buzz

a sneak peek at my new jewellery collaboration with fine pewter gift company Seagull Pewter

This new Echo jewellery collection of 20 necklaces & 12 bracelets launches this Sunday at the Toronto gift fair (which I'll be at Sunday with much loved nephew Michael). This week I've been madly assembling samples with the gang at Seagull (here in my little village by the sea) & I have to say the Echo collection looks fantastic. This first release is all leather, a black suede ribbon, with polished pewter beads, rings, charms, word & inspirational quotations (ya know I love an inspirational word or two). I see this collection as an extension of the Echo home decor line I designed for the same company many, many moons ago. I will be selling this jewellery here on my blog or in my etsy shop - very soon !

It's all tres exciting - off to the post office for my morning shift then much more jewellery assembly ;-)

busy + bounce

geranium / radishes / geranium / tulips in the terracotta gardens / rose hips / wild roses / red branches / strawberries / date packaging with great typography / flowering quince

Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.  New York Times

Busy is not a merit badge - Darn ! that's a hard thing for me to wrap my head around because I've always placed most of my self value on how productive I am or so I thought. These recent days you'd think I'd be showering my self with the love - not so and I am busy, I am productive so that's a bit disappointing. This week is one of those weeks where I feel tres busy, swamped, rushed, overwhelmed with the Busy but it's true my life does not feel at all empty or trivial. My self worth really kinda loves it.

I am certainly a bit type A, with a dash of overachiever, a sprinkle of, intense at times, exuberance, a big pinch of naivety idealism, practically zero spontaneity (I do so love a good plan) & a whole lotta perfectionism thrown into the mix. Busy & me, well we get along real good.

Here's an interesting article The Busy Trap from the New York Times on the whole idea of living Busy I found on fav artist/illustrator Lisa Congdon's blog. I keep thinking I should be trying to be not so busy, I should be looking for balance in my life - well not according to Danielle LaPorte (LOVE her !) & her gang - Me & Busy say hooray for them 'cause who am I kiddin'  - I'm lovin' the whole lot of busy & bounce

In the end, the quest for balance is bogus. Love your burdens. Love them hard. And when your loves knock you down or your weak ankles trip you up, stop worrying about balancing – ‘cuz you’re not – and bounce. Kelly Diels

better

boats in the harbour / rudbeckia in the park / ash tree / portulaca / peach wrappers (for collage) / orange & yellow cosmos / virgil / nasturtium / monkfish with wine butter sauce / early morning dew / first bouquet of sweer peas / gull & fishing boat

After a freaky few days - OK I guess I shouldn't be wishing to go and live on Elsmere Island so I can dance & play with the snowy hares - I'm feeling much better. Talked with much loved (& soon to be hangin' with) nephew Mike on Skype yesterday for 2 hours, I'm so excited about this upcoming Toronto trip (I leave this coming Saturday afternoon). It's going to be a week of busy work and lots more hot muggy weather - what a lovely treat at the end.

Stay tuned for my things I must do in TO list - I used to live there ya know ? I moved to this little village from Toronto nearly 20 years ago.

dread & love

hummingbird - July - from the 2012 Cavallini Flora & Fauna wall calendar

If it's getting harder to face every day
Don't let it show, don't let it show
Though it's getting harder to take what they say
Just let it go, just let it go

Even if it's taking the easy way out
Keep it inside of you
Don't give in
Don't tell them anything
Don't let it
Don't let it show 


Alan Parsons Project - Don't Let it Show from I Robot

(another old favourite song from the soundtrack of my life)

What's another word for busy ? I've been cruising along at top speed lately for weeks and weeks, many irons in many fires. I haven't really had much me time at all. It used to be that all my time felt like me time.

Last week I took several days to mat & frame 23 pieces of my work (some originals, some giclee prints) so that I could participate in a group show at our local café. My new & tres exciting jewellery line I've been working on with a company here in our village launches next weekend at the Toronto Gift Fair so there's much mad, last minute scrambling to make all the show samples & promotional printed materials. I'm working on a licensing deal with a big fish card company who will be producing a collection of 10 greeting cards with my botanical collages (how cool is that ?). I had to write/edit/ tweak my bio & take self portraits to submit to another company who I've licensed 6 new designs with - so that they can feature me prominently (hooray !) in their upcoming catalogue. I'm leaving for Toronto a week from yesterday. I work at the post office, my half day shift, 4 days of 5 this week & the rest of those days I'll be assembling very cool leather/pewter necklaces & bracelets for the show + doing the photography and graphic design for the promotional material. & the Sunday after I return from Toronto I'm teaching my first ever collage/mixed media workshop - shut ! Up !! So ... you may be wondering - how does a socially phobic anxious person do a workshop - well, my secret is to over prepare, I will be so blow-by-blow organized that I'll make it so that next to nothing (& I do mean nothing) can be left to chance - this week I'll begin the creation of my much planned out, multi page, full colour handout* / follow-along-guide that participants can use at the workshop & take home for reference. process, techniques, tips, resources, materials etc.

Yikes. Thank you Universe. Lots of dread & Love. Push & Pull. Sturm und Drang. Ya huh

I feel like I'm walking around in a constant heavy mist of code orange. I'm a bit out of my element - doesn't mean that's a bad thing, it's just means it's new thing , a challenging & taxing at times thing. And as a gift, a reward for all this Can Do spirit and productivity I'm cuttin' myself loads of emotional slack - it's OK to feel like crying (even though I haven't a clue exactly why), it's OK to feel queasy & nervous & anxious much of the time. I know it's because I'm puttin' myself out there - out there in the big, wide world and in so many different ways ... ultimately it is all fantastic.

