SPRING

Everything will be greening up soon.

Hooray!

I just discovered a wonderful new blog via design*sponge. It is called bbbcraft sisters: three sisters living in three cities who are all creative and have a very creative mother, who must have inspired them along the way.

Here, here to mothers.

I have so many glass jars in my laundry room.

I save them for Christmas presents:

to use as containers for spicy nuts and chocolate sauce.

But here is another idea.

Knit a decorative collar

&

a glass jar is transformed.

Photos from bbbcraft sisters via design*sponge

Slow life continued...

the garden

Giant sunflowers at the local grange fair, August 2010

Inside the exhibition hall

Hand knit: slow life.

Not first place, but a ribbon nonetheless.

It was the grange fair that motivated me to finally finish this sweater

which has been on my needles for, dare I admit, four years.

Reading outside on a summer day: slow life

stopping all chores and plans

devouring a book in an afternoon

That is just how I enjoyed Dominque Brownings's new book,

Slow Love.

I absolutely loved it. It is a great follow-up to Eat, Pray, Love.

Browning continues writing about slow life on her blog,

Slow Love Life ,

of which I am devotee.

This idea of slow life brings me back to yesterday's Swan's Island post. The Swan Island newsletter reports on Dominique Brownings's visit to their studio. I encourage you to read the newsletter. click here.

The owners of the Swan Island Studio say this:

"Our approach for the past 20 years has been the same:

do things right, slowly and with love,

and the rest will somehow fall into place."

I tried to slow down these past two weeks. I was on vacation from the day job. The plan was to get my daughter off to college and then to work in the studio to prepare for the autumn MRR Design season. Sometimes things just do not happen the way you expect; life intervenes.

My true passion for creating things has nothing to do with what I do daily to make a living. MRR Design is my escape from my daily work routine. I create one object at a time, by hand. Nothing high tech about it. I am trying to build the business but it is hard to do 2 days a week. But I will persevere. I am good at that.

I will continue to pursue my passion at night, and on the weekends. Especially now that Miss Is is off to college, my days of daily, active mothering are over. Sad indeed, but exciting too. Life is evolving. It is thrilling and rewarding to watch Miss Is grow. I tried to do things right, slowly and with love as I raised Miss Is. I think it worked; Miss Is is blossoming into a young woman. Everything is falling into place. So now I have to work on myself, to do things right, slowly and with love. And hope it all falls into place.

I am trying to find balance. I am looking for answers. I am trying to rejuvenate my spirit because my happy demeanor has taken a few hits lately. So I scrapped the idea to work hard in the studio during my two-week break from the day job. I wanted to relax. To sit quietly. To think. Often my reverie was interrupted. But I kept trying. I simply sat down and decided to finish knitting a sweater that I started years ago. The goal was to finish by the grange fair. And I did. Slow life in motion. I started with skeins of yarn and two needles. Steady and slow like the turtle, then voila - a beautiful, cozy sweater. It is a bit short, but I am pleased. Every time I wear it, I will feel happy and accomplished. So now on to sweater #2, on the needles for 6 years or more. I am determined - it will be done by Labor Day.

Note the pink and white blanket pictured in the middle of this post; it looks like a Swan Island blanket. I found the blanket on Martha Stewart's now-defunct shopping site years ago. Maybe Martha was inspired by the originial Swan Island blankets.

Why is it that we are drawn to heart shapes? Especially organically shaped hearts - that have grown directly from nature - like the heart tree above. I wonder about that. This tree does have a look of cutting shears, but maybe not. Could it be a gift of nature? Look at how the branches create the undulating top of the tree. Photo from MA BELLE.

But back to the reasons we are drawn to these lovely shapes: love love love, warmth, happiness, serendipity, chance, simplicity...

