Mandala Monday ~ Spring Bouquet

Finally, a bit of creative inspiration!  Leave it to the blooming things to help that arise within me.

My soul has been craving fresh flowers for months and nothing is blooming here yet.  With everything shut down since mid-March, I haven’t been able to go to the usual places to get my flower-fix this spring, so it’s been a bit of a struggle for me.  Winters here are LONG and things are only just now starting to green up a little.  My brother came to my rescue when he sent my mom and I a lovely spring bouquet for Easter.  And I don’t use the word ‘rescue’ lightly.  Oh, I tell ya… much, much needed.  Especially with everything else going on in the world right now.  I was so grateful to have something blooming and full of life!

The bouquet lasted a nice long time and we’ve enjoyed it immensely.  When I noticed the flowers fading, I decided to take them outside to try to extend that enjoyment a bit further by creating a mandala with them.  I can’t even tell you how good it felt to sit out on the ground and play with flowers, making them into a whole new type of arrangement. 🌸

Here is another variation of the mandala I made…

After playing around with them for a while, their petals began dropping fast, so I plucked off the rest of them and am in the process of drying them out for some future possible use.

My daughter creates stunning jewelry and has a few designs where she makes cabachons, encasing various plants, pieces of nature, and other things in resin, and then wire wraps around them.  So maybe she can use some of the petals to extend the beauty of the bouquet even longer.  Here is a pendant she created for me for my birthday last year using a butterfly wing I found while out on a nature walk with my granddaughter, some Hawthorn blossoms we picked together, and a lock of my granddaughter’s hair. These photos are used with permission and taken from her Instagram account…

How meaningful (and beautiful) is that?! 💕

While I’m at it, I think I’ll just post the link to her Etsy shop too.  She does beautiful work and takes custom orders.  Now, more than ever is the perfect time to support artists and small businesses.  😉

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RachaelsWireGarden

 

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I hope you are all doing okay and staying well.  May you have a beautiful and blessed week.  Wishing you joy and inspiration, and as always…

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

“Winter is Coming”

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Winter is coming?  Wait, what?  Isn’t it spring that is supposed to be coming?  Well, if you look at the weather forecast for my area you will find that we have a Winter Storm Warning in effect for the next couple of days, with 8-12 inches of fresh snow expected.  Sigh…

Another reason for my titling this post “Winter is Coming,” is because I’ve been laid up for the past few days, sick and laying around like a lump, and while I’ve been laying there I’ve been re-watching all 3 seasons of the HBO series Game of Thrones (“Winter is Coming” is the title of the first episode).  It’s quite an epic story, though a little more violent and vulgar than I would usually prefer, but I do so love a great medieval type of fantasy story, and sometimes that sort of stuff tends to come with the territory.  The show is based on the book series “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R Martin.  I’ve read the five books contained in the series so far and they’re very good.  Martin has been called the “American Tolkien,” but I wouldn’t go that far.  Although he is a great author, no one compares to Tolkien, in my humble opinion.  Anyway, season 4 of Game of Thrones premieres April 6th, so I’m getting all reacquainted with the story in preparation for that.  And I’m pretty darn excited too!

In regard to the photo… that beautiful piece of art was designed and created by my daughter to represent House Stark, which is one of the families from Game of Thrones.  For those not familiar with the story, House Stark’s motto is the phrase “Winter is Coming,” and their house sigil is the dire wolf, represented by the stunning wolf head bail attached at the top.  Also, the tree’s “leaves” are made with red garnet stones which are meant to symbolize the red leaves of the Weirwood tree which resides in the godswood of Winterfell, the home of House Stark.   Get ready for a shameless plug here…  My daughter specializes in wire wrapped Tree of Life pendants and this is one of her most popular designs.  If you click on the photo it will bring you to her Etsy shop where you can see this and many other lovely and unique Tree of Life designs.  Yeah, as you can tell, I’m just a little proud of her.  😉

Well, hopefully this predicted winter storm will blow over (and melt) quickly and we can start seeing some spring weather around here.  It’s April for goodness sake, we should be saying “Spring is Coming.”  I guess technically it is coming, but it sure doesn’t feel like it…

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✿~Peace & Love~✿