Leaning Into Autumn

It is tremendously beautiful this time of year.

The quaking aspen turn to gold and the morning air is more rejuvenating than any amount of coffee.

This is our second autumn on this property and I seem to fall more in love with the Cariboo seasons every year. If you'd like to see what it looks like in the autumn here, I have uploaded a new Youtube video on my channel.

I've been enjoying making silver and taking on commissions over these months. It's so refreshing joining someone in a project and hearing their perspectives and ideas for a piece. Thank you to everyone who chooses and has chosen me to create a piece.

It's good being home and preparing for the winter. We've switched our summer wardrobe for our winters and have started prepping the chicken coop and airstream for the cold months ahead. Soon I will turn over the soil before the first snowfall and let the hens scratch the garden earth to their heart's content.

We are now on a small holiday and will be going off-grid over the next few days while visiting Bryson's mom. She has three goats, three horses, a beautiful flock of hens, and has recently adopted a new shepherd/collie mix pup into her pack. I just can't wait for Ruby and the new pup to meet!

I'm hoping we can go for a ride or two while we are there. The arid sagebrush landscape there is just heavenly.

I'll be back in the studio this coming weekend and I am so looking forward to seeing what inspiration this week of family and the outdoors brings. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!

Talk soon,

Clove and Hound

xo

The Light And Darkness All At Once

Hello dear friends!

It feels like it has been a small eternity since I posted here.

I guess my excuse is that I've been taking time to focus on this beautiful home of ours, and the land that surrounds it before we move to the interior of BC for the next 6 months.

Over the past week, we've been busy buying plastic totes and packing important things up from any rodents who might make themselves at home while we are away.

Those who know me know I love wool blankets and hats, antlers, bones, and basically any dead creature that needs a new loving home, so the majority of those are being packed away until the summer months when we return.

We've also been arranging our outdoor storage tent for the up-coming mud season, to ensure that nothing is ruined or drenched in the floods that spring brings here in the Cariboo.

It's been an incredibly refreshing experience going through all of our things and donating everything that we haven't used for the past year. At our dump, we have a little shelter called the Share Shed, where our community donates everything that they don't want, but could still be of use to someone else. I have found so many amazing finds there from a Cowichan dog sweater, to gumboots, to winter coats, and kitchen wear, and a pair of retro cross country skiing boots right after mine broke in two.It is just fantastic! Knowing that these donations we make are going right back into the community sure warms my heart.

And of course, we have been organizing our chickens and their belongings to move them up to our landlord's coop while we are away. We will surely miss them and their delicious eggs, but know they will be in the best hands!

After a long week of preparation, we woke up on New Years Eve to the pops, bangs, and cracks of trees falling behind our cabin. It was nothing I'd heard before. They sounded like rifles being fired off in the distant fields. The air smelled likeSpruce and Quaking Aspen that day.

The new year started with a huge dump of snow and a massive wind storm. The better part of our town lost power and our ranch also lost water for about two days.

Our modern life melted into the ice and knee-deep snow that surrounded us. We all focused on keeping the fires going, making sure our neighbors were well taken care of, melting snow and ice to use toflush the toilets and wash the dishes. We gathered and cooked around the open flames, we sat with headlamps reading our favorite books, plowed the driveways, and dug out the chicken coop.No technology, no distractions, just our community in the here and now.

It was a beautiful excuse to slow down when life started to feel a little out of control.

I felt I was able to sit down and reflect on this year that has passed.On the way moving to the country has softened my edges.On the beautiful moments I have experienced, the beautiful people I have met and the lessons I have learned.I've learned to appreciate the little things, the big things, the learning curves, and the growth through it all.I've learned to expect the unexpected, open my heart to new experiences,

and appreciate the light and darkness all at once.

Amen to that. Amen.

♥

Built to Last

Now Available in the shop

☾

Built to last and handmade by me from start to finish

♥

Birth Day

I write this post as I turn 27 years old. I have been brought breakfast in bed by my love, and later today I will saddle up and head into the trails of the property with our friends on horseback.

