My garden is looking a little rough this year... Two or three summers of terrible drought and my increasingly busy schedule have really taken their toll. Still, my peonies are as stunning as ever! I often feel guilty about cutting flowers, but the peonies are so heavy that they just drag on the ground. So no guilt here...
They smell so heavenly... I just want to crawl inside one and make a little bed in the soft petals.
Can you think of a nicer place to take a nap?
♥
I am trying to get back into the swing of blogging semi-regularly and wanted to share these vintage peacocks I scored at a neighbor's yard sale over the weekend. I just couldn't live without them... Aren't they sweet?
Happy Monday to all!
♥
I took a little break from pre-holiday craziness last Sunday to get crafty with a few lady friends. We listened to my favorite Christmas tunes and sipped delicious beverages while making snow globes and a gazillion yarn pom poms for festive garlands. We used Martha Stewart's snow globe tutorial. The instructions are a little vague ("dashes" and "pinches" always make me nervous), but otherwise it's very simple and easy to make your very own snow globe! I think the hardest part was finding a cute figurine that was small enough for my jar. (I found the deer at Michaels, and the jar was from some ginger spread that had grown moldy in my refrigerator). I used E-6000 glue (trust me, let it dry overnight) and also added a little platform (plastic cap from an empty spice jar) so my deer didn't appear legless. I would also recommend some teflon tape or a bit of glue around the jar lid for an extra tight seal. I am dying to make more of these!
Predictably, my pom pom garland is sitting unfinished on my dining table, but I'm hoping to remedy that later today. Once I started making pom poms, I found I couldn't stop!
I think I might add a dash of rich, mustardy yellow... maybe some pink or orange, too. I'll take some pictures once it's finished!
Several people have asked me about pouches... I don't think it will be possible for me to list any before Christmas, but I will definitely be adding some after the holidays. This week I have to squeeze in a few handmade items for friends & family. I'm sure you understand! :)
I hope everyone is having a lovely & festive December!
♥
I have been admiring misako mimoko's amazing creations for a long time, and my heart skipped a beat when I managed to nab one of her sweet little handmade kite valentines. (Mine looks like the one on the left.)
(Photo courtesy of misako mimoko)
I felt very special when my little kite arrived in the mail yesterday. It is even sweeter in person, and I can't wait to hang it on my wall. I'd say it's the best sort of Valentine to give to oneself! Sometimes we all need a little reminder to relax and take it easy ourselves, right?
Everything in her shop is charming beyond belief, but I am absolutely In Love with her dolls. I think I actually cried when this one sold...
"Doli Lettuce" (Photo courtesy of misako mimoko)
Sigh...
Speaking of Valentine's Day... I wanted to share a recent secret project. I decided to make some speaker covers for my hubby. (Andy would scold me here... They're called monitors... But I call them speakers. Whatever.)
These speakers monitors are among his most prized possessions, and I just couldn't bear to walk in the studio and see rumpled bed sheets thrown over them. I bought some top-grade imitation pleather... and then broke my sewing machine and had to borrow my neighbor's. But I think they turned out pretty cute. I tried to make them as masculine as I could. They're better than bed sheets, at any rate. Andy was very pleased!
My sewing machine is now happily repaired... Hooray!
So I've listed another foxy pouch in my shop.
The weather is GORGEOUS here in Athens, GA, so I think I'll spend some time outdoors with my beloved feline and my furry beastlet of a pup.
Maybe we'll even go fly a kite...
♥
I recently baked my very first batch of French canelés. My cousin sent me some lovely silicone canelé molds and vanilla pods all the way from Paris for my last birthday, and I finally got brave enough to try them.
Canelés are supposed to be crusty and caramelized on the outside (and custardy on the inside), but I succumbed to both panic and impatience and took mine out of the oven way too early. The texture was all wrong... chewier than chewy, but the flavor was absolutely heavenly, and they were so pretty to look at.
I really am not the most skilled of bakers, so even under-baked canelés made me feel very fancy. And they still managed to disappear in record time... Yum!
Next time I will exercise a bit of self-restraint and let them brown properly. After that, I'm not responsible for my actions... ;)
♥
Ah, what a perfect sort of Saturday!
After a couple weeks of cold, busy drudgery, Spring is in the air and I can finally relax. Work has been keeping me quite stressed and preoccupied, but I have managed to squeeze in a few fun things... Like what, you ask? Let's see... a long afternoon visit with my friend Rizzie and her tiny new baby girl... celebrating my sister's 35th birthday (yikes, that makes me feel old!)... preparing for & playing a very fun show with Lolligags and How I Became the Bomb and having way too much to drink (my poison of choice is whiskey & ginger-ale)... a girls' night at my friend Emily's with a gaggle of ladies, nudie-man playing cards and a Ouija board... planning a trip to Denver next month(!)... and of course, jetting around in my jelly-bean car!
Last night I slept better than I have in weeks, and I was so happy
to wake with warm sunshine on my face. I've just had a lovely, lovely
time lolling around soaking up the much-needed rays with Junebug.
(Is it wrong to be blissfully in love with a cat?)
Junebug helped me eat my very favorite lunch... brown rice with (an entire) avocado, seasoned with a shiitake vinaigrette, nutritional yeast, and a sprinklin' of sesame & seaweed. Heaven...
And she very patiently let me get up-close and personal with the camera, which she usually hates...
Sigh... I wish days like this could last forever...
What to do with the rest of the day? Maybe some sewing on the front porch (I have some new softie ideas I've been ruminating over during my recent bouts of insomnia), and then a leisurely walk with Andy. Maybe a crafty project or two with my friend Leslie later on.
