Does it happen to you too?

Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with my mind.
Oft times I know what's wrong with it - it belongs to me - 'nuff said.....
Then there are days that I'm back to wondering, really wondering - like today. I load the washer (which is probably older than many of you reading this - this machine is loyal but old)! I walk away. I hear it whirring and whining and splishing and splashing along in the background.

Then I notice I hear nothing.

It's a lot like kids and construction. When there is no noise you know you're in deep crap you know something is wrong. You go. You look.  I went. I looked. Note to self: (and others) leaving the lid open on a full load of wash that continues to run is a bad idea. Trust me on this.  I suppose on new washers there is a saftey-thing-a-roo that keeps the machine from running if the lid is open. Maybe a cyber voice warning statement or a beep or cheep or chirp. Maybe new machines send you a tweet from twitter alerting you.....

But me and my mind and my loyal old washer learned a new fact today. Open lids on running washeres are a bad idea. Yes. Bad. A lesson. One that once was enough applies to quite well, lol

Here's hoping once was enough for my mind to remember in the future!

Just a bit 'o happy for today

Happy sights found in my world....

 Little snippets of color
          

                Of life
             

Most times it's the little things that 'make a day'   :-)
A pop of color, an email from a friend for no reason, feeding bird-buddies, endless coffee
comments found here ~ sharing the weave of similarities and differences ~ in our lives!
Small pleasures

That

Aren't
Really

So
Small
At

All

:-)

Aaaarrgghhhhhhhh

A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 5 PM EST this afternoon.
* Hazards... heavy snow.
* Accumulations... storm totals of 8 to 12 inches.
* Winds... northeast 10 to 20 mph... becoming northwest and
increasing to 15 to 25 mph this afternoon with gusts to 35 mph.

          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Third major storm in six days ...

 Meh.....

I know it's wicked all over the country, but I thought having a tiny cup cake sized
pity party would be ok ~ you know, just a tiny bit-o-whining prior to heading back
out to shovel AGAIN, lol

PS
Isn't it cute how my weather service uses little 'snowflake-esque' asterisks rather than
solids as bullet points for their postings? lol

In the home stretch

Mini Daffs
Photo FDFerris

Week upon week
 Of four degrees
 Week upon week of
   Fourteen degrees
    Winds that howled
     As wolves-a-hunting

     But yesterday
      But today
        Fifty degrees
         Forty degress
         
            Sun and sky send snow on her way
              It's a short reprieve I know
]              
               

                 But it's Spring, peeking around the corner
                   Just before she enters the year
       

Random Studio Views

Where do studio artist

lampwork beads come from?

From glass rods!

And torch flames!

And brick kilns!

Oh my!

(lol)

My muse mutters, my hands 'transcribe'

Italian glass melts, solid to liquid

I coax it into muse-whispered shapes

Kilns anneal

Magic revealed.....

And that is where artist created lampwork beads come from

One, by one by one

How many days till Spring?



My bird bath frog seeming to signal for help!

windswept snow filled fields

 I'm pretty sure you're weary of seeing pictures of snow - yet I somehow can not refrain from sharing mine.....

So if you're tired of snow-snaps, skip this post but if you're interested, keep reading!



Snow reaching window height!


 


It is beautiful.....

 





One of the endless essential paths shoveled

Yes, tell me is it long till Spring arrives?
(feel free to lie to me if  necessary, lol)

 



The Sun Dial
(as IF we have much winter sun-Not!)

Happy little faces :-)

As January winds down and February nears
The desire for color becomes akin to a desert thirst for me

So to see 

These happy little faces

Smiling at me 

As I rounded the corner
To check out at Aldi's

Made me smile....

Unexpect Happiness

For 99 cents

(quite a deal if you ask me! lol)

Acting on my word for 2011

This winter has been remarkable. Snow in states that never see chilly weather much less snow.

For those who live in the northeast as I do it has been brutal. The snow has been endless. The gray skies more ominpresent than usual. 

Bleh.
And the heat bills. They could bring you to tears.
Or insanity.
Or both.

I've always winter-treated windows & doors. But of late it has become my personal quest to find every open space, every leaking window, every bit of 'frost' and then irradicate any 'cold connection' I've found. With dedication both DH and I have made progress. Much has been improved. Much remains. "Take that!' I whisper to each window & door (and ok, yes, with a bit of a 'bbbwwwaahhhhhh' laugh as I proceed).  Hey, it's part of the process....  lol

But as I'm working along, caulking, sealing, quasi-cursing the cold I remember. I remember the word I chose for 2011. The goal I chose for these 12 months BOKEH  ,,,,,
Stop.
Breathe.
Not only look but SEE.
Observe the outside-of-the-direct-line-of-sight beauty/good in any situation.
And these pictures along with the momentary pause & happiness capturing these images, are the outcome.

