Baby, You and Me

got a groovy kind of love
You give me freedom to explore and express and grow. Thank you for growing with me. Thank you for your patience and your gentleness. Thank you for your faithfulness to me and to our children.
In 22 years we've had much more laughter than tears and many more good days than bad. As each year passes, I appreciate more and more the way you sharpen and soften me at the same time. You hold the key to my heart. Thank you for carrying it lightly.
I hope this year we will take more walks together and linger over breakfast more often. Maybe we'll even do a bit more star-gazing. Life is moving quickly. I want to savor every moment with you.

I love you, my husband. Thank you for loving me.

English Breakfast Tea

So we were out of coffee this morning and I had to "make do" with tea. O, happy day! I'd forgotten how much I love a good cup of English breakfast tea. Inspired, I pulled out my favorite tea pot and picked a few flowers for the table. It became a morning beverage event.

Please understand, I do love coffee, but lately I've been drinking it more out of habit than by conscious choice. Believe it or not, this small change in routine set the tone for my entire day. It started me thinking "outside the box" to find creative solutions to all sorts of challenges. Maybe you're not mindlessly drinking the same beverage every morning, but chances are you're in some other rut and making little changes in your routine can transform your thought process. You might even be amazed to find your attitude much more positive and hopeful.

It's not necessary to visit a foreign country or go bungee jumping but it wouldn't hurt to be a little daring. Try wearing a weird hat while cooking dinner or dancing in the grocery store aisle when no one is looking. (Don't worry about the security cameras...I'm sure they record that kind of stuff all the time.) Just do some little thing out of the ordinary today and see how much more creative and alive you feel.

TiltShift (Just for Fun)

Today I tried an online tool called TiltShift, which manipulates photos making certain elements appear miniaturized. This picture of a window at the beautiful Magnolia Bakery in New York City...
became this entirely different image...

After playing with it a bit, I can tell that photo selection is important. Landscapes, cityscapes, and still lifes seem to work well if there is a horizontal plane on which to focus. Of course, the application is pretty specific but it was fun just to try something new.

Next I'm going to try this photograph of Cafe Angelique (also in New York), which serves the BEST QUICHE IN THE WORLD...

If you'd like to try this application for yourself, there is an easy-to-follow tutorial to help you get started at http://drawntothesea.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-tiltshift.html .
Along with giving some helpful tips, this link directs you to the TiltShift website, where you can view some really amazing altered photos and manipulate your own images for free. Lots of inspiration and lots of possibilities!

Below and Above

This photograph, taken at the edge of our pond, represents to me our human potential. Were it only an image of the surface it would be nothing special...just a bunch of sticks and bubbles. But light has illuminated the scene in two ways:

1.) The sunlight reveals what is beneath the surface - what would usually be hidden. There is both beauty (suprising color and form) and yuck (the refuse of rotting vegetation). Isn't this like our own interiors? Beneath our "surface" is a complex collection of experiences, thoughts and emotions...many things unseen by others, yet part of who we are.

2.) The reflection shows us what is above. No matter what lies beneath our surface, we are born to reflect something much greater and more beautiful than we could hope to be. In a still moment even pond water, and all that is within it, becomes an image of heaven above.

Love the Moment

Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each, is to succeed. - Corita Kent
An unusual amount of rainfall in the last few weeks has made the flowering plants around my place happy, happy, happy. Their beautiful blooms inspired me to pull out some flower canes left over from recent projects and make a pretty little collection of flower beads.

When I work with these beads I will try to think about the quote by Corita Kent. I will remember that flowers begin in darkness...a tiny seed planted in the right environment becomes a thing of great beauty. Even the ugly stuff...the hard stuff becomes a lovely gift when we allow it to shape us into stronger, more patient, more compassionate human beings.
Today, if a worry, a hurt, or even an irritation crosses my mind I will do my best to love that yucky moment. I'm not sure how successful I'll be, but I'll give it a shot. If I give that seed the environment it needs (a trusting, hopeful heart) just maybe it will become a thing of beauty in my life...

Reflection

mirror image...alive in light...revealed in stillness

child of God

The workings of the human heart are the profoundest mystery of the universe. One moment they make us dispair of our kind, and the next we see in them the reflection of the divine image. - Charles W. Chesnutt

What will we reflect today, friend?

Beaded Rain (just for fun)

I spent some time yesterday photographing hand-made chains. Grouped this way they remind me of colorful, shimmery sheets of rain.

Birth of a Greeting Card

While making some funky little "notes to self" for my wall this morning, I made a happy discovery. A scrap piece of paper was folded like a greeting card. This gave me an idea...

Just for fun I stamped some simple messages and images on card stock, antiquing the edges to add some “umph”. The rustic quality and the yummy color combination are so serene...just the feeling I wanted to evoke.
I hope you find something that inspires your creativity today. Drop me a note and let me know what it is!

