I was scanning through my image library and I had nearly forgotten the kind of disaster my place was when I first moved in.  I still of course have temporary bouts of dishevelment, especially after my craft fair a few weekends ago (I’m still trying to figure out where to store the tent and tables, and all the displays), but overall it is a long voyage from where it once was.  And it is sooo good to feel at ease and more organized in ones space.  Here is a little picture book of some of the transformations…

I’m embarrassed my space is such a mess (the table is actually the cleanest part), but I guess when you are in the middle of like 10 projects, that is bound to happen.  I thought I’d pop in on this lovely day and share some new things I’m working on that will go into my etsy shop very soon: handpainted mini paintings in necklace form.  Next up I’ll put resin in them, then add the chains.  I might end up wanting to keep them all…bwa ha ha ha.  No that is not the plan, but you know, some might be “poisonous”.  Kind of like the fresh baked cookies that accidentally “break” when you take them out of the oven.

I think it would be so cool to start getting myself to write regularly and have it be something like “A week in review” so I can kind of reflect on the days that seem to slip by so fast. Isn’t it crazy? It’s so weird that like yesterday, for better or worse, will never happen again. It’s nice to reflect, and quite necessary for someone to be situated in their life. Actually I had such a weird dream that was about that. Without going into specifics, when I asked myself what was that like, I answered (and mind you I was asleep when I analyzed my dream, which often happens and it becomes a sort of new dream) but I answered, “It’s like that person doesn’t fully engage in their own life” And that was making me upset, or riled up, because I want people to be engaged. I, myself, want to be engaged. Being involved in the nuts and bolts of your life, is a way to take charge, but also a way to take responsibility, so if things don’t turn out the way you like, you have a responsibility to find a solution (rather than play victim, or play dumb), or you can realize when it’s just out of your hands, and to embrace that collapse is a part of life. (I think anyone that knows me, knows my history…..that it’s not all rainbows, which is of course, the irony of me painting a rainbow) This is way more reflective that I intended to be. Really I just wanted to do a little, measly rundown of the week. But this week hasn’t been measly!

Ok well one amazing thing this week, well there were a few, but one amazing thing? After my teeth cleaning in Anaheim, I decided to drive around and look for some thrift stores. And found one. And then found a Chagall lithograph! Yea I went from someone scraping and poking in my mouth (possibly the worst feeling) to finding what might be a valuable piece of art! ( a pretty damn good feeling) Good thing I had my iphone (which I just got for my bday) and I could gather information on it. My first instinct of course was to go to Vegas for Pawn Stars, as of course any rational person would do, but now it’s kind of grown on me. I might hang it up! I’m not even sure if it’s signed.

What else happened this week? Of course there was my Heartsy sale and I got something on the FP of etsy, which is always exciting. That has been keeping me busy, busy. I think years of membership coordination and all that HBAC computer stuff prepared me well for having my own business. Today, I’m ordering supplies for my classes. I’m planning some fun projects and hopefully this time I will take pictures and I would love to have a tutorial section on my site with all the projects I do, since I do like 5-10 projects a week! It’s just hard to teach and clean up after 15 kids AND remember to take pictures of projects. It is usually such chaos by the time we’re finishing up….my goal this summer is to document, document, document!

Today I made a treasury too….just love all of these things….

It took a long time, as one of the models wasn’t cooperating, but alas, I snapped the perfect headshot!  One thing I DID NOT even notice until now, is I am basically in the same gesture holding my cat as the girl in the painting is holding the pig.  I know lily is kind of like a live/action version of a baby blanket….poor thing.  All I can say is, I am aware of it!  Working on it.  Ok, “my armpits just got hot and my stomach hurts.” LOL  Yes I finally saw Bridesmaids!  Funny stuff.

Oh btw, that girl with pig was painted like 8 years ago, and I recently just added the tree stuff around.  I will have a stop motion video of that soon…! Brian, dear, where is that video??

It’s hard not to feel the love when everything is blooming and colorful and fragrant.  All my plants are at Brian’s because a gazillion potted plants are really hard to move.  Which makes his little patio overwhelmed with loveliness–not just blooms and foliage, but also hummingbirds, butterflies and birds scavenging twigs and goodies for their nests.  Well, there’s also of course wasps, spiders and little mothy things.  It’s always so exciting when plants that are struggling make a breakthrough.  Recently we had to separate two trees that started growing in the same pot (one was my Chilean Lily of the Valley tree that I absolutely love with all my heart and the other was one that just blew in, some unknown seed).  The surgery lasted about a half hour, and we were able to successfully separate the roots, favoring my Chilean tree, but also wanting to salvage the mystery tree.  They each got their own pot, and then we waited to see how each of them recovered.  At first I thought the mystery tree wasn’t going to make it, giving up.  Half of it had died back, lost many of its leaves.  I kept the soil moist, trying to re-root anything I had broken.  And low and behold, it is totally making a recovery, many leaves stayed on, and many new leaves are coming out of what looked like dead branches.  We’re talking about like a 3-foot tree here, so not huge, but not tiny either.  Plants are amazing, totally sensitive and yet resilient.  Anyways, also my plumeria’s are finally looking good after 3 years of being in Riverside and burning and not flowering.  I think we might get some flowers this year.  See?  It’s the little things.