A Minimal Series

Lately, I've been messing around with a new idea. My friend Lee of LeeWolfePottery and OneClayBead suggested a few months ago that I do some pieces that were very minimal and relied only on color and texture. At the time I wasn't so sure. I like having lots of detail--in fact, the more the better! I felt I'd been working towards better and better paintings and that just color and texture alone wasn't moving in that same direction.

About a week ago I realized just how silly that was.

"Playing With Paints" a tiny watercolor using my left over blobs.

 While playing with a large hole punch I have, I began to take an interest in my scraps. While I work, I dab the brush often on the paper beside the painting, I mix colors there and usually end up with a soup of vibrant spots. In the past, I've even done a couple of pieces using these "left overs."

What I hadn't done was any jewelry.

Weeks ago, I ordered some pendants that were just the wrong size. For a long time I've puzzled over what to make with them. I had no plans, so they sat in a box and I forgot about them.

When I began punching out the sections of paint blobs, suddenly they were perfect! The punch happens to be the exact same size as the pendants, so I happily set about making a few. What has come of it are some kind of neat results!

As I play with the punches from random color blobs, I am beginning to be inspired to make some with a bit more direction and planning. Maybe even some abstract landscapes...

So far, I'm really delighted with the results and will be selling these each as limited edition pieces as a series titled "Minima." 

 

Have you worked on any projects lately that you've been even more inspired by than when you started? What were they?

New Things Thursday

We still don't have furniture yet, but it is on the way! Just knowing our belongings are coming this direction makes me feel a lot more at ease. I'm often surprised by my stress when I suddenly am free of it. As tensions ease, I suddenly notice how much lighter life feels. Right now, life feels much lighter. My husband at home in the evenings and things moving forward no longer stuck between lost paper work, basic training, and the preparation for a move.

It's time to be getting back to work. I hear myself say it day after day for weeks now, but in the last couple of weeks I've really meant it. No more putting in only a few hours each day. Life is lighter! It's easier to sit down and feel inspired.

These last weeks, I've added only a few new items, but more will certainly come and are in the works now!

Here's what's new:

"A Collection of Classics" 3 sectioned pill box for the book lover! Lots more than just pills fit inside. Carry your earrings safely on a trip, tuck a bit of thread and some buttons inside for a last minute repair kit, or much more.

The "Humpback Whale" sterling silver pendant is perfect for summer! Add this lovely nautical piece to any ensemble for an extra touch of creativity. 

"A Day at the Seaside" (now SOLD) is a beautiful compact mirror depicting the wonderful tranquility of being at the shore.

"The Gray Wolf" looks out over the mountains in this lovely brass pendant. I really enjoyed painting this one. My husband is a huge fan of wolves and every time I see one I think of him.

New Things Thursday

June has been a pretty exciting month for me and also a pretty crazy one. I got to Monterey in May, but our furniture still hasn't arrived, so I currently work from one desk and am using a series of boxes as additional counter space. It's not bad at all--I'm just glad to be able to see my husband everyday again!

The house isn't so empty. My little cairn terrier, George, shares it with me and loves having lots of space to run around. And the kitchen is always a good place to stand to feel more at ease. One thing I love about kitchens is how you can add nothing more than a kettle boiling water for tea and already it feels a little more like home.

Apart from all of the new changes with moving and getting to know military life, I've also been updating my business! I'm really pleased to announce the completion of changes to my new website www.SarahLambertCook.com where you can now find my work. I still sell on Etsy, but I am so incredibly excited about adding my own venue I could sing and dance about it all night!
 

www.SarahLambertCook.com

 I've kept a few elements from the old look. I am still pleased with how it was, but the new design is much more dynamic and will be more fun to play and grow with! 

www.tuckooandmoocow.com ... the old look January, 2012-May, 2012

I'm also excited to announce a new facebook page! You can now find me chatting away and posting updates about my work here: facebook.com/sarahlambertcook. I would have actually preferred not make this move and have to leave my TuckooandMooCow page behind, but unfortunately there is no way to change the url on a facebook business page. Ah, well, such is life.

