You might think the above collage pertains only to artists:
Teachers, landscapers, bakers, stock people at the neighborhood grocery, itinerant farmers, rescue workers, mathematicians, garbage collectors (they make trash disappear from our lives, that is highly magical) rehabilitation therapists, assembly line workers, pediatric nurses, grief counselors, librarians, firefighters (they battle an element!), and so many others…
You would be right, everyone of us has the power of great magic.
My journey: begins not with a step, but with a breath.
Decisions and experience guide the journey, but events are out of my control. Perhaps it is the will of the universe. Perhaps it chance.
How I choose to interpret the events shapes my future and my will. I am always learning, experiencing, hurting and rejoicing.
There is no end, another journey ahead.
A bowl full of ingredients: some are soft and rounded, others are pointed and sharp. There are sweet flavors as well as sour and salty. It gets stirred up daily and the finished results are never known.
Mixed Media Monday’s theme is stars. Stars are like polka-dots for me, I love them. I could do stars all week, and it looks like I will, so I can’t wait to see what the other creators come up with.
Where am I?
Meet Mia: She rode a Greyhound bus from Hollywood, CA and made it as far as Denver, CO. She was found passed out in a Union Station bathroom after having black market restilyn injections. Mia has self esteem issues. But knowing I was dealing with empty nest syndrome, a social worker contacted me and I agreed to adopt her. Her last name is Mohrimportant, and she would like to hold on to it. To view her short journey, click on the photo.
For new readers, Sunday belongs to the Siblings. Technically, the larger humans of this family are not supposed to be working, so the children have begun to fill in. However, the group of crazy makers are off in Michigan, visiting their Auntie Lynn, and soon to be strutting about at the Michigan Sewing Expo.
What if it was true? That no wish whispered was special? Then let me be hoarse from shouting.
We are privileged here at the Expressly Yours’ studio, to be able to indulge our whims. We have two spectacularly great cats, an apple tree, a martini bar, sewing room, painting room, casting and glazing rooms, woodworking tools, welding tools (don’t know how to use that yet), 3 kilns, and a 12 foot wall dedicated to anything with magnets, like poetry. Could it get much better?
Well, it would be awesome to be in the beautiful layouts of Cloth Paper Scissors Studio Issue, but we’re not very organized or disciplined. Perhaps the organizing skills of Cate Coulacos Prato is needed. Check out her blog. She is giving away a scrumptious handy caddy of goodies. Good luck to all who enter.
The other night I was going to be noble and work through my emails – but one was from Amazon, tempting me with handmade book books. I looked, what harm? Okay add them to my wish list. Then those evil lords of temptation stuck on page after page of Mary Jane style shoes! Did anyone else know Amazon sold shoes? Is Zappos not vile enough?
I exhausted myself with OMG-those-are-so-cute by the 10th page. It’s just wrong. To make matters worse, I (honest-to-goodness) dreamt of a pair of green suede Mary Janes with white piping. I wore them with pants that had the exact same piping and a shape that fit into the top of the shoes, like a puzzle. I asked someone, “is this too much” they said it was.
So my theme is clothing. I feel like I need to tie my mind numbing ramblings into something constructive, like a shameless store plug. Obviously my mind is delicate and can you forgive me? love (and on-line shopping) michele
Touch: guidance, not a push – touch screens, Healing touch: acupressure, massage therapy, touch my heart, kindness, a woman’s touch
Touch football, by an angel, sense of touch. Braille, touch of class, Midas, keep in touch, reach out and touch
Cant touch this, touch–a touch–a touch me, I want to feel …. Touch the sky
Touché, good touch – bad touch, nice touch, touch and go, out of touch
Creative touch, touch up, (have fun with graffiti) http://www.wetpaintpleasetouch.com/
Mixed Media Monday - nature
Mixed Media Monday’s challenge for this week is nature. Since finding out I have honey bees in my walls, I’ve wanted to honor them before they are relocated in March. The elements fell together while I was straightening up my house this week. I hope to use it as a focal point on a large piece, perhaps a house shrine of sorts.
