My Sea is Green

I once had the sea,
my world was blue, azure, and aquamarine
the color in my eyes reflected it's hue
and my soul the beauty beyond my shores.
Knowing this dream was to be bittersweet
another sea called me home.

I again have the sea
my world is green and lush,
my eyes reflect the homeland.
Green, the shores of my ancestry,
my soul unites with their history
and bonds this dream
to be by the sea and
I am home,
my sea is green.

Collecting oil paintings of the ocean is my way of keeping Florida with me at all times. Family matters pulled me from her shores a few years ago, but reflecting back, Iowa is my root and it's attributes, I am all too familiar with, so it remains my soul mate...however, Florida and the ocean are never far from my mind and I know someday I will return, but for now I collect the sea around me with shells and jars of sand...if I could only bottle that salty air that swallows me whole the minute I drive over the state line...ahhh, the over-active imagination...everybody needs one, aye...

Country Back Door

Once the center
all life entered here
in the back door
in the country.
Back door to the kitchen
garden bounties,
clothes on the line,
muddy bare feet
entered here
in the country.
Man's approach widened
four lanes, snow plows,
pollution and sound noise
cars, trucks, trash
entered here
in the back door
in the country.
Barns gone, chickens gone
sittin' on the back porch gone
loneliness entered here
in the country.
Neglect, industry, medians mowed,
crop dusting, snow mobiles
entered here
in the country.
Yet beauty and hope,
promise and creation,
garden and earth wise
enter here
in the front door
in the country.

Thanks Theresa-Brillante Weblog Award 2008

Another blog award from Theresa Cano of Garden Antiques Vintage...thanks so much gal! It's so nice to know you are being read and appreciated. Theresa has a wonderful blog down thar in Texas and I hope someday I get to meet that crazy gal.

There are so many wonderful blogs out there, how do you choose...I just want to tell everyone how much I enjoy blogging with you and you all get the highest award from me for support, the laughs and the tears...ya'll are the greatest...and I would like to thank 'Scratchy' for being there during the roughest of times...you are my rock(when you aren't barking)...thanks kids!!!

SOLD...

Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the closet(studio)...you get that email...I have to have that big frame...but you know I need it white, right. So much for the earlier post...I told you guys they would sell better white!!! Well, we'll see if the other one sells this fast or if I will have to paint it white too...all in a days work...right!

Thanks girlfriends...

Before I move forward with the surprise of the day, I want to thank these wonderful two gals for passing on these awards to me. Sweet Pam, my Irish friend and her wonderful blog, White o'morn Cottage and a new friend, Cynthia from Muse Swings .

I haven't been blogging all that long, but I had never in my wildest dreams (and I have a few) thought that I would meet soooooo many talented, wonderful people. If ever you need help with anything they are always there for you and with a word of praise and hope. No matter what the issue, be it new life or death, they are there with comforting words, willing to do what friends do.

Having said that...I have this huge, glass-fronted, Eastlake bookcase to move in to the pink mansion...anyone available...LOL

Finished product...

Well...what a struggle this has been, knowing how fabulous these two massive gold frames would look painted white...I just couldn't force myself!!! I hunt for such treasures with the rich golds of years past for my own home and if they don't sell, I can always take them home and paint...right...or I can take home and forget to take back. So you crusty ol' mansion lovers can rest easy now, they are going as is and I'm sure Sisters' will have the perfect setting for these two treasures...I'll show ya Friday...HA!

PS...the red Victorian chair is staying home...

Score!!!

Went shoppin' today and boy did I score...can you believe those huge, old gold mirror frames, oh yeah. The cute little chair already stripped with no finish left, the red velvet Victorian chair that I will find very hard to part with. How about the big mirror, the mercury backing is crumbling in just the right places and the great floral prints, hand-painted too. What a score!!! Ran into Barb, from Sisters' too at the same haunt and she suggested I paint all the frames and the mirror white, because of all the damage to them. I love the old gold patina, but then again, I am selling them and the odds of them buying them white is far greater than like they are...my decaying mansion style (crusty)...so what do YOU think...natural (crusty) or white. I'll post a picture of the finished products tomorrow.

