Happy Valentine's Day!

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A few glimpses
of where I've been working lately.

I moved out of my painting studio
several months ago,
and with all the wedding to-do's and busyness,
I never got around
to setting up a new space.

It feels so good to have a studio nook
in my home again,
& the light
is perfect.


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2012
so far
has been a study
in light and dark,
paired together.
A glorious day in the sun,
followed immediately by disheartening news.
The gifts of a little time and space,
followed by a string of bad luck
that no one could have foreseen.
High contrast.

But even with the parts
so numbing or frustrating
that I seem to lose my power of speech,
I feel thankful
for the gold
that came before,
and I refuse
to let it dissolve
in the face of things
and be forgotten,
and that is the beauty
of these kinds of pairings
(or so I have been telling myself
this year).


I haven't been in this space in quite a while,
but I have been taking many photographs
and I am looking forward to sharing them.

I have been trying to remember
that being kind to onself
isn't simply a luxury,
a treat to partake of
when I have the time and space.

I had quite forgotten this
(as I tend to do,
at busy
and stressful times).

I always feel
like I am giving a gift
to my future self
when,
months from now,
on a grey day,
or maybe a cold day,
when,
perhaps,
my fruit bowl is empty
and the bounty of the warm months has faded,
I have stockpiled
a little trove
of pantry treasures,
that are just waiting to be
enjoyed.

A gift.


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Reading this (it's that time again) and this (a new addition this year).

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As the light returns,

so do my whales.

I take so few photographs

of them in the Winter,

I realize.

Perhaps they hibernate,

like bears in their caves,

because I think, truly

that their favorite thing to swim through

is sunlight from my window.

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I am very pleased to say

that I have a Guest Curator post

over on the Etsy Blog!

I had a lot of fun

choosing which pieces to include.

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I always keep up

my indoor white lights

until there is enough light outside

to make them no longer

so desperately essential.

Put up for the holidays,

they help me make it

through the bleakest tail-end

of Winter,

and when I do finally

bid them farewell,

and give them my thanks,

I know Springtime,

for me,

has finally come.

Not long now!

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Sometimes

a good weekend

is medicinal.

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One of the most inspiring videos I've seen in a while:

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bubble

(making-of video here)

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In recent days
I have been left feeling quite
raw
and wrung out.


I bedecked this frame
with leaves fallen from my ivy
because I'd gotten used to it
in my kitchen there,
and ceased to see it,
when right now, for me
it actually holds
the precise advice I need.


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We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow
as well as my birthday,
for I turn 25
on the holiday this year.

That seems auspicious to me!

So many things to be thankful for.
So easy to lose sight of them,
so important not to.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!


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Making jam
in the waning light
of an Autumn afternoon.


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Vieux Farka Touré - The Secret


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