Calendar Giveaway

Happiest New Year

Thank you Martingale, for supporting our blog's wonderful 2010 giveaway series.

This is a lovely 12 x 12 calendar, metal reinforced hanghole, and over 1" squares for each date.

As if it's not enough to just be a great calendar,

there are patterns for the featured quilts!

Honestly.

The winner will be announced (random number generator winner)

at sundown

New Years Day.

So hurry! 

In order to be eligible to win, 

please become a facebook follower and a blog follower

AND

leave a note about one thing you're going to do

to be more

o r g a n i z e d

in 2011.

HappiestDays.

natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

A New Year - A New Decade - Anew.

Begin Again.

A new year, a new decade.

Some times in our lives, in our work day, in our projects, in our quilts, in our breathing in, breathing out, 

it is hard to distinguish between the sunrise and the sunset.

The breath in, the breath out.

The beginning of a project, the completion of a project.

Are we cutting the binding to finish the project, or to start to give the gift?

On this magical New Year's Eve

With it's wonderful full moon

With it's beautiful blue moon

I wish you both.

I wish for you the quiet still and the wonder of a sunrise

a new day

And the peace and majesty of a sunset

a day well done.

I wish you both.

And the smile that both brings.

I wish for you the fabric, the project, the sewing, the quilting, the giving of the quilt.

I wish for you breath in, breath out.

Simply that.

I have said it before, quoting Julian 

quoting Rumi:

Begin Again.

2010.

New Year 2009 - sparkle and shine

"And now, let us welcome the New Year

Full of things that have never been."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

I am not going to write a lot.

I am going to post an email that I sent someone.

A long time ago.

And she sent it back to me today.

And...well..

"I HAVE THIS CONCEPT - THAT IF YOU STAY ON YOUR OWN PATH, AND YOU'RE TRUE TO YOURSELF, AND YOU care - REALLY CARE FOR OTHERS REGARDLESS OF THEIR ACTIONS, THAT THE UNIVERSE WILL RESPOND IN LIKE FASHION.  THAT YOU WILL BE WITH PEOPLE THAT HAVE THEIR OWN PATH, ARE TRUE TO THEMSELVES AND THEIR OWN BELIEFS, AND THAT CARE - REALLY CARE FOR YOU.

HAPPY BREEDS HAPPY.  LOVE BREEDS LOVE.  HATE BREEDS HATE.  GOOD HORSE STOCK BREEDS GOOD HORSES.  BAD BREEDS BAD. ON AND ON AND ON.

THE CHALLENGE COMES WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL AROUND YOU (OR YOUR perception IS THAT IT IS) AND YOU ARE CALLED UPON TO GRAB YOUR OWN GUT, YOUR INNER SELF, WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE TRUE AND RIGHT AND GOOD, AND STAND STRONG AND LET THE CRAZINESS SPIN OUT AROUND YOU.  I THINK OF THOSE TORNADOS IN THE MIDWEST - THEY ARE TOTAL DEVASTATION, YES, BUT THEY BLOW BY IN A MATTER OF MINUTES.  AND IF YOU CAN JUST STAND STRONG, YOU SURVIVE THOSE FEW MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE AND GO ON.

BE THE STRONG IN ANOTHER PERSONS LIFE.  BE THE LOVE OF THEIR LIFE.  BE THE STRONG IN YOUR LIFE.  BE THE LOVE OF YOUR OWN LIFE."

sparkle and shine

2009

Natalie.

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." - Rumi

New Years Eve Reflections - 2007

"We are the echo of the future."  - W.S. Merwin

On this eve, I choose calm and quiet.  I am still and I listen for the echo of what is to come.  To create.  To do.  To be.

And if you are not calm and quiet, and if you are singing and dancing and greeting the new year with revelry, I think that will be what you create and do.  That is what you will be.

So, choose wisely.

May the new year be a delight to you all of the days of 2008.

It is a blank page; write well.

As for the old year, I quote Buckminister Fuller:

"There is no conclusion.  There are no fortunes to be told, and no advice to be given.  Farewell."

And as for the bittersweet ache that 2007 has left, I quote Luis Cernuda:

"I know well enough that this image - fixed forever in my mind is not you, but the shadow of love which exists in me...and although I know this, I then think that without you, without the rare excuse you give me, my love, now a tenderness today would be there within sleeping still and lying in hope...then I thank you."