Thursday, January 31, 2013

This and that

Comforting colors: purples, mint, sea-foam greens; dusty rose; ivories, creams, and faded grays; a touch of pale sky blue; crisp, clean white… those are the colors pampering my thoughts these days.




The color of the landscape around here is too ashen and ominous lately… one of the blessings of winter is to just be able to stay inside and cuddle up with a nice, warm throw, have a frothy cup of hot coco, and maybe pop in a movie in the middle of the day.  I also enjoy embellishing my nest with what I love... things I like and things that make me happy...  These don't necessarily have to be big or costly things.


I love these dainty little glass votives from Michael's. One dollar each. They had a great variety of colors to chose from, but I bought all six of them in this lovely green...


I'm using some of my wrist beads bracelets to decorate them... so pretty


Don't you just love lighting candles in winter time?  I do I do!

Yesterday, one of the attorneys in our office came to work without shoes… yes, without shoes! Actually, without soles on his shoes. While on his way to work, both soles came off. Not one, but both! Can you imagine it—and on a day like that? It was hilarious seeing him come in; soles in hands splashing and splattering slushy water everywhere on shoes that consisted of only the top parts… Ahhh how I’d wished that had happened to “Mr. Obnoxious” instead. I would had laughed with much more gusto, and I’d had even offered a little unholy prayer for some frostbite… nothing much, just two or three toes maybe? OK ok, I’m not that vicious, really. But at least he should step on a LEGO… he should he should! ;) 

This is what I saw early yesterday morning in the garden before I went to work... It had snowed all night and the landscape had turned white in its entirety, and every tree and every branch wore a thick coat of twinkling stars. Bushes and old roses were gifted with earrings and necklaces made out of icicles and gems in the purest of white. It truly was an enchanted garden...


Love early mornings, candle light and coffee...


Thank you my friend for being with me and being part of my life.  My soul made of sunshine is yearning for a thaw, hoping for a ribbon of warmth to sneak its way into the garden and wrap every rose bush up with a velvety emerald bow. I know that many of you feel the same and thus I'm sending buckets of good wishes of sunshine and daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths that bloom in the heart.

Good Night!


Monday, January 28, 2013

Killing the blues

I’m going insane… yes totally crazy madly insane!! I want to yell at the moon, run with the wolves, run run away looking for the sun! Have you ever seen the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun”?  Ah yes, I have had that thought circling my mind for days by now… run, escape, buy a villa in Tuscany on a whim and then find Javier Bardem in Bali… oh wait, that’s not the same movie, is it?  Hehe… oh well, whatever!

What an awful awful winter we had had thus far this year… It is snowing in your town, city too? It’s drizzling chunks of ices here again after that horrible storm the other day, and the little sun we had yesterday was just a tease… the sun has moved away to a faraway land I’m sure. Let’s see, shall we do 100+ pirouettes and faint with glee like the good girls do?  Ha!

Thus, I have bought some cute flats for my voyages to Tuscany and beyond.


I'm so in love with these shoes... love the deep coral blue sea color and if I wiggle my feet enough while wearing them, I'm sure I may be able to lift up myself from the floors… fly like a kite; reach the stars and sit on the crescent moon with a fishing pole. I will fish orcas and swim the seas of roses of the Milky Way Galaxy.


And these snake print ballerina flats… so adorable. From Vera Wang. 


I think they would look lovely with this skirt...


Or perhaps with this one… 


Oh oh and have I shown you my new necklace? Taking it with me to Tuscany too!


Love the whopping pendant.

Did I hear you asked about my hair? Yes yes, I’m a brunette again! Didn’t I just mention I’m one fry short of a Happy Meal these days?  Blame the weather.  But that's OK... I'm sure I’ll recover my sanity again as soon as spring steps in the garden… although I’ll probably be a blond again by then... he he)

In the mean time while my voyages begin, I’m here at home trying to ease the winter blues… I've been working on my inspiration board today... lovely antique photography... bits ‘n bobs... favorite decorating books are inspiration too...



