A Glance Backward

It is hard to fathom that June is nearing its end. Once again nearly an entire month has flown past and I keep forgetting when it is in the year. [and somedays I even forget what year it is!]

I've had a curious month... my 60th birthday, some BIG decisions about what my next chapter is looking like, a goodbye to a friend [actually 3 friends, 2 of the canine variety] moving "home" after 16 years in Florida, tremendous shifts in two of my most important relationships, and the discovery that Life is always about my willingness to Let Go and BE in Right Now.

I've taken a bit of a step back this past week or so. NOT that anything was "wrong" or any of that, just taking a breather you might say. A sort of "New Year" reflective pause I like DOing round my birthday each June.

It astonishes me that I still sometimes slip into the notion that I am essential to the smooth running of the World. 

I am NOT. I am just essential to my own Life. [and probably Gracie's as well, due to her lack of well, really, NOT her lack, just her limitations BEing a dog] 

I'm enJOYing playing along with ICAD, albeit quietly this go round. 

I've kept it really simple this year, making a collage out of whatever's on hand here, spending literally about 5 minutes a day. It's kind of fun to see them all collected on a ring. It's a nice little practise I quite enJOY.

For 2013 Year of the Giraffe June has been Paint the Giraffe, and I have been painting one each day in a tiny watercolour journal. 

I'm playing with colour combos and usually only two a day, but some of them have caught me needing to DO a bit more than just the two. 

Perhaps the thing I am feeling most excited and really Very Happy about is having completed my book, I Love You, Currie ~ My 60th Year, which is a compilation of my daily Gratitude Practise from 18 June 2012 through 17 June 2013, my 60th year. 

I've been encouraged by many over the years to "write a book" and yet, for me, that feels like what I have been DOing little bit by little bit each day for the past 6 years. 

I decided to make this past year's Gratitude Practise into a book so that my mum, whose computer [my old one] no longer lets her read my Gratitude, can see it and DO so without having to navigate BEyond her lap.

I've been at it for the past 2 weeks and have just Now completed all the steps on CreateSpace to get it published. Exciting. Scary. Yet really quite a thrill, too.

So, on we go to July very soon, eh?! 

EnJOY!!

Photo Art Friday 14 June 2013 ~ AHHHHHHH!!! It's back!!!

It's always good to pause and refresh.

And it's wondrous to reconnect.

This couple of month hiatus has found me exploring and expanding my repertoire of art-making possibilities.

On my other blog, I've been gathering up the past year's posts for a book I'm calling My 60th Year. 

My 60th birthday is next Tuesday. I started my other blog, I Love You, Currie, on my last birthday. 

It's quite intriguing to see the arc of my last year and all I have learned, explored, and discovered on the Digital Fiddling Playground.

While really it's just me posting my daily Gratitude which I share with a bunch of others by email, after many encouragements and kind responses, I decided to start posting it in a blog, too. 

The book idea is a way of tipping my hat to my mum. 

Her yearly reminders that whatever age I am turning, the year BEfore and leading up to my birthday is that YEAR. 

And it's also FOR HER BEcause her computer has bitten the dust and she has missed out on receiving my Gratitude for nearly ALL of the past year.

I Love You, Currie has NOT got much of a following, but it does have one, which is really where I want to focus. 

It's been fun to send my early morning writings and digital fiddlings out into the World each day and in that process meeting so many more wonderful people I'd likely NEVER get to meet otherwise.

As I have here, in Photo Art Friday.

My "title" piece for this week's theme, Dreamy or Ethereal, is a piece made of a couple of PDPA textures that I fiddled with in Pixlr. 

I've been using many of Bonnie's extraordinary textures as my starting points in the early mornings. 

It's quite a LOT of fun to mix them with my art and words. 

The piece BElow is one I made especially for our return PAF.

I started with a bunch of Nantucket photographs I took when I was there for my son's wedding in 2010. 

I made a collage I call Nantucket Postcard, and then it sort of sat and gathered dust, like so many of my wee collages. 

Insert a momentary inspiration whilst sorting and downloading some of my photos from KodakGallery. [which is no more] 

And me remembering what I was thinking about when I made it. 

Therein lies the Dreamy & Ethereal aspect.

I layered a variety of PDPA and PARC textures, fiddled with them in Pixlr and actually am quite enJOYing what I came up with. 

