Silence Must Be Part of the Journey

I know it has been a ridiculous amount of time since I posted last. Three years, no less. Let me just say that sometimes the journey demands silence. Perhaps due to lack of words or to focus on other things, or even some encounters with darkness waiting for the light.

So in respect of your time and interest, I will just briefly catch you up:

 With that brief intro, I think I will start writing again. More later.

 Marilee

Reporting In

Yes, folks, I really did see Miss Mustard Seed. Marion Parsons. I learned about painting furniture, which is very foreign to me.

Of course I found a seat at a front table so I would could be up close and personal for all MMS had to teach us. Those are her Christmas boots. I was loving them, can you tell?

Marion's explanations were very clear and she went around to all the tables to help us and give us encouragement. Everyone produced a different product from the same beginning piece. This put everyone at ease about "performing" and "perfection" and we had such a good time and mingled with each other all morning.

We met in an old house in downtown Roswell, GA and I am sorry but I am coveting the chandeliers. I couldn't find a way to get one down to take home...

 

Oh, and the Venetian mirror. Too heavy. Couldn't get it off the mantle...

Since Dad makes reproduction antiques and many in our family collect antiques, touching wood in any way that changes the natural finish feels very strange. None the less, I did learn how to use milk paint, I made several new acquaintances, my book is signed, and most importantly, I had a great time at Rebecca and Daniel's house.

Daniel taught me some things about my new camera, like adjusting the light sensor. See how the room is very yellow in this nighttime picture?

This is how Rebecca and Daniel's living room really looks in natural white light. Cool huh? I know some of you already know how to do this. Please don't be insulted by my amateur excitement.

Daniel took some pictures of Google

and I took some pictures of Lexi. See that sweet gray hair?

I expected the highlight of my weekend to be my time at the workshop. Wrong. Daniel had been planning to teach me gun safety and take me to the shooting range. On Sunday afternoon, that is what we did. He is an excellent and patient teacher. I learned so much and was quite proud of myself at the range. I shot with my grandfather's, PawPaw, pistol, and felt so much history flowing through me while I was learning and working on my new skill.  What a tremendous joy to have my son teaching me about his passion. It was glorious!

Back home to figure out what to paint, what to picture, and what to shoot. Hmmmm....

I Am Just Giddy

I know. Giddy at 53 is just hard to stomach but giddy it is. Tomorrow I travel toward Atlanta to visit with Rebecca and Daniel in Powder Springs and attend a much anticipated workshop in Roswell, GA. 

 

You will note that the gorgeous house in the background takes second seat to Daniel's cars. This is acceptable to all. And if you know anyone who would like to purchase this lovely abode,

it is going on the market soon. Only the house.

Rebecca called today to let me know that Lexi and Google were very excited that Grandmom is coming to visit. I do love my Granddoggies!

 

Google           Lexi

On Saturday I am going to a workshop with my most favorite, Miss Mustard Seed!!! You have heard me mention her (Marian Parsons) before and tell you about her book, Inspired You. I will be learning how to use her Milk Paint, eating lunch with the bunch, and then attending a talk in the afternoon.

And of course, I will be getting her autograph!!!

(That is mostly for Tim, who is known for collecting autographs, especially from

beloved famous people like Grandmom Tice in the Ladies Choir, etc.)

I have been tossing around what I will paint when I get home. I will be finishing the corner cabinet which is one of the treasures we kept from Mr. and Mrs. Tice. It is well over 100 years old and the shelves and back are painted inside, as was the custom. I am freshening it up so I want to see what milk paint might offer.

It really is more beautiful than this cropped picture depicts...

We also have this awesome rustic table that is calling for some care and maybe some creativity. Perhaps MMS will have some ideas to inspire me. I don't think milk paint does anything to help clutter.

Now, the question is, should I call her "Miss Mustard Seed" or "Mrs. Parsons" or Marian? Oh, the giddiness of it.

Event poster from BrushStrokes by Mary Anne

Wordless Wednesday

Aw...come on...

You know how someone tells you a crazy story and it's so bizarre you just can't help but respond with an idiom like "You're kidding!", "No way!", "Get out of here!", "Shut the door!", or this one "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!". Credit for that one goes to Marquita, a scrapbooking friend from long ago in Georgia.  She could roll those kinds of things off her tongue until you were on the floor laughing and couldn't breathe.

Anyway, a while back, I drove The Truck to Publix for groceries. I tried to find a picture of it (the truck, not Publix) and can you believe I didn't have one so I had to "Stop the presses!" and go take some.

Notice the photo angle. I did that purposefully as to show you how HUGE this thing is! When you drive it, you are above every automobile and truck on the road and you can eyeball truckers no prob.

