Almost Full

Can you tell what this is?

Here is your first hint.

This photo was taken at 6:30 pm on Tuesday.

Did that help?

No?

Ok, how about a different picture?

Does that make it any easier to guess?

Yes it is a 3 days from full moon "caught" on the telephone wires. Taken through my dirty windshield. I honestly didn't notice the wires til I saw the picture. I was taking a picture of the moon. Did you notice that it was egg shaped? I've never seen an egg shaped moon that I can remember. What causes that? Anyone know?

And then here is a brighter picture. The Boulder Creek Volunteer Fire Department, in all its fall glory, taken at 3pm on Friday. Doesn't that tree look super with the blue sky backing it up? I thought the colors would make a cool kaleidoscope, and I was right, especially with the red curb in there for contrast.

Pumpkin Seeds and Wild Self

Here is a pumpkin seed celtic cross made from Kaleidoscope Kreator and my pumpkin seed in an orange bowl picture from last year. I thought that there were some really interesting shapes created that looked kinda skull like. Oooh spooky, huh? Are you getting tired of these kaleidoscopes yet? Sorry, I'm not.

We haven't even bought our pumpkins this year yet@!#! What is our problem?? Plus, I hear there is a pumpkin shortage too. Hope they aren't too spendy. I sure wish I'd remembered to plant the pumpkin seeds I bought back in August. Sigh. Maybe next year!

Hey DebR, I built my Wild Self. I gave myself Thompson's Gazelle Horns, California Condor wings, and a tiger tail. I too had trouble giving myself animal legs and arms, too creepy looking. Also, none of the ears looked right, so I left them off. Don't worry, I don't really wear tennis shoes and skirts, I'm not quite that funky of a dresser. Oh, and I don't have any glasses on because I'm giving my contacts another whirl today. If you could have a tail or wings, which would you choose? After watching a documentary on cloud leopards, I decided that would be the tail I'd choose. But wings really would come in handy (fly over traffic,etc).

Try, try again. Punchneedle turns out to be harder than the directions claim. hmph. I think my problem is that my embroidery hoop doesn't adjust, I'll have to locate one with a screw instead of trying to use the one I use for sewing machine work. The needle I got is easy to thread though, a very cool gizmo.

Outside vs. Inside Color

I've been noticing the colors outside lately (not unusual I know). I think it is the season for that, because the sunlight isn't quite as strong as we head towards winter. That strong sunlight washes out colors, leaches them of them vibrancy and power. Fall is when the subtle sunlight highlights the brilliant leaf colors that surround us.

I was scrambling (or gamboling) around on our hillside the other morning and gasped out loud when I came upon this small stand of poison oak. Not just because I am seriously allergic to it, but because of the colors. Oh to be able to dye some fabric to look like this. Wouldn't that be seriously fabulous? It looks likes a cross between jewelry and dessert.
Then I was coming back down the hill and looked up into the morning sky to find a bird that was singing to me and I saw this. No color except the small glimpse of sky. The leaves, even though they were close enough to touch,smell, or eat were just in silhouette. Wouldn't this be a great screen printed image?

Next, I noticed this green moss person hanging from the same bay tree. The first picture is with the flash, the second without. See how the intense light from the flash changed things? I find the second picture much more beautiful. I plan to check back in with the moss person later to see if they're still hanging around (haha).

Back inside our house, there is color appearing on the walls downstairs. Slowly, slowly we are preparing to repaint our big room downstairs (living room, dining room, two story high sloped ceiling). When I was gone for the day at PIQF I came home to find out the boys had done some painting. Voting for their fave color for the biggest wall in the house by placing their initial above it.

I vetoed their choices though. The green looks hospital-ish in the light downstairs (upstairs it is gorgeous), the grey is just too dark and energy sucking (upstairs with the orange on opposite walls it is balancing, the blue is too grey and I just don't like blue all that much. And so we're going with the warm very very pale brown of baked scone on that wall.

On the short wall opposite that has the two windows and french door, we'll be painting in this great green we found called Tate Olive. (the one with writing on it). Geez that is a bad picture of it, a very blue caste, must have been the lighting when I took the photo. It is a much warmer green than that.

I'll share pictures once the painting is done! Which will probably be next year this time. Hopefully, I am kidding with that one!

Books Read Lately

Geez, I knew I was forgetting something around here! I haven't been talking about the books that I've been reading. Not since January to be specific. I'm up to 88 read this year. So here is a giant (and I do mean giant) catch-up of all the pages that have been flipped and consumed since then up til now...
When you look at this list you'll note two things, I'm reading a lot of non-fiction and classic books and graphic novels and that I've read all of Neil Gaiman's writings this year. I stuck in Amazon links for the books I really recommend.

The True Game - Sherri Tepper This is a single volume collection of her first 3 published books, which is great because I had only ever been able to find one of the three and it didn't make much sense on its own! I have to say they aren't as well written as her most recent work, but still enjoyable and highly creative with glimmers of subjects she'll come around to again and again in her later works.

