Only those who truly love and who are truly strong
can sustain their lives as a dream.
You dwell in your own enchantment.

 

Life throws stones at you, 

but your love and your dream change those stones 

into the flowers of discovery.

Even if you lose, or are defeated by things, 

your triumph will always be exemplary. 

And if no one knows it, then there are places that do.

People like you enrich the dreams of the worlds, and it is dreams that create history. 

People like you are unknowing transformers of things, 

protected by your own fairy-tale, by love.

Ben Okri

View from my window

 Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.

Kahlil Gibran

Sunlight

The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Cherry-Time

When I sound the fairy call, 

gather here in silent meeting,

Chin to knee on the orchard wall, 

cooled with dew and cherries eating.

Merry, merry, take a cherry, 

mine are sounder, mine are rounder,

Mine are sweeter for the eater, 

when the dews fall, and you'll be fairies all.

Emily Dickinson

Handmade Treasuries

A mother's arms are made of tenderness

and children sleep soundly in them.

Victor Hugo

One of the many beautiful things about being pregnant is that I allow myself extra treats.

This lovely needle-felted mother and child I just could not resist.

They are made by hand in Waldorf style by one of my favorite sellers on DaWanda,
Anja from 123-Stupsi.

They add something magical to our living room and make me feel warm inside
because I am daydreaming about holding our little one in my arms too :)

I wish you all a loving and warm weekend!

For Toek

I love you not only for what you are,

but for what I am when I am with you.

I love you not only for what you have made of yourself,

but for what you are making of me.

I love you for the part of me that you bring out.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Colors of Friendship

The colors of friendship 

are revealed 

in the feathers of the soul.

This week I prepared a package for Vani from New Delhi, 

who has always encouraged me and my work from the start. 

The idea that my pictures will find a place in a cosy home in India makes me very happy.

So this post is for you Vani, 

for your lovely support and for sharing your thoughts and ideas 

with me overhere on the other side of the world. 

Thank you :)

New life

Welcome little one :)

The moment you have in your heart

this extraordinary thing called love

and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it,

you will discover that for you the world is transformed.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Flower Fairies for Missy and Vani

Have you watched the fairies

when the rain is done,

Spreading out their little wings

to dry them in the sun?

I have, I have!

Isn't it fun?

Have you heard the fairies

all among the limes

Singing little fairy tunes

to little fairy rhymes?

I have, I have,

Lots and lots of times!

Have you seen the fairies

dancing in the air

And dashing off behind the stars

to tidy up their hair?

I have, I have,

I've been there!

Rose Fyleman

Blind folk see the fairies.

Oh, better far than we,

Who miss the shining of their wings

Because our eyes are filled with things

We do not wish to see.

Rose Fyleman

Love has no desire but to fulfill itself.

To melt and be like a running brook

that sings its melody to the night.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart

and give thanks for another day of loving.

Kahlil Gibran

New exhibition

I am very excited about my new exhibition at Papernstitch.

It is a wonderful site full of inspiring art and treasuries.

No more winter blues for me, my head is filled with spring now :)

For dear Vineeta

In everyone's life,

at some time, our inner fire goes out.

It is then burst into flame

by an encounter with another human being.

We should all be thankful for those people

who rekindle the inner spirit.

Albert Schweitzer

Some years ago I had just started to share my pictures with other people.

I was dreaming about my own blog, but didn't know how to start.

Then I received a lovely message from Vineeta from India

who wanted to make a blogpost about my home for her

beautiful inspiring blog.

She also encouraged me to start my own blog

and was very positive about my work.

I think she will never know how important it was for me at that point

to get such positive input. It helped me to loose my insecurity

and to give it try. A choice I still enjoy every day :)

Today I noticed she made a beautiful post about my work

and it really touched me.

Thank you dear Vineeta and take care,

with love, Sas

A small body of determined spirits
fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission
can alter the course of history.

Gandhi

In the sweetness of friendship

let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things

the heart finds its morning 

and is refreshed.

