MEADOWS DRUM BEAT...

"Flowers and butterflies drift in color, illuminating spring."

~ Author Unknown ~

I have been as busy a bee in a field full of clover these past weeks working through my beginner metalsmithing class.  I am super excited about what I am learning and buzzing with ideas of how it can enhance my art.  Right now my focus has been in using the techniques I am learning on jewelry making and as soon as I have a good foundation of skills built up I plan to expand into other mediums.

With springs arrival I have been anticipating the return of things with wings that delight my soul...migrating birds, chubby bumble bees, ethereal moths, fluttering butterflies, even the loud cadence of the cicadas.  One of my first projects after learning a texture and patina lesson on copper was to make something with the piece of metal.  I decided to keep it pretty simple and create a butterfly pendant.

Wings beating against the air over a field of wildflowers, a day spent with my daughter when we saw the mighty hand of protection shadow us from what could have been a dangerous situation..this memory darted through my mind as I cut, filed, and formed.  The wings a meadows drum beat, delicately silent but powerful, able to defy gravity and float on the wind.  So many butterflies that day, maybe more than I have ever seen in one natural setting before.

I wanted to capture their soft delicacy and strength in this piece.  Metal, I am finding, can be a tricky thing to work with.  A piece needs good use of balance as to not make it too heavy or overpowering visually or too weighty for wear.  How you choose to create your focal point dictates your choices in finishing a piece with wire and beading.

I think I achieved what I set out to do with this piece, it has good balance between hard and soft and after giving it the "wear test" (long enough to test the connections, comfort, and drape, but long enough to fall in love and claim it for my own) I am pleased with the outcome for a beginner piece.  My favorite part of this piece are the curved wire antenna.

A butterflies antenna are a sensory appendage that they use for sense of smell and balance.  That day in the meadow, my daughter sensed something was wrong and gently guided my attention to it.  Silent prayers were sent winging their way heavenward and a way of escape was made where none could be seen.  Even thinking about it gives me butterflies in my stomach.  Oddly enough, it was a butterfly that caught my attention and directed my gaze to a clear path away from danger.

Thank you humble butterfly and thank you Mighty God for divine intervention.

Blessings,

Sandy

TODAY IS PRETTY...

Pretty: Attractive in a graceful or delicate way
Today is pretty. You can't really define a pretty day in words or pictures, it is more of a feel. I felt the prettiness of this day as soon as my eyes fluttered open from sleep. There was a certain air about the arriving day that made it feel like something special, extraordinary even. My heart did a little flipping lift as I tossed back the blankets dipping my toe into a new day.No testing the waters, just plunging right in with both feet connecting with the carpet, creeping with anticipation towards the curtain drawn window. Black out blinds and heavy lined panels obscuring what kind of day lay beyond their shelter. Reaching up to grasp them, I wondered if it would be a pretty day filled with sunshine and warmth or more clouds and rain. I was rewarded with sunshine, but only the barest hints as clouds moved to the forefront obscuring the warm rays.I hurriedly completed my morning routine wanting to cast away the night by flooding the house with light. I moved through each room of my home sliding up blinds and securing them in place while drinking in each living scene like a thirsty traveler, quenching my craving for the lightness of the day.
Back where I began my days journey I reached to smooth the rumpled covers into place, hand stilled in midair, eyes riveted on the scene outside my window. How long had it been since I looked, really looked, at what was beyond these window panes I wondered. I halted, positioning myself in the middle of the window frame and looked long and deep and hard. I moved from room to room following the changing views, my windows becoming picture frames with budding scenes of movement, light, play of shadow, depth, detail, and perspective that no artist brush could ever fully capture - living landscapes teaming with life.Today is pretty. Not because the weather is perfect, it is cold, damp, and partly cloudy here. Today is pretty. Not because the earth is giving birth to spring and little dollops of color are appearing here and there among the barren landscape. Today is pretty. Not because there is a special event or occasion marked on the calendar to celebrate although there should be. Today is pretty. Because I noticed it. Today is pretty. Because I anticipated its arrival. Today is pretty. Because I arose to greet it. Today is pretty. Because it is a gift, wrapped in the most attractive package of life, graceful, delicate, and fragile.
Carpe diem!