Celtic Way of Seeing - Frank MacEowen - Not my favorite book on celtic shamanism, pretty superficial and too general to be of much use. Glad I got it from the library.
Y- The Last Man - Brian K. Vaughn I can't recommend this series of graphic novels highly enough. The style might be too jarring and explicit for some, but the story is just terrific, what happens to the very last man (and his monkey) left on Earth after an instantaneous plague kills off all the men. Explores topics of the morality of unrestrained unregulated genetic research, sexuality and gender roles (when there is only one gender left!), new and changing definitions of family, inherent immorality of governments, militaries, and organized religions etc...Just a really great yarn, with tons of interesting characters and settings.
Until I Find You - John Irving I wasn't sure if I'd like this book or not, being so enamoured with A Prayer for Owen Meany, but this was really really good, heart-breaking, up-lifting and hilarious, just as a great Irving novel should be. Almost up to the level ofThe World According to Garp.

1602 - Neil Gaiman A graphic novel re-imagining the expansion of European power to American shores, assisted by superheroes of the era. Cool idea, wished it had been longer and better fleshed out.

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman I wished I had read the book first before seeing the BBC tv miniseries, I couldn't just enjoy the book and had to mentally compare all the changes, very distracting, but that is my problem, not a problem of the book. It stands up all by itself, doesn't need the tv, and actually helped me figure out some of the plotlines that were murky in the tv version. What if there was another world, unseen by us, underneath all of our major cities, this book set in the London underworld. Terrific characters, some quite scary, and the storyline is very engaging.

Seize the Night - Dean Koontz - The second story following the characters from Fear Nothing. I don't know why I keep reading these, as they're always the same. Guess it is like eating popcorn, enjoyable at the time, but doesn't stay with you.
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison I'd always been meaning to read more of Morrison's work as I'd enjoyed Beloved so much. This is very different, but still very affecting, I was thinking about the characters for weeks afterwards which to me means the author has really succeeded.

The Tale of Cuckoo-Brow-Wood (Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mysteries) - Susan Wittig Albert - A very cute and easy to read mystery tale set in the life story of author Beatrix Potter, casting her as an amateur sleuth. Part of a series, and good light summer reading. Albert is the author of the China Bayles mysteries, which are all herbal related, haven't read those as I'm not much of a mystery reader.

Fear Nothing - Dean Koontz Pretty good tale, yet another heroic dog and government project/town gone wrong. A standard enjoyable Koontz book.

Coraline - Neil Gaiman I loved this one, such an intriguing story idea that carries the work of Roald Dahl into a far darker range. This is marketed as a young adult/kid book, which I would have really enjoyed at that age. It will make a really good movie.

The Gunslinger Born - Stephen King I bought these comics, issue by issue, but I read recently they will be gathered into one volume, and the series will continue. I liked the pre-story filling in of details we didn't know from the very long Gunslinger series of books from King. Not satisfying as it didn't advance the story much beyond the books though. Not so enamoured of the artwork style either.
The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood This is a short yet sweet and brutal retelling of the ancient myth of Penelope and Odysseus from the perspective of the twelve hanged maids. Don't remember that one? Don't worry, just read Atwood's brilliant re-interpretation.

Dark Moon - David Gemmell Hmmm, I didn't remember this one, and had to look it up. Oh yes, I picked this up at the library because the cover was cool. Not worth the time to read in my opinion.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling I liked this HP book quite a bit, and thought it tied up the story pretty completely. But I wasn't as sad as I thought I'd be as I got to the very end. The HP phenomenon has been fun to participate in with my kids, they've grown up with this whole series after all, but it didn't have enough meat on the bones to really make a difference in their lives.

Stardust- Neil Gaiman This link is for the mass market paperback, but I recommend looking for the illustrated version which is way more fun to read. And no, I am lame and still haven't seen the movie! I loved this story, any new fairy tales are always ok by me.

Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger Our library recently set out some "classics", so this was one of the ones I read. A very different story to read as a grown-up as opposed to as a high school student. Much much sadder to me.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee I couldn't remember the last time I read this, all I could remember was the terrific movie. The book is great, it absolutely shimmers with the truth of childhood experience. I can see why it is on all those school reading lists. I'm glad my son will be reading it this year, I bet we'll have some great discussions.

The Fountain - Darren Aronofsky This is the graphic novel interpretation of the profoundly visionary movie of the same name. What utter and complete trash. And since it was sealed at Borders, I couldn't tell that when I purchased it. So I took it back! Really disappointing.

V for Vendetta - Alan Moore This is the graphic novel that the recent movie was based on. I thought the movie was a lot better than the book and got the major points of the story and philosphy behind it across. One of my all-time favorite movies though.

