Warmth

I think the glow of the candle light captures the mood of our Thanksgiving gathering.

Mary took these two wonderful photos of our "spooky silly storytelling" session after dinner. I only wish we had gotten a photo with Mary in it.

Thanks everyone for making it such a wonderful day!

Staying Home

From what I can hear throught the oven door, our turkey is not singing this song.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Just Cockoo for Coco

Cuckoo doesn't really describe it.

Over-the-Moon comes close.
Truly, Madly, Deeply touches upon it.
Crazy Happy too.
Nothing compares to Chloe for Annie.
Thanks Tiger, Travis, Rinny and especially Chloe for making Annie's day.
Or week. Maybe month...

Annie and Chloe-2.5 years ago on moving day.

Fun With the Dead and the Alive

So much fun in the studio today!
It was the first mini-workshop for Alameda StudioTime and there was so much creativity and excitement going around. I'm waiting to see if everyone wants their picture posted on line before I reveal more.

Thanks to everyone who came and I look forward to more great projects together!

The Sweetest Thing

Mmmm.
We had toast with honey, tea with honey and spoon fulls of honey for breakfast today.
Thanks Kristin!
It really is the best honey we've ever had.
I think the photo's illustrate my point.

The song is Wild Honey by U2

We Love You Cameron

When we think of our dear friend named Cameron,
our hearts start a beatin' and hammerin'!
Her love of kitties and pups,
and for makin' cool stuff,
give us all smiles,
that go on for miles.
Even if we're twisted and gruff!

We heard you are stricken with pox!
Oh dear! Cover your hands with some sox!
For we hear they are itchy,
(and can make you quite bitchy)
so we are sending warm thoughts
(and this cute little fox)
in hopes that you won't have to squawk
(too much...)
about those damn chicken pox!


Bill, Annie and I wrote this tonight at the dinner table. Annie thought the cuss words might make you smile.

We love you Cam!

Let the Games Begin

The Easter fun has begun!

The song? Spring Fling by Fabian's Children

Sweet Connection

Isn't is amazing when you don't see someone for a long time and then, when you get together, it's like no time has passed? You pick up with where you left off? It was like that for Margo and I and for Annie and Melody. Seven months no see, no speak, then easy, sweet connection. Until next time, thanks for coming you two.

Birthday Gift

Annie's been invited to her dear friend Grace's birthday. The theme is turtles. Annie's so excited! Grace is one of those kids that is as comfortable in water as she is on the back of her pony. A real joy to watch! I've made this small watercolor as her gift. I'm never sure what to do for birthday gifts? Ak! Buying gifts, yuck! I don't want more stuff, does anyone else? So if I can make a gift I will. I hope she isn't disappointed that it's not a toy.

Dog Party

We threw a spontaneous hot chocolate party this afternoon. We tidied the house, made a pot of yummy vegetable soup and laid out some reindeer cookies and a small cake before our guests arrived. Annie and I put on festive dresses and decided to go across the street and invite some of our elderly neighbors to share some holiday cheer with us. When we got home Jasper (our large shaggy dog) had eaten all the reindeer cookies and the whole cake! Ak!

Oh well! At least he had some holiday cheer.

The party was fine, there was plenty to enjoy. The photo above shows the small ornaments I made for our guests. Each one depicts one of our canaries.

A Warm House

After Annie's guests had all left her Halloween/Housewarming party today, she asked if our house was now warm.
It definitely feels warmer to me!

I just wish I could have gotten Vivi the hedgehog and Lily the cat in the picture too.

Just One More?

Something about babies clothing and shoes makes me lust for a new baby. For a moment I explore the thought of just one more. Please notice that I wrote 'for a moment?' I really am one that can clearly see my limits, and my need for balance and I feel very satisfied (also thrilled, grateful, and over-the-moon) with the family that Billy and I have made with Annie, our family and dear friends.
Just this week our friend Alison has grown her family for the second time through open adoption! Baby Isobel was lovingly placed in her arms by her birthmother Moriah who is also the birthmother of Olivia who is almost five. Alison and I both were dreaming about open adoption around the same time so we share a strong connection around this special way of growing our families. These booties are for Isobel who I will see tomorrow for the first time. She will be six days old tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Isobel!

Heat Wave

Ugh! It's really really hot here in Alameda. Really really hot. It's 98* at this moment. And this old house has no screens or ceiling fans. So, we are baking! I tried opening windows and doors yesterday, but the house was filled with hot stagnant air, plus there were a ton of flies on top of it all. So today we are closed up and the drapes are drawn. Annie and I have taken a cold, green tea bath already, and we didn't drain it so we can jump in and have another one. Soon. Very soon. It's Bill's birthday today, (although we're not celebrating until tomorrow) so I'm decorating, and baking. (Ak!) Bill requested Chocolate Bread Pudding. I'm also cleaning, changing sheets and and getting ready for Bill's folks who get here tomorrow afternoon for the birthday celebration.

Enough about my workload, the photo above is a little singing mermaid I made for Lily around the corner. It was her 5th birthday recently and she had a mermaid party. It was a really great party and she loved the mermaid. Or at least her folks did! Makes me want to jump and swim in a cool body of water just looking at her. Ahhhh, that tea bath is calling my name. I'm sure I'll get much more crossed off my list if my temperature is more manageable.

