I hope you enjoy this month's bubbly goldfish-y banner, posted a tiny bit early because I won't have internet access over the next few days...next month I'll have a guest blog banner designer!!

Just a quick note to wish everyone a wonderful weekend...what inspired you most this week? 

I just bought this print from Dollface Designs and I can't wait to hang it on my wall!  Check out her blog too.

Of course I can't resist including girly images in my latest list of faves, and Sylvia May's are fabulous.  She has a great design blog too. 

 I love the hand-stamped jewelry creations over at Hazelnut Cottage.  Her Etsy shop is here, another online store here and her blog is right here!

Cathy Nichols will round out today's list...visit her Etsy shop and blog to see her lovely creations.

Soon after I wrote this entry about a link to a website that was all about India, I received an email from a lovely woman named Nina McConigley, a writer and Wyoming native who has been working as an intern at Tara Publishing in Chennai, India for almost a year now.  India has been on my travel radar for quite some time now, and our email conversations caused me to seriously consider a spur of the moment detour from London to Chennai next week (by the time this entry is posted, I will actually be in the middle of my London trip.)  I decided to come back down to earth and wait until I can plan a more detailed (and longer) trip, but in the meantime I am savoring every delicious tidbit Nina has been willing to share with me about her travels, her writing, Tara Publishing, and life in India.

Her interview was a bit more relaxed and done over many days and emails, as I found myself asking her a slew of questions right off the bat, not even really considering them part of any official "interview".  Before I knew it, I realized I had my interview!

Here is how things got started, in this excerpt from Nina's first email to me:
My name is Nina, and I work at Tara Publishing in Chennai, India . We are a small independent publishing house in India -- we focus on children's books, visual arts titles, and have a small fiction/non-fiction list, and many of our books are handmade.

I grew up in Wyoming -- but my mother is Indian, my father Irish. I completed my MFA in Creative Writing two years ago, and am finishing my own book about East Indians in Wyoming. I have always wanted to live in India. I only came to India twice before moving here. Growing up, my Indian grandparents had died and most of my mom's immediate family is now in the states. So, we went to Ireland instead.  When I finished my MFA, I moved home to Wyoming to work on my book. I thought that just picking up and moving to India was a little nuts but then I saw one of Tara's books, I wrote them...and the rest is history. I am an intern here, and my internship will be over in April. I'll come back to Wyoming then.
 
Being here in India for the past year has been one of the most wonderful and hard experiences of my life.  It has changed my writing and my book, it has changed the way I look at the world. It has changed the way I see life and death. It's really changed, well, everything. I am a little scared to go back to Wyoming -- where everything is so orderly, and everyone is just in their houses. I say this with such a torn heart, as I love being in Wyoming in ways I can't express -- the mountains, they sky...but it is sometimes so hard to be the only brown face in a crowd. Living here has been the first time I have not been in the minority in my life -- and yet, I am actually very far removed from people as I am essentially American. The streets are so alive here. Every weekend, I take a bus to visit my family and I pass by all sorts of funny sights.  I am humbled every day.
 

What is the weather like this time of year in Chennai?
South India is almost always hot. I was just in Delhi for a week and it was freezing in comparison. Most days are in the 80's and 90's -- and we are now moving into summer, which means many days around 100. Coming from Wyoming, it was very strange for me to experience such warm humid weather all year round. But it was the monsoons that really threw me off. I had never seen that kind of rain. I live with two other North Americans -- and our house flooded three times. By the second time, all we could do was laugh (and move furniture). You can't just tell the rain to stop. But there were moments standing in water in my bedroom that I thought, "What am I doing here?" Here in India, a very common expression is, "What to do?" I think to live here, to some degree, it becomes your mantra. What to do. If you got frustrated by power outages, no internet, things like that...it would make you crazy. So, I love the very go with the flow attitudes of everyone around me.
 
