I think the most touching thing is the way it started:

It started by accident.

A homeless woman came to Charlotte’s Harvest Center soup kitchen one Tuesday, and instead of mingling with the hungry crowd, she sat in a corner, crocheting.

Weeks passed, and at some point, the staff noticed another homeless woman beside her, also crocheting.

The two eventually became three women, then six, then 10.

Four years later, nearly 30 women can be found in that corner every Tuesday, and no longer are they just the homeless.

The Crochet Ministry, as it’s called, has become a family of sorts, one that welcomes those often forgotten by the rest of Charlotte: the homeless, the elderly, the disabled, the impoverished, the displaced and, most of all, the lonely.

I also love the kindness in the story of Teresa Davis, the homeless woman who used to crochet on the streets. While she died a few years ago with no family, thanks to these ladies, she certainly had a circle of friends. I like the quiet way this circle formed, organically and by accident. How true that sometimes we don’t find what we need most, it finds us.

It was the center’s outreach director, Rosa Marion, who first spotted Davis living on the streets, carrying a large afghan stuffed in a bag. Marion was intrigued when she found out Davis had made it, and the two struck up a friendship. Later, Marion invited Davis to move into a group home sponsored by Women of Vision, a volunteer ministry that helps women in need.

“She asked me if I’d buy her the stuff to crochet another afghan, so I did,” recalls Marion. “She’d always be sitting there by herself in that corner, crocheting. People called her ‘the lady pulling on those strings.’”

You can read more about the work of The Harvest Center here (Although there is a syntax error that shows up on the screen, I know it will be up and running soon!) and about the Women of Vision over here.

*Slow Textiles
*The Daily Aphorism via The School of Life
*The beauty of Naoki Okamoto’s photography
*Gladys’ longevity secrets: Crafting it up at 104!
*How to make a project keeper by Diane Gilleland
*Coat hooks on Etsy.com (Random, yes, but so cool!)
*Slide show of Renwick Gallery exhibit: The Art of Gaman (Awesomely inspiring)
*19 tips for cheering yourself up… From 200 years ago via The Happiness Project

Thanks for the heads up, Mom!

The other weekend I joined several of my cousins at our grandparent’s house in the North Carolina mountains near the border of Tennessee. One afternoon, when it was quiet, I took out my camera and took photographs of a few of my favorite things. I had a second to really pay attention to my great grandmother’s organ that was in her living room in Florida (complete with songbook!), some Matchbox cars from 1955 that were my uncle’s and a crocheted quilt made by someone in my family years ago.

Taking some extra quiet time to wander through their house like it was a museum was wonderful. My grandparents traveled all over the world, there were artifacts from my grandfather’s Army tours over his 30-year career, and bits covering every decade of the last century. I used to go to their house in South Carolina and do the same thing, walk around and look at all the delightful things they were attracted to at one point in time. It reminded me that that’s part of why I love older things, because they all have a journey and story to them, all different, all magical, all lovely.

Here’s a lovely video of Mr. Simpson’s work by Neal Hutcheson of Sucker Punch Pictures. I love the way the sound is so perfectly captured and the details of his whirligigs explored.

Along the way, we were lucky enough to meet Mr. Simpson and get a full tour of Shadowhawk by Wild Bill. Vollis Simpson makes the most beautiful whirligigs in Lucama, North Carolina that seem to pop out of nowhere. He was kind enough to let us walk through his workshop full of bits of metal waiting to be turned and twisted and run on the wind. Shadowhawk is a backyard Western town built by “Wild Bill” Drake. After 30 years of being in westerns (including a recurring part as the town drunk in Gunsmoke), he married his agent, came back east and built Shadowhawk in his own backyard.

Listening to both men talk about their creations was inspiring, lovely and well, true. In a world of war and famine and horror and violence, spending an afternoon with two men making masterpieces in their backyards was just what we needed. Taking a step back away from computers and cell phones, we followed our maps and wondered what our next destination would bring. For more photos of our trip, click over here.

More about the places mentioned above:
Dick’s Hot Dog Stand
From Windmills to Whirligigs
Roadside America (Shadowhawk)
RoadsideAmerica.com (Vollis Simpson)
Complete list of giant ice cream across America
Off the Map, Travelogue (complete with video of Mr. Simpson himself!)