Fall at the Farmhouse...



Ok, so I know it has been ages since I last blogged...time truly does fly by, sometimes, and I think I just woke up this morning and realized that the holiday season is just around the corner and the eve of a new year is creeping up to the front door.  Have I just been too busy to notice?  Maybe, but I think I've spent the past few months loosing my way a bit...too many obligations and conflicting interests, perhaps...and a little bit of the magic of life at the farmhouse has gone by without proper attention.  Today, I awoke to a warm fire crackling and the smell of pumpkin spice bread in the toaster (the benefit of a husband who lets me sleep in on Saturday mornings) and truly felt that familiar tingle that is November in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Hot, dry weather this summer resulted in more muted colors this fall, but the farmhouse is still beautiful.  We set out our pumpkins and mums and put the plaid throws out on our deck chairs so we could enjoy the chill of autumn evenings.  A couple of weeks ago, the house got a bit of a face lift with the addition of a new roof...we miss the terracotta tiles, but the bright red shingles make the house look so pretty.  We are looking forward to a new sun porch and deck in the coming weeks (before Christmas, I hope!) and Crawdad and my step-dad are back at work renovating the basement.  My artistic shelves have been quite popular, and I think I will take a similar artistic approach to our bathroom re-design next year.

 Of course, fall at the farmhouse means time spent in the kitchen. I have been organizing my homemade Yoganoodles cookbook for a couple of weeks in preparation for the holidays and love finding authentic Appalachian recipes for sawmill gravy and Christmas Stake Cake to add to the mix.    Recently, I even ran across a recipe for Upside Down Apple Gingerbread in a 1957 cookbook published by the Great Smoky Mountains Association...I've not tested or tweaked it, but I'll let you know how it goes!  Tonight, we are meeting up with friends for a moonlight bike ride around the loop road in Cades Cove.  I've promised to bring cookies, so I've already spent most of my morning combing through recipes and trying to decide my orange infused chocolate coconut cookies or maybe those yummy, chewy cookies made with brown sugar.

Oh, plans...baking, creating, remodeling.  I can hear my mother say "how will you ever find the time?"  She's right, of course.  We never really "find" time...but we do get to choose the things that fill-up the time we have.  So today, I choose to fill my time with a little flour, a little sugar in my sunny farmhouse kitchen...and tonight I get to enjoy friends and a November full moon in the mountains of East Tennessee.

A rainy Saturday and other things...

After a really tough week - for many reasons - I felt ready to embrace a rainy Saturday.  Normally, I find myself a bit resentful of rain on the weekends.  Most of my errands are accompolished between Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and the weekends generally offer my only opportunity to spend some time in the studio painting or sewing.  My studio has amazing natural light, but cloudy days leave the room rather dim and dreary, and shopping, making deliveries, and doing yardwork are not much fun in the rain.  But today was different.  The cloudy skies somehow gave me the perfect excuse to take it easy...move a little more slowly, lingering here and there...

I was ready for some much needed downtime, but first things first, so, I washed the dishes, poured a strong cup of Crawdad's (otherwise known as the hubby) coffee, and sat down with a couple of chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.  The coffee cleared my mind (sorry, but I really can't give the cookies credit for that), and I looked out the windown to check for rain.

No rain yet.  I threw on my tights and a sweater and headed downtown to teach my Saturday yoga class.  It's important to clarify here that I don't consider teaching yoga to be work in any way and, since my current schedule offers so little time to teach, I'm thrilled by every opportunity.  Anyway, after class, the skies were still grey, but the rain was holding back a bit, so I made a side trip to Benefit Your Life, a wonderful health food store specializing in gluten free and all natural products.  (I'll tell you all about them later, as they will be carrying some of my fabric pieces including my aprons, pillowcases, and market totes, but until then, check them out online.)  Then, it was off to the market for veggie burger fixins and Peroni beer, before I weaved my way back home.  Still, no rain.

I didn't bother to change clothes (yoga clothes are, after all, known for their comfort).  Wrapped in a blanket, I snuggled up on my bed with the dogs, a good book, and the remote control.  I watched the Biography channel, napped and read, and enjoyed the occassional interruption by one child or another who wanted to join the fun.  Later, Crawdad and the kids (believe it or not) pitched in to help cook dinner.  Since it still hadn't stared raining, we decided to put the burgers on the grill and then we all piled up in the living room to watch TV.  The air was cool enough for a low fire and we watched TV, laughed and debated, and enjoyed a little family time.

I've been cleaning the kitchen and listening to the kids.  I just realized that Crawdad has fallen asleep in the wingback chair...and it's raining.

I'm not really sure when the rain started, but I guess it doesn't really matter.  The idea of a rainy day has been enough...enough to give me a reason to let go, relax, and re-group and that has been a gift.  Tomorrow, I will once agin turn my attention to projects and spend my time immersed in fabric, paint, and a little G. Love.  But as a punctuation to a really stressful week, I've enjoyed my day...although I don't have much to show for it, except a full belly and a few more chapters in the book I'm reading...but I'll crawl in bed soon, turn out the lights, and listen to water dripping from the gutter outside my bedroom window, grateful for a rainy Saturday.