What is a typical day for you?
 A typical day is usually waking up and making breakfast at home. My one roommate does yoga in the early morning, so she usually makes breakfast for the house. We all walk to work together, stopping on the way at a juice stand. There are fresh juice stands everywhere. This morning I got a fresh watermelon juice for 12 rupees -- which is less than 30 cents. We are greeted at work by the office dog -- a stray that seems to just live at Tara (and we feed him, which doesn't help!). I think one thing I have found about being at Tara is there is no typical day. One day, we have Gond tribal artists in showing us their work and collaborating with Tara on books, other days, we'll sit and talk about possible ideas for books, some days I spend sending out copies of our books for reviews or organizing exhibits of our artwork, other times we are out in schools in Chennai doing art education outreach. We get a lot of visitors stopping by from librarians in the US, people from Oxfam, writers...Some people want to check out our books, others want to see our press and check out how the handmade books are made -- as we make books using silkscreening, letterpress and offset printing.
 
I have learned the hard way about being a small independent press and how much harder it is (with almost no publicity budget), to get the word out about Tara. But luckily, once people see our books, they usually fall in love. Since Tara is a collective of writers and artists, the office is always lively and full of conversation. I am so happy that I work for a place that brings a voice to people that perhaps would never be in the mainstream. Most all of our illustrators are not "illustrators" per se -- but tribal and folk artists, cinema billboard artist, textile printers -- we use all sorts of untraditional things as illustrations.
 
Through Tara, I am writing a book on teaching children Gond art. I used to teach, but my own writing has always been fiction or as a journalist. But I love art, so I feel like in some ways, I get to marry my interests. Tara is so flexible. After doing some art education workshops, I was interested in how you could teach Gond art to little kids. Gita Wolf, our publisher, said "Why don't you write a book on it?"  So, I am. I never would get to just say and do something like that in a bigger publishing house -- especially as an intern!
 
After work I try to work on my own book and take a yoga class. I had never studied yoga till coming to India. I don't speak Tamil, so sometimes my attempts at yoga are a bit of a comedy of errors. My life here is quiet. I don't miss the things I thought I would -- TV, internet, a car. It's actually allowed me to work a lot on my own writing.

How did you find Tara Publishing?
I saw one of Tara's books, it was The London Jungle Book. I thought it was such an interesting book -- a mix of art, travelogue, and since it written from the perspective of a man from a small Indian village and his take on London, I found it really different from other travel books I had seen (I also loved the art!). So, I got on Tara's website, and saw that they took interns. At the time I was doing my MFA in Texas, so I wrote to them and kept in touch over the years. But, by the time I finished my MFA, I was 30, and thought maybe I was a little old to be "interning" anywhere. So, I moved home to Wyoming instead to work on my own book, which I had started in my MFA.
 
I love that you traveled around the world...where did you go?  Were you on your own the entire time?  
I was home in Wyoming for less than a year, then decided to travel. So I bought an around the world ticket. They are great, as long as you are going in one continuous direction. My mother is originally from Chennai, India, my father grew up in Ireland -- so one good thing about having a multi-national family, is that I can travel and visit family. I bought an around the world ticket, and went to England, Ireland, and France, then jumped to India, where I stayed for two months, then went to Thailand, then to Australia. My grandmother actually lived in Australia, so I went to be with her as she had not been well. As it turned out, she was really unwell, so I stayed three months with her and was with her when she died.
 
The experience of being with her made me rethink what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I wanted to finish my own book, but also knew I wanted to be back in India. Being in India made me feel happy in a way almost no other place has. I would have loved to come to India just to travel, but I really wanted to live and work here -- and experience day to day life. I hadn't grown up traveling to India (prior to moving here, I had only been here twice) as my Indian grandparents had passed away before I was born. I got in touch with Tara again and applied for the internship. I was worried  about being older (as most of Tara's interns are just out of college) but that was all in my head. I am learning more and more to just go out and do things that fill you creatively, even if some people are puzzled by your path.
 
I was alone on and off when traveling. My mother traveled with me some, and almost everywhere I went, I met friends or family. This year of being in India has been a lot more of being alone in India. Which is so nice. I love my Indian family very much, but they don't quite know what to make of someone who is 32 and not married (their attempts to marry me off are a whole other story...) So, they are very protective. My aunt still can't understand why I take public busses in India and not a taxi. It is some times a down side being a woman in India alone. Sometimes, it can be frustrating when traveling on trains and buses, when getting service when eating out. But that said, I feel very safe in the South traveling around.

