TAKE NOTE - The Good Ol’ Days

I grew up in a very small town (population 1,000) and loved it.  It truly was a great setting for a lovely childhood.  We knew most of the residents and they were generally the type that would drop everything to help a neighbour in need.  I don’t remember being afraid of anything and enjoyed the carefree life my parents provided. 

One of the highlights of our humble village was its impressive Fall Fair.  There were oodles of categories for kids to enter their baking, art, animals (4H) and more for the chance to win big - 1st prize was $5!   

One year I entered a pencil drawing of the town creamery which was also quite famous in those parts.  On a warm afternoon prior to the submission deadline, my mom dropped me off beside the road that looked down on the creamery plant and yard.  She went to run some errands and left me to the great view of the building I planned to sketch and enter in the Fair.  (Yet another nod to the safety of our wee village).   Long story short, that year I won first prize for my rendering and at a young age I was encouraged to keep pursuing art.

Although my art making was latent for decades, I still quietly held to the notion that I could probably be artistic again if I tried.  Looking back, I think it was a gift to hold this knowing in my heart.  I’ve heard many times of students being discouraged by art teachers (in the “old” days) from pursuing art as a career.  Although I wasn’t advised to head in this direction I was never told not to.

Many kids give up on art when they’re old enough to realize that their paintings don’t look like Renoirs.  They don’t have the maturity to know that it will take practice and patience to improve.  Thirty years later adults say they’re no good at art because of how they were at art when they stopped making it (age 10).  For sure it’s not everyone’s thing but I’d love for art to be fun again for people.  To make it for the sake of a pleasant afternoon with friends.  I say take the pressure off that you have to produce a masterpiece!  Revel in the chance to slow down, enjoy colour and play.

TAKE NOTE - The Next Right Thing

Back in August when the air was warm and wildflowers were blooming, my husband and I went for a walk in the woods behind our home.  I found it so inspiring that I came home with my weedy bouquet and wrote a little prose about the experience.  That led to painting a mixed media piece on the theme of wildflowers.  One thing led to another and suddenly I was painting and writing my way through the alphabet.  Now, almost six months later I have nearly completed the project and it’s been an enormously pleasant experience.

About the same time as my alphabet project inspiration, I had decided to try pursuing my art as a business venture.  I wasn’t exactly sure how to make that happen but I had a terrific first project underway.   It gave great structure to my days as I’ve known for some time that H comes after G and so on.

I know at the end of this art task are looming business-y challenges of which I know very little (or maybe nothing!).  Should I make it into a book?  Should I sell the paintings individually?  Will someone want paintings with matching stories that hold an outrageous number of alliterations?  Will anyone want any of it at all?  These are the questions I’m pondering today.  My basic approach when I have no idea where something is heading is to take one wee step at a time and chip away at the process.  The next right thing is around here somewhere.

TAKE NOTE - Slowing Life Down

If you want to slow life down then be there for the January snowstorm.   I’m not sure what it’s doing where you are but in my neck of the woods we are not leaving the house today.   Hmm, what should we do on a day that we can’t go anywhere?  Perhaps, we should MAKE something! 

I think making things with our hands brings us contentment that we wouldn’t have guessed in our fast paced world.   Coupled with this is the concept that to make something with our own hands, we generally have to slow down and take our time to have it work out.  The notion of slowing down and the idea of slow art has captured my imagination.  A couple of years ago I discovered that there’s even a “Slow Art Day” every April (more on that closer to the day!).

There are probably creative, slow yourself down things you already do like baking a cake or building a snowman or planting a garden.  Most of these can’t be done with your cellphone in hand or in a super speedy way but they bring great satisfaction.  Maybe today consider drawing a little flower.  Perhaps even painting it.  Perchance putting it in a short note to a faraway friend?  Let’s start with a deep breath.

TAKE NOTE - Arts and Crafts

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Arts and Crafts Movement that followed the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800’s.  Oh sorry, have I lost you?   Allow me to give some context.

We’ve lived in our new to us home for one year now and despite pretty well no cell coverage and only decent land line reception I’m very glad to be here.  In trying to live a wee bit quieter life I feel that we are beginning to bring that about.  Of course, no cell coverage and everyone leaving the nest also helps that tremendously!  As you are likely well aware, there is a lot of buzz around “simple this” and “slow that” and for very good reason.  Our culture is so BUSY and our mental health is suffering in direct correlation to it.  

I discovered from reading about the Arts and Crafts movement that people were reacting to how machines had taken away the joy of handmaking things along with the simple life and the fellowship that people used to savour in slower times.  And this was over 100 years ago!   What in the world would they think of our pace now?!  William Morris (of the amazing wallpaper) helped start the movement by declaring that there wasn’t enough beauty around anymore.  He advocated for making things by hand both for everyone to enjoy and also to slow down and revel in something that you made yourself.

My new thing, which really is just a reworking of an old thing, is not only to make art but to share any art, craft or making adventure that slows us down.  A good old fashioned, make something with your own hands, gab with someone while you do it, slow down thing. I’m embracing a business that focuses on art in a slow way.  I’m certainly with William on this and my little contribution is to provide a place for the frazzled and fresh alike to make something.

Slow art making for the masses!

