After an extended absence from writing my own blog, I have decided to bring it back to life! It is just one part of a whole revamp of my website and online presence. 

The most notable change to my site and my emerging world is my little online shop called compendiumshop.ca, which will house all the new things coming out of my studio … and there will be LOTS of new things emerging in the coming months!! I am working on a whole new selection of one-of-a-kind, hand-painted pieces that will represent three areas that are very important to me ~ salvaging, function and beauty. So some of the future is completely new for me, and I am pretty excited.

What has emerged from our pandemic times for me is a need to change what I am doing, and how I am putting it into the world. Three shops that carried my work pre-pandemic, have either closed completely or downsized their inventory all around. This has left the Salish Sea Market, in Bowser, BC, as my single outlet for furniture pieces. Ahhh yes, a shift is in the works. Reinventing myself and my work, and although it’s taken me months to get to this point, I now feel much more prepared to move forward. I am so very thankful to everything and everyone who have helped me get to this point.

I have re-energized much of the website, adding, removing and updating throughout. I am most intrigued about my little shop though … trying to create what I would like a bricks-and-mortar store to feel like, but here, online. It will definitely be a work-in-progress, and will be updated with new pieces regularly. (Hopefully weekly!)

My internal wisdom continues to tell me to move slowly and intentionally through these times. No Rush Required. So far, this wisdom is working perfectly for me.

In deciding to reactivate my blog, I want to share a variety of aspects of my world, once a week, on Sundays. It’s my way of sitting with you and having a little visit. So, if you aren’t signed up to receive this in your email inbox, I hope you will  join me on this curious adventure called LIFE … with all it’s peaks and valleys, joys and wonder!

I promise to do my best to inspire and inform.

My desire is to create a community here! I hope you will join me.

Welcome to my new world.
~sarah

 

Yes, the NEW Mandala Decks are finally here … I am so pleased with them! They are a bit larger than the previous ones and feel nice in your hand. The card stock is heavier too.

I have replaced the original two decks with this one. It has 36 cards and represents the original deck, some of the second deck and a whole bunch of new mandalas.

I took my inspiration from the 30 Days of Calm colouring pack that I designed, so I took some of those and coloured them!

How do I use these cards … well, I randomly choose three cards each morning to set the tone and ground the day. So far, the cards I have chosen or the cards that have chosen me, have been PERFECT.

If you are on Vancouver Island, they are available at Lobelia’s Lair and Departure Bay Aromatherapy, in Nanaimo, and at the Salish Sea Market, in Bowser.

Of course you can also order them from me, right here. And I will send them right to your door!

May there always be something that grounds your day and keeps you happy!

~sarah

 

 

This past week and a bit has seen a huge burst of finishing pieces that I have been working on for awhile. It feels very freeing to have completed these pieces. It’s opening my up to what’s next. I honestly don’t know what that is, but I did know that I needed to finish what I had started, or decide that it wasn’t worth finishing, and move on.

Sometimes the finishing of a piece takes a long time. I stall in my progress, for many reasons. Sometimes I just don’t have the right information to continue. Sometimes I get sidetracked. Sometimes I have lost the thread of where something was going.

These two pieces, which are 12″ circle panels mounted on a spacer into a 16″ shadow box, are two examples of just not knowing what was next for them. They have been in a drawer for many months. Every once in awhile I would take them out, look them over and see if I could see the next step. For many months I have not been able to. Until this week.

This first one, Layers of Life, never seemed to tell me how to realize its completion. I would look at the base piece and just not see it. Then, in the past few days, I took it out again and I started to put the details in. The colours were all there, but none of the detail. Well, when I started, it just came to life and now I have to say that is one of my favourite pieces!

 

This second piece was a little of the same story. The base was there, but the details eluded me. I finished this one just after the US Election when I was really feeling the need for everyone to come together, hence, its name, We All Come Together.

Then there was the last little box … one of a series that I did … and again, it was the detail that brought it to life. I realize that I am stumped when I have large open areas to deal with, until I see how the detailing of them can work so well!

And this last piece is the heaviest table I’ve ever worked on … I call it “The Iron Leg Table”. Originally designed to be an outdoor table I think, someone replaced the glass top with wood. My perfect “canvas”. It is far more detailed then the photograph shows … metallic paints are so hard to capture without full studio lighting. It is now at the Salish Sea Market in Bowser for sale.

So, it’s been a busy few weeks of tidying up the bits and pieces and I feel really good about it all. Now I listen for the next easy step … hmmm … I wonder what it will be?

May the bits and pieces of your creative life offer you joy, always!

~sarah