Nature's Promise of a Brighter Day

Woke up this morning to the first bloom on an orchid that I moved from our previous house.  What a beauty.    Is this nature promising me that there is always a chance for renewal?  I think it is...

True confessions...I have been really having a hard time keeping up with my blog lately.  Life outside my blog life as been such a tough up hill battle.  Motherhood has turned out to be tougher than I ever imagined.   There are days that are so hard to face, so hard to keep one foot in front of the other, that the idea of writing about art and home seem so unimportant.  For the past year, I have used The Homeless Finch as my refuge from the daily struggles with one of my kids.  Now, I have reached a point when I can't write about a sofa, a pillow or a painting.  My mind is just too cluttered with sadness.  But don't worry about me, I haven't given up hope.  Nature helps me remember that there is always hope...there is always a chance for brighter days...and there will be.

Just hang in there with me.  I might not blog as much as I have in the past.  I'm okay with that and I hope you are too.

To every thing there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to get, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to rend, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time of war, and a time of peace.

-Until Next Time-

Reminder: It's Summer!

Our son on the tube just off the coastline back in 2010

My hubby and I used to be avid boaters.  It is one of the reasons that we lived on the canal at our last house.  It afforded us access to the ocean.  We had many fun years as the kids were growing spending days out on the boat and even taking several trips down to The Florida Keys and over to the Bahamas for long weekends.  But like everything in life, things change.  Our kids became teenagers and spending a weekend day on the boat with their parents took a second seat to hitting the beach or shopping mall with friends.

So when we made this move miles from the coastline, we knew that in some way we still needed to be connected to the water.  Not in the sense of access to the ocean, just connected to some sort of body of water.  This is why we bought a house on a large lake or should I say, why we found this house more appealing than others.  It allowed us to perhaps keep our dingy.  Yep, a dingy.  Which for those of you who might not know what I am talking about, its an inflatable raft style boat that many boaters have on or tethered to their boats for mobility when docked in marinas.

We sold out boat, but we couldn't part with the dingy.  You see, the dingy was the center of many of our fun late weekend afternoons.  We would lower it into the canal, filled with a snack and a bottle of wine or pitcher of margaritas and crawl around the neighborhood canals.  I am sure that plenty of our neighbors got a kick out of us.  One neighbor use to say, "Hey there you are...the "canal rats!"



So yesterday after lunch out and picking up his Father's Day present, which was an electric motor for the dingy, we wheeled the dingy down to the lake for it's maiden voyage. 

We cruised around the lake, checking out a few of the houses that we looked at during our search to see if they had sold.  We saw several little turtles stick their heads up to look and dart down into the lake grasses.  We also saw several people fishing from their backyards.


We came upon this one man at the southern end of our lake sitting in his yard fishing.  As we approached his area, we over heard him call into the house to his wife and say, "Ya gotta come out here and see this boat!"  I guess canoes and kayaks are the norm.  An inflatable must be an unusual site.  


Oh well, I have never been a very mainstream normal kinda gal.  I'm not going to change it now.  We chuckled and motored on, but on our return past this fisherman, my eye caught something even more unusual than our dingy.  Check this out...

The Blue Heron looking like he is going to sit in the chair.

Look at the Blue Heron.  The big bird looks like he ran the man out of his chair and is intending on sitting down and taking a rest himself!  So I call out to the man, "Looks like you have a friend that is about to take your seat!"  He responds, "The only thing that big bird is looking for is the fish that I catch!"  He went onto to explain that we have three resident Blue Herons and that this particular one shows up whenever he is fishing hoping to get a hand out.  As we got closer, our dingy spooked the grand monster and he took off running.

Spooked bird taking a run for it.  

Guess this bird isn't use to such a watercraft in the lake as well!  I don't know if from the image you can get an idea of the size of this bird.  He would stand as high as my shoulder for sure.  I love seeing them fly.  It's such a loping, majestic glide.  Kinda 'lopey' like my hubby. Here he is captain of his ship on it's maiden lake voyage on his 18th Father's Day.

