PERKS OF BEING A GROWN-UP

There are 10,000 things to blog about from the past 8 months.  But it is always the tiny details that bring  me back to this.  I'll go retro later with all the backlog of adventures, but for now:

Today I made the 16-year-old within me really happy.

Just bought myself a pair of 10 gauge bone swirl earrings at The Garage that I've wanted since I was a sophomore in high school.   Couldn't get them then because...well...because they cost more than a week's allowance...and no earrings were worth that.

There is something rebellious but ladylike about them that always caught my eye.  Then recently it dawned on me that I'm now a grown-up.  And a grown-up can easily afford those earrings.  So today, before taking my little brother out to see the Blue Man Group for his birthday and right after I ordered my new iPhone, I made a stop specifically to make the purchase that's waited 10 years.

It's silly, a teeny detail in my life, but it was one that reminded me that all my former selves--the 8-year-old, the 13-year-old, the 16/18/21-year-old--are all in there somewhere.  And the 26-year-old me gets her time now, but the other girls have a say--and I love acknowledging that.  Today 16-year-old me gets to have a little enjoyment of the perks of being a grown-up.

NEW GROWTH

"He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” "

-MARK 4:26-29-

This morning my routine was punctuated by new life.  

I have a vase full of pussywillow branches in my dining room and recently I'd noticed that they were starting to grow roots and that the catkins (new vocab word!  that's the fuzzy flowers!) were getting bigger.  Then today I noticed they'd burst out into their next phase.  It made me realize there are living things in my house.  Things with life all their own.  

And then I went into my nook, where I spend my time with God in the morning, and found this little purple flower had opened up today.  This plant (anyone know what it is?) is a survivor.  It came from a tiny sprout that turned up in the soil after my thyme plant had died from some plant rot during the summer.  I decided to water it and see what it would become, since it seemed like such a healthy little sprout.  And it grew and grew and grew, continuing to prove its heartiness, as it lives on a windowsill in the unheated nook.  And then it flowered.  Flowered!!  I never expected it to flower.  I mean, I hoped it would, but, honestly, it was the strangely strong sprout that survived after the woody thyme had succumbed to rot, so I assumed it would be something uglier and weed-ier.  And then it turns out to be this gentle blue flower!  It reminds me to stay patient and hopeful for the things that keep growing, even when I can't tell what exactly they are going to become.

"So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."
-1 CORINTHIANS 3:7-

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

So, I'm not loving that my URL is a mile long.  

I'd like to shorten it.  

There are only a few of you who follow me right now, so what do you think?  

I'm thinking dmstt.blogspot.com?  Any other suggestions?

A lovely detail of farmstand flowers from this summer.  Today I was really missing warmer weather.

PAINTED NAILS

Making my fingernails pretty and interesting gives me a fast and simple way to feel like I'm creating something.  Be it very very tiny and repeating, it stretches me to design within the limitations of a particular medium and it fits in my very full schedule.  I'll probably continue to post nail polish art, so consider this an introduction.

HELLO PHILLY, HELLO 2012.

One of my visions for 2012 is to post something here every week.

So far I'm 4 weeks behind.  But I'm attempting to catch up.  

New Year's weekend meant Philadelphia, PA for me.  

Here are a few moments from it:

Pictured:

Breakfast Bomb @ Honey's (a full out omelet wrapped in a pancake).

The Magic Gardens!

Baklavah, Baba Ghannouj and Turkish coffee @ Manakeesh.

Lots of strolling around and exploring with sort-of new and very new friends.

Desserts on The Continental rooftop for the fancy segment of New Year's Eve.

The Art Museum for a dollar (you pick the price...first Sunday of the Month).

Other amazing places to try, that didn't make it into the photos:

Cafe Lift: went on a brunch date here! Every detail was amazing. Outstanding coffee!

Local 44: the ladies' neighborhood go-to. Tried Great Divide Hibernation Old Ale and split a burger with an egg on it.  Amazing.

Dock Street: Funky brewery.  Great beet and goat cheese salad.  Everyone else loves the pizza.

There isn't a short story that can sum up the joy and refreshment this trip was for me, so I won't attempt to tell one.

NEW ROUTE.

From a new prayer walk route I had started back in December:

OH TANNENBAUM!

This is my sweet little Christmas tree:

   
Not very ornamented at this point, but complete with its birdie (the first companion this tree ever had, a gift given to me the day I found this tree in a thrift shop near Stonington Borough, CT) and bubble lights (discovered in the same shop, the same day).  
Putting up the tree and having the colored and boiling lights going in the dining room makes me ready for celebrating the cheerful warmth of being inside during the winter, instead of quietly dreading the darkness and cold that is coming.  
I love real Christmas trees, but I have to say, that after 3 years of assembling and trimming this skinny little huy, unfolding every hinged branch after 3 seasons in the attic, I feel bonded to it and glad to welcome it out of hiding for a month (or more...if my roommate will allow it).  
P.S. I used WeGIF to show you how the lights boil. Pretty handy little site.

OCTOBER INSIDE.

I can't remember the last time I carved a pumpkin.  But some friends and I got to scoop guts, saw out hearts and toast seeds this year.  Neither pumpkin ended up being seasonally themed, but I love how they came out!  There's just something about the naturalness, handmade-ness, the fire glowing from within (and that orange stain and pumpkin smell you can't get off your hands for 2 days).  

It's important to note that these two pumpkins were selected by a friend who went out of her way to go to 3 different farms/stores/stands before she decided she had found the right pumpkins.  I'm telling you, the "Perfect Pumpkin Perception" is a strong force indeed.

OCTOBER OUTSIDE.

Last weekend I couldn't help myself from taking a trip to Russell Orchards.  The day was one of those brilliant fall days where the wind and the sunshine are perfect and you can smell both growth and harvest at the same time.  I sat by the pumpkins for a while, catching up on reading and listening to people choose pumpkins together.

Everyone knew exactly what they were looking for in a pumpkin.  I don't think anyone would be able to describe it, but they sure did know it when they saw it.

It was amazing, how sure people could be that they'd found the one.

I picked up a few treats while I was there: apple cider donuts (a fall necessity), mulled apple cider (to fight the brisk wind), a variety of apples grown right there and a bottle of strawberry-rhubarb wine.

It started to rain after about 2 hours, so I left and took a drive.
I felt so grounded and refreshed by the colors of marsh and fall and rain.  

Crane Property, Ipswich, MA

CATCHING THE NIGHT, DIGITALLY.

Lago Maggiore, Gignese, Italy, July 2011 

Night Sky, Readfield, Maine, August 2011

Devereux Beach, Marblehead, Massachusetts, September 2011

Attempts at using a digital point-and-shoot like I'd use a film camera.  Long exposures to capture the breathtaking mystery of being outside in the nighttime.