katiemae_days

dreaming in action, tour of art.....

This last weekend marked one of my favorite local events....the Whatcom Artist Studio Tour.    Artists that include painters, sculptors, photographers, potters, woodturners, textile artists open their studios to the public and at points throughout the weekend demostrate their art in action.

I am inspired each year not just by the artist and their art but their surrounds. There are some forty artists involved in this tour which can wind and weave its way through our town and out into the county. My choice is usually to head out into the county away from town and hit those studios first. I like the opportunity to get out of town and see some of the farms and acreage where these artists are living and creating.

My girl and our crew visited maybe seven artists on Sunday. We returned to see three artists who struck us deeply last year. Potter: Brian O'Neill. Woodturner: Vernon Liebrant and sculptors: Don Anderson and Susan Averre. We were lucky to get to watch Vernon turn a bowl on his hand-made lathe. Sawdust flies as the wood takes shape. He gave my girl a piece of wood trimmed from the bowl in the making. A treasure to be sure.

And this year, We added to the list Deanna Elliott an abstract painter. Her paintings are about texture, color. In some new works, she uses wool, hand-dyed by her Mom from her own sheep to create what look like water color paintings. We stopped in next to see Julia Clifford who paints big expansive gorgeous pieces of trees and pasture, flowers. Her pieces are layered and surprising, dreamy like her website says. Our day ended with a visit to Tommy Gibson a photographer who quite simply blew me away and reminded me of how much I have to learn. In a good way. That reminder is inspiration in action. Each of these artists resonating in some way with me. Their work or their surrounds or in others we were lucky enough to see demonstrate their work, the quiet and grace in which they work.

Really, I should call this my fantasy tour because that's what it is. Most of the studios we visited sprung from old barns or timber frame loft or came alive in a beautiful yurt. i have visioned myself for years living on some land facing the mountains and having a studio out back to work my art...whatever that may be..for now I say card-making, design, photography, writing, working with people one on one and in groups, listening and guiding. All about art that is learning and experimentation in action.

I took pictures from the day to bring into focus pieces of my dream. Images from my dreamscape brought to life perhaps. Giant sunflowers wilting, dying off, a sign of summer passing. Through the leaves, I see an old barn in the background.

Gardens in mountain view dappled in color with the remains of this season's harvest, apples that fell early, discovered by worms, brilliant deep green chard still sprouting leaves, linden grapes nothing short of luscious. One bite and plump tart sweetness bursts in your mouth.

Fall color, a brisk chill in the air makes me feel happy. I am inspired by art and the land with freedom to roam and the land that is open expanse.

Here I am writing and talking the dream aloud: A warm, efficient, open home for us. One that doesn't need much fixing. A studio out back. A dog and cat. Chickens too if I'm dreaming real big. And room to garden. I see my rubber boots and old pair of pants in the mud room ready to go out to work again. I see our hands at work in art and dirt. Pots on the stove. Fire burning. Mountains in view.

This is one dream that lives in my soul. I've had the same dream for years and years. I can see the studio, feel myself in it. Feel others there too. The important part of any dream is to keep dreaming it, putting it out there, working and shaping it like a piece of clay. And I will keep shaping, visioning, feeling and working this dream into reality one step at a time.

I am glad for this day touring art and dreaming my dream and oh yes feeling the burn from a beautiful, early morning, chilly bike ride with a very good friend. We climbed hills and coasted down again. Sharing as we pedaled on.

 

 

all about perspective

So, Friday morning 5:30 am I woke up ready once again for boot camp. I head out in the dawn's nearly light for class as usual and noticed the front left tire on my car was low so I stopped for air but quickly realized this tire was nearly flat and air was not helping. Fortunately, the tire lasted long enough for me to get to the tire shop for repair and was fixed in time to get my girl and two pals to swim class. Notice, I'm not interjecting this bit of text with a photo of my girl swimming or diving. More on that later. I can say that these swim lessons were well worth the investment. Two weeks, or ten consecutive weekdays of lessons grew my girl's swimming skills to a new level and her love for swimming even more. She learned to dive from the side of the pool and has the beginnings of a dive from the board.Her strokes are getting stronger by the day.

