Tea for Tuesday. Winter's last Hurrah!
In one way, we are lucky here on the West Coast that we very rarely have a winter wonderland and our flowers come much sooner than anywhere else across the 49th parallel, but on the other hand, there's all this rain!I swear that some years it rains for most of the year.
So when the rain actually stops and the sun comes out between the clouds, no matter how brief it is, we usually find the sunniest spots to hang out in and stay there a while.
You really can't blame us. :D
This morning, C's boyfriend Bryson texted from his hill-top university to tell her it's snowing at his campus! What?So in honour of our winter's last hurrah, I chose to have tea in this sweet, little Royal Standard storybook cup.
I was inspired to pick it because it is the only cup I have with winter blooming flowers on it.Don't you love winter blooming flowers? I'm always so impatient for winter aconites and snowdrops and iris stylosa and crocuses.
Last year I lifted hundreds of snow drops from green spaces where people have dumped their garden waste and this year they are rewarding me with a beautiful display in the shade garden.
So I will have my tea in the sunshine while it lasts and look at my beautiful book of macro snow flake photography, by Libbrecht and Rasmussen, (how do people do such wonderful things like photographing snow flakes?), and say "good bye winter; hello spring."
And then we will both get back to work.
In the sunniest rooms of the house.
Sharing with Terri and Martha and Sandy and Bernideen, and wishing you all a swift end to winter.
Hello from Sunday night
Today's been one of those lovely Sundays where there was no hurry and nothing urgent to do.The sun came out in the morning but by noon the clouds rolled in again.
Yesterday we had an entertaining time watching Morgan and Milo trying to get in on C's friendship bracelet threads.Those cats get so obsessed over threads and bits of string. :D
But today I had sleeping cats and time on my hands. I started a few new pieces of art on old paper and finished this one.A little marsh tit on a dictionary page with the word harbinger on it. I like that thought, a harbinger of spring; although I'm not sure this little bird qualifies, I still love waking up to bird song. The bird song in Vancouver pales in comparison to Northmoor, but still there are chickadees and mourning doves and all sorts of twittering things. And, especially flickers drumming out their territory on the neighbour's metal chimneys at 5am. They always make me laugh. :D
Sharing with Mary at the Little Red House and Create with Joy and Sunlit Sunday and Amaze Me Monday
Post Valentine's loveliness plus a new page
Today's rain and cold is making us want to stay at home.Hibernate. Have a bit more winter.But we were out of fruit and so decided on a morning trip to Whole Foods.Every time I'm there I think of how much I love to live with whole, natural, organic goods.Do you like beeswax candles and fresh, handmade soaps? I do.
Some of my friends make their own candles and soap. I've made candles before but not soap. I'd like to try to one day.
It's lovely at home today. It's warm and fragrant with flowers.Yesterday I made another page in my personal journal and it was late when I finished constructing it. This afternoon I sliced up a blood orange, lit some candles and had a good look at the page.
I love these little candles. They are peony scented, made by a small Cornish company called St. Eval Candle Company. Robert gave them to me for Christmas. They are just so delicious.
I've decided that I really love this page.The words I found there say: "The problem was not sufficient to keep the drive down."To me, this represents my drive to constantly create things, to get over my problems and limitation, you know, not let anything hold me down. The words reminded me of weeds...misunderstood flowers really, plants that belong.Weeds which are so powerful that they push thru cement and grow and flower in any condition, with any limitations. I love weeds and draw, paint, carve and sculpt them a great deal. I used some vibrant tissue rectangles, which came form a wonderful New Year's Eve years ago, and collaged the other words away, then painted with my acrylics and inks. I've run out of mat medium and so used gloss medium and really love the glossy look. Proves once again that there are no mistakes, just happy accidents. :D
Now I've made myself a cup of tea and am reading the next page. So far the words "experimental genius" have captured my attention. (By the way, this next page is the last page with writing. Not sure how I'll construct the photo pages.)
Experimental genius reminds me of R! This Valentine's we are in different countries and he sent me a little video called "look what I found". It shows all the flood water running across the field paths and I was completely ready to see some squeaky little thing paddling its head off, and, instead, there was an "I" and a heart and a "U" made from bright pebbles under that cold, running water. And his hand was red from the frozen water!R is such a keeper! :DHope your weekend is lovely and tranquil and you're all basking in the Valentine's love, which hopefully sticks around in your heart all year.