Wandering - Herman Hesse Checked this out on inter-library loan (first time using the service!), due to reading a very cool quote about trees on Keri Smith's blog, Wish Jar. There wasn't much more to the book than that quote unfortunately, except some strange little anecdotes and pen drawings.

Lucifer - Devil in the Gateway - Mike Carey Trying to carry on the character of Lucifer created in the Sandman universe by Gaiman. Eh.

The Sandman Companion - Hy Bender A great resource for studying and being an immersed fan of Sandman

WebMage - Kelly McCullough Pretty good, I liked the idea of The Fates struggling into the digital age.

Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury I re-read this so that I could talk about it with my son as he read it for literature class. Still as good as I remembered it.
The Giver - Lois Leary Younger son was reading this one and wanted to discuss, so I read it. Wow! Powerful book. Very provocative reading for sixth grade.

Labyrinths for the Spirit - Jim Buchanan I've been on a real labyrinth kick for a while now and snapped this book the second I spotted it. So much good information on making different types of labyrinths on your own. Which I intend to do! As soon as we get rid of the gigantic trampoline (guessing in the next couple of years.) I'm making one for myself.

The Golden Mean -Nick Bantock You can't just read one of these and leave it at that. The story is too engaging and you want to know what happens!
The Morning Star-Nick Bantock Plus the inventiveness of the letters and envelopes and bits and bobs is so much fun just to handle.
The Gryphon - Nick Bantock Inspiring collage art, great story and super book design.
The Road - Cormac McCarthy Only read this if you have enough time to finish it all at once. If you have a new box of kleenexes. And if you are ready to have your worst post-apocalyptic case scenarios played out right before your reading eyes. I loved it. Very moving.

Living Out Loud- Keri Smith A very fun book, that I think is beter suited for people who are somewhat hesistant to be creative. Ie, it didn't do much for me personally, but I could see giving this to someone who needs to break out and be creative or die....
Everyday Matters - Danny Gregory You've probably read his great blog, but this is the story of how he started doing the art he does. Very touching and inspiring and it will get you drawing.

Sew What Skirts - Francesca DenHartog A basic, and hip approach to making skirts without a store-bought pattern. Fun photography and pretty clear instructions. A good beginner book.
Quilts - Denyse Schmidt More than just quilts in this beautiful book, that I have now checked out of the library several times. No I haven't made anything, but I like looking at the pictures and reading her very fun irreverent approach to quilt making.

Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde My least favorite so far of the series. But I still like the writing style and characters and will read the next one.

American Gods- Neil Gaiman A longer read than I expected, and a very big concept in this book. What happens to old gods? Are new ones ever created? Would they get along??? Anansi Boys is more fun to read, but this one has the real moral oomph behind it.
Sandman Vol.X - The Wake - Neil Gaiman I read this one as slowly as I could, dreading the end because I knew that there were no more Sandman books to read after this. Sniff. Sniff.

Sandman and Joseph Campbell, in search of the modern myth - Stephen Rausch
As a Joseph Campbell fan from way back, I was intrigued to see these two combined in a title. The book is not an easy read (I believe it was a phd thesis or something), but it worthwhile. A good examination of the power of myth in our modern age, especially as practiced by the master, Neil Gaiman.

The Dream Hunters-Sandman - Neil Gaiman This was a really interesting collaboration with the Japanese illustrator, Yoshitaka Amano, instead of the usual comic book illustrators, and is a retelling of an old Japanese folk tale, with the character of Dream or Sandman in the story. Beautiful and very different than the other volumes.

Death: The High Cost of Living - Neil Gaiman These two books center on the character of Death, the hip goth-chick that comes to see you when your time is up. Guess she is a pretty popular character and these two volumes show that off.
Death: The Time of Your Life -Neil Gaiman

Sandman-Vol IX - The Friendly Ones - Neil Gaiman The Friendly Ones are the Three Fates who have shown up over and over again through the story.
Sandman - Vol VIII - World's End - Neil Gaiman
Sandman - Vol VII - Brief Lives - Neil Gaiman
Sandman - Vol VI - Fables and Reflections - Neil Gaiman
Sandman - Vol III- Dream Journey - Neil Gaiman
Sandman - Vol II - The Doll's House - Neil Gaiman I am well and truly lost in the mythos and aura of these books. Amazing work. And I wonder why I missed them. (Oh yeah, they came out when I was raising little babies!) So I'm late to the party but still enjoying them tremendously.

The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde A continuation of the Thursday Next story. Not as fun to read as the first, but I'm hooked on the character.

Essential Psychic Healing -Diane Stein A very feminist take on the subject, interesting and a good compendium of old and new ideas.
Collaborative Quilting - Freddy Moran and Gwen Marsten What a great book! Not a how-to with patterns (pshew, there are certainly enough of those!), just lots of ideas inspirations and gorgeous photos.

