Sweet Sweet Life

a daring adventure

Hello! 

Oh, my, the days--they do fly by, don't they?  Especially when you are Very Busy (and who among us cannot say that, I wonder?).

Fortunately, I was forced today, by a sick child and a sore throat of my own, to stay home from work and rest.  And while I rested, I took the very welcome opportunity to do a wee bit of playing, in the form of craft.  What better, easier one could I ask for than Mitsy's Happy Girls?! 

I had no double-stick tape, and I only had the darker beads, so I improvised a bit.  (Yes, those would be my stitches!  Pathetic really, but I simply don't care.  Life is too short to worry over stuff like that, my sweets.  Too short.)  Sofie was delighted with their little brown faces, and said, "Oh, little girls from Nigeria!"  We had just been watching our most favorite World Cup team...

 
 Despite their African heritage, they were named Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.  It works, I suppose, and they are keeping a sick little girl company while she recovers from a summertime cold:

 

I've also been reading a quick but wonderful and spunky read (more recommendations coming, Sandra!) about an awesome young heroine, an 11-year-old girl named Flavia de Luce.  She's teaching me lots of things, most of which bring to mind the quote by Helen Keller, which states:  "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all!"   Truer words were never spoken, I do believe!  With all of the uncertainty in my life right now, I hold to it like a life-preserver.  This is an adventure, and at the moment, this very moment, we are well.  We are safe and warm and fed and above all, together.  Who knows where this will lead, but as long as I believe that it is leading somewhere better (and I do) then the mistakes and the occasional rotten luck don't seem to matter as much.  What does matter, and matters greatly, is the considerable kindness we've been shown and the growth we've experienced, and continue to experience. 

(I know, I know. I get tired of "growing," too...but really, why else are we here?  It's not just to enjoy it, you can never convince me of that:  life is too hard for too many people.  It's to learn to love.  Nothing else would make the struggle worth it, as far as I can see.  Nothing else really matters.)

So:  Life is an adventure, live in the moment, love one another...and make happy girls.  This is what I know.

Have a lovely rest of your week, my dears.  I'll be swinging back through soon, I promise (tee, hee!).

xoxox.
 

progress is not always obvious

Hey!  Guess what?!

I discovered one of the ways not to make crayon rings!  Whoop!***

(So I'm not going to tell you about how I made a ring out of polymer clay, then made a mold of it from some combination of two chemically play-doughs that gave me a headache, and then poured melted crayons onto the mold, only to have the crayon rings break upon de-molding.  At which point, the girls and I decided to make the ever-popular mini-muffin-tin-variety clunkers, which were far more satisfying.)

***Thomas Edison, before inventing the light bulb:  "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." 

Cheers,all!

xoxox.

p.s.  It occurs to me that this is not the most enlightening or, shall we say, useful post.  ("You expect me to drop in for this?!")  So, I'm adding this link from Mitsy on how to make her wonderful "happy girls." 

 
Thank you, Mitsy!  You're awesome.

don't miss it!

OOOhhh!  Yay!  She's back.  I have watched this at least 50 times and I'm still not tired of it.  "I can do anything good!" is my new mantra...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0iGb0kQlOw

Love her, love her dance, love her attitude. 

Have a great one!

xoxox.

as you wish

Hello! 

And how is your Friday?!  Mine is getting better by the minute...A lovely weekend of relaxing, reading, cooking and visiting with friends is in order, and very highly anticipated.  I've a new book to start and some crayon rings to make (I'll let you know how it goes, of course!).  And a real craving for brownies will be satisfied.

Clickin' around on flickr the other day, I came across these wonderful new works by a contact of mine, from Adelaide, Australia, still life with wallpaper.  Her work is always lovely, but these really gave me pause:

sky (bird)

 
sea (fish)

I've been trying to put my finger on precisely what it is that I love so much about them.  (Other than the colors, of course--I'm a sucker for rainbow colors, as I think I've previously made quite obvious!)  I think it's the simplicity--like a deconstructed world, maybe...The fill-in-the-blank, "you-make-of-it-what-you-will" aspect of these prints...and of life, in general, I suppose. 

I've always loved that quote by Abraham Lincoln where he said, "Most people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be."  It's deceptively simple, that one.  It seems almost too simple, but the older I get, the more I realize how very true that it is.  It's not about the outward life, the things, the clothing size, the storybook life...it's about YOU.  And how you see it, and how you see the world around you, right this very minute of this very day.  It truly doesn't matter what it looks like on the outside, as long as you can love and be loved and give and accept in return.  So simple, and so difficult.

