A lazy Saturday, fabric samples, and five things worth your time this weekend
Good morning, friends. It is going to be a cloudy, lazy Saturday over here, so there is no excuse not to stay at home. We are heading to the farmers market this morning for flowers, homegrown tomatoes, and, if the stars align, a cinnamon roll with a copious amount of cream cheese frosting.
In other news: my fabric samples arrived for the Indigo Room makeover. This is the former dining room of the house, the one we turned into a snug, and it has been a work in progress since we moved in five years ago. The walls are painted Indigo Batik, and we have tried more furniture arrangements in that room than I can count, none of them quite right, none of them landing on cozy the way I had imagined it.
Last year we added a fireplace, which helped. And then I found curtains. The curtains have been sitting in their box for nearly six months, waiting patiently for the chairs to arrive, which I know is backwards, but the paint and the curtains are not negotiable. The chairs and the fabric will have to work around them, along with the new muted tapestry pillows I have been collecting.
Speaking of pillows, MaryAnn shared “The Ultimate Guide to Throw Pillows” this week on her blog, which you may find helpful if you are looking for pillows for a project. As for the chairs themselves, I had been hoping for Christmas, but with a twelve-week minimum lead time and fabric availability still up in the air, we shall see. Stay tuned.
I have a lot to share this week, and so do Kim and Juliet, so let’s meander.
Home Tour
This week I have been wandering through a Nantucket Home Tour that stopped me mid-scroll. There is something about the way those island homes, the weathered shingles, the gardens, the collected interiors that look like they were assembled over decades rather than styled in an afternoon. This is one of my favorite home tours not just on Nantucket but of anywhere. Pour yourself something warm and enjoy.
Garden Tour
Jay, who runs the YouTube channel Whisperings in The Garden., has a gift for finding people with extraordinary stories hidden inside extraordinary gardens.
This week he visited Pat and her Chestnut Hill Gardens in Western New York. The invitation came in July, out of the blue, a phone call from a woman who told him the unusual weather this season had created a brief, unrepeatable window to see her garden at its best. He went immediately. What he found beyond the flowers and the breathtaking display stopped him cold, something Pat showed him in the deepest part of the garden, something that only began to make sense as they continued to walk. By the end of the visit, Jay understood that he had not simply been shown a garden. He had been shown a life, shaped by courage and reflection in the face of loss. It is quietly beautiful, and I have been thinking about it all week.
Inspiration
This is the story of Tim Foster, the man who has spent fifteen years quietly hand-painting pointe shoes for the New York City Ballet. When his own dance career ended, he was not ready to leave the world of dance behind, so he found another way in. Now the scraps left over from his work, the paper flecked with the colors of the season’s productions, become paintings of their own. I love this so much I actually watched it twice.
Portraits of Another Life
Rick Strini has spent sixty-two years working with glass and ceramics. He has sold his work through hundreds of galleries, created an ornament for the White House Christmas tree, and survived more than a few seismic shifts in the art market. In this short documentary, he speaks honestly about what it actually costs to build a life around making things. The focus it requires. The relationships that can quietly suffer. The strange mercy of a failed piece of glass that teaches you something a successful one never could. Now, as he begins to feel the physical limits of age, he is thinking about what comes next. He may return to ceramics. He may bake bread. But he has no plans to stop making things. For Rick, the material can change. The need to create does not. I loved the message of this film.
You Don’t Become a Master Without Sacrifices
Mug of Life
How does he find these people? That is genuinely what I said out loud when I came across this one. Mug of Life is one of my favorite accounts to follow on YouTube, and this week Douglas’s story is like something out of a movie. He reflects on surviving six weeks stranded at sea after a sailing trip went wrong. It is quiet, it is gripping, and the conversation over a cup of tea format suits the story perfectly. Now I need to read his book!.
That is everything from me this week. I hope that you enjoyed Weekend Meanderings, that your Saturday is slow and your cinnamon roll has lots of cream cheese frosting on it. Be sure to visit Kim at Northern California Style and Juliet at Make Mine a Spritzer for everything they are sharing this weekend.
One last thing, Kim and Cindy are shared their linen styling and care tips in Ageless Style this week.
I would love to know: are you a farmers market regular, or more of an occasional visitor? And is there anything you absolutely cannot leave without?Â
You can find me on Pinterest. and Instagram for more of what I am loving this week.
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