The image above and this one as the sun shown briefly and the blue of the sky reflected are the gifts 'bokeh' shared....

They say artists are inclined to notice beauty in small things. But I think the truth is that anyone who looks finds a treasure trove. 

If my campaign is successful, if the cold is kept outside and the warm inside. If the dragon-of-heat-bills is slain these images will 'ner again be seen. 

And dontcha know I'll miss their beautiful flowing delicate shapes. Another lesson. What seems (or even is) a problem at one point in time still possessed beauty. Still had merit. Or was not without merit. There is always something bright shimmering in the darkness of difficulty.  But to find it. To see it.  There, ah.... there is the challenge.  

Bokeh. 
A good word.
A good goal.
Here's to many 2011 moments not missed because of it......

Brrrrrr....

A fairly quiet day - certainly more quiet than yesterday (but we won't even go into it, lol)
There's a great deal more snow now than there was when I grabbed this image in late Fall

But (window screen aside) it does show how snow has found its way

into every corner of the world here, lol

The snow, the cold

set to the countdown

of days until Spring!

Laundry Lines In Winter

You know I love to hang laundry outside Spring/Summer/Fall. Love it love it love it.  Earthy, simple, free, eco-friendly. There is a comfort and timelessness in the sound of clotheslines full of fabrics slapping in the wind as they move, sway and fly. There is a scent to clothing and linnens that are wind whipped, sun soaked, buzzed by bees and sung to by birds that bounce can't provide in a bottle.

The weather-worn clothes pins, the hawks that circle, watching as I work (curious to see if the small white wash cloths are 'edible prey' perhaps)?  Each of these pieces and parts of line drying are momentary enjoyments, interaction with the outside world that no electric dryer can give me*

Then winter arrives. Cold - oh my gawd - colder than cold in NY!
Damp hands stick to everything!

Clothes pins freeze. Fabrics freeze dry (literally! lol) Yet still, it's an odd kind of beauty (if it's not blowing 30 mph winds)   :-)  The bees are, of course, asleep. But the birds chatter and the hawks circle still....   The wind whips each offering (tho only for as long as it takes to freeze)!

On the sunny days it's still beautiful. I don't linger in the winter, lol

And the clothes have to thaw before I fold them  :-)

                                              But the snap-freeze, the chill winter winds

leave their own unique scent on each piece dried on the winter lines

And in spite of my lack of fondness for winter

I love the clotheslines still...

*There's no substitute for an electric dryer when you need something quick or when it rains for dayssss*

Rumbly In The Tumbly

 Oh the yummy goodness...
Gone for another year (or until I break down and make more)...

Oh the sweet confection!
Every last crumb consumed! 

Woe is me, lol Not a single iced chicken or star remains (except on my hips :-)

A woman without a single remaining holiday cookie from this years tripple batch am I....
Whimper, whimper, whine....

My word for 2011

It seemed to begin almost as a cyber/blog/novelty. It seemed to catch on as a 'thang' people were doing online. Then a wonderful transformation occured. This quasi-novelty-cyber/blog-'thang'  evolved into something real. Something of importance. It grew into a thoughtful, introspective shared journey. Words are being chosen all over cyber-blog-dom. Most fascinating to me are the stories, goals, dreams, passions, worries, hopes, flights of the human heart explanations that encircle the choice of each chosen word. Neat.

Not being one for new year resolutions the 'one word that does (or you want to) mean something for the entire year ' drew me in.  But only ONE word? Nearly impossible for me. Even harder for me than Haiku or Tweeting, lol. That took a bit of pondering. Let me say it again.

                                                   
                                                         Choose one single word. 

(this would be where anyone who know me begins - understandably - to laugh. Heartily.)

But I've done it. I've chose one word.  One single word for 2011.   

Bokeh

(you weren't expecting a normal word from ME, were you?!??)

Oddly this photography term fits my goal for 2011 perfectly.

**I've been immersed in photography as a hobby all my life. But for non-photo-geeks bokeh is the blur & the aesthetic quality of the blur in out- of-focus areas of an image**  A quick google of the term will pull a wealth of beautiful examples till I can place one here on the post.

What bokeh whispers to me is this:  Learn to stop, breathe, listen and look at all the parts of any and everything and appreciate the good aspects of the 'out of focus' (read out of control or unplanned) aspects of each project, goal, event, plan, emotion, success, failure, day, dream.

