Hearts at Work

 

I had a super sweet Mother’s Day weekend with my Mom.

We did our usual shopping trip for clothes for her. She calls me her personal shopper and we always have good luck with finding fun stuff to add to her wardrobe.

We also made our spring pilgrimage to the ocean.

Hampton Beach, NH was glorious on Mother’s Day Sunday !

And we soaked it all in !

It was likely my Mom’s last visit to the yellow house on Orange Street,

so there were definitely some tears when she left to drive home yesterday.

I love you so much, Mommy.

 

Letting go,

and letting myself feel the letting go,

continues to be the theme these days.

All part of the loving,

isn’t it ?

 

I am still holding the space for a dear, dear Heart

that is continuing her Soul’s journey, surrounded by abundant love and light.

A candle lit on my altar and big love pouring from my heart.

 

Be well as you do your heart’s work, Beautiful Ones.

Big love to you.

Where my heart is...

I am with my beautiful Mommy.
She suffered a heart attack on Sunday morning,
but thankfully, is okay, healing and on the mend.
I am so grateful that I can be here with her and my sisters and other loving family and friends
to support her through this process.
Grateful to the awesome staff at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal for wonderful medical care as well.
We would all appreciate your prayers and love waves, Beautiful Ones.
Big love!

Moon day…

Wet waiting on this Moon Day…

A candle lit on the studio altar.

Sending prayers of light and love for all.

Be well, Beautiful Ones.

Gorgeous Mail, Kitty Cat Tails…

Having been away for a week meant coming home to some juicy mail !

David complained that he got all the bills and annoying flyers while I get all the colorful mail.

Just another example of what happens when you send the love out and it comes back to you tenfold ! I am blessed to be part of such a great arty community that loves to share !

The first package I opened was from my blogpal Bethany from Bloom.

She has been a little quiet in Blogland lately but a while back she send me a note saying she had picked up two copies of Pam Carriker’s Art at the Speed of Life by accident and wanted to share her extra one with me !

Of course I am thrilled ! This book looks like such a juicy one !!! Can’t wait to spend some time exploring it !

Then there were of course many wonderful pieces of art in the form of the DIY Postcard Swap that Hanna of  iHanna’s Blog hosted for so many of us.

Talk about your colorful mail !!!

One piece was from our hostess with the mostest, Hanna from iHanna’s Blog

This pointillism pretty is from P Strangetown in Spain.

The cactus beauty comes from Regina from CreativeKismet in Arizona.

Some playful painting from Mary from joyful ploys in Arkansas.

The gorgeous gift of collage from my long time blogging friend Roberta from RCS Creations.

My fellow Montrealer, Sylivie from The Art of Miss KoolAid sent this beautiful cuppa with a reminder to take time just for me.

This interesting piece from S.Arden Hill from Winnipeg, Canada at fourfortheday.com had me looking and looking…What do you see ?

This pretty stitched watercolor tag piece was from Charlotte from Sweden (not sure of her blog).

And this exquisite drawing is from Tari June at studiomailbox.com in Germany. I am in love with the heart in the hands…

I really loved doing this swap, both for the fun of creating pieces of art for others and for receiving these amazing gifts in rethurn!

Thanks so much again, Hanna, for all you do to make it happen !

One last treasure graced my mailbox yesterday.

That was these amazing teabag origami peace cranes that I purchased from Kim Anderson at art in red wagons.

Kim lovingly folded and strung these little treasures and has them for sale for just $10.00 in her etsy shop with all proceeds going to the Japan Relief Fund.

They will be hanging in the studio later today and I will be reminded of how grateful I am for all that I have every time I look at them.

While the mail art was a lovely homecoming, the less wonderful part of my first day home was that sill Cosmo cat swallowed a 15 inch linen cord from a necklace he found in the studio.

 

I got him to the vet quickly as I saw him do the deed ! But though they tried to induce vomiting to get him to throw it up, it was still in him after an afternoon at the vets.

Now after 3 doses of laxatives, and a night in his own private room in our house, he isn’t eating, hasn’t pooped, and just isn’t well.

A call to the vet this morning now has me bringing him back in for some more fluids and checking him back in to the pet hospital, and probably facing up to the fact that he will need a costly surgery to get the damn cord out of him.

Poor little Boo. Poor Mommy ! Bring on the credit card debt.

Send your kitty prayers for the little bugger, okay ?