I hope everyone has a lovely, lovely weekend!
The title of this post comes from the poem George Gray, part of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. I first read this poem in the ninth grade and was deeply affected-- it was as if it were written just for me. Timid, passive, afraid to take chances or make decisions, afraid to let anyone know me. Paralyzed and regretful. In other words, afraid to unfurl my sails and embrace life. I hadn't thought about the poem in a very long time, but I woke with it running through my head this morning.
I always thought that, by the ripe age of 31, I would have found a way to overcome some of my fears and leave my tiny little harbor. I suppose I have in some ways, but I periodically return to that gray, still place. And there I sit... This happens especially when I have been in the midst of change or loss or the small tragedies that only grow in number. It is a sad and frustrating place to be. Sometimes I feel like I'm covered in a layer of soft, gray dust...
I know I sound dreadfully morbid and dramatic. It's just that I've been trapped with my sails down for quite a while, and quite literally. I am embarrassed to admit that I seem to have a mental block on learning to drive a stick-shift. This means that I have not stepped into a vehicle and driven myself since the beginning of March, before I embarked on my big adventure. I didn't realize just how much having a car affected my independence until now. No car + working from home = a very isolated existence. Throw in a generous heaping of passivity and self-doubt and, well...
I'm slowly working my way toward the world of the living again, moving ahead one tiny inch at a time. I need a little breeze to blow away some of the dust and urge me forward... And then maybe I'll start being creative and taking chances and making friends (remember friends?). And maybe, just maybe, my safe and silent harbor will become a faint and distant memory.
In the mean time, I hope all will be patient with me as I learn to use my legs (and my voice) again. I have not forgotten blogging or painting or sewing or laughing... I'm just biding my time silently in the shadows. Ah, what is that I feel brushing past my cheek? The faint stirrings of progress?
I wish you all pleasant and breezy weekend with no hesitation and no fears. Go out and live life. And then blog about it so I can read it and be inspired!
♥ ♥ ♥
p.s. Junebug is not afraid, no siree... She reaches out and embraces life (and my water) every day...
Well, Turning Thirty wasn't so bad after all... I had a lovely, lovely weekend off! The aquarium was, of course, the highlight--well, and the cake(s)! Oh, how I wish I could live at the aquarium! There is something so magical about giant, luminescent tanks of water. I could just sit and gaze at them for hours... And how nice to remember that I love taking photographs...
Beluga whales are so beautiful and so sweet! Once upon a time I dreamed of being a marine biologist (until I realized that I am afraid of the vast oceans...)
If I were a fish, would I belong?
The sea lions were too fast for my sad little camera... but there was something so beautiful and poetic about this floating frisbee (which would be snatched up seconds later)...
Andy contemplates life as a jelly fish...
And I'm so thrilled that I could just pee on myself!
I can't tell you how much this terrifies me...
Or how much Emily & Josiah make me smile!
Oh, my god... Sea otters are so f-ing cute... especially when they fall asleep clutching fish between their furry little paws!
Not to mention African penguins (mere inches from my smiling face)!
And this little guy?
We were fortunate enough to pet some rays...
Have you ever seen a moon jelly?
More jellies...
I want to live here...
Andy's moment... (What is it about such moments that life suddenly makes so much sense?)
There is nothing like cake(s) to make a gal feel loved... (Courtesy of Emily and Emily)
Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes!!! My heart is full to bursting! I will be back soon with legitimate Progress...
Hello, Sleepless Night Number Three! All the house-stress has made my mind painfully active, though at the moment I'm not even consciously worrying about the inspection or the mortgage or anything that really matters. Instead I'm obsessing over the recent, stunning realization that people who live in my town are reading my blog. And I am really freaked out by the mere possibility that people who may encounter me in real life may actually know something about me. Yeah, I have issues. It's no secret. But am I the only one who would prefer to divulge every little detail of my life only to complete strangers? (I mean no offense to any neighbors or acquaintances out there... I had just hoped I could maintain the illusion of being a rock or a tree or some minor piece of background scenery...)
Anyway, somehow this also ties into a conversation I had with Emily about the painstakingly detailed faces we conjure for people based on the sound of their voice, their written thoughts, their paintings, etc. There are countless personalities, bloggers, etc, who exist so clearly in my mind, but I would probably be disappointed to meet them and see that they look nothing like they should. I have often been wrong and often been crushed in this scenario ( I grow so attached to my versions of people!). But when you get it right, oh the satisfaction! I don't mean to gloat, but I just knew what Ira Glass looked like, right down to the black-rimmed glasses. When I finally Googled him, I was rewarded with the closest approximation to my own imagination that I have, and most likely ever will, see. (Though I will admit, I had pictured him just a tad younger... ) What does this mean? Nothing, I suppose, except that Ira has an incredibly descriptive voice, as do most of the regulars on This American Life. And that I am incurably curious about people. ( Maybe I even have you, loyal reader, pegged in full color!)
At this point in my sleep-deprived ramblings, I must quite stubbornly acknowledge that I am utterly terrified about presenting a proper face with my own words. Some days I would give anything to be invisible! What does that make me? A muser afraid to show her face and a face afraid to share her musings... I suppose the only solution is to post some disgustingly self-indulgent photos at the end of this disgustingly self-indulgent post. I'm going to justify this act by a) claiming temporary delirium, and b) illustrating that, yes, my cat and I do share a striking resemblance. Now you know.
p.s. Just a quick thanks to Sleepless Night Number Two for the blog makeover...
