That Little Cabin by the Coast, Part 2

(Let's start here,
in the kitchen with these wildflowers.)

(And then we'll head out to the garden,
the apple trees in the morning light.)

(We'll visit the golden ladies,
also lovely in the sunlight in the morning.)

(Then we'll stop to pick a handful of blackberries,
to perfectly stain our fingers purple.)

(We'll continue through the garden,
a frenzy of flowers and daydreams and green.)

(We'll even watch the honeybee hive,
here's one little bee collecting pollen.)

(Then we'll head back to the cabin,
hang our hats and rest by the open window.)

(We'll watch the crack under the front door,
as the leaves blows in and under.)

(We'll take a walk to the river,
noticing the sunlight on last autumn's fallen treasures.)

(Then chase this little guy around the rocks,
until we finally get to hold him.)

(We'll cast our layers onto the river rock
and head into the chilly water.)

(And then we'll take a drive into town,
where these shirts hang dreamy from a clothesline.)

(We'll think things like:
White cotton bellows in the afternoon wind, quiet.)

(And we'll finish with a glass of iced tea, perfect on that blue table.)

Dear friends, vacation already feels like it existed on the next universe over. I hope you were transported with me for just a few minutes of daydreaming and woodland adventures. Life post-vacation is bustling and busy and filled up with it's own urban adventures. I did make apple spice muffins this morning, my own little protest to grinding my teeth as I plug away at making my own website. Maybe I'll always wait until the following week to edit vacation photos, it forced me to admit I was actually on vacation only 8 days ago.

Welcome back to you and me, dear friends, I hope your week has a pocketful of mini-vacation magic. Maybe if I close my eyes and click my heels together, I'll be transported back to that river with a handful of blackberries staining my palm and a tiny little toad hoping over the river rocks in perfect distraction. A girl can dream. xoxo, k.

That Little Cabin by the Coast

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Friends, we did in fact find a little cabin by the coast with a nearby stream that was big enough for swimming. We found two cabins, actually, and made quite an amazing long weekend of them. As you know, the mister and I have this habit of staging a photo shoot when we are on vacation. Usually, we opt for a long dusty road where we can set a makeshift tripod on the hood of the truck and take a few dozen photos of the two of us dancing in the windy desolate streets.

This time, we set up on a tiny little sofa in one corner of the cabin and we took a bunch of photos, in our usual vacation photo shoot tradition. Here are a few of my favorites. (The mister works in dance and performance, mind you, so he inspired the more theatrical moments. You'll see he's a finer actor than me any day, as I tend to show a little transparent smirk. So fun.)

I am still editing through the photos of the huge organic garden just up the hill from our cabin, the little magical bits of river rock and fallen leaves, and the other moments that set the world just right for a few days away. I'm especially still editing through the images in my mind of eleven shooting stars across one rural late-night sky, amazingly followed by a blazing meteor with a bright fiery trail. My goodness! I'm all melty today, upon our return, like my muscles have been stretched and softened and realigned. Aw, shucks, maybe that's just my ooey, gooey heart.

More soon, I promise. Back to the office tomorrow and there's laundry to be done. xoxo, k.

A Handful of Things.

**dahlias, from the market.

**hi, it's me.

**the last postcard.

**my sweetie, certainly saturday.

**the littlest sweetie too.

**i finished these pillows.

**the simplest pattern: just 3 parts.

**our family portrait: makes me giggle.

**summer fades to fall.

**a cobweb, you see?

**smoke & mirrors.

Hello, dear friends. It was a weekend well-spent. We picked up those dahlias at the farmer's market and I've taken over two dozen photos: They sit so perfectly on the kitchen table in their white ceramic vase against the dark wood and just next to the dark purple figs. Every time I look at them, I feel my mood lift a little bit.

