Haiku My Heart– Living Up

 

Down ? You can choose up.

Choose to look, go, see, BE up.

Living up is grand.

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As you know, the monsters where hanging out this week.

I was being pulled into their mire.

But something wonderful helped me pull myself out of the muck.

From the depths of the muck to the top of a mountain, in fact.

I chose to be present, look for beauty, revel in friendship…

In short, I chose up.

And the view from there is grand.

 

Photos from the 78th Annual Craftmen’s Fair at the Mount Sunapee Resort, Newbury NH.

My lovely friend, Susie Riley and I took the chairlift to the mountain top.

A failed panorama shot but you get the idea – gorgeous !

Rock and driftwood sculptures from artist Mark Ragonese

He actually had rocks piled there on the grass available for people to build their own totems.

This one against the glorious sky made me feel UP.

Imagine this  beautiful “Isis” in your garden?

The piece won best sculpture in the show.

We saw hundreds of gorgeous pieces of art ! So inspiring.

The Rock Fairy had to have her own souvenir, from a kindred spirit, NH artist, Lee Spiller,

who creates amazing vessels out of rocks found by the sea.

This little rock with a hole in it can home with me.

Monsters are at bay.

I think they will stay that way.

I am so grateful for today, anyway !

Kimbo wants to play.

Have a great weekend, Beautiful Ones !

Big Love !

more haiku love at recuerda mi corazon

What Do You Need ?

So anyone who reads this blog know that I tend to try really hard to focus on what is good.

Some people may even feel like I am a bit of a “Kimmy Sunshine”.

(I hate being called Kimmy, by the way, except by my mom and my nieces and nephews!)

But like for so many of us is this fucked up world…

Some days, the monsters come out to play.

Sometimes, they hang for a few hours, sometimes a whole day,

and sometimes,

those monsters just linger around like the smell of a really bad fart.

Now, in my tool box of monster repellant, I have some wonderful things.

Art, meditation, time with friends, walks in nature, my camera, hugs from my Hubby,

thoughts of kiddos and peeps I love, Rock Fairy action, this blog, chocolate, etc…

But some days,

none of those sweet, often miraculous, tools seem to work.

So I have come to the conclusion that while having to put up with those stinky, depressing,

lethargic, hard to shake monsters basically sucks the big one,

those monsters are trying to tell me something.

Accept or change.

Pain=change.

Something has to give so that the monsters will move on (at least for a good long while !),

and so that the light, love and goodness can come back into balance.

When I told my mom/guru how crappy I was feeling today,

after trying to console me like moms do,

and giving me some sage advice like gurus do,

she asked me a question that made me stop in my tracks :

What do I need ????

Yes,

Do you know, I couldn’t think of anything right away ?

Spending time with the monsters tends to leave me feeling unworthy of anything much.

But thanks to my mom/guru and my own inner strength and light, I think there just may be a new brilliant tool in the monster repellant toolbox today.

Let’s focus on this whenever we can today, Kimbo.

What do you need ?

When any little thing pops into your mind, give it to yourself !

Don’t think too much.

For Heaven’s sake, do not ask the monsters their opinion.

Just do it.

Shake those monsters off by changing something, by offering yourself what you need.

Okay, stinky, icky, mean ones, it is time for you to move on…

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I hope you find ways to give yourself what you need today, Beautiful Ones !

Remember, you so deserve that !

Big Love !

How Does Your Journal Garden Grow ?

I sometimes get asked to share how my art journal pages are created.

Because I believe that there are no rules in art journaling, and my creative time is like play for me,  it is sometimes hard for me to pin the process down and explain it.

But I have been noticing lately, that I do kind of have a “process” in my recent pages, and I thought I would share it today.

Here we go…

Create a back ground on a blank journal page.

Smear some blue paint (True Blue craft store acrylic) around with a brush.

Use a circle stencil and a make-up sponge with the Ultra Marine craft paint and stencil random circles.

Fill in the background with Twinkling H20 in Stargazer and a big brush with lots of water.

Spritz some Shimmerz inks in Pewter, Sapphire, and Mama Sings the Blues on the page too.

Use a little star stamp here and there with white paint.

