perspective

Perspective... it's a word we artists bandy about almost without thinking. Where are you as the viewer in relationship to the image? What changes in your picture when you take a different perspective? What would be the most effective perspective to convey your message? Thoughtful artists can spend hours considering this before they ever set brush to canvas or sledge to rock.

I've been pondering my own perspective on life lately. Having major surgery and taking some time off to recuperate gave me time to simply lay on the sofa and think.
I decided I need to change a few things, make adjustments, tweak my perspective on what really matters.


I decided to celebrate more, to live in the moment in a fuller sense than I've done until now, to savor the scents and tastes of the season. I want to laugh without self consciousness and cry without shame, not to care who sees me at either. I'm turning over a new leaf so to speak, and it feels so good. I'm relishing the joy of being thin again, feeling comfy in my clothes. Turning the electric heat pad on high to warm my tootsies when I climb into bed and savoring the pleasures of a steamy shower.

Perspective can be such a liberating thing, but only when you've got it right. It's great to enjoy the pleasures of life, but I'm also enjoying giving it away with a new fervor.

My husband & I wrote a check that was big enough to really sting the bank account and found that giving really is more fun than getting. I am learning that I do have the gift of being an honest encourager. And it's fun. Everywhere you look there's someone who needs a smile, a gentle word of hope, a whisper that says, "don't give up."

My surgery and recovery gave me time to adjust my perspective and it's been a good thing. Thank God for time away with him to get things straightened up a little bit where the lines had gotten just slightly blurry.

Running past autumn's miracles... and stopping

After dropping my package at Fed Ex today, I parked the car in the trail lot and zipped my windbreaker, ready for a run on the trails through the forest. This is always a challenge for me. It's one of my favorite places for the peculiar walk / run that is my daily exercise routine.

The problem is that there are so many fascinating diversions in the forest that it's hard to keep a fast pace. My eyes wander to the changing miracles. Today was no different than any other day, or shall I say it was delightfully different than it was only yesterday. The wonders I found then were not the same as those that caught my eye today.

Who can pass a sight like this pool without pausing to admire the trees and their lovely reflections, smooth as glass in spite of the wind? Or the tiny mystery of berries I can't identify?


Mosses and mushrooms, the last blackberries, a great blue heron rising in flight... Delights abounded at every turn. I ran along the path, stopped to admire, ran, stopped again, ran, stopped yet again.

By the time I returned to the van the sun was setting over the marshy bog on the eastern side of the woods. Tomorrow I will be snipping out cattails and herons. I am living with miracles and I can't help it. The amazement just kind of seeps out of me and into my work.

I am truly blessed.

3am inspiration

The small, rustling sounds of pencil on paper, the scratching you can hardly notice during the day is magnified in the moonlit silence at 3am. I anticipate this and roll over ever so gently, avoiding waking my incredibly patient husband whose snuffling breaths rhythmic. I wish I were sleeping soundly as he is.

But I'm laying here, wide awake, dreaming up new designs. I reach for the pencil and tablet I keep on the bedside table for moments like this, and hold my breath, hoping I can write ever so gently, and avoid waking Russell.

This is my time of inspiration and often my best ideas come in the middle of the night like this.

Whether it's nostalgic fashion for a mug with a pincushion tucked in or chrysanthemums on a lamp or leaping bunnies for cards, my dreams seem to be peppered with ideas and I am awakened with a flash of inspiration which just has to be recorded with a scratchy-sounding pencil on my wee little tablet, so the plan won't vanish when daylight comes.

In the morning, my husband will find my chicken scratching on stray sheets of paper littering the bedroom floor. He will smile and shake his head.

"My creative wife," he'll mutter, "She's even drawing in the dark." We creative types are definitely hard to understand sometimes.

For now I reach for the pencil and note "mums overall... vary scale... plum on vellum..." I just love those middle of the night ideas and the pencil and paper laying by a good book. How lovely to make your passion your job.

