A sweet Gathering…

I got my brave on and contacted some Digh-Hard friends from my area of Florida and asked them to meet up for lunch today.

I made some gifts to tell them how excited I was to have them close by.

I drove off this morning, heading from Apollo Beach to Pass-a-grille,

looking at these…

But by the time I got to the beautiful strip of land jutting into the Gulf of Mexico,

The clouds were a little less ominous.

And just perfect for an afternoon of hanging out.

A delicious lunch at Sea Critters and a glass of Sangria

were the icing on the cake of a sweet gathering.

Lynne, Maria, Frankie and I felt like new friends who had known each other for a long time.

Doesn’t make sense but that’s how it felt.

Really comfortable and fun !

We had the waitress take this pic wishing Patti a happy birthday today!

She is the one who brought us all together !

A visit to a local gallery,

and some key lime pie on the upper deck of the Brass Monkey

kept us sheltered from the spitting rain

and let us have some more girl talk.

Being Brave makes for some pretty pictures!

Even our feet look good together when we posed for this “Looking Down” prompt shot for August Break!

Thanks, Ladies, for my sweet welcome to Florida outing.

The first of many sweet gatherings, I hope !

 

 

Hosted by Susannah Conway

Rock Fairy, Rock Fairy, Where have you been ? And where are you going ?

Oh, Kimbo, where have you been ?

I haven’t been blogging very much since 2014 was rung in.

That is because the beginning of the year was taken up spending a lot of time with this little Monkey.

Helping his Momma, my niece Amanda, out with caring for him, watching him grow every day,

and falling madly, and completely in love with him.

Jayden and his mom have moved on to another home now,

but our time together was one of the most precious life experiences I have ever had.

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."
-Winnie the Pooh

Love you guys !

Spring is finally, finally, slowly arriving here in New Hampshire.

The wearing of the parka is being let go in favor of the lighter coat and pretty scarves,

and best of all, the snow has melted enough to allow the Chucks to reappear !!!

Creatively, I have been focused in stitch love,

making these little stitched pillows for a swap with my amazing friend Deb Taylor, and a bunch of other stitch happy artists.

We each had to make 16 pillows in a shabby chic style.

These are some of my favs in my batch.

That was a whole lot of stitch love in lots of little packages !

Other than my swap contributions,

my creative time has been kind of limited of another important reason.

The Queen of Arts Studio and the Rock Fairy are on the move !

Along with everything we are keeping from the yellow house on Orange Street!

David and I and our furry babies are purging and packing up to move

way down south

to Tampa, Florida !

Yes, Beautiful Ones, the Rock Fairy has just lived through the last New England winter she will see for a good long while!

David has been transferred to the Tampa offices of the company he works for,

and in June, we are off to start a whole new life

in sunny and warm Florida !

Of course, we are very excited, though we are going through the huge stresses of packing up and arranging things here in NH, finding a new home in the Tampa area from a long distance away, and dealing with the details of getting all of our belongings moved about a 1000 miles away.

The other hard part is leaving my family and friends in Montreal really far behind.

It will mean less frequent trips north to spend time with them, but hopefully longer and special times together in the Sunshine State to make up for it!

So time for blogging may be still kind of scarce until we get settled in our new home down south. I look forward to reconnecting and diving back in from there, and sharing my new arty adventures from tropical locales !

Big love, Beautiful Ones,

and may your living be full of things that make you feel ALIVE !

The Lake House awaits !

Leaving my back deck flowers for David to take care of for a bit,

this happy lady is off to Vermont and

the eb immersion lake house workshops.

The Rogue-y is full up with art goodies from wool felt and silk to embroidery floss, and

rust-able watercolor paper to tea bags filled with drippy possibilities !

I am so excited !

One of the participants arriving on Wednesday is my dear friend, Linda who I met long ago at Squam, and it will be great to be with her and play !

Plus, I get to spend precious time with one of my favorite people on the planet,

Ms. E.B. herself !

Feeling very very blessed.

Have a great week, Beautiful Ones !

Light and love to you!

Un sejour…

We are off on a little adventure for two.

Yay !

It will involve some nature loving,

connecting with some peeps we like a lot along the way,

and time to just be him and me…

Feeling  very blessed.

See you in June, Beautiful Ones !

Big love to you !

Saying Yes…

I am not sure if it has been influenced by cabin fever,

the long, long, long winter,

or what,

but lately I have been saying “Yes.” to some new things.

