Love Letter for a Tuesday ….Memories and making the most of what we have.

In this past week I've had glimpses and feelings that I am being guided and helped along my way.

It’s been a big few weeks for me, with lots of different things going on but I’ve felt guided and loved by a higher source and I know it’s Lona, Da and Franny.

I’ve come across some beautiful items which hold memories. One being my school doona cover. Beautiful Lona made this for me. I remember going shopping for the fabric. A soft pale blue and white check gingham. It has ties at the end and my school name tag sewn on.

I remember that first night at school and smelling Lona’s perfume on the fabric and just crying and crying.

I did the same this week when I came across it again, 22 years later! Though I was disappointed not to smell Lona’s perfume, the memory was there.

Trix decided she would like to use it on her bed, this made my heart sing! 

Then we realised it needed mending! I’ll get onto that!

I then came across some platters in the laundry and as I was washing them, I turned them over to see Leonie Corkhill written upon them in beautiful Lona’s writing. Again tears started to flow. I ran my fingers across her name, the beautiful flow of the L and the C, each with a little curl at the top.

The essence of grief catches us at random times, our memory is triggered and then there is that heart string ache and we instinctively place our hand on our heart to soothe and cradle it.

What has struck me about these two finds is that Lona just kept making the most of what she/we had. Sometimes I know there wasn’t extra but she seemed to create so much beauty from not a lot. She often remarked how her dear mother made their dresses, ball gowns and so many other items of clothes from extra fabric she had or bought. The back looked just as tidy as the front, the sign of a true seamstress, our Mother would say!

Yesterday she helped me again to find what I needed to create beauty within a space. I decided I was going to paint the studio bathroom and make it more of a ‘lovely’ space, not one I just washed my brushes in! So I have been thinking about a new colour scheme and then came across a tin half filled with emerald green paint. This was the new colour. As I almost squeezed and shook every last drop from that tin, it just seemed to keep going until that last roll of the roller completed the job! It transformed the room! Though the floor needed some attention. It is concrete, painted in a mustard concrete paint and then splattered with years of paint. I do love it but not enough to keep it. I then found what I thought was grey paving paint and decided to paint the floor. I opened the bucket and to my surprise there was limited grey in the bottom but an upturned tin of white paving paint in there as well!

The bathroom floor was then painted white! Not the most user friendly for a studio bathroom, but certainly freshened it up!

While waiting for the paint to dry I also painted the firehalf in the kitchen in front of the fridge which housed an old wood stove. The white was definitely a bit much, so I used the grey to add a diamond pattern. Looking at it this morning, I would say ‘rough diamonds’!

Trix suggested I do the same to the studio bathroom. Again just enough paint to finish the job!

I’m very excited about this fun new space and I know Lona is looking on agreeing that it all looks fantastic.

I didn’t spend a cent on this transformation, I just used what we had. I channelled Lona!

Sometimes I feel we just keep wanting more. When do we have enough?

I know I want to keep growing, learning and expanding my mind, thoughts and ideas. Maybe this is the only real thing I want more of?

Am I kidding myself? I love new clothes and shoes and I think that’s ok. I do think more about it now though and not buy so much in haste. Hylesy thought it would be a good idea to enforce a 24 hour cool off buying period! I thought about it!!

In the end I think it’s about creating the memories and I don’t feel it’s the big things. Sometimes it's the words that were spoken or the labour of love that was gifted to us like the Doona Cover Lona made me. It’s the value systems that have been instilled in us that are based on giving and serving others not just ourselves. 

It’s about making the most of what we have and appreciating it all.

It’s as easy and as hard as that some days.

All my love for this day ahead,

Love Steph xx