Saturday 31 October 2009

Halloween Traditions

We celebrated Halloween a lot this year. On Thursday night we dressed up for the SLO Farmer's Market. On Sat. we painted faces on the Pismo Pier. On Sat. night my daughter's family went to a Halloween  party and I stayed at her house and handed out candy. I got to be a witch and a pirate.

But I also spent the time thinking about my ancestors. My departed mother, my sister who is either missing or deceased, and friends I've lost to cancer. Halloween or Samhain as is the pagan tradition is the day for honoring the dead.

Friday 30 October 2009

Appreciating Family

I came up to visit my daughters and my grandson a day early. I wanted a chance to see them outside of the Halloween event we were working at. So much has changed since the last time I came. My daughter got a new carpet, my grandson is walking now, my other daughter is busy being a wedding photographer. Everyone is so busy. It's easy to feel disconnected.

Thursday 29 October 2009

Learn to Travel

By the time you read this I will be on a train traveling up the central coast of CA. It's always a good idea to take a casual trip on public transportation so you can learn the ropes. Then when you really need to take public transportation you'll have some experience. So I'm taking a short 5 hour trip which is half train and half bus up to see my grandson. He just turned one. Next time you want to take a day trip consider a train or a bus. Give your car the day off.

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Asking For Help

Today I went to move my truck for street sweeping and found someone had broken into it. So I figured it was a good time to test out today's theme, which is 'asking for help'. So I called the police and they helped me make a report and gave me advice on what to do if it happens again. Sometimes we can't handle things alone. It takes a more experienced person to know what to do.

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Make An Art Journal

Life passes by so quickly. The older I get the faster it seems to go. So I do my best to document it. That's why I blog and keep journals. It's a way to say, "Yes I was here." Art journals don't have to be expensive. I like to stock up in late Aug. when school supplies are on special everywhere. Then I like to decorate the cover with a painting or a collage and make it personal. I used to try to add to it daily but sometimes that becomes too much like another chore. But I do keep it out where I can see it so I don't forget to paint or draw in it. Don't forget to add something in your own handwriting to it. It doesn't matter if you are not a calligrapher. What matters it that you are you and your handwriting or printing or scribbling is park of who you are. So grab a pen and write down something in there. It can be poetry or an essay or even a grocery list. But get it in there. Because one of these days you may not be able to hold a pen, or you may go blind or you may have hands that shake a lot. It's one more of those things that you can't take for granted. So get busy and get a journal.

Monday 26 October 2009

Renew an Old Dream


Today I started practicing my didgeridoo again. I took it to the archery tournament yesterday and a lot of people loved it, but I didn't know how to play it. I realized I had given up on learning because it doesn't come easy to me. So tonight I practiced for awhile until I drove my boyfriend nuts. Not so much because the noise bothers him, but because his advice for playing it just don't seem to make sense to me. So I guess I'll have to practice it in the park or something. It just boggles my mind that people can breathe in and out at the same time.

Sunday 25 October 2009

Learn to Work With a Partner

Today I shared a craft booth and it was an epic fail. We visualize things so differently. I won't go into it here because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I've shared booths with other people in the past and had no trouble what so ever so I don't get why I can't make this work. The physical part of setting up a craft booth is hard enough without all this emotional drama.

Saturday 24 October 2009

Getting Organized


Getting organized for a tiny craft venue. An opportunity to sell my art to the public. But it turns out making the inventory was the easy part compared to getting it all into the truck. I tore up the house, the backyard, and the garage just for a tiny half day gig. Sheesh. And now I'll spend most of next week getting it put back again so we can walk through the living room. That is the downside to running a home business. It can take over all your living space.

Friday 23 October 2009

Finding Balance

I have noticed lately, and it's partly to blame on the fun video games on Facebook.com, that I'm struggling to stay in balance. Balance means not spending so much time on line that your accounting suffers, or your relationships with the 3-D people suffer, or your career suffers. Each day has to have some fitness time, some spiritual time, some intellectual time, some sexual time. Because we are complex people. We are like gardens. In a garden, you can't just water, and never have sunshine. You can't fertilize too much or too little. You can't let the weeds eat all your nutrients.