Add dots with the bottom end of a paint brush dunked in silver, bronze and white paint.

Scribble lightly with a graphite pencil to mess things up a little.

Check out “finished” background.

Looking very night sky, isn’t it ? Well, it is to me.

Need a figure looking up at the sky, don’t you think ? Yep.

Grab a page from the old French dictionary.

Draw the figure in pencil.

Outline in black Pitt artist pens with India ink.

Cut her out and glue her down onto your painted background with a good glue stick.

What is she holding up ?

A rock ?

A heart ?

A seed ?

Oh, liking that…

Paint the girl, using Inktense watercolor pencils, and Twinkling H20’s. Do some shading, think about where the light source would be…

Add in some white details  with a Sakura gel pen.

A seed, eh ?

Let’s add that in – oh, it is a little green sprout of a seed…

Go to the computer and Google “seed” poetry and/or quotes and see what comes up…

Oh, this wonderful poem “Seed”,  by Raine, that speaks of the seed of life, the Earth, and Eternity…

Perfect…

Print it out on photocopy paper in one of my favorite fonts (Artistamp). Cut it up a little and glue it down.

Add a title with letter stencil, make-up sponge and some black paint.

Add a little vine action around the title with a light green gel pen.

Take a little Cobalt Teal Golden Fluid acrylic with lots of water and do a bit of a wash over some of the blue to make it softer somehow…

Add some journaling with the superfine black Pitt Pen around the outer edge of the page,

talking about how to nurture your own seeds better…

Add the date and the page feels complete.

How about adding a song to go along with this page ?

Yes. I know the one.

It was written in the 80’s but has a message that still needs to be heard today.

Maybe even especially today.

Plus the video is kick-ass !

That how this page grew.

This is how many of my journal pages grow.

A background, an inspiration point, some play with images and colors and words…

It is different every single time though.

And that is why I love art journaling.

Happy Monday, Beautiful Ones.

I hope your seeds get lots of nurturing today !

Big Love !

Haiku My Heart–Dance Your Way…

I wear my armor.

Shine. I am brave. Be Your Self.

Warrior of Love.

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So if  “Life is short.”

And “Time is going so quickly.”

And I know that “Happiness is a choice.”

And “In this moment, all is well.”

My plan for the day is to “Dance.”

 

Want to put on your boogie shoes and join me ?

 

Happy Friday, Beautiful Ones !!!

(more haiku my heart at recuerda mi corazon)

Share the Joy Thursday–Seek and You Shall Find

Some joys…

Kooky Cats on the computer desk…

Lingering memories and feelings from spending time with those I love so much

in a place that has brought me incredible joy over the years.

Really truly loving my art work.

Feeling like the Artist Soul in me is emerging into my pieces lately.

And finding ways to share it…

(look for some new stuff, including this card in the etsy shop soon)

I am well and truly blessed to realize that my life right now is full of sweet and quiet joy.

Everyday.

Even in the midst of this sometimes scary, sometimes painful,always speeding,

completely chaotic world

we have created.

If I put my own brakes on,

return my gaze, my focus and my heart to what is right in front of me,

the joy is there for me to revel in.

For that, my friends, I am grateful to the bottom of my Soul.

Go out and share some joy today, Beautiful Ones !

Our hostess with the mostest, Meri, and the rest of the gang is waiting for you.

Big Love !

It is good to hang upside down from trees !

 So yesterday, David and I had a adventure with an opossum. An opossum got stuck in our outdoor garbage can while going after chicken bones in there.

Not our opossum – this image of an opossum playing ‘possum courtesy of Google .

The thing about an opossum is that they play possum, or fake being dead when they get scared.

Did you know that it is an involuntary comatose-type state caused by extreme fear ?

Well, we learned this the hard way !

Instead of telling you the whole long and quite funny story, just know that it involved  a squealing wife calling her husband at work to tell him there was a dead something in the garbage can, 6 hours of the possum playing dead in said garbage can, as the wife was too scared and grossed out to do anything about it, and both of us realizing that the damn thing was still alive when  it ran from the garbage can straight into the bottom of the garbage bag that David was trying to dispose of the body with, while he was holding it !!!

