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so i took that handfull of scraps from yesterday,  all cat hair and cat dust,  plopped it .    Went to work.  

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back Home,  hung it to dry.  When you flatten it between thumb and forefinger,  you can roll off a wad of hair and wipe it on your levis.  Nice.

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Encouraged,  i dumped the entire baskets worth into the bowl.  A lot.   Went off to finish the final coat of Window Blue.   Rinsing,  i realized how it would take maybe forever to hang each scrap,  some the size of a quarter of a postage stamp.  

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 Fixed the large piece of cloth to the refrigerator door with magnets.   It's right next to the sink where i rinsed and then did the between the finger thing to roll off the hair,  and pinned.

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Being in the kitchen, Tay was hoping this had something to do with food.

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and here we have it.  

Some days ago there was a conversation, voice to voice,  where it was clear that the Other Person was less than spellbound  by this blog.  Really,  just didn't know what to think and so decided to think nothing.   And i am looking at these last couple days and anticipating the next few days and i Understand.  NOT spellbinding.   And since the Rock is inside for who knows how long,  this might become the norm.  There is no urge toward any drama.   It's Quiet and slow and Soft and well,  nothing much.  And it feels very good.  

I'll have to leave for a minute here and go to Dana's blog so i can bring back some things she has posted about that i like very much.  Should have done that ahead of time,  but in keeping with how it's going,  i didn't.

OK, back.  Dana's blog   ravenandsparrow.typepad.com .  The post is yesterdays, 2/2  and addresses Organizing one's stuff,  Clutter.  The book that she references is   The Life Changing Magic of Tidying UP.   in the book, the author gives as criteria for keeping or throwing is whether,  When Touched,  the object gives you a feeling of joy.   So i am thinking about this.  A Lot.  You should read the post.  Dana also lets us look inside her closet which i thought was thrilling,  looking inside Dana's closet…. and i SMILE when i type that…funny…me….What would that less than spellbound person think about me being so happy about Dana's closet…smile more.  And i am thinking in terms of Stuff but also Stuff that i keep in my Mind.  which would be repetative  thoughts…. Do i love them then?  Do they provide Joy?   And then,  like i am,  i begin thinking about what exactly JOY is?

 

 

 

 

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45 responses to “small stuff”

  1. Wendy Avatar
    Wendy

    I am spellbound by this blog; and the scraps pinned to the sheet are amazing. It’s like a museum.

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  2. Liz Avatar

    Not spellbinding? Hmmm …
    Well fine … I don’t like every book I read, so I suppose I could say “Not spellbinding” about them.
    But folks vote with their feet … always have, always will. For those of us who keep showing up, that’s our vote of confidence, your assurance that you are surely doing something very well. I thank you for that … and I’ll be back by tomorrow.

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  3. elizabeth Avatar
    elizabeth

    I am spellbound by your blog. Reading it is one of the last things I do each day and I so look forward to it.

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  4. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Look up the definition of spell binding and you will find this:
    “holding one’s attention completely as though by magic.”
    Is our attention held when we come here … a resounding YESSSSSSSS.
    There is magic here at windthread but it is not based on potions, flights of fancy, incantations, fluff and nonsense. The magic that is found here at windthread is reality based, ordinary every day living that offers us the most potent magic of all – CONNECTION.
    I want to also add that there are many facets to joy and right now I am having the most wonderful immediate joy in looking at and enlarging that white cloth filled with your scrap treasures, each little piece, a tactile, potential story marker and maker.
    So I guess I have come full circle because you see to this person who does not see the point of this blog, my joy at your scraps, your joy at Dana’s closet, well these are simple joys but oh they contain such powerful magic because in the simple, in the ordinary, lies the extraordinary.

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  5. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    I was reading Dana’s blog this afternoon…tidying up by only holding on to the things truly loved. Oh yes her closet….simply beautiful! My list of books that I want to read just keeps getting longer….Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is another one I added to my list today. Very clever your cloth on cloth…very clever indeed! Joy aka Grace!!!

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  6. deb Avatar

    Not spellbound? They must be addicted to soap opera.
    pffft.

    Like

  7. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    Hello, Grace. Visiting you brings so many SMILES to my life. By sharing your life so honestly, you have helped me to put some things in better perspective. What really matters, what is of value. And it’s just a joy to come here! Love to you.

    Like

  8. handstories Avatar

    Your cloth of cloths is like stained glass.  That book, just got it from the library a couple of days ago.  Carrying it from room to room, it’s sitting on top of a pile right now.  maybe something will filter through it all by osmosis?

