clarity in chaos

a clean workbench. a steaming cup of roobios chai with almond milk and honey. a bit of sunlight. and a fresh start. perhaps wiping the slate clean was just what was needed? a little corner of clarity amidst the chaos from which to refocus. regroup. renew.

from this vantage, i begin to see my way clear. needle and thread have begun to click and flow. a quiet silence fills the room. and color blooms in cloth again... emerge in mind and in hand. i am eager to rejoin the creative stream and reconnect.

namaste'

the tangled thread

there are moments when i feel like one of these tangled balls of thread. thrust among so many other tangled threads. not always knowing where my tangled bits end and another's begin. it is not a comfortable bowl to be tossed into for one who likes ones threads to be tidy...

namaste'

coming back

"love can change a person

the way a parent can change a baby -

awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess."

-lemony snicket, horseradish: bitter truths you can't avoid 

i was reading terry pratchett's a hat full of sky this morning and in it he asks, "why do you go away?" and answers, "so that you can come back.so that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. and the people there see you differently, too. coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving." i can see the truth in this every time i find myself coming back to this blog. whether i've been gone for only a few hours, or a few weeks. each time i sit down to compose my thoughts i find new colors creeping in from the corners to add their hue to rainbow of my experience. i used to lament my time away. but now...now i rejoice in my leaving. and returning. for i know i will discover new delights both simple and convoluted!

in honor of this revelation, i've been making chocolate chip pancakes for my oldies here at the cottage. the scent that fills the house is divine! even though i am no longer eating wheat or sugar, i can still tantalize my nose with their delectable scent. i can already hear the stirring sounds of our early risers. probably in search of what smells so delicious...

namaste'

noter & drone

i have found that i have to pace my stitching at the moment as my slashed finger aches and has a tendency to want to break open and bleed if i over use it (if you don't follow me on facebook, i slashed my left middle finger tip at work a few days ago while prying open a can after using the sub-standard can opener my employers seem to think are acceptable. fortunately, i have a very caring partner in my life right now who has provided me with a most excellent pampered chef can opener to save my finger tips in the future!) since the damaged finger tip is on my fretting hand, i had been moping about town because it precludes me from playing guitar, cbg or most other stringed instruments, thereby dropping music out of my life. not a pleasant thing to contemplate. however, in a lucid moment while gazing longingly at my appalachian dulcimer collection, i realized that i *could* still play in the traditional noter & drone style!

as you can tell, this is quite a different style than i'm used to playing (though not completely unfamiliar since this is the method i learned oh so many years ago when i found my first - and still favorite - dulcimer and coaxed my mom into loaning me the $450 - omg! that was so much money back then! - to purchase it from the luthier who created it, joe sanguinette of branson, missouri). if you listen closely, you can hear the noter (a wooden dowel turned from hardwood) slide between frets so it is slightly reminiscent of the blues slide style i've been experimenting with lately.

stitching. music. love. life is good!

namaste'

s'mores cake decadence

a little sugary decadence for my oldies at the cottage. i don't have a recipe, since i rarely cook that way, but i can tell you how to make your very own sugar coma inducing delight!  bake your favorite, super moist devil's food cake. once the cake has cooled, cover the top with a generous pile of marshmallows (i used mini's since that is what we had on hand, but any sort will do). place in oven set to a high broil until marshmallows have browned nicely (watch them close! one moment they are pristine and white, and then all of a sudden, poof! they're done!!). tuck graham cracker rectangles into the cake at random angles. then melt a couple cups of chocolate chips along with 5-6 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup in a double boiler to create a creamy, rich ganache. spoon the ganache over the top of the cake and tadaah! there you have it!

in case you missed my facebook post the other day, we had our second round of early winter snow!

namaste'

sunday musings

sometimes i seem to careen off into a tangled forest of thought and distraction. these journeys may last a few minutes, if i'm lucky...weeks, or even months, if i am inattentive to the moment. our first snowfall this year woke me from this current slumber. nothing like a face full of snowflakes to bring ones attention back to the moment!

my creativity levels are still on the sluggish side, so i have simply picked up the pile of tiny little 1 1/4" squares of salvaged fabrics and begun stitching again. it's rather like walking, isn't it? first you take one stitch. then another. and another. pretty soon cloth is materializing beneath your fingers!

namaste'