With Heart and Hands Blog
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Creative Arts Blogger Michele Bilyeu shares her sewing, quilting, and crafting journey from Alaska to Oregon at With Heart and Hands. A not-for-profit, "neighbor-helping-neighbor" organization which pairs volunteers with care receivers in their community for a variety of services.
With Heart and Hands Blog
1y ago
Black Friday
Black Friday has been traced back to the 1970s. The day was originally so named because of the heavy traffic on that day, when all one could see was massive amounts of shoppers in stores, and cars on highways.
Although most contemporary uses of the term refer instead to it as the beginning of the period in which retailers are "in the black "(i.e., turning a profit) as opposed to "in the red", when they are not.
The earliest meaning of the term Black Friday was also meant to be an implicit comparison to the extremely stressful and chaotic experience of Black T ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
1y ago
The origins of Halloween, may have begun with Roman festivals of harvest, but is typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)",which is derived from the Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end."
The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year, and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes regarded as the Celtic New Year. It is believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through.
The family's ancestors were honored ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
1y ago
And.....Making Magical Devil's Club Lip Balm in Alaska...
Beware of the following superstitions of olde!
• Many people used to consider that owls would dive down to eat the souls of the dying on Halloween. They believed that if you pulled your own pockets out, and left them hanging, the dying would be safe. (Good to know, especially the next time you get caught with your pockets hanging out from the dryer!)
• To ward off evil spirits on Halloween, bury all the animal bones in your front yard, or even put a picture of an animal very close to your doorway. (I'll assume they mea ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
1y ago
August
"When the blackberries hang
swollen in the woods, in the brambles
nobody owns, I spend
all day among the high
branches, reaching
my ripped arms, thinkinof nothing, cramming
the black honey of summer
into my mouth; all day my body
accepts what it is. In the dark
creeks that run by there is
this thick paw of my life darting among
the black bells, the leaves; there is
this happy tongue."
By Mary Oliver
“August,” another wonderful poem from the collection American Primitive (1983), is about a speaker savoring the rich taste of blackberries, in the brambles not owned ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
2y ago
My Dad and I
( 2010 )
From my journal/blog in 2010:
"I broke my wrist in Alaska on January's ice. Dad had his 93rd Birthday and then 2 silent heart attacks not long after that.
I cooked, cleaned, did laundry, and took care of both my parents with one hand for 3 months instead of physical therapy before heading back to Oregon.
I also kept up my blog, the best I could typing with one hand then correcting words needing upper case letters and punctions later.
It was one of the most challenging and meaningful experienes of my life. But the smile on Dad's face when I ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
2y ago
I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or
whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
~Chuang Tzu
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes
it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
~Maya Angelou
“Consider what happens to a bottle of water when it is left in the freezer. As it cools down, there is a steady, continuous change in its temperature.
The water won’t change much
in appearance until it begins to get near the critical threshold of its freezing point. Then, as it passes this, an extraordinar ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
2y ago
The month of May 2019 started with a wild snort and a snuffle and an unexpected guest invading our home.
It was more of a May Day! May Day! than I'd ever imagined.
Little did I know that my house would turn into a bed and breakfast for some caged escapees and my house a pigsty.
This little pig tale began early in the morning as I heard a noise, glanced out the door and was startled by this charmer.
We don't entertain many house guests out here in our looney boonies other than family. And this one was a bit of a boar as far as guests go and didn't have much to say.
Before ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
2y ago
The 1960's were a decade of great change and intense social upheaval. It was marked by the untimely and violent deaths of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. It was an era filled with exciting new musical groups, strange yet exciting clothing, big hair, bigger earrings, taller shoes, shorter skirts and unforgettably wide bell bottom pants. It was the era of "Flower Power, Far Out and Feelin' Groovy" and there was someone, and something to watch every where you looked.
I spent my high school years from 1964-1968 in Juneau, Alaska and then traveled "south to the States ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
2y ago
During times of intense national, global, or personal challenges, where I have often asked for shared prayers, and well wishes for even members of my immediate family, the designing of prayer flags has always been a natural progression of my fiber art.
When I learned during the prayers flags from the many world religion books I was fascinated by and the amazing discovery of just how much seemingly disparate religions share in beliefs, stories and symbols, I realized that my need to be and to do continuing good in my world stemmed from innate beliefs and energies ar ..read more
With Heart and Hands Blog
2y ago
When the light around lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,
When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen,
When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,
Steady yourself and see
That it is your own thinking
That darkens your world.
Search and you will find
A diamond-thought of light,
Know that you are not alone,
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes,
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner.
Invoke the lear ..read more