free skies, glad, strong
February 4, 2010 | Filed Under inspired, ordinary | 1 Comment
something about february, gray and colorless, a month of endless rain and more cold than one would think such a puny little month could produce. today i saw flour pots, new rakes in shining lines and rows at the store. seeds in packages as long as a row can go. i was tempted, tried, (but did not fail as i sometimes do), for i will order from catalogs and plant in cups i’ve made myself. no over-priced big-box store seeds for me this year. i felt a sort of hope that i don’t usually find in february today, clay pots in rows organized by size, trowels, flowered gardening gloves, stakes for plants, garden hoses in stacks of yellow, black, green coils. hope that remained even when it snowed a bit of slush this afternoon, even when the forecast called for a cold, cold rain all day tomorrow, winter in droplets and gray for miles far, even then.
duet no. 1
February 4, 2010 | Filed Under inspired, project: duet | 8 Comments
ernie and i are working on a new project together. a photo a week taken without discussing the content or showing the photo to each other until we bring them together into one lovely pairing. they’re technically called diptychs, of course, but we’re calling ours duets.
my photo is on the right, ernie’s is on the left. you can read the rules we’ve set for ourselves here. a new duet every wednesday, there will be. and the project is almost as nice as if we were playing our instruments together every wednesday, lit by lamps, music in piles all around. this is much tidier and can be done late at night when everyone small is snoozing.
countenance enhancing
January 12, 2010 | Filed Under familial, inspired, ordinary | Leave a Comment
chris sent this to us and the kids think it’s hilarious. what is that tire-necklace for? framing the face? i really don’t know.
it’s kind of mind blowing that people have been having that kind of competition for 800 some years, in and out of centuries, humanity connected always by the simple and every day, even the making of faces just for a laugh.
so long, wiggy.
January 8, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, familial, inspired | 3 Comments
for a long time now, since his hair got darker and lost almost all hope of curl (good grief, he looks like lola there), we, being curly heads, have had trouble with cutting his hair ourselves. enough was enough, and jude danced his dancing pants into the chair and got a haircut by someone who knew what to do, who coincidentally does a fantastic job cutting my hair, and ernie’s hair, and, this isn’t a commercial or anything, but wilson himself of wilson’s on washington is a whiz of a hair stylist.
and now jude thinks he’s all that, as he probably should. i just want to kiss his forehead constantly. it’s a very good forehead. he is very much against anyone touching the hair, but he will have to get over that.
we were inspired by the cookie spread on good kid hair cuts, but when we went back to take a gander, we realized that we were merely inspired to get this poor kid a good haircut, and not necessarily inspired to give him a haircut as pictured in the mag. i do like that cute little bobbed hair with bangs. lola could rock that, and maybe she will. i just don’t know if i can give up having her in pigtails. and then we were totally glad that david beckham kicks and runs around with good hair and has his picture taken, because that made the whole explanation of what we were thinking that much easier: david beckham’s faux-hawk. or is it fohawk? more pics of jude loving his haircut can be seen here.
henry is a bit envious, he being a curl hater, having curls that everyone gushes over. any seven year old boy would want to cut his curls off after all of the hair tousling he’s put up with. we don’t blame him. but i really feel sad about that, as deeply and motherly sad as i was when jude’s hair went smooth and darker than the white gold blonde ringlets he had from the first. can i have two boys with rad hair that isn’t long and free and curling? oh, these boys: they grow in blinks and blurs and in the most terribly frightening lightning flashes.
greeneness
January 2, 2010 | Filed Under familial, inspired, ordinary | 1 Comment
the show last night went well, especially for a holiday and for being the only gallery open last night. ernie posted to his blog some great photos early on in the evening. the kids got to be a little too rambunctious to stay much longer, so we scooted on out about half way through, but it was great all the same.
annie brought me some good chocolate from chicago and when i was eating some of it last night i was wishing i was a chocolatier, or just living the movie chocolat.
also, at the show, i met kent ambler, who was very humble about his amazing work in person and then when i went to his website i was blown far and away. he does some incredible things, those woodcuts: i die.
this weekend we’re setting up bunk beds in the boys room, the bunks that ernie and his brother slept in, that their dad and his brother slept in, newly painted and otherwise spruced. i do fear collapse, but i also have, on occasion, a very morbid imagination.
