Monarch Post

neglected, but better now

 
 
Very neglected. This poor old blog and that poor old flower garden... Life did not go quite as I had planned this summer. Shortly after my last post, our basement was flooded by one of the many torrential downpours Utah experienced all spring, and right into the beginning of summer. We were fortunate though, so many farmers lost their crops, and lots of homes were hit much worse than ours by the flooding.

 

And just when the crews of flood workers dwindled down, a routine Dr. visit turned into news that I would have surgery on July 1st... (I'm fine now) and there went July... it took about 
a month to get fully back on my feet. So such an exciting summer (not)- no great vacation photos here today! Now it's already back-to-school shopping time this week and it's definately wedding planning time... all the little details for Ainsley's big day Sept. 17 are on my mind and needing to be made soon.

 

I've wondered through my blue summer if I should even keep blogging... I feel as though I've come full circle blogging and now it needs to be something new, but what I'm not sure yet, maybe it just needs to evolve, or sit on the back burner a little while longer and cook itself into a new thing... we'll see...

 

 Just now feeling like I have some creative energy back in my blood and I'm sure it will one day come pouring back out again. At least I understand now why I hardly had any creative energy this year- I've had multiple health problems, sheesh! And I know for me, health problem do not mix with having abundant creative energy!!

 

 

But the gardens did eventually get weeded, and they are doing their best to put on a bright, ruffly fashion show after struggling all through the rains this spring.

 

 

 

 

(I'm thinking those containers would make a great kid's craft caddy... see, an actual creative idea. Apparently, I do still have a pulse!)

The upside of garden neglecting is finding half-price flowers at the end of July to fill in the bare spots.

 

 

 

 

And as perennial as the flowers around our house, baseball season happened in between all those stormy nights, rainouts, and cancelled games. Jesse's team, (the soggy but happy) the New York Yankees even managed to finish up with a second-place trophy for the town teams in his age bracket. 

 

I realized walking away from the field after his last game, that that really was the last game on our little "Mayberry" baseball field.

Next year, he plays on the older boys field across town.

I got teary-eyed. 

 

 

We've probably spent thousands of hours at this ballpark, watching our boys grow from tiny boy T-ball players (drawing in the sand at second base) to athletic little men.

 

Chewing our nails at slides and strikes, cheering them on, and consoling them when over the bad and lost games...

 

I will miss this ballfield and all those cricket-chirping, starry summer nights, and even the spring game nights; the ones where parents stand around freezing, wrapped up burrito-style in blankets while tag team complaining and cheering each other and the kids on...

 

 

 

Our kids are grown and growing up.

 

Who do they think they are anyway... whaaaaa!!

 

 

This summer two house martins built a nest under the eaves of our front porch. I watched the  four babies grow up in a blink. And one day I watched as they all stretched out their wings and made their first test flights away from the nest.

 

 

I so get how those parents must have felt- (since I like to think all animals think like me :)

 

I stood there hearing the momma bird say,  

"Now don't fly too fast.

Watch where you are going!

Don't be out too late,.

Just because all the other birds are doing it, doesn't mean you need to follow them."

 

And then I heard the Dad say,

"It seemed like they just hatched yesterday,

and now look at them.

I wish they were still little, at home in the nest with us."

****

WHHAAAA!!

 

 
And then they really learn to fly, and go soaring and stretching their wings in directions (with their old baseball buddies) you would never ever expect.

 

At the other end of the "Mayberry" ballfield was a concert for our town's festival days and Corbyn and his folksy band, The Mountain Hymns, were invited to play for the afternoon.

 

He is an awesome African drum drummer.

Who knew?

I was hoping for a baseball scholarship one day, but maybe he can still put us in a really nice retirement home with his rock star earnings.

Not a music lesson ever in this boys' life- go figure!

 
Picnics and your own personal rock band are preeetty cool together.

 

 

 
And so is a new craft book from Amazon when the August heat and boredom start to make us all go a little crazy is super awesome too.

 
 

 

 

This is the CUTEST sewing book for children I've ever seen. Great photos and instructions too.

 
Sophia finished three projects this week with almost no help from me.

 
A button jar.

 
A pencil case for the new school year, made from an old chenille sweater.

 
And a sewing box made from an old round cookie tin.

 

Already stocked... of course!

 

I highly recommend this book, Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy, for anyone who has ever had a bored daughter or granddaughter, (or an unbored child for that matter!)- it has been a life saver this past week, and there are lots of projects to go still. 