This is not an ordinary Ford F-150. It is a ........ KING RANCH. I say that with awe and reverence. I am not kidding. It doesn't matter where you drive it, people stare at you and mostly the truck. And it isn't an ugly look, or a particularly envious one. It is a look of longing and admiration. It just blows my mind.

Sometimes I end up just having to drive it, although I prefer Jim to. It really is BIG. Anyhoo, I had to go to Publix and I had to go in the truck. Going to the grocery store is not always easy for me, as the floors are concrete, which hurts my legs, so on and so on. I try to not let the list get to long so the bags aren't too heavy for carrying inside at the house. We were out of coffee at home; yea, I know, and yes, it was on the grocery list. Publix has a fresh pot at the front of the store to share with customers so I decided that would be very pleasant.

Our Publix in Fairview. I am so proud.

When I was finished with my shopping I took my bags out to the truck in a cart along with the coffee I had left over. I am a very slow coffee drinker. Ask Jim. He always finds it in the microwave sometime later in the day... cold. Off I went, home again, jiggity-jog in The Truck.

When I got home and got out of the truck, I had to walk around to the passenger side to get one bag and when I rounded the bed of the truck... jeepers!

Yes! I am not joshing you!
There was my coffee cup right where I left it on the ledge of the bed of the truck!

And, because seeing is believing, I had to run in and get my camera to capture this for posterity, maybe even Ripley's Believe It or Not. Oh, it gets better. Tee hee. See the faint line about midway up the Styrofoam cup? There is still coffee in there!!!! No! Publix is not across the street from my house!!! It is four miles away!! Two hills and at least three pretty intense curves! In case you need a little more proof...

The mind boggles.

Wonders will never cease.

Well, slap my head and call me silly!

Looking Out My Window

I know, I know. Where in the world have you been. My last post was at the beginning of December and I posted a Wordless Wednesday, which I should do today. Nevertheless, there are things to catch up on in this beginning of a new year. Wordless, schmordless...

This is the view from my bonus room window this morning. For two days it has been intermittently raining and sleeting and freezing. Schools are still in session in this county (go figure) so Jim is "off to the factory".

Since Epiphany has passed and holiday decorations are packed away and hefted into the attic, I have been making my space in the bonus room tolerable again. Actually I am trying to go beyond tolerable to inspirational. I am beginning to see surfaces again!

On the way home from my doctor's appointment in Griffin last week, I stopped by Ikea to pick up this shelf unit to fit beside the pie safe. It matches the other units in the room that we are using for books and for Jim's repair studio.
 

There were projects, and piles, and leftovers from Christmas everywhere.

I took advantage of the Jo-Ann's 50% off sale to purchase the drawer pulls I have been eying for quite some time. They make the pie safe FUN. Pop refinished this pie safe which belonged to Delia Tice Fisher, Jim's paternal grandfather's sister. It used to sit on her back porch for kitchen items and well, pies. When Pop and Grandmom got it, it had four layers of paint: white, green, cream, and pink. Pop cleaned the tin by hand and stripped the wood with chemical stripper. It was easy to do as the entire cabinet comes apart in order to lay flat in a buggy or cart for traveling. Which you can surmise makes it well over 100 years old. We have used it to store phonograph records or books, in our kitchen, for storing family games, and now I am treasuring it in my creating corner.

The little metal cans are from Target in the after Christmas sale bins. Not only did they start out at $1, they were half price, too! Whoo hoo! I have chalkboard stickers and a chalk ink marker to label them.

I am making use of gorgeous metal plant holders from Willow House, which used to be Southern Living at Home. They are going out of business and I just love these. They were normally $30 and are closing out at $6. I can't get enough of them and use them for all kinds of things. 

  

I have been following the advice of Miss Mustard Seed as I read her book, given to me for Christmas. She recommends shopping your house and using unique containers to hold things, stretching your imagination for "out of the box" purposing. I am fast becoming a Miss Mustard Seed groupee.

 

So how are you starting out your new year?  I know that...Tim has a new hobby, building things with his Arduino (if you don't know what this is, look it up, fascinating); Dan is growing an awesome beard and Meg says is swaying toward Grizzly Adams philosophy; Rebecca is in her final semester for nurse practitioner, need we say more; Seth is pushing through his final semester at UGA with a loaded schedule including microbiology and anatomy I and II, applying for nursing school, and walking in the Spring-Cum Laude; Jim is lowering his blood pressure by going to the YMCA and is excited about his new, awesome, state of the art, ultrasonic band instrument cleaner; Dad just hosted a carving workshop with Vic Hood from all places, Leipers Fork, which is just down the hill from us; Mom has recovered beautifully from her bypass surgery and escaped to my house to visit with me and with Meg and her family for the duration of the carving invasion; Monte and Gabby are busy, busy, busy getting ready for a huge and exciting venture which will bring them closer to us and will offer some amazing opportunities to the teaching environment of Emory University Hospital; Matt and Meg, well they have a 6 and 4 year old who just blow my mind with their energy, humor, and intellect.

