welcoming the new year

IF IT'S TRUE what is said about the number 13 being the unluckiest number, then this year has played out the way it should. It has been one of the unluckiest years on record, in my life anyway, as well as a number of friend's lives. The New Year's holiday can be one of trepidation, but since 2014 can only get better than 2013—in my book—I give the new year a whole-hearted and welcoming embrace. That's what the New Year's celebration has always been about—setting intentions for the future.

THIS TREE signifies a celebration of the best that has yet to come. And it will be colorful, fiery and bright. I know that if I can create a magical tree such as this, then I surely can muster some of that magic in my own life. Let it be so. That is my wish for the New Year. Although I'm not particularly religious, I am spiritual, and my God is found in nature and the cosmos, so I'll share the best-known form of the serenity prayer to push my intent to the universe on this New Moon New Year's Eve:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

THE GRACE of a deer is also significant. Ever alert and at one within its natural surroundings, the beautiful symbol of a deer is a poetic metaphor for leaping ahead to the new year. May the original form of the serenity prayer be a comfort in the New Year, no matter whom or what your God embodies.

The original words, attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr: 

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next. 
Amen.

©2013-2014 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

collecting, photography and styling by Darryl Moland.

new year glitz

TWO-THOUSAND-ELEVEN  sounds a bit like science fiction. It only seems like a few years ago that I brought in the year 2000 in Minneapolis, Minnesota at a huge, multi-themed night club called appropriately-enough "The Gay 90s," which is still alive and well. How does the time fly by like this? This year, I'll be having a more quiet affair (I'm thinking) at a friend's home. You never know though, how enlivened a party can become once people get enough bubbly in them. I'm planning also on attending a New Year's party tomorrow. It will certainly be more tame if everyone is nursing a hangover from New Year's Eve night. It's always good though to start the new year with friends, no matter if quietly, or with a bang.

IT'S  EASY  TO  FORGET  the nuances of the years that have flown by. Friends come and go, but for old times sake, I don't easily forget the people most important to me—you know who you are. The classic New Year's song Auld Lang Syne begins with a rhetorical question as to whether it is right that old times be forgotten. This New Year's toast and tree is my way of remembering long-standing relationships and wishing all loved ones (including blog followers) a happy and prosperous 2011. 

MY  GOAL  this year is to self-publish a small digitally-produced photo book or magazine with photos of my trees and editorial information about their creation. The plan is to sell it here on the blog and use it to shop my ideas around to real publishers. So, I'll be posting less here and spending more time on that. I've gotten so used to burning it at both ends though, who knows what the new year will bring? I do plan to have posts just as I have surrounding the major holidays.

THAT  IS  the exciting thing about a new year. It is a time to fix yourself a drink and reflect on old and new goals alike. My only definite plan is keeping sight of the end result and keep moving toward it—hoping for the best. I'm not good at wiping the slate clean—I sort of look at what I've collected in life (physical and otherwise) as my palette. The problem is, it is all getting to be an unorganized mess that is harder and harder to move ahead with. So I'm taking a few steps back to refocus and to hopefully be able to take a larger step forward. 

BRING IN THE NEW | (Top) Bringing in the new doesn't always mean throwing out the old, but it certainly is necessary to make room for new aspirations.This large mercury glass tree is encircled with a garland made from my collection of beaded snowflakes attached to a garland made of wire and glass beads from Cost Plus World Market. Two miniature metal cups and a champagne bottle from Crate & Barrel hang from a stately deer's antlers (made from recycled aluminum). The champagne-filled glasses are garnished with rosemary sprigs that I've given a sparkle with a coating of egg white and coarse sanding sugar.

TOP SHINE | (Above) I've retrofitted this tree topper by Seasons of Cannon Falls with a new glittered disk of type of my own design. Surrounded by beautiful glittered and tinseled metal rays, the manufacturer got that part right, but the original type with the clip art champagne glasses (left) was a bit clunky for my taste. I purchased my topper from Bayberry Cove.

SPARKLY SNOWFLAKES | (Above) Part of my fancy collection of glass-beaded snowflake ornaments (mostly made in Czechoslovakia) are assembled together on a garland around a large and sturdy mercury glass pleated tree form (made in India) from Home Goods.
 

GLEAMING NEW | (Above) This beautiful reindeer from Home Goods symbolically stands guard and brings a cup (or two) of good cheer on its antlers. The champagne flutes are garnished with sprigs of sugared rosemary as a symbol of remembering the good times.

OVERVIEW | (Above) Looking from above, it's easy to see the ground—a promise I am making to myself this year to step back so I can see the big picture. The glittery bugle-beaded charger is from Z Gallerie.

©2010 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Photography, collecting and styling by Darryl Moland

hindsight is twenty-"ten"

LOOKING BACK as one is wont to do at the beginning of the first decade of the second millennium, it's always the practice to resolve to not make mistakes of the past. As for the future though, superstitious beliefs abound. In the American South, eating collard greens for prosperity and black-eyed peas or Hoppin' John for luck is part of the New Year's ritual. I had some of each, although on New Year's Eve at an early dinner at the Collonade. Maybe by doing that, it only helped me through the last few hours of 2009. It has not been an especially easy year for anyone (that I know, at least). Our vision is not always perfectly clear in looking back. We have to "be in the now" to really find that elusive moment of clarity. That is a resolution for anyone—to be aware of and in the moment when conducting daily life.

IT WAS THE SECOND year that I've adopted the Spanish tradition of consuming “las doce uvas de la suerte” (or the 12 grapes of luck) at the turn of the clock at midnight, along with a glass of bubbly (or wine, as we did this year). Each grape represents a month in the new year—some sour, some sweet—as I'm sure they will be. We're ushering in a new decade and have that chance again to make this the decade known for something. I'm not sure what label we'll stick on the decade that began with a two and three zeros. With the word "Twitter" being the top word of 2009 (in the English language at least), I wonder if anyone can sum up the decade in 140 characters? It has been quite a time of upheaval and limbo in many ways. 

IT'S NOT ALWAYS what we say but what we do. The following quote from one of the most notorious people in the last decade really sums up what unsettling and contemptuous rhetoric the decade has brought:

"As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know they're some things we do not know. But there're also unknown unknowns; the ones we don't know we don't know."

Did you get that? That quote was from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on February 12, 2002. No matter whether it effectively explained why the U.S. government had no idea what it was doing by invaded Iraq—in taking it out of context it points not so succinctly to many unsure missteps we have made collectively. 

ALL I CAN SAY is that I still believe in and wish for peace in the world. As time continues to tick away, the planet is getting smaller every day technologically and the people of the world are understaning and reasoning with each other in more civilized and succinct ways.

HATS OFF | Toasting 2010, Jon and I had a glass of wine with a skewer of 12 grapes, representing each month of the year—a Spanish tradition (above, right). The 2009 top hat ornament is from Martha Stewart Everyday Modern Celebration line at Kmart. The 2010 headband is from Target. 

TIME FOR PEACE | A delicate hourglass from Target (above, left) sits next to a past season's top-hatted Dee Foust licensed snowman figure produced by Bethany Lowe Designs that resembles an iconic New Year's image. It all overlooks a mercury glass globe ornament from my personal collection atop a glass-glittered peace sign ornament from Pottery Barn.

©2010 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

collecting, photography and styling by Darryl Moland

REAR VIEW | This surrealist image (above) of an uprooted fir tree as car air freshener was found on a Catalonian blogger's site that commented on my blog this past August from French photographer Cédric Delsaux. I'm sharing the smile of irony it gave me. Hindsight is not unlike a rear-view mirror.