Shadow Shot Sunday...the surrend'ring...

surrender

strong bones
crumble
brilliance
shadowed
yet still
comforting
a weary trav'ler

surrender

material
dwelling
harmony
peace
passed on
to the living
memories
freedom
hope
life
death
awe

surrender


S. Wilson

Shadow Shooters Anonymous...welcome to the growing click of addicts at Hey Harriet's to die for meme...won't you come play too...

I was also going to post pics of the new shop...but I was so busy talking to people and rearranging, that I totally forgot...I promise today.
We had a wonderful first day
made some great new friends(locals)
talked to some old,
made some sales...AND...
Scratchy was soooo good!!!
Normally I don't post on Sundays, but tomorrow will be the exception, as soon as the sun's out(they promised)I'll be shooting away...
Of course I'll be prompted by the sweet tea
from the tea room next door
doesn't take much for me...ha!

Just Be...

Join us for a cup o joe this morning won't you, I think the sun will shine today, this is good...it's the little things that fulfill our lives in the ever so quiet times in our soul... and someone who shares my quiet times is Robin.

Robin has a blog called 'One Still Frame', we have a history, sorta, that goes back quite a few years, sorta. Robin's mom Pat had an antique shop filled to the brim with all things primitive, on the family's old homestead farm. I ran into Pat when I first opened my website, we were both hosted on Crow Soup, a group of primitive websites all sharing the same love of craft and antiques.

Pat, aka 'Tilda' and I talked a few time via email about the state of the economy and both could feel the coming doom for our types of little shops. Once thriving, the decision to close was set in motion for both of us, but Pat still retains her website 'High Button Shoe', however, mine is now closed due to my blog.

But this is where the story takes a turn...one day I was checking my comments and there was one from a lil' gal named Robin, she said she loved my blog and my music choices and that I knew her mother Pat, putting the ducks in a row, the story now comes full circle.

As with the lone walnut tree in the photo above, Robin shares her love of Nature and photography with us all in her blog. She has a sense of self and calm that is a real inspiration to me and I wanted you all to meet her.

Her sense of life in the words she writes and the words of others she chooses, just makes me feel the moment. The simplicity of her photos and the words she weaves, fills my heart with the mantra...JUST BE...


Robin is a gentle soul...my kinda person...and we share a bond of friendship, though we've never met...Michigan isn't that far away...and who knows, maybe someday I'll get to visit that family homestead and meet two virtual friends that share my thoughts and passions...and the circle is joined.

Please go visit their sites...you will feel it too...

Thanks Robin and Pat...aka Beulah and Tilda...

JUST BE!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....

We are so tired.........the heathen got me up at 4:00 yesterday morning, ooooo...then it was up to Lorie's' for another trailer load, then off to Palo, where we worked NON-STOP till 10:30, home at midnight, then...well that's all I remember...

But the shop looks wonderful and we even had our first sale...everything is priced and placed, but I was too pooped to take shots, so you'll have to wait till Saturday morning for them...ahhh, the suspense...

MORE COFFEE PLEASE!!!

More gatherings...

Isn't this just the coolest chest...It has a really dark varnished finish and is certainly deserving of a fresh coat of paint, but I can't bring myself to do it...yet anyway. I love the way the varnish is crumbling on the one drawer and the hankie drawers, how cool are they!

This will go to Palo, as will the second trailer load today...so hang on to your seats...soon!

More pics tomorrow, as we start to put it all together today...rain, rain, go away...I can just imagine how the people of Palo are dealing with the torrential rains we had yesterday. After living through the flood last year, it takes years to get over the sound of torrents of rain on your roof. I still feel it after the floods in 1993, that was the year from hell, I had 18 inches of water in my yard all summer...argh...such is spring and summer in the Heartlands!

Rain...rain...rain...

Ok, so it ruined Memorial Day...again...enough already...we're busy people here and we aren't having a drought, so let's move along...

All of us in the biz know what a joy it is moving furniture in the rain, slash snow, slash 100 degrees, slash floods, slash ice...so throw us us bone Ma nature...

Another load tomorrow...so I'll just gaze through the screen door at the gloom while the price tags go on and on and on...got the picture...

Almost there...we're pooped!!!!

A peek...but not too much...I love the sign, an old transom that came out of a demolished Victorian in Muscatine, I've had it stashed for years...

Kathy's beautifully painted white walls...bye bye...

Let the grunging begin...Lorie starts the process, which is quite simple, but time-consuming...making a wash of brown paint, slathering it all over the walls, then wiping when dry...giving it that look of- 'boy, do they have a mildew problem'...

We unloaded the trailer, when Lorie opened the back of it, she said it looked like a trip to Elk Horn flea market...

We love the floors, old beat-up, battered, flood ravaged wood...ahhhh...

The white furniture always looks so awesome against the grungy paint...

And now to unload boxes...did I say ARGH.....still planning on opening this Friday...come if you can, but don't mind the mess...that'll never end!

Shadow Shot Sunday...Memorial, remember...

