To me the most important thing is the sense of going on.
You know how beautiful things are when you're traveling.- Edward Hopper


Our First Mini Adventure, Huntington Beach, CA. (2004) *more pictures here

I read an article this weekend about the website learningtoloveyoumore.com

"Assignments" are proposed to the general public to go out and make art!

Including challenges/concepts like: hang a windchime in a parking lot, take a picture of the sun, take a picture of strangers holding hands , and make an audio recording of a choir (real or constructed). (The last one is will be featured at the Whitney Museum Biennial, as an elevator installation.) The instructions were to"...make the most beautiful, wonderful sound you have ever heard." Step in the elevator at the Whitney and be lifted!

-via Readymade

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.- Albert Einstein



I used to keep all of my childhood memories (i.e. photographs, notes, letters, clippings, & drawings) in shoe boxes. Shawn found one the other day from junior high/ high-school that I had completely forgotten about.

We rifled through all of the old photographs, and laughed at all of my fashion don'ts from my teen years. Cut off jeans with tights and red doc martin boots...did I completely fail to mention the egyptian style eyeliner and waist length hair?! What was I thinking?!

But anyway I digress...what was really interesting, were the letters. I sat up in bed for a few hours reading them, and realized how in touch people were back then with their futures without even knowing it!

There was an old postcard in the batch that a friend sent me in 1995 from a trip up north to San Francisco & Seattle, saying "...it's been a great bath here in San Francisco - here is better...I will say that I could definitely live in Seattle". Which is somewhat ironic, since just this year her fianc� was unexpectedly offered a job up there...so there she is!

Another letter was from a friend I used to hang out with in high-school. During my senior year he sent me a letter from his first year in the army. The P.S. line asked me to give a enclosed note to one of our mutual friends saying, "she's such an airhead". Earlier this year I found out that they are now married. (ha ha!)

Oh, the winds of destiny...

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projects I'm thinking about � skeleton key windchimes � book clutch purses � pillows for my wicker set sewn from vintage hankies

today's art bookmarks � Maggie Taylor � Jenny Bird � Scott Radke

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it. ~ Mae West




I drove home from the dealership last week in the pouring rain with my new baby ("the cuteness" as I like to call it). I'm not completely sure what all of these buttons on the dashboard do yet. Right now it's as if I'm a foreigner in a country where I don't speak the language. Despite my utter cluelessness, I still wore a big grin on my face and caught myself (at least a good five times or so) saying out loud , "I love this car" on the drive home.

I've driven vintage cars for so long I'd completely forgotten what a new car with power windows, AC/Heat, a cooperative steering wheel, and brakes that weren't soft (from 30 years of wear) was like. New cars are so dazzling sweet!

This weekend we've been in search of the windiest, longest routes and have been immensely enjoying the ride.

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oh yes....another side note: I collect Eiffel tower paraphernalia, and thought these creations were just amazing!
Artisan tiaras, & historic monument gift boxes made from vintage papers.

I am kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. - J. D. Salinger



Leaping Lizards! The day to go pick up our new mini has finally come after waiting patiently for six months, 8 hours, 27 minutes, and 5 seconds (but whose really counting?). *gasp*!

I had a dream last night that I was driving it for the first time. I looked down and there were 6 pedals. I wasn't quite sure which one was the gas or conversely which one was the brake. Luckily my dream mini had a bicycle hand-brake on the steering wheel...so it was "all good". I drove right through a parade of women dressed in white robes with fluttering angel wings, quite miraculously without hitting any of them. So, I still have a good feeling about this!

I always get a kick out of my anxiety dreams.

"You know I always thought unicorns were fabulous creatures too, although I never saw one alive before." "Well, now that we have met," said the unicorn, "If you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you." - Lewis Carrol, "Through The Looking Glass"



They say that if you clip the blooms off regularly from the sweet pea vine, they'll come around for a second bloom. So today, snip...snip. I've been collecting tiny bottles for the past few years, and now found a nice use for them. I'm so glad that Shawn built a ledge beneath the kitchen window, where I can proudly display my flower fetish. The kitchen smells as if it was doused with a sweet perfum.

And on a side-note aren't these Faerie bottles sweet?!

