a number of things

Reflection

A few days back, the lovely Jennifer, from S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen, tagged me with the Blogger Reflection Award. Wow, somehow I never think of myself as much of a deep thinker, but thank you Jennifer!

The recipient of this award is to, in turn, reflect on five bloggers who have "been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted you in some way, or have been a Godly example to you."  Now the difficult part is, to narrow it down to only five.  Ok, here goes:

First off, I'd have to say Lissa over at Here in the Bonny Glen has inspired me in so many ways with her fabulous suggestions for amazing books and audios.  Even my kids know her as the lady who convinced mom to switch from Kids Discover to Muse magazine. (A BIG hit!) I can totally relate to her latest post about her towering to-be-read stash of books.  My stack is borderline ridiculous.

Next, is Kim from Starry Sky Ranch. Her "Prairie Home" posts always make me take another look at my surroundings, and to try and see what I can improve on.  Not only that, but she is an absolute whiz at helping a girl decorate her new living room via e-mail!! (Thanks again Kim!)

And then there is Dawn from By Sun and Candlelight.  Yes, I know she has already been tagged, but I can't help it.  Her blog is a regular part of every day right now, as I try to taste the Autumn she is experiencing.  The Autumn that is still so very far away for me.

Next up is my new-found-in-real-life friend, Cay Gibson from Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks.  She is so peaceful and wise and I cannot wait to sip many more cups of tea in her company. (Notice, Cay, that I did not say "sweet". ;-)) I wish I could have gone with her on her Little House trip!

And last but not least, I tag my friend and neighbor Colleen, over at Footprints on the Fridge. Until she started her blog recently, I had no idea what a truly "reflective" person she was!  Behind that quick wit and sharp mind there is a lot of pondering going on, and I am truly glad that she has decided to share those ponderings with the rest of us.

Have a wonderful weekend!

   

Decorating Dilemmas

Well, we are finally winding down on the major work on the new living room, and we actually moved the sofa and chairs in there last night, even though the shelving and molding is not done yet.  You see, we are now waiting on the cabinet guy for the shelving and cabinetry, and frankly, we just couldn't stand it any longer.  We simply had to see what furniture would look like in this new space.

This step has gotten me thinking a bit beyond the construction phase... to the decorating.  I'll admit it, interior decorating stresses me out.  Big time.  I'm not sure what it is about it, but I think it's the fact that I'm not sure what I need exactly, and with my teeny tiny budget, I'm not sure how to get it.  I can't stand the thought of spending money on something, then getting it home and hating it.  Either way you slice it, I am hopelessly intimated by the whole thing.

So, I have been looking for ideas on the net.  I really like a simple, light and natural, semi-European look. I like an uncluttered (and unmatched), vintage / antique look.  I love fabric, especially timeless prints and stripes.

                  

The above French-stripe cloth is from The Linen Works in London.  I would love this in my backyard, or anywhere else!

            

I have been gleaning more European flavored ideas from Gruvgatan 13.  Amazing things, there.

         

Browsing the pages of House on the Hill (above) reminds me of the beautiful blog, Homespun Living.  Check out her gorgeous tea towel curtains! And oh, how I love her kitchen sink!  And speaking of blogs, have you seen the lovely Modern Country from the Netherlands?  Talk about simple, European class.

      

And of course, I have been doing a fair amount of clicking around on the ever inspiring French General web site, along with perusing the pages of The French Inspired Home and others (in the sidebar). The above 'Virgen de La Regla' is from their "santos" collection.

So, I am taking notes (literally), and saving photos and trying to envision and then create beautiful surroundings.  Ones that make guests feel comfortable, welcome and relaxed, while making our family simply love being at home.  All on a tight budget.