What has your experience in India been compared to what you thought it might be before you moved there?
In many ways, my prior trips had taught me to have no expectations -- I think when coming to a place like India, which can be very easily exoticized and romanticized, you really have to come with a very open heart and mind. For me, in a bit of a cliché, I hoped I would discover my roots and figure out all sorts of questions from the universe. In that way, I have realized that moving to a new place doesn't automatically make things clear for yourself, in many ways, you can feel more muddled. But you also do learn all sorts of things about yourself when you are stripped of the comforts (or sometimes crutches) you rely on back home.

The ease of the West is something that I never thought about till I came here. It's a given that power works, that you can, for the most part, drink water out of your tap, that when you go to the grocery store you can get what you want. I think I took all of that for granted. Living in a city of 7 million from a town in Wyoming, all of my experiences here have been so far removed from what I have known. I also thought I would pick up Tamil very easily, which, well, isn't quite as easy as I thought...

My idea of India has only become more complex. In that I realize that you can live here for years and years, and only scratch the surface of this country. I feel like I really only know my little pocket of Chennai. When I was in Delhi recently or in Bangalore, they are so different from Chennai. Every city here has such its own feels and rhythms. So, I feel like I have just started a relationship with India, and will continue to come back again and again.

Share an experience where you said to yourself, "YES, this is why I wanted to live in India!"...an experience when you knew you made the right decision to take that leap.
I think it was Vinayaka Chaturthi, or the Ganesha Festival. I have always like Ganesha. Out of all the Indian gods, he seems really jolly. He is the remover of obstacles, and the god of beginnings. During this festival, all these make-shift shops spring up on the roads. They sell mud Ganeshas, which at the end of the festival, are submerged into the sea (or water). At temples, elaborate light sculptures (think Christmas lights as art) tower over rooftops. I got up early on the morning of the first day of the festival. I took a walk to the temple near my house. People were buying their mud Ganeshas to take home and decorate. My landlord had been making all sorts of sweets to present to her Ganesha. The sweet shops had special foods. As I walked around, I just felt part of something much bigger than me. India's culture is so old, so beautiful, and to watch certain rituals makes me feel, well, for lack of a better word, connected. Also, since Ganesha is the god of beginnings, it all felt very auspicious to me.

But, I have to admit, I also felt pretty happy when I finally could get an auto rickshaw and bargain in broken Tamil. I knew my mom would be proud!

What have you learned about yourself while living in India on your own over the past year?
To let go of control. To not worry about time. To laugh. To also be more aggressive – with so many people competing for space, I’ve had to learn to push my way through a crowd. Also, I grew up with a lot of open space around me, so India challenges my notions of space and silence. I’ve learned that I can quite happily move through an Indian street with its maze of people, cows, auto rickshaws, scooters, cars, bullock carts.
 
Do a brain dump of adjectives describing India...
Friendly, dynamic, loud, scented, hot, humid, colorful, joyful, green

When will we be able to order the book you are working on?
The Gond art book will be published in early 2009. I hope my own fiction book will come out soon after that…

Thank you Nina for an extraordinary interview and for sharing so much of your incredible journey!  I can't wait to see where you go next... 

These are just two of the intriguing creations from the Old Soul Doll Company.  Shari Enge, owner and artist:

"I like to think that sense of mystery and wonder, that longing to know the unknown about my family and the South, shows through in my dolls." 

I met Barbara of Hope's Flame last year and we hit it off immediately.  I was thrilled when she shared her latest endeavor with me - a blog called Dually Noted, which is "a daily journal by two friends documenting their lives and their friendship shaped by a single decision: whether and when to have children."

