Diana at Part Time Monster hosts a weekly Weekend Coffee Share inviting folks to share what’s been going on in their world. Come join the fun here.
If we were having coffee, I’d invite you to sit with me in my studio. It might be a bit squeezed – the space is rather tiny – but it suits me perfectly. I’d show you the above illustration of a coffee plant and tell you I’ve been poking through vintage botanical books and prints. I’m even more obsessed with flowers this May than ever.
My studio overlooks the back yard and from here you can see the lovely lilacs. They bloomed this week and I’m in heaven. I’ve brought in armsful to set in vases all around the house.
I’d mention I’m feeling especially grateful this week as my brother had surgery and is recovering nicely. I might point out that I think he’s the best brother in the world. It’d be okay if you rolled your eyes – I understand these things are quite subjective. But I do hope you have people in your life that you’re crazy about.
I’ve done a bit of reading this week, including the kids book Horns & Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson about river and rock trolls and the clever 12-year old girl who saves the day. I also finished Lynda Barry’s Everything – a compilation of her early comics, and How to Be a Wildflower: A Field Guide by Katie Daisy. I’d explain to you how I don’t rate books with a thumbs up or down system, nor do I use stars. Rather I use my own method adopting floriography, the Victorian language of flowers, and assign books a floral rating. I’m awarding Horns & Wrinkles a patch of crocuses (meaning youthful gladness); Everything gets a bouquet of Saxifraga (for affection); and Wildflower gets a vase of white carnations (meaning sweet and lovely). Here’s a charming little video giving you a peek into the How to be a Wildflower book.
I’d want to know what you think about time because I’m totally flummoxed. It’s MAY people! You may pretend to know how that happened, but I, for one, am convinced someone is spinning the clocks forward at ever-increasing speeds and flipping the calendar pages while we’re sleeping. This week I finally got around to a project that I’ve been meaning to start all year. Creating a little folded one-sheet booklet that I could jot highlights of the week in and tuck in photos and bits and bobs. One year I did a similar kind of “summary” using a playing card as my foundation and filling both sides with words and pictures; so by the end of the year I had a deck of my year. I quite enjoyed spending a little time each week doing that; and then of course it was fun to have a deck to look back through. I’ve wanted to do something similar but switch it up a bit too, and the idea of the little folded journal has been calling to me for quite some time. For the last couple of years, I played in a group on-line project which was called Summer of Color, and each week during the summer we were invited to play with a specified palette of color and create something – anything. I chose to create a series of little notebooks each summer, and then filled those with the happenings and ephemera of each week. It was fabulous fun and I wanted to do something like that, but smaller and requiring less time and effort and the single-folded-page journal feels like the perfect fit.
Here’s a photo of the one I created this week. I’ve got it sitting on a page from the How to be a Wildflower book so you get a bonus peek of that as well.
I might also mention my favorite word of the week – cunctator, which means a procrastinator or one who delays. Having delayed getting started on my little mini-journal project until just this week, I guess I’ve earned that title.
But it’s okay, I’m not going to be too hard on myself. We’d talk about kindness and I tell you about a project I’m participating in and invite you to read about it tomorrow on my blog.
And there you have it, a peek into my week. What’s been happening in yours? Have any projects you’ve let slide but are now feeling re-inspired to begin? Interested in floriography? Read something wonderful lately? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
I’m so happy to be having coffee with you today. I agree about time spinning forward too fast: how could this be mid-May already? Impossible, or is it? Love the word cunctator, which I just learned here. I am one, without a doubt.
I suspect we’re all kindred cunctators at some level. But here’s to moving forward with those things that bring us most joy! Thanks so much for joining me for coffee today Ally, and wishing you a wonderful week.
Glad you joined us for the coffee share! It’s Diana actually—but I have always loved the name Erin! 😉
Oh goodness Diana – my apologies. Maybe we can blame it on all the extra coffee I’ve had? 🙂 I’ve fixed it now and I promise it won’t happen again.
haha! No worries at all. It can be difficult to keep up with names when we only ever see each other online. Besides, extra coffee can *totally* be a contributor! 🙂
Ha, cunctator and brothers and art and a beautiful back yard – I love it! This week I’ve been crazy finishing up work for a June art exhibit. Tip – starting a new media before a big art show needs to be considered closely! Finishing up my last pieces now. I’ll be more relaxed for our coffee next time. 🙂
Yay you Michelle – for being in the home stretch of your project; for stretching outside your familiar territory in the first place; and for your upcoming exhibit. Win-win-win! Wishing you sweet rest and recovery when this bit of craziness is over.
