With Love

Wow, I have not been around here for awhile! So much has changed in my life. For the better, but still hard to grasp the amount of change. I work in a totally different setting now. I still work for Sonoma County, but I now work for Outpatient Mental Health Services. I love the work that I do! But enough about that.

I am back to a passion I had left behind for a very long time. I am back to quilting. I have always loved to quilt, but I had left this wonderful hobby when my mother passed on.

You see the last thing I quilted, I made along side her during her battle with cancer. For some reason I just never picked up again after that. I think that I was really angry over all of the loss, and I just wanted life to look so different in some sort of effort to protect.

This past year my best friend was able to tell me that I had been carrying a lot of that anger, and due to the stress of the changes my life was going through, I was not hiding it as well as I always had. At first those were hard words to hear. But the universe has a way of moving us in the direction we need to grow and to work on things left undone.

The universe led me back to my sewing, and quilting. It was very cathartic. Little projects led to me wanting to create something very special for someone so special to me. My best friend loves horror movies. This is something we have always shared together, and something that in a strange way defines the kinds of funky fun we always have together.

I found some Kaufman fabric that is a retro horror movie poster print, and the design took off from there. The quilt has been a blast to make, and a true labor of love. The process taught me much about myself, and about life. Nothing is or ever should be perfect. I am not even sure that there is such a thing as perfection. Look around us, the universe creates, and forms and nothing is ever totally like the one before. That is the beauty of this place and the people we share it with.

Life is fleeting, and short, we need to experience love, enjoy the gifts that life gives us, and simply be grateful for every moment and every encounter we have. Life is a celebration no matter where we are or what we are experiencing. Yes even the hardships, they strengthen us, we move forward and past them only to be stronger for life that comes next.

For me life is like a quilt, so many pieces, such varied pattern and design, carefully stitched together in the end to say who we were, and what we meant to those we share the journey with. I am so happy to have a friend like Kerry, I feel so blessed.

As it turns out this quilt has so much meaning and none of it was planned. You see, I finished the quilt on a very special day to her, the birthday of the brother she loved and lost. I had no idea of this fact until today, when she told me. Funny how the universe ties so many things together if we only take the time to see them.

I will be quilting again very soon, but this time it is one planned for myself, and I doubt that it will have the meanings or the lessons this one has gifted me with. But it will still be a fun journey.

Ode To Love...

Throughout history there have been many love stories some true from the pages of time, and some from the pages of great literature. Many come to mind Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatera, Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Abelard and Heloise, Napoleon and Josephine, (Prince) Edward and Wallis Simpson are a few who come to my mind.
I am fortunate in that during the month of Valentines day when I think of great loves, the love between my own mother and father comes to mind.
Married July 9, 1954, they would have been married 50 years in 2004. We lost Dad first in 2001, then Mother followed in 2003.
While going through her things a Diary was found wherein she had recorded the events of their courtship. I will always treasure the Diary, I wish I had known of its existence while she was alive, but some gifts are given when others leave us.

Musings On Things That Warm My Heart...Besides The Contents Of Orange Boxes

Sometimes it is just nice to stop and ponder on all of the things in life that I am grateful for, the things that warm my heart, the things in life that make me smile, the things in life that I am just glad are part of living this life, things I love:

The aroma of a freshly made cup of Earl Grey Tea.

The sweet sensation of its bergamot on my tongue.

Old quilts, especially the one that belonged to my mother.

Good books with good writing that draws me into an experience I would not have had otherwise.

The chill in the air at the sea, when it is moist, and breathing it in tastes sweetly salty.

Early, frosty winter mornings, when I can take a cup of tea and get into the hot tub, watch the sun rise, and raccoons as they steal across the yard on their way home from a night of foraging.

Movies that make me laugh so hard my sides hurt, and tears run down my face.

The sight of fog on the Golden Gate as I enter the city from the north, and I can look up and see the towering spans peeking out above the billows.

A really good cup of chocolat on a cold night with the lights out, and only candles and a soft fire lighting the room.

Watching the squirrels run outside the big front window, shaded in spots,

yet still lit by the sun.

Old film noir, on rainy days where the color of the sky matches the colors on the screen.

The colors of spring as it bursts forth here in the wine country, the new green on the hills, the young leaves on the vines, the daffodils growing along the Valley of The Moon Highway.

Smooth stones washed by the sea, sitting with shells in clear glass bowls.

Spiced cider, when the color of the leaves all around me are russet,

and a chill is nipping at my nose and cheeks.

The feel of cashmere against my skin, soft, making me feel calm and serene.

The night sky in the summer, when it looks as if someone tossed diamonds as high, as high as they could throw.

Sitting at my favorite restaurant on the square, at an unusual hour of the day. The patio doors open, and all the bustle is on view in front of me. While behind me the room is quiet,

and staff prepares again for the rush time.

The first rain, the sweetness it leaves in the air.

The sculptures I have that my father made,

because they were touched by his hands, and love was left behind.

The smell of a new Hermes scarf or shawl.

The feel of the silk when pressing and finishing a scarf.

Old things that if they could talk and tell you where they have been,

would speak of dreams and joys, held and had by others from another time and place.

The silence of snowfall.

Saturday afternoon movies with my friend,

and we are bundled up in comfy clothes,

with cups of chai and popcorn.

Friends those special people who really know who you are,

and forgive who you are not.

Cheese, all types, all forms, and in many things. Like

omelettes with fresh garden herbs, and mushrooms.

Handmade things, that the person put part of their being into the craftmanship.

Opening Soon

http://www.vintageluxury.biz