Black Orchid - Neil Gaiman Beautiful dreamy, illustrations by Dave McKean of the main character who is yes, an orchid who takes female form. Interesting story and characters. Apparently a redo of a former title previously published. With the Gaiman/McKean spin though.

Sandman - Vol V - A Game of You - Neil Gaiman
Sandman - Vol IV - Season of Mists - Neil Gaiman
Sandman - Vol I - Preludes & Nocturnes - Neil Gaiman Ohhh, so that's what all the fuss is about! I'm totally hooked by the end of the first volume.

Splintered Icon - Bill Napier Good story, characters not so well developed and the dialgue is stilted.

New Rules - Bill Maher Eh, not so "new" as he'd like to consider himself.
Plush-O-Rama - Linda KoppWhat a fun book this is. Read it several times with younger son Alex and we've made several already.
Naked - David SedarisI could read or listen to him everyday, hilarious, wrenching and so engaging.
Lost in a Good Book- Jasper Fforde The second book in the Thursday Next series, a great read, I can't wait to find the third.

Conservatives Without Conscience - John Dean Wow, what an interesting read, now I undersand conservative a bit more. John Dean, a conservative tries to separate himself and his cohorts from the conservatives of today who are running our country into the ground.

Gardening Among Friends - Master Gardeners of Marin,CA Great little essays with practical advice for California gardeners.

Gifts - Ursula LeGuin Hmmm, this was ok, and is the first in a new YA series she is writing. Mostly about using t he gifts we are given responsibly. A good message for a YA reader.
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde Oh man, what a great character and alternative world. Thursday Next, I want to be her.

Garden Seating - A mostly silly prententious look at cutesy seating, not many practical ideas.

The Paint Book - Good ideas for different rooms in your house, techniques and info on colors. Very helpful when we were figuring out which colors to pick for the new rooms in the house.

Pebble Mosaics - Projects and a little history of mosaics, I'll be checking this out of the library again.
The Ambler Warning - Robert Ludlum Good spy story but I figured out the plot twist ending near the beginning. It would make a really good movie.
Mistral's Kiss - Laurell K. Hamilton Pshew, another hot one from Hamilton. I have to make sure I read these books when the husband isn't out of town.

Forever Odd - Dean Koontz Oh bleah. He's phoning it in now. I am so done with this character! I hereby swear I am not reading the next one in the series.

Changing Planes - Ursula Le Guin A series of short stories /vignettes that have the interesting premise of traveling to diffrent worlds.

Happy Web-i-versary to Me!

Today is the third anniversary of this blog. Hard to believe, but there it is. A lot has happened in these past three years, and I've shared quite a lot of that with the readers of this blog.

Thanks for sticking with me and commenting and sharing and just just being out there!

So have a virtual slice of cake, and a virtual sip of fine champagne to toast the day with me. Thanks!

Oppressive Apple Influx of '07

On to the topic of the month, relationship with food for Self Portrait Challenge. I have a love/hate thing going with apples at the moment. We are absolutely overflowing and overrun with them, and I feel oppressed. Imagine that, oppressed by apples.

Our mini apple orchard (5 trees) decided to overproduce this year, and so did our weekly CSA basket from Camp Joy. Guess it was good apple production weather. The blossoms bloomed, and then we didn't have the usual storms blowing off half of them before they could be pollinated. And maybe the bees all came over here to escape the sudden bee hive death syndrome happening everywhere else. Who knows. All I know, is that I have a hellauva lot o' apples. They are taking over my kitchen, in piles, boxes and bags.

Just make some pie you say? I don't particularly care for pie (call me weird, I know). And I'm not up to making applesauce.

What to do...I am going to dehydrate some in my dehydrator. I can sit down while I do that. And my friend Bitter Betty, recommends preparing enough for a pie filling, and then freezing them in bags, which I can also manage. That will get rid of most of them I think. And then the family won't get sick of having apple pie every freaking week. "Oh man, more pie!?" sheesh, spare me people!

So, there it is, I am feeling rather Evil Queen-ish (note the mug) about apples which represent beauty truth and sweet life. Poison apple anyone?

Kaleidoscopes and PIQF

PIQF was super fun this year, the quilts were fantastic, so much variety. I went for the day on Sunday with my friend, Debbie. We met up with some other CQFA members and had lunch and dished show,teacher and product gossip. Very fun, and the food was actually good too (not bad for a convention center).
I didn't go too crazy buying stuff, but thought I'd show you what I did pick up. All the fabric was bought from Natural Expressions, a new quilting and beading store in Los Gatos. This is glow in the dark fabric, not the whole thing though as it turns out, it is like brush strokes of the gitd paint. I'll try to take a pic in the dark for you.

I'm not sure what these are supposed to be, Mexican pinatas maybe? Or balloons? Or papier mache'? Who knows, it cracked me up, so I snapped up a yard of this. I think it would be fun to fuse some of these on a t-shirt.
I have quite the collection of Dia de los Muertos fabrics going, and here is a re-do of one of my faves. In the older version, the skulls were much smaller, and check it out, this has sparkly gold accents, wheeee, sparkles! Also struck me as something that would look cool fused on a t-shirt, hmmm, I have a boring black blank one, maybe that's what I'll do today...

