Friday night grateful moment

This week was one of those long-short weeks. Wednesday felt like Thursday, but I also was concocting extra days between Thursday and Friday to try and pack it all in. Yes, one of those weeks. What joy, what bliss, to be at Friday night, with peace and quiet, screen door open, pups napping, husband beside me, all peaceful and well.

It is spring, there is no doubt about that. Well, there were some people on the East Coast who seemed to doubt it for a minute or two this week, I think. But, we had the whole gamut this week--rain, wind, rain, blue skies, clouds, the gorgeous smell of rain. This week I learned what that word is, the smell of rain: petrichor. Cool word, eh? It's one of my favorite smells, and makes me so grateful for spring, whenever I am outside after a rainfall and inhale, big. Deep breath.

With spring comes color, which is always a favorite of mine. I looked out our dining room window one morning, and saw orange fish in the pond, purple lilacs, pink on the flowering weeping almond tree, greens of every shade. That scene made me smile quite happily, gratefully. I am in a bit of denial that it's actually Easter this weekend--how did that happen already? Not having the nieces (and their parents) here for the Egg Hunt Extravaganza, I have opted to just ignore it. That and eating less sugar means, what? huh? candy? chocolate? whatevs. ;) (I'm saving it all up for May!)

I love the way the seasons work with flavor too. Here comes the asparagus, in all its local glory. The strawberries are blossoming, and while it feels a little far away, I am already pining for fresh produce from the garden. Basil, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes... now we just need to keep the nights above frost level for a bit!

I learned of a friend's cancer diagnosis this week, and have been thinking of her and her family and lifting them in prayer, many times over each day. I am tired of cancer touching the lives of people I care about. Tired especially for them, and wishing for healing, in many places, tonight. I am grateful for the love and support that I know my friends and family with illness have surrounding them. Very grateful indeed.

Tonight I'm also very grateful for the path of this past decade, where I am now, with the love and support in my life. I try to pause every day and reflect on it, really feel the gratitude and focus on keeping my eyes open and aware of what's going on. I believe it as much now as I did 10 years ago--when you have a major life transition, there's a wakefulness to it, a super-alert mode that only lasts if you focus on not letting the noise of the world lull you back asleep. No thanks. To me that equates to taking things for granted, and I work pretty hard to not do that.

I love that sentiment. I think I need it tattooed somewhere. Or, at the very least, close by so I can refer to it nightly. I think I will go sleep in peace now. I wish the same for you.

Friday night grateful moment

Confession: this list, this tradition, this ritual... almost didn't happen tonight. But then I spoke my sacrilege out loud to husband and his sweet response was, "But you've worked so hard to never miss. Here, I'll help you. Do you want me to type?" So, so sweet. (And no, he's not typing.)

So here's our joint little grateful effort. A little him, a little me, a little list.

Spending the afternoon with the one you love. We took off from work early, had a lovely late lunch out, did some errands, and generally enjoyed the sunshine and running around together. Blessed.

We are both very grateful for springtime, and all the green and leafy things that are popping out. I'm a little sad that it got down to 28 degrees a couple of nights last week. I'm pretty sure that means no apricots. :(

For color, I am always grateful. I saw gobs of beautiful flowers at Lowes today and got all twitterpated about planting and gardening and blooming and such. Calm down, Sher.

We are well! All three of us! Woot. Last weekend was pretty draggy, especially for husband, so we're super grateful to be mended.

For family: for talks and reflection and the anticipation of time together. I am so looking forward to the first weekend in April. Hugs all around, family people! xo

Seth's home again for the week--we've had a lovely run of extra boy time and that makes both of our hearts very happy and grateful. (Seth's too, I am sure, but I am only typing for the two parentals at the moment. And with a teen, who really knows, right?!)

For the promise of a big, fat, lazy sleep-in tomorrow (this is all Sher as husband does not sleep in). If the phone rings or there's a text before 9 a.m., you're toast. Yes, even YOU.

Visiting girlfriends. I have TWO (count 'em, 2!) friends in town this weekend, visiting; completely unrelated visits, which is cool. That almost never happens, probably mostly because my friends who aren't in Walla Walla never come here. Ha. That's a veiled threat/dare to Jen and Corinne, mostly. Bring IT. But to the ones who are here: looking forward to seeing you!

Feeling fiesty, and sleepy, and that's a dangerous combination. (Just ask husband. He's now given up on the list, since I'm clickety-clacking over here.) Off to La-La-Land I go! Wishing you peace and joy and love. Always love.

 

Thirty days of gratitude: Day 5

The word for today is clothing.

