Um.

When in doubt, just throw some flower pix up on the old blog. Am I right? Can I get a witness?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a treadmill, HGTV on mute, and a Passion Pit/Phoenix/Vampire Weekend mix.

Blog it Forward: Inspiration

A story about what inspires me, told through the lens of one of my biggest inspirations:

taking photographs.

Collections: stones (my very first collection as a kid was of crystals and rocks) & books. 

Pure, unadulterated color

(you should see my paint chip collection. it's legendary. they're free, what can I say?) 

Freshly fallen snow

Marking up gardening books and dreaming of spring (my fave garden book publisher? Storey)

 a greenhouse in the dead of winter (Smith College Botanical Gardens)

That sweet spot where texture and color combine

a big old mess of flowers that self-seed and grow willy-nilly

An old barn: time-world, well-used, beautiful—and so perfectly rural

A trail through the woods and a dog named Zeke

And the biggest inspiration of all, which has no photograph: YOU. The blogger/crafter/maker community. Endlessly inspirational, all of you. Every day I find something new to love in your words, your images, your creations.

A huge thank-you to Victoria of sfgirlbybay for putting this whole, 300-strong blogger procession together. Perhaps you came via the lovely Bree of Citrus Hearts? Tomorrow you can visit the Clementine Press blog for another dose of sweet inspiration. Thank you so much for being here, with me, today.


{ others blogging it forward today are The Audzipan Anthology, Oh So Beautiful Paper, Reading My Tea Leaves, Enhabiten, Sonya Mac Designs, Jennifer Wilson Photo, The Fairly Constant Reader, Make Something, and Where Women Create. }

Spring Inside

2 things that I learned while trying my hand at Holly from Decor8's March Interior Styling Challenge on Flickr:
1) there really aren't many blank expanses of wall in this house. But there are a lot of scuff marks.
2) the cats get really, really curious (about the situation and probably about my mental health) when I go around moving the chair from the bathroom onto the landing on the stairs, into the hall, back downstairs.....

Here are some outtakes...

 

And the final version:

 

The saga continues

Tess says "Whaaaat? You were gonna use this? I thought it was for eating. I mean, look at it. Srsly."

This did not turn out as I'd anticipated.

This was going to be a post about snowshoes and snow-covered hemlocks and cute dogs in high-vis jackets.

Here's the cute dog in his high-vis jacket (a must for a dog with an unhealthy love of snowmobiles and their riders):

This is just before Sue from FedEx drove up with a package for me. Yay, a package!

I'll just toss it up on the porch and head back into the woods....

And that's when this post took a decidedly different turn. When a cute dog in a high-vis jacket grabbed the package (a manuscript for a jacket copy writing assignment from Random House) and did this:

And the name of this book? Couldn't make it up if I tried.

Mid-Winter. Blurgh.

Ahhh, mid-February. How I hate you so.

This is about the time when I become slightly unhinged. There won't be leaves on the trees for another 3 months. And there's only so much white one brain can handle in any given day. And right now, the view in every direction is white. So I latched on to the White Flower Farm catalog pretty hard when it arrived last week. Here are my "in my dreams!" picks:

A black iris!! Now that's cool. And a potential band name, if I go back in time to 1998.

This "Dawn and Dusk" duo: Clematis and climbing roses. So English country sweet! I don't deserve such a pretty floral display.

Flowering Quince: siiiiiigggghhhh.

Smokebush: there's something about this that reminds me of Elaine dancing on Seinfeld. In a good way.

A man-eating Hosta! Does it come with a large stick for measuring?

And the flower of my dreams, Hellebores. Thank you, Martha Stewart, for yet another flower obsession.

All photos via White Flower Farm

Blog it Forward

Born of a mess of late-night tweets, Victoria of sfgirlbybay has put together a very cool "blog mash-up;" a connected stream of bloggers posting on a single subject. The first topic will be simple: what inspires us?

Come join in, I think it will be a really lovely, convivial thing to participate in. You can read all about it and sign up here. Ez from Creature Comforts created this sweet badge for us.

Kreativ Blogger Award

You guys!!! Look what I got:

Sweet Liane of Enhabiten gave it to me. Shucks. So now I share 7 things you don't know about me and give this puppy out to 7 other bloggers.

1) Thank god for this award, because I'm clearly not winning any Poppy award. A woman from France who makes polymer clay food earrings currently has 303 votes.
2) I think I like to be scared (by movies, books) and then instantly regret it when I actually start getting creeped out. And then I'll have nightmares and really regret it.
3) I have a serious microwave popcorn addiction. My poison of choice is PopSecret Homestyle (in case you're looking for a quick way to gain 5 pounds, too). mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
4) I don't like monkeys. I'm sorry, they give me the willies.
5) I have that thing where cilantro tastes inedible to me. It's a thing, really!
6) One of my life goals is to see all of this big, beautiful country; every state, every national park. Maybe in a car, maybe in an RV, with as many hikes as possible.
7) The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that my dream job would be trail maintenance. As in hiking trails. But only if I could come home at the end of every day and take a long, hot bath.


Now to spread the love. I want to give this award to:
1) Melis! http://mloves.typepad.com
2) Kateri! (Leaves of Glass) http://katerimorton.blogspot.com
3) Cindy! http://quainthandmade.blogspot.com/
4) Amy! http://theb-line.blogspot.com/
5) Jennifer! http://odetteny.blogspot.com/
6) Laurel! http://laureldenise.blogspot.com
7) Shanon! http://myfinegarden.blogspot.com/

4 year Etsy-versary & a nomination

I've been nominated for a Poppy award!

If you wanted to take a moment and vote for me here, I'd be sooooo frickin' pleased, you don't even know. Voting wraps on Sat, Jan 30th.

Oh, and guess what today is?? My 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY as a seller on Etsy. 4 YEARS. That's a long-ass time. I want to do a big sale or giveaway in celebration of all my great customers and online friends. Anyone have a suggestion for what it should be? :)

Goodbye to all that

Goodbye gorgeous cove and strange boulder hills that look like Koala bears.
Goodbye sweet hosts and food I gorged upon.
Goodbye weird plants and warm sun.
Goodbye sand dunes and daytime moon.
Goodbye unused post office and cargo trains.
Hello New England Winter.