“It is the childlike part of us that produces works of the imagination. When we were children time passed so slow with us that we seemed to have time for everything.”  William Morris

Beginning to Take Note

January of a new decade seems like an excellent, albeit typical time to begin something new.  In the past few years I’ve defaulted to not making resolutions due to the high probability of not keeping them.  I’m rethinking that this new year.  It’s not because I’m sure I’ll have more willpower with the ultra-cool sounding “2020” but because there are some things that I still really want to do.  And so, I’m setting out to re-start something with the idea that it may flounder but this time I have my own permission to begin again any day I feel like it.  I don’t have to wait for a January or a 1st or even a Monday.

I’m talking in general about making art as a full-time venture and specifically about getting this blog rolling today.  Henceforth, this “web log” will now be called “Take Note”.  We all know of course that it’s still basically the same thing but I think it sounds better, I love sticky notes and taking note of things and for some reason I like to name stuff.

Saying that I’m going to start doing something seems like enough work for now and next time I’ll start “noting” the things I want to tell you.  I’m not procrastinating.  Really, it’s a plan.  I hope you’ll still come by.

Home of the Brave

I’ve lived in Canada my whole life. It’s been a wonderful homeland and I feel downright blessed to have landed in the awesome Canadian family that I did. A mere 34 years ago I married my terrific American born husband. He came to Canada initially of his own accord so I can’t really help the fact that he ended up falling for me and staying here all these years. He would, in fact, say that it has been a very lovely place to live and raise a family so everything is fine. As a bonus, we have lived most of those 34 years within a stone’s throw of the US border making it as easy as it could have been to head south to the land of the brave, and the free (I’ll learn it).

So, it is quite interesting that right at this very moment, I’m awaiting a call that will say I can go to the US Consulate General in Montreal to pick up my American visa (shock!). Why I must go 4,495 kms to Montreal is a ridiculous other story! Anyways, yes, it’s true. My husband and I bought a house in Maple Falls, WA back in February and are hoping to move there before too long. By the way, doesn’t “Maple Falls” sound splendid? And isn’t the word “Maple” in the name such a nice tribute to the fact that I’m still a loyal Canadian?

Anyhoo, back to 1984 for a moment… From the beginning of our marriage, hubby and I have always longed to live in the country. We’ve never thought it would bother us to drive farther to Costco or not have neighbours looking into our yard/windows. There was also the dream that had been planted in both of us to have a restful place for people to come and restore a little balance in their lives. He went to grad school, we got jobs, we had children and life got busy. And of course, there was the small matter of the money it takes to buy an acreage close enough to commute to a job to make the money. Our lives were full and busy and far from restful. In fact, on several occasions I took myself away to restful places to get a break from my regular life. It was inspiring and filled me up to head back to the real world.

For the past couple of years our realtor friend has been showing us properties that we thought might get us to that idea of idyllica. Unfortunately, prices kept going up and we were getting farther away both financially and geographically from where we wanted to be. Then hubby struck on the idea of looking south of the border in his “homeland”. Admittedly, I wasn’t jumping right on the bandwagon and thought of all the reasons it would be a challenge (and health care). Slowly, however, I began to see that husband being American had made this more of an opportunity than the obstacles it presented. The right and lovely place was found, details fell into place in a heavenly way and we are now the proud owners of 5 acres and a house that I can’t live in yet.

BUT, we’re getting close! I have received notice that I am now “documentarily qualified” and I’m awaiting a date for my trip to multicultural, artsy, poutine laden Montreal.

If you’re still reading this backstory, first of all “thank you for your patience”. Secondly, the bottom line is that we feel God leading in this venture which we have decided to call “Bloom Wild”. It’s a place where we hope others will join us to take a breath, dream of new things and go wild with the life that you’ve been given.

Plant a Tree

It was 9 years ago that we packed up our four rag tag kids, ages 11-18, and left the comforts of home for Chiang Mai, Thailand.  To keep family and friends up to date I started “Tuesdays in Thailand”; a blog “ish” type of communication but using good, old fashioned email.  It was well received and forwarded here and there, even to a few strangers.  When we returned a year later, several asked if I would be continuing with the updates.  I stared blankly and thought to myself, “Seriously? Lay out for all the world wide web our nutty day to day life?  I politely managed, “no, not at this time”.  If you had dropped by unexpectedly, you’d likely have found out why this would not be a good idea.  Let’s suffice it to say that the past decade has been a bit of a messy, drama filled life.  I know now that many of us have this kind of life but I just didn’t think mine was going to be sooo messy (and drama filled).

Back to carrying on with the blog idea…. looking back now, I guess I should of.  People blog, I’ve discovered, about all sorts of crazy stuff.  AND, blogging hit the stratosphere and I missed the rocket ride!  To be honest it has been on my mind since my “Tuesdays” days as something I would like to do, but I’ve been waiting for that magic moment when I get my act together!  When life is tidier.  As that moment does not appear to be coming down the chute anytime soon I recently said to myself, “be WILD, start a blog, crazy, wild person that you are”.

I’ve always liked the saying “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second-best time is now”.  And so, it’s now.  I’m a bit of an old timer for starting a blog but I don’t say “interweb” too often and I’m resourceful to find people to help me with the remote. I’m attempting a move forward with no regrets or “shoulda’s” on board and I’m kicking off today with my first blog post!

Most of us know that even though it might be easier not to let people in, “shared joy is a double joy: shared sorrow is half sorrow” – Swedish Proverb (love those Swedes, and one in particular ). My deep desire and prayer is that this blog and website and our lives be encouraging to you. There’s no doubt that this life is quite a trek but it’s nice to have a friend to trip with.
I’d love for you to come along.