day lilies

I know they're like weeds, but I love their short-lived orange blossoms mixed in the jungle of green along the roads everywhere.  They go just right with steamy weather, bugs, thunderstorms, and everything that comes together to make summer itself.  Happy summer solstice!

pleasing things

 Every single picture is blurry... I accidentally threw my digital camera in the washing machine with my laundry, and I have yet to develop a steady hand with my phone camera.  Even though life is never about 'things', the things are usually indispensable in fostering what life is about.  These are some things that give my heart fluttery wings.  A new block of paper is a beautiful thing, full of the promise of paintings to come (and the orange and black and white are a sight for sore eyes if you ask me).

 While at the Goodwill with my Mimi I lost it a little bit and decided it was a great idea to buy this silver clam shell and these little golden clogs.  I filled the shell with water, and have been playing with them in a five year old's state of mind. The water is soothing, the little clogs clink together in a satisfying way, and it's really refreshing to empathize with the little lady who left her shoes behind and stepped right in for an adventure.  I need to know:  Why don't older people do stuff like this more often?

I don't think a person can ever have too much terracotta in their life.  Or twine.  These are from the outstanding Faulconer's hardware, and I got a lot of satisfaction transplanting a few things I'd been putting off for too long.

And this is the most magnificent parachute of seeds from some kind of weed I found in the corner of the yard and have yet to research. It's about six times bigger than a dandelion, and on the windowsill above the kitchen sink, it serves as a good reminder to make big wishes!

at home, at the shop

Dahlias on the balcony at home...

Afternoon sun in the shop window... 

Cows in the field on Sunday..

Cutting board sprinkled with blossoms at the store...

 

oxygen

 April has been a beautiful month in so many ways, but also a hard month.  I'm exhausted!  And somehow I feel completely depleted and defeated and poor and hopeful and rich all at the same time.  Leave it to life to be complex and surprising, every day.  At the beginning of the month, I was so stressed that I couldn't take a deep breath... my lungs just wouldn't expand quite enough.  But the past week or so I've been able to enjoy delicious lung-fulls of air.  If nothing else, good old oxygen will keep you going!

redbud branch

Just finished painting this redbud branch.  I love how the emerging leaves are an orange-tinged green.  It is a beautiful afternoon, still and warm, with a soft blanket of gray clouds promising evening rain showers.  

my brother

I don't know how people live without brothers, or with bad ones.  Somehow I got a really, really good one who can make me laugh even when I feel terrible, and who is willing to come balance on a banister and hang up my shop sign after already working a long day.  Thank you, Trey!

shop opening @ 132 East Main Street, Orange, VA!

I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't think it might be a good idea to be a shop keeper.  On March 20th of this year (the first day of Spring!), I'm really and truly going to become one!  Here are some messy photographs of the set-up in progress.  Regular hours will be 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Thursdays - Saturdays, BUT I've moved my sewing machine, cutting and ironing boards all to the shop, so it will be a workshop too, and the door will be open anytime I am there working.  Please come and visit me!  

132 W. Main St.

Orange, VA  22960

540-222-9644

Happy Valentine's Day!

winter

I love winter.  The cold, the pure colors, the way everything is stripped down bare.  Only one thing is missing so far... enough snow for a good sledding party and a bonfire.

heaven...I'm in heaven

Nope, I'm not dancing cheek to cheek with anyone, but I'm feeling completely in love with winter!
This morning I met my mom at Food Lion around 7:30.  It was fifteen degrees.  I kept my woolly headband on, and shopped while I was still drinking my coffee in my mug from home.  The people that work at the Orange Food Lion are so nice.  I really do enjoy seeing them.  Then I came home, rich with groceries, and set out again on my bike for the post office.  The people that work at our post office are so nice. too.  I want to hug them every single time!  Then I rode to the florist to get some sprigs of eucalyptus.... and it was on my way home, with half-frozen jelly legs, un-feelable fingers and my heart pounding me up the hill that "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" came clamoring happily into my mind.  (This is the tune that typically plays in my head when a big surge of happiness comes over me out of nowhere). I can't justify it or say exactly what is wrong with me, maybe I have some kind of Pollyanna sickness, but I absolutely love winter, and riding my bike in Orange on a fifteen degree morning is heavenly!

