Finding Sand Dollars

When I started my morning walks on the beach in January, I also unintentionally started a new collection....sand dollars. They are shells that I've always loved, I remember searching for them for hours as a child on the beach in Florida, but had only ever found one whole one before, on my birthday last summer. So, imagine my surprise when I started finding them, many of them, as I walked on the beach each morning.

They would appear in the shallow waves, washed up in the retreating tide, embedded in the sand. My friend Marianna who walks with me sometimes said that she has never seen someone find so many of them. It was as if they were appearing for me, or maybe I just tuned in to them and began noticing them at every turn! 

Now I've got a pretty large collection of them, in every size and with soft variations of color.

For now I've lined them up on the window sill in my studio, along with my grandmother's green glass collection,

And along shelved through out our house, sprinkled in with other treasures. I'm hoping to make something out of them for the baby's room, it seems like they are meant to be for him somehow. I'm still deciding what to make, possibly putting a bunch of them in a pretty window box mounted on the wall? I'd love to hear ideas if you have them!

Happy Weekend! xo

August Break: Edisto Beach

We had plans to camp in the van this weekend, so after it was clear the wild wind and rain of Hurricane Irene had passed us on Friday, off we went to Edisto Beach, a state park along the coast to the south of Charleston,

The campground was right on the beach, and the water after the hurricane was very churned up and rough, not a friendly ocean. The beach had a wild jungely feeling to it that I liked,  it was also a sea turtle nesting site, with special protected areas roped off but we did not see any turtles,

The storm had washed all sorts of interesting things onto the beach, we found so many gorgeous whole perfect Conch shells, silly us we did not carry a bag on our beach wanderings so our hands just kept getting more and more full of shells as we walked,

Check out my boy's adult front teeth that are coming in so fast this summer, love that new toothy smile!

At sunset we traipsed back to our campsite with all of our treasures, only to find that..

even with a view like this there were swarms of biting flies, ugh. So we abandoned our beach camping night, hoped in the van and headed out to dinner in the small town of Edisto, then drove home with the kids asleep in the back that night!
There is something that I really like about night driving, with the kids asleep, its so peaceful, cozy and quiet, reminds me of when I used to fall asleep in the car as a child.

How I'm feeling today

Sometimes you have to look through a whole pile of rocks....

Before you find the one with the perfect circle.

*photos taken last week in Malibu, CA

Patterns

Patterns, originally uploaded by leavesandfeathers.

I just learned how to create a photo mosaic, something I have been wondering how to do for ages. It was so fun that I may have found a new addiction, here I am up too late thinking, "oh come on just make one more!"
I found out about this site that has a program that allows you to create a mosaic through your Flickr account, here I used photos of natural patterns that I took throughout last year.
If you've ever wanted to make one, well I can tell you it just couldn't be easier!
And, my totes are now available for sale here and here!

Collecting and changes

I think that I was born with a "collecting gene", when I am outside I can't keep myself from collecting little bits of the beauty around me. The inspiration definitely drifts into my paintings.

This collecting has resulted in places like the shelves below. This is in the corner of our kitchen, and almost overflowing with rocks, shells, sticks, pine cones, lichen, along with family mementos... so many things from so many different adventures. Having these objects where I can see them and enjoy them comforts and inspires me. Bits of the past help me to embrace the future.
In fact, even the name of my shop and blog came out of my long time collecting of...yes, leaves and feathers.

My children have caught onto the collecting bug and quite often now the collections become a source of imaginative play. My daughter is playing with a bowl of shells while I write this.

In autumn the collecting kicks into high gear, and it has already begun. So far we found the berries in the first photo next to our favorite climbing tree in the park. We don't know what kinds of berries they are (Mulberries maybe?).
These acorn tops have been all over the sidewalk in front of our house for the past two weeks, we have collected bowls of them.

They are destined to become tiny hats for felted gnomes that I plan to start making in my crafting circle after the weather turns colder. I discovered the joy and relaxation of needle felting with wool last winter in our Waldorf play group.

We had a wonderful weekend full of friends and some sunshine, resting up for the week ahead which will be our first week ever with both kids in their playgroups for three days a week.
This change of seasons is bringing a big transition for me. I know that I will find my rhythm with it but right now I find myself wondering how I will be able to get them both to their different places each morning without feeling like I am running around like a maniac. And how will I ever be able to calm down and transition into studio time after drop off!?

Wishing that summer would hang on a little longer, but I am getting ready to embrace the exciting change of seasons ahead.