oh boy....

it certainly has been a long time. i feel sheepish. all i can say for myself is that all of my time over the last couple of months has been devoted solely to second storie and making sure it was as awesome as it could be.

and it was.

i have more to say on this, but it will have to wait until later. for now, it is enough that i am posting something new! thanks to all who left such sweet comments on my last post. i still get a little giddy when i think about our wedding.

pictures and more coming soon...

five years

five years ago, on a sunday very much like this one, my husband and i were married. the day was a little rainy, a little foggy, but strangely perfect. and while it was chilly outside the room at bristol harbour was rustic and cozy.

these gorgeous photos were taken by gelfand-piper, a charming husband and wife team who found those little details that shaped our day. over 500 pictures and yet that hardly begins to tell our story. it was fifteen years ago at a tiny little college that we met and fell in love. and what has followed has been up and down, serious and silly and nothing short of amazing.

i couldn't be happier.

little treasures

it is wonderful it is to have a sister who knits. but one who knits and shares her treasures, is truly priceless. these glorious little fingerless gloves are a not-totally-unexpected-but-just-as-appreciated gift from just such a one. made from a "small, precious" ball of sienna yarn that i purchased with a project for her in mind. what a sweet and full circle this gift has made.

they will be worn by me with grand enthusiasm and i am already sad for the day when i will have to turn them in for a warmer winter pair...

making time

wow.
i've been gone a while.
with planning for the next second storie event in full swing, i've hardly had time for much else. i am determined, however, to make time for art. with the advent of autumn and it's cool air and rich textures, i am feeling a need to get back to my roots. paint, collage and dark lines. i'm not sure what will come of this, but i need to find out.
i'll let you know.

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.

a river ran through it

i don't camp much. in fact, this trip is only my second time as an adult. my husband however, is a seasoned veteran and so i put myself in his capable hands. off we drove with friends to the adirondacks, to a beautiful riverside site that greeted us each morning and rocked us to sleep each night.

i am however left wondering if i am truly a camper at heart. setting up the tent minutes before a torrential downpour (featuring hail) is not my idea of relaxation. having to constantly dig in one container or another to find the most basic of items like food, toiletries or clothes gets old very quickly. having to put them away again right when i'm done gets even older. the feeling that i am never fully clean and that my clothes are always damp irritates me. i very badly want to be better at this, but i feel that it will be a work in progress.

while on a canoe day trip we found ourselves in the middle of yet another thunderstorm. at the same time carrying our 80lb canoes on a very rickety bridge over some serious rapids, and on through a long dark, muddy trail in the woods all while wearing improper footwear (sitting in a canoe for 3 hours, who would think to bring anything other than flip-flops?) all culminated in my reaching my limit. sensory overload won and i was brought very near to tears. it seems silly now, but i have concluded that i don't like not being in control of my surroundings. but that's what camping is: putting yourself at the mercy of the elements. it hurts my heart that i have to work so hard to enjoy it.

hiking however, was my salvation. give me sunny day and a destination to reach on foot and i am a happy camper. there is something so reassuring in the act of propelling yourself towards a goal. i love the feeling of putting my foot forward before i know completely where it is going to touch back down. my body moves without need for direction from my mind. i become able and agile and, in a way, graceful. hiking has become a sort of meditation for me. it reminds me that the human body is a very capable machine.

my body is a machine and it propels me up the mountain.
i derive great joy from this statement.

this very simple hike up to the top of bald mountain was the highlight of my trip.

all in all, the trip was good: nature, great friends and a few adventures all made for a memorable experience. and the town of old forge is truly charming in a cheesy, touristy kind of way. i was quite taken by it.

do i love camping? not yet. will i venture out again?
i believe i will.

i'm off...

to set up camp in old forge, ny. hopefully not in the rain! the forecast is not looking so good.
ah well...
see you all next week!

beckoning...

so much to do and so little time.
new projects for myself and second storie. getting ready for my next market day, projects i have promised to others. not to mention the staples of summer: camping and spending afternoons with family and friends. and yet last weekend i simply couldn't resist working in the garden.
it called.
i answered.

aaah, summer...

i had the most perfect july fourth weekend in recent memory. friday was spent celebrating the birthday of a dear friend with mini golf, ice cream and fireworks. the very definition of a summer evening! saturday was spent with family at my grandparents' cottage on blind sodus bay. blue sky, clear water and nothing to do but enjoy them both.

as the dog days roll on by, i will be hoping for more gems like these. it reminds me that i am tremendously lucky to have all that i have and to live the life that i do.

i hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend as well. if not, know that a perfect summer weekend is bound to come your way. there is still two whole months left to enjoy...

this is what i shall do...

