a stitch in time saves nine...

nine what?  i don't know really. 

 but i do know stitching is relaxing for me.  if i'm feeling stressed it calms me.  i just focus on one stitch after another and my troubles fall away for a little while. 

 stitching fills all of the idle moments in my life and makes them more bearable.  it keeps my hands busy while i'm waiting.  i always seem to be waiting. 

 stitching inspires me.  when i stitch i let my mind wander.  i think about things.  i think up things.  then later i do the things i've thought up.  i think that's pretty cool.

nobody, not even the rain...

(i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

-e.e. cummings

just messing around in my journal this morning.  i love the poems of e.e. cummings.  he has a quirky style of writing.  it seems as though he was a real "rule breaker" and i like that, as i am a "rule breaker" myself.  

i took a nice slow walk in the cool air this morning.  i found the lovely golden- orange leaf on the ground...fall is really beginning to show itself.  the roses in the background were a gift from my husband last week...they've just reached that crunchy, falling apart stage and the color has deepened.  i think they are just beautiful like this, even more than when they were first given to me.  there is a certain beauty to be found in decay, don't you think?

i hope you have a beauty filled day...

focus...

i took a little break this afternoon from making books and made myself a nice cup of tea.  this tea is called "focus".  it has a strange chocolatey-citrus flavor that is kind of nice.

i pulled out my current journal which is always close at hand.

i've been filling this one up rather quickly.  you can see the finished parts if you look closely.  i like it when threads and bits of glued stuff spill out of the book.

i hate that dreaded first page, so white and fresh.  i grabbed some walnut ink spray to start it off.  i really like how that turned out.  so i did the same to the next few pages.  and somehow i just kept going with that theme.  that's why the finished part of the book is brownish.  

i always include some tea bags.  and stitching.

a lot of stitching in this book.  i love stitching on paper.  i have a whole book of thick lokta paper just for that...i think i may have showed you some of that a while back. 

no great secrets to be found in this book.  i've mostly been writing interesting things that i have read.

and making little collages with bits of paper...

wonderful scraps that i can't bear to part with.  i have a whole bin of these.

and paint experiments.  some unfinished...

some finished. 

oh, on a really random note...

i made this yesterday.  i'm not much of a food photographer and this is the only photo i got as it disappeared quickly.  it was so, so good.  my kiddos have been working hard in school and this was like a note of appreciation for that.  warm bread = love.

i'm feeling fall in the air...are you?  going to a football game tonight.  don't tell anyone, but i really hate football.  i'm just going to see the band.  hope you have something fun planned...