The meaning a photo can have

How fast they grow.  In one hand as I take her tiny, precious feet, the other I am holding a Pentex K1000 camera with Kodak black and white film.  I would not see this image until weeks later.  So tiny, so precious... you can even see the little fuzzies between her toes, from the socks she was wearing.
I'm glad I took that photo.  What's even better is, I am glad I had it printed.  Today with the awesomeness of the digital world our devices are filled with our well documented lives, but lose a device and those memories can go with it.  Sometimes we are so inundated with visual images of our everyday lives, that reflecting for a simply a moment  rarely happens. We simply don't take the time to feel the power of what one photo can have on us.  To really let it sink in and savor its gift.

So today in the midst of everything I've got going on, I am revisiting this image.  You see this baby girl in the image is graduating high school next week and off to college in the Fall.  Her presence in my life has grounded me and introduced to me the true meaning of Unconditional Love.  Not only am I grateful to have had her as a daughter, I am so grateful I was present for the journey. Now have the ability and gift to share it with others I am starting to do so.

My challenge to you is get some of those awesome digital moments out of your devices and line your hallways with them or hang them in your bedrooms or put in a frame side table.  Don't forget to write the name and date on the back so that you have something tangible that can be passed down to others. Every now and again I pause in my hallway and look at the candid moments that make up a lifetime.

Because sometimes what may seem like only a short time ago, can be closing on 18 years ago.

Every photo has a story...

Behind every photo is a story.  What one sees within the frame of the photo and the  interpretation or impression the viewer can have when viewing just the photo, can often times be totally different of what went on behind the lens or leading up to that moment captured in time.  I have many stories to tell and my images are just the iceberg of this incredible life I have lead and continue to lead.

This is a photo of my two daughter one late fall afternoon in the park.  It was taken in the days when I had them both in a co-op preschool, before my son was born and our house was full of crayons, homemade play dough, and everything looked better with glitter, even our poor cat, Cow.

I took this photo with one of my favorite cameras, the Mamiya 645 AF with Kodak 120 film.  It was on low aperture, due to the fading daylight with the focal point being on my eldest daughter on the left.  Because of the low aperture, 4.0 I think, is the reason that Kennedy in the background is slightly blurred.  ( Today if you set your DSLR on the image cartoon of the face, that will give you similar results of a blurred background.)  This setting would not work however, for group photo as its depth of field is narrow and all of the faces won't be in focus.

So here it is late afternoon nearing the time their father would be home and I have one image left on my roll of film when I say to my youngest, "Come and stand next to your sister, I've got one shot left."  At this she burst into tears, "I don't want to stand next to Ta-ta."  She was exhausted and tired from her long day.  That was it.  I took the shot, went over and hugged her telling her softly that she didn't need to cry, to, "use her words." and communicate to me what she needed and we walked home.  It wasn't until months later when it was developed did I see it for the treat it is, a moment in time not to be repeated.

It now is used in one of my greeting cards with a slightly different message that works all the same.
On its inside it says,
"Did I say that out loud"  I've used it as an apology card several times since then!

My latest show-n-tell...Safari Cedar Chest

I use to love show-n-tell as a kid, well truth is, I do as an adult too.  I like sharing what I love and listening to other's do the same.  I may not share their same passions, but I do try and take an interest especially when it means something to those I care about. We are all here to learn from one another and if you have a skill or talent and care to share, that's awesome.

I am in a phase in my life, a repurposed phase.  Having had the identity of a stay at home mother now for 18 years and my oldest is getting ready to graduate high school there seems to be this brewing feeling of , "Now it's my turn."  Not that I am no longer going to stay home with the two still here at the house.  I'm still engaged and involved, but now that my youngest is 10, I can carve more chunks of doing what it is I need to do, as Michelle.  

Finding something discarded, beat up, or unwanted "treasures" and giving it new life is bringing about a great sense of accomplishment.  Whats an even added bonus is that others are liking what I am putting out there!  So I am keeping things out of the landfill and creating beauty.  

