Hold Dear

i shot an arrow into the air...

What a glorious day it is today. It's raining with a capital R! It's the epitome of an "Oregon" day.

So I have about a million things I want to share with you - pictures from swaps, projects, and Rhonna's 21 Day Challenges but I need to pause to bring you up to speed with something exciting happening in Geller Land. I'd first like to share this amazing excerpt from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. If you have children, know someone who has children, or you are someone's child, please take a deep breath and spend a few moments being present with me and read through this.

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

I cannot get through this passage without tears. I discovered it about 15 years ago, well before Miranda's adolescence. It has always lived inside me. Especially the line, "And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you." That single line got me through times when I struggled with Miranda's morals and ethics, particularly during her teen years. I felt like she didn't have any. But I've since realized, they were just different than mine. Different than mine? That realization was SO powerful for me. Years later, after all her changes, experiences and maturation, I now know her to be one of the most ethical, kindest, and honest people I know. To think I was so worried back then. 

So what's the news you ask? On October 22, Miranda will be catching a one-way flight to Hawaii. Kihei, Maui to be specific. She has sold most of her clothes and possessions, didn't sign her lease, and gave notice to her current employer. I'm almost hesitant to say that she is "moving" to Hawaii because the plan is that she will live there for a month and then come back (hopefully be here for her 21st birthday) and then she'll figure out her next step. She may move back to Hawaii, she may live with us for awhile and go to school, or she may be ready to do the traveling she has always wanted to do. China, Berlin, and South America are places high up on her long list of places she wants to travel to and live.

Miranda's best friend from high school moved to Hawaii right after they graduated (about two years ago) and has always said anytime Miranda wants to stay with her, she is welcome. About a year ago, Miranda was ready to move there. She asked us to buy her a ticket. We said no. It just wasn't the right time. Miranda was still living at home, not working, not going to school. This was right after her suicide attempt and she was lost. We certainly did not want her to be "lost" in another state with an ocean in between us. This wasn't necessarily a control issue but a safety issue. Miranda's emotional and physical safety.

Well, fast forward one year later and Miranda is a completely different person. I would now categorize her as a responsible and reasonably happy young woman. She has matured and grown up SO MUCH! You would not believe it!! She takes care of herself and is a good person. At her house, her roommates and friends call her the "House Mother." She has a savings account, takes care of the household finances, keeps the house clean (again, reasonably) and makes sure anyone that comes through their door is welcome and fed. Wow.

I've been thinking non-stop about this and I realized that I am nervous but excited for Miranda. SO excited! What an adventure! I'm just so happy for her! I really think she NEEDS this! I also realized that if she had ignored our concerns and would have pushed to move to Hawaii when she wanted to, there would have been no excitement in this. I would have been nervous AND scared. Miranda would have been running away from life. Now she running towards life.

Oh and another thing about this quote...the night Miranda told Glen and I about her decision to move, she had returned my pocket-sized copy of The Prophet that she had borrowed when she went camping. When she handed it to me, I quickly turned to the page that had this quote and read it out loud. I got through it, but it wasn't easy. (You KNOW what a softie, emotional person I am!!!). We were all quiet and we just all kind of took a breath and it was at that point that we all knew that our beautiful arrow has left our hands, with gladness. :-)

fly me to the moon...

So Glen talked me into going for a airplane ride Thursday night. He promised the flight would include a dinner. Well, this girl is ALL about dinner so I decided a night flight that included dinner AND a full moon, was worth gathering up the courage to get up there with him. I'm really glad I did because it was an absolutely gorgeous night. And added bonus, I pretty much wasn't nervous at all. Yay!!!

We took off out of Hillsboro about 6:30. Glen's hanger mates flew with us -- after all, Thursday night is "Boy's Night!" :-) We were going to try for the coast but it was socked in so we headed to Salem for some dinner.

I won't bore you too many pictures because we pretty much flew over terrain I've shown you before. But here is a picture showing how the trees are starting to change color...

