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March 2013

03/23/2013

in this house

 

In this house

 

In this house, we skip rope in the kitchen

and shove the furniture about to make way for handstands,

cartwheels, building huge towers of Jenga blocks,

or five puzzles in an afternoon.

In this house we throw a mattress down on the floor of the front room

so teenagers can sleep over.

In this house, the mattress stays there, because, have you tried this?

(A mattress in the middle of the common space is like an easy and soft place to land, at any point in the

day).  

In this house there are tomatoes and avocadoes hanging out next to the bananas and oranges, and

coconut milk in the fridge, cookies in the jar, and neopolitan in the freezer.

In this house there is a half finished sky light, floors that need sweeping, and two hard working parents

trying their best, always.

In this house there is loud and soft, raucaus and easy, stomping feet, slamming doors, coffee brewing,

flowers blooming (and wilting), kids yelling, parents laughing, mothers crying, fathers joking; there is anger,

there is joy, there is bored, sad, lonely, content.

In this house there is love and time and patience.  There is learning and growing, imperfections and

mistakes, trying and winning and failing. 

In this house there is living; full-on living.

 

Posted at 06:30 AM in 2013 projects, Family life, natural light photography, Photography | Permalink | Comments (2)

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03/21/2013

celebrate hope

Celebrate hope
In honour of the first day of spring (yesterday), and to celebrate HOPE, my friend Amanda featured one of my poems on her blog Sunshine and Whimsy.  The poem talks of the necessity of remaining ever hopeful in life.  I don't believe there could have been a better time for her to have reminded me of that poem than when she emailed me to ask if she could share it.  For those of you who read my blog regularly, you'll know that 2013 has been tough for us as a family.  This poem helped remind me of the way to keep going through the storms I was facing recently.  It reminded me to keep looking for the sunshine.
It reminded me that with hope, there's more.
I encourage you to go and read Amanda's blog and get to know her. She is a ray of sunshine (hence the name of her blog) and she is a beautiful writer.  Her words are real, genuine, and well placed.  A joy to spend time with.
Another reason to check her out is to follow her journey as she continues to work and live as a teacher in China.  
Today's image is a photo I captured last spring at my daughter's school during fun fair.  I love the innocence of a cute little yellow duck being held in the sweet and sticky hands of my little duck.  A picture of hope and joy and all good things.
Happy Thursday. friends.  I'm going to be enjoying another day with my little tribe as we take it easy and lounge in the springtime air during the springtime school break.  

Posted at 06:30 AM in courage, Family life, natural light photography, Photography, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1)

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03/18/2013

refocus

Refocus priorities

 

Reinvent.  Recover.  Return.  Realize.  Reconstruct. Rehabilitate. Reborn. Relive. Redo. Rethink. Recalibrate. Refocus.

 

I have been uncovering, discovering, and hearing retellings of people returning from disaster and distress.  I have been living it.  I have been doing it, I have been helping through it.  I am listening to it, seeing it, feeling it.  It is everywhere and we are in it.  Fully.

Everywhere I look, I see words describing this.  People are shouting to me.  The storms, the mess, the chaos, the dark.  

But, these troubling times speak of brighter days ahead.

 The grasses are growing agian.  The sap is running and I am moving in a whirlwind direction.  The storm of my life is catching speed and I feel the crux, the eye, the point, the climax is almost here.

We are almost there.

In the cradle of being almost there, I am drawn to refocus.  Recalibrate. Return. Redo.  I am drawn into the fever of Mercury Retrograde.

I need to drink more water and take kinder care of myself.  I need to challenge my body and clean up my thoughts. My kids need to be my landing spot of gentle and compassion.  I need to be kinder to them.  Lighter.  Reconnected.

I need to keep steady on the things my husband does that show his love.  He's a practical man and his love comes through that way.  I'm romantic and sensitive and touchy feely all over the place.  My love comes through that way.  We need to do better at meeting in the middle.  But for now, I must refocus my energy around him and all the love he surrounds us in by keeping us safe and warm.

