Excuses and Regrets

The great thing about doing a photo shoot for a magazine is that it gives you a perfect excuse to buy flowers...sometimes lots of flowers.

And this time of year, fresh flowers are a perfect pick me up for very little money.

It also makes you take a long hard look at what you "want" to see in an image, which often leads to editing down to the bare essentials...something I'm striving for these days anyway.

This past weekend I bit the bullet and ordered the boots I wanted...the boots that had spoken to me for so long.  It's a rare thing for me to spend a lot of money on clothes or shoes, I'm way too much of a bargain/clearance shopper for that.  I love the thrill of the chase, and am rarely regretful if something slips through my fingers as I stalk the manufacturer waiting for their bottom basement price, but this time they won out.

I love nice things, I just don't love paying a high price for them.  I think this harkens back to the days when I was a sales rep for high end children's clothing and accessories.  I did clothing shows in New York, Charlotte N.C., and the DC metro area, and so I knew the cost of manufacturing verses retail and I was never really able to go back to full retail after that eye opening experience.

But at the same time, I can appreciate the cost of some things...furniture, antiques, jewelry, and apparently boots in the perfect shade of saddle brown!  They were on sale after all, and I justified my purchase by telling myself that I will wear them every day, of every week, of every month...hah!

Just as I rarely regret losing the clearance tug of war from time to time, I have no regrets when I put my money on the table in other instances.  The pie safe pictured above is one such example.  It was purchased when we were young, didn't have 2 nickles to rub together, and I had to pay for it over time.  It has been with us for 25 years now, traveling from home to home, room to room, and I still love it just as much as when I first saw it in a local antique store.

My father used to always say, and my mother too, that if you really want it, you better go ahead and get it or it might not be there later...something a wise reader reminded me of in her comment on my last post.  I guess from time to time we have to splurge a little, on those special things that speak to us and which we can't get out of our heads.  I doubt I will ever lose my cheapskate ways, but I'm betting I also won't regret strutting around in my new boots either!

What do you splurge on?!...do tell!

Snapshot

Sometimes life is crazy, like this weekend.  First we had the osprey incident...see the previous post...which was exciting and had a happy ending.

Then we had a wonderful candlelight dinner on Saturday evening...just the two of us...steaks on the grill, fresh veggies, and fruit for dessert.

We were just about to cuddle up and watch a late night movie or SNL when the phone rang, it was our son saying his car had broken down about 45 mins away and he needed us to come pick him and his girlfriend up.

An expensive tow truck ride and repair bill later, and he will be back up and running by tomorrow afternoon.  Though I don't love them, I never mind costly incidents, so long as everyone is safe and sound.  Our son knows us well and began the conversation with..."I'm ok, and I wasn't in an accident, but my car broke down and I'm in a safe parking lot."

Then this morning our washing machine, that has sounded a little like a jet engine lately, decided to start leaking.  Again, it could have been worse, it didn't flood the house, so that's good news, and it's given us a good 10+ years of clothes washing, so I can't complain.

And my cell phone has decided that its touch screen, well, is a little less touchy, so I think I will be needing a new one soon.

It's times like these when you just have to take stock of what's really important, not sweat the small stuff, and hope that the money tree in the backyard will get its act together and start producing a little more moolah.

Isn't it funny how we never take snapshots of the tough stuff, though we all have those rough patches?  I guess the grit of life isn't nearly as glamorous is it?  So life around here isn't always sunshine and roses, it's just real life and I'm good with that.  

Roses and Seashells

If you were ever to visit my home you would be sure to find two things...

Roses (when they are blooming)...and Seashells (all year long).

Some things just go together, don't you agree?! :)

In Search of Beauty

I will be honest, I haven't watched the news about the devastating tornadoes, I have read the headlines online, but not delved any deeper.   It's not that I'm uncaring, or unsympathetic, it's just that I can't handle all of the sadness, loss, and deep, deep pain that those people must be feeling.

