Slowing Down

 This year for the holiday's I have "intentions" of slowing down.  

Not physically (there I hope to speed up a little) but in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. 

Remember what is truly important.  

Enjoying friends and family

Good food cooked together

Date night with Mr. B.

Relaxing by the fire

Cozy slippers and a good book!  

Feeding the songbirds

Enjoying my doggies

Spending time outside in nature. 

Flannel sheets! 

Laughter

Creativity

We have so much to be grateful for.....

I am taking a class with Tracey Clark from The Shutter Sisters called "Picture the Holiday's"

It's a gentle reminder to "breathe" this month and enjoy the little things around me.

Enjoy December my dear friends....

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? 

It came without ribbons.
It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” -- Dr. Seuss

RedOrangeYellow

My garden is a riot of color right now. Fall has finally come to my little neck of the world.


I just completed a month long photography class with Tracey Clark - "Picture Fall" at http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ and do you think I could find one leaf changing color in October?
I think I submitted several Oak leaves turning from green to a drab brown.....does that count? 

I did enjoy that beautiful light that magically appears in the Fall...... along with those wonderful long shadows! 

And now our trees are all in full color and the morning air is crisp.

 

 

 The songbirds are waiting in line at the feeders. 

 

 

A little Chickadee patiently waiting for his turn at one of the feeders.

 

                                                           I love this time of year.  Sigh.....

 

 

“Every challenge is a sign that soul is seeking to make its presence more active in your life.”

– The Soul Journey

November yipes!

A few photo's from my Big Picture Class - Picture Fall with Tracey Clark

 

 

 

 

 

How to Be Dangerous by Jen Lemen

1. State your truth. Say as boldly and as clearly exactly what you see. Don’t candy coat. Be outrageously plain whether the truth reveals your joy, your passion or your pain. Say the thing that everyone knows no one should say. Say it anyway.

2. Let your body lead the way. Most of us lead from our heads. When you go from your gut you get a totally different course of action and direction.

3. Act boldly, with feeling. Don’t intellectualize or theorize on your next move. Tune into your gut and go. You can’t know what’s going to happen and it never turns out how you think it will, so you really have nothing to lose. Your body has a wisdom all its own.

4. Allow yourself ridiculous joy. Don’t hold back from where your heart is leaning. Put all your energy into the place where you are being drawn. Take your joy more seriously than your suffering. No one does this and if you do, breakthroughs are fast and furious.

5. Make friends with fear. Fear is part of the deal. Get used to it. Only dead people are not afraid and we all know how much we’re all looking forward to being dead. Fear can be a sign that you are getting very close to the truth and the truth absolutely will set you free. Free is fantastic, don’t kid yourself. You want it & it will bring a much needed relief to the people around you.

6. Follow your instincts. Obey your intuition. We are taught early on to disregard our intuition because it cannot be verified in a way that squares with other kinds of knowledge. But lose access to this more intrinsic, animal part of you and lose your ability to find your way in all those instances that you really need to rely on your deepest truth–in the dark, in danger, in love, in finding the way back home.

7. Listen to the oldest parts of you. The child in you, the adolescent…the parts of you that never got to be safe, that never got to have the comfort or opportunity or kindness that they so desperately needed. Promise the oldest pieces of you that it’s not too late, that you won’t ignore them now. Then take what they ask seriously.

8. Pursue your healing with abandon. Your psyche will be relentless in orchestrating the exact circumstances, people and places you need to put your soul in order. When you consciously choose to yield to this process, you will scare the shit out of everyone around you because from the outside it will look you’re losing your mind. You’re not. You will find the wholeness you seek.

9. Reveal what is hidden. Hide what is obvious. When you turn things on their side, speak to the deepest realities, while skirting over the superficial surface of things, you enter a new world. This is rare and risky behavior. Employ with extreme caution.

10. Love with your whole heart. Starting with yourself. Hold nothing back. Because in the end, no one will love you more than you love yourself. Because in the end, you’ll be so disappointed that you didn’t let yourself love and be loved more. Love this way because the people around you need it more than you can fathom.

11. Ask for what you want. Say what you need. This is one of the most dangerous things you can ever do, but you’ll find out really quickly where you are and who you are dealing with. Hard knowledge, but often necessary. Go ahead, push the edge.

I’m still in my little cave over here, drilling down for the essence of things. It’s not really that much fun, but your notes, songs and kind words have been so good. Thank you for that… I’d much rather be drinking whiskey, shooting the shit and twirling my hair, but for the moment the Universe has this cowgirl in a headlock til she wakes up and smells the coffee. Don’t you hate that?

Hope all’s well in your part of the world…that you can feel exactly when it’s time to be dangerous and when the best thing you can do is be safe. Blessings… -- Jen Lemen "How to be Dangerous"

Capturing Images

Original photo

Photography and Photoshop have been an incredible creative outlet for me recently.  I had someone ask me if it's the same as a darkroom.  I have to say no....and yes, but different. My older brother had a darkroom for awhile in my father's workshop and I remember how much I loved developing black and white photos. You can do that and so much more in Photoshop.  It is a digital program and you have the ability to manipulate your photos in so many ways. I am still a beginner with it and don't know how to work with all of the features but I'm having fun!

On Monday of this week I had an assignment with my online Big Picture class - Picture Color and it was to "tweak" a photo to look vintage. I have to say that there are so many women in this class that are professional photographers and so many gifted women (hundreds) that take incredible photo's.  I was delighted when my photo of an old Nomad, Bel Air car was chosen by the teacher, Tracey Clark to be posted on Shutter Sisters, an incredible online site that features great photography.  Check it out!

www.bigpictureclasses.com

www.traceyclark.com
http://shuttersisters.com/picturecolor

"There was a time in my life when I thought I had everything - millions of dollars, mansions, cars, nice clothes, beautiful women, and every other materialistic thing you can imagine. Now I struggle for peace." - Richard Pryor

Color Your World

A class

On

Color

Is

Starting soon

Big Picture Classes

And Tracey Clark

I am

Excited.

To say the least!

Reds and Yellows

Green and blue

Orange and purple

Whites

Browns

And

Colors

Between

Oh my!

They have been my

Love,,,

Since

Painting

Became

My life.

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere 

and don't notice it." --Alice Walker