Going back to the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun”... what I love is what the writer who buys that lovely villa in Tuscany hoping it will lead to a change in her life learns about life at the end of the movie, which is basically that as we live our lives sometimes the things we dream of are right before our eyes. Ummmm... really?

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Winter solace

A smile, a laugh, sunny days, a garden filled with roses, starry nights, warm firefly illuminated evenings, being silly, chocolate; these are some of the things that make me happy… but as the weather goes, it’s just freezing rain falling in sheets; tough and tenacious, clinging to every object it touches… thick ice under your feet; sunless days above your head.


Oh I know of someone waiting for the arrival of spring by the magic door... elfin' magic, fairy magic, sunny days and dreams and voyages; someone waiting patiently for the magic door to swing wide open for those with the heart to feel it... yes, feel it, there is this with magic doors you know: you may not see them even as you are passing by it... so yes, you do have to feel the magic before you see it... get it?


A dark gloominess hangs heavily on the atmosphere—like claws of some mythological beast over its pray the land, but if one thing brings happiness, aside from the birds, of course, are my geraniums from last summer...


They are a continued source of joy to me.


They bring a happy touch of green, life and the perfume of the outsides to my days—a sure remainder that winter is not forever. 


It amazes me that they are still thriving in the worse of winter, it’s a miracle in itself... they give such life and joy to the otherwise dusky atmosphere of our winter bedroom.



How do you cope with the dark days of winter? Oh do share. It gives me hope to know that I'm not alone in this white world..

Be Peaceful.
Float Away.
Have a most beautiful week


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Little joys on a winter's day

It doesn’t matter how many layers of clothes you wear—bitter cold wind nibbles at your skin, frozen toes, sloppy slush; and when you walk and breathe, you look like a living chimney—smoke coming out of your nose and mouth. Watery eyes don’t let you see clearly, your ears ache, and it hurt to walk. You lose feeling of some parts of your body, and thus you can’t really tell whether if perhaps your nose is dripping stuff or if it’s just water from the condensation of the atmosphere what your tongue is savoring… your finger tips may turn blue and your bones crack and scream at you...


 OK ok… this is winter... It's supposed to be cold, I know.


But it surely is not fun living with wind chill of minus 16 degrees for days and days and weeks… augrrrrrr!!



Birds are my salvation. Have I mentioned that already? ;)


What a privilege is to see and hear and have such a gathering of friends in my backyard during these super extra cold days. And the garden is much like a sanctuary for birds these days. There’s nothing more pleasant to me than waking up in the morning to the wonderful sounds of the sweet chirping of birds. My friend the Northern Flicker calls me from the same tree every morning so that I know he’s there… hi makes a loud, rolling rattle that sounds almost like he’s saying “wake up wake up”. And then, I am so fortunate to have several varieties of birds feeding from my food platters… Mourning doves, and robins and juncos and the Black capped Chickadee and sparrows—they all gather by the angel bird feeder statue, as if knowing that they will all be fed equally. Each unique and special to the angel who nourish and provides for them… it is a festivity out there; such merrymaking of wings and twirling. I can almost hear the birds singing in human voices: “He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love”. (Song of Solomon 2:4)

And then this Monday… Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for all you did for humanity, for your wisdom to truly understand that all of humanity is created equally in God’s image, and for allowing me to stay home an extra day.  Such joy!





A bit of beauty for today... Feel free to pin my photos ~ photo credit back to me is always appreciated.

Oh and have I told you?  It's a secret, but I must tell... Eve has been visiting the house in the roses... Yes yes—Eve, the owner of Eden walks here.  What a privilege!  Love to read her comments.  And yours too, of course!  ;)




Sunday, January 20, 2013

Of birds...

