Another Simple Pleasure...Calendars

Today is March 1st...Woo-hoo!

I love the first of the month because today is the day that I get to turn the calendar page! Woohoo!  I know, it may seem trivial, even childish to get excited about turning the page from February to March, but it's really one of those simple pleasures for me.

You see, I wasn't always as 'rich' as I am now. (I'm using rich in the broadest sense of the word here, and in comparison to past days. But yes, I do feel rather rich in all aspects of my life! ) Back in the day when the kids were little and I was broke, broke, broke; the money always ran out before the month did. The last week of the month was a time of digging under sofa cushions and checking coat pockets to gather enough change to buy gas. It was having tomato soup and saltine crackers for supper, making tuna casserole with 1 can of tuna instead of 2, and making the milk go farther by mixing powdered milk with the regular. And then, just when I thought that I couldn't make my pennies stretch another inch...came the first of the month and with it PAYDAY! Hallelujah, we made it! It was time to buy some groceries, pay the bills (well some of them anyway), and yes, change the page on the calendar. It was a shiny new month, full of promise and hope for better days.

All this aside, there is something even more wonderful to me about the change of the calendar; it's the art. Even when I was poor I never scrimped on my yearly calendar; never just used the one that the Les Schwab Tire Company or Key Bank sent me. For me, art is personal and essential. I need,  I daresay require it for my mental well-being. It doesn't have to be fancy or pretentious, it just needs to fill that corner of my soul that yearns for loveliness. So each year I make a pilgrimage to my favorite bookstore to find the perfect calendar for the upcoming year.  My requirements are always the same...it must have beautiful pictures to fill my heart with pleasure, quotations that inspire me, and plenty of space to note special events and appointments. All of this is mine for the mere price of twelve dollars or so! What a bargain! And though it's tempting, I never, never, never buy my calendars in December. I must wait patiently until January and buy them for 50% off. Last year I actually waited until February. The nicest ones were pretty picked over, but I was able to find a lovely one on line for only $6.00.

So, Happy March, friends! May your month be filled with promise and hope and all kinds of good cheer. Now go turn the page on your calendar!

For the past two years I've chosen Deborah DeWit's Simplicity Calendars...lovely!

My sister gave hubby and I this beautiful calendar featuring Labs in honor of our guy, Baron.

Below are some pages from 2013 calendars I really love...

This is from "The Present Moment" calendar. Lovely.

From "The Organic Kitchen Garden." Really nice tips and photographs.

 

 

"Traveling Light" datebook by Max Lucado. It says, "A datebook for releasing burdens you were never intended to bear."

Love it.

 

 

From "Haiku, Japanese Art and Poetry". I'd love to have the birds in the moonlight painting.

All of these beautiful calendars and so many more are available at Amazon.com.
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Mirror, mirror...

Sofie and Isabella got their faces painted at the county fair. Here they are, gazing at their newly painted faces in the mirror...

My title for this image would be..."I See Myself as a Butterfly."

What image do you see when you look at yourself? Black and white...or Butterfly? 

"Behold thou art fair, my love; behold thou art fair..." 

from the Song of Songs; which is Solomon's. 

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Life is Just a Chair of Bowlies...

They're coming today, and I'm almost ready. Just have to go to the fruitstand, smash out some burgers and make my special spaghetti sauce. Oh, and pitch a tent in the backyard for the kiddies to play house. Yep, we're all ready for company for the next couple of weeks. First my daughter and her brood, then my daughter-in-law and her two. (I feel special that my daughter in law wants to come, even though my son is working out of town. I mean, how many daughters-in-law want to visit mom-in-law for a whole week?) Soon we'll be riding the ferris wheel at the county fair, scouring the beach for pretty shells, walking the Boulevard to Fairhaven, and playin' in Fishtrap Creek down in the city park. Life's gonna be a Bowl of Cherries around here!

So the guest room is made up. My guest room is far from something you'd see in a magazine. Even though I'm moving toward modern in my decorating esthetic...this room seems to be stuck in a time warp. But I rather like it, so as Dad used to say, don't fix somethin' that taint broke!

The pretty duvet was a thrifted find for a buck!  Embroidered pillowcases, some made by moi, some from local antique stores.

 Made these cute little pillows a few years back for the family room. My tastes have since changed; but they seem quite at home in the guestroom.

 Our little town was settled by dutch folk. Every year we have Holland Days Festival; and of course, there are commemorative prints. The 2002 one makes me smile. Look at the scale of the people compared to the building! They look like the dwarves in Sleeping Beauty! I guess this must be the artists' style...but why?

 I like this one. We have a little Dutch mall downtown that looks like this. It has a canal inside with koi fish. That's the good news. The bad news; it was purchased by some big city bigshots who jacked up the rent so high that every little shopowner moved out. All that's left in the building is the hotel.The owners don't care. It's a tax write off.  This print was done in better days.

