Interview

I was recently contacted by one of my favorite Etsy shops, 

32 North Supplies, regarding being interviewed.

Some of my favorite items from their shop

The Wallpaper Storage Trays will soon be on their merry little way

to my house....

Read my interview here

Inner quietness

Weekend is here. Time for Hey Harriet's Shadow Shots.

Porch shadows from the living room

"...there was quiet solitude. Just to sit and look at the landscape. An inner quietness. After dinner, to sit on the back porch and look at the light. No need for talking. For any kind of communication."

~ Lee Krasner

Fog and Thistle

Rachel is going to be on the Martha Stewart Show this morning!

Check your local listings and tune in.

Calling all fish

"In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well stocked fish pond... If we don't give some attention to upkeep, our well is apt to become depleted, stagnant, or blocked...As artists, we must learn to be self nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them — to restock the trout pond, so to speak."

~ Julia Cameron

image from slinkymalinkicat

My pond needs restocking

Got fish?

~~~~~~~~~

On a completely unrelated note, for all the bloggers out there who are unhappy with the new hideously ugly Followers widget, there is a forum post here

Vent!

Please tell Blogger what you think and then post the forum link on your own blog so more people will know where to go to protest.

Ramada

No, no...not the hotel chain. 

A structure for our soon-to-be back patio.

ramada, noun

An open roofed structure of ancient desert origins, usually made from branches, detached and set apart from the house, providing shelter from the elements, but allowing the passage of air.

Image ~ Sunset

Image ~ Placitas Builders

Image ~ Tuscon Weekly

The front of our house gets the hot afternoon sun, so we're going to focus on making the shaded back yard an afternoon/evening sanctuary.  The addition of a ramada will be purely for aesthetic reasons.  I don't want the back of the house to look like what it is...a trailer.

Since we have deer (and rabbits!) here who eat everything, the ramada will be purely decorative.  No wonderful vines growing over it...*Nancy just suggested ironwork vines. Brilliant.

I once babysat 75,000 chickens...

...and other random facts for a tag by Haute Country Vintage 

Yep.  Seventy five thousand chickens.  Little chicks actually.  I was visiting my friend Jeannie who lives in California with her husband...they are chicken ranchers.  There are three HUGE barns behind their house...each one filled with 25,000 chicks.  Jeannie & Dean had to fly to Oregon for a funeral...they ended up staying at our house, while I stayed at their house and babysat the chicks.  

2.  I don't want to be a chicken rancher.

3.  Vertigo...a Hitchcock classic...love the film, do not like having vertigo though.  Not fun.

4.  I volunteered to be co-president of the local Garden Club.  You would be laughing hysterically if you knew how much I dislike gardening.

5.  I received another blog award from Vicki Archer.  I really like this one...Excessively Diverting.  Gotta love that.

I choose love

I received a Share the Love award from French Essence

Thank you!

I attended an Oscar party the other night...amongst all the chatter I heard this gracious acceptance speech from AR Rahman for his best song win:

..."The essence of the film which is about optimism and the power of hope in the lives, and all my life I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I'm here."...

I choose love.

Change of climate

Sometimes it's a shock to the senses; a two-three hour drive, and one has entered an entirely different climate, visually divergent from the colors and textures of the high desert.  

Wet moss and fern growing along the roadside; 

the air drips with moisture.

The colors of the minerals (?) on the cement at Foster Dam.

The other side of the dam and Foster Lake

Reflections:  sky, clouds and trees in the lake water

We ate a picnic dinner by the lake...

I adore water.

Best girl

Meet Judi, of Curly Girl Glass

and the late, great Kana

Kana died the other day, and Judi is heart broken.

Thought she could use some blog love.

Read her post here.

Hot

Tea & Honey Bread's Shutter Click & Chat

This week's theme: Hot

I'm Hot, necklace & earrings from Star of the East

Sunshine

Hey Harriet's Shadow Shots...every weekend from Australia

~~~~~

Walking with Trux in the morning frost...

layers of clothes and the Elmer Fudd hat.

Afternoon walk, still bundled, but slightly warmer...

straw sun hat to protect my face from the high desert sun.

"A dog is one of the remaining reasons why some people can be persuaded to go for a walk." 

~ O.A. Battista

Art piece

A friend of mine has commissioned me to create an art piece based upon the history of her historic home.  

The antique frame from Sweet Repose is my starting point. Requested items to include: an outline of the house, and a timeline of the past owners: names, dates they lived in the home and possibly owners' occupations.  (The original home owner operated the first telephone company in Silverton...14 households had telephones at the time...)

I have a scrap of wallpaper, original to the house, in a cream acanthus leaf scroll pattern on a gold background. These colors will be featured in the overall design. If I can replicate the pattern of the paper somehow and incorporate that, too...

The finished piece will be displayed on a wall painted this color...

