Oh, the places you can go...

Grant and I were fortunate to recently travel to St. Lucia for a little spring getaway.  We recharged our batteries, baked in the sun, ate the most wonderful food, and got lost in another way of life.  Each time I travel my life is brought into honest perspective. I pause to appreciate all that I have and better define all that I want to be.  Put simply, travelling is a fresh drink for the soul.

For those reasons, few things in a home tell stories better than the ones that are collected while travelling.  (and, I don't mean the "Made in China" chotchkies that eventually collect enough dust to find their way to the garbage can).  My advice to everyone, especially the people lucky enough to travel often, is to bring a little something back from everywhere you go and blend those things with the rest of your decor - no stuffing in boxes or on special shelves allowed.  Shells found on a beach should be used as soap dishes or to fill glass bottles or lamp bases.  Local pottery should be part of everyday dishware. Inexpensive canvas paintings from a local artist should be balanced alongside that more expensive painting you bought years ago and had professionally framed.  

I should have brought a third suitcase for all of the wonderful art that we found in St. Lucia, but I restrained myself to only those things we found which were especially colorful:

Bowl ~ I stumbled upon local pottery by St. Lucian artist, Michelle Elliot, and fell in love.  Had I realized that she does not have a website, I would have  found a way to bring home more of her pieces.  The one I chose was a small bowl from her fish collection.  All are hand painted designs and perfectly "beachy" which out being overwhelmingly so.  Not an artist by formal education, Michelle was inspired to take up painting while visiting Maui in 1993.  She and her husband now live in St. Lucia where her designs are scattered beautifully throughout the island.  Because of the colors and shape of the fish, this will be an inspiration piece in our kitchen for years to come.

 

I'll be sure to take a photo when it eventually gets hung on
the kitchen wall

Wooden Fish ~ By far the piece in our home with the best story is now our wooden fish, carved out of red cedar by the one and only: Sun Shine Biscuit.  Sun Shine (as his auntie nicknamed him - his real name is Biscuit, didn't even want to ask for his last name) is a woodcarver by day and DJ Biscuit by night.  Calling himself the Rasta Man, he happily fist-bumped me upon our first encounter and sweet-talked me into looking at his work.  It was really beautiful and got me thinking...a little bargaining later, I walked away with the new addition to our family - literally (thank goodness it fit in the over head compartment on the airplane, or we would have had to buy a plane ticket for it).  This will be a great piece it will be in our kitchen after we renovate it this summer.   



It was so hard to decide which
one to choose




Very few of the pots were blue,
but this was on the steps to the beach



Cloth Ladies ~ Handmade cloth ladies were another colorful beach stand find.  The artist who made them out of thread and scraps of fabric hung her dancing ladies on a piece of drift wood dug into the sand.  So, I bought one (for $2.50), which will be our 2011 Christmas ornament (my Christmas ornament tradition will be a fabulous post this December...stay tuned).

Pots ~ I tried and I tried and I tried to buy one of the amazing, locally made face pots, but to no avail.  The St. Lucian company that makes them only makes a large quantity a few times a year and they were sold out at our resort, though it was all I could do not to snatch one from the resort grounds in a covert late night operation.  Scattered everywhere with different faces and in different colors and sizes these pots were my favorite of the creative flares throughout the resort.  I left my number with the art gallery lady at the resort to call me when a new batch comes in.  They are so worth the cost of shipping from the Caribbean...

This trio is my favorite of the pots