I have something exciting to share. My friend and teacher Christine Marie (that’s her work above) is offering a month of daily e-mailed inspirations of all sorts of delights!

Make your November the most uplifting month ever! A perfect way to close your fall and open your heart to the Thanksgiving month!

Here is more information:

Grace-Notes

It’s an e-course, daily inspiration, break from the grindstone.  One email will reach you daily to evoke creativity, promote deep thought, to teach and inspire. With each “Grace-Note” you will receive a glorious combination of the following:

The cost is $20. 00 for one month of surprises…paid through Pay Pal

Learn more and register here:

grace-notes

“There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck.  Fall in love whenever you can.”

Alice Hoffman-Practical Magic

I’ve never been particularly drawn to the scent of lavender, but there there is something about the flower that makes it a sentimental favorite.  I’ll always have a pot or patch of it growing wherever I live.  I love it when the buds open and show their dainty little ruffles.

It was foggy and the moon was still out at eight this morning. I’ve mentioned that we live in a 110 year old converted warehouse.  I love knowing the building has so much history. The most interesting thing is that our building has a hidden second floor that is only accessible by a drop down set of stairs and isn’t counted. We say we live on the second floor, but really, it’s just a space underneath us and never visited by anyone.  Technically, we live on the third floor even though it’s called the second.  I peeked up there once when my studio ceiling was being worked on and found a booklet of old invoices which of course I believe must stay with the building.

One of our neighbors refuses to go to the attic because she thinks it’s too scary and even Mark says it give him the creeps because of all the large hooks hanging from the beams. However, I am not creeped out in the least and the maintenance guy and I are learning every nook and cranny  of this place.  I’d never have discovered the stash of vintage furniture had I been afraid to do a little exploring.

I think it’s interesting to live on an old street as well.  Nothing creepy about this, right?

Something is very gently,
invisibly, silently,
pulling at me-a thread
or net of threads
finer than cobweb and as
elastic. I haven’t tried
the strength of it. No barbed hook
pierced and tore me. Was it
not long ago this thread
began to draw me? Or
way back? Was I
born with its knot about my
neck, a bridle? Not fear
but a stirring
of wonder makes me
catch my breath when I feel
the tug of it when I thought
it had loosened itself and gone.

Denise Levertov

This is a little hint about a project I’ve been working on for a few years.  I’m getting closer to launch and kind of excited. I may be over sharing here, but I saw a counselor in my mid-twenties when my weight really started to climb.  We discussed reasons why I was creating layers over myself and the topic of beauty came up.

There was a time as a teenager that I saw myself as beautiful but I knew better than to share it because in my circle of friends because girls who demonstrated appreciation of themselves made everyone uncomfortable…their friends, their mothers, adult men etc…

I’ll never forget having a heated discussion with my best friend Michele (a beautiful girl who is now an exceptionally beautiful woman) about Jacquelyn Smith.  Michele wanted to look like her and while I thought she was pretty, I didn’t.  Michele pressed me hard and said, “Come on, if you could magically turn into Jacquelyn you wouldn’t want to look like her?”  I argued that I’d rather be me at my best than be someone else.

Michele didn’t believe me and I remember walking home and feeling a complex mix of feelings.  Hurt that we argued.  Sad that Michele didn’t see that she had what I considered to be enviable beauty and also anger that she didn’t look at me and wonder why I’d want to be anything other than me at my best. I realized that she didn’t see me the way I saw myself, but on another level, I knew she also felt betrayed because I was hinting at being happy with myself and in our circle, girls didn’t do this.

It was not OK  to think of yourself as acceptable, so we all had improvement plans and discussed them in great detail. We complimented one another and put ourselves down, it was the way.

As an adult woman, I find this sad and I am not saying it was the way for everyone or is the way for all girls now, but for many of us, these early experiences shaped how we feel about showing or hiding our beauty.  I know from talking to friends and clients that my experience isn’t unique. In the booklet that comes with my affirmation card pack, I write about how as adult women we need to trust in ourselves and our friends. I have supportive women friends who encourage me daily, but the ghosts of my girlhood sometimes emerge and need to be acknowledged because they have helped shape me into the woman I am in this moment.

p.s. My friend Michele and I are still connected and great supporters of one another.

I’m decided I’m not going to organize my huge basket of vintage ribbons and trim.  I’ve given it my best shot in the past, but it’s too hard to keep up.  So, scratch that off the list of things to do.  Besides, isn’t having it all in one place pretty darn impressive?