New Year 2009 - sparkle and shine

"And now, let us welcome the New Year

Full of things that have never been."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

I am not going to write a lot.

I am going to post an email that I sent someone.

A long time ago.

And she sent it back to me today.

And...well..

"I HAVE THIS CONCEPT - THAT IF YOU STAY ON YOUR OWN PATH, AND YOU'RE TRUE TO YOURSELF, AND YOU care - REALLY CARE FOR OTHERS REGARDLESS OF THEIR ACTIONS, THAT THE UNIVERSE WILL RESPOND IN LIKE FASHION.  THAT YOU WILL BE WITH PEOPLE THAT HAVE THEIR OWN PATH, ARE TRUE TO THEMSELVES AND THEIR OWN BELIEFS, AND THAT CARE - REALLY CARE FOR YOU.

HAPPY BREEDS HAPPY.  LOVE BREEDS LOVE.  HATE BREEDS HATE.  GOOD HORSE STOCK BREEDS GOOD HORSES.  BAD BREEDS BAD. ON AND ON AND ON.

THE CHALLENGE COMES WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL AROUND YOU (OR YOUR perception IS THAT IT IS) AND YOU ARE CALLED UPON TO GRAB YOUR OWN GUT, YOUR INNER SELF, WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE TRUE AND RIGHT AND GOOD, AND STAND STRONG AND LET THE CRAZINESS SPIN OUT AROUND YOU.  I THINK OF THOSE TORNADOS IN THE MIDWEST - THEY ARE TOTAL DEVASTATION, YES, BUT THEY BLOW BY IN A MATTER OF MINUTES.  AND IF YOU CAN JUST STAND STRONG, YOU SURVIVE THOSE FEW MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE AND GO ON.

BE THE STRONG IN ANOTHER PERSONS LIFE.  BE THE LOVE OF THEIR LIFE.  BE THE STRONG IN YOUR LIFE.  BE THE LOVE OF YOUR OWN LIFE."

sparkle and shine

2009

Natalie.

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." - Rumi

Merry Christmas

From all of us at

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

to all of you

around the world

M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S

be.do.create

2008

natalie

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

Christmas Eve is sparkling - shine

There's not much of Christmas Eve left in the day.  It's almost Christmas Day.  But Christmas Eve is still sparkling.  Did you make your gifts?  Did you sew, knit, cook, bake, wrap, trim and craft your way into the hearts of your friends and family?  I hope so.  Because this moment, this one, shining, sparkling moment is only here for a moment.  And then it will never, ever be again.

No, there's not much more of Christmas Eve left in the day.  Share it, as my friend David would say, "...with quality people."

hULa did.  She started the day right - sharing and playing and smiling at her good friend Peanut as the sun rose over Saddleback Mountain.  (later in the day, there was snow on Saddleback...a very low mountain to have snow)  She shared of herself, too.  She and Peanut both took turns running for hULa's tennis ball.  There are those friends that share, that greet us at sunrise with a smile and with their hULa tail wagging, and then there are those that when we greet them, growl at us.  Not hULa.  Not Peanut.  They know that the moment only lasts for a moment, and then it's gone.  That friendship is precious.  And tender.  That it's better to be greeted with a smile than a growl.  That every good moment in our life is fleeting at best.  

As my friend David would say, "Spend time with quality people".  (yes, that's twice I have said it)  hULa definitely knows this lesson.  When in doubt, think like your dog.  

I said I would share the story about Hanukkah yoga - but I think I will save that story for another day.  It is a story of the lighting of the first candle.  Of standing with our own two feet rooted to ground and raising our own two hands to become that light - rising out of ourselves, reaching, growing, shining.  It is a story of going deep down into the dark of winter solstice and coming THROUGH that darkness into the light. It is a story of focus and determination and sweat and tears and, as my friend David would say, "spending time with quality people".  (last time)

So, it's almost Christmas Day, technically.  So sparkle a little longer.  Dare to Love.  Love with a little more abandon.  Dance a little more.  Smile a little more.  Wag your hULa tail a little more.  Don't be the person that goes through life growling and criticizing and always finding or looking for disappointment.  Look for the sparkle. Better yet, BE the sparkle. 

As my good friend - (hah, got you) ANDREA told me just the other day, "Go glitter, or go home". 

