Saturday, June 20, 2009

One Lovely Blog Award

well, you know this is important! i never use capitals!! today, i was honored by jody of jody's unique soaps and given the "One Lovely Blog Award" for my blog. i'm very proud and pleased that jody was so generous and gracious, and i , in turn would love for you to visit her shop www.soapsrus.etsy.com . it's filled with fabulous, scented soaps ,and wonderful, fresh and natural creams and mineral mud bars. the fragrance descriptions are so delicious they sound good enough to eat! also go and visit her wonderful blog and charming shop!!
www.soapsrus.etsy.com www.handmadeuniqueness.blogspot.com

it is my pleasure to pass this award to the following blogs for giving me enjoyment and pleasure as i read and laugh and follow their exploits thru their words.
1http://naturalstar.blogspot.com
2.http://trudette.blogspot.com
3.http://darlingdazzlesbowtiq.blogspot.com
4.http://mysticwynd.blogspot.com
5. http://lillyshaystyle.blogspot.com
6.http://christiecottage.blogspot.com
7.http://designsbyjenai.blogspot.com
8.http://latherinluxury.blogspot.com
9.http://gotogreatpanes.com/blog
10.http://thespeckledpear.blogspot.com
11.http://etsystudios.blogspot.com
12. http://kunklebabystyle.blogspot.com
13.http://winniel.blogspot.com
14.http://benmehlblogs.blogspot.com
15.http://beesandtrees.blogspot.com

check out these great blogs and show some love by sharing them with the people you know. one of the best joys i've had is opening my etsy shop! yes. each sale is wonderful, but the best gift are the people i've met in this short time. join me on this wonderful adventure as we all get to know each other.

Friday, June 19, 2009

the emerald city

and so i drove into nyc this morning to reproduce ( i should say "to try and reproduce..explanation to follow) some of my original artwork. the drive in was relatively easy but as i was going all the way downtown to the tip of manhattan, into the "soho" district i had to take the holland tunnel . let me explain that i have sucessfully avoided tunneling under manhattan for all of my driving life. i'm ok on a bridge. i love playng chicken with taxis. BUT the idea of being in a tunnel under the hudson river with tons of water (polluted with toxic waste, sea slime and quite possibly the loch ness monster) fills me with a quivering, jaw numbing dread. paul ( my man) was with me. that made it easier. but the fact that i had almost killed us both seconds earlier, while neglecting to see an oncoming car, did not make me calmer as i entered the tunnel. i started to think about a really bad movie i had seen years ago with sylvester stallone, when he gets trapped in the lincoln/holland tunnel with the really cute sexy girl love interest, the really cute he could be my son little boy and the really fiesty old lady who dies of a heart attack..if i was in the movie who would i be? the really nervous artist with a fear of drowning in a tunnel?(i can't swim) ok, i tell myself, you could be the really sexy (it's my blog!) redhead with nerves of steel but an irrational fear of tunnels. i see daylight ahead..and we're....out!! ok, now i have to drive on the cobblestoned streets of lower manhattan..maybe the tunnel was better...

Friday, June 12, 2009

learning to fly

i don't think about how i see myself often..i mean i just "am". i like myself most days but if my hair is really big coz it's raining , or my makeup gets to "out there tranny" i'm not happy with myself..ya know , speaking of hair, i think i've spent my entire life trying to accept mine or at least get it to co-exist with me( i think of it as an entity in it's own right..it should even have it's own zip code..it's that huge) it's been raining here for two weeks..my hair is so massive that small animals have taken refuge from the weather..my hair is long and red and curly..sometimes it's shorter and frizzy..i'm like a human tressy doll..it goes up and down depending on the barometric pressure. i usually have two really great hair days a year..one in the fall, one in the spring, and i feel beautiful on those days. when i was a little girl, i just wanted a pony tail like all of my friends and my barbie doll , but my mother , who grew tired of the nightly screaming as she tried to comb my hair, always instructed the lady in her beauty parlor to give me a "poodle cut". i assure you that my lack of self esteem comes from those haircuts, as well as a fear of poodles. when i was a teenager , my hair made me look like like jimi hendrix and for some reason, men only found that mildly attractive. they wanted girls with long, straight hair, so i ironed mine (really! on an ironing board) and i coped with burns on my ears and smelling like i'd just put out a small brush fire. and now,the products that line my cabinet!!! they control frizz and increase shine and make it flatter and smoother and i can almost get my fingers thru it..almost...and surprisingly, after a lifetime of hating it and wishing it was different, surprise!! i love my hair..it's my identity, my armour , my signature..i'm "the lady with the red hair" or "ooo! i love your hair! is it natural?" and when i wonder what caused this transformation of thought..i'd like to say that i matured and finally accepted myself for who i am and it doesn't matter what you look like but we all know that 's a load of crap...it's because my man thinks my hair is amazing and that it's such a part of who i am and how i am that it thrills me..but most of all he thinks it's sexy and that makes me feel sexy and now we're back to the beginning.. .. i don't think about myself most days but when i feel good about myself who the hell cares why..it just feels good to like yourself. i'm learning to fly and i ain't got wings (thanx tom petty)

Friday, June 5, 2009

why you need your ears

ok, i'll say it . "i take my ears for granted" . that's the cold hard truth. i'm ashamed and maybe i need to go to "EAA", but it needed to be said.for the past three weeks, after a lifetime of problem free ears that i never thought about, except to put earrings on, i've had various forms of an earache; ear pain, whooshing, ringing, crinkle tissue paper noises, and of course that weird "do i have a cold?" clogged ear thingy. the first week my doctor said.."its a virus. it'll be gone in 2 days" the next week, i called and said "doctor ! is there nothing i can take? i said "doctor ! to relieve this earache?" (with apologies to harry niilson) and he said "call an ENT" so i did and he pushed and vacuumed and poked and said "go home and put drops in your ears for a week and then come back and i'll get a hydraulic lift to remove the immobile ,inpenetrable, massive, but resilient piece of wax that has taken up residence in your ear canal." as i sit here with ear drops running down the side of my neck, pooling upon my shoulder..i'm thinking about ludmilla, a deaf woman that i work with.. i've known her for 5 years. in all that time, her deafness would never be the first thing i'd say to describe her. she's a great communicator, reading lips and using profane and very funny sign language to let you know EXACTLY what she's saying. she's got a great sense of humour and irony. she does not think of herself as handicapped and she's never once used her deafness as an excuse or apology. i haven'tbeen able to hear well out of my left ear for three weeks and i've been whining like a baby. i can't hear, i can't sing , i can't sleep, i can't eat peas and carrots (hate them!!) waaaa waaa waaa. i've taken the gift of sound for granted..i who cannot live without music..the car radio blasting whenever i'm driving..the pleasure of the beachboys blaring on a hot summer day, my ipod cranking out justin timberlake's "cry me a river" while i paint a baby nursery (yeah..i like him..so? it's not like i'm listening to miley cyrus ) ..abbey road or the white album on the cd player while i paint banks, dire straits, dave matthews, steely dan, the rolling stones,even tupac!! i need my ears! and so my promise..i will adorn you with jewels and caress you with sweet oils and never use a q-tip, and i will be grateful every day to have you both with each ,beautiful sound that enters my head ( not the voices though..gotta do something about that!) all i have to do is think about ludmilla and say thanks.