My Dad emailed this photo to me yesterday. Motherhood in the animal kingdom. Lots of sweet photos, but this one melted my heart. Look at that face on the baby elephant, and the Mama. Pure BLISS. I hope to be that evolved someday. The things animals have to teach us.
Well, this is my completely random photo for the day... I just had to share. It's the loveliest image that's ever landed in my email!
I'm off to go create something to share!
Happy Tuesday!
xoxo~Kelly
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house it has a crowd
There's always something happening
And it's usually quite loud
Our mum she's so house-proud...
Our house, in the middle of our street...
I remember way back then when
We would have such a very good time
Such a fine time
And I remember how we'd play
Simply waste the day away
Then we'd say
Nothing would come between us...
Last night we finally got around to unpacking Sopheys' end of the school year bag of work. My favorite item was this pop-up community book she made. (I adore kid art.) She said this is our street-- our house is the yellow one.
And this is our town.
And this is one of the farms where we live.
That's a water mill, by the way. I love it... and last night that '80s song by Madness,"Our house in the middle of our street" ran through my mind. But I didn't mind. Life can be so sweet.
Hope you have a really, really lovely weekend-- in your house, on your street, in the city, the 'burbs or the farm. There's really just no place like home, is there?
Lots of love to you,
Kelly
"The Earth laughs in flowers" ~ E.E. Cummings
This week the trees celebrated spring and popped into gorgeous shades of pinks and whites. After what has seemed like the longest winter ever ( Really. I'm serious, ask any native) in Utah, it's finally looking springy here. Although it snowed again this week, and it's still so cold, the trees bloomed anyway-- finally. Yay. Thank you, thank you, thaaank you! Yes, call me a tree hugger right now. I won't even care.
It really is my very favorite time of year. (I think I get high on the smell of dirt right about now) And so this week, my crafts take their inspiration from all the beautiful blossoming trees and flowers I swooned over on my morning walks! And I'll skip making dirt crafts, for now at least ;)
I made some more of my wild rose pin designs...
They're listed in my Etsy shop now.
And my new apple blossom brooch design..
And if the Earth really does laugh in flowers, well, in my neighborhood this week, I think the Earth was doing one great big loooong belly laugh!
it's gorgeous in my neighborhood...
How amazingly creative is Mother Nature..
I mean, who would think of pink blossoms on old brown tree branches but Her! She's just way ahead on the style curve, in my opinion, anyway. Pink and brown just got trendy a few years ago, but She's been doing it for forever already!
And that spring green!.. don't you just love it with pink!
Everywhere I looked, I found pink on my walk. I'm lovin' it. Hope you did too!
HAPPY PINK SATURDAY everyone! Thanks you Beverly for hosting this event.
Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for stopping by!
Love,
xoxoKelly
"God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars."
~Martin Luther
I've recently discovered something new about myself. I am very, very seasonal... my moods, my tastes, my designs change with the seasons. In winter I'm bold and graphic. Red and black wooly clothing, and sensible shoes. But when springtime arrives, I find myself pulling out the lace and eyelet blouses at the back of my closet- even a string of pearls, at times. Spring softens me, brings out the feminine side. I like that after the severity of winter. And so right now, I'm all about lace, spring greens, and pinky reds as you can see by my newly crafted bouquet.
One of my favorite recent reads is "The Secret Life of Bees". Last month I saw the movie- and loved it also. It is, in it's essence, a quest for Mary, a quest to mother the motherless. And ultimately, finding strength in and through the love of Mary, and the nurturing, feminine face of God. If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, it's well worth the time.
After reading "The Secret Life of Bees" I have been drawn to learn more about Mary. One of the most interesting and surprising discoveries I've made is learning how many flowers are symbols for Mary. Those flowers are often times planted in gardens with a statue of Mary. Mary's gardens.
And so from me, a Mary bouquet for you today.
Roses from an old prom dress.
Canterbury bells from flannel fabric.
Purple asters from batik fabric.
Blue forget-me-nots from a felted wool sweater, baby's breath from an old lace blouse. All are Mary's flowers.
It's almost illegal how much fun I can have hunting through the racks of thrift shop clothing for my art supplies! Happy PINK SATURDAY everyone! Thanks so much for stopping by and welcoming me. It's so fun to meet so many new bloggers. Thank you Beverly for hosting this event.