A view of a couple of flower farms...

Us crazy kids mid-flight...

Just some general gorgeousness...

 

A little air to air photograph of our friend Colin's plane. He took a picture of our mid-air plane too! I'll have to show you that one when I get it off of Glen's laptop.

And then, of course, the moon...

Dinner at the Salem airport was lovely and by the time we took off, it was dark. Such a gorgeous flight. Lots of clouds playing with the moon and the city lights from the air were quite magical.

Tomorrow I'll have pictures of my sneak peeks of Debbie's Sweet and Sinister swap package. I have pictures of it on my Flickr here already if you can't wait! :-) Debbie's package is ready to go out on Monday and so I decided I'm going to open the package she sent me today! I'll show those tricks and treats to you tomorrow too!

It's gonna be a VERY busy weekend! Next week is Art and Soul and I'm STILL working on my charms and getting my supplies for my classes all together. PLUS Lilli arrives next Saturday! What fun, what joy!!! :-) Oh and speaking of Art and Soul, I received my Heart Fatbook yesterday. This swap was hosted by Elise and oh my buttons, she done us GOOD!!!  The fatbook is so so so amazing. I still can't believe it's mine! Mine to keep!!!! I'll show you pictures of that too!

I also got tagged by Gina and Deryn and these are fun ones so I want to try to get to those this weekend too! Can you BELIEVE how much fun is going on???? :-)

Day 6

I just have one page to share with you from Rhonna's challenge. I had to take a picture of this page since the ol' scanner is on the fritz. I think it works out because the colors in the scans I showed yesterday weren't near as brilliant as they are in person. I think they look a little brighter when I just take a picture of it.

The quote is

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."

Epictetus

I love this one. Set a goal and then go for it. Don't look back. Don't question yourself. Just trust yourself and keep moving forward.

The challenge is going good so far. I feel like I'm catching up with my rest, etc. I can't say that I'm feeling caught up with the rest of my life and all my artsy doodads and projects and I'm really feeling like the house is in an utter shambles but...it's all good... I'm confident it'll all come together. :-) 

I also wanted to show you the cute little tag that Tricia sent me for contributing to her "Name the Kitty" contest. You can read the sweet story of how her new little kitty, Olive Isabella, came to be a member of her family here.

Thank you Tricia! That little fuzzball is a very lucky little kitten kaboodle!

I'd better go...Atticus was up on the sink a few minutes ago. He got down when I shouted at him but he just jumped in my lap to get to the top of the computer and now I have little wet paw prints all over my pants! They're cute...but now I'm cold!!! See ya, kit kats! (Hmmmm.....kit kats....)

Rhonna's Challenge pages.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy...I've got a few more pages from Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge to share with ya! I'm doing pretty good with the keeping up on my water, vitamins, and rest. Amy also suggested Vitamin Waters! Yum!!!

In case you're interested, for my pages I'm using a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen (my favorite!) and Caran D'ache neocolor II watersoluable crayons. I started using these for projects since buying them for Anahata's Symbolic Icons class and I pretty much haven't looked back.

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

So none of these turned out quite as refined as I had envisioned. But I blame-a myself. I couldn't find a fine paint brush and so I used a sponge brush. Hmmm....lesson learned!

So I've got a couple of things winding down this week. Kari's Sweet and Sinister Swap is due to be mailed by Monday, October 1. I'm feeling behind because LOTS of people have already mailed and started posted about their packages. My sweet swap partner, Debbie, has already mailed my package AND I've already received it.

As penance for not getting my package out to Debbie yet, I am not opening her package. :-)

It's gonna sit on our mail table until I've learned my lesson! Actually, it's not penance...I'm not that mean to myself! I'm just trying to motivate and save opening it as a reward for when I get Debbie's package in the mail. Oh and you can be sure I'll still post a few sneaky peekys of the contents before I mail it!