Have you noticed...
I'm here at your feet,
in shadow...
I'm an ordinary bird
I am Starling.
My voice is ordinary,
yet it sings songs of longing...
to be of another world,
the Mother'lund perhaps,
but my tree of life
now springs from the Catawba,
totem to the Catawba,
lost tribe of the South.
Who is this ordinary bird,
mediocre perhaps,
yet complex beyond first sight...
that is
if you notice...
songs that sing
of tomorrow,
never worrying
of today,
tomorrow will come
it always does...
yet,
this is no ordinary bird,
survivor,
visionary,
conqueror...
growing into each new season
a veteran
seasoned
practiced...
I will grow old
in your memory,
my Catawba
my tribe...
remember me
I am ordinary
but
I am...
memorial.

S.Wilson


It's Shadow Shot Sunday again down under...play the part...in shadow of course...go here please!

I'm an early poster here in the states, 'cause I'm off and running to my daughter's shop to work on Saturdays...every Saturday, so you get to catch my thoughts early in the day.

This baby starling followed me around the yard all day yesterday, poor Scratchy has to stay behind the locked screen, as there are many a new residents at the Pink Chateau, and she would dutifully munch them to oblivion...that is, if she had the chance and I'm too busy scaring off the neighbors cats, who would gladly munch on the baby birds too. Some would say...but they're just Starlings...but to me, they are my Sisters, we all share the Catawba.

But this old relic of a tree, the Catawba, formerly named, but mistakenly published as the Catalpa by it's discoverer...some English dude perhaps, but was a sacred totem to the Catawba tribe of Native Americans inhabiting S. Carolina for centuries. These Native Americans are now extinct in their full-blood capacity,
but mixed lineage survives today, trying to bring alive their once powerful tribe.

My tree is home to many starlings and squirrels each year, all utilizing it's holes for nestlings.
I love the smell of the blossoms when they flourish in the spring, helps me not to miss the smell of jasmine and orange blossoms of Florida so much...my Northern exotic.

So, all be safe this weekend...and remember to
never forget!

A New Day...

First berry...sweet kiss of divine nectar...

A promise of growth and long life...

A purple necklace begins it's promenade 'round my cottage...

New life leads hope on the green horizon...

and...I can fly...

A day in the life,
a simple pleasure palace
feeds a simple soul.

S.Wilson

Can we talk...

Back in the day when the pink chateau was a shop, we didn't put on a screen door because of the inconvenience of having to move furniture through it all the time...but I have always wanted one, mainly to keep the heathen in and the fauna out...

Well I was looking through my stash of doors at the Candle Shed the other day and this cool ol' door had the perfect dimensions. So I brought it home and tried it on for size...almost perfect, but in case you hadn't noticed, perfect isn't in the equation at the chateau.

Now, the dilemma...to paint or not to paint...there is something just so countrified about the old green that just warms my heart...as if Granny chose this color to match the Nature outside...and to hide the fingerprints of a thousand trips into and outta her world. It somehow just fits with the color of the swing and the old rocking chair...just screaming Granny's' house.

But, white would look cool too, as it would match the rest of the trim...but then it would sooooo not be me...right!?

So gimme yer thoughts and I'll take to heart and come up with an answer that will sooth our souls...now if I could just manufacture a squeak each time I opened...life would be perfect!

You can hear the squeak can't you...ha!

Smalls...

I love the bottom of this old stool, made out of tree logs, covered in old fabric, it's perfect for a cabin or my house...right...

I found a box of treasures hidden away in my Granny's garage, from a previous move, but tucked away and forgotten about...argh...

When you have a shop, you have so many smalls that they all become a blur, or perhaps a faded memory somewhere in time...
beautiful Tiffen glass vases tucked away in the bottom of the box...how could I forget...oh the horror!!!

Frames and more frames, some painted and some left to be enjoyed for the wonderful patina time has granted...all await in my halls for the new adventure that soon will be their legacy...our sign is being made and Sunday we hope to turn the pristine, newly dri-walled surfaces, into the mildewed, time-worn interiors of ancient history...SOON...
'WHITE'

What's this stranger...

Catch it quick...it's fleeting...man, this has been a long cold Spring! I caught the early morning sunrise this morning, as it brightened an old lampshade awaiting a new cover...but catch it quick, it could be gone in an instant...

Enjoy each new day as it was your last, it'll make the aches and pains of getting older seem a little less troublesome...it'll put a smile on your face and spread the joy, that's what it's all about!...

PEACE!...Good morning Mother...

Sister withdrawels...

Yes, you can have withdrawals...I haven't been to Sisters' in two weeks, my palms are starting to get sweaty...what if...what if she has the perfect piece and I miss it...ohhhh the horror...but Lorie and I have been busy compiling stuff for the new shop, so time is stretched to the MAX!!!






Anyway, I'm gonna try and get there this week some time...things have been a little crazy for Barb too, her Father just had a heart attack, so her family needs all the best wishes and prayers you can muster...till next time...SHOP!!!