Going with the Flow

Dear Friends, I've been a little quiet on the blog, but only because life has been so wonderfully busy.

Remember this post when I talked about the power of asking open-ended questions? I especially like "what if" questions as they open me up to the wonderful world of possibilities.

Poppy
5 x 7 inch acrylic painting
Etsy Shop

Well, one of the questions I asked myself was: "What if I simply jumped into the flow of my life and allowed it to carry me?"  I thought instead of making plans for each day and kicking and screaming internally when they were derailed, I'd just experiment with going with the flow.

Wide Awake
5 x 7 inch acrylic painting
SOLD

That combined with giving myself permission to just be who I am (remember this post?) and my life took off! It's been some experiment I have say!

Deeply
5 x 7 inch acrylic painting
Etsy Shop

I was afraid that I'd just sort of lollygag through my days and not get much done - because how can you get anything done without a plan or a list?! What I found is exactly the opposite. It made me very focused on all the things that are me: art, family, home, cooking, reading, social networking, etc.

I love the way these flower open and wear their little "hat" for a while.
It's our single-clove garlic.

And because I don't spend so much time trying to swim against the current when it is taking me away from my plans, I have way more energy to spend on the things that I love to do.

Gorgeous gerbera daisies.

The result has been astounding. I've been incredible productive without having that as my goal.

Our fave summer food: hummus (recipe in this post)

I've had fun doing all of this, even updating my shops and doing other office work. I've even organized my desk, something I had put off for months.

Tiny little booties I knitted for a baby shower last weekend.
I felt like I was knitting with toothpicks... :)

I've sort of neglected my blog until today, but I'm ok with the ebb and flow of how things are catching my attention. It's all a part of going with the current of life.

Spirit
6 x 8 inch acrylic painting
Etsy Shop

Our weather has been sublime, which is rare as we are heading into the southern summer, so we spent much time outdoors, watching the birds, petting the cats, laughing about squirrel acrobatics, and greeting the occasional raccoon at dusk.  Daniel put in a raised flowerbed for us in the backyard - gorgeous! I'll share photos soon.

Beginnings of a necklace. Aren't those colors luscious?!

I've been making lots more necklaces and bracelets and will have some photos soon. They look delicious to me! I've sold a few and more are heading to an art show this weekend.

A bracelet with a charm.
eBay Store

I leave you with this photos of our busy, busy bluebird parents. They are a joy to watch as are all of the bird families crowding around our feeders these days. Most babies have hatched and many have left their nest already.

Breakfast is served at the bluebird house!

I hope your day is wonderful and filled with joy, sunshine and many happy surprises!

With lots of love and gratitude,

❧ Silke

New Projects!

I've been scarce in the blogging world for the past couple of days as I have been busy, busy, busy - in a very good way! 

It's amazing to me - once I open myself up to being myself and living my very own creative life, everything starts pouring in - inspiration, new ideas, new projects and activities, and just plain fun!

A good friend taught me the basics of how to make these beautiful necklaces from ribbon yarn and beads. They are wonderfully meditative to make and the creative possibilities are endless. I'm already thinking bracelets and maybe even earrings if I can figure it out.

In other happenings, we are having a few friends over tonight for a Mexican dinner. Ok, it's more like a feast and we've been cooking all last evening and most of today. It's been great!

I love, love, love cooking when I have time to do so. And cooking together with Daniel is even more fun.

It's going to be delicious - two kinds of tacos with two different salsas, homemade refried beans, an avocado mango salad, but the best will be the dessert: a tropical trifle with mango, a syrup made with orange liqueur and whipped cream. I keep telling Daniel to remind me to keep some room for dessert. :) And margaritas, of course... Let the party begin!!

Back to the photos. Aren't those necklaces beautiful?! The orange/green one is already gone, but the blue/green/turquoise one is still available in my eBay Store.

Wishing you a beautiful weekend. I hope good weather is restored to all those areas that suffered with the recent storms. It's been heart wrenching to watch all the destruction. I hope all of you are doing alright!! And better than alright!!!