I wonder why it's so hard to learn that.  I think back to how I was as a child, and for as long as I can remember, I focused on what I didn't have, and what I wasn't.  It's only now that I realize that the world really couldn't care less what I have or what I look like or whether my hair looks good on this particular day.  It cares who I am and what I think and whether or not I have a smile on my face and a kind word or two.  That's it, and that's as it should be!  I would say that I wish I'd learned it a little sooner, but then I wouldn't be me, or have the life I have, and that would be all wrong.  Everything is always going to be okay.  I know that.

Anyway...the art!  Go see the wonderful work of still life with wallpaper (her beautiful blog):  on flickr, her website, and at her shop.  The prints above are not for sale yet, but they will be soon, I hope.  (But you don't have to own them to love them, you know.  They've made me wildly happy just by being there, and I'm so grateful for that.)

Have a beautiful day, sweet friends.  Color it as you wish.

Cheers!

xoxox. 

a more beloved result

Hey, sweets.  Great to see you!

I am so loving these wonderful works of art and craft today!  (People rock, you know?  Especially people who make stuff.)

 
five colored pins,here... 

 
"all hand on deck," here... 

 
QT canvas tote, here... 

red cameo ring, here...

"summer camp" Native American play set, here...

marsupial pot (!), here...

merit badge for bringing home the bacon (whoooP!), here... 

 
vintage pool tiles, here... 

 
"swimmer" hand-forged plate, here...

 
"jewels" hand spun yarn, here... 
 

"she always wanted to be like laura," original oil painting, here... 

 
big bad wolfie in a red dress, here...

"expedition" print, here...

 
fish key chain, here... 

 
handmade filigree lamp, here... 

Oh, that'll surely do!

*** 

While I was sitting here typing, Olivia (age 11 and 3/4) handed me a note that said, "Mama, you came home today looking so blue, and I thought this quote might help:  'The beautiful days in life come after fatigue and difficulties.  The difficult labor produces a more beloved result.'  (Iraqui Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, after casting his vote in the country's parliamentary elections)."

Amazing.

***

Have a lovely, lovely day, where ever you may find yourself...Make it sweet, okay?! 

Cheers!

xoxox. 

lucky you!

Sweet, sweet Julie is having a wonderful give-away over at her blog!  I absolutely would have entered (I adore the painting that is up-for grabs, above) but I was lucky enough to win last time she shared, so I stayed out of it all this time...the love must be spread!

You've got until Friday to enter--and while you are there, take a long look around.  It's one of my very, very favorite places to visit!  Julie is an inspiration to me, each and every day.

xoxox.  

hello, hello

Hello, everyone!  It's so lovely to be here...

You may be wondering how our quest for 350 cranes is going...Olivia has been working diligently, as have I (as time permits!):

 
It really is quite fun and seriously addicting.  And my girl has come up with a unique way to keep it interesting:  she found some old magazines, and cut them up into origami paper size (7 to 8" square) and made some really cool birds, don't you think?!:

 

I kind of love 'em...

We did purchase some really great new origami paper with dots and fun colors...so there's lots to keep us super busy.  And one of these days, hopefully, we'll have a masterpiece like Ingrid's!

***

I want to take a moment to thank you for your comments and prayers in regards to my last post...I hope you all know that my whole purpose in sharing the more "desperate" details of my life is two-fold:  one, it helps me to feel less alone: and two, I hope, really hope, that it helps to make someone (or two or three) out there feel less alone.  That's all.  Plus, I thought it might be interesting for you to track the progress of a plucky little family on the move...:o)  Sweet lives come in all shapes and sizes, after all!

Hope your day is a beautiful one!  Cheers!

xoxox.
  

update, chez us

Hello, sweets!

Some of you, dear ones all, have written to ask me how things are going for me and my family.  To illustrate the general state of my feelings on the matter, yesterday I came extremely close to ripping this f***ing banner off the wall and tossing it out the window:

 
Sometimes, I'm just over it all.

Working full-time has been a huge adjustment, but in general, good for me, I think.  It's good to be out of the house, away from the stress of the job-search and other issues.  The downside, is, of course, missing my children's days, and as an offshoot of that, feeling guilty for every second of non-work time spent away from them.   I'm not making enough money to solve any of our problems, but it puts food on the table, and that's...not nothing.