When I first saw this scarf, I knew I had to have it. I think it was on Pinterest... Of course, I forgot about it for a few days, or weeks. Then, a sign from the universe: an email from Piperlime arrived, with a model wearing the scarf right in the email itself. It was meant to be! It took a little looking, but I found it, ordered it, and have loved and worn it ever since.

Like a fool, I have been known to say that I can't have a bad day wearing this scarf. I'm pretty sure that means I'm due for a super-awful day while wearing it. But, I maintain that there's a karma effect with such color, and I'm going to proceed with my foolhardy ways until proven otherwise.

Thirty days of gratitude: Day 4 (catching up)

The word for today is art.

When I was in New Orleans last spring, I discovered these blue dog art pieces--all over the place! This trip it took me just a few hours to spot the pups again, in different locations than last time, even.

Art is such an interesting and complex topic, one that brings such emotion and subjective opinions with it. I don't pretend to have any agenda where art is concerned--if you like it, you like it. If you created it, good for you.

“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” -Stella Adler

Thirty days of gratitude: Day 1

It's obvious I can't keep it up here on the blog without some kind of outside structure.

As I thought about November's arrival and the 30 Days of Gratitude/Thankfulness that swirls around social media, it seemed like something I could do: Post a picture every day? Sure, why not? And then I remembered Positively Present's photo challenge and I knew I was on to something! Instagram and gratitude and blogging all rolled into one? Doable with a capital D.

Here's what I'll be posting:

And here's Day 1:

Not a day goes by when color doesn't brighten my world in some way. Either through natural beauty around me or the splash of color I'll add to my outfit or meal, color is a huge spirit-lifter for me. The glassybabies above were gifts from some of my girlfriends at my recent birthday, and their glow is meaningful to me in many ways.

I remember how I first discovered glassybaby (planning our wedding in 2005) and how many times since I have gone into the shop (usually UVillage in Seattle) or online and been reminded and inspired by the founder's story. Color makes my world go round.

Looking forward to a new way of expressing gratitude this month, via photos. Play along if you like!

Friday night grateful moment

Home from a day in the city. Home from a mixture of work and play and warmth and traffic and good food and walking and talking. And traffic. Did I mention the traffic?

So grateful tonight to be home. A couple of hiccups along the way (took a wrong turn, almost missed final boarding call, you know, those kinds of things) had me thinking for a minute or two I might not be so lucky, but I was. The picture above was snapped just after I deplaned. What a beautiful place to come home to!

I spent the morning with my fellow Trustees at CHSW in Seattle, a productive time indeed. In the collage below, the rainbow photo was in a thank-you note from a child who uses CHSW services in the King County area, and I just loved that at the spot I chose to sit, there was a rainbow note for me! It was karmically delicious. (Say that in a Lucky Charms rabbit voice, go on.) I'm grateful to have the opportunity to give back to my community.

The other color photos you see below were from my walk and talk with dear friend Kate, whose friendship grows to mean more as the years go by. She's a gem, and I'm grateful for the gift of her time on a busy work day! We went to all the usual girly places to look at girly, colorful things. Walking past a shop, she pointed to a bag and said, "Oh, I love that!" I looked, and agreed, adding, "That looks like something I'd have!" She said, "Me too!" So of course we had to go in and check out this magical handbag that both of us HAD to have. The humorous thing was, we were looking at different bags sitting next to each other in the window, and neither saw the other's bag, only assumed we were talking about the same one. If that isn't some window into projecting your view of things onto someone else... Ha! Anyway, the truth is, the bag I admired is so very me (bottom right pic), and the bag she admired was so very her (much more subtle).

I'm grateful for Walla Walla. On the way home tonight, I thought I had been transported to Huck Finn's world... there was a boy walking down the road with a fishing net over his shoulder, past a house with a couple of girls sitting on a porch swing, with cats in their laps (though why that was appealing in 80-degree weather at 9 p.m., I have no idea!). In the next few blocks I saw goats, a guy mowing his field in the dusk, and stopped and took more sunset photos. Positively idyllic. And feeling very blessed to live where we live.

The garden is coming along nicely. The rain of the past couple of weeks has of course turned out a bumper crop of weeds that husband attacked this afternoon, bless him. But word has it that there are red tomatoes to pick (so early, those Early Girls!), and the kale and potatoes just keep coming, with summer squash close behind. I am very grateful for farm-fresh produce! Husband asked tonight if we are getting close to gazpacho season? I believe we are very close!

I am so grateful for Husband. I was reminded of that today when telling some story or other about him, about how we met and became a couple, that I really did hit the kind and thoughtful jackpot. I appreciate so much his perspective and insights, and have learned a lot from him about contingency plans, planning ahead, being prepared, all things that do not come second nature to me!