So here's a little something about me that you may not know already...if there is a deadline, I will work right up to it. I run off of deadlines. If there is a deadline, I rarely miss it. If I don't have much going on, I will come in early; however, that's just not the norm. That's just how I've always managed my time. Home, work, and art. Someday when I wise up and stop jumping in to every fun project I possibly can (nah...never!), I might get things done ahead of time. But for now, this is how I roll.

The other swap coming near the end is the Paper Dress Swap that dear Heather is hosting. I'll get that one done and dusted this weekend! Whoo-hoo!!!! And you know what??? Heather's having a giveaway on her blog so you'd better GET over there and leave her a comment. She's giving away SIX prizes!!!

Oh and also...I would like to say thank you to all of you who have been commenting lately. That means SO much to me. You are always just so encouraging and I completely love that you take the time to leave a note. I mean, really, getting comments and "meeting" people pretty much keeps this blogging thing fun fun fun and motivates me to share which, in turn, keeps me motivated to learn. You all really mean a lot to me. I hope you can feel the love I'm sending you RIGHT NOW!! Thank you. :-)

back with ya and back to the 21 Day Challenge

This week was one heck of a week! One of those stressful, tiring kind of weeks. Just too much goin' on and I just had to let myself fall apart. It started out with a dentist appointment on Monday. I think I'm all done with that for now (yay!!!). Then Tuesday, I had a doctor appointment. This appointment was pretty stressful and quite painful (just routine tests to make sure everything stays A-OK!) It kinda wiped me out for the whole week. I never stayed home from work but oh man, I coulda! I even felt like I was catching a cold! I had to slow down, which is something I don't do willingly, because I had to make sure I had energy for the weekend! Yesterday and today I went to a two-day Barbara Willis dollmaking workshop with my friend Becky! It was amazing and I'm pretty jazzed because I think I just may have discovered my next new obsession!

I'll share some pictures from the class and of my project in the next day or so. Today, I would like to share with you a few pages I completed for Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge.

They say that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. Eeeekk...I've got lots that fall into both of those categories!  The challenge started last Saturday, September 15. Twenty-one days from that date is Friday, October 5. That, my friends, is right smack in the middle of Art and Soul! That's also the date that Lilli will be arriving for a visit and to go to an Art and Soul class with me!!! SOOOO excited!!!

So I decided that my challenge will fall into the "make a new habit" category. My new habit is a very simple one. Start caring for myself so that by Art and Soul, I have maximum energy. Last year, after several days of Art and Soul classes, I am completely wiped out. Empty. Spent. My head hurt. My eyes hurt. My back hurt. Heck, my teeth even hurt! Utter exhaustion. I vowed to not let that happen to me again! All I have to do for the next 21 days is to get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water, take my vitamins and supplements, eat more fruit and veg, get in more walking, and skip the sugar! So far it's going...sorta okay...but I'm back with ya now so I'm optimistic I can get up to speed on this one!

For the challenge, I'm using the journal that I used when I did Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge before.

I felt like I needed a new cover page to jump start this round of the challenge.

Day One

Day Two

Since part of plan is to get plenty of sleep, I have to sign off...I've got a few more pages done so I'll scan them and get them up tomorrow. I'll also show you some pictures from the dollmaking class and few other fun things!

Take care and hope you have a fabulous week!

Circle Journal...

So there's still some activity goin' on with the Circle Journal I've been participating in, which is being hosted by Andrea. I received mine back and oh man! How fun to get it back all filled out, stuffed full of some very sincere and heartfelt words. It makes me so happy to see the whole "things I hold dear" perspective by other people. Thank you SO much Andrea, Claudine, Dana, Jenna, Elizabeth W., Elizabeth M., Shelley, Samantha, and Sheila for making this so fun.

So here's what my CJ looks like all chunked up! Yay!

