Dream-givers

A few years ago I decided to go back and read some children's books I had read many years ago in elementary school. I remembered reading The Giver but I couldn't remember the story so I borrowed the book from the library and when I finished it I decided to go read other books written by Lois Lowry. As an adult I now found it interesting to see how someone writes various stories. A book reflects the author and by reading various book by the same person I could get a fuller picture of who they are.

One of the other books written by Lois Lowry is called Gossamer. It is a story about these little creatures that come out at night.These creatures go into a person's room and run their fingers over items in the room, picking up the scents, sounds, stories, and memories of objects. Once they collect enough they combine them together creating dreams for people which they then bestow onto the sleeping people.They are dream-givers.

I found this concept very interesting and it brought to light something I already knew but had never articulated. Objects are often not just objects. Objects carry memories. They tell stories. They can bring a flood of emotions whether pleasant or uncomfortable. One simple item can become a symbol of many things. We may pick up a toy from childhood and suddenly remember the many times we played with it as a child. We might remember the childhood friend who joined us on our adventures. We might remember the sound of our mother's voice telling us to clean up our toy and come eat dinner.

The human mind and heart is such a beautiful and complex thing. My eyes see an object but consciously or subconsciously a million thoughts and feelings are triggered. When I think about home part of why it feels like home is because everything is familiar to me. I am surrounded by things that carry stories, stories that are hidden to someone who might come to my place for the first time. Last night I decided to capture this thought by taking pictures of some things that you would see in my room if you came over. Some things don't have elaborate stories but are nonetheless familiar to me. Some of my stories I post here may only be part of the whole story. I hope that this experience will open your eyes to look at the things you see everyday in a new light and bask in the stories they store.

 

 

For those of you who want to know what kind of things you would pick up if you were a dream-giver running your finger over these items, here are some memories...

Eiffel Tower: I bought this souvenir when I went to Europe exactly one year ago :) I traveled to 13 different countries in Europe and my last stop was in Paris, France. I got to go up on the Eiffel Tower and look over the landscape of Paris. This is the scenery I saw...

Do you know the Eiffel Tower has a light show every night? The tower sparkles with lights for about 10 minutes.  I think it was at 10pm and 11pm.

Flower: The flower piece reminds me of the trips I took to many antique shops looking for items for my room when I was redecorating a  few years back. It brings back fun memories of possibilities and exploring. I had never really been to antique shops until then and it was definitely interesting to see what kind of stuff was out there.

Wine glass: This was something I brought back from my first official wine tasting adventure in Temecula. Beautiful weather. Wonderful company. Friend passed out from too much wine in the backseat of the car. And my favorite thing from that trip? It started me on a cheese tasting craze!

Clock: I brought this clock back from Europe last year. We stopped by a clock store in Germany in the Black Forest. They specialize in cuckoo clocks.  I found this clock there and knew I had to buy it even though I would have to lug it around with me for the rest of the trip. The price was so affordable and it reminded me of a clock my parents have that make me think of my childhood and the house I grew up in.

This turned out to be a long entry, but if you made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope it was interesting :) Have a wonderful weekend. It's almost Friday! 

-M

Origami

Have I mentioned that I love working with paper? I don't know what it is. I love the crisp feel of it in my hands. I love its versatility. I love how it's so common yet it can be transformed so many ways to create really interesting shapes. It is bold in shape yet so light when we hold it. I think what draws me to it the most is that it is strong and delicate at the same time.

Last week I decided to pull out an old origami book I had lying around the house. I flipped through the pages and decided I wanted to make the brontosaurus dinosaur at the very end of the book (the book calls it a diplodocus but back when I was in elementary school we called it brontosaurus). It was always one of my favorite dinos. They seemed so gentle and graceful with their long necks and smooth curves. Did you have a favorite dinosaur? Anyway I figured out pretty quickly that the book gets harder as it gets to the end. I had been a bit too ambitious...but I had started and I decided I wanted to finish. Folding the piece itself wasn't so hard. If any of you have tried to learn origami from a book, you know that the bigger part of the challenge is trying to decipher what the book is telling you to do. It's like cracking a code. It was definitely a test of patience and perseverance. The end product is my little green bronto...he is a medal of hard work and determination. Guess how long this little creature took to make? A good 4-5 solid hours. 62 steps. Yes, it doesn't look like much and he's not perfect but he's a trophy to me :)

