Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Gifts, eggs and indecision

Gifts!
My lovely daughter gave me these minis for Christmas - she picked them off my Etsy wishlist, and I love them!
The two tiny bowls are from The Helmers - you can see their Etsy shop here. The bowls are made of mammoth ivory. Mammoth ivory is beautiful! It is from mammoth tusks dug out of the permafrost in Siberia and Alaska - since the creatures are extinct, it is an acceptable way of owning and enjoying ivory. The bowls are exquisitely turned.

The specimen jars, inkwell and tiny real bones are from Grace at Honey and Bee on Etsy. Grace's work is fabulous - she has a lovely elegant touch to her minis which I admire greatly :D

And a glorious surprise in the post!! Dear delightful Sans sent me a beautiful set of braids along with a lovely quilled card!! :) What a gorgeous inspiration these braids are!! If you know Sans' work you'll have seen what delightful and inspiring minis she creates from everyday items. Her tribal house is a masterpiece (mistress-piece?)
She describes me as 'elegant, neat and disciplined'. Hmmm, if only you could have heard the guffaw when I told Alan this. He almost choked on his coffee :D Only in my minis, Sans!

Thankyou soooo much, Sans! You are so generous :)

Eggs, Indecision and a Rant

I'm having trouble getting back into doing much - after the flood excitement, the Christmas overeating and the thoroughly enjoyable weeks with my family staying - inspiration is hiding from me.

The muse has left, she's gone away
And where she's hiding, none can say

So I'm searching for her in my stuff!
I've decided to do the Mother of all Spring Cleans :)))
You know, the sort of archeological rummaging where you find UFOs (UnFinished Objects), dead projects, things, pictures, and ideas written on bits of forgotten strangely-filed-away paper, some from decades ago when I could still knit (patterns from the 80s are truly scary!!), or still had a working relationship with my sewing machine (now it's more like delicate untrusting negotiation . . .). I decided at the same time to change around the guest bedroom and my workroom, seriously disturbing generations of dust bunnies!!
Now I'm on a strict rule of looking through every single item and piece of paper in my stash/mess/bookshelves/boxes, and deciding if it is, in the wise words of William Morris, 'known to be useful or believed to be beautiful'. If it's neither, out it goes. It may take weeks :D
This is proving scary and liberating at the same time. Also, moving house last time was exhausting - the more that goes to the rubbish dump now, the better.

It clears my mind, too.
My daughter returned to Brisbane during the terrible floods there last week. Thankfully her house was safe, but some of her friends lost everything. Their house was flooded up to above the ceiling with silty water which had sewage in it :(
It makes me think, what exactly is valuable to me? If I lost it all, what would I miss? This is helping me in my clearance. Attachment is alright, so long as it's for valid reasons.
Enough rant.

I'm fairly sure that I still want to make a mini dragon room next, but it needs stone walls (all that fire), and I like egg carton stones, but eating all those eggs is slow work, haha :) I've found a type of carton that is a perfect base colour and texture, and has a big flat lid with nothing printed on it - yay!!
Anyone know any recipes for really big omelettes??

P.S. - all of the above is subject to change, depending on how much coffee I drink :D

Glenda

14 comments:

  1. Glenda enhorabuena por esas preciosas piezas, son fantasticas y gracias por los enlaces,
    El regalo de Sans es precioso, es una mujer muy amable y su blog es una verdadera maravilla.
    Me alegro de que a tu hija no le haya pasado nada, a sido horrible ver las imagenes en la television.
    Uno se da cuenta de lo que es verdaderamente importante cuando pasan estas cosas.
    Y utilize para hacer paredes de piedra, los envases de los huevos y durante algunas semanas toda mi familia colaboro comiendo tortillas jejeje
    Suerte!!!!
    besitos ascension

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  2. Glenda, I love those little bowls! Mammoth tusk! Oh my! How rare!
    I am glad your daughter's house is okay. It is a terrible thing those floods. :(
    As for cleaning out the corners....I am not so brave! But I recognize the need to search for the Muse sometimes! That takes quiet time for me! I know she will return to you... just stare into that gorgeous blue star-spangled ceiling you painted on your tower!
    As for egg cartons, someone suggested recruiting all your friends to save cartons for you..... sounds like good advice... either that or have omelettes three times a day!

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  3. Beautiful gifts Glenda :) The trim from Sans is amazing. I need to do a clean out but seem to get nothing done anymore. I love working with egg carton, a good omelet is with munster cheese. My favorite.

    Victoria ♥

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  4. Beautiful gifts! The bowls are breathtaking! I'm giggling about your cleaning description. I can certainly relate to having a delicate relatinship with my sewing machine. I use mine so infrequently that I must watch the video on threading the machine each time I want to sew. I just hope that the VCR video will hold out a while longer :)

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  5. Dear Glenda, we start from the end. Remember that eggs have a lot of cholesterol and you can only eat three a week!
    As for the decline of inspiration and spring cleaning ... I think the two go hand in hand always.
    Sometimes in life, there 's need to make a clean sweep of things old and useless, get rid of burdens that we carry on his shoulders, to clear your mind and make room for new energy and new projects.
    Is a matter of inner space which translates into an uncontrollable urge to empty the house from cellar to attic :-)
    I am sure that soon you will find the strength and the serenity to start to create :-)
    The wonderful gifts that you did your daughter are a very important motor :-)
    Welcome back,
    Flora

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  6. Good news about your daughter - and wonderful gifts. Happy cleaning - and if I'll find a recipe where a whole box of eggs is needed I'll tell you... ;O)

    Greetings
    Birgit

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  7. I love a good spring clean. I find it really rejuvenates me. I think I should have been one of these people who go into houses and make people throw things away, Life Laundry or whatever it's called.

    I am sure you will find your inspiration tucked away beneath all your lovely pieces.

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  8. Lovely gifts, what a good idea from your daughter!! :)

    Warm hugs, Jollie

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  9. I have been online for a long while today going round the world :). You have beautiful gifts , Glenda :), even mine look quite good in your pic. Thank you for the email , my dear.

    Your muse will be back sooner than you can say "Christmas" :)

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  10. All beautiful gifts and the little bowls are lovely. My daughter looked through my Etsy favourites to buy my christmas present too, it's great :) Glad to hear that your daughters house was ok, it's been a terrible time for many.

    Spring cleaning?!! Ah.. I am spring cleaning in bursts whislt doing a little packing for a possable house move. I too have been chanting William Morris's saying as I have been tossing things in the charity box :)

    A dragon's room sounds great, you could paint some of your fabulous dragon murals on the walls.

    Julia xxxx

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  11. Beautiful gifts, Glenda! Love the jars.:) Glad to read your daughter's house didn't suffer from the flood and I am sorry for her friends.
    Hope your mini muse is going to come back soon as I love the miniatures you create dear Glenda. :)

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  12. Dear Glenda
    Welcome to the papiermache endless world. do you know the site :
    www.papiermache.co.uk?
    Its a great site. in its galery everyone gets a chance to exhibit up to 30 photos. I'm on the site as well.So is Nives Cecin -Sain and Liat Binyamini- Ariel.
    enjoy
    Neomi

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  13. Te felicito por las cosas tan interesante que he visto en tu blog.Besos.Te invito a visitarme.

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  14. Wonderful gifts, glad your daughters house was safe. Best wishes to her friends though how upsetting for them. Watch out for those dust bunnies! I have loads in my house ha ha ha!

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