A Few of My Favorite Things

I went shopping Saturday afternoon in Chandler, and ended up spending a lot more money than I expected. So much more that I had to put my purchase on a credit card. It was a business expense and it was a great opportunity, but I usually don't buy things unless I can pay cash. I made an exception, and I drove home with the back of my truck loaded with my goodies.

On the way home, I was in one of those zones where the sky is bluer than normal, and the air smells sweeter, and the light seems brighter. And then I pulled up behind this Mini Cooper on Warner and Dobson, and lightening stuck my heart. Life is good. It was exactly what I was thinking as I pulled up to stop.

That was Saturday.

I've had a really rough day. I feel like my heart has been through the blender along with the spinach, celery and other ingredients in my morning green drink. It aches and I can't seem to stop crying. I'm only telling you this because I want to talk about how I'm dealing with it.

Apparently, I haven't done a great job today in resolving my feelings, because once my heart was broken, everything I have touched, everything I have tried to do, has somehow gone wrong. The worst of these collateral damages came through a project I volunteered to help. I offered to write a press release for an upcoming event and send it out the media in Phoenix. I always have an editor for my things because I'm rather anal about everything being perfect. So my favorite editor volunteered her time today to review the press release. I sent it out to 40 locations, and at the end of the day, I found more than one error in it. I was embarrassed for myself. I felt horrible for the project because I didn't want to do something that reflected poorly on the event. I was just a little angry with my editor. I also felt any sense of control slip like sand through my clenched fists because this happened in spite of my efforts to turn out perfect work.

I've been looking forward to going to sleep all day, knowing it would put an end to my day and give me the hope of a fresh start tomorrow. Only it is tomorrow, and sleep evades me. So I realized I had this opportunity tonight to really dig in, not to my problem, but to work with myself to both acknowledge exactly how I feel and also refocus on what I want in my life (post-broken heart). My life has taught me that the way I react to a challenge doesn't change the present moment reality, but it does change what happens next. This is about changing what happens next for me.

I decided to work with my strengths. I have crow eyes. I don't mean that my eyes have those wonderfully named wrinkles, crows feet. (Not yet, anyway.) I mean that my eyes go to the sparkly and bright colored things in the environment. My home is filled with them. I have lots of pictures of them. So I decided to do a little digital art project to cheer myself up, to indulge my crow eye, and see if I can't turn this heart thing around before morning, even if I don't sleep.

One of the songs that cheers my heart eternally is Diamond Road by Sheryl Crow. The second verse is the one that gets me every time:

Little bird, what's troubling you?
You know what you have to do.
What is yours you'll never lose
And what's ahead may shine.
Underneath the promise of blue skies
With broken wings, you'll learn to fly.
Pull yourself out of the tide
And begin the dream again.

So without further explanation, here's my digital art gallery.


I see this starfish box sitting on the glass mosaic tile box every morning in my bathroom. It reminds me of my drive up the Pacific coast about ten years ago, nearly three glorious weeks of beaches, redwoods, and mountains. I camped every night except for the three I spent in Seattle. I spent one afternoon on a small sliver of beach in northern California flying my kite and finding starfish and anemones along the water's edge. It was a magical afternoon.


The word "dream" captures the essence of what I do to visualize the things I want and focus on the things most wonderful in my reality. It is inspired in part by the emphasis on dreamtime in the shamanic traditions. But it also is inspired by the dream work I did so diligently when I spent my time with Liz in Yellow Springs. It was a time of deep personal growth and understanding about myself and life. I treasure my memories of time spent with her.

I see this little dreams with wings image every day many times. I try to always see it and not look past it because I've grown used to it. It reminds me to give my heart wings.


I found this little embroidered bag in a shop off the plaza in Santa Fe. When I saw it in the store, my heart stopped. It was the most beautiful thing I had seen in a long while. When I bought it, I had no idea how I was going to use it, but I knew I wanted to use it every day.

I returned to the plaza, kicked off my shoes and wiggled my toes in the grass. I pulled out my camera to capture the joy of the hour. I suddenly realized that I had purchased a camera bag. Since then, I carry it everywhere with me.

My Blink Photos

Many people are posting pictures of their homes based on the idea in Blink (by Malcolm Gladwell) that you can learn a great deal about people by spending a few minutes in their home. You get to see the real person this way, not the image they present. Catherine encouraged me to participate in this, and here it is.

For full disclosure, I did straighten up my desk, my studio had been a total wreck so I did unearth the worktable (mostly), I straightened up the kitchen counter (things are in the sink now), and I picked up a few things in the bedroom. But mostly, this is how I live and not staged. I didn't dust or vacuum or move things around. My financial filing is still on the family room floor. I didn't take some shots that would have shown you the backlog of shredding or the guest bath which needs picking up. I did start using a housekeeper every other week about a month ago, and that really helps me to keep things tidy. End of disclosure.

What can you learn about me from this? I must say, when I looked at this pictures, I saw some trends that jumped out, things I didn't realize were so obvious in my house. Yikes.




























I'm posting these and a few more pictures on my Flickr account in a few days, along with some narrative. I'll point out some of the details there that I think reveal tons about me.

Today I Begin

I promised myself that my art journal was not going to sit and wait for me to have the perfect space with all of the perfect tools lined up ready to go. Today, I stole some time and using what was easily available, created a reflection of what I am thinking about my art.

Today I Begin...

...creating what I feel.
...learning how to express ideas in a new way.
...experimenting with tools and colors in a powerful new way.
...finding my way home.