Friday continued to be a whirlwind of a day. Two birthday parties for my girl,and then off to a local bluegrass festival for great music, camping, dancing and hoola hooping fun. The music, for the most part local to our area is top notch. If you are a fan of bluegrass, americana, or alt-country and a casual, chilled out good time then this is the festival for you. Of the six or seven years we've been going to the Jamboree, the number of people attending has definitely increased but the sweetness and down-home feeling has remained. We set up camp near our friends in the more kid-friendly area and got right to the good music. The kids can run free enough here and still be in their mama (and/or papa's) eye view. My girl and her dear pal danced and hoola hooped for hours on their own and along side their mamas. And for the first night's highlights, two bands stand out for me: "Larry Yes" and "Chuckanut Drive" . See them if they come to a town near you or for that matter your town.

Friday as I might be inferring was one of those full days though fun there wasn't a spare minute.  In between swimming and birthday parties, we packed the car with our camping gear, hoola hoops, food and whatever else we thought we'd need for one night of bluegrass fun. Like a camera which I used right away when we got to the festival. Snapping some loveliness in the way of ethereal, henna-like face painting on our sweet girls, and a little hoola hoopin and square dancing fun. 

I put the camera away while we set up camp. After setting up the tent and our slumber spots for the night, I head back to the music. I reached for my camera in my left-hand pocket to snap some more pictures of the festival in action and alas no camera. What? Huh? I must have dropped it somewhere right? In the car, in the camping box. In the field between the car and our tent site. Somewhere. I went searching, digging, asking....no camera. I figured if someone picked up my little pocket of digital fun he/she would see pictures of kids and turn the dang thing into lost and found. Remember, I did say this festival was all about sweetness.

I figured the camera as lost not stolen. Due to me not focusing. In all the set-up, I obviously set the camera down somewhere in the trenches of my car where surely it will be found. Because I didn't quite trust myself to not lose something else like um my wallet, I locked that in my glove box. More like shoved it in and turned the key.

Despite a lost camera, that yes I shed a few tears over, I had a great night. I cried from exhaustion, feeling run down and yes for sure sad about the potentially lost pictures from the day . You know what? It kind of felt good to cry for a minute or five . Once I got that out of my system, I stepped right up in front of Chuckanut Drive and danced hard. I think I danced at least some of my cryin away. 

The next morning feeling less than refreshed but ready for a new day, I went to my glove box to fetch my wallet to buy some $1 coffee. Glove box locked. Wallet inside. Safe and sound. So safe in fact, that even I couldn't get my wallet. The key wouldn't turn. Now I knew I turned the key to lock the box in the first place but for some reason the lock was jammed now when the coffee was ready. Could it be my shoving the wallet inside when really it didn't fit? Hmmm. Oh well. I found a dollar got my coffee and asked for some help in the way of two carpenter friends who could surely figure out how to unjam the lock. They tried. No luck though for fear of breaking the lock and glove box which would end up costing alot more then trying another key once I got home.

So forget the camera and my wallet safe and sound under lock that no key would turn. We had a great morning joining in the family square dance set up so kids and adults ahem like me not so skilled in five-star dos e-dos could swing their partners with the best of them. And I don't know really if there is such a thing as five-star dos-e-dos but i do know square dancing can get tricky. I can follow along for awhile until I can't any longer. So, the family square dance was just my speed. My girl loves to dance and so do I and frankly there's not a better cure for the lost camera blues than dancing with friends and family and kickin up our heels.

After the family square dance and some great kids music in the morning hours of the jamboree, my girl and I head back into town for birthday party number three. After saying bye to the Papa and our friends, we'd nearly made our way out of the festival grounds when I looked at the gas meter and realized we were nearly out of gas. No problem right? My money was in my wallet which was stuck....in the glove box. Crap. Yep. here's where I hit the steering wheel and shed another round of tears. Exhaustion from little sleep the night before and well I was listening to alt-country all night  and cryin goes right along with the music. I never screamed, never even felt frantic....just frustrated and tiiiiired..dawg tiiiired..say it in southern for me would you now? I pulled myself together explaining to my girl that her mama needed just a little release.  She cried too saying she just felt said that I felt sad. Once I cried me a little river that lasted a few seconds, I felt ready to figure out our plan...and just then I looked up and saw a friend pedaling his bike out near the entrance where we now were. He lent me twenty dollars for some gas and off we went...I know there's a song in here somewhere. As we drove away, I  smiled. My girl and I talked about the good stuff that happened among the frustration and about the people that surround us who reached out to help. And in the scheme of things a lost camera and locked up wallet were definitely not so bad. 