Seize the day, seize whatever you can
Cause life slips away just like hourglass sand
Seize the day, pray for grace from God's hand
Then nothing will stand in your way
Seize the day!

-Carolyn Arends-
(View video and listen to song)

Praying your day is pretty too!

BEAUTY AMONG BRIERS...

Gratitude: A feeling of thankfulness and appreciation
Gratitude is the first word that comes to mind when I think of each and every one of you. My heart has swelled with overflowing emotion at your kind words, thoughts, and prayers. I have read each comment over and over this past week and they have given me strength in the face of adversity. I have copied and pasted them, printing them out, and securing them in my gratitude journal to remind me that friendship is a blessed and sacred thing to be thankful for. Thank you so much for the outpouring of support and love.

I will be away for yet a little while longer as I maneuver through a week of doctor visits for my mother, she was in the hospital most of the week last week and is home now. It is a lot to process, these rapid changes in roles, as I become the parent and she more childlike in need of care. Fridays appointment should put a label on her condition, a mere formality really, something we dare not say aloud which will make it all the more real. Not nearly as horrifying as cancer but in some ways much worse, the losing of ones self, of ones memories, of ones mind.

We plod this familiar path having stumbled down it with my precious mother-in-law, at least we are not so blind as to what is ahead in the next bend of the road. As heavy as all this sounds there have been little bits of uplifting beauty scattered among the briers. I first took notice of it when I looked out the window towards the east woods. There among the briers of the bare blackberry vines was a rogue clump of miniature jonquils blooming in all their colorful glory against a backdrop of prickly bare vines and crunchy dry leaves...The skeletal tree frames are beginning to cover their nakedness with new frocks of green colorful costumes coming to life, only just testing out the barest hint on the tips of their bony fingers... I find these layers of life quite interesting, the pleasant and the unpleasant that seem to blend and dwell together so seamlessly. One or the other always moving to the forefront blurring the other in the background...
This season of spring that is teaming with new life and the breath of beauty has taken the sting out of the dry prickly brittleness of emotion...
Filling it with fresh hope. Although their heads are bowed the sunny lemon yellow faces of the jonquils radiate joy. Their strong sturdy stems support them. Their vibrant green leaves are spread and lifted, outreaching to the heavens in a stance of praise...Though they stand in circumstances less than favorable, among briers and dry brittle leaves...
They don't let what surrounds them dampen their spirit or hamper their ability to thrive in the place they have found themselves planted. Often, out of adversity comes strength and stamina that we do not know that we possess. And, if we care to look beyond, there is a fullness of beauty among the briers.

P.S. For anyone who might be coping with a family member who suffers from Alzheimer's, dementia, or memory loss later in life I highly recommend the reading resource The 36 Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementia's, and Memory Loss Later in Life (4th Edition). This was an invaluable resource in understanding and coping with the care of a loved one with a memory affected disorder that I discovered while caring for my mother-in-law.

BLOG FRIENDS ARE THE BEST...

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels.

-Author Unknown-Over the holidays I was virtually showered with all sorts of bloggy friend love and I can't thank each and every one of you enough for all your sweet comments, emails, cards, and even gifts, none of which I expected or even feel like I deserve. Blog friends really are the best, most kind, and thoughtful people. I treasure each and every one of you and am daily thankful to be a part of such a wonderful community.

I wanted to share some of the bloggy kindness I received over the holidays but before I do that I would love to share a new to blogging friend with you, Amy of Vintage ClubHouse. Amy and I " met" over the holidays when I read this wonderful post about A Special Gift that she made. Amy gave me permission to use a few photos to show you a little peek into her beautiful blog. A Christmas cone she created...A scrapbook page of her gorgeous holiday table...And what is not to love about seeing this sunrise each morning from her deck...Breath taking! I hope you will hop over and give Amy a big warm bloggy welcome.