There is a lot of trust involved in some of these decisions and just a little faith in others, but it feels good to be expanding the box, and letting new opportunities to blossom in their own way.

Letting go of the need to know all the details and permutations ahead of time is new for me.

But somehow, I have really begun to know the lesson that things will fall into place as they will, whether you worry about them or not.

And that is a lesson I am happy to be putting into practice !

So one of the thing I have said “yes” to is participating in this amazing new project with Patti Digh.

When Patti asked me to participate in the Design Your Life Camp and offer a workshop,

I decided to say “Yes!”, in spite having no idea at first what kind of workshop I would offer, and how all the details of getting to Buford, Georgia in October 2013 will come together.

But allowing the positive creative energy that surrounds this event into my world was a no brainer, really ! I am so thrilled and excited to be a part of this amazing gathering of so many incredible people !

Maybe it is something you need to say “Yes!” to as well, and we can rock it together ? Check out all the details and the early bird registration deals here.

 

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Today, I am saying yes to trying out a new project with a great teacher, Lynne Suprock.  Some of my Artsy friends met and worked with Lynne at Art is You in CT last fall and made friends with this talented artist. Lynne is here in NH now and we are going to be making soldered tiaras today, at my friend Patti’s house!!! Lucky Artsy Ladies !

And you know this Rock Fairy/Queen of Arts loves a tiara !!!

Oh, that reminds me of one of my very favorite scenes every on Big Bang Theory :

Hilarious !!!!

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So is there anything you want to say “yes” to ?

I encourage you to take a chance and see what happens when you do.

And trust that the Universe is conspiring in your favor !

Happy Tuesday, Beautiful Ones !

Share the Joy Thursday–Ask for the Magic

So how does one end up spending 4 days in a house like this :

with an amazing arty hostess like this :

with beautiful views of Lake Champlain like this :

and get totally immersed in the creative process so as to produce smiles like these ?

Well,  you Ask !

My brave and beautiful friend Colleen proposed such a gathering to artist Elizabeth Bunsen  just at a time when Elizabeth was working on fulfilling her own dreams of hosting small groups of artists for intimate “e.b. immersion workshops” at her family’s lake house in Charlotte, VT.

Don’t you love it when things just come together so well ?!!!

So Colleen and I headed 3 hours north of home and had a dream play time with an amazingly talented and extremely generous teacher in a beautiful and inspiring setting.

We learned about dyeing natural protein fibers like silk and wool in bundles of eucalyptus and other treats :

that resulted in beautiful fabric bits to die for !

We learned that rusted pieces of metal of all kinds

can create treasured pieces of fabric

and paper to fill your stashes.

And so can ordinary bleach, with some simple tools at hand, and some imagination.

We gathered stripy rocks on the lakeshore

(You know how much the Rock Fairy adored this !!!)

and brought them home to give them some special treatment.

And then for the grand finale,

we gathered all the sweet bits and bobs we had created,

and with some beeswax and loving guidance from the teacher of my heart, Elizabeth,

we created

our own little masterpieces!

Meet

 “Home of  Eucalyptus and Rust ” ,

my little pamphlet bound journal.

The front cover of  fabric, leaves and rusted pieces sealed in bees wax

and inner pages of painted papers and rusty results,

were all inspired by the wrapped rock posing in the center.

The back cover is sealed in wax as well, with bits of fabric, chinese lantern pods and a rusted coffee filter.

The lovely piece of eucalyptus dyed silk on the right will serve as the journal’s covering.

I am so inspired by the process, the materials and the results of my time with e.b., that I have already purchased eucalyptus, bees wax and an electric skillet,

as well as started making rock wrapping a new part of my Rock Fairy love !

And believe it or not, the art and creative time was only part of the magic that our threesome shared.

The safe and inspiring environment, along with Elizabeth’s generous and open heart and mind, allowed for some wonderful sharing of our life experiences and a great bond of trust to develop. Our time together was so very good for the mind, body and soul.

So perhaps you find yourself in need of this kind of amazingly creative and spiritually uplifting art adventure ? Maybe the beautiful nature and shores of the Lake Champlain,Vermont are calling you ?

I wholehearted suggest you get in contact with the beautiful Elizabeth and  ASK.

There may just be a magical  room with a view waiting for you too.

 

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I love you, Colleen. Thank you for helping me to say yes to this once in a life time adventure.

I love you, Elizabeth, as a master teacher and most of all, as a kindred Heart.

 

For more of this week’s joy, visit Meri’s Musings