"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
~ Marcel Proust ~
I have to say, there are so many flowers in my soul as of late, it is a virtual (spiritual?) garden of wildflowers. I do hope that many of you reading this can say the same.
Things are getting hectic around here. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the latter half of the month is committed to working on newsletters, newsletters, newsletters. ZNE in particular has so much going on, I need to write a novel in order to include all the updates. I wish I could just get all our members together and give them a tour through The Land of ZNE. "And behind this door we have...." Oh, it would be so fun! Hmmm... Note to self: Project for the future - Create a Virtual Tour of the Land of ZNE. Ooh! Fun...
Anyway, that being said - I did want to post a few notes about some of the charming gardeners that have been making me smile lately.
First off, the light of my life - my son RJ - pointed out that I haven't yet posted a picture of him in this new blog. My bad! Here is a picture of my beautiful boy:
Yes, that is chocolate pudding smeared on his face. Bad mommy, letting him fall asleep (on the couch no less) without making him wash his face. Sigh.
I like looking at him while he is asleep, I can still almost see his baby face in there. How quickly it all goes. He'll be 10 years old in a couple of months.
Oh. the flowers that have bloomed in my soul, due to this child of mine, this gorgeous and charming gardener. I never could have dreamed or imagined, and yet here they are. At every turn, fragrant and lovely - my son.
The picture up top was taken in December. He was making a ginger bread house at school. I try to volunteer at his school at least once every month or two. He loves it when I do this. Asking me several times: "What time will you be there? Are you going to stay?" But then when I get there, he wants nothing to do with me. It's a 9 year old boy thing. I can't talk to him, he shrugs off my hugs. But he looks over to make sure I am still there, every few minutes. He just wants me near. There is something both wonderful and heartbreaking about it all. Ah well, so goes the growing up of our children.
Ok, moving on - here is another wonderfulness that is making me smile lately - remember those earrings that I bought from Barbe Saint John - well here they are on my ears. That pi
cture was taken on valentines day. Love these earrings! SO FUN.
Barbe is getting ready to move and she is selling some really fun stuff on eBay, so I also picked up the cutest red polka dot shirt from her a couple weeks ago. (I mean really, I don't even have to show a picture - I can just say "red polka dot shirt" and you get the gist!) - And, as was the case with the earrings - she stuffed my package FULL of wonderful extra gifts! Even a book of retro paper dolls that I ADORE! If you haven't gotten the hint yet - git yer butts over to Barbe's shops and buy something. You will not be disappointed! (Plus, she needs to downsize and raise movin' money. Help a girl out. There is no better karma than good art karma!)
I know you can't really see those earrings in these pictures. (Look at the original post for a better a view.) Needless to say, I've been having fun with filters lately. I really really really want to become adept at photoshop. I see some of the stuff these digi scrapbook designers are doing and I am blown away. That being said, I feel that the learning curve is an uphill battle and I am not sure I am making much ground! Sigh. Ah well. Here is another filter I applied to my face. I am not sure what it is called - film grain I think. I prefer "the dermabrasion" filter. As in sandstorm. (Here's a little peek into my internal voices. They look at that picture, and say: Put some lipstick on girlie! But I digress...)
Ok, well - moving on again. Since I promised pics of my clean office, I figured I would spread them out over a few posts. We'll start with this one. It is sort of a teaser. And a cheater. Cuz' its only the doors. When you first walk in to our house, the front doors to my office are on the left of the front entry hall. However, they don't open. That's because there are shelves pushed up against them on the inside. To enter my office you have to go through the door in our back hall. We'll get to that in another post.
As you can see, I have attached some long tall French billboards to the doors, and those are covered in artwork by my many beloved artist friends. Truth be told, it would be impossible to fill such a small space with even one small piece of work from all my favorite artists - but there is a lot of it here, on these doors. (You can click on the picture for a little bit of a bigger image.)
Let's see (please forgive the lack of links - I'd spend forever and a day doing link uploads. Just do a search on eBay for ZNE!) we've got Katey Duley, JoAnna Pierotti, Diana Belton, Karyn Gartel, Joanna Grant, Christine Wasankari, Cinda Rae Oliverio, TiffanyJane Marshall, Krissy Chadwick, Cindy Couling, Nancy Baumiller, Julie O'Neil, Kris Hubick, Renee Thompson, CorrieLynne Sweiger, Artubus Tolbert, Dawn Hernandez, Ed Giecek, Patti Victoria Crump, Zorana, and more, more more.... And just think - we haven't even entered my actual office yet!
SO, wheneever I walk in my front doors, I see these two doors. Doors to imagination, creativity, and truth be told - dreams coming true. I am so honored to own these bits of artwork. I am humbled by my friendships with these artists. And I am overwhelmed with the joy of having oh so many charming gardeners, tending to the wildflowers in my soul.
I'll be back, and next time - you are all invited inside! (My office. Not my soul. Though, one does reflect an awful lot of the other.)
Spring is on its way. So get out there and tend to your own gardens. Literally or figuratively. May you find beauty wherever you so seek.
YUM!
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