Tossing and turning, creative unrest. . .

‘the simple adventures of everyday life’ is a collection of creative thoughts and ideas that have kept me up at night. Included, are Original Hand-Made Wedding Invitations, cards, photographs, poetry and short stories.

My Dad was an extremely creative man, an artist, who lost many a nights sleep because of planning and building in his head….I’ve found that I’m exactly the same way. On many occasions, as I tried in vain to fall asleep, I had to get up and write down an idea…or perhaps a line of poetry, that if I indeed eventually would drift off, I was sure to forget by morning.

I have always loved weddings! My obsession has taken me to some wonderful collections (vintage wedding photos & wedding cake toppers, and maybe a few vintage wedding gowns....but that's another story). . .and recently, to designing custom wedding invitations under the name 'CaroleKancarDesignStudio'.





13 April, 2010

April beach. . .

It was a beautiful day for the beach...sunny, but chilly, which warranted us wearing warmer coats since it's always cooler near the water.


This 'April beach' is so different than last year. When we were here then, we had to bundle up in heavy winter wear. The beach itself was littered with huge piles of debris. This year, we've already been here wearing summer clothes, and the beach is clean and clear, except for a few things scattered here and there.


Jerry went fishing at one end of the beach and I went 'hunting' at the other. After a few loud choruses of Brenda Lee's 'All Alone Am I', 'Big Spender' (from 'Sweet Charity'), and 'Are the Stars Out Tonight'. I got down to the business at hand...finding glass.
The beach was empty, except for the two of us...which of course was the reason I could sing out loud. This is how I like the beach! To the few people who did eventually wander in, I felt like saying, "Get OFF MY beach!!"! I had my little bucket and my pick-up stick, a must have when it comes to looking for glass, much easier on the back.
I was in my glory!! A gorgeous day, an empty beach, the sound of the waves teasing the shore (one of my favorite sounds), what more could I ask for.
I have what I like to call a 'glass' eye...I'm able to see the most elusive shards of glass, peering ever so slightly from beneath stones and sand...gleaming, chameleon-like slivers, resting amid rocks and slate, hoping to blend in with the surroundings..."you can't hide from me!!!"!

The glass on this beach is not what I normally find at the inlet, which always has an abundance of pottery and pieces of restaurant ware. This glass is well weathered, showing it's time in the water has been long. But these are the highly coveted pieces that collectors look for...these are the pieces that make beautiful jewelry. The most unusual color that I found today was a small piece of vivid pink, most of the rest was white, aqua, green, brown, some cobalt blue, and an occasional lavender. The best piece that I found was the side of an old Coca Cola bottle...a perfect find! My bucket was full since I had ventured farther than ever along the shore, time to see if Jerry caught anything.

I'm always so excited to check out my 'booty' when I get home...booty is 'pirate speak' for seized goods...I guess you could say that I seized the glass from the beach!

 
Debris is at a minimum right now, although there were a few items that caught my eye to photograph. One was a golden yellow velour recliner that had it's footrest replaced with a small bale of hay. Near it was a small bonfire...someone had really made themselves at home, they were comfy and I got a great photo!


Another item was a rather sizable bra...we figure that there might be a story to tell between the recliner and the bra...hmmmm....let's just use our imaginations!!



We're getting an early start to our beach combing this year and I'm so happy about that!! The beach is a wonderful place to spend a beautiful day!

09 April, 2010

If you want something done. . .

You know that old saying...'If you want something done, do it yourself'? Well, I always used that adage as a coaxing tool, hoping to generate some sympathy from my husband, Jerry, when he didn't move quickly enough to do something that I needed done, hoping that he'd take pity on me and do what I asked (well, that never really worked). No sympathy there!

Years ago, we had a full size, three cushioned, winged-back, brown PLAID, monstrosity of a sofa!!! Oh, the HORROR!!! Not to mention, the matching chair, like there wasn't enough plaid in the room already!

After living with this lovely piece for quite a few years, it got to a point that I just couldn't look at it for even one more day. So, like I usually did when I wanted something removed, I asked Jerry to take it in the basement (where all unwanted furniture went to die), with me, but that was just not on his agenda. Well, after asking him for some time, and not getting any response, I took this upon myself to do (here's where that adage comes in). How hard can this be????? After all, I WAS freakishly strong ( I really was). I told Jerry that I would 'do it myself' and he kept telling me not to even try it, but he tells me a not to do a lot of things...ask him how often I listen!

I waited until I was home alone, of course, then assessed and cleared the potential moving route that I would take for this endeavor...out of the living room, through the dining room...through our small kitchen, and then down a step into a very tiny back hall (probably a square yard wide),...then left to the basement...as easy as that!
I took all of the cushions off of the sofa, then proceeded to put my plan into action...I PU..ULLED and PU..USHED it until I got it to the hall. Now, I needed to re-evaluate the situation. "So let's see, if I take it down the small step on the short side, I should be able to just lower it onto the basement stairs...yeah, that'll work!" So that's exactly what I did. I stood it upright on it's side, then pushed the other side that was on the floor, down into the basement...so easy...well, it didn't quite go down the basement stairs. It got stuck...on the stairs...just past the doorway. It wouldn't budge!! What now???? I decided that if I pulled it from the other side, the side that faced the basement, it would surely go down. I climbed over it until I was between the sofa and the basement wall, hoping to move to the other side...unfortunately, now I got stuck and couldn't move either way...ok, I think I have a slight problem.

That's all I kept thinking about was, what if I was still stuck here when Jerry got home from work????...I was sure to get an 'I TOLD YOU SO!!!', and there was no way I wanted to hear that! I kept squirming, and pulling, and trying to pry myself out of the wedged-in position that gave me no leverage what so ever...'OK, this can't be good'. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, and with a lot of grunting, groaning, and swearing, I did indeed pry myself out...SUCCESS!!!...well, not quite, the sofa was still stuck.

I crawled my way back up the sofa, (hoping that it wouldn't decide to make it's move to the basement with me straddled on top of it), to the small hall and at that point had to once again re-evaluate my situation. I now had an alternate plan...I sat on the floor, put both of my feet solidly on the side of the sofa, pulled back, and with all my might and both of my legs, I kicked the sofa so hard that it went bouncing down the basement stairs....see, how hard was that?!!