Wordpress weekly photo challenge, treasure
It was really hard for me to chose because I tend to classify so much as "treasure" in my life, but then I came across this photo of a little test tube of fossilized seashells. This is about the only thing I have which belonged to my birth father; who I lost when I was very young. It is a little treasure in my life.
For the Wordpress weekly photo challenge. :D
Random for Friday
On this rainy, soggy (and for a lot of you, dreadfully cold and snowy) Valentine's Day, I thought I'd give you some beautiful "garden porn" photos to warm your spring-loving hearts. (And, much less fattening than chocolate)Last year, my cimbidium orchid bloomed like crazy and I was so proud of myself, (although, to tell the truth, I completely ignored it outside for most of the year), and this year, nothing. No blooms, no spiky promise of flowers...nada. And I ignored it just like last year. What gives?
I want these containers, and loads of polished little pebbles to make some sort of raked Zen garden out of. But then, I've got waaayy too much stuff here already and adding sexy containers and beautiful little pebbles isn't going to help. Maybe I need a little rock tumbler and I can go picking up handfuls of garden pebbles and tumbling them myself. :D (Actually, I've always wanted a rock tumbler....and a metal detector)
The wall clock I had in the kitchen has stopped working. It was a sort of cheap battery operated clock, but it was big and looked like a vintage train station clock. You know, I kept looking up at it automatically for days and days after it stopped working and now look at the empty space above the back door. It's like an automatic reflex! And I miss having a clock there something rotten. This clock was with me for about a million years always in the kitchen, always up high. So now I have to replace it. I'd love this one, but don't love the price (somewhere around $300...that's a one-way flight to E! And about 90 chai tea lattes!) I think I might make one. How hard can it be?
About a million years ago, (first marriage), I had a standing order for a dozen anthuriums/week. I know, it was all chrome and Bahhaus and black leather and glass, but I still love those flowers. The only thing is back then it cost me about $20/month for the flowers and now it costs...what? about $20/stem? I know dinosaurs were alive back then. LOL.
I love planting houseplants in unusual containers, and love these seed pod pots. I think I'll buy one for a little begonia Rex I've got going on. The smallest is $45, but it's one of those things I'll love to look at for years.
Happy Valentine's Day to everyone and off now to share the random the love with Nancy. :D
A prelude to Valentine's (aka how to make more work for yourself)
The other day Chloe suggested that we make some heart shaped bunting to help celebrate Valentine's Day."It would look lovely with the big red rose wreath beside the front door", she said.But why is it that I always forget when C says "we" she means "me"?!?
Yesterday at our local treasure trove thrift store, I spied a bit of lovely bit of vintage curtain for $1 and made the huge mistake of saying, "Look Clover, this would be great material for "your" bunting!" And so guess what...yup, I bought it.I spread the fabric out on the table and cut out a nice, large paper heart and folded it in half, and then proceded to trace and cut out 20 hearts.
Ironed and right sides together, I got my little sewing machine from the craft room in my studio...
And sewed the little hearts up.Now I'm not a very good seamstress, but this basic sewing is really quite easy. Each time I do a bit of sewing I wonder why I don't do more of it, it's quite fun.
Pretty soon I had ten little hearts.OK, just in case you thought C got away with the royal "we", she was really great at turning the hearts right side out and making us some tea.
Then we were a bit stuck as to how to nicely tie them up as bunting, and got the idea that maybe they would look nice stuffed with a bit of stuffing, so I stuffed them all and hand stitched the opening closed.
Then this morning I got the idea of sewing on some vintage buttons and got a couple done before I had to run out and C finished sewing the rest of the buttons on.
So how about that! Ten fat little hearts and a length of velvet ribbon. Nine hearts fit the ribbon and the left-over one I tied around the living room door handle.
Then I sent C up on the railing and she tied our happy bunting to the Christmas light supports. (No, it's not summer here yet...lol, she was just trying to decide on a dress to wear out tonight.)
So here we are, it's tea time and my house is decorated for tomorrow. Now it's time for me to relax before supper and some friends this evening.