Kahlil Gibran

I wish that every human life

might be pure transparent freedom.

Simone de Beauvoir

Gratitude Friday

This week I am grateful for...

- my mothers recovery from her operation and being able to support her

- meeting people with a warm heart, who help eachother in times of trouble

- discovering that the birds in my garden have survived the cold night

- to share my work and thoughts with lovely people around the world,

and to discover that we are all unique and all one at the same time :)

What are you grateful for?

For Elisa Day

In the depth of winter,

I finally learned that within me

there lay an invincible summer.

Albert Camus

One touch of nature

makes the whole world kin.

William Shakespeare

Best wishes to all of you :)

Happiness is when what you think,

what you say,

and what you do are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,

and the life of the candle will not be shortened.

Happiness never decreases by being shared

Buddha

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Sending you all a warm hug from Holland and I hope you share the presence or the warm memories of the ones you love,

xxx love, Sas

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones

- the ones at home.

Mother Teresa

Be happy in the moment - that's enough.

Each moment is all we need - not more.

Mother Teresa

Gratitude Friday...

This week I am grateful for...

- the good news I received this morning about my mothers operation.

- being able to decorate our house for Christmas and to send little presents to the ones we love.

- the snow! Everything looks magical with a little snow hihi

- my life just as it is on this very moment :)

What are you grateful for?

I long,

as does every human being,

to be at home wherever I find myself.

Maya Angelou

For my mamma

One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers,

but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.

The curriculum is so much necessary raw material,

but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.

Carl Jung

Gratitude Friday

This beautiful idea for a gratitude Friday comes from Waldorf Mama and her lovely, inspiring blog.

This week I am grateful for...

- my sisters good news from the hospital.

- being able to send little giveaway packages with my note cards to lovely people in the Netherlands, Sweden, America and Germany.

- being able to share my deepest fears and feelings with my wonderful boyfriend, mother and sister.

- having a warm home in these dark days before Christmas.

What are you grateful for?

Can miles truly separate you from friends.... 

If you want to be with someone you love, 

aren't you already there?  

Richard Bach

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am in a thousand winds that blow,

I am the softly falling snow.

I am the gentle showers of rain,

I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush,

I am in the graceful rush

Of beautiful birds in circling flight,

I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,

I am in a quiet room.

I am in the birds that sing,

I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there. I do not die.

Mary Elizabeth Frye

This morning I received a letter with this wonderful poem.

A dear friend of mine wanted to share it with me and it really touched my soul.

In return I wanted to share it with you :)

Old friends pass away, new friends appear.

It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives.

The important thing is to make it meaningful:

a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.

Dalai Lama

This is one of my favorite still life photos, because of the warm colours and the soft white flowers.

I have used it as a design for little Christmas presents for my family and friends.

I have made 10 little presents for you too.

A white organza pouch with 15 mini note cards + envelopes.

Just send me an email at info@dailycolours.com with your name and address

and in a few days you will get this little gift (completely free of charge of course).

---

Unable are the loved to die,

for love is immortality.

Emily Dickinson

---

Intense love does not measure,

it just gives.

Mother Teresa

---

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering 

is worse than the suffering itself. 

And no heart has ever suffered 

when it goes in search of its dream.

Paulo Coelho

---

Let life happen to you. 

Believe me: life is in the right, 

always. 

Rainer Maria Rilke 

---

Most of the shadows of this life 

are caused by our standing 

in our own sunshine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

---

We are each gifted in a unique and important way. 

It is our privilege and our adventure 

to discover our own special light. 

Mary Dunbar

---

All I want is to stand in a field

and to smell green,

to taste air,

to feel the earth want me,

Without all this concrete

hating me.

Phillip Pulfrey

For Patricia

---

One touch of nature 

makes the whole world kin. 

