With the new movie "Arriety" coming out, I was happily reminded of books I read as a child that I just loved. The Borrowers, by Mary Nortan. I downloaded The first book in the series on my Kindle Fire last week and was brought back to the warm memory of reading about these tiny folks who lived under the floorboards and "borrowed"tiny things from the "beans" (human beings) to build their world. England is the setting for these books, so I am always disappointed when they are not portrayed so in movies, but still enjoyed watching the Borrowers movie from the late 90s. In another nostalgic rant about creativity, pinterest would have loved the Clock family. Knitting with sewing needles, making wallpaper out of hand written letters, turning empty spools into tables, cozy fires... These books will make your imagination soar, even as an adult. I have no idea what form of amnesia I had when my girls were younger, but I never thought about them reading these stories or other books that I thoroughly enjoyed when I was young. Like the Trixie Belden series of mysteries. Anyone out there ever hear of them? They were awesome. I may just have to re-read them all now, even though I am ancient-like now!
Every so often I get the urge to draw, especially when I have a project for my home or my family in mind. I have been thinking about moose for probably the last year, but have been procrastinating any attempt at drawing one. Until this past weekend that is, when I created the picture above. I have to look at a moose photo or picture to get the idea, so I easily found some on the internet. I drew this moose head then photocopied on my printer, cut it out and then decoupaged it onto a canvas that I had painted diagonal stripes on. I made two and am giving one to my daughter Christina and keeping the other one for somewhere in my house. Guess I will have to move some things around because my walls are pretty full... Then the next day I attempted a whole moose and did this guy. I have no idea what I am doing, I just look at a picture and try to duplicate it with drawing pencils. I also have no idea how to shade properly but I intend to check out some tutorials on the web to better learn the proper technique. Yesterday, I watched a tutorial on how to draw a moose and then drew this fella, which seems a better likeness of one. So...three days, three mooses (or is it three moose?) Wondering what I will do next...
does anyone else get grossed out by the Tums commercial when the food on someones fork starts hitting them? Or the guy holding the chicken leg that smacks him? Ew
has anyone else had crazy swarming black birds in their neighborhood? I remember this happening last year too. Think of the movie "The Birds"! I went on my back deck to video them today and there were so many overhead, I could hear their poop dropping on the leaves in my back yard!
does anyone else spend too much time on the computer, on facebook, etsy, pinterest,blog-land? I figured I wasn't alone! It's the reason my laundry room is a mess and dust bunnies grow in my corners!
anyone out there having a really weird winter? Like it's springtime already? Well, actually since all January too! But I LOVE winter, crisp air, hot tea at night, wearing layers, the possibility of snow! boo hoo!
don't you just love a fireplace? I've never had one, but I always loved smelling other peoples smoke in the air on a chilly night. Now my daughter Christina has a working fireplace in her new home and I danced a little when it was lit for the first time. My daughter Jenny has this talent for starting and maintaining fires even though she has never had a fireplace. One time as a teen, she sat at a drum set and started to play, although she had never done so before. Superpowers!
do you always search for the perfect jeans that don't roll down from your belly, and are light enough to keep you cool and heavy enough to keep you warm, and make you look ten pounds thinner? Any luck? None for me so far. Sadly my favorite fitting things are jeggings from Walmart that only cost 5.88. Full price.
do you procrastinate your home projects like painting all your trims and ceilings? Or is that just me? I wish we would have done it before we moved in, but now we have too much crap to move out of the way!
anybody out there eat healthy all day, but then get insanely "hungry" between supper and bedtime? Any solutions???
did you know that beavers are adorable and if they could speak they would sound british? Oh yes I think they would! I just watched a National Geographic special about them and learned how smart AND busy they really are!
