today I ~

~took this polaroid of a yellow rose for ‘roid week by the seaside with the new Impossible Project film (oh so happy!)
~ picked oh so many raspberries out of my garden to sprinkle on my yogurt with some hempseeds and agave nectar
~ spent a delightful hour out on the deck off my studio penning a handwritten letter for a friend (which will be shipped off with my new cd mix)
~ put my hair up in a wild array of various loose braids tied with hemp and if I do say so myself, it looks quite fetching
~ wrote out the new polaroid segment for my ‘photography and wonder of seeing‘ course (registration is now open!)
~ listened to this song, oh a hundred times because it is on my playlist and I love Zooey, and this song too because he is talented and well, obviously so sexy
~ whipped up a most splendiferous morning iced matcha latte (recipe below)
~ tried on various dresses for an opening I will be going to in Seattle Thurdsay evening

Iced Matcha Latte

whisk matcha powder with water until all lumpishness have dissolved. Whisk in steamed soya milk and honey.
ta DA!!!
Poor happily over ice cubes and enjoy:)

Speaking of ‘roid week my friend Kristen snapped this polaroid when she visited last week and I just love it ~ it makes me feel so happy to have a photo of me playing the guitar despite the anguish those bar chords are giving me in my practice lately.

It’s Monday!! I love Monday’s!!!

tip of the week ~ eat your brazil nuts sweetpeas ~ they are brilliant for healthy skin, hair and eyes. Just sayin’:)

xoxo

Maddie

Above is one of the images I shot for this week’s ‘words to shoot by’ ~ the word is ‘mirror’ and I got it into my head to bring a mirror down to the beach verrrrrrrrry early Saturday morning. I know, I know what you are thinking ~ I am turning into the mad woman who is constantly taking pictures by the sea returning home with kelp in my hair and little bits of shell and bone and driftwood between my toes. I have such unconditional love for the sea and the sea for me. Our communion strums the true depths of my spirit. Sappy, but true:)

Anyway. Back to my pictures. Saturday was so beautifully beckoning and despite the early time (I was up at 5 a.m. to catch the symphonic rush of the incoming tide for more dramatic shots) I was happy in the happiness, leaning into a little creation whilst most intelligent souls were still sleeping. I had my coffee and music on the drive down to the White Rock beach (it tends to have more ebullient waves than Crescent beach, hence the car ride) and the pale magenta sky was streaked with gold ribbons clamoring to reach the cresting waves. R a d i a n c e I tell you!!!

And then. Suddenly, without warning, (as these things tend to go by the sea) the winds appeared (perhaps jealous of our reverie?) and kicked up such a terrible fuss with a gale of rain like two children having a tantrum. And before I knew it, my camera was soaked, my mirror was speckled with raindrops, I was drenched to the bone and shivering and miserable and frustrated.

I think I even kicked a pile of seaweed across the beach at one point. It was not a pretty thing to witness let me tell you.

And thennnnnnnnn….. (and I love this about myself) suddenly I decided to keep shooting in the rain, and LEAN into the experience. And it’s truly strange but literally in a space of 30 seconds my attitude changed. I tasted the salt spray on my lips, kicked off my shoes, hiked up my skirt, and with each mesmeric movement I embraced the seduction of the mornings changing mood.

It was enthralling. ENTHRALLING!!! I really wasn’t even sure at that point if the pictures would turn out at all but I was so completely in the moment and alive in the act of creating, I cared not a bean. It was beautiful. Truly beautiful. Later I returned home, hopped in a hot bath, made a huge breakfast absolutely head over heals in love with my life. Oh! and the pictures turned out quite lovely, actually. You can see them with a whole gallery of stunning photo’s here later this morning.

This weekend was so busy, each moment more magical than the one before ~ there were strawberry and white chocolate pancakes at the Sunflower cafe, traipsing around thrift shops for clothes (a tangerine sleeveless raw silk shirt, fabulous spring green khakis, gypsy hoop earrings) riding my bicycle all the way to my yoga class (with the cutest teacher EVER ~ happy shout out to Ryan) and watching my beloved Canucks dominate in the hockey playoffs. NO WAY JOSE!!!!!

Today…I am making a film for ‘reel time’, listening to this music…setting up a new ‘fly on the wall’ (for Thursday, come back thursday!!) and every now and then I have yet another peek at this picture taken by my beautiful friend Jillian ~ it is HOT I tell you! And not just hot as in ‘beautiful shapely man hot, but hot as in …the magnificent alchemy of communion with nature, soul, spirit and his wild adoring woman tuned to that atomic moment…a symbolic ‘becoming’ of sorts.

Oh now listen to me…blabbing on! Let’s just stick with HOT.

