making memorials

In the olden days, people called Memorial Day Decoration Day. Families visited graves and memorials, paid their respects to the war dead and adorned these sites with flowers. We believe the date was chosen as so much of our country is in bloom in late May.

In the modern age (that's us), we also mark the official start of summer, we approve the wearing of whites and we fly the American flag at half mast from dawn until noon.

my maternal grandfather, floyd e. johnson, 1909-1999, charlottesville, virginia

I've come to think of the holiday as a time to recall our personal and national history.  I use the day to tell the children about their extended and distant family. I tell them the basics, the legends and the lies (let's don't let the truth get in the way of a good story!)  As a child, my father amused and taught with stories whose characters came straight out of Big Fish or The World's Largest Man; that's entertainment. And to pull all these sentiments together, last year, my sister sent me this New York Times article that suggests that families that tell family stories stick together longer and better.

In the last ten years, my husband and I start one selected project on or about Mother's Day. We garden, plant trees or flowers, build something.  Sometimes we finish in a day, but we often finish on or about Memorial Day. Then we go fishing as a family.

Of course, all the fish take our sorry, undersized bait as soon as it hits the water. We spend all day and half the night passing the pole between our muscle fatigued arms. The monster won't tire!  The sand gnats swarm in island sized clouds. We land the beast on deck just in time before the tidal waters disappear. We've narrowly escaped being beached and with a hearty supper that will feed all of Vernonburg! True story!

2010: springhouse roof redux, 2013, spring house "porch", 2014 springhouse vertical garden, 2015 potting bench, sink (wip)

Also true, it strikes me as I write this post that I am making memorials to my family, passed (in service to our country or simply in service to our family) and present. I pay homage to Savannah and to the life that I am carving out. I'm also creating a standing memorial that refers to the past, present and future. Our projects are informed by and honors those around us, some dear, some strangers. Both the making and the associated story helps us to create our own traditions and to recall some part of our past.

I'm looking forward to torturing my children with history and projects this entire month, but especially on Memorial Day. Whose story will you tell? Who will you honor and what form will that endeavor take?

plant in vertical garden adopted from lynn serualla + adam kuehl in turtle shell found by family in the georgia woods 

Blogging this week for The Paris Market, artist and collaborative designer katherine sandoz makes abstract paintings, fiber arts, illustration, portraits and collaborative works of art in a barn behind her home in Savannah, Georgia. The flora and fauna of the low-country serve as fodder for her imagery. Sandoz, a former service member herself, is moved and inspired by soldiers and warriors of all kinds and times.  

mother's day scrip

You want to ride boldly and with confidence into Sunday on a white horse and avoid your moms thinking you're a bit of a jackass.  Please take to heart two from the list below. Then call Paris Market in the morning to make a plan of action. Mother's Day is this SUNDAY, 5-10-15!

1.  Moms do NOT want sensible pajamas or sugary edibles. Ever. Really.
2.  Find a beautiful basket/receptacle/vessel. Yes. We always can appreciate and/or use another.
3.  Think themes or interests and fill that basket up. Nothing need be over the top. Thoughtful is the answer.

available at paris market: baskets, candles, fine linens, tabletop goods, air plants (not pictured)

a. reading + learning

b. arts + crafts

c. gardening

d. tabletop

e. teatime

f. travel inspiration

g. home decor

4.  Including one flower element is advised (dried, cut, potted, paper).  Consider researching the flower that symbolically best suits the mom you are appreciating.
5.  One hand-made element is compulsory. Take the time to help the children (if applicable) make or write something. Take double the time to do so if you are the partner/spouse/child/grandchild leading the household's efforts.
6.  Remind the household that parents should be made aware, in word and deed, of your gratitude often and throughout the year.

Blogging this week for The Paris Market, artist and collaborative designer katherine sandoz makes abstract paintings, fiber arts, illustration, portraits and collaborative works of art in a barn behind her home in Savannah, Georgia. The flora and fauna of the low-country serve as fodder for her imagery. Katherine's favorite month of the year is May.

a haphazard gardener

I have a May-December relationship with gardening.  By that I mean, most of the gardening I do happens in May and December.  The rest of the year, I do when I can which is often on the fly and between a million other projects I'm seeding, hoeing and harvesting.

Not exactly a student of almanacs and catalogs,  I'm the kind who throws last year's seed packets into the frost bitten plants to see if anything will happen. 