I know of a peculiar little old woman, in the old cottage with the garden at the bend of the road. In summertime, when the skies are blue and warm breezes carry with them the scent of wildflowers, I love to walk by this old lady's little cottage. I love the smell of her garden; especially in the summer when she has lots of vegetable and herbs in it. She grows lush tomatoes and gigantic sunflowers. She let rabbits eat her lettuce and crows nibble on the fruit of her crops. Neighboring cats find ways to get to this old woman's cottage garden whenever possible. They love to amble silently through it; through the crimson and purple blossoms growing there.

This little old lady loves birds too, and I'm sure she has a special bond with birds. Birds fly to her garden in flocks. It doesn't matter if she live in the city. Birds that live in open spaces or near woods edge, thickets and tall grasses, somehow find her garden and seem to enjoy it as much as the Cuckoo, black-billed and the ordinary birds you'll find in any backyard...



The neighborhood children say that this old lady in the old cottage at the bend of the road hypnotizes birds with her singing—songs they cannot understand; songs sung in some strange language. Silly kids.


Yesterday, the little old woman in the old cottage cleaned and filled each and every birdfeeder in her garden with all sorts of goodies for the birds. One little Robin discovered the treats and minutes later Robins flew in flocks of hundreds to her garden...


I happened to observed this phenomenon from my very own backyard, a couple of houses down the road. It was amazing seeing so many robins in the old woman's little cottage garden; all swirling and twirling, and gliding through the air.



It almost felt as if in a Hitchcock's suspense movie.  "The birds"... have you seen that movie? Creepy. But not to the old woman. She was in heaven if you asked me...


You should had seem the smile on the old woman's face. You could almost feel her joy. How happy she felt with the birds gathering in her garden. I bet they show up every day to visit her and to get fed. But the main thing I love about this story and what I saw yesterday is that it serves as a great reminder that even the simplest things in life can bring us great joy...



"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all." ~Laura Ingalls Wilder





Friday, January 18, 2013

Inner joy

Hello dear friends… Oh the weather outside is frightful… I so hope this freezing January evening finds you comfortably warm—a nice fire burning brightly on you hearth while frost jewels sparkle and glow outside…

It is so nice to be able to come here—this special place I so dearly love. Talking to you and telling you the little stories of my life it really is a catharsis… although really, sometimes I think it’s just me and my computer in an absolute lonesome Universe. Thank you to those of you who take the time to say hello and assure me that I’m not alone.

Thank you also for your comments, and to those of you who emailed me with your concerns about my last post. I'm overjoyed, because I have recuperated a great portion of my photographs by accessing Picasa and from my blogs. Some of the photographs I will never get back, but I have what I need. And there’s always a beginning to every end. Life is a great magician you know; it reconstructs itself and its moments again and again. So I will forget what’s behind and start anew. Make new memories; new recollections. Oh, and about my Wicket Witch of the West at the office… well, we don’t have to live our life in “Victimville” do we? However, it is hard to escape certain situations in life; particularly when your boss is the one being downright abusive. He has the complete control over your most basic human needs, your ability to put food on the table and a roof over your head, and I need a job. And besides, I’m not a quitter. So I will build a shield of indifference around me and work extra hard on seeing life, and people, through difference lenses. Optimism and positive thinking is so important to our wellbeing. Looking on the bright side of life surely helps. Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones takes practice, but this is so necessary.

It's all good -- really! :-)

Finding the lost—what delight and joy that is! And what a blessing it has been to be able to relived old times; the remembrances and joys of moments in time forever gone, but too, captured forever through photographs. What a blessing. I've discovered many photographs which I hadn’t seen in years and even had forgotten I had them. I so enjoyed seeing them again. See, there’s always a positive side of everything. I am totally thrilled. Here are some of my lost and found pictures… enjoy!











Just looking at those photographs lift up my spirit... I'm so so ready for the arrival of spring...  oh oh are you feeling what I'm feeling?  I don't know why, but these words keep coming to my thoughts... and to my lips: "You are my strength when I am weak, you are the treasure that I seek.... when I fall down, You pick me up, when I am dry, You fill my cup... You are my all in all"...

Blessings my friend! 

You are welcome to pin my pics. Credit is always appreciated.