I need to rethink my thinking and repurpose my purpose.  Recycle my goals and reuse what still makes sense.  Redo. Reconstruct.  I need to find my center--not anybody else's--mine.  My own.  I need to outline it, write it, paint it, draw it.  DO IT.

I need to shut out the voices.  Shut off the damn internet.  This shit is addicting and not always in the best way.  I was reluctant to jump into all the media when it first came about, and I now see why.  My heart has a hard time ingesting, digesting, all the noise.  And the thoughts. And the barrage of stuff.  I love it for many reasons and hate it for many.  I need to recalibrate our relationship.  Reinvent it, maybe.  I will be the first to admit that I contribute to the noise quite well.  It's moderate in comparison to many and I really do the posting for me because its a record of this life and these thoughts and these feelings.  That's why I love it.  The part I have to get over is the listening and watching how others are doing life and thinking I am inadequate somehow.  That I don't do life as well.  I need to remember that even reality media is cloaked in a mask. We are all wearing a mask.  I want to peek out from my mask once in awhile and show up as me and be OKAY with that.

I want to refocus.

Hey, Monday, let's be friends and see if we can get some of these priorities shifting, shall we?

Happy week friends.  Thank you for continuing to show up here and take a peek at me and my thinking-dumps.  I do love that you're here, and I'm happy to hear your thoughts, if you feel inclined to share.  Or just say hi!  Please, do say hi sometime.

 

 

Posted at 05:30 AM in design, Family life, fonts, Project Life Digital, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0)

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03/13/2013

How do I want to feel.

Lilly-pad-blog-image

 

It is the new moon on a Monday evening and March is fully engaged and happening.  This year of 2013 is barrelling quickly down the track toward summer and I am nowhere close to the place I imagined myself to be at this moment.  Instead, I am on an intense journey of discovery, still tripping through electric fences and getting caught up on thorny wires from time to time.

But, nonetheless, I feel blessed to be going through the big messes and coming out the other side with an arsenal of life lessons in my artillery.  I feel somehow content to know the pain of deep, deep hurt because when it disappears, pure love pours in and fills its place, which is a beautiful thing to behold.

On this new moon Monday evening I feel inclined to jot down a few simple things about my home, family and private world that I want to work toward making better in the coming month.

When I think of how I can improve my home, family and private life I feel a strong sense of contentment.  Meaning, that in order to make the home and family life work smoothly, I have to operate from a center of contentment. Knowing my children and husband are safe and healthy, spending time with family and friends, making art, enjoying nature, having a simple yet beautiful home which is comfortable and uncluttered.  These things bring me joy and contentment and I want to experience them more often so I can feel more content and have more grace and tenderness in my everyday connections.

Spending more time on art to fill the walls of my home, saving money to buy items I love which will make my home feel like a home (as opposed to a house) and collecting items from nature when we spend days together outdoors as a family, are all the ways I intend to nurture contentment in my heart so that as I navigate the debris in the river, along the path, through the fences, and over the thorny branches I am better equipped to do it with grace.  I want to be graceful, tender, kind, compassionate and strong in my daily transactions.  I want to feel content.

When you think of the way you want to feel and what you want your life to look like what comes to mind?  How do you want to feel?

 

Soon, I will have more exciting art to share.  I've been holding back with sharing a bit this month because it started to feel vulnerable and because it also started to lose the excitement once pieces were shared before they were finished.  I don't know if I will continue this trend or if I will start sharing again once my life starts humming along in a more normal pace, but for now as I tumble through the weeds, I am keeping my work close to home.  Maybe I need to hold my artwork babies close right now, so  I can help my heart bear the weight of transitioning a child into adulthood.

Happy Wednesday.

Posted at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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03/06/2013

Sunshine and hope.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo collage

 

 

Last week the Pineapple Express swept through the west coast of the island and touched in, ever-so- slightly along the south-end where I live.  It was beautiful. Sure, there was lots of wet, wet heavy rains but the temperatures were so warm and balmy we felt like running around in our underwear.  Ok, maybe I'm making that up, but still, you get the idea.

