A Girl Can Dream in Green and Blue

I like to clip pictures from magazines and sales papers of home decor that I love. The reason I like to do this is primarily because I have bought expensive items in the past that I soon regretted purchasing when I remembered something that I had seen in the past that I initially wished to purchase. Yet, I have been stuck with those expensive purchases for years! So now, I have a folder of odds and ends that I review from time to time when I am planning to purchase something just to make sure that I have not 'shopped' that item already.

This year, I am planning to buy zero items...none, zilch, nada but I can still 'shop' for my folder. I do have plans but just not for purchasing. I have plans to declutter, rid, scrub and throw out. The older I get, the less I want and the less I need. I wish to live in fairly sparse surroundings. Clutter seems to impair my creative process. I need all of the creative forces I can muster this year. This year I am all about shifting gears, moving on and making progress.

I love my house. It is an English Tudor. I love the outside of it. English Tudor is beautiful. However, it is not my style anymore. It was my style once. I love many styles but only one is my style. My style is contemporary now. I should live in a loft. Maybe someday I will. Maybe I will not. Only time will tell. I have considered modernizing my inside decor to look 'loft-like' but it is not suitable to this house. I feel the inside of a house should reflect what the outside decor is. An English Tudor should look, well, English inside if not Tudoresque then perhaps cottagey...not loft-like. Those are my thoughts anyway. I do have plans to eventually sell this house. At that time, I am not sure what I will do. I will not stay here. I will definitely move to another city, very possibly another state and eventually, perhaps another country. Again, only time will tell. However, as long as I have these kittens, well, I will most likely be in this country. I cannot give my kittens up for any ambitions. Love runs too deeply. I will reconcile myself to visiting other places I love.

Until then, a girl can dream. I will maintain my folder of scrap magazine pages, sales papers, paint swatches and fabric swatches. I will peruse it from time to time to see if my tastes have changed. I will find new pictures to add to it. I will use some of the pictures to make pieces like this one. I think this is a wonderful use for this type material. I happen to know a beautiful girl that has the purple leather sofa, green and yellow chairs shown here and I LOVE it.  I learned some things about my tastes while putting this together. I notice there is a lot of GREEN here. More green is coming into my world and more BLUE is leaving my world. I notice other things while looking through the folder. I seem to love birds particularly owls.  Funny how we change over time, isn't it? Have you ever noticed how much your hand writing has changed through out the years? That is a side effect of growing. That would make an interesting post. I will save it for another day.

The Power of Words

There is power in words. The world was formed by the spoken word. I created a tree here with words.  Can you create reality with words? I think you can.

History

Do you like history? I love it. When I was younger, I did not have a proper appreciation or respect for history. There are many facets to history. One facet is that there is so much to learn about the present from the past. That is just one facet. The facet that I appreciate the most is the fact that I do not want to ever lose sight of those that paid valuable prices in the past in order to learn or in order to forge ahead and make the world a better place for all of us to live. We are only interlopers here. We are born. We stay awhile, some longer than others but the minute you are born, you are destined to die to this world. We can honor past interlopers of the ages by remembering them. I do not know this is her but I am pretending this statue is a depiction of Queen Boudica. Some say she was the original Queen of England. Most of what we know about her is from historical writings of the Romans. Odd, isn't it that what we know of her was recorded by her enemies? There are many oddities and paradoxes in this world. However, the one thing I am convinced of is that there is no such thing as a coincidence. The Romans recorded that Boudica had long red hair and wore colorful capes. That is what I tried to capture here.

Help! I am Trapped!

This is me today. I had the most abitious plans for the day. I was to attend a class beginning at 11:30. I had been looking forward to this class for over a month because I was going to gain some important insite into something that had been very much on my mind lately. Then, later tonight, I was to have been the receptionist at a ladies' dinner. In other words, I HAD PLANS! Long story short, the day had other plans. Has that ever happened to you? I went out to get into my car and the garage door would not go up. Well, you can always go manual, right? Wrongo! You cannot go manual when the BIG spring has snapped. What that means is you are trapped like a rat until the BIG spring is replaced. There is a man out in my garage at this very moment replacing the BIG spring. However, by the time he gets the door working, I will be so far behind that it will have ruined my schedule for the day. C'est la vie, right? I am making this art piece and that is fun! Eventually, I will make it to work but I will be playing catch up and will miss the ladies' dinner party. But as I always said, all's well that ends well. Or maybe it was not me that said that. Maybe it was someone else. Still, it is a truism.

Longing For Spring

The days have been warm here recently. I have been spoiled to seeing robins in the yard and hearing the birds singing in the early mornings. Tomorrow, it is supposed to get cold again. The next day, it may possibly snow. I will long for those false spring days to return when the mercury dips downward again. However, spring will be here soon enough, therefore, I will not long for it for long. Instead, I will enjoy the winter again while we still have it.