Who knows what will be outside my window tomorrow? Inside, it will be warm, my dogs and I will be cozy and happy, and I will be able to see the top of my craft table again. Whoopee! Happy New Year! 

Wordless Wednesday

A Hankerin' for Joviality

It has been one of those intense weeks. Nothing terrible. No one is hurt or in trouble. Just intense at moments. Not that there haven't been breaths of relief or hope.

Retina with jagged surface and membrane

Jim had appointments with a new ophthalmologist and then retinal surgeon and has scheduled surgery on November 16. It is outpatient and really is quite fascinating as they are going to remove a membrane that is contributing to retinal puckers. (See example) He is excited to improve the vision in his right eye by 50-75%, as it has already been helped with his cataract surgery last spring. Gives a whole new perspective on "pucker up", huh?

I've been in a good bit of pain lately, which is just par for the course, and I am thankful for techniques and medication that help so much. And then, I trip by catching my jeans on something and fall in the den. Nothing broken, can't even see a bruise, but my body sure is fussing. Hot baths seem to be the order of the day.

I did meet a wonderful and exuberant woman from the Nashville Public Library who did a workshop about books and play with young children and how this leads to reading. We made a good connection and it turns out that she was very interested in my involvement with vestibular integration (Minds in Motion) and mindfulness and invited me to lunch. I hope to hear from her so I can meet a new group of people in Nashville.

Just busy and tired and sore and needing some joviality and then I ran across this picture that Jim and I took in Florida this summer. We must have laughed for fifteen minutes and made sure we got a good shot of this because it just doesn't get any better. 'Nuff said.

An Adventure

Meg and I are getting ready to have a "Pretty in Pink Party" to support breast cancer awareness and research and honor and support the Kim Rowden Breast Cancer Memorial Fund. I encourage reading about Kim and what her fund supports at kimrowdenmemorial.org. Our fund raiser includes a friend's Mary Kay presence and Meg is starting out in Silpada silver jewelry sales and making her debut.

So, in all things pink, I discovered a new foundation called

http://pinkpumpkinpatch.org/

the Pink Pumpkin Patch Foundation. They are brand new and support breast cancer research by contracting with farmers to grow and sell Porcelain Doll pumpkins, the sale of which donates $.25 per pumpkin to the foundation. It has been amazingly successful and the pumpkins are beautiful!








I searched the Pink Pumpkin Patch list for places to buy the pink lovelies and then Craigslist. Since Jim was traveling this weekend and driving doesn't hurt me, I decided to go on an adventure. OK, call this silly, but I traveled all the way to Glasgow, KY to a farm where they grow all kinds of pumpkins and gourds, including pink and blue ones. Not Porcelain Doll, but pink none the less.

The day was overcast but beautiful, as the leaves were just beginning to turn. As I got on the smaller roads, there was absolutely no one, no one but me. It was glorious. The road and the terrain was of course on the plateau of middle Tennessee which brought back floods of memories from travels as a little girl visiting my Granny Vaughn.

I had lots of time to think and process many ideas that have been turning about in my head and to notice details of the day. The trees that were already ablaze, the trees just starting to turn, the rock that had been cut and blasted to make the road, the sky as it changed with clouds gray and blue and sometimes sunshine peeking through. Pastoral scenes sped by and it was nice to be quiet. No radio, no talking, no music. And I finally found the pumpkin farm... thank goodness for my Garmin.

Tammy Harris was just wonderful and when she heard all about pink pumpkins and the party, she asked if I needed to go out in the field and get more! I had plenty and by that time knew I needed to get back and not overdo it. I had taken her the information about PPP Foundation so they might consider growing Porcelain Dolls in the future. I loved meeting someone new and someone who does something so different than me.

Going back the time passed way too quickly. The trunk was full of gourds and pumpkins of all sizes and colors: pink, blue, maroon, green, deep red, and, uh, orange. Most were $1 and the most I paid was $4. There were no grocery stores out near the farm, no gas stations, no convenience stores, no WalMart. Gives room for pause.

 

“Others inspire us, information feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we need quiet time to figure things out, to emerge with new discoveries, to unearth original answers.”
― Ester Buchholz

And after the quiet is the glory of returning home, jumps and licks from doggies, dinner with my sister and brother-in-law and nephews, and faces in awe of funny pumpkins and gourds of all colors and shapes. Warty ones from my adventures to Planet Pumpkin!

 So now it's back to preparing for parties and washing dishes and appointments and feeding the dogs. In the midst of it all, I am going to be mindful of what others are doing for those touched by a horrible disease and the paridoxical beauty of what we have around us if we only take time to look.