I'm grateful it's the weekend, that tomorrow will be chill and family time, and Sunday may just be too hot to get anything substantial done outside after 10 a.m., so I guess we'll have to go to the movies! I love summertime and movie theaters. There's just something about going into those over-airconditioned rooms and needing to put on a light sweater because of the chill, and it's 100 degrees outside.

I'm grateful the rain seems to be gone, even though I did really enjoy the it while it hung around, mostly. However, nothing beats sunshine, for me.

The puppies greeted me tonight with their usual zest and pep. I am so grateful for their funny little personalities, and for their love and affection.

I'm grateful for the best son a mom could ask for. Sent him out on his first solo grocery shopping experience today while I was gone, and I think he did just fine. (No dripping ice cream in the kitchen, not put away, etc.! That's a success!) He's been getting into the summer job groove, getting more independent with the mobility having a vehicle available will bring. And he hosted a Magic the Gathering draft party last night; the sound of happy teenage boy laughter echoing through the house made me smile. Happy son = happy mama.

I wish you a good weekend! Recuperate well from the wears of the week!

Peace.

A-Z blogging challenge: Y is for Yellow

sunshine

nature

flowers

kitchen

dress

dress

coat

wreath

cookies

If you know me, at all, you know that green is kind of my "thing." I have countless green items--shoes, coats, hats, bags, scarfs, skirts, shirts, dresses, sunglasses, jewelry, nail polish, coffee mugs--you get my drift. I even have a Pinterest board devoted to the color.

So, yellow? A whole post filled with yellow pictures? Doesn't seem quite right, especially since I didn't devote G to green...

Truthfully, I have a kind of love-hate thing with yellow: there are shades I adore and want to inhale, but there are shades I wish could be banished from the universe. I remember the first time I saw 100% yellow come off a press, ink to paper, and I thought--horrors! that's awful! too bright, too garish! And I still do have that reaction, when I see many of the more "wow" shades of the color. But when I see yellow in nature, and the more mellow tones, then I am in love with the color.

And, whether there's any significance to it or not, pretty much every dream I have that is happy and memorable, yellow is a part of it. Yellow kitchens, yellow clothing, yellow fields, sunshine... If you read dream interpretation stuff (and/or take it seriously, a whole "other" matter), that's a good thing, it seems. 

And remember my One Little Word for 2013: Light? Yep, that word has yellow written all over it.

So today, I am yellow, and all that suggests: light, intuitive, clear, hopeful, happy, harmonious and wise. Yes, especially wise. That's the thing with interpretations, right? You get to take the stuff you like and ignore the rest!

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

A-Z blogging challenge: J is for Jello

I know. You were expecting JOY. But don't you know, Joy and Jello are practically synonymous?

As a child of the '70s and '80s, jello was kind of a big deal. I can remember the first jello salad I was allowed to concot, on my own, probably around the age of 10 or 11. It was quite the responsibility. I think I went for blueberry, with blueberries IN it, and a whipped cream outline around the base. I fretted over getting the jello out of the green plastic ring. Remember these:

Yes, items from my childhood are now being sold as vintage on Etsy. Sigh.

Anyway, once I moved past that first blueberry salad-cum-dessert, I am sure I created a few dozen more during my teen years. I always focused on a good flavor-texture combo, unlike one of my grandmothers, who was notorious for her shredded carrot and orange jello salad or her lime-celery-nut jello salad. But she was aiming for a smidge of health (let's disguise the vegetables with jello)... I, on the other hand, was not.

During my college and post-college years, I sadly turned my back on jello as not chic enough to make or serve. Yes, I was one of those silly people. (And no, I didn't do jello shooters. Just wasn't my thing.)

But somewhere along the way, I let go of the "not chic enough" and went back to the "how fun!" Having a kid and watching him be just as fascinated as I was with the wiggly and wobbly pieces, maneuvering them into his mouth as a toddler surely must have influenced that. And what's not to love about the colors! I hadn't considered the whole layered thing growing up, and rarely have the patience for it now, but I still think it makes for great sport.

rainbowjello

jelloeggs

cloudjello

I sense that the jello Easter egg molds will be on my shopping list for next spring... And how fun, the sky-cloud comb!

What's your favorite jello flavor? Combination? 

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

A-Z blogging challenge: C is for Color palettes

Some day, on my rainbow-hued gravestone, I imagine an engraving: "The color was strong with this one." Ha.

