Happy Earth Day!

I just had to do an Earth day post. I hope you all got to enjoy the great outdoors at some point today! I found Andy Goldsworthy's work and love it! He is a photographer and he makes things from nature. His books are so beautiful.

I love being outside. I think the most wonderful inspiration comes to me when I'm spending time soaking in fresh air! I'm going to plant my Easter Lily outside and go on a little walk.

I love the tradition they have at the high school I went to, of taking a break from school for a day to work outside and make the campus pretty. The fun thing about it was that they surprise the students with when it will take place. In the morning you find out- no school today! It's the best.

Visitors

My parents came over their spring break and visited us. We had a wonderful time, and I never got around to blogging about it. We went to Orcas Island for 2 days.

We went to downtown. Visited an awesome bookstore. Went to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. We got some fabulous smoked salmon from the market and tea too of course!

My mom and I made some art. And we made pin cushions!

We hiked to the falls of course! We were blessed with a nice day for it.

And that awful Minnesota weather followed them! We had ok weather overall, but I did wake up one morning to this!

Inspiration in LaConner

Do you ever have one of those days? You know, the type where you spend hours strolling through books that are so inspiring that your brain is popping with ideas? That is how I felt last week when we went to the Tulip festival.
And we found a great book store/cafe and literally spent hours there. I was also thinking how the things we see and read influence us, whether we like it or not. And then I was thinking of how great it is to fill my brain with inspiring, artistic people. This month Amy is hosting our creative juice challenge. I love it. She is doing such a great job of reminding us to GIVE to others. I love eye candy and inspiration- but I love it even more when it comes from a generous, and kind heart. I was also thinking that I would love this blog to be super inspiring and full of good stuff. The good stuff you want to be filled with. Not self centered, egotistical, or filled with these covetous desires to want stuff. I want to be about simple living. I want to live a different kind of life. I don't want a huge house with lots of expensive things. I want a cozy place that nurtures a creative life surrounded by good things. I want it to be cheap so I'm not trapped in a mortgage so I can up and leave for a year and travel and help volunteer all over.

Well, one way of doing that is making my art more focused on God. I am totally a quote girl. And there are so many good quotes in the bible. I am going to make a new tag each week focused on a bible quote. Is anyone with me here? I'm going to do it in the same fashion of the art card challenge I did last year. Although I think I would like them to be a little bit bigger. We can stretch our creative minds and make them all artsy and then type or write up the weekly bible quote on it. I'm going to stretch a string or ribbon above my art space and hang them up, or randomly put them throughout my house. I don't want to be influenced by the american way of buying, buying, buying, consuming, consuming, wanting, wanting. I want to be content and reminded of what is important. I want to remind myself each time I'm tempted to buy something pretty that if I don't buy it, it's more money saved for reaching my goal. I also need quotes around me to remind me this.

So to start us off:

Matthew 22:37-40
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.

So I will post mine when I finish it. Lots of gardening to do today. Gardening is so rewarding! This is my first chance to do it. Something new to learn! And then later today I'm hoping to play with my new toys! (JoAnn Fabrics is having a HUGE 50% off sale. I cashed in my piggy bank from Christmas and got a cutting mat, and ruler, and when I was in Spokane Sue was kind enough to give me a rotary cutter- so I'm taking a stab at my first quilt with all my pillowcases!)

So be prepared. I'm going to fill this blog with the things that inspire. The good things. The things that really count. Although, you know I will have to continue posting my steals, deals, and finds- I just have to be more disciplined and not get so many!-The steal of the trip was a pair of pinking shears from a thrift store for $1! Score!

Where I pretend to be Pioneer Woman

As you may, or may not know I totally love The Pioneer Woman. She cracks me up, and I, being the middle child in my family (although I did not grow up on a golf course) totally identify with her. I totally felt like Ree today, so she is the inspiration for my post today. Go check her out and you'll see what I mean!

So while I was inside laboring all day making fococcia bread, Sam [or shall we call him Marlboro Man] was outside in the rain cuttin' and splittin' wood.

He asked me to join him and give him a hand.

Here you can see me on my way outside, documenting his progress

Aren't his little wood piles cute?

Isn't it just like Sam to make even a wood pile all neat and organized?
I just wish I had a picture to share of him in his Carhart overalls splitting wood. Or sitting on the tractor, maybe another day. Here I am, on my way, watching him work.


He spots me.

Now I go "help" him

I did have a rake in my hand, and ocasionally pretended to help.

Now this is the part of the blog where I would have a link and say, go make this today, right now!
Although I don't have a recipe, it's just fococcia bread. With red onions and rosemary, and sea salt on top- and don't forget the extra virgin olive oil. And as Ina Garten would say, make sure it's GOOD extra virgin olive oil!

Now here is where I delve into my past and ramble on for awhile, pretending that someone will actually listen to me. But of course the difference between Ree and myself, is that she is actually funny and writes well, and has thousands of people read her blog. And she has a good camera, and takes good pictures, and she knows what photoshop is. And Marlboro man wears wranglers, chaps, and a cowboy hat while he works his hundreds of acres of land, where my man sports a Columbia jacket and Keens while he works on the ten acre property that we don't own, but care for. Just mild differences like that.

A few good finds!

Ok, I don't know what has gotten into me. Antiquing in Snohomish, I spotted this little baptism gown awhile ago, and it was there the last time I went, so I just had to get it. Can't you just imagine pink satin ribbon strung through the neck and the little sleeves? I just love it!

And then there is this little planter- so cute! They are in my shabby chic guest room for now. Of course the backdrop is this cool quilt that my mom brought for me!


I need to do another post soon on what I did when my parents were here. But I thought I'd share these finds first. And here is a daisy garbage can I found at the coolest thrift store ever on Whidby Island. I'm loving it in my art space!
So I have even more surprises to share with you. I figure I'll just spread them out over a little bit of time.

Spring is in the Air

I've been meaning to do this post in a long time. This morning was the perfect time. It's a wonderful day. I wish you could all be with me here this morning. The sun is rising and shining bright. I have blue skies surrounding the mountains today. We got up bright and early to cook breakfast for our guest. We went outside and it was so refreshing. Here are our signs of spring out in the country:

1) bullfrog loudly singing outside our door at midnight
2) spotting 4 golden eagles and 1 bald eagle soaring gracefully overhead (need to get a pic of this, theyr'e just too quick for me)
3)the flowers
4)the green grass
5)wearing sunglasses in the hottub
6)the stupid robin don't get me wrong I love birdies, but a poor little robin continues to slam into our window on a daily basis. He does this several times a day, in the morning, noon, and evening. We tried putting stuff up to scare it away, any advice? You should just see the marks on the window. And it isn't the typical body slam- thump that birds do when they don't see a window. He flutters at the window and pokes at it with it's beak, trying to get in. It's always the same window. Even if I scare him away he just runs over to the tree nearby, waits a minute and comes back and flutters and thunks for about 10 minutes. Birds are really stupid!
I just love being out here. It is so peaceful and I just hear the wonderful songs of nature all around me, no cars or other noise pollution.

I had a wonderful week with my parents visiting and I will post in the next few days the pictures of what we did and the great finds I've found. Until then, I'll be outside enjoying some of this weather!