Hope you all had a lovely day today and are ready for a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow. (Hope you all get/give roses, chocolate, hearts, hugs and kisses, to the one you love and/or for yourself. You deserve it!)Great big Valentine hugs!X
The Juicery Co. A new discovery in the 'hood
Robert's father was a naturopathic doctor. When I came down with this cold, R told me that his father would have ordered me in bed for two weeks on nothing but a fruit diet."But I can't," I said. "I've got too much to do!"Now, I am a great believer that proper nutrition is the key to good health and Chloe has been making her smoothies lately and we've both seen an increase in energy, with the added bonus that this rotten little cold of mine has been beaten and sent packing.So the other day, when we were at Whole Foods for lunch, the coffee bar was handing out samples of a carrot/ginger and a green juice; we grabbed one of each and gave them a try. (We thought that was a lovely coincidence because we were just talking about possibly getting another juicer for the house.)Well, I hate to admit it, but to us these samples tasted absolutely horrible. (I guess we're not as as juice savvy as we'd like to be.)But yesterday we walked down to the ocean and back home to run some errands and C wanted to check out the best cold press juicer in the 'hood not too far out of our way.
Oh lordy, I'm so glad we did.
This is Alex of The Juicery Co.We walked into this lovely, warm space and Alex poured us a sample of the most delicious sprouted almond milk, fragrant with vanilla bean and cinnamon. Since C is lactose intolerant, we're always looking for a lovely milk alternative and this one is heavenly.Then Alex explained that after her intership for businesses like the waste bin hire in Perth, their zero waste policy is a big deal to her, that's why they use reusable cooler bags and returnable bottles. And they donate the left-over pulp to the local gardens for compost.
I bought a bottle of the almond milk and Chloe got a bottle of greens. And we enjoyed them to the max. If you're in The Lower Mainland, then I encourage you to give them a try...and they have a delivery scheme.
We fully intend to be repeat offenders! :D
When it rains...it's just fine
There's nothing wrong with the rain.I think that the problem is really all this sun! And it hasn't rained in days.Yup, it's been that kind of week round here.I'm having a miserable, rotten cold, PMS and migraine, plus, today, a pipe burst outside, just under the patio.Thank you Universe! That's a lot of Zen you're asking for. :?I think you can completely understand the contents of my shopping cart:
OK, to tell the truth, one of those chocolate bars did go back onto the shelf, and there were also bananas (not pictured).I think we both feel a bit...meh...Chloe's university is on reading break this week and she's taking full advantage of that.
I've cleaned up and organised the library/family room and it's been lovely hanging out there with my books and my biggest mug of hot Earl Gray tea.
This is also the only room in the house with a TV. (We're not big on TV and I fully subscribe to the notion that one TV in a house is enough, (if not too much), for any family). Along with the one TV policy is also the basic cable only policy. Which costs $5 more than the basic internet feed and means that we basically get about 20 channels and only about three are worth watching for the occasional news cast, although it's usually so sensationalised that it winds me right up.But it's been lovely having those three channels to watch some of the Olympics. And that's exactly what C and I did with our tea and our blankies. We watched the opening ceremonies. Did anyone watch them? I must admit that the part where communism was depicted was tremendously difficult for me to watch, having escaped from Prague and from communism. But I reminded myself that it's all history and individual people who also suffered, who also would have chosen a different way if they could have. And here was my beautiful child beside me watching, also feeling angry about the lack of human respect and gay rights and captured whales, and she was mustering the same amount of Zen I was to rise above it and enjoy the spectacle.
I only managed one more page in my personal journal. The words which spoke to me formed these two sentences:"Approach the known fortress. The list of formidable attractions are jewels for the shop and community."I didn't know why I was moved to draw my own personal Ganesha on that page because the words were telling me that I should believe in myself, that the gifts I have, that I can bring to you all, are like jewels.And then the pipe burst.And then I approached the fortress that is plumbing and hidden shut off valves behind little painted over panels, and main water valves in the house and overbearing tiredness and sniffy nose and crampy tummy and headache...and still have to go make supper... then I knew. Ganesha, remover of obstacles. Fortresses beyond the Etsy shop, beyond the business of my art. Approaching the fortress of every day life. I'm so very grateful that I've created my own personal Ganesha to remove the obstacles in my path.
I'm on the mend now, my good friend Leo has been by and told me the house won't fall down and that he'll replace the pipe just as soon as the weather warms, supper is made and I'm about to catch up on today's Olympic highlights on one of the three channels and drink my tea. Go team Canada/England/Czech Republic! (Yeah I know, I have a split personality nationality) :DIn the mean time, should you need your own personal Ganesha, then just let me know and I'll be very happy to make you one and send him out to you.x
The making of a personal journal
It's been a few strange days of hectic pace mixed with low energy, (first mom and now I'm coming down with some sort of bug, desperately hoping C doesn't catch it), so I've upped the vitamin C to mega doses and C's been making delicious smoothies with fruit, spinach, flax...everything good. I wanted to have my usual tea cup Tuesday post, was actually looking forward to it, but then, again, ran out of Tuesday time and sun light. (What ever happened to my New Year's resolution to stop running out of time and start running into it instead?) Isn't it a funny old world?So, actually, this is as close to "tea" that C and I got yesterday...apart from the copious mugs and mugs worth throughout the day to soothe my throat and warm my heart.Oh well, at least we have Morgan...who could enter the world's cutest sunshine cat in the cute sunshine cat Olympics...and her half cat/half sea anemone face to make us smile.