With lots of love and a full heart,

❧ Silke

An integrated life...

I've been noticing something lately. I have really changed on the inside over the last few years by listening to my creative voice, by becoming an artist, by becoming a blogger and by becoming a sometime student again.

A delicious cupcake that brightened my day today...

I have noticed lately how my outside - the way I dress or accessorize, and even the way I decorate (or don't) - doesn't really reflect how I feel on the inside anymore. For example, the shirt I was wearing today is beautiful, but I got it probably seven years ago. There is nothing wrong with it, but today I felt like I was wearing a costume.

Wonderful earrings I bought from the amazing Diane Evans.
I love them!  A little spring bling - so different for me!!
Click here if you want some, too! 

I feel like I need a style makeover. I keep having little glimpses of how I want to look, how I want to decorate the house around me, how I want my studio to look, how I want for my Etsy packages to look, the kind of detail I want to pay attention to with everything I do, etc. A true heart and soul wish to reflect my true self also on the outside. Do any of you know what I mean?

And look at some of the other goodies she sent along.
You are wonderful, Diane!! I'm so glad we became blog friends... 

It sounds sort of silly to me, but lately every time I get dressed I can't find anything I feel like "myself" in. It's not about getting new stuff (I wear my clothes for a long time if I love them), it's about being as creative with everything external as I feel on the inside.

It used to be that I was trying to figure out who I was. I now know who I am, but somehow the "rest of me" has yet to catch up.

And somehow this wish has reached critical mass. Not in a dramatic way. I am just noticing how that voice is getting louder and louder. And because I am totally open to fully listen to my authentic voice - in every part of my life - I have a feeling that the next few weeks or months are going to be quite interesting! Maybe a little transformational. And definitely fun!

And you know there'll be plenty of pictures to share this part of my journey with you as well...

Beautiful Things!!

I am so dreadfully behind in posting this! While my family was visiting, I received this gorgeous package from the most lovely Rachel (Mozart's Girl) in England! I had won her giveaway!! A package by Royal Mail - did I feel special or what?!?

And when I opened it, out spilled the most wonderful things: A book about a family in the restaurant business in New York, a little cup making me homesick for England, a little pad of paper that makes me smile every time I look at it, a fun little button and a CD with some of my favorite Mozart piano music! Thank you so much, Rachel! You all can click here to go visit her blog!

I am also late in posting about this gorgeous treasury my friend Theresa (Faerie Moon Creations) curated and included my bird print. Click here to see the treasury and leave a comment if you'd like, and here to visit Theresa's beautiful blog! I so appreciate that you always think of me, Theresa!!

Then, yesterday, I received this beautiful package from my dear friend, Kelly (Kelly Berkey Designs).  I just couldn't resist the new rings she is making!!! Just look at that gorgeous packaging (I have to admit that I put it back together to take pictures - I had opened it so fast in my haste to see the rings that I forgot about photographing it!)

Inside the box were butterflies and gold stars and two most gorgeous rings!

One reads "live.laugh.love" and the other "I am ... enough." Both things I need to remember all the time!!

I just love the way they look! Kelly, you do such a great job!!

And ... staying with Kelly for a moment longer, I took one more photo of her recent (well, it's been a few months) sketch challenge she hosted on her blog and did another 10 minute sketch - last week, before my drawing class had started. I think it turned out pretty nicely for being a quick sketch. I have to say though, hands are hard to draw!

We woke up this morning to a band of strong storms coming through. Now the rain has stopped and the sun is coming out. It's still windy though and we are expecting a big drop in temperatures. Tonight it's supposed to get down into the 30's! I'm thinking here at the coast we'll stay in the 40's though.

I hope you are all having a fantastic day!!

Yummy recipe and more...

For Valentine's Day dessert, I made Profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. They were so easy to make and somehow felt very special, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you. This one is from The Balthazar Cookbook:

Profiteroles
serves 6 (3 profiteroles each) - just halve the recipe if you don't want so many although you can freeze them

1/2 cup whole milk
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
5 large eggs
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz semisweet chocolate (good quality)

1 pint vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350℉.

