bee creative

#81 reflect

Deep contentment. This is the third week that I’ve gone to walk on the trail along the bay . I was able to claim a space down at the very end of the dock, in one of the corners. There was a fairly good breeze coming from the south. When I closed my eyes I could imagine being out on the boat during the summer…childhood memories.

 

Reading chapters in Wild Comfort brought back other memories. The chapter about burning garbage on the beach in Alaska made me think of my own family history. About the garbage that would come up in the trawl when we were dragging for shrimp in the San Juan Islands, once a refrigerator. And yes, dragging isn’t the best environmental choice. Sometimes we do the best we can with the information we have, with the opportunities that are available.

 

Another one of my memories is of going into an abandoned small village that had been built around a cannery in SE Alaska. It was as if the people who were living there just walked away and left. A ghost town. I wonder what happened to those things? Are they still there? Has it been buried or burned? Was it loaded up and taken away? Or did someone dump it out in deep water?

I am guilty of having more than needed (don’t ask about how many coffee cups I have!). I think a lot about consumption, sustainability, resiliency. About what I would want or need if I lived in a tiny house.

In the midst of a long term goal of organizing belongings, I am still trying to let go of things or transform things into more useful things. To take responsibility for what I have.

I found a project from several years back, sitting in a pile waiting.

It knows what it wants to be now.

It wants to be smaller and useful.

#80 comfort

Reading:

Preparing:

(in the dehydrator)

Making:

Imagining:

 

 

#64 here I am (setting an intention)

Thinking about the rhythms we create in our lives.

Absolutely committing to daily posts is beyond me right now. The pattern of them appeals to me, the structure and predictability. But between work, allergies, the heat, the lack of rain, a daily post just isn’t something I have been able to accomplish at the moment. 

I am going to continue to try though, it keeps me focused on spending a bit of time each day doing some kind of making.

And the making keeps me focused on holding a vision of the world that I want to make real. In another place I was able to say today that I believe we take care of what we wonder about, what we look closer at. 

One of the books I am currently reading.  Thank you Nancy.

The company I keep when I read.

Other books I pulled out as threads that are connected, at least in my mind.

And some notes that I've taken...

Traces of where I have been.

#52 try things

A few more new things for the wardrobe. Two more versions of the top from The Act of Sewing by Sonya Philip.  These were both made from the top pattern.

Fabric: Cotton voile

Construction notes: Ruching on the shoulders with elastic. It gathers up the fabric to create a ruffle. 

Thoughts: Supper comfortable to wear on a hot day. I added the ruching as an afterthought.  It made the shirt fit better.

 

Fabric: Cotton knit

Construction Notes:  Cut two of the back pattern pieces to have a shallower neckline, otherwise the neck opening can be too big.  

Thoughts: A knit fabric drapes well and is flattering.

Notes to self:  Remember to use clothes pins when hanging this shirt to dry.

 

#51 tell a story

 

Do we create our own story with the things we make?

Storyteller as a personality type.

Thinking about the story a wooden spoon, homemade apricot jam and a dress might tell.

Fabric: rayon

Pattern: Top and skirt from The Act of Sewing by Sonya Philip. I overlapped the two patterns to make a dress. 

It swirls in the breeze. 

I can't help but think of a dance.

#49 always have something to read

I have three bookshelves

and stacks of books

and boxes full of books...

I never read just one book at a time, and rarely read one book from start to finish without reading another book in between. 

Checking out books from the library causes me to buy more books than I probably would if I didn't check out books.

I reread books frequently too.  Sometimes just chapters or sections, other times the whole book. 

This selection (for Nancy so she can look closer) is made up of books that I reread often, books that are in the process of being read, ones that I am thinking about or that I want to read sooner rather than later. 

 

#38 read something

I've reached the point that after a book has been checked out from the library three times and I am not done, it's probably time to buy the book. 

That's what happened with the book Range by David Epstein. It's not a hard book to read but rather has to do with my reading habits.  When it comes to non-fiction I often jump around a lot.  This can be a problem when there is a due date.

(Redoing an inspiration board.)

Epstein discusses in the book why overspecialization is not a good thing and the need to generalize and collaborate. It's something I find very validating....

(Redoing the sewing/? room.)

#23 feather the nest

I got a "bee in my bonnet" (Which is better than "bats in the belfry" I think?) and decided to move one of my bookcases from the back room to the living room.

I found things... like The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers.

 

More furniture was moved.

Things were sorted.

Widget is disturbed.

"That's the way the cookie crumbles," I guess.

There was flat bread for lunch.

Only change I made to the recipe was substituting wheat flour for the oat.

The spread was made of walnuts, re-hydrated tomatoes, the last asparagus from the garden, some oregano and olive oil.

I could eat this "until the cows come home."

 

#18 listen

Beth (Still life pond) pointed me in the direction of a very lovely podcast with Ruth Gendler who's book Notes on the Need for Beauty I read many years ago and loved.

Thank you Beth.

don't get stuck in why

What I need to tell myself frequently.

Why is good when it encourages curiosity and wonder.

And why is limiting when it creates doubt.