The other day, when I was at Dalyce's book store, she gave me a lovely 1956 book of London and I got the idea to make myself a personal encouragement book. Sort of a hopes and dreams and aspirations book. These books are so easy to make and so much fun that I thought I'd give you a little tutorial of how to, so you can make one too...if you like.This book is about 7"x10", so not too big, but not too small either, (small books tend to be very fiddly), and I loved the red canvas front plus the two golden dolphins. I guess the trick is to get a book which resonates with you. For example, I know what is under each one of my pages and would not be very happy if there was something depressing or something I was against. I guess what I'm saying is think about what it would feel like to have that subject under your page, because, subconsciously, you'll always know it's there. This book doesn't have too many pages and the paper is pretty sturdy. This is also good for a first try.This book is divided into two distinct sections, the front is all typed introduction and description, and the rest, the major part, is black and white photographs of London.
Now go thru the book gluing every three of four pages together with a glue stick. If you come across a page you don't like, then tear it out. Don't leave those pages in the book. (subconscious comfort) As long as you glue pages together around the torn pages it will be just fine. Here I tore out about five pages I didn't like, including one depicting dead foxes. Not having that in my happy, positive journal! Plus, you'll be collaging and gluing into the book making it thicker, so tearing out some of the pages is actually a good idea. The resulting pages will have a thick, card stock-like feel. Perfect as a backdrop for any amount of paint and glue.
I started the first pages, (which only have writing), by reading thru and picking out the words I liked. Words which were positive to me, sent a message. Then I linked the words thru the spaces between. I got the inspiration form a most wonderful book called "A Humument" by Tom Phillips, which I bought last summer. I linked it to Amazon, but if you google images you'll get a better idea.
Then I got my stash of paper and my acrylic mat medium, and began gluing around my new found sentence.This takes a long, long time, and some patience, but, when one is feeling poorly and a little artistic distraction is good, then it all works out.
So now I'd like to show you the first three finished pages.I left the beginning and end pages just as they are to make it feel like an authentic book full of surprises. Then, the first page, which had the publishing info, I substituted my info (didn't feel good about publishing my addy in this photo, so photoshopped it out), but if the book is lost, it could be returned.
Then, I left another page alone. It is a page with a couple lovely quotes about London.And then the first complicated page I made has two sentences on it:" It seems to me that a better position seizes artistic interest. To be less inhibited and to have a surer eye for significant detail."This to me, represents my desire to get my art out into the world. To contact places like Anrthopologie to see if I can interest them in my map series, to be freer with my art like the butterflies, my dream of selling in a gallery in New York (the sign of an established artist), to be in artistic circles...well, you get the point. But the main point is that each scrap of paper is deliberately chosen, each stamp, each image, each drawing is purposeful to make me happy. And that's the whole point.
I finished this second page yesterday evening in about two hours. This page is telling me that I must take the first step. The two sentences say:"The door steadily opens. Situation one essential to other vast splendours to be found."I love the rich gold patina, made by brushing a gold powder onto the wet-ish mat medium. I like the escaping swallow; escaping out of her enclosure, the golden circle, even if it is golden, to be free, to spread her wings, and I love the happy daisy chain.
Well, that's as far as I got so far. I hope you try to do this too. It's so satisfying to make a little jewel of a book like this. If you like, you could use all collage, you could write your personal thoughts in it, you could draw, stamp, glue, use your own personal photos, photos of loved ones...the possibilities are endless. If you do try this, or you've already made one, let me know. I'd love to see it.Also let me know if I can help you with one, I'm happy to answer questions, show more photos of a page process, keep showing additional pages as I make them, make a little how to video...Gulp...on second thought, a video would require some effort, but I probably could if you'd like me to. Just ask. :DSharing over at The Dedicated House
At the beach, under glorious blue
Such a beautiful day. Such a beautiful part of my town. Wishing you all this kind of sunshine, peace and happiness to last you throughout the whole week.Sharing with Mary. :D