f is for...

fire: i believe i am a fire sign (sagittarius), though i am really more drawn to the water. but oh, when camping, or at ArtFest, bonfires are always a draw...because the water is still going to be there when the fire is out.

friendship: sharing that favorite quote again here: 'we evolve at the rate of the tribe we are plugged into' carolyn myss

frost: no photos of this, it does occur sometimes in the bay area, you have to get up early for it though. one of my favorite parts of my commute years ago was driving through the rural countryside toward Prineville passing fields with wheel lines (irrigation type) pumping out water inefficiently showing frosted bits of field in artist archs.

fluff: i love wispy things - clouds, cotton candy, yarn, and sometimes quick reads - mysteries, romance novels, and magazines.

firsts: the thrill, the anxiety, the pros and cons.

forests: the smell, the mist, the activity, i especially love forest along the ocean, or a lake, or rivers.

flowers: blooming, various stages in the same cluster. i'm not a big fan of cut flowers though, they fade so quickly.

e is for...

ephemera! This is but a small portion of the collection of bits and bobs to add to artwork.

education. More decluttering, I ran across a stack of papers from my first year in college. I so loved my college experience that I still work on college campuses.

evolve. "We evolve at the rate of the tribe we are plugged into." carolyn myss

One of my favorite quotes.

explore. I love exploring new paths, hiking new trails, finding new places to experience nature.

d is for....

doors. I am captivated by the variety of doors and entryways. The paint colours, the potted plants, the lighting, the windows in or around them, the shape (oh how I love the curved topped ones!)

decorate. Oh how I *love* decorating magazines (home, garden, weddings, kids rooms, *kitchens*).

dream. A favorite phrase. A much needed activity for the creative person, time to just be (on hikes, sitting by the ocean, taking a bath) and allow images and words and ideas swirl around.

decoupage. I don't really use this word for the collage work that I do, but, it is descriptive I suppose. I *heart* paste + paper.

decluttering. We had an *old* computer, it served us well while C was in seminary, and then, it up and decided to no longer work. Fortunately we had the laptop by then. So, we moved the old computer to our new home and it sat in the garage until we figured out how to wipe it clean before recycling it. Because I'm all aflutter about our upcoming move -- I'm recycling, tossing, donating stuff like crazy. I asked our IT folks at work and they said 'bring it in'! yippee. So, they wiped it for us and took the *huge* monitor too! One ginormous box out of the garage!

c is for...

celeste. I love my name. It has become more common, pity. I love an uncommon name. And i love that it can't be shortened. Named after a fabulous, independent friend of my mom's, i'm ever grateful for the unique name. In the 70s though i spun many a display rack in the u.s. looking and looking to see if *this* rack had celeste etched onto a mini license plate for my bicycle. (never did, thank goodness). This may when we were in Disneyland, i looked again (see my previous mention of how much more common my name has become) -- still not there! yippee.

cookie exchange. One of my *favorite* rituals of holiday time. I love hearing about the history of folks favorite recipes. It's such a grand adventure to enter the room, to see what creations have come with friends, colleagues, family.

colour. Probably the hardest question for me to answer....What's your favorite colour? It so depends - my favorite colour for what? my bedroom wall? my studio wall? to wear to work? to wear for a hike? to wear to the cafe? for the background of this painting? to complement this bit of silver pendant? The most I can narrow it down - deep, saturated colours.

coffee. I have been drinking decaf Americanos for about two weeks now. I still miss the rush of caffeine and especially my favorite lattes. But, the richness of the decaf Americano have definitely helped to keep me on track with the new plan.

classes. Lifelong learning! I'm so thankful for public education - community colleges, parks and recreation, local knitting shops, events. I love to plan and promote them, and I love to take them.

the coast. I am a water baby (it's not my sign, I think I'm a fire sign). My family can attest, I actually wanted to sleep in our little canvas swimming pool in our backyard in Australia. (No, I wasn't allowed to, though I did go out in the middle of the night to take a dip when I woke up from the heat). I chose my graduate school program in a large part by it's proximity to water. I crave moving water - rivers, oceans, streams.

b is for...

books! The best bookstore - Powell's Books. If you've been there, you know why, if you haven't, you *must* go there if you are ever near Portland, Oregon. New and used books intermingling on all the shelves in a city block sized bookstore. It's a labyrinth (another favorite i'll talk about when i get to 'l'). I must read before closing my eyes at night...sometimes i'm so tired i fall asleep having read less than a page. It's a ritual that i've had all my life (i don't remember a time not having been read to or reading on my own). In our next home i plan to have the most beautiful and functional reading light next to me.

