TYPE ON A PATH/PHOTOSHOP

My computer has been wonky lately, so I was trying to dump big files (audio and video) to maybe de-wonkify it. I'm noticing some improvement already, but the biggest gift is that while I was pruning podcasts from iTunes, I looked at an episode of Photoshop User TV and I learned something really cool: how to type on a path. I use Photoshop quite a bit for photos, but I work with the most basic tools. I love the cool things that other people do in Photoshop with graphics, but I don't spend a lot of time just playing around or even watching the great videocasts I've got stored away. Anyway, I'm jazzed because I think this will be a useful thing. I would recommend subscribing to this show through iTunes if you're interested.

And just for fun, I thought I'd throw in another corner of my kitchen.

HOME FROM WORK

We had guests this weekend that I've been getting ready for all month, really. Why? Because the guest room defaults as a treasure storage room for all my finds. It was a hodge podge of assorted gems: rolls of vintage wallpaper, a cool outdoor lamp that looks like a column of sculptured marble vines, awesome ephemera torn from encyclopedias, dictionaries and magazines, vintage and contemporary fabric, vintage clothing and stacks and stacks of books. What do I do with all that stuff? Well, I sell on Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ColoresCorona

I sell to local resale stores Village Merchants, Red Light, etc.

What doesn't sell in those venues goes into huge garage sales. I'm having one this weekend:
4826 NE 15th (Alberta)
Portland, OR

I'm a collector-packrat-artiste. I love to arrange quirky beauty into vignettes and tableaux. They make me happy as I go about my everyday routine. It drives the love of my life mad because I cover every available surface, but I am obsessed.

I'm home from work today because I've had a stomach bug since Friday night. I had to lay low while our guests were here. Today I feel better, just not great yet (looking forward to that). Because I've been so busy cleaning and organizing, I've been able to only dream about being creative. I still have some wrist pain, so actually making something is a stretch, but I took some pictures of my tableaux.

Inspired by Yoko: Book Recommendations

I was inspired by Yoko Ono to list books that I love. I always start with these because they completely changed my schema of the mind-body connection. In other words they blew my mind in a good way. This is the material that excites and impassions my spirit. I loved Yoko's list:

http://imaginepeace.com/archives/3365

and I've read many of the books that she recommends. It was the brain books that caught my attention and she had Louise Hay on her list also. She is such a gift to our world. Her website is wonderful.

"Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit" Joseph Chilton Pearce;
"Waking The Tiger" Peter Levine;
"Spiritual Initiation and the Breakthrough of Consciousness: The Bond of Power" Joseph Chilton Pearce;
"Evolution's End" Joseph Chilton Pearce;
"Trauma Through a Child's Eyes" Peter Levine;
"Traumaproofing Your Child" Peter Levine

Chilton Pearce is one of the great communicators of our time, I believe. He harnesses huge blocks of thought from numerous disciplines, distills and enhances it and makes it not only comprehensible, but a joy to read. My only caution: his conclusions are not always optimistic even though he illustrates the great power of the human spirit.

Levine I call a bodhisattva. He refused to accept the notion that trauma permanently cripples us and invented Somatic Experiencing, a modern form of soul retrieval.

OBSESSED WITH FLOWERS

I went to my friend, Glenda's, house after my last blog post and discovered that she had a large array of flower punches. Serendipitously, I had just purchased a partial roll of some vintage wallpaper that featured pink roses and gray accents. She went off to work and let me play in her scrapping area and I punched a lot of flower shapes. When I got them home I mixed up more glimmery paint using puffy fabric paint, Pearl Ex, Diamond Glaze, acrylic paint and gum arabic and painted a lot of the punched flowers. I also painted some pages from a cook book in French and cut circles for some larger flowers from that paper. I had a lot of fun working in a range of pinks and lavenders. I used some of the same glittery Stickles-like stuff on a number of the flowers and since I had just cleaned out my pen drawer and had a Signo on my work table, I decided to add some white. I also had a gold gel pen and used that on some of the flowers.

We learned that my father-in-law's wonderful careperson, Cindy, was in a serious car accident with her family so I made her a card using one of the flowers. Cindy is a really warm and gifted woman who has worked with Herb's family for a long time. She's one of the Visiting Angels and I got to meet her when Herb's fabulous mom was in hospice. Cindy was there when Herb's cousins and sisters and I sang Christmas carols to Pat as she made her transition to the other world. Here's hoping for a full and fast recovery to Cindy, her husband and their daughter.