The magic of candle light

I have found out that here in the South second hand stores are not many… at least that’s the case here in our little town and its surrounding neighboring towns. We only have one thrift store to serve the entire community, and it is not that great.  On the other hand, buying and selling antiques is a huge deal around here… there are as many antique shops as churches are.  Interestingly, some of these ‘antique’ shops sell more than just antiques, and you'd find a lot of the same things found in common thrift stores, such as clothing, dishes, junk jewelry, books, home decorations and so on…  they just call them “Antique Shops” here. 

One of these little antique shops I often visit is packed full with beautiful glassware.  And the cost is so reasonable you can splurge and buy as many different shapes and sizes as appeal to you.   So I got me a few the other day... 

Don't you just love giving things a different meaning to their original meaning or purpose?  Oh I know I do!  I love seeing life from a different perspective; study it from a total different angle; see it through some unique lenses and then apply it to my own life.  

It is so much fun to be able to see beyond the conventional use of things and then, be unconventional, be creative.  I didn't want to use my glassware for their specific uses in the kitchen, etc… instead, I turned them into lovely candle holders…  ;) 

Their weight and sturdy shapes make them perfect receptacles for the small tea lights.  

 

I love the soft light of tea candles and glassware… 

love how glass lets the light shine through ever so softly and romantic… 

They look so beautiful lighten up in the evening...

 
Clean them up with hot, soapy water and a little vinegar if necessary to remove any whitish film and let them shine!

PS: I want to take the opportunity to say how much you all mean to me… and how much I enjoy listening to all of you as you offer a piece of advice on how to cope with this crazy southern heat, or  what to do with a kinky garden hose… and I love it that because of you I know the names of the trees growing in my area, and I love it when you offer the name of that wildflower growing in my garden that I wasn’t able to identify, and share with me what you think that mysterious light beaming on the background of my photograph could be, or mean… how fun and constructive! 

I’m always learning from you and when I’m reading your comments I like to imagine us sitting in some garden together… over a glass of iced lemonade; you talking, me listening; taking note, learning from you, sharing life just as it is.  I don’t’ have words enough to say how much you all mean to me.  Oh, and just so you’d know, I love to read your comments to my husband ;)   “See—I’d say, that’s what we should do”, or  “hear this one: “summer is a time to lounge indoors in air conditioning or outside in cool water, more industrious activity is taken up in winter”… or “depending on how far south you are, you will be surprised at how nice some of your plants will look in the early half of winter and you'll be able to tolerate being out doors”…

Love... love it all! ;)

And to those of you for whose uncertainties I don’t have the right answer—perhaps imagine once again that you truly are a child of God and that no matter what you are experiencing, you can always make contact with that Divine Love, Joy and Peace so that you may once again feel that child-like joy and wonder of the world?  Wish you all the best! 

Our little white cottage

Home again after yet another road trip—like true blood gypsies we are. And it is always such a wonderful nurturing feeling letting my heart be hugged by the vision of our fairytale little white cottage…

Tucked away in the heart of trees...
And the feeling of being Snow White having discovered the loveliest 

of tiny cottage after wandering through the forest for days…

My heart is a shaft of light as soon as I get to see the first glimpse of it coming down the hill… as if sprouting out of the ground in some enchanted clearing in the woods… just as I had dreamed for years and years... and I still think I'm dreaming.  For perhaps I am and I haven't noticed it yet?

The front porch it’s looking glorious these days. I have painted the white wicket settee in a lively blue… the same blue I used for the shutters and a few other objects on the back. It makes such a statement against the red door. 

The old sun bleached pillows were replaced by a pretty combination of sweet pastels and some vibrant colors that match perfectly with my newly painted wicker settee…

I’m so profoundly pleased at what we have accomplished in such short time and love when neighbors stop by just to tell me how beautifully the little white cottage is looking these days… prettier than had ever been before--they say.  And I have to agree!

 

 

I still don't have the climbing roses climbing by the front porch

but that's coming too

HERE IS THE STORY:

I spend many years of my life stuck in the labyrinth of unwanted responsibilities, stuck in an office cubicle, bad weather, bad bosses, thinking about how I could escape it all one day, and went through my days imagining that future so I could live that present.  

