Collecting Pink!

Subtitle: Making It Fair!

Philippa Stanton teaches that "collecting colour through observation is another simple way to lead you into a daily practice of actually looking at what's around you and loosens up your 'noticing' skills." It brings a "simple sense of purpose to the act of looking." Conscious Creativity

Today I had a purpose....I collected pink.

I was tickled pink that my friend Ann actually read the chart on yesterday's post.  On behalf of her granddaughter she celebrated the fact that we added "pink/coral" as the 8th color in the rainbow spectrum. As I mentioned in the post....Becky and I took some liberties with the second half of the spectrum for the sake of the art trade. Little did we know that we were on to something.

Ann's comment read: 

"I love that you're finishing with pink in your rainbow.  My granddaughter used to say 'It's not fair to pink that pink's not in the rainbow.' You've made it fair again!"

Thanks Ann....I love this!

I have grown to love pink more and more over the years.

And there was plenty of spring pink on this morning's walk.

  

This was a particularly pleasing pink scene.

I found the Pink Panther...and some found objects in the jar.

 

Thinking about pink made me tap into my inner little girl.....and I painted a goofy rainbow.....with 9 colors instead of 7.  Pink works at both ends...it's only fair!

I stitched it onto a card....

rounded the corners....

...and added a caption! I wonder if Kimberly is too old for this now?

I'll find out! Maybe you're never too old for rainbows!  I'm not!

Rainbow Connection

I didn't notice the fabulous shadows from this tulip patch until I uploaded the photo. And I also just realized...that the whole rainbow is here...if you count my sneakers and the glimpse of my purple sweatshirt tied around my waist. I might be stretching it...but finding the rainbow does flow right into the topic of this post.

Becky, Tracie, Brenda and I are going to do another art trade.  There was never any questions that we would start something new....we just had to brainstorm some ideas and themes.  We're calling this new one a "rainbow connection"....and yes...we're going to trade a rainbow. 

We are all making a 4 x 4 art card featuring each color in the rainbow spectrum. Becky and I took a little liberty with the colors....we needed 8.  We all started with red....and this week we're sending our card to someone else in the group.  Two weeks later we'll send our orange to the next person....and two weeks after that we'll send our yellow to the 3rd person.  The 4th week we keep our green and start over again for the last 4 colors.

Confusing?  Here's the chart Becky and I made while I was there. 

We all need a little help to keep us on track.

In the end....we'll all have a set of eight 4 x 4 cards...all the colors of the rainbow!  This time I'll be able to report in as we go....no surprises at the end on this one.  I just put my RED card in the mail to Becky....and I'm looking forward to getting one from Brenda! I'll report in when I can. This project will take us into August and it's a very doable shared art project for the summer. A sweet and simple rainbow connection.  

I didn't have to look very hard to find a spring rainbow in my recent photos.

  

Saved!

It was a perfect joyful puttering day.  

I puttered in the garden...planted a few new things and moved some others around.  I put up the hummingbird feeders (saw the first one today) and washed some windows and put in some screens so I could open windows. 

Then....I just sat and watched the birds for a while.

This birthday card was late getting to Tracie....but I've always thought birthdays should spill over into the surrounding days....and weeks anyway.

Creating it ended up being quite a string of comic missteps....at one point I even laughed out loud. 

But in the end I think I saved it and it became sendable.

Are they balloons? 
Are they flowers? 
You decide!

It started with some watercolor swatch dots....all from a spring set of VIVIVA colorsheets. 

I wrote about the these paint sets in this post: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2021/05/blocks-of-color.html back in 2021.

I have a few different sets....and I thought Tracie would enjoy this spring version. The colors are scrumptious! 

I ended up doing the swatch dots 3 or 4 times....I kept messing up or not leaving enough room for the writing.  

But that meant I had lots of colorful dots to cut out and play with.  Why not make a quick card....I thought late one evening.  Silly me.

It started with some random fused stems of colorful fabric right on a premade card.

I pictured the dots as happy little pops of colorful flowers....quick and easy.  But I couldn't get the placement right based on the stems I had.  So I cropped it down....once...then twice....and not in a good way.  

I was left with a squatty little strip of stems.  I added a few pointy leaves....lined the dots up....and stitched them down. I slid it into one of my frame cards...added the hand lettering....and stitched around the border. Saved!

