illuminate

 

My word for today is illuminate.

 

 

 

  Illuminate:

v. il·lu·mi·nat·ed, il·lu·mi·nat·ing, il·lu·mi·nates

v.tr.

1. To provide or brighten with light.

2. To decorate or hang with lights.

3. To make understandable; clarify: "Cleverly made attacks can . . . serve to illuminate important differences between candidates" (New Republic).

4. To enlighten intellectually or spiritually; enable to understand.

5. To endow with fame or splendor; celebrate.

6. To adorn (a page of a book, for example) with ornamental designs, miniatures, or lettering in brilliant colors or precious metals.

7. To expose to or reveal by radiation.

*freedictionary.com

Illuminate. It's a good word. It's fun to say. It has several meanings and so, can be used many ways. And everything is better when it's illuminated. Don't you think?!

  “You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world.”
― Oprah Winfrey

 

 

I hope you've had an illuminating day :)   Juli

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Monday- Snow day...Again!

Well, an unexpected snow day today after a 13 inch snowfall yesterday is making me merry on this Monday. I'm kind of done with snow, but it turned out to be a great day.

The best part of the day... spending time with these two people. They came over with Chinese food to spend the day with me and Little Man.

And we watched Rain Man...

 

while I worked on an Easter basket for Peanut.

 

 

 

And I finished an embroidered hanky...

While I watched another one of my faves- Brokeback Mountain. 

 Talk about a stress free day! Oh, my! I love it. And I am now ready for my three day work week!
Have a merry Monday~ Juli

A Giveaway!

Our first giveaway at Olive and Ash!

There are two ways to win"

 1) Visit my Olive and Ash shop on Etsy and leave a comment about your visit here on the blog

 OR

2) "Like" the giveaway post on the Olive and Ash Facebook page  
 

You will win my original oil painting "Cynthiana" - shown below.

I'll be choosing a winner randomly from those who leave a comment on the evening of April 3rd.  The winner will be announced here on the blog and on Facebook. Be sure to check back, as I will need your address if you are the winner. Good luck!

Original oil painting, "Cynthiana", by Juli Albers- Schuster, oil on 5" x 7" canvas board, rustic wooden frame

 

Wishing

Fish Creek, Wisconsin- July, 2010  I love this place!

With more snow in the forecast, I'm really dreaming about and wishing for a vacation... VERY SOON!

Word Wednesday- Honesty

My word for the day is 'honesty'.


hon·es·ty  

n. pl. hon·es·ties

1. The quality or condition of being honest; integrity.

2. Truthfulness; sincerity: in all honesty.

3. Archaic Chastity.

4. Botany A European plant (Lunaria annua) cultivated for its fragrant purplish flowers and round, flat, papery, silver-white seedpods. Also called money plant, satin flower, silver dollar.

Honesty is one of those tricky words. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.Sometimes it applies to how you relate to others, sometimes it's how you relate to yourself. Tricky.

 My first thoughts on honesty were when my mom would tell my brother and sister and me, "Jesus knows when you lie" if she thought we were being the least bit dishonest. Well, it worked. For a while. As a kid, I just knew I would be "struck down" if I lied, so I either chose to be honest or I worried myself sick (literally- and then I just knew Jesus had made me sick!) if I had told a fib. But as I got older and wanted to do things that I knew my parents wouldn't let me do, those fibs came in pretty handy. No guilt or worry at all (that teenager mindset!). That is, until I had kids of my own. Then I realized that those lies had hurt my parents and I felt terrible about it. So, as I got older, I vowed to be honest no matter what. And I was honest, to a fault. And hurt someone terribly. (I'm still getting over that one.) In that situation, I didn't have to be honest, I could have just been quiet.

Being honest with ourselves is also tricky. Instead of being honest with ourselves and about ourselves, we're tempted to embellish stories, stretch the truth, "fake it", etc., in an effort to make other people like and accept us. But if other people don't accept us the way we really are, then they probably aren't the people we need in our lives, anyway. Don't you think? Again, I think the answer is to just be quiet. If we're quiet with ourselves, we will know and accept ourselves for who we are. Pretty simple. Just be quiet.

This is a perfect list of words- they all add up to 'integrity'. And if you have that,  you'll know when to be honest and when to just be quiet.

A couple of quotes that inspired today's post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGt9jAkWie4

and

"Nothing ruins the truth like stretching it" ~ Charles Simmons

Merry Monday

This boy...our "little man". We are so proud of him. At this moment he is competing at the State DECA competition and last Friday he gave three back to back presentations at the State Student Council Convention- telling his story for their anti- texting and driving campaign. Very brave kid.

Spending time (two days in a row!) with Peanut. Obviously, Olive was glad to see him, too.

Taking Olive for her first walk since late December. Her leg seems to be healed, although she still wanted to be carried up the steep hills :)

 

 

 

 

 On the "making" front, I'm plugging away at the hankies. I've started over on the "Domesticity" one, because it just wasn't working. I hate that! I also completed a special order for my mom for some little boy onesies. (I couldn't get a picture, as I finished and  delivered them yesterday and there was absolutely no light in the house due to the weather.) And, finally,  I'm procrastinating on my next painting because I just can't settle on a reference photo. But it  will happen soon enough, because (knock on wood) I've been feeling really well, for a change :) And that makes me very merry!

Merry Monday~ Juli

Word Wednesday- Rakish

My word for today: rakish
This is one of those words that my husband used once when referring to someone's appearance. So instead of the usual "looking good", or "very stylish" , or "pretty snazzy" ( ok, I know people don't really use the word 'snazzy' anymore, but I couldn't think of another example!) , he states that he thinks they are looking very rakish. RAKISH!? Oh, my! My son and I looked at each other with that "Huh?" look on our faces."What the heck is "rakish?!!" I asked him. He proceeded to give us our word lesson for the day. Now, these weren't his exact words but it was something like this...

rak·ish

adj.