Coincidentally, I was surfing through my iphoto archives from last spring and summer and found so many gorgeous photographs of what it really looks like around here when the sun is warm and the land is dry.  This place is magical.  I mean, just look at some of those shots!  This collage DOES NOT do them justice, so I will be posting some of my faves out of this collage on their own over the next few weeks.  It is my hope that looking at pictures of sunshine and flowers will help to spruce up the sad, dark parts in my heart.  And maybe they will bridge the gap between soggy old March and sunny, sweet May.  

It is my hope.

Today I have a day off from my retail job and I am going to spend it knocking a few mundane things off my annoying to-do list.  Later I will be running around tending to appointments and such with my boy, in the aim to see what we can do to mend his broken heart and spirit.  It's March and that means we have a seventeen-year-old on the horizon and spring break to look forward to.  I'm ready for a break, and I'm ready for spring.  I am NOT ready for a seventeen year-old child, but life doesn't care about that, so I better just get used to it.  My little kid is almost a man, and this mama's heart is cracking wide open with that reality.

 

Sigh.......

Happy Wednesday.

Posted at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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03/04/2013

Can't get enough.

Oranges
Island skies in winter
Goat cheese and banana peppers
Drawing
Painting
Sumi brush script
Blogging from my phone
Spring colour pallets
Time to think
Bare boned trees
Tree bark patterns
Comments on my blog.............
Playing with my wicked cool new apps
Roasted veg
Time to play
Looking at my new nephew
Hanging with my kids and hugging the snot out of them!

Can't get enough!! Want more.

Happy Trails Monday.

Can't get enough.

Can't get enough.

Can't get enough.

Can't get enough.

Can't get enough.

Posted at 06:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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03/02/2013

And the winner is........

Posted at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Get out there and explore the world. Run through the streets, sing with the birds, climb the trees. Be wild. Enjoy this life of yours.

Happy weekend!!


Posted at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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03/01/2013

Thanks, February.

 

Seems hard to reflect on a month that whizzed by so fast I couldn't comprehend that yesterday was the LAST DAY.  ALREADY.

February is funny that way.  Some years it seems like its FEBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRUARY.  Then other years it's like FebrMarch.

If I try hard enough though, I'm feeling some good vibes when I meditate on the four fast weeks that made up this month.  

In February we enjoyed warmer temps and lighter days.  The days lasted longer, stretching themselves ever-so-slightly into 6:00 pm.  That was nice.

In February we enjoyed a fun trip to Victoria where we took our sweet girl on a horse-drawn carriage ride through James Bay.  That was wonderful.

In February I spent a lot of evenings with my sketchbook and the last few days were spent in the studio with some glorious reds and blues and yellows on my palette.  That was delicious.

In February, we had some long hard talks with our boy, but those stormy days lead to blue skies later.  His black cloud is slowly breaking up and his face has been shining brighter with smiles and laughing eyes. That was heartwarming in the best way.

In February we celebrated the first "family day" stat holiday in our province.  We spent it hiking out on bluffs and finding secret tree forts, and later we had a beautiful dinner with my mom, sister and her wonderful family. That was AWESOMESAUCE.

In February we welcomed a new wee babe into our hearts called Liam Zean; my brother's third child and first son.  That was a miracle and so beautiful.

In February I came to some conclusions, figured out some stuff, and kinda grew up a little more.  In February I felt a bit more adult and a bit more empowered.  That was rad.  Totally rad.

Okay February, you were good to us.  Time to get on with the journey.  Thank you.

And, welcome to the party, March.

PSSST: You have until midnight PST tonight to enter a comment on the "small things" post at the top of this blog to be entered to win a free photo print from my studio.  At midnight, comments will close and a winner will be chosen March 2.  Thanks and good luck!

 

Posted at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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