Eat more salad, Drink more water...

Happy New Year.

There are changes happening in everyone's lives... the change of the calendar always inspires new actions, resolutions, goals.  It's an arbitrary new beginning, but it never ceases to inspire many of us onward towards something different.  In past years I've listed goals in this space and I always create a small list to help my scattered dreamer mind focus as life rushes around me.
On Winter Solstice I sat for an hour by my altar and focused on goals, wrote down my dreams, meditated on what I could realistically expect from myself at this season of my life.

In truth the new year began for me sometime after Autumn Equinox of 2012.  I felt a new daring, energy that I may have never felt as concisely before in my life.  It was telling me to take chances, to step outside my comfort zones, to believe that I could make my life happen.

I've been a bit surprised with some of the realities of this new energy.  Balancing art making with homemaking is not easy.  Keeping it all in hand has brought countless opportunities to learn.  I've learned more about myself and my limits, learned about how much I can expect from others, gosh more lessons than I've even completely absorbed at this point.  

Over the years this blog has been a repository for whatever my mind and soul felt compelled to share.  That is changing as I endeavor towards new territory in my career and eventually with my spiritual work and home life.  For now things will look much the same but when my website launches sometime this year (not putting too much pressure on myself in terms of dates) I will be moving my creative and art musings to a new blog connected to the site.  This blog will remain my personal journey with my family and for more directly pagan writings, although my artwork and spirituality are very closely tied so we'll have to see how that develops.  This new direction is exciting and feels very right for this moment.

And speaking of this moment or tonight to be exact I'm thrilled to announce that I'm in an art show.  It is a group juried show with the theme of Earth.  I worked away during October to produce a quilted piece and was just beside myself when I was accepted.  Details for the show can be found here.

So this is a new year, and a new world for me filled new horizons to explore.  I feel along way from art school and a bit out of my element but that is what challenges are all about.  So to tie my title into this post I have many aspirations for this year, two are as simple as eat more salad and drink more water, others are as complicated as find concrete time for creating and forging new working relationships in the art world.   But they are all open and fresh and offer many adventures down the road.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

around here: December 2012

Our month has been full of good times.  Visits to lots of festive places, wide eyes, birthday celebrations and sharing.  Solstice was quiet and small as usual, maybe even more so this year. 

We had lots of snow for Solstice which was very festive feeling.  It also added to the peacefulness.

We fed the birds on our Solstice walk and I set up my altar that evening.  Winter's mantle has settled over us these days and we sleep later and go to bed earlier.  It just seems to fit where we are right now.

Book of the Month: Green Christmas

 Where we live our holidays are usually green as opposed to white but this year it is looking like we may have some snow stick around.  Lovely big dumps of snow the last two days have covered our mountain home.  Inside we are preparing for gift giving and the eating of yummy food and recovering from my almost 5 year old's space birthday party.  So much fun.
Each holiday season I like to check out a festive book or two from the library to browse.  I don't usually make anything as my making is usually already filled up at this time of year but the inspiration and ideas sometimes stick with me.  This book of course is about green for the earth and not green in general but I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas: Gifts, Decorations, and Recipes that Use Less and Mean More by Anna Getty has lots of fun ideas for celebrating in a more thoughtful way.  In particular I think her projects are great for creating lasting decorations and gifts that are easier on the planet but still very stylish.
The ideas that I liked best were using an vintage/thrifted round table cloth for a tree skirt and her fresh and dried herb wreath.  (my make my own wreath aspirations have been neatly pushed to next year)
She also shares some lovely recipes the tastiest of which is Chai hot cocoa with whipped cream.  Add some cookies and you have a perfect Christmas eve dessert or at least that's my plan for this year.

So if you are looking for old fashioned holiday ideas (and by old fashioned I mean from a book and not Pinterest) Have a look at I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas and let the holiday magic and beautiful photography bolster your spirit.

Craft Fair Tips

Oh, I love craft fairs....if you've been reading for any length of time that should come as no surprise.  While at the playground recently I heard two trendy mamas talking of doilies and grandma's knitting craft fairs with disdain.  Not me my friends.  I love old fashioned and new and trendy craft fairs.  The "old" style ones offer important things things like knitted cotton dishcloths, wool socks that warm your feet made by bent over & crinkled ladies, jams, homemade pies, and occasionally gems of trend setting crafters who are starting out.

