lady cordelia

what I saw at the fair

 
A world.

 

Full of innocence.

 

For whatever reason, most people were on the rides...  
and I was standing watching the pigs.  

And the cows.

Because I am grateful for them.  
I feel their vibration.
I know what they do for us. 
What they give up for us.    

I say: I feel their vibration.  
I can not help it.
Some people would laugh. And do. (I don't care.)  
I watch the goats. I hear their words. 

And I want them to know...
I am protecting them all as best I can.
On the deepest of heart levels
from anything less than a wonderful life. 

As the world spins on...in all its wonder and complexity and disappointment...
 

I connect here:

Simply.

And that is how I am.  
And it is beautiful.  
And sometimes painfully so.  
And I would not have it any other way. 

I would not have it any other way.
 

sneak peek

Here's a sneak peek of a newly painted wall.

The color is Skylight from Farrow and Ball.  But, we had the color matched by our local paint store and bought it in Benjamin Moore paint because Farrow and Ball was a little pricey for us.  (Yes, yes, the paint Benjamin Moore paint we used has low PVC's. ) We are so happy with this color we can barely contain ourselves!  It's so soothing without being too "baby blue."  It has a gray tone to it which gives it a really beautiful depth. 

I never thought too much about how the color of a wall could shift one's complete & whole exerpience of living in a home, but it sure can. Now I don't know how I waited through 5 years of living in a dingy tan-like color. 

Erin told me that in order to match a Farrow and Ball color, you must have an expert do it.  The guy that matched our colors was recommended by Erin and has 20 years experience.  (This is the thing about sucessful design people, they have connections.) (If you haven't been following along, you should go here to find out how I got lucky enough to get Erin's help with my walls.)(I love parentheses, you should also know that.)

I'll keep you posted on the other rooms!  Isn't this fun?  Go ahead, paint a wall a wonderful color that resonates with your deepest most inner being!  You'll feel amazing!  Or better yet, have someone reasonably priced paint it for you!  Trust that it will all work out on all levels!

 

 

favors.

We were stuck outside all day today.  The girls and I cleaned this here playhouse which was all spider-webby, dusty and generally unattractive from the winter. Ok.  I cleaned it and the girls ran around and yelled.

But, more to the point, why were we stuck outside?

Because, today a wonderful thing happened.  There were painters in our house doing interior painting.  This is something I have waited for since we moved in almost 5 years ago.  (We will have to kick in with a good deal of the labor too, but they are giving us a good start.)

Here's a neat story for you (and yes it relates.):

Erin is a friend of mine: She is a single mother who adopted a beautiful Vietnamese baby on her own later in life. She lived in LA where she had a killer career as a commerical set designer.  She had done well for herself and was tired of city life.  She wanted a calmer life for her daughter. She moved to a small town.

Alas, after several years,she realized she needed to go back to work.  But she didn't live in LA anymore.  And she had no idea what to do.  Gloriously talented in the world of interior design, she sought work in her new town but no jobs came.  It was the economic downturn.  People were depressed and broke. No one had a bunch of cash to spend on new styles and furniture. Not a one.

We were having tea one day, Erin and I, when I suggested offering her interior design talent in a way that anyone could afford it.  $100 a room, and no new furniture neccesarily needed.  Erin could fully redesign a space using the furniture people already had.  A "space-lift" as she would later come to call it.

Her business took off instantly.  Today, she is doing quite well.  In exhange for my idea for her business, she gives me her expertise about color and design freely (i.e. whenever I ask.)  She found me a reaonably priced (and very good) painter, got me a discount with him, and helped me pick out the colors for my walls.  Ok.  She picked most of them out.   If I was left to pick out the colors for my own walls...well..let's just say; paint would be wasted.  So Erin got a killer new job- and I got a free interior designer.  See how life can work out? 

I am SO excited for my new interior paint job. 

Here is more about Erin if you live in Southern(ish) California and need someone brilliant to help you "space lift."  I'm sure she would help you if you lived in NYC too, but it might be more than $100/rm.  (Check out the "Lone Arranger" section on her website which has excellent 'befores and afters'.)

I will share some colors and photos down the line, when things are finished.  Remember I said we are pitching in on labor.  Might be a small wait. 

Free Cory Music + Weekend Snapshots

This weekend was full.  It began on Thursday with a show I did at at the wonderful Farmer and Cook restauant playing for a lovely group of sweet folks & friends.  It then continued on through a passing sudden rainstorm (and rainbow), easter eggs (dying, hiding and finding), more hanging with friends and my wonderful mama who visited.  Simply: lots of love.

What else?  I would like to pass on another song this week.

Song: "Come Clean"
About: I wrote this song many years ago and it was finally recorded just a few years ago for a music licensing company in LA.  (Since then it has been in various TV shows, etc...and is not available on any of my albums.)  I would love to ressurect this song for live shows- I think it would lend itself well to a little acoustic band. 

Come Clean

I am excited because a friend of mine, JZ, who is an outstanding fiddle and mandolin player ( as well as many other instruments) has said he would love to play live with me.  From now on, I will mention show dates on this blog for any local readers. 

