{easter} sunday grace

happy easter friends!  it's a gorgeous spring day here in virginia.  we are excited to have our first picnic of the season and our first hike on the blue ridge for the season.  around here we celebrate jesus and transformation by being in nature.

and sometimes i celebrate these things in the soul kitchen.

i have been wanting to make pink deviled eggs for years.  a colorful easter picnic is the perfect time to make this happen.

i used the instructions from the kitchn.  if you are going to make deviled eggs anyway, it's really just one more step (the "pickling" in the beet juice...mine were in their hot pink bath for 16 hours as the guidelines suggest).

i used my go-to deviled egg yolk mix (mayo, grainy dijon, turmeric, salt and pepper) and garnished with fresh dill.

et voilà!

happy eggs!

happy easter!

sunday grace

grace this week is all about the wonder and beauty of spring.  she arrives suddenly but softly with color and light just at the moment hope is beginning to wane and we start to believe that life is just plain harsh.

she allows us to see with new eyes.  to touch and feel our world.  to experience our own rebirth that mirrors the thousand tiny births taking place each second around us.

for me, reconnecting with a familiar life:  the first farm market of the season.  there were easter egg radishes and pea tendrils.  children laughed and played.  organic farmers smiled even while telling tales of their hardest winter ever.  the air smelled of kettle corn and pear blossoms.

grace, grace, grace.

bonjour spring

thank you for finally showing up.

the magnolias are magnificent.  (we found the perfect one with fuchsia petals for gypsy hill.)

thank you for garden shops and the color green.

thank you for wellies, puddles and cherry blossoms.

thank you for perfect afternoons at the flea market.

thank you for easter egg radishes with butter and pink salt.

thank you for rainy day naps with the pups and endless episodes of the paradise.

thank you for ranunculus and anemones in blue mason jars.  when i look at them i catch my breath.

thank you for reminding me that all dark things end eventually and that light and colour and warmth and joy are always within our reach.

and for these words:

ten thousand flowers in spring,
the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer,
snow in winter.
if your mind is not clouded by unnecessary things
this is the best season of your life.

-wumen huikai

sunday grace

if there is one question we should be asking on a daily basis, of ourselves and others, it is this.

so...?

{amazing light and color captured at garrison, new york, autumn 2013.}

tiny beautiful worlds

i don't know if it is because spring is right around the corner (although it's snowing again today) or because of the full moon or what, but i am in serious full-on creating mode around here.  painting, photography, image transfers, yoga, sketchbooking, you name it, i think i probably did it this weekend.

a need for a unique hostess gift for an upcoming dinner party (because really, she doesn't need eight bottles of wine) prompted me to pull out my inspiration files (i.e. pinterest) and get my terrarium mojo on.  inspired by the amazing work of this company, i set about to create a few tiny beautiful worlds.

i picked up a few succulents for this project, although i think i will use air plants in future worlds.

i used jars i had around the house.  you guys, we are swimming in jars because i refuse to throw them away (just like my grandma dee) and this was the perfect opportunity to give a few renewed purpose.

(please tell me you hoard jars too.)

i wanted to create the lovely layers like the inspiration.  the bottom layer is a little over one inch of white sand.  on top of that, a layer of this amazing recycled glass "gravel".

then a layer of purple aquarium gravel topped off with a few small black pebbles to weigh it all down.

then the plants in a layer of organic potting soil.

i wanted to include some fun and colorful ephemera to the landscape, like some rocks i painted (the images are decoupaged) and a quartz crystal.  i softened it up with some chartreuse moss.

the buddha tiny world is for the dinner party hostess, who happens to be a yoga teacher.

can a project be fun and zen at the same time?  because this was.  i can't wait to make more.

hello march

march, i love that (just like october and of course january) you feel like beginning to me.

march, i love that ideas and plans and dreams simmer with electric energy just beneath my surface.  just like the fruits of the plum tree are growing and expanding but not yet visible as either bud or bloom.

march, i love you.  let's do this.