Buying at craft fairs is really smart on several levels:

• you are supporting local artisans
• you often find one of a kind items
• it forces you to think "outside of the (big) box" for gifts

The Lower Mainland of British Columbia is full of craft events.  Every year more and more fairs are popping up.  I see this as a great sign but have also noticed that the quality in some of the fairs that I visit each year is going down.  Perhaps vendors have more choice of high end markets now and so the smaller markets may struggle a bit to fill their tables.  After spending years attending craft fairs I have a few pointers to share about them that should help you get the most out of your experience:

Look at everything before you buy anything.  This is really important if you have a limited amount of cash or you are looking for something that could be found at more than one booth.  If you buy the first earrings you like and find some further on that you love you'll regret it.  So stroll, look and then make a plan to return to your favorite tables.

1. If you find a vendor that you really like make sure to get their card and/or contact info.  You never know when you may want to commission something or buy another and then realize you can't find them again.  Often vendors return to shows that they did well at the previous year but there is no guarantee.

2. Smile and say hello to the vendors.  They are putting  themselves out there and that can be a rather daunting experience.

 3. Eat before you go.  It is never smart to shop on an empty stomach.

4. Search out the fairs in your area over the whole holiday season.  Many fairs begin in November and carry on until the last weekend before Christmas.  If you can get to more than one in one day you can maximize your time and childcare if you need it.

5. Remember not to get a crafter grudge.  Many times at many fairs I've thought to myself, I can do that.  I'm not going to buy something I could make myself.  While that is a valid point it is more important to think of how much time you have to make gifts and if you are really going to make it this year.  Making a hectic trip to the mall on Christmas eve because you didn't have time to make that thing that you could have bought two weeks ago....save yourself the headache.

6. And finally make a list before you go.  Write out who you need to buy for, any ideas you have for what to get them and stick to it.  It is very easy to be distracted by lovely handmade things and blow your budget on something that you could get later or isn't necessary.  Unlike the mall you can't return things a day later when your head clears.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

november, again

This week has been a bit of a challenge.  Days feeling long, my brain not retaining information, rushing around, dealing with the ineptitude of others.

But simultaneously I have looked upon my family with expanding eyes.  I have sat and talked with my husband in the evening lamenting the complexity of adulthood but accepting that in this moment at 35 the complexity is never going away.  It just is, it is life.

The quiet in this space may continue for a while.  My priorities are shifting slightly though I'm sure I will return  here with more regularity in the future.

What I am noticing is that as I project myself outwards towards my local community I have less energy to project towards the online one.  But again, I am not worried or saddened by this.  It is an experiment in a way.  An expansion of my safety zone.  It feels like a good time.

Book of the Month: Wild Comfort

This stunning collection of essays was a delight to read.  Kathleen Dean Moore is a philosophy professor, nature lover, and wife to a biologist.  Moving fluidly from Oregon (her main home) to her Alaskan cabin and some exotic locals elsewhere her essays mix personal experience with deeply compelling reflections on death, the cycles of the earth, wild life and our human weaknesses.

Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature takes you on a journey with Moore and her family that you want to continue past the end of the book.  After a series of close ones in her life dying she took to journey of the artist deep inside to find some sense of solace.  Bittersweet mixed with the simple rhythms of nature; while Moore's spiritual side is practically agnostic she touches on the mysterious and magical of the outdoors and our unmistakable connection to it.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for comfort based in the falling of snow, the habits of birds or the currents of the ocean.

just a little off

That's how I'm feeling this week.  A weekend away has left me feeling behind...just trying to keep afloat amid  the normal day-to-day.  Today the sun has shined all day and that has been very refreshing.  In fact nature has brought a sense of solace with some heart pumping hikes and drinking tea by a rushing creek with Elliott.  As I'm ordering gifts, attending craft fairs, cooking and doing a little making I feel the need for quiet.
Perhaps that is why being in the woods is giving me so much comfort.  The loud hum of the water over rocks, birds, those sounds are good noise.

Sleep is also a bit short these days, something I will keep trying to remedy since we are all fighting the sniffles.  I am keenly aware of the dark time, these weeks from Samhain to Yule always hold reflection and a sense of turning inward.  Next week I hit a bit of a milestone age and that has me marveling at how time moves.  The spirals of life cycling around us...

 I think I'll get through these feelings eventually.  I think it is normal to experience this ebb after the flow of the last 6 weeks.  Soon things will be quieting down in terms of day-to-day and holiday fun will spring up here and there.  Soon...the only certainty is the passing of one moment into another.