Not sure *exactly* where it came from, but having a mother whose focus was on home interiors and father whose focus was on home exteriors and both of them interested all things design/art, I guess it shouldn't be too much of a shock. 

My "personal palette" is generally considered bright and bold, and has only grown more so as I've gotten older. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably be the neon geriatric lady in the nursing home! To which I say, what's your problem with that?! (As I write that, I sense that if you don't know me, you might think I'm a walking rainbow... not quite. Not at all, really. Only occasionally!)

But, here's my favorite scarf:

There are a number of color palette generators out there on the interwebs, and I thought I'd share a few of the ones I've enjoyed uncovering. That way, you know, if you're ever needing to create a palette from a picture you have on hand, well, you'll be able to!

Big Huge Labs

picture from this recipe

Color Hunter

picture from this recipe

CSS Drive

picture from this recipe

And, if you're in the mood to browse other people's color palettes:

Colour Lovers

Design Seeds

Wherever you Wednesday takes you, I hope there is color aplenty.

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

A-Z blogging challenge: B is for Box of Crayons

Every once in awhile, in the torrent that is same-sounding business/life advice, there is a bright spot. Maybe it's in content, maybe it's in delivery. In an ideal world, it is both.

This is not a promotional post: I don't know anyone at Box of Crayons, I haven't done business with them, and I'm not getting any kickbacks.

I just like their message: Anyone can do good work. Few people set the bar at great work.

This applies to all of us, in my mind, whether you're a SAHM or retired, or somewhere on the "corporate" ladder. It's about getting to what you do best, and doing more of THAT. For me, it means letting some things go while focusing more deeply on more important, necessary items--my interests and curiosities are so wide, I can get scattered between them. I don't want to miss ANYthing; what if something interesting is happening over there, while I'm focused over here?

So, what I say to myself is: Get over it. You're not missing out on anything. You don't need to see/hear/absorb it all. Pick wisely, your life and time is limited. (Some days I'm better at hearing that than others, of course!)

When I first discovered Box of Crayons, I was struck by their logo. Me and my color love.

Then I saw a video or two from their movie library, and I realized I'd seen some of their videos around the internet, but hadn't pursued figuring out where they came from. There are longer videos in the library that--when you have time--are worth a peek, but this one gives you a quick sense of what they're driving at: You're alive! Do something!




The Box of Crayons logo is more, to me, than just a bunch of colored dots. It reminds to me to pick the best colors in the box to color the picture (life!) in front of me. And to do it boldly. No timid middle.

Have a great day!

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

P.S. B is also for birthdays, of which my brother has one--today! Happy birthday, Shelby. Here's hoping for a flu-free and joyful day (and year to come!) for you. xo

Monday morning inspiration: Color and compassion, not necessarily in that order

It was a lovely weekend with rain and wind (lest spring come too quickly!) and the wind made the temperatures feel chillier than it really was. Bombing around the lawn for the first mowing of the season, hat and gloves on, I felt positively ice-cube-ish. Brrr.

But I will persist in my "spring is coming" mantra--after all, March 20 *is* this week!

A few inspirations crossed my path this past week, and will make heading into another week just a bit brighter. I can't remember the first time I saw an image with the words notsalmon on them, it seems like it must have been years ago now. But I never really persisted in knowing what that means, where it comes from... and then I finally clicked through. Her name is Karen Salmansohn, and she makes motivational art and blogs about things like finding 15 minutes a day to build discipline, and all those kinds of things you ignore until one day you decide things really do need to change, and need a word of encouragement to do so. I like her!

I read this interview with Peter Levitt recently and found his perspective refreshing. Of course, I was also intrigued, as he lives on one of the Canadian Southern Gulf Islands near the island where my parents live. Small world, and all. Saltspring is home to many artists, and Peter is a poet. A number of the things he said stayed with me after the interview:

"When things get tough, if we just take care of what is right in front of us, we find the creative means jump forward."

"We are an enormous resource of energy and creativity, and it is just waiting to be used in every way it can. So, finding how self flows through self to self in all its various expressions becomes an important part of living as a whole person, no matter the nature of the activity."

"Often, people think of precepts or discipline or vows in a somewhat negative light, but really these are just ways to love the world as it deserves."

This video speaks for itself. Take the four minutes to watch it; it really shows how little we know from our casual observations, what's going on in people's lives, and reminds me of that famous saying: Be kind, because everyone is fighting a great battle.

pantone

The story of Pantone. As you might imagine, I gravitated toward this story from the headline alone! Me and my colors... My favorite quote of the piece: “God created the world in seven days. And on the eighth day, he called Pantone to put color into it.”

I hope your week is filled with color and compassion!