I am a calligrapher, and will be hand-lettering the text.  (Remember this piece?  I need to channel that creative energy again.)  I also like the idea of including the family crest...as seen in this image:

antique image found online...inspiration for project

So many ideas.  Need to narrow it down and begin...

Award

Teri gave me this award...thank you so much!

Sweet

Have you been to Sweet Repose?

Scratchy will win your heart.

But Sharon is the artful blogger...

and the queen of junkin'.

I haven't been able to find a frame (locally)

 for a commissioned project,

so I emailed my blogging buddy...and sure enough, 

she found not one, but two.

I'm going with the squarish frame...(Scratchy approved).

Update:  I just bought the other one, too!

Sharon is also the creative genius behind 

The Fabric of Sweet Repose, her online shop

where she sells her own line of jewelry 

soy candles

glycerin and lye soaps

lampshades

and the newly created doll head night lights

(not to mention fab antique finds...love the Goofus glass)

Did I mention she's also a poet?

Talented woman!

New and noteworthy

Post to the President

A blog

Thanks for the link Vodka Mom!

A beautiful day

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. 

Nature's peace will flow into you 

as sunshine flows into trees. 

~John Muir

Mom

Happy Birthday Mom!

(I'm never wearing pink tights again)

A few of Mom's favorite things

via Etsy

A chicken in every pot

The Library of Congress:  The American Folklife Center 

a treasure trove of a link...(thanks Karen)

I chose this piece to feature as it seemed timely,

not only because of our recent inauguration, 

but also the similarities in economic situations.

This is a hooked rug...click to enlarge

A Chicken in Every Pot

Tell Me ‘Bout Series, 1996

Dimensions: 66 x 44 inches

Hooked on twelve-thread-count linen

Mary Sheppard Burton, textile artist

The oral history of this rug:

Charles Henning Burton, your Daddy, was always curious. He had to know everything that was happening. One day he had finished selling all his "Saturday Evening Posts", his "Country Gentlemen," and his "Ladies Home Journals," and was on his way to Friendship House in Washington, DC. As he came closer to the Capitol Building, he wondered why there was such a great crowd of people. Onlookers were lined up like a thick wall. There was no way a little boy of twelve years could see over the top of so many heads. What were people watching? Since Charles HAD to know, he climbed way up into the top of a very tall tree. He could see over the heads of all the people.

Beautiful cars were lined up on every road around the Capitol. People stood quietly watching a small group of men dressed in pin-striped trousers, morning coats, and top hats. Two other men seemed to be the object of everyone's attention. One, a gentleman in a long black robe, was holding a book. The other held his hand on the book. His right hand was held upright. He was taking an oath of office. Your Daddy had the best seat in the whole Capitol grounds as he watched Herbert Hoover become the 31st President of the United States of America.

People were worried 'bout the well-being of the country. The stock market was shaky at best. When Hoover campaigned he promised everyone he would get our country's finances on solid ground. His most famous promises were, "Prosperity is just around the corner" and "There'll be a chicken in every pot."

Fern

I've been thinking about people who come and go in one's life. Sometimes friendships are lost to time and place. Sometimes they endure.

I met my friend Fern when I was 19.  We shared many meals and a lot of laughter.  With this friendship came a bonus, as I became good friends with her daughter Jeannie, too.  Eventually, Fern moved back to California. I think I've only seen her three times since then, but each time we meet, we are able to pick up right where we left off...as if no time has been lost.  

Happy Birthday Fernie Alice!

Some Etsy fern goodness

“Life is partly what we make it, 

and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.”

~ Tennessee Williams

~~~~~~~~~

Also, a big thanks to Robynn for passing on this award!

Sweet

Tea & Honey Bread hosts Shutter Click & Chat every Sunday.  I've been participating weekly since Tameka started SC&C, and enjoy the challenge of coming up with something new each week based on her selection.  See last week's post here.

This week's theme is sweet

My great nephew Kai (with his parents Kevin & Natasha)

Look at that face!

Could he be any sweeter?

“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Beauty everywhere

Hey Harriet hosts Shadow Shots...every weekend from Australia.  This is the 39th week I've participated...shadow shooting is addicting.  Once you start, you'll see shadows everywhere!

Cloud shadows, Terrebonne, Oregon

(yep...more shots out the car window...I wasn't driving)

~~~~~~~~~

The winner of my Pay it Forward Giveaway is Willow

The riddle:  “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”

Her answer ~ Because Poe wrote on both.

I had intended the prize to be a vintage copy of 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

As I was scanning my bookshelf for it, however, I came across this:

Note the bottom line:  Decorated by Will H-Low

Obviously, Willow needed this book instead.

I also quite liked Deb's answer: Because the writing desk, if it's lucky, starts the beginnings of pretty little shiny scraps and the raven, if she's lucky, ends up with pretty little shiny scraps.

So I'm going to send something shiny to Deb.

~~~~~~

Happy Valentine's Day!

“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.”

~ Oscar Wilde