And for the final fabric purchase, five fat quarters, 3 that are peacock related, and two spiraly ones. You can never have too many spiral fabrics in my opinion.

I really have no explanation for why I purchased this punch needle kit. But I am just drawn to this stuff, the texture is really cool and looks so pettable. I started out with trying the black witch hat, but so far, no joy. I think I need a better embroidery hoop.

Ok, here is my very favorite purchase from PIQF. The Kaleidoscope Kreator 2.0 program! How fun this is!! I had a demo of it, so I knew that it was a good program. So easy to use too. This is my first kaleidoscope that I made along with the original picture of Zelda the Wonder Dog. (Who got to go back to swimming in the river this weekend, she's healed up enough now, hooray!).

Getting Ready for the Holiday

I'm finally getting around to preparing for my favorite holiday, Halloween or Samhain. This is the latest we've ever put up our decorations, but it just hasn't been possible for me lately. But today is the day! We may even attempt a Halloween party next weekend, we'll see. It has been a while since we've done that!

Usually there is a lot of stuff on the windowsills, and hanging up on the walls, from the ceilings and I'll set up the Halloween Houses that we have. I'm not sure what we will do this year, we like to mix it up. My oldest son has really been bugging me this last week to get this going, so it is gonna happen. Not too many Halloween's at home left to celebrate with him after all....

Before today the only seasonal thing I'd done so far was making a new bandana for Zelda the Wonder Dog. Which she has now lost :( somewhere out in the underbrush. Most of our underbrush is poison oak, so I'm thinking I'll just make another one, instead of going out and searching for it. I don't want to have my costume this year be a horrible P.O. rash.

This is a picture of it though, that I snapped with my phone. I thought the scarf turned out pretty cute! I used two Halloween fabrics, and the alphabet stitches to spell out: Boo! I am Zelda, Happy Halloween!

Alex was home sick at the time, so he helped me pick out the fabrics. Note the hot chocolate corners on his mouth. That is how we minister to sickies around here. Buckets and buckets of hot chocolate. Our current fave is from Trader Joe's, Conacado Organic Fair Trade Cocoa (it is from the Dominican Republic).

Off to clear off the windowsills and get the decoration boxes out. A good thing to do while waiting for the cable installer. We're getting digital cable today (hooray!). I decided it was about time, and we need to watch the Cal vs. Stanford game on December 1st, which is only on digital cable channel where we are. Hey, it is on my birthday, so I figured it was a good present and a heck of a lot cheaper than paying big bucks to go to the game. Plus, it is the same as what we are paying for normal cable, plus Netflix, and since it has movies on demand, we can get rid of Netflix, net/net the same cost, and more viewing options. I'm excited we will finally have IFC/Sundance channel!

In The Raw

Scraps, just scraps.
I've got a big stack of plastic tubs filled with my scraps. The bits and pieces of quilt production. It is like a memory or scrapbook digging through these scraps. I can remember what project each teeny tiny piece of fabric is from. I can almost remember what music I was listening to when I made it also. Is that strange? Perhaps. Just like I can remember who gave us each and every wedding gift (from 17 years ago!). I can't remember why I just walked upstairs though. hmmm. Would I trade one type of memory prowess for the other?

Anyways these four smallish assemblages were put together during the nail-biting fourth quarter of the Cal football game last Saturday. I couldn't stop pacing, my stomach was roiling, and since it was only available to me on the radio, I decided I could at least make something while I fretted over the game. Turns out that these quilts are the best thing to come out of that time as Cal lost quite tragically and spectacularly. Oh well, onto next week, right?!


They haven't been quilted or trimmed or anything yet, but I thought it was worth showing you what this step in the process looks like. These scraps took up about 1/3 of a shoe box sized plastic tub. My goal is to not have to use any more bins to keep scraps, I've run out of room for scrap storage, and the way for me to use 'em up is to make stuff like this! Unless anyone has any other suggestions that is....

Gone Bananas

More thoughts on my relationship with foods for Self Portrait Challenge.


Another fruit today, not so exotic or unusual as my first two. The very mundane banana. We take it for granted that they are always available in our stores here in the US, but we don't really ever think about where or how they are grown, or how very far they travel to us. In college I took a lot of political economy and sociology classes, especially about Central America, and learned about the origin of the phraase Banana Republic (no, not the chain of stores!). Let's just say, we're lucky to have the banana available, and we ought to examine Fair Trade vs. Free Trade in relation to the lowly banana.





Do you remember this cheer from High School?

Go! Bananas!

B A N A N A S

Go! Bananas!

B A N A N A S

I guess I just have bananas on my mind.