Love,
Kelly
P.S. the bouquet is listed in my Etsy shop
Well this birthday stuff has been fun all weekend! I've been terribly spoiled by my loving family. My daughter Ainsley, whisked me off for a full makeup makeover at Macy's. It was her gift and Mike's to me. Oh my. If you've never tried Mac cosmetics, well girls, you might want to. A new face is a nice thing in your forties... After getting glamorized we went out to dinner, and then home to open more gifts... A giftcard from my husband, for my favorite clothing store, Ann Taylor. A giftcard to Barnes and Noble from my son, Corbyn. A deluxe Body Shop bath set from my little people, Jesse and Sophia. My favorite flowers-- yellow roses, and two good reads from Mike as well. AND chocolate birthday cake. I mean really, what more could a girl want out of life? I can't think of anything else... I am a lucky duck.
Now on to that promised giveaway... I threw every comment name in a bowl this morning, and the lucky pick is Emily at Ravenhill. I love to visit Emily's blog. Emily lives in Norway, and makes the loveliest Scandinavian Matroyska dolls. She also has the most adorable children!
Well, I'm off to do my mall Xmas shopping today. Hope I don't fall victim to the Christmas crazy thing! If I'm found sobbing on Santa's lap, you'll know I'm having my Christmas anxiety moment. Wish me well!
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave such kind comments! I enjoyed visiting so many new blogs. What a gift this crafting community is!
Lots of love to you xoxo,
Kelly
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
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
"EVERYBODY NEEDS BEAUTY AS WELL AS BREAD, PLACES TO PLAY IN AND PRAY IN, WHERE NATURE MAY HEAL AND GIVE STRENGTH TO BODY AND SOUL" ~~John Muir
There's a little wooded area at the end of our suburban neighborhood. It's a spot owned by a few families, who got together and made it a wonderful place for all the neighbors and neighborhood children to enjoy. It's called "the ravine" and I love it here. We have picnics with the kids here in the summer, and we sled here in the winter. We've spread a quilt out and read books here too. I've come alone to this spot when my heart is troubled, and I always find peace. And when I take a morning walk; I like to start here...so for the weekend, I thought I'd share this lovely spot with you. The trees are at their most colorful, and the skies have been so blue all week.
"Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God" ~~Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
At the other end of this magical little ravine is a giant "mama" willow tree. The stream by the tree gurgles over rocks; it's wonderful to spread out a quilt beneath her, and listen to water and bird song. And mama willow always welcomes and enfolds with her graceful,
swaying branches... My little spot of heaven on earth.
Hope you have the loveliest of fall weekends.
Take care!
xo Kelly
I am a summer loving creature, and spring is my favorite time of year. All the seasons are distinct, vivid, and lovely in Utah, but when I see those bare branches explode into every shade of spring pink, well I get kinda euphoric in April. So that being said, I have to work my way into autumn. One of the best ways for me is buying a load of fall magazines. Just seeing all the really clever ideas for fall decorating and foods gets me shifting into crispy, cozy gear.
So when the kids got home today I took five minutes and flipped through that new stack of magazines. And by the way, if you're a season behind like me, and you want to find some really cute outdoor cushions on sale-- I just found these all at Pier 1. I am in LOVE with the pattern and colors!! And they're reversible, which makes the multi-tasker in me very happy...
Oh, to be seven and nine and never get sick on a swing.
So here are some of those clever, clever magazine ideas:
Hallmark:
Country Living:
Family Fun:
Cute, cute.
Love that yellow pick em' up truck.
Eyeball appetizers, anyone?
Country Home:
Martha Stewart Living:
No skateboards, shoes, dirty socks, or balls? Gee, Martha you should come over sometime and check out my porch decorating style...
Floating fondant cupcakes-- someone has more time than me at the moment...
Pottery Barn for Kids:
Oh, to be so young you can get away with any outfit...
So I'm working on getting that fall mojo thing happening. And these stripey pumpkins I just bought and tucked into my porch planters are making me smile today.
So there ya go... that's what's happening over at my Roost! Isn't this the cutest front porch sign? And yes, it matches my darn cute cushions-- I am hopeless. Hope you're feeling the fall love...
Take care xo,
Kelly
My girlfriend and I had our last babies just eight months apart and those two baby girls have been the best of friends since they could toddle. They've swapped spare diapers, onesies, and fluffy pink dresses. These days they swap whispered secrets and lemonade selling tips... aah girlfriends.
Here's to all those friends who keep the lemons sweetened up! Dear Deb at posted-from-home is one of those sweethearts-- she's passed on a blog award to me, and I'm passing it along to some of my favorite blog friends and wannabe blog friends...check them out when you have a minute-- they're each so unique and inspiring. My life's been super busy the past few days, so I'll have lots to share coming up soon!
Take care xoxo
Kelly
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