Creating Blog Decorations

If I'm going to create, then the first place to start is my blog, right? With a little creative Photoshop help from my mate Frogwarts, Bearfr's Wanderings has a new look. Let me know what you think. Bearfr

Creating Humility

Oh what would we do without our good friends to keep us honest about ourselves. My friend Judith reminded me that she hadn't seen anything in my blog about the "ladder" incident - more often called "intimate encounter with a snail" in our house. About a month ago I was busy creating an accent wall in the master bedroom - painting the bay window wall a soft teal blue called Water Dance to match the colors of accents I had used in the room. I was really enamored of the color and how well it matched our ocean bed quilt and three ceramic snails I had recently finished in a fun evening class with friends. Well, in all this musing I missed the last step on my 4-step ladder as I came down from painting for the last time, careened into the hope chest, fell over the planter with the artificial fern, and sat down HARD right on top of Papa snail's eye stalks! How do explain to your coworkers the next day that you are limping because you have a 6" round snail bruise on your behind. God is the best at teaching me to laugh at myself, and not to get too big a head about my creativity! And thanks to Judith for reminding me that we all need at least one good laugh a day - so from my creative self, here's yours for the day.

Creative Musings

Just a thought today; is it possible to create calm just by a simple action? Would this,could this, work? Suppose everyone around you (maybe at your work place?) seems cranky, angry, loud, bitchy, or whatever. Each time you hear it, you get up and gently, quietly close the door of your office, then open it just as quietly 10 minutes later. I wonder what would happen by the end of the day? Would being calm, happy, quiet, smiling or whatever have an effect? By the end of the day would anyone get the message? Could we "create" peace around us just by being? Let me know your results and I'll share mine. Bearfr - alias Penny

Create Love

Creativity comes in many forms; today my husband James and I had a chance to create love for others. Participation in the Arizona Children charity bowl-a-thon, courtesy of James' work, allowed us to help raise money to promote adoption of some amazing older children, who need good homes as much or more than the cute babies. Reading the Book of Adoptees made me realize once again how blessed I was by my own two children, now grown adults. Life was not always smooth for us, but I wouldn't change a minute of being in my children's lives. Where else can you learn who you really are ( and sometimes don't want to be!) then by watching your children mimic you. Children help us grow to be better adults; those who never have this chance miss a whole stage of valuable growth. And hopefully, if we try hard enough, we just might pass on a few kernels of wisdom to our kids, also. Did I say that - oops, Mom's don't really know anything, do they?

Where did I go today?

Since I love to create today was spent as most of my weekends are - trying to create as much beauty in the life of the Paddocks as I can. Today I started a house project; take my enormously bland den and give it a little sunshine. I painted the lower half of the walls with a muted canteloupe color, left the upper half the original desert beige, and will add a saguaro and prickly pear wallpaper border to divide the two areas. Voila - instant desert sun in my tiny office with only one window!!

Deciding that the gold couch in the living room could use some life also, I journeyed to my nearby quilt shop and picked out a lovely print with swirls of gold, beige, and 3 tones of brown to use as the background for new pillow covers. On top will go of course a brown bear with green and black wood tones and a two toned yellow and orange sun to complete the desert look.