simplify, simplify

It's 55 degrees in January. Aji and I have spring fever.

Time to stop being such a dilettante. I am cleaning house, getting rid of a lot of stuff including collage materials. If you know anyone who could use some, have them email me: jen (at) countryweekend [dot] net.

the bees were plundering the jessamine

 I own beautiful vases,

but my go-to container for flowers is pitchers.

 I gathered an armload of late-summer flowers and spread them thoughout the house.

The kitchen table.

Mantle

 Entry table

 Kitchen window sill over the sink. 

(Vases are nice too. My father gave me this one.)

A bit of hydrangea in the powder room.

I found a battered old copy of Les Miserables at the recycling center and decided to recycle it, which felt kind of sacrilegious, but it's unlikely someone would read it in the state it was in.

But as I deconstructed it, I found the most amazing quote:

The whole of the day seemed to be composed of dawn: all nature seemed to be having a holiday, and laughing. The pastures of St. Cloud exhaled perfume; the breeze from the Seine vaguely stirred the leaves; the branches gesticulated in the wind; the bees were plundering the jessamine; a madcap swarm of butterflies settled down on the ragwort, the clover, and the wild oats; there was in the august park of the King of France a pack of vagabonds, the birds.

I read that and wonder how I ever thought I could write about nature. And then I read it again. Plus he's a master of punctuation.

It's that Monday we all look forward to--Jane's Flowers in the House. 

My kitten is more low-maintenance than hers.

But hers are so clever she's got them writing her blog posts when she's busy!

Jen

a peaceful Sunday (with recipe)

 I can't remember the last time I read the Sunday paper on Sunday.

Or made blueberry muffins on the weekend.

I did both today.

 We are readers around my house. Not at the dinner table, 

but breakfast and lunch are fair game.

Vintage Ellery Queen is a sign of one of my sons.

 Me with Orion. 

I read the paper on the deck with my first cup of coffee. 

The blueberry placemat and blueberry mug are not staged to go with the muffin. 

They are always there. Muffins come and go.

 I stayed in Massachusetts this weekend--Harriet is running the store.

Next weekend I'll be there--it's the last official weekend the store will be open. I love my store, but I'm glad to be closing. I want to have time for other things on my weekends. 

Like reading all afternoon. That's today's plan.

And maybe collages, laundry, picking flowers for Jane's Flowers in the House,

 and an evening walk. 

And more reading.

And for you a super-easy blueberry muffin recipe:

Ingredients

1-1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. sugar

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

cinnamon sugar 

1 egg

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. milk

1 c. blueberries

Actions

Preheat oven to 400

mix dry ingredients

mix wet ingredients

blend wet and dry, then add blueberries

put in muffin tin/cups

sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top

bake 12-15 minutes or until they look done

every teacher should be a taxidermist

new collages made on rescued book covers

the boy swims, the berries are sweet

I was feeling a little guilty about all the peony love lust in my last post, so please say hello to this charming mountain laurel, so lovely in her own modest way. Speaking of flowers, here is a nice flower/decorating link from Design Sponge: best of floral inspiration--each picture links to a sneak peek (a look inside someone's home). My favorite is the Glasgow home of Fiona Douglas of Bluebellgray. I adore the red rose cushion. And the words bluebell and gray.

 I continue to make these whimsical little collages. I work on them in the evening, while listening to jazz radio. Despite years of painting and writing, I have never found creating things theraputic, but this is fun and relaxing, and I get a kick of out putting together words and pictures. Look at the strange little phrases (sections in a book) from the above Mysteries in the Bird World:

Islands of Birds--Effects of Musketry--Timid Damsels--Meaning of Montreal...
It's all so strange and wonderful.

Typed ingredients for plum conserve here, and a bit of an old grammar book: What adjectives do you use to name the qualities of a book? a rose? a ball?


Tomorrow I go to Vermont to bring home my son for the summer (remember this?) and we are going to visit a dear friend at a farm where they make goat's milk cheese. I hope to have some good pictures of goats for you next week.

