I am not sure how clutter accumulates and returns over time, but it does. We have slowly been going through everything and a lot of paper went into the recycle bin. What I like the most about clutter cleaning, besides restoring a more harmonious living space, is the treasures that are uncovered in the process. Rearranging things in your space is a way of making new discoveries, and that includes photos.
While sorting through things I found this photo that had been taken a few weeks ago. The swan family has emerged from the nest and there are now two cygnets, a white one and a gray one. It brings back the peaceful feeling of observing the way they glide through the water and feed on the vegetation growing underneath. This is the same mated pair of adult swans that I have been observing for over a year now, this time with a new brood to raise. It makes my day to see them when I drive past this pond. They are so graceful
and beautiful - it is hard to describe in words. Here are the swan parents last fall with three cygnets almost grown and getting ready to go out on their own.
In tribute to the True North Arts Fabulous Friendship Festival, here are my best friends. They are always there for me: to lift me up when I am down and put a smile on my face, to get me to try new things like playing World of Warcraft, cooking new foods, or rearranging the furniture. They candidly share their unique perspective when I am over-thinking something. They always bring joy to my heart.
This weekend I decided to take a ride to Hammonassett Beach and visit Meigs point at the far end of the state park. It’s winter here and there was a stiff offshore breeze on top of the cold temperature, but the bright sunlight made it seem warm. There is nothing like the sound of waves rolling in on the rocky shore to clear your mind and bring peace. I’ve been climbing on beach rocks since I was a child and doing that always brings back that sense of mystery and awe of the natural world. Here are a few photos from this wonderful place. When I have time, hopefully this weekend, I’ll post more of these beach photos on Flickr.
We are in the midst of a major snow storm here in Connecticut and I couldn’t resist making a snow angel after shoveling the back walk. A storm that lasts 24 hours like this one lets you pause and reflect about things. There is a quiet and peacefulness that settles over everything and it is very special.
There has been a lot going on this past week which is a good thing. I met some big deadlines at work on Friday and another big project is close to being finished. Hence the offbeat picture of my command control center at work. I emptied my kitchen and moved everything into the living room this past week and the ceiling is finally being repaired after the Niagara Falls incident a year ago. This is too big a job for me to do by myself so I was able to hire someone who is very talented and wonderful to work with. He is giving me assistant jobs to do like scraping off two layers of wallpaper with a chisel he let me borrow and washing the walls with bleach. He is going to paint the cupboards, wainscoting and walls as well. Repainting my home has been a long time coming and I am just doing one room at a time when I can. I did my bedroom all by myself this fall and only fell off the ladder a few times 
On the creative side, I am working on my ATC cards to go with the core values I did last week for the True North Arts Vision Journaling class, I bought background fabric at Joann’s to go with my stash of floral fabrics for a bed quilt for my aunt Ethel, and my new Staedtler triplus fineliner markers and 9 sheets of different colored Canson mi-Tientes paper came from Blick Art Materials. I also managed a trip to Borders to use a gift card from Christmas and chose Somerset Publications Art Journaling and Art Quilting Studio. And I picked up the first lesson of a free year long online scrapbooking class The Street Where You Live by Jane Howden at Get It Scrapped. In the supermarket today there was a sign at the deli counter that said “49 days ’til spring” and the below zero windchill factor weather seems to have passed today.
This morning on my way to work I was able to capture a photo of the swan family. Each day I drive by the swan pond hoping to catch a glimpse of them. The swan couple built and tended a nest in the reeds at the edge of the pond last spring and I could see one swan sitting on the nest and one swan feeding in the pond. Sometime late in May I noticed both swans out in the water with little grey balls of fluff between them which was a thrilling sight. Another time I saw them gracefully crossing the pond in a straight line, the grey cygnets having grown larger. Many times I would either not see them or just catch a glimpse of white as I drove by. The three surviving cygnets are nearly full grown now and their color is starting to lighten. It has been a very special and incredible experience for me to watch the swan family grow. It has filled me with awe and wonder for nature in this place that is an industrial park and a by-pass road for an interstate highway.