Once upon a time, when a tragedy like this would strike, I would read every story, watch every gut wrenching video, and hope that by doing so, in some small way I could take away some of that pain.

I have always jumped into action, making donations, helping in any way I could to mend the wounds that so often happen along the road of life, but today I do it from a point of not knowing all of the particulars, and that seems to work best for me.

Instead, now I tend to search for beauty during times of darkness.  Sadness spurs me on to want to capture and create loveliness and calm amidst the unthinkable.

Last night I had dinner with a very dear friend, and we laughed and chatted until 1/2 hour past the closing time of the restaurant.  They were so sweet and didn't even tell us that they were closed, but the mop buckets and empty room brought us out of our bubble and told us it was time to go home.

We were blissfully unaware, because neither of us had heard the news, that across the country others were experiencing something totally different, something horrific.

Today, I went out into my yard and gathered up a huge bouquet of roses and peonies, arranged them into one of my favorite vases, washed some strawberries, broke out a china tea cup and some tea.  I needed something pretty to counteract all of the ugliness that touches us each day.

Like the fact that a friend lost her beloved dog last week, or that today is a memorial service for another friend's husband.  And the fact that so many are now without homes, clothing, or their greatest possessions of all...their loved ones...not just in Oklahoma, but all over the world.

So instead of focusing on the loss, the sadness, the emotions that I can't fix, can't change, can't take away, I will instead focus my energies on creating beauty and donating money and supplies to Oklahoma so that they can begin to pick up the pieces and move forward.

A friend of mine from HS posted this on his FB page, so I will pass this along to anyone who wants to help with the relief effort.

Click here for a list of ways you can donate to help the victims in Oklahoma.

Roses and Radishes

Our weather has taken a turn back towards early springtime in terms of temperatures.   It's been a little crazy trying to decide how to dress each day when the temps have ranged from high 50s yesterday and today, to the 80s last week and for the rest of this week.

But as confused as we humans might be, I'm sure the plants are even more unsettled by this changeable weather.  Despite the fluctuations, the roses are coming along beautifully, and with warmer temps on the horizon again, it won't be long before we have blossoms everywhere.

For Mother's Day the past few years, my children have given me rose bushes as gifts, and I can't think of a better gift or one that keeps on giving in such a beautiful way.

Over the weekend, we planted all of our herbs, some tomato plants, and flowers in containers.  Now, when I sit out on my back patio, I feel like we are finally heading in to summertime and I love watching everything grow and prosper.

The other great thing about this time of year is that our farmer's markets are back in business after taking the winter months off.

Even though I grew up with a big garden each year, and we have the room to plant one of our own, we opt for planting just a few veggies and get the rest from local organic farmers.

I like the idea of supporting them, and it sure as heck beats having to water, weed, and worry about the deer gobbling up anything we would plant at our own house.

Last Saturday I was excited to see that one of our favorite vendors had French radishes.  I love radishes...and I'm the only one in my family who eats them, but I always buy several bunches.

French radishes are a little sweeter than other varieties and not quite as hot.  They are yummy in salads, but to be honest mine never last long enough to make it to a salad bowl.  

I just clean, trim, and sprinkle a little salt on them and then greedily gobble them up!  I sure hope they have more next weekend!

Changeable Charlie

Thank you everyone for your wonderful support and encouragement of my new shop!!!  I truly appreciate all of the great comments, emails and messages on Facebook that I've received!  A special thanks to Grace of Sense and Simplicity who has been an invaluable eagle eye at helping me tweak the site...thank you so much!

I did receive a few questions too, like is all of the artwork ready to hang?...and the answer is YES!  Each piece is gallery wrapped onto a 1 1/2 inch kiln dried stretcher bar, some images have mirrored sides (where the image continues to wrap around the edge), while others have a solid edge in a complimentary color.  Then each piece is paper backed to prevent dust from gathering on the back of the picture, and a wire hanger is attached so that it is ready to hang on your wall just as soon as your package arrives and you take it out of the box!

