wonderful LMN honored me with this award and i am so appreciative and thank her from the bottom of my bloggy heart. she is that rare mix of intelligence, sensitivity, artful eye and zest for life. and i promise the next time i am in seattle, we are going to cafe ladro and sitting down for a couple or three hours of non-stop talking and then we are going to walk the city with cameras in hand and we're going to take lots and lots of pictures.
and we're going to laugh.
a lot.
i give her this award as well.


heidi who is so terrific and insightful was already awarded this. can i award her as well?

and i pass this award on to the following who i also adore:

all i ever wanted creative, so very funny, interesting, worldly and wise.

blue hearts so smart and so talented. she amazes me as she weaves a story that is interesting, sophisticated and intelligent.

rambling mommy a wonderful woman doing an amazing job of raising children and staying true to herself.

the one little one she literally leaps off the page with her amazing creative energy and zest for life. so adorable.

random blessings and curses my dear friend tracy who is so very clever and whom i love.

self-portrait tuesday

in
january's challenge is "album covers"




i am woman:

since having my surgery
therefore i am underpaid
on the verge of a nervous breakdown

i couldn't pick just one, so how about you make some suggestions or choose one for me?

when i was a teenager, helen reddy's anthem
was the single most important song for all of us of the female persuasion.
even men wished they were women after hearing that song.
well...maybe some of them anyway.
so hear me roar
in numbers too big to ignore.

grr.

i'm very serious

in




so you see.

so serious that i will look at you with interest.
seriously look at your camera
wondering what it does.
i'll seriously wonder who you are
and why you're interested in me
because i'm just not sure of you.

but one thing is for certain
i'm very serious
so you see.





a couple of years ago, i made one of these for the p.b. kid and i've been wanting one for myself ever since.
i finally got over myself and made one.
it's a quick project and easily made.
i painted this frame with two different acrylic paint colors- sienna and turquoise.
then rubbed a lot of the paint off with a rag to make the paint uneven.
the flowers and letters are just stick ons.
the screen is stapled into the inside of the frame.

now i can actually find my earrings.
it's a miracle.

snow puffs



kind of like cocoa puffs, minus the chocolate.

we actually got a dusting of snow this week.
and the entire town shut down.
it was 2 inches of snow afterall.

that's how we roll down here in the south.
please don't laugh too hard....
we don't have no learning how to drive in snow.
or snow plows.
like we need them....

but we do have much exuberance for this wintery guest.
there's even stupid people like me that go out into it and take pictures of it.

so humor us.

in






cheerful, cheery, delighted, doing handsprings, ecstatic, effervescent, elated, enraptured, expansive, flipping, flying, high, joyous, jubilant, lighthearted, merry, overjoyed, popping, rapturous, satisfied, sunny, transported, upbeat

it's what i need to remember that life is made up of these days.
especially when i have experienced 9 deaths in the last 3 weeks at my workplace.
9 souls gone.

i need some cheerful.



when i walk
i listen more closely
to the earth
because it's when she seems to speak more clearly

when i walk
i listen more closely
to myself
because it's when i seem to hear more clearly



May the Lord bless you
and keep you.
May God's face
shine upon you and
be gracious unto you.

May God give you the grace
never to sell yourself short;
grace to risk something big
for something good;
grace to remember that the
world is now too dangerous
for anything but truth and
too small for anything but love.

So, may God take your minds
and think through them;
may God take your lips
and speak through them;
may God take your hearts
and set them on fire.

Amen.


William Sloane Coffin
adapted by H. Stephen Shoemaker

for us all
on this historic day

and every day.

in


damn clocks.
why do we have to have them anyway?
all they ever do is measure time.
and all i ever do is wish they didn't.

especially on the weekends.

have a great monday.

"what's this?"

in


"don't eat it. you won't like it."
"no?"
"nope. it's yucky."



"this?"
"no! i promise you...you'll hate it."
"i'm gonna try it."
"well......okay. if you really want to. i guess it's okay."



"i ate it!"
"you're a brave boy"
"i'm a brave boy!"



i'd like to ask the sun if she could always shine down on me
so that i could be a rainbow when people look at me.
i'd like them to be able to see my colors.

i'd like to ask the wind if she could gently
blow on me
so that i can twist in the wind
but remain grounded.

and i won't even mind if the rain
falls down on me and rusts me.
because even though i'm weathered, i can
still shine.


i think i'll ask them if that could be possible.

when you were born

in


nobody told me that i would fall in love with you.

or that you would drive me crazy on a regular basis.

they didn't tell me that when i finally would discover the source of that horrible stench i'd been smelling for days, that its source would be your dirty clothes and dishes in places i had never before thought possible.

and they surely didn't tell me that i would never stop worrying about you no matter how old you are.

or that my job as a parent was never-ending because there's always new things to negotiate...new wrinkles to iron out.

and that no matter how many times you may come and go, my heart still aches when you go

i read those sayings.
you know...
the sayings about how we give our children roots and wings at the same time...
or that our children are never our own.
i thought they were so poignant.
so sweet
and meaningful.
and they are.
i just didn't fully understand about the reality
of them.

i knew you would leave someday
it was tucked away in the back of my head like a distant storm cloud,
making its way towards me
until it was here.
and now it's raining down on me.

it's time you make your own way
build your own life.
live on your own and face your future.

and i'm still going to be your mom
the best way that i know how.
that part will never change.

it's just different.
yet again.

my very creative brother in law sent me this amazing clip that i just have to share with you.
(thanks c)

i hope you enjoy it!
i really did.



if one is feeling the mood for some pleasure time, then this album is the perfect choice.
some of the music included:

"i'm in the mood for love" - goes without saying
"body and soul" - another one that goes without saying
"i can't give you anything but love" - again with the goes without saying

but then as look on the list of songs, i see

"i've got five dollars" - okay. inflation has certainly taken its toll because i'm sure that love costs much more than that these days

then there's
"just friends" - ouch.

and finally,
"limehouse blues"

i can honestly say that when i'm in the mood for pleasure, blues does not come to my mind.
"Whoa nobody loves me, nobody seems to care
Well worries and trouble darling, babe you know I've had my share"
does not induce a pleasure mood for me.

what do you think?

in


it's my new look.
kidding.

i didn't really get my haircut.

do you think the sunburned look will catch on?

i'm not in the habit of doing things like this.
only when i have to.
like say for instance...the self portrait challenge for this week.
and i looked so dorky, i made myself laugh.
hope you will too.