I will admit this actually felt really good, go ahead try it, you know you wanna. The comforting weight of the bananas and the coolness of their sking and the shape conforming to your head so nicely. Perhaps it would be a good home remedy for headaches?













I've always marveled at how much like a human hand bananas look. The 5 bananas you get at the store is actually called a "hand". These pictures just highlight that for me.













The best banana I ever ate was picked right off the tree in Jamaica. When we peeled it open it was so very very yellow inside, and the taste just about knocked me over. It was like eating five bananas all at once, really intense. I guess the way the banana trade works, the banana farmers in warmer climes pick the bunches absolutely green, and they ripen up a little bit in transit to our stores here, just not the same as fresh. Like any other fruit or vegie really, just think homegrown vs. store bought tomatoes.


As I was holding this bunch of bananas I realized the curve really fits well against the human body. Plus this is a good background, my vegie flannel nightshirt.

Blog Action Day

Well, today is it, Blog Action Day. I've been thinking about what I would write today to take part in this effort and came up with the following.

Feeling small and powerless about what is happening to our physical world home is normal. We are small, compared to the physical world. But we are power-full, not powerless. Each part of this whole has an effect. Whatever you do personally will ripple out through the rest of the whole of humanity causing change. Is that change that you are personally responsible for a positive change or a negative change? That is the really basic question we must continually ask ourselves.
For example: When I once again, forget my cloth reusable shopping bags and have to pick paper or plastic, there is an actual effect. Even if it is minute, there still is one. There is the actual physical production and transport of the disposable bag that I have to use to bring my groceries home. And the bagger who may have some thought about having to use yet another disposable bag and being bummed about that. The store manager may choose not to sell reusable bags based on how many disposables their store consumes. It all adds up you see? A cumulative effect results out of every single choice we individually make all day every day.
Pshew.
That is exhausting to think about, but it is important that more of us are conscious of this. I try not to get overwhelmed with taking on this responsibility, it is ok though. We are all powerful, every human being is tremendously powerful. The choices we make, the thoughts we think and the words we say do count for something. It all adds up in the end, for all time. What we each choose to do with this information is important, and may well determine whether or not humanity will continue for a long time in the future or not.

So start slow, and small. You don't have to do this all at once. But keep it in mind all the time.
This is what I've done so far, that has had a positive affect on the whole global environmental picture.

Consider changes you can make in what you purchase. Think of how and where you spend your money as voting. Every purchase is a vote. Supporting local farmers by buying their produce has a tremendous impact. Or shopping at a small bookstore instead of a chain. Just think, gigantic Walmart is now going to offer organic products in their stores, because the customers voted for it, individual choices aggregated to the whole cause behemoth businesses to change how they operate.

Consider not buying new. Are there used, vintage, op-shops that you can shop in before buying new clothing, furniture, or household stuff? Can you repair or transform what you already own, so that it seems new? (Wardrobe Refashion)
Can you borrow what you need from someone?
Pass on what you no longer need (Freecycle! or Craigs list).
Also, use your local library! Movies, music, magazines and books all there for you to use, for free. My library can order stuff from other library systems, all online too. Check yours out. We consume media so blithely, and they take up so much space and resources when only used once or twice. Think of how much of your home is devoted to storing this stuff, maybe you don't need to move to a bigger house?!
Communicate about what you are doing differently. Tell people (like I'm doing here!), talk about it at the stores you go to, in the produce section, at the checkout, to your friends and acquaintences. Get that ripple action going through the circles of people you encounter. Chance comments from strangers have changed my thinking on lots of subjects, so it is worth the small effort it takes. Write letters or emails or phone your elected representatives about the issues you are concerned about. They really do keep track about the communications they receive from voters, so if we all do this, eventually more of them will listen to us instead of to the industries funding their campaigns.
Be informed about local and global environmental issues. The more you know, the more you can participate in making positive changes. Goodness, there are so many resources on the web to do that but I really like reading NRDC, and environmental coverage on Alternet, listening to the global climate change coverage on NPR, watching inspiring speakers on environmental issues at TED,

I'll wrap this up with this final thought: What you and I do today, right now is important. Thinking positively about the changes we can make is worthwhile.

Beginnings of Bravery

For those who were curious about yesterday's pomegranate, here is a photo of it without filters, fingers or faces. Weird huh?! It had been a year since I'd eaten a pomegranate so I forgot they weren't supposed to look like that inside, and didn't think it too remarkable...


Thanks to Melba I found out about a really cool idea for the month of October.



Jessie over at Diary of a Self Portrait is challenging us to Be Brave Everyday. How???

By doing one brave thing that scares the hell out of us everyday. It is all inspired by a wonderful quote by Eleanor Roosevelt:

Do

one

thing

every

day

that

scares

you.

From what I understand of this challenge it is Not just to be blindly scaring yourself, but more in a challenging yourself from that deep dark chewy center we all have, where we keep our limits set in stone, telling ourselves:

Oh No,

I can't go there,

do this,

say that,

try this...