And then here's my LO for Dana's CJ. Her theme is "favorite quotes" and her book is 6 x 6. SO lovely. This theme was SO easy for me because I have a very favorite quote. I've talked a lot about it before so I won't go into it, lest I bore you. Here's the left side of the LO...

The little card pulls out and the journaling reads...

When I first began to explore "my style" as an artist, I truly felt like it had all been done before. I thought I would never be able to discover an authentic style and that it would always look like I was copying other artists. This quote profoundly reminds me that as long as I create from my heart and from my own experiences, "my style" will shine through.

Here's the right side which includes the quote is my guiding light...

Oh I forgot to mention that Rhonna is doing another 21-day Challenge. It started this past Saturday. Even though I'm joining in late, I'm still gonna join in. I have got LOTS of habits to start and stop! How do I pick? :-)

Hope you're having a great week!!!

Sunday eve...

It is a known fact that I LOVE my mail man. He is always bringing me stuff! And this past week I received some serious GOOD stuff.

Gina aka Lillys of Londonish and I did a little handmade item swap. I sent her a charm I made - which will be the prototype of the charms I'm making for Art and Soul -- and she sent me a domino pendant that she made. Here it is...

Dear Gina not only sent me a pendant, but she also included the chain and some other dominos, one ready to wear! These are SO lovely Gina! Thank you SO much!!

Another fun treat -- Felicia aka Fluffy Flowers and I swapped Moo cards! Oh how I love these sweet little things and oh how I love Felicia's little fuzzy creatures! You just can't help but feel happy when you look at them! Check out her Etsy site to see her creations!

And isn't the handmade card Felicia sent just TOO sweet? They're tender little fluffy flowers. SO clever! In addition to her own Etsy site, Felicia also coordinates the Etsy "Georgia Street Team," which showcases handmade goodies from artists who are in Georgia. I saw there's a street team for residents in most states, including Oregon. This is SO cool...I didn't even know such a thing existed!! I most def will be checking this out!

Oh and one more burst of fun, I received my order from Amy aka InspireCo.

Yum!!! Tickets are gaining momentum as another one of my many obsessions following vintage labels, cigar boxes, skeleton keys ..... oh this list is just starting to get embarrasing! :-)

Aside from all the above-mentioned wonderfulness, today was too shabby. Glen and I pretty much just had a nice cozy day. We did go to do a few errands and man oh man, it was like the classic Oregon day...drizzly, overcast, slight chill in the air but not really cold. The world smelled like wet pavement. Fall. Change. I love this time of year SO much. I think one of the reasons is because when we moved to Oregon from California, it was this time of year. Our first day as residents of Oregon was October 1, 1993. For the first three months when we lived here, I didn't work. I just got to take some time to wrap my brain around being in Oregon and I got to be a full-time Mom. I walked Miranda to school (she was in 1st grade at the time), I went on field trips with her class, and I even joined her for lunch in the cafeteria, waiting in line and buying a tray lunch of my very own. I'd borrow Glen's Mom's car to go pick her up after school and we'd go do something like go to the library or go to a shop called Teddy Bear's Picnic (it's since closed - sad) or go to Sevey-Elevey (7-11) for a slurpee. Sigh. But things change. Life goes on. I sure miss those special "mommy/girlie" adventures but I sure do love seeing the young woman Miranda has become. Yep, you just can't stop change.

more from LAST weekend...

Okay so I haven't been avoiding you...I've just been too pooped to post! Work was super busy and super intense this week. It all culminated with a big presentation on Friday so I can now get back to my normal amount of busy. The effort was worth it though, because I was PUBLICLY thanked by my department's VP in the meeting. That's always nice... especially since my boss was in the room! :-)

I had a few pictures to share from last weekend when I went to Monticello Antique Marketplace with Andrea. Andrea totally rocked since she blogged about it the SAME day!

I don't have near as many pix as Andrea so I just have to make mine BIGGER! :-)

I do have some pictures of the goodness I bought!!!

I also bought a gorgeous jar knowing that I would probably fill it up with these SWEET white buttons.

