Things I Love Thursday

Yes - the moon.  She was lovely as always.  Like most others with a camera, I snapped my own images of her from the deck of my home.  The night was clear and the timing was great.  My kids were out in the backyard enjoying with me.

I love that the days are still warm.  We've had a few warm nights still and were able to sleep with the windows open, though the colours continue to change with the season.

That is the tree over my back deck.  I do love the yellow so very much, especially when it's illuminated in the light!  Many trees are still green.  A few are bare since the last big wind.  This next one from Sutherland Beach is so great - look how much space it takes up!  It's my son's favourite.  He stopped in his tracks to say, 'WOAH.  LOOK at that tree!'

The paths at that off leash park are so gorgeous and a tad spooky.  I love being able to look past the gnarly dark branches to see sunlit areas.  It's like mini tree forts for little ones.

It's not just the trees... but the grasses change colour too.  I love when I find orange and red grasses in the natural parks.  They are so beautiful and they glow when the sun hits them.  This batch looked pretty at the top of a retaining wall along a path.

Okay, one more photo!  This bush is great - the leaves look like coins from a way back: red and gold and burgundy and yellow spots of colour.

Isn't that lovely!?  What a great September it has been.  Happy October, and Happy Thursday to you!  : )

Things I Love Thursday

I love that drive we took out to Solar Gardens last week.  Here are a few more images I captured - some of which I have been working on with thread in time for the show & sale this weekend.

I love that soft palette!  There was a light drizzle that morning and the hills were misty.  Doesn't it look 'fake'!?  Wow.

I love this next one very much.  It's a crop of a longer image I took.  I love the layers and layers...  I love how far you can see, or how far you can't see.  !  : )

Incredible.  It got very dark and the colours were so deep from the rain.  I love it so much!  I am very grateful to have had a view like this.

Up close was beautiful too,

I love how you can see every blade of grass.  I love how they each have their own colour.  It's so pretty.  (sigh)

On the way back to the city, we passed the softest, fluffiest fields.  The cattails were just in shock from the frost the night before.  Look at the colours and textures!

It was amazing.  I love this season.  I picked out some threads and have been stitching all week, every day, all day.  It's a pleasure to get to get to use some of these colours again! : )

I'll post once more before the weekend. : )  Please say hi if you come out to Solar Gardens.  There will be three buildings with art - the Dining Hall, the big Tent, and the Glass House.  You can find me set up in the Glass House.  : )  We are told that Solar Gardens has credit card point of sales available on site.  Bring a friend!

Happy Thursday!

Things I Love Thursday

I really look forward to Thursdays.  It's like a 'count my blessings' day.  Today I want to tell you how much I love the 'fans & followers' of my work.  I guess that means you!  ; )  I've had some really great emails from women who enjoyed the 'Let the Yarn Speak' article I had in Stitch UK earlier in the year.

It's really exciting for me to hear that my work influences others.  It's quite an honour!  A few people told me about how thrilled they were with the idea of letting the yarn speak and couldn't wait to try it out.  One woman in particular finished a rather large project!  She let the yarn colours dictate the stitches, and she let them dictate the entire composition.  She spent a long time on this and when she was done, she had it professionally framed and sent me a few photos.  It blew me away!  I love that she did exactly what I suggested in the article, and yet our pieces are so unique!  Her name is Marion Bicknell and I'm sharing this with her permission.  Below is her photo of the finished embroidery depicting a garden path.  The blocks of colour are the masses of flowers.  How beautiful.  It's like a garden map.  She mentioned in her letter to me how meditative this project was.  I agree.  There's something really relaxing when you don't have to make all the decisions.   You go by your feelings, without a pattern.  It is so interesting to experience.

Marion wrote, 'The exercise was a good one for me as I am such a precision, orderly person so I tried to let myself create the garden without planning or drawing.  When I thought I had enough of one colour I changed to the next colour.  The pattern/picture evolved and I decided to make a garden with a path.'  She used words like meditative, relaxing, and therapeutic.  Isn't that fantastic!?  Thank you Marion for sharing this.

What else happened... oh!  I received the most interesting and heartfelt letter mail this month from someone I don't think I've ever met, yet it was so personal and lovely.  This is from Nicole, and she sent me this stunning card filled with beautiful words, and a wonderful article!  In the article, I learned new words, like 'fizmer' (which is the sound the tall grasses make when they they move around in the bits of wind).  How wonderful!  : )

people are amazing

Fizmer.  I love it.

I can't explain how each of these people made my day so incredibly happy on such a deep level.  And - let it be known that I was having a very rough time when these sweet messages rolled in.  The timing was meant to be.

