Monarch Post

what's on my work table

     I know I'm not going to get much crafting done this week.  We're hosting Thanksgiving for about thirty of my family members.  But in between getting ready for Thanksgiving; I made four new bracelets today.  I love the new spiral findings AND my Bead for Life beads.  These four bracelets are gifts, but I think I'll be making more for my Etsy shop.

I've blogged about my favorite beads before, but just in case you didn't catch me going on about them... well, here I go again.  Ugandan women make these beads from old magazines.  It's hard to believe; they are so beautiful.  Their full story is here at Bead for Life.  Their motto is '"eradicating poverty one bead at a time'.  And that's just what they are doing; as they create schools, housing, etc, from the sale of their beads.  It's just the most inspiring story of taking what we would throw away and literally creating new life.  I get teary-eyed every month when I read my email newsletter from Bead for Life.  I like to buy the loose beads, but ready-made bracelets and necklaces are also for sale.

    I picked up these cute, wooly ornaments for my tree at Whole Foods on Sunday.  It was hard to choose, there were so many fun packages of ornaments.  This is  another amazing company of women in Nepal who handmake all sorts of crafts-- from hats to purses made from rice sacks.  It's a fair trade company, named Earth Divas.  I plan to do some Christmas shopping here..

    And if you need more inspiring women... well here's just the ticket.  I couldn't wait to get home, pour a cup of tea and savor this magazine.  Yum. It's beautiful and inspiring.  And whether or not you''ve got the fabulous decked out studio or you're rolling beads in a hut, the creative spirit can do the world a world of good!!!

So in the spirit of Thanksgivng, I just want to say how truly thankful I am for all the creative women who inspire me constantly.  From developing countries to magazines; and this wonder of wonders-- blogland.  Thanks to each and every one of you.  Good on you!!!

I hope you have a very, very happy Thanksgiving!

xoxo Kelly

doing the abun*dance dance...

     The economic news is scary right now, isn't it?  It seems things are going from bad to worse everyday.  We've lost a nice chunk of our retirement money.  There is so much fear right now, and fear always seems to paralyze... it's had me paralyzed for awhile too.  I stopped.  I got scared.  There are fabulous artists on Etsy whose work is selling slower than it used to.  And little ol' me just trying to tie her Etsy shoes for the first time...

But last week, something shifted as I cleaned out and put my studio back together.  One art doll head I made last spring, and a piece of that leftover money fabric from my felted penny purses had landed together.  My brain got humming... I got creative.

       I started thinking hard and long about what is really real.   We really do live in the most ABUNDANT world.  That's what is ultimately real, isn't it?  Not lack, but plenty, if we'd just stop with the greed and fear.  Once those abundance thoughts really took hold, I very excitedly went to work on this combo of fairy and fabric.  An ABUNDANCE art doll...

     When I typed out the word "Abundance" I noticed something new... the word "dance" is in abun*dance.  I went with that.  Wouldn't you be doing a little dance if a bunch of abun*dance came your way?  I would, I think.  Although it would be a very uncoordinated  dance, since I have two left feet.  The good Lord gave me some fine gifts, but large motor coordination skill just isn't one of them.  Which probably explains why I like "Dancing with the Stars" so much.  I hardly ever watch tv, so taking time to watch this is really saying something... like, Holy Crap-- wish I could do that!

This would also explain where the wild skirt came from...  cha cha ruffles...

 

And the fairy-ballet-dancing-whatever shoes...

   And of course, what else could her name be, but...

     Nickela Moneypenney.  I think I'm also being momentarily influenced by those Angelina Jolie lips all over the magazine stands.  Talk about abundantly blessed...

So, without further ado, because I've made quite enough ado...

 

MISS NICKELA MONEYPENNEY.