Someone is definitely flipping forward the calendar faster and faster! 🙂 Love the little page you made for the week.
So glad to have outside confirmation of that Kelsey – I KNEW I wasn’t imagining it. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week.
We are smack in the middle of a home improvement project that I had no idea would start so quickly after we had the initial estimate. There have been workmen here all week tearing off the old roof and putting on a new, wrapping the house for siding (from which I “stole” several large bits of TyVek which is great for making bindings for my paper crafting mini-albums. I remember seeing the examples of the little notebooks you made with your different color palettes. So great you have a use for them now! Thanks for the coffee!
Here’s to a quick finish to the home improvements Janet. Those can be noisy repairs, but one the plus side they’re on the outside and not inside.
TyVek is fabulous to work with – I can’t wait to see what you do with it. Hope you have a great and creative week.
Coffee and lilacs, sounds dreamy and heady. Best wishes to your brother for a speedy recovery!!!!!!!
I’ll pass your kind wishes on, but he really is fine so no worries. But here’s to a quick return to gardening and riverside watching for him. Wishing you a wonderful weekend Candace.
Missing the comic book convention this weekend, need to save up some money and it is way too cold to go anywhere today.
Reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe–she knows how to hit people in the feels.
We’re sharing your chilly weather as well – I had to crank up the heat and find some wooly socks. I agree about Harriet Beecher Stowe.
The flowers are pretty. I bet they smell great too.
They do indeed. Thanks for stopping by Connie and have a wonderful week.
Time……whaaaaattt?! Totally don’t get it. Fast, slow…mostly fast.
I do hope your brother recovers well.
Lilacs….mmmmm. All over your home! Mmmmm. I miss that smell.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mary
I’ll take extra sniffs of those lilacs for you Mary. Wishing you a wonderful weekend that doesn’t speed by too quickly.
Tis the season for lilacs, one of my favorite flowers. Where do you find these words like cunctator, Deborah? That is so me. I can be such a big procrastinator and it drives me crazy. Any tips? Maybe a motto like “Do it Now” might help:)
Maybe that needs to be a tattoo. 🙂
Hi Deborah – so pleased to read your brother has had successful surgery … and I love the way you’ve devised for your book ratings – clever. Lilacs are wonderful aren’t they …
The Katie Daisy film and book is just amazing to see – what a delight … your single folded booklet looks such a brilliant idea .. and will delight you as you add notes, jottings, drawings to it ..
No more cunctating for either of us … let’s get going .. cheers Hilary
Oh yes Hilary – let’s ditch the cunctating and spring forward with all manner of wonderfulness!
Thank you so much for the coffee. I apologize for arriving some late. As you noted, time is speeding along and sometimes it’s difficult to keep up. The scent of your lilacs is wonderful, and I love your rating method for books. I am very interested in floriography, and have been for some time. I think all of nature speaks to us in some way. 🙂
Never to late to join me for coffee Robin – the pot is always on. What a delight to find a kindred floriography fan – how fun! Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week and hope to see you for coffee again soon.
On the day you posted this, we were in Phoenix Arizona and then on the next day to Flagstaff.
While we were in Phoenix, we visited the museum. They had the most indescribable exhibit . … but I will try. It was a dark room, with led light strings hanging from the ceiling, thousands of them … and mirrors. It was like walking into a galaxy or a firefly lit forest. It was unsettling at first because you didn’t know how big the room was or how to navigate back to the start or to the end. Only until you just began to be in the space were you able to find your way through.
So stunning.
Of course, there was that grand canyon. I’ll write more about that on my blog next week.
Oh Cynthia that sounds like a most extraordinarily fabulous experience!!! I look forward to hearing about your Grand Canyon adventure as well.