Morning Glory Studio

week in the life: day 3 | 5.9.18

Wed 9 May

6:50 am - Settled in for MSQT - noticed the shadow of the alstroemeria on the wall…today’s a day of flowers. I journal and read for next couple hours… N is up early again today: he and his son are meeting and going shopping for Myron’s birthday! N leaves about 10:30 to meet M…I wrap up MSQT and b’fast: scrambled egg w/ grated cheddar cheese & avocado and berries plus a quarter of lemon ricotta muffin - sooo good.

11 am - Up the steps I go to clean the bathroom and  MBR -  vacuum/dust. NTS: Time to döstädning the closets and make a mental note to schedule the task on Sat…

2 pm: N and M return and N fixes lunch: spaghetti and salad; I’m eating later but do have a snack: 1/2 apple, a Clementine and sparkling water…I take out some trash and decide to check on my Iris …

2:33 pm …  to my delight: one is blooming and two are in the wings. Wahoo!…I. Am. Delighted.

3 pm … N and M are watching a MLB game (while they solve all the world’s problems, too, I might add). I’m in the craft room, posting notes and thinking about taking a walk…but I’m gonna need to wait a bit til my phone charges…

3:30 pm: I start today’s layout: fiddle around with the concept: flowers (photos) and hexagons (shape) and colors (spring: pink, green, white) and a grid…

4:52 pm; iPhone in hand and earplugs in, I start my walk - much later than I planned - listening to this week’s Gretchen Rubin’s Happier podcast #168. My route, 1.19 mi, is my favorite through the neighborhood. My eyes encounter a feast of lovely spring flowers: the azaleas are in full regalia; iris stand tall and haughty; roses are popping up all over, adding their delightfully sweet scent to the air and reminding me of Portland OR - “City of Roses” - and my mom, who was from PDX. A wave of nostalgia for my trips to Sisters, Oregon for quilting workshops and especially, visits with my friend Linda washes over. I sigh and keep walking, arriving home just in time to wish Myron another “Happy Birthday” and a safe drive home to Annapolis.

 
6 pm: I resume creating my layout for today - it amazes me that a 6 x 8 page can/does take so.much.time…I finish with moments to spare before “Nightly News” begins… My energy is about spent for this day…we watch the news, eat a light, late supper and settle in. Eventually, one or both of us will doze off/on as the TV acts as a sedative, I do believe...

Circa 10 pm, I say good night and go to bed. Usually, as soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m out…this night was no exception...

Cheers~

collecting april 2018 ...

 

 

I absolutely cannot believe that April is over! Whoa! These 30 days flew by! Lots of color and spring flowers this month - despite the high winds we had... and fewer photos of me. Only 1!

#1 ...Sunset;

# 8 & #21...I went to Zeke's twice ...

#15... a scrapbook layout I made ...

#16 ... Sunrise...

#18 ... Chris at Disney on Ice -holding his new flashing light toy...

#19 ... a needlepointed seat cover a friend's grandmother made...

#23 ... the binding strip for Elias' quilt (#11) ...

#25 ... an ad (on display at IKEA!) for Cirque du Soleil coming to the area...

#26 ... Elias has a new toy ...

#27 ... another photo from the Smithsonian Craft Show - blown glass...

#28 ... photo from yesterday's Friendstitching session ...

#29 ... the roof was replaced Thursday; thankfully, a bright, sunny non-windy day ... and

#30 ... just a bit of today's colorful goodness!

See you tomorrow in the Merry Month of May!

Cheers~

 

 

spring flowers...

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions — so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect. ~Terri Guillemets

 

I am surely enjoying the burst of colorful spring flowers - they brighten up e'en a grey, kinda rainy day and absolutely shine on a sunny day! These nine photos I've captured over the past few days on neighborhood meanderings...they are just a taste of what's soon to be in store for  the azaleas will be popping out, all over! Me thinks: "At last, Spring has blossomed! Hooray!"

 

just another windy day ...

 

 

 ...and so, we are having another day of 25+ mph of blustery winds, coming in from the WNW...signs and tree limbs are down. Tender flowers hang on for dear life. Clouds rush across the sky*. I'm not sure but it seems that the leaves on the trees have opened up a lot more since  I drove north on Monday. Perhaps this is one of the functions of the wind: to get the trees dressed in their spring  frocks. Their colors, though a tad muted,  are still a treat  - eye candy - as I drive. Surely signs of spring...now, if only the temps would join the party. 

My Thursday stitching group met today and I gave Elias' quilt to friend Diane who is going to long arm it! Yay! She may even have it done by Monday and I might be finished with it by the end of the month! Elias will be 5 months old, the 28th... Just in time!

Cheers~

*I took the photo about an hour before the winds roared in!

 

 

ode to the forsythia...

            Winter has returned...despite the 46 degrees F temperature  reading...so, I thought I'd brighten up the post a tad, in tribute to the glorious forsythia, my favorite flowering bush. Yellow, as I often share, is my favorite color...it just makes me happy! And so, in honor of National Poetry Month, I share this poem by poet Billy Collins, to the lovely forsythia:

It caught my eye a while ago, lit up 

against the gloom of the woods

in the corner of a wild field,

the pulsing color of caution. 