There are some really amazing works of origami out there. Here are some photos you might enjoy. :) There are also Youtube videos under origami artist if you're interested.

http://www.mostamazingnews.com/art-and-design/amazing-origami-art-works/437

http://ezylook.blogspot.com/2011/04/amazing-japanese-origami-art-works.html

http://www.unicorn-pictures.com/origami-unicorn

http://thereisnosuchworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/origami-paper-fold.html

http://www.ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/weblog.php?/weblog/eric_joisel_origami/

http://www.drollthings.com/?p=770

Day and Night

 How has your week been? It has been a long work week for me and I finally have some time to post up some entries! :) This entry is about how to create a different feel using the same dress. I'm no guru on the topic of fashion but hopefully it'll give you some ideas on changing up a look of an outfit or at least make you more aware of how what we see affects the way we feel. There are a few pieces of fashion that I love- some being scarves, cardigans, and handbags. I have a variety of scarves that range from light weight to heavy, bright to dark, and plain to patterned. I wore a turquoise dress today. It was a warm sunny day with a light breeze during the day. Towards evening it got cooler as the sun went down so I switched to a warmer scarf and added a light jacket. Here are the two looks that I got by changing up a couple items.

Let's look at the effect of color as well as pattern. The coral/orange scarf felt more appropriate for the day. It matched the sunny weather. I added a bright yellow bracelet to create more visual interest, The scarf and dress are both solid colors (no patterns) and the outfit looks simple. By adding some sparkle with the bold yellow and gold, the outfit seems more complete. It has more energy. There's more to catch our attention. The bold bracelet wasn't necessary for the evening because the pattern and  bright colors of the scarf added enough interest to the outfit. The light color of the jacket contrasted with the color of the dress and scarf, creating another contrast in color and value (dark and light) making the outfit more interesting to look at. If I wore a dark colored jacket such as navy blue or black, it would have taken away from the beauty of the scarf. If I wore a bright colored jacket  such as orange, the outfit would have a whole lot of energy (which could work) but I was going for a more relaxed and subdued look so I went with cream. 

Maybe you'll find some ways to mix and match your outfits :)

Bridal Shower Creativity

This weekend I flew out to Oakland for a bridal shower. All the bridesmaids had delegated tasks and one of the tasks I had was flower arranging. :D I got to go a farmers market in Oakland to pick out some beautiful flowers. We first chose sunflowers because it's the bride's favorite flower. Then we needed to choose some complementary flowers. We went with a bright orange-red color to add some POP and added some splotches of white to balance out the bright colors, creating some space for the eyes to rest. $15 dollars for three large bunches of beautiful flowers! I need to go to farmer's markets more often!

Once we got back, I filled jars with river rocks and began the task of cutting and arranging. It was so much fun! I tune my eyes to create balance as I space out the colors around the bouquet. I've learned over the years that it's best to cut stems short when putting them in a vase or jar. When the stems are too long the flowers lean out in all directions creating too much airy spaces. Cutting them short squishes the flowers together and making the bouquet seem full.

In general when arranging flowers I think of these main things:
-Placement of the big flowers and colorful flowers spreading them throughout the bouquet. In general, the bigger flowers stay in the center.
- Adding a bit of sparkle with flowers that are small and bunchy giving the bouquet a delicate feel
-Shaping the bouquet into a sphere making the flowers on the outside shorter than the center

This was the final product. We had a total of three arrangements that we put on the various tables. Some of the tablecloths were yellow and green which matched well with the arrangements. It gave it a harmonious unified look.

  

The other things I used my creative juices on this weekend was finding a way to accessorize my dress. It's a very simple patterned dress and I knew it needed some tampering with. In the end I added it with a white short sleeved cardigan and a brown thin belt with gold pyramid studs on it. This isn't the best picture but it's the only one I have. I was happy with how it ended up. It added just enough energy and interest to the outfit. :)

My weekend was full of meeting new people, spending time with the bride-to-be and her fiance, and little moments of joy and thankfulness. It's nice to be back home in Orange County though!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well :)

-M