Journey Seeds

flea market finds

vintage apron

blue vase with hydrangea & counted cross stitch runner

 vintage buttons for a friend...

Wakeup! Handmade Pleasures

I am reading a great new little book called  Made from Scratch by Jenna Woginrich.  It's about discovering the pleasures of a handmade life.  It's an introduction book written by a 26-year-old web designer and her adventures in living a simpler life.  I am enjoying it thoroughly!  While there isn't alot of new things in the book for me...what it has done for me is reawaken those feelings I had for the things in my life that began as a young girl back in the 70's.  I love her enthusiasm and her matter of fact way of writing about those new things she is discovering along her journey.  I have been doing many of those things that Jenna writes about for a long time now but, somehow the pleasures in it all have waned lately for me.  I feel unfocused and out of touch with what is important to me.  It has reminded me that I am indeed living those dreams that I started out with at an early age but, have turned them into more of a grind and chore and a race to get something accomplished.  It also has made me keenly aware of what you feel at age 26 changes over a lifetime.  It is important to stay in touch with those dreams...even if some of them have shifted over time.  

My favorite chapter in the book is the one on Mountain Music.  When I was about 10 I took up the fiddle and played for 12 years everyday.  I loved Celtic music and mountain music the most.  I travelled to Scotland and studied at The Sterling Institute with great Scottish Masters in fiddle music.  I even lived in the Shetland Isles and learned to play music with Tom Andersson the great Scottish fiddler.  It was a heady time for me.  We travelled around, went to music festivals, taught kids in schools and went to the pubs at night and played in many a celidh.  I stopped playing music when I went to Nursing School. I don't know why...it just happened.  At one point I took up Recorder playing for awhile and even took lessons.  Then, about 7 years ago my husband gave me a beautiful mountain dulcimer.  I took lessons from Carrie Crompton...a local dulcimer player for awhile.  I never got very far.  I think my hands started to hurt me when I played.  I tried playing for too long and wanted to practice too quickly for my own good.  I miss playing music.  It was such a huge part of my life when I was younger.  Jenna's book has made me want to pull out my dulcimer again.  Even if I can only scratch a few tunes out of that box it would make my heart sing to be able to play again.  I need to learn to not be too hard on myself though...I need to just learn to play a few songs again and see where that leads me.  I wish I had stayed with playing the fiddle all those years ago and I know it's not too late to pull it out again.  There are few genres of music that speak to me like mountain music...the roots and stories that it holds...the deep sadness that it can touch...and the lively foot stompin', body shakin' joy that it can generate...nothing quite like it!  Thanks Jenna for stirring up some old feelings....Read about her adventures over on her blog at Cold Antler Farm.

Interestingly enough the Nikki McClure calendar came in the mail today.  It's entitled "Wakeup!".  I ordered it late.  She is one of my favorite artists and the prints are beautiful to frame.  Wakeup seems to be a good sentiment for the season in many ways...

Spring Eggs & Mother Holle

Cloth Eggs made by E.

Handknitted mouse from Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor.

A lovely tale of Mother Holle told in German at the Waldorf Kindergarden.

Pocket Curtain

I started working on a Pocket Curtain out of the book Simple Sewing.  I wanted it to have some color in it, so I choose to use a few colors for the pockets against a white curtain background.  I used 100% linen as it was on sale at 40% off.  

Simple Sunday Collage

Aprons

All Photos from Flickr 

Vintage Sewing Machine

We found this gift for my daughter at the local Flea Market this week.  Vintage...beautiful condition!  The owner was the seller and he knew all about the machine which was nice.  E loves anything vintage.  Why don't they make machines like this anymore?  Everything is plastic.  This is a piece of artwork!  

Winter

 This showed up in my inbox today from Rising Tide North America.  It's about False Solutions to Climate Change.  Learn about things that are being hidden from you.

Saying Goodbye To Winter.  Mary Azarian is one of my favorite artists.  This was a gift this past Christmas from my Mom and Dad.  

A new book for Emma and I.

Toads hang about all year here. Gnomes and fairies have been known to hide here as well.

I am thinking about planting a garden devoted to Dye Plants this year.  Here is a comprehensive list of Dye Plants.  We have alot of projects going around here so not sure if it will happen but, it's something I've wanted to do for a long time.

Green is peeking up everywhere!

Simple Sunday Collage

Flickr Favorites

Bird At The Carnival Soiree

Lisa over at Fairie Enchantment is having a Carnival Party! I quickly made my Morning Glory Bird to fly over to her party to join in all the festivities. But, first she had to rest in the magical teapot on her way over. Come over and join us for all the fun.

Party Hat and Party Cape for the Soiree...

Stopping by The Delicious Cake Shop on way to the Soiree...

A magic box just for Morning Glory Bird as she flys away to the Carnival Soiree.  The box contains magical gold thread, a lovely blue stone, a good luck Pisces fish, trinkets, rainbow ribbon for flagmaking and a quote of inspiration to carry her through.  She'll be playing over at the Soiree for the rest of the day...where dreams take flight and imagination soars....all the things a bird knows so well...

Simple Sunday Collage

Quilt Collage

All Photos taken by Artists on Flickr (search quilts to find these artists).

On Conflict and Consensus

This booklet is a good review of the Consensus model of Formal Consensus Decisionmaking.  

Consensus is the website for resources for this model of organizing.  

Our Collective met yesterday to participate in a Conflict Resolution Workshop.  We covered many areas from talking about internal issues in the Collective, to problem solving, learning/reviewing positive forms of communication...with role playing activities to help facilitate positive change.  While it is was agreed upon that the meeting would remain confidential...I thought it helpful to post the important above links to go over and review.