Getting back in the swing of things. Love the Basic Grey line. The ribbons especially! They're SO yummy.
Page layout is from a sketch at Scrapvillage by the ever so awesome Becky Fleck
Monday, January 29
The ant and the bee
Ok, here is another one of my observations. I love these little antedotes and thoughts of the day. For those of you who shutter at anything that is creepy and crawls, this may be a bit graphic for you. I'm in that group of people but this was just too fascinating to pass up. Yes, I did actually get down on my hands and knees to capture this photograph last summer of a wee little creature pulling what looks like a very large 3x its size and weight ... I think lunch? Ugh... the thought! This little ant pulled that bee up a hill and did it in no time flat!! I mean seriously, I looked away for a couple minutes and when I looked back I lost track of where it was only to discover that it was way further up than I ever would have imagined!! While the ant was pulling the bee kept getting hooked on the little rocks in the asphalt but it didn't deter him at all...at least I think it's a he? Wait I take that back it's probably a she .....aren't they the ones who bring dinner home?
Ok, that's a whole other observation for another day!
For today and in life, I want to be that ant!! He ..(I mean she) only has success on her mind. Struggling against all odds with everything that is in her way during an uphill battle to boot. To simply accomplish what needs to be done just to survive!! And she probably has to do this over and over again all day long!! What tenacitiy! What drive!! What persistance!! My observation of the day is; If we think like the ant what can't we overcome!!!
Next time to balance things out, I promise I'll metaphor a boy something or other!
Thursday, January 25
Bursting with Laughter!
This is how it should be. I hope to find just an ounce of this little mans joy today. I look at this photo and I just want to laugh out load. So to all who read this little blip of a post. I hope you to find something in your life today that makes you want to burst out with laughter! Who says that just because we get older we can't feel the exuberance of a child. If you've found your funny bone, I encourage you to share it and tell us..."what made you feel like laughing today?
Cheers to a happy day!
Tuesday, January 23
Exuding Confidence
I love you Troy! This photo reminds me of the confidence and assurance you posses in yourself. Your just about to go out and throw a regulation pitch to a real life adult ball player in a stadium with hundreds of people watching you on your 7th birthday. WOW! just look how relaxed you are before running out to the pitchers mound! You know all to well that you only have one shot at it but there is no worry on your face at all. The real cute part was right after you nailed the pitch in how you didn't want leave the field. You are a real true blue athlete and you're gonna do well at everyhting because of what this sport teaches you. Your passion for baseball shows all over you!
Essential and Inevitable
"better to have loved than to not at have loved at all"
This morning started out with the usual exercising on my trusty old friend the treadmill. I’m so close to him after all these years I should give him a name, but as to not get sidetracked with that now, it began to dawn on me how essential he is to my life. There’s a dual benefit from hanging out with him and that is of course, the ever so vain aspect of getting and staying in shape but also it allows me the time to be reflective. This is my "me time” to be all alone, to be introspective and contemplative. Sometimes this is with humor and frivolity often times so bland that I don’t really recall what I was thinking about, except maybe the occasional talking to myself about how I should get past the pain and keep going to reach my goal. Other times it could be I’m thinking about my weekly schedule or the days upcoming event or my “to do” list but this morning it was digging deep into my inner voice. I know, I promised not to get to profound in my blog but what I was thinking about really hit home with me, a revelation of sorts.
Mulling over my fears, dreams, hopes and purpose in life is not a small task to undertake for I have many of each to deal with or search out, but crazy as it sounds, I take on the challenge of meeting them head-on all the while hoping I don’t get a blister on my foot to compound the matter.
I don’t inasmuch think of this time as a way to find answers as much as a means to purify my physic of all the unnecessary junk and clutter that piles up and tends to throw me off track.
This morning I was thinking about heartbreak. Maybe because the order of music for starting my routine was a song by Foreigner called “I want to know what love is” followed by “A peaceful kind of Feeling by the Eagles to Heartless from Heart. What a roundup eh? But it really got me to thinking. Asking myself the question “when was it for me to know what love is? Yeah, there are different degrees, levels and types of love. A mothers love, first love, love for family and friends but what I was searching for was love, whatever the kind, and how love does give you a peaceful kind of feeling (ushering in the second song of my 20 minute jog). For me, I think of love as universal language that can reach all levels. Love is euphoric but at the same time capabile of causing great heartbreak and misery to unbelievable depths. Each kind of love can when destroyed or broken can make your heart feel like its falling into a million little pieces. I remember saying a prayer like the words to the lyrics by Foreigner “Lord, I want to know what love is?” I am blessed that He answered those prayers but what I didn’t bargain for was the feeling of “here it is but what you do with it is entirely up to you” The element of how you can be gifted with it but there are no guarantees once you posses it. The black box of human interaction, being exposed to a potential inevitablity of it losing it.. The thrill of finding it and feeling like your flying so high like wings on a cloud to crashing and burning below when it’s no longer there, or you discover you've fallen from its pedestal. The vulnerability of it all!