That smile is purely from happiness, the margaritas had nothing to do with it. (wink)  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Remember, it's summer.  Time to slow it down a bit and enjoy the gifts around us.  Have you thought about how you are going to stop and reflect and just enjoy this summer? What simple thing do you have planned?  If not, get thinking about it! Life too short to spend your days unpacking boxes, err, doing chores, err fixing up that room.  Like I said...remember, it's summer...

-The End-

I've Been Away Too Long

I've taken breaks from The Homeless Finch in the past due to vacations and the like.  But, it has been 7 weeks since my last post.  Funny...it feels longer.  I never anticipated being away like this, but the transition into the new house has been way more than I anticipated.  Until the end of last week, we have been driving my daughter to her previous school.  The drive took a full hour and a half two times a day.  It was worse than it sounds...really.  It's okay because anyone can do anything for a short period of time, right?

Even though we have moved 7 times since 1988, this one was much more difficult. Was it because we moved pretty far from our previous houses?  (If you are not counting the move out of state and back into state in one year just over ten years ago.)  Probably not.  Was it the timing?  My daughter having not graduated from 8th grade yet and a son struggling to keep decent grades after too many changes in his life this past year?  Maybe.  Am I getting older? Yep. Probably.   All this and more has made it next to impossible for me to find time to even read my favorite blogs, let alone write mine.

So, I'm easing back in.  I've started reading some of my favorite blogs and this post will be my 'toe in the water' attempt to write again.  I don't know what direction The Homeless Finch will take this year.  I certainly have a ton of house posts I could write, but am very hesitant to make home decor the center focus of The Homeless Finch.  ....  or maybe I will.   Hey, maybe I will just take one day at a time and we can all see how things develop.  I have plans to paint several pieces of art specifically for rooms in my house.  I know I will be sharing the process and finished works for sure.  Sound good?

For now, I will show you two images I took on my iPhone a few days apart.  I go and sit in this spot to rest and relax between unpacking boxes. It's the lake view from the cabana out by the pool.

Yes, you are correct.  In the second image I might just have been also enjoying a nice, crisp glass of white wine!  Love this spot.  Perhaps I will talk more about it later.

-The End-

Looking for Purpose In a Transitional Moment - The Challenge of the "Holding Pattern"

I'm in a holding pattern.  We close on the new house at the end of April. We are selling the current home, so I have spent a lot of time over the last few weeks, preparing it to show. The studio is closed. I can't have the clutter.  So what's a girl to do?  Two things... One, keeping the current house clear for showing. Two, going crazy looking for purpose during this transition.

My daughter has kept me busy the first half of the month.  She just completed production in the school play, Peter Pan. She played three characters, Nana the Dog, The Croc and a Pirate. The day before opening night, she fractured her finger, which made crawling on the ground interesting.  What a trooper.

She is such a ham too.  While all the other girls wanted to play Wendy, Mrs. Darling and Peter Pan, my daughter took on the challenge of hot and heavy costumes.  Quite a sacrifice for a middle school girl, who I am sure would prefer looking cute and pretty.  That's my girl...always taking on the non-conventional.  

Lunch Spot on the Back Dock 

So here I am.  Having cleared the house of photographs, making sure beds are made each day, towels are hung up in bathrooms and wiping up surfaces like a crazy person.  I have tried to enjoy this time, by taking a moment to stop for a nice lunch on my back dock, reading a magazine front to back and keeping better tabs on laundry.  My best friend suggested that I fill some of this time with cooking. Cooking is something I use to really enjoy.  I might also start to clear out closets of stuff that I am not really going to take to the next house.

I am looking for great ideas.  Got any?  I can't really blog about projects.  I can't have the disruption and the clutter in my house while trying to sell.  I can't consider new things for the new house having not closed yet. Plus I have a rule that until I have moved into a house, I don't buy a single thing for it.  I feel that I have to live in the space before knowing what will work.  Twitting my thumbs here people.  Help a girl out!  Ideas?

