Slow the Pace

So this week has not been a good one for me as it relates to short-term memory. I won't go into detail. To be honest, I'm really tired of listening to myself and reliving the trials of the past few days..and I don't want to let minor nuisances mar the memories of the wonderful vacation I just returned from. Let's just say that I need to start paying much more attention to the little, seemingly harmless, details in my life. I feel like I'm soaring over the mountain tops...and ignoring the valleys and rivers below me. Time to slow down the pace and immerse myself in the details of my personal life...the same way I immerse myself into the details of my corporate life. The former is as important, if not more important, than the latter. I want to do so much, see so much, live every minute of every hour that I'm constantly in overdrive. Sooner or later it will catch up, especially as the inevitable era of aging, absent-mindedness and all that comes with it sneaks into our life...and this week it did. So I am making a promise to myself that I will slow the pace, schedule time for rest and/or meditation, and make conscious decisions...even if it is only remembering where I put a memory card.

Out of the Box

Went on a two-hour, leisurely cruise out of Hingham just before sunset.  Hoping for possibly a spectacular sunset and some good shots of the Boston skyline, I took the camera along.  Alas, there was no sunset as the clouds came in, and by the time the "leisurely" cruise made it to Boston night had fallen.  After trying, unsuccessfully, to catch some skyline images, I gave up, until........I thought "out of the box" and discovered that "abstract" night shots were pretty cool.  In this image I see a group of runners, with one prominently in the lead!  What was great was that I took my initial disappointment of not being able to shoot what I thought I would get, and discovered a whole new world of "creativity"!  What do you think and what do you see in the image?    ------ Peggie

Splash of Flowers

The hardest part of creating these fabric designs was coming up with a name for the collection. Writing makes my head spin. Trying to find words are nearly impossible some days.
Here are some ideas I came up with before I settled on
Splash of Flowers Collection.
Fun Florals Collection, Colorful Florals Collection, Fun Flowers Collection, Fun in the Sun Flowers Collection, Fun and more Fun Flowers Collection, Multi-Colored Flowers Collection, Flower of Flowers Collection, Millions of Flowers Collection, Trillions of Flowers Collection, Cute but Smelly Flowers Collection, No One Really Cares Flowers Collection, Are You Looking at Me Flowers Collection, Stop Looking at Me Flowers Collection, No Name Flowers Collection, Dried Up Flowers Collection, How Long are you Going to Take Naming This Collection Flowers Collection, You Can Draw but You Sure Can't Write Flowers Collection.

I envy writers who find words.

Flowers anyone?

Donna C.

Christmas is coming!

How can you resist smiling Christmas ornaments. These two designs would make cute tree skirts for your Christmas tree.
Donna C.
www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1311559
www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1311553

Floral Fabrics

Here are a couple of floral designs I created. I think they would make pretty Summer dresses.

Donna C.

www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1263165
www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1263143

Number one of many more to be sewn

My bib material finally arrived and here is one design of the bibs sewn. I decided to use terry cloth for the back of the bids to make it soft and absorbent for all the drooling and spills that will soak through.

Back to sewing!

Till next time,
Donna C

"If you have time to whine and complain about something
then you have the time to do something about it."
Anthony J. D'Angelo

What's In Your Backyard?

Yesterday was the Fourth of July and I went to visit my son and his family for the day. Later in the evening we went to the fireworks display in the harbor.

What was the most fun during the day was walking around my son's backyard with my five-year-old grandson who loves to take photographs. He had my SLR camera strapped around his neck...and I was behind him holding the strap just to be sure there were no accidents. He took many photos, most of which will need to be discarded, but many that I'll save in a file for him. He also 'helped' me take the fireworks image on this page.

He  made a comment when taking a picture of a mushroom in the corner of the yard that I thought worth remembering. He said, "Wow I can really see what's in my backyard now!". Photography makes us slow down, take a deep breath, and see life. How often do we walk through life not noticing the little things around us? We see the forest, but not the trees, we don't notice the bees on the sunflower or the bird with a worm dangling from her beak. This is one of the reasons I love photography. Like everyone else, I'm always rushing here to there, doing this, doing that. Life really is a big, old rat race. Something needs to slow us down so that we can enjoy our lives and soak in all the beauty around us. For me, that medicine is photography.

I hope my grandson continues to love taking photographs and being amazed at the little things he sees through the lens, even tiny mushrooms in the corner of his backyard.

Freedom

Read the quote below this week and thought it was a good one to share as we celebrate our country's Independence Day:

"Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose.  Anything less is a form of slavery."  --Wayne Dyer

Happy 4th of July - and Happy Personal Freedom!


Peggie

Howling At The Moon

I started reading a book that was recommended to me by Peggie a couple of years ago; "Women Who Run With The Wolves". The book was written by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and through stories and tales passed down from generations before her, she helps women reconnect with their true instinctual self, to let women  know it is okay to be who we are naturally and not what society has led us to believe is acceptable.

One of my favorite paragraphs follows: "A healthy woman is much like a wolf; robust, chock-full, strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, inventive, loyal, roving. Yet, separation from the wildish nature causes a woman's personality to become meager, thin, ghosty, spectral. We are not meant to be puny with frail hair and inability to leap up, inability to chase, to birth, to create a life. When women's lives are in stasis, or filled with ennui, it is always time for the wildish woman to emerge; it is time for the creating function of the psyche to flood the delta."

Ok ladies, time to howl at the moon!!

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.  Helen Keller