gypsy-pirate-we're not in kansas anymore

thank you for all your supportive, interesting and inspiring comments. warms my soul. come be a gypsy-pirate with me!

i feel like i'm having another kind of awakening, different than the one mentioned below. yup. i could be cute & all carrie bradshaw and say it was about finding great shoes. these were both found this week (street fair & old navy, respectively=$22 total. p.s. go quick!)

or a bit more real... an awakening of self and inspiration & ideas & epiphanies, even. i realize i am so much happier/healthier/balanced when i can attend to all of me: creative, mental, spiritual, emotional... via gardening, shopping, strolling, working, reading, cooking, not to mention the luxury of impromptu dinner parties where we pretend we are in mexico;)... and that it in turn fuels my art. RIGHT, you all know and practice this already, don't you?

(so why not quit art school?) simultaneously, school time has been essential in my growth, and nearly impossible not to totally focus on and lose myself in. the questioning, critiques, comparing and all that does get me down on myself. my ego becomes sensitive and a bit wounded feeling. this i am working on... the challenge of being completely open and a sensitive artist, but yet filtering out the blech. to take risks in the face of this. to fail/flail. cry in front of a class. receive compliments. to nurture oneself during the process is a novel idea.

"What you do for yourself--any gesture of kindness, any gesture of gentleness, any gesture of honesty and clear seeing toward yourself will affect how you experience your world. In fact, it will transform how you experience the world"~
Pema Chodron from "Start Where You Are- A Guide to Compassionate Living"

i'm reading a collage of books borrowed/ library from the self-help department, travel, house building and art. i find myself FLOODEd with ideas. i'm the lady feverously stopping on the sidewalk mid-step to write an idea (or 20) in a notebook.

i'm getting a bit tired even writing about it.

i have a brainstormy mind where one thought leads to another to another to another, with out finishing the first. writing helps me synthesize them.

one thought= home(s)

i have been thinking a lot about the idea of home and building one's dream home... not even in the literal sense, but more the cozy homey sense (or whatever aesthetic have you). the domestic. this is so much i see reflected in the blog world. little portals into our homes and lives. different ways of living, creatively.

when i was little my smart mom had a bunk bed made for me with only a top bunk and the bottom was my playspace with a curtain to seal the privacy. where are our forts today? our entire house. why not make it the most magical amazing place possible? i adore my home, but sometimes i let hugh's tchotckes and functionality overcome my feminine unique mati sensibility. in the end it's a compromise when you live with someone, and i think we do a good job of it. but today i did drape a little bit of gypsy lace over his ugly-fake-mahogany-i-deeply-dislike-dresser.

above is a space i am savouring from the book "food for friends". connecting to the shoes... why not buy the most fabulous ones on your budget? i do love me my dansko clogs, always and forever for the real times in between.