Enjoy the song and the photos from this weekend & have a wonderful start to your week.  

 

 

this moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, wonderful moment. A moment that expresses a special feeling, time, or place. 
(A tradition inspired by Soulemama. )

This Working Mother

This was my day today. 

Wake up with the girls at about 6:30 a.m..  Eat some toast and eggs.  Make thank you cards (with my oldest daughter, as her birthday party was a few days ago.) Clean the house.  Enlist the five-year-old to help with this task in exhange for 60 cents.  It's a steep price to pay, but she's really quite helpful (not really, but she's very cute.) 

At 9 a.m. I wake up the husband.  Go to my computer.  Do a few hours of editing work for a client.  Then husband goes upstairs to work.  I make a smoothie.  Clean the breakfast mess.  Go to the nursery with m'ladies to get a few more veggies to plant.

Then I plant the new veggies. Also, I plant a bunch of herbs from seeds, put them in little pots, and place them in this awesome contraption I got, yes again, from next door's discard pile- (which I speak of it in this post.) You can actually "spin" 2 of the trays around (like a greeting card display goes around.) I have never seen anything more perfect for an outdoor potted herb garden. 

  
THEN, I clean both the chicken and duck coops.  This is really *insert expletive* exhausting.  I don't have an efficent way to drain the duck pool yet.  So, it's bucket after freaking bucket.  I don't have a wheelbarrow yet.  So it's lots of straw moving out of and then into both coops by way of the metal bucket you see pictued above. 

See: I don't have the desire to put the straw bale near to the coops where it would be a lot easier to access.  Why?  Because it would be too visually distressing for me to see a messy falling apart straw bale in my yard.  Thus, I am seen walking across the yard, along the side of the house, back to the complete other end of the property to get the straw.  And back. And forth.  And on.  And on.  Very unfarmer-like of me.  Farmers are smart, whereas I am very tired. 

And, you know what?  The ducklings think I'm a complete and total jerk.  I know you think I'm being anthropomorphic (nice word, eh?)  ...but I'm NOT!  After everything I've done for them, including saving the biggest two from the "hell of all feed stores" and giving them a beautiful loving home, they look at me like I'm a serial killer or something. Oh, and if I do so much as try and clean their coop- then they really freak out.   They run to the back of it,  huddle up and panic as if  I'm Charles Manson or something!  Amazing how utterly rude a duck can be.  I really never knew this about ducks.  I'm blown away.  I still love them madly.  It's clearly a one-way relationship.  I'm the giver.  Better see some eggs.

So after that whole ordeal, I played "Set" with the girls (great visual perception game for young eyes), unloaded the dishwasher (a thing I dislike very much) loaded up a lot of dishes which magically appeared in the sink all by themselves (also dislike loading but not as much as unloading), practiced the guitar and now am off to rehearsal.  Which I am really too tired to go to. 

Truth be known, I'm exhausted partially because we stayed up way too late watching "The King's Speech" last night.  It was wonderful.  But even Colin Firth is not worth feeling like this. And I love Colin.  I really do.  I love him very much.

What did I forget?  Today there was also the wiping of little butts, the filling of many sippy cups, laundry, the making of many snacks, the paying of many bills and so forth.  I think I showered (can't remember) and I know for sure I brushed my teeth. This is all a very normal day for me by the way.

I like it.

that which I must keep doing

The knitting.  I was so connected to it.  And then, things seemed to get in the way.  Namely: spring gardening, ducks, and everything else.  Alas, I want to knit, so I am pulling out a project I satrted some months ago: a knitted "patchwork" blanket for the girls.  I have so much lovely yarn that I collected last Winter that would be so sweet to add to this.  I plan to do all different yarns and all different stiches.  It will be funky, colorful and cute.  Just like me. 

As far as what I'm reading these days: sometimes all I have the energy for when I crawl into bed at night is perusing through The New Yorker. Tina Fey has been a recent contributor- which has made me very happy.  I am proud of myself that I even delve into some of the more political articles (sometimes.)  It's just, politics are not my personal choice for a bedtime story. Mostly, I like to try and come up with a caption for the cartoon contest on the last page. I always think the captions I come up with are hilarious.  (Unfortunately, I am always the only one who thinks this.) 

Reading is highly important to me, my dad is in the book business so I have had exceptionally good exposure to literature (I am not saying that I am highly well-read, but I am a good and happy reader.)  However, novels have seemed to fall by the way-side since I've had kids.  Sad, that. 

And another thing I am working to keep in my life as much as possible admist the busy-ness of days: green smoothies.  It seems, like knitting and novel-reading, preparing a really worthy smoothie seems to fall to the wayside.  In other words, I forget their goodness, how wonderful they are for the whole family, how much taking just a little time to make one makes such a big difference in how we all feel.  And yes, my 5 year-old loves these smoothies.  (The three year old, notsomuch....)