William Shakespeare

---

The real voyage of discovery 

consists not in seeking new landscapes,

but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust

---

The invariable mark of wisdom 

is to see the miraculous in the common.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

---

A little too abstract, a little too wise,

It is time for us to kiss the earth again,

It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies,

Let the rich life run to the roots again.

Robinson Jeffers

---

Be like the flower,

turn your faces to the sun.

Kahlil Gibran

---

The poet's darling. 

William Wordsworth, "To the Daisy"

---

Any man that walks the mead

In bud, or blade, or bloom, may find

A meaning suited to his mind.

Alfred Tennyson

---

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, 

the wise grows it under his feet.

James Oppenheim

---

Nature is not a place to visit,

it is home. 

Gary Snyder

---

The moment one gives close attention to any thing,
even a blade of grass
it becomes a mysterious,
awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

Henry Miller

---

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.
My garden of flowers
is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.
The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers,
and the dreams are as beautiful.

Abram L. Urban

For Missy...

---

The arms of love encompass you with your present,
your past, your future,
the arms of love gather you together.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

---

Love...
It surrounds every being
and extends slowly
to embrace all that shall be.

Kahlil Gibran

---

It is not the language of painters
but the language of nature which one should listen to,
the feeling for the things themselves, for reality
is more important than the feeling for pictures.

Vincent Van Gogh

---

In June as many as a dozen species
may burst their buds on a single day.
No man can heed all of these anniversaries;
no man can ignore all of them.

Aldo Leopold

---

I was raised by the song
Of the murmuring grove
And loving I learned
Among Flowers.

Friedrich Holderlin

---

I've read all the books but one
Only remains sacred: this
Volume of wonders, open
Always before my eyes.

Kathleen Raine

---

If you truly love Nature,
you will find beauty everywhere.

Vincent Van Gogh

---

As a body everyone is single,
as a soul never.

Hermann Hesse

---

On this June day the buds in my garden
are almost as enchanting as the open flowers.
Things in bud bring,
in the heat of a June noontide,
the recollection of the loveliest days of the year
- those days of May when all is suggested, nothing yet fulfilled.

Francis King

---

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty
never grows old.

Franz Kafka

---

I listened,
motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

William Wordsworth

---

The secret of happiness
lies in taking a genuine interest
in all the details of daily life,
and in elevating them to art.

John Ruskin

---

A person who cares about the earth
will resonate with its purity.

Sally Fox

---

Like a great poet,
Nature knows how to produce the greatest effects
with the most limited means.

Heinrich Heine

---

When words escape,
flowers speak.

Bruce W. Currie

---

The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings.

Joyce Kilmer

---

Choose
The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open hand held out and waiting.
Choose:
For we meet by one or the other.

Carl Sandburg

---

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
and never stops at all.

Emily Dickinson

---

The inner - what is it?
if not intensified sky,
hurled through with birds
and deep with
the winds of homecoming.

Rainer Maria Rilke

---

Gentle day's flower
The hummingbird competes
With the stillness of the air.

Chogyam Trungpa

---

With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, 

and the deep power of joy, 

we see into the life of things.

William Wordsworth

---

Deep in their roots,

all flowers keep the light.

Theodore Roethke

---

Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.

William Wordsworth

---

Hope is the only bee
that makes honey without flowers.

Robert Green Ingersoll

---

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, 

places to play in and pray in, 

where nature may heal 

and give strength to body and soul.

John Muir

---

They might not need me;
but they might.
I'll let my head be just in sight;
a smile as small as mine
might be precisely their necessity.

Emily Dickinson

---

Since love grows within you,
so beauty grows.
For love is the beauty of the soul.

Saint Augustine

---

Do not wait for leaders;
do it alone,
person to person.

Mother Teresa

---

The delicate droop of the petals
standing out in relief,
is like the eyelid of a child.

Auguste Rodin

---

The flower that follows the sun
does so even on cloudy days.

Robert Leighton

---

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions -
so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance,
so small in size yet big in beauty,
so short in life yet long on effect.

Adabella Radici

---

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love
or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning
and smelling the fresh air,
is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.

