CELEBRATING CELEBRATION

My current fabric fabric by Masha D'yans' for Clothworks

It's called Celebration!

Whew! Seven celebrating blogs in seven days! What fun it was to focus and share all the good I chose to focus on each day! At this blog http://www.gypsyforest.com/ she talks about celebrating 365:A Year of Good Things. Simply wonderful. Spectacular in fact! Now THAT is something to CELEBRATE!

CELEBRATING THE SACRED IN THE ORDINARY

My washing machine Buddha

Several years ago, Oprah had about show on happy moms. One of the moms said that she strives to find the sacred in the ordinary. She wasn't angry about another stupid pile of dirty laundry she was grateful for the opportunity to provide her children with clean clothing. That mom put a Buddha on her washing machine to help her remember to think in this positive manner.

In the book The Flow, Mihaly Csikczentmihalyi says that, "how we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depends directly on how the mind filters and interprets everyday experiences."

My perception IS my reality

"People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can some to being happy."

I leave you now, NOT to struggle AGAIN with what to have for dinner, but to welcome the opportunity to nourish, provide energy, and creatively craft a sacred meal! 

CELEBRATING SPECTACULAR

Today while I celebrate the word spectacular - dramatically daring, thrilling, hair-raising, breathtaking, striking, sensational - I am pondering the pairing of the noun "life" with this adjective "spectacular".

A spectacular life

Hmmm.....

CELEBRATING THE BALD EAGLE

While the boys and I were looking for a new park in Kirkland, WA this afternoon, we made a wrong turn, ended up on a groovy street of pricey homes on Lake Washington, and were surprised when a bald eagle flew over us. I look up and see him/her land next to another eagle. What a treat! Tonight I looked up the metaphysical meaning of the bald eagle and was delighted to find the following quote...

"you (the bald eagle) remind all who witness your beauty and strength of the eternal struggle of the two-legged
to rise above the mundane
and feel the Soul take flight"

http://wolfs_moon.tripod.com/baldeagletotem.html

With gratitude in my heart, I celebrate the bald eagle.

CELEBRATING FLOW

What is it?

  It is the "positive aspects of human experience - joy, creativity, the process of total involvement with life I call flow." Today I am celebrating the flow!

This is me, completely with the present, on a raft of "possibilty" in the flow, my lamp is "plugged in" and illuminated! I have whittled the stories and lessons from my past into a walking/rowing stick composed only of positive energy, strength, and wisdom.

No more thoughts of impending doom. I choose to be in the flow. Life is spectacular. Join me?

CELEBRATING RUBY RED SLIPPERS

Fantastically fun pin my mom bought for me at the University Craft Fair in Seattle http://www.cinderellalucinda.com/

Symbolism from the movie The Wizard of Oz is powerful.

If there was somewhere over the rainbow...I would be barefoot on a warm shell encrusted tropical island!

The reality is that I have been trying for years to push my wheel of life out of the rut in the grass  onto the yellow brick road! (notice my shoes?)

In 2008 I made this self portrait. The story I used to tell was that I was trying to hang onto my lid/stuff down life. I have on one practical mom type shoe and...one ruby red slipper!

So, in the movie The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy discovers she had the power to create the reality she wanted all along. She didn't need the wizard after all.  She just had to click her ruby red slippers and state her intention.

I am learning that I have the power in me!

 Yes, a blender takes in lots of stuff...and...has the power...to create something delicious!

That's much better! 

You have power too! Want to borrow my ruby red slippers?

CELEBRATING READING

self help

fiction with practical

quilting with picture book favorites

When I went to drop off the mini van for overnight service and had to carry five books with me to the rental car in case I had a few minutes tonight while playing chauffer, I knew what I had to celebrate today..."reading". Taken for granted if you can do it, but watching immerging readers, English language learners, and one who hides dyslexia very well, I know that it is not an easy process for many. Luckily, I have great memories of learning to read from the Dick and Jane series in first grade with dear Mrs. Zoll, making many trips to the public library, and spending long quiet afternoons lost in good books. Thankfully my boys enjoy reading too (current reads are Harry Potter, outdoor adventure, and whimisical sci-fi). Share some of your reading favs?

CELEBRATING COLLECTIONS

I have been challenged to pick a word to celebrate each day for the next seven days. As I stared at my newly serviced Juki sewing machine with love and awe and contiplated celebrating all the happiness it brings me, a jar of buttons caught my eye and a twinkle of an idea began to grow.

I LOVE my collection of buttons. I am a collector. Collecting brings me great joy. I often think it must go back to cavewoman days when herbs needed gathering while caveman did the hunting (or whatever it was caveman did). I bet every cavewoman loved, fondled, and often played with her collection of herbs.

Today I celebrate the word "collection".