  A colorful packet of birthday dots!

Happy Birthday Tracie!

A Maine Marsh

"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth."  Henry David Thoreau

Paul and took a little field trip to the Scarborough Marsh today. It was a lovely day....a little windy....but it was good to be out soaking in the sun....and saying hello to mother nature in a new and different setting.

The tide was high....so there may not have been as many birds up close....

.....but we enjoyed seeing the egrets....and a few other other marsh loving birds.  There were lots off in the distance...and a few up close.  I tried to use my new zoom lense...but it was a little difficult to maneuver in the sun and wind.  I'll be better with it sitting still in the backyard.

Marshes are interesting places....and Maine has lots of them.

Becky sent me this today....and I thought it was worth sharing.  

In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write a famous author and ask for advice. Kurt Vonnegut was the only one to respond - and his response is magnificent:

 “Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:

I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.

What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.

Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow.

God bless you all!"

Kurt Vonnegut

I did the assignment....I just used 6 words in my poem....rather than 6 lines...I'm calling it "My Wish."

I have fond memories of a six word story art exchange that Tracie, Becky and I did back in 2013....I loved the challenge of saying something meaningful in just six words. I wrote about it in 2015....the formatting on this post is terrible....it was still all pretty new to me back then:

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2015/01/six-word-story-booka-shared-art-project.html

The Person I Am

Another quote from the How to Practice article by Ann Patchett:

"I didn't need the glasses or the silver, those things that represented who I thought I would become but never did, and I didn't need the dolls, which represented who I had been and no longer was.  The typewriter, on the other hand, represented both the person I had wanted to be and the person I am."

I think she's on to something.....I'm going to ponder this and circle back to it at some point.   

It was a perfect spring day....and I spent a good amount of it outside doing some chores...and just soaking it all in! 

This patch of hyacinths are in my back garden. They make me happy.

Look what Margie did in just a couple days!

This makes me happy too!

Splashes of Color

I saw a splash of color in the woods....and had to check it out. It was a piece of bark covered in colorful lichen. We've had a lot of rain....and lichen loves rain.....the textures and colors were just gorgeous! 

I'm going to hang onto it for a while to see how it looks when its dried out.  As you may know....I enjoy watching the phases nature takes.

I clipped a few of my tiny daffodils when I got home a week ago and have been enjoying them on my kitchen sill. I love how they have kept their color and shape even when they are dry.

The iris petals I brought in several weeks ago are completely dried out....

and still have hints of  their beautiful purple color.  I do think it's interesting that the tiny yellow stamens are still a perfect vivid color. 

My sister-in-law Alyson gave me a zoom lense for my iPhone for my birthday and I'm going to have fun with it while Paul and I are watching the birds on the patio.  Alyson and I still share (mostly) nature photos every evening....and we both love the birds!

I practiced today on this bluebird couple who come every day to eat the dried mealworms we put out. We watched as they carried some back to the birdhouse a few doors down....maybe we'll have babies coming to the bath and the feeder soon!

I'm loving the splashes of color right outside my door!

Hyacinths

"In the end, I decided to let it go, because who in the world would understand its meaning once I was gone?" Ann Patchett

Grape hyacinths are one of my favorite spring flowers....and they're sprinkled all over our walking neighborhoods right now.  I love the shape and habit as well as the intensity of color....which is both blue and purple at the same time.  

This particular scene from this morning's walk was one of those "strikingly pleasing" ones that made me pause.

The three varieties of hyacinths were the first thing that caught my attention...both blue and purple.  But then I noticed the angles of the soft green house in the background contrasted by the rigid granite lamp post....all highlighted by sparkling rain drops. I loved everything about it.  Paul walked in circles while I took it all in.

I put my drawer quote in my journal opposite a purple page that was already there. It's not the most visually pleasing spread....but this journal has turned into a place to record things I want to remember....with whatever art and color that finds its way there.

The painting on the far right was done by one of my boys....using bubble art if I remember correctly.  Today....I added the hyacinth with some fused scraps that were on my table...and a few more quotes I wanted to preserve from Ann's "How to Practice" article.  Words of wisdom that are hitting home.

More purple than blue...but the colors in this 

Kaffe Fassett fabric coordinated so well with the bubble print.