Happiest of Monday’s to you one and all!!

xoxo

Maddie

pssssssssst!!! the sweet Summertime registration for the ArT of living most cheerfully is OPEN!!! A big thank you to everyone who waited so patiently for me to sort out the paypal registrations ~ muah!!!!

one more thing…I love this work…it is..so captivating!!!

ok I lied…just ONE MORE THING AND THIS IS BRILLIANT ~ for all my photog friends out there:) xoxo

This morning the clouds were spilling from the heavenly blue skies. I made a french press of very strong coffee, poached eggs and rye toast with caraway. Put on a warm sweater and walked around my garden, admiring all the unimaginable magnificence of Spring ‘greenly leaping’. So sexy, entirely orchidaceous, bold and radiant. Prancing around my world like a glorious stripper. (Spring that is, not me! ~ at least not quite yet:)

I am completely charmed with this photo you see above taken by one of the most beautifully wonderful people in the world. My friend Vivienne snapped it the other morning when she came over to visit. We took pictures on the beach, recorded an interview I am so honored to have included in her self portrait e~course and went out to lunch. At the Sunflower cafe which is just down the street where I live and has the best beet/carrot/apple/ginger juice and Indian lentil soup. Just in case you are ever in my part of town you won’t want to miss this charming cafe, it is seriously one of the true delights of the neighborhood.

Anyway, back to Vivienne. Vivienne took such lovely shots of me, if I do say so myself. Photo’s I can live happily with which is saying a lot since I am not an easy woman to photograph. Not to sound arrogant or anything but they turned out brilliantly if only because she is quite the gifted photographer. Viv made me twirl a lot which was fun ~ until I got a bit queasy anyway. I can’t wait to see the other photo’s she took as she is working on a ‘persisting star’ theme for me on one of them. And this photo you see above is my favorite. See the funny way I cross my feet? I found that so touching as my father always used to do this with his feet. When I noticed this detail it made my heart swell so much. I miss him.

Speaking of springtime and sexy, I have this beautiful piece of writing to share with you…I think you are going to love it. Perfect for Springtime!

It’s really a very beautiful exchange of values when women put their clothes on in the morning and she is brand-new and you’ve never seen her put her clothes on before.

You’ve been lovers and you’ve slept together and there’s nothing more you can do about that, so it’s time for her to put her clothes on.

Maybe you’ve already had breakfast and she’s slipped her sweater on to cook a nice bare-assed breakfast for you, padding in sweet flesh around the kitchen, and you both discussed in length the poetry of Rilke which she knew a great deal about, surprising you.

But now it’s time for her to put her clothes on because you’ve both had so much coffee that you can’t drink any more and it’s time for her to go home and it’s time for her to go to work and you want to stay there alone because you’ve got some things to do around the house and you’re going outside together for a nice walk and it’s time for you to go home and it’s time for you to go to work and she’s got some things that she wants to do around the house.

Or … maybe it’s even love.

But anyway: It’s time for her to put her clothes on and it’s so beautiful when she does it. Her body slowly disappears and comes out quite nicely all in clothes. There’s a virginal quality to it. She’s got her clothes on, and the beginning is over.

—Richard Brautigan -

There is so much movement in my life, I can barely focus lately to eat, let alone breathe it seems. I am sweeping my life onto a canvas and have so much to share with you ~ on Sunday, please come visit on Sunday! xoxo

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!!! Oh I have such a fabulous, FABULOUS new ‘fly on the wall’ with the painting master himself, Kevin Paulsen. To say his work moves me is an understatement. There is a profound spiritual, otherworldness to his paintings that I find profoundly emotive ~ his art deeply strikes an old soul chord within. Have a look for yourself. You will be enchanted.

with love and fireflies wearing crowns of cherry blossoms

xoxo

Madelyn

Some mornings, I wake up and there is this delicate sensitivity in my soul ~ it sort of feels like a dove nesting in my heart ~ I have to move somewhat gently so as not to awaken it from it’s slumber. On these mornings I long to spin this immortal sensitivity into something rather beautiful. Today I took a few polaroids (with my spectra camera as well as my sx70) of a moulted feather that a lovely friend sent to me this week. It’s so incredibly beautiful and has this whisp of starbeam yellow along the edge.

I was so surprised with the photo when it emerged in that slow captivating way of a polaroid ~ I could sense there was a little bit of a song in this feather, in that pale, ethereal beauty. This slender feather wants to dip into soul territory ~ I love how I was able to translate my mood into something tangible and yet mysteriously incomplete.

Earlier, I went deep into the woods on a walk with my dog ~ allllllllll the way down the steep ravine to the creek collecting fallen evergreen branches along the way. They smell so euphoric and GREEEEEEN ~ and look simply divine and delighted ‘planted’ in an old stone planter by my front door.

