TBT.

Flashing back to a few years ago, in our old house. These pictures make me laugh every time I see them.

Here's a few things cheering me up on this grey, dreary Thursday:

1. This Bad Lip Reading of the NFL. In this format, I could watch football all day, every day.
2. Andrea's latest post. That lady is a bright ray of light, for sure.
3. The RAW BANANA BREAD SHAKE. Do I even need to explain this one???
4. Lori's stunning Instagram page. I want to move to Californian countryside and knit all the things, immediately.
5. This teacher, who elaborates upon the doodles his students turn in on their assignments. Such a creative, fun way to interact with the kids. I wish more teachers would use humor to create more meaningful moments with their students.



Just a (sad) note:

I hate to end this post on a downer, especially after all that fun stuff above, but I thought I should at least mention that my Uncle died. He was hit by a car while walking. We bury him tomorrow afternoon and I'd like to ask you all to pray for my mother and grandparents. He was a brother and a child, respectively, and while I don't grieve much myself (I didn't know him well, especially in recent years), my heart does grieve very much for them. My Uncle was mentally ill for several years, and lived a sort of vagabond existence, and the whole thing is sad, topped off with a sad ending. My brother and I, and our spouses, are going to literally hold these people up, until the worst has passed.

2015: What I'm Craving.

embroidery thread and/or just one of several thousand things I'd like to organize this year

Instead of making a bunch of resolutions that I know I won't keep, I made a list of things I'm craving in 2015:

1. Opportunities to learn. This could be achieved in any number of ways, like taking a dance or art class, following through on my plans to attend college, or taking more time to explore the forests and rivers that surround our town.

2. More dancing, as in, dancing in my socks in the kitchen while I make dinner. Dance-jumping on the bed while we blast Michael Jackson through the house. More time with my hoop, more time at the barre, more time with the wooden floors of dance studios under my feet. Chronic pain be damned; I want to dance.

3. Less television, more porch sitting underneath the moon.

4. More impromptu dinner parties, with dozens of tea-light candles flickering, friends and family music on, and homemade pizza's in the oven.

5. More knitting, more embroidery, more collages in my art journal.

6. More blanket-forts.

7. I want to get my family back in the kitchen with me. We cooked together for a while, and then sort of fell out of rhythm after we moved into our current place. I want more togetherness, while we chop up rosemary and onions for marinara sauce, or mash bananas for banana bread.

8. I plan to continue cleaning out the house, de-cluttering, simplifying, organizing. We made great strides over the past year, living on as little as possible and creating the rest, and I can't wait to see what we do this year.

9. More trips to the indoor and outdoor markets.

10. More love. Love for the ones I'm close to and the ones I'm not. I plan to spread it on thick. 2014 was heartbreaking in many ways for me, as well as for the whole world, and I'd like to be part of the greater solution, which I believe is to love those around you. Most especially those people that are hard to love.


I'd love to hear about your goals, or if you don't have goals, what you hope for in the new year. I wish you all love and light on this trip around the sun.

xo Brittany

Dot* died this morning, around 9:15.



*see previous post

Dotty.

This is my great-aunt Dot. She is currently on life-support, after complications from intestinal surgery. The doctor awaits the arrival of my grandfather to decide when to pull the plug. 


But here's what I want to say about her: She's a dame, in every sense of the word. During the war, while she was a nurse, she met and married a photographer, and from then on they were rarely apart. She painted. Almost every family member of mine has at least one of her paintings on their walls. She made quilts, completely by hand. She raised boys into hilarious, compassionate men. She found any excuse she could to throw a party--in fact, she just recently had one at her assisted living home for over 30 people. She was feisty and hilarious in the face of many years of physical suffering. She was the person I could talk to about art and love and making things. She was my pen-pal. She and her husband traveled through Europe. They wrote each other love letters and silly notes, even later into their lives. She loved anything glittery and sparkling. She knew my pain without having to ask. She is special and rare, and I wish I could be with her to say goodbye.

...and then I'll pretend that making and eating (all) these apple chips will make up for eating all those cookies.

I plan on getting through this winter with a whole lot of cookies.

journal pages + links I love.

I get into these grooves where I can't seem to work on anything larger than a journal page. I've always worked better, and more intuitively, on a small scale--although I do occasionally try to work bigger. I so admire those painters/mixed-media artists who work on a huge scale, from the size of an apartment wall to the size of a city building.

Here are some thing I've been inspired by lately:

- The Ma Books blog is so beautiful, a place full of the stories and images of mothers.
- This blog post from Erika Morrison had me laughing and crying.
- This video of Jessica Sparrow hoopdancing is incredible.
- Faithe Vanssills instagram is a smorgasbord of inspiration and color.

~