Rock the Pit!

Have you ever heard the saying... 'If life is a bowl of cherries, WHY do I always get the pits?!' Life has pits...and thorns. Getting to the pit means you have to go through the fruit and...the bed of roses always is co mingled with thorns. Yet, there seems to be a negative connotation to the pit. In fact the pit is always discarded, unless your a pit collector (like me) or a farmer or seed propagator. Do you know anyone who actually saves the pit or values them? Yup, your lookin at her... that's me..., the pit saver. Why, you ask, do I save pits? I don't know..., I just do.

There has always been this thought that someday I would need them... for something...hahaha. Strange, I know... Ooh, I am discerning your thoughts right now and your thinking...'You gotta be kidding me. Vicki you need to tighten the screws up there and you definitely need to get out more!' Ah, your probably right, I do need to get out more. Seriously though, wouldn't these pits make a great object lesson for teaching our children? You know one of those lessons about life... aren't there some great life applications associated with the pit? This could be the means of imparting some profound nuggets of wisdom?

In the Egyptian culture the beetle aka the scarab was considered lucky. Oh gosh, they carved it in furniture, wore them in gold and every kind of stone around their necks, painted them on walls and wove them into tapestries and fabric. Then carried and buried each other with this sought after motif. It had meaning and it was significant.


Here in New Jersey the beetle is just a nuisance and wrecks havoc on crops, especially my raspberries, and we find every way we can to get rid of these leaf eating, plant destroying buggers.



Ahhhh...but the pit is an entirely different thing. It houses a whole new generation of fruit, and that fruit holds pits that house yet another generation of fruit, and so on. What a powerful thing the pit is. Does it mean that we should save every one we get...? Maybe. If we liken our lives to a peach and enjoy the sweet juicy moments we will eventually find we end up with a  pit. Which, by the way, doesn't mean that our lives will not end with sweet juicy fruit. It just means part of having the peach is having the pit. I'm not going to lie, I would LOVE  a constant supply of sweet delicious goodness? What can be seriously hard is if someone else eats our fruit then leaves us with the pit! Not nice! How about skipping the 'eat the fruit' part and just put it in the ground to be planted? Um...NO!

Are you familiar with Tord Boontje? He made a necklace years ago from a collection of cherry pits that he got from his beloved aunt.

Cherry pit necklace $750-unique piece Tord Boontje

Tord Boontje Unveils Cherry-Pip Jewelry at 2012 London Design Festival




Am I trying to jump on Bootjes' band wagon of pits? No way! I've been saving pits for years and it warmed the cockles of my heart to find a pit loving kindred spirit like him and his aunt! He is respected for his 'pip' creations and gleans 200 euros for a necklace. Am I trying to amp up the trend...? No, not really, for me the pit became a reminder of 'what  I do when life gives me pits?'

Recently, I painted some gold... and paid homage to the pits and the potential they bring in my life. By the way this is not saying that I want a truck load of pits delivered to my house, nor am I saying that I love pits.



Every great life has tragedy , which brings a whole different kind of juice to the story. We pay attention and are drawn in more, everything becomes more relevant to us, there is a depth of meaning, understanding, light, and truth which seems to accentuate the sweet good parts. For all these reasons a glimmer came to me about my life, my pits, and my story.



Somehow it's better with some pits. We are not always interested in a story filled with all happy moments and smooth sailing the whole way through. What we really want is a knock down, drag out, heart wrenching, nail biting, hang on for dear life kind of story that ends with a happily ever after...or not.

'Rock the Pit' is to remind the wearer that part of life's unique goodness is the pits! And 'rocking the pit' means 'own it!' its yours. No need to be ashamed. Let it become part of the story, part of your story, part of your history. And yes, maybe we all need a collection of pits... painted gold, or strung, or planted, or just put in a baggie on the shelf in our craft closet. Nevertheless, life gives us all pits, and for me...remembering... that what lies deep within the pit, is where the precious, desirable, fruit is born.

Vicki

.'Rock the Pit' is a one of a kind original and is available here.

Boho Doilies

Inspiration is like 'BAM!' It hits like a blast of helium into a balloon, rises..., then something happens... the air starts to slowly leak out as we mentally go through the steps required. Dang! why does this have to happen? If your anything like me you dig your heels in, square your shoulders. and exclaim 'ain't no stopping me now, I'm on the move, I've got the groove!'. I'm hooking you up with the music, there's a powerful meaning here...so get yourself in sync and let's groove for a minute. Go ahead turn the volume up!

