Just playing away

in my space today. Had an early morning meeting then spent some time tying up loose ends on an 80th Birthday party for my Mom. After that is when a pretty nice day turned sweet! My childhood pal called and we spent awhile catching up. I am still obsessing over the fact that we have reconnected. It just makes me feel good.

Remember when I showed you all the beautiful journal that Randi made for me for my birthday? Well, I've filled it right up. Here are a few of the last pages I've done.

I've signed up for a stencil class with Dispatch from LA, so I thought I'd get ready and lay a stencil on one of the pages. Then, you know how it goes, the next thing I know I'm drawing a black old tree that reminds me of how the trees up here looked after the fire. I called it "the tree of life" because the gift of that awful time has been an ongoing reminder of the tenacity of life. You have to look hard to see what burned, there is so much new growth. The trees that didn't survive have finally fallen down and are disappearing into the earth, food for the next generation.

This page was inspired by a song I was listening to. For the life of me, I can't find it again. If anyone knows the song that starts "when I was born I started to decay" let me know. I also love the look of odd sized pages in a journal all messy and milling around each other.

The top page is sideways, obviously, and I didn't get a good scan of the little poem I wrote on the tape. And, actually I didn't copy my own poem correctly onto the page. Here's how it really goes: When I watch a bird dance, I watch myself dance. No one of us dances alone. When I see you suffer, I see myself suffer. No one of us suffers alone.

A conversation with a special friend inspired those thoughts in me. I don't know if he reads this blog, but if he does, he'll see himself here today.

The bottom page is actually an exercise in gratitude. I was having one of those why-doesn't- anything-exciting-ever-happen-to-me days when I realized that I have had a pretty eventful life.
What the heck is wrong with me, that I keep forgetting how blessed I have been?
That photo is not me. It is the model in the perfume ad sample that I clipped and pasted into the, now, best smelling journal I've ever had. I'm going to do that more often.

And this is today's page. I'm trying to practice drawing each day (not doing very well with the every day part) and I saw a very neat picture of Misty Mawn on her blog that made me get out the pencil and art gum and have a go. She is also responsible for the "what pulls at your heart" idea. She is such a beautiful person inside and out, her blog makes me happy. Of course, this looks NOTHING like her, she is beautiful. I've got a lot of practicing to do!

Last weekend, the husband and I went to Mammoth Mountain with our son and daughter-in-law. We had plenty of snow on our ride home and I took LOTS of photos with my new camera. I love car pictures and it's a 6 hour drive each way. I'll share those next time.

Wishing you all the blessings that come with a spirit of gratitude.