Rain or shine.

I hope Ruby will find us another skull.

♥

Springtime is truly a dreamy season.

It's that time of year where the creamy greens and muted yellows pop up in the tallgrass that sits in the field across from our cabin.

That time of year where I listen to the grouse pound their drums deep in the forest grove.

Where I watch the snow melt and reminisce on the freedom that winter always brings us.

It's that time of year where farmers are busy pulling lambs, kids, and calves from theirmothers, to watch them moments later roam their lands by their mother's feet.

We were recently invited to Bryson's coworker's farm to be a part of theirgoat's laboring and birthing.

I'm lucky to have witnessed birth two times now.I watched my sister bring my nephew earthside last year on April 5th, and this year amother goat and her farmer bring a buckling earthside on the very same day.

The complexity and purity of birth is something I believe everyone shouldhave the opportunity to be a part of.

It is so simple. It is so beautiful. And that is how it should be.

Spring is the time of year that reminds me to trust in what is.To watch everything grow and develop as it should, and trust that the same is happening to me.To allow and accept the natural things coming my way, and to be earnestly and honestlyexactly who I am called to be.

Find that trust within yourself, hold it. If it feels right to you, it is.

I trust that my 27th year will bring about big changes in my life, and allow me to seek outwhat I want most.

Do you know what I want?

I want to put on my favorite jeans, belt, and hat, saddle up my horse and ride her throughthe tall grass into miles and miles of untouched lands.

I want to watch the sunset over the hills and valleys of sagebrush like a cascade of fire.

I want to drink up that light.

I want to collect eggs from the henhouse every morning with a cup of tea in hand,and name all of my chickens after the freshly grown herbs in my garden.

I want to cook our catch of the day over an outdoor fire and spend all of my time with my dogand my love.

I want to be thankful for all the things that matter, and brush off all the things that don't.

I just want to live my life and live it well.Live it, as who I am called to be.

It's ok to want what you want and be unapologetic about it.It is truly ok.

I trust that you know this, deep down in the marrow of your soul, let that feeling beam brightacross your face and truly feel it.

I love you. I believe in you.Now go forth in all you do.

xx

Chloe

The End of the Drive

In air like this, I feel myself reborn. In this cold, crisp, dry air, oh I feel it to be true.

♥

We packed and tarped the last of our things in the back of the pickup, and left Vancouver in heavy rain.North and north still, we made our way into the dry teal and tranquil tan of the sagebrush lands we now call home.We're good on the road together. We listen to podcasts, sing, talk, and kiss Ruby's head as she peaks out between our shoulders to look at the lights of the log trucks rumbling by.

At the end of the drive is our cabin, surrounded by the warm creamy hues of dry grass spilling in every direction.

Here, you can feel it all.You can hear the cabin creak and sing as it shifts in the wind.You can hear the swooping of ravens and other bird of prey above you while wandering through the trails.You can see the breath of the horses as they sigh and snort in the cold air.You can feel the drumming of grouse as they prepare for flight.You can smell the warm woodburning stoves of the neighboring cabins.You can hear the cracking of ice below your feet as you dare to step onto the barely frozen lake.You can taste the scent of pine as you cut down your own tree for Christmas.

It's all so alive here and I can feel my soul growing.I have plenty of stories to share already.

I will be stocking my shop again soon after finishing a few commissions for Christmas.I can't wait to create for you in this new space.I hope that when you wear these pieces, you carry with you a reminder of all that has passed and is to come.All of the joy, the sadness, the adversities, the victories, the greatest efforts of love and life.You are of pure silver and flame. You are loved.

Thank you for all of your support through this part of my journey as a silversmith.You have allowed me to pursue this medium as my profession.With every solder and saw, you have made me a better person.I pinch myself every day and I owe you for that.I am forever grateful.Thank you.

May You Be Loved,Always

♥