Window Shopping on Etsy

Looking Outside my Window

....and taking a walk ...what I saw

...was what my soul craved to see

I made sure to look UP

DOWN

and all the way around

Passions (Mantra)

There are days when I would like to turn off the switch. My mental switch that is. Look, it's almost 2 in the morning and my mind is still going 120 miles an hour. Ideas flash through it non-stop, my body exhausted, begging for rest. HOW? A trip maybe, a caring somebody to bring me outside stimulus so I wouldn't have to create my own? Less passion. IMPOSSIBLE. This is how I was made made-a curious George of sorts, never quite satisfied with status quo.

I wasn't always this way mind. I was immersed in the nourishment of my husband and children, making sure they were getting the flow of stimulus.

Now that I am free of those responsibilities, I can do whatever I wish and all the ideas put on the back burner have sort of hit me at once. And they have become, within me, a sort of disease, fighting within me to come OUT.

I must find Peace. I am tired from the avalanche of thought.

So appropriate the challenge for this month to turn to "Tribalism" , where basic instincts rule.

Out of many we are one

out of many we are one
Originally uploaded by nayski

Grace, Intelligence, Balance, Class, we have a true gentleman for president. We must now treat him with gentleness. I cried for hours after Barak was elected, my hairs stood on end, I got chills. And then I went to bed and cried some more. So many thoughts came to my mind: the irony that he will be occupying The White House, how we have somehow redeemed ourselves after treating blacks so heartlessly for so long, the admiration for his accomplishment, the love of his YES WE CAN slogan. So I cried some more.

Y todos los recuerdos

DÉJAME LLORAR
Ricardo Montaner
Cuánto vacío hay en esta habitación, tanta pasión colgada, en la pared;cuanta dulzura diluyéndose en el tiempo; tantos otoños contigo y sin ti, sólo.
Millones de hojas cayendo en tu cuerpo, otoños de llanto,goteando en tu piel.
Iluminada y eterna enfurecida y tranquila, sobre una alfombra de hierba,ibas volando dormidaun imposible silencio enmudeciendo mi vida con una lágrima tuya y una lágrima mía.
Iluminada y eterna, enfurecida y tranquila,sobre una alfombra de hierbaibas volando dormida;con una estrella fugaz, te confundí la otra noche y te pedí tres deseos mientras duraba tu luz. Déjame llorar,déjame llorar, por ti,déjame llorar.
Cuántas nostalgias,durmiendo en el desván.he declarado mi vida, en soledadhago canciones de amor, que nunca olvidopues sobre nubes de otoño, las escribo, solo.
Millones de hojas cayendo en tu cuerpo,otoños de llanto,goteando en tu piel. Iluminada y eterna,enfurecida y tranquila,sobre una alfombra de hierba,ibas volando dormida.
Un imposible silencio,enmudeciendo mi vida, con una lágrima tuya,y una lágrima mía.
Iluminada y eterna,enfurecida y tranquila,sobre una alfombra de hierbaibas volando dormida.
Con una estrella fugaz, te confundí la otra noche y te pedí tres deseosmientras duraba tu luz. Déjame llorar,déjame llorar,déjame llorar,déjame llorar.

Visiting friends

In spite of scarce time, I make it a point to visit my favorite friends' (blogs) every week to see what gifts they may have found along their way. This morning I stumbled upon the comments on Susan's blog and some of the poetry some of her friends had contributed:

I woke from a dream

warm open lyrics

rising gently

flowinglike music’s breath

a precious poet’s sweet grasping voice

howls tender joys

miles timeless clouds

like blessed kisses

on cheeks and faces

held in delicate hopes

until sweet night

and empty darkness

meets yellow light

and morning calm

Roberta

Catherine's Romeo and Juliet Collage for the Altered Art Challenge

and Susan's Haiku? sort of

his heart

wondrous

rare as red sea glass

and mine

the maiden soft

with shadows in her midst

replenishes her stream of Hope

with subtle gifts

of burnished threads

and folded treasured cloths

outcasting all her woes

on us

the kindred ghosts

rustling beside her

written to Cathy Cullis about a month ago

Hallows Eve

Shrine to my son Cristobal (Christopher) There are days when I want to make make make things. I have too many ideas that never come to fruition and I keep forgetting to write them down. Right now it's the sewing mood. Winter always finds me knitting or sewing. .Although I've been trying to draw a little a day, practicing those faces and bodies, not easy when you've never been a drawer. Reading tons too. I just finished "My Antonia" and began "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" two classics (both really worth it) I missed reading in school and have "Alice in Wonderland" just in case I can't find the one I'm reading.

Carved the pumpkin today at the last minute since I have been in bed most of the week kicking the cold. Soon the knock kncoking will start and I'll get to see all the neighborhood munchkins in their fantasy costumes. www.flickr.com/photos/ruthbruin2002/283147320/

Challenges

Two weeks of challenges have brought out creative results in me that I didn't know I had. I have never been a glitter or bling person yet Mamma's Challenge on Flickr really pushed me to explore and luckily I had received a package from a swap in Australia which had all the right stuff.

The creative "block" happens to most of us, thus these ideas by others have really helped in avoiding stagnation.

I have committed to a few more before the end of the year, the Playing Deck ATC swap on ZNE, the leaf making for a collective and a Secret Sister Swap for X-mas. I cannot commit further since I get all mixed up as the deadlines and the shipping addresses and fear the wrong items will be mailed to the worng recipients.

Believe it or not, this is what the sky looked like from the back terreace today. It seems like it wants to rain but it's waiting till Halloween is over so the kids don't miss out again like last year.

Bedridden

First cold of the season and I was hit. I've been bedridden for three days now, shivers, itchy throat and ears tingling. So I've had to keep myself busy with the little odds and ends I could manage to fit on my bed.

I started this fabric collage in ecrus and whites that I had envisioned a long time ago with all the little found objects I have collected over the years. Reminds me of the time, way back in the late 70's when I handsewed an 8x10 collage of only tags from clothing. I've always been one to see art in the oddest things. People must think I've lost it when I feel I've actually been found.

I also started a poetry book a few days ago with a paper mache book I aged. It is hollowed out and illustrated poems will be added as I remember my favorites. This lead me to think of a great community project where I will hit the streets as "The Culture Vulture" and paste all sorts of odds and ends around town. Camarillo is a very bland insipid little town with so much potential. It has the best restaurants of any small town I have ever lived in and is designed so that everything is conveniently distanced from the residential areas. Then we have the ocean close by and mountains and equidistances to Ventura and Thousand Oaks. So all in all, all it's missing is a burst of culture.

Momentum

I hadn't been creating anything for the online shop so decided I could try my hand at a few small handcrafted possible presents to list for the upcoming giving season. This Christmas will probably not be too good but we can always swap these things later if they don't sell or donate them to Tatiana's school for the Bazaar. I really enjoyed altering this paper mache box with an ATC and a mini cab on the side. I am working on a papier mache book too filled with hand printed poems and artwork which I will share tomorrow.