I hope you have a sweet and colorful Tuesday, Beautiful Ones.

Big Love !

My world is rocked…

The rest of today is going to be all about the rocks.

Not just because I have an order to fill, but because I just remembered the joy that I get when I sit down and paint those sweet messages from the Universe on those smooth pieces of stone and I am determined to fill this day with whatever joy I can.

No, I am not acting like nothing has happened, as though our world has not be cracked open and its insides exposed, or like thousands of us haven’t died, and many thousands, millions of us aren’t suffering so very much in this moment.

I am acting like all of that has happened and choosing to BE in this moment, LIVE this precious day, because I have been given this gift and I sure don’t want to waste it in fear and worry.

So I quit Facebook today indefinitely – it was too hard to come back to a place of being with all of the emotion and tons of information happening there.

I will still blog because that is my way of putting some of my love and light into the world and I also need to be connected to the Hearts I love so much !

I will no longer watch the news as it goes straight into my heart but will read a bit here and there just to keep informed.

Yep, the rest of the day will be all about the rocks…

and the sights, smells, sounds, tastes and feelings that I have around me. I may even get super into washing the dishes or folding laundry later.

I just know that I have to BE in this moment, LIVE my day to the fullest and

for the gift that I have been given.

Thank you for this Day.

Sending Big Love and Light to you, Beautiful Ones !

Tuesday in the Studio

Owed it to myself to have a much needed art day…

  Owed it to some friends to complete some projects I had committed to…

I wanted and needed to have some ART LOVE flowing.

And I had a feeling that the best way to “Be OK” was to create the day away…

Cranked the tunes – even found a sound track !

Finally completed a prayer flag for a dear friend who is healing from surgery…

I guess it is never too late to send some love, right ?

Finished a Mail Sketch project that should have been passed on long ago…

Like months…

I am hoping that the extra effort I put in to jazz up the envelope

as well an added little giftie inside will help me be forgiven for my procrastination.

If not, that is okay too.

Time to let it go…

 

I have said for many many years that having a paint brush in my hand is the cheapest and most effective therapy there is for me.    

Using my creativity, losing myself in my art, finding ways to put my heart out into the world through what I create…

 

That is one way I know that I can always BE OK.

For me, Art is LOVE,

and

we all know, Beautiful Ones, that

Happy Tuesday !

(This post was inspired by the beautiful visually rich post on Alisa Burke’s blog yesterday. She is an awesome artist that inspires me in so many ways ! Talk about your eye candy !)

Some Final Art Journal Pages...

So I have all this inspiration floating around in my head as a result of my trip to Mexico.

But at the same time, I have just a few pages to finish for my present journal to be complete.

Somehow, the Mexico inspired stuff doesn't belong.

So for the past two days, I have been playing away to finish my journey in this gorgeous document.

Today, I finished !!!

I just have the covers left to complete but every page is filled to my satisfaction !

Here are some of the final pages...

You may remember this two page spread that I shared on a Thankfulness Thursday recently...

The second page is now complete...

Love the girl with the far away eyes...

(The kids sing the Rolling Stones on Idol tonight...we shall see what they do with that...)

And the next page started with some ochre Paint Puddles that had been sitting idle for a long time.

Today, I added some ink, some more lovely Golden Fluid acrylics and some imagination.

The end result became

a Prince and a Golden Goose.

(click on any of the images to enlarge)

I used some beautiful Lumiere Gold paint on the hair and body of the goose that unfortunately doesn't show in the photo very well.

Beware the Golden Goose ! ;)

And yesterday, in the pouring, pouring rain, these two fishes swam onto the very last page of the journal...

reminding me of my friend Corrine, amongst a few things...

Love the Tarot card book quote I included -

"Troubles are more imaginary than real."

So true...

And this page was one that I actually had started was back last September, at Squam,

in my friend and teacher, Judy Wise's class.

Yesterday I added a Prayer Pocket to it.

Been saying a lot of extra prayers for some good friends these days,

and Judy is one of them, as she faces some challenges with the grace and the life-loving force

that she is so full of...

Glued the pocket on...

Cut some prayer strips, wrote down my prayers, said them out loud to the universe

and placed them in the pocket for safe keeping ...

I will be working on the covers on my completed journal tomorrow as well as a slide show of some of the glorious stuff that I have created in there !

It blows me away that all of that art comes from me...

More from the Happy Artist Queen tomorrow or Thursday, Lovely Ones !