For me, the love ride started when I first remembered my mothers love. When you know your protected and cared for when you hear her say “make sure you put a sweater on when you go outside so you don’t catch a cold” the comfort of feeling wanted and needed in the dynamics of a family, the warmth of a mothers caress and kindness that envelopes you and makes you feel safe all to one day come to an end by divorce. To the puppy love where he wouldn’t even give you the time of day, to a first love who really considered you as more of a one night stand then anything having to do with going steady. Moving on to find it again in a long-term relationship only to be blindsided and suddenly realize when it's to late that it was going nowhere at all in the first place. Why do we humans continue on in the quest to have it? To be ever so hopeful in coveting this very special brand of emotion? Even after disastor strikes and for me it was again and again. I believe it’s to constantly keep us aware that it’s not all about us. There is a greater love and that is what we should be striving for. All the heartaches and disappointments of being in and falling out of love to the devestating loss of it, have taught me a valuable lesson. NOT to depend on it so much idealistically, “the happily ever after kind”. I also believe that with all the ups and downs of this mysteriously wonderful emotion ,is for us NOT to take it for granted. To become so complacent in thinking that everything will be all right because of it. Is it essential? You betcha! Is it worth it? A resounding yes! What my experiences are in having the opportunity in finding love, or having been gifted with this incredibly monument us attribute is for me to recognize that I need to enjoy it while I have it. Stop and be thankful for it now. My mother once told me that: “if you should find love just once in your lifetime you have been blessed because some people never find it”! Oh, how sad that sounds to me. Wow, Some people never experience it? Yet, some people who do experience it, find in the end terrible hurt and may never want it again. This alone makes me think of its unique precarious power from soaring highs to utter despair. What else can bring us to our knees and overcome us quicker?
Who knows what tomorrow brings with the ever changing world we live in but one thing is for sure that while I’m still capable of loving and feeling loved. I’m not going to rest on that as a static take for granted experience. I’m going to celebrate it now. I’m going to revel in it while I have it from wherever, and whomever it’s found and hope that the heart the Lord blessed me with is a bottomless source of its beauty and wealth and in turn give back what I’ve been so lucky to find and share it with someone who needs to feel embraced by its warmth and goodness. Our preacher’s sermon this past Sunday dealt with “what is your gift to offer the church body”? Hmmm…. I never thought I had any real gifts until I started to contemplate it more and found that when I love, I love deeply and I believe in its power to heal and bind people together. Love is essential. I know that in spite of knowing that along with it there can be heartbreak and tears. I do fear the loss of it but I'm also assured that the power of it all comes from God and that my faith will keep me strong in it, again and again, no matter how many times my heart breaks. One very certain element for me in going through the different experiences of finding and losing love is that it has continually brought me closer to its Originator and Creator! God! And for that... I am truly blessed!
This morning started out with the usual exercising on my trusty old friend the treadmill. I’m so close to him after all these years I should give him a name, but as to not get sidetracked with that now, it began to dawn on me how essential he is to my life. There’s a dual benefit from hanging out with him and that is of course, the ever so vain aspect of getting and staying in shape but also it allows me the time to be reflective. This is my "me time” to be all alone, to be introspective and contemplative. Sometimes this is with humor and frivolity often times so bland that I don’t really recall what I was thinking about, except maybe the occasional talking to myself about how I should get past the pain and keep going to reach my goal. Other times it could be I’m thinking about my weekly schedule or the days upcoming event or my “to do” list but this morning it was digging deep into my inner voice. I know, I promised not to get to profound in my blog but what I was thinking about really hit home with me, a revelation of sorts.
Mulling over my fears, dreams, hopes and purpose in life is not a small task to undertake for I have many of each to deal with or search out, but crazy as it sounds, I take on the challenge of meeting them head-on all the while hoping I don’t get a blister on my foot to compound the matter.
I don’t inasmuch think of this time as a way to find answers as much as a means to purify my physic of all the unnecessary junk and clutter that piles up and tends to throw me off track.
This morning I was thinking about heartbreak. Maybe because the order of music for starting my routine was a song by Foreigner called “I want to know what love is” followed by “A peaceful kind of Feeling by the Eagles to Heartless from Heart. What a roundup eh? But it really got me to thinking. Asking myself the question “when was it for me to know what love is? Yeah, there are different degrees, levels and types of love. A mothers love, first love, love for family and friends but what I was searching for was love, whatever the kind, and how love does give you a peaceful kind of feeling (ushering in the second song of my 20 minute jog). For me, I think of love as universal language that can reach all levels. Love is euphoric but at the same time capabile of causing great heartbreak and misery to unbelievable depths. Each kind of love can when destroyed or broken can make your heart feel like its falling into a million little pieces. I remember saying a prayer like the words to the lyrics by Foreigner “Lord, I want to know what love is?” I am blessed that He answered those prayers but what I didn’t bargain for was the feeling of “here it is but what you do with it is entirely up to you” The element of how you can be gifted with it but there are no guarantees once you posses it. The black box of human interaction, being exposed to a potential inevitablity of it losing it.. The thrill of finding it and feeling like your flying so high like wings on a cloud to crashing and burning below when it’s no longer there, or you discover you've fallen from its pedestal. The vulnerability of it all!
