Life as a Kid In Santa Barbara

Summer vacation is here. I am juiced up for some creative adventures with the kids. This summer's big project will be a "show", in episodes, with the name, "Life as a Kid in Santa Barbara". This town is so full of fun and beauty and possibilities for adventure, I just want to eat it up.  While I was napping, I had the kids make a list of possible episodes. They will report, documentary-style, and I will film, edit and produce. They will also create their own commercials.  It will be great fun. I hope you want to share some of it with me. Maybe we will get picked up by channel 17, the local cable station. You never know. We will also be painting, reading, swimming, drawing, and one of us will be playing her sax a lot.

Forces of Nature

Timing. I have seen three of my girls through three graduations in the past ten days. They have worked very hard to get to the places they are now standing. I am so proud of them and also proud of myself for supporting them in their journeys and not tripping them up with my stepmotherly status. I cherish them and the women they are all three becoming. They are forces of nature.

 Cadence is my beautiful storm, commanding, noteworthy, joyful in her every move, messy and real. She is intelligent, articulate and asks for what she wants. She will part waters when she chooses to.

Quinlan is my forest, quiet, still, comforting, cooling, a being who nurtures life. Her joy is like leaves rustling in a warm wind, her beauty is spring blossoms on articulated branches. She is ancient wisdom and will nurture many with her love and continuity.

Faith is my ocean. She is powerful molded waves, inviting dolphins to surf with her, whales to breech, jellies to float. She is strong and gentle at the same time, loving and fierce. At only 13, I can feel her power, her ability to lead and nurture, to flow and meld.

They have graduated from college, high school and jr. high. Now they move on to their next adventures, which I will celebrate with them, each in turn.

Saturday and Sunday at the Mission

Update: Saturday and Sunday were hot, productive and filthy dirty. Kieran finished her image of the constellations Pegasus and Taurus. Tom finished all three faces and two hands. He just has clothes and touch ups to complete this morning. Jill is painting me a beautiful label image. I can just smell the oils/candles that will go with it. So far, it's been a perfect festival.

I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival

This weekend (and right at this very moment) our family engages in an activity of passion. The passion is in the expression of art in chalk on the parking lot asphalt of the Santa Barbara Mission.  Tom, my husband began this activity 24 years ago. He and some friends would re-create the work of the Masters for all to enjoy in the tradition of Italian festivals of the same name.  The year we became engaged, Tom began doing original works. He is a gifted portrait artist and shows his talent for all to see at this festival every year. He is in his 13th year of original works.

Our daughter, Kieran has the passion of expression through art too. Tom has sponsored a square for her for the last three years. I am her roadie. I fill in background color and encourage her, like a stage mom. The work is ALL hers and I make sure to keep it that way.

My best friend, Jill is also an artist at I Madonnari. Her work inspires me. I use it whenever I can in my labels and cards for my candles, oils and whatever else I come up with.

Here are a few pics- just to show rather than tell.

Tom in 2007

Tom's drawing in 2008

Jill's painting 2009

Kierans work, 2007- she was seven!

Kieran 2008

Jill 2008

Kieran 2009

Tom 2009.

You can imagine how busy I am.

Tom 2005 (I think)

I Know This Is Bold But...

I try to understand the body/soul relationship. I realize that my body is a vessel. I feel that my soul is luminous. I see myself reflected in so many people. I know that I am seen. I know that I am a being of beauty, but the reality is that I am over weight. My husband and I discussed it last night. He doesn't have the nerve to come right out and say it, but in a roundabout way of not denying my suggestive phrases,  I am too overweight for his liking and he would like it more if I were more fit, and less fluff. Now, I struggle with this whole concept because every day, since I was 15, I have looked at myself in the mirror and seen at least something that I could choose to focus on in a negative light. Even when I was young, firm, fit, and seemingly perfect, I couldn't see it. At 41, I have learned to love my body, the strong, capable, malleable vessel that it is, as it is, whatever that may be from day to day. Now, just like the Bonnie Rait song says, I say to my husband, "I can't make you love me if you don't".  I can keep up with my hiking and circuit training, dancing, walking fast on the beach because I love it and because my body loves to be pushed, but this may be as good as it gets. If it's not good enough, then dearest husband, I beg you to look deeper into my eyes until you see the luminous being that is inside. Maybe then you will love my body, be it fat, thin, saggy, firm, blotchy, whatever not because of it's shape but because of what it holds.

Full Circle

Henney came to us because of a baby quail and a windy day, completely out of the blue. I had a love/hate relationship with this creature. She ripped up my garden, pecked a hole in my screen door and pooped all over, everywhere. She also gave us beautiful eggs; one a day for nine out of 12 months a year. She fertilized our yard and added life to our space, using every inch for her pleasure. I loved her demeanor, fearless and feisty. She appeared to be smart and she was very brave. She knew us as individuals and would get very excited when Tom would appear to her from the window. She knew he would give her dry dog food, her favorite treat.  She was our pet, and in our own ways, we all love her. 