Look What I Cooked Up

I asked Lisa what her favorite meal was and she said her favorite meal was the one she was eating at the time. However, she went on to say that she would like some fresh veggies. Well, here it is! I did the best I could! I think I need to add some butter and dessert on here. What do you think?

Only A Mother Could Love Him

"Let's get busy" must have been what Nigel said today. I have had some little porcelain birds that I sit around the house in various locations just to bring cheer. Today, I think he must have used each one of them as a hockey puck. I found them scattered all over the house, headless, wingless,  or legless. How do I know he did it? As soon as I walked in, he ran over to one of the beheaded and looked up at me sort of glowing as if to say "Look Mom, I killed a bird." When I was WAY younger, I would have cared and I would have probably been upset about it. Now, that I am older I realize these are just things. The most important things in this house have beating hearts. He may have a dark heart or he may simply have a mischievious heart but standing over that beheaded bird, he looked like one of Raphael's angels to me.

Let's Dance...Again!

Okay, so I made that piece on Friday night about Let's Go To a Hoedown. As I was working on that piece, I was glancing back and forth between my piece and the televised 'Hope for Haiti' broadcast. Somehow my thoughts were mingling yet I was unaware of the unholy marriage taking place between my art piece and the television. I remember glancing up at the Hollywood types taking phone calls thinking "There is Mel Gibson...haven't seen him in awhile...he must be trying to come back out after his latest mess ups." Seemingly, that was about all I thought about Mel. I did have thoughts similar to those about some of the other call takers. I remember thinking about Ringo Starr making note that I think Ringo is a tremendously nice guy. I thought Julia Roberts seemed to be uneasy making small talk. Now, all of this thinking was going on while I made my art piece depicting a hoedown. Okay, fast forward to Saturday night. Saturday night, I had a dream and it was a doozey. I hope the dream state is artfully depicted in my above creation. In the dream, I was in one of those colorful pink and purple getups shown on the girls in the hoedown picture below. I was dancing around a dance floor doing the Virginia Reel throwing caution to the wind. Just when I was do-si-doing up a storm, my dance partner changes. Holy cow, I am dancing with  Mel Gibson! I am having the same thoughts about him that I was having Friday night like "Mel is showing his age", etc. Then, lo and behold, I look down at my legs and notice that I have not shaved my legs in what must be years! My legs are covered in hair three inches long. I think "Gee, I hope Mel does not notice my deplorable hygiene." I mean who wants even Mel with his sullied reputation going back to Hollywood telling everyone he danced with a woman with the legs of a gorilla? Therefore, I immediately threw some restraint on my style like a bucket of ice cold water. I tried to "swing my parter" in a much less flamboyant fashion so as not to attract extra attention to my hairy gams.  But alas, Mel noticed. As I reeled away, the last glimpse I had of Mel was of his wide eyed shock and disbelief at having danced with Bigfoot. Moral to the story: I dance with Mel Gibson yet he ends up being the one shocked. And that is my story folks. I hope you enjoyed it.

One Thing or Another

Have you ever only talked to someone on the phone never having met them in person before so you develop a mental picture of them? Then, you meet them and they are not a thing like your mental picture. Often, it is not better or worse, it is just different.

Let's Go To a Hoedown!

I am so tired today that this was quite a remarkable achievement for me to churn out this digi. I have been thinking about a happy cat dance all day. Today, was my first day on a new job. First days are so hard. This one was especially hard because I had so much walking to do. Of course, there is always a lot of meeting new people, learning new routines, setups, what-have-you but when you compound it with all of the walking...well, I am tired. I am doing this piece early though because I have to wake up early in the morning and do it all over again (the job that is...not the digi piece). WooHoo! No late nights for me this night. This may be a cat hoedown but my dogs are barking.

Daisy

Lisa suggested a blogsite for me to visit which I did and came away with this picture. The kitten in this picture looks just like our Daisy, a little white kitty we had years ago. Daisy was mother to my Russell Lee and Blaine. Daisy was a precious girl. She loved my niece, Andrea. She would bound behind her on her little short legs where ever Andrea went just like Mary's Little Lamb. One day, Andrea and a friend were building a makeshift tent in the backyard. They became so frustrated because Daisy kept tearing their tent down but she only wanted to play. She was determined to make a place for herself and she did...in all of our

hearts.

Sweet Little Lady

I took a cue from Lisa. This is my digiscrapbook page. I am still learning. I cannot believe the fun I am having with it.

The 70's

I miss the 70's. I think back on that time period a lot. Everything seemed much simpler then but maybe I was just simpler.