I think eucalyptus is pretty heavenly, too.  I highly recommend getting some for your house.  Here's what I got this morning:

If you don't like the cold and you need something to warm your heart, here ya go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsS7B8nyw5Y

2014...

is a beautiful year, already!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hmmmm...  if I continue this trend, my next entry will be "Merry Christmas!"  I haven't been in the mood for blogging, but I had a lot of fun tonight pretending like I was a chocolate maker.  These are the truffles I'm going to take to Thanksgiving at my uncle's house tomorrow.  I used the very straightforward and easy method here.  For coatings I chose walnut, plain powdered sugar, coconut, and cinnamon.  It was fun improvising the box to transport and serve them in, too... it is a previously owned and used Sacher-Torte box from Vienna, lined with wax paper and modified with hand cut cardboard dividers, also covered in wax paper.  I also made a chocolate pie for my grandpa, and an appetizer of dried dates stuffed with pistachios and then wrapped in apricots and bacon.  Tomorrow is going to be fun!  Then I will buckle down and finish getting ready for the Charlottesville Waldorf School Holiday Bazaar, where I'll be a vendor on December 6th & 7th.  Last year it was really good, so I'm happily anticipating this year's!

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday evening I carved this pumpkin and roasted its seeds.  Mmmm!!  I think there might be all kinds of fancy ways to roast seeds, but I just put mine, fresh and slimy from the pumpkin, right on a sided tray lined with parchment paper, then sprinkle some sea salt and add some butter, pop them in the oven around 350 and stir them every so often until they are golden and crispy.  My pumpkin looks kind of creepy... if you can tell, it's supposed to be an owl, and unintentionally, he took on a kind of menacing feel... but I still like him, and the process of carving a pumpkin, in my opinion, is one of the best things for the spirit... the crack of the pumpkin when you first open the top, its earthy smell and slithery insides.... I love it all!  It's not too late if you haven't done it yet this year!

sugar maples, pocket warmers & cedar sachets

Today is beautiful.  Sunny, crisp, and clear with a breeze carrying leaves and their sweet smell, almost like dried apricots.  I've also got my new winter pocket warmer and cedar sachet designs ready!

The cedar sachets feature the bobwhite quail, and are filled with Orange, Va cedar shavings.

The pocket warmers are filled with u.s.a.-grown rice infused with pure lavender oil and a sprinkling of organic French lavender.

These are the coziest in winter... you just heat them in for a few seconds in the microwave or on a radiator and then pop them into your coat pockets before going out in the cold, and then it feels like your pockets are full of warm (lavender-smelling) sunshine, even on the grayest day or bitterest night!

happiness all around

Despite all the wisdom about creating your own happiness homeostasis from within, sometimes life just feels plain gross, and it's hard to think otherwise.  And then sometimes happiness just keeps doing jumping jacks all around you.  I am pleased to say that I've been experiencing lots of happiness lately.  Not only are a pair of screech owls living in my yard (sorry no pictures, but I did see them and do hear them!), but I've also been regularly hearing a fox barking around midnight through my open window while I'm reading in bed.  Last night I went out to my parents' house to wash and iron fabric and I finished around 11:30.  The fog was so magnificently low and thick when I went out to my car to drive home, and I heard a barred owl calling persistently out at the edge of the woods.  And then, I rode my bike around town for errands this morning and evening... and there isn't anything much nicer in life than riding a bike around town.  You can see and smell and hear everything so much more vividly, and it is so freeing to pedal yourself and feel so happy to be healthy and energetic enough to propel forward into the wind!  This morning there were all kinds of delightful incidences... like the older lady at the post office who was so chipper and full of things to say, and then the two old men in the McDonald's parking lot, one sitting in his worn out truck (with a little brown lap dog lounging extravagantly over the back of the bench seat), and gesturing wildly to another man across to way to guide him in un-stucking a big branch out from under his truck.  And then this evening, after a good day of sewing and folding note cards, I rode my bike to the grocery store and the library.  Sometimes I feel nervous gearing up to do the hill in front of the railroad tracks... it is especially steep with baskets full of groceries, but it feels so good to get home with jelly legs and know you are hungry and have food to eat!  And speaking of the railroad tracks (which run right in front of my house), today I looked up from the sewing machine to see a series of old train cars - like from the Seaboard Air Line Railway (why I don't know?)... and they made me happy, too.  Wouldn't it be fun to take a nice, long ride on a train with a dining car, a good book, and unexpectedly good conversations with strangers?!

afternoon tea on the balcony