After birthday party number three and a good shower and a little rest, we picked up a friend and head on back to the festival this time just for a few hours. One night of camping after a week of not much sleep was plenty thank you. I'd shared the story of my wallet and my dear friend went to work on trying to pry the thing loose. As we made our way, I noticed a Police car in my rear-view mirror. He couldn't be tailing me right? Yeah, not so right on this one. Sure enough lights go on and within a minute there we are in the Lowe's parking lot pulled talking to a State Trooper. He let me know me that as of this day, my tabs had expired. Dang. Oh crap. Yep I screwed up. I am never late with this stuff and somehow I was this year. "License and Registration" he asks kindly. Um, well sir I can't hand that over just now cause its locked in my glove box. And there is my friend trying to pry it loose with a butter knife. He took my name, checked me out in the computer I guess and came back to the car to say--"get your tabs, fix your light, and your glove box and have a good day." Whoo now there's some kindness in action.

After that, we head on out to the festival feeling elated and light. We heard yet another amazing band called "Petunia and the Vipers". See them soon if you can. And again, plenty of kid fun at the Stringband Jamboree for my girl and her pals. She got to help make a smoothie off the grid style...using pedal power to blend a beautiful array of organic berries. She and her pals marched in the kids parade and waltzed and hoola hooped until her sweet little self was so tiiired she had just enough energy to climb on her mama for a hip ride back to the car.

I have to share one more act of random kindness before I close and this one comes from another highlight from this festival called the band scramble. People in the crowd, musicians and non-musicians alike mix themselves up into small groups to form a band and write a song in about one-hour's time. The first of the three scrambled bands set up to play and the lead singer mentioned his wallet was missing. My heart sunk. His wallet missing. My camera. Crap. Well, awhile later I saw him standing in the crowd watching his grand-daughter hoola hoop. I asked him if he'd had any luck with his wallet. He was grateful for my asking and told me he'd called home and his wife told him he left the wallet at home so it wasn't missing after all. Oooh I hoped the same kind of luck will  hold for my camera though I knew I'd not left it at home. When he heard about my camera, he reached for my hand and asked if he could say a prayer. He held my hand and prayed on my camera's safe return. Kindness in pure form. This is not about religion for me but about a stranger reaching out full of good intention. Here, kindness transcending any differences in spirituality, experience, belief. A beautiful closing to the day.

By Monday morning, new tabs were on the car, my wallet retrieved from the glove box thanks to three determined women (one my six-year old) and some bbq tools are long enough to pry the wallet lose. The glove box now opens with the key. Despite a few very minor bumps, this was a great weekend and one that surely reminds me of the importance of perspective. And as for the tears. They refreshed me and the truth was I needed a good cry or two. As for the camera. Well I haven't seen it yet. I'll search the car again as I'm not quite ready to give up.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures taken with a friend's camera..

 

of hollyhocks and fairies

Ok so we just got back from one of my favorite places on earth, yes earth I said. I know that sounds dramatic but I feel this way about Mazama, WA. If you've been reading my blog this summer, you know may how I feel about Colorado. Mazama, just outside the North Cascades National Park reminds me of Colorado. The mountains are nothing short of magnificent, rising high, jagged as they meet the sky. Glacial Lakes, look like emeralds among this beautiful landscape. I love this part of Washington and have often dreamed the wanderluster that I am of living in this area someday. I quiet down here perhaps in the simplicity of the surrounds, the basic beauty of what is.

We set off this past Sunday to visit friends who are building a cabin in the magical woods around Mazama. I was proud of myself for packing lighter for this road trip than in any past. But for the love of Pete, I forgot the doggone camera. So do I have pictures of our hike along Windy Pass in the rain? Nope. Or my girl and her pal dressed up like the Ingalls girls playing in the Big Woods of Mazama? Nope. Or my girl feeding our friend's baby boy? Nope....Or hmm how about our needle felting lesson around the picnic table outside the cabin where my girl and her pal and yes me the mama learned to make hair and faces for their new dolls? And that would be a nope...again..So no pictures to share from our weekend in the mountains. I guess this set was solely for my mind's album of snapshots.

For now, I'm sharing pictures taken from my garden today. These hollyhocks well they send me. There's something magical about these big pink blossoms bursting from their tall green stalk. Not hard to wander why Jack wanted to climb his beanstalk. If not in Mazama to find my inner quiet, well there's always my garden. I can wanderlust all day long right here where I am and climb the hollyhock stalk for a little afternoon break-away.