i have been consciously absent, friends.
it's been a while since i sat here to write because i have been feeling that this blog could be so much more than what it currently is. when i set out on this venture, i think i had this idea in the back of my mind that it would be a great sounding board for all the things i believe in, the the things that get me mad or inspired. that's why i named it as i did, after a beautiful manifesto.
i have since failed to live up to that expectation, even if it is just my own. i love writing about the simple things that make me happy and that make my life worth living. but i feel that i need to be doing more with this space, perhaps only for the sake that it will mean i spend more time thinking about more important things like global warming, my carbon footprint, the injustices of the world and the future of mankind here on earth.
all that being said, it is summer. it is a time for taking things a little slower, making you own way at your own pace. i still like the idea of my ::summer love:: series and will continue to post about those simple, wonderful things that just embody summer (possibly as early as this week...). i will continue to post those silly little things that have grabbed my attention and held it hostage long enough to label it an obsession. i will strive to post more about my work, even if more of it seems to be in my head than present in this world. and i will try to, as always, do what my heart tells me. for better or for worse...
i thank you for reading.
joAnn

obsession...

buttons.



i have thousands. it started innocently of course. i needed a few vintage buttons to complete some bags i was making last summer. somehow (i can't even remember), all of my family and friends learn that i am looking for buttons. before i know it, i am inundated with the little suckers. they came from grandmothers, friends of grandmothers, other people's grandmothers even! i purchased a fair amount myself, of course. they are in boxes, tins and jars. i finally got the chance to organize them by color which for some reason brings me great joy. (my sister and i used to separate Lite-Brite pegs by color and then "trade" them.) maybe i am reliving a little of my childhood when i spend an evening going through them and picking out my favorites. so silly, yet so gratifying...

good ol' nancy

i woke up listening to npr the other day and they were doing a story about nancy drew (i think they were talking about her enduring appeal) and it brought me back to those long, wonderful summers spent solving mysteries with her.

i read her books into my high school years, where i did abandon her for a more serious addiction: stephen king. i have hardly given her much thought since then, aside from the movie that came out last year. but hearing her name the other morning has given me the the bug once again. so what if they are written for young adults. they are the perfect summer read.

i believe i am going to go curl up and take an adventure with her tonight...

a quote that i love::

"wherever i am, let me never forget to distinguish want from need. let me be a good animal today. let me dance in my private tide, the habits of survival and love."

barbara kingsolver
high tide in tuscon

things my grandmother taught me

at a memorial service recently, i got to thinking about the impact my family, and my grandmothers in particular, have had on my life. i was lucky enough to know both of my grandmothers well into my twenties. this list is dedicated to anita, the one we lost many years ago.

things my grandmother anita taught me:

a love of garage sales. she could never pass up the opportunity to buy more stuff she didn't need! i am proud to carry on this tradition.

to mute the t.v. during commercials. i used to think this was so weird. i mean, the commercials are the best part, aren't they? (this really goes to show us how much ads are geared toward children) in my adult years i have found them to be every bit as loud and obnoxious as i'm sure she thought they were.



a love for all things slightly tacky, i.e. tupperware, plastic figurines with that glued on fuzzy stuff, costume jewelry, etc.

the list is truly longer than this, but so many of those pieces of her live on in my mind as impressions too abstract for words.

she also taught me (and all around her) tolerance, acceptance and unconditional love.

i thank my grandma anita and miss her. i am surely better for having known her...

want::

these brilliant "glow bowls" from Diana Fayt. (these are found in her etsy shop.) they seem to float in midair. you must see them aglow with candlelight. simply dreamy...

summer love:: moss

i have green fever, and moss has always been one of my favorite things. so lush and verdant, i wish i could wrap myself in it. i keep it in as many vessels as i can on my patio.
if it were possible to create a wall of it inside my home i would in a heartbeat. a room even. can you see it?
it brings to mind a passage:

"as long as there is wilderness, i know there is a larger part of myself that i can always visit, vast tracts of territory lying dormant, craving exploration and providing sanctity."
from douglas coupland's life after god.

go out there, friends and find some.
you'll feel better, i promise.

new work...

i am a lover of fabric. it began a few years ago when i decided to make a bag for my friend. it has been under my skin ever since. however, it is sometimes hard to feel as though i am making art, rather than simply craft. these small fabric collages take a step away from set patterns and expected results. i am simply working with juxtapositions of color and pattern. they are entirely freehand and that feels good.



i'm not sure where intend to go with these, as i am simply following my soul. it feels right and i am happy to roll with that for now...

obsession...

foxgloves.
the entire summer of 2007 was spent yearning and holding my breath. yet it did not bring them to life. turns out they are bi-annuals so they bloom only every other year. somehow that makes them all the more sacred. well, this was my year. i had never seen them in person, so watching these statuesque beauties grow a little more each day was exciting to say the least!
well, I am smitten.
they have brought me true joy every day that they have opened up to me. and as they are beginning to fade, i bid them a fond farewell. i am secretly wishing they love me as much as i love them and defy nature in order to come back to me next year...

well, here i am...

carving out my own little niche in this corner of the world. i'm not sure what i hope to gain from this, but i am looking forward to the process of it. i have a million thoughts in my head at any given time and i guess my aim is to sort out all that clutter. i will try to post daily, but more often than not i am sure it will be more like every few days that i get around to it.

for those of you interested in my work, it will be a place to keep up with my latest projects. you will find that i take my sweet old time with just about everything. so nope, no stuff on my etsy shop just yet. in time, my friends, in time...i promise! for friends both near and far, i hope this will bring and or keep us closer by.

'til we meet again...