I think she really meant so much more than...well...you know.

Sparkle and Shine.

be.do.create

2008

Natalie.

  

The HOLIDAYS are coming...winter solstice.

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming!  Tonite.  This week. Next.  They're coming!!!

A friend took this picture of the 'Trees on the Bay' here in Long Beach - with full moon.  It was something.  We've had, as I'm sure you have had, the street parade, the boat parade, the crafts nite, the dinners, the lunches, the wrappings, the trimmings, the lightings...all of it.  The calendar, the schedule, the stuff.  The STUFF.

Some people say that's what the holidays are made of.  And if that's what you're made of, that's okay too.  Kids love shiny ribbons and bows and wrapping paper.  I know, I get that part.  But I also get the part about a mother's glow while watching that kids tear into the shiny ribbon, bow and wrapping paper.  

So every year, I have a 'CRAFTS NITE'.  This year we did bath bombs.  I didn't even know such a thing existed. They are easy to make, and make your home smell just lovely.  We were going to do some sewing projects too - little lavender sachets, some long tubes of cedar for the men - but between the dinner, the talk, the dancing (yes, we had some dance lessons on girls' nite...), well, we just couldn't get it all done.   (remember the previous blog - the chicken comment?!?)  I wanted to have a mix of another group of friends - artists, business execs, art curators, you know, but the exec went to China, the artist was looking for new space (Kristin Moro), the art curator went skiing...but then another girlfriend had another crafts nite.  It's catching on!!  They're actually making things!!

It's time to think of others.  Knit a quick cap for someone - a scarf maybe?  A girlfriend shared this great 'two sided' pattern with me - in multiples of four stitches plus two to finish.  It goes like this:

K2, K to the back of the next stitch, purl. (that's the four) Continue across, ending K2.  Turn.  Repeat until scarf is complete. I am knitting on Casein needles - no wait - bamboo - 6.00mm with Noro wool/silk 9similar to hULa's hat.  I used 18 stitches and it's knitting up to be about four (and a little more) inches wide.  Two skeins, so it will be long.  We'll see if it gets done for Christmas (one friend's gift) or before the end of Hanukkah (another friend's gift-who, by the way, I saw wearing a scarf the other nite - he's so 'metro'...so fashionable, that guy!! I think it's his scarf...)

hULa gave all of her dog friends a bag of bones - mixed bones, and mixed sizes in a cello bag with twine and the following 'holiday pic' - signed "warm holiday wishes".  Oh, that dog....so thoughtful, that girl!!!  

So, be like hULa.  Make a little something out of that yarn or those boxes of bones.  Take nothing and make something.  Spread joy.  Delight others.  Surprise others with your smiles this season of giving.  Give of yourself, I say, again and again and again and again...

Next blog - Christmas Eve.  Included in that - the first nite of Hanukkah (which I celebrated in Hanukkah yoga...)  Get out there - - I challenge you to give a stranger a smile.  I have been trying it lately, and you'll be surprised how 'caught off guard' people are.  And then they smile back.  Give.  Get out of yourself.  Go head first into something  -  someone else.  I dare ya....

be.do.create

2008

Natalie

PS - if you're looking for casein needles or bamboo needles, email natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com  -  while they're not listed on the website, we can send you colors, sizes, etc.  from which you can choose your very own!!

...chasing chickens. (aka how to be sure you're on track)

Chickens.

Hey, I'm from the City.  Well, okay, I have had my tomboy moments, but no, I was NOT raised on a farm in the midwest.  Deer hunting (whether you're pro or con hunting) was an event, not a way of life.  Eggs?  They come from Trader Joe's.  Milk?  Don't even drink it, yet alone need to get it every morning fresh from the animal.  Would I like to?  Sure, but I'm fairly lactose intolerant.  The eggs, however, I think I could get into...

Enter the Chickens.

Remember the last blog?  The Central Coast Ranch?  Enter the Chickens.  Capitalized.  Yep.  CHICKENS.  Even in a different type face!!! (font for you correct types...)

So my only job before leaving the Ranch was to feed and water the chickens.  Simple.  Two scoops of some lovely colored yellow/gold/white mix stuff sprinkled artfully on the ground of the coop (walk in size), fill the water container with the hose on the side of the office/shop, and put it in the coop.  No problem.  

