rEVOLUTION within

rEVOL(ve)UTION

I'm on fire folks. An awakening on some etheric level. As I said in my last post, I have sudden surge of ideas flowing in....a million tiny seeds of creation germinating...taking root, infiltrating my mind... I'm seeing, feeling, experiencing everything via a pallet and paints and an open canvas...through the viewfinder of my camera, and how my inner world will display on my laptop's screen. I want to take these pieces of....life....and synthesize, deconstruct, reassemble and express. I have my own paradigms and schematics of the soul that I want to articulate through these mediums-a longing that has always been a constant in my life. I'm bathing in and evolving from the works I see from so many talented creators through both the cyber and the real.

With my birthday-and Santa-came new photog equipment: New camera, new laptop, photo editing software to get acquainted with, awesome photo books to devour....as well as a suddenly rekindled desire to paint after a 2 year hiatus. Winning a $100 gift card to Blaine's Art Supply at the NYL Auction Dinner really helped-new colors and fun mediums! Oh, and then there's all those websites and blogs devoted to art, photography, and journaling that have really gotten my juices flowing. Sites that challenge one to a daily , weekly, monthly artistic PROMPT. Here are some I'd like to take on and share here: A Year In The Life, Inspire Me Thursday, Your Life Spelled Out..... so many more.

I need that type of discipline/commitment to hold me in the now. I don't want to loose this new sight, this new drive and passion. I desperately do not want this to slip through my fingers back into the routine. But how to keep hold of this, to compartmentalize it into my life of mommy, wife, massage therapist and keeper of the home? How to tighten up and improve on what I already do in order to allow more creating in? ...How I'm longing for some space. Physical space, to be exact. Enough to hold all my stuff of creation, with room to move, to trash, to explore, to not care where the paint flies...the floor...the ceiling... It's a challenge to keep all this in check while painting in my kitchen! Maybe, someday, a used yurt connected to the house. With an old woodstove and access to the hose. More ROOM where my canvases, as well as my imagination, can become larger, expand farther........ journeying the astral.....

A hodge-podge of goings-on.

Been busy! Usually I'm experiencing the after holidays cool down about now, but this year there seems to be a continuous deluge of......stuff. My mom came out for her yearly visit and we had a fun yet short time with her. She arrived right during Kick-off week at Huz's work(New York Life) and was subsequently dragged to one of the fancy dinners. We thought she might enjoy the Petroleum Club and meeting some of Huz's associates. The NYL Head Honcho put her at a table with a couple suave young agents and she had a swell time! She has since been dubbed,"The Cougar".

I enjoyed the chance to wear the cute French Connection UK dress that Dea and I both coveted when we saw it in New York City last summer.

Found if on the super cheep at Ebay! I got to have 2 froo-froo fancy nights out in a row! The next evening was the Annual Awards Dinner. Remember? The one where I wait until the last minute and fret over what kind of gown to buy? I didn't bother holding a poll this year-I wanted a plum colored gown but the internets were lacking so I settled for a black gown with an intricate beaded....thingy.

Normally I don't wear black-cuz everyone else does-but the thingy made it unique enough. A few quick clicks around and it was a done deal. Mom stayed with the kids so Huz and I could attend the banquet and spend the night at the Captain Cook Hotel. Swank-ay!!!! 'Twas a gay affair, good margaritas, fun friends, a couple of awards given to Huz and NO WARDROBE MALFUNCTIONS!!!!

Back to Mom. Mom loves to take the kids in for haircuts, so we enjoyed MLK Day in town, shorn and shopping. The rest of the visit was spent hanging out, eating out, playing around, and visiting friends. We went for a nice snow shoe up the valley and were planning on heading up the Powerline Pass trail with her the next day, but she then realized that she actually had to leave that night, not the following. We were all bummed that the visit was cut short a day. It was so nice having my mommy out.

(Nanook takes on the mountains. Pretty good for 67 years old!!!!)

