What do you Do?

What I do.
I make a living in a
conventional office.

Who I am.  An artist.
To relax, I read, write, thrift, garden and
create at every turn.

During a recent discussion, Joe
texted:

We are artists without a medium.
                         Toni Morrison

No explanation necessary.

Sighted in Hollywood.

Music to Our Ears

With much practice and love anything is possible.

Martin Wilson's brilliant trombone solo.

Mambo for fun.

Marriage Vows

French General

As the celebrant, I have been honored to
assist couples in preparing
their vows.  It is the greatest gift, to
allow me to share in one of the most
significant days of their lives.

It is with great care, each word
is selected, I provide the framework,
everything else comes from their hearts.

Mr. Lee and I hope our marriage
stands as a testament of the
beauty of friendship and
the ever blossoming possibilities
of love.

In my heart, I carry my failures.
The heartache of divorce with
children.  The knowledge of
what marriage can be with
tenderness and devotion.

 "The best love is the kind that weakens the soul,
that makes us reach for more,
that plants fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.
That's what you've given me.
That's what I hope to give to you forever." The Notebook


Music:  Muse Starlight   Just wanted to hold you in my arms.
Beautiful as an entrance song for the wedding party.

I Promise

“I Promise” by Dorothy R. Colgan

I promise to give you the best of myself and to ask of you no more than you can give. I promise to respect you as your own person and to realize that your interests, desires and needs are no less important than my own. I promise to share with you my time and my attention and to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship. I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my world into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face changes in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting. I promise to love you in good times and bad, with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how. Completely and forever. French General

 

Dreaming in Color

What a Country, What a Date

Saturday, was date night.
Mr. Lee carefully planned each detail of
our date in Los Angeles.  (In my head it
sounds like X's song).


First up:

French General, 
the pièce_de_résistance
craft mecca
extraordinaire. For years, we patiently waited  to visit.
Finally, I got to ring the door
bell.

Molly Meng met us at the door.  Swoon.  Be still my heart.

We're planning on a future craft class date.
Craft yummies, look at all
the beads and charms. Inspiration at every turn.

Class projects below.

French General was better than we imagined.

Then for a  morsel and an adult beverage,
we visited Amalfi Ristorante &
Bar  for a tasty bite and
super friendly service.

Yokov Smirnoff, was up next, in his Happily Ever 
Laughter  tour based on his graduate
work in psychology.
His premise, the secret to a happy relationship is
laughter. Oh, yeah we agree.

  

Getting Through it

No one can tell what goes on between
the person you were and the person you have become.
No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell.
There are no maps of the change.
You just come out the other side. Or you don't.
                                                      Stephen King

This I can share, I didn't travel alone.
Our Lord was with me every step of
the torturous path. I am a much better
person because I traveled a valley
of darkness.

Stronger, more confident and
uncompromising.  I know today,
regardless of what I encounter,
what drops me to my knees, and harbors
prayers for mercy, I will be fine because
He loves me.

Have a blessed day. 

Cute Creative Couple

So happy, the couple behind Something's Hiding 
in Here. 

Stephen and Shauna have and Etsy shop
and a blog.

Bus roll.

Etsy's No Place Like Home

Our people, Hannah.  I don't know Hannah personally,
but visiting her cottage makes me feel right at home.
Most of my family and friends are minimalist and feel anxiety
visiting Pumpkin Cottage. Joe flatters me and has purchased
some of my favorite things like the bird clock.

Pumpkin Cottage and everything collected within
wrap us in comfort.

Pretending we are aristocrats

Do you recall the Hollywood episode of I Love Lucy?

Joe sent me the link...visit  Hannah's cottage.
What Hannah says is true about collecting,
it happens over years.

Jennifer Perkins' Cottage

Tina Spangler's Lake Cottage

Community of Marfa, Texas

Find Joy in Small Things

Cotton Candy Grapes

Our friends and family are often intrigued
by our many road trips.  True, the get-along-gang
has clocked many hours on the road, but we love
it.

It is a way for us to slow down, listen to public
radio and audio children's literature. For
Mr. Lee to drive and for me to craft.

Splendid Table is a public radio family favorite.
You may think it is odd but I promise
the captive children among us
love it, too.  Where
else would we have learned of Cotton
Candy grapes? We found them
at our local grocery store this past
weekend.

And as an added bonus, our
children can sing everything from
Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Guns and Roses,
Tim Armstrong, to Big Daddy Weave,
and every thing in between.


There is NOTHING that gives us
more JOY.

Joy delights in Joy.
                       Shakespeake

Pumpkin Cottage Vintage Home

To be happy at home, is the ultimate result of all ambition,
the end
to which every enterprise
and labour tends.
              