Have a lovely Thursday!  YAY - tomorrow I head to Handmade House.  : )

Things I Love Thursday

Don't you just love it when you are driving in the summertime and the edge of the road is lined with Brown-Eyed Susans?  I do.  It's one of my fondest childhood memories driving back and forth from the farm to the lake, lake to the farm, again and again.

I was driving home a few nights ago and in the pale light of dusk, I thought I saw them, but more than usual.  I pulled over down a dirt road and O MY GOODNESS.  SERIOUSLY!?  I've never seen them in masses like this!  As far as the eye could see, they went on and on and on.  I nearly fell over!

click on the image to view it larger

Oh I love it!  And though it was night time, I took dozens of photos anyhow, and brightened them up when I got home.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

<      insert heavenly sigh     >

<         insert another heavenly sigh          >

I planned to head back this week during the day but it's been terribly humid and scorching out there. I turn into a sloth in weather like this.  I'll wait for it to cool down.  Even if I never happen upon that road again, this has satisfied me indeed!  WOOHOO!

p.s. to the woman from New Zealand who left a sweet message for me at Handmade House - I got it!  THANK YOU so very much.  : )  You made my day as much as these ditch-bouquets did.

Have a happy Thursday.  Stay cool!

Things I Love Thursday

Well, the smoke has cleared.  The days are hot and we've had a lot of rain this week.  The dragonflies are famished and so there are still no mosquitoes!  I LOVE THAT.  Some years are really bad.  Last summer we started with a lot of rain and the rest of the summer was pretty dry.  Farmers enjoyed a bumper crop.  This year it is the opposite - dry, dry dry... finally some rain.  I don't quite understand how, but the berries on the prairies are enjoying a bumper crop themselves!  Cherries, raspberries, Saskatoons berries...

These are black currants we've been picking lately.  I love the way they go through so many colour changes - green - yellow - orange - red - burgundy - black.  We cook them down to make syrop.  mmmm.

I love how this next image looks like a wreath!  These grow in the school yard across the street and we pick them every summer.

The baby ducks are back!  Hurray!  I was told that children were playing with the eggs around the pond and taking some!!  :(  Thankfully, they seem to have missed a lot.  There are a couple very large families being watched over by mama ducks.  I love that they are so tame.  The mama came right up out of the water with all her offspring and they hung out at my feet nibbling on the masses of clover flowers.

I love this place where we live.  It's so nice to sit by the water at the end of the day and just relax.  I'm also glad I brought my camera.

Cattails and thistles.

Enjoy your Thursday and count your blessing.  Never forget the little things. : )

Things I Love Thursday

I love my life this summer.

Have you ever seen the TV show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?  We watched all the episodes earlier in the year.  It's a comedy by Tina Fey.  It's about a Kimmy - a woman who joined a doomsday cult in the 80s where she live in a bunker with a few others, believing the world had ended.  As it turns out, life went on and things have changed a lot (language, technology, fashion).  After 15 years, these 'mole women' were discovered, rescued, and there goes Kimmy, living life in New York.  She has so much spunk and enthusiasm as she adjusts to the modern world, and being social again.  She's quite stuck in the 80's and her naive enthusiasm is quite funny.

And she smiles.  A lot.  Really BIG.

Why am writing a writing about this?  Well, it's about my life.  I used to work as a crisis counsellor for about ten years.  I was people-people-people, go-go-go, work work work, never home.  Then I had kids.  (Can you hear those career-brakes squeal?  errrrrrrrrrrch!)  For 15+ years, I have been full time mom, working at home to make ends meet, and evolving into a full time artist.  I never quit working (as a mom - do I really have to explain that one!??  no...)  Prior to becoming a fibre artist, I ran a dayhome for a number of years.  I worked some social work contracts that required at-home / online research.  I've homeschooled some of my children as needed for several years.  I have even worked for Greyhound Transportation - again, from home.  I've been busy, busy - but all at home.

 I have to tell how liberating and enjoyable it is to be part of Handmade House.  I feel so fortunate! I feel like a mole woman!   As I drove to work for my first shift - I realized this was that first time in 15 years I have 'left the house to go out to work'.  When my shift was over, I literally skipped down Broadway with a stupid grin on my face, smiling, talking to strangers, feeling SO GOOD!  Then it hit me - omg I feel like Kimmy!  I feel like, 'Hello World, I'm STILL HERE and YOU are beautiful!'  lol  I tried to force myself to stop smiling but I couldn't!  I was so embarassed when I realized I was channeling Kimmy for the moment.

me, last summer as a featured artist

I told my story to a few friends at a birthday party last week.  A couple of them totally cracked up.  They knew the show and the character.  A couple others were quietly shaking their heads and and comment, 'oh my - you really must get out more.'  haha  Sometimes, it's the little things in life that make a world of difference.