 

 

 

See that rock? Well there's a little slice of Mazama. And though I was hesitant at first to take the rock, I did make sure it was ok for me to snag it, legal and all that and most of all not damaging to the natural order of things up their high in the hills. And this small boulder was from the roadside not the trail and definitely not the National Park so I felt even better about my find. Now there's a little justification for bringing a little slice of wonder right here at home.

There's more of a story attached to this rock than I can share right now. But know this, this rock that now sits in my garden ready for ground cover to crawl all over it is a reminder for how grateful I am to be where I am and for who is in my life.

Bees and butterflies are everywhere. Seems that we've created a wildlife habitat among these wondrous stalks, the lavender and salvia too. My girl snapped this photo of a bumble bee loving his/her way through the butterfly bush.

 

And finally, a glimpse of our afternoon fairy housebuilding under the butterfly bush. We wanted to let the fairies know we were home. Ahhh what magic it is to wander along with my girl right here in our own front yard.

colorado days.....

 

I'm using my dear dad's computer so I can post some pictures from our magnificent days in Colorado. No photoshop on his desktop which means no touch-ups for these few pictures. This set is from a couple of days of hiking just about twenty minutes or so from my parents. I took a lot of pictures of the clouds because they are magnificent. Everywhere I turn there is a painting in nature. Thunderclouds and rainstorms washing down from the sky. Wild geology abound on these magnificent rocks. And the flowers...beautiful, delicate, free to be from anyones pull. This is about just being in nature's presence taking it all in.

In case I've not yet made myself clear,I love Colorado and being hunkered down in the mountains, hiking or riding my bike... fast, camping eventually as we make our way home next week. Every time I sink into physical movement in nature I am reminded being out here is my meditation. What I love too, is this quiet time with my small family, the Papa and my girl. We've needed it. Time away from usual routine, from his demanding schedule as a fledgling in a new career. I want to take a piece of this time with us, tuck it away when schedules feel more chaotic perhaps. And as a reminder to get out more the three of us outside of summer. 

We've been away a couple of weeks and truth be told my mind has wondered and meandered to what is happening at home in the garden with our cat, our friends. We are incredibly fortunate to have our wonderful neighbor friends care for our greens and dear Sasha girl while we are away. I have thought also about work I need to do when I get home and then I remember to pull my mind back to center to where we are right now.

To be sunk down in these mountains is peacing whether that's a word or not I don't know but its the word that comes to mind to express how it feels for me to be here in these mountains...walking, hiking and biking. While I love where we live, there is something extraordinary about the Rockies. I love the feeling of walking just a few hundred yards on a trail and there I am smack dab in the midst of magnificent peaks and meadows. The biking here is equally beautiful as the hiking. There is great riding for road bike fans like me everywhere. Yesterday we rode twenty miles or so from Basalt, CO to Carbondale, CO on a path away from cars. I borrowed a bike from my parents that to this date is the lightest bike I've ever ridden and I pedaled hard. We rented a trail-a-bike for our girl and she pedaled the 20 like a champ with her grandparents, me and her Papa. There are paths good for kids where she can practice her two-wheelin safe from cars.

We're here a few more days then we head for our road trip home. I'm grateful for this delicious taste of a Colorado Summer.

T is for Tulips and Tuesday and Wednesday is for....

 

Ahhh, yesterday, on Tuesday, I picked my girl up from school and we drove south just about 30 minutes to the Skagit Valley. Each year, around this time of year we make the trek to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We often visit one particular field called "Tulip Town". They have a face painter which makes it a fine choice for my girl. 

The weather was perfect really, slightly overcast but plenty of blue in spite of a few clouds. We spent two hours taking pictures and making a stop in just about every row of glorious color. My girl turns out loves the camera and took perhaps more pictures than me. After 146 shots we had more than a few shots we loved.

I loved so much watching my little one leaping with joy from row to row shouting out "Mama the flowers are so beautiful!" and sharing ideas for her next shot. I wished I had a second camera to take her picture while she was taking pictures but alas I'm still working on making that happen! In the meantime we met all sorts of nice people milling about some of whom wanted to take her picture taking pictures.

My girl had a plan too in taking some of her pictures. She decided she wanted to give her teacher a birthday gift in photos. So we are going to make a few notecards using my girls photos and spread a little Spring her wonderful teacher's way.

