Things of Beauty

I went to my retail church yesterday.

(Whole Foods, for the uninitiated).

Part of the reason I went is that there's something about their air handlers that filters out the cedar pollen. My brother in law is the one who made this discovery, and so when I'm completely miserable, I know I can head over to Whole Foods for an hour and feel like a human again. Unfortunately, they don't let me sleep there.

So of course I shopped. And every time I'm there, I'm aware of how little of the Whole Foods experience is about what you're buying. Some of it is, of course - I love many of the things I get there and only there, but for me, it's about a lot more. More than the air handlers too, although God bless them for that!

When I walked in yesterday, this is what met my itchy eyes:

That, my friends, was made by people with a higher calling than just stocking the shelves of a grocery store with that day's vegetables.

That was made by people who would like you to remember that you have a soul, even when all you're doing is buying some yellow squash.

I stood there at the door for a few, and had one of those moments where the world goes sort of silent and you forget where you are.

When I shared this picture, a lot of people, before they clicked, thought it was markers. That's how you know you've done your job with the arty types.

It was a gorgeous day yesterday, so I spent the rest of my lunch hour on the back porch coloring and making a video. I love what I call our "Indian Winter" - we never get a real winter, but we get this sort of glorified fall in January and February that just makes you happy to be on the planet.

So you'll have to forgive the shadows of the leaves of our neighbor's big cottonwood blowing back and forth in my video. Or you can enjoy them - I find it kind of soothing.

This was a very simple, 8 minute card with a single Derwent Inktense pencil in Iris blue, and my Aquapainter. I did this for our Try a New Technique challenge this week - to use white embossing on kraft with watercolor. I agree with Dawn - this is a look I've loved for many years!

The stamp set - Vivid Vases - is one we got at Leadership. My favorite kind of stamp, because it lets me color, which I love, but it's not too big, so I don't risk seeing something shiny and wandering off halfway through the image. 

Now when I do my videos, I try to always add a closed captioning track because I have some hearing impaired crafty friends, and every time I do it it completely cracks me up, because Google helps you get started by transcribing what they THINK you're saying, and the whole time I'm correcting the track, I'm cracking up. They also interpret my accent in hilarious ways. Here's a sample:

So here's my video of the process - Hope you enjoy it! :)

Loveyameanitbye.