To top it all off, Etsy has even added a nice little bonus to the selling page. There's now a nifty little "About" page with a brief blurb about my business and some pictures to help illustrate what goes on.

My final announcement is a rather small one: from now on each Thursday I will be posting a regular feature titled "New Things Thursday" where I will share updates about what's new between new items, new features, and whatever else may pop up that's fun and new.

In some ways it's quite liberating for everything to seem so fresh and new. Spring was a season of cleaning and sweeping away the old--even if the old wasn't so very "old" at all. Now summer has come and with it the joy and hope for growth, sunshine, and positive experiences!

Living the California Dream: being an Air Force spouse so far

So far, my life as a military spouse has been an exciting one. In the last three months alone I've had the chance to experience having a pen pal who is pretty poor on the sending end, get to visit Texas and experience the state's traffic first hand, get to experience the nomad AND squatter's life, take a nap in my car at the beach to kill some time, got to road trip across the most arid parts of America by myself, and I've been able to have the thrill of having no furniture for 3+ weeks since some paper work regarding getting it out went missing.

Seriously though it's been fun in one of those when-you-look-back-at-it-it's-really-hilarious kind of ways. Until my husband is allowed to live off-post (which should be soon) I am on my own. He can stay for weekends, so I like to think of ATP (Advanced Training Phase) weekends as being the Lend a Loved One program. "Friday at 1600 you too can select your own Airman from the befuddled masses huddling to chow with the blank look of having learned too much dancing fuzzily across their faces. WARNING: Must return by 1900 on Sunday or risk even more nights alone in a new place!"

I don't mind being on my own without much stuff, but as a practiced pack rat having an empty house has been decidedly alien. Small things have always amused me, but now they are genuinely exciting! Today in the mail I got some random advertisement, but what fell from the envelope and filled my heart with joy was a free magnet! WHAT?! This is awesome! Now my fridge will have TWO things on it! This is the greatest gift I have been given in a while. It's already on the freezer and looking beautiful.

To bring a little cheer to the house and make it feel more homey I bought a kettle. Like a British person, warm beverages bring a sense of calm joy to me that can only mean home. I've begun taking afternoon tea for this exact pleasure. It's delightful.

So for all you new Air Force wives out there wondering what it's going to be like and thought asking a newb was the best option for advice, well, you know how the military is all "hurry up and wait?" Being a spouse seems to just be all "wait."*

*I'm really kind of loving it!

Let's go on an Essential Journey

When I was 16 I dated a guy who would say this crazy-lame thing that only guys who are in high school can manage to pull off: he put a CD in the car and would say, "We're going to go on an Essential Journey" and out from the speakers would pour... Journey. Yeah, it wasn't that cool.

The worst part of it: I think of that bloody line all the time.

I don't think about it the same way any more and this gives me pause. Now, I say it to myself when I stand  at a crossroads in life, when I'm getting ready to do something I know I'm going to really remember, or when I am learning a lesson because of something I've messed up.

So, what is the essential journey? 

I've always known who I am. Who 'Sarah-Lambert' is, what she wants in life, and what she's good at haven't really been great journeys of discovery for me. Realizing how to use those things--how to bring my dreams into fruition--those are the journeys of discovery.

The essential journey is knowing yourself. 

I went through a few years where I thought who I was wasn't going to to be enough to get a job, make the kind of friends I wanted, or do the kind of things I wanted in life. I sometimes still get a little queasy/shaky about it. This is the black hole in life I like to call "college."

When I was in high school, I used to say all the time that the bachelors degree was the new high school diploma, so I kind of had to get one. I also used to say whenever people asked me if I was going to major in art (which they did ALL the time) that if I wanted to do art I wouldn't go to college because I figured I could make a go of it without the schooling.

I let my parents push me towards school.

I let me teachers talk me into it.

I let myself feed me bad advice.

It wasn't that great. I loved my professors and had a great time my freshman year in class, but hated the college experience. The classes I took weren't going to further my major at all--I took them because they sounded cool (Actually, the only classes I have ever loved (and I mean I really LOVED them) were ones I took because they just "sounded cool"). But I didn't have much of a social life at all. So I transferred to a bigger school in a cooler town with hip coffee shops to hang out at and dimly lit bars on every block. The only thing--The. Only. Thing.--I can say that was significant and positive for me about this experience was reconnecting with my best friend again. We were inseparable once I got there and within two years were married (How could we not be? He is really, really, ridiculously good looking and soopa funny).