For years we lived in a subdivision in the city, where huge two story houses surrounded us on every angle. Privacy was scarce while the noise levels soared—neighbors mowing their lawns, working on their backyards, dogs barking.  All the while, I kept dreaming with a little white cottage surrounded by woods and peacefulness.  After many years dreaming this dream, life took us to paths we’d never imagined possible and gifted us with the fairytale little white cottage of my dreams and all the free time I revered to enjoy it all. 

Aside from being all I had dream my little cottage to be in the inside, it also sits on a heavily wooded area, populated by privet thickets and beautiful Hemlock trees; habitat to an amazing fauna and home to a large variety of birds.  All of it life-long dreams of my heart.   

One of the amazing things, among countless of others, about our little white cottage is the amount of natural light it’s surrounded by.  And this it really is amazing to me, being that the cottage is surrounded in it’s entirety by huge trees.  But it sits in a clearing among the trees, and because it’s situated at the bottom of a hilly road, the first impression you get when you first see it, is that it emerges out of the trees, or maybe that it’s plunged in trees—a verdant fortress of sorts and a happy place where sunshine falls healthily and happily right on it and on its gardens… which means, roses, and sun-loving plants and flowers are possible too.  

I’m a pacifist and a Nature lover and always dreamt of my cottage being surrounded by trees, but I also required sunshine in high quantities.  I cannot imagine living my life in a dark-shadowy house with a densely shady garden.  With the cottage in this perfect setting, I get to enjoy both of these worlds… a sunshiny garden that sits right at the edge of a forest…

 Summer nights are magical.  At the first kiss of dusk fireflies light it our little cottage with tickling magical lights.  You’d see them carrying out their itty bitty whimsical lanterns, flickering through evening shadows, illuminating the woods at the edge of the garden.  And you would think that maybe it was the night who so graciously gifted you their shinny jewels or that perhaps you are an incarnation; some part of a Christmas card where every tree and every bush carries in it a twinkling light.   

The pictures above is how the front part of our little white cottage looks today.  This is how it looks just five months ago.

The mythical phenix

The little gypsy girl thinks that the sun is a blazing bird, and that the bird has moved inside her body…

The sun-bird builds her nest in the wilderness that, like the bird itself, lives inside the little gypsy girl's body—dreams, skills and aptitudes gifted to her through generation of gypsy ancestors…

The bird stirs inside her body trapped in summer heat waves...  Feathers aflame, a flap of feverish wings... the little gypsy girl quivers.  Though closer still blinds and gypsy veils she pull to keep her colorful gypsy tent cool, the bird agitates, burning everything in a rumpus of wings...

Heat and humidity exhaust her.. evaporation is slowed, her body must work extra hard to maintain normal temperature… 

The little gypsy girl seeks the rains and bathes in morning dew trying to calm the burning bird inside her body, but the bird empowers its will… precious peace dilutes in empty songs through ring embellished fingers.  This is always, and forever, August in the South.  The little gypsy girl is not used to it.

She must fleet to the mountain without delay… it is essential that she moved quickly.  And thus, she readies herself… spilling skirts, colorful scarves covering her mane… her pink box overflowing with this and that… 

 

 Necessities she must carry at all times with her…

Some favorite books, her computer, a garment or two…

So down the gypsy paths she goes, seeking the cool breezes of higher grounds…

She is taking the old gypsy wagon with her... a song, a poem, her beau...

Discovering new trails, through untraveled roads…

They finally found the perfect spot...

Take out the chairs...

Park the gypsy trailer under the trees...

Fishing poles and fuzzy worms… her beau is right at home!

She embellishes her boudoir...

With gypsy candles and tea lights.

 She had traded the old velvet curtains for some lace…

  

White to ease the heat of summer…

But the little gypsy girl is still burning... the sun-bird inside her laughs! 

She must go to the waters...

Forget her gypsy skirts

Be free

Let her spirit soar…

She studies the skies above her head… 

And she prays and wishes and hopes.

And for a strange little moment

gentle cool breezes blew across their camp

whispering winds swayed shaggy trees...

The bird... the phoenix inside the little gypsy girl 

flew away...

Ps:  Is it this hot where you are too? I’ve been having a hard time surviving the crazy high levels of humidity we have here in the South… what a wonderful respite that was while camping in this beautiful place yesterday...

Hope you all are doing well

Sending you some magic breezes your way...