Amen.
[Nothing makes me feel half so great as a good wander on the land I love.]
March 17, 2014 by
Did I tell you Robert deployed for early season work in the southeast a couple of weeks ago? I probably failed to mention that, and a thousand other things. When he is away, I tend to fall head over heels into work. I had an explicit text from him last night that simply stated, “You are a crazy hard worker. Please take a day off. That’s an order.” Days off work don’t really exist for me. A more accurate phrase would be “taking a day out of the studio” — which is what I am up to today.
It’s frightfully springy-stormy this morning with clumsy splatterings of rains and high winds whipping at the house and wind chimes — the perfect kind of day to hike up a mountain and find a little shelter from the elements in a nest of lichen, fir and stone. I am packing my bag with tea, water, camera, sketchbook and a sundry of snacks to sustain me while I’m gladly wandering. It’s going to be such a beautiful afternoon and evening out there. I can feel it in my bones.
Which reminds me, did you all see the full moon rising the other day? I was out running on the mountain with the dogs in the early evening when I saw it push up over the snowy peaks of the Pebble Range into a pure blue sky and weigh anchor in the sagebrush — perfectly round and golden. I felt that moonrise in my bones, too. Oh, did I feel it.
A Little Illumination
March 15, 2014 by
This is a short and sweet post about home decor which is something I have never blogged about in the seven years I have been posting in this space. As they say, there’s a first time for everything! Now, about this lamp. I’ve wanted to show it to you since I bought it with my dad, in January. Let it be known that the antiquing in Pocatello, Idaho is OFF THE CHAIN, most of the time. I’m talking about righteous goods at mind blowingly low prices, most of the time. Treasures and treasures and treasures to behold. There’s lots of junk too. But oh, the treasures! My home is the epitome of eclecticism. I know. Everyone says they are eclectic. Everyone also says they have sensitive skin. These are things we women say. But truly, my home is over 110 years old and it is carefully filled with modern, new, vintage, antique and lots of dead stuff. It’s how I roll.
Allow me to specifically tell you about this lamp. I love this lamp. Truly. It’s an inanimate object and I try not to say I “love” inanimate objects because it seems like a waste of the preciousness of that word but I really love this lamp. It measures 50 inches in height (or 127cm if you live anywhere in the world besides the USA). It is enormous. The lampshade is covered in jiggly lengths of thread, I know there is a technical name for this stuff but I don’t know what it is. I’m sure flapper dresses used to be embellished with it. It wiggles so beautifully. The base is a combination of cast metal, hollow glass bulb with inlayed metal patterning, and a marble slab gives the bottom of the base a little heft. It’s gaudy. It’s over the top. It looks like I bought it from a bankrupt brothel in 20s Paris, France. AH!
When my parents were visiting in January, my dad and I went to the antique shops because we always do when my mum and dad are here. We putzed around one shop and I kept coming back to this lamp which was on super-clearance for $60 (because no one in the WORLD wanted it, but me). I hummed and hawed about it and finally committed to the purchase. My dad went halfsies with me though I must tell you, he is appalled when I refer to it as my French brothel lamp — because in his mind I am forever his baby girl and I shouldn’t know what brothels are.
I have it on our big dresser in our bedroom here. When I turn it on it casts the most beautiful swaths of golden light. Anyone who see it says, “Lordy! That’s the biggest lamp I ever saw!” Which, of course, pleases me greatly, for some reason. It’s the biggest lamp I ever saw, too.
This is all to say, here’s to finding treasure, sweet treasure, every now and again.
Someday I am going to do a full photographic tour of my home for you, to show you all the bits and bobs here and how it all fits together to my liking. I think it would be a fun photography project for me.
Happy Saturday to you. Gosh. Its so gorgeous here my heart melts a little every time I look out the windows. I hope you can say the same.
X
Take Root
March 14, 2014 by
[Root Rings :: sterling silver & chalcedony]
A little bit rock and roll, and little bit tree hugger (which pretty much sums up my persona) — these rings are about cherishing where you stand at any moment in life, finding people to love who love you back, understanding the land that surrounds you and being a part of it. You belong no matter where you are, no matter for how long. Make it mean something.
:::NOW CLOSED::: GIVEAWAY — Let ‘er buck!
March 12, 2014 by
Thanks to you all for your WONDERFUL contributions to this giveaway. I’ll be pulling reading recommendations from this comment section for months to come, you should too. I wish I could have offered 217 of these horse prints to give away but the one print I have to give has been won by Barb Stellmach — original comment #42.
Thanks to you all for being here, as always.
X
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I thought you kiddos could use a little pick-me-up this week so I’m doing a giveaway here. I shot one of my favorite photographs of 2013 while I was out pheasant hunting with Robert in autumn. It’s a shot of five horses loping away from where I was standing with my camera in a ditch on an Idaho backroad that took us to somewhere beautiful; the buckskin in the middle of the frame is frozen, mid-buck. Sweet! It’s not a technically perfect photograph, in fact, it’s a bit front focused for my liking, but I like it for the feel of it, for the freedom of it, for the symbolism, for the memory of that day when I was out with my man and our dogs, fall was fading into winter, the wind was bitter cold and we were having a delightful time gunning for dinner.
I loved that day.
I love this picture.
I’ve had it printed up on the highest quality metallic Kodak paper and mounted on a gorgeous wooden block — it has a lovely shimmer to it that you are going to seriously appreciate. Minimal. Classy. Dare I say…modern? It’s lovely and it is TINY. It looks great on its own and wonderful if you have a cluster wall somewhere in your home. This print measures about 2.5×3.5 inches and comes equipped to hang (there’s a hole on the flip side that makes things real easy).
As always, I do giveaways because I appreciate you being here. There’s no need to tweet, pin, FB, insta or WHATEVER you crazy social networkers get up to on a regular basis! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on the end of this blog post with your email address. Say whatever you want. Come to think of it, I need some new reading material, give me a title or two if you can think of one. If you win, I’ll hunt you down (in an un-creepy way). Also, I should mention that this giveaway is mainly for this wee horse print but I always send out a bevy of goodies in my winner packages so prepare for some of my homemade organic Methow Valley peach lavender jam, maybe some earrings and some other goodies, to boot. If you fear entering this giveaway may be a waste of your precious time because you live in Zimbabwe, fear not, I will be glad to ship this magnificent prize anywhere in the world.
I’ll leave this post open for a few days before I draw a name.
Toodaloo!
X