It surely was cold the other day, I noted, as I walked out to the mailbox. Fortunately it is not a long walk to the end of the driveway and across the street. But it was only about 5 degrees and the wind whipped by at probably 25 miles an hour. So it sure did feel COLD for even that short a walk.


I was bundled up , but I still I shivered. And I'm not entirely convinced that it was just the weather that had me quivering. I don't know about you , but there is always for me an anticipatory pleasure in going to retrieve the mail. There is something almost magical in that anticipation, and something hopeful as well. Each day that I go out to the mailbox I hold a tiny hope that I will receive something personal or fun, something attractive to the eye, words that bring news of someone I'm not routinely in touch with.


So few people actually write, that is , hand write a note or , heavens, a letter that I wonder how my mind still keeps watchful vigilance for something nearly as archaic as written correspondence. And still it does. It's that little bit of magical thinking that one day a special little parcel will be tucked into the box, that fills me with eager anticipation.

I imagine all sorts of goodies being sent my way by old friends and new. How about something like this little dream envelope? Oh , I think that I would nearly swoon to find a treasure like this in my mailbox.

This is a beautiful sample of an entry to the Graceful Envelope Contest back in 2000 ( I think ). Wouldn't it be lovely to check your mailbox at the end of a long day at work , or a trying day with the kids, and find that someone had taken the time and the care to send you something so exquisite? OOOOOOO ! I think I'd have achieved Nirvana if I got anything like this.


I'm sure that like the rest of you,the contents of your mailslot looks more like this.

Oh , how dreary , boring and repetitive. Must pay this bill ; be sure to shred that envelope and its contents; feel the weight of guilt when you simply can not contribute one more dime to a worthy cause. And look at the graphics. Those too are boring---patches of in-your-face colors
that scream at you to "tear at the edges", remember to send, check your "time critical" material-------squares and rectangles , diagonal lines , all positioned to S-C-R-E-A-M at you. Where do they invite? How do they caress your senses and pique your interest to investigate the inner contents? They simply do not.

Oh please just give me an occasional glimpse and feel of human communication meant to tickle the senses and emotions.

The piece below ( forgive the poor photo ) is an example of "mail art" that a gentleman by the name of Alan Blackman has sent to himself. He began doing this many years ago, and has continued to this day. He coordinates the calligraphy with the postage stamp(s) he's chosen and incorporates an illustration within the whole to make a beautifully cohesive presentation. This , as you can see, is a butterfly theme. I would love to see it in color. If you'd be interested in seeing more of his work (in color) try this link .

The "graceful envelope" below is another sample from way back 10 years ago. But they still hold a competition every year. This year's theme is " A Stream of Letters". If you think you might be interested, try the website of The Washington Calligraphers' Guild . There you can find entry rules , background information and beautiful samples from the past years, from most recent to the oldest.

Maybe , just maybe, you'll find yourself inspired enough to have some fun with embellishing an envelope for a special friend of yours. Not having the time or talent isn't excuse enough. My dear cousin simply took a page from an old calendar and made a few cuts and folds and voila , a simple yet pleasing package that tickles the imagination and pays honor to some one dear ( she sent this on Valentines Day for the Mister & me who met at a dance ).

And it is the MAGIC that delights everytime I go out into the cold and see that someone has thought of me kindly. And who can't use a little of that kind of magic?

Wishing you delight and Magic, Cyth

Hello again,

I was going to try .....really I was..... to post more frequently this year than last. I'm trying hard to balance my ambivalence about this whole blog endeavor with some joie de vivre. Mostly, I guess one could tell which side is winning the struggle. Ah, but this is not what I wanted to get started about tonight. ( I'll tackle it another evening.....perhaps when I'm all around feeling stronger---------- You see, I've been D-O-W-N this past week with some manner of nasty virus !!!! I can barely get out of my own way, even today, day #6. Urgh ! )

What I am endeavoring to show you , but not without a circuitous lead-in, is my latest little "orphan furniture" paint job. The photos above and the one below were some that I'd taken before the snow began to fly, though it was nearly cold enough then to have it fly. I was walking through the backyard one bright frosty afternoon and was totally taken in with the frost-etched images right in front of me. It wasn't for a few weeks yet , that I would begin to see the impact of that chilly stroll. But once I had finished a delectable side table in pewtered lavender, I began to realize the influence of that icy landscape (previous post). So I went back to review some of the photos , and sighed a big " Ah Ha ". Yes , I do think Mother Nature was speaking to me.

So , my INSPIRATIONS, ..........well a few of them..... ABOVE ................AND it's manifestations in my world of painted furniture , BELOW.

And well pleased I am . Hugely grateful I am that, too, I had that opportunity to witness AND express from within me the beauty I witness around.

And expectantly hopeful I am that come "shop time" someone may just see this polished up orphan and want to take her home. Surely she will place a smile on someone's countenance. And surely she will offer someone a hint of a frosty late fall stroll .

Thanks for dropping by. I'll try to share more frequently, unless , of course, that ambivalent side wins out again.

Cyth

Devastation in Haiti

Good Morning,

I hope it is a good morning for you. I woke up this morning , my grandkids were happy and laughing. I enjoyed breakfast with them, modest though it might have been. I helped them get dressed and washed and off to school. There were hugs and kisses all around. The world was looking pretty rosy for me this morning. Then i returned to the house, powered up the computer and felt like I'd just walked into a brick wall.


