be awesome. ok.

a pal mailed this to me ... i plan to put it somewhere important ... but so far, it's just kind of floating around in my life on, around, and near my computer and/or calendar..... it's not a bad thing to regularly be reminded to be awesome.

chocolate joy

 if you best pal was having a birthday, and you decided to throw her a party .... excuse me, a PAR-TAY, what would you do to make it special?

well, let's say she loves chocolate .... would you put roses in an MnM vase? and put it on the kitchen bar?

or maybe you'd set a table for a dinner party for her ... and use hershey's bars as the runner? 

or you'd wonder why you bought SO many roses at costco and make a york peppermint patty vase of flowers?

maybe, if your pal was having a birthday, you'd make your kitchen table double sized  so you could invite lots of people to dinner and use 72 bars of hershey joy for the extra long runner?

that runner is way bigger than the tiny happy birthday sign on the wall .... just dug that out of the birthday decorations box, huh?

but snickers? she loves snickers, right? .... so maybe make some special snicker candle holders?

all that chocolate coloring on the table, maybe you need to dig out some martini glasses and some birthday junk out of the decoration box and toss liberally with, wait for it, more chocolate?

so then you set the table with a kind of chocolate pattern: martini, snicker, martini, snicker, hershey, snicker, martini, snicker, martini.

oh, don't forget to get your fanciest tray out and pile it with appetizers ..or snickers ....

and see that double boxed present in the pic above? gloriously wrapped in the funny papers? guess what's in it!!?? more chocolate of course ... andes mints and choco covered cherries ... birthday girl favorites ... and ... guess what every single guest gifted the birthday girl? yup ...

chocolate is grand.

painted papers of the rainbow variety ...

 i have a project going on ... and i have hundreds of painted papers filed on clipboards by color ... but it was easier to paint new ... so i did ....

 happily, the art room floor doesn't mind getting a bit of paint on it ....
i don't think the dictionary minded the paint either.

this is all good news if you are an ardent blog follower (hi mom!) because it means i might actually show you art sometime soon ...

changing seasons ....

i am sad.

i am a summer girl.

summer is just SO over.

i like hot weather.

i like flip flops .

i like days where you just need to be in that tiny speck of shade.

and now it's getting cool.

flipflops are not the appropriate footwear for this weather.

i'm still wearing them occasionally.

don't tell anyone.

well, don't tell the fashion police.

this summer i went on a trip to germany.

i'm not much of a shopper but did happen to find the german equivalent of payless shoes ... 

these orange sandals with sparkling goodness cost 12 euro.

i used to know what that meant in U.S. money but i forgot. 

and now summer is over and i won't be wearing their sparkly goodness anymore.

alas, (love that word) alas, summer is over.

good bye, happy orange shoe joy.

see you in may ... or maybe april .... 

bring on the boots.

birds

 i'm taking a pottery class (as always really) .....
i like to find a thing to make and then make loads of them ... a bit different, but the same idea ....
my current idea is bird.
i like birds.
pottery bird plates.
or bowls.
but birds.
haven't got a finished product yet ... but lots in the works ...
birds.

sharpie this ....

 arts and craft projects make me happy

i love shoe art .... one day, i'll only wear shoes that i've decorated myself ....

tra la la

 when i'm happy, i wear my happiest shoes ...

when i'm unhappy, i wear shoes that make me happy ....

what are your favorite shoes?

dare

done anything daring lately?
had a big dream?
gone somewhere extraordinary?
been skydiving?
made something new for dinner?

10.11.12

i think we are quite fortunate to be at the beginning of a century ... i love that today is 10.11.12 ... next year i will love 11.12.13 .... i might even plan ahead and have a party at 9:10, 11.12.13 .... i didn't think to do it this year ... but next year for sure .... but soon our century will outgrow dates of coolness ... and then no one will think about them until 2101 .... my youngest will be 100 that year .... hard to think so far ahead ... hopefully she'll have a big party ....

so .... back to blogging .... i have loads of photos in my list called "blog options"  .... it is really a to do list of blog topics that i NEVER get to any more ...  this blog portion of my life has slipped to the wayside amongst the twins being in high school, the little one in middle school, and me trying to keep up ... my analogy lately has been treading water ... i used to be swimming along nicely, but i'm in a life moment where i'm treading water .... no great advancement, just managing .... and so it goes ... like all the bits of our lives, it is what it is ... you can work on changing it, but sometimes the muddling through is what you get ... and appreciating what it is or not being too hard on yourself for the lacking of accomplishments is the agenda ...

i've actually been chock a block full of great stuff ... like, exhausted every night, i wind down with a book, and have been reading more than ever .... i'm on track to read nearly 100 books this year ... i'm keeping a list here .... i've read 81, jk rowlings  new book and am on 82, boys adrift by leanord sax and 83 will be girls on the edge by the same author ... these last two are not for feint of heart ... oh my goodness parenting is hard in these modern days!

here's a painting that was commissioned last spring ....  more helpful for the feint of heart than the parenting books... 

beauty ....

kalil gibran was a lebanese child at the turn of the last century (as opposed to my children, born at the turn of this century) .... he was poor, emigrated to the u.s. with his family ... and was an artist in his heart ... he is most famous for writing the prophet (which my mom gave when i was about sixteen) ... he became a hero in lebanon for his heartfelt writing ... i think it's the romantic style ... inspirational, thought provoking stuff .... if he were alive, he'd probably really like all the happy quotes on pinterest .... which made me search him there ... kalil gibran, khalil gibran, and kahlil gibran all found the same man ....

beauty is not in the face, it is a light in the heart .... don't you know someone that you think is more beautiful now that you know them well ... because you see the light in them ... and don't so much see the outside?

fast water ...

sometimes life interferes with quality art time ... or at least, that's what i'm telling myself.... the reason i've had little art to post is because life has been big ..... this is my family and eduardo ... eduardo was charged with keeping us safe as we went pellmell down the naranjo river in costa rica over class three and four rapids .... can you imagine david, the kayaking photographer, who took this photo? can you imagine loving photography and deciding that you are going to do action photography? and taking up kayaking to pursue your dreams? dream pursuit is a pretty nifty past time.

flower

i am a collector of quotes.

i love them.

i memorize some.

i vaguely recall others and then search online for their exact wording.

i have a board on pinterest full of nice words.

(i also have a pinterest board full of star trek geekdom,

harry potter geekdom, 

and avocado joy.)

this quote, by buddha, i found online yesterday.

i wrote it down on a pink note card.

i searched for the perfect spot to hang it in my home.

my usual spaces are pretty full.

so i put it in the fridge.

it is hanging inside on the door

kind of behind the salad dressing

(my favorite is kraft light raspberry vinaigrette)

and behing the parmesan shaker.

so we'll all see it often.

interestingly, 

it is probably a perfect quote for the board on my last post.

the one i was waiting to finish.

waiting for inspiration.

for months.

and now i've found that inspiration only because 

i spent two months being a blog slacker

and now i'm blogging my artsy life out of order.

out of order might be a good thing, huh?