Isn’t this just the darlingest little video? The other evening we bought some red wine which turned out to be quite lackluster in taste to say the least, bitter almost actually. So we simply cut up a handful of ripe rosy plums and plunked them into a glass jar with the wine and some fresh squeezed lime and popped it into the fridge to chill for an hour or so. Add a spin of beautiful 45′s played on the front porch and the wine became an elixir for the gods ~ and those wine drenched plums were plumlicous to spoon into your mouth afterwards as a little extra treat.

Last night I arrived home after being away and was greeted with sooo much love I practically cried for all my blessing in my life. My daughter and her best friend baked me a platter of angel food cupcakes decorated most magically, my son had cleaned the fish tank and stacked firewood for autumnal evening backyard fires and my dog ran around me in excited circles until I leaned down for her wet cuddly kisses.

Today I am so enthused to tackle a zillion things ~ shopping for fresh vegetables for green smoothies, cleaning out the little red cabinet in the kitchen for a fresh improvisational decorating and even popping over to the local thrift shop to see if I can find that very special ‘something’ I have ‘always wanted’.

My studio is calling to me ~ I am tired of the pictures on it’s wall and all are coming down today ~ going to leave it bare like a blank canvas until some new magic presents itself. Oh and I can feel a tiny tingle of ‘fall’ in the air today in the sparkling sunshine promising cozy strolls along the beach with snuggly sweaters and fingerless mittens (so I can take pictures of course)

My heart is very full ~ filled with pure offerings I am longing to share and my creative nature is feeling utterly improvisational these days. I am thinking I will peruse Emily Carr’s schedule for a creative class in something completely new to delve into this fall ~ perhaps a glass blowing class or silversmithing as I have been sketching ideas for rings I would love to make.

a little beauty to share with you and download this song ~ it’s stellar I promise you:) oh! and not to be biased or anything but this interview is rather delightful:)

In the coffee shop this morning (one pound organic breakfast blend) the boy in the lineup behind me sang along with ‘banana pancakes’ and it was so charming ~ his girlfriend wore a dress the color of mint julep and I could tell they hadn’t even brushed their hair yet which seemed to me the most perfect thing in the world.

I have a simply divine little notebook I carry in my velvet satchel ~ it is by paperblanks and the cover is dedicated to the fabrics of the jacquard loom silk weaving tradition of france and I cannot tell you how happy it makes me feel to pull it out with my pencils and write in it…

In this green (saffron, wildberry, gold, silver beaded) notebook I jot down snippets (don’t you love that word? ~ ‘snippets’~ ) of life I see and overhear ~ quite often ‘found’ in coffeeshops.

So this morning, which began albeit a bit grumpily (there really is nothing worse than waking up and finding you have no coffee in the kitchen) soon transformed into a glimpse of such cheeriness in the coffee shop humming along to banana pancakes.

My beautiful friend Darlene is preparing to launch her new photography course ~ and having benefited and blossomed from her generous and patient and inspired teachings with the camera I cannot testify enough how bountiful this course will be ~ there is bound to be lineups at her registration door so be ready!

Today…I am enamored with these portraits just ooooozing lovely love ~ they feature the talented Laney with her beloved taken by Michelle Stone Photography and I am so pleased as Laney is working on a ‘conversation’ for us:)

Oh!!! aaaaaaand I am impatiently thrilled as Liz’s retreat I am teaching at (polaroids and poetry) is filling up ~ I can’t wait to spend a weekend with a soulful gathering of artistic women in the effervescent Pacific Northwest. I have been working on little ‘goody bags’ for my class and getting a bit carried away I think.

Happy Thursday beautiful world!

“…to be led calmly down the stream of time
to the ocean of futurity, which has no boundaries.”
~Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Paul & Virginia, 1849 ~

This past week I felt a lot and wanted to share a lot with my friends, my children, the world around me. Eight evenings, three friends, two children (and also their friends), one love, a rabbit, a dog, blossoming freckles, the sky, sea, rainy summer mornings and homemade Irish oatmeal, hundreds of seabirds swooping past, laying on our backs staring up into the warm languid summer sky.

I unplugged myself from the internet this week preparing meals in the slowness of the everyday, taking long meandering beachwalks, listening to music, delving so deeply into the reason for things whilst swimming in a tranquil pool of strength, grace and love with incredible, active emotional openess.

Taking my time.

The most beautiful things in the whole wide world are so simple really. One morning spent wandering along Commerical drive, shopping for fresh produce which found it’s way into a gorgeous evening meal spent with dear friends ~ we lit a fire in the backyard, guitars were played, voices ringing gently into that good night. I thought I would cry from happiness ~ (perhaps I did, I can’t help it sometime’s I do.)