Ain't no stoppin' us now
We're on the move (yeah-ee-a, yeah-ee-a)
Ain't no stoppin' us now
We've got the groove

There've been so many things that have held us down
But now it looks like things are finally comin' around, yeah
I know we've got a long long way to go, yeah
And where we'll end up
I don't know
But we won't let nothing hold us back
We gonna get ourselves together
We gonna polish up our act, yeah
And if you've ever been held down before
I know that you refuse to be held down any more, yeah yeah
Don't you let nothing, nothing
Nothing stand in your way
And all we gonna do
I want you to listen, listen (That's right)
To every word I say
Every word I say about it

Ain't no stoppin' us now
We're on the move
(You said it, we've got the groove)
Ain't no stoppin' us now
We've got the groove (Whoo-hoo-oo-oo Whoo-hoo-oo)
Ain't no stoppin' us now
We're on the move
(We've got the groove)
Ain't no stoppin' us now
We've got the groove (Yeah)

I know you know someone who's got a negative vibe (Euhh)
And if you only help it will only keep it alive (Sh-yeah)
They really don't have nowhere to go
Ask 'em where they're going
They don't know
But we won't let nothing hold us back
We gonna get ourselves together, come on
We gonna polish up our act, yeah
And if you've ever been held down before
I know that you refuse to be held down any more, Oh oh oh

Don't you let nothing, nothing
(I won't do it) Stand in your way (No no)
And all we gonna do
I want you to listen, listen
To every word I say
Every word I say about it

Ain't no stoppin' us now (That's right)
We're on the move
(Nothing gonna, nothing gonna)
(Stop us now, stop us now)
Ain't no stoppin' us now, Come on
We've got the groove (Whoo-oo-oo yeah yeah)
Ain't no stoppin' us now (No no no)
We're on the move
(On the move, yeah-ee-a, yeah-ee-a)
Ain't no stoppin' us now
We've got the groove (Yeah)

Ain't No Stopping Us Now by McFadden & Whitehead. from Boogie Nights vol. 1

Exploring new interest can be exciting and frightening. I always tell my kids the biggest challenge a designer and artist has is 'fear'. Fear of wasting supplies/money..., time..., and possibly... the project doesn't come out as envisioned. It can be flat out daunting just getting started!

Work with me here a minute...for some time I have been exploring the idea of designing fabric. Much of what I do is very primitive and old school. I take raw materials and manipulate and imagine and dream. The prototypes don't always come off as polished as I would like. But for me the process has become very important.


“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let's just file that one away here to for...because it pretty much applies to every area of our lives.

It's 2:00 am, I'm wide awake... getting inspiration! Here's what came...this pattern from @KellyWearstler...there was something basic, raw and intriguing about the negative space taking front and center stage, AND the way those harmonious blue, green, gold tones wash right into each other...

So here is the BEGINNING of what came to be from that inspiration. Spark! get one of those vintage doilies Vicki and put it on watercolor paper then use the silver spray paint you have in the basement, and while your at it try orange, green and blue for your patterns... take those expensive watercolor pencils and fill in the spaces and see what comes of it!

Here's where I start feeling the Boho, India vibe...

Yeah...I got going and realized Oops (which is something a dentist should never say), I didn't want the leaves that color... then I just put my big girl pants on and heard myself saying these words 'no fear Vicki, just go for it!'. Turns out my motif has bicolored leaves...and I colored in the negative space which was different.

  

I added some gold leaf cause it's like sugar...makes it all go down better...Then I tried a few filters apps on my Iphone  picfx which I love and phonto for homevestures lettering!

Just sayin..."Don't you let nothin, nothin, stand in your way! Process is part of the process!

Mwah!
Vicki

ps follow me on instagram @homevestures

hiStory you're part of it!

textmask Iphone app for the lettering

I used this image of Hyrum and Albert on Alberts birthday for the lettering in the above image. Iphone app textmask

Let's look at history as some kind of neat package you and I get to keep and we get to give away! There's layers and images, pages fresh and torn and worn that transcends generations of life filled flesh and death. It's all loaded up with smelly stuff like roses, lavender, musk, rust, dirty dust, junk and funk!

Faded valentine roses from Mark! Iphone apps picfx for filtering and phonto for lettering super fun must have!

Then there is stuff that makes us giggle and cry, the richest kind of drama, filled with danger and romance all in a complicated tangled plot with juicy explosions or maybe not. There's friendships, family, bugs and disinfectants, each packaged up in some silvery gold emerald like paper and twine, then "sealed with a kiss".

Shopping day for Amber and I last week! Picfx Iphone app of course!

Wafting from the pages is ink new and old with music jamming from the edges down deep into the folds.  There's good and bad, evil and angelic with yummy sensations of sweet and savory or spewing gagging rotteness. Truth echos out laced well with lies and deceit, here is where fashion is lacking or at its mountainous peak.  Animal companions are there if we choose, the fun fury kind including an assortment of prickly, smooth, rubbery, rough or hard, its all there for certain, what's there to lose?