 

And now that I have spent a little time

on this stone wall watching its fire

flare out of the earth

I begin to think about the long chronicle of forsythia

 

how these same flowers have blazed

through the centuries,

roused from the ground by the churning of spring.

I would rather not look around the next 

 

corner of the year to see how this will die,

its lights going out,

its bare, arcing branches

waving like whips in the bitter wind. 

 

So I sit facing the past,

letting my feet dangle over the wall, 

beating time against stone with my heels

as the long gray clouds roll over me. 

 

Remember how Arnold by the Channel

thought of Sophocles who must have heard 

the same shore-sounds long ago,

walking by the edge of the Aegean?

 

Well, I am holding in the palm of my thoughts

all the others who once were stopped,

like me, by this brightness, 

this sulfuric cry for help:

 

women in tunics, women gathered by a well,

men in feathers, men swimming by a river, 

all speaking languages I will never know,

saying the different words for its color 

 

as I feel the syllables of yellow form in my mouth 

and hear the sound of yellow fill the morning air. 

 

A warmer and bright Tuesday to you!

Cheers~

Fri-YAY | 4.13.2018 | Indeed!

 

 

 

Absolutely nothing - not a thing - out of sorts with this day. For starters, the temperature reached 85 degrees under bright blue sunny skies...I decided, (after a lengthy trip to the post office to mail a slew of packages) to take a walk to Zeke's. I took

• my journal (Fri afternoons' Journal Club sessions are in recess til mid May, or so...)
• my iPhone to a- listen to this week's Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast; b - take photos, of course and c - map my walk (an app) - which reminds me, I still have to get my Apple watch!  This weekend? 
• my Haiku magnetic poetry kit.

Of course, I chose to sit outside; it was, however,  just a tad breezy to play with the poetry magnets... NTS: take a surface that the word magnets will stick to...hmmm. After I  finished my caramel latté, soaked up the sun's rays and delighted in the day, I packed up and left to go home, taking a slight detour through a neighborhood. My oh my! A feast on this bright, sunny, super warm #blueskybloom day:

    

I wish for you a weekend that's just as filled with brightness, color and spring temps as was my  Fri-YAY!

Cheers~

 

sometimes mondays ...

 

... are off to a slow and therefore, somewhat later-than-usual start ...

... are cold, dreary rainy - with a possibility of a snowflake or two...

...are filled with a pop of color ~ and that makes me smile, feel warm inside and ever grateful for another Monday and all the goodness it brings.

Happy Monday to you!

Cheers~

welcome spring redux!

The of perfume of this lovely bunch of daffodils fills the air and their vivid,  bright yellow blooms make my heart swell. 

Today, the region is settling down after yesterday's snow fall...fortunately, we don't have to plow out from under feet of snow or cope with downed power lines or endure sub-freezing temperatures.

The sun shines; the snow melts; the power stayed on and we're all very grateful that the first-day-of spring snowstorm was just a taste. 

Welcome Spring! So glad you're here. And now, I'm off to a quilt exhibit/reception. 

Cheers~

welcome spring! a Haiku of sorts...

 

 

il pleut all day...soon

snow falls, 6+ inches ... more than

we've had  all winter long...

maybe.

welcome spring!

 

 

 

the 100 day project - 2017...

 

 

 

We are halfway there! Today marks Day #50 of the project and to celebrate, as well as catch(myself) up, I created a photo collage with the COLLECT app for the first 50 days: 4 April - 23 May, 2017. I started the project with a vague idea of what I would do: something that involved stitching, mandalas, an occasional drawing, Haiku... and that's about as concrete my vision was. Plus, I would do a daily Instagram post. Ha! That - the Instagram post -  quickly fell to the wayside - blame it on the quilt show. In the meantime, I was taking photos daily of the evidences of spring, the season; some days I easily added 20-30 pictures, dare I say hundreds? (Probably stretching that number a bit). As I selected photos for the collages, I looked for: 

• color, as evidenced in the sky - both sunrise and sunset;  
• flowers;
• line as depicted in photos # 12, 14, 21;
• shape/s; and 
• things I saw on walks, etc

In addition to the photos, I have also journaled and  kept notes throughout...

Of course, in the background, my mind has been  chewing on the project...just what will I do, wind up with? Something - probably a quilt, a wall hanging, no bigger than 30" x 30" square, consisting of a varied background. Color, line, stitch  and shape/s , brought together to create a pleasing and intuitive piece, perhaps in some sort of grid - tho' all pieces  may not be equal in size. I have pulled yarns, embroidery threads; perused a variety of books in my stash, including some new  that I ordered/received over the past few weeks. 

My goal is to finish near the July 12 end date...my intention is to continue to do something every day that moves me closer to a tangible end product. I am looking forward to whatever materializes.

Watch this space...

Cheers~

Click on photos to enlarge and let me know if you want more info about any photo...