plaster!

We moved in to our home in December of 2006 when it was too cold to plaster the exterior (You can't plaster in extreme cold or extreme heat). So we stapled house-wrap on the exterior and vowed we would do it first thing in the spring. umm.... welll, that didn't happen. And didn't happen that next fall because we were busy having our first baby. Anddddddddd it didn't happen the next spring, and so on...

In previous years during high winds like we are having tonight the house-wrap would break off and flap in the wind. It would tap against the window and scare me. So this fall it feels good knowing things are tight and secure and even more importantly, we knocked one more thing off our mile long to-do-list.

shift

This morning Seo was running around outside with only in his pj bottoms on, his toddler belly hanging out. We had all the windows wide open as we rearranged our house into "winter mode", pulling the furniture away from the wood-stove in anticipation of the cold snap that was due.
Then midday the shift happened. Rain and cold erased the cheerfulness of the morning weather. At dusk a white full moon rose over the half barren trees, and mountaintops, and the sky was crisp and windy from the hurricane churning off the coast.
We lit the first fire of the season right on cue tonight. And I sat in front of it thinking about my family and friends that will be in the path of the storm. Thankfully, there is something soothing and peaceful about a woodstove. 

reflections of the leaf festival

We are recovering from two weekend shows back to back. Both were located at Lake Eden- a gorgeous location to be. The fall colors were so pretty reflected on the lake.

 The view looking out from our vendor booth.

 Big puppets marching by in the parade!

 Our kids (and their little friends) watching the parade.

 A peek at our organized stock behind the display. 

 We camped (that's our tent with the maroon top) right behind our vendor booth. All weekend long family and friends came by to visit around the fire bowl. 

 And we all kept warm by the fire at night and made s'mores.

On Saturday night the boys drove home to sleep and Lili and I camped out. We stayed up dancing and watching the fire show way past her bedtime. We took a long walk to look at the stars and take silly photos of ourselves. We cuddled to keep warm in our sleepbags... It was such a treat to get some quality one on one time with my girl!

In the morning we watched the steam rise off the lake and drank hot drinks to stay warm (coffee for me, hot coco for the Lil). 

We were all dirty, exhausted, and overstimulated by the time we packed up all of our camping stuff & all of our art stuff and drove home on Sunday. We met some wonderful people, heard some great music (mostly from our booth while we worked, but it still sounded great!)  The Be Good Tanyas, Tinariwen (what a treat), The Mickey Hart Band, to name just a few. We reveled in the vendor comradeship that happens at a longer show...

It will be a few weeks before we open up our vendor display, whew! 

kids

The kids building a fairy house

"Mom, I wanted to find a four leaf clover to give my teacher today but all I could find were three leaf clovers.... But that is okay, you know why?"
"Why?"
"Because the three leaf clover will make seeds into baby clovers, and then it's baby can be a four leaf clover." 
~ Lili

Southeasten Women's Herbal Conference

Once again I had an amazing weekend vending at the Southeastern Women's Herbal Conference.  I met so many amazing people, and basked in the radiance of 1000 women taking time to go deeper and enrich their lives. Such a blessing!
My assistant Nikki gave me so much support during the long weekend (Thanks Nikki!) and she also snapped this photo of my booth when I was having so much fun I forgot to take any photos! 

from the vault

Pocket

Kelcey Loomer

10"x10"

acrylic, paste, pencil, wax, thread

2006

birthday love

From all the way across the pond, all our love on your special day!
We let the kids pick whatever they wanted. So here they are with their choice, "superman" ice cream, and strangely enough it turned their poop green. gross right? Love & miss you!

some rainy day jewelry making

Lacy Field Pendant  :: Seed & Sky

Yesterday was wet and cold in NH and I put in a few hours building some necklaces at my mom's coffee table while Alex and Seo napped. Alex has been having some asthmatic sickness the past few days which has been really hard. I wish I had a magic wand I could tap his chest with that allowed him to breath.

My mom and Paul live on a small lake and today Lili and I went for a long ride in the kayak to give Alex a quiet house to rest. The loons were swimming and calling out right next to us as we floated along, and the colorful trees on the shoreline made the most beautiful reflections for us to cut through with our boat. Lili's sleeves were soaking (and freezing) up to her elbows because she had her hands danging in the water as we moved across the cold water. 

something special

I had a few quiet moments this afternoon to drink a cup of tea and read a couple chapters of my new book. I pre-ordered it back in the spring, and it was such a treat to unexpectedly find it in my mailbox. If you don't already know about this book, please let me introduce "A field guide to NOW" by Christina Rosalie. I am only at the beginning of the book, but it is already wonderful. Wonderful.
wonderful.
I love what author Katherine Malmo had to say about it:

“Rosalie brings life into perfectly crisp focus by distilling it with letters and paint, down to its most basic and beautiful elements.

While falling in love with her world, 

you’ll remember what you love 

about your own life, 

and you’ll finish the book inspired to 

make the most of every moment.”

–Katherine Malmo

author of Who In This Room

I have been following Christina's blog for quite some time now, and it is so exciting to see the fruit of all the laboring I witnessed her do over  the years.
Visit her her at her website: http://www.christinarosalie.com/