-The End-

Ponderings from The Homeless Finch Studio: Onward

Life is full of changes.  At least mine always has been.  I have learned to roll with the punches, take advantage of opportunities and adjust as life makes decisions for you.  I've never been one to stay in one place for very long.  I am someone who thirsts for new adventures, not one who craves the constant and the safety of the conquered.  Some people think that I'm fearless and perhaps they are correct.  I've got one life, I'm going to live it.

As you know, we are moving.  It's not too far from where we live now in South Florida, but it is world's away from our present life.  The homes we are targeting are in a rural area. Well...as rural as you get in a county that no longer has land that isn't incorporated. Let's just put it this way.  Where I live presently the only thing you see walking along the side of the road are people.  Where we are moving, you will see people, but a few will be riding horses. It will be a huge lifestyle change going from a deep water boating and beach community to a community with land, privacy and coincidentally better schools.  The even better news?  I will have better studio space and we will have some room to breath.  Cramp quarters, narrow school choices and a neighborhood that doesn't suit our needs have taken it's toll on our family.  The stress has been immeasurable.  It's time to do something about it. Now.

The other big change?  Yes, there is another one.  I am going to be shifting the content of The Homeless Finch and concentrating more on my art, less on furniture and such.  I hope that doesn't disappoint you.  I miss my studio work and this blog has taken me too far away from it.  I have to get back to my roots.

So here is the plan.  I will not just be painting and showing my work.  I will be presenting countless ideas for you, my reader, to follow my lead and create your own one of a kind works of art!!  I'm really excited about this idea.

I know for many the cost of collecting original art is out of the budget.  Why not create your own?!!  Just like I have shown you how to do so many great things, I will show you how to do that as well.  It might be paintings, printmaking, collage, photography, mixed media, sculpture.  The list is endless.

Remember this little artwork idea from a few months ago?  I wrote about it in my blog post "Hitting the Road With My Little Painting."  I simply altered an image, printed it on nice art paper and added a little watered down paint.  Now it is a simple, fun original piece of art.  Anyone could try this out.  Maybe even you!

Regardless, I have to stay true to myself.  Like Dr. Seuss said,

"Be who you are 

and say what you feel 

because those who mind don't matter 

and those who matter don't mind." 

So stay tuned and watch for upcoming posts.  Getting my engines revved up and getting ready to go!  Hope you stay along for the ride...

-The End-

Ponderings From The Homeless Finch Studio: Taking Time To Nurture The Soul

Many of you are women, just like me.  Many of you are mothers, just like me.  Many of you juggle more balls than what we ever thought possible, just like me.  Many of you don't take the time to nurture your souls, just like me.  We push push push forward doing for others, achieving our dreams, rescuing the unrescue-able and most definitely losing something of ourselves while juggling all of it.

This week, I have been spending time fixing, painting, feeding, and renovating my soul.  Nope, I haven't been working on a project that will be revealed anytime soon. I have been working on myself.  A project that has been long overdue for attention.  I have been taking the time to smell the flowers, reading up in some super wonderful books and magazines that feed my soul.  I have been taking a moment to enjoy a wonderful little lunch all lone while sitting on my dock enjoying the clear skies that alluded us for weeks.  I even (gasp) went and got my nails done yesterday and today (gasp) plan on shopping for a few fresh things to wear.

Have you taken the time to nurture your soul?  It is a choice you know.   If you blog, do you allow it to take over too much time in your life robbing you of the much needed down time that we all need?  Don't get me wrong, I'm not leaving my blog, just taking a rest of sorts to...well, upcycle myself....

-The End-

Ponderings from The Homeless Finch Studio: Rain Rain Go Away

Anyone out there feel like I do today?  The weather out my studio window is dreary. Non-stop drizzles and rain showers.We've had grey skies for several days in a row without a break.  My thoughts are a mirror image of what I see as a peer out my window.  Makes me ponder about the creative process and how creative people can find inspiration to create even under dreary circumstances.  Many of my friends in colder regions have written about their inability to work on their furniture projects because of the bitter cold, driving them inside for warmer pursuits like needlework and small crafty projects.