My high school class had an incredible reunion this Labor Day weekend. There was a dinner dance at Cobbs Mill Inn and a party at Compo beach the next day. At the beach I took a lot of pictures of this place where we all grew up in Westport. It was so wonderful to see everyone and renew friendships. It made me realize how important old friends are and how easy it is to lose touch with people who mean something to us. Photos can be viewed on my Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maryart/sets/72157622169885125/
Posted by: Mary @ 7:07 pm
One of my favorite Robert Frost poems is “The Road Not Taken”. The poem can be seen in its entirety at Bartleby Quotes. At times we are faced with a decision and a choice as to which path to take in life. Sometimes it is a small decision and sometimes it is a huge one. Sometimes the choice is clear and other times it is arrived at with difficulty. This mixed media piece was created over the past week and illustrates my feelings about having two similar yet different paths appear at a moment in time. I started by cutting varying width strips of different scrapbook papers and glueing them down to a 12″x12″ cardstock base. After leaving this on my work table and letting it sit for a few days I decided to add marks with a blue pastel stick. Next I chose to cut random width and length strips of transparent velum and glue those down. Today I remembered the photos of boardwalks that I took this year at two different places in nature: the Cranberry Bog and the Audubon Center. After printing one photo from each place I arranged them carefully on the surface and added my favorite part of the quotation to finish the piece.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
This weekend my sister and I went to the Audubon Nature Center and walked through the woods and the wetlands there. Everything was so green after all the rain we’ve had the past few weeks. It was very peaceful being in this place which was once farmland, the only remnants of that being old broken down stone walls and a few fields which had not been overtaken by second growth forest. Photos from the walk are posted on Flickr.
Yesterday the rain gave way to a beautiful afternoon which led me to go for a walk around the cranberry bog. It is always very peaceful at the bog and there were frogs jumping, many different birds singing, and the advancing stages of spring. Off in the distance across the bog I saw two graceful and majestic birds in flight with huge wingspans that may have been eagles but I don’t have binoculars and was not close enough to be sure. We do have eagles in the Connecticut River valley. There were also huge trees cut down by beavers and the beaver house was tucked away in a quiet spot. My photos from the afternoon are posted on Flickr here and the photo below is an overall view of the bog.
Posted by: Mary @ 12:14 pm
This week’s theme for Sunday Postcard Art made me think about what I am most grateful for, and that is my kids who are growing into young adults and have become my best friends. The digital scrapbook paper background and the button elements are all by Michelle Coleman of LittleDreamerDesigns.com. I used Photoshop to build the scrapbook style collage and create the frames, and the font used is Garamond Italic.
Posted by: Mary @ 5:32 pm
This week’s theme for Sunday Postcard Art is Mothers. This was a really special theme and I was fortunate to have a vintage black and white photo of my mom with me and my brother. There are seven of us in all and mom is not in too many of the pictures, so I was glad my dad took this picture of us. The background and border is digital scrapbook paper by Michelle Coleman of LittleDreamerDesigns.com. I used Photoshop to build the collage, created a duotone of the background and photo, and then went back into RGB mode to bring in the black and white closeup shot and the color border frame. The font is ITC Galliard.
This is my Winter Mystical postcard for Sunday Postcard Art. This angel was a gift from a special friend and she sits on a shelf in my kitchen where I can see her. While finishing up with shoveling snow today the sun came out, so I brought her outside for a quick photo. I printed the photo on 70 pound white paper and used scrapbooking paper, adding watercolor paint on the edge.
Mary
Posted by: Mary @ 9:29 pm
Sometimes, maybe often, less is more. I ended up creating 3 different postcards for the Sunday Postcard Art Celebrate theme to get to the end result. The first one was abstract and while interesting, did not really express the feeling that celebrate brings to mind. The second one had vintage buttons,beads and paint spatters with a hint of fireworks framing the edge, but that still did not say what I was thinking. Finally I remembered a photo taken over the holidays that had that special feeling. I printed the photo on 60 pound smooth white paper obtained from my local printer and carefully cut around the two figures, placing them on a background of fireworks scrapbook paper over a cardstock base. It seems so simple in retrospect, but it was quite a roundabout road to get there… Mary