basmati brown rice. Yum. The nutty, chewy texture. Add a bit of chopped veggies and a tad bit of sea salt. Stir in a nice bead (that'd be *bean*) salad and you have a fabulous summer meal.
birds. One of my great joys this past year are our weekly walks along the Half Moon Bay trails watching all the birds along the way. We frequently say 'we should get a bird book' because we don't know the names of many of them, so we name them ourselves...the Greg Louganis (they dive straight into the water with no splash at all) is one of our favorites. Recently there were swirls of thousands of tiny baby pelicans, i love to watch the parents flow so close to the water that they have to swoop up just a bit to flap their wings or else they'd touch the water and slow down. so beautiful. There are ravens, sandpipers, seagulls (of course) and many other little birds. We've seen hawks too. I love to watch them as they stalk the mice in the fields we walk through, they have such concentration.

blue. that sea sky blue. tiffany blue. deep july 4th night sky blue. i love blues.

buttons. Summers growing up were full of art and craft projects. We spent a couple of weeks in wisconsin at my grandmother's house, where my mom grew up. So many wonderful memories, including the collection of buttons snipped from all our loved ones clothes, bits of fabric holding the matched sets together.

what are your b's?

a is for...

i found this great idea and am giving it a go.

apples. i love them. years ago when i was in graduate school in la crosse, wisconsin i made regular trips to la crescent, minnesota - just across the mississippi river. there was a farm stand there. and by farm stand i mean, a huge very well crafted wooden structure with a gift shop full of apple items, caramel apples, apple pies, and barrels & barrels of apples each with a bowl, knife and a sample apple. oh. my. goodness. so many apples are so much better than red delicious! i have not eaten a red delicious since. yum. i loved living near so much variety. perhaps we will be near such a place again.

artist. i don't get involved in the discussion of art v. craft. i am an artist. if you make stuff, you are an artist. (unless you don't want to call yourself an artist...there are some sensitive people who are very specific about what qualifies us as an artist. just speak for yourself, don't disparage other people and their dreams).

artfest. i had dreamed of going for years, and last year was my first. it was so amazing. i'm definitely going back - year after year! go. and let's meet up there and trade some art stuff.

what are your a's?

art therapy

it's been a *very* difficult week.

all i'll share here is that our car (which we bought only last october!) died. the engine. quote was $3900 for fixing it. nearly what we paid for it. ack. so, we sold it to the mechanic. we'll be trying to manage commuting to our two jobs with one car. when we move to our new city/state, we'll buy a new car if we need it.

hard times right now.

so, i've holed up in the studio a couple of hours a day to try to work through some of the pain and frustration. also working on some projects to post to etsy (gotta raise some much needed money :)).

one bit of good news this week. three of my journal pages were accepted into the 1,000 journal pages book! i'm so thrilled about that.

have been wanting to create stencils because of these fabulous inspirational pieces. and then the rays stencils! i could not bring myself to start the stencil creation, so i improvised and drew and painted this piece. i've been having my 5 servings of veggies and fruit a day (4 of veggies, 1 of fruit).

prayers welcome.

the shimmering shades of green

Why am I doing this project?

~It feels right.
~Overcoming the too much lifestyle. Too big (cars, homes, phones, pantries, etc).

~To continue my resistance to our culture.

~For our world: I know that the environment is sick and getting sicker. I hope that my living example can make the best difference it can.

~To continue living free of debt.

~To Increase our Savings and Retirement funds.

~Have only things we love and find useful in our home and life.

~Eat Healthier: Currently we are fortunate to live in an area with great prices on organic food. As soon as we can, we'll be planting an incredible garden. I'll be freezing, drying, canning and sharing all the bounty. Little dairy, little gluten, no refined foods (white flour, white sugar, any processed foods).

~Continue to Live with Less.

~Learn Something about Myself: I continue to be able to rid our home of lots of things, the hardest things for me to declutter? my art and craft supplies!
~Be a role model for my children: teach our children about money, consumerism, community, monopolies, excess.

~Finish Projects: I complete projects when I can't buy more stuff.

~Community: we have found that we have plenty and we can share. We contribute to canned food drives, school supply drives, shelters, church, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My specific goals as we move:
Plan a Garden
Begin holiday gift making (list who/what)
Leap and figure out how to make soap (to go with those 20 knitted washcloths)
Finish the detox program. Minimize dairy, gluten and sugar upon completion.
De*clutter items in the garage and studio (only two cluttered places left)
Create a Home Keeping plan (meals, cleaning, social events)
Before dinner walks with C
Bake Bread (play with gluten free recipes)
Buy a home (fix cosmetic needs, plan landscaping/garden, decorate)

What are your goals?

a yummy summer recipe

yum! try this:

cannelli beans (a can from Trader Joe's)

fire roasted red peppers (1/4 jar from TJ's)

diced onion

chopped fresh basil

teaspoon cayenne pepper

lemon juice (half)

a little less than a tablespoon of olive oil

toss it all together til it's well mixed.

so, so good.

three works in progress. I'm off. Back Later.

need plums?

more bounty from our yard (this would *totally* make up for the deck's depth keeping my double pointed needle, if only i could eat something tasty made of these plums - i only have to wait another week though and we do have a freezer, so...). I'll be returning to the tree for another full bag too. Going to start a little production of plum soaking, cutting and insertion to the freezer bag this evening. (That is a regular sized wine bottle added to the still life for scale).