My issues run a little deeper.  In March, I will celebrate my one year Blog-versary.  I am excited about the prospect of celebrating such an accomplishment.  But truthfully, I am plagued with thoughts of frustration this morning.  Crazy right?!  Let me whine a moment explain why.  I can't seem to recon my thoughts about "why" I am doing this with what I feel should be the goals based on the time I invest in The Homeless Finch.  Plus, the artist inside me is disappointed in myself for not just understanding this pursuit as I should be...as a road traveled that continues to inform my work, my life and fuels my days with purpose...with accountability.  Without the blog, I am sure that I would be so back on that road I was on where I couldn't seem to jump start myself.  The 'pressure' of reporting in has be a huge motivator for me and this was something that I needed dearly.

So why the dreary mood?  Is it the weather?  Am I just tired from life and balancing it all...raising teenagers and all the challenges, trying to be the best wife on the planet and a good friend to those around me?  Am I needing a moment to stop and re-evaluate where I am, where I am going and what my goals are based on the almost year-long blogging ride I've been on?  Do I just need a nap today? (sly smile)  Maybe, yes to all the above.  Or maybe it is something entirely different.  

Do you ever have days, weeks, months like this?  Do you ever wonder why you do what you do?  Do you ever question your motivations?  If you blog, do you ever get down on yourself when you see other blogs grow to huge numbers, while you grind it out on the ground everyday, every week only adding a few followers every few weeks? When you link your posts to parties, are you like me so tired that you can hardly pull off this simple task without straining your tired yes to see how your thumbnail looks on that linky list?  Do you, or for that matter should I, care about followers and stats and comments and features?  

It might be re-evaluation time.  Don't ya think?!! Do you think about these things too?  Let me know your thoughts.  I'm waiting right here in my dreary little rain puddle, wondering if someone out there feels my soggy little pain. - If I hadn't made the commitment to never use text style writing my on my blog an LOL would have been inserted right here because sometimes....you just gotta laugh and say, Rain rain go away come again another day...

Photos taken this morning just outside my studio door.

-The End-

Ponderings from The Homeless Finch Studio: A Tempting Thought, Your Opinion Wanted, A Surprise and a Feature

Lately, I have been messing around in my studio making all sorts of jewelry for myself.  I haven't really blogged about it because, well, this stuff is for me.  Why does that matter?  Well, I don't want the concept of having to write a blog post about it to change the way in which I am creating this stuff.  Plus, I am trying,  I mean really trying, to stick to my knitting.  Being a right brain crazy person, brings with it challenges in the staying focused category. I have a tendency to go where my Muse beckons me.  Make sense?  

Last week, I pulled out a leftover piece of fabric from my sister's Swivel Chair for a Teacher Project from last summer along with an assortment of beads and stuff and created this bracelet for myself.

Even though it is not a piece of furniture or a home decor project, it has me written all over it.  It is filled with recycled, upcycled and recreated elements.  

I like this bracelet and I don't really care if anyone else does.  I showed it to my sister and to Deneen at dreamingincolor. Deneen thinks that I should make these and open up an Etsy Shop.  Well, I have an Etsy shop....problem is, it's empty.  It's always been empty.  My sis had an Etsy Shop a few years back and the thought of one...well, how do I put this? Scares me.  There I said it. Yep....I said it.

Today, I was messing around with an idea that I had to use paper roses on a ring.  The look isn't for everyone, but I like what I came up with...

Please ignore the ugly, wrinkly skin. 

I know that everyone who has an Etsy business works super hard maintaining their shops.  I just don't know if that is the direction I want to go with this stuff.  But it is a tempting thought.  I don't think I would limit myself to just the jewelry that I came up with, I might also include things like the Crazy LOVE Letter Sign I made this past week too.