 This lamp has been in my family since I-don't-know-when! It's hand painted and I think that's real gold-leaf paint on it. It used to sit by my old iron bedstead when I was little. I remember sitting on the bed and running my fingers over the shape of those flowers as I daydreamed about many things.

 No childhood is complete without Raggedy Ann and Andy. I don't care how hip or expensive a doll is; nothing compares to a dolly that has "I love you" embroidered on it's heart.

 Mr. Teddy, you have been well-loved!

Baron has staked his claim at the foot of the bed on the fancy oriental rug we inherited from Uncle Myles. Dear me, Uncle Myles would not be thrilled to see a dog lying on such a fine antique. But Baron isn't just any dog. He's family. Patience, my puppy...the children will be here soon; and then life will be Bowl of Cherries...or as Mary Engelbreit puts it; a Chair of Bowlies!

Swanky Shoes

So have you seen the clogs at The Swanx? Hand-painted works of art for your feet! Love it!!!! Admittedly, they're a little pricey, but oohh-la-la! How cute would any of these little numbers be with a simple black skirt with tights and a white blouse? Or how about with your faded old jeans and a black t-shirt. There are so many to choose from; and I read that you can have them customized. How cool is that? These are a few of my favorites. Here's the link if you're interested...http://www.theswanx.com/

Peace Out, Man!

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Contemplative Photography...Assignment: Color

I went to the library and came home with a stack of books on photography. One in particular caught my eye..."The Practice of Contemplative Photography" by Andy Karr and Michael Wood. I had never heard the term 'contemplative photography' before, but I knew intuitively that such an art existed. Contemplative photography has been described as pure perception...seeing the world with fresh eyes...seeing combined with mindfulness...and so on. It's easy to recognize but hard to describe. There's an honesty and freshness to it...uncontrived. It's the antithesis of the department store portrait.

Anyhoo, this book has some fun exercises, the first of which is to shoot color. Not form, not items, not things...just run around and look for color and then photograph it. No blacks, greys, whites or beiges. No text or graphics. 

Now I admit to being a rank amateur at this, but even I could appreciate what happens when you get your mind off of composing a shot. Other things show up. Like letters reflected in water bottles.

Unimportant things find meaning.

Try it, it's kind of fun!

Monochromatically Speaking...



So when hubby and I moved into our mid-century rambler in 2005 we discovered that our furniture dwarfed the small rooms. Hubby wasn't really in favor of the move and moaned, "We're gonna have to sleep on cots!" Of course I couldn't let him be right, so I had the movers stuff our Victorian bedroom set into our tiny room. I tried every way I knew to arrange the furniture, but there was only one way...the bed in front of the window and both of our dressers on the wall to the right. This left a narrow little footpath for us to shinny around the footboard and make our way out of the room. I could literally sit on the bed and pull clothing out of the dresser. Don't tell him I said so, but hubby was right. Our furniture was way too big.



Over the past few years my tastes have evolved, and I've come to understand that just as we ladies look better if we dress our age in things that fit, so does our home. My room was beginning to make me  claustrophobic.  The headboard was blocking the only window in the room and preventing much- needed light from streaming in. The room was just to small for two dressers, and the footboard was taking up about 6 inches of precious space. I longed for a simple, spare, and spacious feel in that room.

So I listed these pics on Craigslist and sold the set for a song. (Since we'd had it for 20 years, I felt we'd gotten our money's worth.) I made enough to buy a new dresser (very inexpensive), two lamps, and a bedskirt.

I decided to stick to a monochromatic color scheme in the room to create a more spacious, serene feel. It took every bit of self control I could muster to purchase solid colors and only in beige-tones. (I love, love, love prints and bright colors. Problem is, I grow tired of them quickly.)






I picked a warm, taupe-y quilt and a plush ivory throw to complement the walls and woodwork. I've been learning that if you are not using contrasting color, you must use contrasting textures. That's why I chose the furry throw and the nubby lamp-shades.



The only piece of artwork is a charcoal drawing I did in college...taken from a photograph on a calendar. I love this piece. Because it is black and white, I decided to incorporate a bit of black and white into the scheme, so I added the zebra striped and black throw pillows. If I had room I'd have added a zebra-striped upholstered chair. But the choice was either to have a bedside lamp or a chair. I decided I'd rather read in bed than have a chair to throw clothing on.






I love the contemporary lines on the dresser. It was difficult, going from two dressers to one. It meant keeping only what we love and what is necessary. Ultimately, that's a good thing.

 The lamps were a JC Penney on-line find. The pair for $100! They cast the warmest, coziest glow on the walls.