So out of 146 photos, we kept about 130. And I know I can't post that many here. I had a hard enough time paring down to a cool 70 to send my family. What can I say, they need to experience Spring in the Northwest and see their grandaughter/niece/cousin tip toe-in through the Tulips on a fine Tuesday afternoon. So for you, a few less than 130 and even 70...Truly a blissful Tuesday afternoon spent in the sunshine with my girl.

And as for Wednesday is for ....., i'll save that post for tomorrow. Suffice it to say, Wednesday is for my hair feels waaay to short after a new haircut. More on that  tomorrow. Happy Spring.

spinning around the sun.....

Here is a random smattering of photos to celebrate a beautiful week. The Papa, my girl and I left last week for sunny peaks of British Columbia to ski and spend some quiet time together. We head for Sun Peaks for three days of ski and relaxing family time. The Papa has been working all kinds of crazy hours and so down time together this last week, his Spring Break was nothing short of delicious. We set off in the rain and two hours into the drive, met up with big snow,  hard driving, blowing snow where inches pile up in a matter of minutes. It felt wild actually to be in a snowstorm during the first days of April.

A few hours later, we arrived at Sun Peaks where it continued to snow snowe all day. We arrived late enough in the day that we didn't ski but instead had a great time exploring the small village and getting to know the lay of this sweet land.The Papa scored a great deal on a place to stay basically right on the mountain. For these three days,  we cooked, skied, played games, worked on a puzzle, went swimming and watched cable late night,(that was me--something about access to free movies and random TV and vacation and well enough said).

We woke early the next morning after our arrival and hit the slopes. By then the sun was shining. The Papa had to wrap up some work so my girl and I head out first. We skied miles and miles together. She was so proud to ski these long runs a new and exciting challenge from where we usually ski. We called it a day in the early afternoon and decided to hit the hot tub only it was way too hot so we made our own in our bathtub. We sat in a warm tub and just bonded my girl and I talking about our day, and on to sharing about what we are most proud of and what we like most in ourselves I relished this time, no running errands, no racing to make dinner, feeling deep gratitude for the simplicity and beauty of just this time. Also grateful for the Papa getting to relax and still be out skiing enjoying his solo time. 

Day two of skiing was even more spectacular. The three of us skied and skied and then met up with a schoolmate of my girl's and her family. Her pal has been skiing for three years and she's five! She inspired my girl to say the least. My girl was so excited to try whatever she tried, skiing some bigger hills through smaller track trails. I was so proud of my little one not for any other reason than witnessing her joy and belief in her own abilities and flying so free. She was rockin her skis and having so much fun--let's say this mama's heart was bursting.  This day was pure joy. Sure swimming in the community pool and soothing my muscles in the hot hot tub while the sun set was icing on the cake but most of all joy came from the three of us being together.

We wrapped up our Sun Peaks adventure the next morning with a short hike in the snowy woods.The sun shining strong again, not a cloud in the sky. We explored the snowshoe trails on foot. My girl was playing "junior scientist" a role she loved explaining ice to me and snow melt imagining how the ice came, how thick the snow layer might be. She loved being my scientist guide for our hike through the woods. We were tired by the time we started our drive home and she and I slept half of the way home while the Papa drove.

We are back home now enjoying my girl's Spring Break  this week. We have loved so far easy days, not planning a whole lot of anything other than playing with friends and new neighbors, going to the park, dying eggs and just chilling out in the beautiful sunshine of Spring that came to town.

With this sweet time, I have been thinking and feeling a lot of gratitude for having this time to be at home again. I realize more each day that I'm not searching for anything right now. Rather, I am hunkering down in my home state being where I am focused on me as mama, and me as my own self. I just know for right now, home feels right. And for me in this experience, home means being available, centered, focused on these minutes, hours, days raising our girl.  My most recent experience with the job I held for the last 3 plus years tugged too much at my mother soul. I think because it didn't fill my heart on its own nor resonate with me down deep. I worked for the important purpose of bringing home a paycheck when the Papa was going to school full-time. I look back and remember how much I wrestled with sitting in the same place everyday in a place I didn't want to be. Being laid off was the kick in the butt I needed to breathe anew and wake up. I'm not at all saying I won't work again or that I don't believe in bringing home a paycheck. I just know that whatever I do to make that happen, I want to be doing something that I want to be doing. Whatever I do, let it be energy filling not draining.

