00.005-04:00

A kind friend popped by last week to say, 'hey, post again, will you?' I got swept up in a beautiful summer and disappeared for a few months.We moved here a year ago in August, just in time to catch the remaining summer nights where the air was still hot and muggy air at 10pm and live music echoed off the buildings from the amphitheater by the river. We couldn't wait for our first full summer in

Right now, I am...

2011-04-04T23:01:00.001-04:00

Right now, I am... loving our new vintage bedroom furniture from my new favorite store Second Chance Design in Holland, Michigan. Our "new" dresser was made the year our home was built so it's perfect. I bought paint samples for the walls tonight, so we'll settle on a color this week and get to work on putting our bedroom together. We've been married for 10 years and

Typographic Detroit

2011-03-18T20:02:00.000-04:00

I had the good fortune to go on a day-long tour of Detroit neighborhood history the other week, and then I took my husband on part of the tour route, followed up the two of us taking his parents along for a ride as well. While my father-in-law drove, I captured a some photos to share here. One of my favorite aspects of Detroit is the amazing typography and signage. In other cities signs like

End of Winter Distraction

2011-03-14T22:46:00.001-04:00

I've been working my way through the end of winter and the overwhelming local, national, and international news with... 1 - A little knitting. A ruby red and pink swirl hat for a baby I want to finally meet soon.And a couple mitered squares for a blanket my knitting group is working on. I found this yarn on sale and used a gift certificate I got for Christmas. The colors are my favorites, all

Desperately Seeking Lazy Lounging

2011-02-19T08:00:00.009-05:00

I am off on a trip soon. A work trip. An escape is very much needed, although I wish this trip was with my sweetie and involved not a drip of work. A true vacation it is not. A word of warning from a dark place - if you ever get the wild notion that completing a PhD is something you want, please keep in mind that it may usurp vacation in your life for a few years. Both

Warriors of Winter

2011-02-08T01:33:00.002-05:00

Would you hate me if I said I didn't want winter to go? That I want more of it. That I love sunlit reflections on ice. Paws and fur on snow. Sparkles under my feet. I want more time for skiing in forests. More time for skating on ponds. After the week of the big snowfall, I wanted more of this magic. Friday afternoon, in a rather spur of the moment decision that I too often do not get to