Believe in the Beauty of Your Dreams

I love this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt. The baby boy is at grandma's house and I am madly trying to get all of the details wrapped up to hang new work in the Pannikin in Encinitas & Del Mar. I'll take lots of pictures & get back to you.

Fun quotes to inspire art...

Fun quotes to inspire art sometime in the future... not any time soon, but eventually...

I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us - don't tell! They'd banish us, you know”
Emily Dickinson
We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw

Forget love, I'd rather fall in chocolate.”

That it will never come again is what makes life sweet. Emily Dickinson

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.”
Emily Dickinson

“Be careful what you wear to bed at night, you never know who you'll meet in your dreams.”

But I don't want to go among mad people," said Alice. "Oh, you can't help that," said the cat. "We're all mad here."” Lewis Carroll quote

Begin at the beginning,", the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop” Lewis Carroll quote

The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today.” Lewis Carroll

One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others” Lewis Carroll

Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?” Lewis Carroll quote

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.” Helen Keller quote

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” Anne Lamott

Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.” Lewis Carroll quote

That it will never come again is what makes life sweet. Emily Dickinson

A hundred years from now? All new people.
Anne Lamott

Thoughts on HOME...

“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
Matsuo Basho



As I'm madly getting ready for my 2nd Street Fair and trying not to completely neglect my family and get some amount of sleep... I'm so caught up and inspired by the possibilities of so many ideas...

Home is the idea that I keep coming back to...
Because I've been home full time, spending time with my 14 month old (my kindergarteners are on a 2 week vacation)I've been thinking about being intentional about what kind of home I want to create for my husband & my baby & myself & my friends & family...

I'm so thankful for our physical home. It's a gift from God. I really never expected or thought we would get a real home, here in Southern California, and it is a definite financial stretch, to say the least, but it really is a dream come true... it's where we want to be, and I wouldn't have it any other way. We've been here for a little over a year and it so feels like home to us. But even more than the paint & wood & pictures on the wall...

As I explore this idea of home I can't help but think...
What kind of home do I want to create?

love... but really, I mean what does that mean? what does that look like?
acceptance
patience
adventure
joy
faithfulness
prayer
peace
wisdom
generousity
communication
authenticity
belonging
contribution
laughter
stability
silliness
possibility
uniquely us
hot coffee & chocolate chip cookies
hand made stuffs
photos everywhere

We get to make our home whatever we want it to be...or at least try to make it what we want it to be...
Our own little nest.
Our place of possibility.
Our sanctuary from the world.
Our place of love & acceptance.
Our place of connection where we are intimately known & celebrated.

Really, anything is possible... we are the makers of our home... with a lot of wisdom and patience and help from Jesus...

I'm off to create... I'll be back very soon...

Little Treasures

“Develop an interest in life as you see it;

the people, things, literature, music-

the world is so rich,

simply throbbing with rich treasures,

beautiful souls and

interesting people.

Forget yourself.”

Henry Miller

I love the way this baby finds treasures everywhere. He could spend all day exploring our little backyard, creating new adventures all day long. A rock. A wood chip. A flower. I have a lot to learn from him...

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

So, my mantra as a sixth grade teacher was always...

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

whispered to me over andover again by dear, sweet Eleanor Roosvelt, whom I hold close to my heart. I just love this woman, and this quote has always rang true in my life: my first year teaching 5th grade in Los Angeles, moving across the ocean to teach in Hong Kong, and beginning to run.

It seems the minute I finally come to the place where I say to myself, "I can't (fill in the blank)" I know what I need to do,what I have to do... easy to say. hard to do. well I 've come to this place again...

only this time with blogging...Reading blogs is so fun and so easy. I'm unabashadly addicted. But writing a blog...now that's a completely different story...

Okay, so, up until now, I have written about 30 blogs and looked at the looming PuBLisH button and ran the other direction.

There are so many similarities between creating art, blogging, and being naked:

They are vulnerable.

They require a piece of me.
They require me to be honest. I can't fake it.

They bring out all of the inner critic screaming, "Your thighs are tree trunks."

and it's just like this mountain I have to climb and I get to this spot where I push and push and feel the burn, and it's painfuland I hate it, and finally I reach the top... and there is nothing more thrilling and satisfying. The pain and the sweat was so worth it.

The blogging journey is very similar to the painting journey. It's painful and scary and thrilling and liberating... but most of all it'svulnerable.

You really can't fake it or else it comes out lame and just embarrassing.

I think I've been trying to write as this person I wish I was (you know, the woman who is up at 5:00 to jog 5 miles with her golden and her 2 kids in toe, cleans out her fridge on a regular basis, and always wears accessories to match her lipstick). I'm just thankful to brush my teeth and not get otu the door with something, that's not too wrinkled & doesn't have to be ironed.

So here's my plan: I'm just going to start writing a little each day about my "small moments" in the most honest way I can. I'mgoingto teach myself to write,day by day,post by post, just like my kindergarteners learn.

I think I learned once, but I feel like I've forgotten everything I ever learned. I feel like I don't even know what good writing is. I know it when I read it, (like every singlepost from wienerdogtricks & kellyraeroberts) hilarious and inspiring, inthat order, but I couldn't tellyou how to get there...

So, the journey begins...

A Few of my Favorite Words

Part One: Life LXXXIX

A WORD is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

Emily Dickinson (1830–86).

If writing is all about gluing words together in new ways that make me giggle... I need to get some really great words... and so my journey beings...
(I've also been reading some really hilarious, helpful, inspiring blogs with ubercool names and pictures and I'm drooling in my coffee...)


So, I have to admit I really want an ubercool blog name too (pick me! pick me!) so I went on a hunt for words toget some ideas...
Try it. Send me your favorite words. I just googled "verbs" and here are some verbs that make me happy... I kind of made a poem out of them. Here it is:

Verbs I Like Poem
accept. admire. appreciate
gather. giggle. glow.
sip. satisfy. scribble.
start. finish. just finish something, for goodness sake…
listen (as in: stop talking and)
connect. care. color. camp.
reflect. rejoice. relax. radiate.
thank.
pray. paint. play.
wander. wish. whisper.
encourage. enjoy
snuggle. sip. nest.
invest. give. grow.
delight. discover. dream.
hope. hold. overflow
take the leap.
live. learn.
love.


My mind is running amuck with ideas forpaintings right now...
What are your favorite words?