Kindness

Last night at meditation, my teacher read something to us that cut me to the core. Our dharma talks are always insightful, but this one made so much sense, and fit so well with everything that I've been sorting through in the past year. It made me cry. So I thought I'd share.


Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,


only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

10 Things

Because I've been gone too long.. :)

Dried flowers.

Joy Division.

These patterns.

Being a bunny Mom. It's the best.

White tattoos.

This article about Justin Vernon.

Hand candy.

Peter Pan inspired couple tattoos.

Reality check.

A movie I used to love.

It's supposed to rain until Thursday.
Sounds like the perfect time to nap and drink tea.

Love you, M

Unrelated Thoughts

Blogging ADD. Ha.

I'm in a wedding in September, and I think I want to do my hair like this:


Less practical, and quite impossible, but I do adore this girl's locks.


I've decided that I want my someday wedding reception to be held in an outdoor blanket fort. :)
(Don't laugh at me. Ha. It's my dream!)




My favorite color in the world: (I will honest to God buy anything in this color, even if I don't need or want it.)




Hope your week is pretty and inspired. xx

Love, M

Queens

Oh, it was everything I've ever dreamed it would be.

And more.







Such an incredible experience.

Love, M

An Amazing Find

Every once in a great while, I find something on Etsy that is insanely perfect. I have been on the lookout for a vintage Eames rocker for at least a year now, and I FINALLY found a shop that sells them. And they are BEAUTIFUL.
This one's mine:

But these are equally lovely.


HERE


For a few years now I've been slowly collecting vintage pieces for my post-college residence. It's a pretty rad collection. I find that when I'm buying/designing for ME, it's quite different than when I design for a client. I love it though. I'm not a huge fan of "new" kitchenware, nor am I a huge fan of department stores, BUT, the other day when I was in Sear's I fell deeply in love with this:

Yes, folks. That IS a lavender can opener.
And then there's this, of course..


Love, M

Alice-Inspired Lamp DIY

OR more accurately titled: I saw a cute lamp a while ago on Anthropologie for close to 300 bucks and said "F this, I'm making a cuter one."

Things are a little askew in my little life at the moment, so I decided to do a little something to take my mind off of things. Our final for Color & Light is to design and build a custom light. Two birds, one stone. Perfect.

This is the original, from Anthropologie:

Cute, but not $300 cute. No way, Jose!

So here's what I did.
FIRST, I thrifted all day long for vintage dishes. I wanted them to be mostly white, but when I found the green I was smitten and I had to include it. My Great Aunt also donated the pretty textured glass dish that I used for the base. All of my dishes were a buck a piece. SCORE. (As far as dishes, you will need: three saucers, two teacups, one teapot, and a bowl)

THEN, I took a reluctant trip to Lowe's to buy 1.) A wiring kit (9 bucks), some epoxy (4 bucks), a diamond drill bit for ceramics (12 bucks) and browse lamp shades.

Once I got everything home, I removed all of the sticker residue (HATE STICKER RESIDUE) with rubbing alcohol, and then washed everything in warm soapy water.


Then I would suggest dry fitting everything to figure out how you want it to look. Some dishes fit a lot better than others, so it's sort of just trial and error.

After you have the arrangement you want, take a sharpie and make a dot in the center of each dish.
You'll need to drill through all of the dishes so that the wire can go all the way through. This was probably the most tedious part of the entire process. Each dish will take anywhere from 1-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the porcelain. AND you need a special drill bit. This one worked really well and wasn't too expensive.

Once you've drilled through the center of all of the dishes, you need to thread the wire through whatever you've chosen as your base. Then, you will mix a small amount of epoxy as you go. Attach the base to the next piece after threading it through. You get the idea.

This epoxy worked really well. It's cheap, and you don't end up needing more than one.

Continue threading the wire and epoxying your dishes together. You'll want a teacup to be the last piece so that you can cover it with something to attach to the socket. I used a canning lid, but it was sort of flimsy, so perhaps a piece of metal that fits over the teacup opening. You might also use wood. Drill a hole through it and attach the socket. The directions for wiring you socket should be on the back of your wiring kit, and will be a lot easier to understand than me trying to explain it. Ha.

I used a harp-less shade for mine, but you could also attach a harp to the socket (it's included in your kit) and choose a shade that needs a harp. And here's what it looks like when it's done:



I'm pretty pleased with it. :)
Hope your week is going smoothly. It's soooo cold out!

Love, Mae

Cut the Cord