I had the ceramic house and roof for another uncompleted mosaic project. Parental unit brought me glorious papers from her birthday trip and the honeycombed nests (from paper wasps) are from my deck tear down project. I just liked the look of the baby doll arms holding up the nest; I didn’t recognize them as trees till I had it all together. It was very difficult to photograph, it’s not this dark and dingy in person. Thanks Mixed Media Monday! loved this challenge.
seeing the beauty
Last Friday I asked readers to see the beauty that is around, right in front, or hidden. This gorgeous creature was waiting for me on my front step one evening. Though his head is slightly out of focus, I was thrilled to get this shot with my regular Kodak digital camera. What did you discover?
My Sunday’s post should have conveyed my empty-nest feelings with the whole group of sibling sock creatures traveling to the far off wonders of Michigan.
This giddiness and fright has been made possible through the talented and generous Fibra Artysta, who will be known hence as Auntie Lynn by the Siblings. Lynn is curating the Breaking Traditions exhibit at the Michigan Sewing Expo. whew! lots of links, but worth the time.
kiln opening
Lynn has put together lovely packages of goodness to the participants of Breaking Traditions. This kiln opening photo shows my tiny contribution of wee little globe tiles. She is issuing a challenge to use the packages of goodness for donations to the Collage Mania fund raiser, or for simple pleasures.
If you are interested in owning great collage art, at crazy affordable prices, you must check out Fiberart for a Cause, this coming spring. If you are interested in creating great collage for an important cause scroll down to the Collage Mania 2009 box on the FFAC site. Now is the perfect time to begin creating those collage and art quilts, deadline is April 1st, 2009.
The mischief makers are leaving me to travel to Michigan – alone. I’m so excited for them; they’ll meet new creature friends and see more human creatures. What if I get lonely without them? What will I do? What will become of Sib’s Sunday?
I was able to snap some photos in the warehouse to show their enthusiasm for the trip.
Take a peek
I issue a challenge: promise yourself you will have a positive day. That is not to say your day will be charmed, but that you are willing to see the goodness and beauty behind the daily grime and in any people you encounter. It will be difficult at times, but take deep breaths and refocus to see what was hidden to you before.
If you are mindful of your goal all day long, extend the challenge to the weekend. Grab a camera, sketch or writing pad and document the beauty you see.
Overheard at the Chicago International Quilt Festival, “I’m tired of the word DREAM”. Hopefully, she was not tired of the concept.
Personally, I need prompts, reminders and permission. I NEED to live in my alternative worlds, where tearing my house apart will lead to a fabulous home, where buying a lottery ticket will have me packing my bags for art-camps and Ireland, and the next technique I choose to delve into will be my bliss and my life’s passion.
Without living fearlessly, where would the ”oops, that didn’t work, but it looks really cool” next exciting technique come from? What if we were so afraid of imperfections and failure we withered and died inside?
Grow. Grow fearless. Dream. Believe. Live. Create. Take risks. michele
believe in everything
The Democratic National Convention is here in Denver Colorado. Whether you are a donkey, elephant, or independent, I think we can agree it is time for change.
It is time to have faith in our country’s strengths once again. Time to believe we will move in positive directions, directions that are healthy for us individually, as a nation, and the human race. believe
hello beautiful part 2
In case you don’t know who you are: YOU
use your indicators for every single turn, and checked organ donor on your license.
went back to school, even though you are long past your 30′s, 40′s, 50′s, 60′s…
happily give up your seat to anyone needing more than you.
tip at least 20% to food service people. (They work hard).
believe in serendipity, or the magic of the universe, or in miracles, or in love and the possibilities of charity.
have given change to the person in line ahead of you (even if it was to make the line progress faster).
choose neither paper nor plastic, and plant trees.
give old linens to local shelters, spay and neuter your pets, never leave them in cars in the summer, or outside in the winter.
have handed your delicious left-overs to a person that needs a decent meal.
Hello Beautiful, now you know who you are.
Tommy volunteered to be the contractor on my deck replacement project and recruited his cousin Lovey (in stripes) for the labor. It was a disaster. Tommy found he could remove nails without damaging his teeth. Lovey found that the composite deck boards are heavier than they look. Clumsy Lovey fell through the framing and barely held on by a screw! And Tommy bid adieu to the fun of the day with a Dracula impression.
What nuts; they accomplished nothing on the deck re-do! Guess Bubba and I have to take the project back. To see their glorious insanity better, click on the first photo and view a self guided slide show with your cursor in the upper right corner. There you will find the hidden NEXT button. love (and recycled plastic – Trex) michele
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