                          Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 68

Pumpkin Cottage is transforming for Autumn. 

That's Boswell on the right, Letty in the middle and the new
comer, Miss Getzy.  Mr. Lee gifted Getzy to me for our anniversary.

Boswell's smile seems a bit more enthusiastic.  Mr. Lee
posed Getzy seductively, just making trouble, Mr. Lee.

To Be Known and Loved Anyway

We've loved each other for a lifetime.
More like sisters, really.

Our lives have often paralleled.
She knows all the good and bad
and loves me, anyway.

Mr. Lee had a smile plastered on his
face and tears rolled for me.
Here's what was in our anniversary
package.

Thank you Boland family.  We love
you back.  

Miss Marple

Over the Labor Day weekend,
I fell in love with Miss Marple, again.

Agatha Christie's
Miss Marple gets invited
to the most fabulous locations.
Mansions, beautiful hotels,
and fancy well to do locations.

Miss Marple has a nephew who
is an published author.
She knits, gardens, solves
crime, and wears granny chic.

Her cottage has a beautiful
front garden.  She sips
tea and has a fireplace in her
sitting room.

Miss Marple reads in bed.
She's my shero.

Decorating Vintage Muse

Of late, Mr.  Lee and I have
been visiting our local library.
The Get Along Gang are BIG fans. 

With this visit, Design*Sponge at Home by Grace Donney
came home to Pumpkin Cottage. 
A charming book, highly
recommended for its idea packed photographs. 

Right off, a bonus, here's just a taste of the inspired forward:

I see Grace as a kindred spirit. 
When I quit my office 
job in 1993, (okay, full disclosure: I got fired from 
a string of jobs and was unemployable), I
started making pottery and just hoped that 
if I stayed true to my creative vision
of groovy and optimistic design,
I would succeed.  I had no idea what the hell
I was doing, and it was really hard and isolating.

                                       Jonathan Adler

Do you some times assume design celebrities
are over night sensations.  Mr. Adler has
definitely made it and yet, he shares
his feelings of fear.  More importantly,
he shares his failures in the mainstream.
His focused uncompromising moxie
sustained him through the
difficult float period.

The period any entrepreneur,
without a trust fund, skids
on thin ice, goes hungry and
fills with self doubt.


Pottery, the art within him, called him
and surrounded him until he followed
the call.  I am a late bloomer, a very
late bloomer. 

Listen, is your purpose calling?

Labor Day

Dream.
Work hard.

Put America back to work.
Seek American made.

Happy Labor Day.

Marriage Built to Last

Success in marriage, depends on being able,
when you get over love, to really love.
                                     Eleanor Roosevelt

Happy Anniversary, Mr. Lee.
You are my light, strength and encouragement.
We share laughter and pain.
Find joy and mourn together.
We pray and humble ourselves.

For three days before our wedding
I was a mess, just an evil fear filled
bride.  My heart could not sustain
the thought of ever getting divorced,
again. You were my anchor then as
now.

The secrets for your own happy marriage.

1.  Pick well, don't EVER settle.
     Listen to your little voice.

2.  The more things in common the better.
      Opposites may attract, but it rarely lasts.

3.  Avoid addictions of any kind.  Seriously.
     You can't change anyone,
     no matter HOW much you love them.

4.  Put your mate first.
     For success both partners must commit to put the other first.

5.  Hold you anger.  Fight FAIR.  Love IS patient and kind.

6.  Remember why you fell in love.
     Imagine your partner's 8 year old face.

7.  Everyone is irritating at times.

8.  Allow for distance when one or both partners are tired.

9.  Don't go to bed angry.
     Don't leave the house angry.
     Don't say anything in the HEAT of the moment, only to regret it later.

10. NEVER utter the word DIVORCE.

Commit and be true.  We all carry useless worn out luggage into our
relationships.  We also carry the luggage our partners may not
be able to bear. Growing up, my brother and I would wake up to
our parents arguing every morning.

Joe and I would pray for a divorce.
It was years later, during my father's illness, when
I witnessed the depth of my mother's love.
To her dying day she could recall his full name and
identify him in photographs.

I choose to NOT have my children pray for their parents' divorce,
to set a GOOD example for the watchful eyes of children,
nieces and nephews and friends. 

All the pain/cobwebs of the past must be cleared for a joyful
marriage.  If growing up you witnessed harm, if
as a child, you weren't protected from an ugly marriage or
a parade of bad parental relationships, how will you cope?
How will you NOT be a magnet doomed to repeat
the errors of your memories.   Face your fears,
address the past to ensure a bright future.

No one gets married planning for divorce.
Divorce is devastating
to couples, families and to social structure.

A marriage is not the uniting of halves,
it is the uniting of wholes.
United for love, care and companionship.

 More my love.