A Fanciful Twist

Inspiration Palette of Bits & Bobs...

I'm still in the bits and bobs my friends!

I fell down the rabbit hole of playing with little treasures...

And I really liked it.

But you might have already guessed that over the years.

My sister and I are both lovers of tiny things and this and that's.

Keys to secret doors.

Pocket watches that have stopped in time.

Antique spools of thread.

The list goes on...

Oh how I love rusty things.

I love collecting keys too.

You should see all the rusty treasures I collected on the road over the last year.

I put them in a huge jar and gifted them to the hatter for Hanukkah.

The jar is crazy heavy.

He's been giving me something called commendations for years.

My commendations are always I.O.O.F medals & ribbons.

Love them so.

The old doll head is a 20 year ago find in a ratty little old stuff shop.

It was in a case and quite costly, but it was labeled as an old Mennonite doll head.

And so, I had to have it.

Antique door knobs and sea shells sure make me happy too.

Put it all together and you have another inspiration palette.

Dried flowers turn into paper art don't they?

I put all the treasures on a painting I am working on.

I've been doing a lot of art making lately.

Sculpting like mad and throwing paint every chance I get.

It's such great therapy besides being my life calling and all :-)

If you want some great inspiration filled with tears and awe...

You must watch Chef's Table (whole series is magical), the episode on Grant Achatz is really something.

Season 2, episode 1.

( I watched on Netflix)

They are all wonderful episodes, but even though I knew his story, I still sobbed.

I felt so inspired and encouraged about life in general, despite trials and tribulations.

Life is hard, it's our job to put it into perspective and try to see the good.

I've been practicing this thing...

Whenever I have a bad or stressful thought I immediately say, throw away that negative thought and replace it with something positive. Don't catastrophize and don't spiral into the what ifs.

Since I was 18 years old I've been on a quest for inner peace.

Sometimes I'm floating on cloud 9 and life is easy, but sometimes it's more complex, as you know.

It's just the way life is, so I find ways to make it better for myself.

I love being happy and enjoying my days.

If someone starts to tell me something I find very stressful I tell them, please don't tell me about that, it makes me sad. Can you give me a positive spin on the topic?

It's also important to let friends know that, you get stressed out too, and when they try to lump all their problems on you it's a very unhealthy feeling for you too.

I have friends I bounce my stresses off of and listen to theirs and it feels good to talk to each other.

But other friends don't bounce back and forth, they just drown you.

And then you have to say something.

You can do it all with tact and kindness and honesty.

Something like...

"I don't know about you, but I want to keep my life as positive as possible."

And while I like being there for people so much, there will be a scant few who over do the need to lean on you.

By allowing someone to lean on you too hard, you not only do them a disservice, you do yourself one.

It's important to say, I love you but I'm finding this very stressful.

I tell my friends (and myself) things my dad has told me since childhood.

Be brave and be strong.

Don't drown in a glass of water.

Isn't it so easy to drown in a glass of water when you are stressed out?

My dad always says, it's important to talk to yourself.

Talk out your worries and fears and put them into perspective.

I talk out loud to myself while walking around my garden and it works so well.

And so, I try to share that with friends too, as well as do it myself.

It's so important to be mindful of our own health - mind, body and soul.

Be good to you and focus on the little things.

I'm not sure how I veered so dramatically.

But there you go.

A bunch of knick knacks made me go all deep somehow, hahaha!

Anyhow, I for one can say...

I so appreciate you being here.

When you share your thoughts and ideas it means so much to me.

I love how we've been sharing so much lately.

Thanks for that.

What a great thing to have such kindred spirits meeting up here from time to time.

 

Lots of love!

Vanessa

 

 

 

Bunnies in my garden.

Don't let the dogs see them, luckily the bunnies always out run them.

And yes, the gophers are still trying to kill my whole garden and they took out one of my vines around my veggie garden arbor, as you can see in the back drop. Darn things.

A rose bush was toppled over yesterday by them (they eat the roots) and I'm trying to save it along with my Cleveland sage.

The trials and tribulations of being a garden keeper :-)

 

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