inspiring me

Today I bought myself a little present. Actually, today I bought a roof. That's a big purchase, but not such a present. It required that we leave the house for the day, but a couple of hours after the guys started working, we got the biggest, longest rain that we needed pretty desperately.

My little present of small sketchbook, a tin of watercolors, and some brushes was inspired by some photos, paintings, and ephemera made by some very creative ladies on flickr. I often work myself to death (don't all mothers?), cleaning, caring, pottering, gardening, cooking, without taking time to reflect on what matters, what's percolating behind the day-to-day matters in my life. I hope that participating, even just a little, in this ritual of creation, observation, and reflection will help me bring some balance into my life.

I found myself painting verbena bonerais, a tall, branchy plant that I just love. Some people consider it a weed- it does self-seed freely- and it does have coarse foliage and can be unkillable (though I've killed it many times), but I love its self-reliance, its flexibility, and how it moves so gracefully as the wind blows through it. Purple isn't my favorite color, but I even like this purple, how it pops out from its surroundings. It's been a long time since I've worked in watercolors- more than 15 years- but I enjoyed taking the few minutes to paint and reflect this morning.