Just an hour ago I wandered into my garden ~ things are growing here, raspberries, blackberries, wild cherries and chocolate mint. I feel as if this is something tangible ~ that I can hold, turn over in my hands, gather deeply in my heart.

Remember this post? I think I found my little shelf ~ a tumbled, bleached, and most beautiful piece of driftwood which I will put up in my studio and fill with treasured sea bottles and shells and whatnot. I like that word ~ whatnot.

I am feeling generous, loving, real, beautiful, personal, unfettered, joyful and wholesome after this week ~ and keep smiling in the middle of a sentence.

As I type I am listening to Neil Young (harvest moon) and contemplating the quiet sanctuary of my moroccan mint tea. There are flecks of gold spinning through the leaves in my garden (I can taste them in the raspberries)

Later I will watch summer rearrange the sunlight as the pendulum of the sun swings west.

Such a beautiful weekend! Suddenly my little beach town has burst into summery buzzing activity ~ the rooftop terraces are filled with happy ocean peering couples sipping sangria, children are designing elaborate sandcastles, there are bare shoulders, white jasmine sparkling iced tea and roses blossoming on the wild side of things in my verdant garden.

My head hurts with ideas tumbling and jumbling and knocking amongst one another demanding to be realized and this weekend I made several little films ~ the one you see above inspired by my passion for Glen Gould (oh my gosh he had the most effervescent and hypnotic hands), a very windy little film for ‘the four’ collaboration and even a sweet little moment shared with my dog playing in a parade of waves.

It may sound quite fabulous to have a jumbling, tumbling, clamoring noise of creative ideas jitterbugging in my head but sometimes this can be a bit exhaustive (you see because then they all get quite knockneed and I can’t sort out anything properly) Which calls for a cure. And my cure is to pack up the car with my dog and music and books, a basket of cherries and chocolate and head out for a little mini solo road trip. So next weekend I am heading down to Portland and Canon beach to allow my wild spirit freedom to bask in the slow medicine of a loooooooooong drive. (so much scope for imagination!) Oh welcome Summer!

Yoga has been such gladness for me lately ~ think about this for a moment ~ every single breath we breathe is magnificently different and unique ~so timeless and potent and seeded. This week my teacher Dylan said to me in class ~ ‘do it! do the headstand freeform now! the class is waiting!’ which totally freaked me out in the FIRST breath because i felt put on the spot and wasn’t ready (I had only done the headstand up against the wall) but thennnn I took a long quiet present breath and thought ~ ‘then I must do it’ and …i DID. It felt wonderful ~ it felt like jumping into a moondance lit lake at twilight all fresh and new and igniting. And the impulse and belief came from my breath. (and Dylan’s nudge too) Which made me think ~ what else can I do that I didn’t believe possible? Yoda was so right ~ impossible is nothing.

I am in such a heady mood lately too ~ really loving this book…and this film made about the same subject ~ the universe really is such a beautiful and elegant creation.

and Oh! words to shoot by is overflowing with summery goodness this week ~ pop on by and soak it up.

Today I am making a blueberry ~ cherry crisp and homemade lavender lemonade ~ to celebrate summer in delicious style ~ have a happy Monday!

this beautiful photo of me wandering and wondering taken by my lovely friend darlene kreutzer

This photo Darlene took of me when I was in Edmonton makes me so happy ~ wandering and wondering with friends and my poaroid camera picking spring blossoms, a book of poetry tucked under my arm, and ignoring clocks which I think is most important every now and then. Somehow this image makes me long for a roadtrip ~ with the wind and the sea in my soul as my compass.

This morning I awoke to the sound of rain which I completely adore, made a wonderful aromatic cinnamon coffee in my moka pot and stepped out onto my porch to inhale the ordinary, extraordinary scent of the sea infused air and peer up into the pearly grey sky. At this time of the year with all the wildfowers in bloom the aroma is completely intoxicating. Such a soft gentle morning and it’s so strange, even the birds are gentler with their tune on a rainy day. On such a day I could so easily burrow deeply into my studio, spending every minute making art and poking through books I am reading.

I completely forgot I promised another giveaway of one of these original polaroids I created for words to shoot by ~ I even snapped one with my spectra polaroid camera and they really are incredibly lovely ~ so please leave a comment and I will enter you in the draw for the polaroid ~ the original polaroid no less! ~ winner will be announced on Sunday (my favorite day of the week just in case you didn’t know this)

I am in love with this necklace, these stunning glass chimes (I already have a set from Ilaria) and these captivating journal pages. Oh! and my talented friend Celeste is accepting commissions for her gorgeous portrait work here.

What are you in love with this week?

