Play Dates

 

Have you met this hunka hunka burning woman?  A few months back I had the pleasure of her crashing right though the blogosphere and into my living room and I've begged her to do it again, this time bringing her manly mister along too (THEY'RE CELEBRATING THEIR TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY - POP ON BY HER BLOG AND WISH THEM CONGRATS!).  And if you do know Sunny Rising through the interwebs, then let me tell you: she is just as stunning, just as brilliant, just as genuine as I'm sure you suspect she is.  Pure sunshine.

I adore her more and more all the time.  She's like a shot of Vitamin C straight to the heart.

Miss Sunny Rising: You illuminated my day.  Come shine up my world anytime.

p.s.

BC likes you too.

Bunny Bunny What?

I honestly cannot believe it's already Thursday!  My weeks have such a strange cadence that I find myself musing over what a long weekend it's been, only to realize the week has steam rolled right on by.  But I'm back, some new *plumbing in my chest, and recovering well from Round 4, a.k.a. the half-way marker.  I've got an exquisite pile of sea stones gathered from the coast last week spread out on the dining room floor and an even larger stack of them on my studio desk.  I've filled pages and pages this week in my sketchbook, pouring out heart-song and heart-tears, making room in the well of me for more creative energy to pour forth.  And it has.

I find it amazing that we, breathing, thinking, creating humans have access to a bottomless well-spring of inspiration.  That when we ask, we really do receive.  That as an artist, images "stick" to me, I mull them over in my mind, commit them to paper or canvas or stone, and then one day the image shifts ever so subtlety.  I look at it from a new angle, through a new refraction, and suddenly new meaning floods the gates and I can not grab for a pencil fast enough.  As if I needed to work with the subject, study it, commit to it, before the deepest concept could be grasped.  Does this make any sense to you?  It's one of those whispery, flutter things that refuses to be pinned down by my words.

I also feel that I should tell you I'm bald as a jay bird these days.  While it's been my reality for going on a month now, I've not had the heart to talk about it publicly (I know you'll forgive me, but it's been one of those things I just couldn't unpry my fingers from).  The mohawk didn't stay around for too long before throwing in the towel, but I gelled that puppy tight to my head just as long as I could.  It's an odd feeling, this whole no-hair-business, and I'd be lying if I didn't say it threw me for more of a loop than I ever anticipated.  I'm coming to terms, new every day, but this stage, it's kinda rough.

However I've got the love of a great man who brings me new bandanas in brilliant shades of green and blue, and the determination to stand up even straighter and walk this line too.  

*****

OH YES

All of this other fluff almost caused me to forget!  Plan on a DOUBLE shoppito update Monday the 18th, starting sometime around after-breakfast-and-shower-o'clock which probably means noon PST (my mother gave me a mild chiding for not giving her a time frame last round, but MUMS, don't worry!  I've always got special love for you!).

There will be sea stones, adorned in floating feathers and ghostly antlers, quails and rabbits and more OH MY!

There will be new textiles; pillows of linen and love, in imagery that I'm going to make you wait for (heehee)!

I'll be posting a blog preview here before any new creations land light in the shops, so hold fast little chickadees!

With that, I'm off to eat a huge pile of lettuce decorated with carrots, chickpees and avocado.

* I kid you not, the doctor who placed the port gave a little chuckle and called it plumbing as he explained the procedure to me.  PLUMBING! *

Round Four Here We Go

Just a quick note, as it's well past the hour I should have hit the hay and my eyelids are drooping fast.

I'll be up and out of bed with the sparrows, as there has been a [very] minor complication with my veins and I'm heading in today for a procedure (side note: is that not one of the more ominous words in the English language?) wherein a port for chemo will be placed in my chest (click here if you would like a little more info on it).  

Really it reminded me of how amazingly intelligent our bodies are; my veins said "Hello, what is that you're pumping in through this IV?  Something toxic?  Well no-ho-ho thank you!  I think I'll just shut down for a few."  And I don't blame them one bit.  But the treatment-show must go on.  So in I go.

After the quasi-surgery, if all goes well, I'll be heading to my next appointment for Chemo Round Four, which puts me officially at the half way marker (HUZZAH!).  I'm marking these, checking them off and not looking back.  

That said, goodnight moon and goodnight doves.  I'll see you next week!

Cuter than a Can of Spam

And tastier to boot, is my parent's little Vintage Cardinal trailer on it's maiden voyage through the redwoods of the north.  We called it home base while we traversed forest and fields, chattering and clucking for hours, sitting in quiet contemplation.

Mug after mug of piping coffee, steam rising up to greet the dawn song of the birds.  Hands full with crow feathers, jay feathers, and one small pup who could melt the heart of the hardest stone.

Raccoons scuttling in as soon as Mars shone bright, leaving prints of ash and mud for us to guess their sizes.  Creatures with a multitude of legs and creatures with none, joining us for first meals of the day.

And the small things, the minuscule, the detritus, the ephemeral bits of moss and the tiny legs of lichen, we took them all in.

And the light, oh that light...

Woods and water, these things fill my cup to overflowing.  And so I drink deep, ducking my head low to catch the spill and lap up all that goodness.

Honest Truth

I barely had time to grab Pierre and a pair of boots before running nilly willy outside, but this is the view from my kitchen window.  Right now.  Fingers numb as icicles and head bare as a jay bird, but

OH!  

I'm sitting at my kitchen counter bathed in that persimmon light, harvest flowers in a mason jar and a steamy mug of "get relaxed" tea at my elbow, sorting through the plethora of photos from this last week and working on a Post of Pictorial Delights just for you.  You want lichen? I've got some.  Seascapes?  Hello lover!  Twenty cups of coffee in an assortment of vintage mugs?  Yep, I've got 'em too.

But.

I've also got a hankering for brownies.  So that may need to happen first, after all, priorities are priorities, right?