I have a bunch of "plants-with history" adopted from or given by friends and neighbors.  One is titled "don't-pay-attention-to-me-cactus." I also appreciate the garden-in-a-bag available at The Paris Market. If you have the bag, there's no more looking for flats, seeds or soil. Where is my watering can anyway?  

available at the paris market: garden in a bag

I truly appreciate these one-stop-shop-garden-bags as gifts.  They seem to send a message:  English Thyme (git you some time! or English?),  Sage! (you're so smart!)  French Marigold (perfect for my niece named Marigold).  I want to send one or five to everyone I know.

available at the paris market: egyptian cotton throw

But then I'd have less time to ignore my cactus which I really don't ignore at all.  I spend every single month of  the year appreciating my sometimes unruly, but always loved garden.

Blogging this week for The Paris Market, artist and collaborative designer katherine sandoz makes abstract paintings, fiber arts, illustration, portraits and collaborative works of art in a barn behind her home in Savannah, Georgia. The flora and fauna of the low-country serve as fodder for her imagery. If she were not a full-time artist, Sandoz would be a plant burglar.

cinco de mayo

O, me oh my-o!  Cinco de Mayo might be my favorite of all the holidays and it may be the year's best excuse to decorate, dress and dine (channel Frida Kahlo).

available at the paris market:  woven + embroidered table linens
model:  jamie bourgeois

For the last decade, we've enthusiastically gathered with our neighbors to celebrate spring, take family photographs and eat extra helpings of guacamole and pico de gallo.

photo by christine hall photography

With magnolia blooms in the trees and closets stocked from decades of travel and collecting, costumes and decor come organically with the only real plan including repeating the tradition in 365 days.

available at the paris market:  fauna shed + mounts

Blogging this week for The Paris Market, artist and collaborative designer katherine sandoz makes abstract paintings, fiber arts, illustration, portraits and collaborative works of art in a barn behind her home in Savannah, Georgia. The flora and fauna of the low-country serve as fodder for her imagery. She's never a met a holiday that doesn't call for at least un poco de Frida!

the may flowers

Maybe the prettiest of all the months, May gifts us longer days, warmer breezes, plentiful bird call and the blossom of so many flowers. Each awakens us to mirror nature in its reinvention and rejuvenation.

In with the spring cleaning, the gardening, the late evenings, entertaining and celebrating the neatest and sweetest in life. Cultivating and nurturing one's new ideas, projects and plans this month ensures a robust and abundant summer and fall harvest. It's high spring and time to pursue with fervor a "permanent state of France."

available at the paris market: collected sea shells, deer shed, dried flowers, garden tools

May 1st - May Day/Beltane: May Day began as a festival of flowers. Beltane, falling on the same date, celebrates the same and adds a fire festival. You'll often see the color yellow used to represent the fire in May Day fests. Watch the sky for the full moon (called the Flower Moon, also called Milk, Mother's and Corn Planting Moon), Venus (hello, goddess of love and fertility) and Jupiter (king of the gods).  I use Sky Guide which is ah-MAY-zing.

May 5th - Cinco de Mayo:  Shooting rifles and lighting fireworks in response to Mexico's resistance to French rule in the 1860s, we now honor Mexican culture with family, food, dress, drink and dance.

May 10th - Mother's Day:  Brought to us in 1908 by Miss Anna Jarvis of West Virginia, she urged us to honor with thoughtfulness, handwritten notes and sentiment.  In 2015, honoring with flowers, fanfare and fireworks (and a hand-written note) also seems fine.

May 25th - Memorial Day:  Known also as Decoration Day, we are called to recognize the war dead by placing flowers at graves and memorial sites.  Because flowers bloom throughout the country at this time, the late May date suited.

available at the paris market:  clay votive pots, air plants (not pictured)

Blogging this week for The Paris Market, artist and collaborative designer katherine sandoz makes abstract paintings, fiber arts, illustration, portraits and collaborative works of art in a barn behind her home in Savannah, Georgia. The flora and fauna of the low-country serve as fodder for her imagery. Her favorite season is plants and flowers with a warm breeze. With two explorer-warrior-hunter-gatherer grandfathers, one Swiss-French and one Jeffersonian Virginian,  Sandoz claims a genetic predisposition to loving The Paris Market experience.  

available at the paris market:  dried flowers, garden in a bag, garden tools, deer shed, sea harvest