Some play with my button collection

Would spring ever come? I worked through some glum feelings with my blue buttons.

(some) fabric

Kaffe

Polka dots

More polka dots

Sometimes one collection leads to another collection...polka dots on a lizard

Lots of polka dot largartos from Mexico...crawling on the walls in the boys' lego collection room

While we are thinking of boys...I LOVED collecting the old Fisher Price Little People. When the boys were little, I even went to Toy Fest at the Fisher Price Headquarters in New York to meet other collectors. Way too much fun was had by bthe boys (and me too)! 

Every one of these Little People are different! I took this picture, had them live in a box for ten years while the boys played with their Little People, and only just last year finally opened the box and let them go..into Lego Land..where a Little Person needs to beware of the occassional guillotines :) 

My husband, Jim, often travels to Latin America. I have finally trained him to BUY STUFF!! We now have a very happy collection of textile art. 

These are arpilleras from Peru

The piece on the left is from South Africa, and the piece on the right is made entirely from butterfly wings! It is from Brazil. In the middle is a mola from Panama.

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my collections. I wonder what word will float to the top tomorrow???  



BREATHING MORE FREELY

Just when I think I can't possibly take ANOTHER gray day....

And I get sick of trying so hard to see something good in confused seagulls on a farm

Look what happens....

                                                        9:00 AM - Sunshine daydream?

And it lasts all day....

                                                          4:00 PM - No wind blowing!

                                               The sun was gone by the next morning, but....

It was time for a different present.

According to some, the deer reminds us to be gentle with others and self.

Ahhh.......with gratitude, I am breathing more freely...

MONEY CAN BUY EVERYTHING?!

peace

                                                                                 love

                                                                 extreme happiness

TIME FOR PLAY!

I have been reading a very creative, happy, and positive blog over at http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/. One of Victoria's ideas is to play fifteen minutes every day. Play? PLAY! She encourages showing how the play evolved, so here are my pictures. Enjoy!!!

Once upon a time I made a tuffit that wanted to be a comfy pillow

I couldn't part with the great Kaffe scraps

Yum

Random piecing

 piecing into small bits

Eventually joining bits together into chunks

 chunks becoming a block - about 14 x 14

splicing into nine

  auditioning this fabric

                                                                       And this one

deciding on this one

                                                                              Voila!

I love it! It was liberatingly fun. I plan on encorporating more play time into my week. Perhaps one play date each week? 51 blocks for 2011? How about you? Wanna play???

THE TRUTH - IN THIS MOMENT THERE IS PEACE

The geese are back!

Geese remind us of the sacred circle of life. It also reminds us of traveling to distant places - breaking free from one place to move to a new place in our lives. Move forward out of the rut. How?

In chapter two of The Joy Diet by Martha Beck she outlines several steps for getting in touch with the TRUTH. I have been trying her exercise every day this week  and it is POWERFULLY ENLIGHTENING!After I was still (for what felt like an eternity, but was probably 57 seconds!) I asked my self, "How do you feel?" I felt sad and under the sad was scared.  Then I asked, "What is the story you are telling your self around this feeling?" We can't make it without my mom. "Is this the truth?" No, actually while experiencing grief quite powerfully, we all made it through this first month just fine. "So, can you change your story to reflect the TRUTH?" As a matter of fact, I can!!!! :)

I finally really understand the saying - The truth can set you free. I CAN CHOOSE TO LET GO of the story that is not working any more!

Letting go with peace and love

I made my mom a great bird house quilt that hung on her front door for ten years. Her peep hole poked through the hole of the bird house. Cute. Last week, I cut out a house shape from the extremely faded original quilt and stitched in several outlines of houses - representing how I had seen our relationship differently over the years. I tied this house with peace and love balloons, stiching "letting go" along the strings. This past weekend, in light marker, I wrote my mom a long letter in between the raindrops, mostly sharing my gratitude for her being my mom and our Gram. I am intent on letting go the false stories a little girl created once upon a time to make sense of her chatic world. There is no blame only forgiveness.

                                                                      Circumambulate

Once I read somewhere that people go around and around revisiting the same problems again and again on the path the path towards enlightenment. Hopefully, each time you "circumambulate", go around again, you are a little higher on the path. I like that idea. This time, as I revisit the grieving process, focused on the TRUTH, with false dramatic stories released, I am finding some peace.

Tonya Ricucci has a very creative, original fun new book out called Word Play. I LOVE it! (And it has a forward written by Gwen Marston who is best quilting buddies with my Freddy Moran!!!) I was inspired to make a quilt to help me not get overwelmed by the big picture. When the big picture is scary, I need to refocus on the TRUTH..which is that I only have this moment..and IN THIS MOMENT THERE IS PEACE!!

The truth

What is the truth in your life? Any stories not working for you? Share???