A beach lunch to welcome May
I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness lately. About what gives us moments of contentment and joy. I suppose I’ve come to today from a rather worn-down, divided too many ways, not enough sleep, too much stress place, and so am finding happiness all the more fleeting.I know that we all work too hard and worry too much and have one too many plates to juggle, and we probably feel like we must carry on jugging because we understand that most of those plates are vital for our future happiness, aren’t they? Maybe you’re like me and sometimes there’s no energy left to focus on spotting a moment of contentment and joy.Everywhere you look these days everyone is full of tips on finding happiness, finding a life balance, like it’s a thing lost, but I bet it never is lost. I bet the state of stress, of unhappiness, is an inability to adjust to change or to friction...to somehow get used to it, understand it, experience it and let it go. I feel that’s true for me.It’s so important to make time for happy moments, to make room in my life for these moments to happen. To pack a picnic lunch and head for the beach for a couple of hours. To pluck starfish out of the ocean, to collect beach treasures, to splash around, to find a phoenix in the sky.And it’s so important to revel in these happy moments. For me it is. To capture these moments and bring them back to my mind over the course of the week, no matter how stressy it gets.
Hello from Sunday night, (which turned into a Monday post again)
My what full days we're having. I'm not complaining in the slightest though. These last few weeks with Robbie home have been so fun and we've been really enjoying and making the most of our time in Vancouver. (Even the semi messed up back deck is looking fixable now...lol)Chloe has started an internship with a lovely, small publishing company and has been feeling a bit overwhelmed at times with a bit of a demand on her time to run the social media side of the company...in the company voice. The company had taken help from the Marketing Heaven to maintain its online presence, but majority of the responsibility was on Chloe. It's all what she has been trained to do over her four years of her Communications degree, but put into a practical sense, it becomes slightly altered form the comfy school form, so, when she questioned whether she should come have a lovely Sunday with us in the country or stay home and work, we emphasized that Sundays are not for work, and she should get into the habit of having selfish Sundays for rest and family time.Happily she agreed and off we went.We found the Mostly British car show, had a mooch in one of our most favourite antique shops where C found a vintage Hudson's Bay coat and bought it, we stopped in at our favourite aromatherapy-crystal healing store, and found the specialist rose grower where I was super bad and bought 6 roses for the garden and got a 7th free!That was so funny with C and the coat. She spied it out of the corner of her eye and ran to it practically elbowing other browsers out of the way and immediately tried it on. Then she read the price tag and said, "$165...that's a lot of money!!!" And reluctantly took it off. It's true, for a graduating student it is a lot of money, and so I went to ask the front desk lady if there was any room on the price. She was so lovely and said, $165? I can do $150. :D " I went to tell C and she said, "Oh my gosh mom, thanks so much...$150? That's a pair of Anthro jeans, and I'll have this and treasure it much longer...Ok then, I'll go get my wallet." And ran down to the car. I went to tell the lady that C will take the coat and she went to get the coat and said, "Wait, the price says $195!" I though Oh no, that numpty of mine, she read the price upside down and transposed the 9 to a 6! But then the lady said, "Wait, I'll call the seller." She did and the seller said yes and C has her vintage coat. :DWhen it's meant to be... :DSharing with Mary for mosaic Monday.
One golden hour in the day
One of my most favourite things in the world just happens. It's not one of those things which can be planned, and, very often, happens when there really isn't time for it to happen.It's a magical moment when everyone is doing their own thing and then everyone comes together somehow, a conversation starts and suddenly, no one wants to have to go make supper or do homework or anything else; it's like there's a golden hour where outside time stands still.This golden hour happened today.Chloe came home form her internship, Anastasiia came back from three hours of ballet, Robert and I put down our work for the day, and I opened two inks I had ordered a few days ago to give them a try.Chloe started to tell us of her day, and we listened and chatted back and forth, and I painted a small chickadee with my new inks. (supper happened an hour late but no one cared)
Chickadees don't normally have green eyes, only in golden hours. :Dart: page from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, black and white Daler Rowney inks, green Mont Blanc ink, (used by my father for his fountain pens), ochre watercolour pencil.
on rivers, on Earth Day
To me, rivers have always been extraordinary things. A bit like living creatures. I mean, take a lake. It just is. Just sparkles in the sun and gently laps at the edge and stays in place in a dip in the Earth. But a river is so different. It’s alive. It rushes and bubbles and twinkles and swirls...and tantalises with river music; you know the kind? There’s a mystery about rivers, isn't there? I mean, does anyone ever wonder where a lake comes from? But a river is different. Perhaps it starts with a drop on some spongy wet moss, too soaked to contain that drop, which drips on and joins a few other drops from a dripping cedar bough, which forms a tiny trickle somewhere up high in a mountain, and that trickle, full of collected drips wends its way to where you stand, polishing and tumbling stones, sustaining forests, creatures, giving life. I’m always mesmerized by rivers.I think that life flows like a river. Sometimes it is calm and twinkling, and sometimes it’s at such a torrid rush that it sweeps us off our feet.
