Because we’re all snowed in…

Because it’s the last Saturday morning in January of 2010…

Because there are four inches of snow on the ground…

Because I love knitting…

Because I love beautiful colors…

Because I don’t need another scarf…

Three new cowls are in the shop.

Happy Saturday.

Treasure Hunt: Dish Towels

Truth:  I have about four dish towels.  The reason I don’t have more is because the ones I see in stores, that are a good price are things that I never want in my kitchen… {code for ugly.}

Why have  all these lovely dish towels hiding from me? 

I love this vintage inspired French dish towel from this shop.

And this one, found here

This one is fun too.

I LOVE this.

and my absolute favorite of this treasure hunt… because who doesn’t melt at the thought of Mr. Darcy (I mean, I love you husband)…

Found in this delightful little shop of all things Austen.

Oh, pretty flour sack dish towels.

this just in

I just added two original paintings to the etsy shop.

Two of my favorites.

Ever.

a little love note

8.5" x 5.47"

Reads:

You say, “black.” I say, “cream and sugar.”  I love our fights.

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Maybe, you should look here.

“I love our Fights” Postcard is in the shop.

Always scarves

Here are some photos of the most recent

scarves that I’ve made for custom orders and the shop.

Lady Amelia in Kelly Green

Royal Blue Chunky Cowl

Oversized Cowl Wrap in Aran

 

Cozy Me Teal

“Bright Red and Somewhat Nautical”

I love what I do.

nice to meet you.

Welcome to my blog, I’m Liv. The Saturated Palette is where I document my life, creativity, and inspiration.  I’m married to my favorite, Matt and we have two little wonders, Big H (boy) and Little h (girl).

I think creativity is a way of life, a gift to be shared, so that’s why I share.  I also think you are creative, even if you don’t. You should try it sometime. I believe that life is full of truth, beauty, possibilities, and meaning, do you see that too?  Life isn’t always easy or cheerful, but it’s overflowing with goodness waiting to be found, everyday magic ready to be discovered.

I’m crazy about coffee (I drink it black), mustard yellow and grey, brie cheese, the ocean, thunderstorms, good books, painting, sewing, and baking.  I absolutely love change and I am completely right-brained.  I loathe baseball, politics, artificial sweeteners, schedules, and wearing socks.

I’m glad you stopped by and I’d love to hear from you, because you have a good story too.

Contact me by e-mail at o.moore.art (at) gmail (dot) com

hello, again.

Hi friends, I’ve had a great week away from the computer.   I really enjoyed when I did this a few weeks ago, for just one day, but this time was even better.

Sometimes, I can lose my own thoughts and purpose in the act of reading too much, about other people’s lives. It feels like there are so many ideas, messages and nonsense filling my head sometimes, that my own thoughts get lost in the confusion.

I’m learning more and more that I need peace and simplicity.  I don’t thrive on chaos, although a bit of chaos is very necessary for this artist.  I don’t do “over-scheduled,” “over-organized,” or “busy-for the sake of being busy.”  That’s not me.  I love mornings filled with reading and coffee, afternoons with baking and playing, and yes, somewhere in the 24 hours of a day, I try to maintain a level of function in my home, but the toys can be messy and a few dishes can sit on the counter for a while, it’s fine with me.  I’ll take that if it means a peaceful, happy, hopeful home.

Instead of writing for the whole world (or more likely, my handful of readers), I returned to my poor, neglected journal.  I’m an  avid-journal lover.  But somehow in the act of frequent blogging, my journal sat on my desk, on the bottom of a pile of books that I haven’t read yet,  showing signs of obvious neglect.

I don’t know why I stopped writing in my journal, I was too focused on turning my thoughts into posts… and so many great sentiments got lost in time, because not everything is blog-material. 

I’m sorry dear journal, so sorry.

I had forgotten how much I loved the pen to paper magic, the unveiling of my thoughts, the hopeful bliss that comes from writing something too important or fragile to be shared with the ever-opinionated world. 

I think journaling is an optimistic act; you can actually believe anything you write in those pages-- that are yours alone.  No one will laugh at your ideas, or not get you, or wonder how you’ll make it in the world, and when you write a dream, a real-honest-to-goodness dream… no one is waiting to crush it with mindless pessimism.

