wrap theme

This year, I selected a merry navy and white in the form of polka dots and stripes, a green and a gold palette for my Holiday wrapping. The ribbon was black satin, navy plaid, and gauzy gold. I felt overall that it was successful while bunched together under our miniature tree, but as I began to dole out the gifts, it became a little weak! Nevertheless, I am delighted with the way it came off and the gears are already turning for next year!! Any ideas out there?

shout out

Can you please tell me what is better than hanging out with precious friends whom you love and respect, who tell the greatest tales, and share their lives with you? Well, nothing is better of course! (...I suppose that I should throw the husb a bone here and let him know that he is included among the ranks of friends, so...) With the careful wrapping of gifts, and the endless baking of cookies, the temporary easing off my "health" regimen (wah ha ha), and the non-stop social engagements, I can honestly say that this holiday season is shaping up to be quite fulfilling! This is not the sensation I was expecting to experience from a month suffering from a shameful lack of snow. So to all of you dear hearts who make this girl's time so special, I say, "You are so very R A D, thank you, and you rock!

 

xo much love

curtains

Harrumph

Today, like so many days lately, has been marked by a certain, melancholy idleness. Humph. I find myself sitting at my desk staring around with a head full of ideas of things that could come to be actual, but a complete unwillingness to really do any of them...

curtains - I took down a terrible pair of cheap curtains and modified them slightly with the aid of my dusty sewing machine. Halfway through the project I was flooded with ideas on how to make them even more interesting like, say, screenprinting a pattern onto them, or adding a sheer panel behind them, etc. I also became extremely keen on my sewing machine itself! Suddenly I was reminded of great, abandoned projects of yesteryear, and plenty of lofty new possibilities! And then I wanted to paint my bedroom, create a cloth headboard, hang a few new pictures! I went back to my "studio space" after reinstalling said curtains and immediately started rearranging the room, resorting sewing supplies, and pulling out watercolor paints, brushes, and paper...

Right now I have finally settled down, put away the manic overflow of emotions. I am coming to terms with the fact that I had a major art attack mood swing and although it was awesome, it was also sort of crazy. So - is this what you call a creative burst? Have I hit my peak for the year??

{side note: I did not actually paint anything, hang anything, or print anything}

just a little post ...

... to keep a blog blog breathing.

What I know about October is that it is always the absolute best time. Every year, good or bad, no matter what the days have brought me, I live out the month with the wonder of a child. I catch myself smiling at warmly hued, sunny rays, taking care to drag my feet a little along the sidewalk just so that I can hear a bit of crunching in the dry leaves. The colors are so brilliant, and the green freshness that so many pine for each spring is slowly dying off - and I am sooo okay with that. You might find that it is the best time of the year to try and catch up with me since I am friendlier, happier, less down in the dumps in October than I am during any other month. I am much more likely to be gracious and loving, giving even... And then, right when the fun is about to end, there's Halloween! I never did have fun dressing up and hopping from event to event, or even cruising for candy in the chill of Western New York's autumn evenings, wearing a flimsy plasticized gown or cape over layers of clothes and a puffy winter coat, but I have always loved the hint of eery, a sampling of spooky, ghouls and the like. Cobwebs decorating otherwise pristine porches, little nuggets picking out their frightful or terribly too cute costumes. I recall how charming it was to have my bedroom windows facing a small, old crumbling cemetery covered in red, yellow, and brown decaying leaves. I wonder if our neighborhood trick or treaters found it scary or just a commonplace landmark they passed every day on their walk to school.

On this first day of November, I feel like mourning a bit, and I am, but I also feel like celebrating because my second favorite time of the year is upon us - time for S N O W! (she cheers)

o u t o f b o d y

Last year, just about this time, I had this wonderful feeling of satiation from the tip of my hat to the toes of my Eastlands. We were exploring something so beautiful and quiet. A place that was foreign, but familiar in that I had always wanted to be there. I had always wanted to have the sensation that I had arrived at the exact, perfect spot where I would experience such a true impression of happiness.

I found myself trying to make all my dreams come true through the squint of my eyelids. I imagined that time would stand still for us so that we could live a whole, wide life in the perfect space reserved for such things in my mind and heart. And we wouldn't have any obligations, and pressing dates or times. No one would ever know we were absent. It felt almost real, like I could reach out and take it as mine and just paste it over all of the mistakes we had ever made, all of the days that were too short. I took deep breaths. Stretched and posed among the trees. But no matter how purely alive I felt, and how thoroughly delighted I was to exist in this space, I knew that I couldn't really stay...

Today I am writing emails left and right, furiously sliding my finger up and down the touch screen on my smart phone. I have consumed a good deal of candy corn, eaten yogurt, went for a run. I will surely watch television later on, try to get to bed at a reasonable hour. I will pet my cats. ... But today/tonight, I am thinking of that fullness that nearly kidnapped my soul. I am sending out waves of yearning.

One Old Summer Ago Or So

One hot, hot summer day spent lounging on trampled grasses with my then boyfriend, now spouse, Bri Bri... Some band was playing off in the near distance, could have been someone I should have cared to listen to, someone like Sonic Youth maybe, but no no - the heat, the dirt, the sun absorbing into and burning my skin. I thought to turn my camera onto a crowd of on-lookers, taking cover in the shaded port-a-potty corral, but then thought better of it when I spotted a couple making out and rolling around on the toilet tissue littered ground near these towering blue stinky demons, so I instead took solace in myself, in my mesh kicks, and picked a blade of grass here, a blade there... Oh summer.

going to try it

...thought i would give it a go.
...maybe just ramble on and then...