 

 

I still have the cutest wedding invitations to show you of Ainsley and her fiance' Jeff, but my computer is running so slow at the moment, I think I'll wait and do a separate blog post for them soon- pinkie promise!

 

 

Anyway, life is finding it's way back to some sense of order and I've started making a few things myself. Mostly for the house right now, knowing company is coming (for the wedding) always does wonders for me in the "hurry and spruce up the house department"!

Mike too, he just painted the garage-- floors and all. Seriously?! We need to schedule more company soon. We could have the whole yard finished landscaping in no time at all- :)

Hope you're squeezing all the last goodness from these beautiful summer days.

Love,

Kelly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

progressing

 
 
Hi. Still here.... I've been working on finishing up a whole bunch of ideas to send off to a gift company. I met someone at The Creative Connection event who's interested in my gift line ideas. It's not exactly top secret; I just don't want to show much of what I've been up to yet on the web-- (I'm sure you can understand why.) But I'm afraid I must be looking like such a slacker with no ideas or projects for you lately, so I thought I'd explain myself (as much as I can for now). Here's a tiny peek of one idea.

I am so loving sitting and stitching though now my fingers have toughened up (so sore for awhile I had to stop for a day!) Lots of experimenting with fabrics, trims, lace, stitches, and ribbon. My hands are busy, but I find my mind has lots of time to wander over to other ideas.... 

  

Like what to be making for Christmas projects, soon!  And what to make out of this pile of estate sale doves??? Got any good ideas you guys? (Of course I could just sell them individually as ornaments, but hey, that would make my life just too darn easy.)  So far I can see them in ivory wreaths, but there are like thirty doves here... what else?

 
 
 
I've been thinking alot about this book too since I read it last summer. Chapter two is titled, "Sufficient." One story is about a friend of the author's who has a gardener who comes to help her with her large garden every so often. After he's finished gardening, she makes him lunch. He always tells her his small portion of food is sufficient, and the way he says it, the friend knows not to try and make him eat more. I was so struck by the stories in this chapter. I mean, this is America, land of excess, never enough-- more more more. The land of the all-you-can-eat-buffet! Who ever says, this is sufficient? But I find myself thinking of the word sufficient everyday now. And it has been liberating, let me tell you, liberating. Because I realized that just about everything in my life is... guess what... sufficient. And for a girl who has so often struggled with thinking she's never quite enough, well, it's huge to feel sufficient for a change (most of the time.)

I have sufficient health and so does my husband and children. 

I have a sufficient home.

I have sufficient clothes.

I have sufficient friends.

I have sufficient intelligence.

I have sufficient faith.

I am enough. 

No, not perfect. I will never be perfect, and I don't need to be. Sufficient does not mean perfect; I'm getting it.  My thighs are not perfect (never will be), but they are sufficient; they attach my legs to my bum and I can walk. Sufficiently.

I think it's amazing what one word, at just the right time, at just the right twist of the lightbulb moment can do. Not too much, not too little-- the mama bear chair. That's it. Yay.

I think I've finally got it (yay, for the blonde ;))... sufficiently, and clear down to my toes.

Happy Wednesday to you! XoXKelly 

 

P.S. EDITED After rereading my post, I found it looking rather ironic that I am writing about a gift line and American excessiveness! Well, all I can say for now is the gift-line company I'm working on ideas for is about humanitarian aid for those whose lives are far from sufficient.....

 

 

 

Fair Trade Friday winner- Lisa!

I'm back (but you knew that since I'm here, huh? ). I think this was my very favorite family vacation ever. Perfect in a million ways.... I just downloaded all the photos and got a little "homesick" for N. Carolina and Nags Head.

But anyway,  I am late getting back here to announce the latest "Fair Trade Friday giveaway" winner. And since I'm late getting back to the blog world, I thought I'd apologize with an extra gift.

This is one of my all time favorite books, my copy of Gifts from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It's her story of her love affair with the sea and the beach, she compares her stages of life as an American wife and mother with the shells she has combed from the beach. It's a wonderful book, and just as timely for today as it was when it was written in 1955.

I dressed it up with a sea colored ribbon, a shell I found at Nags Head beach, an old vintage pearl earring, and a few filmy flowers-- they remind me of the jellyfish we were all so fascinated by on this trip.

Lisa @ the bunnylog blog is the winner for this month. Lisa, I'll get your earrings ordered and I'll slip my book in the mail for you!

