Kinship in Color and Wool

Morning routine

Everyday, while still in bed, I roll over on my tummy grab my spiral notebook from the floor - its pen tucked into the wire and begin my Morning Pages... top of the page, February 1, 2012... today is Wednesday the first day of February, Rose will be 20 years old this month. I have a headache, it is still early, maybe I will try to go back to sleep after these pages... I have been thinking about.... Blah - blah blah - whatever passes through my mind... I have been writing Morning Pages for several years. Each full spiral notebook is thrown into recycling! They are a cleansing routine -- they frankly have become so important to me. I feel like they have helped me deal with a lot of my negative tendencies. Usually about half way through I start praying -- you know that old saying "turn your worries into prayers" well that comes into play somewhere in the 3 pages. They are not for future reference - like say a sketchbook or diary would be - Rick likes to say about them "ya know when you were a kid in the yard in the summertime and wanted to get a drink from the garden hose, but you let it run till all the warm water got out and it was running cold water and you could drink it --- morning pages are letting the yucky water flow out -- so you can drink the good stuff" Morning Pages are part of Julia Cameron's Artist Way book/process... find out more about that here. (There is a video by Julia Cameron  - please watch it there!)

 

Winter Walk

The weather has been lovely for Michigan in January... Snow but not too-too cold. On Saturday - Pearl, "Bear" (our housemate/boarder) and I walked to the post office. I had to send out an "Expect Good Things" paper pattern. It was so pretty outside. We stopped at a coffee shop on the way home and then Argos used book store -- Small pleasant things to make life sweet!

Rug Hooking Progress

I finally began this rug yesterday! I had laid aside some wool color choices earlier, and began deciding where they should go on the rug... This can be a very anxious part of the rug for me - deciding what colors and where they go... I am working at being peaceful... so far, buttery ivory for background (too bright?) there are 3 groups of flowers each has one flower with a cool pink outline and the rest a kidney bean red outline... I am planning on blue-green leaves... Rain, my youngest daughter did a line of the background color, you can see a bit in the lower left corner of the photo.... more shots coming as it progresses...

Rural Michigan Winter

Look at the lovely vintage patterns on the rug and the old linoleum! Aren't they stunning! This photo and the others were taken last winter, Rose and Pearl went to a "Winter Gathering" on an old farmstead near Jackson, Michigan... The photos they came back with were so beautiful.

look at that wallpaper! here are a few more photos from that weekend...

Give yourself TIME to be creative....

What inspires creativity for you? Some people like problems to solve, others like competition. For me it is about freedom and liberty. Give yourself time to think about your creativity... Give yourself time to be creative!

the injured life produces treasure

"A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl."  ~Stephan Hoeller 

Judgement Day, Lyrics by Rick Beerhorst                                   

For every bell that is ringing, for every saw that cuts the wood                                                  
There’s a girl some where crying, and a boy that’s misunderstood
Now there’s a sink full of dishes, and a kite full of wind
I pound another nail in the cross, every time I sin  

Chorus

     I stacked the wood pile, I spread the straw
     I butchered our last chicken  
     Pulled the dead tooth from my jaw

Like a song that’s been forgotten, like a key that’s been lost
Every single flower died, in last night’s hard frost
So stack up all your kisses, and melt away like a bar of soap
Baby you’ll know where to find me, right at the end of my rope

Chorus

Yes this ship it is sinking, and the sky is caving in
But our hearts go right on beating while the snow is blowing in
Grab your winter coat and throw your o’l dice away
Cause the storm clouds are gathering, it looks like judgement day

Chorus

Now I am crying, ‘cause I know I am lost
My heart’s black as a crow, and I know how much my sin cost
So make me a bed of oak leaves, that I can sink down in
My heart is the cushion, and  you are my pin

Chorus....

Take  a few minutes to see creativity unleashed - and let you mind and heart be inspired! This is a video made just the other night by Seth Thompson, featuring dance by Marlee Cook-Parrot and Amy Wilson. The music is the "Wealthy Orphans."

 

Judgement Day - Wealthy Orphans with Dance In The Annex from Seth Thompson on Vimeo.

It's always Tea Time

 Maybe because it is winter... but drinking tea has become very important around here... our shelf of tea is toppling over with cardboard boxes of herbal sachets and greens and blacks of all sorts. We also have loose teas that swell in their tea infusers... Every mug in the house is washed after soggy bags of tea are pinched out and thrown into the compost. Coffee has all but disappeared, except the other day when I boiled some grounds to make 2 tablespoons for a brownie recipe. Something about tea is soothing, coffee can make me jittery, but a cuppa tea hits the spot! 

 "If you are cold, tea will warm you; If you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you." ~William E. Gladstone

                                            photos by Pearl Beerhorst

 

Padula Romance

So I have been painting more, and to be honest, rug-hooking less. But I am unwilling to let the rug making drift away! Above is the design of a rug I drew, probably last fall - and finally transferred onto some backing. I have picked out some wool, but haven't begun hooking yet. I will keep you posted on the progress!

Blunders and Absurdities

 

 "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, (attributed)

This is something for me to think about... I am one of those people where what I said earlier in the day can come back to haunt me... A faux pas that slipped out-- usually minor, like maybe sharing "Too much information" or a bit too snarky a remark... Maybe apologies are necessary, but maybe just forgive yourself and move on...

 

Dorothea Brande Quote

drawing by Rick Beerhorst

“Most of the methods of training the conscious side of the writer-the craftsman and the critic in him- are actually hostile to the good of the artist's side; and the converse of this proposition is likewise true. But it is possible to train both sides of the character to work in harmony, and the first step in that education is to consider that you must teach yourself not as though you were one person, but two.” 
― Dorothea Brande

I have a new used book, titled Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. I read a recommendation for this book from Julia Cameron, the author of The Artisits' Way... (an awesome book by the way.) I am looking forward to reading Becoming a Writer -- the snippets I have read seem really good!