In other weekend news, I made one last postcard as you see above. This one reads, "Drifting...up, up and away". This is the very last in July's postcard series--and obviously the most overdue as it is already mid-August. I've enjoyed these mixed media postcards so much that I'm hoping to continue with this investigation into combining linoleum prints, thread, colored pencil, and poetry. I'd like to try working a little big bigger than the standard 4x6" postcard too.

I also made two new pillows for the bedroom. These pillows are so amazingly easy to make that even a non-stitcher could whip these up in just a little bit. It's just one big piece of fabric across the front and two smaller overlapping pieces of fabric across the back (each with one finished edge so the pillow just slips right between those two back pieces). So satisfying and quick and a good excuse to take a trip to the local fabric store. Not to mention, I'm in love with this printed fabric by Japanese designer Kokka, it's the fabric for the pillows in the living room too, in last week's post.

In other news, I am on vacation this week. (Eep!) So, I'm very slowly starting to build myself a website. And dedicating time to slow, quiet acts like reading, drawing, maybe a bit of sewing, and movie-watching too. We're also going to head into the mountains for a couple of nights, in search of a little log cabin with our names on it. I'm dreaming up a little cabin on a hillside, with a river big enough for swimming, some dramatic morning light, and a promise of quietude. I'll let you know how it turns out. xoxo, k.

Tea with Me: An Apartment & Studio Tour

(my thinking space.)

(beloved collections.)

(an inspiration line, full of birds and vintage postcards.)

(blues and browns and feathers.)

(my crafting table.)

(boxes arranged by theme, and ribbons.)

(two of my favorite cameras.)

(vintage dolls, tins, and a hat form.)

(the opposite view.)

(another collection of things.)

(and up close.)

Dear friends, I want to take you on a little tour of our home and studio. We have recently integrated all our new and old things and successfully purged and rearranged until our little house feels cozy and spacious again. (The total sum of our worldly goods definitely increased with wedding gifts this spring.)

This recent rearranging was a great deal of fun and well-guided by Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure. It was also well-guided by: Recycled Home, Apartment Therapy Presents, and Living in Style Without Losing Your Mind. I've very much enjoyed scouring the pages of lovely interiors for inspiration, I even wonder if this dip into interior design might manifest in a future writing or art project. I couldn't show you the studio without showing you the rest of the house too.

(the heart of the house, the hearth.)

(a wider view.)

(and again.)

(through this process, i re-found this little clock.)

(and the kitchen, of course.)

(no garage, the bikes live in the kitchen.)

(the bigger picture.)

(the lady of the house.)

Most of the house was purged and re-arranged and prioritized but the bedroom is the only room to receive a fresh coat of paint. The paint colors change with the day, as we all know, but this room is really a shade of grayish lavender. I've never had a lavender room but we're liking it very much. The rest of the house still resounds in deep red, robin's egg blue, and a sandy golden yellow.

(our little retreat.)

(some things.)

(a favorite reading nook.)

(my great-grandmother made this quilt.)

(a few favorite things.)

(a few favorite artworks, some by you.)

(lavender, white, yellow, and soft browns too.)

I often can't tell where one creative passion ends and another begins. Writing poetry gets enmeshed with weeding our urban garden, printmaking gets rolled-up in digital photography, and re-envisioning our home and studio spaces gets tucked into my weekly blog. I think Jen's mister said it best, "You seem to be part of this movement of art (+) life, blurring the lines where one ends and the other begins". Well put.

I think this is certainly true, and also helps to explain why I feel compelled to show you our living room color themes alongside my posts of printmaking and photography. My artmaking is certainly inspired by a childhood full of crafting and writing, as my homemaking is reciprocal in its inspiration for artmaking, and all these parts are bound by the same interests, values, desires, concerns, and unending questions. So it goes... we can't tell where one part of the unruly heart ends and where another begins.

So... come over for a virtual cup of tea, take a peek around my home, flop yourself down on the squishy couch, and I'll heat up enough peach cobbler for two. See you soon. xoxo, k.