So what do you guys think?  To Etsy or not to Etsy, that is the question.  I know that some of you have shops.  Is it worth the time and effort?  If so, what is your best advice?  Can't wait to hear back from you.

Before I leave today, I wanted to say THANK YOU to Deb over at Twice Nice for the amazingly lovely post she wrote yesterday.  It was one of those surprises that come out of nowhere...I never get those.  What a nice thing to uplift someone.  If you wanna read what she wrote about me and see her totally awesome lamp revamp, click here.

I also want to thank Gail at My Re-Purposed Life for featuring, she calls it Catch As Catch Can," my Mantel Makeover.

It's always such a wonderful surprise when someone likes what I do!  Puts a smile on my face!

I have a few more projects almost completed in my The Sweetest Days of Valentines Series. I also have my hands in a few other furniture related things too.  I'll be bringing them to you in the next few days!

Thanks for the support....and let me know what you think, good and bad, about Etsy! K?!

-The End-

Ponderings From The Homeless Finch Studio: I'm in the Doldrums A Little Bit Over My Messy Studio

It's Sunday.  Sunday use to be a day when we got all sorts of projects done around the house.  "Use to be" meaning, those days have long gone!  As we have grown older and my husband more engaged in his career, this just doesn't happen anymore.  He just isn't interested in doing weekend projects.  For him weekends are about riding bikes, going to lunch, watching golf and going out on his boat.  That all sounds really nice. Right?!  Well, it is unless you have a studio that looks like this...

One big mess.  It has been like this for months.  Don't get me wrong.  It has been better and worse than these images.  At one point during my 25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series, you could not even walk around in my studio!  My sister saw it and was visibly shocked.  The problem is that I just don't have any closets in this space and I have no way of storing all my supplies in a way that doesn't look cluttered.

Yes, I have seen all the wonderful studio spaces out there. Most of them look very nice in photographs. Many of them aren't very practical and, quite frankly, how do I pull them off?  I cannot do it on my own. (Yes, I realized that you are shocked because it seems I can do anything. Wink.)   So here I sit writing this blog post in a rant over my dilemma.  So for now, I will just dream of the amazing studio spaces that I see and imagine that these were built during times when weekend projects were a part of my life.

http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2007/07/the-new-studio.html

The PinkLovesBrown design studio is inspiring with its tall, color-coordinated shelves
keeping everything organized and easily accessible. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinklovesbrown/2979608898/in/pool-handmadespaces)

This is zany...but coolio!

http://justsomethingimade.com/2010/07/studio-shots/

Source, unknown. 

http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/

Ahh......maybe someday.  For now....I guess I better just go and re-organize this mess knowing that it will look like this over and over again until the studio help fairy comes to visit!

-The End-

Ponderings From The Homeless Finch Studio: Little Surprises That Make Life Sweet

It's cold today. By cold, I mean in the lower 50s with wind chills in the upper 40s.  I know for most of you, that just isn't cold.  But for us down here in South Florida, where the wet winds kick up, it's chilly! Brr.  But I am thankful this time of year to be living in a warm climate.  I am not a snow person at all and would probably weigh 300 pounds if I lived in the north due to the fact that cold weather drives me inside under a blanket!

I awoke this morning filled with creative juices and an idea for making something inspired by a series of different blog posts that I have pinned on my Pinterest page.  Perhaps my daughter and I will tackle this idea together, if she ever gets out of bed! (teenagers)

As I was sipping my morning java, I took a look out back.  I was happy to see a blue sky today that is destined to warm up the cold, breezy air.  I think to myself that maybe I will also start to tackle that mantel makeover if it becomes warmer out there.


As I am glancing around, I see something out of the corner of my eye.  My eyes trail back. I cleared my crusty eyes to make sure that my vision wasn't playing tricks on me.  But it wasn't.  This is what I saw...

