tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644717516426101893.post4339780629240705921..comments2024-03-22T15:37:29.563-04:00Comments on jersey girl looks up: VENUS and our handmade business | doing everything as beautifully as we can - part ICatherine Ivinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01642469475264570967noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644717516426101893.post-35771689189960024792016-02-20T08:40:11.156-05:002016-02-20T08:40:11.156-05:00Funny - we built this house in 2008 and I intentio...Funny - we built this house in 2008 and I intentionally left out a dishwasher. Such a waste and having my hands in warm water while I stand at the sink is meditative for me. (Of course, we knew we would sell eventually so the spot where a dishwasher will go is stubbed in and sized correctly but that's for the next person to worry about.) I also love to iron. I mean LOVE. Warm hands, smooth fabric, my mother's old wood ironing board, scented Caldrea fabric spray = heaven. Meditative time for sure.<br /><br />Love your story about chaos as I grew up in a messy house, too. So many things I didn't know a person was supposed to do but I learned from my husband how to care for so much stuff, like you. This paring down we are doing for the upcoming move is freeing and I look at so much in the trash and wonder what the f** I was thinking! I'm a flea market person, too, and will keep you in mind as I roam through the next one.<br /><br />One last thing having to do with honoring and valuing. A friend of mine used to work on Habitat for Humanity homes but he quit saying that people only value the things they have to work for. He said that all too often HfH would return to a home they had gifted people only to find that it was in shambles. Things broken, walls torn down, carpet ruined, and more. He said bluntly that people had not toiled and labored for those things so they did not know how to care for them and further, did not care to care for them. So that phrase has stuck in my brain and I am reminded of it when I see people giving cars to their kids only to have them disrespected and ruined, when people win the lottery and fritter it all away, when people receive what they did not work for. It's all about respect and whether you worked for what you have or you received a 'handout' which carries no weight at all. Lots to think about when it comes to money and possessions and respect.<br /><br />I digress :: xox<br /><br />lynn boweshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05786375395402917408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644717516426101893.post-75267648030639846682016-02-19T15:58:48.401-05:002016-02-19T15:58:48.401-05:00Thanks Renate - I'm going to put all the Venus...Thanks Renate - I'm going to put all the Venus placements in the next post! xo<br /><br />That's so true Lynn - and "how we honor them stays with us always". I love this way of thinking about caring for our home. Since it's been just hubs and I, I have been doing dishes by hand and there is something about that mundane task that is so satisfying. It's making me think of the "our body as our temple" - and how throwing our house together for company connects with letting ourselves go and then dieting as opposed to caring for our home and our bodies out of respect and honor because we value them.<br /><br />I grew up in a very chaotic, messy household. Married young and hubs, Virgo rising, was very picky about cleaning and things. He'd grown up in a very neat and sterile home. Nothing was ever good enough for him and I came from a long line of women who didn't really value housekeeping. Truly I didn't really notice. Being a person more connected with my head than my hands in those days, I just thought he was anal. Then we were on vacation, maybe 20 years ago, and I really didn't want to come home. I realized that what I really liked about the vacation was the near empty hotel room and the peace it provided to not be surrounded with all my 'stuff'. I gave so much stuff away when we got home, cleared every hallway, left every shelf 1/3 empty, rolled up rugs, took down curtains. It was life changing. I got off track with this a few years ago when I started collecting vintage - a rootless person buying somebody else's roots I think - so am paring that all down now, too. So hard with my love of flea markets! I am still the person cleaning up for company .... <br /><br />Excellent points about presentation. I'll include that in part II. I think the same way - our art is just us. And what we show people of ourselves being what they will feel about our work - very well said. xo Catherine Ivinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642469475264570967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644717516426101893.post-85716103443070760582016-02-19T08:46:44.902-05:002016-02-19T08:46:44.902-05:00I don't know why this thought came to me when ...I don't know why this thought came to me when I read the saying 'we honor what we value' but I am reminded of a little book I picked up in a bookstore for under a dollar. It is 'Sweeping Changes, Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks'. In it the author talks about the zen of sweeping and other mundane tasks but takes it further by saying that these are the ways we honor our homes, ourselves, our possessions, and more. I am thinking of those things as we prepare our farmette for sale; that we are honoring the place we have had as our home for these years and upkeep should never be thought of as upkeep and drudgery. Cleaning and ridding yourself and your home of detritus are the ways we pay respect to our homes and our bodies. All of these things are fleeting but how we honor them stays with us always.<br /><br />So it has nothing to do with art directly? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I think if we are honoring our work by creating thoughtfully and presenting it in a thoughtful way, it shows. It's all part of us and we are all part of it, whatever 'it' is. Really then, our art is just us. We should offer it in the same way we offer ourselves - thoughtful, tidy, honored. Don't you just cringe when you see artists selling their work when it is just jumbled on a table for you to pick through? They are presenting their work exactly as they present themselves to the world and it never gives me a good feeling. Be careful what you show people as that impression is what they will feel for your work.<br /><br />Anyway :: xoxlynn boweshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05786375395402917408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644717516426101893.post-31110339242542001662016-02-19T02:34:41.213-05:002016-02-19T02:34:41.213-05:00Thank you, Cat, once again for these posts. Glad y...Thank you, Cat, once again for these posts. Glad you are following your passion - as it is a gift to us. This one in particular has my heart banging in my breast. I will have to sit with this and look up my Venus in my chart. Big hugs to you. xox Renatestregatahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14573668708723922929noreply@blogger.com