I made a casual mention that I was looking for a certain type of button in a past post and precious blogger, Teresa of Maggie Grace Creates, sent me a note that she had just the buttons I was looking for. Being one of those sweet as peach pie Georgia gals, she offered to send me the buttons and I offered to pay her and she refused so I suggested a swap and she said no, so finally I relented and let her send them to me and I in return sent her a little goodie package anyway. Well, she not only sent the buttons I was looking for to finish out my studio window treatments but a whole bunch of wonderful buttons...And gorgeous laces...And colorful punched tags...
I plan to use these on the bottom of some larger spring themed tags I have in mind, perfect!

And the sweetest and most unusual note I have ever seen and it is edged in green, my favorite color!!!It all came wrapped it the prettiest tissue paper with green printing and I just had to use it in some way. I loved the note made from an old Christmas card scene and the delicate handmade edging so much that I wanted to preserve it and enjoy it. I made up a 3D paper star from some sturdy card stock and collaged some of the tissue paper over the top of it. After it was dry I inked the edges and ridges of the star and then brushed on a light coat of glue and dusted it with glitter. I added a little glue to the snow on the note card and dusted it with glitter too and then glued it to the center of the star...I now have a precious keepsake and holiday ornament to remember the kindness of a sweet blog friend who blessed me buttons and friendship!

And, as if that was not enough goodie goodness, I won a give away at Rebecca's A Re-Purposed Life! A package arrived on my doorstep on Christmas eve morning bearing the most beautiful glass trees I have ever seen! They made the winter scene on my dining table pure enchantment...These say " winter" to me and I can enjoy them far longer than just the Christmas season. Rebecca also tucked in a gorgeous Christmas tag that she made...And then a package came from my sweet blog friend Diane of Diane Knott's Musings. Cheeky girl, she sent me the most adorable bee hive pin cushion you have ever seen... She said this one would not sting, a little reminder of the wasp encounter I had earlier this summer. I love it and it is scented with the most wonderful fragrant lavender! I perched a little bumble bee from my studio stash on it...Just look at this pretty detail around the hive entrance...This thing is so cute that there won't be any pins stuck in it, I love it on my studio settee as a tiny little pillow and that is where it is staying. You can find sweet, like this bee hive, as well as stunning creations on Diane's Etsy store, Cottage By The Pond. My husband got me a Christmas gift from there and I love it! I'll post on it in another post.

She also included one of her yummy delicious art tags...OK, as if I had not been spoiled rotten enough, a suspicious yellow box that I distinctly remember sending to a blog friend, Sonya of Counting My Blessings, had returned itself to me FULL of goodies...There were vibrant red and green goodies...Patel pretties...Rich textural neutrals...And the icing on the cake of kindness, a beautiful wooden box...That Sonya altered inside with the most beautiful verse of Scripture...And nestled inside was a handmade gift, a vintage altered tart tin snowflake ornament!What in the world can a girl say to this kind of showering of love? Thank you hardly seem adequate and since everything tastes, looks, and sounds better in French, I offer these sweet friends a simple but heartfelt...Gifts are never ever necessary or expected here at the Quill but the one thing that is always readily and eagerly received is your friendship. I think of you often, love you much, cherish the time you take out of your day to spend a few minutes of it here, and pray sweet blessings rain down on your day!

TRANS-FARM-ATION...

Beauty saves. Beauty heals. Beauty motivates. Beauty unites. Beauty returns us to our origins and here lies the ultimate acts of saving, of healing, of overcoming.