I am so inclined to line my ducks up in a row.  I even have suggestions on how they should quack. And in what order they should quack. I focus (no photography pun intended) so intensely on the core of whatever I'm doing that much of the surrounding detail, enjoyment, success even, blurs....  I don't appreciate the 'blur' ~ the bokeh ~ for the depth it could and would add if only I'd notice.  Much the same with failures. No unsuccessful event is totally without a plus on the outer edges.  Whatever didn't work out the way I planned or expected is always surrounded in a haze of information, secondary possibility and the (not infrequent) truth that I am/was ultimately happier with the winding ways of fate not giving me what I went after.

I know intellectually there's warm, exciting, fascinating, comforting depth to everything that happens in the surrounding bokeh~haze. Those extra layers may be nearly invisible or blurry but they're there and are worth taking the time, making the effort to appreciate. 

You'll be seeing the word bokeh weave its way thru my writings often this coming year as I try to learn to appreciate all things that are out of focus in 2011. I think these layers surrounding everyday life, every event, are equally - if not more - beautiful and important because of their softened 'made you look' haze.

So that's MY word.

What's yours?

                                                             

 

At last....

At last the gears change & the pace calms a bit
~
The final holiday pieces of jewelry alongside

the last-moment flurry of ornamnents were all

finished and shipped in time for Christmas.
They're now happily in the hands of their new owners!

(& thanks to all those who purchased & emailed me with 'they loved it' updates)
:-)  

Within the next few days the wild disaster that took shape
in both the glass and jewelry studio work areas will be 'tamed' lol. 
New pieces of wearable art
: earrings bracelets & necklaces :
created with lampwork from my bench as well as
pieces created with pearls, gemstones, vintage beads
will be appearing on the website for you to view!

AND there's exciting newness ahead - stay tuned!
          

Merry Happy Contentment

MY WISH FOR EACH OF YOU

WHO SHARES TIME WITH ME HERE

CAN BE CAPTURED IN ONE WORD

CONTENTMENT

I HOPE THAT THIS SEASON BRINGS

EACH OF YOU REASONS LARGE OR SMALL

TO STOP FOR JUST A MOMENT AND KNOW

THE WARMTH OF CONTENTMENT....

IT IS, AS ALL THINGS IN LIFE, 

NOT A CONSTANT
BUT WITH THAT IN MIND

MOMENTS OF CONTENTMENT

ARE ALL THE MORE A GIFT.

AND IF RIGHT NOW, AT THIS TIME

THERE'S NONE IN YOUR LIFE TO BE FOUND

MY WISH IS THAT IT WILL COME
IN THE DAYS THAT STRETCH OUT AHEAD.

MERRY  HAPPY EVERYONE

HAPPY MERRY INDEED....

Done tho a bit late-ish! lol

Just in from the cold and the snow (and a little ice that had to be scraped from the car this morning)!

Food is all done now and Yay! the last tiny (as in baby!) prezzie I had ordered arrived at the post office (a bit behind sched due to weather I guess). I swooped to pick it up from the post office peeps on my rounds so I can get it wrapped/repacked & sent out asap..... Sadly it will be late to arrive as the christmas surprise I had planned (can't say more ~ she reads here & I don't want to ruin the surprise! lol) but I hope it brings just as much happiness as if it had been on time  :-)

In other news it looks like the christmas cookies are going to be new-years cookies if I can't get them done tomorrow. But that may not be bad - what better way to start the year that with cookies?!?? lol
Happy  merry to each and everyone who shares my world here with me - thank you!

Now off to do some unpacking/repacking/putting away of things AND have a cuppa to warm up!

Outside lights Yum!

      Is there anything quite as beautiful and inspiring as all the outside lights and decorations?!
Aside from a bit of gas for the drive it's an almost free joy of Christmas....

I've taken so many pictures of outside decorations that I like (and may try next year) that
I've had to create a separate folder for them, lol

Toy Soldiers

There are so many beautiful images of the holiday to be found online! Each beautiful, each singing in its own way.... So I thought I'd share a handful of images that I'm drawn to with you over the coming days....

Here is todays picture that I love!
Look at these Toy Soldiers standing guard in the glowing tree lights.
Side by side they stand at attention until Santa Arrives :-)

The simple joys of Chrismas

There are so many beautiful images of the holiday to be found online! Varied use of color, degree of detail. Simple, complex. Contemporary & old world. Monochromatic & colorful. Each beautiful, each singing in its own way....

So I thought I'd share a handful of images that I'm drawn to with you over the coming days.... 

And if, in the last minute rush you aren't able to stop by again my warmest wishes for a Merry Happy Christmas. Not necessarily filled with presents, or vast tables of eatery, or grand events.

What I wish for you is the warmth of happiness in the simple joys of the season -

From my mum via email today lol

How cute is this?!!!!!   
Love it!  (and truth be told it's a bit how I feel trying to tie up all loose ends)

How about you? Are you ready?
*if you have to lie to me to say you're not ready yet either I think that would be ok lol*