collected, weekly

the list (clockwise)................................................................................

1• A perfect springtime palette. The pale wood, subtle orange brick, mix of yellow hues, and pops of navy, bring just the right warmth and light.

2• The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon. I stumble across this book from time to time and always read an excerpt. It is a journal, some call it the original blog, written by a noblewoman in tenth century Japan. Although it doesn't beckon me to read it in it's entirety, there are many elements that draw me in. I like that the passing of time is documented by the seasons and weekly routines. The months and days aren't named but called by their order, at the end of the second month, during the long rains of the fifth month. She numbers each entry and lists quirky everyday things like, things that one is in a hurry to see or hear. I have kept journals from time to time, but haven't stuck with it. I like the idea of just jotting down one thought or observation a day, numbered. Maybe I'll do that here. Here's a peek at her thoughts on painting.

74. Things That Lose by Being Painted
Pinks, cherry blossoms, yellow roses. Men or women who are praised in romances as being beautiful.  

75. Things That Gain by Being Painted
Pines. Autumn fields. Mountain villages and paths. Cranes and deer. A very cold winter scene; an unspeakably hot summer scene. 

3• While researching our springtime garden project at school, I found this milk jug watering can and tried it at home. So simple and the girls are wild about them. 

4• Basquiat has long been one of my favorite artists. I just found this piece called now's the time. love it. 

5• If you want to know some of my favorite colors, look to Colour Code. Love the styling, names and the graphics. Not to mention, her braids are killing me. Found via one of my favorite graphic design blogs Breanna Rose. 

6• Popsicle by Ordinary Myth. So fresh, the girls loved this piece. 

7• This post by Sweet Amandine was one of the best things I've read in awhile. It referred to many smart articles and the practice of marginalia, something that I do regularly. 

8• All you need is less. No need to say more. Found via The Handmade Home.

9• To see what happy looks like, stroll through the studio of Kirra Jamison, on one of my favorite sites.

10• I love the mix of the taupe leather and gold in this Anaise Job Hunting Bracelet.

11• The beautiful work called Gau, that serves as my background, is by the sculptor and artist Edwardo Chillida. 

Tell me, what are you loving lately?

a prescription to see

when you're in the thick of something, it's difficult to put things in order. it's much easier a few paces back, in perspective.

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yesterday sienna and i watched the first few minutes of a movie where a man was walking down the street with his therapist. they were talking and sienna asked who the man was. i said, he's a doctor for problems. i literally could see the wheels turning in her head as this completely unknown concept was being processed.  just like you have a doctor for your body, if you have a problem and you need help figuring it out, you can talk to a someone called a therapist, who is like a doctor for problems. 

after asking about many mock problems that one might take to a therapist, including trouble with your little sister bothering you, she asked, does he write you a prescription? do you have to take medicine for your problems? yes, you do.

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my prescription to see clearly again 

• hang a sheet in your window or new curtain, gazing through, the outside world looks different.

• clear a wall and create a mood board. don't obsess, just throw things up that inspire and mean something, the rearranging will come naturally.

• take an exit you've never taken and keep driving around, through streets and neighborhoods you don't know.

• take a hike in nature. inhale.

• read poetry. pull neruda, octavio paz or ee cummings from the shelf. 

• work with your hands. garden, cook or create.

• purge. clean and reorganize a space.

• curate a vignette. a stack of books and a new clipping of a succulent does it every time. 

• go to the beach alone. feel the sand, walk and think. 

• look at pictures of fog or sunset light, it's visceral and let's the imagination wander.

• call a friend. talk to someone who knows you well and inspires.

• be in pursuit of something. the work towards a goal makes life sweet. 

What's your favorite prescription to write?

(photos: ye rin mok via clear north blog, eefje de coninck, me)

9/52

"a portrait of my children's artwork, once a week, every week, in 2013."

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this week was unlike any other week. 
it's always that way though, right?
nothing is ever the same.
sometimes life seems routine, over and over.
but then something happens and we quickly wake to the knowledge that nothing is ever as it was. moments simply evaporate.

the last shot i posted was one of those moments that now stands still in time. little did i know what would follow. when i came home days later, with the same blankets laying there, her animals, and notebook, it was an odd reminder.

i am not unfamiliar with hospitals. we have logged some hours there for one thing or another over the years. while they are not my favorite place by any means, there is a heightened awareness that comes from being there. it makes you acutely aware of how fragile life is, and in our case, how lucky we are.

tuesday morning, sienna had an appendectomy. she had a fever and terrible stomach ache so we took her to the ER. after many exams of her not tell-tale signs, an MRI and a CT, we found out that she had acute apendicitis. surgery was a few hours following. her appendix had ruptured slightly, but she came through well. we spent the remainder of the week in the hospital and are now home. 

she is laughing again.
my love.

i am so thankful. we are so lucky. this is really nothing. but to our little family, it was something. something that is now in our past and in some small way shapes our future. all moments do that, really. make us. every moment, every snapshot. it means something, and maybe we don't realize what until the moment has passed and we can get perspective to look back and look forward again.

s. a huge stack of cards from her classmates filled with love, well wishes and glitter. 

o. a handmade card for sienna, with help from nana.

a good traveler

has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
today, you'll find us resting on the floor,
right where we should be.

the edit

i'm a collector and truthfully a bit of a scavenger. little passes my eye without me needing to inspect it and possible collect it. whether it's a visual inventory of things to examine later in memory, journals of jotted notes, words, intersection names, old driftwood, beach glass, magazines, rugs, chairs, and books, i love to collect. after collecting comes my favorite part, curating. i'm always putting those collections to work. mixing, aligning, displaying and arranging unexpectedly. 