A big bird of prey swooped into our yard today and took our hen's life but couldn't carry her away because she was too big. She had a great life and I can say with confidence that she was a happy bird.

We now have two chicks, Sandy and Luna. 'Cause, I guess now we are chicken people.

Joy

I can't help it. I have been sick since this time last week, and yet I feel joy. Even with my sinuses full of mucus, my eyes red and oozing, my snorting cough enough to drive my husband to the couch at night, I feel joy. Could it be the bright blue sky? The green mountains, the warm breeze? I can't really explain it, only that I have succumb to my emotions, what ever they might be, and they happen to be joyous, even though I have been sick and even though I am tiered, Joy fills my heart.

I had a reiki session today with Krista, JOY. I am making dinner tonight for the Taylors, Quinlan's boyfriend's parents, JOY. I am looking forward to squeezing my nieces, Mere and Brit, home from college for the summer, JOY. I look forward to editing a movie of Kieran and her two friends that we filmed last week, JOY. I want to make leather, bejeweled cuffs galore, JOY. I have been sleeping and napping like it is heaven on earth, JOY. What's with me? JOY. I just can't explain it. It's freakish.

The kids and I watched a program on Nat Geo last night on THE KNOWN UNIVERSE. It was mind expanding to say the least. There is so much more to the universe than we first thought. It keeps getting better and better. JOY. I will leave you with some images that make my heart soar.

Something New

My first leather cuff! Stacy and I went to Tandy Leather in Ventura on Tuesday. I bought a bag of leather scraps, a leather needle and some waxed thread. Yesterday, I met and was inspired by a sweet woman who makes her own silver charms to place on beautiful leather cuffs. I wanted one, but knew I shouldn't spend the $75 just now, so I came home and made my own! I love the ingenuity I have and am unafraid to use. Ahhhhh, a new inspiration. Would you like one too? Just say the word!

For Jill.

Feeling Better

You know you are feeling better when a veggie corn dog seems like a good post dinner snack, and because you can find no mustard you create a "sauce" out of mayonaise and el pato ( a mexican tomato sauce made with spicy jalepeno). It is so tasty, you make some more (sauce, that is) because your calorie cop, I mean, husband, is not at home and you eat it with chips. Yep, you, I mean I, must be feeling better.

How I Do It All

How do I do it all? Create beautiful gemstone jewelry, handcraft essential oil and gemstone candles with beautiful labels and matchboxes, paint pins for kids, work 4.5 hours a week as lunch lady and volunteer another two hours in first and fourth grade classrooms, shop, cook, pay bills, maintain my fit figure and beautifully colored hair, maintain my tidy house?  I don't. I can't do it all. I have to pick and choose every day. My house is frequently a pit. My roots are long and grey. My garage is overflowing with crap. I choose art and artistic endeavors because they make me happy. I think it is important for my sanity to do things that make me happy. I also don't think kids grow up remembering how neat their house was (in a good way). You never hear someone's life being celebrated by the cleanliness of their house.  So I steal my precious moments doing things I love, like making films of Kieran and her friends, reading with Aidan, napping, meditating, creating, listening to my inner voices that flood me with ideas while I am showering or trying to sleep.

I guess I have been doing too much though, for today I am sick. sick. sick.

Ta Daaaa

Well......



Here she is!!

JUST KIDDING! That's me. Just wanted to make sure you were ready.













Now, don't look any further if you are squeamish. I'm warning you!






Consider yourself warned.





I'll go backwards, showing the most recent pics that I have moving back to Tuesday morning, the day after surgery.

WOW! Look at that pretty chin!

Are we ready?

Because Mom is permitting me to create a documentary film about her uplifting experience with cosmetic surgery, she has created a more neutral observer out of me. Brilliant maneuver on her part. Now, the question is, whom of my readers is ready for the graphic nature of the footage? I will simply say that the procedure went well and that the "after" shots are not too bad. One can see sculpted features and a wrinkle-free, albeit, swollen complexion. I liken Mom's image to a cross between the invisible man and cleopatra. Please comment if you would like to see.  If I get enough curiosity, I have permission to publish preview shots.

Uplifted

Mom had her surgery today. As it turns out, this was her first time ever under general anesthesia. Pretty amazing for  63 year old. The procedure went "well".  She was in surgery for over 2 hours and in a pre-op consultation, her cosmetic surgeon talked her into a chin implant. Maybe the problem wasn't so much that her neck was sagging but that there just wasn't enough chin to hold it up. I can't imagine why the doctor waited until this particular moment to make this suggestion. Mom, as many of us know, is NOT quick to process. I can just imagine it; Mom, nervous, hungry, a little apprehensive in her surgical gown and shower cap with an authority figure making a suggestion to "add a little chin". I know her, she said "yes" whether or not she really thought it was a good idea.  I am a little bit upset about it all, but, Oh well. We can laugh about it, I guess.

I took some pre-surgery footage and pictures so we could really appreciate the whole process.  I touched up a couple of the before shots so we can get ready for the smoother, tighter look to come. I don't know how to airbrush in some extra chin though, so we will just have to wait for the real thing tomorrow to get a good look.