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, butter and salt with 1/2 cup of water and bring to a boil. Add the sifted flour and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined into a dough. Continue stirring over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

Transfer the dough into the bowl of a standing mixer (or you can do that part of the recipe in the saucepan with the wooden spoon). Stir at low speed for a few minutes to lower the temperature of the dough. Increase the speed to medium and then add the eggs, one at a time. Mix until smooth, cool dough forms, about 4 minutes.

Fill pastry bag, fitted with a #9 tip, with the dough, or use a soup spoon to form small puffs (that's what I did), about 2 inches in diameter, on parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush the puffs with the beaten egg yolk (I totally forgot that and they still turned out great!) and transfer to the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool the puffs on a wire rack and then slice them, as if they were hamburger buns, with a serrated knife.

Make the chocolate sauce just before serving. Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan until it foams. Reduce the flame to low and add the chopped chocolate. Whisk until all the chocolate has melted and the sauce is smooth and shiny.

Fill the puffs with a scant scoop (I did a real scoop, none of that "scant" business!) of ice cream and drizzle with chocolate sauce!

Amazingly good!!

Plus, the puffs should freeze well, so if you have ice cream and chocolate sauce on hand, it's an easy dessert to put together at the last minute!

As promised, a couple of photos of the other gift I got from Daniel - isn't this necklace just beautiful?! My special love of butterflies aside (or is this a moth?), it is just stunning. I love, love, love it!!

As a last little thought, I've been thinking about my word for the year "focus," and how hard it it for me right now to do just that. It seems I go through periods of time when all is calm and I can focus on one thing at a time.

But those quite times always cause 1001 ideas to pop up in my mind, and as soon as I start working on them, the focus somehow is gone. Does that happen to you?

Right now, I don't know if I'd rather paint, knit, crochet, sew (oh the projects I have lined up for that!), write a few letters, talk on the phone, read a good book, go for walks in the sunshine, cook, bake, organize a few closets, give the kitchen the once over, etc. etc. etc. And then there's the tax return prep that is calling my name....

A busy time and even if "focus" is out the window for the moment, there is a feeling of vibrant creation and I am learning to enjoy it in the middle of what feels like a bit of chaos!

In all of this, I find that I always come back to my blog and connecting with you. It has become a central place for me — actually a true focal point in the midst of my life!

Thank you for that!! 

So Happy!!

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to win a fantastic giveaway on my dear friend Kelly's blog.

If you haven't been to visit Kelly Berkey Designs, you must!! She makes the most beautiful jewelry (I own a few of them...) and also paints gorgeous mixed media pieces.

For the giveaway, I sent her two of my pieces of art and she made them into a beautifully soldered two-sided pendant for me. But imagine my surprise when I opened the gift box and saw not only an exquisite necklace, but an extra pendant to hang from my purse.

I am over the moon with these!!! It's so much fun to be able to wear my own art...

Thank you, Kelly!! 

Two Necklaces & One Award

Last night, I was perusing my latest copy of Artful Blogging and admiring all those beautiful and artistic blogs and their inspiring photos! As I was taking it all in, I decided that this year, I want to break out of my way of doing things and try something new. Not in major ways, but for example in how I take photos.

So, today something interesting happened. I was going to take photos of two necklaces I won in giveaways and just received. Well, the battery of my camera needed charging and I couldn't find the cable anywhere. I have one spot where I keep it (usually) without fail, but it wasn't there or in any of the other obvious places.

And then it occurred to me that here was my opportunity to break out of the way I usually do things. I decided that I will stop looking for the cable knowing full well I'll find it sooner or later and thought that I would try something different to show you those gorgeous necklaces: I scanned them! And what fun I had trying to find a good background paper and then play with them in Adobe Photoshop! And all that because of a lost camera charger...The stunning handcrafted necklace above was generously given to me by Becky of The Gritty Bird. If you haven't yet visited her blog, you must head over there now! She is a talented artist all around!!