 I'm very pleased to have met and made Miss Nickela Moneypenney.  And she wants me to let you know she'll be over at my Etsy shop later tonight.  She took a lot of time to bring to life, so she's not going to be cheap-- and she says to tell you, she's not easy either. She only dances on walls ;-)

And just when you were starting to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking this looonnng post was finally over.. Well it's not, I'm on a roll today folks... because I so want to generously give you an abundance of photos and words-- ha, ha...second drumroll please (I forgot the first)...

       The ocean definitely symbolizes abundance for me, and I've been wanting to sculpt mermaids for quite some time...  So that's just what I did this week.

       She has a nice "innie", doesn't she?

          A billion fish in the sea, more than a billion grains of sand on the beach.  Yep, I like this mermaid abun*dance dancer.  She's only lacking one thing... a name.  Nothing came to me when I made her... so send me your ideas and we'll pick a name for her.  But I'm thinking NOT Ariel, that's just way too common a mermaid name at the moment.

Take care, and I hope you have an abundantly good weekend-- I need to stop now, don't I?

Lots of love,

xo Kelly

love and make art

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty

and frightened.  Don't open the door to the study

and begin reading.  Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.   

~~Rumi

    Our "musical instruments" around here-- paper, scissors, glue, clay, paint, fabric.  She's making bookmarks for all her girlfriends with the word love on each... idea and art all her own.  Melts my heart.

I've been working away too, making art.  Just not enough time today to post anything but this..hopefully tomorrow, I'll have mine for show and tell... errands to run today, parents to help, kids to raise.  You know, that life thing. 

Hope all's well with you!!  Thanks for checking in on me.  I've been skimpy lately...just know if I had my choice I'd be here everyday with loads to share AND well, speaking of loads, um, there's one in the washer and dryer I need to deal with...There are picky people around here demanding clean underwear.  The nerve.

Talk soon!

xoxo Kelly

 

Mondays' treats

    Made my favorite chocolate chip cookies this morning.  My kids look forward to "Mondays' treats", as they call it.  It works to bake something on Monday while I'm trying to get the house clean and laundry done.  I'm old fashioned that way.  I like to get all the laundry done and the house halfway-clean on Monday.  The rest of the week seems to go better if I can be "domestic-ish" on Monday morning.

One of my dearest friends, Norene, stopped by awhile ago.  She delivered a beautiful, homemade chicken pot pie.  Out of the blue.  She said I know how difficult things have been for you lately, with your Mom not doing well.  So I thought I'd just bring dinner over.  I almost cried.  I had a house full of Brownie scouts and no clue what dinner was going to be.  Talk about random acts of kindness.  I wish she had a blog-- I'd point you over there.  She's a professional Mom of five.  I think she's just the kind of loving Mom the world needs.  Her four daughters are all aspiring concert violinists.  They are amazingly talented and she has been amazingly devoted to developing their gifts.  She also homeschools her kids for their first several school years. I was not a fan of homeschooling until I saw how well adjusted her kids are... not to mention those chunky college scholarships they're earning.  

So today after I pick up kids from school, I'm going to return her pie plate filled with chocolate chip cookies and a card-- telling her she's wonderful...    

Rachel, from Cherry Tree Lane passed along a blog award to me last week.  She's another darling Mom.  I've followed her along this past year-- her first year of motherhood, and it's been so fun to watch her Kensington Jane grow. And I'm passing my blog award along to four other creative and sweet Moms.  The rules are to nominate six other blogs and let them know about the award.  Although I broke the rules and nominated a few less.  I think it's a little more special that way...

 

Marie  @ "make and takes"

Martha  @ "Miss Vandroo"

"Daisy Yellow"

Here's that cookie recipe too-- from one more creative, devoted Mom named Jeni.  For some reason, I'm having trouble linking her.  So  here's her site and here's her cookie recipe I'm in LOVE with...    myeverydaysparkles.blogspot.com. 

These cookies are to die for good-- light, fluffy, and non greasy.  And I don't know how that's possible with a cup of shortening in them-- might as well just slather that shortening on my thighs... but they would do you proud at that Thanksgiving dinner table.  Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE CHIP TRUFFLES 

1 cup shortening 

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

cream together first four ingredients.

add

1/3 cup buttermilk ( or add 1 tsp. vinegar to milk)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 cups flour

1 package chocolate chips.

form in balls...bake at 375... for 12 minutes.  ENJOY!!!

