Birds

I went to put something out in the mail this morning and there just outside the door were two bird prints as if a bird had knocked and waited at the door before flying away. I was going to take a picture but the snow near the house melted before I could. In the afternoon we had quite a few visitors in the backyard. Here is what they left behind:

Two Little Feet

Crossroads

Walking along

Spring Break

It's MY Spring Break this week, courtesy of a suggestion by Annie at Basic Joy. I'm taking my breaks in slivers, but this is my week.

So Happy Spring Break. I'll tell you all about it sometime.

Ole' to you for doing your job

As an intro to this thought please watch the following talk by Elizabeth Gilbert:
It's long but stick with it.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html


If you don't have the time here's a bit of a synopsis (toward my purpose), my apologies to her for all that I miss.

Apparently the Greeks and the Romans believed that creativity occured through the influence of another being that actually lived in the walls of the artist studio. One of those groups called this being a genius. In time we began calling the artist a genius instead. In North Africa there were dancers that would sometimes transend their ability to dance and the people watching would call out "Allah, Allah" (God). This tradition traveled back to Spain where it became Ole'.
This is a miserable synopsis, so really if you want to get the full effect, watch the talk.

I've been thinking a lot of late about creativity. A lot. What does it mean to me, how does it affect my life....all kinds of questions. Here's a little of what I've come up with:

I think creativity is taking from the world around you and making something that is unique to you. I'm a Mom. There's an amazing amount of information, opinion and criticism out there on how to be a Mom. My job is to wade through all that and pick out what works for me. In moments I have that amazing spark of the divine that Elizabeth talks about, like the other night when I showed my little one Orion in the sky and we talked about it. However, there are lots of days when my genius is hiding out in the walls talking to the mice or whatever it does when it's not around to invest the spark of the divine into my work. Those days I just have to do my work, my part. I'm grateful for the space that this gives me. The hope for another day. There are other roles and other circumstances to which I think this applies. I will leave that to you to sort out.

Whatever form your creativity takes for you, my family and friends I say "Ole'" for the days when that spark of the divine is there. And on those days when you just "show up" for work I also say, "Ole'" for doing your part.

Maps and Letters

When it looks like this outside we write.

A map of Africa (aka how to get to the library)

Mowgli begins to write


Letter's "H", "P", and "O" are included

Spring. It's all about change.

I had dinner in this chair in this spot last week.

Looks Comfy doesn't it?

For Mom

Close Up




















Contrast

Does this give you an idea?

Babyzilla lays waste

Bahgera is re-named Babyzilla when in train town.

Buttons!

Magnets that I made from buttons

(and those wood scrapbook thingy's--but I thought they were buttons when I bought them, so they are right?)

Return of Winter

After many requests to go "camping and fishing" a terrific Dad got creative and made a dart (magnet) lure on a fishing line and some magneted (is that a word?!) fish. This is what we did with our winter day.

Fishing from the Boat

Loading getting ready for hauling

More fishing from the bed

I caught one!

Swimming in the sea

Whisper Spring

We get whispers of Spring here. Last week was glorious! This week is back to snow.

So I am remembering warmth:

Snowman "trophy" hanging on the fence.

Drying in the warm sun.

Baghera one on the move:

How do I get out of here?

And NOW:

Tiger and Mowgli on the move:

Legs aren't quite long enough

Projects

Jamie's wall quilt in process:

I'm quilting the squares then it's on to the binding and hanging sleeve. It's coming.

Felt food completed!
Chips, orange slice, sandwich and the tiny pink thing is a cookie.
I'll be doing more felt food soon. It's fun and pretty simple too!

My favorite things in the whole world. Tiny toes, Tiny hands. So busy, so messy and so full of love.