And I'm not biting any darn hooks

Don't Bite the Hook by Pema Chodron - freakin' fantastic book - I heart Pem - she's my new guru

* Hint for other social phobes - a hand out, slideshow or even props not only is very helpful and appreciated by attendees but it takes the BIG focus off of you and that's a good thing.

last of the crazy people

19 snippets of my our recent life - our Passionate Observer club's Week 1 - challenge

I've been working on submitting bios and photographs of myself to various customers who will be promoting me & my creations. Goodness what's harder than writing about yourself, your work & choosing photographs of yourself ? I'm afraid it's all a necessary evil of Creative Empire building and one which I am trying to embrace (& not refer to as evil). Who am I anyway ? And what the heck am I doing ?? questions I'm learning, for the most part, are best not to ponder too deeply.

The other night while flipping back and forth between the Canadian and American coverage of the Olympics I landed on our PBS station. A longtime favourite destination. I instantly became immersed in an episode of Nature (also a favourite - though worrisome sometimes to watch as Nature can be cruel & sad). This episode was about the wildlife & winter on Elsmere Island - a gorgeous, barren and extremely harsh world. The inhabitants a motley crew of silly, bouncing, kicking, kooky snow hares. Gyrfalcons fussing over their brood of three chicks high up in a niche in a cliff, a yearling female wolf who had become separated from her pack (she was exhuberantly reunited at the end), arctic fox kits - also happy, silly, goofy tumbling & racing around. Snowy owl chicks who waddle everywhere in their puffy, plush coats. It was amazing, they all were amazing.

Watching I instantly became enthralled, and felt relaxed ... happy. I thought to myself, there on the TV screen, they are my clan - they are my tribe. It is truly how I feel, as strange or ridiculous as it may sound to some. I'm at best lost, misplaced, confused & frightened in a human world so much of the time. A fish out of water, or a snowy owl out of nature & I suspect one of the last of the crazy* people.

Bleet on the front path / calendula / chillaxin No.1 / red phlox / Maggie Sue / Ahh - the sea / from our garden / our pack / pink trailing petunia / chocolate brown room / Missy Darn D / poppies / hydrangea / Oliver / blueish purple petunias / impatience on the front porch / chillaxin' No.2 / geranium at dusk / me in my natural habitat

*Also the title of a book by Canadian Timothy Findley - The Last of the Crazy People - heard recently on CBC radio 1's The Next Chapter (most excellent radio showall about books & authors) with Shelagh Rogers in a segment called If you loved ____ (insert book title here) ... you'll love ____ (insert in-the-same-vein book here). Apparently if you loved We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver you'll also love The Last of the Crazy People.

inviting joy

 hummingbirds - John James Audubon

Life is a wonderland of delight -
darting from one flower to another,
tasting the sweet nectar and
radiating the colors of the rainbow.

Hummingbird a symbol for accomplishing
that which seems impossible.
It can teach you how to find the miracle
of joyful living in your own life.

Hummingbird medicine is herbal; it shows us how to use flowers for healing. They teach us how to draw life essence from flowers and create your own medicines. This totem reminds us to explore the past and extract the sweetness from it. It can help you find joy and sweetness in any situation. Grab joy as swiftly as you can. Hummingbird reminds us to find the joy in what we do and to sing it out. - Animal Totem - Hummingbird - Joy

check out this great book for more about Animal Totems

We have four second floor windows in this old brick house that face the harbour which is also south something, very sunny and all have extra deep cat lounging, plant loving windowsills (the depth of the sills is 18 inches - shouldn't all windowsills be so lucky ?). Two windows belong to the much loved chocolate brown bedroom, the other two are in CE* headquarters (the extra wide & deep sill itself the domain & office of one dudalicious cat & associate creative director). Both rooms have geraniums blooming away in those windows - happily, madly red, red, red  - which until a week ago was driving the poor hummingbirds crazy.

Now every summer I fill hummingbird feeders & hang them from trees out n/ about in the vast & still somewhat tangled lands & gardens of 29 Black Street and very occasionally I might glimpse a hummingbird at one of said feeders as I walk through with a load of laundry to the clothesline or while out doing a bit of my (extremely rare these days) hacking & pulling weeding of the terracotta gardens. Sadly I have yet to develop the garden potential on the sunny side of this property with the bevy of hummingbird/butterfly attracting perennials that I hope and dream to one day have. Hollyhocks, bee balm ... you know all those bright & cheery reds & pinks and because of this lack of  I've always just assumed our big, beautiful yard wasn't a popular place with the hummingbird crowd. Boy was I wrong.

Last week I popped into the hardware store & purchased two suction cup red smallish window hummingbird feeders - whipped up a batch of sugar water (1 part sugar/4 parts water) filled the vessels, suction cupped them to the windows just above the geraniums & holy cow !! non stop-ago-go - it's hummingbird central - from very early morning while we're having our coffee in bed 'til later in the evening when I'm here at the TTD** burning that 8:30pm oil ;-)

Such a simple, very inexpensive thing has brought me such immense joy ... joy, joy.

& very gorgeous hummingbird photo from Sara Hurley fellow Passionate Observer

* Creative Empire ** Teak Topped Desk