Everyday that I drove miss is to school (40 minutes away), mostly she took the bus or drove herself, but back to the story, I would see an island in the middle of the river as I crossed the Sikorsky Bridge. I called it the love island - it was uninhabited, just a spit of land covered in grasses - long, tall, waving to me as I drove by. And it was shaped like a heart. The only way to see the heart shape is from the car as I drive across the bridge - see above - a little dangerous trying to snap the picture from the moving vehicle while travelling 60 mph - this is the best shot of the island ... can you see the heart shape? It always makes me smile and think happy thoughts, no matter how difficult or traumatic my day has been.

Then there is the rock on my desk...one day it was just there...I have no idea when or where I found this rock, but I love it and it makes me smile.... When life is hard or troubling, it is soothing to look at the hard stone shaped in a heart. It gives me hope.

Imagine my surprise when I turned the rock over during my photo shoot! A little, magical inscription delighted me - from miss is at a tender age. I did not know this wonderful sentiment was inscribed until yesterday. Serendipity...to find this inscription as I write a post about love.

Seabeans, the wonderful shop in Wilton where I sell my frames and memento boards, has lots of heart shaped stones mounted on boards... picture to follow...

and my friend, jeanne over at nantucket mermaid, is always finding heart-shaped rocks and painting them for her studio - check it out here - and here, or better yet, visit her when you are on Nantucket.

and read this wonderful post from mackin ink about "the love of her life"...it is beautiful...words to remember...read it all the way through - click here

by george i've got it

the pursuit of happiness

maira kalman has given me such happiness

for the last year with each installment

of her blog:

on the pursuit of happiness

in the new york times.

read today's installment here

by george she's got it -

savor the moment

proust said,

and i parphrase,

because i cannot find the exact quote:

you are never as happy as you think...

nor are things as bad as you think..."

savor the moment

try to find happiness

in life's simple pleasures

i say so long too

so long 2009

may 2010 be all that you hope for.

xo

m

Felted Wonders

Cover of Betz White's latest book

Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed & Organic Materials

Betz White came up with these great felted cupcake pincushions.

I found directions are on her blog

and made a felted cupcake for my niece

who loves to sew. 

Then I paired the cupcake pincushion 

with a gift certificate to J Caroline Fabrics

for her birthday.

I have been saving sweaters to make a few more.

(no picture because I had not gone down the blog hole yet!)

Check out this draft stopper!

You can read an interview with Betz White on True North here

Purl Bee also has a story here

Betz will be teaching a class at purlsoho in nyc

on April 18 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

you can learn how to make these pins

baking today

YOU MUST VISIT 

HIDDEN IN FRANCE

for

SATURDAY SMILES

CLICK HERE 

FOR A WONDERFUL START TO YOUR DAY

AND BEFORE READING 

REMEMBER YOUR LAST PLANE RIDE

WAS IT PLEASURABLE OR ANNOYING?

After I finished watching this you-tube video

I composed a quick verse

to the same beat as the video and posted a comment for corine

love the rap

smiling ear to ear

with volume up

for hubby to hear

The latest in the wonderful, colorful, clever, and extraordinary writing and art of 

Maira Kalman.

Look forward to each installment on the last Friday of every month

on line at the New York Times.

She has been turning up on the radar of lots of bloggers lately.

Don't miss it.

Here is earlier work:

 an illustrated blog for the New York Times in 2005 and 2006  

the series was eventually was published in book form.  Here is a review.  

I remember my eager anticipation for each new installment - just like the old days - a monthly series - always thinking after finishing a piece -what will she come up with next - never dissappointed - always entertained -  mind engaged - you will love her latest series.  Maira Kalman's blog was the first blog I ever read - I was hooked.  Who knew blogs would become such a big part of my life a couple of years later.

here's more from the talented, whimsical, philosophical, and ever so clever Maira Kalman - illustrated blog at the New York Times: January 2007 - April 2007.  

This series was wonderful too, but oh so short.   

I am so glad that she is back again.

i love this image

we had a triangular sink just like this in our west village 5th floor walk-up

that measured 350 sq feet in area 

 so the corner was a good space-saver.