Lost Aussie on the loose

Pointing South

Charlotte Skyline, NC.  Feb 2013
© Marie Otero 2013

Well FINALLY, after goodness knows how many weeks, months, we finally have a closing date on our house and I can heave a modicum of a sigh (of relief).

For no other reason other than it's time to move on.

From a 6500sq ft house into a 3000 sq ft one.  Trading living large for a spot on the lake and well, I am kind of done with a lot of the "stuff" that I have been carting around for well over 20 years and finding the process of "chuck it out if you haven't touched it in a while" to be quite cathartic.

My thanks to everyone who has sent emails and left blog comments of late.  I'm sorry to be a poor respondent but hope you understand I'm a 'tad' busy  and that you will bear with me as I make this transition.

Skating On Thin Ice

I wish I felt more certain about the direction of things and was able to have some concrete notion of where I am going and more to the point, when.

Stuff is sort of nailed down but not quite.  We have a rental house sorted out, more or less.  We have buyers for the house kind of.  The movers have a tentative date.  My Studio is packed to the point where it is good for nothing except aggravating the cats as all their cozy spots are out of order.  They are twitterpated and so am I!!

I know it's that betwixt and between and in good time everything will fall into place... it's just in the mean time I am a 'tad' out of sorts....

Playing With Tulips

Yes, there was a thousand other things that I should have been doing today, but a lovely vase of tulips and sun streaming through the front windows meant that all good intentions were forgotten and I grabbed my camera and tripod and had at it.....

And then of course, a commensurate amount of time spent fiddling with the pictures.....

At least it made for a day where the possiblility of Spring seemed within grasp .... and I still met my junk heaving quota for the day .... so all was not lost!

Getting Decorated

Our Christmas Tree is finally UP!  Some years, the years when the boys are not here I can barely drag a box of Christmas decorations out and feel all surly and sour about the whole "thing" .... but the times they are here I love to get our tree out and see it primped in all it's glory!!

A labour of love and a certain amount of pedantic perfection required.... so many strands of white lights in the middle, so many coloured ones on the outer branches.... I'm picky (ask David!)

But when it's up and done I savour it so.
Quite the hotch potch of ornaments as they all have a meaning and a memory attached.  Garnered from Kindergarten years to present day, and each year we add a new one.  This year it's a glassy whale from Anthropologie - to symbolise the shape of Long Island (a la Greenport Brewing Company).
Definitely not your average Home and Garden cover material, but I love it anyway.

Then there are 4 boxes of "decorations" for the house.  A collection of Santas (for him) and a collection of Snowmen (for her).

A little over the top perhaps, but when I first came to America I was mesmerised at all the wonderful and (inexpensive) decorations and quickly amassed and rather large collection.

Fortunately these days I limit myself to the one new ornament a year but I still enjoy unpacking the different bits that have been garnered over time and perphaps even more so this year as I have in my mind's eye a little photographic whooppee to make with the tableaus that I create....

Somehow I think the Snowmen will win and feature on the Christmas Card this year.... or perhaps the Santa......

What do you think?

A Little Decorating

Finally - the tree is up, cranberry candles lit, pointsettias appropriately dotted around the house and everything is looking all Christmassy at last.

I've even got most of my shopping done ....

Tra, la, la, la, la .......

My Own Bit of Yellow

Spring has finally condoned to visit my garden, the forsythia are in bloom and so are the daffodils.  It's quite heartening.

I even went and bought a couple of punnets of pansies today and installed them in pots. 
Pansies and I don't usually get along - I have no idea why - but because we don't I generally leave them off the garden menu.  This year though, I have been so starved of color beyond the kitchen window and have a huge hankering to get out there and PLANT ...
... still, its way too it's way too early for Impatiens and other floral goodness, so this "impatient" gardner had to make do with Pansies!  I know I will love them anyway ...  I am a sucker for anything I can plant and watch grow.

Decorative Elements

Our house is sporting a new decorative edge - hundreds upon hundreds of icicles that seem to be growing by the minute.

Even though they look quite pretty, I think tomorrow I will have to go and clear some of them off as they are getting to be absolutely HUGE - 12 inches and more....  I am terrified that one will snap off and spear a cat or something.

 

DIY Decorating

 

As you might imagine, the walls in our house are full of artwork.  Not all of it mine as both DH and I have a fair appreciation for the creative efforts of others and like to support those we like.  Recently though I spied some of the stuff we have hanging around the house and decided that it was time to update!  The walls serve as a nice testament to the change in my creative process but frankly some of the things we have up there now are more of an embarrassment than eye candy!

So last week, in a flurry of creativity and a monster urge to use my big printer I cooked up these three pieces.  They are mixed media & digital creations printed on fine art canvas 24"x24".  I then put together some gallery wrap stretcher frames and pulled the canvas across to a finished size of 18"x18" and I'm quite liking the result.

So out with the old, in with the new, and may the creative urge continue!

Oh How I Love Sunshine!

After days and days of dreary wet rain, flooding, erosion and a dullness outside that just makes you just want to hunker down under a quilt and watch TV re-runs or SLEEP..............

the SUN has finally come out!  

I haven't felt this ALIVE in a long time!!

So what to do when it's so sunny (and relatively warm)? ........Why get out into the garden of course!!  I've spent a productive 4 or 5 hours pulling, pruning, digging, transplanting and generally getting happy and dirty!
Max decided it was PURRR..FECT weather for a little sunbathing session!


and in between raking and pruning, I found enough enough lovely light to satisfy the camera!
(The daffs are store bought, but the sunshine is straight from God!)

Oh yes........... I do LOVE sunshine!

Today - Through Glass