[February 20, 2008] 

Hello Barb & Lori...Thank you so much for letting me interview you for Sparkletopia.  I love the new blog you have started together; I think it is a great topic that isn't discussed enough.  Tell everyone what Dually Noted is about.
Barb: Hi Christine. The pleasure is all ours. Or at least mine. Anytime I can talk about a project I'm working on, I'm a happy camper. Dually Noted is a daily journal by two friends (that would be Lori and me) documenting their lives and their friendship as it relates to a single decision: whether and when to have children. I’m the childfree one. Lori recently added “mom” to her list of credentials.
Lori: Barb is right – Dually Noted is a conversation between Barb and myself on our demographics of childfree and new mommy. However, the motivation for me is more an opportunity to resuscitate my creative self and force me to start writing again on a regular basis. The fact that I get to write about my new favorite subject, my 3-month-old son, is a bonus!

How did the two of you come up with the idea for Dually Noted?
Barb: I’ve been looking for a unique way to talk about my decision to choose a childfree life for a long time. It’s a topic that seems somewhat taboo for some reason and I wanted to give it a face as well as a place in our cultural history. Lori and I have wanted to do something creatively together ever since we met four years ago. We even have our own Creativity Retreat Weekends just as an outlet for creative expressions (as well as a convenient excuse to kick the men out of the house, eat, drink wine, and dance uninhibitedly to music). So when Lori became pregnant, I knew this was a milestone in our friendship and that it would change our relationship forever (insert dramatic sigh here…and I know Lori is rolling her eyes right now). The timing was right and the topic is relevant, not just to us but to all women, couples, and friends.
Lori: It was purely Barb’s idea. I’m just a pawn in her game…in fact, I didn’t realize how important the subject really was for her until she pitched the project to me. I had never realized the contrast, and how much my decision to have children impacted her view of our friendship and of me as a person. It’s been a great discussion.

What was it that compelled you to open the discussion up to a wider audience?
Barb: Curiosity. Just the plain old desire to see what other people think of the topics, situations, and discussions Lori and I have in Dually Noted as well as to give Lori and I a chance to see (and react to) things others bring up. As I said above, childfree people often can’t be heard above the chatter that comes from the “pro-family” or “family-friendly” culture we live in.
Lori: I was hesitant to open it up to a wider audience, as I felt I wouldn’t be as honest if I knew people were “watching.”  I initially didn’t like the blogging idea, and honestly didn’t even understand why people did it, but have warmed up to it over the course of our project. I’m also getting more comfortable with the comments and having people review my work…at first it felt like I was back in school and being peer edited, but my ego has since recovered.

Is there a specific message you are trying to convey to women contemplating the question of whether & when to have children?
Barb: Oh goodness no. Dually Noted is voyeurism at its worst and best. It’s looking at a friendship and how it evolves or stagnates (I don’t know the outcome yet) now that one of the friends makes a major lifestyle change. I’m not trying to convenience anyone that a childfree life is better or worse than one that includes children. But because it is a decision everyone faces, it is something we can all relate to on some level.
Lori: Initially I definitely didn’t have a message, I didn’t even know what I was trying to say. As we continue to blog and my role as mother evolves, however, I find myself wanting to send more of a message…stay tuned, I have my soap box handy in case I need it.

Where does the title "Dually Noted" come from?
Barb: It’s a take on “duly noted,” which basically means to take note of. We just switched “duly” to “dually” to reflect the multiple dualities within the project: two friends, two points of views, two life styles. Our subtitle, “One decision, two lives” also plays off the number thing.
Lori: Enough said.

