feeling blue about old my blue room

i've been in an intense adobe premiere pro course for the past two days. my head is full and i'm quite frankly exhausted. i was searching my flickr for a photo of pretty paper to use to encourage folks to participate in an art journaling workshop this weekend and i stumbled onto photos of my old blue room. and i got a bit, well...blue about it. i miss that beautiful space. somewhere i could leave projects out and where i could have multiple projects going on at once. somewhere to light a merry fire in the wood-burning stove, listen to music and hang out with friends and drink wine. and then cyndy sent me a blog post she did about my blue room long ago, which included a SONG that she wrote about it. i swear i don't think i knew about this song before now. i think that may have been during that period when i was feeling invisible. maybe it's just that the universe knew that today i would need to both laugh and cry at the same time. thank you so much, cyndy. it was precisely what i needed.

grateful tuesday: because it's been awhile

it's been far too long since i did any posts about gratefulness. a mild depression over huge change and upheaval (even if self-chosen) in our lives surely intervened - changing home, part of the country and work all at the same time is stressful, even if it's what you want. but i feel it lifting. and even tho' the kitchen i have to live with for the time being (flaky (if adorable) architects and building permits take time) continues to depress me (and cause my continuing absence from domestic sensualist), i am coming up for air. i can feel it. interestingly, what's triggered it today is sabin's morning fever, which caused me to stay at home with her today. waiting on her, running to the store for the cottage cheese she was craving, drinking tea together and watching an entire afternoon of BBC Lifestyle programming gave me a sense of well-being that i could scarcely remember. (note to self: remember this.) and all of that has filled me with a desire to express gratefulness...

i'm grateful to lisa of lil fish studios for our recent swap. i sent one of my painted feather stones and she sent me this gorgeous feather stone of her own. very different from mine, yet a sister of it somehow. and an immediate treasured possession. and i'm ever grateful to trinsch for getting me started on the feather stone thing in the first place.

i'm grateful for being published - in an art book by hong kong-based artpower publishers (and i'm grateful that it finally arrived today) and even more grateful for the amusing asian translated subtitle of the book (because who doesn't love different color shades that serve as prevalent colors on the sock). but on the inside is a whole beautiful 8-page spread of my photos of my beloved blue room (along with a whole lot of other inspiring artists that i will share soon). and that just makes me smile.

i'm grateful for the creativity of my child. she creatively wrapped up the blog camp berlin presents today. and yes, i'm also grateful for the upcoming blog camp berlin.  the kid learned how to make these pretty boxes at school (thus i'm also grateful for the danish school system) and taught me how to make some today as well. and even if i do say so myself, i'm pretty pleased with what's inside.

and thank odin for that vintage scale, which seems to be where i take all of my photos of late.

latte. i'm pretty grateful for latte. and when it's accompanied by a tall hyldeblomst (elderflower) beverage and enjoyed in the sunshine at a gorgeous marina, all the better.

but today, i'm most grateful for an encounter i had with the folks at the apple help line. back in february, through the apple.dk website, i ordered one of those big, giant 1TB My Book Studio external hard drives made by western digital. i was in terror of losing my 50-some thousand photos after spilling water in my MBP and having issues with my iMac (now solved, thankfully). i got it and hooked it up, but never really got it properly set up because it kept giving me a strange message that it was going to shut down because it was too hot after i had it on for about five minutes. i never did anything about it at the time because of the chaos of our move, but today, i finally called about it to see if there was anything that could be done. and would you believe that without argument or questions into whether i'd dropped it into the bathtub (for the record, i did not), they said they would send a new one out to me by courier immediately and collect the faulty one? so tomorrow, i will have a new 1TB WD My Book Studio external hard drive. now that's service. and a big part of why i love apple.

what are you grateful for today?

"like a fish in water"

from paul jensen's "like a fish in water" series of woven works featuring fish.

i spent my afternoon at paul jensen's weaving atelier. we waited for the sun to break through so we could get pictures of one of his beautiful rugs for the july issue of british home & garden. the sun never did come through, but we did get some pictures that i'm sure will be suitable. and i shot in RAW for the first time, which is somehow both thrilling and scary. when you're shooting for a magazine, you want the best quality you can get, right? i'm really excited about this for a lot of reasons, but the best of all is that paul gave me the beautiful piece above, featuring his upcycled fish. they're little bits of packaging--candy wrappers, toothpaste tubes, etc.--cut into the shape of fish and woven into pockets. and they're absolutely lovely. and i am so grateful that this one is now mine.  i hung it on the wall in the blue room, where i think it looked rather fetching. i hung it just long enough to photograph it and then packed it carefully away. i can't wait to give it a place of honor in the new house.

more about paul's beautiful work coming soon....in the meantime, do check his website if you want to know more.

can you feel sad and happy at the same time?

how on earth am i going to leave this?

this weekend i spent some time sitting by the fire out in the blue room, as it's come to be known - not to be confused with a bar by the same name in a little middle-of-nowhere town in the upper midwest. i tried to soak it all in. of course, the house has been for sale for awhile and i've known that i will have to part with this room, and in many ways, that's ok. there are things we learned from it and will do differently the next time (more square meters and better lighting). but oh, how i have loved this space - i have literally whispered "i love you room," upon entering on more than one occasion. there's just something so right about it. something that it's hard for me to define. it is at once light and roomy and yet cavelike. that must be the combination of lots of windows on both sides and the dark, rich, turquoise paint i chose. but it also has to do with the creative corner, where i sit, completely surrounded by art supplies - stamps, tape, paint, paper, fabrics, you name it, it's there.

these essential ingredients all come with us. when we go, all that will stay behind are the little wood burning stove and the blue walls. i haven't even decided if i'll leave the linen shades. i was always going to make them longer by adding some fabric to them, but i never got around to it. i've got to check to see if i need them on the windows in the new place (we still haven't heard whether our offer is accepted - there are some challenges (which may or may not involve morse code, telexes and possibly a dog sled team) reaching both parties to the sale).

although i'm sorrowful to leave this space, i am already scheming and planning the new space. i want that end wall that needs to be torn off anyway to incorporate various reclaimed windows, i want a balcony with a little office/computer space that overlooks the big room below, i want more space for books and better shelves for the fabric stash. i want a bigger table that's better for cutting out fabric and patterns and a big wall for laying out quilts. and the colors, just imagining the colors is exciting.  it might not be turquoise this time around. maybe it will be white with purple accents. or green. or a completely different blue. or a hot-blooded magenta. i don't really know. yet. but i think having all of these exciting possibilities is what will get me through the sorrow of leaving this beautiful space behind.

* * *

i've just drastically marked down everything in my etsy shop. i really don't want to have to pack these things up and move them, so do check it out. i'd much rather package them up all pretty and send them to you! there are a few helleristning stones, a couple of pillows, a baby quilt and a scarf. i know winter's almost over, but then you're ready for next fall!  there are a few of the spice line of clarity birds left as well in the big cartel shop, so if you'd like one to fly your way, go there. there will be a new line of clarity birds for summer (after the move). i'm also putting off the art journal course that i mentioned that i was planning until after we're settled into the new place - i had never announced dates anyway so we should be cool there. i just know my time will definitely be limited in the coming couple of months. we've got a LOT of stuff to pack!