Zakka

I love that things of nature are in style, when it comes to home decorating. I already have lots of growing things in my house, and I have an advantage to others, because I live in the mountains. For example, I found this nest in my back yard (before it started raining, snowing) yesterday. I have been wanting to build a nest but didn’t know where to begin…so when I found this nest already made it was perfect. Now I had to acquire faux eggs to go in the nest. Everywhere I looked faux eggs were either flimsy, plastic, or just out of my price range. I got the idea to make some myself. I got walnuts (in their shells) and wrapped them with some silk fiber I had in my yarn collection. The result looked even better than I hoped it would. Here is a picture. Now I just have to free up one of my apothecary jars so I can display it somewhere in my house.

While in Santa Rosa CA for Thanksgiving I went shopping at a local thrift store (I spent Black Friday at Joann’s Fabrics and Salvation Army HA). I found these amazing footed soup bowls that were a dollar a piece. When I got home I looked them up to see if I could find some more. They are Denby which is a company out of England and they retail  for between 30-60 dollars. Needless to say I will be using the three I have for decoration or serving small food items. I don’t think I will have a set of them any time soon.

I got some succulent plants while down in San Diego for Christmas and planted them when I came home. This beautiful wood piece I used is from a wedding of some dear friends of ours. My house is a mess but I keep small parts of it in order to keep my sanity. Here are some pictures for you to peruse.

In Japanese one meaning for the word zakka (according to my close friend wikipedia) is translated as “the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and mundane” it is also reffers to ” everything and anything that improves your home, life and outlook.” I stumbled across this word while searching for Japanese craft books.  Here is an example of one of the books I would love to purchase someday if I can find a cost effective way of shipping it from Japan to the US.

I found this post on a new blog I discovered chubbyhobby

I so want the books she has, especially the one about sewing.

I have many projects I would like to start but haven’t started yet…don’t know why I don’t have time. I figure I  will combine my art in with my posts about being a mom of three amazing children. On that note we tried to feed the twins today, it was a total failure but highly entertaining. They made hideous faces and spit everything out of their mouths. I was hoping to get some relief from breastfeeding two but looks like I will have to wait on that. Here are some images of the things I have been putting around my house. I don’t think they are officially zakka yet but they improve my home so maybe they qualify.

I found glass apple juice bottles from Martinelli’s and made them in to vases.

I knit this hat for Corin I had great aspirations for his Halloween costume but being as the twins had a doctor’s appointment the same day I didn’t get everything accomplished. I love the hat though.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here is the Christmas card that I am trying to get out. I will be better next year I promise.