Does anyone feel tentative and hesitant when beginning a new journal. My journal is…a lists of things to do intermixed with ideas, images I have cut out from magazines and sketches. But I find that when I do start a new journal it takes awhile. It is the same with ending…like I don’t know if my beginning or end will be worthy, but eventually I do and I have…new journal got some ink today.

No painting this week, I can't believe friday is already here, but check this out:
Hippily Bunny is too amazing for words (from mahar drygoods) and wait for a funny outtake at the end.

I am taking a quick girls only trip next week, I little road trip and little hanging out. Only next week would work with work, so I leave tomorrow and I'll be back in a little over a week!

I feel like blooming trees are like little kisses in the air.

…this was a trade for a lovely necklace from the sale - more on that later…

There is art talk flying around the internet. Mav had an amazing three-part discussion about what is art and Lisa started asking about talent. I am sort of interested in people’s brain process.

I have realized that process for me is sort of long term (relativity). I let an idea germinate in the recesses of my brain. Every once in a while it’ll sort of pop up to the surface and then I think on it a bit, but then I consciously push it back to this little soil area in my brain. But then it just unfurls. Does anyone else have that? Do that?

The flip side is that when I am busy, like I have been with all the work at work and with all the softies I needed done. Those ideas didn’t pop up at all.

Now I have some things percolating with softie ideas. Ideas that played out in a completely different way than when I planted them in the soil. It excites me to put an idea in my little greenhouse and see how it plays out.

So how about you?
Do ideas come at you?
Do you search out the ideas?
What things inspire you?

I believed in fairies. When I was a girl, I was sure there were fairies. I had seen the proof. Here is my story. Nicole had a much older brother, I think he was five or six years older than we were. He was big into Dungeons & Dragons. With the little pewter figures he would paint himself. While he was at school Nicole and I would sneak into his room and look at his collection. I loved the weight of them and the tiny details. We were really careful, because obviously we were NOT supposed to go in his room and we knew it. We were probably about four. One day her brother came up to us and he said he had something to show us. We were thrilled. We were being included and it was something amazing if he was willing to share it with us. He walked us over to this empty lot near their house. Telling us all the while that we couldn't tell anyone. We had to be really really quite. We had to not talk or stomp. We followed blindly across to the open light. Then he said if we were we might be lucky enough to see the fairies that he and his friends had just seen. We were silenced. As we got closer to the area we walked carefully. Trying to be really quite. Then he stopped and showed us this little city. It was beautiful. Delicate rope bridges and houses built into the dirt. It was amazing. There were tiny footprints. Tiny bundles of wood (for whittling) abandoned in the walkways. We weren't quite enough, so the fairies had hidden. Nicole and I sat there quietly for a while wishing to catch a glimpse of a fairy. Nicole got bored of waiting and wanted to do something else. So we left. I was devastated that I didn't get a chance to see the fairies. But that little fairy city was burned into my soul. It was years later, when I was visiting Nicole as a teenager that he told us about the fairy city that he had built with his friends. The time and effort for fooling to girls was amazing. Of course I said I knew that it was fake, but I had always believed that the little fairy city was real and truth. I can still picture it in my mind, which is a feet in itself, since I hardly ever remember childhood memories. In honor of that little story here is a fairy ring I found while taking photos at this farm in California over the holidays. If you don’t yet know about the amazing whipup created by kath. Check it out and see the amazing group she has compiled and all the amazing entries.

I am trying to look more at the world around me.
Having my brother come out and visit sort of wakes my everyday eyes up to see the things I just glide over with sleep and routine.

I was totally enamored of this little light man.

What do you think he’s thinking?
He looks like he is reaching out, but for what?

I love it when it snows and people walk in the middle of the street.

Lisa put a challenge out to talk about why we blog, what it means, how we came to it and the like. I decided to do a timeline. I was amazed to break it down and see how it played out. Which is different to how it played out in my mind. I took a look at my entries and my comments and here is what I found.

My little timeline:

Nov 2004
I started doing Illustration Friday and posting on my old site crabbcards, which is funny only because I hardly ever do the illustrations any longer. And crabbcards doesn’t exist.

February
loobylu put up an invitation for the Schmancy show and I plunged in saying I would send three softies by July, even though I had no idea what-so-ever of what I was going to make or how.

Beginning of March
I started the blog following in the footsteps of the talented Johanna. She has a style that is singularly her own and it helped me find my own style. To let it come forward and thrive.

End of March
I found Lisa and her way of looking at the world - constantly questioning art and the ideas behind it inspire me and push me forward.

By this time I always looking and seeing. I think it (blogging) began as sort of following the group. Seeing what everyone else was doing and being painfully jealous of their creations. I was really unsure of myself and scared. I wasn’t sure at all what I was doing.

May
Martha found me or I found her – not sure which happened first but she has a delicate and amazing way she looks at life. It inspires me to look at the little things in my life and realize their beauty.

July
Mav found me and I was instantly enamored of her friendship with arc and her kindness and love of beauty is undeniable. She always asks me to go a little beyond my comfort to realize again that I like to take risks.

Those four ladies changed me for the better. Their talent and words are amazing. They and the lives they lead constantly inspire me. I think that is what I love the most about blogging. Getting a peak into the lives of people with similar interests and different lives.

Dec
Now I think I am a little more confident. I am putting my art out there, which is scary and really exciting. I don’t feel like I have to keep up, which is really freeing. I just have to create what makes me happy and there I am right now. Creating to make me happy.

That feels kind of nice.
Thank you to everyone that reads.

So are there jobs out there that intrigue you?
That you would probably never want to have, but something about them is fascinating?
You know if you made some different choices in your life that you would probably do it.
Like the window washers. I love them. Especially like the guy above.
They are actually more like building washers and the ride down the building in the cart pulley (does anyone know what it is called?)

To have a job where your life was a bit in danger? That is what I would do.

(I have had some ponderings before, but mav was the one that said I should name it - so I came up with ponderings. Does it work for you?)

The time in Florida was marvelous and I think I spent most of it in a pool! The Boy's brother has a pool and we played over there like crazy. Spending so much time in a pool made me think…how do you get in? Do you slowly inch into the water? Do you just jump in? Do you inch in until it gets too much to bear and then dunk yourself? Also I am curious about water temperature. I am from California where the water is cold and the Boy is from, well lots of places, but his family ended up in Florida where the water is warm. I am partial to the cooler temperatures, whereas he loves it to be like bathwater (maybe I am exaggerating a bit). But really, do you thing that the water you love is determined by where you live? Can you get used to the warm waters on the Florida coast? Or do you still pine for the chilly turn your lips purple of your (my) childhood?

What side of the line are you with the hard layer that forms when you chill pudding or jello in the fridge?
Do you like it?
Does it bother you?
Do you even like pudding or jello?

I am almost done with the second robot - he works in the teashop. I am getting faster which is good, since I have a bunch to do now!! And a new design - a bird bot.