**I've MoVed!!**

Please come and visit me at my new blog address:

http://joyouslybecoming.typepad.com/

Holidays

The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,
When the full river of feeling overflows;--
The happy days unclouded to their close;
The sudden joys that out of darkness start
As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart
Like swallows singing down each wind that blows!
White as the gleam of a receding sail,
White as a cloud that floats and fades in air,
White as the whitest lily on a stream,
These tender memories are;--a fairy tale
Of some enchanted land we know not where,
But lovely as a landscape in a dream.

---Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This is a photo I took of the fog rolling in as the sun went down over our field. I'll be back blogging soon with words of my own and more photos. Wishing you all a joyous New Year!

Winter Solstice

my thoughts are with the earth today

the changing seasons

moving from the darkest day of the year

towards the lightest

once again

on my walk today i found these

lovely tissue-paper-thin leaves

clinging to moss-covered trees

transparent skeletons

form a perfect reminder of the darkness

we're leaving behind

i collected a handful

and ironed them flat

between snow white

tissue

these leaves

how beautiful and delicate they are

still.

On the Nineth Day of Christmas...

A personalized pendant made of a brass stencil and vintage ephemera made by Crystal
Such an original piece of art, creative and very cool!

She's homeward bound

Marissa's flight arrives this evening and we get her for 5 days, i'm so excited and happy - i know the time will go all too fast but i'm going to enjoy every second! many of you know what a rough year she's had (this is a photo i took before she left last july) but this strong young woman has made her mama proud and is creating a beautiful life for herself, new job, finishing her degree, new friends and a boyfriend she is quite serious about. which is why she will be leaving Minneapolis the day after she gets back, and moving to Denver Colorado, where the two of them can continue dating without him flying her to Denver every other weekend. She got a transfer from the bank she's now working at, so she's got a job waiting for her there, a room ready for her in a house with a couple other college girls (thanks to Craigs list) and she was accepted into University of Colorado Denver's business school, and will start up with her classes in a couple weeks (i can't believe i have a daughter who *loves* math, she takes after her dad in that way, certainly not me!). She is super busy, like any working college student, but she is excited with her new life. I am SO thankful every day for the 'wedding-that-never-was'.

Another Blustery Day

The weather is cloudy and rainy; another rain and wind storm is on the way. Hopefully we'll get through this smaller one without losing power but just in case we do, I plan to make one of my favorite soups (i've been making it for over twenty years) that I can warm up on the wood stove if I have to. This soup is comfort food at its best; you know the kind of food that tastes and feels so good in your tummy that you just don't want to quit eating it? This is one of those soups, and it's easy-peasy to make. It's from The cookbook Diet For A Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe.

Turkish Barley-Buttermilk Soup

Saute 2 large chopped onions in some olive oil

Add and stir till lightly toasted 1 cup barley

When onion is well browned add 5 cups of stock

Cook until barley is well done - about 45 minutes.

Remove from heat and let it cool a bit, than slowly add 2 cups of buttermilk or yogurt, add more stock if it's too thick. Sprinkle in about 1 tsp of dill (more of less according to taste) and stir in a bit of butter. Voila!- it's ready to eat, enjoy!

On the Eighth Day of Christmas...

A beautiful cd collage with a soaring bird made by Liz Smith ; isn't it just fabulous?! And another bird theme; i love birds, and like so many others, i can never get too much of them.

12 Days of Christmas - Catching Up

because of the power outage, i was unable to show you gifts 3 - 7; here they are:

day 3: a beautiful 4" x 4" collage on canvas created by Edina Tien

day 4: a sweet little collaged notebook created by Deb Lewis, the perfect size for my purse

day 5: a lovely pendant made by Kristen Robinson

day6: is the day the gals opened the gift from me, a 4" x 4" mixed media collage on canvas board coated with beeswax.

day 7: this cool paper book necklace from Penelope

some journal pages

i promise to photo and post pictures of gifts 3 - 7 on my blog tomorrow. time got away from me today and before i knew it, it was too dark to get good shots. while the power was out, i did catch up on some of my art comittments - i made these five pages for Reiny Rizzi's calendar journal.

back on the grid again

we've got power again, how exciting! you don't realize how much of your life is entwined with electricity until you don't have it. i spent lots (most of my time) in the studio, day and night. I bundled up and lit the candles at 4:00 when it got dark - I kind of enjoyed the whole experience actually, except for the feeling a bit cold and no hot showers :-)

anyway, i'll be catching up with photos today so you all can see the 12 Days of Christmas packages i've been opening. it was so much fun to have a little gift each day to open, it warmed my heart.

Power outage here

the storm took out our power as well as 1.5 million other peoples. it's been three days now and we still don't have any power - it could be 3-4 days or longer till they get to us, so i wanted to let everybody know i didn't disappear. we have a wood stove going that keeps a couple rooms downstairs fairly warm, and a generator going to run our well pump so we have water, albeit cold, and can use the toilets as well as run our freezer. we are roughing it for sure, but, i've always got my pot of hot water on the woodstove and as long as i've got my hot tea, i'm happy. i'll be back online soon!