So I had to go look it up in the dictionary.

BRAVE–adjective
1.possessing or exhibiting courage or courageous endurance.
2.making a fine appearance.
3.Archaic. excellent; fine; admirable.

—Synonyms 1. bold, intrepid, daring, dauntless, heroic. Brave, courageous, valiant, fearless, gallant refer to confident bearing in the face of difficulties or dangers. Brave is the most comprehensive: it is especially used of that confident fortitude or daring that actively faces and endures anything threatening. Courageous implies a higher or nobler kind of bravery, esp. as resulting from an inborn quality of mind or spirit that faces or endures perils or difficulties without fear and even with enthusiasm. Valiant implies a correspondence between an inner courageousness and external deeds, particularly of physical strength or endurance. Fearless implies unflinching spirit and coolness in the face of danger. Gallant implies a chivalrous, impetuous, or dashing bravery.
—Antonyms 1. cowardly.

adjective
1. possessing or displaying courage; able to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching; "Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver but less daring"- Herman Melville; "a frank courageous heart...triumphed over pain"- William Wordsworth; "set a courageous example by leading them safely into and out of enemy-held territory" [ant: cowardly]
2. invulnerable to fear or intimidation; "audacious explorers"; "fearless reporters and photographers"; "intrepid pioneers" [syn: audacious]
3. brightly colored and showy; "girls decked out in brave new dresses"; "brave banners flying"; "'braw' is a Scottish word"; "a dress a bit too gay for her years"; "birds with gay plumage"

I feel good about jumping in and participating in this project as it fits in well with my new motto of the year: DO IT ANYWAYS. See bold in definition just above.

Brave thing #1: Yesterday I made phone calls. Several of which were to doctors that I'd been putting off making all summer. One of which mean I'll have surgery in a month.

Brave Thing #2: Today I mailed a letter. Doesn't seem too brave huh? Well, it is to the friend and neighbor whose dog attacked and nearly killed ours. Gulp. Fingers crossed that it is received in a generous manner.

Food Issues #2

Second time around for Self Portrait Challenge this month, all about Food Issues.
I don't have nearly as many food issues as I used to. Thankfully there aren't as many "don't" foods for me anymore.
Back when I used to diet, there were a lot of forbidden foods, which led to all manner of sneakiness, and bingeing. What a huge waste of time and energy! I'm so thankful that I have matured enough to realize that what I eat is important to how my body and mind function. That I'm not "getting away with something" when I eat junk food. I'm in charge of what I put into my mouth, no one is force feeding me or making me choose certain foods. If I have a craving for something, I figure it is my body telling me I need something that is contained in that food.
It is all a manner of balance and proportion now. When I have too much of one thing I don't feel well, so I try to eat a wide variety. And I also am able to not overeat, a hard thing in this land of plenty and bounty.
This picture shows me enjoying a pomegranate (yes I know to eat just the seeds, this was just for picture taking purposes). I Loved how this looked like a starfish, or pentacle (eating wealth!) or sand dollar. This brightness filter really made it stand out more than the original picture.

Using Scraps Again

While cleaning up the tabletop once again, I found a stash of scraps that was just begging to be put together into one piece.
Here is what I came up with after a little bit of fiddly cutting and sewing. It is about 15"w x 20"long. Eventually I'll have so many of these that I can sew them altogether into one giant scrappy quilt top.... or something.

Two New Tarot Cards

Here are two new tarot cards that I created for a recent collaborative tarot deck put together by RedDog, you can see some more of the majors at the Capolan website.



Temperance #14

The blending and balancing of opposites is the goal in one’s life. Make a conscious and unconscious effort to achieve harmony between the emotions and the intellect. An emphasis on using your creativity, welcoming transformation, practicing meditation, and achieving moderation, all in moderation.

A woman pours the gold into the silver(conscious and unconscious), all four elements are represented, the water(image of water, the earth(the stone woman), the air(growing lotuses) and the fire (sunlight on flowers).








Four of Cups

Cups represent water, emotions, relationships.
The four of cups means: Disregarding offered gifts from the divine. Being stuck in your own emotions. Solitude, introspection, a time of contemplation, the beginnings of self-awareness. Also, world-weariness, discontent with materialism.
Emotional energy turned inward to search for self-understanding.

The blue represents the watery basis of the card, four divine hands offering gifts, a watery, misty background, and a man deep in thought and contemplation.

A Julie By Any Other Name

Thanks to DebR, you will now know my many secret names and identities....