Erich Fromm

---

Just living is not enough,said the butterfly.
One must have sunshine,freedom,
and a little flower.

Hans Christian Andersen

---

How strange that nature does not knock,
and yet does not intrude!

Emily Dickinson

---

Your pain is the breaking of the shell
that encloses your understanding.

Kahlil Gibran

---

Music in the soul
can be heard by the universe.

Lao Tzu

---

But he that dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.

Anne Bronte

---

Queer things happen in the garden in May.
Little faces forgotten appear,
and plants thought to be dead
suddenly wave a green hand to confound you.

W.E. Johns

---

Silently, 

one by one,

in the infinite meadows of heaven,

blossomed the lovely stars,

the forget-me-nots of the angels...

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

---

Heaven is under our feet as well 

as over our heads.

Thoreau

---

A spark in the sun,

this tiny flower has roots

deep in the cool earth.

Harry Behn

---

Connection with gardens,
even small ones, even potted plants,
can become windows to the inner life.
The simple act of stopping and
looking at the beauty around us can be prayer.

Patricia R. Barrett

---

A piece of the sky 

and a chunk of the earth

lie lodged in the heart of every human being.

Thomas Moore

---

---

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.

Heinrich Heine

---

The spider's touch,
how exquisitely fine!
Feels at each thread,
and lives along the line.

Alexander Pope

---

If we have no peace, 

it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. 

Mother Teresa

---

Keep your faith in all beautiful things; 

in the sun when it is hidden, 

in the Spring when it is gone.

Roy R. Gilson

---

A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, 

as if supported by the rays of the sun, 

a bird settled on the fire escape, 

joy in the task of coffee, 

joy accompanied me as I walked.

Anais Nin

---

Have patience with all things,
But,
first of all with yourself.

Saint Francis de Sales

---

I have just three things to teach:
simplicity,
patience,
compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.

Lao Tzu

---

Breathless,
we flung us on a windy hill,
Laughed in the sun,
and kissed the lovely grass.

Rupert Brooke

---

Footfalls echo in the memory,
Down the passage which we did not take,
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.


T.S. Eliot

---

Green is the prime color of the world,
and that from which its loveliness arises.

Pedro Calderon de la Barca

---

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

---

Finally out of reach
No bondage, no dependency.
How calm the ocean,
Towering the void.

Tessho's death poem

---

Where there are humans
you'll find flies,
and Buddhas.

Issa

---

The first act of awe,
when man was struck with the beauty or wonder of Nature,
was the first spiritual experience.

Henryk Skolimowski

---

A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake,
beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

William Wordsworth

---

Inside myself is a place
where I live all alone,
and that's where I renew my springs
that never dry up.

Pearl Buck

---

For I remember it is Easter morn,
And life and love and peace are all new born.

Alice Freeman Palmer

---

Spring has returned.
The Earth is like a child that knows poems.

Rainer Maria Rilke

---

There is nothing in a caterpillar
that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.

Richard Buckminster Fuller

---

April hath put a spirit of youth
in everything.

William Shakespeare

---

The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.

John Greenleaf Whittier

---

The violets in the mountains
have broken the rocks.

Tennessee Williams

---

For every person who has ever lived
there has come, at last,
a spring he will never see.
Glory then in the springs that are yours.

Pam Brown

---

We do not see nature with our eyes,
but with our understandings
and our hearts.

William Hazlitt

---

Everything is blooming most recklessly;
if it were voices instead of colors,
there would be an unbelievable shrieking
into the heart of the night.

Rainer Maria Rilke

---

Flowers... are a proud assertion
that a ray of beauty outvalues
all the utilities of the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

---

Come forth into the light of things,
let nature be your teacher.

William Wordsworth

---

And the day came
when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin

---

The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.

Rabindranath Tagore

---

A picture is a poem without words.

Horace

---

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Lao Tzu

For Toek

---

Whatever our souls are made of,
his and mine are the same.