Peacock in the Fog

I saw something yesterday that was very beautiful. When I first awoke very early just at dawn, I looked out my back window. It was extremely foggy. I saw a peacock in my yard walking around in the fog. The peacock was not unusual. He is a neighbor's pet. However, his appearance in the fog was very beautiful. He felt safe in the fog. No cats were stalking him. That is another attribute of my neighborhood. My neighborhood is somewhat of a safe haven for cats. We are doing our best to control the population by neutering and spaying. The population will take care of itself and dwindle to what the neighborhood will naturally support. Long story short, there is a LOT of wildlife here. As a result, sometimes you might see something that looks like this.

Kitty Heaven

Sometimes I really miss some of my kitties that have crossed over to the other side. Often, I imagine a wonderful place where they play and are forever healthy and happy. In my mind's eye, it is much prettier than this. Someday, my photoshop skills will be so much improved that perhaps I can depict it just as I see it. Until then, this is one of my babies in Kitty Heaven.

Angel Art

Do you believe in angels? I do. I had not tried my newly found love for digital art out on an angelic theme yet. Tonight, I just felt like working with an angel. This is the result. I can rarely resist putting some form of nature in either.

Art Deco Play

I love art deco design. I love to look at architecture from that period. Chicago has many buildings from that time. Obviously, New York does too as the empire state building and chrysler building were built in that time period. I love art deco designed jewelry. I think houses in the art deco decor are fabulous. Do I wish to live in one? No. It would seem too cold for my tastes but I can still admire its beauty, right? I am odd like that or maybe I am not. Maybe everyone feels this way but I like the 'idea' of many things. Do I want them all for myself? Not so much. My own decor tastes are more contemporary to traditional. I do love the idea of living in a city loft with concrete floors and pipes running across the ceiling. That just suits my tastes right down to the ground. In this little piece, I was learning and practicing some photoshop functions while thinking of how much I like deco while not for me but for someone else like this lady. This is the result. It is not my best but I learned a lot. I put a gothic chair among the other deco items. Why? I just liked it that way.

Memory of Bygone Days

Do you ever wonder if memories are more than what exists in our minds? Is a part of what we have lived before still existing somewhere? Will people someday be able to reconstruct it and view it like a movie? If so, what they see might look something like this...but then, maybe not.

Eerie or NOT!

Years ago, I heard a ghost story about a family that lived in a haunted house. At night when they would retire upstairs, they would hear cabinet doors closing and opening downstairs in the kitchen.
This is not a ghost story but I have the same issue. At night, I hear all kind of crashing and banging in the kitchen of cabinet doors. I am not suprised by it nor am I frightened by it. I am annoyed by it. The only mystery in my mind is why did it take him so long to figure out to patrol the cabinets. He meaning Nigel. Come this weekend, those cabinets will be child-proofed or more pertinently, they will be kitten-proofed.

Lady Outside the Gates

This lady is visiting the Garden District of New Orleans. Although you cannot discern it from this perspective, she is viewing plantation homes through the antique ironwork so prevalent in the District. New Orleans is not her home. I wonder where home is for her. I have some thoughts. What do you think? I have a feeling she will show up here at Nigel's Mom again next time depicted at her own house.

Star Gazing Friends

I still have not tapped out my artistic fount. In this depiction, two friends are gazing up at the stars which is one of their favorite pursuits. Unseen by their star gazing eyes, a fairy godmother is sending some good fortune their way. Maybe she is casting a magic spell on their eyes causing the stars to appear brighter and clearer this night. Whatever her intentions, this night is a beautiful night to be enjoyed by these forever friends. They will laugh while recalling fond memories as they study the stars all the while making a new memory to be recalled on some other distant night.

I Found A Bird!

You have probably heard the adage "one door closes, a window opens". Well, someone looses a bird and another person finds a bird. The bride's bird is missing. (see below) A little girl finds a bird. Is it the missing bird? Or is it the universe just trying to rebalance itself as it always does? There will be balance. Mother Nature cannot be thwarted.

Say Goodbye To Paris

Words are my art. However, I am very much enjoying these little vignettes I have been creating. What I really love is to create a little story around the art piece. This lady is saying goodbye to Paris. It is time for her to leave. She wistfully looks back at the Eiffel Tower. Maybe someday, she will return. This lady could have been me in another time.

Has Anyone Seen My Bird?

I do not know what has gotten into me lately but I have been an art making banshee. That is not all that is odd about me. I have been cleaning house like a whirling dervish. It is so great not to have to work and go to school. I ask for it though. I mean it is not like anyone makes me do it. I really only have limited resources to expend and when I expend them on one thing, something else goes lacking. I do not know what this art piece is about except this bride has lost her bird. I hope it is not an omen of things to come. Maybe the bird simply needed its freedom. What do you think?

Your Happy Place

Do you have a happy place? I do. I love to retreat to my happy place.