For me, the love ride started when I first remembered my mothers love. When you know your protected and cared for when you hear her say “make sure you put a sweater on when you go outside so you don’t catch a cold” the comfort of feeling wanted and needed in the dynamics of a family, the warmth of a mothers caress and kindness that envelopes you and makes you feel safe all to one day come to an end by divorce. To the puppy love where he wouldn’t even give you the time of day, to a first love who really considered you as more of a one night stand then anything having to do with going steady. Moving on to find it again in a long-term relationship only to be blindsided and suddenly realize when it's to late that it was going nowhere at all in the first place. Why do we humans continue on in the quest to have it? To be ever so hopeful in coveting this very special brand of emotion? Even after disastor strikes and for me it was again and again. I believe it’s to constantly keep us aware that it’s not all about us. There is a greater love and that is what we should be striving for. All the heartaches and disappointments of being in and falling out of love to the devestating loss of it, have taught me a valuable lesson. NOT to depend on it so much idealistically, “the happily ever after kind”. I also believe that with all the ups and downs of this mysteriously wonderful emotion ,is for us NOT to take it for granted. To become so complacent in thinking that everything will be all right because of it. Is it essential? You betcha! Is it worth it? A resounding yes! What my experiences are in having the opportunity in finding love, or having been gifted with this incredibly monument us attribute is for me to recognize that I need to enjoy it while I have it. Stop and be thankful for it now. My mother once told me that: “if you should find love just once in your lifetime you have been blessed because some people never find it”! Oh, how sad that sounds to me. Wow, Some people never experience it? Yet, some people who do experience it, find in the end terrible hurt and may never want it again. This alone makes me think of its unique precarious power from soaring highs to utter despair. What else can bring us to our knees and overcome us quicker?
Who knows what tomorrow brings with the ever changing world we live in but one thing is for sure that while I’m still capable of loving and feeling loved. I’m not going to rest on that as a static take for granted experience. I’m going to celebrate it now. I’m going to revel in it while I have it from wherever, and whomever it’s found and hope that the heart the Lord blessed me with is a bottomless source of its beauty and wealth and in turn give back what I’ve been so lucky to find and share it with someone who needs to feel embraced by its warmth and goodness. Our preacher’s sermon this past Sunday dealt with “what is your gift to offer the church body”? Hmmm…. I never thought I had any real gifts until I started to contemplate it more and found that when I love, I love deeply and I believe in its power to heal and bind people together. Love is essential. I know that in spite of knowing that along with it there can be heartbreak and tears. I do fear the loss of it but I'm also assured that the power of it all comes from God and that my faith will keep me strong in it, again and again, no matter how many times my heart breaks. One very certain element for me in going through the different experiences of finding and losing love is that it has continually brought me closer to its Originator and Creator! God! And for that... I am truly blessed!
Monday, January 22
Congratulations Chicago Bears!!!
Can you hear me screaming? How exciting for the Bears Victory! It was an awesome game they played yesterday. It made me wish I was in Chicago to celebrate with all my family and friends. Now were off to the Superbowl and how ever COOL is that!!!
Can't get the tune from Gary Glitter out of my head "Rock and Roll Part 2" Chicagoens know what I'm talking about here!
Indeed, the irony of this all is that they're going to play the Colts with Payton Manning quarterbacking....in these parts of the woods and just a little over the ridge from us, there lives huge Tennessee "Vol" fans, whose only preference in clothing seems to be in the color orange. They idolize and adore Payton Manning. Should be a very interesting.
Today and until another victory I'm celebrating! I couldn't be any happier!! Go underdogs!!!
Can't get the tune from Gary Glitter out of my head "Rock and Roll Part 2" Chicagoens know what I'm talking about here!
Indeed, the irony of this all is that they're going to play the Colts with Payton Manning quarterbacking....in these parts of the woods and just a little over the ridge from us, there lives huge Tennessee "Vol" fans, whose only preference in clothing seems to be in the color orange. They idolize and adore Payton Manning. Should be a very interesting.
Today and until another victory I'm celebrating! I couldn't be any happier!! Go underdogs!!!
Saturday, January 20
In the spotlight.
For my sister Bonnie, knowing we share a love for our family. May it continue to shine in the spotlight!
