Blooms

Around the house there are many dried flowers. Some are taped to walls, some hang across the fireplace, and some are framed. Bringing the outside in is important to me, and I love seeing their dried buds on these white walls.

I have planted so many flowers this autumn and I can’t wait to watch them bloom this spring!! For sure they will fill my walls. If I have a daughter, instead of wall paper, I will press dozens and dozens of flowers for her and fill the walls with blooms.

December

The December winds have drifted in and the house has become quiet and cozy. The garden is long gone, but I was able to harvest a few more vegetables to use for dying purposes. So I peeled the onion skins and soaked the purple cabbage and dyed some beautiful long white netting I had. Although the cabbage had no effect, the onion skins came out beautifully. A nice delicate peach.

I have decided also, to fulfill a longtime dream of studying and creating illuminations. 

I have always been so mesmerized by this old celtic technique and I am so thrilled with beginning some of my own. Here you can see the beginning stages, 

In celebration of the Druidic Yule coming up, this piece depicts the birthing of the sun from the darkest days we are now experiencing. The oak and holly king face her and she is adorned with mistletoe and holly. I am going to be adding a bit of art deco techniques as well with harsh cuts of black and gold in the background. I have really enjoyed working with gold leaf. 

Thank you for stopping by!

An update

Many months have passed. We moved from our home in Charlottesville back to the mountains of Western North Carolina where we met and were married.  I left a wonderful job at the airport behind that allowed me to pursue my dream of traveling the world. I am so grateful for all the places I have seen and someday I will write about each of them. 

Having only lived in apartments, my husband and myself have finally moved into a sweet little bungalow near the city center. The yard is covered in morning glories and after much hard work we have three big garden beds that are filled with much to eat and an old shed in the back has me preparing for doves. 

The home is being built up quite nicely, my grandmother sends me shipments of old lace and family photos to decorate the house with and some late night IKEA runs have proved very helpful in supplying us with furniture that was much needed. 

I'd like to announce the arrival of a new family member, Sir Oliver Winterbottom. A flemish giant rabbit that we adopted from the local animal rescue. He has been such a joy in this house and I can't imagine not having him around. I found myself going through a nesting period of really wanting to take care of something. When I found this giant rabbit it was love at fort sight and he had been living happily here ever since. He has free roam of the house and is 100% litter box trained. The best rabbit a girl could ask for. 

Aside from taking care of Ollie, painting and gardening have been my most loved activites. Just yesterday I planted a sarah Bernhardt peony and about 30 anjelique tulips! I threw out more lupine seeds than you can imagine and carefully positioned the foxglove seeds where I thought they would be most comfortable. I am looking forward to our little bungalow in the spring. 

As motivation from my friend, Maria, I would like to really keep up with the blog and update much more. So hopefully you will be seeing me around very soon.

- G

Paris Day 1

Back in October we took a trip to Paris. I took along with me a little notebook and wrote in it as I went along.. I thought that perhaps it would be more interesting for me to share with you those writings, instead of a delayed walk-through of our time there.

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La St. Germain Cafe 10:00 a.m.
Brian and I are currently sitting a la St. Germain Cafe. We are near the Notre Dame and have just dropped off our luggage at our new home for the next 3 days. A boat on the river Seine right next to the Louvre, the tullieries, and the Musee D'orsay. We could not be happier!

 

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 Le Cafe St. Germain 11:00 a.m.
The early grey sky has suddenly passed. The sun fills the street and the sky is a brilliant blue. As we sip our espresso and eat our Croque Madames, a stray dog, wirey and white comes to join us. He looks as happy as we are. Smiling and panting, just happy to be free in the streets of Paris. The cafe is beautiful and everything you'd imagine a Parisian corner cafe to be like. Chairs face the street for people watching, wickered and painted red with heat lamps above us to keep us warm. The waiter is so kind and we all laugh when the dog decides to go inside the restaurant for a peek. He eventually takes back to the streets, happy, and tongue wagging, his leash dragging across the cobblestones.

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Jardin du Palace Royal. 12:30 p.m.
Standing in a garden filled to the brim with dahlias and full plump roeses. I have never seen such beauty. Perfectly trimmed hedges, buzzing bees, I carry a baguette under my arm and feed bits to the pigeons by a large white rose bush.

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Sitting at a cafe in the toullieries. 4:00 pm
Drinking espresso and watching the leaves fall and the children riding scooters on the dirt road. Their mothers and fathers running along side them. The weather is cool and each table has a bright red blanket with fringe on the edges. We've just arrived here from the Opera de Paris. A most wonderful and beautiful masterpiece of a building. We even knocked on box 5, the box that belongs to the Phantom. The staircase was just as gold and grand as I'd imagined it to be. Mytholocial paintings covered the ceiling and sculptures of Apollo were everywhere. Outside a man with a crank organ played with 2 cats sleeping on his machine, Brian helped him crank the organ and it was wonderful.

Day two soon to come....