I'm still getting my land legs back here, you know how it is when you get home from a vacation... Frankly, I would trade my land legs for a mermaid's tail for another week at the beach, but no such luck ;)

I'll post again soon this time-- I've missed you guys! xoKelly

FAIR TRADE FRIDAY(s) giveaway!

I've been reading the book I blogged two posts ago, In Her Hands. The pages filled with colorful photos and stories of craftswomen around the world inspires me, and truthfully, it saddens me also. I simply cannot imagine the hardships that women in developing countries face every day of their lives.

For the last few years I have grown increasingly interested in the native crafts of women as a vehicle for social transformation. When women are supported in their creative efforts, their families, villages, and ultimately the world benefits. In large part, women who can support or help support themselves through traditional crafting handiwork, or by learning new crafting handiwork, use their money to feed, clothe, and send their children to school. They are also less likely to be abused by their spouses.

My creative blogging journey has truly been leading me along these past two years... (I am so grateful for this brave new world of bloggers :)) This blog has functioned as a journal for me to see where I've been, and maybe, where I'm heading... It's been two years of wandering in the forest here for me, trying to find my way back to creative (paid) work after ten years off to raise our four children. I haven't known where I'm going at all, but deep inside I've known there's a business I want to build and my husband wants to help build with me-- we've both felt this for along time, but the time and the business has never been clear till now. I've figured out in the last few months too, that it's a business about and for children and women. And we've figured out that it's about helping others in developing countries, and employing fair trade practices.

So with all that being said, we're learning and studying, and really, just putting one foot in front of the other right now as we make our way along a path that isn't charted, but at least for now, shows us a destination on the horizon.

And in the meantime, while we're learning, I thought I'd share a giveaway here on Fridays...

Fair Trade Friday sounds like a good name-- and every last Friday of the month, we'll do a giveaway from a Fair Trade company. Cool stuff made by equally cool women, who really need a break.

So girlfriends, here's your chance to win a new purse courtesy of Global Girlfriend. It's just one of loads of wonderful items there for sale-- go look, you'll see!

I'll leave this post up till next Tuesday, March 30th at 6:00 pm. MST, and I'll announce the winner later that evening. Oh, and I'll leave it up to you on the color. So leave a comment and tell me what color of the purses at the top of the post you would like if you win, and then I'll order that color for the winner!

This is going to be fun, grab your purses-- we're going on a journey! And tell your girlfriends there's a swell giveaway over here, girlfriend ;)  Love, Kelly

**********

P.S. Here's a good definition of Fair Trade I just found:

Simply put.... fair trade is a system that empowers disadvantaged producers by creating economies and new markets in otherwise poor developing countries. Fair trade occurs with payment of a fair price, technical assistance, social programming, environmental protection, while respecting the traditional customs of the artisans.

in her hands

 
The book I have been eagerly awaiting arrived today.

It tells the stories of craftswomen from around the world. Bolivia, Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand, and India are a few of these craftswomens' countries.

Stories of strong, beautiful, resourceful, indomitable, creative women who turn war, poverty, and oppression into beauty, life, and hope for their families and communities.

Look at this weavers hair-- woven with yarn too! Oh, I love that.

 

I'm ready to read your stories and learn from your wisdom....  hands from around the world, making LIFE one stitch, one thread, one bead at a time.

a part of the preface from In Her Hands...

"When you read this informative book you will see how inescapable is the connection between today's misery in the so-called Third World and the overthrow of the peoples' way of life one, two , three, four, or five hundred years ago. I believe you will have powerful feelings in response to learning how meanly the loyalty and faithfulness of women have generally been repaid. Fo having endured the near absolute oppression of a greedy, brutal, racist colonialism, which often included literal enslavement and removal from homelands, many of these women suffer just as cruelly under the domination of their own patriarchal societies. You will begin to fine tune your focus so that perhaps for the first time you will really see who these women are. The ones at the very bottom. The ones that are so low down in status, as much of the world defines it, that they seem to be part of the earth itself. It is my great privilege to say, to add my witness, that indeed they are part of it. For there they sit in their mud and straw huts, or on their bare earth patios, or on the naked ground, spinning and weaving and making pots out of the mud of the lake, and they are in relation to and in a flow of creation that is as old as the planet. I think of them as goddesses.