Rain!

Is there anything more wonderful than a rainy morning in the midst of a summer heat wave? I was so, so happy to wake up this morning and hear raindrops hitting my tin roof. (It's one of my favorite sounds, even when the temperatures haven't been in the triple digits.)

Seeing the world around me refreshed and rejuvenated lifts my spirit and makes me feel new again, too.

Eighty years ago today...

...my handsome daddy was born!

You carried me in your arms when I was young and gave me beautiful memories that I carry in my heart always. You are a great dad and I love you very, very much. I wish I was there to celebrate with you today.

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

Rockin' Out on a Lazy Summer Afternoon

Around our house, soaring summer temps are the perfect excuse to stay inside and create something. Today we painted rocks. It gave us a chance to laugh and talk together while we got a little messy.
The result?...A pretty plate of colorful, inspiring and encouraging messages to pass on to friends and strangers. For now they grace our patio table with a whole lot of charm...
The water we used to clean the brushes was so pretty...I just had to take a photo. I may use this interesting color combination in another project. (Inspiration comes from the most surprising places.)

A Part of the Action

Many mornings I watch the sunrise from the window in our kitchen. Today I stepped outside and became a part of the action. I joined the morning breeze and the creatures of the wood in welcoming a new day. (I confess I ran down the driveway in my pajamas to get this shot.) It felt good to participate in the celebration of sunrise... feeling the damp grass between my toes...hearing the birds sing their morning songs...smelling my neighbor's bacon cooking...

No watching through windows today. I will be fully present in the world around me...a participant and not a spectator.

Insect Inspiration

Pondering dragonflies this morning

Learning about the miracles of nature enrichness our lives and inspires the creative process. I spent some time yesterday studying dragonflies and I thought I’d share a few fascinating facts. These beautiful little insects have a short adult life but what a glorious existence it is. Did you know that dragonflies…

…spend most of their life (up to three years) underwater in the larva stage, living only a few weeks as adults with wings?
…have two sets of wings that move independently and beat at only 30 beats per second (compared to a bee’s 300 bps)?
…can fly forward, backward, up, and down? They can also hover like a helicopter and do loop-the-loops. (How fun is that?)
…have large, compound eyes containing up to 30,000 lenses giving them an almost 360 degree view of the world?
…fly between 30 and 38 miles per hour?

As I learn more about these amazing creatures I marvel at the complexity of their design and I appreciate even more the wisdom of their creator. Even in the tiniest details, each is fashioned perfectly to fulfill its purpose and live the life it was born to live.

How much more ingenious then, is the design of a human being? We are, each of us, fashioned to live a glorious existence: loving, learning, creating, overcoming, and celebrating each day. So spread your wings, my friend. You have what it takes. Live the life you were born to live.

thanks to the following sites for some grreat dragonfly facts: http://21facts.com/animals/dragonflies.php, http://www.helium.com/knowledge/6515-life-span-of-a-dragonfly

Winged Creatures

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

I've been very busy in the studio lately! Here are some images of the winged creatures I've been creating in polymer clay. It was fun putting them in a natural environment to take the photographs...sort of makes you take a second glance.

Tomorrow I will begin turning these into necklaces. Hope you enjoyed looking!

Investment Counseling

My relationship investment counselor, Dakota Joe

Meet Dakota Joe, my faithful companion for almost three months now. He is a very sweet fellow and I am totally smitten. So far today he has chastised the cat, splashed me with muddy pond water, and tried to eat the butterfly I was about to photograph…all before 8:oo in the morning.
Why do I put up with all the inconvenience? Dakota Joe and I have an agreement. I’ll love and provide for him even when it is a challenge and he’ll love me back no matter what. He will sit with me when I’m lonely, listen when I need to talk and protect me when I am frightened. It’s a simple arrangement and it’s an investment for both of us.
We think so much about investments in financial terms, wanting to secure our future and “put something aside” for rainy days. In the end, though, the most important investments we make are in our relationships. Deposits into the lives of others have eternal value and, as an added bonus, they are impervious to inflation, stock market crashes, and unemployment. In fact, challenging circumstances have the potential to make our relationships stronger as we learn to rely on each other more for encouragement and comfort.
We often do not realize how much our future depends on the strength of our relational investments. We are designed to love and be loved and our poverty in this area causes us to seek comfort in things that ultimately disappoint. Our possessions and our bank accounts cannot fill our need for companionship. (Neither can food, drugs, shopping, or anything else…) So today do something to secure your future; invest in the life of someone you love. Encourage, comfort, and support them. Make the decision to love them no matter what, even if they splash you with pond water or try to eat your butterfly.