Those of you who read my blog know I just love finding hearts in nature, so late last week I was thrilled to find a leaf with a bug created heart. I grabbed Kyra, my hand model, and my camera and snapped a picture of it. I loved seeing her total excitement when I showed it to her.
For me it was a perfect moment.
Since Nikolas had his big studio dance show this weekend and Jim helped backstage. It left a lot of girl time. Saturday we cleaned the house, but Sunday was our relaxing day off. The day started out with lots of snuggles for Shadow the puppy.
We had a farm tragedy a few weeks ago and a racoon killed most of the chickens. Sadly we were left with just two of the little ones. We fixed the door on the coop and put more locks, so the raccoon couldn't get in again. Kyra cleaned out the coop and got it all ready for the new chicks arriving next week.
Then we spent a little time pulling weeds and harvesting a few veggies. Shadow was great helping. She loves running around the garden.
Then with our dirty feet from gardening. We headed to the nail spa for a pedicure for me and a manicure and pedicure for Kyra. (Don't you love the bored look from the teenager!)
Then we ended the day watching Nik perform in his very first BIG dance show. He was amazing!
I hope had a little fun this last week.
Have you ever read the book Caps for sale? It was a favorite of mine when I was a kid and I still read it to my kids.
If you aren't familiar with it the story is about a cap salesman who walks around town with all of his hats on top of his head, selling his wares. After a busy day of sales he falls asleep under a tree. While he is sleeping a band of monkeys steal all but his own personal cap. He yells, stomps up and down to try to get the monkeys to return the caps. Finally in frustration he throws his cap onto the ground. The monkeys do the same thing. And he gets his caps back.
The story is so how I've been feeling lately. I've been wearing too many hats. So often I fight and struggle when really I should just let go.
Do you ever feel that way? Letting go is sometime the hardest thing to do, but often the right choice. I've been working lately at letting go of things that aren't working in my life and business.
Is there something you need to let go of? What's holding you back from letting go?
For those of you that know me, know I don't do well with mayhem around me in the form of clutter. Granted, I'm usually the one that creates the most mayhem in the form of projects and the like. But I function so much better if I can start out my week with all of the laundry done, the grocery shopping done, kids homework complete and a menu plan made for the week. I feel calm and a little more organized if I start the week out with a clean slate so to speak. With us traveling on the weekends so much lately our house was literally a wreck and the laundry was overflowing.
We spent all day Saturday cleaning and scrubbing the house top to bottom. The kids had a fun double sleepover as a reward for helping so much.
I will spare you the before and after pictures. Needless to say...I'm much calmer today!
Do you like a clean house or can you see past the mess? How to you start out your week right? To do list? Or do you just wing it?
The last few month have been a bit of a rollercoaster. So times like this I have to get back to basics and put what is most important in the number one spot. For me that is my family.
This last weekend Kyra and Jim went on a school camping trip, so I took a little visit up to my parents house with the new puppy Shadow. My sister came down and my brother came over, so we had a fun weekend. Puppies are so much fun and I think almost as much work as babies. So it was an interesting and eventful weekend. At one point I was helping my mother, Shadow was pooping in the walk in closet and Nikolas wanted to eat lunch.
The mayhem of it all left us all a bit tired. Aunt Mim with Shadow....on the sofa Shadow wasn't supposed to be on!
I love spending time with my family. They all had fun meeting Shadow.
How do you like to spend time with your family? Quiet time at home? Hiking? Movies? What is your favorite thing to do?
The last few weeks as spring has approached I've watched as the trees have blossomed. The hills around us so green and lush. It's my favorite season. I love the flowers, the green and the promises of spring.
The spring flowers have brought with them a renewed spark, my creative soul has been overflowing with ideas. The past few weeks I've been making new designs and collections. In the next few months we'll be showcasing everything first on our blog. I can't wait to share.
The last 4 days I've spent at my parents house getting it all cleaned up and purging as much as we can before my mom comes home from the rehab facility after her leg break several months ago.
After living in the house for 47 years, it really is like a time machine going through closets. So many toys and keepsakes from our childhood fill every space.
I still remember the encyclopedia salesman coming to our front door. My parents bought it over time, since they were so expensive. Each week we'd get a new section of the alphabet. Then each year we would get a year book with all of the events of the year.
Board Games were always so much fun. Just look at this excitement!
The most hilarious thing about this set is just last week I bought one of these bingo cards on Etsy for $3. It reminded me of my childhood. Now I no why!
Didn't everyone have a set of Nancy Drew books in the 1970s?
The most exciting machine. The creatures start out as cubes then change into monsters. It's still full of creatures, the machine and the ultra cool box.
These are a few of the treasures that are coming home with me.
What memories do you have from childhood? Do you still have keepsakes? What does your family home hold?
Join us on our walk today. Longer days give us more time to explore. The skies, so blue, so vibrant.
Our neighbor's sign a wonderful reminder.
Slow down and take a look around, the air is crisp, warming still, beauty envelops us.
Our minds quiet, we wander and dream.
Yesterday Jim took the kids into town to play Pokemon cards. I was busy cleaning house, but decided to take a little break. It was the first weekend I've spent at home in almost two months.
The sun peeks through the trees just perfect for sitting in the swing. So I sat there and rested a bit. After the winter rains, the plants were all screaming to be trimmed and the leaves yelling to be raked. I let them go unanswered and let myself be still for a few minutes.
I've had a lot on my mind lately and even more on my plate, so it felt good to just be quiet and alone for a few glorious minutes.
The plants and leaves will get my attention soon enough. For now, I needed to sit and visit with God a bit.
I have a lot of big decisions in the days and months ahead....
Linking up...
This weekend I drove up to my parent's house again and took a little time to play in between helping to clean and organize their house before my mom comes home from rehab for her broken leg.
Since I went to art school before PMC was invented, I've only done a little bit of playing around with it. After talking with the talented Kristina Kada from Satomi Studio at the NY gift show. Our booths are across from each other and we get to talk and dream during the show down time. We both decided we NEEDED to take a PMC class, since we studied metalsmithing at the same time and our formal education didn't contain PMC classes. Unfortunately she couldn't make the class, since she was at another trade show. Next time Kristina, it was a blast!
I searched online for a PMC instructor in the San Francisco Bay Area on the penninsula. I found Virginia at Vine Design. We share a history of teaching at the Bead Shop, formerly in Palo Alto. I was there in the 1980's and Virginia taught there until they closed and went strickly online a few years ago.
We are also kindred spirits, in the form of our tool addictions, she had all kinds of fun tools to play with.
PMC is so different, that I need to play with it so much more to really be able to see what it can do. I ended up making a few charms, but I left with a head filled with design possibilities!
After working with metal for almost 40 years now, PMC is such a new experience. There is such possibility for charms that I could never be able to create in metal...or wouldn't have time to try.
How do you like to play and stay creative? Sketching? Beads? Metal work?