-Matthew Fox-

(Neighboring Farm)

Pointing northward with each humming roll of the tires against the tarry asphalt I now make the weekly trek up to the farm. The first few times the singing of the tires was a soulful sorrow filled sound that accompanied the lump in my throat. I dreaded the trip, and yet, I let the tune carry me mile after mile to the place I least wanted to be.(Hay barn and tractor shed nestled in buttercup covered field at our farm)

Those first few times were the worst. I either put on an armor of anger or buckled under the weight of my grief spilling tears upon the thirsty red clay drive, unable to even enter the house. In subsequent visits I tried putting on a brave face and shielding myself with a protective cover of busyness, cleaning and repairing at a frenzied pace. And still the sadness lingered, whispering memories through the wind blown hay fields, rustlings and longings for what used to be.

(Golden windswept hay in the back hayfield at the farm)

As this second springtime of her passing arrived I began to sit up and take notice of the changing landscape. The humming tune of the tires began to take on a happier note with each new bloom that sprouted from the earth, especially those in her own garden, planted by her own hands. Roses, Peony's, and plump purple Iris, evidence that she was here and that a part of her still lives on.(My grandmothers roses, peony's, and iris at the farm)

Somehow this last visit was like a cloudy haze lifting off the distant mountains as the tires hummed with a happy tune of anticipation. The sorrow and lingering sadness had begun to evaporate like the morning mist.(Distant mountains behind the farm house)

I didn't feel quite so little and lost without her physical presence. I felt sheltered by its nearness in my heart. (Wild brown bunny in the field)

There was no blur or prickle of tears behind my eyes. (Thistle just beginning to bloom by the roadside at the farm)

Nor was there the thorny presence of grief. Somehow, without my notice, I had begun to grow beyond the matted tangle of emotions, and in spite of them, blossom above it all.(Wayward thistle patch in the hay field at the farm)

The first fruits of loss and grief were slowly passing with each rotation of the tire, with each hummed note, with each visit, without my notice.(First fruits on the peach, grapevines, and apple tree at the farm)

I no longer feel like I am drowning in despair. (Pond at the farm)

Life is teaming to the surface.(Reeds and water lilies on the pond)

Desolation has turned into trans-farm-ation.(Old barn down the road from the farm)

This beautiful farm that I find myself in possession of is filled with healing transforming powers where green growing things have been a restorative balm to my aching soul. A gift from both the Creator and the one who so closely nurtured me here on earth.(Sweet green grass on the pond bank at the farm)

A gift that the casual onlooker would not, could not see, because it was an internal healing that could not be penetrated by the most discerning of stares.

(A neighbors cow and calf)

It is a gift of healing inside the heart that has allowed me to bury my sorrow deeply into the beauty of the land that greets me at the end of the ribbon-ed road that ties me to her. I am now able to graze on the goodness of the past without the bittersweet sorrow. (Horse grazing by the roadside)

I can lift my head and gaze into the future...(Horse gazing across the roadside fence)

Where I am anticipating the sweet tomorrows that promise to be as fragrant and abundant as the sweet purple clover of the fields.(Sweet purple clover covering both fields and roadside on the way to the farm)

Where I remember that " She loves me!" still... (Wild daisies in the hay fields of the farm)

The shadows of grief have dissipated and softened like the fading day sky... (The tucking in of the day over the farm)

Softly tinted peachy pink tones of pain are all that remain. Sweet new memories and brighter days are a promise on the horizon as I soar above the shadows cast by her passing. I rejoice in the blessing of our two lives touching.(Bird soaring over the shadowy back hay field)

I don't know what tune the tires will sing as I point myself northward for the next trip but I hope that I hear in it the sweet throaty hum of her voice as so oft heard in the past... " In the sweet by and by; we shall meet on that beautiful shore..." For now, the farm is that beautiful shore, where my spirit sorrows no more. I sigh from the blessing of rest from the grief. To my bountiful Father above I offer a tribute of praise for the glorious gift of my grandmothers love and the sweet trans-farm-ation that will hallow the rest of my days.

For what do you give praise?

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

P.S. Sorry I have been away so much this week. I have had some writing to catch up on and was in the zone to get a good bit of it done. I am feeling so much better with my energy returning. I hope to spend the weekend in the studio to finish settling in. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!