The children of these women do not have to starve. They have mothers, as you will see, who are giving Life everything they've got. And we must stand with them. Learning their histories, appreciating their artistry, acknowledging their worth. The world we live in, the rich, Western one, says these women owe us. That they are in our debt because we loaned their leaders money to build dams or roads, or (most likely) to buy weapons. To force these women to sell their bodies, their children, and their health to pay a debt they did not themselves incur is the essence of evil. Meanwhile, the debts that they make for themselves, sometimes founding their own microbanks because "regular" banks consider women too ignorant to transact business, are scrupulously repaid. They place themselves in debt, not to buy weapons, or even beer and cigarettes, but to buy food, clothing, health care, and education for their children. They owe us nothing. And we must refuse to take the blood money our governments squeeze out of them. It is we who owe these women. We owe them for continuing to create art that sustains our spirits as surely as good food strengthens our bodies. We owe them for holding such an incredible place of suffering in this world, and for not giving up. We owe them for reminding us of the true meaning of love and of sacrifice. Of creativity and practicality. We owe them the rich nourishment we take from their courage."

Well, looks like I'm in for a fascinating read... I'll let you know.  xoKelly

 

very funny

    I walked into our bathroom this morning to take a shower. I noticed a note taped to my bathroom mirror.  

    Mike is out of town. So it seems the message was just for moi. It looks like I've been punk'd by my little punk.

    And then I remembered what's been on his night stand for bedtime reading lately. It came in his stocking for Christmas. Apparently Santa has lost his marbles-- what was he thinking, giving a ten-year-old boy a book like this?  Stay tuned.

pivotal

 

PIVOTAL

adjective

1. Of, relating to, or serving as a pivot.

2. in which something turns or depends; central, crucial, critical, etc.

How many books have you read which you would describe as pivotal?

I've read hundreds and hundreds of books by now, I'm sure. But only a handful I'd call pivotal.

Creativity, by Matthew Fox is one of those few pivotal books for me. It turns me upside down, inside out, and back around again, like a kid playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey... And when the bandana comes off, I'm where I should have been all along... I've read it twice this summer. Lots of new ideas for me, but at the same time it feels like a HOMECOMING. I know I will read it again.

Here's one quote from Creativity:

"It is our creativity itself that lies at the essence of our humanity. This creativity is so powerful that with it we can create or destroy. Like the Scriptures say: "I put before you life or death. Choose life." What is before us is the power of creatvity-- it is a life-and-death-power. What is also before us is choice. It is a daily choice, an everyday choice, one that arises in all our relations from parenting to grandparenting, from work worlds to educational ones, from religion to economics, business, politics, and citizenship in all its forms. It affects what we eat and what we throw away; how we live and what we choose to say no to. This is the power of creativity. "Creativity" may be the nearest one-word definition we possess for the essence of our humanity, for the true meaning of "soul."

There's a great youtube clip of Matthew Fox talking about his book. Someday, I'll figure out how to put it here ___ ! But for now you can type in, Matthew Fox "Creativity" and watch it!

My other PIVOTAL books include:

Simple Abundance Sarah Ban Breathnach

A Woman's Worth by Marianne Williamson

Beauty by John O'Donohue

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd

Gotta run and do something creative today... What books have been pivotal in your life? I'd love to hear!

xoKelly

 

the church at the back of the bookstore

   I think I sorta fell of the blog-wagon last week.  So much going on with back-to-school, back from vacation, back to helping parents, and back to finding a new seasons' rythm around here; I didn't manage too much else.  But in between all that I've been thinking (scary) about what to post next.  And my mind keeps going here...

One not too pretty photo of the back of an old bookstore in our vacation town, Steamboat Springs.  One of those quirky oh-so-not-big box bookstores that I so love to find.  This place was filled with oddball reads and unique bits of art.  And something more.  As I worked my way to the back of the bookstore I stopped suddenly, a breeze was blowing through the open back door.  Curtains swayed. I felt as though I had just walked onto holy ground.  I know that has to sound really weird, but it's true.  I'm kind of a "feely" type person, and this place stopped me in my tracks.  I went and sat down for awhile on the couch, just to soak in this feeling I was experiencing.  It was wonderful, peaceful and energizing all at the same time. Almost buzzing. When I did get up to leave I was even a little light-headed.

I've wandered through cathedrals in Europe, and lots of churches around here; while I'm awed by the architecture and the love it took to build such places, I never felt the sense of holiness I did here that day in the bookstore. 