As I thought about my art today, I felt my foundation for all of my art has always been collage, so I started with the checkerboard background of individual pieces. I used a fabric stamp from India to add a flower using paint to reflect the growth I'm seeking through my art journal. I used paint pens to add additional concepts and give myself some last minute advice for the journey.

The photo distorts the colors, muddying them a bit. I need to find a good light location in my house to capture the real colors of my art.

But none of this matters nearly as much as this: Today I begin a new phase of my journey.

Santa Fe Highlights - Day 1

It was a whirlwind trip to Santa Fe that left me recharged, reinspired, and ready to dive back into my life.


I drove from Phoenix to Santa Fe with a stop in Albuquerque for dinner at the Duran Central Pharmacy lunch counter. They are famous for their chicken enchiladas with green chili sauce. It was very good. There were two bug-a-boos on that first day. My camera battery died just outside of Phoenix, which meant I couldn't take any more picture en route. (I had the charger in my luggage and remedied the situation that night.) Second, my air conditioner stopped working just outside Albuquerque. The entire day I chased thunderstorms, so the temperature ranged from about 68 to 98 depending on the storms around me. I had the air off and on throughout the day. I rode the rest of the evening in the humid heat without any relief. It still wasn't as bad as driving any summer day in Phoenix without air, so I am not complaining. I got myself checked at the hotel and located the local Toyota dealership for a visit the next morning.


The first day started early with a trip to the Toyota dealership. I didn't have an appointment, but the service adviser was great and someone assessed my problem right away. It was an easy fix, and I was off sightseeing within an hour. (By the way, the Frommer's guide didn't mention the service waiting room but it was quite comfortable!)


The Plaza was only about 2 miles from the Toyota dealer, so I was there quickly. I found the public parking lot on Water street, and hit a few shops as I walked around the block to the Plaza. I arrived just before a tour started, so I impulsively decided to join the tour.


The tour covered the visitor highlights of town and we spent considerable time on Canyon Road viewing the galleries (at a distance) and seeing public sculptures. We also learned some of the history, got recommendations for restaurants and shops, and saw a great deal of the town's charm. I sat on the outside and snapped pictures as we drove. They didn't all turn out, as you might imagine, but I did capture a lot of the highlights this way.


After the tour, I grabbed lunch from a street vendor on the Plaza and copped a squat under the trees and did some serious people watching while I ate. After lunch, I sat with my travel journal, my GPS, and my web-enabled cell phone to plot out which shops I had to visit. I used my cell phone to post pictures on Flickr and messages about my activities on Twitter so my friends and family could follow my adventure. I must say, I felt like a total geek using all of that technology sitting on a grassy plaza in front of the oldest building in the United States.


The afternoon went by quickly. I found a great stamp store and not only had a great conversation there, but bought two fab stamps. I visited about 20 shops in a very short time and by the end of the afternoon, I was ready for a great dinner. I selected The Shed because it was highly recommended and was in walking distance.


I spent the rest of the daylight exploring Canyon Road on my own. Most of the galleries were closed, but since I was only looking, that didn't bother me. The buildings and landscaping were inspiring on their own, and I took many pictures of doorways and courtyards without seeing any of the art inside.


Don't miss the rest of my journey on day 2, day 3 and day 4.

Fabulous Summer Whites Class Project

I had the best time yesterday in Carol Wingert's class at Scrapbooks, Etc. We made her Summer White book, the same book as her kit this month. Lots of painting, texture painting on the covers, glassine to cover photos, and stamping on fabric. I didn't get the project finished in class, and I've added to my unfinished project list. I'm going to make it for my mom for her birthday in September. I just printed out some old family photos in black and white and sent them to my neighborhood Walgreens. I'll pick them up later today and add them to the kit package for later.

My favorite new material: glass glitter! I haven't used much glitter in my paperarts projects until now. I love sparkle, but I haven't been a fan of the usual craft glitter. Now that I've seen this glass glitter, I'm hooked. In fact, I bought some turquoise before I left the store. I'm going to buy some small (1/2 oz) salt shakers to hold glitter, and I'm going to start collecting all of my favorite colors. It's so amazing, the sparkle is bright and vibrant. I can't wait to start using it.

I also printed out some pictures that I'm going to use on a family project. I'm going to make a folded star accordian book, the one that looks like a square when it is folded up, but opens to be a flat almost star shaped book. I'm going to use an assortment of Christmas pictures and make a sort of photo collage of Christmases past to take home around the holidays. I also selected 60 photos of formal Christmas portraits (I take them of the family every year) and a lot of great candids contributed by lots of family members. I will use some two-sided Christmas cardstock as the base, and I'm sure I'll be adding glass glitter somewhere in it.

On Sunday, I'm going with Melissa to meet some of her friends and work on our projects. I'm working on the project for my friend's son's 18th birthday. Let's see, let's call this project "Guitar Hero" since he plays and I've got pics of him playing. I'm building the base of the project today, and I'll take the photos and start building the layout tomorrow. I picked up some adhesive foam yesterday because I want to be able to temporarily position things for this project. I want to build in hidden journaling locations and some pull-outs, and I want to do some background painting and stamping. I need to map out the photo locations before I start building the depth and adding the ornamentation. I hope this foam works well!

I should have some in-process pictures of Guitar Hero in a few days. I have finally opened my new camera, the battery is charging today and I'm heading out to buy a huge (4GB) memory card this afternoon. I should be in business by dinner and taking my first pictures it.