goodbye january...

i just love january.... it starts off with so many hopes and plans.... and one never knows in january whether they will be fruitful or not...

the weather goes from a snow storm to the 50's days later... the snow gear has hardly had time to dry when we are pulling out short sleeves again...

today i spent cleaning up the studio and doing finishing touches on some game boards for you... off to idaho, massachusettes and texas by the end of the week...

january i am pushed to decorate. the tree is down and the house is somewhat organized. the perfect time to change what is on the walls... move a large mirror from here to there... placing my collection of kitty babendreier's work so that i always see them....enjoying the scent of my forced bulbs in every room and looking at paint chips (again) for the family room... it follows naturally, moving towards new plans and finishing things. a time to redo for that in between time of spring and birds....

winter has been cold. lots of snow and school days at home. the snow has been to hard to sled some of the time, so we wish for a warmer temp. so soften up... this is the perfect snow for sledding, soft and held together, but not a slush... and the sled flies!

i thrive on music... and i just love it when i fall upon an artist that i just love from the first words that are sung....

i found this video on youtube... autumn lozano, sings, plays and writes her music... i can imagine that there are millions of beautiful voices out there, many waiting to be discovered, and who chooses those artists for us? i sincerely appreciate a singer that is a songwriter, there is a link from the soul to the listener... a form of exposure of their deepest thoughts. if you like her music as i do, she has a site... perhaps we can push her up to the top to be heard http://www.autumnlozano.com

hope....dream....create

one more year has passed... it gets harder and harder to believe each year... and the older i get, the quicker the years go by and the less i seem to get done...

i am not one to make resolutions on new year's eve... i learned that in my youth. it's a disappointment to have such high hopes at the beginning of the year and to be horrified weeks later that, yes, once again, i gave in to my 'old self'...

i prefer to spend time thinking of what i hope to do this year, where i would like to visit, hoping for new friends to enter my life, hoping for health and for the energy of a 20 something... hope that my family doesn't run away and will still eat my burnt food.... hope that i will do well at creating and living... and that i will teach somebody something that is vital to their future... yes, it is a lot of hopes...

i dream of an organized life (i know, that's sad), but it means so much to me... if my nest is in order than i can create, if my home is in order i can sit at the table and play board games, order opens my life to new ideas, friendships and things that i enjoy to do.... and if awards were given for chaos and confusion, time spent looking for something, that i would win.

i hope to create more, whether it's wonderful dinner for my family and friends, new art, new ideas for my nest...to work on my poetry and photography that takes me away into a whole other area of design...start needle pointing a pillow and collage...

those are the things that i think about....that i will move towards.... my whisper to myself is family comes first..... when i'm off into one of my little worlds i breathe that message to myself, they are what is most important to me... and in the end of the journey, that is what i will look back on....

i hope that your dreams come true and that you create a wonderful year for you and yours.... and that you have peace...