A Fanciful Twist

Rose Water & Summer Goodness (winner announced)

Hi there friends!!

Happy summer, boy has it been hot?!

I thought I'd bring you something wonderfully lovely for the weekend.

My friend Nathalie at Beauty Counter sent me the most glorious rose water mist.

The company is amazing, no animal testing, no bad chemicals.

It's really music to my ears.

Check it out here, Beauty Counter.

It smells so lovely and is a wonderful way to keep your skin hydrated.

I took some time to read about their philosophy and I was really impressed.

No animal testing is very important to me, as I'm sure you would agree.

Guess what?!

Nathalie was kind enough to send me one to share with you.

How fun is that?

What a super snazzy way to start off summer I think, don't you?

Just leave a hello in comments to enter.

I'll come back and let you know who the winner is in a couple of days.

So, make sure to check back in to see if you won so I can send it your way.

 

As for life around here...

There have been beautiful clouds as we wait for monsoon season.

I caught a weird bug so I took some time to just feel good and relax.

And, it's been crazzzzy hot in Arizona.

So, I've been working to keep my garden happy.

The sun is just burning everything but I think it's hanging in there.

The Hatter, aka Mister Lovee is building a new shed cottage for more storage.

Can't wait!

Hope you're doing great out there!

Make sure you enter to win this.

It's so lovely and the spray bottle is glass, which I love.

You can easily reuse it.

Thank you Beauty Counter and lovely Nathalie Gagnon!

Peek in on their products, so wonderful.

I'll see you soon friends, I promise!

 

Love,

Vanessa

 

 

And the winner is!

By way of random number generator, lucky winning number is... 29!

Number 29, won fair and square!

Sandra you'll need to buy a lottery ticket now :-)

Email me your shipping address, thank you!

 

Thank you all for playing, that was so much fun!

I'll be back super soon with a new post and lots of fun.

<3

 

 

 

 

 

ps: I'll also send the winner the dried rose petals & roses from my garden used in this post.

 

Finding your Inspiration...

It's the tiniest things that inspire the greatest creativity.

Wouldn't you say?

It's important to keep your secret recipe near.

The one that awakens your inner magic.

Bits of this and a few bobs of that.

Sprinkled all around to remind you where your heart's at.

Just tid-bits of things you love and like.

It's what happening in the secret garden today.

Come on in.

Sparkles, art supplies, tea cups and joy.

Those are the first ingredients on my list.

What's on yours?

The sound of a little piano the Hatter gave me recently.

(dear to each other forever)

And the pruned morsels of spent tea roses.

Add a few ribbons and other ruffled petals...

For the perfect concoction called...

Just what I needed today.

Creativity comes in so many forms.

It doesn't need to fit in anyone's box but your own.

Whatever it is that brings you joy is the name of this game.

To create the best elixir around.

It creates cheer and heart happiness.

To just take some time for your own nonsense and play.

Crochet pieces from a big bag of estate sale findings.

A smattering of your favorite colors.

Swirl it all together...

And you've concocted...

Your very own...

Inspiration palette.

A palette that may only have rhyme or reason to you.

But it's important to have fun.

A little nonsense never hurt anyone.

In fact, in can be the best cure to get you out of your creative slump.

Bored, depressed, lazy?

Toss around some glitter and petals and feel better in 15 minutes or your money back!

Guaranteed ;-)

I know I know, I'm so silly.

Ridiculous even.

But even I, who chose a creative path as my journey when I was just a teen, needs to remind herself to take it easy and go out and conjure up some creative nonsense.

Throw a little tea party for one.

As we get older we can start to forget the multitude of small fun things we enjoy.

All the little things that make up the joys of our heart.

What are the joys of your heart?

The littlest things?

 

I have an impromptu idea.

Lets make a list for each other, shall we?

I'll give you three and you can share three if you so wish.

Even things you love that you have forgotten to do for some time.

 

My first one is as seen in this post, playing with bits and bobs.

Just the joy of standing in the breeze tossing petals and sparkles around.

Second is making little doll clothes.

I love making doll clothes, why have I forgotten to do this for a while?

Third is to go into a very quiet antique store during the week.

When no one is there, and just browse with no worry of time or place.

Smell old books and look in every nook and cranny.

 

All of those things lead to finding inspiration for me.

What about you?

 

 

Hope you're all doing good out there in your neck of the woods.

Warmest vibes from me to you!

See you sooon <3

 

Love,

Vanessa

 

 

 

 

 

Petals + Dreams + Colorful Days of May

The busiest garden days are upon us.

They bring the dreamiest petals, endless gifts.

All the beautiful colors.

The tiniest winged creatures & their wings catching the light.

The sun at different hours of the day casting a glow in different ways.

It's all a perfect recipe for dreaming.

For thinking about what's next on the menu.

What would you like to do?

Have you given up on your dreams?

Or are they dancing around you, just waiting for you to pluck one and plunge?

The garden has so many of those answers.

It dreams for you.

It serves you beautiful platters of inspiration.

It begs you to drag your easel out and paint amongst the birds and bees.

It says...

Here, take these miraculous incredible gifts I have for you.

Green stems with petals on top.

Wrapping round and round, scented too.

Is it a dream?

It's a living day dream, isn't it?

The rows of roses mingle with cactus at the front gates.

The snapdragon scent floats around, making you blissfully discombobulated.

Or maybe it's just the dizziness from swinging on the swing, so fast and so high.

The hummingbirds come right up to you.

Hello.

The sun illuminates their beautiful colors.

It's all too good.

It's just too good.

