Last pictures of Koi Pond...in its home at last!

 My daughter, Hannah, in her home with the new quilt!  I couldn't get the flash to work properly.  I think she likes it very much.  She was a bit worried about all the color...later, after I started it, she said she was thinking she should have asked for a more neutral colored quilt.  She was worried her fiance doesn't like too much color.  But he is ok with it...and I have been trying to tell Hannah to get some pillows and a throw  to tie it all in. (I watch too much HGTV...I was saying we need a "pop" of color to tie it in.) :) I said I would buy her some pillows and etc...but she said NO....I will buy it IF I want  to...she definitely does not want me decorating her home for her!...Its too bad...just because I love doing it...and it would be fun for me...but I cant over step my boundaries.  AHHH...motherhood. I think about my own mother and how she lived to decorate her home...and thinking back-she never over stepped her boundaries with my home even when I was really young.  I never even remember her making suggestions which is kind of odd...but I , too, always had very specific ideas and loved to decorate.  I never had any money...so I have always did what I could with thrift store, garage sale and estate sale finds as well as hand me downs.  To this day, I enjoy decorating this way...it gives it an eclectic and interesting look besides the fact that it keeps it affordable!

  

My engaged daughter.....life moves way too fast sometimes!  We had fun when I was there looking at the computer at places to have her wedding and looking at a Bride's Dress magazine.  She is thinking about going to Jamaica for her wedding so I really have something to try to lose weight for so I can get in my suit without crying!  I have been working out for a couple months now pretty intensely.  I have been frustrated with the lack of weight loss... although my pants have fit a bit better I certainly dont need to buy all new clothes by any means!  Finally after a little over 2 months I finally lost 5 lbs.  I am hoping that because I worked so hard to get that off...it will be likely to remain off instead of a daily roller coaster.  I figure I had like 44 lbs to lose!  So now I have 39...it seems insurmountable!  At 45...it just seems to be so hard.  Ahh...well, I know I am not alone...seems just about every woman I know is trying to lose weight all the time.  I really try not too talk about it all the time.  But actually I am so proud that I have been working out.  I feel so much better..energy wise and I do think I notice that my body looks better...I love Anytime Fitness Gym and I go there for 1.5 hours about 3-5 days a week and then on Sundays my husband and I swim laps at the local high school for 45 min to an hour.  It feels good.  I have been bad for the last 3 years when I started my art gallery.  Starting a business does not allow one much time to do anything but the business while it is so young.  Well, enough about weight.  But I am proud of myself for trying so hard.  I feel good about moving and exercising again.  

Winter Party 2011

 Making ice cream at our Winter Party

 Cooking fried eggplant --a tradition!  It melts in your mouth-YUMMM

 Tim, my husband, and I

 Still working on that ice cream!

 Tim donned a "dreadlocks" wig that was floating around all day...I had it on later in the day!  Goofy I know!

Me, on the right, and my oldest friend in the world Debbie.  We have been friends since Kindergarten- 5 years old!  I am not going to say how long that makes our friendship as I would be giving away our age!!!

New book I am reading...

I would love to hear how others of you like or dislike this book.  I am thinking it would be a good book club choice for our book club.  She kind of drops out of corporate life...and goes much simpler and quieter basically  in the same vane as Eat Love Pray....quite drastic but she doesn't travel the world to find herself so I am thinking that some of the thoughts here are more "usable" for the average Joe to incorporate into our lives.  Like I said, I would love to hear what you think.  (Sorry you cant click to Look inside!__You can go to Amazon books to do that>)

Dr Seuss knew what he was taking about!

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

I just ordered this fabric.  My sister want me to make her a quilt and so far all she said was she thought she wanted fall colors...I fell in love with this so I had have it.  I cant wait to start...but it will have to wait.  I have 2 quilts in the makings all ready.  It will be for her birthday in August anyway so I have some time..Isnt it a glorious batik?!!!!

Listen to this broadcast

Listen to cbcradio-Tapestry radio show....To Err is human-Jan 16th broadcast.  It is wonderful .

I plan on getting the book so I can underline and highlight and write all over it!  Such an important message for us all.  This is one of the challenges that I face daily and as an artist ....with every piece I create!  Enjoy the radio show...Tapestry is a wonderful site to listen to all kinds of positive messages...

Done with Koi Pond Quilt!

 I have finished my Koi Pond Quilt!  I think I have worked harder on this quilt than anything than any artwork I have ever made!  There are probably 200 hours or so of work--literally blood (poking myself from pins) sweat and tears in this quilt!  It is for my daughter Hannah.  I am proud of how it turned out...its not perfect but its mine.. I made it ...and I love it!  There are thousands and thousands of stitches in this piece.  I told Hannah if /when I die...all you have to do is rub your hands across the quilt and she should feel my love come through in the stitches.  I said a prayer of this quilt so she would always feel my presence and love through this quilt.  Its color and movement and energy reflects how I feel about life.
I have not clipped the loose end threads yet....my last thing to do...take care of loose ends---HOW FITTING! 

"Koi Pond Joy"  Laura Bradley 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Drapes? And Engagement News!!!

I am thinking about getting these drapes for my dining room...but I am just not sure.  What do you think?  Its called Tree of Life...design.  I love them..but the mustard gold is a little odd ...maybe absolutely perfect...or not...I guess I could always send them back.  I was thinking of painting my wall a teal to go with these drapes.  I will post pictures if I get them...I dont have any money for them right yet!  I will be patient...but they are on sale right now from World Market. 
Oh, and my daughter is engaged!  Drapes first, engagement second??!!  No, she is so funny about me sharing info about her online.  I had to wait to make sure she told everyone she knew first before I posted it on facebook....So,  I guess its safe now to tell my blogging friends.  I keep pinching myself...am I dreaming.  I cant believe my first child...my baby girl Hannah is getting married!!  It kind of makes one feel old I guess...I knew it was coming though...I saw the signs...but still I am in a happy shock!  How life changes huh??!!   A new chapter in our lives!  Every 1/2 hour or so...I stop in my tracks and say to myself...my baby is getting married!???  My youngest daughter keeps saying"I thought I was your baby?" (she is the youngest) But I tell her...Hannah was my first baby...and by the way..all 3 of you will FOREVER be my babies!

A Prayer for my Daughter

William Butler Yeats

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory's wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.

I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.

May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger's eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.

Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-leggd smith for man.
It's certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.

In courtesy I'd have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty's very self, has charm made wise,
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.

May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.

My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there's no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.

An intellectual hatred is the worst,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
Out of the mouth of Plenty's horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and every good
By quiet natures understood
For an old bellows full of angry wind?

Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
Where all's accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony's a name for the rich horn,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.

iI want