Hello from Monday night, (which turned into a Tuesday morning post)
When I was little, I would watch my aunt paint Easter eggs with her oils and tiny brushes. She'd have a small posy of some lovelies, usually violets and primroses, and she'd paint them on the eggs. That's where I got the idea for the usual eggs I tend to paint, but this year, with R being here for Easter, newly painted eggs, (and more frequent posts), have kinda gone out the window. But I still wanted to commemorate Easter, and remembered that my grandmother and I would dye eggs naturally by boiling them with onion skins.I looked in the fridge and I had only five white eggs, (the rest were brown), so decided to see what I could do with the five, thinking there really is very little point to dyeing brown eggs...well...brown.
Whadaya think? I love them. Now we have five lovely hard boiled eggs, but they're too pretty to eat. :D
Speaking of R, I wrote a list of things which need doing with his help. I called it The Master List. R said I should call it The Make Robbie A Slave List. :( But he actually is such a great help and encouraged me to get together a list of the jobs we need to do around here. Sometimes it's hard living in two countries.I remember seeing a documentary about Carol Shields and remember being so moved by her message. She said that, life to her, seems like a flight. A flight of a bird who comes form darkness and flies into a vast cathedral of bright lights and colours and stained glass reflections and magical things, and then, flies out into darkness again. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a bird fly beside you thru that experience?Life is so much better for me when R and I are together in the same place at the same time.Although we're slowly getting thru The Slave/Master list, there is a second, personal list of things to achieve art wise before the art show, and R doesn't even know the whole extent of that, and I'm allowing this second list to build up stress and worry...but I think I do this to myself...you know, impose deadlines and restrictions and expectations. I know that it keeps me motivated but at the price of what all that cortisol is doing. I must find a better way to manage my though processes.But sometimes I have results...
...and sometimes I make the dumbest mistakes...lol.
Today, we spent a ridiculous amount of money on pressure treated lumber to replace some rotten planks in the front stairs and build a pergola on the east side of the garden.Robbie replaced the planks and I dug pergola post holes. Morgan supervised as usual.
Each evening, R and I look at The Master List, (which has not yet been renamed), and cross a thing of two off.It's such a good feeling. :D
Now, hopefully, if my service provider is behaving itself, as I hit publish, this post will actually publish. :D
A windstorm in the night
Well, here we are in that terrible West Coast spring weather, where the clouds pile up and crash into the mountains and it rains and rains and rains.I've been busy inside the new silversmithing studio and also I've repotted the indoor plants and terrariums.
Then last night we had a windstorm and all the rain clouds were blown away.Unfortunately, my greenhouse was also blown away and almost all the seedlings were dumped out into the garden.
I picked up as many as I could and repotted them and watered them in. Robert righted the greenhouse and weighed it down with rocks and bricks.Well, this will certainly be an interesting gardening year as I can't tell my aster seedlings from my bachelor's buttons from my zinnias! :D
Still, the sun is shining, and so we got on with some outdoor work. (With Morgan's supervision of course.)
We bought a new, small pond pump and created a fountain from an old water pump I've had for years, and then, finally hung up a second fountain into a permanent place. Previously, this ornate Italian fountain was in the entrance hall of a past heritage house I owned, and I didn't know what to do with it since I moved and left it in storage for about 13 years. The jury is still out on that one, but I think it'll be fine where we put it; especially with a beautiful clematis growing over it.
And also, we took my dad's old Craftsman toolbox and, after R drilled out the rivets holding the handles, we sanded down the rust...
...and sprayed it with rust paint. I love the new shiny red. It still needs to dry and be put back together again and slid under one of the work benches, but as soon as I've got that done, I'll take photos.
We got lucky today, and tomorrow it's supposed to be back to the rain, and, I suppose, back to indoor work, but the sun was lovely while it lasted. :D
Round here
It's been a quiet sort of day round here. A little work, a little play, a walk in the rain around the hood...nothing special going on.I suppose it's the first day we've had without someone rushing around. Chloe has finished her semester now and had a big sigh of relief, and now she's off to Bryson's parent's cabin for a few days rest and cats and dogs and horses.Robert and I are trying to figure out the best way to photograph my art work without a lot of natural light and it isn't really working so I'm going to put it off till we get a brighter day.Yesterday I made C a new ring, a bit of a congratulations of finishing your semester prezzy. I love the way it turned out but I still have a bit of work to finish burnishing the bezel around the beach glass and black goldstone.And, after starting all the sweet peas and ending up with about 200% more healthy seedlings than my garden can accommodate, I smartened up and bought five nasturtium seedlings...just the right amount.What's going on with everyone? How's spring coming along? Has it shown up in your part of the old globe yet?My friend John has sprouted enough cabbage seedlings for England, Diane is having to protect her porch flowers from some late frost, Michelle has made the most wonderful, cuddly, bear sweater in the world, (she's such a talented knitter), and Joanne is brewing some wonderful natural dyes. Can't wait to see what she does with them. Speaking of, has anyone been dyeing with onion skins lately? I remember colouring Easter eggs with them. Think I might try again this year.Let me know what you're all up to. :D
Hello from Sunday night
What happens on a Sunday when you have three car/antique/rock nuts in the family?A fantastic day out in the country. :DOur day started out with a visit to a swap meet auto jumble sale about 100km out of town.