Hope your all doing well.  I've got several half-finished "projects d'art" to get cracking on... so I'm off to the craft store and studio.  See you soon this week!  Yes, life is settling back down again... finally. 

Lots of love xoxo,

Kelly 

 

 

 

keeping beauty and letting beauty go...

   Wheweee...what a week! Packing, packing, unpacking, rearranging.. settling one daughter into a place of her own, and us into a new "place in our lives " takes awhile. But a big housewarming basket of goodies from all of us helped the cause... Miss Sophey doesn't look too happy about any of this does she?  She says she's surrounded by brothers now!

  

I'm still unpacking too, from the last large home improvement project- carpeting half the house. Still a few boxes left to go in the kids room and my studio, but I'm taking time to edit and rearrange as I go.  It's feeling good to get that done before the holidays this year.

So nothing too fabulous to show for a hard week's work here-- unless photos of moving boxes could somehow be artistically lit and displayed...I'm sure you're glad I passed on that effort.  But I did enjoy packing up the Halloween decorations and unpacking my sweet Thanksgiving decorations. Toilet paper roll pilgrims, and a walnut shell turkey (first photo) made by my kids a few years back.  And three original "turkey eaters".  My favorite decorations are always kid-made.

  Only a few decorations fill our home at Thanksgiving time, and that seems right to me.  I'm glad for the simplicity of this holiday-- it helps keep me focused on gratitude for all of the wonder and goodness in my life.

Yesterday, I had to remind myself (a lot) that life is wonder.  A gloomy, rainy Monday matched my mood-- reality that my first baby bird had left the nest settled in around me. And I was a pretty sad momma bird all day long... just couldn't focus on getting much done, so I read for awhile from my very favorite book, "Beauty rediscovering the true sources of compassion, serenity, and hope", By John O'Donohue. John O'Donohue is my favorite author.  He writes like no one else I've ever read; stringing words together in a lyrical, holy fashion as he maps the Irish landscape and Irish heart. He writes about the many aspects of beauty; from landscape to color, birth to death, and so much in between. And somehow, I "get this" Celtic spirituality more than any other.  Maybe I should-- with a name like Kelly...

   So since I haven't posted for awhile, I'm reserving the right to be "wordy" today.  And I'll love you and leave you with a couple sections from Mr. O' Donohues' book:

             BEAUTY IS QUIETLY WOVEN THROUGH

                           OUR DAYS

"Beauty does not linger, it only visits.  Yet beauty's visitation affects us and invites us into its rhythm, it calls us to feel, think and act beautifully in the world: to create and live a life that awakens the Beautiful.  A life without delight is only half a life.  Lest this be construed as a plea for decadence or a self-indulgence that is blind to the horrors of the world, we should remember that beauty does not restrict its visitations only to those whom fortune or circumstances favour.  Indeed, it is often the whispers and glimpses of beauty which enable people to endure on desperate frontiers.  Even, and perhaps especially, in the bleakest times, we can still discover and awaken beauty; these are precisely the times when we need it most.  Nowhere else can we find the joy that beauty brings.  Joy is not simply the fruit of circumstance; we can choose to be joyous independent of what is happening around us.  The joyful heart sees and reads the world with a sense of freedom and graciousness.  Despite all the difficult turns on the road, it never loses sight of the world as a gift"...

