Just right

It was one of those days where I knew at the end a walk around with my camera would do me some good. I won't run down the list for you of what my day entailed up until that point because we are all busy and I'm sure you don't need my stress on top of your own.

We are all moving from the minute our feet hit the floor until we park ourselves at the end of each and every very long day. At least most of the people I know live this way and it's up to us to self-impose some time-outs.

Sometimes I walk around imagining myself as a 99 year old woman, looking back, telling a story to someone, anyone who will listen.

"That was when we lived in an old farmhouse," I'd say, "we gutted it from top to bottom, kept it from falling to the ground, built it back up strong and new. We had three kids there and added on and vowed to care for what we were given. After all, we knew it wasn't really, only, ours."

The green looks more green when I daydream,

the barn changes every time I see it,

the kids do what they naturally do,







and I know it won't last forever. But I try on these walks to soak in every last bit of it. To make it part of me, to make memories instead of flying by life so fast and calling myself productive.

So I save the lilacs and plant more peonies. I spread lilies around the outskirts and know that they'll root themselves. I give the iris their room and replant them as well, knowing that old Mrs. Webster probably planted the original ones well before I was born. There is history here. I can feel it. It reminds me and humbles me when I know that this life isn't all about me. I like that.

Currently reading, not knitting

I'm reading this book now which is pretty good for me considering the fact that when I discovered knitting I all but stopped reading books. Entirely. But the books are creeping back onto the shelves and I'm thankful for their return. I don't read anything and everything anymore like I used to, no, now I want the books I read to mean something to me. To make me think, to inspire me to take a closer look at the way I do things or the way I don't do things or to consider doing things I'd never considered before. I sound like a book snob, I know.

Luckily, I stumbled upon this one. I mentioned it a while back and gave you a link where you can hear an exerpt. For those who didn't click on it before or for those who want to hear it again, here it is.

As I read I'm constantly wondering if I know what the author means, if I really even understand any of what she's trying to say, but when my throat closes up with a big lump and I have chills all over I know it means something to my life, but I'm not yet sure just what. Yet.

All I really know is what occurred to me today after reading a few chapters while I was changing into my running clothes. She says in some sort of way that you must tend to what you want to see flourish. You must give it attention, as the sun gives the garden, day in day out, without fail, without complaint, because that's it's job. It's an easy concept to comprehend and even one I thought I was doing a pretty good job of, toward my kids, toward my husband, toward the house, the laundry, my job, the dog and yes, even the garden.

But what occurred to me is that I also have to tend to me. I need to give myself attention. This isn't what you might automatically think, especially if you watch shows like "What Not to Wear" and "Oprah" and the like (by the way, I like those shows, no offense). I'm not saying I need more pedicures (I've never had one in my life), or more "me" time, or girls weekends or shopping or spa treatments.

Rather, it's what happens in the quiet moments inside my head, during and in between the homework and the housework and the work work and the rest of it that I could improve upon. It's the messages I'm sending myself that need tweaking, it's the inside me that needs tending to.

If you get the book it's worth the read, I promise. I plan on starting it over just as soon as I finish.

Smile, it's Saturday

Spring wakes me up and I find the urge to start making more jewelry. I'm a casual sort of girl that likes t-shirts, jeans, flowy skirts and flip-flops and these simple necklaces seem to fit. I wear them constantly because they're easy, comfortable, simple yet intricate and I can change them whenever the urge hits and I often do.

I've added this new one to the shop.

And the next one was added yesterday and sold in just a few hours. I love it when that happens.

I was under contstant supervision during the photo shoot.

Happy Saturday!

Job hopping

Growing up I had a friend whose mom seemed to change careers every few years. She started out as a nurse, then became a full time mom of three and dabbled in photography for a bit, art, then real estate, back to nursing and then eventually retirement.

I don't know if she could never make up her mind, if she didn't really need to work, or if she just had so many different interests that she flip-flopped from one profession to another. Whatever the case, I think of her as I flit from one thing to the next, often overlapping all three of my supposed jobs.

One is serious and bona fide career, the next is motherhood and the last has sprouted from a hobby, and the near necessity of giving my brain a creative outlet not related to anything but just that.

So please enjoy some recent additions to the shop. First we have garnet and glass followed by pinkish and finally red raspberry. And then you'll please excuse me while I go nurse allergies, a bloody nose, do laundry, tend to the weeds, plant the new rosebushes and peonies, water the grass and line up playdates, all while I take a "break" from my real job. Happy working everyone, I hope you enjoy what you do.

Get Lost

While I may think I know where I'm going, that I have at least some of the answers, and that my life is on the right track, time away usually reminds me that I could use some improvement. A rut forms when we go through the same paces without time for contemplation, for an alternate tempo, different scenery, new relationships. Slowing down and changing the channel for a time is the only way to really see, to hear, to listen, enjoy, embrace, think, sleep, eat, feel.

And while the idea of getting permanently lost is tempting,

I realize that it isn't necessary,

that "to do" lists aren't terrible,

but they certainly aren't everything, and that putting them down for a time makes them easier to come back to. And when we do come back, we can see them from a new angle and with priorities straight.

My kids often ask me why we (humans) have to go to sleep. Bedtime isn't a favorite of theirs as it interferes so with play and other important things like more play. But it isn't just sleep that without which we would all lose our minds, but it is rest as well that we all really, honestly, cannot live normally without.

So I hope you too can find the time, here and there, to sneak away and come back better than ever.

I've added it it to my new "to do" list.

Heavy on the white

We've gone from green to yellow to white all in what seems like just a few days. No matter how long it's been, there's no mistaking the feeling that accompanies Spring.

Doors and windows open, baseballs popping in the front yard, training wheels and jump ropes on the gravel, the blur of the hula hoop and the sweet, sweet smell of the plum trees. The bees know it, so do the groundhogs who've come out and the 10 or so deer that graze through the young wheat fields each evening all around the house.

My eldest has climbed aboard the riding lawn mower and is now in charge of the backyard, under close supervision from Dad and the dog. My youngest has taken big brother's place at the chicken coop with her sister. Allowances all around.

I dig up and transplant the young lilac shoots and watch the peonies begin to pop up, red through the dirt. Ferns hang from the porch and flowers again grace the porch steps. It's a welcome wake up from the cold, the snow and rain. Slowly we thaw and open to the sun.

Just like the flowers.

Old favorites

I've had quite a few local requests lately about my jewelry, if I'm going to sell at the market again this summer, if the jewelry can be found on my website, etc. etc. I used to rely on the market as an easy way to show my pieces without having to spend the hours it takes to photograph them halfway decently and then load them into my Etsy shop.

But I've decided not to sell at the market this summer and so my online shop becomes the central place to showcase my wares. The decision is bittersweet but most definitely the right one for me, for the family. And, the best part is I get to go to the market just for the fun of visiting and purchasing all the good stuff that it has to offer.

So I'm experiencing what a joy it is all over again to be model and photographer, editor and shop owner, copywriter. Taking also into account the fact that I hate (yes hate) having my picture taken the whole process is a laugh.

But here you have the first two, my little red raspberry



and cherry blossom.



So please enjoy and stay tuned for coming attractions. I may be auditioning new models soon, we'll see how much of myself I can take.