This beautiful time of magical spring.

When all you can whisper is, thank you...

The hummers steal from the spiders...

Treats from waiting webs.

And I think to myself, maybe I can hear the ruffles of snapdragons singing.

What a place, a garden.

I know so many of you have gardens too, so I know you understand.

The beauty, the joy in it all.

The colors just take my breath away.

I lounge in the garden chaise just watching it all happen.

As birds fight for lunch.

Cardinal swoops in for sunflower seeds.

Doves hang around their girl's nest.

Keeping watch (I love that).

And delphiniums that turned from blue to white are blue again.

The fresh soil must have replenished the acidity.

As the sun begins to set colors take on a more wonderland hue.

Hummingbirds zip around doing somersaults in the air.

The dogs chase each other and I do my pruning.

Always offering the cuttings too spent for vases to the garden angel.

I love that moment where the sky turns so blue that everything looks fluorescent.

My place of peace and dreams.

I know I know, I say I'm done planting and then all my new dahlia tubers arrive.

I have been enjoying working on some paintings lately.

I've even been softening clay and playing with jewelry beads.

Who knows what I might pull out of my rabbit's hat.

My life has been on the craziest journey of wonderful happenings.

Sometimes it's hard to invite even good things into your life when you are not one who likes change.

But when you do, who knows the exciting and lovely things you may find?

It's not so easy to be open to life flowing when you are cozy in your shell.

But living in the day to day moment is really such a beautiful concept.

As they say, the past is history and the future is just an invented story.

But we always have the now.

Embracing the now and new things it might bring.

The most important thing we can do for ourselves.

We worry about things that don't even make sense, don't we?

The what if's.

Which rarely happen.

So why not just enjoy the moment?

Last year I told myself that my new motto was always keep moving forward.

And not in big ways, but little ways.

Like, go hiking, go to the book store and find something new to read.

Always something that keeps the flow of life going.

Jump into your parent's 60' pool in your pajamas.

Dance, just put on some music you love and dance.

Try a new recipe, plant a new plant, or seeds.

See how we can do tiny things to keep moving forward and keep the flow of the stream going?

It's so important.

All the little things mean more than anything.

The now, the little things.

Just my two cents.

But hey, it can't hurt, can it?

We can all try.

Being mindful of our own well being is so important.

<3

 

Lots of love,

Vanessa

 

 

 

 

ps:

I forgot to share my kinda ugly kookie Easter tree.

Makes me so happy.

I'm going to leave it up year round and just change it for the holidays.

It's a smaller skinny tree (6ft) that I flocked myself with a non-toxic flocking powder, a sieve and a water filled spray bottle.

I'll change it up for summer and 4th of July next <3

 

Of Wisteria and Pink Blossoms

And then it truly was spring...

Dreamy and magical.

Colorful and inspiring.

I vanished in a flutter of spring fever.

Only I literally had spring fever.

Complete with sneezing and coughing and all the miserable details of such things.

But I had blossoms to cheer me up.

Endless ones at that.

I was down a couple weeks and am jumping for joy now that I feel better.

Today was my first day back to my beloved hills, deep breaths and sunshine goodness.

I could not be happier, I can't even begin to tell you.

To get to smell the orange blossoms and wisteria.

It's like coming back to life with spring.

I needn't explain as I'm sure a rotten cold or flu has grabbed you at some point.

The bliss of feeling well again is unlike anything.

Just in time for one of the happiest times of the year.

The rose bushes are getting so full and some are even gifting a few flowers.

The peach blossoms are lovely as ever.

Bobbing around in golden hour.

And then, the truest wonderment I know of.

Wisteria.

Fairy tale magic.

I can never get enough.

I just want to stand in it forever.

Let the little petals drop as all kinds of bees buzz around me.

Even giant blonde carpenter bees.

Flip on the fairy light switch and just swoon in the moment.

Nature's enchantments swirling all around us.

How lucky are we to get to enjoy spring?

There are bird's nests popping up everywhere.

Bunny burrows and groups of hummingbirds and their endless shenanigans.

Zooming by at the speed of light.

The cardinals come in like clock work for breakfast and all manner of little birds take baths all day.

And the colors.

The never ending candy colors of spring.

Like a perfect palette of joy.

And once the wisteria starts to drop away...

It leaves a carpet of petals to tip toe in.

Sigh...

Oh beautiful spring, how can something be so wonderful I ask?

I'm not sure but it seems too good to be true sometimes.

This amazing gift of nature.

Flowers flowers, everywhere.

How can one not be inspired?

Wonderfulness galore.

I wander around my garden, dreaming away.

I jump on my giant trampoline, watching my horse neighbor jump back at me and make all my same gestures.

I dare him to jump over the wall.

I jump as flowering branches hit my head and puffy clouds move by quickly.

I smell the combination of apricot and orange blossoms.

They remind me of everything.

Of living, of joy, of crying, of being, of singing, of laughing, of dancing...

The dogs chase me around as I crouch down and hide behind bushes.

I see them running and then stop, where has she gone?

I see them looking, wondering.

And then they find me and tackle me with love.

As though they have not seen me for weeks.

Such a joyful wonderful time, this spring time.

I hope you are all doing great out there in your neck of the woods.

Waiting for spring or experiencing it too.

The dreamiest of days are upon us.

Time to dry some petals to save in jars.

Time to swing in the hammock.

Time to sit on the front steps and feel the warm sun on our shoulders.

Such wonderful things indeed!

 

Sending lots of good vibes and warm thoughts out to you!

 

Love, Vanessa