Barefoot in the Park

In the good ole summer time there is nothing more simple than being in the park at a playground! 

Oh no, all the parks I visited recently no longer have any swings that you could pump your legs really hard to reach the sky, or tall metal slides that would burn your legs as you scooted down, or wobbly merry-go-rounds that would make you dizzy as you flew off, or teeter totters (see saws) that would hurt your hoo ha (or bum) when your friend jumped off and released the balance from 6 feet up, or tether balls that would womp you on the side of your head or swinging monkey bars that would bash your finger!  Ahh, good ole playground memories.

However, I must admit the new and improved playgrounds sure are colorful and bright!

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

River and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown--

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

      ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Fun times come to mind with an old tractor tire swing tied to a thick branch off a Weeping Willow tree by a creek. A friend would pull the swing up to the perch where everyone was waiting their turn.  You would step on the tire, push off and fly for just a moment and then....jump when you were over the water.... and splash down. 

 

Week #29 LIFE'S simple pleasures - parks

 

Parks and playgrounds seem too safe, so sterile and boring. 

I don't see swings anymore. No longer do we see broken chains hanging off the hooks or rusty nails holding swinging bridges together, or swing sets that aren't bolted in the ground that rise up when someone is swinging.

With every generation brings new ideas and engineering to design stuff for kids that is safe and fun!! It's amazing what over protective parents and pesky lawsuits can do.

What's even more amazing is how everyone over 49 years of age survived!

When you are out and about this weekend and if you happen to drive by a park... hopefully it will bring a smile to your face when you remember that some of LIFE'S simple pleasures can be had in a park.

 

Picture Perfect

It's summer time in Illinois!

Which means it's hot, hot .... did I say HOT? 

This week we are experiencing some of the hottest weather we've had this year, with high humidity and beautiful sunshine.  What is there to do in the summer time?

 

 

This week I'm writing about one of LIFE'S simple pleasures - parks. 

There are all kinds of parks.  If you think of Central Park in New York City, you might think of the back drop for many movies.  There are trees and running paths, bridges and ponds and blankets with diversified people spread across the lawn listening to a concert.  Yellowstone National Park brings to my mind.... geysers and bison, beautiful rock formations and trees as far as the eye can see.  A local city park has swings and teeter totters and fresh cut grass with a bench under a shade tree.

I enjoy the fact that my art can imitate LIFE.  Following blogger Michelle Zindorf and learning her techniques with inks and stamps has been a great way for me to re-create some of LIFE'S simple pleasures with my creative greeting card art.

 

{Greeting cards you see on my blog are always for sale! Handmade and unique cards for those special people in your life.... who deserve more than a last minute grocery store card!!! ****sorry, gotta do a shameless plug!}

 

Back to Week #29 LIFE'S simple pleasures - parks  There many different parks we can visit, most of them FREE.  There are water parks, theme parks, playgrounds, skate parks, nature preserves, spray park, National Parks, State parks, city parks, conservation parks and amusement parks.

 

 

My husband and I enjoy one of our local parks. It is a reclaimed quarry that our city has made into a recreation area.  We have enjoyed walking trails that have led us to some interesting Geocache hides, we've packed a lunch and enjoyed a quiet picnic and most recently, we rented a kayak for an hour and cooled off in and around the natural spring fed lake on one of our hot, hot ... did I mention HOT summer days. It was only $6 dollars and we got to see young families fishing off the shore, we watched cloud formations pass overhead, we heard laughter from other paddle boats, canoes and small sail boat, we watched small planes take off and land at the nearby city airport.... and we just sat and enjoyed the moment, smack dab in the middle of the lake.

 

And for me, before and after (keeping my iPhone safe and dry) I enjoyed taking pictures, capturing the sites for potential blog posts, having my art imitate LIFE and being able to share some of the simple pleasures that might spark some interest for you too!

 

Now go on out there, and with the sun SHINE, brighten someone's day! Go have a picture perfect day, visit a park!

Have a Seat

Sitting on a park bench....

 

A long seat for more than one person to share.

 

So many ideas come to mind.... scenes from movies where people are getting engaged, or girlfriends pouring out their heart and soul, old people sitting with a bag of bird seed... feeding the pigeons, mommies watching their babies in strollers, little kids whose feet can't reach the ground... swinging them back and forth while eating an icecream cone, a businessman eating a quick lunch while catching some fresh air between appointments, resting while letting your dog sniff around, listening to a free concert, seeing the ducks land in a pond, watching the train go by...

And other LIFE'S simple pleasures can be done on a bench.... watching clouds, finding Geocache hides, enjoying a favorite beverage, reading a book, eating a cookie, watching the seasons, watching people, smelling the flowers, sharing a hobby..... amazing how it all works around to a full circle.

