Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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Peaceful Rose of Sharon

   When you feel peaceful, does that feeling have a color? Or a texture, or a fragrance, or a sound? Does your inner peace taste like anything you can describe? When you remember your peace at a needful moment, do you contrast it against a certain pain to enhance the pleasure, or is it strong enough on its own?

  Gardens personify peace and beauty for me, as do both sparkling cleanliness and coconut cream pie. And also perfect coffee. Sunsets, especially when they can be enjoyed at leisure, following plenty of satisfying work, are symphonic in their expression of peace. Feeling and savoring that sweet, buttery, succulent, breezy, warm, perfumed, humming, musical, sparkling nucleus of peacefulness is a gift. Peace is a gift I do not take lightly in the face of so many storms in life.
   For a while I felt incredible guilt in celebrating sensuality so much, in noticing, craving, and magnifying the physical details of this world as much as I loved to do, as if they could somehow steal richness and gravity from the spiritual rivers that run around and through us. But then I felt and accepted that every spiritual urging seemed to have a physical parallel, or at least a physical expression. A sensual translation exists for every unseen emotion I have ever felt, how about you? 
   And so it goes with peace. Thankfully, the spectrum of colors and flavors and other wonderful expressions of peace are vast. Tonight, as I watched the sun sink behind the back field and the dense storm clouds gathered for a second night in a row, I caught a glimpse of  the dark pink Rose of Sharon right outside my kitchen window. Despite the storm, she stands here resolutely, gracefully, in full bloom. 
   Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace, to be real, must be unaffected by outside circumstances.” Clearly we are not islands. We are very much affected by outside circumstances and we also can be or bring about the outside circumstances that affect others. But finding and celebrating inner peace that flows and radiates despite difficulties, this is beautiful.
   The Lazy W is not without storms, both meteorological and spiritual. But we have been blessed with an abundance of beauty and peace. We have our eyes open to the ocean of grace and creation from which we came ourselves. And we know that while storms are always brewing, so is life and so is peace. I don’t have to look very far to be reminded and comforted by a thousand physical expressions of Love.
“Peace is its own reward.”
~Gandhi
xoxoxo

Wedding in Instagram

 Hey you guys! Remember how we had no personal photos of the wedding we hosted here two Saturdays ago? Well, thanks to my friend Marci, who along with her darling offspring and gentleman beau also helped a ton with Brian & Rebecca’s wedding, we have a few more photos at our disposal. She shared her Instagram snap shots with me, and I am sharing them with you. Thanks again Marci!!

   Incidentally, these are some of the best visuals of a few of the Pinterest projects we chose as a group.

   This sign is cool because the picket itself came from my Dad. Mysti stenciled the lettering. Susan painted over the stenciling in white. Handsome nailed it all together and sank it into the rock hard earth. Juliana helped me decorate it after sunset the night before the wedding. And now Brian, the new groom, has placed it in the happy couple’s new garden! A team effort if ever there was one.
   Here is the beautiful bride making her gentle way down the aisle. Rebecca looked incredible and treated everyone with love and warmth, from the first wedding conversation a month ago till the last minute of the wild reception. And do you see the blue hydrangeas? Debbie brought two such gorgeous arrangements to mark the aisle. The day was so windy that we had to place a thousand rocks at the base of each one but everything turned out just fine. Also, you can see Luis, the talented photographer in the background. Have you watched his artistic slideshow yet? Beautiful.
   
   Here we have the precious 8-year-old Juliana and the slightly less precious 38-year-old me. The previous night we had agreed to both wear sock buns, a’la Pinterest of course. This little girl was not only a LOT of help; she was also a true joy to have flitting around the farm, and I think she made fast friends with Madison, Rebecca’s sweet little girl. Hey there’s Luis again!
   Who has two thumbs and is a sucker for blurred white twinkle lights??? This guy. Oh, and here is one way we used the four million coffee-filter poms sewn and fluffed out by Jacqueline, Susan, Rebecca, Marci, and probably more wonderful ladies. 
   