    Like

  9. Mo Crow Avatar

    your warm cloth reminds me of the The Curtain of the Sun & The Curtain of the Moon by John Coburn (Australian abstract painter, tapestry & printmaker

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  10. Dana Avatar

    When you described rolling the cat hair off the scraps and wiping it on your jeans, I laughed out loud. I can just imagine that little finger flick, because I have done it myself many times. By washing, handling and hanging your scraps (and I just love the sheet on the fridge, what a stroke of genius!) you are re-infusing them with energy and bringing them “up” more fully into awareness. I am sure something exciting will come of it, not that exciting is necessary. I am also here every day and will be, whatever you choose to post about, because you are always grounded and thoughtful and help me to be that way too.
    Thank you for mentioning my blog…I wondered why I was suddenly so popular.

    Like

  11. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    I don’t know if i’m spell bound, or if there’s magic here (which often there is), but I wander over here to look in on you like visiting a friend I care about, open to what ever is here when i arrive. that’s plenty good enough for me.
    About JOY…http://bobnsophie.blogspot.com/2015/02/joy-without-limit.html

    Like

  12. jude Avatar

    i have had some interesting negative mail this week. stuff i didn’t answer because i lost the kind of words needed to respond.
    real doesn’t appeal to those who pretend.
    sometimes i safety pin my little scraps to a larger cloth before washing, but you probably remember that. of course i use a washer and that pulls the hair off in one swoop.
    I found nests of hair from old cat long since gone when i cleaned the loft. they love those scrap baskets.

    Like

  13. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    yesterday i came in later than usual..my day was full of house problems and health problems and i was faced with a seemingly daunting closet emptying..not a bad one at all..in fact one that i had tucked away to do at my leisure..mixed boxes from my former life..but full of good things..and suddenly i needed to move them now..we need those wonderful safety bars put up in the bathrooms..and they need to go through the back of the closet..and even the humor that we found as the nice lady at home depot was so very enthusiastic about the “safety unseen” quality of the bars..which actually look very functional and i am so grateful for them..but am not quite sure about the unseen part….
    so not a bad thing to do..but daunting was the word that i keep coming back to because i really felt not good..ok i felt bad.. and so i came here..for joy for refreshment for stepping into the world of wind thread ..and that led me to dana..a place that i love anyway because i am so happy to find someone else who loves the setting of a table..
    and it was so perfect..it snapped me out of funk and into giving myself the time to enjoy each box..silly but true..to part more easily with things and to appreciate being reunited with others..because that is exactly how it felt..and i sent a picture of the towering piles to an old friend..who also remembered so much of the fabric and books spilling onto the floor..and the adventures and road trips that had resulted in much of the towers..
    i still needed to pack away and pare down..and now i have boxes for friends of the library and much fabric waiting to be given away..but i did have time if not so much space and i did let my fingers linger and my mind remember..and there was joy..and an afternoon..and the rest of this morning became a much better place..two closets now totally empty by necessity ..but the refilling will be..hopefully swift and joy filled..well joy filled….i cannot believe how slow have become..i would drive my former self nuts
    how funny and sort of very sad that some one would give voice to being less than spell bound..why not just ..well not..not any of it visit or speak..but no..just sad
    your world and your words and your cloth and the company you keep grace..spellbinding and i am so grateful to have been caught up into this place of every day magic..gentle day grace

    Like

  14. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    CONNECTION…the magic of it. Thank you for finding the right words to help me and perhaps others understand why I keep coming back….for me you are all my teachers….showing me new ways ….gifting me with better understanding ….sharing the knowledge of life experiences so unlike my own. Thank you!

    Like

  15. dedri Avatar

    Just have to add my two cents to this spellbound thing. I have been totally spellbound since the first time I read this blog. It is something to do with how totally open you are about sharing your life. You put yourself out there daily and most of us are thinking that you are brave and clear and wonderful. The second part of live and let live is that old saying about how if you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything. Really it is quite incredible that someone would Complain about reading something that is completely Voluntary! So I would say to that person. Just get a life. Let the rest of us enjoy this VERY SPELLBINDING WONDERFUL MAGICAL blog.