This is like CANDY to me! :-)

There was also "an incident" at Monticello which involved a package containing an assortment of vintage Dennison labels. I'll spare you the drama but suffice it to say, when you see something you think you might want, PICK IT UP immediately. CLAIM IT as yours! I snoozed and I loozed and I learned an important lesson. BUT, I'm happy to say, my dear, dear friend Andrea came to my rescue. She saw the labels and picked up a pack and after seeing my disappoint and frustration, she SHARED her pack with me, along with a few other bits. SO generous!

I LOVE this kind of stuff. Thanks again, Andrea, for sharing! :-)

I'm going to have lots to share with you in the next few days! You guys are ALWAYS so sweet and generous with your fun comments that sometimes I find I just can't WAIT to share stuff with you! :-)

I did a swap with Gina aka Lillys of Londonish and I want to share with you the GORGEOUS domino necklace she sent me! I LOVE it and it's another one of those that I get compliments EVERY time I wear it!

I got my dresses made for Heather's Paper Dress Swap!

I got some charms made for the Art and Soul Charmster swap. FINALLY! There's only three more weeks until A&S!

Some really exciting news...I got my Circle Journal back! It's HOME and it's AMAZING!!! I also got Dana's "Quotes" to work on this weekend. After that, I'll only have one more LO to do! Whoo-hoo! Thank you again to Andrea for hosting the Circle Journal. Sure, it stretched out longer than intended, but it's been FUN FUN FUN!!! Oh and when Claudine brought the CJ's over to the house, she also brought us a slice of THIS cake. It was wonderful and that blue color is even MORE beautiful in person. Perfection! Thank you so much Claudine!

Okay, I'm gonna get in some crafting and picture taking today. Glen and Miranda are running off to fly to some meeting somewhere. :-)

But before I go, I've got one last picture for ya...our neighbors brought over a box full of produce from their family's organic farm in St. Helen's. SO incredible!!!! And Atti seemed to like it too...

See ya later, crafty friends!

last weekend...

Last weekend was chock full of fun times and I thought I'd share a few pictures from it.

The weekend started out nice on Friday night. I was really missing Miranda and so she and I went out to dinner, just the two of us. We went to a new vegan restaurant in Portland called Nutshell.

Nutshell has been getting mixed reviews and clearly, it's going through some growing pains. They ran out of items, my food was cold and they forgot something I ordered. I'm totally gonna overlook those things, though, and will give them another chance. Mainly because the food was REALLY good! Great flavors and really innovative food combinations. Yum-o! (That's not a registered trademark of hers, is it?)

On Saturday, we went to our friend, Eric's, wedding. It was at a park in Vernonia. An hour's drive but well worth it. The wedding was just lovely and it sure didn't hurt that it was probably the most gorgeous day of the entire summer! A perfect day for an outdoor wedding!

Here's the card I made for the happy couple...

Just rub-ons but I liked how all the words ended up fitting together.

My friend Heidi (she went too) shared with me Ms. Bunn's blog who was one of the photographers. She has some awesome pictures from the wedding posted, if you're interested.

One of the cutest things about this couple's wedding was that they had wedding pie instead of cake. How frickin' cool is that? It just fit perfectly considering their wedding was at a park with lots of good people, good food, and good fun! Did I mention there was horseshoes! Ring-AAAA!!!!

Here's a pic of the beautiful creek that ran through the park...

Simply a gorgeous day...perfect for these two beautiful souls.

On Sunday, I went to Monticello Antique Marketplace with Andrea. I only took a couple of pictures at the marketplace and I'm still fartin' around with all that but fortunately, Andrea made a post about it here! Thanks for being so on top of things Andrea! Once I catch up and get pictures of my goodies, I'll share with you!

Take care and hasta la wing ding!

9/11

Hi World...

Just wanted to let you I'm thinking about you today. Hope you're doing well.

All My Love,

Michelle