No pressure. :-)

 

A Bit of Idea Food

hat on earth is "Idea food"??  Well, it is something (books usually, but not always) that inspires the imagination.  My "official" definition is 'anything that gives one the raw ingredients for the creative process'.  Silly, I know, but it's very real to me.  An idea food book would be one that gave the reader a plethora of suggestions, pictures or ideas; but few specific projects that require specific supplies, materials and tools.  Idea food s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s one's creative abilities and requires a certain amount of out-of-the-box thinking. Idea food is a spring board to further creative adventures, rather than a set of static instructions. Idea food inspires. Does any of that make any sense at all??

Anyway.  I was recently trying to help Amelia craft her own art journal, when I stumbled across this wonderful pdf called "Illuminations", by Amy E. Bruce. (Great idea food!) The perfect springboard for many an art journal page! We also found this neat site with very cool examples and ideas for all sorts of illuminated letters.  These will make great additions to our notebooking projects next fall, also!

Have a great day!

P.S. ~ If you are not familiar with art journals, here is a simple introduction to the idea.

   

Pondering Beauty....again

"Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence.  It is an invitation to savor life and to dream of the future.  That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy.  It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could express in incomparable terms: "Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new. Late have I loved you!""

~ Pope John Paul II in his Letter to Artists, April 1999

Oh, how I love that quote!  How true!  Gazing on the perfect petals of a rose or the wings of a butterfly or an exquisitely rendered painting or other work of art will often turn my thoughts to heaven.  I truly believe that beauty does indeed "stir that hidden nostalgia for God".  It is for this very reason that I design the type of rosaries and chaplets that I do.  I want to create (and help others to create) beads for prayer that call out from the coffee table to be prayed!

Our souls crave beauty.  To rest ones eyes on something as simple as a mason jar filled with honeysuckle brings a certain peace and calm.  I suppose the early summer outdoors has me a tad distracted these days.  Everywhere I turn there seems to be something worth stopping and getting a closer look at, be it butterflies, blooms or berries.  When I cannot get outside (it's been raining quite a bit) I have been visiting Dawn's lovely blog and especially her Nature Notes and Nature Corner. 

Speaking of beautiful blogs, I have also been carefully pondering how I will fill the walls and shelves of our almost complete home addition.  I need to utilize the available space carefully and practically while  bringing in touches of beauty where I can. This post from Vintage Home has given me a few ideas while this one from Rebecca Sower has me looking around the house in an effort to use what we already have or can create ourselves.

Have a beautiful day!

 

WIP Friday

         

I actually have some work in progress this Friday!  I am trying to use up some of the many vintage rosary and bracelet parts from Belgium and the Netherlands that I bought off eBay last year. (Truthfully, because money is exceptionally tight right now I'm in "use-what-I-have" mode for nearly everything, which always takes some creative thinking!) One idea that has been cooking in my brain for a while now, are the nifty bracelets that you see above. (Sorry about the cruddy picture.) There is just something about these old pieces that makes me long to see them cherished once again.  I wonder repeatedly just how many praying fingers passed over the visibly worn rosary centers and medals. 

While I was trying to figure out what to do with my 200+ old rosary centers, bracelet links and medals, I stumbled across a couple of really neat books.  The first one, Vintage Style Beaded Jewelry, had some pretty good ideas for re-using vintage components. But I actually found the second one, Beautiful Button Jewelry, slightly more inspiring and I even learned a technique or two that were new to me!  This book has some really beautiful projects if you like playing with old buttons, but it is also filled with great how-to's and ideas applicable to other jewelry making areas.  The book was written by Susan Davis, the owner of this fantastic shop down here in Louisiana.

I am hoping to upload the bracelets and maybe a few tenners, possibly next week sometime, in the Gardens of Grace shop.

Have a beautiful day!

***UPDATE:  If you would like to see some of the finished bracelets, take a look over at Gardens of Grace!

   

Tagged

Well, I have been tagged (for the very first time ever!) for the Thinking Blogger Award.  It was the lovely Kim, over at Starry Sky Ranch, who did the tagging for this recent post.