I think there are endless resources for women who want to have children, but finding resources, support and even honest discussions about the decision to not have children requires quite a bit of detective work...any thoughts on this?
Barb: I agree. When I lived in Minnesota, I felt isolated in many ways because there weren’t many people like me who were proactively committed to a childfree life. And if you talked about being childfree, especially about being childfree on purpose, people just didn’t know how to react to that. It made them feel uncomfortable. I think part of that is because too often the discussion about choosing to be childfree is intertwined with tumultuous settings, like a bad childhood or the inability to live a healthy adult life. Even a book like Molly Peacock’s Paradise, Piece by Piece, one of the first by a mainstream writer to talk about wanting to be childfree, you sort of get the feeling she was trying to avoid something instead of creating or seeking out a certain lifestyle that was best for her. It wasn’t until I moved to California five years ago that I felt I was “at home with my peeps.” Here, I met many women and men whose vision of themselves and their future is one that does not include raising children…and they were happy, successful, mentally stable adults making no apologies for their decision! It was such a breath of fresh air.
Lori: I never really read the resources available to me for wanting to have children, and in fact think we’ve become so overloaded with information on “What to Expect When…” that we’ve really lost the spirit of the whole experience. I knew that I couldn’t imagine living my life on this planet without leaving a piece of myself behind in another human being. I was fortunate enough to not have a problem getting pregnant (in spite of my lifestyle for the previous 15 years) and had a relatively uncomplicated pregnancy, so I suppose I’m lucky in that I didn’t need to rely on the books and websites available. In my opinion, regardless of the subject matter, I meet so many people that reach paralysis by analysis on any decision. My advice? Close your eyes and jump!

For someone visiting Dually Noted who may be struggling with the question of whether & when to have children, what do you want them to take away from the experience of reading your blog?
Barb: I’d like them to consider that there’s a lot to think about, regardless what side of the decision you’re on. It’s a question I strongly believe is the single most important one you’ll ever make in your life…more important than choosing a lifetime partner or a career, how to spend or save your money, what religion to subscribe to or political party to align with.
Lori: Definitely echoing Barb’s response, it’s a HUGE decision and commitment, either way. If you have children, you learn a new level of commitment that you cannot know without them. If you don’t have children, then you commit to a totally different lifestyle as well.

What other resources, blogs, websites or books have you found that might be helpful to someone unsure of whether or not motherhood is their true calling?
Barb: I’m not sure how this is going to sound or come across, but I truly believe the best resource is your gut instinct. There’s no one in the world who is in a better position to tell you what to do when it comes to whether or when to have children than yourself. You need to search within and figure out what you want from your life, what you’re willing to work for, what you’re willing to sacrifice, what lifestyle you’re drawn to, and most importantly, how much of “you” you’re willing to mess with. I don’t believe you can find “the answer” in any one book, blog, or even friend. If you’re unsure about whether or when to have children, then you’re probably unsure about what you want from your future. Figure that out and I think the kid decision will be easy.
Lori: If you’re not sure you want children – then don’t have them until you’re sure. I never really saw having children as a calling, per se, but as an element of my life that I needed in order to feel fulfilled as a woman. Now that I am a mother, I can’t imagine it any other way, but not everyone feels that way. The worst combination is a woman who has children because she thinks she’s supposed to, and then realizes that she never wanted them in the first place. Bad call.

I so appreciate being able to interview you both to learn more about Dually Noted and share your site on Sparkletopia.  This is such an important issue and I think a lot of the questions you are addressing aren't being discussed enough....so thank you!!
Barb: Thank you for your enthusiastic support and interest! Lori and I have more ideas and plans in the works for Dually Noted so we’re really excited to be sharing it with others, getting people engaged, and learning more about ourselves in the process.
Lori: Ditto!

I can't remember how I stumbled upon Rose and Radish, but I love their quirky assortment of paper and home goods.  With product categories such as "Eclectic", "Table" and "Wrap" that all lead to colorful eye candy, I'm officially hooked.

My dear friend and creative soulmate Andrea Scher came down to LA for a visit recently along with Jen Gray and Denise Andrade to help Andrea put together a workshop she had been asked to teach this fall.  Our time together was blissful and I was looking forward to attending her workshop in September, even though all I knew about it was that it was in New Hampshire.  A couple of weeks later, I received an email from the lovely Elizabeth MacCrellish announcing her latest venture, with a link to the Squam Art Workshops site.  I immediately clicked on the link, saw Andrea's lovely face in her teacher roster and emailed Elizabeth back saying, "This is YOU?!" once again giving me that lovely isn't it a small world after all kind of warm feeling.  I seized the moment, asked her for an interview right away and here we are!

P.S.  Registration begins March 7, so mark your calendars! 

