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

Oh today is already perfect and it has barely begun. The sun is shining ever so beautifully, birds are conducting choirs outside my window (in the blossoming apple trees no less) and i have an entire morning to play in my studio with a fountain of inspiration to motivate me. (feeling slightly less than earthbound) Yesterday I was so honored to answer some wonderful and provocative questions in a podcast interview for the lovely Jamie Ridler which has me thinking today about creative rituals. My ritual today included a cup of jasmine green tea, a bowl of Irish porridge and a beet, carrot and ginger smoothie. I also went for an early morning walk, read some poetry (naomi shihab nye) and visited this site which moved me to tears.

Shortly I will go through my final selection of polaroids for the ‘instant magic’ exhibit I am participating in next Friday and clean up my studio which always makes me feel happy ~ somehow creating literal space invites more room for fresh ideas and imaginings.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand….because I seem to have food on the brain today, I think I will poke through my favorite cookbook and create a new dish after yoga this afternoon. A nourishing dish that makes your taste buds dance is completely soothing for the soul and a whole realm of art in it’s own right in my humble opinion.

Speaking of creative rituals, I would love to hear some of yours ~ listening to Jamie’s podcasts, I am always most curious how artist’s move their inner muse into action.

It’s the weekend! What’s not to love?

Oh! and you must see ~ Olga photographs such fabulous creative spaces….

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.

Dizzy Gillespie said ‘that trumpet is lying in the case every day, waiting for me.‘ My polaroid camera is lying in my satchel every day, waiting for me:)

This weekend I said yes to a glass of wine on the roof (watching the sunset vaporize into twinkling constellations listening to music), to purchasing a pair of boyfriend jeans for twenty dollars that I swear are the ugliest jeans I have ever worn and the most comfortable which means I will be wearing them all the time, to also purchasing jade nail polish because i am in a very girly mood lately and have a wonderful art opening to attend on St. Patricks day to thinking a lot about Irving Penn’s northern light and dirty windows and Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet, to leaving lots of room for the imagination, and realizing I take pictures and write but am not a photographer and a writer…I just ‘am.’

Today I am quite grumpy with a lot of work I have to delve into and need to find my mojo when i would rather be packpacking around the world. Fancy that. Well, at least I have summer’s freckles to look forward to. And cherry blossoms are announcing themselves most everywhere these days so who am I to complain really?

is this little film not absolutely lovely?

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…

a little wirebrush tree from my collection that sits on my windowsill overlooking the lane which meanders to the beach

This week has been so full…brimming with a strange mix of seasonal emotions which I have transcribed into seven word poems, black and white photography (exploring the shadows of love and life) and my beautiful home. Yesterday there was an outing to the flea market where I found a beautiful little pocket book of Longfellow’s poems and another of British butterflies, oh! and a puppet named Monk! I especially have been enjoying the little butterfly book with such poetic descriptions of butterflies…

‘the egg is described as pale blue~green in colour, small and round in shape, and covered with a beautifully reticulated network pattern like white frosted glass.

unphotographable ~ the other evening deep in the night, I awoke to to this effervescent light beaming down onto my face through the window and as I sleepily opened my eyes I stared straight up into the wide open face of the pearly full moon ~ pure magic:)..and then I found this….

My home is settling so beautifully from my move, and truly has become a space filled with the language of music, art photography, poetry…and those glorious beamed ceilings which provide soaring space for creative thought, color and a chaotic joy. Every little thing that graces my home (found objects, gifts from the sea, books, art, flotsam and jetsam) have a personal narrative story behind them which I find utterly pleasing. In the end however ‘the few profound things in life that really matter, remain silent’ as Lukas Feireiss said so wonderfully.

It is Sunday! James Brown, Otis Redding and Tracy Chapman have been spinning away this morning and my day began with a little Jacques Tati:) Today I think I shall borrow some wisdom from Longfellow and spend the day not to be doing, but to be:)…and I am rather fond of my new studio

“I really don’t have any wishes. I’m happy. I might had had some, but they’ve all been fulfilled.” ~ Ray Bryant ~

(So uplifting ~ isn’t this exactly the way it should be? )

I just knew when I woke up this morning things were going my way. The sun is SHINING!!! (finally!) ~ I am wearing my favorite thrifted sweater of the week ~ crushing most madly on this man...reading lots of Keat’s poetry and hoping this film will show up at the Fifth Avenue theaters very soon. I have been dancing around the house to desafinado and as Stan Getz said

“I heartily endorse playing in the open air.”

Which I fully intend to do this weekend. Happy thanksgiving and hope your weekend is blessed with happy togetherness:)

oh! and I am having a giveaway over at Mindy’s inspiring wish studio ~ go see!

Oh this weekend flew past me! But it was perfect if fleeting nonetheless There was a trip to seattle, wine and brilliant birthing of ideas, repotting my succulents for my studio, a very spicy vegetarian pasta sauce for sunday night dinner with friends, blustery walks on the beach collecting gifts from the sea….midnight music and blackberry tea when I simply could not sleep (reading ‘the war of art’ with furrowed brow and small epiphanies) and loads of crumpled papers on the floor from a terrible bout of writers block for work. A quiet pact was made with myself this weekend to not buy anything new at all this year with the exception of art supplies, books and a microphone (for my e~courses) and it feels so wonderful. The occasional visit to the thrift shop is allowed for above mentioned books however. (and perhaps the occasional vintage cardigan) I have the lovely Darlene and Kristen to thank for this new pact as I hop on board:)

I am deeply unearthing small (seven word) poems which hold me in thrall as I carefully pen delicate poems for friends as Christmas gifts. Along with these poems I am elclosing a miniature 3 x 3 print from my polaroid series. There will be gold and silver enclosed as well…because well, it is Christmas after all.

My first round of the ”yes’ e~course is almost done and I am feeling quite sad as it was such a brilliant and engaged group of participants. In the next few weeks I am testing my new photography e~course for children based on the program I am teaching in the Fine Arts school so I am looking forward to that very much.

It is Monday ~ I am making a curried broccoli soup and Irish Soda bread ~ and there is a whole week of possibility ahead of me ~ what are you up to?

These lovely purpled blooms are in my garden. It has little stone steps down to a vegetable garden, apples trees i am stringing with lights ~ and many mysteries i have yet to unearth. My garden is terribly overgrown and backs onto a meandering english path called Adam’s Lane in Crescent Beach. There is such an abandoned, magical wild beauty I adore in in my garden sanctuary. We are getting to know one another quite beautifully ~ oh~ and I can even hear the ocean whilst I am puttering about:)

It’s the weekend! Soon…I shall share photo’s of my new home, garden….golden painted walls and stacks of books with you. (never, ever enough book shelves) In the meantime I am delving in five word stories/poesies inspired by the poetic incidental music..listening to Otis Redding….and planning my birthday/house warming gathering. The leaves are tumbling in a colorful swirl all aflutter these days and hot cocoa is making an appearance with a dash of chili pepper for a little somethin’ extra:)

‘neath lightcasting moons, dreaming ladders….’

~madelyn mulvaney ~