The spirit of treehouses

So what do treehouses mean to you? What does the idea of a tree house stir within you? For me, it is recapturing some childhood dreams, something whimsical, something that makes you smile....a place for magic to happen in.....an escape from the rest of the world....a place to dream...a place to create...a place of peace.....a place of fun!

Everything happy!

And a little while ago, we were thinking of building a tree house as my studio. We had Pete Nelson - a tree house designer and author of this book shown above - come and look at our property and think about the feasibility etc. The trees he considered most suitable were a stand of redwood trees down my the creek. They are actually high up from the creek and look down to the water. Seemed scary to me.....

But I could just imagine having my own little space.....I already thought I'd call it "magpie's nest" - as magpie's like to have shiny things in their nest - ie in my case, a home with silver!! We went through some design ideas.....and I just loved the thought...we'd have a rope style bridge = aka a jungle bridge...to get to it.....we'd have a little porch so my husband could join me for cocktail hour...I'd have a day bed in there.....to lie and browse through my books.....

Oh, it seemed great - but then the practicalities came into the picture...like how far it was from the house.....the neighbours.....the amount the trees swayed in the wind (- Ahhh!)......the fact that another stand of redwoods we had by the creek recently fell into the creek......

After much umming and ahhing, we have decided that we won't build me a treehouse as a studio. It is the right decision and maybe one day we will one somewhere else - but it just didn't quite feel right in the end! I think maybe looking at another tree, not so near to the creek would give us a little more comfort feel......I feel there is a treehouse in me somewhere..and maybe someday I'll have one...but to commemorate my happy dreams and the feelings that treehouses create in me - I made a pair of treehouse earrings.

I made them by starting with a textured rectangular background. I then cut out some silver in the tree shape and cut a little window/roof motif into that. I joined the trees to the background and then placed the windows in, and cut out the ladder! Little stylized treehouse - to suggest playfulness, happiness, whimsy, escapism! All in fine silver.