The dove is stirring in my chest ~ soon it will fly away in the wake of a poem penned by a feather….

oh! and I have been playing the harmonica lately ~ and found this wonderful photo on flickr to share with you

This weekend has been so beautifully restorative for me, after such an overwhelmingly busy week which became busy in a wonderful way when I finally decided to ‘surrender’ and ask for help. So many articles were overdue, my mind was feverishly gestating creative ideas I wanted to rush out and manifest, not to mention requests for three proposals in relation to my new polaroid project, ‘open to exposure’ for children. Surrendering took the form of hiring my lovely friend Jennifer, who is a brilliantly gifted writer and asking her for help which she undertook with grace and humor on very short notice.

Pop by her website and you will be seduced with her charm I promise you ~ Jennifer ‘curated’ a stunning collection of essay’s in a book called ‘Lanterns’ which you can order off her website, several of my friends penned luminous stories for Lanterns and the photograph’s are sooo gorgeous!

Have a peek as well at the little film clip I took this weekend at the Aquarium of the moon jelly fish ~ they are by far my favorite sea creature as their effervescent beauty is gorgeously hypnotic to me. I could spend the entire day just staring at them and was so happy to capture a bit of their magic on film.

Later this same day I visited the Buddhist temple for a meditation class and had a most lively conversation afterwards over jasmine tea in the caffeteria. My Dharma practice is incredibly personal to me so I tend to tiptoe gently through spiritual conversations if only because in the end it is so incredibly ordinary. It truly has nothing to do with ‘identity’ and like my deepest personal relationships I find that sheltering this ‘wheel of becoming’ allows my lens to become ever more generous.

Wandering through life’s experiences I am learning to simply be natural, to venture beyond a point of view to insight and understanding, and perhaps the biggest of all to ‘learn how to listen so others will speak, and how to speak so others will listen’ ( a big one for a chatterbox like me:) Somehow all of these facets help me penetrate more deeper into intimacy which I guess in the end is where I am continuously trying to make my way.

The sky is a most lovely blue today and I am heading out further exploring my new passion for the px 100 silvershade film by the impossible project ~ you can peek at photo’s of my learning curve here. This film has the most beyond~gorgeous magical shimmering sparkles that I am over the moon with. It’s so cool because they have little ‘quotes’ on the cards that the polaroid camera spits out ~ my last one read ‘catch a falling star and put it in your pocket.’ Needless to say I was quite charmed:)

Have a fabulous week, I hope you had a relaxing and peaceful Easter weekend.

‘invisible ink’ polaroid print available in my shop, taken with a vintage sx70 camera

Oh my goodness, it seems so long since I have settled down to pen a post, where no one is in a hurry to go anywhere. I am happy today is such a day despite a mountain of ‘to do’s’ that I refuse to worry over.

The past two weeks have spilled over with various dwellings in loveliness including a retreat away for a profoundly intimate celebration of a transformational time in this dear friend’s life. I was incredibly moved with the unbidden outpouring of love for Liz, the ignition of artistic births that comes when one is surrounded by a gathering of gifted and generous artists in the magical reverence of nature. One evening as I looked at all the beautiful faces of friends gathered for Liz it occured to me how wonderfully revealing our friendships are. Her village of friends reflected the joyful healing power of unconditional love, the warmhearted delight in one another’s company and the mystery of encouraging support that moves in the energy of the connected flow of togetherness. It was a gift to celebrate this weekend that I will cherish forever as I witnessed the way Liz’s heart and beautiful soul has touched so many lives.

A mere two days later I leapt into another transformation as we celebrated the exhibit for my children’s photography course ‘open to exposure ~ seven.’ I have so many photo’s of this delightful event but could not upload most of them since the children all sat by their personally designed exhibits and shared with the visitors the inspirations behind their photo’s. You can see a few snippets in my set here however which are simply delightful beyond belief. And yeah, I cried when I went home because, well, I just love those kids so much.

I am now in the midst of embarking on my new project ‘open to exposure ~ seven ~ the polaroids’ which chronicles the work of seven children, seven questions, and polaroid pictures of course. I will be documenting their journey throughout this project for a book I am writing “Open to exposure ~ giving your child the gift of self expression through photograhy.’

My passion for polaroid is spilling over into so many areas of life now as I have truly found my ‘medium’ rooted in the old fashioned magic of analog imagery. Thank goodness the impossible project is no longer impossible and my appetite for film will now be forever satisfied:) so let’s hear a loud ‘yay!!!!” for that news.

Spring has sprung and my garden is awakening with a charmed sleepy yawn, jasmine preens on my front porch and I have strawberry plants and tomatoes, mint and tarragon to coax along summer’s path.

I have missed all of you and this week I can’t wait to pop by your blogs.

What magic has come your way this lovely Sunday?