Remember the scene from Anne of Avonlea, while Anne and Katherine with a K are visiting Green Gables during their summer holiday?  The fresh country air was rosy on their cheeks and their hearts were light while the basket of just-picked apples were full.  Katherine said to Anne, “You know, I can almost believe anything in the Green Gables of yours.”  That’s what I mean.

In a  journal, you are free to dream as brilliantly as you wish, you are free to be afraid or angry, or to find joy in capturing a perfect moment.

Truthfully, I think we DO believe the things we write in our journals.  We do believe in the possibility of a dream and that faith will carry us through, even the darkest times.  In the peaceful places of our hearts, we do believe in goodness, hope, love and possibilities.

But when those words are launched into the world, to ride the waves of the entire world’s acceptance or judgment, it’s not so easy to remember just how strongly we believe.

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This week, I had so much more to say, once I started writing in my journal again.  My thoughts were less blurred and my convictions were stronger.   As I return from my short break, I am aware that the act of journaling makes me a better writer and it makes me a better version of myself.  I’m excited about the new places this journey will take me and I hope you embark on your own journey to become the best version of you, surrounding yourself with things that you love, stretching past your comforts, and believing in the possibilities of your most treasured dreams.

Drink it in, Soak it up

I will be taking a few days to dream and scheme about the blog.  I have some ideas of what I’d like it to be.  I feel like I’ve said all that I have to say right now, and I need to refill the well, drink in some inspiration, and sort the effects.  I don’t want to just fill posts with words, for the sake of blogging.  So…

In the next few days, I will be:

• Pouring through pages of books.
• Writing  in my journal.
• Gathering inspiration.
• Re-collect my vision for this little place.
• Drinking coffee (a given).

I hope you are seeking and finding inspiration, purpose, and meaning… and living a life full of good stories.

Don’t worry, I won’t be gone too long.

Page Hungry

Dear Friends,

Do you ever just get that overwhelming desire to do nothing but curl up with a blanket, an oversized coffee, and a book?

I feel that way all the time, except right now, it’s consuming.  All I want to do is read.  I want to read so many books.  I want to take in the beautiful pictures, created by the words.  I want to feel like I’m lost in the pages…

So… what are you reading?

I’m re-reading my favorite book in the whole entire wide world of books.  My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok.

  It’s amazing.  It’s intense, powerful, moving, and each page is filled with language that paints an unforgettable picture.

Read it.  It won’t disappoint.

PS.  What are some of your favorite books?

quiet world.

Yesterday, I shut off the entire media-related world.  No e-mail. No blogging.  No tv.  Not even facebook. Nothing. 

It was lovely. Simple. Easy. Peaceful.

Sometimes it feels like there are so many ideas and thoughts, messages and nonsense filling my head that my own thoughts get lost in the confusion.

Instead, I wrote, read, knitted, drank coffee, played games,  organized, de-cluttered, donated, and filled a few garbage bags. 

I love getting rid of things that I don’t love, want, or need.  It’s rather enjoyable for me.

How about you?  Have you shut off the constantly buzzing, busy world of media lately?  Do you love clearing out things that you don’t need or do you have this incessant need to keep everything?

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When the rest of the world isn’t allowed to consume all the space inside your head, there’s plenty of room for your own thoughts…. and some of your best ideas are waiting to be heard.

Speaking of the sea...

I just received a letter from my sweet, little sis, who is spending a year as an exchange student in France.  Here is an excerpt. }

There are smells of fresh breads in the streets and salt from the sea.  Cute boats sail the shores fishing for oysters and shells… the music is beautiful when some plays an accordion in the streets.  the shops are endless and expensive.

Beautiful, no?

Be still my poor, little heart that loves all things French, One day we shall go.  One day, we shall go.

le films.

It is nearly impossible for me to watch a movie without connecting emotionally.  I can’t watch scary/disturbing movies, the images stay with me and I don’t like them in my head.  I enjoy pointless comedies, rarely, but not always. I almost always pass on vampires, ghosts,  aliens, robots, monsters, rodents, and insects… eehhh, no thanks.