Every second week I participate in two collaborations I feel so incredibly delighted to share in ~ the ‘four’ and also ‘words to shoot by.’ This week I was particularly inspired with the ‘prompts’ presented and threw myself into the challenges. In the ‘four’, I worked on a little film that may look as if it was rather random but I put a lot of thought into it to ‘encourage’ the chimes to react a certain way in the wind ~ of course there was also a strange serendipity due to that mysterious wind which worked magic in my favor much to my overall sense of happiness. I gently tied up some of the chimes to allow the relationship between the other chimes to ‘dance.’ The strange this, it is as if the universe knew what I was trying to express from the deepest part of my soul and helped me along with the resulting yin yang dance ~ I truly love this little film.

In ‘words to shoot by,’ the prompt was ‘body’ and lately I have been thoughtful of how fleeting childhood ultimately is (specifically from the point of view of innocence ) so I worked that into the narrative a bit as well using my son Noah as the subject.

Have a peek at all the wonderful work by various artists in ‘the four’ here and ‘words to shoot by’ here. The ‘four’ also celebrates a brand new look this week designed by Darlene which I am smitten by, as it allows me to delve into my love for small films.

Summer is perched on my doorstep sipping a rootbeer float and I am thinking of making a few mix cd’s today after yoga, jotting down a list of summer reading and looking around for some pretty oilcloth on etsy for my garden table. I am thinking i would love to find a c h e a p Volkswagon Van for roadtrippin’ this summer as well so if you know of a cute one for sale please contact me! I am also looking forward to a friend visiting Vancouver this week who has been here many times but I love that I get to show my city around from a “Maddie” point of view.

Which reminds me (I am not sure how I made this leap however) that wisteria is growing IN through my bathroom window (from the vines outside) and making itself quite at home ~ I will take pictures when it blooms to share with you.

oh! and i was playing around in photobooth yesterday ~ stretches of time will pass by where I completely forget my computer has this fun feature ~ but yesterday I remembered and enjoyed my silly self for a few mintutes:)

Well it’s Monday and I must say I am quite fond of them ~ so full of promise with a shiny brand new week:)

I was reading today ~ curled up in this vintage green comfy chair i bought at a yard sale for just a few dollars. I carried my chair all the way up the winding stairs to my studio, settling it in the corner, tossed a silk red skirt over the back for a little flair and made a tower of ‘must reads’ on the floor by it’s feet. ‘Modern Painter’ magazine which I completely love as well as poetry by Borges and Cummings amongst other sunful treasures.

I opened up my book of ee cummings poetry and it fell upon a most lovely poem which contained these lines…

“suppose
Life is an old man carrying flowers on his head’

and I thought to myself “Yes!!! Life IS an old man carrying flowers on his head.’ I felt like dancing thinking how magnificent it was that Estlin understood this and expressed it so splendidly. I love ee cummings..he also wrote in a poem

(but i imagine that yes is the only living thing)
and we’ll make yes

Imagine! Making ‘yes’. Let’s make yes.

Oh and let’s not stop there because thennnnnn…in another poem he wrote...’the blue slender hands of god’ and now I am determined to find those hands and photograph them. So, if anyone out there has ‘blue slender hands of god’ please please do contact me so I can capture them in a sublime photo.

a few of my favorite things this week….

the gleam, fleck and swoop of seabirds drawing skycircles
jazz and poetry and summer thunder
golden rain and the silver moon
jade nailpolish
blood orange lemonade
petals and ribbons and roadtrips
all shiny things including the exquisite stars
leaping greenly
yam fries with chipotle spice
my holy curiosity
seaglass and feathers, shells and beach pebbles
bees
the sexy perfumed scent of my garden swooning into bloom
hovering butterflies and ladybugs
singing, smiling, laughing and especially church bells
the beautiful sketch my dear friend Celeste createdfor me
morning coffee
roses les bluets (just because they sound lovely)
chimney’s and tulips and chocolate
aaaaaaaaaaaaand…
Sunday’s (always, because they are perfect)

I am just filled to bursting as well as my beautiful friend Lizzie just gave birth to a gorgeous baby girl so a big BIG shout out of joy and love for Lizzie. I am hoping she will bring the little beauty to her ‘reveal’ retreat I am teaching at this fall:)

More ‘conversations’ are perculating away and will be unveiled in the next few weeks ~

happy weekend everyone!

this hill is so beautiful where I walk my dog by the sea, i love
to sit here while she bounces around chasing bunnies,
leaning into small meditations as balletic flecks
of seabirds swoop about the sky

one hundred percent dazzling

my polaroid was taken with a vintage spectra camera
~ and the softtone film I bought from The Impossible project
which is completely splendiferous I tell you.

today i am loving words
‘balletic…poem…leaping, petals and jazz too’
oh, and ‘guffaw’ due to my inclination for
loud, unrestrained bursts of laughter lately

and a new ‘conversation’ with my lovely and supremely soaring friend darlene kreutzer

Have a beautiful Thursday filled with unexpected magic!