[February 21, 2008]

Tell me how the idea for the Squam Art Workshops came to you.
It’s a funny thing.  All my life I wanted to have an arts/creativity center.  I know that it’s been at least twenty years that I’ve been talking about this because on one of our first dates, my husband asked me what I wanted to do (really, wanted to do—as at the time I was just making a living to pay the rent, party on the weekends, etc) and I told him my dream of building an arts center for kids.  Now, looking back I can see clearly that the motivation came from wanting to perpetuate something I had as a kid growing up that saved my life:  the Wallingford Arts Center in Wallingford, PA (www.communityartscenter.org...Oh, look-- guess they changed the name).  Pretty much every Saturday from the age of 8 –15 was spent there.  I have a bumper sticker on my car that I got in Port Townsend, WA.  It reads:  Art Saves Lives.  I truly believe this and want so much for people to have the place, space, support and guidance to tap into this power that can transform your life experience. 

But, life can take you on strange journeys (mine has certainly meandered through the tall weeds) and it wasn’t until I attended Artfest that it all clicked for me and I had the vision to host the same kind of event here on the East Coast for people who may not be able to travel across the country.

What was the image you envisioned when you decided to make this idea a reality.
A place where people sink into a long, sweet day with no distractions of groceries, or making dinner, or running laundry, etc—a place of physical beauty that both nurtures and inspires—a place where you feel you have found your tribe and it feels so. damn. good. 

If I had to sum it up?  A bit of Thoreau in the sense of a natural retreat, a bit of the MacDowell Colony in terms of all your meals are taken care of so that you can focus all of your attention on what you most want to do, with a dash of “The Big Chill” weekend flavor (um, minus the suicide, of course—I’m referring just to the feeling of hanging out with old friends).

Now that your website is up, the registration process is about to begin and the event is right around the corner, what is going through your mind?
Well, the website is still missing the message board and the blog which are HUGE components as that is where people can start connecting and communicating about this- so we are still in the ‘pedal to the medal’ mode to get it finished.  But I understand your question.  I guess, to quote my sister-in-law who is a psychologist and pretty savvy about managing emotions, expectations, etc—I’m trying to be ‘an empty vessel’ where I simply experience what is going on without generating fears or worries or, what have you. 

A couple of weeks ago I had this same conversation with the amazing (AMAZING!) Jen Gray.  I was saying either I could be panicked that no one would sign up, or I could be flattened if there is a deluge of registrations and she said, “everyone who is supposed to be there, will be there.” And ever since that conversation, I’ve simply given over to letting it takes its course.  I’m just the facilitator—this is, ultimately, a collaborative and it will create what it wants to create.  Not only do I have no power to control that—I wouldn’t want to.  I want to see the event develop into its own thing.

What has been the most challenging thing for you so far organizing this event?
Getting my husband to build the website without, you know, getting served with divorce papers.  In order for us to make our launch date of Tuesday the 19th, he worked 4 days straight, including 18 hours on Monday, which was his birthday and he didn’t get so much as a cupcake or a candle.  He’s a mensch, for sure.

What has been easy...maybe surprisingly so?
OMG.  The teachers!!  The TEACHERS!!  I asked if they’d be interested and they said yes!  I never expected that—not at all.  They have been so enthusiastic.  They have supported me and nurtured me and buoyed me—I just can’t even begin to tell you the respect and love and admiration I have for this group of teachers.  They are the best people.

On your website, you have a quote by Kafka that reads "Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."  What does beauty mean to you, and what do you do to tap into it when you need come creative rejuvenation?
First, I need to mention that it was Noel Danforth, the woman who designed the website, who chose that quote and it was absolutely perfect, but that was her idea.

There’s a scene in the film American Beauty when the young videotaping dude says to Thora Birch something like, “there’s so much beauty in the world it just overwhelms me.”  That’s how it is for me.  I can’t take it all in and sometimes it can paralyze me, so I try to keep focused on very small, very, very, very small things—or it will tip me over.