I've also given myself an idea for an upcoming Mail Me Some Art swap which is always a bonus. 

So looking forward to what others have been up to.

enJOY!!

Bizarre!!! Artist's Play Room #61

I admit to BEing stumped by this theme, Bizarre, but then I had a little lightbulb moment and thought, Perhaps I should share one of the giraffes I've been sewing... [?! I DO use needle and thread]

And so without a lot of TO-DO or tra-la-la, here is one of these rather strange giraffes I've gone a little crazy making the past few weeks.

EnJOY!!

Thoughts on BEing 60

It's a week yet until my actual birthday, but I've shifted into that gear of reflecting and imagining, looking back over the year and considering, with an open hand and heart, what I might like to DO next.

This morning, after our wee Morning Adventure, Gracie was so exhausted that I just sat awhile and watched her wind down and regroup. 

I was thinking how much she has taught me, especially in this past year, as our ages BEgin their convergence. [considering dog years times 7 makes her just about the same age as me Now]

And I was thinking about how my mum always makes sure I know I am in my 60th year and come next week I'll BEgin my 61st. 

Gracie has taught me to live in each moment.

She has given me a shining example of NOT worrying and trusting everything that is REALLY necessary will BE supplied.

[sometimes magically]

Gracie "walks her talk" by always greeting Life with gladness and accepting things [okay, sometimes she needs persuading] just the way they are.

She lives simply, is visible, has great discipline, and knows what enough is.

[all of these BEing my words for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013]

Gracie gives more than she gets and she does so gladly, eagerly, and always.

She's just so HOW I want to BE, NOT when I "grow up" but Right Now.

Today.

Always.

And so I sat and wrote this little poeming to mark for myself what I am thinkingandfeeling Right Now.

In the last week of my 60th year.

Thoughts On BEing 60

I am finding such great JOY living Life

NOT BEcause of something or someone

Simply by choosing to every day.

I have loved and I have been loved

Sometimes at the very same time

Other times NOT so much or even at all.

I would trade anything at all

Nothing excluded, anything at all

For the peace I know inside me Now.

Even when no one notices or cares

I shall continue showing up

And BEing who and how I AM.

Even if I never EVER have Hope

Of perfection or success

I shall continue on DOing Life my way.

I would love to hear it said to me

And know its warmth wrapped round me

But I’ll keep saying I love you forever.

I know that I really am enough

I don’t need anyone else to agree

Knowing is more than plenty.

People still confuse me all the time

And I want to understand them

I’ve grown comfortable with that.

Letting Go is NOT my greatest strength

And yet I feel it growing

Stronger each and every day.

My days may BE simple and small

In the Grander Scheme of Life

Still, they fit me perfectly.

I don’t know how long I have left

To live and BE and love

But I know it’s already been enough.

Ode To A Cup?! Artist's Play Room #60

I wanted to BE more Present Tense with this APR...

I wanted to share my favourite wee cup given me in 2010 by my dear friend on Valentine's Day.

Or the one I received as a Mother's gift at my son's wedding, with its nifty little toppie and saucer.

Even the big old well-stained green mug that came with me from Arizona when I moved in 2009; one of the very few things that spans my Life arc.

But the only thing that came to mind and stood there firmly was the old, long ago mug my friend gave me back when our boys, turning 35 this year, were but a year old.

The simple white one.

With the little red-yellow-blue rainbow.

And the words:

RED YELLOW BLUE

I LOVE YOU

It made it through until my son was 11, moved cross the country with me, back East again, then back to San Diego.

And one day, in a hurry on a morning, it got placed on the roof of the car and, well, I'm sure you've had a similar experience.

Or seen one.

It broke my heart though.

Completely.

When I moved here, to the Wee Cottage, I realised I wanted to paint some of my favourite words and things on the walls. I didn't have "stuff" for my walls then, I'd moved very lightly, and decided a little paint and imagination and there you go!!!

So one night I started painting round this one window.

I painted little red yellow blue rainbows.

I painted some of my favourite words.

And I painted some more little red yellow blue rainbows.

It greets me every morning.

It invites little rainbows to dance on the walls of the Wee Cottage in the afternoons with the 3 little crystals that hang there.

It reminds me every day that I have loved and been loved, lost and been lost, and lived full out no matter what.

I don't know if this is a true "ode" but it is what it is.

Red Yellow Blue

I Love You