   This was hands down my personal favorite part of the wedding decor. Our exuberant Oklahoma wind really made the most out of these free-form blue and white tree streamers, wildly installed by Juliana and her big brother Koby. Later that Saturday night, we had some pretty hefty thunderstorms, and so these fluffy tissue beauties became shrunken, pasted beauties. But the effect was wonderful for the special day, and I will definitely be doing this again.
   Rebecca’s nephew cut dozens of sheet music triangles, and Debbie and Susan constructed yards and yards of these paper pennants for decorating the reception trees. 
   
   We placed various succulents and potted ivies along with sand-and-candle-filled mason jars throughout the reception. The tables were all dressed in old linens and lace, borrowed from so many generous ladies.
   Dusty was feeling amorous that day.
   And apparently he was rubbing off on Daphne.
   What a relief to have a few more photos. What a fun collection of projects. And most importantly, what a memory-rich day. 
Whew!
xoxoxo

Five Senses Tour in the Bee Yard

   This morning I ushered in my last work day before a long weekend 
sitting out near the bees, about fifteen feet from their hives. 
I got very nearly lost in thought and forgot time for a while. 
Here are some things I noticed…

See: The translucent moon still lingering in the western sky, obscured sometimes by clouds. Reflections of those clouds on the pond. Pale yellow moths or maybe butterflies dancing on the breeze in front of me. Bees thick at the entrance to each hive, crowding each other, then spiraling out into the early morning pastels. The Pine Forest layered and bright behind the bee yard. Some of the trees in there stripped clean of their bark by rutting deer.

Hear: Chickens clucking and skittering through fallen leaves and pine needles. Roosters crowing when they find a meal. Daphne and Dusty giving those sweet, breathy horse ruffles. Behind me, nearer the smoke house, a menagerie of wild birds singing to each other in the tree tops.

Touch: Matted grass, wildflowers, and some short weeds on the sloped middle field where I sit. Light breeze on my arms. Goosebumps when Dusty sneaks up behind me and nuzzles my shoulder. I love that dang horse so much.

Taste: The last swallow of sweet, creamy coffee, no longer hot but still delicious. Something weird and tangy when I lick my finger, then I remember I groomed a tomato plant on my way downhill.

Smell: The sharp, grassy fragrance of dried manure, chlorine suddenly wafted down from the pool, and a new perfume: crushed larkspur seeds still on my fingers. Also pine needles and horse breath.

Feel: Overwhelmed and undeserving. Content and restless.

Think: Of the future, of the many wild, wonderful possibilities for our girls, for Handsome’s career, for this little farm… but also of how beautiful the present moments always are, of how good and strong life is. Of how powerful Love proves itself to be every single time.

Happy weekend, everyone!
Soak up the details. Marinate in them.
Know that choosing joy now 
does not mean you are giving up on future dreams;
you’re only preparing to appreciate them even more
when they finally come true.

Feed Your Faith
Enjoy Your Life
xoxoxo

How I Know My Husband Doesn’t Listen to Me

   I walked outside early this morning to slip an empty pizza box in our concave burn pile, knowing that tonight we will be lighting it. Pizza boxes are excellent fire fodder, after all. And look what I discovered…

   An almost brand new wooden palette laying defeatedly on top of some dried pear tree branches.
   I would never have done this, you guys. not in my sleep, not while heavily medicated, not even under threat of bodily harm. 
   Any sane person who listens to his wife and pays attention to the wisdom of up-cycling would never so nonchalantly toss a perfectly good, plenty strong and usable wooden palette into a fire pit! Who’s with me on this? 
   Well, Handsome is on his way to the Commish now, and I have the farm to myself for the next eight to fifteen hours. So as soon as this coffee mug is empty and the animals are fed and I iron a few shirts, I have some important business that needs tending. Some up-cycling, palette-saving, creativity-nourishing type business. 
   What would YOU do with this palette? Would you make it into a vertical growing space? Or cut it apart for skinny little book shelves? Or would you find a few more just like it and stack them and add casters to make an awesome coffee table? Or how about a super cool head board? Or a spice rack? 
   See, babe? The possibilities for this simple piece of carpentry are just endless. You don’t need it for fire fodder. We have pizza boxes for that. I love you, but I am gonna have to reclaim this palette. Like, today.
P.S. I’m Only Kidding, He Listens to Me Until it Hurts.
xoxoxoxo

Some Photos from the Wedding

   Perhaps you heard the unfortunate rumor that both Handsome and I failed to charge our cameras before the much anticipated Saturday afternoon wedding. Is that the saddest thing you have heard all day? Sorry. But it’s true. All I took is a couple of Instagram shots, and so far only two other candids have surfaced from our friends. Surely more are out there, right, you guys??? Umm, guys?