I guess, I want a movie to actually move me.  I want to connect with the story or a character, and watch the process of discovery, change, and understanding unfold.  I like finding something in the story that I can relate to, whether it’s the main character’s personality or their plight.   Maybe it’s a bit self-centered, but admittedly, aren’t we all sometimes?

I’d rather be moved than entertained.  I’d rather be challenged or inspired than just watch a meaningless story unfold before my eyes for 1.5 hours.  While talking with some friends, I realized that I like films that are sometimes sad, but hopeful… rather than just happy, picture perfect endings.   Don’t get me wrong, I love happy endings, but I think things can be happy even when not seemingly perfect. So, ultimately, I find that most of my favorite movies seem to pass under the radar time and time again.

2009 brought us lots of big movies, oh and lots of terrible (in my opinion) movies, but I’m only interested in talking about a handful that were my favorites of the year.  You’ll probably shake your head and hear yourself saying, “really?” but the beauty of life is that we get to like different things.  And thank God because if not, I’d have to like Night at the Museum and Transformers.

ahem, my favorite movies of the year.

5.  Coraline… It was a little dark, slightly eerie, but oh, so beautifully artistic and fun.  The colors, patterns, and creative detail was like a circus for my eyes.  It also resolved that even though life isn’t perfect, real life is better than fantasy.

4.  Away We Go…  We spent most of this year, applying for a new job, wondering what new place that job might take us, all while raising a new baby… so if you know anything about this story line, you’d understand why I loved it.  I think that when we ponder our lives and the lives of others we often compare the “pictures,” and we get jealous or frustrated that someone else’s picture seems to look better than ours.  We waste time striving to have that picture, when it never looks the same for us.  If we stop comparing our lives through the lens of everyone else’s, we’d see more of the beauty and goodness that were always there.  That’s what I got out of this film.

3.  500 Days of Summer…  I just saw this last night, after finally convincing my husband to go to the video store.  I mean, the film stars my favorite, Zooey Deschanel, opens with a Regina Spektor song, and is full of art museums, coffee, greeting cards, and what can only be described as “Anthropologie” style.  If it was a silent film, I’d still love it.  But the film was so clever in addressing the idea of love.  The idea that we think we know what love is, until it happens and all our defenses are stripped away and we become the cliché, no matter  how hard you try.  That’s real.  It’s fun, exciting, sad, hopeful, disappointing, but all in all, it’s good.  Here’s what the husband had to say about it.

  Now, this part is tricky, because these last two movies, probably could both be my very favorite of the year, they are pretty different, so it’s hard to compare.  But, I’ll try to rank them.

2. Where the Wild Things Are… Sigh, I loved it.   I spent half of the movie in awe of the cinematography, the creativity, and the beautiful scenery.  I spent the other half  in a great range of emotion.  As Max experienced the trials of dealing with the emotional struggle of his parents’ divorce, I found myself more angry than sad. I was angry because I know how that feels, when it happened in my family.  I was angry because I remember spending a lot of days feeling that way.  I was angry because my siblings had to deal with that when they were young, like Max.  I was angry remembering how it changed people.  I was sad because I know that when you stop being angry, then you’re sad, and you have to be sad for a while, in order to be happy again.  (Yes, all this from a movie, based on a children’s book.)  There is so much more about this movie, so much more… And in the end, there was redemption and hope.  You may not get the same things from it, probably won’t, but my husband found something totally different in it… and it brought him to tears too.  No matter what crazy people tell you about how  they hated it, it’s a powerful, beautiful film. 

1. Julie & Julia… yes, I’m serious.  I really fell in love with this movie.  It was inspiring and charming, funny and emotional.  The plot is pretty obvious,  but with all the amazing Paris scenes, the glorious food, the writing, the cooking, the dreaming, the husband/wife relationships,  the idea of taking on challenges and believing in yourself….  I definitely found myself in the film and yes, I cried.  Apparently, that is what I do.

So, there you go.  My five favorite films of the year.  Did you see any of them?  Did you like any of them?  What were your favorites?

If there was one more spot on the list, Up would definitely fill that spot…