This next piece I actually finished within this last hour and I absolutely love it.  It was a beat up cedar chest that I found at my favorite thrift store about six months ago.  It was a diamond in the rough.  The outside was dated and had a few scratches, but the inside was lined with this beautiful cedar.   I don't do furniture pieces that often and frankly love to keep let my very talented friend Michele Rivard at Knot Too Shabby do her magic with them instead of me, but every now and again a piece will speak to me that it needs my attention as well.  This was one of those pieces.

I started it by using the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the shade of Coco that I bought at Knot Too Shabby www.knottooshabbyfurnishings.com. I painted and distressed it and covered it with the Annie Sloan Soft Wax and then used bits of the Annie Sloan Dark Wax to make the color richer and have more depth.

For the lid of the piece I cut on the table saw three pieces of fence boards and nailed them on top.  I painted them with a primer and paint combination for the transfer process and then adhered the transfer on top. After the transfer was completely removed of all its paper I used a wood stain for the rich sepia color I like my photos to have and then sealed it with a Varnish for a finished look.

The photograph was taken on safari in Samburu National Park in Kenya.  I absolutely love giraffes and their diet consists of the needles of the Acacia trees.  This is one the many photographs I took on that trip.

Here are the pictures of my latest piece... I hope you like it!  I'm debating whether or not to sell it or keep it!

Here's the view from the top

May you thrive in all of your creative adventures!

Hummingbird Moments...

It seems since last summer I have been profoundly aware of hummingbirds. It started the day I was to finish my first large image transfer on a shipping pallet. As I was finishing it under our huge oak tree in our side yard last July, I thought of my grandmother. She had been a creative touchstone throughout my entire life and I miss her greatly, since her passing several years ago. Since I started carving more time creatively this past year, however its almost as if I feel her smiling. She too was a lover of small birds and her yard was full of them.

It was on this summer afternoon, in the heat of a Southern California July when I thought if my grandmother could come back and visit, I bet it would be through a bird as the local peacocks were starting to caw. Realizing it was now approaching 5 p.m. I set out to the other side of the yard to water some of the trees and bushes where our automatic sprinklers didn't reach and were quite parched. As I was watering our Azalea shrub something caught my eye and I happened to look down. To my utter surprise there on the walking path was a little hummingbird. It was not fully grown for its beak was shorter than all the hummingbirds I had seen before.

I bent down and picked her up, she was alive... but wet. Apparently I had accidentally squirted her with water. So there we were, this tiny, innocent, beautiful bird and I her sitting on my front steps of my home. I so badly wanted to take her photo or share this moment instantly with anyone, but I was the only one home and didn't want to scare her by bringing her inside for me to fetch my camera. In those minutes it was as if the world had paused. There we sat in the sun, with my palm open and her just looking at me.  Pure joy.  After a few moments I walked over to where I had found her and she flew off into the trees above. It was and is one of the most precious moments in my entire my life.

Then later that summer I found a nest at the beach house we were staying at with two tiny eggs in it! I photographed it and made a sign so that no one would disturb it. (She had built her nest on some ivy  next to a driveway where it could easily be knocked over.) Inspired by these two experiences I  did this large image transfer, of one of the photos I took of her nest.  It is on half of a door that my neighbor was going to throw away.

In the hole where the doorknob went I built a nest and placed a small,
 decorative hummingbird that I had bought at a garage sale a few months prior.

Here's a closeup of it.

Then a few weeks ago just outside my kitchen window, on top of the wind chime we had brought back from Maui several years ago, was a little tiny nest.  The next day while out in the yard prepping and cleaning some fence boards I saw her, the mom was sitting on her nest. I began to say hello to her as I would enter or leave from the kitchen door. I was on hummingbird watch and took a few distant photos of her while she sat on it. Because it was under an overhang the vantage point was difficult for detail shots. Then one day last week I saw her feeding them, they had hatched! While I was sitting at my kitchen table talking with a client! I felt as if God had given me a gift to witness such a thing.

Later that day when she was out doing whatever it is that hummingbirds do, I took several photos of these precious little newborn birds. It was rather comical scene as it entailed me to basically take off the screen of the window, balance on a ladder in my kitchen, hanging outside the window and putting my camera above the nest, which was above my head! I knew I couldn't touch the nest or anything near it, for fear that my scent would cause her to leave them. So awkwardly I aimed as best I could above the nest and started clicking away. I took several photos in the hopes of one would actually be focussed and in the frame. This is what I got...

