making space + opening up

 Dear friends...so much is happening over here I can hardly catch up with it all! Excitement and adventures and long long days...but totally inspired and open to all the goodness. I am leaning more and more into my two words for the year (surrender + faith). As I get older, I realize how we have so little control over so much in life...that for all our plans and hard work and what we thought life would be...a lot of times we simply have no control over circumstances. Still...we try our very best each day and...maybe there are bigger dreams for us in ways we couldn't have imagined. That's how I am feeling these days. Blissed out in an exhausted kind of way:)

 I have been working at the kitchen table again...my art journal (using the kit from Invincible Heart Co.) is coming along and taking on a life of it's own. I am loving all the experimenting, messes and discoveries along the way. Been listening to The Late Bloomer (by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes) audio series while I work and I just cannot tell you the sheer  brilliance of it!!! Every single word, nuance and breath goes straight to the very heart and soul of me. Truly...an entirely separate post is needed to talk about this bit of goodness. I signed it out from the library but am just going to have to purchase it.

 And through it all...I have been trying to practice courage. My friend Dee (an artist from across the way in England) made me these gorgeous affirmation notes last year that I have stuck up all over the place. For some reason...the exact one I need seems to be in the right place at the right time and bathes me with love.

 Been catching up on some quiet time and reading as well. Even though I can't quilt..I adore looking through books like this one. Quilting is such an art form that combines story and place with pattern and color. Totally fell in love with this book...a cup of tea and 15 mins. looking through these pages leave me...enchanted. 

And I have been paring down big time around here...it started with my clothing and I've moved out into the entire house. Can you believe I set my goal to have no more than 50 items in my closet??? Of course...ahem...that doesn't include shoes:) If it didn't fit, if I hadn't wore it in the past 6 months or if it wasn't practical...out it went! So now I adore everything in my wardrobe and I can get dressed in 5 mins. with no fuss. It feels so liberating and ...like  a breath of fresh air to make space for the person I am today (not the one I was 5-10 years ago or who I thought I was or wanted to be etc). Now...why didn't I do this sooner??

And I visited Invincible Heart Co. studio last week for a chat regarding some super exciting news (more soon!!) and found this piece of gorgeousness all over the table. This is the new art journal kit for the month and am loving the all the butterflies this beautiful lady is wearing. was so happy to see all the goodness emerging! Thanks so much for letting me take some pics + sharing your work Aimee:)

And to top it all off...just when I thought my little girl couldn't get any more adorable...she lost 2 of her front teeth last week!!! There was much excitement, a visit from the tooth fairy and the realization that life is precious and brief and magical. xxx