pining away

as summer draws to its quiet close i find myself reminiscing about a week spent on the ocean last year.

sunrise on the atlantic ocean in the outer banks of north carolina. i only made this venture once during that whole week. my friend, though, was up each and every morning at dawn to walk the shore and snap photos. looking at these i can see just why.

i am feeling unusually reluctant to see summer go. usually by this time i am tired of the heat and positively aching for autumn. this summer was too mild for that.

i suppose this is my way of saying farewell to summer and embracing the glory that only autumn can bring. it truly is my favorite season. crisp breezes, gorgeous colors, and van morrison's "into the mystic" playing in my head.

yes, i can be ready for that.

newest work

this summer has found me obsessing over it's quintessential colors. deep yellows, soft creams and sunwashed blues. all things faded and worn...

i've been working mostly in emboidery. i just can't seem to do anything else right now. i truly love the idea of making a plain piece of cloth beautiful with thread alone.

for reasons i can't quite explain, moths have a hold on me. i have been making these tiny cloth ones for a few months now. i feel i have finally perfected them and now summer is over. i guess i will have a piece of summer to carry with me until next year...

i intend to get these up in my shop soon. really!

come on out...

i'll be selling my new work at the market on thursday. i don't have any pictures at the moment, but you can see some lovely ones here.

come and visit if you can! it's going to be a gorgeous day...

the good fight

i didn't know meaghan latone very well. she was simply someone whose path crossed mine once upon a time. she meant a lot to a dear friend of mine, and because of that she is important to me. meaghan probably wouldn't even remember who i am. unless you told her that i was the one who tripped over a traffic cone (long, dumb story :) and bruised my face on the pavement during a friend's bachelorette party. she would have remembered that. with a howl of laughter no doubt! it pleases me very much to know that is how she would have known me.

to me, she will be the woman who bravely fought the good fight until cancer eventually won. boldly sporting a naked head, she had the audacity to look it in the face and say "c'mon, is that all you've got?"

i will remember her as the life of the party, pink feather boa and all.

she began a blog to document all she was going through. i, along with everyone else, followed her along on a journey that only she truly took. the rest of us simply tried to keep up. by reading it, i was able to get to know her from afar a little bit. this is what i learned: she was a tremendous mother, wife and friend. i feel deprived that i never got the opportunity to know her better. or to say goodbye, even. each post she ended with these words:

fight the good fight every minute, every moment, every day.

she did. and the world is a better place for it.

news!

i've been hard at work on second storie's "in the loop" blog, and it is now all shiny and new! go check it out for the latest in who's at the market (someone awesome this week!), what our former vendors are up to and other second storie happenings.

see you there!

utterly distracted...

i have been away from here lately and i have to admit it has almost everything to do with the olympics. i am hopelessly addicted! frankly, i am surprised when anyone tells me that they aren't.

i will be back soon, hopefully with something insightful to say! until then i will be sorely lacking in sleep...

summer love:: thunderstorms

there is hardly anything better than a late afternoon summer thunderstorm. they both frighten and excite me. i relish the sense of impending doom that accompanies the rolling of thunder. the longer the build-up, the better.

as a child they frightened me very badly. enough so that my parents started a ritual for middle-of-the-night storms. we would all get out of bed and go outside to watch them from the porch. as a child, i must have believed that everyone did this. only as an adult do i fully understand the magnitude of their devotion to my sister and i. getting up in the middle of the night to sit outside just to show your daughters that nature is awesome and beautiful instead of scary? that's love.

thanks mom and dad.

as i sit here listening to a glorious thunderstorm slowly rumble in, i think of how fortunate i am to have a shelter over my head that allows me to rejoice in it.