dovetail--gratitude #8

i love when things fit together well, right. especially when it's pure serendipity that they do so. there's a particular delight i have in the moment--click--when everything slides into place like it never belonged anywhere more truly.

today was a perfect example of a dovetail. that's why i'm so tardy getting this entry up--i've been having a wonderful time all day, working in the studio on stained glass with latt. i have never been able to work so long with him or so productively. the fates smiled on us today though--jackson was here, and he and rowan watched jumanji and just hung out upstairs while we worked for about two hours in the middle of the day, and after bedtime we went back down for another couple. but what a four hours!

we started out the day productively with me seeing a very pregnant woman's torso, in profile, in a piece of glass that had curved lines throughout. latt cut her out of the glass for me, and we worked together to create a piece of glass around her that would do her justice. here she is in the rough. pinks and greens and clear glass. when we saw how well that worked, i thought she would be perfect for sale as a mother's day item. dh agreed and we both got excited. immediately we set to making more just like her, using her profile as a template. by the time we came upstairs to fix lunch, we had four similar pieces in various stages of completion!

tonight when we went back down we were just as productive...latt foiled the pieces from earlier, and i put together two more. then he made some improvements to them and made the cuts needed to make it all fit together perfectly. just like our day together. want to see a slideshow that shows us moving through the day and our various creations? i took pictures as i went once i realized our work was definitely what i was thankful for today.

today not only did so many pieces of glass go together seamlessly--but so did my life and my work. and my life and my love. everything dovetailed so very perfectly. that is a damn good day. and i'd be crazy not to be full of gratitude for it.

gratitude #7--catching fireflies and the act of creation

there is something so satisfying about learning, and having success at, a new skill. i can really sense my homo habilis roots when i'm taking on a new craft and it actually comes out well. i've dyed my fifth skein of yarn, another big licorice twist one, and i'm finally feeling like it's good enough to sell. :squeee:

this one is "catching fireflies"--it's dyed in the inky deep blue and the silvery blue of the night sky, just past twilight when the other colors recede--which is when the fireflies come out! there's the light and dark greens of the backyards and fields i ran in as a child with my little jar, holes carefully poked in the lid, and of course the flare orange glow of the the little creatures' beacons. i adored catching fireflies and i swear, there is something about learning a new craft that makes me feel just as inspired, as happy--as grateful. because it is somehow the same--the desire to capture something shiny, something difficult to hold. a new ability, particularly one that feeds your soul and looks pretty, is like that moment --AHA! I GOT IT!--when you manage to keep still for a moment something fragile and fleeting. like the fireflies i caught as a child, my creations are especially precious to me, because--not in spite of--the fact that after i admire them, briefly, i let them go.

as a work at home mom, i've let thousands of colorful creatures out of my hands and into the lives' of others. that's what makes dyeing yarn like this such a delight--it's a lovely, ephemeral thing flying through my life, but it's going to make someone else very very happy. i'm grateful to be able to turn curiosity and a love for color and a desire to learn and do new things into that kind of happiness in others' hands.