a centerpiece

I wish I took better photos. Anyway, this is a small treasure that I found in my dad's garage -- actually the second floor of a warehouse that is a pack rat's dream and an heir's nightmare. I was combing through a lot of stuff and wondering "Why? Why?"(Why a rusted chair? Why piles of wood? Why pieces of an old church altar?) I was ready to leave when something called me into a back room that I had already been in. And there it was -- "The Booklovers Map of America Showing Certain Landmarks of Literary Geography". It was made in 1933 and depicts authors, books and literary events of that time and earlier. This will be the centerpiece of a little library area in the living room:

The rest of the room will be a Dutch Boy paint color called "Miss Liberty" -- kind of a robin's egg blue so it is a warmer color with a bit of yellow in it.  The sofa I am getting for free (thanks, Laura) is a wheat yellow stitched fabric . Or as Laura says, "like intertwined willow branches". This wall may be a darker version of the blue on the rest of the walls, or not. Anyone have any ideas for me? Should it be lighter? or darker? A different color?

Personal Style

Paris Style on the cheap.

Found this book at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and decided it would be my bible of style. I've been poring over it, making notes, getting ideas. This week I will be painting my apartment and picking out things to fit. My idea of "Paris Style" won't be Angelika Taschen's mostly because I can't afford it but it will be as close as I can get it. Keeping in mind that I usually go my own way if I can and that will result in something entirely different. 

Blog Documentary.

I will take photos of my empty apartment with unpainted walls and then document as I go just for something to do on the blog. If anyone has any good ideas for me, please comment! And no Rae I'm not going to put up 35 paint chips and stare at them for a week.

Cleanliness next to Godliness.

And I have to say that I have an excellent landlord. He cleaned the apartment and started prepping and priming the walls before I got there and, incredibly, his idea of clean and mine are almost the same. He spent hours cleaning the oven!! Actually, that might even be beyond my idea of clean.

Big Ass Yoga

“Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both these breaths; he thus releases the life force from the heart and brings it under his control.” The interpretation is: “The yogi arrests decay in the body by an addition of life force, and arrests the mutations of growth in the body by apan (eliminating current). Thus neutralizing decay and growth, by quieting the heart, the yogi learns life control.”
— Krishna, Bhagavad Gita.

Big Ass Yoga.
Picked up my new apartment key, moved a few things in and went to my first teacher training class yesterday. I think this is the very best thing for me to be doing right now. I did a lot of research and picked the Yoga Center of Minneapolis.They have good teachers, impressive visiting instructors and the training covers different yoga philosophies, anatomy, asanas, mentoring, drop-in classes to observe beginning classes, etc. It's a very nice space, downtown, by the river. And yesterday I heard about a class unique to this studio called Big Ass Yoga! Or more properly, Big A#% Yoga. This is the place for me! Not like I have a big ass or anything . . .

Don't know much about the math I took.
I have homework: reading, studying and I have to present a pose next Sunday. A bit of a challenge while painting and moving in but challenging myself is the only way to make myself grow.

gratitude revisited

After writing about dwelling in gratitude, I jumped into the black well of worry. It's a selfish place to be but hard to resist. I wake up in the night with worry because I am on another edge and I have to jump. I worry about how will I survive, what makes me think I can be a yoga teacher, I am old and worn out, I'll never find a job. I worry about my daughters, both far away. I worry about my dad, his new wife, my siblings, a friend embarking on yet another dangerous mission, the world, the universe. It's all pointless. Like a doctor once said to me when I had exhausted him with questions about a colonoscopy: "You're like my wife -- you live in the future and worry in the present."

But as soon as I think of all the things I can be grateful for, the worry disappears. The lightness of gratitude lifts the weight of worry. 

And I came across this piece of poetry that always reminds me to get outside and breathe some fresh air, clear the mind.

"THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS" 

by Wendell Berry

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

best places for women

NORDIC COUNTRIES TOP GENDER GAP AGAIN
"Women remain far behind men in economic and political power, but the Nordic countries come closest to closing the gender gap, according to a survey of 134 nations released Tuesday."

Interesting and heartening to me because even though the US is not in the top ten, I am going to Minnesota, settled by Norwegians, Swedes and Finns.

Related trivia: After years of living on the east coast and training myself to say "soda" I fell immediately, without thinking, back into saying "pop".

perfect house for sale

My friend Laura's house, designed by her brother and herself.

It is nestled in the Mississippi River bluffs in Winona, Minnesota.

Everything is built-in, thoughtful, beautiful. 

This is the shower with a unique slightly sloped floor that drains into the rocks around the edge.

 

The plumbing.

The house is a duplex with the front part one story and finished, a foyer and separate entrance leads into the back two-story duplex which has electricity and plumbing but needs walls and finishing work.

Not a very good photo but it shows the style of the front. Let me know if you are interested.

gratitude

"Don't pray when it rains
if you don't pray when the sun shines."

-- Satchel Paige

The moment I left the east coast and headed for the midwest, I felt a quiet gratitude. Gratitude for my whole life, for the people in it, the animals, the lessons learned, the things I've seen. I've been giving quiet thanks ever since, just a simple acknowledgment to the universe of the small and big things that go my way. Of course, things don't always go my way and life may be sad and troubled but it's important to "kiss the joy as it flies". Happiness is wonderful when it happens but gratitude is a better place to dwell.

"He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise."

-- from a sermon by William Blake

coincidence?

The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas

My new apartment in Minneapolis

A friend pointed out the similarity. It hadn't occurred to me. (Thanks Jeff, yogi in a past life who did one too many headstands).

I really like this style of building. It turns out that the Mission Revival Style (which this is an example of, built in 1907) was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century, drawing inspiration from the early Spanish missions in California, which was what the Alamo was. It is also associated with the Arts & Crafts movement and Mission style furniture which I also love.