Leaves

The leaves are falling in earnest now.  Every day I take Miss S for a walk and we come home with fist-fulls of new-fallen finds.  We hang them in the windows or fill bowls with them for centerpieces.  Mostly, we let them dry into crunchy curls, but I pressed a few in a book last week and remembered them today along with a creative idea that I've been meaning to try.  Thanks to Jean at The Artful Parent for a very enjoyable hour of creative fall fun.

How do you enjoy the fall leaves?

Linking to Mosaic Monday

Stitching on a Rainy Saturday

And the rain rain rain came down down down.  Not in torrents, but persistently as it does here on the coast.  This afternoon Miss S is sleeping, Hubby is performing surgery on the wood stove and I'm curled up with some hand stitching -- at least I will be in a minute, when this post is done and the kettle has boiled for tea.

First, I thought I'd share a few of my many works in progress.

In the sewing room I'm working, slowly but surely, on a new set of table linens for the Dapple shop.  I absolutely love this combination of fabrics.  Grey and pastel.  Mountains and waves.

Miss S sometimes sits on my lap while I do this type of sewing, helping by pulling the pins out when I tell her it's time and meticulously storing them away in the pin cushion.

But in the evenings I've been parked in the living room with my hand work.  These leaves are a bit of scrap bag fun.  I wanted to doodle stitch -- no project in mind.  If you look closely, you'll note that my embroidery skills needed dusting off.   I might chalk this piece up to practice and return it to the scrap bag.  It was fun.

So much fun, in fact, that I've jumped into another little project.  Felt appliques and a little embroidery.  It's quick and simple.  Cozy work.  I have a vague plan of making a enough of these for a bunting-style garland.  

And that is what I'm planning to curl up with right now.  Happy weekend to you.

Finding Joy

It's all the little things that are bringing me joy these days.  All the seasonal treats, the pleasures of early summer. 

A bowl of itty bitty, sunny sweet strawberries -- still among the first from our patch.

Leisurely strolls with my favorite people.

Arugula pesto and goat cheese for breakfast, lunch and snack.

Watching some things fade so something else can take their place.

Something like a new colour of Columbine from the farmer's market.

Quiet evenings with pretty yarn and new ideas.

Puttering in my Etsy shop and adding these pretty crochet baskets to the line up.

What's bringing you joy these days?

Thankfulness

I took the camera into the yard with me yesterday afternoon.  Overall, the garden has that tangled, thinning look of fall, but a few bright spots hold their ground.  Dahlias and purple mums bloom until frost and succulents thrive in the cooler weather.  I'm not sure what those white flowers are.  A bush from our neighbour's yard has hopped the fence.  Far be it from me to cut back anything that flowers white in autumn.

Since embarking on this blog and my creative journey, I've become more observant -- or maybe just more willing to stop and observe.  The simple act of taking a picture requires noticing, pausing, circling, composing.  It's about seeing beauty and interacting briefly with it.  Best of all, these momentary flashes of creative energy -- this noticing -- fit around and between the demands of motherhood.  While snapping the above photos, for example, I was playing peekaboo with this little sweetheart.

 

And that brings me to thankfulness.  This is a weekend (in Canada, at least) to sit around a turkey dinner with family and reflect on the goodness in our lives.  Family.  Abundant food.  Health.  Freedom.  I remember that two years ago on this day Gary and I learned that we would be parents.  One journey ended and another began.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  

His love endures forever. 

--from Psalm 136--

One Project, Finished, and a Confession

It's done!  I finished my Wuthering Heights wreath (more about that here) with a simple plaid bow and a spray of fall coloured branches and beads.  It has found a home on my mantle, but due to the weather and the whirlwind who is my daughter, I couldn't get a good picture there -- too dark during nap time.  Here it is, basking by the patio door.

A confession:  I'm very proud to have finished this project within a week.  There was nothing complicated or especially time consuming about it.  It's just that I have a dismal track record when it comes to finishing such things.  Why is a fall wreath imagined more alluring than an actual fall wreath?  Why do the creative juices stir and then go stagnant?  Why is starting more fun than finishing?  

Is your track record for finishing projects any better than mine?  Please share your secrets.

Of Wasps' Nests and Other Beauties

Souvenirs from the great outdoors tend to land on the dining room table.  It's become a tradition.  When little bits of nature fascinate, I bare them home for continued admiration.  Fragile flowers or crunchy leaves don't last long.  Other bits linger long enough to be joined by new finds, and certain rare treasures hang around longer still.  I once kept the two intact halves of a robin's egg -- palest blue against a white plate -- for weeks.  

 

Like the egg, these pieces of wasps' nest are holding my interest.  I found them in the garden, knocked off the roof, I suspect, by workmen this spring.  They are more empty space than substance.  I marvel that such perfect geometry was wrought by the hovering pests that I swatted away from last summer's barbecues.  

The pieces of wasp nest are joined here by a seashell that Little Miss S plucked from the tide last weekend.  A pot of succulents from the garden adds life and vigor to the collection.  It's that beautiful geometry that ties the three together -- line and balance and shape.

 

How, you might wonder, does all this tie into my creative quest?  Plopping organic keepsakes on plates probably doesn't qualify as creativity, but certainly feeds it.  What inspires you?

An Introduction

Last Christmas someone looking for gift ideas asked me if I have any hobbies.  I was caught completely by surprise.  Of course I have hobbies.  Lots of them.  I read.  I draw and paint.  I sew, embroider and crochet.  The trouble is, I don't do any of them very well . . . or very often.  Those things -- not well and not often -- probably feed each other.

© Nmedia | <a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/">Dreamstime Stock Photos</a> & <a href="http://www.stockfreeimages.com/">Stock Free Images</a>

The question got me thinking.  I've always thought of myself as a creative person, someone who could pull off just about any project I set my mind to.  But when was the last time I actually did?  I'm pretty sure there's a part of me that wants to create -- it's the voice that says "I could make that" even though I know I won't try.  It's the dissatisfaction I feel when I walk past the sewing machine or when I find the easel in the back of a closet.

As these thoughts rolled around in my head over the last months I came to a realization.  For starters, I want to be creative, and if creativity needs to be fed and watered regularly, I'll have to work a little play time into my routine.  So I've embarked on a creative journey of sorts, one where I'm free to dawdle and loiter or skip merrily ahead if I so choose.

This blog is my travel diary.  I'll share bits of my life, my thoughts on creativity and, of course, the things I make.  Please join me.

Do you  consider yourself a creative person?  How often do you create?