vintage tins on my kitchen counter ~ filled with sugar and flour, oats and coffee..and that sweet little dog I bought at a thrift shop for a dollar

I am so so so happy to be guest curating over at Crescendoh today ~ go see!

Sunday just how I like it ~ quiet, slow and warm curled up with dog, mokka and a bowl of raspberry~ apple crumble (and a dollup of frozen vanilla yogurt for delicious measure) listening to the Beatles. I was up with the birds today filled with a lovely energy and the house smells so earthy as I am roasting root vegetables in the oven for supper which I will mix with some brown rice and goddess dressing in a nori wrap. (beets, carrots, yams, parsnips and garlic) After my various travelings this summer is feels so very good to nest in my seaside home and somehow I have always felt Sunday’s were most suited to homespun activities and quietudes.

I officially have been gifted my very first 45 record ~ a beautiful press of ‘my sweet Lord’ ~ sung my favorite Beatle ~ George Harrison ~

This weekend was just that kind of perfect and included some lovely moments…

~ dinner at my favorite restaurant with a group of yoga friends ~ afterwords, we walked eleven blocks (singing with a generous ignition of red wine) to a birthday party that went all through the night prompting a run to Tim Horton’s for donuts and coffee at 5 in the morning (followed by my grand idea to make casado’s (rice, beans, eggs with sliced banana’s since there were no plantains) for everyone)

~ adding an extra class to my ‘Art of Living Cheerfully’ online course and counting the day’s to Lizzies retreat (she has the BEST goody bags and I am hoping teachers get one too ~ hint!)

~ enjoying an exhilerating yoga class (leaning in so deeply to each pose, pushing myself beyond comfort levels and then rewarding myself by falling asleep in savasana ~ शवासन:)

~ baking a raspberry~apple crumble which somehow heralds the arrival of Fall for me (my favorite time of the year)

~choosing a happy little can of green paint to paint my bicycle with as a Fall project ~ inspired by the colors in this cheery video

~ managing somehow to practice, practice, practice and perfect rather wonderfully the paradiddle on the drums (feeling pretty awesome about that one)

Well, beautiful friends I am off to make another mokka pot of coffee ~ leaving you with some lovely coffee images for your Sunday morning cuppa’ aaaaaaaand…I LOVE this tattoo!

aaaaaaand…I am guest curating over at Crescendoh today ~ go see!

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!

Life is just so darn beautiful. Sunday’s are just so gosh darn beautiful as I laze around listening to a beautiful cd made just for me (spilling over with lovely love songs:), drinking coffee and testing a new batch of Irish scones straight of the oven adorned with homemade cherry jam no less. Later I am going to make a brie and blackberry sandwich and tease a little poetry out of unlikely corners just for the fun of it. Oh! and a yoga class will be in the schedule as well as it keeps me so overwhelmingly positive, grounded and lovely in my bones.

‘Sunday’ just has to be one of my most favorite words today along with…

mellifulous …’flowing with honey…melodious, musical, dulcet, harmonious’

sentipensante ~ “The fishermen of the Colombian coast must be learned doctors of ethics and morality, for they invented the word sentipensante, or ‘feeling-thinking,’ to define language that speaks the truth.”

—Eduardo Galeano, from “The Book of Embraces”

I adore this word as I am surely one to feel while thinking.

olio…a medley or potpourri, as of musical or literary selections

inkling…a hint, a vague notion….

cacophony…’hoots, cackles, and wails’

fabulosity…fabulousness:) (what’s not to love here?

hullaballoo…an uproar (but a happy uproar in my books anyway)

festooned…’to decorate a room or other place for a special occasion by hanging coloured paper, lights or flowers around it, especially in curves’

(i LOVE the ‘especially in curves’ bit)

This week there are plans underway for many lovely summer/fall adventures including a roadtrip through the mountains to visit my friends Darlene and Duke with my children, Shakespeare in the park with Catherine and friends next week, and even a beautiful birthday celebration on Ocracoke Island in which we are hoping to catch a magical glimpse of phosphorescents whilst sipping champagne under the stars.

I also discovered ‘skype’ this week and yes, I realize I must be the last person to sign up for it but I had such a lovely conversation with my friend Kate yesterday morning in Ireland and I am quite the fan now I do declare:)

Wishing you all delightful summer picnics with homemade lemonade and potato salad and hours spent in a hammock with a very good book and catchy tunes:)

what are your favorite words by the way? just curious! and just in case you didn’t know…I am fan of Olivia

“…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.

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?

‘pablo’s peaches’ ~ photo by madelyn mulvaney taken with a vintage sx70 polaroid camera

It is Sunday

I made cinnamon coffee in my moka pot and there is real Irish oatmeal with fresh organic cream, raspberries, hemp seeds and brown sugar (and a little drizzle of maple syrup)

the birds are singing and experimenting with interpretive dance steps outside my window

There is a record spinning on the turntable.

I read Lily’s (I call her Lily but she is actually Judy) interview curled up on the couch with said coffee listening to said record

and decided right then and there that Judy’s interview is a Sunday conversation

perhaps the only sunday conversation i will ever post because i am very territorial about sunday’s and would prefer to sing my own praises

but Judy’s interview helped herself to a cup of coffee and announced

‘I can’t help but think I am especially excellent Sunday material. Send me out there to wow your small but devoted audience.’

so i admit i am quite inclined to say yes…therefore…without further ado ~ I present the wondersome Judy Ford.