Ben Franklin Bridge taken in the car March 2, 2013 out for the day with Mark, Hyrum and Albert for his birthday. picfx 

This history package is filled with lots of questions and answers along with mud and crystal clear waters. There's dampness and darkness sunshine snow and rain with up hill and downhill terrain. Blasts of colors array each page side by side with dull hype, eh, whoa, WOW, jeeze, come on, WAIT, please..., no..., yes, um..., hum..., huh, ah..., Oh!, and ugh.  You'll come across thrills and chills, sweat, hot sunburn, knock out and insomnia.

Then took all the pictures and layered them with an app called layover and phonto for branding there are some glitches in the design but this was my first stab at layering images on my iphone! cool right?!

In truth this is yours to have and yours to give, your part of it to someone and someone is part of it to you. There is no escaping it, hiding from it, challenging it, yelling about it, or denying it. The moment you were conceived all the way down and up to "now" it is being written and recorded. Where you ask? In your mind and in your body, in heaven and in notebooks, in the minds and bodies of everyone you come in contact with. You become they become part of your history.  It's that big and wonderful scary and great, freakish and delightful, but mostly its true!

HiStory it's yours and you are part of it!

Here I used a different image of me and Amber and fooled around a little more with the lettering. If you know of a great lettering app for the Iphone please pass it along here!

Piece of Peace

Things don't always stay the same...in fact things are constantly changing around us. Many things feel like they are in our control, but, so many things are really out of our control. Especially, when we have children. As parents we want to 'get' our child's disposition and then quickly determine the best way to nurture their strengths and help them overcome weaknesses.

My first grandchild...we celebrated his second birthday Friday night.

I found myself with one of my children this past week having a discussion about how happy they were from a certain accomplishment they had done, but in the same breath this child was sad because it was the only thing that they felt they had finished and accomplished and done well with. Then, this child gave an enormous amount of credit to their father, and said that "if it weren't for dad...I would not have gotten that done".

My heart went out to this child, and I was sad because I also saw that much time and opportunity had been lost. There was also a sense a gratitude that this child recognized what had happened, and I was glad for that new found understanding which comes from experience.

This conversation has lingered with me. I'm not going lie, I wished it could have been different too. I wished that this child had seized every opportunity for education, growth, work, and prosperity, along with family, and friendships...but the time has past and what lies ahead is all any of us really have.

Over the next several days something happened as my heart began to yearn, and sorrow for this child of mine...a thought came to me of the parable of the talents in the New Testament taught by the Savior. He talks about how "some are given five talents, another two and to another one, according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey".

Then He says "the one with the five talents took his five and traded it and made five more, and the one with two had gained two more. But he that had received one dug in the earth and hid his..."

The way the parable went in my mind was this...some are given five and do nothing with it, and some are given two and will do nothing with it, and then there is the person, who because they have learned by experience that they may only have one talent because of choices or circumstances, take that one talent and increase it one hundred fold! Is that possible? Does it really happen? Do people really learn and turn their lives around? Can you think of anyone who went from one talent to five, ten, twenty, or even a hundred? I can. Can you bury five talents as well as one?

Somehow there was a peace that whispered in my heart, deep, and penetrating...lasting and indelible. From that arose hope and wonder...

Peace comes from God. It is a gift. He gives it to us without us even asking. Is it constant, no, is it fleeting, yes, do we worry and doubt, probably? But when God speaks peace to us it is truly something to hold onto, in fact take it to the bank! It's nice that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and wants us to live our lives abundantly in every way...just like I want the same for my children, and grandchildren. He wants the same for us. The difference...he has the power to change us, inspire us, grow us, show us...

What we value comes from what we feel, see, hear, taste, and smell...if we never feel peace how can we value it? I believe we can ask for peace, but I also believe God gives it to us even when we don't know how to ask for it...because he loves us...

I can't say my life is filled with peace...but I will gladly embrace the piece of peace I've been given.

Vicki

Money Can't Buy Love...

Money can't buy love...but it sure can buy a lot of flowers! Some things we just need to remember. I'm not sure why this Valentines became so unique and special. My husband and I have been married for almost 27 years this June. And we have had seven children during the course of those years. Many of you that have breathed the breath of life long enough... know that life really can be no picnic! In fact it's more like 'Ants at a Picnic'! So I have to say that we, meaning my husband (aka 'love of my life') have been experiencing some dull valleys. You know... expectations not being met...things not working out the way we thought they would when we got married...children...grandchildren...children getting married...leaky roof...bad backs...hair loss...wrinkles...longing for change and dreams that may never come true...Well, things happen that cause you to learn, and you give it your best shot and say 'dang'! I have bad aim, and need more practice! But in the midst of all the trying and trying to hit the target over and over again, we learn that certain things are just more important than hitting the target. Except for Cupid, the target is everything.