Look closer at the Pygmy Date Palm.  Do you see that little fuchsia flower peeking out from the ball of the tree where the frowns shoot out?!  That, my friends is an orchid bloom.  It is NOT just your average bloom either.  It is a bloom from the toughest little orchid plant I have ever owned! I haven't seen a bloom from this plant in eons!!  A few months back, I moved it to this new location in the hope that I could help this plant thrive better.  TADA!

I know...I am a weirdo here.  While the rest of the blog world is posting amazing projects and ideas, I'm talking about an orchid blooming in my backyard.  But for me, today...at this moment...this is my little miracle.   I am taking a moment to breath in and enjoy the little gift that nature gave me today.


Are you keeping yourself open to noticing the miracles in your life today?  Sometimes, they jump out at you like this little purple-y pink delight!  Sometimes they come in the form of discovering that your teenagers who stayed up too late laughing, starving you of much needed sleep, where just goofing around and acting silly.  The evidence was clear this morning as I fired up my Facebook page to discover they had changed their profile pics to this....

This marks the first time I have ever shown my kids on my blog!
I know they will be so excited to see that I did this!!! (wink)

Ya gotta just laugh. Goofballs....  Enjoy the day! I know I will.  Stop and enjoy the beauty and goofiness around you.  They are fleeting moments that make life all the sweeter...

-The End-

My TOP 10 Favorite Photographs of 2011

My Top Ten Favorite Photographs of 2011 And Why

As I close out 2012, I wanted to take a moment to look back and review my year.  Many bloggers are reviewing their Top Ten Projects. Since I already kinda did that yesterday in my guest post over at Primitive and Proper,  I wanted to change it up a bit. 


Learning how to take images for a blog has been an amazing journey and a process that involves taking thousands of images.  Below are a collection my top ten images for the year.  If you have been following The Homeless Finch for a while, some of them might be familiar or resonate.  Some may seem obscure.  But they were not obscure to me. They also might not be my best, most technically prefect images either.  But they represent things that have mattered and I want to share. 

This images is in the first 20 images that I took during the week I started
The Homeless Finch.  It captures me well.  I have used it on the side bar for
the majority of the year. 

Woodsy's Debut. What started out as a yard sale find,
turned into a mascot of sorts for the studio. Woodsy
traveled from room to room handing out in many
vignettes this year.

Why this photo? Well, it was the first one I ever took of the first
ever tutorial that I wrote! I was so excited. I enjoyed showing the process.
This was a discovery for me. This is from a blog post in which
I describe how to make decor for a chandy.

This image was taken after a yard sale morning. I ended up using
a portion of this image (the basket front) as the background for my
blog logo. I cannot tell you how many times I have worked with this image.

See the basket in the background?  It's from the image above.

Image taken when a friend brought me a few mangoes.  The Frangipani flower
is from my backyard. I use this image in my header in order to highlight the fact
that I live in a tropical location. It's a big deal to me because most of the
 blogging world is not about tropical things. Being from South Florida
makes me an outsider of sorts.   It was a huge personal step for me to 
step out and embrace it.

This was the moment that I crossed over from average photographs
of rooms to ooh la la! I still struggle getting decent shots inside my home,
which has a tendency to be kinda dark.   After setting this up and snapping it,
I actually got teary from the excitement of the results.

Love this pic of Tux, one of the birds in my studio aviary. I can't tell
you how much these little creatures mean to me. Tux is always starring me down!

First time I thought I might someday be capable
of magazine quality images.

First painting I revealed from my studio. I have a tendency to
really beat myself up on my work. It was a big deal for me to show this
on my blog. My sister's encouragement had a lot to do with it.

A photo of Tux and Seedo that I slightly altered. Seedo passed just days after this

image was taken. Tux has a new Seedo now, but there was something

special about this pair.

I ended the year with the most EPIC challenge of the year...25 Days of
craziness. The behind the scenes bloopers were incredible. From the day my
project kept blowing away in the wind, to the one I staged and during
 the moments I went for my camera a bird flew by
and pooped all over it!! It's been a run!

Thanks for being there for me this year.  I sincerely appreciate it and have enjoyed sharing the journey.

-The End-