1. Nautical Having a trim, streamlined appearance: "We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull" (John Masefield).

2. Dashingly or sportingly stylish; jaunty.

*Actually, this is from freeonlinedictionary.com, not from my husband, M.B. :)

My first guess would have been that the person looked somewhat like a rake, which makes no sense at all, so I knew that wasn't it. But, after our lesson, I decided that this was a pretty cool word. And, although I will probably never hear it used again in everyday conversation, I will always remember the first time I heard it :) And even though it sounds like I'm poking fun at my husband for his unique use of words, it is really one of the things I love most about him. I'm amazed by his ability to recall and use these words in everyday conversation, without hesitation or effort. I really think he just likes to see the stunned and confused look on my face when he comes up with one! I don't know. But honestly, he could have just used the word "spiffy". I love that word, too, and actually use it, probably too often :) 

Hoping you're feeling very rakish today!  Juli

My husband, M.B., deep in thought, looking very rakish :)

Testing...and thinking

Bonus blog post today! Mainly as a test to check for that pesky warning message that showed up on the last post, but also to blabber on about my kids- again! As I was looking at some of my photos today, I looked at this one (as I do quite often because it's one of my favorites) and realized that these wonderful, beautiful people would not be on this earth today if events in my life had gone in the conventional direction. I always joke that I kind of lived my life in reverse- I got pregnant during my junior year of high school, got married and then graduated from high school. My college education began at the age of 20 and didn't end until I was 39. Then, finally, I got one of those job things!  Obviously, I was not the one who followed convention. And when I think about what I wouldn't have today if I had followed a conventional, traditional path, I am so proud and glad that I did it my own way.

And that's my deep thought for the day :)  Juli

Merry Monday

I feel so lucky to be able to showcase so much great art created by my very talented students. I'm merry on this Monday because we had our annual art show yesterday and it was, once again, a success. So much activity for the entire 5 hours! And even though we pretty much lose our weekend, it is well worth it to see so many people attend and see so many students who are so proud of themselves. It's pretty cool! So...here are a few pictures :)

Of course, the best part about this year's show is that Peanut got to make some art of his own :)

And some of my students' work: scratch board drawings, "forgeries" as color and style studies and stippling drawings,

 perspective drawings and  still life drawings,

simple still life paintings showing various color schemes and painting styles,

 

clay coil vessels and boxes as a study in shape/form and pattern,

coil basketry,

and letter sculptures.

The photos don't do any of them justice, but I think it's pretty obvious that I have some talented students who really care about what they are creating. Hoping you are merry on this Monday!  Juli

Word Wednesday- Haven

My word for this Wednesday is 'haven'. Probably because I've been hunkered down (again) at home, recuperating from yet another 'bug'. I've been keeping journals of things that interest me, things that are beautiful, word and quotes that I'm drawn to, etc. and 'haven' was on a page that jumped out at me today- a page with collages of beautiful, rumpled, unmade beds- seems pretty fitting, doesn't' it?!

 ha·ven:

n.

1. A harbor or anchorage; a port.

2. A place of refuge or rest; a sanctuary.

tr.v. ha·vened, ha·ven·ing, ha·vens

To put into or provide with a haven.

*from freedictionary.com

So, for the project in the works...I'm trying to revive the hanky (or handkerchief, if you're a proper speaker!) The only people I have ever known to carry a 'hanky' (that's what my dad calls them, so that's what I'll call them, thank you very much!) are my dad and my husband. My dad used his to blow his nose. Kind of gross (sorry, Dad!). And my husband, thankfully, just carries one to clean his glasses. Anyway, I know hankies used to be used quite often- tucked in a man's suit pocket, carried in a woman's purse, given to babies, given to women on their wedding day, etc. But it seems that they have fallen out of fashion and have only recently begun to make a comeback, as I've seen a few on Etsy lately.
A while ago, on a whim,  I embroidered part of a song quote on a hanky for my husband. As it was washed several times, then over several years, I noticed how the white stitching looked like it had always been part of the original, white fiber of the hanky. Like it had become embedded in it. Every time I saw it, I thought to myself, "I should make more hankies!" And it took until now to decide how and why to do that. So, with that in mind, I've decided that each of my Wednesday Words will now become part of a hanky. I haven't decided yet if they will be sold individually on Etsy or become part of a larger project (maybe both), but they will be available as soon as I have some sort of cohesive group of them.
 Here is a sneak peek at the first two, using my Wednesday words, 'frolic' and 'domesticity'.

White embroidery on white cotton hanky...

with white blanket stitched edging.

Black embroidery on white cotton (in progress)

 I hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday- Juli

Merry Tuesday

A few things making me merry today:

1) Doctor's who get you in on the day you call when you're sick. Thank you Dr. Miller!
2) Having a husband with a flexible schedule, who is able and willing to drop everything to get my prescriptions filled and bring me soda, advil, etc. in the middle of the day.  Thank you, M!
3) The movie 'Argo'. Wonderful!
4) New fiber pieces in the works. Picture tomorrow, since it's dark now ;)
5) The ability to have a King of Queens marathon any time I want to. Thanks, Sister!
6) And another "Thank You" to Sister for the most thoughtful birthday card (which I've had for a few months, but still haven't put away). I love it!

card designed by Audrey Batts

Happy Tuesday~ Juli

Merry Monday- home

Under the weather- again. So, today, being home is the only thing making me merry. Back in a few days, hopefully feeling better.  Juli