Amazing aren't they?

It is with great sadness that I came home yesterday to an empty nest. Part of my wind chime had been broken off and I knew they were gone. It broke my heart and my husband tried to sooth me by saying that maybe the mother had moved them.  I knew that wasn't the case, I just felt it.

Sometimes I struggle with the laws of nature and that the strongest prevail. I don't understand why somethings happen as they do.  But I am learning to find the gifts in what life teaches me.

I am grateful for my hummingbird moments, which they will, from here out, be referred to... Hummingbird Moments. These are the precious moments that we must stop ourselves and be exactly where we are. Life happens while we are making plans, that doesn't mean we stop planning. These sweet little birds reminded me to soak in the moments as they come. True joy is in the details.  It can be fleeting however, but the gift is the ability to see and recognize them AS they unfold in our lives.  For this I am grateful.  God bless you.

Craftification...

Seriously it feels like an anniversary for me.  In November of 2011 I was searching for a craft show, one that I liked, one that maybe I would want to be apart of in the future.  I went to a couple of Holiday craft shows the one at our daughters school, but the handmade part seems to be missing in most of them.  The baked goods seemed to still be there in full but as for the craft part...not so much unless you mean in factory in China.
Not giving up I continued to put my feelers out until I found an advertisement of a Patchwork show in Culver City.  There was something about the graphics and the description that inspired me not only to go but to invite two of my friends to join me.  It was there that I not only loved the show, but bought from a number of the vendors as well, one of which happened to be Nicole Stevenson.  (I now have her tea towels as a staple in my kitchen, my children know her graphics well without even realizing it. )
As fate would have it, it would be Nicole that I would gush to about how much I loved that particular fair and found out she was one of the people that put it together.  She encouraged me to sign up for her newsletters and that is how I came to the first annual Craftification http://www.craftcationconference.com seminar last March.

Fast forward a year and here I am again.  Only this time I have business cards, a vision of my direction and a number of successes under my belt directly related to the advice and inspiration I got from that very first conference.

So as I sit here letting my hair dry before I go to the kick off barbecue, I thought I would check in.  Here is a photo of Nicole, earlier this morning having had her printer go on the fritz, typing by hand a person's badge.  Who else but a master crafter would have an old school typewriter handy for such an emergency?  So thank you Nicole and Delilah and your awesome teamsters for another great convention.  If I only had today I still would have walked away enriched by what I have learned here with a few more tools in my arsenal!

Embrace imperfection...

A while ago I made a canvas with that saying on it.  I was playing around with font and in my collage phase (not to say I won't return back to that!) and looking at my world around me, the phrase "Embrace Imperfection" become increasingly important to me.  As I began to connect with my creativity again I began to rediscover my strengths artistically and explore other mediums fearlessly giving myself room to color outside the lines.

Looking back on my life I use to think I needed to be as close to perfection as possible.  Falling short, which I always did, led me to feeling badly about myself and whatever I was trying to accomplish.  With that perfectionist's mind set, I was never really satisfied with whatever I created or attempted to do.  Gratitude seemed only a word in the dictionary.

Thank goodness that there was another driving source programed within me. The one that simply said "What the Heck..." and pushed me to attempt to do things regardless of whether or not they would be done perfectly.  Like an inner coach telling me to push through. To knowingly try something new and not be afraid to stumble or fall flat on my face, this was a new freedom for me.  I no longer had to enter into something and try to be the best at it before even starting it.  I could learn as I go, make mistakes and still call myself myself a success because at least I had tried.  In fact its one of the things I have told my children their whole lives, "Its OK to make mistakes as long as you learn from them." My life's adventures, having listened to this instinct more and and not the voice of fear, has shaped my life into what it is today.  Where gratitude is evident in all that I do.

By Embracing Imperfection I get to validate my life as it is.  I can set goals for myself or have a dream I want to accomplish ,but I also need to take a look around and any given moment and love the journey as it unfolds.