If you have been tagged with the Thinking Blogger Award, you are supposed to:

1. Write a post linking to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link back to this post so that folks can find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Display the "Thinking Blogger Award" logo with a link to the post that earned you the reward in the first place.

Let's see now, 5 blogs that make me think...

There are so many, that it is quite a task to narrow it down to just 5.  Lately I have really been enjoying Rebecca Sower's blog, and this post on the beauty of life really struck a chord with me...what with all the house construction and painting and such.

I thoroughly enjoyed this post by Jennifer of Wildflowers and Marbles. This is SO me... bucket of wheat and all!

Ever since a friend turned me on to her blog, I have been frequently perusing Amy Scott's posts over at Amy's Humble Musings.  This one from early March is one of my favorites.

Melissa Wiley always makes me think, but this recent post about the FDA "messing with chocolate" had me clicking (did you know there was a candy blog?!?) as well as pondering.

And last, but not least, the ever inspiring Clarice from Storybook Woods has me thinking about even more ways to add beauty to my every-day world.

   

Creative Homemaking

The world of crafty / creative-homemaking blogs is just so amazing.  So inspiring.  When I am feeling dull, uninspired and unmotivated, all I have to do is pop in for a quick visit to Simple Sparrow, House Wren Studio, Starry Sky Ranch, Turkey Feathers or any of the many other fabulous, creative blogs out there. These lovely women (and more) help me to view my vocation as an outlet for my creativity, not the hindrance the world would have us believe.

Another blog I have been enjoying is Tales From Pixie Wood by Cherry Menlove (from beautiful England).  (Her current post is a terrific interview with Susan Branch; a must read for any "Heart of the Home" fan!) I love what she had to say about traditional homemaking and creativity in a recent post:

"Why do people across the planet love Cath Kidston? I say that it's due in a large way to the fact that she has taken designs and concepts for the home that are steeped in tradition from days gone by and brought them bang up to date. She has incorporated the two. Incorporated, I like that word.

   

How about these crafty/homemaking blogs we so dearly love to read and comment on? More often than not they are written by women who work towards bringing a little bit of tradition back to their homes. They are business women, crafters, employees, SAHM's and, not forgetting, the bright young things who do not have children or may not be married but know that their loves, likes and tastes could be dragged from many years ago and quite happily dropped in their laps.

   

The same goes for Tessa Kiros. She has brought us recipes that her family has cooked down the generations. She has woven the fabric of her family's history into her books and we buy them in our thousands. The pictures of sun drenched, rosy fabric covered tables bending under the weight of food that has been prepared for an enormous gathering of family and friends inspire us to do the same."

That's it!  Creativity, homemaking, serving the ones we love, all rolled into one.  That is what I am after.

          

It is with these thoughts in my brain, that I stitched a bit of fresh fabric garland for our springtime festivities this weekend.

          

I also made a couple of simple, red ticking cushions for the seats of one of the little bistro tables we will be using on the unfinished back porch.  And yes, the tables will be covered in "rosy fabric", but hopefully not "bending" too much!

      

                            

   

Inspiration of Late

Well, now that my large projects of the last few weeks are basically wrapped up, and I'm pretty much ready for tomorrow's shop update, I am looking at my little world with an urge to put order and beauty into places that have too long been neglected. 

       

I just love the Carolina jasmine at this time of year.  As you can see in the photo, we had two plants on this trellis, but the lower one has died and needs to be cut out. All of the flower beds and the garden desperately need tidying up.  The pitiful geraniums in the window box are actually leftovers from last year. I was inspired by this post of Dawn's to make a list of all the outdoor chores that need tackling. What a beautiful list, Dawn!

           

Spring, for us, marks the return of picnic season!  I cannot wait to try out the cutlery roll project from Romantic Home Sewing.  It's made from a dish towel! Right now we keep the picnic basket silverware in a cloth drawstring bag, but this is so much nicer.  I want to do a "picnic post" soon and share some of our thoughts and ideas on this wonderful tradition.

