“The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes”

- Leo Tolstoy

See the spider on the crow’s eye?

It’s the time of year that the spiders come out to play spinning their amazing webs here, there and everywhere! You need a “spider stick” to move around the yard in order to not get trapped in the sticky webs….not that i want to destroy them since i go out of my way to leave the beautiful silky webs in pristine condition if i can help it – but who likes to have spider’s webs all over their faces?  Yesterday i was scrunched up on the deck reading in the last bit of sunshine i could find and noticed this spider on my crow sign.  I quickly ran for my camera and snapped these shots.  It’s amazing how much pleasure one can derive from the simple things in life.

I really love the Leo Tolstoy quotation about throwing out an adhesive web of love and catching whatever you can in it. Yesterday i had the opportunity to find a smattering of love in the grocery store.  I noticed an elderly lady asking a clerk where something was and the clerk said she wasn’t from the grocery department – she was from pharmacy.  Now she could have gone out of her way to find someone to help the little lady but she was in a hurry. So i asked if maybe i could help her find something….she said no thanks.  So i began to walk away but i think this lady had second thoughts since i looked like a kind person.  So she approached me again and began to tell me that i should not use deodorant since it caused cancer (for a second there i was gripped with fear that i smelled )- she had breast cancer 6 years previously and she was convinced it was from the deodorant.  Next she told me about her colon cancer 50 years previous and then the husband who passed away and the hospital she stayed in to receive chemotherapy treatment. This went on for 15 minutes in the bread aisle. And some other random things (which made me smile) like the painting in the hospital lobby of Princess Margaret with a simple “Margaret” written underneath….not princess or Mrs. just simply Margaret. That must mean she was a pretty nice person didn’t it?

I noticed that a few times i wanted to end the conversation so i could go home since i’m not a fan of grocery shopping but i knew how much it meant to this woman to be heard and acknowledged. At the end of our chat she smiled kindly at me, patted my arm and called me sweetie or some other endearing term.

So that’s my little casting a net of love story – we have many opportunities to do so every day.  You will benefit just as much as the recipient of your kindness. We are all indelibly connected……just like the spider on my beads (gem) – Indra’s net :

He saw that the whole cosmos was contained in a single grain of dust.   Thus, Indra, by some cunning, hung a net around the Universe so that it stretched out in all directions.  The net was infinite; it had no beginning and no end.  At each place where the net came together Indra placed a knot. 

In a gesture of extravagance that only a God can manage, on each knot Indra hung a beautiful jewel which contains and reflects every other jewel in the net.  When Indra touched any jewel in the net, all other jewels in the web resonated. 

If we select a jewel for viewing and look deeply into the jewel, each contains every other jewel in the net.  Each jewel contains all the life in the universe. 

I went into Mr. G’s garage on the weekend to see what he was up to re: making a lamp from my cast – this is the view (after a couple of days of rain) that greeted me from the garage door. I thought it looked cool!

Mr. G found an old lamp of mine that he decided to rescue. He removed the green pole and was left with a black metal pipe that he trimmed down after removing the wires from the lamp.

Mr. G placed the cast over the rod to see how it looked…..he thought it was looking mighty fine

He drilled a series of holes along the sides of the cast so that he could lace up the cast with black cord.  Good thing he’s a virgo with an infinite amount of patience – i would mostly likely have hot glued it

A close up of the lacework. Mr. G thought it might be fun if we placed a plastic thumb where the thumb used to go – is it just me or is he getting just as weird as me??? I want to put some hot pink or orange maruba feather boa around the top and base of the cast to finish things off.  Mr. G thought this was weird…..HELLO???? We still haven’t decided what to do with the lamp shade…..it’s too mundane don’t you think? I might buy a colourful plastic bowl and have Mr. G drill a hole in the bottom and use that as a shade. There is one of those energy efficient twirly bulbs in it so it might be difficult to have a shade that fits over the bulb.

Now you might think this is too weird for you to do but consider creating a lamp from: a boot or shoe, bottle (drill hole in bottom), basket, vase, stiffened bustier, doll, wooden house etc. The possibilities truly are endless!!!

Now on a totally random note my daughter Jessica was on TV yesterday morning but i missed seeing her on the news so my friend saved the segment and captured some stills for me!  Jessica was on TV promoting The Vancouver Film School – back to school segment!