you are very idle, my songs
January 1, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, inspired | 4 Comments
i’ve spent the last few days looking back, looking forward, and there are beautiful things and ugly things in both places. isn’t that what we all resolve, simply: more beauty in the year to come, less ugliness than the year before? so this year i’m not making a long list of resolutions that will, of course, be broken. i’ve only got a few, and they’re more reminders than resolutions, but, all the same:
- slow down and take it all in (breathing deeply and biting the tongue when necessary)
- love more, especially the people in my house (which means letting other things go, for love)
- be there, here, right in the midst of all that is all around me (and maybe, hopefully, take some pictures of it)
year that is new, hello, you. the years are soaring past in a thunder and sound that comes a split second later. the days are in a hurry, shooting upwards like a holiday firecracker, golden and gone. the newness of a year, a very year, is upon us. where will we go? what will we see? who will we be in the end? let’s go!
But you, newest song of the lot,
You are not old enough to have done much mischief.
I will get you a green coat out of China
With dragons worked upon it.
I will get you the scarlet silk trousers
From the statue of the infant Christ at Santa Maria Novella.
- Ezra Pound, part of Further Instructions
fly through my window
October 17, 2009 | Filed Under familial, inspired, ordinary | Leave a Comment
rainy, cold. we actually close the windows again. we’ve no yellow trees, yet, not entirely, specks of gold, winking cats eyes, in the trees of green. halloween is coming and i’m hoping for leaves underfoot to crunch as we head down the street in anticipation, bags for candy hoisted over their shoulders, masks askew, the clomp of boots, the billowing wave of a cape. yellow, red, orange leaves for halloween. this is not too much to ask, is it?
saturday. the unceasing rain sent ernie home (with coffee) from the shoot. saturdays are dismal when he’s not here, rain or not.
do you have the iphone app for the best camera? if you don’t, you should. it really is the best little thing on my phone.
three places to visit on the interwebs: dos family (love these realistic homes!), the impossible cool (smoking is impossibly cool, or so it would seem), daydream lily (beautiful places and photos and things).
i do not worry if longer nights grow longest
September 6, 2009 | Filed Under inspired, ordinary | 1 Comment
some days would be better if they were left in the bed, the rumpled parts to come left under thrown over covers. today was one of these, until i made pizza and lola took her sorry gums and went to bed.
i do not worry if longer nights grow longest, i am not sorry when silence becomes singing
peaceably
September 4, 2009 | Filed Under familial, inspired, lists, ordinary | 1 Comment
grammy taking a wall painting break to do some lola toe painting. lola really likes it that her toenails are painted red.
enjoying
teaching jude to read
the gas stove
butterflies all over the front yard, and these amazing butterflies under glass
not being obsessive
lamps all around (though not the work lamp due to missing! that! piece!)
henry’s hilarious sense of humor
expialidocious mary poppins remix. so beautiful. i was smiling throughout. you will, too. hat tip, dearling husband
the many painted walls of the house, painted by aforementioned husband, his mother, his brother, and a good friend, matt
the cat deciding to be a normal feline cat
this clean desk
those tidy shelves
the studio floor, vacuumed
catching up on hel-looks (great things this summer, especially her!)
thinking ahead to the morning coffee (should probably not admit to this)
considering scarves, even though the heat came back again today
manifesto of like
June 16, 2009 | Filed Under inspired, ordinary | 2 Comments
i like the dishwasher with the dishes in a line and shiny, the colors a surprise as they sparkle in the light.
i like the morning, the early morning cold that sends all of us burrowing under covers.
i like dirty summer feet that need baths at night before bed.
i like finding mushrooms when we walk together.
i like banangrams.
i like watching my husband’s face when he is sleeping.
i like tan shoulders.
i like blueberries and all they can do.
i like taking deep breaths.
i like questions about God.
i like white sheets smooth on the bed.
i like running away.
i like carrying a giant bag full of stuff wherever i go.
i like swimming.
i like pigtails.
i like BLTs.
i like dr. scholls.
i like raindrops on the flowering bushes and the shimmer in the morning sun.
i like slow sipping.
i like happy play.
i like liking.