Heart Wall

I'm listening to a 1973 live version of Angel From Montgomery sung by Bonnie Raitt, enjoying the emotion of the song and simultaneously wishing I had a soulful singing voice like hers.  Prior to that I had been looking at photos of my heart wall.  I've been drawn to heart-shaped things for as long as I can remember.  My collection of heart-shaped rocks is ever growing and so, it would seem, is my accumulation of heart-shaped items.  What you see below doesn't encompass all of the pieces, but these live on a short section of wall that greets me every time I step into my craft room.  Two were gifts, others were bought on travels through New Mexico and New Zealand, and a few are mass-produced items from box stores.  Some of these started with clay pieces I made while taking pottery classes in Montana and New York a few years back.  To a couple I added wire, beads and ribbon.  These bring me a lot of joy to make.  Digging through my beads is always fun, and using different mediums together inspires me.  I've made several more of these, but they can't all fit on this wall, and some were given away as gifts. 

I just quickly looked up the symbolism of hearts.  Among many things I read the following: It is the resting place for the creative spirit.  It is the source of the flow of our creative life energy.  It represents the dream we wish to manifest.  

While this surely refers to one's actual heart, having recently had a conversation with a dear friend about something I'd like to pursue creatively made that last sentence really hit home.  Perhaps I need to surround myself with even more of these clay-bead-ribbon-wire heart tchotchkes to encourage my creative spirit and to find the courage to do what my heart is telling me to do - to manifest a very specific dream.  Funny how we find things precisely when we need to.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. It’s what the sunflowers do. – Helen Keller

Sunflowers are believed to represent varied things to various cultures and faiths - loyalty, warmth, admiration, longevity, lasting happiness, bounty, appreciation, gratitude, harvest, friendship, and vitality.  

I've read that Victorian England took assigning meaning to specific flowers to a whole new level due to the social restrictions and stringent expectations of proper etiquette of that era.  Once could say a lot just by choosing a particular flower or opting to mix a distinct blend of blooms into a bouquet sent to a friend, lover, enemy or public figure.  Some folks to this day take to heart what giving a red rose means (love) as opposed to giving, say, a marigold (despair).

While I find flower dictionaries interesting, I can't say that floriography (the language of flowers) guides which flowers I buy, send or enjoy.  As for sunflowers, I have been a fan since my aunt grew them in pots along her driveway when I was a kid.  I even have a small collection of greeting cards with sunflowers on the cover.  Sunflowers, to me, are a lot like daises or a field of buttercups - cheerful and bright, perhaps a little showy.  They make me smile, and I'm always drawn to them.

 

Merry Christmas!

Loving Tim's painted fake mustache! 

dilly-dally

 
While I've neglected this blog in that nothing new had been posted since early October, it has been lingering in the back of my mind to post something.  As in, I really ought to find a photo or a YouTube video of a song I love and put it up. 

Well, today is Christmas Eve, and I'm clearing my desk of "to do" stuff.  Checking things off my list that have been on there for way too long.  Things that take up more space in the back of my thoughts as stuff I should be doing, items I should be addressing.  Why today?  It's a quiet Sunday, it's cold outside, and the inspiration to purge items on my list hit me at around 11 am.  As the year quickly comes to a close, I've no wish to have these things still hanging around undone, cluttering my desk and my mind, preventing me from doing things in the space where my desk lives that I'd much rather be doing.  You know, creative stuff.  Sewing, jewelry-making, writing, perusing my ever-growing collections of postcards, fabric, paper and beads.  In a nutshell, pleasurable activities.

Do you ever do that?  Allow the little annoyances of life like balancing your checkbook or updating your life insurance policy or switching an old 401K to an IRA to go undone where it becomes a burden just knowing they're STILL on your list?  What's that word?  Oh, right....procrastination.  I'm really good at it.  Better than anyone should be, really.  There have been times where it has spurred creativity.  More often, however, it causes stress.  Especially when it interferes with activities that bring my life joy and a sense of fulfillment.  Procrastination throws off the balance. 

So I'm taking care of most things today.  By Tuesday afternoon I should be able to devote time to what brings me comfort and delight - creating.  It's quite likely holiday movies and hot cocoa will be included.  Maybe even a nap.  

The first two photos above were taken at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, and the others at Clover Springs Campground near Rush Valley, UT.  The photos below are from a trip Tim and I took to Yellowstone in mid-October.  

 

 

We saw Alison Krauss in October at USANNA.  It was something like 36 degrees at an outdoor venue, but her angelic voice and the incredible musicians that accompany her made the slight discomfort well worth it.  David Gray was her opening act.  Lovely performances all around plus there were two barn owls swooping back and forth under the canopy of the stage throughout the show.  Tim had to keep reminding me to watch the concert rather than the birds!

  

Alpine Loop Scenic Drive and Sundance Resort

Mt. Nebo Scenic Byway

 
We took a drive yesterday over the Mt. Nebo Scenic Byway.  It was pretty stunning from start to finish - hoodoos, mountain views, free-roaming cows and calves, a huge variety of trees, soaring birds, steep and windy roads with huge drop offs and not a single guard rail, autumn colors just starting to show.  It was gorgeous.  I kept saying that if this were a national park, it would be way more crowded.  Mt. Nebo is the highest peak in the Wasatch Range at just under 12,000 feet.  I felt as though I were in the Alps somewhere in Austria!  There was a bit of snow on its peak and a few of those on either side of it, and while parts of the terrain were still quite green, pops of yellow, red and orange could be seen all around.  We're hoping to go back in a week or two in hopes the Aspen trees will be in full autumnal splendor.  
 

Devil's Kitchen aka "A Mini-Bryce Canyon"

At around 9,000 feet, we saw Indian Paintbrush in mid-September!

Well....just because.

Mary Chapin Carpenter at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City.  Beautiful night, great show, wonderful woman whose music has inspired me for years.