And the adorable necklace below I won in a giveaway I didn't even know I had been entered into simply by becoming her facebook fan. Lucky me!! One day I received an e-mail from the lovely Lesley of Lolley's Handmade Jewelry letting me know that I had won this sparkly beauty!! Visit her blog - you'll be inspired!
Finally, I am honoring this sweet award given to me by the wonderful and talented Kelly of Kelly Berkey Designs. Go check out her blog - you'll be happy you did!!
I am supposed to name 10 things I love. I said I'd think about it, but I didn't, so this will be a spontaneous list:

1. traveling

2. being at home

3. being with the people I love

4. spending time alone

5. paint on my hands

6. getting lost in a good book

7. watching the sun rise or set

8. looking out at the ocean and listening to the waves

9. gazing into the treetops through our skylights

10. blogging!

Kelly, I feel honored you thought of me with this award. Thank you!!

Did I say I was going to have another painting to show you? Well, I don't yet. I still haven't finished it - the last few days simply got away from me and today I had to finish reading South of Broad by Pat Conroy. I read if for my library book group meeting this Monday and I am so glad I did. However, it took away a little from my painting time. But soon, dear friends, soon...

P.S. I loved, loved, LOVED all your comments on the books, movies and TV shows of your childhood. Many I had read and watched, but some I haven't yet. For example, I have never read Little Women, or The Wind in the Willows, so those are now on the top of my list. Thank you all!!

Show and Tell...

Yesterday, a package came for me from the lovely and talented Amy of Such a Wondrous Place this Faerytale Space. We had decided to trade my Taking Flight painting for her gorgeous DaVinci. His kind eyes just speak volumes to me! Imagine my surprise when I opened the package and found all of these treasures. Not only was the painting framed, but she included an altered print of a beautiful character in one of the books she is working on, a sketch of a cathedral in France, a little satchel filled with a fun paper tea rose and some other goodies, and the very pretty necklace I took pictures of below. No wonder my heart was so full yesterday!

Thank you, Amy!!

Do you remember the background I was working on here? Well, I painted over it and had a painting almost finished that wouldn't come together. So, in a fit of frustration, I painted over it and created a whole new background that I really, really like. I've already discovered the image in it that wants to be painted. Can you see what it is? (I love this process - it's like looking for images in the clouds!)
I'll start painting more on this today, so stay tuned!!

Earlier this morning, Daniel and I decided to go to the beach for a while and are we glad we did! Can you believe how empty it was on a warm and hazy summer day? We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves and when the crowds started coming, we had had enough and went back home.
I shot a quick photo of Daniel in the ocean before I joined him. The water is finally warm enough for me to go in - a wonderful 80 degrees (27 degrees Celsius)! The waves were calm and even the dolphins swam by a few times. It was magical!!

And, finally, I want to thank the super talented and sweet Julie-Ann of Heavenleigh Art for bestowing this wonderful award on me! I so appreciate it!!
Because I have such a hard time picking my favorites, I am going to leave it up to all of you to take this award and pass it on! Or simply enjoy it here!

Whew, that was a lot to tell, but there are just days when many little, very special things happen, and I find that I want to tell you about all of them! So, thank you for "listening!"

Jewelry

I am having a problem right now. I am making quite a bit of art at the moment, but all of it as presents for family - there are several birthdays right in a row in May and June! So, since some of them are avid readers of my blog, I cannot post the pictures until after they've received their gifts. You have no idea how hard that is for me! When I make something and like it, I want to show and tell. But soon...
In the meantime I thought I'd show you some of the jewelry I've made over the last year also as gifts for family and friends. Some time ago I discovered Lisa New, a talented glass artist in Florida who makes gorgeous lampwork beads. All of the beautiful, large glass beads in some of the photos I got from her. (I still have one gorgeous set of beads from her I am going to make into something for myself!)

I apologize for the somewhat creepy headless shots - I wanted to focus in on the necklaces as best I could. And a couple of the pictures are a little fuzzy, but I had the presents mailed off before I noticed.


Tomorrow...more art!!!