Tag Archives: nablopomolove

Finishing Projects Wabi-Sabi Style

Posted on by
9

How to finish craft projects:
1.  Wait for a rainy day.
2.  Find some good binge t.v. show to watch (I watched and recommend The Bletchley Circle on Netflix. It’s a murder-mystery starring a group of women who met as WWII Code Breakers at Bletchley Park. A+ for character development and historical value!).
3.  Make, make, make.
4.  Take some pics.

The blanket isn’t done yet, but closer! The stripey circle pillow has been half done for over a year. Now it has a similar, but slightly different stripey pattern on the back and is all sewn up. It’s a little wonky, or should I say, wabi-sabi (the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection).

Embracing wabi-sabi is my m.o. these days. I have let go of trying to make things perfect. Small, spare, bent, broken, wonky–these are qualities to embrace. Even watching too much binge t.v. can be embraced occasionally.

I am hoping to give some homemade gifts this Christmas, but I’m a little stuck as to what to make for people. I’m hoping that I’ll get inspired by finishing up some of these other projects.

Are you doing handmade Holidays?  What are you making for people?

 

Cloudy Day at Oyster Bay

Posted on by
2

Dog walks in nature are good.  Crazy puppy can be off leash and risk sticking his nose in gopher holes.  Pupper runs and leaps, skips and jumps.The moment I try to photograph the Peregrine Falcon, he flies from his perch.  The thorned pod reminds me that Autumn is here, and the red berries, that Christmas is on the way.

A friend recently lost her pet.  I said, “when Krishna died I was so brokenhearted.  Like he, and only he knew me the best. Deeper than humanity.”

She said, “Right.  You nailed it.”

Got me to thinking about a favorite poem.

WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

-Mary Oliver

I love the line, “you only have to let the soft animal of your body/ love what it loves.”

Taste is a Matter of Timing

Posted on by
2

FullSizeRender (6)I love really old houses. I grew up in a tiny Victorian here in California. When I was nine, we moved to a ranch style house across town.  I was so sad. I was glad to have my own room, but I missed the nooks and crannies, the mystery, the history, of our little gingerbread Victorian.

My family’s first house really didn’t have that much gingerbread, not like this lovely old home which is nestled amongst homes mostly built in the sixties. Low slung, practical (read ugly) little things known as Bohannons.

I notice that people younger than me like ranch style homes, the low slung Bohannon style houses, and even seventies apartments. They don’t see what I see. They don’t see through the lens of someone born in the sixties and raised in the seventies and eighties; they don’t look through my lens.

Lately I’ve noticed that pointed, pink frosted nails are back in style with some younger women, and I think, “Oh no. I am not going back to seventh grade.” So style in houses and nail polish seems to be related to when you (or I) were raised, and what styles you had then. I want the house I had between two and nine years old, and I don’t want the nails I had in seventh grade. I guess seventh grade is not a time I want to go back to, but early childhood is. Hmmm…interesting information.

What styles from the past are you attached to? Which would you rather not revisit?

nails01from http://www.modnet.com.au