 
I have new appreciations for lots of things that I previously took for granted:  health insurance, time to be bored, a meal out now and again, the ability to get one's car serviced if the need arises.  None of these things are a part of my life anymore, and that's scary.  We've been without real income for over a year.  But:  we're doing "the best we can, with what we've got, where we are" (thank you, Teddy Roosevelt).  And, although it becomes increasingly clear that our home here will not be "forever" as we had planned, I am proud of us.  No unemployment benefits, no insurance, no safety net at all--I would have thought we'd be hard-pressed to get out of bed in the morning (and that might have actually been the case, but for the children, whose daily need of us is a non-negotiable pull to the coffee-maker).  In reality, we've handled it pretty amazingly, if I do say so myself--with humor, hard work, and ever the annoyingly-positive attitude. 

 
Which is in no way meant to imply that we don't have our "down" moments (reference the banner-incident, above).  Every now and then I'm stricken with terror, real terror.  And I don't know that I believe anymore in any sort of "higher being" looking out for us--mostly I feel very, very alone.  But that is, I would imagine, part of the process?  (And I hope, without expectation, to be proven wrong, at least on that score...)

 
So, that's where we are.  Still struggling, still seeking answers, still loving one another--more than ever.  And you know what?  That's our life.  And it is, it really is, sweet.

Have a great week, all.  Thanks for reading.

xoxox.

a is for art

Hello, all! 

I recently received a very lovely email from John Fidler, the author of a wonderful "how-to" doodling booklet called A Is For Art, and after taking a peek at his shop, I promptly ordered one for Sofie.  It looked wonderful, and that's exactly what it turned out to be:

The premise of the booklet, and it's really quite ingenious, is that you can draw all of these wonderful things that start out as the letter "A," like this: 

 

or this:

Everything from robots to dinosaurs (and all sorts of animals) to great little human figures, houses and rockets.  I would so love to share more pictures with you, but I'm not going to, because the book is really worth purchasing for a little one you know.

My seven-year old Sofie, for example, frequently gets very frustrated when her drawings don't look like she thinks they should.  As John says, "The sole purpose of this book is to get you to draw something that looks like what it is supposed to look like."  And you can!  After sitting with this little book for about a half an hour, Sofie, who has never, up to this point, drawn much more than a flower or a sun, drew this:

 
It's not fine art, nor is it meant to be.  But it is so much more than she would ever have ventured to try before (without tears, anyway).  Camels, pyramids, exotic birds...it was quite wonderful!   By providing a simple, straightforward method, John has inspired her to try new things, and build her confidence, creatively.  Awesome.

Incidentally, John Fidler is a London-based primary school teacher, and he knows his stuff!  Do check his blogfor some of the projects he's done with his students, as well as some of his own work.  And order yourself a very affordably priced copy of A Is For Art right here, with free shipping worldwide.

Happy drawing!

xoxox.

happy doodle land :: i love it *that* much

Oh, hello, my dears!  It's so very lovely to see you!

 
I've been away too long--for me, at least!  But I have a wonderful artist to share with you today:  her name is Flora Chang, and her shop, Happy Doodle Land, is one of my new super-faves.  I don't think I need to explain why...this little angel print, above, has come to live at our house, and I just adore her.

Flora's work has a very "Mary Blair-esque" quality to it, I think.  (You don't know Mary Blair?  Oh, I bet you do!  Read all about her here and here and here, and look for this book.  She was brilliant and amazing highly under-rated...)

Anyway, wonderful Flora Chang is based in Kansas, and her work, although incredibly dear, seems to go well beyond "cute" to me, just as Mary Blair's does.  I don't know where the line between perfectly right and too cute lies, but I know it when I see it.  And I think Flora does, too! 

She has, in addition to prints, many original works in her shop, like these:

And, she has a wonderful assortment of rubber stamps made from her illustrations...:

...and brooches made from original little doodles!:

I love them, one and all.  Be sure to check Flora's shop--she doesn't have her usual inventory of prints right now, as her printer just took a nose-dive, but there's plenty more to see, and the prints will be back shortly.  (Check her sold section for more examples!)

But here, my friends, is just how much I love Flora Chang's work:  I love it so much that, with her permission, I got a tattoo today of one of her designs! 

Ha!  I really did!  I'll be happy to show you, just as soon as it's all ready for showing.  Care to guess which one?  (Tee, hee!)

All that aside, I hope your week is proving to be simply marvelous, my dears.  I promise to check in more often in the coming days:  I just must, for my very own sake, really...

Cheers!

xoxox.