Video games are a lot like weeds. They can steal your focus for hours on end. Especially if you are compulsive like I am and can't break the inertia to go do something else. Sometimes I'm relieved when the game goes down for maintanence. That means I can finally go to bed. Or go do laundry. Or water the garden. Too much of anything is not that great. You can't write for 5 hours straight. Or juggle for four hours a day. Or knit till your hands feel like falling off. Gotta mix it up a little.

Thursday 22 October 2009

Discover a New Way to Do Something

Experimenting is an important part of being an artist or a musician or a parent. Sometimes we may fall flat on our faces, but to not even try new things is to admit failure before the starting gun for the race has even gone off. So today I tried a knitting technique that I'm not that familiar with. I'm not sure if I've ever done it before or not, but I want to knit a rug. I never knitted a rug before. I crocheted one once, but that's about it.

I had to start 3 times before it looked right. So if you are going to experiment, be persistant.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Take Care of Necessary Things

I'm devoting today to doing what must be done to keep my home running smoothly. That means carrying out the trash, doing laundry, washing dishes, and so forth. Not a task I'm happy to have but a task that if not done makes me feel like things are falling down around me. I can't have inner peace when a cockroach is crawling up my leg. I didn't sleep well last night, so I don't know how long my energy will hold up, but I'll do what I can.

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Work With Your Hands

My painting professor once told us that the path to madness is not working with your hands. For our ultimate health we need to be making and building things with our hands. So today I continued working on my atlatl darts, shaving down the reed shafts and cutting off the nodes so I can add feathers later. It is life affirming to work with your hands.

Monday 19 October 2009

Momentary Mentor

I chose Jack Lalane as my momentary mentor. He is 90 and still works out two hours a day. So I'm going to walk to the grocery store today instead of driving. I met him once and he's the real deal. The grandfather of the fitness revolution. Bless your heart Jack, and your lovely wife too.

Sunday 18 October 2009

Dealing With Threats

Today's theme is dealing with threats. How do you deal with threats? How can you teach a threatening person to find a better way to resolve issues. I came home to find a note with a death threat on my front door. Probably just a hoax from bored neighborhood kids. It had my name on it, then it said "This is your killer. In two days you die." It was neatly printed with a pen on a small yellow post it note. Now what?

Saturday 17 October 2009

Make A Drum

I spent part of today painting the interior of my Tortuga Gourd Drum. It has a sea turtle on it and Tortuga means turtle. The next part is to put the head on it. But I think all the hide got used up on other drums, so I'll have to buy some more rawhide somewhere. That's what I get for procrastinating. While my project was on the back burner all the rawhide got used up by someone else. But at least I made some progress.

No matter what kind of drum you are making, have fun today working on it. There are really simple drums and really complicated ones. I would say this gourd drum is moderately complicated.

Thursday 15 October 2009

Overcome Depression



It happens to all of us from time to time. I won't say a lot about it, other than I'm not just going to sit here feeling bad all day. I'm going to go sew or something. I'm waiting for the muslin in the dryer to get dry so I can cut out some dolls. The body is made out of muslin.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Be More Flexible



Our plans to drive to Santa Barbara today got cancelled because of rain. So it occurs to me a great theme is to be more flexible. Always be willing to substitute one activity for another. I'm more than happy to stay in out of the rain and work on my knitting, embroidery, and blogging.

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Learn A New Game

I think computer games have a plus side. You are challenging your mind in new ways. I recently started playing Evony (which I found via Facebook). Unlike some of the Facebook games, which are too juvenile. I found Evony appeals to a side of me that likes to be challenged. It's a strategy game. If you go there looking for quick action you'll surely be disappointed. In the game you are building a city and you can only build one thing at a time. That alone seems to drive a lot of gamers nuts. They want to build the whole city in 5 minutes and it doesn't work that way. So my theme for today is Learn a New Game. It can be on the computer, or it can be boards game, yard games, card games or whatever strikes your fancy.

