bee creative

j

joy, juggle, just

joy: an emotion expressing pleasure or happiness.

I can't pick a favorite color.  So many bring me joy...

juggle:  Usually an activity involving throwing multiple objects into the air and catching them  or keeping them in motion without dropping. Sometimes also applied to managing several activities at the same time.

I learned to juggle in college.  I can keep three scarves in motion or two balls.  Never have been able to get past that. It's just fine though, when juggling for young children they are happy with this.  They are even happier when you drop what you are trying to juggle...

 

Current bus project.  Strippy hat. It's a bit of a juggling act to manage two colors at once on the bus without them tangling. 

Just: a very short measure of time, a right or appropriate action, something that is desired or good enough. 

These colors will be just right
 

I

I, image, ingredients, imagine

“I” one of two letters, the other being “A,” that are letters in the alphabet and also a word. A personal pronoun used to identify something as being about ourselves.

Image: A picture created either by photograph, drawing, or painting. Something visual.

cat

Considering, when does an image communicate more than words? We often define words with words and yet images can be used too.  A picture of a cat says more than trying to define cat with words. 

Ingredients: The parts that make up a recipe.  Onions are a common ingredient and are in season at the moment. 

Imagine: The ability to consider different possibilities.

I need to finish today with this..imagine. 

h

house, hat, hope, heart, harbor, hello

Hello. A greeting of welcome and acknowledgement. I try very hard to always say hello before anything else, especially at work.

Home: Not always the place you live but the place you feel sheltered, the place you feel connected too.

This picture was taken a couple weeks ago, it's been awhile since we've seen that much sun.

Maybe it's because I've moved so much in my life, but I really don't have a strong sense of home. Home, for me, is the place where I live.   That simple.

It's more true to say I feel at home out in the garden, on a beach, lost in a book,  or when I am busy making something.

It's that moment I'm so absorbed in being that I am present without any sense of anything else other than that very moment.   

Harbor: A place of shelter for a boat or ship. One of my playgrounds as a child. A sense of safety.  The sight or sound of seagulls always makes me feel like I am home.

Hat: Something placed on a human’s head (mostly humans) to hold the heat in and provide shelter.  My current bus project is another hat.  I'm using up leftovers from other projects and making stripes. 

Heart: An organ that pumps blood through a body. But also something that has a spiritual or emotional sense to most humans.  A shape used to symbolize love and affection. 

I like to hide things inside what I make.  Kind of like it holds a heart.  This octopus has rocks, shells, and pieces from a board game.

Hope: The desire for something better, for a desired result.

I hope these will grow.

 

g

gifts, garden, gratitude, goal

Goal: a task that we set for ourselves, or is set by others, to be accomplished.

A goal that I’ve been working towards for awhile is to make every article of clothing that I am wearing, including shoes. This year I’ve found a shoe making class to take. 

I'll share more about this later!

Gift: something given to a person by someone else.

The idea that creativity is a gift makes sense to me. Not in the sense of muse so much but rather that by being present in the moment, by noticing what is in our environment and what is happening around us; we are given the gift of an idea.

Garden: a place where plants, trees, shrubs are cultivated.

Gardening is probably in my genes. It’s one of the way that I hold on to my heritage. When I am in my garden I lose all sense of time and am in the moment, focused on the task at hand.

I garden because it reminds me to be grateful and because I feel a responsibility to grow some of my own food, plants for my own care (mint for an upset tummy for example), or that can be used to craft with (dye or baskets).

rose hips and grape vine from the garden

Gratitude: Thankfulness for what we have.

There is more and more research on the importance of gratitude for longevity of life and mental health.

I've listened to this On Being podcast with David Steindl-Rast about gratitude more than once. He also talks about joy. 

 

f

foreword, field notes, forecast, fiber, family, friends, finish

Foreword: a section of a book, in the front, that puts what follows in some kind of context. Often found in nonfiction that is republished or classics. Sometimes as an introduction. 

It was difficult choosing just a few words to focus on. It’s fertile ground....

I went looking for a book with a foreword but found this fiction instead...highly recommended by one of my friends.

field notes: Observations made about a certain location, the details and descriptions.

I am pretty free range when it comes to defining field notes. I think in terms of acts of creativity and making that reflect my environment and climate. It’s really about looking closely for me, about noticing and focusing. 

Field notes frequently feature the local wildlife and what is growing, native and not.

I need to cut back the Buddleia but my feathered friends love it so. On days that I am home and sit at my computer, watching out the window, a stream of birds come through. Finches, juncos, chickadees, sparrows, stellar jays, towhees, and hummingbirds mostly.  The little bitty birds that I’m never quite sure I’ve identified correctly...bushtit’s I think. A few times, I’ve seen a kinglet.

It always includes a recording of the weather. This week has been windy (50 mile an hour gusts on Saturday night/Sunday morning, the house shook), very wet, warm (50‘s) and then not (snow sighting at higher elevations) and gray.  It snowed more than 130 inches at Mt. Baker this week and there is possible flooding on the local rivers. 

Some of you may be familiar with this wind map, if not it's worth a peek. 

find the frond

Forecast: A prediction, usually about the weather.

I am fascinated by forecasts. The attempt to predict something like weather with science. The human need to look ahead and predict...

Fiber: a material gathered either from plants or from animals or synthetic (plastic mostly, which means petroleum based) that is made into fabric or fillings of some sort. Also in food.

Food: The fuel we need to keep going.

These lentils are from Eastern Washington, making them fit into my "local" category.  Lentils are something that I've become familiar with as an adult and I have learned to love them. Yes, lentils are full of fiber.

Family: a group of people usually connected by genetics, but can also included people gathered into the fold. 

