my heart is full

I was having a conversation with three loving friends (that live in my computer!) yesterday.  We were talking  about our class we took with Misty Mawn this past January.  I didn't realize there was a void in me that became filled with the wonderful friendships I have made through this adventure.  A lot of us will meet for the first time at Artfest in 2012.  We are sharing a house and are taking a class with our amazing teacher Misty Mawn.  The only way I could be more excited is if Joanne, Kristin, Linda, Michele and Manon were coming.  I am sure it will be a trip of a lifetime for me.  There are girls coming from the U.K., Canada and all over the U.S.  The only two people  I know (in real life!) are Jodi and Ilene.  Hmmmmm.......maybe this is why I have gained weight!  I am overfilled with love and joy!  Thank you girls, I look forward to chatting with you each and every day. We are all still together as we take Katie Kendrick's Layered Impressions class.  My life is really blessed right now.  xo 

We cannot tell the precise moment when a friendship is formed.

As in filling a vessel, drop by drop, at last there is a drop which makes the heart run over.

                                                                                                                      James Boswell

I am grateful for my old and new friendships.  What are you grateful for?  xo

I come from......

Good morning!  For anyone that read yesterday's post, I said I would follow it up with this poem.  I took an online class earlier this year with the wonderful Misty Mawn.  It was titled "stretching within".  It was a drawing, painting, collage, journaling and photography class.  It was amazing!  Our first assignment was to write a poem, with the prompt, I come from................  This was the first writing I had ever done. It was hard!  But I did it, and shared it with our group and found out from reading everyone's poems, my life was not a lot different.  Everyone struggled with some issues from their childhood.  But we survived and came through and are stronger because of it.  I wrote a post earlier that was titled "don't look back".  I am trying to follow my own advice!!

                                                         I come from.............

I come from the fifties, from roots deep in the heart of Texas.  Stretching the sea from Ireland to the Choctow reservation.

I come from small town parades, walking to school, many childhood to present friends, handmade barbie clothes, antiques, gypsy blood and wheels on my feet.

I come from talent.  Mother was a blue ribbon gardener and gypsy treasure hunter and daddy was a blue collar worker and an amazing woodworker.  Talent and lives blurred and slowly washed away in alcohol.  I come from being the adult in a child's world, filled with anxiety, mis-trust and fear.

I come from loving grandparents.  Aprons, fried pies, cobblers, gardens of swaying poppies, feather beds, beehives and honeycomb, paint by number, days at the five and dime and the lingering smell of jergens cherry almond lotion.  My salvation and my rocks.



Today I am happy.

Life is great!

Today I am sad. 

Life could have been better.

01/06/2011 



my grandparents.
Ina and Fred Leonard.
thank you.







Where do you come from?

Tuesday tidbits

This will just be a bit of rambling about the day, so get out your hand painted magic carpet and fetch a cold adult beverage of your choice and join me.  First thing this morning (well for those that really know me, it was about 10:00 am)!, but anyway, I went to Las Vegas to Joann's to use my 50% coupons.  Couldn't let those go to waste, even though I  have enough supplies of every kind to last a couple of lifetimes!  I showed my favorite checker, Joanne,  my beads in the Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine and she announces it as loud as possible to everyone in line and calls them over to see.  My face turned every shade of red possible.  She is a sweetheart , always a smile and a kind word.

I decided next to go get a pedicure.  Now that was an experience. The girl I got did not speak English very well at all.  She was making small talk with me and I just kept nodding and smiling, not getting a single word of it!  Then she asks me if I know Linda?  Linda who?  Oh, she says, she lives in Boulder City.  We only have about 17,000 people here! LOL!

Then when I left, there were about a bazillion pigeons all lined up in the median, trying desperately to find a little shade in the 102 degree heat, and hoping for a handout.  I know people don't like them, and think they are a nuisance, but I think they are pretty darn cute.  They looked like they were lined up like laborers waiting to get a job.  Was wishing I had some popcorn to give them.

Before I left this morning, I got the sweetest message on facebook from one of my stretching sisters, Joanne Rose.  She made my day.  What a sweetheart.  Who knew when I signed up for Misty Mawn's class, that I would make such endearing friends.  It is amazing that I feel like some of them have been my closest friends for years, and it hasn't even been a year. It was worth the money to make these friendships, even if I hadn't learned a thing! When we rendezvous in Port Townsend for Art Fest next March, it will be fun, fun, fun, till our daddy takes our T-bird away!  I guess I have 9 months to lose 30 pounds!

I have so many ideas for jewelry and art projects swirling around in my head, it is making me dizzy!  Speaking of dizzy, please say a prayer for Phyllis Peterson, she is really having dizzy spells.  We need her well, she and I have a lot of plans for 2012!

What art projects are you working on at this time?  I would love to see them.  Till next time....  xo