"Butterfly House"

Many years ago we went to Calloway Gardens.  There we found a large glass room, filled with beautiful plants and even more beautiful butterflies.  The butterflies flew around inside their artificial home, landing here and there.  Often they would land on our shoulders or hands.  It sent a shiver of delight and wonder through me.  I wanted to stay there forever watching these beautiful flyers and having them as friends.

So of course my village has to have a Butterfly House -- life wouldn't be complete without it.  And it will honor these beauties who are having a difficult time in the environment that we have created.

I was inspired by some paper that I found at a nearby scrapbook store, brought it home and printed it onto fabric, thus giving me a door.

I had a lovely died piece of silk ribbon which had been waiting years for the proper use.  A few seed stitches added some texture.

The back of some garish buttons matched my colors and added a little bit of whimsy.

Just remember...

"Without butterflies, the world would soon have few flowers.  There is enough room in the sky for all flyers." - Trina Paulus

Working Hands

Charles Westcope

Hands tell the story of a person's life.  A carpenter's roughened hands reflect a life of hard work, working with materials that are rough and hard, a sculptor might have hands strengthed by the use of mallets and chisels.

                                                                 Albrecht Durer

An older person's hands (like mine),  have raised veins, age spots and perhaps arthritic knuckles or fingers, displaying time gone by -- time that has taken the softness out of the hands but not out of the heart.

                                                             Leonardo DaVinci

Hands can tell a story - a beautiful, ongoing story of life.  Within them rests all the toils and joys of our life.

"Let a joy keep you.  Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by." - Carl Sandburg

'Building' A Beginning

To begin a 'house' I must begin with the colors, tints, shades and floss choices.  Spreading this, that and the other across my work table is so much fun.  Trying to blend light to medium to dark, to make a cohesive look -- that takes a lot of time.  

And then the work begins - with these hands putting one stitch in at a time, moving slowly forward.

"Imagination is the beginning of creation.  You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last create what you will." - George Bernard Shaw

Third Month Meditation

For some reason, the months of January and February were not to my liking.  I found myself tense over nothing, feeling oddly out of sorts, unsure of whatever task I was working on.  

One day, I saw the above picture on  Esther's emakesart blog.  It was a beautifully constructed journal page and it reminded me to breathe.  I have practiced deep breathing in the past but not for quite awhile. 

Taking a deep breath from way down and then letting it out slowly was a sure cure for what ailed me.  The lovely thing about it is that it can be done anytime, anywhere. For those few seconds of concentrated breathing the world goes away.  Breathing in the air I become part of the universe, and breathing out gives me peace.  

Thank you to Esther for allowing me to show you her works and for reminding me to breathe.

"When people ask me what the most important thing is in life, I answer: 'Just breathe'." - Yoko Ono

"Nest"

Welcome to a spring nest!  How enjoyable it can be to put together a little house.  

Not without some problems along the way, this nest was built with more effort than I thought it would take.  After finishing, I wrote a page for myself outlining problems and how to solve them, solutions so that the design might be better next time.  That tells me that I'm still in a bit of unknown territory.

I'll be thinking more about what this 'house' plan means to me because I think there are deeper feelings going on and the practicality of my medium just has to catch up.

"Your sacred place is where you can find yourself again and again." - Joseph Campbell