drum roll, please

First, thank you to all of you who left a sweet message for our drawing! Most of you I knew, but one of you I didn't, so it was wonderful to 'meet' a new face! Welcome, Kim! : )

I printed out the names, cut them into strips, folded them up and put them in my little easter basket...

and the winner is....

K.R.!

(or known as 'K' on her comment)

Congratulations! I'll be getting your little present to you this week!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment for the one year anniversary of 'a view of life from front row'. How nice of you to spend some of your precious time during the day to visit my little corner of the world!

Now I'm off to plug in my hair dryer and TRY to salvage my cell phone... I managed to forget that I had it in my jeans pocket and threw them in the washing machine....

yup.... washed my cell phone... I could just croak.... wish me luck that it works...!

Fields of Gold

Look who's waking up!

Along a garden wall by my room, one of my most amazing coworkers has this garden... and the African
Daisies are just popping up, stretching and yawning and sunning their beautifully sweet, golden faces towards the sun!! I can't resist them! So I grabbed my camera and hopped up on the wall to get this shot.

They bring me joy!

I'm also partial to the title 'Fields of Gold'... you know the song by Sting.. ? To me, it is the most beautiful love song of all... I remember one time...driving from Cordes Junction into Prescott Valley... a friend with me... we were on a road trip for the day. This song came on the cd and I just began to cry... then weep. She wondered if I was ok, and I said I was... but my heart was longing for what the song embodied... Despite that moment, I am able to love the song for what is says...

These little cups of sun are my gift to you this day...

when I choose joy...

I enjoy!

A P.J. Day

It's been a beautiful day.... billows of all shades of grey swirling above... tulle tu-tu's of white spinning across now and then.... breathes blowing the dead off of frozen trees... and fresh drops plunking down now and then... at their whimsy....

my kind of day....

I've done nothing productive, which is what I needed to do after two days of financial documents and adding up the monetary value of my life these past 15 months... again... for the third time. The first time I did it, it was hard. The second time that I had to fill these forms out, I was ticked at having to do them over. This time...it was absolutely gut-wrenching... I put it off for 10 days..which is not like me. But I just couldn't proceed with disolving 28 years of marriage during Valentine's week... I just couldn't do it.

So, today, I've piddled. Put a fire on. M and her friend,, who spent the night made shamrock sugar cookies. I was decadently lazy. Then late this afternoon, I wandered over to my stack of papers and decided to try my hand at making a charm again.

I printed out an antique postcard, added a spot of stamping and tore its border and glued it to some French writing paper. For the back, I took the same French writing paper, dribbled Italian red ink on it, glued a strip of orange ribbon and printed out 'bunny love' to cut and glue on. An Easter lily from the front of the postcard too big for the charm was added to the back as a final smile. An hour of soldering later, and I have my second charm made after my class last week. I must say, I do love this little guy and will wear it this week; probably tomorrow. I am so glad that I took that class (and listened to my spirit fairy) because I learned today that Ink It! is closing next month! Oh no!! But at least I learned something new that I've wanted to do for so very long.

(sorry for the fuzzy pictures..my camera doesn't like it when I'm only 6" away!)

I'm going to go clean up my work area and then wander upstairs... to continue my lazy day!

**Don't forget to visit the post before this to be part of the drawing for my little gift to you, my blog buddies!**

a wee bit o' celebration to be had

365... that's how many days have passed since I created this blog....

I do remember the day well...life was throwing me several curve balls...

and I created this blog as a way for me to offer up to the universe my frustrations...my fears...my passages...my joys...my view of life from front row...

I had no idea whether I would continue posting my thoughts...if anyone would read my posts...what direction this blog would go....and to be honest, at the time, I didn't care...

but the ride has been a beautiful one with so many wonderful things along the way...pictures worth those perverbial 1,000 words...comments from friends about what I've written... the most heart-felt 'thank you', my friends!.. such nice comments and emails from wonderful people who have felt comfortable enough to share their thoughts with me....and even include me in their blogs! Even though I have not met you, I feel as if I do know something about your sweet spirit! Thank you!!

I've learned much through my journey this past year, and this blog has been a part of that journey, as have all who have stopped by. So I am taking an idea that I have seen on several other blogs and offering it up to you!

In honor of my 'view of life from front row' being a year old, I have made this little token of my sincere appreciation of your visits! On the front is the quote "let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom". On the back is another favorite quote that was used many times in the 1700's and on by young women in their cross-stitched samplers...'when this you see, remember me'

For the next week, I invite you to leave a comment on this post. ..why you read blogs, what you get out of visiting a blog, etc...On Saturday, February 24th, I will type up everyone's name on a piece of paper, put them in a bowl, and draw one out. The winner will receive this little token of my sincere appreciation! (you'll need to send me your address and I'll happily send it on it's merry way to you!)