I snapped this polaroid walking along Whyte Avenue after stopping for yam fries and fresh homemade lemondade ~ so sweet!

Oh Edmonton how I love you! I have just returned from such a perfect week visiting my friend Darlene and all I can say is it was utter ‘bliss.’ Now, what you may not know about me is I am not fond of the word ‘bliss’ (to put it mildly) Something about that word makes me cringe I have no idea why. Yes, I realize bliss suggests all that is profoundly happy, joyful, satisfied and spiritually euphoric but when I hear that word it just makes me grumpy.

And yet. This week was utter bliss and I said so out loud at least once if not more every single day much to my astonishment and amusement.

There were summer hot art garden fiesta’s in Darlene’s back yard (with delicous Sangria and Duke’s band rehearsing in the background) spring salad’s freckled with raspberries, whistle stops in tiny magical hidden cupboards, book shops and custard tarts ,river walks and ruminations, fabulous jazz shows and Aiden’s delicious wild blueberry sauce, sublime vegetarian restaurants, wandering into neighbor’s gardens and hanging out in bathrooms which always makes me happy, goodness knows why.

Oh! and I cannot say enough about this series we watched one evening which was a whole new level of astonishment all by itself.

Today I am back in my pretty home and pondering new ways to decorate which always happens when I visit homes that are beautiful and inspiring. Does this happen to you? You go away and stay somewhere that is so lovely and can’t wait to get home and bring a little of that inspiration into your own abode?

I promise to share pictures ~ next post!

aaaaaaand

there’s the zen guy!

This weekend was spilling over with bountiful things as I slip into the dance of springtime ….washing windows and hanging windchimes, baking bread and attending evening gatherings, yoga and meditation on the beach at sunrise, wearing my emerald green fisherman pants (feeling quite beautiful), singing in the car with the windows down, reading under plum trees on a sun dappled magenta blanket and chasing a very silly rabbit around the house.

Mother’s day made me cry in the best way possible with the ohsobeautiful hand hammered bracelet my son made me in his shop classs and my daughter inscribed with ‘persisting stars” which they gleefully presented to me when they took me out for curry. I bought (yet another) jade plant (I love them so much) and strung chili pepper light on my studio porch whilst sipping my first mango smoothie of the season.

Today will find me in my studio scanning photo’s, organizing my desk, sending off revised proposals and daydreaming out the window (which I have an abiding affection for doing) I am so thrilled as The Impossible Project are so incredibly and generously donating film for my ‘open to exposure’ project ~ these lucky children in my polarid project get to shoot with the new px 600 film! I am so excited with the Impossible Project’s support ~ it’s like a little magic carpet ride of enthusiasm:) The ‘open to exposure’ project starts in July and I can’t wait to dive in and see what the children come up with.

Oh! Last night I was curled up ever so happily reading my very favorite book “Absence and Presence” when I stumbled on these words by Pablo Neruda’s wife Mathilde, speaking of visitors to their home in Isla Negra…

“His worktable in Isla Negra. When visitors come to the house for the first time, I show them this table and say to them, “Pablo wrote his poems here ~ he was exceptionally fond of this table.” They look at it, sometime’s with surprise, sometimes with indifference. It’s no more than a poor table. In the main, the people who visit the house don’t see the things that Pablo loved most because these are the simplest, those of least material value. He loved and always looked for stones made smooth by the action of time. Roots fascinated him ~ he had many pieces of wood that he found in the forest. He told me they were small pieces of sculpture. This house was for him a dream universe. Only he understood the true value of his objects. I, as his shadow, understood also.”

I cannot tell you how I felt when I read this little passage, it resonated me with so deeply. I also collect wood (mostly driftwood) which I have piled up in my home and consider to be art for my soul. And let me assure you I would never have been indifferent to Pablo’s desk ~ in fact I am certain I would have made love on it right then and there with my beloved as a passionate ode to the spirit of Pablo.

This made me think however about my own home and the things in it which are so beautiful and meaningful to me. I imagine many of the contents would also be completely overlooked by visitors as there is little that is ‘astonishing’ at first glance. So I am thinking today I will shoot various flotsam and jetsam in my home that make me feel so satisfied ~ that are sacred to my soul and share them with you in my next post.

It is Monday ~ I love Monday’s as they generally find me puttering in my studio thinking up all sorts of marvelous ideas. Today will also find me packaging up this polaroid which was won in my draw by ‘Brooke’ ~ please e mail me Brooke with your address and I will send it off to you in the mail.

I seriously loved this draw and have decided with great fanfare to have another on Sunday for the image you see posted above which I shot for ‘Words to shoot by’ ~ this week I was absolutely spellbound by the sensual portraits shot by Jördis, they are incredibly alluring.

Happy Monday!