So says a Zen Proverb. I found this delightful 'Clothes Pin bag' recently while thrifting - just look at those cute little 'Micky Mouse' like figures and shimmying inch-worms and ballerina bugs! Almost makes you want to go out and hang your clothes in the wind, doesn't it? When we bought our house, our back yard had a huge laundry pole in the middle and nothing else. It looked just like a Football goal post and was set in 2 feet of concrete. Obviously the previous owners didn't want it to go anywhere! When the house was ours, it was the first thing to go! I hated it! Now mind you, I don't dislike the idea of 'hanging laundry' actually I love the smell and feel of 'freshly hung clothing'. Its the romance of hanging laundry that I like, more than the actual doing it... I remember as a child playing hide-n-seek 'between the sheets' and laughing at 'Papa's Underpants' with my lil' friends... My grandmother was famous for her white linens and beautiful lace sheets, which she hung daily in her pretty Danish back-yard. I'm sure she would have loved the help of these inch-worms and dancing bugs, instead of our gleefull games!
“Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by colour.”
Funny how 'spilling our dirty laundry' has become something our society seems to love. “The laundry has its hands on my dirty shirts, sheets, towels and tablecloths, and who knows what tales they tell.” quotes Joseph Smith in the early 1800's. I would much rather invent my own tales then hear about others... My little 'clothes pin bag' reminded me of a project I began a number of years ago and never finished. I photo transfered a favorite photo of a young mother and daughter doing laundry with hanging paper-doll dresses flying all around them. My intention was to layer the piece with tea-dyed chiffon and have the dresses hanging from tiny clothes pins on linen lines... A story certainly, of Motherly joy and child-like pleasure, someday I may finish it...
Truth be told, if I had my choice of where to hang my laundry, clean or dirty it would be in Venice! This city of mystery and fairytales seems the ideal place for me to waft my linens - viewed down a quiet canel, with pretty reflections on the water. I don't think I'd even mind if something dropped and became someone else's 'story'... Where do you hang your Laundry???