Emily Bronte

---

When I can look life in the eyes,
grown calm and very coldly wise,
life will have given me the truth,
and taken in exchange - my youth.

Sara Teasdale

---

The temple bell stops
but I still hear the sound
coming out of the flowers.

Basho

---

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
An eternity in an hour.

William Blake

---

All flowers in time bend towards the sun,
I know you say there's no one for you,
But here is one.

Jeff Buckley

---

It is at the edge of a petal
that love waits.

William Carlos Williams

---

Nobody sees a flower
- really -
it is so small it takes time
- we haven't time -
and to see takes time,
like to have a friend takes time.

Georgia O'Keefe

---

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul
by a flower in spring bloom,
maybe your soul has never been in bloom.

Audra Foveo

---

It was one of those March days
when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:
when it is summer in the light,
and winter in the shade.

Charles Dickens

---

Nature does not hurry,
yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu

---

Everything just as it is,
as it is,
as is.
Flowers in bloom.
Nothing to add.

Robert Aitken

---

Be a spot on the ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, possibly,
from the Absolute.

Rumi

---

To a mind that is still,
the whole universe surrenders.

Chuang-tzu

---

Life is like an onion.
You peel it off one layer at a time,
and sometimes you weep.

Carl Sandberg

---

The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.

Emily Dickinson

---

The world is a rose,
smell it and pass it to your friends.

Persian proverb

---

Nature always wears
the colors of the spirit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

---

Beauty is not caused.
It is.

Emily Dickinson

For Rupa

---

A hush is over everything,
Silent as women wait for love;
The world is waiting for the spring.

Sara Teasdale

Kiss The Earth
by - Thich Nhat HanhWalk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom.Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Bring the Earth your love and happiness.

The Earth will be safe when we feel safe in ourselves.

by BuddhaHowever many holy words you read,
however many you speak,
what good will they do you
if you do not act on upon them?

by - The Dalai Lama
I find hope in the darkest of days,
and focus in the brightest.
I do not judge the universe.

by - Thich Nhat Hanh

If your cup is small,
a little bit of salt will make the water salty.If your heart is small,
then a little bit of pain can make you suffer.
Your heart must be large.

by - Thich Nhat HahnBe a bud sitting quietly on the hedge.
Be a smile, one part of wondrous existence.Stand here.
There is no need to depart.

by H.H. the Dalai Lama

From my own limited experience I have found
that the greatest degree of inner tranquility
comes from the development of love and compassion.

The more we care for the happiness of others,
the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others
automatically puts the mind at ease. This helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have
and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter.

It is the ultimate source of success in life...

(- read the complete speech here :)

The appearance of things change according to the emotions,
and thus we see magic and beauty in them,
while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.

Kahlil Gibran

I only went out for a walk
and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,
for going out, I found,
was really going in.

John Muir

We cling to our own point of view,
as though everything depended on it.
Yet our opinions have no permanence;
like autumn and winter,
they gradually pass away.

Zhuangzi

He who experiences the unity of life
sees his own Self in all beings,
and all beings in his own Self,
and looks on everything with an impartial eye.

Buddha

Autumn is a second spring
when every leaf is a flower.

Albert Camus

Often the hands will solve a mystery
that the intellect has struggled with in vain.

Carl G. Jung

Adopt the pace of nature:
her secret is patience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

From within or from behind,
a light shines through us upon things,
and makes us aware that we are nothing,
but the light is all.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The arms of love encompass you with your present, your past, your future,

the arms of love gather you together.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

There is no language of the holy.

The sacred lies in the ordinary.

Deng Ming-Dao

A sensitive plant in a garden grew,

And the young winds fed it with silver dew,And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light,

and closed them beneath the kisses of night.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Despite all appearance no one is really evil.
They are led astray by ignorance.
If you ponder this truth always you will offer more light
rather than blame and condemnation. You, no less than all beings, have Buddha Nature within.
Your essential mind is pure.

Dhammavadaka