We found some lovely cars and trucks and some good deals on car parts and tools.
Chloe, who is determined to go to Japan for a year, picked out at least three cars or trucks she wanted to buy on the spot...and then have me deal with them while she's in Japan. Safe to say she can't have them all it all.
We almost buckled at this lovely red truck...but the pinto? LOLOL...er...NO!
I came across these light covers and had a though. My new walnut dashboard for my mini has an extra hole in it and my friend Gillian, a flying instructor, suggested I put an altimeter in the hole, and that's a fantastic idea, but if I can't get one the right size, I was wondering if maybe I could have R install a light and reverse paint one of these glass things for some car art. How cool would that be?
When we were finished with the car swap meet, we drove over to Fort Langley for some lunch. We needed to wait for about 30 minutes for a table outside so we had a mooch in the antique mall.
I love that place and it takes way longer than 30 minutes to have a good look around, so we stuck to our favourite stalls only and had a through look thru those.
C found this sweet, little, yellow glass cup and it was extremely reasonably priced and so we bought it.
Then our table was ready and I had lunch with my besties and off we drove to the rock and gem show a further 40 km down the road. We got lost once or twice, but managed to find it.
We walked thru the exhibitions and C bought a fossilised shark's tooth and I bought a lovely pale blue gem to set into some wonderful new design.
Seems we weren't finished with the country after the full day and so we stayed for a movie.We saw Captain America, the Winter Soldier. What an absolute load of fun silliness. We loved it! :DSharing with Mary for Mosaic Monday.
Friday random
I really have to pick up the camera more. I've been really lazy these days and not working on art and artistic things...as evidenced by the hopeless lack of posts.But work in the garden for the Art in the Garden weekend is continuing. I've planted a sedum collection in a pot and I have dreams of a living wreath or living wall...but it'll take time because all these sedums have been stolen divided and shared and have come from family and friends.
Clover is using this amazing product called Sculpey baking clay to make a weird and wild taxonomy of fairies for a Cabinet of Curiosity display for her art history of museums course. Here, with Morgan inspecting, (as usual), she's just placing her fairies into the shadow box she'll use for the project. That clay was super fun for her to work with and there's a little left over. I think I might have a go.
I've been putting in a bit of time in the new jewellery studio. It's working really well on the bench in the sun. The only slight drawback is that I can't see the flame of my torch in the sunlight.
And, as with almost any new art discipline almost anyone takes up, it's going to be hours and hours of solid practice before I get good at it.Chloe turned 22 this week and I was determined to make her a special birthday ring. So, after about three tries, (all of which ended up in the scrap silver for lost wax molding jar), I finally succeeded!I made her a ring with a piece of beach glass she found in Mexico.
She loves it. :D I'm so happy.Sharing with Nancy and the random bunch.
Hello from Sunday night
Hello everyone, exciting things are happening here. :)So much has happened this week and I have so much to tell you!Robert and I cooked up a surprise for Clove several months ago.
R planned to be in Canada for the spring and we kept the date secret. He flew in on Wed afternoon, just when C was in a class, and I went to the airport to pick him up.We knew that by the time we got back form the airport, C would have been home already, so I dropped R off a block away and walked in to the house, gave Chloe some flowers to put in the vase and excused myself to the washroom.In the meantime, R walked to the door and rang the bell.And C had to go answer the door!!! :D Oh hugs and tears and disbelief! We pulled it off! It's so hard to pull one over on C. We had a blast. :D
I came home from Mexico to lovely good news.My seedlings for the Art in the Garden early display are doing very well.
And I've been selected as one of the artists to show my work. Hooray! I'm so happy.But now I have to get painting.
The weather has been good enough that we've had our first lunch alfresco.
And Morgan's been bothering the chickadees and finches in the garden. I guess I should say that they've been bothering her with their singing and displaying.
We've been cleaning out the garage to ready it for a studio space of sorts, and attacked the second work bench with my stamps and pens.I love family projects. Everyone has so many fantastic ideas.
I have a limited amount of stamps but they're good stamps, and sharpies were used to write out our favourite sayings, someone found all sorts of glitter stuff, and the Bonjour fish made a reappearance in several spots.
One other thing we did this week is finally get my father's vintage Raleigh 20 bike tuned up.He bought this bike in the early 1970s. Anyone remember the oil crisis of 1973? Well, my father decided he could cycle to the hospital and his practice if the worst came to the worst, and still tend to his patients.Anyway, the worst never did come to the worst and this little bike stayed in the basement untouched and unridden till mom gave it to C. She washed and polished it, R pumped up the tires, WD40'ed the chain, and adjusted the seat, and that was that.
That's one happy girl.
Speaking of happy girl...
Clove sends you this little clip. It's of the most ridiculous porcupine, and is sure to make you happy.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2-_uVy3r1QSharing with Mary for Mosaic Mondays, with Dwellings, and with Create With Joy. :D