With human beings, it all comes down to kindness.  When people are genuinely kind, it cuts me off at my knees.  Seriously.  And for me, human beauty is all about kindness.

With nature—well, holy hell—I’ll have to refer you back to what I wrote above—it is beyond my ken.  But, if there's one thing that feeds my soul above all else it is flowers.  Flowers are my drug—especially those in a wild, loose perennial garden.  That's my heaven on earth.

What are you most looking forward to about the Squam Art Workshops?
Hmm, well this is tough as I’m not a linear person.  I don’t have favorites or “top ten” lists, or anything like that.  For me, things are circular and ephemeral.  As much as I hope SAW will be a fabulous event, I’m not thinking about living there right now.  In this moment, I am reveling in the energy and excitement and emails I am getting about the planning of it.

I sent a link to your site to my best friend telling her she should go, and her initial response was, "I think I'll be out of my league..."  What would you like to say to anyone who wants to attend your workshops but might be feeling intimidated?
This!  This is the most important question of all.  It really is.  I was that person.  I know that feeling.  I had this desire to create, but the ‘art world’ was some foreign place, some special place that someone like me could only observe from the outside. 

The whole purpose of Squam Art Workshops, its essential nature, is to provide a safe place to tap into your creativity.  Each of has our own spark.  If you set up 10 easels around a still life and 10 people came and drew that still life you would have 10 totally different drawings.  I’m not sure what happens to us as children that our belief in our perspective and creation is no good.  I’m not sure why people lose touch with the magic of their unique self.  I do know that once you get the creativity going it feeds your life—whether it is color, gardening, cooking, clothes, sewing, knitting, deeper empathy with others, greater interest in the natural world, more compassion for animals— creativity is the spring under it all and having more of it alive in your day is not about making “art”—it’s about being alive with passion and joy and pleasure.  Which, for me, is the greatest art of all—living well.

Please, PLEASE tell your friend to email me.  I could go on and on about this--- it’s the inner critic trying to deny us self-expression.  I will happily take on that critic and pound its face into the cement.  With great pleasure, I might add.

If money were no object and your safety were guaranteed, where in the world would you want to go?
Oh la la.  My dream is to live in Paris from October to December every year.  I’d also love to spend a month in New Mexico each year—those are core spirit places for me.  But if I’m doing that, I guess I’d take the whole October – May time frame and buzz about the world—visiting places that are warm and sunny as I am done with Winter.  Done. Winter 2008 has kicked my butt, but good. And then when I’d gotten my equilibrium back—Ireland, Scotland—those are places I have always wanted to visit.  And Portland, OR.  I would love to spend a couple three weeks in Portland, OR.

I'm heading to LondonTown today to visit this lovely soul.  The rest of this week's posts are already scheduled to keep you inspired while I'm away with phenomenal interviews, Etsy favorites and other goodies!

I have a very peculiar habit of buying books - art books in particular - bringing them home, and then taking weeks and sometimes months to actually sit down and peruse the book beyond whatever page-flipping I initially did at the bookstore.  I bought Nick Bantock's Urgent 2nd Class - no kidding - I think it was well over a year ago, maybe two, and it wasn't until this past weekend that I really dove into it.  This has been a habit of mine long enough that I don't feel terribly guilty about it, as I usually open such books at the exact time I need them most, and this book was no exception.  My copy is now filled with colorful tabs to mark pages that I want to go back to, with collage techniques and ideas that I cannot wait to try in my own work.

I discovered M. Graves Jewelry in yesterday's NY Times Sunday Styles section and would love to take a peek inside her studio.  Her creations are inspired by a collection of 19th century bisque doll heads excavated from the remains of a former doll factory in Germany.

They are like small assemblages you can wear...I imagine each piece whispering a story.

Oscar night is the one night a year I must watch TV, and last night's ceremony did not disappoint.  I am thrilled the Coen Brothers won Best Picture, and I also loved Marketa Irglova's acceptance speech, which she was able to give thanks to Jon Stewart bringing her back out after she was cut off by the orchestra earlier in the evening.  {Sigh...} 

What does this image mean to you?  Make you think of?  Want to do?