Puttering

The table and its supplies are the heart of the home and the expression of its highest attainment in finess of living, and for the sake of all who gather about it let if be as perfect as your means can buy.

I'm getting ready for a lovely Christmas party with my friends. Except the decorations are mostly put away. We will exchange gifts and laugh, and I am hoping that a special engagement will be announced. I need to buy a gift for a person, and the only thing I really know she likes is the color pink, so that will be the theme for my gift.

I puttered in the studio this weekend, basically this and that without really achieving that much, but puttering can be useful, just time spent at a slower speed in the presence of creative material. Why do we always think we have to accomplish so much? What is this American work ethic that stops us sometimes from just enjoying? Often times we are too tired, and walk in these rooms across America just to pet things and little dreams bubble up and take hold while we arrange cords and machines and plastic tubs full of possibilities.

The unruly weather of the weekend has past, and the sun shines in on my late paperwhite and the most sluggish amaryllis that I have yet known. House plants are getting repotted this week, and the silver will be shined and stayed next to the Federal Cobalt Platinum, and I might even splurge for some roses to arrange on my cobalt, white, and silver table. I take true joy in setting a fine table, and if that be a faint mark upon the world, then alas, I will make it true. There is an impact to beauty in our surroundings, give me the tired, overworked, overstressed young people, and just for a brief moment may these girls feel that they have walked into a fine hall and dined in excellence.

I have been ruminating in this new year, what kind of quilt do I want for my our bed? I am a lover of white on the bed, and yet I do desire a quilt, but want one that is simplistic and restful and also a showcase of fine workmanship. Any ideas out there for a white Cal King quilt????

Well the preparations will continue. I find soul in the helping; in the picking up and the putting away, in the shining and the buffing, in the making lists and following through, in the dusting and the polishing and the tidying. For all that is really left are memories. And how can I help if I want them to shine?