Shadow Shot Sunday @ Hey, Harriet

Stand Alone


What is it to stand alone
a single thought
in a vast plain
of meandering airstream
and drifting promise
to move awakened
into color so nourishing
a soul's hunger unquenched
seeks golden threads of truth
through fuchsia colored goblets.



Check out Hey, Harriet, for Shadow Shot Sunday, it's a blast and enter if you dare join this group of shutterbug/poets. You'll meet some great people...I did!

Petals

I don't know any one who hasn't marveled at the beauty of the graceful Roseville pottery. Even with chips and cracks from a Grandchild's curious fingers, the beauty still holds strong. I have picked up pieces here and there when cost allowed, but all will soon be priced and taken to Sisters' in preparation for the holiday gifting season. Owning just one piece, large or small will give character to that little space that just needs a bit of color and artistry.

Beauty in the eye of the Victorian

Prints of old have always enthralled me, their quiet beauty reminding us of pleasant pastures and simple objects d'art to be found at home. Fruit portraits grace my kitchen walls to remind me of Earth's splendid bounty, ours for the cultivating, the beautiful landscapes lure you into traveling to new scape's of time, long past, but well published in memories. Floral bouquets of such splendid color put to paper by some Victorian artist fulfilling the role they had played in the artistic realm. But what would be your walls without these splendid renditions of old...

Ships of Earth

A mast taking flight
sailing eternal blue shores
ships of earth and sky




My tribute to the Gargoyle tree, I hope it's trunk lasts as long as the living tree..and who knows maybe sprouts of future tales will spring out of it's doom.

And so we move on...

You can't say we Midwesterners aren't a hardy bunch. Storm after storm we weather the trials that Mother Nature hands us, moving on to the next day knowing that the dawn will be beautiful in it's own way. Even the most severe storms have a beauty unique in nature, in all walks of life, you just have to have faith in the universe that life will move forward and you will adjust, if you are lucky to still have life. Barb's son Drew has added a bit of humor to the day by attaching Santa to the top of the gargoyle tree, at least the trumpet vine will have full sun now to flourish.

Everyone at Sister's is still reeling from the destruction to the trees, it looks like hurricane territory with huge piles of branches everywhere, but amazing little in the way of inventory was destroyed...but I have a question Barb about my mirror that was broken...is that 7 years bad luck yours or mine...LOL

Come on in, the doors are open and the paths are cleared...you can't stop these crazy gals from doing the job they love.

Let there be lights

I have always had a thing for funky lights and shades, they don't even have to be in pristine condition(oh really). I rarely buy new lamps, but I just had to have the QuanYin lamp, cause I collect her images. The shade is a little funky (new) for me, but her statue is beautiful...so I caved. Old Victorian table lamps with old bulbs and prisms sitting on velvet scarves or on top of a cupboard suits my style as do old shades in various stages of decay. I think they add that bit of decadence and antiquity to my already questionable domicile. But for me it is all in fun, cause tomorrow they could be at the shop with a price tag dangling. Never the 'too serious' collector, there is just too much funky stuff out there and I am always willing to be bribed by other fanatics.

Happy/sad

My affair with puppies is no secret and whose is. They look so sad when they come into unfamiliar territory, but after their time at the station, all is well in the world of a puppy, cause...I AM SO CUTE...and everybody loves me and I am reassured again. The hardest thing about doing puppies is trying not to laugh at their serious faces...you have to keep the mood set or it is all down hill. But these two sisters were adorable to do, Poodle/shihzhu mixes full of vinegar, but loved by their Moms to the max...me too. What fun they were...I luv my job...but to get to train a pup for their world of constant grooming is what I love, because they will be set to ME and not the abuses of untrained hands. Enjoy my puppies, today is two Schnauzer buds and a shihzhu...oh boy...

Lament for a Friend...Again

Reach for the sky regal age'd friend
oh, life long and full
grand buttress of the earth,
time here is bittersweet

again

gnarled grace leaning
against growling winds of time
we call you the gargoyle,
a vision of demonic fear
but grace,
beauty beyond fear,
will be our memories of you
your empty shell
holding countless fairy tribes
in our earthly imagination
to dream

again

be at peace, my friend
we will again meet
and I will write prose
at your feet

again.