The joy that isn't shared dies young. -Anne Sexton



Since Valentine's is just a few days away, I thought I'd post my favorite (found) kissing photo. (Doesn't this picture just beg the question: Why isn't her foot popping?!)

Speaking of found objects today Amybelle posted a link to a wonderful site/magazine dedicated to this phenomena in her journal, which incidentally is called Found. It's incredibly entertaining looking through all of the lost photographs, and notes on scraps of paper with a short description of where it was discovered. My favorites are the anonymous love notes. The ones that are written in carefully scrawled cursive, with things like: "If loving you is a crime, then I'd be happy doing time", or "Mr Young and Handsome, I hope you found what you are looking for. I know I did. With a smile like that you must not be from here. Sincerely, The one's who day you made. "


I've been collecting things like this for years, I have shoe-boxes full of notes passed (heh, or dropped) in the halls, photos of beautiful strangers I used to snag from the leftover yearbook photo piles, small plastic toys found in unsuspecting places like the edge of the sidewalk or somewhat buried in the sand on the beach. I have no idea why I covet these stolen moments & treasures, but I do.

Yesterday, I had one of those kinds of moments with something more intangible. Not an object I could keep, but rather an unusual experience.

I was preparing to water the front garden with my high tech sprinkler system (a hose, with a donut shaped vintage sprinkler attached on the end) when I noticed my favorite polka-dot butterfly was perched near the grass on the brick border. I kneeled down next to it, thinking it would flutter away from me like it usually does but to my chagrin it didn't. Not wanting to get it's wings wet, I decided I would try and move it. Nudging it onto my hand, it surprisingly crawled on willingly.

There I was standing in my front garden with a butterfly sitting in my hand. I thought, that it must be hurt since it still wasn't flying away. I raised my hand up to get a closer look, it's small butterfly eyes opened up and looked back into mine. It was a surreal experience staring into these tiny things. I examined it's wings, turning my hand like a rotating platform...they looked perfect. I began to walk up the stairs of the porch, when it started cruising around the palm of my hand. Legs so featherweight I couldn't so much as feel a tickle there. It made me smile. I set him up on a branch of my hanging fuschia plant on the porch, where it began to crawl on the limb and then in an instant it just floated away like it was some sort of fascinating dream.

They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. - Andy Warhol

Click on the image above to see a fun before and after rollover. (IF that doesn't work here's Before vs. After.

Probably one of the most exciting experiences of our life has been bringing this historic home back to life. It's been one of the most daunting and rewarding tasks that we've ever come to experience.

When we used to rent, I took three walks a day with jerry (our springer spaniel) up and down the streets of this neighborhood. I loved peering into peoples gardens, and staring at all of the different colors of paint that people chose for their bungalows. The walks were never boring, as things in the neighborhood were constantly changing...and always for the better. The thoughts in my head grew stronger every day as I walked past peoples homes. I silently wished for a house here, a place to have a wild cottage garden, with a front porch to watch all of the action on the street, and a place for our dog to run free without a leash.

Then a year after we got married and were ready to look we came upon this property, you know what they say about buying the worst house in the best neighborhood...well, mission accomplished.

Strange though how things just fall into place sometimes. We looked at a lot of different homes for months on end. During the searching process, I bought a vintage porch light (off of ebay), a wicker couch and two chairs... for this house that we were barely even yet considering. Yet somewhere I think deep in my psyche I knew this house was meant to be ours.

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful -William Morris



It's funny how words work. I've been thinking so much about what to say in here, but the right words still continue to escape me. Lately each time I think I have something, it just turns into an ephemeral thought and passes me by.

So I guess until the right mood, and the right topic strikes... I'll just hush up for awhile longer & continue to post the things that really matter the most to me anyway: art, photography, and crafty projects.

Right now I'm in the midst of trying to figure out the EZ-Knit machine that my husband bought me for Christmas. It's not so easy, let me tell you! I'm fantasizing about whipping out soft little purple baby blankets for my expecting friends in a matter of hours ...but in the end if I feel too disheveled with this device, I'll more than willingly turn to the comfort of the clanking of regular knitting needles. After all ...my favorite place to knit anyway is under the warm down comforters in the coziness of my bed!

(still a work in progress)



Just added DIY: Alice In Wonderland Miniature Gardens