Rosy Lady

Oahu Part 1: Flowers everywhere

The first thing that I noticed when we got to Oahu was that there were flowers everywhere.

Orchids grow in abundance in gardens, pots and in trees.  So many varieties and colours.

The Plumeria was also full in bloom everywhere.

We saw the hibiscus in so many different colours.

We saw so many different types of flowers that it is not possible to do one post about it all so, I will have to add a few more over the next few posts.  But, I wanted to share how I noticed that the flowers everywhere translated into everything else.  Like the public phone booths:

The shops:

We were wearing floral clothes.  Hubby is now the proud owner of several 'aloha shirts', while I loved wearing a flower above my left ear everyday.  Wearing the flower on the left indicates that you're not available, but wearing it on the right shows that you are single.

I could not resist adding flowers to my nails too:

xx             

Aloha!

Thank you for your patience while I went off to have the holiday of a lifetime.  

 

We had the most amazing time in Hawaii (Oahu, the Big Island and Maui) and San Francisco.  Just when we thought it was all coming to an end, we had an unexpected week long extension in San Francisco due to the volcanic ash over Europe.  We definitely needed the extra time in this beautiful city.  We got back on Monday and have been straight back to work.  We have both needed the last few days to process all the amazing experiences we've had and to get over the jet-lag.  SF is 8 hours behind the UK and Hawaii a further 3 hours so, I am wide awake at night and want to sleep in the day.  But, let's skip the boring stuff.  I hope you wouldn't mind, but I would love to share some of our holiday photos with you over the next few posts, I have been so inspired.  If you have followed my blog for a while, you will know that I love color, flowers, nature, my husband, sunshine and good food so, as you can imagine, Hawaii was right up my alley.  

I fell in love with Oahu the day that we arrived.  It was a warm sunny day, the people were friendly, we were greeted with a Lei (the floral necklace), everywhere I looked was vivid colors, flowers and the blue of the ocean, oh, it was sO blue!  That's when all the stress and worries from the last two years just melted away.  I felt a little teary eyed as I thought how we always wanted to visit Hawaii together, how that almost did not happen for us, and then felt incredibly blessed and humbled to stand on our hotel balcony and overlook Waikiki. 

I hope you will join me as I relive our journey and capture the memories that I never want to forget and all the design inspiration from these wonderful islands.

  

I hope life has treated you kindly?

xx

Happy Easter

 While the UK is receiving snow, rain, cold and severe weather warnings, I am packing my suitcase with bathing costumes, sandals, summer dresses and T-shirts.  It is hard to believe that it will be warmer in a different part of the world but I really hope that it is.  We booked this holiday 9 months ago and tonight we are finally off to the airport.  We are finally going to San Francisco and Hawaii (Oahu, Big Island and Maui) so, I will be on a blog break until we return in 3 weeks.  May I take this opportunity to wish you a happy easter.  I am hoping to return with a lot of inspirational photos from this trip.

xx

 

Looking up

The sun came out yesterday afternoon and I couldn't resist making a start on some pruning and de-weeding in the garden.  While I was down on hands and knees, pulling out weeds, I suddenly looked up.

I just felt inspired by the light coming through the yellow petals.  This moment really spoke to me. Here I was so busy focussing on the mud and the weeds around me that I almost missed the light and beauty above me, had I not looked up.  Of course I had to stop what I was doing to grab my camera to capture the moment.

My life seems to be at a point right now where I feel constantly reminded to look beyond the stress, worries and problems of life that often feels like it is surrounding us and instead, to look up or look around us and to try and see the beauty in the ugly or to notice that when you thought you were knee deep in weeds and mud, that the sun has been shining above you the whole time and that there are blessings that blossom in abundance over you, if you would only look up.  This may not make sense to you but, that is where I am at and I needed to record this as a reminder to myself.

Hope you have a great weekend full of beauty and inspiration.

xx   

Seeing beauty in the ugly

I drove past an empty building the other day where the windows have been boarded up.  Posters have been pasted over the boards that cover the windows.  It is such an eye sore in a neighborhood but, then I had to take another look.  Someone has seen the potential for beauty in the ugly and painstakingly created these images that stir emotion as you look at each of them. 

They say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' and I'm sure that someone would see this as vandalism but, I admire the creativity of this street artist.

It was a powerful reminder to me to always try and see the beauty or the positive in life, no matter how difficult or negative something seems.

I am a great believer in 'counting your blessings' and finding something to be grateful for and that has carried me through many difficult situations.  Thank you so much for the kind words regarding my earlier post to all who has supported and loved us.  

Happy weekend everyone!  

 xx

Inspiration

When you think and dream in terms of patterns, colours, pictures and illustrations, your eye will catch inspiration anywhere.  I remember as a child intently looking at the print on my Mum's vintage sugar and flour tins.  I would study each little flower, how it is so delicately drawn and how the colours are so vibrant and yet, in parts so subtle to make such a pleasing print.  Mum, if I haven't asked yet, can I please have these tins if you ever get bored with them??

Of course they are not kept outside, this is just for the purpose of the photo :-)

Some of my family are keen collectors of retro and vintage tins, for example with old soap or tea adverts on them.  I have never caught that bug but I can appreciate the designs on some of them. The next tin caught my eye at my brothers' house.  I like the delicate floral detailing that goes around the picture. 