I'm on day 20 of the detox (finishing the first week of Phase I - reintroducing some foods) and really thrilled with how great I feel. I have stepped up my weight lifting and continue walking -- even further and faster, last night I drank a full 32oz bottle of water on the walk. I continue to have the green tea every morning, but follow that up about twice a day (when missing my lattes) with Good Earth tea. Oh how I love Good Earth tea. It's sweet (a little too sweet sometimes, so I add more water) without *any* form of sugar. so good. so helps me avoid the caffeine.

Art is covering the 'messy table' -- I've really been in a frenzy with creating. I'll post photos later today.

Also have to get back out in the backyard to fill the orange bag again with plums, wash them and lay them out somewhere (right now the counter and windowsills in the kitchen are full of the washed plums from yesterday, some need a day or two longer to ripen a bit more before I cut 'em up and freeze them).

A Healthy Summer

Trying out all the vegetables at the farmer's market...really have to start writing down my favorites to begin the list of what we want to go in the garden next year. (Mom, you know we'll be consulting with you to find out about what we need to do starts in the basement/garage or kitchen window and so much more about our garden and landscaping).

Last night I made Wild Salmon with yummy garlic herb marinade. And the ever present steamed veggies and brown rice. I am a wee bit over the pile of steamed veggies. Going to have to try making the hummus and having raw veggies. Yes, I jumped on the bandwagon and am following this book. I do feel great. Am completely off caffeine. What! Yes, you read that correctly. Pretty unlikely I will stay off the caffeine though -- oh how i miss every single one of my lattes! Only 1.5 more days...though I haven't really read ahead to what I should start re-introducing on Monday. Perhaps it'll be a couple more days before I indulge in my lattes - and even then I may be trying them with gluten-free organic soy milk first (maybe always, i certainly feel clearer headed - though am unsure if it is gluten, dairy or both that are the cause of that stuffy headed feeling).

In other news, I started knitting hats for winter holiday gifts, only to lose one of my brand new (to me, from SCRAP) double pointed needles down the spacing of our deck. If we owned this house, or were staying for any length of time I would *so* get one of those outdoor rugs to make our outdoor space more comfortable (I also get more than my share of splinters in my feet out there).

Coffee Girl meets Yarn Pirate

Been painting layers and layers on 5 x 7 backgrounds, just really loving the rich depth. Also have been working on more bits of paper pasted to the 5 x 7 first, then painting layers on top. This piece is especially fun, there are mica glittery particles in there! Coffee Girl.

My latest Magic Loop, Two at a Time, Toe Up. I'm doing plain stockinette all around and am now determining what pattern to create on the cuff. This is a skein of my hand-dyed yarn.

The first shipment of my sock club membership to yarn pirate. I love getting a package in the mail! The soap smells great. I really like the base of the yarn, but am uninspired by the colourway (Rum Runner), so I think I may trade. Anyone interested? Violet (yes, *the* Violet) mentioned on Lime and Violet that she was so jealous of her friend who signed up and just received her skein - so I know there are people out there who *love* this colourway. Let me know - if you have a similar skein you'd like to trade with me. Send me photos. celestialspirit13 at yahoo dot com.

Hangin' with the Girls

Don't you want one of these? Love, love, love! SCRAP in San Francisco and their huge screen of yarn balls. Of course I'll never have such a beautiful piece of art in our home because: 1. i will knit or crochet or felt every scrap of yarn i have. 2. no idea where such a beautiful piece of work would hang. 3. the dust.

so, the photo will be my inspiration and art.

pizza after the manicure/pedicure appointment. Pizza Zombie, Nomad, Monster...something. Great colourful artwork all over here too. Sorry I didn't take any photos.

Stitch n Pitch goodie bag. Love the orange...I'll definitely be using this in my pile of grocery and farmer's market shopping bag collection. Projects I may do: a version of the Scribble Scarf - though the pattern here is called Cobweb - ick. The knit earrings...been on my list for a long time. The fun fur flipflops, they are growing on me. Couple of projects in the Craft: magazine promo. Will not be making the baseball hat or the ribbon poncho. Anyone know what special project the double headed crochet hook is for?

We took the train in! Sat on the top of the double-deck train. fun! Dropped us off three blocks from the park - excellent. Then went after the extra innings game to the train station to find long lines and no train movement! Didn't get home until 1:00 a.m. In summary....train in excellent. game & hangin' with friends, excellent. view, excellent. train home, not so much. But, that didn't stop us from considering the evening a great success.