this weekend we wandered the beach. the girls came home with pockets of found objects. this is all part of their daily haul of treasures, as they call them, which come from playgrounds, school, sidewalks, nature, and friends houses. jewels, tiny taped pieces of paper, shells, rocks, wood, flowers, stickers, and stuffed animals, all find their way here. on our last hike, sienna brought home a huge branch. 

the family is quite used to opening the door to a rearranged house. sienna is starting to get the curating portion of the process. what still alludes them both, is the edit. they are attached to every little item they find, so i tend to "edit" when they are not home. i've started to talk to sienna about how to really look at a piece. roll it over in your hand, be discerning, ask yourself what about it speaks to you, and what do you plan to do with it. i had her watch this beautiful short selby film, we talked a little about the story that an object has, where it came from and what it means if it comes into her life. she wanted to watch the beginning of the film again. she loved the big display case and the look of the pieces lined up. she also wanted to know if she could have a zippered leather clutch for collecting her treasures, that way she wouldn't bring home too much. i think sienna's discerning eye is developing just fine. hopefully she doesn't move on to collecting beautiful bags anytime soon. 

8/52

"a portrait of my children's artwork, once a week, every week, in 2013."

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a few months ago, my husband started his own company, which means resources have been tight. last week, after a long shopping hiatus, we both needed a pair of shoes. stacked up on the recycling bin, the girls have never passed a box they didn't love. this week it's all about the diorama.  

s. periodically, where the wild things are, hits the nightly rotation. sienna likes the book but always wants max to be a girl and the monsters to be ponies in a magical land. go figure. from the beginning of the project, she knew that she wanted ponies and shells, "cause those are my thing, mom." on the tails of the book, she wanted her room to turn into a forest, but of course she needed a nightlight. after finding her girl, she decided that since chandeliers are on the ceiling and mary poppins had a tea party up there, she'd like her girl to be up there too. 

o. olivia watches sienna's moves a lot. since sienna put something on the ceiling, she wanted something there too. strawberry shortcake was way to big to fit in next to the elephant, so she settled for her tights. good compromise. this diorama is so olivia. it's filled with everything she loves. hand painted shells in stacks, that bracelet bought at the dollar store with coco, her animals which generally live on her windowsill, and most importantly, her coveted bouncy ball collection. add in dad's old minnesota license plate, string, because she loves it, and a pink straw as a "binocular" like in jake, and there you have it. 

School of Life

Image & interview via The Design Files

Beware the barrenness of a busy life. Socrates

We are all living busy lives. And in that busyness, it is often the creative, intellectual, and self-reflective pursuits that get sacrificed. I don't have time to read. I have too much going on to stop and sit with what I am feeling. Five years ago, a friend and I started a women's group. Our intention was to create a space where each month we come together with a curriculum to discuss different topics and feel challenged to think, reflect, learn and grow. Continually. 

As busy adults and no longer in school, we seem to lack a structure that challenges us to look at how we operate, what we believe and value, and how our past has impacted us. How often do you take an inventory to see if you are on the road you intended to take? After five years with the same group of women, month after month, I can honestly say, it is one of the best things I have done for my personal growth. 

When we first started, we sent out an invitation which included this quote by Bruce Mau from his Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

It takes a certain kind of courage to look honestly at your life. To call up events and shine light on things that can really be left well enough alone. However difficult, I feel that we always benefit from the challenge of looking. 

I recently came across this amazing school via The Design Files, that's right up my alley. It's called the The School of Life. Based in London, they call themselves a cultural enterprise offering good ideas for everyday life. They address such questions as why work is often unfulfilling, why relationships can be so challenging, why it’s ever harder to stay calm and what one could do to try to change the world for the better. 

On the menu of the school, you won’t find subjects like ‘philosophy’ ‘French’ ‘History’ and ‘the Classics’. You’ll find courses in ‘Death,’ ‘Marriage’ ‘Choosing a career’ ‘Ambition’ ‘Child Rearing’ or ‘Changing your world’. How great is that! There’s even a bookshop in the school which does away with the traditional categories in bookshops like fiction or history and just sells books according to particular problems. They've got a shelf titled ‘For those who worry at night’ and another titled ‘How to be happy though married’. They call the shop a ‘chemist for the soul’.

For those of us who are not living in London or Melbourne, where they just opened their second campus, they have a great blog that you can follow along with. Every change begins with a first step. What small change can you make that can expand your life? Happy schooling!

movements + risk

do you let your kids take risks?

last night i listened to a program on npr about kids, safety and risk taking. the debates centered around playground safety and standards, new laws, rising medical costs of injuries, etc. but the big take away for me was the idea that when we don't let our kids take acceptable risks in their play, we are taking away critical learning opportunities. 

almost every weekend we venture out to the mountains, desert or beach for a hike, stroll, general running around. we rock climb, run, tumble down sand dunes and swim in very cold water, often. i love nature, i love getting the kids out in nature. and i love watching and encouraging them to take risks. climb out on that tree limb, see what happens. scale that rock, can you do it? i feel like taking risks teaches them about their bodies, their strength. it let's them test their limits. what if they fail, can they try again? when it is time to try another way? logic, problem solving. the lessons are endless.

this quote by t.s. eliot sums it up, "only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." 

7/52

"a portrait of my children's artwork, once a week, every week, in 2013."

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s. watercolor painted valentine bookmarks for her class.

o. olivia drew the piano. and then added the sunlight she saw on it. 

keep moving

my reply to my husbands inquiry of, what are you doing today?

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hope you have a good weekend! i plan to catch up on a few things.