Ok, so now about me and my Changeable Charlie'ness.  Some of you may have noticed that I put a holiday header at the top of my blog yesterday.  It was the image above and it's of a new piece of artwork I have for sale in my new store.  I love the little bluebird surrounded by holly, and the traditional reds and greens, but I decided I wasn't happy with it as my header after all, so I made a change.

Mr. Tide was kind enough to bring in a few of the holiday tubs from the garage yesterday and I began looking through them this morning to see what my decorating theme would be this year.  Because I'm so changeable, I like to switch things up from year to year, using different colors, or whatever strikes my fancy.

This year, because I've been so busy of late, I was kind of floundering as to which way I should go, especially in my living room and dining room.  But when I opened one of the bins, I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.

When our son moved out and into the rental property he is sharing with his sister, I came across some old Christmas ornaments in the garage that had belonged to the previous owner...our 100+ year old neighbor George.  His son and daughter in law were getting rid of the items they no longer wanted or needed and so I poked around to see what I could buy before they took things to the donation place in town.

I ended up purchasing a wonderful old typewriter that George had used during his adventures in India and the other wonderful places he called home during his very full life.  The typewriter now sits in the big black cabinet in my dining room, along with a collection of vintage cameras.  Some day I will take a few photos of that cabinet to share with all of you.

But the other big score I found in the garage was a collection of old vintage Christmas ornaments.  They were a hodgepodge of old glass ornaments in shades of aqua, silver, gold, but mostly pink!  I fell in love with them instantly and could just imagine George and his wife lovingly decorating their tree with them for the many years they were together.

In true Changeable Charlie form, I had to play around with the angle of this one beautiful ornament that says Merry Christmas, so I took 2 different shots of it in the teacup.  Truth be told I took 3 shots, but these are the two I liked the best! ;-)

Because my roses haven't gotten the memo yet that it's nearly Christmas and they should be fast asleep, I went outside and gathered up a few to put in a vase.  Then I grabbed a couple ironstone platters, plunked the vase of roses on it and began scattering the beautiful pink and silver ornaments on top a lovely and festive centerpiece for my dining room table.  I also used an old bedspread that had belonged to my grandmother as the tablecloth.

The roses will fade long before the holidays hit of course, but for now I am loving the look.  And I can always get store bought roses if I want to keep this look going all the way through Christmas...can you ever have too many flowers in your house?!   And the answer is...heck no!

So there you have it, my long winded explanation as to why my header is now all pink and sparkly...because I am a consummate Changeable Charlie!

And it's kind of getting me in the mood for not only the holidays, but also my trip to Paris!  Yup, it's official, we are going to Paris next month and I can't wait.  I can't even fathom the idea of being in the City of Lights during one of the most festive times of the year.  Of course I'll be snapping pictures left and right while Mr. Tide is busy working (poor guy), and maybe when I get home I will be completely rethinking my idea of Christmas decor altogether...we'll see!

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Looking for a special piece of artwork?

Visit us at  Low Tide High Style

Same Old, Same Old

My days are all kind of running together.  Each morning I've been getting up super early and I can't go back to sleep because dogs need to go out, be fed, then that cold breeze from taking them out wakes my brain up and I can't shut it down.

Then I begin to go over everything I need to do, which right now is about a million things, so then I definitely can't go back to sleep, so I just start working.

It feels good to get things done and keep working towards the goal line.

It's kind of like when you decide to clean out a closet and once you start you just can't stop.

And then when you are all done, and the closet is nice and tidy, you feel like you've conquered the world!

It is important to take a break though, and a few of you have sweetly written to me to remind me of that fact.  So today I decided to take a few pictures as a way to distract myself for a little while.

I guess for some people hauling out a camera and getting everything set up might be stressful, but for me it's a nice relaxing break.  It gets my creative juices flowing, and while I'm taking pictures I can forget the swirl of life that is happening all around me.

Having pretty or interesting things to photograph doesn't hurt either...like the last of my roses, French ephemera and some of my grandmother's and great grandmother's jewelry as willing subjects.

