2019

for those who have been with me for a while, you know i typically make some kind of big announcement about this time of year with my plans for STILL blog in the coming year. i have no big pronouncements this year. right now, my only goal for the year is to put together a STILL book proposal. i get lots of requests for a STILL book, especially around the holidays. i have wanted to make one for a while now, but my husband (the resident writer) is working on a memoir about our family’s immersion in southern france. so, i have been kind of waiting for him to be available to help edit or maybe even co-create a STILL book with me. he is still hard at work on the memoir, but i am usually pretty good at encouraging him to think big. i figure a proposal commits me to nothing. what do you say, mr. hoffman?

happy new year my friends! i do what i do because of your continued enthusiasm and encouragement.

xo, mary jo

fading of the year

i am seeing a lot of year-end summaries on instagram these last few days. usually i love this kind of exercise–taking stock, summing up, celebrating the successes, analyzing the failures, laying down plans for the year to come. i love all of it. but right now i am nursing a cold that has my head feeling a bit like this dried peony. so, it will have to wait a week. instead i am reading shonda rhimes new book, year of yes, and i am laughing and feeling inspired.  if you haven’t heard about it, i encourage you to check it out. it’s funny, it’s honest, it’s insightful. it’s almost worth having a cold.

dried peony

take two

my original inspiration for yesterday’s post was a half-pinecone i saw posted somewhere (which i am currently stealing like an artist). but yesterday’s cone was too evocative and full of wood grain to crop, so today i tried my original inspiration, which i like equally well. it’s a longleaf pine, probably 7 or 8 inches long, and what i like most about it is that usually the shape of the pinecone is so iconic and recognizable that you only see the overall shape, whereas here you get to meet the individual leaves, and notice how each of them has a shape, and almost a personality. hello, curious pinecone leaf, looking questioningly up at the sky. hello depressed pinecone leaf, staring at your shoes. hello thoughtful pinecone leaf, staring pensively into the middle distance…

pine cone (pinus palustris, longleaf pine)

old school

still blog began not as an art project but as a daily discipline. it began as a prompt for me to create an image a day, and as an incentive for anyone visiting to take a moment to look at one thing at a time, in the midst of our hyperstimulated 21st century world. it began, in other words, much like this. a pine cone on a white background. not special except for the fact that it was chosen. and then suddenly you notice that beautiful walnut wood grain on the underside of the petals of the cone. and you notice the little white button at the tip of each leaf of the cone and realize that those were all you could see originally before the cone expanded. and you wonder what kind of cone it is, and think it looks maybe like a red pine, but when you look more closely you think it might be an austrian pine, and you remember that your neighbor has austrian pines on your shared lot line, and so maybe this was a cone you collected from your back yard a while ago. and for a minute or two, the whole world has shrunk to a pine cone, and still blog has done what it was supposed to do, and now it’s time to get on with your day.

pine cone (pinus nigra, austrian pine?)

beach girl

my daughter has been a water baby since she was a toddler. she spent whole summers out on our lake, floating with friends, holding onto improvised rafts and talking about nothing at all, then diving deep and emerging with her hair slicked back like a seal. on florida vacations and our france sojourns, she spent hours sitting in the sand drawing random patterns and then running into the waves. now she goes to school in california, and once again has found a home near the ocean. she just spent the holiday with us in minnesota. she seemed happy to be home. but the day after christmas, she scuttled south, to be with her love, in mexico. she just reported by text that she spent all of today on a beach, and ended the day eating fried fish, looking out at the pacific. miss you honey. but i’m happy you’re happy.

shell collection: mostly florida gulf coast  and french mediterranean