 

 If you are new to my blog...WELCOME!!!!

 

I'm devoting my whole year 2013, to LIFE and the simple pleasures I can find for FREE or fairly inexpensive... I want to learn, inspire, feel, evolve and SHINE in all things!  I want to extend an invitaton, please feel free to scroll through my blog and find the first 29 ways I found to enjoy the beginning of this year.

 

Park Bench by PSR

 

Clouds in the sky

Birds flying high

A gentle light breeze

Trees wave their leaves

People walking on trails

Puppy dogs' waggin tails

Children out to play

Thinking of the day

 

 

Funny to say... but who knows what you'd find if YOU spotted a park bench and decided to 'sit a spell'. 

Art from the Heart

Taking a small break from LIFE'S simple pleasures to display one of my creative endeavors for 2013.  Here are some of my art pieces from LIFEBOOK 2013....

Every Monday morning I get a new tutorial from Willowing & Friends, where art students get prompts, ideas, videos and more...these artists that Tam has gathered together, all have unique talents and it is inspiring to learn their techniques.

 

I am so used to my simple ink doodles or stamping and card making... thinking outside the box has truly been a new experience for me.  All of these pictures (paintings??) from my art journal are approximately 12" wide by14" high.  I'm using more acrylic paints and paint brushes. Adding paper pieces for collage and stencils for texture.

Seems like my work sticks close to a theme. Lots of flowers, faces and flying things. 

 

I need to take a deep breath. 

 

This journal has been very fun!! I look forward each week to try something new.

 

I just have to be patient. 

 

All this learning!  

 

Then I'm so excited to take pictures and play with the new  things I've learned on Photo Shop.... and then.... blurry.... there is no race.... I need to take more time and enjoy the process.

 

More new pictures to come!!!

 

A Walk in the Park

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike." ~ John Muir

From week to week, I never know where my blog will take me.

I have ideas how I want to highlight LIFE'S simple pleasures, but I never really know what I'm going to write about until Monday morning. I thought maybe I was more of a planner, but I think I enjoy 'finding' something that happens to come my way. And then, go from there.

Week #29 LIFE'S simple pleasures - parks

A few years ago when my husband and I realized that our path in LIFE was taking us on a new journey, the dreaded empty nest, we decided that we needed to find more things, not necessarily to fill the emptiness of the loss of day to day hands on parenting, but to search out different ways to discover what our LIFE had to offer us in our next stage.

One thing we thought about was hiking. Easy to do and virtually FREE.

I know I've written about this before (many times in many different forms).  Ironically, shortly after we made our declaration, we saw lots of different articles and stories about hiking in your own neighborhood, hiking in local parks and hiking & geocaching.  We decided that this was a sign that maybe we were on the right path. *wink

Living in the flatlands of Illinois, we knew that we weren't going to be climbing rocky or smokey mountains, we weren't going to be trekking the hot dessert wastelands and we knew unless we went on vacation somewhere out of the state, we wouldn't be hiking fo national treasures in parks.

But we did find out that there are over 25,021 acres of protected preserves in our county alone.  There are over 32 nature parks, with 17 dedicated conservation districts within a half an hour of our home.

And so, we have been visiting local parks and district conservation parks and state nature preserves.  A park is an open space providing recreational use and protection of wild life or natural habitats.

 

Parks have a sentimental value for us.  As long as my husband and I have been together, we have enjoyed going to the park, any park.  And through the years we have established a yearly fall family photo shoot of how we have all grown and changed throughout the year.  Parks have been a great backdrop to record the event.

 

Here is our little family 19 years ago.  Sweet!

 

We forget that life consists of small everyday experiences and it is what the happiness is made of. A walk in the park, a smile of your baby, a beautiful sunrise, unexpected compliment from a stranger...Those are the moments that count most. ~ Sumesh Nair

The Accumulator

If something has sentimental value to it, sharing those things with others can create positive emotions and keep the past present.

Week #28 LIFE'S simple pleasures - collections

 

The 'hobby' of gathering and storing 'things' and neatly organizing, maintaining and finding special items are all part of the positive aspects of being a collector. 

 

For every hobby collector, there is probably someone who goes overboard.   The images of Hoarding Buried Alive and Hoarders television shows are more likely to come to mind when someone shares their 'hobby' with someone who doesn't have the same interests.  There are always extremes in all situations.

 

** This by no means relates to anyone that I know personally.... you can put really any hobby item in place for the 'toy train'. 

