Blogger's Favorites -- Jaime of Found While Walking

I am immensely inspired by Jaime Rugh...

I'm inspired by her thoughtful, soulful, beautifully quiet blog, Found While Walking; I'm inspired by how she's committed to observing her surroundings...to exploring and then cataloging them, and I'm inspired by her art -- weavings, paintings and collage as a sort of homage to what she stumbles across in the natural world. (I am a lucky owner of one of her small weavings and I can say they are truly magical.)

I've also loved getting to know Jaime a bit through a budding e-mail friendship...she's funny and kind and committed to her family (hugely admirable qualities). So I'm thrilled that she agreed to give us a peek into her world. Her list makes me want to go on an early morning nature walk this weekend in an attempt to uncover our own surprises.

So without further ado, herewith Jaime's favorites. Enjoy and have a fantastic weekend!





Surprises -- As an artist who uses walking to inspire/inform my work, I'm always looking for the unexpected. Sometimes there is a side of me that gets a thrill out of being sneaky and leaving surprises about for my children to discover. Small things. Unexpected things. Seashells hidden in our soil sorts of things. I love when they run screaming to me like they have just found a rainbow.





Warmth- Sunshine, Blankets, Flowers. -- I'm all about warmth and sunshine! When there's no sunshine, I want blankets, and when blankets aren't needed, I hunt for flowers. I'm finding that small vases all over the place, (even if with only a single blossom) make a home feel nice. I also like big piles of stacked textiles in assorted sizes. Blankets for cool days, blankets for sick days, scarves to wrap baby dolls in. Some of my favorite textiles are from: Les Indiennes, and I love Sophie Digard's crocheted scarves or seeing what Jen Jones has found.



Learning New Tricks -- Maybe it's the endless possibilities floating around online, but I'm feeling that it's still possible to learn, master even, new tricks of the trade. Learning to garden, thinking about propagating plants, finally sorting out how to crochet, mastering bread baking . . . it's kind of amazing to me all the things I still want to discover.



Letter Writing -- I love handwritten letters and writing on Gwen Frostic's papers always feel right. (image via here)



This Agnes Martin video





Roy McMakin -- We thought a good amount about Roy McMakin's art, furniture and architecture prior to moving into our home over three years ago. It seemed like a good marriage of the old and the new, well suited for my old tastes and Jeff's newer ones. We loved the oversimplified forms, his use of color and slight pull from the traditional. Upon moving in, living and fixing up the unexpedected's, I thought we forgot about his influence. But in looking at some pictures taken around our home recently, like the one above, I realize, we must have subliminally never lost the inspiration. (image via here)



The Magic Gardens, Philadelphia, PA -- One of my favorite places in Philadelphia is Isaiah Zagar's Magic Gardens on South Street. This man has been mosaic tiling the neighborhood, floor to ceiling, every inch, since the late 1960's. It's Folk Art heaven.



Dries van Noten Shoes -- It was sort of gutsy of me to buy these shoes back in 2004. Sure, they were on sale, but really, where did I think I was going? I'm not much a high heels girl, but still I couldn't say no. They're embroidered after all! Unbeknownst to me, I was pregnant with my first child the day I bought them. And like they say, my feet grew and changed and by the time nine months passed, there was no way these shoes would actually ever fit. I still wear them though. It's torture, but I love them too much.



Gemstone Jewelry -- I don't have any of her pieces but I love Margaret Solow's simple jewelry like these necklaces above.



I do collect Gemstone chip bead strands from local bead shops and restring them into necklaces. I like that they're just randomly selected and strung- tigers eye, red goldstone, serpentine, amethyst and so on; such pretty natural assortments. And the best part is they're so inexpensive that when children pull or I get caught on something while gardening, I don't worry too much if the necklace pops and has to be restrung.



Women & Flowers -- For years I've been collecting images of women working, specifically engaged in craft: sewing, printmaking, basketry and such. As a former florist, I've more recently been grouping images of women who work with or are among flowers and I keep a small series on my site called Women & Flowers.



Things our Mothers Made -- I'm always peaking around my friends homes for handmade art. Snooping, I admit. My friend Victoria has some gorgeous prints and doodles made by her artist mother. I recently found some nice drawings my mother made when she was a teenager, underneath my old bed. I took this one above to get framed and it looks so nice in our dining room.



Children in Nature -- Nothing more beautiful to me than kids in nature.