I’m a proud Mommy

I posted this vlog yesterday on youtube….i wanted to share what Mr. G and i did over the weekend – worked a bit on the dragonfly revamp – as you’ll recall it was peeling again. We had to remove the dragonfly when we had the magic cottage painted.

Thank you Goddess Leonie for posting this interview with me a few days ago – the incandescent Leonie features artist’s studios. Many thanks Leonie for allowing me to share with your blog readers!!!

Earthing

If you are interested in energy, getting back to the earth and becoming healthier all around you might be interested in reading a wonderful article by Jessica and Ryan’s Dad Bernie Clark called Earth Chi and Vitamin D  In the article Bernie talks about the importance of getting back to the earth to lead a healthier life – take off your shoes and go barefoot on the earth, sand, water to derive the benefits of the electrons the earth provides us.  I sleep on an earthing blanket (gifted by Bernie- Thanks Bernie!) and also use a grounded earth pad beneath my computer desk. Earthing reduces inflamation in your body which is the cause of many illnesses and pain. Since i’ve been earthing i sleep better, have less arthritic pain and also lately i’ve noticed that my teeth don’t hurt when they come in contact with cold water.  My monkey brain is not nearly as active either! BONUS! Just think about how much better you feel when you spend a week or two at the beach where you are frolicking barefoot in the sand almost non-stop. The earth is healing you on a number of different levels. This all makes sense – do check it out!

I’m blogging today to let you know that I won’t be blogging today – ha ha! It’s a holiday today – i’ll be back tomorrow blogging or vlogging!

Love, Violette ox

The other day i walked down to the library for some exercise and also so i could be alone amongst the books – i feel such a connection to books – they are like tiny friends i have never met until i open them up and begin a relationship. When i was at the library i noticed that they had Quilting arts TV DVD’s you could borrow. Well i was really thrilled since i am not a quilter and didn’t really want to buy the dvd’s but was thrilled that i could borrow them to check out. I’ve been having fun just watching the different techniques. Now i’m thinking of buying a new sewing machine since my 32 year old number doesn’t have the ability to do any free motion stitching. I think that would add a nice element to my pages and fabric journals i plan on creating. I’m not looking for a fancy dancey kind of sewing machine – just a basic one where i can sew some pages and small pieces of fabric.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good sewing machine?

Right now i’m reading two books: Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky and also Linchpin by Seth Godin. Both are really good books. The premise for Making ideads happen is that ideas are useless/worthless if you don’t make them happen. How many brilliant and thrilling creative ideas have you had that have had an untimely death? I know i’ve had many, hopefully this book will help me develop healthy strategies to make the ideas REAL. Linchpin is Seth Godin’s latest brainchild – i’m enjoying it too!

Happy Labour day weekend to my Canadian and American friends – and a regular “have a creative weekend” to all of my friends out in cyberworld.

love, violette xo

A couple of days ago there was a loud rap at the door. When i opened the door (still in my jammies) there stood a man asking me how much i wanted for my van. Mr. G had put a “for sale sign” on my glittergirl van. This fellow was a scrap car removal guy – he was obviously looking for a good deal. He told me that no one would want to have a painted van sitting in their driveway except for me and that since i had painted my vehicle that it was now worth very little. Of course i felt pretty bad and countered with all of the adventures Glittergirl had been on and that she had appeared on TV a few times and that i in fact loved her. So he argued with me that i could not possibly love her since glittergirl is an inanimate vehicle that could not love me back. He cited Scott Peck in his book The Road less travelled where Peck spoke about this concept. I asked him if he was a philosopher and that perhaps he should dub himself “the philosopher scrap car removal guy” with the subtitle: philosophy for free. And then of course i heard a bit more about his life story….still while standing at the door in my jammies.

The scrap car removal guy waved his arm unceremoniously at the magic cottage and asked “what the heck is this all about anyways?”. So i said that i was an artist and painted everything. He asked me what i did and i told him. Then he asked me “who says you’re an artist?” I told him that i did and then he went on to say that it was subjective and that someone might come along and say i wasn’t an artist. This bizarre interchange lasted about 20 minutes leaving me very deflated at the end of it. It ended off with me dispensing a bit of dating advice (he asked for it).

