Monarch Post

contemplating

 
Here's my best thrift shop find of the winter. Every morning now, I open it and let it fall to the page I need to read for the day. It's words are in alphabetical order-- starting at ACCEPT at page 1 and ending with YES! at page 365. A word a day for a year if you read it cover to cover, I just noticed.  It's filled with the wonderful sort of advice an inspired friend, spouse or a wise motherly soul would give you, just when you needed to hear them most. Words to comfort, inspire, nudge, and move you through your life with more authenticity. Words are powerful things, I've been coming to realize over the last couple of months. Words are made of energy too, just like everything else is, and they have the power to literally hurt or heal.

When I opened it today, thinking and asking for just the right page for you, the book fell open to the page LOOK... and... once again, it was just the right page-- for my cyber girl-friends, this time :)

 

LOOK

Look at yourself, how beautiful you are. Look at the love that pours from your eyes, look at how your wisdom and experience are written all over your face. Look at the beauty of other women. All of them. Look at their lips, full and ripe, thin and dry. Look at their skin, smooth and wrinkled, creamy and coarse, olive and terra-cotta and peach and ebony and freckled and scarred. Look at how women move, See them stride, see them shuffle, see them with eyes on the ground and eyes on the sky. See them inch slowly like the turtle; see them fly like the eagle. Look at the muscles in a woman's body; look at the serenity in a blind woman's face; look at the rugged hands of a laborer. Look at every person you meet with compassion and love. Look for the good in their hearts and you're sure to stumble on the good in your own.

 

Have a lovely weekend my friends, 

xoKelly

 

the best of the week

 
 
 
 
I've been playing around with my new camera taking random shots around the house this week. The roses are from my Mike for Valentine's Day.

 
Favorite birds and dogs in the dining room. (I keep them apart, I know that birds and dogs don't mix well :)

 

Bookshelf photo of St Therese'

 
(my, how our kids have grown...)

 

 
In the kitchen, a rose from the sweetheart dinner on the windowsill

 
and a corner,

 
and a bowl of Pink Ladies.

 
Kid craft,

 
art,

 
and ingenuity!

 

 

 
In the studio, new fabrics 

 
and

 
new taped on ideas to inspire...

 
and even a new organized box of floss (I know, I can't believe it either!)

 

 
But the best part of the photos around the house last week were

 

of sweet Corbyn William's twentieth birthday.
 
 
Even if the cards weren't all sincere. We are; we love you so, our funny, bright, easy-going, economics-studying, African drum playing, soccer watchin', coffee shop workin', dog-lovin', uber cool cool guy.

 
XOXOXOX You're the moon and the sun XOXOXOX

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

xoxo!

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Here's what was made for sale at All Tucked In this February. I bought one yard of plain creme canvas to make all the hanging hearts. One felted sweater, vintage necklace beads and buttons, and the same paisley stamp from the last post were used to make a dozen hanging hearts (two more were made after these.)

 
 
 
 
 
This heart was a new experiment with embroidery thread layed on top of the canvas and then free-form zigzagged over with the sewing machine.

 

 
I also used the same sort of stitching for a dozen lapel pins, and stitched paper tags with hearts to make a better display for the simple heart design.

And then I pulled out the stamps again; stamps are fun- I had forgotten this :)

 
Same leftover wool from the canvas hearts, makes me feel efficient when I use up all the scraps.

 
And since I was already feeling frugal and efficient, I used more scraps and made rose pins.

So there ya go, that's about all my Valentine merriment for today. We went out Saturday night to a special Valentine sweetheart dinner, just Mike and I, and it was so nice and relaxing. We left the youngest two on their own for the first time and everyone was even still alive when we came home, so it was all good.

Tonight I'm making pink heart-shaped pancakes with fresh strawberries for dinner topped with squirted whipped cream from a can of Rediwhip. I think the kids will have a ball with a can of Rediwhip to  decorate their pancakes with, since I never ever buy the chemically toxic stuff.

It should be very exciting ;)

Do you have any special plans for today?

Love you guys!

XoKelly

 

 

 

limiting the limitless possibilites

 
Whenever I've been out of the creative process for awhile, I usually feel overwhelmed on where to jump back in. But in the last couple of years I've found a really good way to get myself over the hurdle of that overwhelming and blocked mental state.

 
I limit myself to just a few things from my studio to play with. For me, that begins to stop the overwhelmed feeling of where to start from when the world is too wide open. This time when I started this exercise to get unblocked, I choose a dozen plain white paper tags, one sheet of red paper, one bottle of red acrylic paint, a brown stamp pad, one heart paper punch, a few stamps, a red marker, letter stamps to spell one word-- transform, and then I let myself have free reign with a box of buttons and my stacks of fabric.

(I also told myself I didn't have to blog about this, so I wouldn't have to feel stifled in that way either, and I really wasn't going to blog about it, but since it turned out so well and the process might be helpful to someone else I decided to blog about it anyway!)

 
 
 

 
And then I played and played for a couple of hour. (Night time seems to help too. So do candles, good music, hot tea, a shut door, and the phone of the hook :)

 
 

 
 
 
 

The cards weren't made for a purpose (other than to get me moving again) or to sell, and not thinking in those terms when I'm creating really seems to help me too.

 
It's a great little creative exercise for me, and I'm sure lots of people have similiar tricks they've learned along the creative path. 

I used the same "limiting idea" to make soft hanging hearts last week-- back with those next time.

XOKelly

 

 

the long pause

I've been gone a really long time from this old blog. I started having some health problems  before Thanksgiving. I've had constant headaches at the back of my head which were particulary worse in the morning, and I've also had some really strange sensations in my legs and hands-- tingling and numbness. So instead of blogging, I've been spending my time trying to find out what is going on with this body of mine. I've been back and forth to a naturopath/chirporactic dr and also my family doctor. So far an MRI has been inconclusive and so has all the blood work that was done. But my headaches have finally nearly stopped, so that's a good sign. And it's a great relief to know I don't have a tumor or cancer, or any other horrific thing, so that's good news too. My family doctor wants me to see an MS specialist for further evaluating, so I'm still not finished being run through the doctor maze, but I am beginning to feel better all around in the last few days.

Let me tell you, I have prayed like I never have before for guidance and help and healing. Every morning I'm in the living room with a cup of tea and a book of healing prayers, reading and praying aloud.... I feel like it's all on it's way now, and I just wanted to fill you in on my long absence. I simply didn't have the energy to keep up the blog too. My January was spent barely managing to get through the daily life of raising a family. (And besides it is January after all, and not a damn interesting thing happened anyway... :) I did get some work done for some of the local shops for Valentine's Day just lately, so I think I'll start the blog back from there.

It's been funny to not be here, but in the most surprising way, it's been really liberating too. As much as I love to blog, I find myself so many times feeling like my blog is the tail wagging the dog in my life. I find myself in a hurry to make or do something so that I have something to blog about, and I've decided that that just has to stop. No more blogging out of fear-- only love and joy. (Please remind me of this from time to time, okay :) So I'll be here when I'm here from now on, maybe just once a week or so (which would be an improvement from the last month anyway, wouldn't it?:) I'll be here when the spirit moves me to be here, out of wanting to share creativity and love and joy. Fingers crossed, and good health too to celebrate.

Hope you are all doing well, I just haven't been around to visit you my friends through this time, but I've missed you.

XOKelly