"what a wonderful world":
I was cruising around on youtube and came across this Eva Cassidy version of a song I love very much. I thought it would be appropriate to include with my post for today.



I was able to complete the vintage Christmas stocking for my swap partner, besusans. It went into the mail yesterday. I had been getting somewhat panicky about the whole arrangement but truly I create better under pressure. I loved making treasures for Susan which I believe will be meaningful. I also purchased some gifts. I also love Christmas shopping, especially for folks who have similiar interests to my own. Vintage fabrics and ephemera are not so readily available where I live but I found a few pieces in my own stash which I thought might be appropriate. I am assured that Susan should be receiving her package in about 11 days so I'll try to keep in touch with Susan so that I might show more of my own photos of the items I made, after she has received the stocking ;-).

In the meantime I want to share just a couple of the reasons why I love the the above mentioned song. So often I feel so blessed with angels. I had received MY swap package from Mandy, pearl maple, a couple of weeks ago. I promised I would not open it until after I had Susan's package away in the mail. Last night I was very tired but it was the perfect time to be opening my surprise. Tears come easily to my spirit, but especially when I'm tired, especially when someone recognizes, surprises, touches me so closely. And so the tears were present as I found the beautiful angel filled, blue filled, ribbon filled, vintage filled, hope filled diamond treasure chest which Mandy had sent. The angels were on everything, it felt. I love the colours, the richness, the handcrafting and thoughtful choices. I felt so blessed Mandy. Thank you so very much. You have truly touched my spirit.

Another surprise also arrived yesterday. There is a very kind elf on flickr who has such a talent with words. He chose yesterday to write another of his poems for me. Tom is such a wise and kind elf. Thank you Tom.



When Angels Dance in Snow
© Thomas R. Farrell
A Poem for Windy Angels

Did you know
That black and white will marry ..…
Giving birth to blue
Whom they will rest here
In the shadows of their love!

Bushes and snow and lattice fence
Lost in yesterday's passing fall of snow,
Welcoming their sun to sit a while longer
As shadows praise their God
For this dress it wears so well.

Clouds I’m sure will come
In an hour or a day
Giving all a grayer cast
And muting songs from snow..

But for now, we have the music
And contrast beaming bright,
For now I hear the sound of songs
As angels dance about --
And I hear the sound of songs they sing,
Sweet foot prints in the snow.

Swaps and right brains: Yipes. They don't fit together. I had signed up for the vintage Christmas stocking swap hosted by the wonderful MaryAnn. I'm two weeks past the date for sending and I'mstill not quite ready. Hopefully everything will be ready tomorrow. My very right brained self is having an extremely difficult time completing anything for the swap.

Until I've any pictures to show I'll share this quotation from Inspiration Peak which I love:

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at a college - that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?'

Howard Ikemoto

Explanations, no apologies necessary:
I don't really know if anyone cares, but perhaps it will help me to put this here, for you to see. I have not been creating nearly as much art in the past months as I feel capable of, perhaps especially in the last weeks. I truly had hopes to have an open house here to show my art. I truly had hoped to have an etsy shop open and be mailing many of my creations to you. I truly had hoped to have much more available in the line of photographs to sell for my family and friends, any who might have been interested. There is not much interest locally in mixed media, at least not that I've had time to pursue. But remember that I am not apologizing. I am explaining. If you looked at my previous post about the kind of flower I am, it mentioned pride. That is truly what I'm feeling.
While I've not been noticeably ill, those that are my helpers, my therapists, tell me that I have been "working very hard". This has nothing to do with physical labour - absolutely very little to do with physical labour. I have been healing myself. That is much more an emotional, psychological, spiritual kind of work. I can see that for anyone that doesn't know me very well, for anyone that believes in the "protestant work ethic" and in fact this would include some Catholic friends (Humboldt is a very German Catholic community), or just generally those that do not understand, they would sweep away my explanation as quickly as the dust on the floor. Yet for one of my helpers to tell me recently that is something he admires of me, the "hard work", and for Naomi to be nodding her head up and down with a little (or maybe not so little) glow in her eye when I'm repeating that admiration to her, makes me feel even more proud of what I am doing, accomplishing. Other helpers have reiterated how much better I have been doing also.



November is an extremely difficult month for me but here I am telling you all about my hard work. There have been many trials in the past year, particularly months, but I have weathered them. I've even been involved in a "soap opera incident" as I will refer to it. It wasn't really pretty. I was drawn into it totally without my awareness. I am to forget about it but because I have this loyalty to friends it is being extremely difficult to walk away from. Also because of my diabetes and the swinging blood sugars that have always come with that, I tend to a vicious cycle of inferior thoughts, particularly with the high sugars. I have been weathering that. I have been flowing through it with an added height to my awareness, to my strength.
And so I have tried to keep this post positive. I have tried to explain rather than apologize. I will take a moment to say that some of you have noticed moments of huge creative energies. They tend, however, to be frequently interrupted with all this other hard work and I have had major difficulties in arranging the typical help which has been made available for our daughter. Normally at this time of year I've had much help with her. This year it has been interrupted to a large extent.
So I will continue to create, when I can. The creating needs to be more again for me as opposed to being for you. The etsy shop will open when it opens.
Angels be with you my friends. Thank you for all the angels you send to me,
Wendy

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."