I can tease my dad* by telling him that I'm serving tofu and lentils for dinner and he's invited... I'm pretty sure I could make something with lentils that he would like though.

*Footnote: Thanks again for getting feed for the flock Mom and Dad! 

Friends: people we choose to spend time with, people who we share ourselves with.

I am forever thankful for friends and family... This week I have been connecting with a friend of forty years. 

Finish: I am better as starting than finishing. Finishing more things is a goal this year, although continuing comes first and foremost.

I was hoping to finish my field note blanket in the space of one year, but it is more likely a two year project.

Forward with a following sea...

e

effort, elephant, environment, education, energy

Energy: fuel.

Energy provided by a spring and a hand. 

Education: the process of learning.

Somehow in high school I ended up in a class called “Energy Education.” It was only offered the once during my time in high school. It probably has been one of the primary influences on my lifestyle. 

We studied what petroleum is, how it is refined, the potential for running out and what that would mean; coal, solar, wind, alcohol as fuel. I don’t remember a text book for this class but rather a lot of discussion and experiments. One of the assignments was to build something that would produce energy. My dad helped me build a solar panel for heating water.

Environment: the space we live in. If we don’t take care of it, where will we live? Will anything else matter?

Elephant: very large animal with four feet. Feature that sets it apart from others, it’s trunk. “Elephant in the room,” meaning what is ignored in the room but takes up a lot of space; is one of my favorite cliches because it seems so visual to me.

The elephant watering can is one of the few plastic things I own. 

Effort: energy put in to making something happen. Dinner tonight seemed like too much effort so salami, cheese, and fruit seem good enough.

...

I should have made an effort to have the letter “f” fall on Friday, but since I didn’t I’ll gather field notes for the week tomorrow.

 

d

delight, demarcation, define

Delight. An emotion of pleasure, joy, happiness.

It’s been one of my categories for the blog for a long time.

Yesterday as I was opening the gate, I noticed a hummingbird feeding from the daffodil I had on the porch rail.

That is delight.

demarcation: a boundary, borderline, a line drawn. Dusk and dawn are the lines between dark and daylight.

Another point of delight for me.

Define: To explain or describe. 

Maybe this is part of what art or creativity is?  What we are trying to communicate...

 

 

c

choose, compass, chard, coat

Choose: the ability to decide one thing or another. An affirmation that I’ve been holding close is "choose joy." Not as a way to hide but rather that when confronted with positive or negative, I want to choose the positive and act from that place. Sometimes it’s challenging...

Compass: a tool that determines direction, helps you choose which way to go. I have a compass painted on my living room floor.

Chard: The shortened version of  Swiss Chard. A leafy green with a large ribbed stem. The stem is my favorite part to eat, cooked in olive oil.

Coat: An outer layer usually worn when the weather is cold.

This coat is semi-retired. It’s almost 30 years old, the pockets have holes (but could be mended), the zipper is broken and the collar fraying. I still wear it for comfort and because I love it so.

bee, book, bowl, bag, blossom

B...book, bowl, bee, bag, blossom, branch

Bee: Insect that pollinates flowers. Necessary for so much of our food.  Honey bees make honey and bee's wax. Bumble bees make honey too, just not as much as honey bees.  

Deborah, my name, is Hebrew for “bee.” So yes, there is a pun in the name of my blog.

 

Books: A collection of stories, ideas, thoughts, instructions, knowledge; traditionally recorded on paper (or cloth) but now sometimes electronic. 

I will always prefer on paper.  

These are unfinished books I'd like to finish this year. I tend to read more than one book at a time (and have read a chapter of most of these), often diving in and out of books.

I read every day, can't imagine not. 

Bowl: A vessel for holding something, usually a liquid food. One of my favorite things to put in a bowl, peanut butter & vanilla ice cream.

At some point this year I want to make paper mache bowls. An assignment for later. 

Bag: An object used to carry other things. The squares that I’ve been piecing are going to be used in a bucket bag.

Blossom: Another name for a flower, more often used for flowers on the branches of trees. Also used as a verb. Also where I spend my work days....

On my way to the bus today, I passed this plum tree just starting to blossom.

 

alphabet soup...sort of

This year I plan to give myself some assignments to complete. Assignments to encourage me to stretch my wings a little bit, to keep me exploring and questioning. The first one I’ve set is to spend the next 26 days working my way through the alphabet, picking a few words for each letter and defining and exploring what they mean to me.

Assignment: a task to complete.

Words fascinate me. They can be personal but there has to be agreement on the definitions for meaningful conversations to happen. Words have history and they have relationships. They are a tool we use to communicate but they sometimes fail us.

Inspiration comes from a long time affection for dictionaries and alphabet books. I also stumbled upon Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life last year. The words that I am choosing are generally the first five or so that come to mind when I think of the letter. For example, agitate because I was doing the laundry.

A... Assignment, assemblage, art, agitate, apple and alter.

 

Agitate: To stir with force, to disturb, to bother, to try to initiate change.

The indigo vat has suffered. It needs more heat and regular stirring. Maybe agitate is too strong of a word here?  I should have tossed something wool in the washing machine to felt/full. 

Apple: A fruit that is red, yellow, or green; generally mild in flavor. Eaten raw or cooked. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Part of the same botanical family as roses. When cut horizontally a star shape becomes apparent. The fruit that Eve is said to have picked from the Tree of Knowledge.

Art: Something that is much debated but has something to do with communication. Which leads me to wonder, how precise does a definition need to be?

I am currently reading Art and Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland.

Assemblage: a group or gathering. A form or type of art. Someone to explore more: Joseph Cornell.

Alter: to change. 

All of these images have been altered.

And if I have any one "word" that I want to explore closely it has been and continues to be:

Alter.