Thank you for sharing this past year with me. My hope is that my words, thoughts and pictures that you find here bring you as much pleasure as they do me.

Goin' Hog Wild

May I just say ...

oh..

how I do love this picture...

for several reasons....

the clouds...

the thought of a road trip...

the play of colors...

the dude's ass on the right....

ohhh... the possibilities....

(sigh)

I'm on movie watch as I wait for the opening of the new flick "Hog Wild"...staring John Travolta. Now before you go sneering up your lip and rolling your eyes, do know that any man who looks as good as he does... owns his own refurbished Boeing 707 - you do know what that aircraft looks like, do you not? - and not only owns it, but FLYS the damn thing (yes, John is a pilot) and can ride a Harley ... well, um..

let's just say that he has my attention.

Will I spend nine bucks to see him ride his bike?

You bet your sweet ass I will...

charmed...i'm sure

I took a step of faith today....

despite a horrible car repair bill...
a leaky toilet getting fixed...
and everyday life bills....

I took a class today at Ink It!

I've wanted to take one for sooo long from super talented gal, Liz Eaton, a class on how to make soldered glass slide charms. I've been intrigued by these little gems since falling in love with Sally Jean's charms! The class was offered last month, and as tempted as I was, I just didn't feel that I could spend the money.

Today, however, I was reading Liz's blog and realized that the same class was being offered again...TODAY!!

Should I? Do I dare?? Could I swing this??

I went back and forth, so many, many times as to why I shouldn't but why I should... then my spirit fairy told me to do it, and that it would be ok to do this... So I listened to her, and I did.

Liz is a sweetheart of a gal and so good at teaching this class! We created two slides...well, we were

supposed to create two. I only made one, but I was so focused on it, I just couldn't switch my brain over to a new idea! (these are the views of the front and back) Liz showed us how to solder ... and OH MY GOSH!!!

WHY HAVE I WAITED FOR ALMOST 2 YEARS TO LEARN HOW TO DO THIS??? It is so EASY!!

Is it perfect? No.

Do I love it? Yes!

I found myself rediscovering myself...

the side of me that creates, loves, laughs and gets lost in such a wonderful swirl of creating, loving, being excited...

...a part that's been shoved to the side amid the trials and challenges of the past year and a half...

Mary Ellen at Ink It! was a sweetie to get me in at the last minute and when I walked in, there was super talented Carol Wingert! I love her talent, too! Such inspiring, talented women that are following their bliss!

What a wonderful, JOYous time I had!

Clouds in my Coffee

just take a minute and look ...

see the patterning of the clouds?

the kisses of peach on the cloud bottoms?

the promise of a pre-spring day illuminating in the background...

this is the scene that greeted us this morning as we left Starbuck's....

and it's a beauty....

I give it to you... .... my friend

when you need some eye-candy for your spirit

a promise of better days ahead

a soft, warm glow to chase the gray away

come back and see me

and rest your eyes on this

Playing Catch-Up

It feels like it's been AAA-ges since my last post. Actually, I did have a post about tossing my left-over bits of yarn out into the yard for my feathered friends, but for some unknown reason, the next day, my picture was gone and I couldn't fix it, so I just deleted it. I've tinkered around with my blog since, but I didn't have anything really worthwhile to say, so I chose to say nothing. Most of the past week was spent dealing with a broken car, a leaky toilet and possible water damage.... joy of JOYS!

Yes, I do choose JOY!

Oh, and a bout with the flu this week, too...

But ...

I CHOOSE JOY!!

other ramblings...
*what the hell was Henry Miller smoking when he wrote 'Tropic of Capricorn' ?!?!
*Oprah is on right now talking about 'the secret'... which apparently is that our thoughts attract what happens to us... apparently there is a law of the universe; what you focus on expands...
...if that's true, I'm going to quit thinking about my waist
*can you smell it ?? spring is in the air... oh yeah....
*I must say that I outdid myself with my cream pasta sauce last night...best-to-date

*Bless those poeple at DOVE who have created a new campaign about beauty...nude women over 50!! OH YEAH!! Have you see it? It's on their website...and these women are truly, truly b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l

http://www.doveproage.com/?source=dove_a
*5 things that I am grateful for tonight: my health, my children, my family of friends, my job, the ability to get up tomorrow morning and live my life one more day

what are you grateful for ... right now.... what are 5 things that you are grateful for?

hmm ?

choose joy