Looking at the world through amber glasses

Most women love shoes. I understand the attraction but for myself, give me a new pair of glasses anytime. Today I could not resist a pair of very artsy frames, marked down to 70% off, probably due to their funky color and unusual shape. Evidently I am the only one to find the rather bold amber yellow frames irresistible.

"Are you sure?" asked the girl in the shop. "They can't possibly match with much."

"Funky, definitely funky," my husband said. "Those glasses look like your most artistic self."

"Buy them," he advised.

And I did, the moment I checked the price tag and quickly figured those gorgeous yellow frames were an unbelievable $30. (The only thing sweeter than a great pair of glasses is a great pair of glasses at a bargain price.)

Just one hour later I walked out clad in those amazingly quirky eyeglasses, grinning like a fool.

You see, I am definitely not like everyone else.

I love eyeglasses that are a bit odd. I have my father's old 60's aluminum and black frames, small enough to fit my face just perfectly. I have an idea the next pair will be authentic vintage.

Apples

Russell hauled in an enormous basket of beautiful organic apples and pears from the garden this afternoon, and I took a break from mocking up product to peel, slice and put on the stove a generous batch of homemade cranberry applesauce.

Now the whole house is redolent with the perfume of simmering apples. Is there any more delicious smell on earth?

Back to work now, I sniff the air. I don't care that I look exactly like Caesar, our beagle, when he's hot on the trail of some mysterious smell in the garden. It simply smells too good to miss.

I don't think anyone anywhere has a sweeter life than mine, full of the twin satisfactions of creative challenge and the simple joys of home and family. So much to be thankful for this autumn afternoon.

A new baby in the studio!

Yes, it's true! There's a new baby in the studio. No diaper changes or burping, and though you will find me murmuring to it at 3am, this is the only photo I've taken of my new darling.

It's lovely having a new work tool and I'm enjoying getting to know its finer features. A confirmed Mac-aholic, I am pleased as punch with the latest member of the studio family and could not resist sharing.

I am resisting the urge to brag on all its fine points and nobody knows if it's a boy or a girl, but I'm definitely in love with my new Mac.

back in my favorite place

It's true, real life is definitely the best fairy tale. I am laughing, out in the studio again alone with the scissors and glue, surrounded by piles of paper spilling from the drawers and scattered across the floor. Which is the perfect scrap for this project?

I've finally got a hint of energy again and the first thing I want to do is cut out a wonderful Mary-and-Jesus Christmas image I've been dreaming of for weeks. It's not what I'm "supposed" to be doing right now but it's been percolating in my head and simply must be cut. Then on to a floral piece for my upcoming book, sample greeting cards, more fabric... Isn't this FUN???

So it's true! Our ordinary lives aren't ordinary at all. I felt horrible for weeks and now I am beginning to think about doing a dance around the studio, simply from joy at perking up again. Isn't that a miracle?

Real life is truly the best fairy tale, and we are so blessed to actually live it out from day to day. The blessing of healing and restoration is my real life fantasy come true today. I am thankful beyond measure, and tomorrow can only be sweeter than today.

cosy days among the pillows

Here I've been, quietly tucked into the nest we call home, covers pulled up to my chin, resting.

The sun rises and sets, the clock ticks softly in the corner, and days pass gently.

I am recuperating.

Tenderly cosseted by those who love me, surrounded by the good wishes of friends, I marvel at the kindness shown me and each day gain just a bit more strength than the day before.

While I can hardly wait to resume normal life again, I'm also content to simply lay still, listening to the clock's tic-tic-tic and patting the dog on the head when he noses my hand as if to say, "everything okay?"

Soon I'll be strong again (I've got exciting projects stacked up like airliners at JFK) but for today it's enough that I can work an hour, sleep an hour, work an hour, sleep an hour, while the rest of the world bustles along as usual.

For today it's enough that the sun will rise and set, the clock will tick in the corner and the rhythm of my gentle day continues as I lay dreaming among the pillows, recuperating.

Yosemite

What a week of wonder and amazement! We spent our vacation week in the Eastern Sierras, hiking and fishing.