Then I realized something. It was a fantastic I-want-to-get-up-and-go-to-the-window-and-yell-"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this any more!" moment. I needed to drop the crud out of college and start living my life of adventure!

It took a little bit to manage it. It took convincing people that I could do it. It's taken a couple of years of trying and realizing what works and what doesn't. It's taken waking up from the sort of "How am I not myself?" time I was having and realizing that, hey!, I'm not being myself!

Well, that's all been part of the essential journey. And it's not over. It's not over by a LONG shot, but I am not taking my life as it comes! I'm taking it by the horns! I'm riding my enthusiasm again!

For me, knowing myself has been becoming reacquainted with that 5 year old girl who would ALWAYS have something for show and tell in Kindergarten because I thought EVERYTHING about my life was cool and I couldn't share it enough!

For you, it may be that you still need to find you (whoa, what?!).

I completely, totally, supercalifragilistically encourage you to take an Essential Journey with me. Don't stop believing! Hold on to that lovin' feeling! For real--don't be hating on the song quotes, they speak truth to power and that power is the power of YOU, so start finding yourself.

Go!

The End of a Long Drive

OK, so I really really want to tell you all about my long drive to get here to California, all of the places I saw, and share pictures with you... but then my husband and I went to about 17 miles south of Monterey last weekend on Hwy 1 to see the famous Bixby Bridge. Since it is the cover shot of National Geographic's "World's 101 Most Scenic Drives" we just HAD to go. So I'm starting at the end and sharing pictures of the part of the Pacific coast called Big Sur with you today.

The Bixby Bridge along Hwy 1 in Big Sur

I'm a pretty happy camper

Meanwhile At The Movies...

This weekend I went and saw the immensely un-gratifying movie "Snow White and the Huntsman." Nevermind that it was just 'ok' and felt like a bit of a less-enjoyable-cross between "Excalibur" and "Willow." I realized while sitting in that dark theater why I don't really like going to movie theaters any more even though I love--love--the movies: Audiences suck. And they've only gotten worse over the last several years.

It seems like the more expensive the ticket, the more costly the popcorn, that the more annoying fellow movie goers are. Now, I'm not talking about the stuff we all do--coughing sometimes, sneezing, hiccups, the occasional comment to your friend--I'm talking about the real stupid-asshole behavior: texting, carrying on loud conversations, raising your stupid hands in the air (why the eff?!), checking IMDb in the middle of the movie.

For the last couple of years every single movie I've been to has had several people in about my age range (18-25) doing one or more of these things. The cell phone one really drives me crazy because I get migraines, so a little light shining in my peripherals while I try and see a screen will inevitably leave me with an I'll-be-on-the-couch-today feeling after I leave.

What is the deal with my generation? Have we just grown callous and inconsiderate? Do teenagers and college aged folks seriously not care how they disrupt the movie for others?

Last year, I went with my sister to see the movie "Black Swan." Now, I actually love seeing movies with my sister and because she does not handle thrillers well, watching them with her is all the more delightful, but during the movie she was one of those texters. The movie experience to me is one I really remember more for her funny antics than for the film itself. Great for me, but I could see the look of disdain on the guy's face behind us. He loathed our presence.

"Snow White" was this kind of experience.

My husband and I found ourselves right behind a group of 6 people about our age who clearly believed they were much more clever than everyone else. From the moment they walked in until it was over they chatted in a very audible volume, sang "Hi-Ho" from the Disney "Snow White" when the dwarves were on screen, and frequently yelled from one end of their group to the other for popcorn (loud talking is practically yelling in a theater). I was grateful that they didn't bust out their phones, but seriously?

So, Hollywood, even though you haven't been offering up the best material lately, and even though ticket prices are way too high, what's keeping me from watching movies (and I really, really LOVE the movies) is my fellow man.

Thanks kids.