I really like how this room turned out. Oh yes, there are a few more little things I'll be changing. Need to find some metal and glass night stands with shelves to accomodate the remotes, books, etc. And I plan to replace the metal blinds with a light-filtering honeycomb shade. I'm a bit fanatical about light. Can't stand to be in rooms without lots of light. I love to lie in bed and look at all of the beautiful shadows that come in with the morning sun!

Getting rid of the footboard was one of the best moves ever! Not only did we gain 6" of much needed floor space, but now hubby can bring me tea in the mornings, and sit on the end of the bed and chat with me while I wake up!

Our next project is the kitchen. This weekend we're visiting IKEA to see what we can do to bring the kitchen out of the stone age without breaking the bank. I'll keep you posted!

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Folks

This wonderful piece of folk-art needlework was an exhibit from the NW Washington Fair. I would rather own this piece than something by Monet. (and I love Monet.)

I am the product of simple folks. Dad was a lumberman. Mom grew up on a farm. I grew up listening to Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn. We planted gardens and canned everything we could harvest.  Mom sewed many my school clothes on an old treadle machine and bought what she didn't sew at Sears and Roebuck. Dad spent many Sundays on the riverbank salmon fishing; partly because he loved to fish and partly because we needed the meat. They were resourceful folk, my parents, using their earthy skills to provide for their family. I love that about them. And I love it that even though I've had the opportunity for education and advancement beyond what was available to my parents; my roots are deeply planted in the soil and my tastes will always lean toward the honesty and simplicity of the country. Unpretentious. I know first-hand what it takes to make something by hand or grow things from scratch, so I'd gladly take a hand-made quilt over a cashmere blanket, a pretty folk-art drawing  instead of a masterpiece, and a Mason jar full of daisies fresh picked from the garden rather than long-stemmed roses from the florist. Sometimes I just have to chuckle at the things I learned as a child, particularly the music. Dad used to love to sing old country songs that were a little 'wild'. The other day I heard myself singing this old tune that Dad loved to sing while doing 'Miller Stomp' (a kind of cross between Irish step dancing and country line dancing)...

I won't go huntin' with you Jake
but I'll go chasin' women.
Put those hound dogs in the pen
and stop your foolish grinnin'.
The moon is right
and I'm half-tight
and life is just beginnin'
No, I won't go huntin' with you Jake
but I'll go chasin' women!


Yep, that's right! Hard to believe that Mild Mannered Debora would know this song...my repertoire of country songs is much wider than you might imagine! And though I'm much more at home with 'Amazing Grace', I have to say, I'd give anything to see my folks whirl around the living room to the Tennessee Waltz again, or to kick up my heels and do the 'Miller Stomp' with my Dad just one more time!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok02ZZMCtPY

(Click this link if you're in the mood to do the 'Miller Stomp! Note: turn my playlist (lower right side of my blog) to off first, so you don't have two songs going at once.)

Alice's Handiwork

 

My neighbor Alice is amazing! Look at her beautiful handiwork!

She's a little camera shy...didn't want me to take a photo of her; so you'll have to guess what she's like by looking at her quilts and needlework.

 

 

 

I had the nicest afternoon looking at all of her quilting. This is just the tip of the iceberg. She says she's given away most of her best quilts.

 

 

 

 

Here's one of my favorites...such rich colors!  You'll find a clue about one of her interests in that purple star.

 

 

 

 

There's another clue about her in this quilt. Hint...she's not Dutch!

 

 

  

 

 

Some of her favorite types of fabric are used in the cheery wall hanging above. Can you guess what kind they are?

 

 

 

 When I saw this quilt, I commented that my sister is just crazy about the Dresden pattern. (The daisy-like block.)  She did the nicest thing...she gave me some Dresden quilt blocks that she had made; said to give them to my sister! That should tell you something about Alice! 

 

 

This quilt really appeals to the country-girl in me. It is soooo...folksy!

 

 

Here are some more blocks from the Dutch quilt.

 

Here's what you may have figured out about Alice from looking at her quilts...

 

• She and her husband were avid boaters. Before moving to this area, she lived in a beautiful home overlooking the ocean. They spent many happy hours fishing, clamming, and crabbing.

• When she moved into our little Dutch town she decided to make a quilt with a Dutch theme. She couldn't find any suitable patterns, so she actually designed the quilt herself. She is  resourceful, creative lady.

• She loves Batik fabric, and uses it masterfully in many of her quilts.

• Alice is as vibrant and colorful as her quilts.

• When I asked if she'd entered any quilts in the Fair, she replied, "No, I'm not good enough." Geez! If these quilts aren't good, my little nine-patch quilts would be rags! How modest! If I'd made these beauties, I'd be showing them to everybody I know.

• Alice is a wonderful neighbor; not just because she's a great quilter...she's a great lady!