The Kitchen Shelves...and other lessons in patience



As promised...let me tell you about my kitchen shelves.  There are only two of them and they aren't very long, but I must say I'm pretty pleased with the way things turned out, which is a really good thing because it only took forever to plan, design, and create this little bit of kitchen art.  The process started in September...

You'll recall that we began working on our tiny kitchen last fall.  Well, it isn't quite finished - the holidays hit and my free time got stretched between work, projects for clients, gifts for friends...you get the idea, and I;ve spent the last couple of months playing catch-up.  Still, we've made progress, and I'm grateful for that.  Always intended as a part of our kitchen re-do, the shelves, however, took on a life of their own.

I guess it's fair to say I suffer from AADD...Artistic Attention Deficit Disorder.  Somewhere down deep, I had an idea about how I wanted the shelves to look, but I kept bouncing from one design to another.  My husband and I debated whether they would work better on this wall or that, we planned for 3 shelves, but I changed my mind after the wood was purchased and cut to size, so we ended up with two by default...oh, and the brackets (you get the idea).  In short, my kitchen shelves became one big lesson in patience.

Patience is a funny thing...it takes a certain patience to sit in traffic or stand in line. Pregnancy was a huge test of patience for me and my children will tell you that waiting for Christmas morning or the last day of school is no picnic.  I have friends that are models of patience as they wait for loved ones in the military serving overseas to come home.  It takes patience to loose weight, quit smoking, and save money.  It takes patience to mend a broken heart, paint your nails, and wait for water to boil.  It's hard to practice patience with other people...and maybe even harder to have patience with youself.  And that's the lesson of my kitchen shelves - I had to be patient with me.

Well, I finally settled on size and design, spent a couple of weekends with various paints, prints, and mediums, and finished each shelf with a bit illustration.  My patience paid off and I'm pleased with the detail, color, and funky attitude these functional art pieces have added to my kitchen.  With walls painted, tile border finished, and shelves up, I am beginning to see the big picture...a little trim work, floor finishing and cabinet paint and we'll be able to sit back and...well, maybe not relax, exactly, but at least enjoy the view while we wash dishes!  But that will have to wait for another day...I'm back at work in the studio for the next couple of weeks...another opportunity for patience.

Simply Sacred...

I know it has been ages since I've written and I can only tell you that I've thought a hundred times about what I might share.  Basically, the past couple of months have been busy...more than busy, and I find myself, as I'm sure many do, simply chasing the day.

I had planned for this blog to be about patience...and my kitchen shelves (yes, there is a connection there, I promise)...but that post will have to wait for another day.  I am, by the way, quite pleased with my little shelf creation...just so you know it was worth the wait.  But the shelves are only a small part of the past few weeks and I promise more on projects later.

Today, however, I was taking a moment to watch  a little TV with our daughter, Gentry (she has been a little under the weather this weekend and needed a some Mommy time) and I heard something that touched me.  A Jewish Rabbi was talking about the orthodox Jewish diet and explained that the diet was an extension of the idea that we should celebrate holiness in our daily life.



I was touched...he had somehow articulated what I haven't quite been able to put into words.  I am frequently asked by friends, family and co-workers why I choose be a vegetarian.  As crazy as it may sound, I really do believe everything is sacred and somehow, I feel a deeper harmony with Mother Earth if I don't eat meat.  But honoring the holiness of daily life is bigger than what I eat...it really is how I choose to live...

My husband scratches his head at my insistance that the bed be made each morning.  My daughter doesn't quite understand why I use my good china once a week.  A full moon fills me with a sense of wonder and I love to hear the windchimes sing on a windy night.  I light candles every evening and almost always have a fresh vase of flowers under the window.  I feel comfort in a bowl of soup and a yummy glass of wine on a weeknight, a kitchen filled with the smell of fresh bread and shelves designed and created by yours truly, and an evening spent wrapped in a blanket watching the sunset from my back porch.

None of this is ovewhelmingly significant, but our lives are crafted in the little moments...moments spent recognizing the holiness of daily life.  Celebrating the sacred simply means paying attention, living in harmony and gratitude, honoring the day with a soft spirit, and remembering that everything that surrounds us...no matter how small or mundane...is a holy gift.

I'll tell you all about the shelves, the virtures of patience, and future projects another time.  Today, I'm just enjoying their beauty...and the end of the day.

I Resolve to Evolve...

I have always loved candles...small votives of illumination warm corners of my house, my walkway, and my studio.  They are like little accessories nestled in my cupboards and shelves, smiling away bringing a sense of peace and calm to even the most cluttered of spaces.

Things...even the most ordinary of items...look different in candle light.  So, I guess it shouldn't come as any surprise, that, my first meditation of this new year found me quietly gazing at a small white candle, thinking about my ever growing list of New Year's Resolutions.

I began by resolving to read more books...novels, nonsense, and more.  I resolve to write letters, not just email, and spend more face time than Facebook time with my friends.  I resolve to create a little bit everyday, pay attention, and do yoga.  I resolve to run a half-marathon and enjoy it.  I resolve to plan a little better, manage my money and my health, and play with my dog.  I resolve to embrace opportunity, the moment, and my children.  I resolve to evolve...into what, I don't know, but to move forward...curious, confident, and with grace.

I look forward to sharing my year with you...with a deep breath, learning to let go of that with separates who I am from all that I am meant to be.  Weclome, 2011...make yourself at home!