Until you realize that CHICKENS have their very own agenda.  No really.  They do.  Forget that Bird Brain statement.  They know EXACTLY what they want out of life, and they know how to GET IT. Enter the City Girl. The first picture on this blog - the one of the two black birds - well, one made a run for it the moment I opened the door to the coop to get the water into the space.  JAIL BREAK!!!!  I could hear him yell, as he bolted past me.

Oh NO.  How will I ever tell my friend I lost one of this chickens.  (it's probably a rooster, but what do I know)

So the chase begins.  Through the barn, down to the lake, towards the garden, back down the drive, back through the barn.  Wait.  He stops at the coop door.  Okay, I think.  Good.  I walk towards him.  Let me get the door for you.  Hah.  What am I thinking.  Back through the barn, down the drive, up to the lake, stops at the door for a moment, then back up the drive to the garden, down the grade, up the grade, well, you get the picture.  

So I take a calculated risk.  Besides, I can NEVER call my friend and tell him I lost one of his chickens.  At this point I'm ready to try anything.  I open the coop door just a crack, hoping the other chickens won't notice. Hoping they don't have the same creative streak as this guy does.  And we begin the chase again.  But this time, when he stops at the door, it's open just a bit and he pushes through.  A HAH!!!

So, once again, you ask.  What does this have to do with quilting?  At this point you're asking what does this have to do with LIFE?!?!???

Well, here are some answers for you.  

1.  Water is heavy.  So don't fill your watering device to the top - it's hard to carry all of that stuff.  And then if you want to open a door, do something simple, you're bogged down with this full water container.  Leave a little room for air.  For breath.

2.  Don't run around chasing chickens.  Enough said - running around like a chicken with their head cut off.  You know the saying.  We all know the saying, and we all do it.

3.  Don't try to think like a chicken.  Do your own thinking.  Enough said.

4.  Try something unusual - take a risk.  Open that door.  Count on the good people in your lives.  Don't focus on the one bad 'chicken'  in your life.  (one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch)

5.  Believe in the good of your friends.  Look at the donut not the donut hole, as my friend has recently said to me.  Weeks later, I told my friend about 'loosing his chicken'.  It didn't even phase him.  "Yea, that happens sometimes."  I was sooooooo worried about what would happen if I ever had to admit to him that I lost one of those chickens...

Lessons from the Ranch.  

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

PS - between chasing chickens and wrapping presents, I have had some time to post some new patterns on the website - I hope you'll take another look around the site!!  We're going to try to add a few specialty fabrics - tropicals, Alexander Henry's...just a few...and if there's something special you are looking for, please email us!!

natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com

Color and Texture - Inspiration Comes to us in Many Forms

I took some time off last week, to drive up the coast of California - to an area they call the 'Central Coast'.

It's Nipomo, Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande, San Louis Obispo, Morro Bay, Cayucos - that area.

The Seven Sisters area.  I guess I should be able to name all seven, right?

First, let me tell you, there is a great quilt show in the area.  In 2009, it will be in it's second year.

It's a combined guild show, which I think is a great idea.  Seven Sisters, seven towns, seven quilt guilds,

one great show. 

It's at the Madonna Inn.  For more information, go to our website

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

Back to my drive.

I had the pleasure of visiting a friend on his Ranch.

It is alive with color and texture and living things.

And projects.

He is really busy with projects, so it was a pleasure to take a moment and just sit on the front porch, plop down in the rockers, and have a glass of water between projects...to take the time to catch up and reconnect.

I highly recommend it.  Go out of your way for someone.  Take the time to reach out and discover someone already in your life.  We all go rushing quickly along on our own highways, on our own paths.  We should remember it is every friend along the way that has helped pave that way for us.

And we should reconnect.

After a few moments, a few quality topics of discussion under our belt, my friend was off again with another project, giving me the gift of the Ranch...

to wander, play with the dog, visit with the goats, and talk to the cows.

And discover the garden.

It wasn't long before I was pulling weeds and digging in the dirt and feeding the goats the grasses and sprouts I had just pulled from the earth.  Picking fallen apples under the trees meant the goats would have a treat.  Nothing was wasted.  Just like quilters and their little scraps of fabrics - making up the patchwork of a quilt, the Ranch creates a patchwork of life sustaining...growing...creating...