Monday 12 October 2009

Redefining Columbus Day

What do we do when we are stuck with a holiday we don't believe in? Such is the case with Columbus Day. Columbus was a horrible individual. So how do I celebrate this day? I do it by paying honor to Native Americans; those who suffered mightily at his hand and all those that were tortured when America was going through birth pangs.

I celebrate it by doing Native American crafts like bowmaking, basketry, beading and leatherwork. I celebrate it by song and dance and storytelling. I honor it by listening to the story of any Native Americans I happen to meet. I go to their powwows and watch their rituals.

Saturday 10 October 2009

Working on Relationships

Today's theme by default became 'working on relationships'. Maybe Mars is in retrograde but everyone I know is having communication problems with their loved ones. One of them just ended a 9 year relationship. It was a very stressful day. And I'm not even sure where we stand right now. In the morning things will either be much better or much worse.

Thursday 8 October 2009

Do Things The Old Way

For today's theme, I'm making sourdough bread starter. I found excellent directions here: sourdough
My boyfriend did this once, but when we moved we lost it. So I'm going to start again. It takes days to do it right, so if you want to try it, make sure you are not going out of town for the week.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Wed. Focus on What You Want


Focus on what you want, not what you don't want. Because whatever you focus on gets bigger, closer, more real. So my focus today is on being a money magnet and attracting prosperity and being thankful for what I already have. I have food, I have shelter, I have love, I have pets, I have my health, I have children, I have creativity, and I have the opportunity to work on the Internet.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Tues. Try a New Recipe


Today I made apple turnovers. They were the yummiest. I wrote about them in my cooking blog.

Monday 5 October 2009

Mon. Expand An Idea


Sometimes we learn a lot when we make a prototype. But we learn even more when we expand on that idea. So I expanded on my cat scene and made this with cat applique project. I'm not quite finished with the first one, but while the idea was still fresh in my mind I cut out the purple cats with witch hats quilting applique scene.

Sunday 4 October 2009

Celebrate Your Spirituality


Today's theme was a tricky one. It was going to be Celebrate Your Spirituality because I thought we were going to the Pagan Pride Fair LA 2009. But then things got off to a bad start and I took off all my finery and was going to stay home. Then once I had my gardening clothes on we ended up going after all. I did see some other psychics I used to work with at the Learning Light Foundation and I got to see the Morris dancers from Long Beach CA. Here're some photos of today's festivities.




Saturday 3 October 2009

Design a Quilt

I decided to make a Halloween Quilt picture so I went to the fabric store at bought 23 different prints, but only 5 of them are specifically for the Halloween Quilt. It's going to be cats at night wearing witch's hats. Fun! The other fabric is for quilts I'm in the middle of making. Yay, it's a joy to buy fabric for quilting. I only got 1/2 yard of each and my total was under $25.

Friday 2 October 2009

Make a Recipe From Your Past

Tonight I'm making falafels, and I haven't had them in many years. I found out the local stores I typical haunt don't carry any of the supplies. No wonder I stopped making them. But today we went to an International supermarket and I found all the ingredients, so tonight we are having pita pockets with falafels. My boyfriend said he'd at least try it, but he's against anything that has the appearance of a vegetarian meal. So he may be cooking a can of  chili if he doesn't care for the taste of falafels. More for me I guess. There is more on my cooking blog.

Thursday 1 October 2009

Theater of the Absurd

Today's theme was to start a blog to embrace Theater of the Absurd and what it means in my life. It is important to maintain a spirit of fun and play in life to combat stress. And my life truly is absurd a lot of the time. So go visit my new blog and leave your own thoughts on the absurdity of life.