A few weeks ago, I was reading a blog post by Angela fromPickles on Pizzaabout being your genuine and authentic self. I really enjoyed reading it and it got me to thinking about my own life and how for several whole decades of my life I was less than genuine of a person. I was trying to fit in to an image that was really not me at all. Let me start by saying that when I was 18 years old, after being a self proclaimed agnostic (didn't really even know what that meant, but I thought it meant I doubted that there was a God, but wasn't absolutely sure about it) I discovered that God was real and that I needed Him in my life. I read the Bible and felt that the words came alive and brought such joy to my heart. I met my husband when I was in college in New York and we were married a year and a half later. Ray also shared the same faith that I had come to know, and believe me, marrying him was the best thing I ever did! He was then , and still is, my best friend, an awesome husband, father and grandpa. He played guitar at church on Sundays and as the years went on, he was ordained an associate pastor and we moved from NYC to Florida to help start a church. Our two daughters had a blast growing up in church with all the social aspects and fun programs for kids. Ray was also youth Pastor and working with the group we had at the time was some of the best experiences ever. I worked in the church office as a secretary at the time also, so we were at church for most days of the week. The thing is, that when I was home at night or on our day off, I was a pretty grumpy gal. Not the whole time of course, but my patience was thin and my mind was always preoccupied with church things. In fact, I would say that my busy-ness took the place of a simple faith in God that is demonstrated by loving God first, then others second. I conformed to a style of dressing that was the culture of the Bible belt, TV persona, which included suits, and conservative dresses and shoes. Dare I say, "Church Lady" kind of things? At one point I didn't even own a pair of jeans! gasp!!! How can that be??? I am a child of the 70s (my teen years of course) where jeans, plaid shirts and casual wear was my thing! One day Christina as a teen asked me why I didn't have any jeans and why did I wear such weird pants? Eventually my husband and I started a church as head Pastors and we moved about 45 minutes north with our family. Church life can be a weird thing sometimes. And BTW, Pastors are probably some of the most insecure people around. Trust me, I know. People come to your church and you feel happy, they leave and you feel rejected. People are always sizing you up and blah blah blah. I always felt an urge to do something creative and artistic during those years, but I was too burned out emotionally to do very much of anything when I was home but veg out. Right before we moved from Florida to Alabama, we were meeting in a small storefront with a small group of people and I enjoyed the simplicity of it all. Not having to dress up for church or trying to impress anybody was more our speed. During that time I resurrected my art-ish ambitions as I began to relax and be more genuine of a person, but it wasn't until leaving Florida that my buried creativity began to really uncover. You see, I don't believe that an administrative life is the life for me , or for my husband, for that matter. We are basically down to earth people. We don't need people's approval to be happy. We don't need to be important people. Just plain old fashioned , kind and friendly folks who express our faith by genuinely loving others. As some of you know, moving here almost 4 years ago was hard, because of leaving Christina (Consider The Coffee)and her husband Suj and my grandson Kavi who was only one month old. It was hard for Christina too, and that is when we discovered ETSY and began online shops. Christina started a blog and encouraged me to start one and I was exposed to so much creativity that I thought I would explode. From joy that is. ETSY-land and BLOG-world helped guide me towards DIY-ing lots of things and totally getting into crocheting. I still love it and look forward to adding a new stitch or skill every so often. And I have met Angela and her husband Aubrey which was a total blast and we can't wait until they visit our area again in August! Now I know that my blog or my craftiness doesn't stop world hunger or cause world peace, but if I can put a smile on someone's face sometime or share something that will encourage someone else to unleash their inner creativity then I am happy. I am tired of the church sub-culture where every waking hour is spent in a building, where greeters hunt you down to get you to fill out a form with your name, phone # and address, where there is a forced greeting time where people mechanically shake your hand to "welcome" you while never looking directly at you, where they say things like "We at (fill in the blank) do this,,,or believe that...",and where you hear catch phrases that normal people don't say. I need real, live genuine,kind, loving and unassuming people. That's why I enjoy reading other people's blogs where they share all kinds of things creative, peppered with real lives and emotions and experiences. I have gotten so much encouragement from reading posts of interesting people from across the globe. For that I am thankful. Thank you so much for reading this and I hope I didn't bum anybody out but possibly brought you a chuckle or a moment of encouragement to brighten your day!