With quilting, so often, we focus on the quilt pattern we are making, or the fabric we want to use.  We worry about the thread and get involved in the tools of the trade.  We read up on quilting patterns, and check on the latest information on getting perfectly square corners on our binding.  We are a focused bunch, working in little teeny less than 1/8" bites of stitches for applique, and oh so much math for our pieced quilts.

We want to be sure we meet the criteria for the quilt's submission into a show,

or the requirements for the challenge, too.

And we usually have some sort of deadline for our quilts.

We're always going along at a fast clip along that highway, that path.

I stayed the night on the ranch, in a loft above my friend's office.

Mind you, his office is a space filled with tractors, tools, metal things, and lots and lots of parts and pieces and lots and lots of ideas about what to do with them all.

The next morning, I truly had the Ranch to myself - I am a very early riser.  So I started taking pictures.

(after I fed and watered the chickens - that's a blog in itself...I lost a chicken!!!!! 

Wait, it does have a happy ending - look for the upcoming blog entitled "Chasing Chickens")

When I returned home to Southern California, I took a look at the pictures I had taken.

Color.  Texture.  Contrast and Comparison.

All perfectly composed by just the nature of the Ranch itself.

Life itself.

I am here today to tell you to stop, breathe, and look.

Take a moment to see the texture, the detail, the stitch, the little pieces that make up the whole.

How many times are you ever going to hear me tell you to NOT see the big picture?

Well, the next few blogs are going to reflect the detail, the texture, the color, the fabric that our lives are made of.

So while you're on your journey, while you're on your highway, and especially this holiday season, 

take time to look at the detail. 

 Even your breath.  

See the colors and textures and layers of your life and rejoice in that.

be.do.create

2008

thanks for thinking of 

beyond the reef

natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.blogspot.com

Give of Yourself

Well, it's that time.  Time to realize that the December holidays (okay, yes, all of them) are just around the corner.  For me, I celebrate Christmas.  Santa Claus. Believe.  Oh, well, okay, just believe in something...won't you?

So every year, my Quilting Friendship Group comes to the house for a formal Christmas Dinner.  Turkey.  Gravy. Mashed potatoes.  Yams.  Stuffing.  Sparkle. And the warmth of a roaring fire in the hearth.  Oh, and

champagne.  Did I mention champagne?

Every year my friend Karen knows that when I can't finish what I wanted to say at Grace (because of the tears of gratitude (see Thanksgiving's post), that she is supposed to kick in and finish.  Every year Karen and Sheryl know that they are 'second at bat' in the kitchen.  And every year Nada knows she's third at bat in the kitchen - oh, that clean up.  But Nada, in her day, ran a fishing boat in Alaska, so she can pretty much do whatever she wants in my kitchen (and at well into her 80's, I might add, I take notes when she does).

And so, I set a pretty table.  And I put the music on.  And I 

build the fire.  And we exchange home made jams, and hand embroidered kitchen towels, and made from scratch chocolate chip pound cake, and fabric - yes, lots of fabric. Because we are quilters first and foremost.  Applique is our theme.  Altho we do a lot of pieced quilts too.  Most of us are on the quilt show committee and the rest of us pitch in around town for other quilting events.  

Wait.  The pie.  The pie.  Want the pie recipe?  It's Maple Pecan Apple Pie from Esalen Cookbook.  (see the info on the side of the blog) 

But I am wandering.  What I really wanted to say is this - hey, you've got three (count them THREE) weekends before Christmas - two and a half before Hanukkah - and you've got fabric, I know you do.  So make your presents this year.  Put some scented oil on some lavender in an eye pillow.  Make a window or door draft 'snake'.  Go to the website www.beyondthereefpatterns.com and pick up a teddy bear pattern and make a stuffed bear in red and green or blue and white.  There's time to make your presents this year.  Forget the fact that it is going to help your savings account.  Do it for the right reason.  The person you give that homemade item to is going to cherish it!!! 

And I have one more holiday idea - look through your collection of collectibles.  And match just one thing of yours with one of your friends' collection.  Now put it gently in tissue and place it ever so carefully into a box.  Say goodbye to it, but tell it you'll visit.  Close the box.  Wrap it in paper.  Put a tag on it.  Put it under the tree.  Give of yourself this season.  Make something, or give something precious away.  Give of yourself.  

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.blogspot.com