It has been a week of trout-flicked diamond droplets on a pristine lake, hikes along creeks lined with beaver lodges and aspen, and picnics where we found ourselves sitting in a meadow full of wild blueberry and strawberry.

Near Tioga Pass, we made our usual pilgrimage up past an abandoned silver mine, into the back country where Russell caught and released wild brook trout and I, on hands and knees, followed a tiny frog and captured with my camera butterflies and bees sucking nectar from wildflowers.

Silently we sat for almost two hours watching deer browsing on sage and drinking at the edge of the lake. Speckled twin fawns, a yearling buck with velvety little antlers, an elegant doe...



It has been a week of rest and joy.

Next week will be radically different. The whirlwind of a photo shoot for a magazine and the reality of major surgery await me.

Sometimes an island of peace is a precious thing, preparing us for the stresses of life ahead. For me this time apart has been a memory to savor, carrying me through the more dramatic adventures ahead.

cheerful barns

One of the best parts of rural living is the barns that dot the landscape. Every time I drive past one, I'm seized with a longing to snap a photo, an odd desire to eat a picnic in its shade or swing from the rafters and peer out the hayloft doors.

But usually I'm without the camera or in a hurry, and I haven't had a lazy afternoon in a barn since I was at Boydean and Astrid's farm years ago.

Early yesterday morning I found myself jogging along a country road not far from home and between nibbles of blackberries from the hedges that line the way, I could not help but admire this dear little well kept barn. Flowers form a welcome mat and trees line up like giant wooden soldiers as if in formal greeting.

Wouldn't you agree that barns are among the most charming amenities of the rural landscape? Even the falling down wreck just over our backyard fence boasts a certain rakish, devil-may-care attitude.

If I were to count my blessings today, I'd have to include that cheerful barn, which sent me jogging down the road with a smile.

Small Miracles

My feet were pounding the trail as I huffed and puffed on my daily run yesterday, determined to get my daily run in as fast as I could, so I could get back in the studio to work on an overwhelming list labelled "Must Do Today!"

But it wasn't meant to be. My typical downfall is my eyes, and I fell victim to the eye candy fairly quickly. I was a goner, making several stops along the way to snap photos of irresistible beauties.

The bee on a thistle make me gasp. How do they walk around like that, their dainty feet avoiding the spikes of the thistle? Don't you wonder what thistle honey tastes like? Wild cherries hanging at the edge of the lush Northwest forest... is there anything lovelier than the sun shining through amazing red globes. Tiny yellow wildflowers, blackberries ripening along the trail...

And all this beauty immediately adjacent to the local airport, right alongside the county jogging trail. I have to drop off more packages at FedEx this afternoon, so another run on that magical trail awaits.

I put up a new series of glittered letters on the wall last week. It reads"Real Life is the Best Fairy Tale." Truer words were never spoken.

Sprucing up!

You peeked at the glitter on the windowsill last time I posted... Now I'm going to share a sneak peek at the shelf next to it!

My family laughs that I'm not even legal to operate a camera, so you just have to bear with my poor skills. I simply point and shoot willy-nilly.

But you must admit this is a rather sweet little vignette. I went wild with the glitter this week and attacked what was supposed to be an oversize Easter Egg. To me it wasn't necessarily Easter at all, since there are beautiful nests all over the garden and the sparrows have just hatched their third set of chicklings for the year.

You can't see them, but there are three dear tiny eggs in the nest atop the egg! and the mossy base, the ribbon of words, and the beautiful sparkly glass glitter make it charming, indeed. Nestled into a nook with books and photos, some old sheet music and my own test-tube-and-wire-from-the-hardware-store vases, I find the whole look very satisfying. Last January I bought a giant roll of giftwrap paper because the shade was just right, and it is turning into curtains and other embellishments for the studio... I had no idea what I'd do with it but along with a pale lime roll of the same stuff it's proving to be just the thing. I'm enjoying the fresh look enormously.

When Victoria Magazine's photographers arrive I hope they will think so, too.

Sprucing up can be such fun!