In the meantime, I seem to have physically started to discombobulate. My low back crap started acting up, both shoulders started to hurt, and one morning...intense pain down the left side of my neck into my rhomboids. Did I get into a car accident, you ask? Did I biff whilst downhill skiing? Get into a knife fight with a cagey broad in a downtown back alley? No. I hit 40 is all. Skate skied with the wrong size polls(grabbed Dea's by accident). One night my head snapped back when I fell asleep sitting on the couch watching a movie. I know, I know...HOW could I fall asleep watching Fight Club for feksake?!?! Chronic Low back pain, bursitis of the shoulders and whiplash.

40.

So I've been going in twice per week for a barrage of cracking, zapping, kneading(this part is goooooooooood), re-assessing, steroidal patch applying and icing. So far the low back feels a bit better-Oh! My x-ray shows that I have lumbarization. NOTHING about me is NORMAL. The left shoulder is almost back to normal, the right still sucks. Maybe I should take a break from the poi spinning?

And then there is ART. Creating. A sudden surge of ideas flowing in....a million tiny seeds of creation germinating...taking root, infiltrating my mind...but that's my next post.

Busy, busy.

A new year and late as usual!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Scenes from the annual neighborhood sledding party:

Our neighbors put on a fantastic fireworks display around 9pm.

Fireworks with the moonlit mountains made for a gorgeous sight!

ooooooing and ahhhhhing!

The infamous sledding run: grab a hold of one of the ropes tied to the back of our neighbor's 6-wheeler vehicle thingy called the Green Machine, get pulled to the top of the road, let go, turn and zip down past the tiki lights, make a right(if you can!!!) into the driveway, head down and make a sharp turn to the left( if you can!) and slide on over to the bonfire, drinks, food and fun!

a Blue moon AND lunar eclipse!!! You can see the shadow just starting on the moon's bottom left. Very cool!

At midnight, all down our valley, near and far, fireworks were going off! I've NEVER seen so many people doin' the 'works up here! There was even a group setting them off from the top of one of the ridges! Very impressive! What a great moonlight hike THAT must have been! Hmmmm..maybe a fun plan for next new years eve!

Wishing you all wonderful holidays!

LOVE AND LIGHT FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!

We woke to find the Child of Light on the Advent table with an angel overhead.

The stable I made for Lo's Buntspechte animals. Huz helped quite a bit in the building-we cranked most of it out on Christmas eve. Thanks hunny!!!!!

Dea with the canvas lightscape that I made her

I edited and converted to b&W these pictures that Dea took on her trip to Europe. Printed them on canvas paper and mounted them on artist canvases.

Huz made Lo that great painting board for watercolors.

Dea made Lo this nice tray

Winter light-Solstice's symphony in blue

The shortest and darkest day of the year. A time when the sun peeks above the horizon for a mere 5-ish hours a day.... leaving our outside world awash in Solstice's symphony in blue. From the lightest periwinkle to the deepest indigo...a fresh blanket of white snow and trees dressed in crystalline hoar frost. My breath escapes me at times when standing out in it. It is so beautiful and just begs for quiet and reflection. It is still dark now at 8am but I anticipate today's rising sun and hope it will be clear enough for spectacular colors and morning "elfin" glow (Dea's word for Alpine glow when she was little) on the mountains.

Inside on solstice is a different story!

The glow of wood burning in our stove and the light of our many candles and lanterns warms our home and souls. Today, my hopes are that Lo and I will enjoy the morning outside and an afternoon of making beeswax candles and ornaments, cookies, reading stories...bathed in light and just being. The sweet scent of bees wax and it's beautiful warm color adds to the glow within. I just wish Dea and Huz could be a part of it-they have to work today.

Lanterns and candles we have been working on:

Lemons, walnut shells and seed pods make great vessels for beeswax candles!

Tomorrow our light will return, little by little, every day. I look forward to it but am also grateful for it's unhurried return... and the lingering of winter color.