   Anyway, it’s not all bad news. On Saturday we had our hands full anyway and probably would not have been very effective photographers. More importantly, our friend and a truly talented fine art photographer Luis Saenz came to the rescue. Here is a link to his incredible slideshow of Rebecca and Brian’s wedding so you can browse the beauty yourself.

   If you’re interested, you can also look at some of our Pinterest boards and see how the finished products measure up against the inspiration… Here is mine. Here is Rebecca’s. And here is Susan’s. Over the past few weeks we all used Pinterest to brainstorm, collect feedback on images and ideas, and delegate jobs. It’s not just eye candy, you nay-sayers! Pinterest actually helped us plan this wedding. LOL

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   You know how I hate to tear down a party? How I hate for it to be over and prefer to take my time letting the memories soak in nice and deep before clearing out and scrubbing up? Well this gorgeous, happy wedding has been no exception. In fact, there really are elements of it I’d kinda like to see made permanent here at the Lazy W. We’ll see how that rodeo goes. In the mean time, I’d like to share a few aftermath glimpses of what the wedding team created for our new friends…

   
   This is a view of the ceremony area around 6:45 Saturday morning. The arbor was built on a traditional brass frame borrowed form Handsome’s Mom. It has been used in countless weddings and vow renewals over the decades, so it feels pretty special. Lots of memories are wrapped up in those skinny bars, folks. On the Thursday preceding the wedding, Handsome and I walked to the Pine Forest next door and brought home several dry, naturally curved pear tree limbs and twigs to fatten up the brass frame. Then on Friday morning Debbie, Susan, and I added one strand of greenery after another, then some white flowers, then burlap ribbon, and then some hanging glass lanterns. And maybe more tulle and greenery whenever someone walked past… It was a fun canvas. 
   That scrappy “I do, We did” sign is my favorite. Thanks to Mysti for stenciling the letters, and thanks to Susan for finishing it with white paint but not dripping any on the piano!
   Back to Saturday morning… In the chaotic hours that followed this above Instagram shot, we added to the ceremony area a pair Debbie’s blue hydrangeas, right there at the entrance of the aisle. It looked so soft and bridal. And those mismatched chairs were filled with almost three dozen smiling people, all shaking hands, hugging, and celebrating a new beginning. The grass, blessedly soft, was tracked back and forth with happy, running children and one tulle-wrapped dog named Buster, but no geese. The geese skeedaddled as the crowd grew. This is good. 
   Around 8:30 Saturday morning my sweet Momma drove all the way to the farm with my two be-YOO-tiful nieces to lend us some of her larkspur. We plumped up the arbor area with two five gallon buckets filled with these wild, happy, voluptuous blooms. They were the perfect dressing for the base of the arbor. I just slipped each water-filled bucket inside a burlap coffee bean sack and called it gorgeous. Big thanks to Heather over at New House, New Home, New Life for the burlap gift certificate! 
   At the last minute, Juliana carefully placed paper fans on each chair. They had been glittered with the names of the bride and groom, and she told me she had made sure they alternated: Rebecca, then Brian, then Rebecca, then Brian… 
   I personally think these rustic flower arrangements look incredible against the distressed white obelisks we borrowed form Tyrene, Handsome’s uber talented designer sister. Isn’t that pretty? By the way, there were enough larkspur blooms to cut for both the bridal bouquet and the flower girl’s bouquet without even making a dent. Thank you Momma! I can’t wait to plant the seed heads and have my own wild meadow. The fresh flowers we collected from Mom, Debbie, and Marci the day of the wedding were my favorite element.