Back at the Ranch...
(just kidding that's from one of my childhood shows I use to watch Bonanza if you didn't get the TV reference.)

Yesterday I got a call about some wood on the side of the road.  I love that my friends are sending me these messages and letting me know.  I call them my eyes on the street.  Anyway, someone had replaced their fence and their old fence boards were tied up for the trash truck.  Within ten minutes of getting the phone call I unloaded the back of my Suburban and headed out.  Sure enough, there it was.  I didn't take all of the wood, as I could see why they had replaced their fence with all of its termite damage, but some pieces were still really good.  I now carry work gloves in my car so putting them on I began to carefully put them in the back of my car.  How funny I get when I get those calls, giddy and worried someone else will see it before I get there.
Jokingly Michele said not to worry "No one will take it, it will still be there." After I got home I was just delighted by new haul!! I unloaded it and put it out ready for the next phase of removing the nails.  After the nails are all removed I wash the boards down with water and a scrub brush and let them dry in the CA sun.  I recently started putting a coat of Orange oil over them as an extra termite deterrent in case any of the critters decided to stick it out after all the chaos of its home being dismantled.

I was also able to get on the table saw yesterday and cut up some other fence boards that were already dried, prepped and measured for cutting.  Every now and again I stop and look at a pieces texture and am reminded of not only of my Embrace Imperfection slogan, but something I learned in Photography many years ago.  One of our assignments was to photograph Texture.  What would look good in black in white was the texture of trees and tree bark for these assignments.  Fast forward a lifetime and I am still drawn to the texture of knots in wood and see them as beautiful.

So today my friends validate where you ARE on this journey.  See how far you've come and while striving for a better tomorrow by setting those healthy mental, spiritual, and physical goals... Embrace Imperfection.  For beauty and happiness is there too.

A trip down memory lane...

So today I am in my new studio, it's not quite finished yet, but its functional and I am in my happy place.  My challenge seems to be to organize all of my creative bits and "stations" into one space with a flow of efficiency.  Some things have been recycled or tossed due to relevance and others are visible for me to get around to sorting and finding a home for them.

This morning however, I started cleaning out my computer.  I was looking at what files are redundant and saved in more formats than I possibly need and erasing them.  What I forgot however, is this for me is dangerous ground for me.  Its much like being in high school  trying to grapple something like Math near a window with a view, a recipe for distraction.  Or even going through old letters and notes... Without realizing it an hour or two have gone by and I have been lost in my imagination, remember when, what I wanted to do with that image or what poem had meaning for me and why, etc. etc.  Much like Pinterest can be if you are supposed to be tackling business emails and get the email that someone is following your board!

So in order to be somewhat productive I wanted to share this blast from the past. This is a photo of what 8 years ago seemed to capture just how closely I needed to watch my son.  You see having two daughters before him prepared me for motherhood with the boo-boos, feelings, fevers and an iron stomach. I learned when to take naps so as not to be a crabby ol-bat with fatigue and how to entertain with crafts and endless trips to the park.  It did not however, prepare me for the adventures of a boy.

Suddenly I heard fire engines and helicopters and saw every bulldozer and crane on the side of the road and pointed them out.  I made car screeching noises when I turned corners and gave up thinking I could give any of his jeans or shoes to Goodwill, as the knees and toes looked like they simply blew up or the Hulk had borrowed them!  He had no fear of climbing and could not just watch my girls play softball in the stands anymore, I missed a lot of their games chasing this little guy.  He even climbed so far up the back stop one game thank goodness a very tall man was there to retrieve them as I could even reach his feet.  I could have sworn I only blinked and he was up there so high!

So one afternoon I gave him his snack while we were outside with my instructions ... find a place to sit and eat your snack.  I turned around and this is what I found!

He's almost ten now and while the rest of our house is filled with teenage girlhood and "Mom your embarrassing me." he still leans over and tells me he loves me and wants me to tuck him in at night.  I still make boy noises and every now and again I let out a huge belch around him because it really makes him laugh.  As scared as I was to find out I was having a boy, what an absolute joy it is!