Happy Trees: Shop News

I can imagine no better way to get back into the swing of things with my little shop than yesterday.

Yesterday, my print, Silent Song was included in Etsy Finds: Mom’s Home Cooking.

I have four sales of my tree prints since yesterday.  So we’ve got some happy trees around here.

Prints are available in sizes 8x10 and 11x14.  If you’d like to order another size, just send me a message, I’ll be happy to create a listing for you.

Hooray for the trees!  And Etsy Finds, of course!

P.S.  My friend, Jessica was also featured in the list… she sells the cutest little monsters for your cute little monsters, I mean, angels.

Visit her shop or blog today!

-Olivia

feeling like me.

Today is familiar and refreshing. 

It’s beautiful outside, with a soft breeze, which means my windows are open and the air is comfortable.  Fresh air is an essential part of my life.  

I had a nice, long chat with a dear friend, it has been way too long.  I needed that.

I held my little boy and scratched his head and he cuddled up next to me in contentment.

I baked blueberry coffeecake in my new kitchen.  I’ve missed cooking, so much, and I’m sure my family has too. I’m even excited about making dinner.  It’s been a while.

I opened my new sewing machine and made another curtain for the little boy’s bedroom.

Today, I feel very much like myself.

I like that.

Do you feel like yourself today?

-Olivia

I think I can write a blog, I think I can.

Apparently,  it’s not blogging season in the world of Olivia.

Everyone once in a while during the last few weeks, I vaguely thought, oh, I think I had a blog once.

But those moments where brief and rare.

I feel like life has been crazy.  I think I might be crazy, too?

But all the best ones are, right?

Usually, it’s not so crazy that I don’t find time to write down a few thoughts regularly, but…

I’ve felt like I have nothing to say, nothing to share with anyone else.

I know that’s ok, I know that life has seasons and times of crazy, and I’ve already embraced that.

It was kind of nice to not think about writing blogs or sharing something that people would be interested in reading.

I like to pretend I was rather sneaky and off the grid.

Sometimes the internet feels so… invasive.

as if people are hiding in trees, peeking into your windows.

I guess.

So, breaks are good.  Necessary. Nice.

Today, I’m sitting in my new apartment.  Last night it stormed, which we always love, the the windows were open and the blinds beat against the windows all night, to the rhythm of the wind… and it was an unfamiliar sound.   Didn’t sleep much.

I’d like to have a few words with the inventor of the vertical blinds.

Right now, my sweet little boy who has heard the word, NO, approx. 1,204,323 times already today is napping and Norah Jones accompanied me to lunch.

I’m starring at what once was a nice cozy living room with lots of potential… it now resembles a hopeless mountain of boxes and things.

It all can’t possibly be ours.

Since graduating from college in 2005, I have moved 8 times.  Some of those were shorter periods, temporary locations, but still, that’s a lot of moving.  Since being married, four times.  This is now the third place that our 20 month old has lived.

Yesterday, I met a girl who has lived in the same house her entire life. 

I can’t even count all the places I’ve lived.

Maybe there is something to that, but I do love moving… I just hate packing, unpacking, etc.  I like change.

So often,  I think about how wonderful it would be to just rid of absolutely everything.

Especially when moving.

But, I have a cute apartment that is .2 miles from a pretty lake and both Caribou Coffee and Starbucks.  There are lots of windows and closets.  The kitchen is shiny from all the stainless steel appliances and I finally have hardwood floors. 

On the downside, there is a bag full of food that didn’t quite make it into the fridge last night.  I really hope we find it soon… gross.

Soon, perhaps my thoughts will be less random, as we settle in and embrace our new home… and I’ll probably have lots more to say.

-Olivia

find me here.

This week, all of me can be found here…  Drinking tea on the deck, overlooking the smooth blue waters.  Sitting by the blazing fire on the nice, comfy couch.  Taking naps in my room with the window open, as the  rain dances on the roof.   Gathering around the table for endless matches of Scrabble.  Soaking in the lovely views and warmth of this breath-taking cabin in the deep woods of Minnesota.   Lots of adoring aunts and uncles for playmates for the little boy.

This week is everything I needed, because occasionally,  life is dashed with too many little moments of “blah.”

And frankly, there is none of me left to be anywhere else…. because, I’m soaking in all of this goodness.

 

I hope you are all well and having more moments of goodness than the  “blah” kind.

-Olivia

here and there.

I might be back from my little blogging sabbatical, but that might be a lie.  I’m not making any promises, because this week is full of so many things…  The apartment search extravaganza of 2010.  Family coming into town.  A really exciting project that I will able to share later this week.   I’m mostly exhausted just thinking about it.

BUT most of all….

My sweet baby sister comes home from France.   She spent her last year of high school eating crepes, walking by the sea, learning the language (her French skills now put me to shame), traveling Europe, and probably doing some schoolwork.  The best part of it all is that now that we moved, we  will live in the same city!  Hip Hip Hooray.   Sister time extraordinaire. 

So, she gets home and graduates from high school two days later.  And of course, there will be a party.

And then we go to the lake for a whole week.

So, maybe I’m here… but maybe not.

-Olivia

using words, if necessary

You may or may not know this about me, but I’ve come to revel in the beauty of silence.  Growing up, I suppose I talked a few ears off.  I was a social butterfly as my mom would say.  I would find ways to be around people, as much as possible, always looking for something to do.

This past weekend, my cousin, who I’ve never really spent much time with, until lately, told me that I was the quietest person in my family.  I love that he was able to recognize that, because my immediate family still questions each moment that I am not filling the air with trivial words and sounds. 

In college and the years following, I fell in love with art.  Rather, I realized that I was indeed, an artist.  I came to know that silence is necessary for art.  Without silence, I feel drained.  My head is filled with bits of everything that deters me from pure creativity.  It’s in those still moments, when the world around me fades away that I can see and feel the ideas in my head, and transfer them to the canvas. 

After the long sun-filled weekend, I returned feeling that intoxicating pull of silence.  This happens often, when I feel it best to just say nothing.   I can hardly explain it and I won’t try.  But, I have learned to embrace the soft beckoning of peace.  Fighting it would be dangerous to my health, my mind, and my creativity and would result in wasted words.

I don’t want to speak just so words are said.  I don’t wish to write, just to have another post.  I’d rather recognize the stillness inside and open myself up to its possibilities and strength.

William Penn said, “true silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

It will be quiet around the Saturated Palette for a few days.  I’m not sure when I’ll have more to say… but words are not always necessary and silence is a treasure.

 

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.  Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. 

-Mahatma Gandhi

-Olivia