I have to admit that I was a little lazy and didn't really try to make the pictures look all that different from one another...my brain was just a little too tired for that I'm afraid.  But sometimes doing the same thing or taking the same sort of picture is a good thing I think, it gives me a sense of comfort, and as long as I'm making strides, it's not so bad really.

Do you find comfort in repetition?!

On a side note I want to say WOW to my fellow Americans for really turning out in mass yesterday to vote.  No matter which way you voted, whether today finds you happy or sad, you should take comfort in the fact that you were part of the process and it's that kind of effort that will see us through whatever lies ahead.

And to those affected by Sandy, I hope this nor'easter passes you by without much headache...you have enough on your plate right now, and really deserve a break and some warmer weather!

The Rose

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.  ~Henri Matisse~

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living.  We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.  ~Dale Carnegie~

What a lovely thing a rose is!... Our highest assurance of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.  ~Arthur Conan Doyle~

I hope your week is off to a good start! :)

Days of Wine and Roses

Thank you to everyone who fell in love with the Beautyberries in my last post, they truly live up to their name!

Life around here has been quiet, it seems that the auto accident we had a little over a month ago is letting itself be known with some lingering shoulder and back pain.  The soreness has been there all along, but it seems to have gotten worse over the past few weeks so I'm off to see a doctor on Tuesday.

I hope he will be able to fix me up quickly, because I have to say that as someone who has never had back pain before, it really is the pits, and keeps you from doing things like taking pictures and spending much time on the computer!

Mr. Tide and I really aren't big drinkers, in fact we rarely drink at all, but we do keep a bottle of Willm, a lovely pinot gris, around for when people come to dinner, or to take as a hostess gift when going to a friend's house.

We discovered this lovely, slightly sweet white wine on a visit to Whole Foods awhile back, so when we make our bi-monthly pilgrimage to WF, which we affectionately call the land of joy and joyness, we always pick up a bottle.   It's from the Alsace region of France, the area that we visited around this time last year.  That was a wonderful time, our very own days of wine and roses!

I hope each of you is enjoying your weekend!  And a very Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends!

At Loose Ends

Isn't it funny how when you look back at the same time of year last year how different things can be?  It was just over a year ago that I was wandering the flower markets of France and dreaming about where I hoped I'd be a year from then.

I was dreaming of where I wanted to take my photography, how I wanted to market and sell my artwork, ways to better myself as a person, and all the wonderful possibilities that travel opens you up to.

So why is it that when that one year mark rolls around, and we've met some some of our goals, and exceeded others, that we find ourselves unsure of which way to turn until we find the next inspirational turning point?!

The past few weeks I've been re-evaluating just about everything it seems...

Like what I want to create next, what color to paint our bedroom, and today I cleared out the black cabinet in our living room, and tore apart the guest room closet.  Now keep in mind that I have LOTS of other things I should be doing, like processing pictures, vacuuming up dog hair, making something for dinner besides sandwiches (which Mr. Tide has been making btw!), and putting out some of my fall decor that resides in the huge tubs taking up valuable real estate in our living room!

Mr. Tide lays low when I get into one of these phases, he's learned over the years that "this too shall pass."  He simply nods and agrees with my grandiose plans to sell everything we own and move into a teeny tiny house one minute, and then announcing that I want to replace every stick of furniture in the living room and buy a hot tub the next.

And he never even misses a beat when he comes home from work to find swatches of every grey known to man adorning our bedroom walls.  He knows that my "I think I want to paint our bedroom," has turned from a 2 year long idle notion into a quest worthy of the crusades!

The walls will be painted...color still yet to be determined, the need to purge will give way to loftier pursuits, and my desire to live the simple life in a one room shack will be replaced by a need to buy a second home in Paris...or maybe the Cotswolds.  Yup, I will find new ideas and dreams to churn around in this little head of mine.

Some of those dreams will become a reality in a year, some will be long forgotten, and my loose ends will be nicely tied up like the ribbon that holds a dozen roses bought at a french flower market!  Am I the only one who goes through this?!