After reading Jennifer's comment on the post about the Whole Grain Baking book, I popped in for a visit to her lovely blog.  I so enjoyed this post about her daughter learning to cook! While closely examining the last photo of her daughter with the freshly baked loaf of bread, I noticed that we have the same breadmaker and wheat grinder. This, naturally, inspired me to go start a batch of bread right away. :-) Yum!

         

Bread baking always reminds me of the book pictured above. Hearth & Home by Karey Swan has been my one of my favorite books for over 10 years now.  My absolute favorite bread recipe comes from this book.  It is so much more than a cookbook; it is indeed "recipes for life", filled to the brim with her delightful ramblings and ponderings. I had purchased Laurel's Kitchen sometime before finding Hearth & Home, and I'll admit, it completely overwhelmed me at the time.  Hearth & Home, on the other hand, made a whole foods lifestyle seem easy!  So many of the recipes in this book have just become part of our life.  The biscotti recipe is the best!      

            

The photo above is again from Romantic Home Sewing.  I love the idea of sewing a small pocket to a pillow case just the right size to tuck one of Amelia's little lavender pillows in.  We have been simply dropping them inside the pillow case, but this seems so much better! 

   

A Poetic Past

I have always loved poetry, both reading and writing it.  I composed many a poem, as a kid, and wrote each one out in one of three books that I had made myself.  I have no clue where those books are now, probably collecting dust in the deep recesses of the attic. 

On Thanksgiving Day of this year, when all of our extended family was gathered together, one of my aunts brought out a very old notebook filled with poetry. It was all handwritten in old (but not too faded) ink.  She had found this treasure when she had moved into her house years ago.  The house was an old one and had been passed to her by preceding generations.  The poetry was that of her great grandmother, or my great-great grandmother.

                              

Her name was Marie Louise Smith Edgar (1851-1946) and her story absolutely inspires me. The original poems were transcribed, by a cousin, into a typed booklet which was distributed to family members.  This is a quote from the "Transcriber's Notes" at the beginning of the booklet:

 

"During her days in South Louisiana, Marie Louise washed the family's clothes using a perforated bucket that would be swished through a larger tub, the equivalent of today's washing machine agitator.  It was during these otherwise boring times her thoughts turned to her poetry which she would record on a nearby table."

   

I love that in her daily duties, (Which were no doubt much greater than mine!) she still made the effort to be creative and even share her gifts with others.  She had five children, was a private tutor and taught piano. She grew vegetables, grapes, fruit trees and flowers.  She even enjoyed crocheting, tatting and raising canaries!  Talk about a creative life!

Many of the poems reflect her strong faith and her admiration for the beauty of the bayous, live oaks and wildlife of her southern Louisiana surroundings. Below is one of her poems:

 

Someone

   

When the sun is sinking

Slowly in the west

When the birds are flying

O’er the waves to rest

Someone stands waiting

In a cottage door

Hushing all but heartbeat

Listening for an oar.

 

Someone’s rowing homeward

To that little nest

Someone’s longing longing

For it’s peace and rest

Someone soon will gladden

At a glistening oar

Someone soon be clasping

Someone in the door.

   

And here is a scan of the original poem.  I don't know why, but it gives me such a thrill to turn the yellowed, cracking pages and examine closely the delicate penmanship.  (My aunt allowed me to very carefully scan the entire original notebook for the sake of posterity.)  I'll share more of Marie Louise's story and poetry in the future.

    

               

   

 

Inspiration

This is a page from a beautiful book called Shrines.  It is filled with amazing photos of private shrines all over Italy. It also was the inspiration for the "Vintage Elements" collection as I tried to recreate the soft, weathered look of these breathtaking images.

   

                                                    

("Vintage Elements" incorporates actual vintage and antique crucifixes and medals into the design of the rosary or chaplet.  These are not the re-cast pieces I normally use.)  This book is filled with page after page of exquisite examples of human devotion to the Mother of God and the Saints.