We were both relieved that he was alive in the end, but finding out that he wasn’t dead scared the be-jesus out of us both !!

Having had this bizarre adventure (We live in a city. A small city yes, but a CITY none the less !), I just had to check on what the meaning of the opossum is in Native American Animal Medicine.

Here is some of what I found :

"I AM OPOSSUM. I bring this message from all of my kinfolk to all of you: IT'S GOOD TO HANG UPSIDE DOWN IN TREES! The world looks completely different from that perspective, and considering the way the world has been going, it might be advantageous for humans to turn things upside down a bit, shake them up as it were, and move in a different direction.
"Ah, I see that you had not suspected me of having a dry wit, but among my people, my sense of humor is legendary. Are you not aware that I am continuously grinning, especially when laying low - you call it playing 'possum'; rolling over; playing dead. These are merely diversions so that the predators of the world will not consider me of interest or a challenge. I suggest that you imitate my strategy when danger is upon you. I will help you attain long life, for the one who tries to forestall a fight, rather than battling his way through, will live longer - less stress - and of course, there is always the more accomplished opponent. Have a happy life. Viva l'opossum!” -Cie Simurro for Wisdom Magazine

So it looks like that opossum may have had some valuable information for me from the universe. My message seems to be that I should keep on looking at the world in my sometimes “different from the crowd” perspective, and keep myself safe from the predators of the world by having the ultimate trust that life will bring me where I need to go, without any major actions needed by me.

I appreciate this kind of confirmation that the choices I have been making lately to Be or hang out in my own life are the right ones. And knowing that the universe will bring me to where I need to go without that “battling through” way of thinking is also very comforting. It makes me feel like I am on the right track.

So little stinky possum, I am glad we all made it out of this experience relatively intact, and I am grateful that you bravely came to give me my message.

Now stay the F*** out of the garbage !!!

Happy Wednesday, Beautiful Ones !

Bye-bye, July !

When I lived in Montreal, I spent a lot of time at Lac Bibitte.

As a teacher, I had the summer off and usually spent about three or four weeks of the summer up there.

Now, being 7 or 8 hours away (depending on the crazy-ass Montreal traffic),

summer time spent up there is much rarer.

This weekend was short but oh so sweet at the Lake.

Precious cosmos in full bloom – planted this year by my sweet auntie Lise, in the same spot my dad used to plant them every summer.

The lake watcher on our lawn, again my Dad’s creation (see where I get my rock fairy genes ?).

He now sits hidden in long grass as cutting the lawn is prohibited in order to preserve the shore line. Things stay the same. Things change…

There are shadows of the past everywhere for me in this spot on the planet.

And yet, the present moment is so available when you focus there.

It was sweet to have my beautiful Mommy there with us this weekend, right where she belongs among some of my very favorite people on Earth.

And of course, this one…

She fills me ( and her Uncle Dave) bursting full of love, giggles and silly joy !

Family fills you up.

Even the loons know that !

(Mommy, Daddy and baby loon out for an afternoon fishing troll…)

As do hugs from this beautiful woman, my aunt/sister/mother/friend/cheerleader/role model of strength and womanhood, Lise. And her hubby of 40 years, my uncle Charlie.

Heck, we even had an abundance of puppy love at the Lake this weekend,

with Amber, Charlie and Lise’s dog at the top of the screen, Tonka, my cousin Matt’s ugly beautiful girl, and

my sweet Chica, angel dog who was in Yellow Lab heaven up there !

Ultimately, of course, it is all about the love..

love of place, love of family, love of this moment in time

that Love is the thing that keeps us filled up.

So I am saying good bye to July 2011.

It has been a treat of a month with so many wonderful moments.

And a very fine finale, indeed !

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Oh, and in the spirit of documenting the month of July, I wanted to share the pages I created in my sistah, Brandy’s Traveling Sketchbook this month.

I am really digging how these rocks of mine are coming to life…

And of course, my love for the ocean and the beach shines through…

I am a little late getting this one in the mail but Jennifer, the next sistah on the list, should have it in a day or two.

So bye, bye July.

Hello, August !

If you bring me even just a portion of the treats your predecessor did,

we should get along just fine !

Happy August, Beautiful Ones !