Everything Becomes Ordinary

I work in an extraordinarily creative and interesting environment. Even so, in the the day-in and day-out routine of my daily presence in the place, it becomes ordinary. I thought about that sort of thing this morning. It's picture-perfect pre-Spring gorgeous outside. I was driving along with the sun roof open, taking the same route that I take to work every morning.

Sitting at a traffic light I looked up and for some reason...........maybe it was the way the light hit the dome, maybe it's just the rich, blue backdrop of a sky....all of a sudden I was aware of a beautiful place I pass every single day on my way to work.

This is our state capitol building.
After half a century of living here, I've seen it plenty of times. I can tell you all about the inside and point out when it's not the weekend, that parking lot is full even when the state legislature isn not in session. Most days I drive by and don't give it a passing thought. It's just another freckle on the morning-drive landscape.

Today I remembered how pretty it is.

Yup. That's real gold on the dome. They applied it the old-artisan way, in thin sheets, one square at a time.

Gold trim on the mini-domes too. They're my favorites. Sort of Vatican-looking.

The curtains in those windows are longer than my entire house.
And you can't see them in these pictures but this morning there were several people up there leaning over the very top balcony, the one wayyyyyyyyyyyy up there sitting on top of the big gold dome. I've been up there several times, but not since I was a kid. First of all, the climb would probably kill me now. And second, last I knew, access was limited to everyone but certain dignitaries for security reasons. Non-dignitary and bad knees. Good bet that my balcony days are but a memory.

Just down the hill from the that building with a splendid daily view of the gold dome, is the local retail location for the product line that my company creates. I thought you might like to take a little tour inside the place. It's always colorful but seems even more so to those of us extricating ourselves from the clutches of winter.......

Take a peek inside the doors of Sticks Gallery / East Village:

These are 7 x 7' wall plaques our artists create. Lots of people collect them. Each one of them is made by hand in our studio here in Des Moines.

Love the color palette on this set of nesting tables our artists designed. While it is Sticks that brings most people into our stores, we also carry the work of many other artists. I think I took a dozen photos of these fabulous flowers.

Don't they just feel like spring??
Can't WAIT to get out my patio umbrella.