This morning I used my beautiful and wonderful Vita-mix (which I got on craigslist!) I threw in:

1/4 fresh cantalope
handful frozen pineapple
handful frozen mango halves
1/2 banana
5 big leaves raw kale
1 heaping tablespoon chia seeds
1 heaping tablespoon green powder
the contents of three probiotic capsules
enough water to make it a good consistency

(This post has me tagging along here this Wednesday with Ginny.)

 

around the house

This morning I took a few shots of our farm and the wonders that never cease upon it.  I love to say "farm" even though I know we don't have an actual farm.  Indulge me this word, will you not?  Because it would mean ever so much to me, and it's really no skin off your nose.  Capice?

 

Look how big mama's babies are getting.  (I'm the mama.)  My friend, a fine small-time farmer herself, said it was time to put the pool in.  (Yes, yes, the ducks will free-range our yard when they are bigger. Of course! What kind of farmer do you take me for?)

I found the iris bulbs on a street corner in a box last year.  Had no idea what they were.  Put 'em in the grround.  See what happens when you take a little chance in life?

 

I should have planted way peas more than I did.  Every year, I learn a little more. 

This quilt was $10 at a local thrift store.  This is handstiched.  Hard to believe!!  It's torn in more than a few places.  (Who cares.)  Ok- if this is hand-stiched, how old could this be?

And while we're on the subject, this table and chair set was free.  They are gutting the house next door- which was owned by a old woman who sold antiques.  I am their "go-to person" when they don't want stuff and are otherwise dumping it.  This set will be spray-painted soon and graced with cute pillows. My husband saw me putting up this photo and said: "Do people really find that interesting?  I mean, don't they say...'oh, a wrought iron table and chair set that is all nasty and rusted.'" Well, I trust that at least a few of you will understand....  Three words.  Free.  Antique-y.  Paint. And husband, you can NOT sit here when I am finished fixing it up.  So THERE!(Ok.  I guess he can sit here.  But he must say how rad I am first.)

(By the way: I also got 7 antique wrought iron butterfly chair frames.  These go for big bucks on ebay and you can buy new canvas covers -in a plethora of colors- from an online store.  I'll probobly hold onto 3 of the chairs.  If any of you live in Southern Cal and are interested in the others, email me and I'll send a pic!)
And you know what? Well, these little legs will be three years old next month.  And soon there will be no chubbiness left to pinch on them.  Gosh dangit.  I saw a 9-month-old the other day and thought to myself:  It's ok my girls are getting big, I can just pinch other babies chubby thighs. But, it's not the same. Nope.  It's just not at all the same.  I even tried it (much to the mothers chagrin) and it didn't do a thing for me.

As I always say, c'est la vie, my friends.

Have a wonderful start to your week.

 

une soirée

I'm exhausted. 

Because this was a fifth birthday party  there was a lot of: "I want this" and "I want that."  And, let's be honest, parents typically do their best to please their youngsters.  So, between my husband and me and two sets of generous grandparents, Miss Five-Year-Old did get a lot of what she asked for (barring, of course, a "bouncy house" which, regarless of price, will never sit its fat plastic ass in my pretty little yard.)

The birthday girl did well at her party.  She greeted all her guests, many of which were adults, with love.  She thanked everyone for the gifts.  She adored the "real" princesses we hired to do games, lead sing-alongs etc.. (The "princesses" were a few business-savvy 18-year-olds from down the street who charged a pretty penny for their fine services. )

And then, this morning C. woke up and immediatly started telling her younger sister that she could NOT play with such and such toy because it was HER birthday still.  Well, let's just say I felt relieved to lovingly but firmly remind C. that, actually, is was NOT her birthday anymore and normal life would now be resuming.  The princesses have left the building.

Oh stuff.  Barbies, pink bears, hello kitty dolls, mini-trampolones and foam balance beams.  Contrary to some belief systems they don't make one a better person.  And so I do my best to teach my five-year-old about deeper appreciation: family & love.  It is not about more and more "stuff" (unless it's specifically art and craft related, of course.)

Me: So, do you understand? More and more stuff isn't what really makes a person happy? 

Her: Yes Mama.  I do.  I love you.  I understand. Thank you for my party.  I love my family so much.  And you know what I didn't get for my birthday?  A bouncy house.  And I really, really wanted one.

Oi Vei, I think to myself as I enevitably step on a small plastic toy of one sort or another.  It's lucky I'm fully committed to parenting with my whole heart and soul.  Every cell of me. 

Me: Mommy needs a break. Mommy's been going all weekend.  Parties, presents, parks... mommy's tired."

Her: But mommy can I just have....

Me: No. I love you.  I care about you.  But I need five minutes.  I really do. And I need them RIGHT now. 

And now, my five minutes are up. And I'm okay with that. Mostly all I ever need is 5 minutes, maybe 10. If I'm PMS-ing I may need 20 minutes, or maybe 30.  But 5 is fine for today. 

I'm off now to ask her if she would mind pulling down the rest of the pink streamers.  I think that would be fun for a five-year-old, don't you?

 

 

 

 

this moment

 

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, wonderful moment. A moment that expresses a special feeling, time, or place. (A tradition inspired by Amanda Soule)

Happy Fifth Birthday Sweet Girl!