.:merry christmas eve:.

hi people!  just a quicky here.  yesterday i celebrated my 33rd birthday.  i had a full day and for a very brief but delightful moment the sun came out.  i had to jump and get my camera and shoot a few.  the shadows were magnificent.  oh the western sun.  i love it!  as i was leaving to meet my folks for dinner i got stuck in my apartment building elevator.  that's not happened to me before.  i had no idea what i should do.  there is, you know, a fire department button and a 24 hour elevator help line button.  i decided to push the help line button.  i was "rescued" with in 25 minutes or so.  i thought surely i would be in the box for hours.  to make matters just a little worse my cell phone battery was dying quickly and well i wasn't sure if help did not come, i'd have communications with the outside world.  ha!  needless to say i am completely fine.  excellent, really.  just another little adventure.  today i've been wrapping gifts and making secret paper presents for a little niece and nephew.  i'm expecting to get a visitor here in a minute.  a last minute art shopper.  can not believe it!  i'll be back tomorrow most likely.  until then have a very merry christmas eve.  peace and love.

in celebration

if words are not enough or rather i haven't got the vocabulary abilities to describe how a shiny bright cold day can fill and lift my spirits, than i am clearly and utterly without. there is power in the audible, a worship of sound and light that can be so. i am so impatient and cannot believe how little weight i feel. the roads are bumpy and i despise the potholes and have to negotiate with rainy grey days but the darker and deeper and harder they are the more glittery, eye splitting a day like this one is. uh-uh! i press on. to celebrate the beginning. the hope. i want to paint today. probably will break it all out, all at once.

last evening, we celebrated my "33". oh and if you can only imagine. everything is about to change and the more the better. i love my new music. i love my clementines and "S" cookies. i love the warmest socks and the quiet of my new apartment. i love finding what lies beneath and turning itself over in my head. today it all feels good. to throw off the old ways. i'd rather dance. i love a good vacation. and a good internal celebration of all the crazy external feels good. there is room here for you. celebrate with me.

sunny yellow::rain

we've been having rain and more rain and today even more. it seems to feel a little like spring outdoors, warm enough to turn off the hvac and open doors and windows. while i was able to bake some cookies this morning, just wrapped them up, i started to think about how much a great big snow would just make this holiday. i'd love it. i have been trying to imagine seeing the city under a blanket of white. hope for it, cross my fingers and wish. also on the inside i couldn't decide if i'd display my sunny yellow eggcup collection again or not. silly i think to have such a collection when i do not even eat eggs out of cups or ever (unless baked into goodies). i'm glad to have just a small out of the way nook to place this old little corner shelf, it's something i just cannot seem to get rid of. most of the cups came from a big antique store a little outside of chattanooga. others came from ebay. most of them seem old with beaks chipped. on another rainy day a corner like this is a much needed bright spot.

ready for

i am close to feeling ready, finished and more at home. all but a few boxes have been unpacked and things are close to being in their places. it is hard to say because i have no plans to hang any thing on the walls quite yet and i plan to repack things according to usage after the holidays. i think i feel ready enough to have company, regardless of how my to do and to get lists grow. i am enjoying the minimal and am finding i really did get rid of a whole lot of useless, needless stuff. it's going to be complicated when i try and start back to making art. but i have time. i am looking at going back to work at the pharmacy. so far i have not been able to get anyone to hire but i plan to call the dm. i am sold on my new place, especially on the view. it's terribly ridiculous of me to take the same photos everyday but i think i am addicted. though i'm still smoking, there's not a bit of smoking going on on the inside of my new treehouse. so yeah. i'm really tired and never got around to making cookies this week but it's going to happen. and crazy me, i've not done a lick of christmas shopping. it's gonna have to wait until the weekend. goodness.

winter is for...

knee socks worn with flip flops. new ornaments. handmade ornaments. store bought ornaments or more finely handcrafted ornaments. winter is for the chill and for great big cold gasps of air. winter is for cozy and for piles of blankets on the bed. winter is for pinching pennies in order to snap up the best little gifts for family and friends. winter is for reading more, listening to music more, lighting advent and remembering. winter is for cookies and lots of them. winter is for non traditional wrapping, which might be at least my second to favorite thing to do this time of the year.

maybe i'm a little biased about winter, or at least december. it is after all my month and so it seems winter runs in my blood. does that seem right?

corner creep

i will have to space out the scenery, scope out the fine lines and take less from the city.  but when there is a corner that seems as creepy it happens to be difficult not to focus and imagine it's possible inhabitants. and in fact the move has been halted, only because i want the bookshelves in place before i go and decor the "flat".  and a stud finder before i go and nail the walls.  my brothers, and there are two of them, came over to help me welcome this new place into my life.  one brother, a contractor and the other brother, a writer.  we stood on my balcony//deck and looked and talked briefly about building details and readymade magazine writing.  i would like to spend my evening writing letters, updating folks on my new mailing address but i do not think the usps has decided the number.  i think it must be pretty difficult.  the drug dealer on the creepy corner and the church next door and the weird warehouse across the street, they have their place.  i am just here looking and talking about this place and will let you know as soon as i feel at home.  believe me, i am not scared.  the storm last night only made me wake up once and i am not smoking inside so this morning, i met with the rain, thunder and lighting.  when i know more i'll write more.  

p.s.  i received my copy of 'creative paper quilts' last week.  i can finally say without an ounce of doubt that i have been published.  after a year's worth of work and waiting it was difficult not to begin to believe the worse but the book is nice and i think having my art on the cover is something to shout about!!!     

free radicals

i like light for all of the million and one ways it is captured and moved and used.  the instant light is born from the darkness, feelings emerge along lines that change as the sun rises to set and the moon turns it's face.  natural light is intense and filters well through the lens.  artificial light often glows, blurs and frays, especially at night.  light is obvious and so meaningful to me.  good lighting makes or breaks an atmosphere, the environment has seriously got to be just right.  light lifts the burden of having to see in the dark, it reveals the darkest corners and seeps from underneath doors.  it warms and cools simultaneously.  serves me well. so well i like light and like the color that light gives.  it's so worth everything to me to see light and to understand it scientifically.  i am especially thankful for the good christmas party lighting this weekend.  it turns out that i am fairly addicted to light, it is not a silly thing, but light can make me what to cry sometimes.  just maybe that's the reason i love the city, the lights at night, awh!  a city's beauty is often seen at night.  oh boy! 

502 & hello

all of my life i have dreamt of living in the city. i have found that the city breathes and murmurs and whispers just like the country, only there are different rhythms, beats, smells and secrets. i am accustomed to these things and take small comfort in all the city parts. including the new view. this early morning i saw the city in a different light, from a new perspective. it is telling me something only and maybe (when i have time, unpack and get better at it) i can repeat by taking photos, sharing the mystery, if that's what you want to call it. i am so ready for this. i am ready for the balcony and the westward sunset. i'm saying goodbye once and for all to my northern view and saying hello to the west. there are mountains behind the city that i've never seen before and it is all so very welcoming. there are mounds of reasons to move to the city, i'm so glad i found my reason, so thankful i have a heart for the city. i am happy!