The news reports on the earthquake in Haiti. The devastation there won't even be fully realized for days.


I couldn't even look at all the pictures. A few were enough for me. And my heart goes out to all who are there, either still caught in the debris, or looking for family & friends who may still be caught. I pray that many are sent a miracle , that they are found or loved ones are found. I hope that the world has heart enough to send all who can, go to help in the search and later in the recovery.


I pray that everyone who can , open their hearts and send a loving thought or prayer out to the country of Haiti. Miracles CAN happen. And the greater the prayer, the more auspicious the answer.


Blessings, Cyth

Nature's Inspiration

I promised myself and I kept to my promise. Sundown this evening finds my promise complete. Yay , that's one for me. The basement workspace (otherwise referred to as the "hell hole ") is cleaned up. I guess I should qualify that statement a bit and say that it's cleaned up as much as it's gonna get cleaned up. And that's pretty darn good. I can actually see surfaces that had gone missing in action many long months ago.

Now I must get back to work -now that I can work in there. The Mister has been slowly and steadily preparing all manner of furniture for me to , as he says, "work my magic" upon. So as I pass by the piled high stack of big & small chairs, tables , salvaged old medicine cabinets, stools,benches and so on, I try to imagine how it is that they wish to be clad. My mind has locked on to muted , nature-inspired colors , even though when I picked some of those pieces last summer, late, and early fall , I think I remember envisioning bright , vibrant colors. Now , now that Winter is truly upon us and I'm ready to begin painting anew I see a soft palette, perhaps shot with just a wee bit of light, metallic or opalescent; just enough to add a touch of sparkle.

This photo I took in November, as Fall was descending into Winter. The creamy white of the hydrangea darkened to parchment, but the first frost adds a twinkle to the edges that softly delineates each petal shape.

I'm thinking that a sweet little wooden cabinet that I found at a yard sale would be properly dressed in colors such as these. I can even see it in my mind's eye in a room painted that almost- watercolor blue-green of the background.

Jack Frost delicately coated the foliage here so that we can clearly differentiate the textures in this 8 square inch patch of landscape ; long grassy texture that could suggest tentacles in an underwater scene; small button-like moss gone silver could almost be miniature sea urchins; velvety gray-green moss tempting us to reach out and touch . I can almost even see a star fish nestled beneath silvery purple foliage.

As I look at this now , I wonder if I hadn't subliminally been influenced in my choice of paint color after having seen and photographed this. It was just around the time of taking this photo ( about mid November ) that I painted a lovely little table in a gray-violet color with silver accents. I do believe now that I had internalized this frosted scene and reimagined it in my paint choice .

I recall that last year I was nearly swooning over the glistening whites of the early snowfalls (that sooned grew old) . After having found a magazine layout of an all white shop , I went full throttle into painting whites -white on white , cream on white. It didn't last long, but

unfortunately the snowfalls did. I found myself yearning for more color, even as the snow whites continued to pile up outside my window , or maybe because it continued to pile up. As Spring approached , those colors that I yearned for manifested in the clear , clean pastels of new spring flowers and grasses.

Today, however , I am aching to try my hand further to produce the soft , muted tones I see in these photos; the whites muffled by gray bark , oyster-colored fungi embellishing the fallen log like ruffled sleeves, and silver green lichen accenting the whole as though it were a scarf about the neck.

I've got a dining table that could be just the vehicle for this color scheme - a pale gray, with a frosty lichen green in the leg grooves, overpainted in opalescent topcoat. I can see it. Can you? I'm anxious to get a start. (Hope to show some pictures as a finish each item. But I do work s-l-o-w-l-y. Don't expect it too soon.)

I must be off, perhaps to organize my paint cans. Thanks for dropping by and giving me a chance to dream aloud.

I wish you a good evening ,

Cyth

Through the Viewfinder

The snow started Thursday and it has hardly quit since then. I've been in self proclaimed exile, sequestered in the house and trying to weed through all my "treasures" down in the "hell hole", otherwise referred to as my work space. Problem was that it had gotten so FULL of projects and Christmas wrappings and "stuff" that there was hardly any space left , including breathing space . So when the Mister decided that I needed some warm and cushy floor covering on the basement floor , I was forced into doing the clean up. And that has been ongoing just as long as the snow. And I'm sick of both. But I will continue.... I figure that I've only got about a day left and I'll be in good shape down there. Hope Mother Nature is feeling the same way !!!

I got a new toy this Christmas, an old Kodak DuaflexIII, and I'm having a good time trying to work it out. I've only recently become aware of photography technique of TtV ( Through the Viewfinder ), whereby you take a picture with one camera as it focuses through the viewfinder of another camera. I love the effects , though most of my attempts so far have ranged from ghost-like to blurry to too this or too that to crooked to okay. Actually I think that I'm doing pretty well for a newbie who really doesn't understand her camera in the first place. The photos that you see here are some of my successful attempts. ( The bottom one was one of the very first. I think that I am already seeing some improvement.--- Yeah, well, that's what I'm telling myself anyway.)

I think that it's a good thing to learn something new every once in a while. I do believe that it fires up some of those synapses that have gotten lethargic. I was considering taking up a new language, but with my new gift, I guess I'll go with this for now. I hope that this New Year offers you some wonderful opportunities to take up something new, stretch your creativity, spark those old neurons, and just have fun.

Thanks for dropping by, Cyth