Illustration Friday

No one in my household is an official participant in Illustration Friday, but maybe it’s something we should consider.   Before we go pro however, some of us need to work on our spelling!

The New Order of Monks Fighting For Pandas 

Super Sonic Olympics:  Xtreme Kayaking, Mountain Climbing, Skydiving, Tight Rope, Xtreme Ramping, Wall Jump, Shark Tank Diving, River Swinging.

Continued:  Holding Your Breath For Xtreme Amount of Time, Fast Eating, Lion Riding, Gladiators, Rocket Races, Human catapulting, and my favorite -Xtreme House Cleaning.

The BFFs I’ve never met

You people complete me!  Does that seem a little over the top?  Well, it’s true!  Every week I can count on getting a comment or email from one of you that leaves a huge smile on my face, quite often a bust-out-loud burst of laughter, or a sweet sense of connection.  Every now and then I go to get my mail, and I find a box or package with my name on it,  handwritten by a BFF I’ve never met.  Those are treasure box days!  I unwrap the parcel with reverence, knowing that someone I’ve come to admire and love has taken the time to send me something of themselves.  I’ve received two such gifts in the last week.  The first package I got was from Pat (Zencrafter).  OH MY!!  In this case,  pictures will have to suffice as a thousand words – her package and 8 page handwritten letter left me speechless.  The first thing I saw was a big wad of scrunchy charcoal wool roving, and from there my heart was trip-hammering.

My initials formed from bits of scrap wood.  Love that!  They have become the monogram in my finally coming together studio!  

Some linen thread, an old ledger book, and a stunning hand bound book.  The hand bound book has blank pages, old personalized stationary with some historical background to go with it, and these collages that Pat made.  I had seen them earlier on her blog and fell in love with them with no idea that they would eventually belong to me!  Every time I look at them I see a new detail that I missed the first time.  Really I have yet to come up with the right words of gratitude, all I’ve done here is give descriptions.  Pat and I have discovered over the last year or so how very much we are alike in our intense personalities, and our love of words, and that we even seem to have some sort of weird brain connection where we are often thinking or doing very similar things.  This is what this package represents for me – connection.   Heartfelt, authentic connection – and when you come across it in this day and age of disconnection, well it’s a glorious thing. 

 

 

Heartfelt, authentic connection is exactly how I felt about the other package I received just today.  In that package was a cookbook, but not just any cookbook.  I had commented on Molly’s (Applecyder) blog a long time ago about a cookbook she mentioned.  It was a cookbook that she put together as a tribute to her mother and all the wonderful food that she had prepared over the years for family and friends.  Molly sent me a copy, and it has been a delight to read her inscription, and to thumb through it and see her old family photos and recipes.  There is even a picture of a boy that was one of Molly’s first loves – he looks to be about 10!  And in those old photos I see where her son gets his enormous blue eyes and round little face.  (“blog assistant – for the love of pete, have you found those damn tissues yet!”)  Seriously people you complete me!

B.O.L.

a day in the life

With school in full swing, and the boys involved in sports we don’t often have a day to just spend meandering.  Sunday was a gift as Nate, Everett and I spent three hours exploring the neighbors pasture. 

We were so excited to discover this on top of one of the hay bales.  It is an owl pellet.  The owl more or less eats the rodent whole, and afterwards it regurgitates those parts it can’t digest, like fur and bones.  So we took it home and dissected it.  Gross and cool at the same time!  Kind of like boys!

Swimming

I told you a few weeks ago that I had signed up for Marisa’s e-class.  I am an official fishie swimming in the Fish Bowl.  My first impressions of this process is that it is a wonderfully supportive place to explore your passions.  That you will not be considered a poser, a weirdo, selfish, artsy fartsy, a dreamer, unrealistic, or any of the other 300 negative things you can think of for a person with creative sensibilities.  In fact it appears to be a place where you will be in good company with other creative people who have a burning desire that they can no longer ignore.  It also appears to be a place for exploring, taking risks, growing, moving a little bit away from the safe and comfortable, and catching a glimpse of dreams and realities meeting in the same room.  And so, our first session was finished with a set of questions to think about and ponder.  I share them with you.  This I think is just a starting point, feel free to take them wherever your heart tells you to.

• Why do you love what you create?  What things do you lose track of time while doing?
• What does success mean to you?  What does it look like?
• How are you feeling about yourself in relation to your work/creations?  Do you feel excited, vulnerable, deflated, doubting yourself, inspired, etc? 

Eureka!

sometimes solutions come because you’ve reached the bitter end.  you’ve used up all of your usual ways of dealing with something.  and your back is against a wall that seems too thick and too tall to surmount.  you cringe there, hands over your head to ward off the blow.  defeat is eminent.  you have made that taco salad one too many times.  the thought of having grilled cheese and tomato soup makes your insides quiver in revulsion.  no, no, not salmon patty night again!!

You know I’m not even going to do the math, because it would be too d.a.m.n. depressing.  The number of meals I have cooked multiplied by weeks and by years, the insane amount of time I have spent in the grocery store aisle, buying the same foods over and over and over.  The various ways I have tried to incorporate hamburger, chicken, fish or pork into something my family would find tasty and nutritious.  Well, I did it, I reached the bitter end and when that happened I found myself standing in front of a bighugestack (yea, that’s all one word!) of cooking magazines that I have.   Barely thinking twice I grabbed a handful and started throwing them out to my peeps shouting “Here!  Look through these and pick out a couple of things you want me to make for dinner!”.  From that small, desperate act has come a Eureka epiphany!  My peeps really got into it, and since then we have had the most marvelous food.   They want to know when they can do it again – look through the magazines and pick something new.  Their enthusiasm has renewed my enthusiasm about cooking for my family.  We have had Chicken Saltimbocca, Ropa Veija with Pepperjack Biscuits, Dan Dan Noodles, Chicken Pappardale with Sun-dried Tomatoes, Spaghetti Squash Supreme, Citrus Cake, and Sweet Onion Relish.  So if this post can help just one *sniff* *sniff* (“blog assistant – where are the tissues?”), just one harried mom overcome those kitchen blues - then I will feel *sniff, sob* *clutching my heart* that my life has been worth something….