The best thing about being a member of Handmade House is that the shifts are so short, it really takes no time away from my life as an artist.  That's just perfect for me.  And on a more serious note, it's quite humbling to be part of an artisan's collective that has been around for decades.  I feel very honored about that.

So there's my story - thanks to Handmade House for adding some spunk to my mundane life.  lol  It's shaping up to be a pretty fine summer.

Things I Love Thursdays

I love Canada Day.  July 1st - we headed out for our annual floral photo hunt.  July 1st always seems loaded with flowers.  Even though we have had very little rain, I was surprised to see what I did!

Of course, the first to catch my eye were batches of Prairie Coneflowers.  It's pretty hard to walk past this on a trail and not break into a joyful smile!

Bergamot - oh how I love love love bergamot!  They were growing high up on a hill overlook the creek bed.

So darn pretty!  Here's a closer crop...

Aaaah - there's just something about purple.  I find it so soothing lately.

Deeper into the trails, I found these pretty pink and white bells on a shrub.  I'm not sure what they are but aren't they pretty!?

How do these flowers grow without water?  These next show-offs thrive on dry land.  Look at the big bursts of colour!

I'm so glad I finally took an entire day off with my family.  The bees and butterflies were quite happy - they were all over the place.  The wild roses are just finishing up.  The Blazing Stars are done.  But I found something interesting!  Here is Blue Flax.

And here is Yellow Flax.  !  I've heard of it but never happened upon any.  I love that they were so abundant for my treasure hunt.  : )  I happen to love the background in this next photo almost as much as the flowers that are focused on.

Had you noticed?  I had my big zoom lens on and the backgrounds gave the flowers such an interesting feel.  I'm so glad I brought the big camera.  I've been entirely lazy all year, snapping quick cell phone pics.  tsk tsk.

Here again is a really lovely crop of some Anemones growing in the wild.  (I have lots in my yard.)

And some bells - you tell me.  Everytime I name these, someone tells I'm wrong.  They are so special and so tender, aren't they?

Well there you go - I have lots more but I'll save them for Sunday.

I hope you had a  * * * HAPPY CANADA DAY * * * !!  xo  I'm so glad we went out to enjoy our little part of this big beautiful country.  Aren't we lucky!!?

Have a lovely Thursday,

Things I Love Thursday

I really didn't know I would, but it turns out I love to yarn bomb!  I've led some 'bombing' activities in the past (remember my bicycle, the shopping cart, and the Children's Discovery Museum?) but I have never done an installation myself.

...that is, until I went to Weyburn.

I arrived to hang my art as part of the ArtWalk events.  Jaynie Himsl (fibre artist) is organizing the whole thing.  She put a ladder in my van, brought along a couple bags of yarn & thrift store remnants, and informed me that we'll be yarn bombing the downtown tonight.  HA!  I was like, okay. (!?)

It was fun!  We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  It seems the more we did, the more creative we got.  We worked until it was too dark to see, then headed back to her place where we prepared some more pieces for the next morning.

I am loving this!  The coolest thing about what we did was that most of it MOVES.  One tree is covered in tassles and just the slightest breeze has it waving at you as you walk by.  SO LOVELY!!!

*Jaynie would like folks to know that anyone can pitch in with this decorating.  It will be removed at the end of August.
*I would like you to know that with the heat and lack of rain, these installations dry FAST and the trees won't be harmed.

Monika  late night selfie with Jaynie outside Investors Group

p.s.  We decorated four trees, 2 bike lock stands, and one post while we were there.  I love it!  We even managed to get noticed by a reporter.  (**You can read it here: Linked)

Happy Thursday!

Things I Love Thursdays

I love my kids.

I love little toes.

I love when kids read.

I love the goofy poetry of Shel Silverstein.

I love being on my balcony.

I love cuddling up in quilts out there and waiting for the late summer sunset.

THIS photo is ALL THAT.

And it was a pretty good one too...

Have the best Thursday,

Things I Love Thursday

I love the way the land rolls by when you take a roadtrip.

I love that each image has the same sky.  Did you notice?  The clouds are the same but the landscape keeps changing.  : )  It's another reason why I LOVE the prairie.

... time to finish up that new batch of Prairie Postcards!  : )

Happy Thursday,