Art and Flowers

Making funky little collages on the covers of battered, falling apart antique books. 

From My Book of Golden Thoughts: 

"It is the Height of Art to conceal Art." from the Latin

What does it mean? And what a strange attribution...

Peonies require no explanation.

Meet Iowa Jewel Julie

Owls of the Night

When I was planning Country Weekend I had to have Iowa Jewel's collage kits—they epitomized my vision for the store: creative, vintage, and whimsical. 

Life on a Dairy Farm

When I contacted Julie she was enthusiastic--she even created special packaging and custom kits for the store. Visting her Etsy store (here) always makes me happy; exploring Lets go Canoeing, Birds in Winter, The Bermuda Triangle, Sherlock Holmes, Fears and Phobias, Circus Dreams, Along the Rocky Coast, Alfred Hitchcock, Firefly Magic, Our Mysterious Moon, and much, much more, fires up my imagination. 

 The Artist in You

You can also find prints and other vintage ephemera on Iowa Jewel. 

owl and bird print

 Julie obviously loves what she does and has fun doing it. I recently discovered that she reads this blog, and was delighted when she agreed to do a little q and a, which I know that you'll enjoy. (As always, click on pictures to enlarge. Captions have links if you want to see more.)

Picasso

Tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to making collage kits.

I live in a small town in Iowa with my husband and three kitty cats. My biggest dream is to travel the world but until that day comes I am happy to visit everywhere my imagination can take me in collage kit land. 

Let's Go Camping in the Desert

When I was little, my sister and I would make collages out of pictures from magazines and make up stories about adventures we would have traveling. It made the whole wide world come alive for me.  I have always found great joy and contentment in creating.

Where do you get the materials for the kits? 

I go to garage, library and book sales. I also shop on eBay and Amazon. Most of my books are children’s, science/reference and travel themed and are from the early 1900’s through the 70’s.  I have way over a 1,000 books, they are in every nook and cranny of our small house; let’s just say I have a very understanding husband!

Julie and her books

Where do you get your ideas for themes?

Mostly from my never-ending imagination! I am inspired by romantic places around the world. California is special to me. My love for animals and nature shows up a lot! I also love science and old Hollywood. I combined two of those in my Mad Scientist and Evil Doctor kits which are inspired by 1950's horror movies.

Mad Scientist in the Laboratory

A lot of times I come across an image that I fall in love with and end up building a whole kit around that one picture. That happened with my San Juan Capistrano kit. Also I get many requests from my customers for custom kits, and they have ideas that I would never have thought of on my own.

The African Queen

Tell us about your work space and work habits. Do you work on several kits at once or one at a time?

I have a small (10x 10) studio that I share with my husband. Since I don’t have a lot of room, I am always looking for more efficient ways to store all the things I use making my kits. I also do my packing and shipping here so sometimes I set up a portable table and use our dining room table for overflow!  I have 2 long tables that my husband made for me and many shelves to hold my supplies.  I spend most of my time here so I am happy to have a big window that looks out over our beautiful backyard and lets in lots of natural light.

I usually listen to music on my laptop when I am creating.  Sometimes I watch movies and they influence the kits I make or I watch the movie that I am making a kit of to help me with images I will add. Example: when making Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound kit and watching the movie I included a real fork to go along with a famous scene where Ingrid Bergman draws lines with a fork on the table cloth.  I enjoy writing stories to go along with my kits too.

I am always working on many kits at once!  Right now I am making a journal for a friend and woodland animal kits for a custom order.  I keep a list of each kit I sell so I can remake one like it and I have a list of all the kits I want to make and am collecting images for too.

Julie in her studio

Do you ever hear from people who've bought your kits?

Yes!  I get lots of feedback and it’s all been positive!  I am so blest to be able to create something I love as a job that brings so much fun and happiness into other people’s lives.

What amazes me is all the different things my customers use my kits for.  Scrapbooking, travel journals and collage art are probably the main things but just recently one of my skunk kits was used at a skunk rescue fundraiser and mad scientist kits for decorations at child’s birthday party in Australia!

I Want to be an Archeologist