I have been talking about this aloud more and more because I do believe the more we put it all out there, the more possibility we create that which we want. So in the last month, I have found a few freelance gigs as I term them designing websites and coming up organizing an office space. This feels good and scary. Scary in the way that I judge myself harshly to say the least. I question always am I a good enough designer, do I really know what I am doing? Some of that fright pushes me harder to learn more, get better at whatever I do and some of it just needs to be tossed.  Feel the fear, push on the through. I know there's a whole lot more to write about this but its late.

So as a new potential web client approached me last week to design a website, I first thought "no" my skills are outdated, I don't know enough. Then internally I said "enough!", say yes!, what are you nuts? And I did. I realize that night how important it is for me to say yes, more, when it is the right thing to do, I have to put myself out there to manifest my visions into being. Sitting by waiting doesn't make things happen. What I know is I caan fill a particular niche with what I know and make people who are not familiar with website design feel more comfortable.

I know for me its practice everyday to wield the balance of being home because I want that and saying yes enough to generate freelance work that is fun and helps pay some bills. Really, I have no idea where any of this will go and I don't think that matters today. I think continuing to be where it feels good is about allowing my self to be guided by intuition--that is home for me. Continuing to build and renew my skills is important And in all of that I will continue to explore within quietly and see where things lead. Dig in to what I'm curious about and see what happens.There is more I want to do with the skills that run deep within me. So each day I am trying to exercise these parts of me more and more.

I had no idea where this post was going when I started to write. Frankly, I thought I'd just post some photos and write more later. But here I am in a verbal spew of sorts in the most positive sense. Here's a post about what's on my mind right now at close to 2:15 am. and that said I better close this now  because I've got a date to dye more eggs tomorrow with a pal and 3 sweet little ones. If there's anything that doesn't make sense here, please let's chalk it up to it being really late or really early!

Happy Spring. Happy Sun.

perpetual motion

I hiked yesterday with a good pal of mine who lives in very close range of the Chuckanut Mountains. The Chuckanuts are just a few minutes from town and offer all sorts of trails for hiking and beach access.  My pal and I hiked up an old fire road for several miles. The trail ends at a vista point called "Burnout Point", named apparently for it being an old high school hangout years ago. Now the road is closed to cars. At the top, we could see expansive views of the bay and the San Juan Islands. No pictures of that view as explained below. My friend snapped one on her phone which hopefully will turn out!

The walk starts flat and paces up at a steady incline for an hour or so. As we hiked, we talked and caught up on daily life and soaked in the beauty of the beautiful forest that outlined the trail. The forest is something magical, something right out of "The Hobbit". Lush moss blankets the trees in deep shades of green. The sky above was gray for the entire hike but that just didn't matter; as we were just grateful not to be soaked by rain. When we finished, blue skies...appeared.

I was so happy that I remembered my camera but just as I took it out to snap a few photos of these magnificent trees and the island view I mentioned before, alas...I forgot the batteries. I managed to snap two shots had not enough power to adjust on manual or otherwise. I thought to myself how fun to just snap and see what happens. The first shot was totally underexposed so I tweaked it in photoshop, messed with color balance and hue/saturation. The photo actually feels close to where we hiked at least for me...in the shades of green, damp air, the earth soaked by days of rain, glimmers of light from the sky above

This next shot, a blurry field of green. There is something about it I like, maybe that it feels like a painting to me more than a photo.

I am glad to have spent a few hours in this beautiful space. My muscles felt worked and energized and yes even tired. My mind calm and quiet.

Being in this green good for my soul. The mossy green feels a part of me. A green that stirs my soul. Lush green representing life and new growth, spring emerging. Natures velvet.

We are off for a few days to the Canadian mountains to ski and relax for the Papa's Spring break. Have a great weekend!

sunshine daydream...

Ski day all day for me and my girl this past Friday. One of the many lovely points about my girl's school is we have no school every other Friday. Now that I the Mama am not working out of the house, these Fridays are dedicated as special days for me and my girl. We've gone to donate goods to a shelter south of us, head to the Childrens museum also South of us, baked and hunkered down at home and this last Friday due to the 35 inches of new snow up at the mountain, we skied!