A Masterpiece (or at least mom thought so)
See Mom I can cook!
Remember? Doesn't it
look good all over again?
Now I'm off to see what's in
the fridge???
(This is my very own recipe of: Panko Crusted Sea Bass in Golden Tomato Gatzpacho with Avacado Peach Salsa and Asparagus. Love pretty food...hmmm...I feel like scrapping a page from those colors).
My dream aisle
There's no place like the magazine (isle).... uhgumm, I mean aisle, in the grocery store. For me it's forget about the food for sustenance to give life...uh uh it's the beautiful graphic arts and text of the print world! Dean always knows where to find me if he doesn't see a nice orderly stack in the bottom carrier of the cart. Of course no food products can be near my coveted, never been glanced at commodity, that heaven forbid could get wet or worse yet get blood juice over it, (eeeks) forever altering the enjoyment of my first time preview! All who know me, know how weird I can be about the paper and book world! But that's ok, it's just me being me...and I don't mind it one bit! At least I think my Idiosyncracies rule! I'm laughing out load now.
Friday, January 19
Mr. Cool!
Finally getting some pages done. Troy last summer being ever so cool and it all comes natuarally. How does this boy do it? 
Where is our winter?
Our winter is a far cry from last years! Who would have ever thought I would wish for snow? Me? The girl who intentionally moved from living up north to get away from it all. This has been one of the strangest winters I've known. I look at pictures from last year and just wish for it to head our way. Am I really saying that? Wow, prespective is a funny thing. Truth is, it wouldn't be winter at all without it, but it can only arrive in moderation and it can only stay a week ....that part is non negotiable!! (hee hee) of course this is purely selfish thinking. What I want is to admire it from a nice warm cozy place, preferably having a wood burning fireplace. See.... it's all in perspective!
Thursday, January 18
A hard decision
Really hard...but it only took me a second to answer a question posed to me yesterday by dh. Do I want to go to europe in the spring or summer? Hmmmm ...can I think on that? Eeeerch rewind, it didn't quite go down like that. Do you know how fast it took me to say.."Either one honey! blink
Please do I really care when? We haven't been back in a while so, yep... anytime will do! The last question was "Which would I like better Whistler BC or Switzerland?" Ok, that's a good day when you have to answer questions like that. You might ask what was my answer then? Again "Either one honey!" Gotta love those choices.
Please do I really care when? We haven't been back in a while so, yep... anytime will do! The last question was "Which would I like better Whistler BC or Switzerland?" Ok, that's a good day when you have to answer questions like that. You might ask what was my answer then? Again "Either one honey!" Gotta love those choices.
Wednesday, January 17
Yum
Having a huge sushi craving today!! I really miss that about living in a big city. Anything you want anytime you want....I just don't get to have it enough! Honestly, I could eat it every single day of the week and never tire from it. Now that's LOVE!!
Tuesday, January 16
What's wrong with this picture?
Here's my little boy at Christmas time. Guess I take way too many photos of him. Notice the (I won't look at you no matter what look) is there just a little rebellion going on here! I'll pick up my camera and he looks the other way. I've even resorted to trickery to no avail. This dude is so on to me! I've even made strange loud noises and say things he loves to hear..."Do you want a coooookie?" Nope! Nada! Can you say stubborn! Well, Dean just may be right when he says I torment the little guy but I just can't help it, he's so dang cute!
Ok, so he is a boy dog but it was Christmas and the bow was to adorable not to leave in!
A Jones family quiz
It's not a trick question but which doodles are grandpa Jones' and which ones are mine?
Love the
memories of he and I doodling at the kitchen table. I always had to look at a picture, he did his from memory. Wow, I always wished I could do that! There are some of you who will not be surprised that I have these...Auntie..wink wink. Thanks for sending them to me! They are a treasure as well as a very fond memory!
A couple reasons I get happy
Whenever I go through my digital photos I've taken from family visits back home...there are certain ones that just make me stop and smile. Ok you got me! Yeah, there are a lot of those kind of pictures but today it was this one that did it for me. I so love my nieces and nephews and when they show love for each other...well there's nothing like being a witness to that! Life is good when you see it happen right before your eyes!
Finding my "Mojo"
After all of the holiday hoopla, I'm trying to recapture some creativity and passion for my art. Oh where oh where is my little fairy muse! Come out come out wherever you are!
A recent project had me making 45 "baby shower" invitations. What fun it was making the onesies with the little bow at the collar. I'd make these all over again if I was asked. lol
A beautiful place to live
This is the place I call home! Keeping it real among the splendor of the beautiful blue mystic mountains! Can you believe I'm surrounded by this kind of landscape. Venture to say I never take it for granted...NEVER! In a place like this how can I ever wake up crabby? As John Muir quotes: Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.The winds will blow their own freshness into you... while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
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