                   BEING HERE IS SO MUCH

"It is tragic that something has to go wrong before we realize the gift of the world and our lives, gifts we could never have dreamed or earned.  When something goes deeply wrong, the realization it forces is inevitably learned at the grave of loss.  If we were able to live  in a deeper state of awareness and wisdom, our days on earth would find a new frequency: spaces would open naturally for beauty to touch us and we need beauty as deeply as we need love. Beauty is not an extra luxury, an accidental experience that we happen to have if we are lucky,  Beauty dwells  at the heart of life.  If we can free ourselves from our robot-like habits of predictability, repetition and function, we begin to walk differently on the earth.  We come to dwell more in the truth of beauty... To recognize and celebrate beauty is to recognize the ultimate sacredness of experience, to glimpse the subtle embrace of belonging where we are wed to the divine, the beauty of every moment, of every thing"

Take care,

xo Kelly

                                      

lotsa change

     "A Penny for your thoughts".  It was a favorite expression of my mother.  Especially if there was a scowl on my face.  No scowl today, but lots of thoughts.  Thoughts about change.  It seems to be in the air. Nationally and locally, and right the way down to my little life.  Big changes.  Good or bad-- who can really know, at the moment?  But it all makes me think of one more saying; one of my Dad's favorites-- "change is the only constant in life, Kelly"... And so true.  No changes-- inertia and paralysis would rule.  But I would never gain weight, either.  Hmmm, now that's a thought.  Heavy stuff here today-- ha, ha.

Well, moving along now, I bought fabric covered in "spare change" last summer, thinking it was so darn cute.  Didn't know what I was going to do with it at the time.  So like lots of things with me, I put it on the "back burner" to let it "simmer" awhile.  Creativity seems to work that way with me.  And then a couple of weeks ago, I decided it would make perfect lining for a few little girls' "penny purses".   I made six purses last weekend, after recovering from Halloween (yes, we had a good one after all).

 Pennies were a favorite thing of mine as a child, and they still make me happy. I always pick them up too, when I find one on the street.  Who can't use a little extra luck?  I like the jingle of pennies.  It's a good sound, isn't it?  I remember losts of barefoot summer days with those jingly pennies in a coin purse, walking to the local dairy and endlessly debating on which wonderful candy to spend those saved pennies on.  Five Bit O' Honeys, or one candy necklace?... Or just a pack of candy cigarettes?  I was such a rebel-- loved to watch cars watching me "smoke" those candy cigarettes on the walk home! ;-)

Anyway, without further nostalgia... here's what got made in the last few days...

      Felted recycled wools.  All lined in "spare change".  

     Hand stitched, and blanket stitched.  I love to blanket stitch.

    A homemade pattern... 

     And a bit of machine applique...

      I'll be adding them to my Etsy shop when I get a few minutes-- or an hour or two in my technology challenged case...

 And like I was saying at the beginning of this post...  Changes in our little world.  Our beautiful one, Ainsley, is moving into her own sweet cottage of a rental home.  I found the house a few weeks ago, while I was out taking photos and leaf hunting with our youngest two. I knew it was what she had wanted, but darnit, I didn't think she'd really move.  I was just trying to be helpful, you know what I mean?  But anyway,

    it's only five minutes away, and in a charming tiny town with houses like this one here,

    and here...

 It's a darling home.  A 1920'sCape Cod-style bungalow, with a postage-stamp-size yard, and just all of what she has been hoping for.  I'm so excited, because she's so excited.  But don't think when we move her on Saturday that I'm going to be happy about that one constant in life... change.    

She's 23 now, finishing  her degree at the University of Utah and is ready for this big change.  She's off to a great start, and we couldn't be happier for her.... really, couldn't be happier for her.  

How many pennies does it take to buy a box of Kleenex?  **Sniff, sniff, sniff**  SNIFF.

Such a mmmoving story from me today.  I know, oh please..  Really ,though-- Tomorrow and the next day we're recarpeting in our house-- that's three bedrooms and my craft studio.  And moving this child Saturday... Oh my.  

How many pennies for that extra large tube of BenGay?  I'm gonna need it. 

So that's it for me for a few days again... sorry.  A few more days of big changes here-- tis the season it seems... and I'm off to buy those moving boxes, BenGay, and Kleenex.

Tell me it's all going to work out great, -K-?... and I'll see you after a bit.

Take care,

xo Kelly