Layers of Love

My dear friend Mary Ann has started a blog highlighting her most recent studio work. You can link to Blue Sky Dreaming here. Her studio is in Capitola California where she works and lives with her poet husband Pablo and the ocean breezes. The whole time I have known her, I guess about ten years, she has always had a series going. When it ends, another begins. I'm amazed at her drive. And inspired. And a little jealous.

I grabbed two pieces off her blog to show here. She works in many mediums from paint, paper, fiber to found object. When I look at her work I see her expert hand creating layers of stories and possibly some kind of map to her dreams. Maybe they are breadcrumb trails, left behind while out exploring so she can find her way back to an internal place of peace? I love thinking about it. I also love how the layers build up on her canvas or paper... colors, imagery, textures, paint strokes and threads, stacked up, one on top of the other holding secret prayers, desires, celebrations, and questions about the eternal. Oh yes. And about love!

I believe Mary Ann knows a bit about love.
I love you M A.

Happy Birthday Sara!

So glad you were born! Love you, Patrice

(This photo really makes me wish that you were sitting in my picture window right now while I make us a cup of tea and something delicious to eat. I can almost hear Annie and Ezra playing in the background!)

Dear Lucy

Our dear friends the Meyers', in Santa Cruz, are fostering a pregnant mama kitty named Lucy. It was looking like Lucy was about to have five little kittens, due any day! Well, Lucy gave birth Sunday night to three little kitties, and we got to see them Monday morning! Oh! How beautiful! Lucy is a wonderful mother to her three little ones. There are two tortoise shells and one light grey tabby, all healthy and cozy with their mother. It was a tad disappointing that there were only three kitties born after the idea of five was entered into the imagination. All day the kids kept checking (and hoping) she might pop two more out. But wait! The agency they foster through, AFRP called Tuesday morning to say that they had a pair of motherless two-day-old kitties in need, and could they bring them by to see if Lucy was willing to take them on? Well, Lucy was willing! All five kitties are now healthy and cozy with their mother. I guess she was about to have five little kittens, just as planned.

WIP-Mid-February

I've been working on this lovely little scarf since mid January and now it's almost done. It's not that it was really complicated, I just never sat and worked on it for more than 20 minutes at a time. If I had had plenty of uninterrupted knitting time I think it would have been a sweet weekend project. At one point I had to go into the knitting store for advise because I couldn't seem to figure one part out, plus whatever way I do purl (continental?) is slightly different from the way the author of this pattern does it. So I adapted, and it's turning out great. I say great, what I mean is, it's great for me. I am not a meticulous knitter! Or seamstress. Or embroiderer. Or parent. Or housekeeper. I am delighted if I grasp the overall feel/look that I'm aiming for. For instance, I won't pull out six inches of work unless it sticks out miserably.

Since I took these photos, I've completed both sides, now I just need to figure out how to knit the two finished pieces together. If you would like this pattern, it is called The Rosalie Scarf.
My dear friend Cory saw the scarf and yarn at her knitting store and bought it as a gift for me! She said she thought of me when she saw the scarf, and she was right. I love it!
Thank you Cory!

I look just like this wearing my scarf. Except my hair is red.

Happy Day-After Valentine's Day!

My friend Gail here in the Bay Area sent me this Valentine and I had to post it because it took me by surprise and tickeled my funny bone...

Thanks Gail!

(Please know that if it takes you by surprise in the upsetting way that truly wasn't my intention.)

Not a Love Bug

I am still weak, shaky, and my muscles feel atrophied, but I think the worst is behind me. That isn't meant to be a pun. I have suffered. Monday night I felt nauseous, and then all through that night and until Thursday late afternoon, I was stricken with what I thought might be Ebola, or Typhoid or some other death sentence. At first I guessed it was a 24 hour bug that was ravaging my system, but apparently is is more of a 72 hour horror show. One that got worse as the days passed. Imagine intense nausea, incredible amounts of liquids exiting my intestinal system every few minutes, leaving me dehydrated to the point of dry heaves and shakes. I called a nurse Thursday morning and she said it's just a bad bug and to drink as much Gatorade as I could and that unless my fever was over 102 to just ride it out. Ugh! So I've made it to the other side, and I hope none of you get this thing. I have no idea of where I got it.

As bad as it all was, (and still is-I'm so weak and lightheaded!) the worst part was having Annie see me so sick, and for me to see her so alone and exposed to T.V. I couldn't offer much else! Thankfully dear Jen and Johnny scooped her both Wednesday and Thursday for a lot of fun and play! I felt so relieved and cared about!

Three Little Kittens

Our dear friends are fostering a mother cat and her three new kittens. Ohhhh! They are really darling! I think they are almost two weeks old. The mother is a very exotic looking cross between a Siamese and a Tabby, with wonderful markings. She isn't very tame. The two cream-colored babies are girls and the little tabby is a boy. I watched the kids, and Annie, handle them with so much care and love, I just know that these kitties will be lovely house pets once they are ready to launch into the world.

I think these pictures capture a bit of the ecstasy of holding, seeing and hearing these little beauties! Can you feel it too?