To make a long story short the fellow wanted my van for about 100 dollars so that he could cannibalize it for parts….which of course drove me nuts – Cannibalize glittergirl??? Glittergirl needs a new battery in order to run along with a new windshield (there is a crack in it). She does still run though. So if anyone is interested in having Glittergirl for FREE please let me know (as long as you don’t cannibalize her). It might be kind of fun to put her in your backyard and turn her into a mini art studio! How cool would that be? I would do that only there is no way i can put her in the backyard without cutting down my magnolia tree and tearing apart a fence. So let me know if you are interested okay?

Thank you everyone (from Mr. G) for the birthday wishes – you are all so sweet!!!

Many thanks to my friend Rhonda for sending me this lovely video on “how to be alone” .  I am enjoying alone time right now after a frenetic few days so don’t have too much to blog about however i do hope you take the time to watch this lovely – poetic short video – poem by Tanya Davis . It is incredibly moving and beautiful. xo

P.S. i don’t know how to make the video smaller so it doesn’t take up too much of the screen……sorry.

No….i’m not talking about knitting here – i’m talking about having my cast of 6 weeks removed!  Hooray…….it feels wonderful to be free of it – now i just have to think of what to do with it – make a lamp or incorporate it in a mixed media painting.  As you can see i’m wearing a plastic splint for a while until my wrist gets stronger.  Now i have to train my left hand how to type again – it’s not doing too badly actually.  It’s sort of like riding a bicycle – you never forget.  It just takes a while to get up to speed.

I’m still recovering from a busy weekend and company yesterday – it seems like i just need more downtime when i’ve been around lots of people – especially if they’ve all come here! So i’m not really into blogging today but wanted to leave you with a link to Rice Freeman Zachary’s latest blog rant – it’s brilliant….all about branding – and the post before it is on the creative life.  Both post really spoke to me.  I hope you enjoy them.

Yours truly in front of the studio

Some of the stationary items for sale.

Mr. Gee decided to repair the dragonfly (that is normally perched on the front of the magic cottage) in the backyard.

Friends Susan and Rob dropped by for a visit with their little pooch Sam.

Signs were made and displayed to show the way…

Betty Ann – a frequent visitor of this blog dropped in!  Thanks Betty Ann! 

Jess Rice, a local artist and friend came by.  Thanks for the flowers Jess!

I will post some more photos tomorrow.

Escaping the corporate world for the creative life

 I often receive emails from people asking me for advice regarding making the transition from the corporate world, looking after children and family, and retiring to a more creative life (read less structure). Where do you begin? I think first of all that it’s important to not criticize yourself and have the same expectations you had in your previous life. You are after all embarking on a new chapter in your life and you’re navigating different waters. How exciting to be starting out on this journey. I think when you come from a background of structure such as working a corporate job, or looking after children you feel lost when you’re standing in front of a proverbial candy counter of creative possibilities.

Now, I feel that since I lack a lot of structure in my life and often struggle with organization that I’m not one to ask. However since you did ask (or some of you did) – here’s what I think:

Sit down with a piece of paper and begin to write down all of your creative dreams. Did you ever hope that one day you’d have enough time to learn how to collage? Or did you want to learn how to sculpt clay? Were you always fascinated by the human body and wanted to learn how to draw from life? Write down all of these dreams without censoring. On another page write down the things you love to do as a child. My list would look like this – playing marbles, being in nature – close to water, drawing, daydreaming and playing school. The next thing I would do is to create a mind map with perhaps creative life written in the center. Here’s an example of a mind map:

  check out the little freak who is trying to infiltrate the talking heads

Yesterday Cintha came by to help me clean up the studio and office for my Open studio event this Sunday. I still have about an hour or so of cleanup to do in the studio but so far it’s looking pretty spiffy. As you can see I have my little freaks and talking heads, my Journal bliss book among other artful offerings. My little freaks look as if they are guarding the talking heads above them!

Today I’ll be busy making magnets and cutting greeting cards to have available at my open studio. The production will be little bit slower with my arm in a cast however I seem to be managing OK. And Monday I get the cast removed – HOORAY!!!!!!

You can watch a video of my studio here.

Check out this wonderful video I discovered on Tina ferguson’s blog – it will make you happy and maybe bring a few tears to your eyes – it did to me!

I hope you all have a marvelous weekend! If you live in the area please come and visit me at the magic cottage: