January 1-making vision boards

Yesterday morning the three of us started making personal vision boards. At two-ish, Kelly had to leave to set up for his New Year's Eve gig an hour away but Olivia and I continued, snipping and arranging and pasting our cut-out wishes and goals on 18x24 inch sheets of watercolor paper. We worked for hours until somewhere around seven o'clock when we declared them finished. Images were gleaned from old magazines and catalogs and we drew a few things here and there when we couldn't find what we needed. My sweetie was enthusiastic and tireless and I was such a proud mama when she shared the images she chose and explained their meanings. The whole process: the thinking about what I want for my future, the choosing of the picture to represent it, and the act of seeing it all before me, resonated more strongly in my heart than a list of resolutions I close up in a notebook and put away. "Thoughts create things." I believe this and it makes me happy to know my thoughts will go to good places when I look at the vision board. Here are a few close-up images (it feels too personal to share my whole board though Olivia has kindly given me permission to share hers.) :

"New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights." ~Hamilton Wright Mabie
[a big thank you to Lisa for the quote]

Happy New Year!

This image is from years back. Sixteen years ago, give or take a few. But I found it today when I was cleaning out a box of things and it seemed to fit the quote I've been carrying around and wanting to share here as we celebrate the approach of this new year.

"If, like a Cherokee warrior, I can look at the new year as an opportunity to stand on new ground, then strength and courage are on my side. If I have waited a long time for everything to be perfect - and there have been moments, brief as they were, that filled my expectations - then I can face the challenges. I will remember that things do work out, bodies do heal, relationships mend - not because I said it, but because I believe it. But it is time to make things right, to stay on the Path. As water runs fresh and free from the woodland spring, so new life and meaning will bubble up from my own inner source. I will be still and steady because there is nothing to be gained by showing fear in a chaotic world. I can turn from ignorance and prejudice toward a light that never goes out."-- Joyce Sequichie Hifler

May your new year hold many blessings. xo

june 26

Local Love+Book Love

I’ve never pulled into the parking lot at the Hollins University campus without an accompanying sense of excitement and gratitude. The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum is there with the occasional workshop (I've enjoyed myself immensely at each one) and constant spectacular exhibits (Goodnight, Hush: Classic Children's Illustrations is there now), the theater where my hubby Kelly had a great time playing guitar in the play “Violet” is there and when Olivia was at Community School (we are back to being a home schooling family now) there were celebrations and plays on the grounds. I feel extremely blessed to live close to such a wealth of creative goodness.

Yesterday was the last day of the Children’s Literature Association event and it was an insightful, inspiring time. I did not get to attend the two previous days but wish I had.

At events like these, I take notes, jotting down anything and everything that triggers some sort of spark, snippets and wisdom that I think I may be able to pull from later to aid in a piece of writing or in a painting. I'm looking forward to looking those over this morning while nursing a cup of tea and see if any connections remain. But first, I have a few links to share with you lovelies.

A few things from yesterday stand out in my mind:

* Hearing Meg Medina read the opening of her book, “Milagros, The Girl From Away.” I am going to pick this one up as soon as I can. Magical realism=Love.

* Julia Mickenburg and Philip Nel’s lecture on radical children’s literature. You can get the entire book list on the blog. This is great as I think I missed a few in my notes, especially near the end when I thought my hand was going to fall off from all the frenzied scribbling. Ideas for home school lessons were foremost in my mind during this talk and the mommy/teacher in me was getting a healthy dose of motivation and ideas for group activities with friends. This lecture was also filmed and will eventually be available on the CHLA site.

* Thacher Hurd, son of Clement Hurd who was the illustrator for “Goodnight Moon,” and author/illustrator in his own right, was entertaining with his anecdotes about Margaret Wise Brown that left me wanting to know more about this beautiful genius who seemed to enchant all she encountered.

* Seeing up close the wonderful art of Ruth Sanderson and Ashley Wolff.

*The session on writing and illustrating fantasy: Charle Vess, Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, and Amie Rose Rotruck –oh, the passion and excitement they have for what they do! That's always wonderful to see and to be around. Meeting Kathleen Foucart Walker, a local writer and friend of a dear friend.

*Chatting with Becky Mushko, another local writer. I purchased her new middle grade book, a paranormal tale titled “Stuck” and can’t wait to dive into it.

*Spending the day with another dear friend, definitely one of the highlights. Where would we all be without our friends? I used to have a quote painted on the panel in the hallway. I have since painted over it but recall the words well. “Friends are flowers in the garden of life.” So true, dontcha think?

In the art room:

* I’ve been gesso-ing panels and organizing, getting ready for an art show at the Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd. I'll have my art hanging there the months of September and October. Very excited about that!

* Fabric took over for a few days. Doing some mending and also making an eye pillow. I had to measure and pin---shew! SO not strengths of this impatient girl but I am proud of the end result. It’s weight felt good in my hand, filled with flax seeds and lavender, and smell was delicious.

and today I am grateful for...

* for packages (see above image) that land in a big wonderful surprise on the porch and incite much ohhing and ahhhing! a hug and the biggest of thank yous to the awesome misty mawn!  the GORGEOUS print is on the mantel, the journal at home, here beside me as i type (i will place found poems on the creamy, painted pages.), the cards are all around the kitchen so that i can enjoy them every single day! misty is the kindest, most generous kind of soul but many of you probably already knew that. i was lucky to get in on her pay-it-forward post on FB. soon, very soon, i must think about working on making and gathering my own goodies to send out as i have finally found my list of names and addresses from months ago.

* for the joy of writing outside in the cool early a.m. and doing my morning pages though I really didn't feel like it.

* for summer break and trampolines and lemon tea

* for pretty yellow zucchini blossoms

* for impromtu lunch picnics on patchwork quilts which turn into lazy afternoon reading sessions. i finished up "the haunting of hill house" and worked on a short story. olivia started "the secret order of the gumm street girls." i don't know much about olivia's book other than magical shoes are involved but that is enough for me.

* for re-discovering Questionaut, a computer game that I don't mind my daughter playing. It is visually breathtaking and is oh so clever!

* for a phone call in which i was told that another art piece has sold! whoo-hoo! what a good feeling when another connects with something created by my hands and heart. i am still a bit in awe over the whole process. and EXTREMELY grateful. kelly will be getting a better father's day gift this year than last and i'm so happy to be buying it with "my own" money. i was also able to place a book order on Amazon and will be having a bit of repair work done around the house soon. hopefully very soon. and all with "art money." i am loving this and sending up thanks to the heavens as i write these words.

* and for an old dog that loves me. that's her oh-no-i-just got-caught-eating-the-cat-food face.

Mountain Music

 "Mountain Music"    ----------       10"x10" on canvas

On Valentine's Day I gave my husband, Kelly, a painting and I thought I would share it here. It was originally planned for the old space where he was teaching guitar. "Mountain Music" had been in my art room for months, patiently waiting for me to finish with other projects and get back to it. Now, Kelly's teaching in a space with other teachers, an already decorated space so I think the painting will be staying here. I like that. Everything I've been making lately, I've been making with the knowledge that I will be sending it off into the world for others to own and hopefully love. That also brings great joy.

Now I just need to decide where to hang it. Our bedroom maybe. I think looking over at the painted mountains in the mornings will be nice. It's the view I wish I had from my own windows; it was the thought of those blue-grey mountains after all that brought me back to Virginia. So funny, as it was that same mountain view I was trying to escape from as a younger woman.

If I look from my window now I see the back of another house but I know the mountains are there, surrounding Roanoke like a bowl. I send out gratitude to those mountains. Without those mountains I wouldn't have met Kelly, my love.

Thank you for all the good bloodwork wishes! I am happy to report that the numbers were great, the best ever. During the phone call to the lab I felt, physically felt, a weight lift from my shoulders. I cry from the overwhelming wave of gratitude each time, my knees buckle and I have to sit. I feel as I have won some grand thing. And I have. Time. Time to love, spread joy, make art. Glorious, precious time. I had someone ask why I go so often to get checked (every 6 weeks for while longer) and I sent them to this triple negative breast cancer site. Triple negative is reported as being the most aggressive (though I visualize cancer cells as being grey and thin and so wimpy, my immune system strong white tigers armed with a bow and golden heart-tipped arrows) and the doctors just want to stay on top of things. Seeing as how I was stage 4 a year and a half or so ago and there aren't drugs, like herceptin or tamoxifen, to prevent a recurrence with triple negative, I am OK with that.

While waiting for the news I stayed busy. I got organized. At least for a day, maybe two.I watched Olivia take self-portraits. She is such a mini-me sometimes! Played in my journal.Worked on my Soul Restoration journal cover. My dear friend Sonya gifted me with this class. (Thank you, Sonya!) Coffee stained some paper. Found an old journal page (on coffee stained paper) from years ago when I was straightening the art room.

And started two pieces for the show in April.

Hope you are well and bursting with creativity!

xoxo

Celebrating

Today I am grateful for this:

Celebrating the fact that I am here on this wonderful planet. Loving. Creating. Laughing. Grateful for simple things like having my eyebrows and hair back. Grateful for each breath, each step. SO SO grateful for it all.

"As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily.  The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world."  ~Terri Guillemets

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."  ~Thornton Wilder

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. " ~William Faulkner

xoxo 

{ps-i owe bunches of emails. i promise to catch up this week.}

Today I was Reminded

Today I am grateful for the many unexpected ways that life reminds us of the important things.

What are you grateful for today?

The Butterfly Guide

I woke grateful for the blessed not-so-usual-these-days generous chunk of time in the art room that was to be mine. I've been giddy all day. Nothing like cranking up the music and getting to work. The above was the state of my art table this morning and the below, is the piece as it is now, almost finished but not quite. THE BUTTERFLY GUIDE. (There's a big glare in the upper corner of the photograph which I would try and remedy pronto, as glares are a serious pet peeve, but I have to be somewhere in thirty minutes. Yikes!) Her job is to look after all the butterflies, guiding them upward when they pass from this world into the next.

LEAVES DRIFT AWAY was made with the scraps on the table. I'm finding that using the leftover bits in such a way is extremely rewarding. This will be a practice I will stick to.

Wishing you a great night!

xoxo

I'm grateful today for simple things like cozy socks and a car with a heater that works, for my favorite mug and the tea that went inside, for crock pot aromas and fresh baked bread and butter to go on top.

Olivia says she is grateful for "good friends helping me when I fell at school today, for kitty cats, and Halloween candy." (I'm grateful for those things, too. :)  )

More gratitude here.

Where the Sun Cried

Grateful that I have a space in my home to create. Grateful for the small bits of papers, saved for the longest time, and now being used. I've decided at the end of each art-making session to take the leftover pieces of paper and combine them with scraps from other projects hoarded stored in a basket here on my table. I've a stack of cards from an old board game and I'm thinking to use them as a surface for this extra just for fun, no rules art-making.

"Where She Cried" is dealing with losing a breast to cancer, exploring some of the sadness there. I don't talk about that sort of thing all that much here, it comes out in my journal, but this is what piecing the scraps led to and I wanted to share that.

Creative Every Day (a big thank you to leah!)

Gratitude Month (a big thank you to lisa for beginning this and another big thank you to jeannine for linking!)

blessings,