The day was glorious as the sun was beaming strong, with not a cloud in the sky. Fridays mean discounted lift tickets for me so the day skiing is just a bit more economical. We skied and stopped and skied and stopped awe-struck by the magnificent views abound. The majestic peaks of the North Cascades rising to meet the sky accounted for many photo opps and "aw man aren't we so blessed to live here!" moments.

My girl leads the way down each run, so happy to be on skis. And I am getting my old Telemark legs back slowly, feeling like I can free my heel just a little more with every turn making me also very happy to be on skis now following my little one down the mountain.

We ran into her teachers coming off the chairlift and she was over the moon to say the least. I remember that feeling of seeing my teacher out of the classroom when I was a young girl. Teachers out of context become like rock stars and for my girl, the feeling was no different. She was star-struck for a few minutes and fell silent as she asborbed the moment of seeing her teachers on skis. We took a run and rode the chair up with them and by then she was in the talking spirit sharing her stories.

We skied until the lifts closed at 4, my girl by this time quite tired. We packed up, put in a book on tape and head home feeling peaceful and very grateful for this stellar day.

A magical day for sure, just she and I up in the beautiful hills. Feeling free and easy. I felt grateful for the sunshine, for the ability to get up to the mountain to ski, for the adventure with my girl and for the many magical moments of this day.

the weekend and what i love

Loving:

1. Tulips. For me, a sign that Spring is coming even if a couple of months away. For now though, Spring appears our dining room table.my favorite color.

2. Handmade cards, using what we have, scraps and paints and pastels, markers and crayons and seeing where freeing our creative minds and hearts goes

3. My girl in her tights and boots. oh yes, how I wished they made these in my size! But more, I love her free spirit mixing and matching to her hearts content. Free and Easy!

4. This picnic bench in our neighbor's yard. I just like it. Feels old and good to me.

5. Receiving a bounty of amazing crocheted hats for Warmth for Washington, thanks to the creative and giving hands of Mia over at Homespun Helpers

6. A completely relaxing Saturday. A walk to town with my girl to pick a special Valentine's chocolate, locally made, for her and one wee one for her Papa.

7. Family ski day! What a great day. Grateful I was to feel so in sync with the three of us riding the chair together and skiing down. The Papa is not always free from work to spend the whole day playing let alone skiing up at the mountain nearby. Hearing the laughter and joy from my girl as she blazed down the hill with her Papa and Mama in tow, yes this I love.

8. The mountains. Beauty to behold, stopping to just look at these majestic and grand peaks and all kids of gratitude about where we live.

9. My girl ready for the day. A full day of skiing ahead(and it proved to be). We skiied until the lifts closed!

weekend rambles..

We kicked off the weekend by celebrating with some kitchen-time. A batch of cornbread made by my girl. Cornbread, her choice of delectable to celebrate the birth of Laura Ingalls Wilder on February 7. We celebrated one day early. I don't know, something about hot home-made cornbread, and butter makes you want to jump in and have a piece.

 

  

We rolled into a slow and easy Saturday. There's not much sweeter than three sweet five-year old pals dressed up for an afternoon at the theater. The Mamas and our girls head south of here just a little ways to see a Missoula Children's Theatre production of "Robinson Crusoe".  What a treat this was. The Children's Theatre tour Group offers a week-long residency in various schools across the U.S., Canada and several other countries. Some 50-60 children from that particular school can participate in the play. This past week past they planted their amazing program in a elementary South of a half-hour south of where we are. Led by an amazing crew of two from the Children's theatre as well as school employees and volunteers, the kids have just five days to audition, learn their lines and songs and dance moves. Quite amazing and let me tell you, the performance was wonderful. To see all of these kids giving their all was a thrill. And to watch our three girls mesmerized well my mama heart sure felt full. My girl told her Papa every detail of front-row view of the show. She sang some of the songs and repeated a few of the lines...where she gets this memory retention I'm not quite sure. I think she just loves so much singing and dance and yes theat-ah...that it sinks right down in her sweet soul.
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And Sunday, beautiful and rich. My girl had an impromptu all-day playdate with her neighbor pal. First at our place, making valentine's cards then on to dress-up and "mama and babies" and reading to each other. Later my girl went with her pal's family for some park play. The day flowed with ease and freedom, organic in flow, no plans just unfolding in the moments. I got captured in our valentines making long after the girls finished making their cards. I just kept cutting and pasting and creating. Not thinking just feeling my way through every new creation. I loved the time to explore some creative visioning.

Hope you enjoyed a sweet weekend too.