Corners of my life

One day last week I went up to Viera, FL (about an hour north of where I live) with some friends for a little shopping trip and lunch. DH gave me $20 to blow at Hobby Lobby so armed with a 40%off one item coupon and my $20 bill, I found some great accent pieces for my house - these incredible paper and wood balls and seeds, and some beautiful softly painted silk magnolias (which I combined with some brownish red eucalyptus twigs that I had at home). So loving soft, natural colors right now.

I had made the little felt and button dress a while back but just felt like putting it out with some button pins that I have also made, and then I accented my Peony painting with a wonderful rose bowl that my mother gave me many years ago. Always makes me think of summers in Missouri and all of my grandmother's rose bushes - so beautiful!

A shell in a hand-wrought bowl and a pile of books - always a big part of my life.

Right now I am reading the wabi-sabi house by Robyn Griggs Lawrence (recently reprinted as Simply-Imperfect-Revisiting-Wabi-Sabi-House). I am so taken by the simple beauty of this book and of the idea of wabi-sabi - imperfect and transitory beauty. I am slowly savoring this book and going a room at a time cleaning and eliminating "things" down to the essence.  I will take some photos as I go along and share with you some of the wabi-sabi philosophy (I was lucky enough to get the book Wabi-Sabi for Artists Designers Poets and Philosophers from my local library - this is an absolutely brilliant and inspiring little book (only 96 pages)). I remember that Barbara Sher wrote in Wishcraft-How to get What YouReally Want that the Creator wants you to be all that you can be and that He/She helps you along the way with serendipity (coming across books or people or opportunities at the times that you need then - of course, many times we reject these opportunities or don't take advantage of them).  I have been paring down my life and my art in the past year leaving myself open for new ideas and opportunities - and I was very very inspired by the Northwest and many of the serene aspects of that part of the continent. So who knows where this is going..........

AND by the way, I did manage to finish the quilt top by hook and crook and lots of piecing - even piecing the batting! Now I need to go through my fabric bin and hope to find a piece of white or very light fabric to use as the backing and then something for the binding - almost done!

Thanks for reading,
Chris