A Few Warm Thoughts on a Cold Morning

I have had such a garbled mind these last few weeks that when I have come to post, I either rambled and left the post in the draft area or I just deleted the few words I could manage to put to type. The same seemed to be true for the crafts I started for my Etsy shop and for those projects that I have on hold.  However, I had a "knock down" illness over New Years. It took me out for three days. Really. I did have good medicine to help me sleep through it! And, when I awoke, I believe I finally managed to have a new look around me. Maybe there was one last obstacle in my way that I needed to psychologically move.



My Winter Gypsy



Well, today, I feel my gypsy muse calling me into the New Year. I decided that this is the Year of the Gypsy.

My sister and I can't mention our "gypsy selves" around my Mom. She is Hungarian; that type of Hungarian that has a nose up about the gypsy. Too bad, because her Mother supposedly had some pretty colorful stories about the old country. Sometimes the love of these things skip generations, yes?

This is my Winter gypsy. She calls from my past, from the great Steppes of China to the Heves horse plains of Hungary. The light of campfires and stars shine about her, energizing her with a warmth I feel in times of need.

Like a cloak, she envelopes my cold, beaten down bones, my aching mind and warms them; she like a mother of old, is from the Earth.

January's Gypsy is here for strength and warmth and renewal.

I am going to make some gypsy Hamsa pieces for the shop. Also some fairy tale pieces. 

I saw this on the Free People DIY website and I want to make one for myself and maybe put one up on the shop also. I won't make my piece as big as this. I'll post it once I get it finished. Check out the FP's DIY site http://blog.freepeople.com/category/diy-projects/page/2/  it has more little projects. I'm working on a little book for my Mother's nurse right now and that is taking some time (I'll show that in another post).

I finally decided on a headboard for the bed. It was a little agonizing. I have a futon and the headboard is difficult. We had been sleeping with the bed diagonal to the corner of the wall for years, so no headboard was needed. But, we recently bought a "fireplace" for the bedroom so we spend more time in here - reading. So, a headboard to fluff pillows up to is compulsory.

The headboard was on sale - 1/2 price at Pier One.

Tom and I found the mirror on a typical "trash pickin" sunny afternoon. It was pepto bismal pink with green ivy painted on it. I painted it the same color as the jewelry armour we bought at the Salvation Army for $20.00. By painted, I mean I took Red Mahogany stain and actually paint the piece. I like the look of that "overly stained" that you sometimes get from a piece that would come from Indonesia or India - a not very expensive piece.

I am working a shelf with two brackets that will go under the mirror. I want to put on it a few Indian and Moroccan candle lanterns. I love the amber colors in the bedroom.

The "fireplace" is actually a heater that looks like a fireplace. I put it up on an old hope chest (that is less three inches in height because it is missing it bottom border); so it looks like it is on a hearth.

I have also started a great book. I trudged through Like Water for Chocolate. Now, I loved the movie. However, the book, with the back and forth love addiction, and couldn't get it together pages and pages, and with my garbled mind, I kept falling asleep while reading it at night before bed. But I picked this book up just last night; and I admit I read too late into the night because it was so good. The book is, Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. Barnes & Noble site for Five Quarters of the Orange. I hope it remains as interesting as the first couple of chapters!

This is how cold it was last night. Goodness. Cats and Dogs sleeping together. Masala and Alobar always were close buddies. Kudra, however, rather be cold than cuddle in with a dog (or Tom).

Well, I hope for you all the relief of untangling your thoughts and ideas one by one so that you can have a year of plentiful accomplishments and adventure.

Peace.

Brianne


"My Winter Gypsy" is from Ancester connection vogue germany. photographer ruven afanador. december 2002