Object of Affection

I've decided that I'm going to start a new series on my blog, entitled "Object of Affection," so that I can share some of my favorite and most special things with you. Once each month, I'll pick something different from around my home and tell you a bit about it. I thought about doing this as we rearranged our house and set up my sewing room, and I had the chance to linger over all my little doo-dads and consider them as I decided where their new home would be. I think photographing and writing about these objects are a way to help me appreciate all the things around me and to reflect on the meaning they hold for me.

Object of Affection: Nature Bowl

I found this little bowl at the thrift store and, for a year and a half, have been filling it with things from my walks, hikes, travels, and time spent in the yard. I love the way the natural colors look against its burnished gold. Some of these things I've had longer than the past year and a half, but have just given them a cozy little home inside this bowl. I collected the fall leaves on campus my freshman year at college. And the shell that is scarred by scratches and tiny holes came from a trip with my friend, Shanna, to Charleston and Savannah that same year. I love how it looks decomposed, like an old bone.

There are some things I no longer can recall the origin of. I've collected countless acorns, picking them from the ground when they are ripe with their shocking chartreuse and contrasting cap. But they always darken to brown and lose their brightness. And, since I was a little girl, I have been able to spot four-leaf clovers as easily as a blade of grass. Sometimes I see one in a flash, out of the corner of my eye, while I'm walking and will retrace my steps to pick it. It's a strange ability to have.

Mostly, though, I like the collection of these objects, how they all look together - one tiny bowl full of nature, representing different landscapes and all of its seasons. I love the way their textures and colors combine and contrast and speak to one another. 

I use these little bits as inspiration for new animal creations; it helps their personalities come to life. It helps me imagine them in their habitats, and I can see them interacting with these acorns, rocks, and clovers, scampering over them, collecting them for their own homes. Sometimes, there is a whole other world alive inside my head.