 I asked the cashier if people met here for book discussions (no-brainer) and she said yes.  I don't know what books and ideas they share together, but I'm pretty sure these folks have found something more; maybe something like true community, sharing and caring for each other in a very loving way. Whatever they have together, it's good. I can't think of another explanation for such a wonderful feeling place.

Leaving the bookstore, I found one more thing to treasure.  A book.  Ruth, a wise-woman friend at my chiropractor clinic has told me for months now  I need to read this book.       And of course, after I bought it, I knew she was right.  The title can be a little intimidating.  But the premise is that we create the outer circumstances of our lives by what and how we think.  And the places where our lives are stuck are the places where our unloving, and negative thinking has got us stuck.  Louise claims even dis-ease is first created by our unloving thoughts and emotions.  But what is different about this book for me, is that it offers a way to truly change. She says we have to give up our need for engaging in our current behavior; this has always been the missing piece of the "change puzzle" for me. And then we can change unloving thoughts and the ways we don't love ourselves enough.  It's been surprising to notice how much negative chatter goes on in my brain this past week.  And I think of myself as a positive person!  Nothing horrible-suicidal, mind you, just the old geez, "I hate my thighs" kinda stuff.  

Heaven knows I've bought a few self-help books in my lifetime.  I've probably helped Deepak and Dr. Wayne Dyer buy a boat by now.  But I wanted to share this book. I know people from all faiths or no faith might read this blog, and the last thing I would want is to come off sounding preachy here--it's still primarily meant to be a creative pursuits kinda blog, so I hope it's taken in the spirit it's meant in.  Helpfulness.  For me, my creative life and my spiritual life are so woven and bound together-inseparable really- that when I'm stuck in one area I'm stuck in the other area too.  So that's why this book is so helpful, at the moment.  I'm feeling a little scared and stuck moving ahead in my art business.  Sorta getting clear on the "whys" and if it helps anyone else in the process to read this, well I'm all for that, really. 

So I guess I'm just passing along what I'm finding useful at the moment, to get those pesky bits of my life unstuck and moving along.  Well, and whatever faith you are or are not, really this book is religion neutral I've decided. It's just new thinking and ancient thinking together, and it turns conventional thinking upside-down...and I always like that. I even told my hairdresser about this one.  We do try to have meaningful conversations amid the dye and foil ;-)

And just in case this is all a little too airy-fairy here, and you're not into positive affirmations, I've included one very funny (I like to think) book that sits at the end of the self-help library here: I pick it up when I've decided I'm taking life too seriously and martyr-ishly (new made-up word). I'm laughing in an instant.

 I'll love you and leave you with a few of my favorite quotes:

 

*****************************************************

Guilt will be the driving force behind my actions today.

I have a right to be dysfunctional.

Today I will acknowledge my right to thive in chaos and panic in tranquility.

My recovery is not going anywhere.

Control is the only thing any of us have; therefore, I must hold onto it at all costs.

Today I will compulsively weigh myself every hour, each time sinking deeper into a pool of depression.

I must hurry, hurry, hurry to live my life.  The future looks bleak.

Today I will remember a disastrous past adventure and use it as a reason to not try anything new.

Today I will look at my shortcomings for what they are--my parent's fault.

I will nurture all my fears and anxieties on this day.

If someone compliments me today I will look for the hidden agenda.

Extreme mood swings are my goal for the day, as they are so invigorating.

*********************************************************************************************

One hundres and eighty one pages just filled with great one-liners...

See you soon--promise.  Forgot the promise to not be long-winded though didn't I?  I'll work on that.

Love,

Kelly

bright and sunny memories

 

As promised last post, here's another project I made.  This one is from the book, The Book of Candlemaking.  A trio of glass shaded votive candle holders, dressed up with a few crafting materials.  Simple and easy to make; these lights would be equally at home in a Modern, Shabby, or Bohemian cottage. The back shade is cheesecloth; gathered and hot glued around the top rim of the glass shade. The bottom two shades are ribbon covered.  The shade at front left is worked in strips of ribbon (two colors) applied diagonally and finished off with pretty braided trim.  The front right shade is one continuous length of wire-ribbon; wrapped around and around on the horizontal. This project idea could translate onto standard flat cloth lampshades just perfectly. Sorry the image is a little fuzzy, having trouble with flash glare (I think I could use a class..)  Anyway, something fun, easy, and different....works for me.

Hope the weekend was as lovely and relaxing for everyone as it was for us.  Family time, a picnic at Mike's request, and later, time with my own sweet Dad.

Ahh..summer love...

Take care

Love,

Kelly