Sad story of beauty lost to the winds, but not forgotten in the heart.

Out of Beauty Comes Chaos

5:00 this morning I was awakened to the sound of something hitting the side of my house, like a giant broom jolting me into reality, the front line winds of a massive dangerous thunderstorm. Then the lightning and the thunder and the winds...winds clocked at 92 miles an hour shoving everything in it's path. The storm sirens never went off, but I was prepared to run to the basement if need be, unfortunately, in this ol' house you have to go to the outside to get there...NOT. This was a biggy and took nearly an hour to pass, but when it did, I was again amazed at the destruction to my trees. I am surrounded by huge Chinese elms, 4 ft. in diameter and normally if expecting a storm I don't park under it...well, so much for that idea, my truck looked like a shrub, but not one of the huge limbs actually hit it. Our city didn't fare so well either, power was out for hours and trees and limbs down all over.

I talked to Barb at Sisters' and she thinks a tornado went through there too. The huge old tree along the side of the store is now on the roof, many other trees down and a very heavy oak and glass antique counter was blown right off the back porch at Bloom and took the railing with it, all in a million pieces scattered too the winds.

When they say it sounds like a train, it's the truth...I heard it and it makes you crazy not knowing what to do next. As my little pink house shimmied in the winds, I thank the powers of the universe for sparing me and my little dog.

On Safari

As dawn poked at us through the bedroom window this morning, Scratchy and I decided to go on safari. I took the camera and we headed for one of my favorite haunts, Wildcat Den State Park. Loved it as a child, I could imagine great cave beasts lurking in shadow, with curled, drooling lips with rows of razor-sharp, flesh-eating teeth, waiting for my little brother to walk by...dragging him screaming and kicking to the woods, begging for mercy never to be seen again by another human being, EVER...OK, I'm getting way too into this...that's another story.

As Scratch and I wondered the meadow filled with giant red oaks, it became apparent that WE were being stalked, wild creatures of this primal, steaming forest, eyes glued to our every move, hiding in their shadowy forest cloaks...I am ready for you big fellas...and I am armed with my trusty Canon Power Shot A530...be afraid, you are about to be Canonized and not into sainthood Bucko...

Tell me what you see, creatures of this musky, damp forest...lurking, red eyes turned skyward, statuesque, pretending not to see, but I know you're there, I have the sight. Where are you cave bear, where are you buffalo, camel and rhino, the giant wild hog and gentle deer.

I have seen you
in shadow
my trophy friends.

Shadow Shot Sunday #9 @ Hey, Harriet

Iron Butterfly

I see through you with awe
as you morph, strong
into a beautiful winged creature
of mystery and brief beauty.

With dreams of nectar filled fields
I follow you
hoping for a glimpse of what will become
down the stony path
of reflected light.

I am

You say that I am weird
what of an artist
what of an athlete
what of a rock star
accomplished...not weird

always waiting for the evening star
to guide me to the dawn of my path
self-less yet self-assured

that to be weird is to be not like you
alone with my pen
my thoughts
my choice of music
is that weird

No sweet daughter
I am...not weird
I am...not you.


I was more or less put off by this comment this morning, but assurred in my knowing of myself and my daughter, that we are two totally different people. I also know that she doesn't understand me, we went two different directions many years ago. And it is OK if she thinks I'm weird, I can sorta take it as a compliment, she the city girl and me...well...Ma Kettle...I can understand her dismay. But then again, she has many paths to cross in her young life as I do in mine. But we are both free to be who we are...and that is the challenge, to be 'I am'...and never forget the love.

Ol' stuff at 'the shed'

Now that my shop is closed I still sell out of my daughters shop, 'Friends Candle Shed'. The shop is jam packed with my toys and soaps and my daughter Piper's candles. She has been in the biz going on 8 years now and my stuff has filled her nooks and crannies as props for her candles the entire time.(you can never have enough stuff)...right? A very country prim shop, but all my eclectic furnishings fit right in as they await their next journey to Sister's Garden.