M is for Mystery -support your local bookstore

Oh my goodness! M is for Mystery! did such an excellent transformation of their store for this event. The costumes, the activities and display areas! Amazing. This is why we all *must* support local businesses. Because they put their hearts and souls into making this an *event* for the children and the adults who want that whimsy and adventure and magic in their lives too. Truly. This store and these people, they need your business, Amazon's "special" Harry Potter mailing box -- so not the same thing (I haven't actually seen one, just heard someone talking about it - I evangelize about independent bookstores, no one I know would tell me they backed out of their promise to buy from an independent bookstore ;)).

Our ticket for this adventure. I'm reading as slowly as I can manage - I'm on page 502. Have been hearing so much lately about Harry Potter - just little snippets on the various podcasts I listen to, or 'watercooler talk' I look forward to listening to the full series on audio too.

Suggestions from anyone on similar stories - I've already read all of Philip Pullman's books (love those too!)

No spoiler comments please :)

Decluttering and Stripping

Exploring Ravelry -- trying to figure out how to get more knitting time in. And am extremely motivated to complete those wips (works in progress) to get them out of the house before we move.

Decluttering continues. Soon I'll be putting together sweet packets of supplies for my etsy store too. It's a bit disturbing to me that when I look around our home, thinking of the packing and moving situation, I am *very* aware that *the*most*boxes* will come from my studio! As I'm looking at real estate photos, I notice some kitchens with so many cupboards I find myself wondering what we would do with that much space! Our current place has not much storage, but plenty for us because we have pared down our kitchen things so much in the past several moves. Even so, I'm thrilled about the possibility of having a larger kitchen being able to have one cupboard for baking things, one cupboard for stovetop things, etc.




We have these two hand-me-down dining tables that we don't really like the finish of, but I really can see the potential of stripping it and painting them an enamely/glossy vibrant colour - deep poinsettia red? deep summer sky blue? bright daffodil yellow? And then I think...I should strip and then paint with something I find at a recycle center - to help keep some paint from just sitting in a rusty can somewhere. We'll see. And then there is the idea of painting these and then moving them, the possibility of getting scratched. Maybe just the stripping, then the painting in our new home? So, they sit waiting for me to decide.

you are my sunshine....

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buttons and purses, and ravelry - oh my!

handcrafted buttons for my felted bags. thought i would put a few of them out there.

they look good on a remarkable number of fabrics (check out my flickr account for more photos).

another of my childhood items. i love, love, loved the indian fabrics - embroidery and especially the mirrors and tassles. a favorite purse that i couldn't part with.

i *heart* ravelry. still learning, still posting, still taking photos to upload. are you on there too? won't you be my friend?

slow is the new fast

i'm keeping this collage in an honored space in my studio (until it sells). all of my collages have inner spirit dimensions - they are reflections of my spirit when I'm creating them - sometimes it's the colours I'm drawn to in that moment, other times it's textures, or images (birds! often - sometimes because they are nesters, sometimes because they fly, sometimes because they are sneaky).

getting ready for a system of updating my etsy shop regularly. the weather today is perfect for tons of photography. so, i'm going to continue taking photos, cropping and archiving them. later, when it gets too hot, i'll nestle into the studio for a little painting and collaging new pieces.

so, "slow is the new fast". yes, so much happening in our lives these days. we continue the job search process, checking out whether or not we can buy a home in these new places, are there community supported agriculture programs there? we moved all of the stuff we had stored in my mom's garage for the past four years. i filled two boxes with high school and college papers - tests, reports, etc. remember when we had to write our ss# on our tests and papers? ack. so we hauled the cross shredder out into the garage to take care of those sheets. goodness. oh all the memories - prom, graduation, young life, campus crusade for christ. good stuff. i had saved balloons, corsages, ribbons, political buttons, notes passed in high school. most of those things i tossed. later, as a special treat, i may take a photograph on my prom photo to post. we'll see. maybe, if i get a bunch of requests i will.

this jewelry box is my first - from way back! i have strong memories of these charm bracelets - the importance and purchase of every single one of the charms - almost all of them acquired while we lived in Singapore. The little birds next was a part of a necklace I received when we lived in Alaska when I was in jr. high. The medal/pendant is from the Centennial Celebration of one of my elementary schools - Templestowe Elementary in a 'burb of Melbourne, Australia. I remember May Pole dances, sand candle creation and learning to write in cursive there. It took me a long time after we returned to the United States to re-train myself in writing p, r, s, e (those are the ones I remember most - could be there were other letters written differently also).

woot! i just went over to my email to send a little something out and -- *the*invitation*came* -- so, i'll be posting this for now so that i can get back to learning about ravelry. see you there!