 

I was also quite chuffed when I found this little pill box in a local secondhand shop.  I would love to use it for a few spare pins but the lid is not very secure so I may just use it for a few buttons or something.

And this is the picture on the lid:

Hope you have a lovely weekend.  It is me and Illustrator today.  I have narrowed my ideas down for my first fabric line, now to get the ideas onto paper or into the computer.

xx  

My miracle

I have always felt that we were meant to be together, soulmates.  I met my husband in New York in the Spring of 2001.  We were both traveling alone but on the same couch tour.  It was a three week coast to coast tour that took us from New York to Los Angeles with various magical places in between.  It was a great opportunity to get to know each other, become friends and fall in love. When the holiday came to an end, his travels continued to Hawaii while I had to return to England. We maintained contact back in England although he lived on the west coast and I lived on the east coast.  He would phone me and we would talk for hours, I loved listening to his Irish voice.  It felt right when he proposed and initially planned to get married three years later.  We saw each other fortnightly over weekends and then forgot why we wanted to wait when it felt so right to be together and so wrong to be apart.  So, we got married just before Christmas the same year that we met.  We then went to South Africa and had another wedding with my family and friends.

Life was bliss and I thought we would be happy forever and grow old together.  We visit my family at least once a year and they have also been to visit us in England. 

 

 It was when my parents visited us and we travelled to Ireland (on my 30th birthday) that he developed chest pains so we spent most of the night in the A&E in Dublin.  I thought that he had just pulled a muscle from carrying our heavy suitcases but, looking back at our photos, he had lost a lot of weight and his face had changed colour.  

He maintained a brave face throughout the week long tour but then went to the doctors on our return to England.  I will never forget that day.  He phoned me to tell me that they wanted to admit him to hospital and asked me to go to the hospital.  When I got there, the hospital had rushed a specialist over to see him.  The doctor told us that they thought he would look a lot worse than he did and to prepare ourselves for the worst.  They had done an x-ray of his chest and found a big lump growing from his one lung, around the heart and to the other lung.  It did not look good.  I sobbed as I drove home alone but was grateful that my parents were with me through those early days.  It took several tests and biopsies but they were unable to diagnose the problem.  Eventually, they decided to perform open-heart surgery, which was a scary prospect.  I watched my young, healthy husband deteriorate before my eyes.

After our holiday in America, Hubby always told me that he promised himself in Hawaii that he would one day return with me.  We always dreamed about this holiday but, always put it off for whatever reason.  There are so many other things that we have put off, like having children.  Suddenly I could not remember why we had put off so many things in life, thinking we would do that 'one day'.

After his surgery, the results came back.  Hodgkin's Disease.  Cancer.  Before this, I have never had a close encounter with this disease and always thought cancer meant you were going to die.  I could not bare the thought.  When we were advised that Hubby would have chemotherapy, I had no idea that it would go on for 6 months of treatments.  The chemo started within 2 weeks of his surgery, which slowed his recovery.  I had to care for him and do a very stressful job but gradually, we got used to the routine of fortnightly chemo.

Hubby was such an inspiration to me.  Never complaining, always smiling, determined to beat this disease.  After 6 months of treatment, we were told that the lumps were gone and his chest was clear.  That was such a relief!  However, we were also told that he would have to be closely monitored for the first two years as this was the most likely time for the cancer to return.  His recovery has been slow and there has been some health scares but, he is getting back to his old self and is starting to look like the man I remember.  

 

We got the news yesterday that he has now been cancer-free for two years.  It feels like a weight is off my shoulders.  We can look forward now and plan for the future.  This experience has made us stronger, appreciating life and every day that we have and no longer willing to put things off.  Hubby has written a children's novel, which we are hoping to get published and I am pursuing my dreams to become a textile designer but for now we are looking forward to taking that holiday to Hawaii in 4 weeks time.

** This is a very long and personal post but I wanted to remind myself of where we come from so that I never forget to live for today and to make the most of it.

 

 

Stop and smell the coffee

I have been doing a lot of reflecting of where my life is at, what we've been through and can finally look forward to where we are going.  This probably doesn't make any sense to you but, once I have gathered my thoughts, I will share some more with you.

I have found the above in a little coffee shop in Franschoek, South-Africa and thought it was such a sweet idea.

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and say 'hi'.

xx

 

There is a time for everything

After several days of rain, we've had a break in the clouds and I just had to go for a walk in the park while the sun came out momentarily.  I have always loved the transition from one season to the next and was delighted by the early promise of Spring.

There was a sense of anticipation as though Nature is on a stage, just waiting for the curtain to open so she could dazzle her eager audience.  There were buds everywhere and green sprouts just peeking through the ground.

While the sound of water falling and splashing in various fountains around the park encouraged some blooms to take a peek...

The door of the museum located in the park and witnessing the transition in seasons reminded me of the different seasons in my own life.

The seasons of life is so beautifully described in Ecclesiastes 3.  Have you ever read it?

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

 

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

I find it comforting to know that there is a rhythm, a balance and a season to the circle of life. My family always say "the wheel turns" meaning that sometimes you're under and sometimes you're at the top.  I have had my time of being under and going through the mud but, I believe that things are looking up.  

xx        

Damp, dull, grey

I can add wet and cold to the list.  Yes, it is the weather outlook for today.  Bring on Spring!  Please, pretty please?!

xx