    Like

  16. dee Avatar

    who called whom, I wonder, and why? none of my business, of course, but it feels curious.
    I bought that book on tidying up for myself for Christmas. I am a huge fan of the “Messies” books by Sandra Felton, too — she is kind, accepting and HELPFUL about how to get organized, why it feels so good to do so, why some of us don’t… but the Japanese volume addresses the ENERGY of things, which matters, and gave me the impetus (along with the dog, of course) to clear out several bookcases… I love her idea of the ‘tipping point’ – and found that I really could find it — i.e. putting one or two books back, pushing me over… very palpable.
    I like what Michelle said, about coming here being like checking in with a friend. You produce way more than I can keep up with at this point in my life, and sometimes I feel like I get penalized for that, but I do truly enjoy hearing about your day… which is to say, I like hearing about YOU and your interesting, spiritual, creative, hard-working, no bullshit take on things.

    Like

  17. ² Avatar
    ²

    it is not my custom to make something of SOMETHINGs
    just enthousiasme about
    but here i say ” agree ”
    grace wish you a good sleep this night

    Like

  18. Micael Avatar
    Micael

    “Not spellbinding,” eh? I can’t imagine that was ever your intention. I suspect you approach these pages with qualities like honesty, sincerity, warmth, appreciation, and good will… For intentions like those, being “spellbinding” would be quite beside the point. I come here not to be ensorcerized, but to learn, to witness, to enrich my life through connecting to you and yours. That’s plenty magical enough for me.

    Like

  19. dee Avatar

    not penalized by YOU, but by my own sense of missing out…

    Like

  20. julie Avatar

    I am bound by the spell of your vulnerability. And how about stitching all those scraps to that background and making them tell a story? Like you’ve done with us.

    Like

  21. grace Avatar

    LOVE that you say that, like a museum…oh, really love that,
    because to me it IS…like a museum, oh…yessssss…it is like that

    Like

  22. grace Avatar

    it is just and only what it is. and i guess that’s what’s important to me. each day. as is.

    Like

  23. grace Avatar

    i’m glad. we are here together then. at the end of a day

    Like

  24. grace Avatar

    this is what i hope. the ordinary. which is what We All have…
    Our Ordinary but it is what holds the Planet together, i think

    Like

  25. grace Avatar

    Tina…you too teach in that you Show Up and tell of your own
    sense of things

    Like

  26. grace Avatar

    joy. yes. small joy.

    Like

  27. grace Avatar

    something more Interesting

    Like

  28. grace Avatar

    Stephanie…please come. All of Us matter

    Like

  29. grace Avatar

    osmosis?, well, maybe. but reading it

    Like

  30. grace Avatar

    curtain
    i like the word, curtain

    Like

  31. grace Avatar

    yes. touching it this way. i like exciting

    Like

  32. grace Avatar

    yes. we come and go from one another and it’s Good

    Like

  33. grace Avatar

    i had thought of that…your safety pins…but these are so small,
    most of them
    and i have been offered Alz B’s apartment sized washer and dryer
    and it’s tempting…really, just for this….but i don’t know.
    The laundromat….hmmmm. I don’t know
    and negative stuff…well, it may always be Out there, but similar to old cat hair. Wipe it off on your levis.

    Like

  34. grace Avatar

    this is so great that it matched up with your day
    how without even knowing, we Give to One Another
    i love this a LOT

    Like

  35. grace Avatar

    actually, it was Great because in the past i might have felt that i needed to be more than i am, better than i am, but what i found self feeling was well…ok…not spellbinding, but it’s what it is and it’s what i am and it’s True and that is good enough. It’s what we all are, True. Some days we are great, a lot of days just going and it’s really just ok.

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  36. grace Avatar

    the days are just the days. It would be wonder Full if they were
    MORE, but they’re not. And it’s the point of it for me, that stuff is just what it is and to be ok with that, to love it and to realize that there is a quiet joy in it

    Like

  37. grace Avatar

    it was a good sleep, Maria

    Like

  38. grace Avatar

    to see how we are all so much alike

    Like

  39. dee Avatar

    they are YOUR days, reported through YOUR filter and that is what draws me in

    Like

  40. deb Avatar

    Oh…and when I saw the sheet on the fridge I thought “Kandinsky”

    Like

  41. Saskia Van Herwaarden Avatar

    spellbound, fascinated, interested, curious, drawn in, all of these with loving intent and purpose

    Like

  42. grace Avatar

    Kandinsky. if i were to channel Kandinsky with my cat hair work

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  43. grace Avatar

    funny. like Humor. funny, the spellbound word.

    Like

  44. julie Avatar

    So that’s a no??

    Like

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