" I found little things that had become important over time for no reason other than that I'd kept them for so long." Ann Patchett

I planted these hyacinths last fall in front of our condo...

and they are coming along nicely.

Massive Fun!

I had to pause for a few minutes last evening and soak in that sky!

How can you not celebrate a beautiful sky!

My sister Marilyn gave me this tiny bird puzzle for my birthday...along with several other goodies.  

It was the perfect puzzle project when I got home before I start another big one. The finished size was just 4 by 6.

It's called a micro puzzle....and the pieces were pretty tiny for my fumbly fingers.  But as the bottle says....it was "massive fun!"

The puzzle table was empty again today.....so I seized the moment to do a little project.  I LOVE my puzzle table....it's an antique library table that Paul and I bought early in our marriage. I also love it because it has shelves on both sides for puzzles in waiting and it's another table with a drawer. 

We moved the table from Lexington with the drawer filled....so who knows how long some of this stuff has been in there.  What story was this drawer going to tell? And would any of it be interesting?

Today I took everything out and piled it all on the table.  

There were lots things that were totally uninteresting and immediately got tossed or recycled. But there were a few things that had promise...and a couple that had a really good story.

These rocks were made by Maggie and Molly who live in a nearby neighborhood.  When I revisited the post I wrote a couple years ago I teared up.  It really IS....one of my favorite connection stories of all time...and you can read it here: 

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2021/10/creative-spirit.html

And FYI....if you linked to the post and read the story....you won't be surprised that I went back a few days later and bought The Darkness!

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-darkness.html

The connection with the girls continued for a few months as I left little gifts for them.  It was massive fun!

The other special story in this drawer is about these two little boxes....they are very near and dear to my heart. You can read about them here:

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2015/11/traditions.html

And what was in the little polka dotted box?

The verdict it still out whether they stay or go.

Drawer With A Story

My head and my heart are overflowing with little nuggets of this and that: ideas, inspirations, tasks, and connections....and they all seem to be coming together and overlapping in interesting ways. I'm feeling energized....and that has to be good.

I'm still mulling over the article I posted about yesterday....and today I was moved...both literally and figuratively by this line by Anne Patchett:

"Every table had a drawer, and every drawer had a story."  You know me and my love for a story.

I have a table in my kitchen that I absolutely love.  It came from Margie's home in Colorado and it was something I chose when she was giving things away before her move east.  It was perfect for this spot in front of the window...partly because it had a drawer.

When Margie recently moved into her new apartment she thought she would like a small writing desk/table.  Since this was once hers...I knew she loved it so I offered it back to her and she accepted.  It was actually the first thing we moved into the apartment.

But in the end...there wasn't quite enough room and her other pieces

 of furniture proved to be more important...so I got it back.

And although I would have LOVED for her to have it...I'm thrilled it's back in my kitchen.  And since I had to empty the drawer to move it....I had the opportunity to reinvent what would go back inside.  

"Every table had a drawer, and ever drawer had a story....and none of them interesting."

 That's actually the whole quote from the article....and it was true for this drawer. There was a hodgepodge of things....a senseless tangled uninteresting story. I went through everything today....put back just the things that made sense....recycled what I could...and threw the rest away. 

Now this sentimental table with its fabulous drawer has local takeout menus, birthday candles, (enough for the rest of our lives...that Peace Joy Love box is full) matches, phone and family birthday lists, and a few other useful items tucked in the back. Tackling my stuff....one small space at a time.

I'm not quite done.....there's just a little more to today's drawer story.

I had a delightful Zoom conversation with Dotty Seiter this morning....and dozens of artful things are running through my head.  She most certainly is an artist and writer I admire.  But her blog post today had me giddy.....and prompted me to record this particular quote in a different way. Her post was actually about "permission slips".....but don't get me started....that's for another time.  Today it's about the art piece she shared where she used writing as mark making.

https://dottyseiter.blogspot.com/2023/04/permission-slips.html

"Every table had a drawer, and every drawer had a story."  

I found a textured art experiment in my stash to use as the background....wrote out the quote in my own terrible handwriting (very different than hand lettering) and used the technique of neurographic art that Dotty wrote about in her post to round out all the intersections.  I didn't have a lot of time....so may develop this a bit more another day....but then again....maybe not.

This is a simpler version of neurographic art that I posted back in 2022....

inspired at the time by Dotty.