   
   This is a big grapevine wreath that hung outdoors the day of the wedding. We had to bring it inside early Sunday because of some pretty heavy thunderstorms. The cool-beans memory for me here is that I glued it together Friday night while watching an OKC Thunder basketball game with a room full of my favorite laughing people and a belly full of good, greasy pizza.
   Here is a glimpse of the sweets buffet. There were so many delish treats available for sampling, you guys, so very many. Having only sweets made it feel like a secret paradise. Adults and children alike filled and refilled their mismatched plates and saucers with chocolate-dipped fruits, cupcakes, pastel meringue bites, monogrammed cookies, and of course wedding cake. This Instagram shot reveals only the tail end of a fruit and marshmallow selection that sat adjacent to the chocolate fountain. See the curvy, elegant chocolate letters? Marci made these on a whim, and they added such a cool effect. We had a team of really talented, really out-pouring people working on this wedding. I know I am not the only one who feels like we were all part of some extra special memory making.
   Again, no luck on snapping shots of the cake on display… Though I do believe Luis has some in his slideshow. Here is a photo of the bride’s cake in the cake-maker’s fridge. It is wrapped in scripture, you guys. So beautiful and so perfect for this couple. The groom’s cake was a half sheet, chocolate in every way, and frosted to look like a tuxedo. 
   More of the sweet leftovers and the flowers that we brought in out of first the rain and then the steamy heat. As I sit here typing out my memories, a plate of cupcakes is whispering terrible things to me. Or, as Charles Barkley would say, turrbull things.
   Brian and Rebecca chose a special song for their special day… “All Your Life” by the Band Perry.
   To incorporate their memory and amp up the rustic feel of the wedding, we made this chalkboard. Handsome found a long sheet of scrap plywood in our barn loft and cut it to about six feet long. Then over the course of a work day I sprayed it with layer after layer of chalkboard paint. Long after sunset on Friday night, Marci’s kiddos primed it with colored chalk. Enthusiastically. On the day of the wedding Susan very sweetly filled it with the song lyrics. Then we just propped the chalkboard up between some trees at the wedding reception and walked around humming the tune…
I just wanna be the only girl you love all your li-iii-iii-iiife…
   This was one of the prettiest details in my opinion. Another nod to the Band Perry song, Rebecca wanted sand in very old mason jars, some clear and some that wonderful antique aqua blue color, all topped with candles. We borrowed most of these jars from Maribeth. And yes, we did burn the candles, even though it was a morning wedding. And the effect was quietly dazzling. Thanks for remembering to light them, Marci!
   Wait, maybe this is my favorite part. I deeply regret not photographing the original wild exuberance of our reception trees all dressed in their white and blue finery, but here is a two-days-later shot. It’s still pretty fun looking if you ask me, but seeing those trees freshly draped with paper streamers blowing in the Oklahoma wind was enough to make me laugh out loud! What was even more fun than the finished product was watching our volunteer kiddos throw and wrap the stuff everywhere! Awesome. Just plain fantastic.
   Do this at your house at your next party. No, wait, do it now. As soon as possible. Yes, I am suggesting that you tipi your own property. With great, exaggerated, overhanded arm movements. You can’t not be cheeered up when your very old, very serious trees look this great! And it erased any doubt as to where the reception was being held. These streamers and the sheet music pennants constructed by Susan, Debbie, and Rebecca’s nephew made the shady smokehouse grove extra special. Thank you, Carolyn, for providing all of that lovely sheet music! And thank you Debbie and Rebecca for all the ironing of mismatched linens for the reception tables!
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   Well, so much more happened that day. We danced the chicken dance. We ate and giggled. We posed inside empty wooden frames. We admired the bride and got to know a few new faces. We threw seeds at the happy couple as they left for their honeymoon. The stories and details abound, but I am fresh out of wedding photos. I hope you took a few minutes to go look at Luis’ slideshow, and I hope you have enjoyed this. We sure have. More important than the creativity and friendship, though, has been that we are all witness to the start of a new love story. We are all fortunate to be embedded in this family’s beginning, and they in turn are embedded in us.
   Sincerest congratulations, Brian and Rebecca! We wish you thousands of happy, special days ahead. We wish you captured sand for wishes fulfilled and millions of fireflies to brighten the dark corners. Thank you so much for letting all of us be part of your wedding. The Lazy W is a richer place now because of it.
Believe in Lightning Bolts
xoxoxo