A Julie by Any Other Name Would Be…

Rockstar name: (first pet + current car) Velvet Tribute


Gangsta name: (favorite ice-cream + favorite cookie) Rocky Road Shortbread


Fly Girl/Guy name: (first initial of first name + first 2 - 4 letters of last name) J-Stil


Detective name: (name of street you lived on as a kid that you remember + last name of your favorite mystery writer) Riordan Christie


StarWars name: (first 3 letters of pet’s name + first 2 letters of your first name) ZelJu or ZipJu

Super Hero name: (”The” + favorite color + favorite alcoholic beverage) The Purple G n' T

Nascar name: (the first names of your grandfathers) John Salvatore


Stripper name: (favorite scent + favorite candy) Rose Nerd Rope no, wait, that doesn't work. Rose PopRocks, errrr, how about Rose 3Musketeers, hmmm guess it needs to be more generic to work, how about Rose Chewy?

Soap Opera Name: (middle name + a city or town you’ve lived in) Ann Saratoga, or Ann Berkeley those are the two best I have to choose from.


Weather Anchor name: (your 5th grade teacher’s last name + major city that starts with same letter) Robledo Rochester


Drag Queen name: (favorite flower + favorite weather element) Rose Sprinkles


Your Rock Star Tour Name: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Quilting Sprinkles Tour


Hippy name: (your typical breakfast + favorite tree) Cereal Willow


Cartoon Character name: (favorite fruit + article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Grapeshort


Cowboy name: (weapon or ammunition + natural disaster) Pistol Quake

Spy Name: (your favorite season/holiday + flower) Autumn Rose

SpongeBob SquarePants name: (favorite water critter + your one syllable nickname + one of your favorite adjectives + “pants”) RayJul Awesome Pants

Masquerade

Here is a collage card (3"w x 5"h) that I recently created for another collaborative deck hosted by RedDog Scott. This was a great deck, and had all kinds of cool interpretations of the theme of Masquerade. Here is what I wrote to accompany the image.

Masquerade
I’m most interested in the
Reasons for masking the self,
Becoming another, and pulling
Others into your chosen mystery.
My image shows a transvestite
Who is dressed as a native spirit
And is accepting money from
Worshippers who hope to appease
The spirit he/she represents.

I also include a quote from
Louis Armstrong which sums up
The idea of masquerade for me-
“What we play is life.”
I also used this image as a background to the text, isn't it beautiful? It reminds me of the hall in Vienna where I learned to waltz with my high school concert band when we went to Europe on a trip in 1979. It didn't have the balconies, but it had very high ceilings, chandeliers, and all the ornate details. Made me feel like a princess in Beauty and the Beast or something!

Free Zelda

Hooray! After two weeks, Zelda is free of the cone e-collar!!!

The backs of my knees are still recovering from being run into by an excited 90 pound cone-wearing lab. She isn't sighing as dramatically as before (you had to hear it to believe it), guess she is really feeling better now. Plus her shaved leg and belly hair is regrowing quickly. One thing labs never lack is excess hair!

I'm just glad that I can bring her in the car easily once more. I like driving around with her and really missed it, which surprised me.

And it is also great to be able to look at her and not get so sad and upset with the reminder of that horrible day when she was attacked.

I'm also more glad than I can say that the very vicious dog attack doesn't seem to have daunted her sparkly spirit much at all. I'm still having trouble with it, but she seems to have moved on. sigh.....Apparently, I can always learn something from my dog.

Food Issues

October in Self Portrait Challenge-land is all about food, food issues, how we relate to it, what and how we consume , and what secrets we keep surrounding it, etc.

My first impulse is to disclose that I love eating weird fruits and vegetables. So, when I saw this thing labeled dragonfruit at the store, I snatched one up immediately. The checker said "oh it is so beautiful, but ummmm, you know this is going to ring up at $10, right?" Gulp, sure. I guess so. We can just eat apples from our tree this week...

So the first thing I notice is that it is about hand sized, and seems weighty for its size. The leaves (or are they petals?) look like they could suddenly open up and reveal a Seymour type of carnivorous mouth. The colors don't look real, they look more like a plastic toy fruit to my eye. The outside of the fruit smells slightly sweet.


Next I realize I don't instinctively know whether or not the entire thing is meant to be eaten! This is not a silly question! After a quick google, we have the information that you're supposed to chill, then scoop out the fleshy center, seeds and all.

Everyone in the family gathers around as I cut it in half. Ooooh, aahhh, wow! Look at the crazy color!



We each got a quarter to enjoy, some of us liked it more than others. It wasn't as exciting tasting as it was looking at it. Very subtle flavor, the texture very kiwi like. And wouldn't that be an excellent looking salad?! Dragonfruit + Kiwifruit....hmmmm.

This is what the fruit really looks like with the flash on. If you try one, let me know what you thought!

Strength of Frida

I'd like to show you what I've been wearing around my neck lately! I recently purchased a new rosary from Lunaea, which is titled "The Strength of Frida".

Isn't it gorgeous??!! The Swarovski crystals and the interesting blown glass big bead are so colourful and beautiful, very hard to capture in a photo.

Lunaea says that she's got a few more Frida's to purchase if you are interested, go see 'em.