“where always it’s spring ” cherry blossoms polaroid taken with my sx70 camera ~

Spring’s blossoming crescendo is announcing itself most triumphantly all about me and I am having a love affair with topaz, cobalt and violet. Please forgive my exaltations yet again as I wax poetic over my vintage polaroid camera ~ those images that I treasure for the romantic grain and glorious color leaks ~ truly polaroid lends itself so well to my poetic nature. That sound ~ the whirring of the picture announcing itself to the world is music to my ears.

This morning it is particularly beautiful outside with singing birds peering down at me from blossoming trees, the scent of seawater in the air and the lure of my bicycle propped up in my backyard. Perhaps I will fill the basket with thistles and blooming stems and peddle to the beach. Later perhaps alas since I am really committed to various work realities and must cover my ears to the beckoning sonnets of springtime. However I am also feeling incredibly girly lately and thinking I may have to buy some new spring dresses and shoes ~ I keep popping into a certain beautiful shop in seattle which I won’t mention because i get so grumpy with the prices ~ but oh! the dresses are divine. I am so committed to my morning yoga now so I am toning up for pretty summery outfits and feeling quite like this actually

This week has been….warm, lovely, receptive, magical with songbirds singing. My home smells like cinnamon coffee, there is blueberry/apple crumble in the oven and I am teaching tomorrow. Life doesn’t get more perfect than that, of this I am so sure. And well, a little love goes a long way.

life is a bowl of cherries

Darlene took this photo in my studio the other day and i quite love it ~ it makes me smile for the light and twinkles and nifty yellow warmth. Today I cleaned up said studio as it was getting awfully messy with piles of books and records stacked on the table, floor and chairs. Not to mention all the crumpled up papers under my desk and various scattered mugs of coffee and tea consumed at odd hours of the night when smitten with my writing fits. It felt so good to clean my studio since I put on music and brought up a tray of chocolate biscuits and set about returning the room to a pleasing sense of order (all ready to be messed up again sooner rather than later but nevermind)

However I am not in my studio now. I am in my livingroom with a cozy fire and cup of homemade chai listening to the rain pattering outside in my garden. And thinking. Thinking once again of my grade seven’s I am teaching a photography class to. Oh, you will love this. This week we talked about love and beauty. I asked which they wished to discuss fist and they all shouted ‘LOVE!!!” We chatted about how deeply personal love was, so abstract and complex and difficult to define, we talked about romantic love, platonic love and spiritual love and how you will find it everywhere in art, music, dance, photography etc. We discussed deep tenderness and emotional closeness and how love makes you feel so great by the happiness of another. And then. A very sweet boy put up his hand and said ‘And there is self love too.’ “Self love” I responded “Oh yes, and why is this important?” And he said “Because if you don’t love yourself how can you really love anyone else?” And then another boy put up his hand and chimed in….”You know when I do things that make me happy for myself then suddenly I am all filled up with joy and I want to go share that with everyone ~ it makes me feel like I have more love to share and I am just bursting with it.”

And well, I have to tell you it didn’t stop there. Discussing beauty later we chatted about inside beauty and outside beauty, feelings of inferiority through perceptual experience of attractiveness ~ I showed them this film and then asked them if they could give examples of inside beauty. A boy put up his hand and said “Have you seen the film Forest Gump? Well, he really wasn’t that good looking of a man but he was SOOOO kind and soooo gentle and funny and inside he was a very special attractive person. Everyone responded to him even the beautiful girl in the film.”

And then it really hit me ~ children KNOW ~ children are born KNOWING and who am I to believe I am teaching what was seeded in their soul’s from the beginning? I am not here to teach ….just to remind…to keep the faith and and hope alive in our world that it is true and beautiful and worth trusting and illuminating in self expression. Children always have their arms wide open….they remind me how easy it is to connect with one another and how far we are capable of reaching out to each other.

I am so so so SO grateful for every moment I get to share with these kids!

sweetness… and love…

See that most wonderful vintage mokka pot on the little pile of magazines? I found it this week at the thrift shop with Duke and Darlene and am quite pleased to report it makes the most astonishingly delicious expresso. (a big shout out of thanks to Duke for teaching me how to perculate to perfection) I am madly in love with it, and also the adorable vintage granny crochet pillow you see in the background which we also found at the thrift shop along with a delightful record happily entitled “Merengues and Mambo’s.” (which I am listening to right now as a matter of fact)

This morning I made oatmeal and a green smoothie (Darlene has been making them for us all week and now I am hooked) and am working on my lesson plan for my grade seven’s photography class this week. It is a quiet springbursting day in February and I just adore this photo Darlene took of me, this lovely set from ‘the four’ and this seaside shot I took with my polaroid camera ~ my greatest fear in life is to run out of polaroid film so if anyone has any stored away they would like me to take off their hands please do let me know:)

Happy monday!