 

If a toy train collector creates an entire room for his collection, and he has hundreds of trains that run on a track with miniature trees and crossing gates, some are kept in special glass boxes on shelves, he re-wires the electric to his home to hold all the volts to run the trains, pours real water for steam in the engine, has beautifully framed paintings and posters of train memorabilia covering the walls, there is a wide screen tv that plays videos and special train songs being piped in through the speakers, he washes and waxes the trains, adds oil to the tracks, paints special figurines in the small old town villages .... someone visiting this room who doesn't particular find an interest in toy trains would easily think this person is reliving their child hood and could be on the verge of hoarding. But really, he is just a true collector, items are neatly organized, maintained and maniuplated with ease.  Sharing his passion creates positive emotions! 

I don't particularly collect slippers, but my cute mom enjoys making them and gives them to me.  We use them in my family, but I also like to share them with friends.  Right now, I have a small 'collection' of slippers... I know where they are and I can include them in a wonderful and thoughtful gift for someone. 

 

I have small collections that don't overwhelm me and take over my life.  Many of my collections make me smile and like most things I do in LIFE, everything in moderation.

 

I don't go out of my way to collect thread.  But through the years, I figured using colorful items in jars is a simple way to create a unique decoration for my home.  Someone once told me, you should have a few items out just to start a conversation... thus a conversation piece.

To accommodate all of these unique and outrageous collections, hobby stores have designed all kinds of ways for the enthusiast to display their 'stuff'.  They actually have album cover frames.  There are shadow boxes and intersting case holders.  Albums, the actual cardboard sleeve that would hold a 'real' vinyl record.... we no longer have a stereo, let alone a record player... but we did keep a 'small' collection (maybe 30?) of albums...  because we have the emotional attachment of them to our youth... where LIFE seemed so easy and music was a part of our every day activities... some of these covers are actually pretty cool little pieces of art!  We now have conversation starters when you walk down into our basement!

 

They may not be of value to anyone else... maybe a few items that I 'collect' could be... antique sewing machine, Cabbage Patch doll with it's original adoption papers, Big Little books from Western Publishing, Longaberger Baskets, Beany Babies... a little bit of everything. 

 

One of LIFE'S simple pleasures is collecting things that engage you and are of emotional value and interest to you and help you relive happier times from our childhood!

Button, Button, who's got the Button?

She'll be cute as a button, everyone knows
From her tiny little curls to her chubby little toes.

Week # 28 LIFE'S simple pleasures - collections

 

Let me reiterate ... there is a difference between being a 'collector' and being a compulsive hoarder. 

 

If the 'items' you collect create  a certain pattern of behavior with an excessive acquisition of an item(s) and cause a person an inability to function, with impairment of living, eating and sleeping conditions and cause a risk to their health... those factors are significantly different than a person who collects items for a hobby. 

 

Seriously! 

 

It is, but isn't.... funny.  We all know about those hoarding shows where the people can't even walk through their house because they have real garbage piled to the ceiling. They may 'say' they collect newspapers and magazines and aluminum cans and plastic bags, but they have a few more issues than I'm qualified to write about.

 

 

In modern clothing and fashion design, a button is a small fastener. Commonly made of plastic they are meant to secure two pieces of fabric together.  They are often used for ornamentation and have been made from wood, seashells, leather, metal, glass, and semi-precious stones.  Artisans have a long history of construction and decoration techniques that reflect a timeline of materials in the technology of  button making.

 

 

Yes, I admit that I have purchased buttons.  I have a few creative vessels that hold my tiny art objects.  Ball jars and tins.  But most of my buttons were inherited.  And now hundreds, maybe even thousands sit and wait for my creative juices to flow and use them for some sort of creative greeting!

I didn't realize until after I took this picture of a special 'antique' tin that holds most of my buttons. There is a great artsy fartsy name printed on the lid.  It appears however.... it was a chocolate tin!

Artstyle Chocolate .... wow, just checked it out on ETSY, it could be a collectors items, someone is selling my exact one for $32!!  

 

Looks like there is more information about the tin can for the chocolates that were made in the late 1920s, rather than the chocolate company itself.

 

 

Thanks to my mother.... I have a small collection of buttons. 

 

It's fun to drag my hand through the tin.  Buttons don't break, easily.  They come in all shapes and sizes.  One, two.... four holes.  Some have a shank on the back that you loop the thread through.  Some buttons are embossed with an emblem and some buttons sparkle in the sunlight.

 

People 'collect' all kinds of things because they are interested in them.  Some popular items include: coins, dvds, sports trading cards, cereal box prizes, record albums, stamps, post cards, books, tea cups, art, trains, event memorabilia etc....  You name it, I'm sure there is someone who collects it and is willing to pay the price to add to their collection.... and there are some people who have invested a lot of time and money into their collections because it just makes them happy!

 

You can 'push' someone's button, you have a belly button, you can hit the like.... reset.... start.... send... snooze button.  And maybe hitting the elevator button or the walk button 10 times will make it happen a lot faster. :)