The Wednesday before Valentines my husband took a little trip to Produce Junction, a vegetable market, and bought me nine dozen flowers! I was gone at Dawnelles making meatballs, that was last weeks post if your keeping up. He then came home and proceeded to try and find a vase to put them all in...

he went from vase, to trash can, to gigantic vase, and pulled quite a bit apart trying to get the right container. Finally, after finding one they all would fit in... he packed every stem into a vase, did it all himself. It looked nice...packed in...but nice.

Your seeing two bunches and one almost dead because that is how long it took me to realize what was going on. So two days after Valentines I split them into two bunches.

The truth...I was a little amused...I was not over joyed, or overwhelmed, I was just amused. In fact it took me the day after valentines to open the card. I know your going to feel sorry for him now... and think what a ______ ity _______ I am! Girls, trust me a bunch of flowers does not always fix things... right?! Not even a box of chocolates thrown in there will fix it! Sometimes, that only makes things worse! But somehow, this gesture got my attention, and the attention of my children, at least the ones that still live at home. My 16 year old daughter was more than happy to help daddy with his romantic shortcomings.

Then he took Vallentines day off to take care of some 'honey do items'. After which we went for sushi and shopping and a late steak dinner. Sound nice? It was...it was fun, it was all day, we wandered from morning till late night doing whatever we wanted. And he wanted what I wanted...

 There he is with my youngest son, who just celebrated his eighth birthday just a few days before Valentines.

And here is what I read the day after Valentines...

Yup, I know...what a guy...

Vicki

Words in Love Language

I am so dang fascinated by words today and how people use words in decor. So... today I want to give you an impulsive sample of some words and phrases that have recently crossed my path and tickled my funny bone. Weird, I know! and trust me this is just ssssccccrrrraping the top. I'm at Dawnelle's right now and we are fixin to make meatballs...which is not on my healthy eat list, but we thawed the meat for another gathering that bombed. Betcha your more interested in the meatballs now...? Too bad! These graphics were made on my Iphone! I know!? Crazy, Right? The app is called 'Phonto', maybe $1.99, seriously get it! So much fun to use!

The 'Valley Girl' approach to I LOVE YOU!

This is what a man says about a woman when she is 'CRAZY BEAUTIFUL' to him!

Need we say more...

This is what every couple should do EVERYDAY! Yeah, try it... one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand...get my point? I learned this from John Lund a marriage counselor along with the 20 second hug and some other gems but this one stuck. I wonder why...

Imagine sealing all your letters, posts, and text messages with this one, or for that point your phone calls!

An old 70's term coined by the band 'Chic', YOWSAH says... YES, YES, YES, absolutely

Ok, have fun with this little Valentine printable download appendage!

Vicki
MWAH!

Start Process End

It must have been close to midnight and there I was having a exciting collaborative conversation with my oldest daughter and son. The topic was art, projects, and feed back aka praise and criticism. Two days later I was sitting on a plane to Las Vegas thinking and wondering how to mentor these dear children and truly legitimate friends. After having 7 children and being married almost 27 years to the same man (which is a whole other story) here's what came to me...

Let me ask you a serious question... Do you think there can be an end without a beginning? Lets explore this a minute...Hummm...Uhhh...well...ahhhh....no. No, there really can not be an end without a beginning. The next thing that came to me was this...

By the way I created these on the plane to Vegas using my iPhone and 'phonto', cool right!  Notice the letters in the design above...process...there is nothing even or consistent about the lettering which is exactly the point! Process is something that happens. My little grand daughter Mikah is beginning the process of crawling. She went from rolling over to getting up on hands and knees and scooting, with everything in between, including strengthening her muscles for the soon acquired skill of walking.

Are you feeling doubtful or a little annoyed, or really not interested...? Is it a frequent thing that we think that 'process' does not apply to, or in, or about, us or our particular situation? There is something very interesting about this image of Mikah being held up by her family...She feels safe...what else? What do you read into her little face? Also look at my grandson in the foreground of this picture...what might he be learning from all this?

Without a beginning there can be no end...and ALL things involve a process. Great discoveries will be made! Finally...could you just do something for yourself?

Release your inner radness! Bring on the stronger than cool you! Begin, initiate, get going, start it, now! Process is the greatest way of deflating fear! Thankfully we live at a time where people love seeing the whole story from the beginning, through the process to the end...it's relevant, liberating, exciting, and approachable!

Vicki