REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Wishing You All a Happy New Year

It's just another day today, at least for me, and I am so grateful that I have this day! As you grow older, the gratitude for the time given to you becomes immense, paramount. I spent the early hours cleaning out my e-mail boxes and then went to the gym for a one hour workout. Today I was on my own, but I owe so much to Rachel Ragona, my trainer, at the Center for Health and Fitness at the Beach Cities Health District. I just returned to her yesterday after a few week hiatus with the bronchitis. Next came the pharmacy, the grocery store, the scrapbooking store, and the 99 Cent store. I'm good to go! 

This will be my third year alone for new year's eve. I do NOT miss the partying of yore, but I do wish I had invited some girlfriends over. (Note to self: do that next year.) I'm planning to stream something on Netflix, work on my art journals, and do the end-of-year write in my handwritten journal that I do each year.

So, here is another of my 2012 welcoming art journal pages. I wish a happy new year to all of you read here. Be sure to enlarge this photo by clicking on it so you can read John Marsden's timeless words. 

Haiku My Heart Friday: More Laughter in 2012

Two oh one one goes

Welcome, yes, two oh one two

Laughter is the goal. 

Happy new year to everyone. This in an art journal page I made as part of Kelly Kilmer's Revel in the Moment online art journal class. I'm naturally a good-natured person, but I feel ever so much better when I laugh--a LOT! 

Join us at Rebecca's Haiku Friday challenge. 

 

Back to the Art Journals

There has been little time for art journals lately, although in between all the prep and social time of Christmas, I'll admit I've been reading like a fool and streaming Netflix some, too. I did take time, however, to tackle my art supplies and reorganize my two spaces right before Christmas. I have a dedicated office/studio, but when I'm working in the art journals, I like to work in my bedroom so I've set up a little corner and am keeping supplies in plastic see-through 12 x 12 boxes. 

Here are two of the pages I have shared with Kelly Kilmer's online Revel in the Moment online art journal class. 

This page I called Advent Girl and my writing describes how I've been feeling lately. 

This was my first art journal page for Revel which is called Beginning. I like the begin template and whole concept very much and often find myself using it. 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas From Fran and Family

A lovely day was had by all, but since dinner was at my house, I had very little time to use my camera today, but here are a few photos I will hold in my heart. 

These are four of my six grandkids--Fritz (7), Whitney (24), Henry (8) and Anthony (23). 

My son Tony, DIL Gretchen, Fritz and Henry. 

Whitney and her boyfriend Bobby. 

Henry in his new redcoat costume. Both he and Fritz have a whole array of costumes. 

Fritz with his falcon wings. Fritz loves birds of every kind! 

I'm sorry I didn't get a photo in my camera of my gorgeous daughter Christy, Anthony's girlfriend Anastasia, or my ex and his wife. Lots of other people took photos, so hopefully I'll get a lot sent to me. 

Thanks to the wonder of iPad, we also all got to spend some Facetime family time with Joe, Laura, Zach and Arlo in Port Angeles. Zach lost a front tooth last night, but he literally "lost" the tooth. So he and his mom left a note for the tooth fairy and a picture of what his tooth looked like. She came and so did Santa! 

What a wonderful life and a wonderful family I have, but Mollie and I are ready to settle down with a book and sleep, sleep, sleep. I hope all of you had a wonderful day today, too. When I drove back home from my son's home later tonight, one of the regular homeless women, who is so bent over now, was slowly shuffling down Catalina Ave. pushing her heavily-laden cart. Sigh! 

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: We've Come a Long Way

I was very heartened to hear about and then see this story about the tradition of the lottery for the first kiss of a loved one when a ship comes back from sea. We've come a long way, but have a very long way to go.

 

Kelly Kilmer's Revel in the Moment Online Art Journal Class

If you want to get a creative injection while you play in your art journals, or learn how to keep an art journal, check out Kelly Kilmer's Revel in the Moment Online Art Journal class that starts on Dec. 23. The timing couldn't be better for me personally because I've finally gotten most my gifts purchased and my cards are out. I've got my art table cleared and I'm sorting supplies. I have presents to wrap and many, many phone calls yet to make. And since I'm having Christmas dinner at my home, there will be lots of food preparation.

Here's an art journal page started weeks ago but finished tonight. 

This card is all the more poignant to me this evening as I have watched the news and seen how brutally some women were treated yesterday in Tahir Square. 

So, here I am in Southern California, living the good life, and my heart goes out to my sisters throughout the world who are oppressed and suffering. I have the luxury of working out my feelings through my journals and through my art. Many others are not so fortunate. 

Postcards from Paradise: Santorini While Listening to Coldplay

It's time for Rebecca's Postcards from Paradise Sunday. One of the most beautiful places I've ever visited was the Greek island of Santorini. Though I have photos of my own, none are as spectacular as this one from one of the Greek charter boat companies.

This photo of a young couple watching the sun set on Santorini is one I took. They seemed to epitomize romantic love to me. 

Ah, I hope they are as happy now as they were almost four years ago when I shot this photo. But, I digress.

Sometimes people assume that older people don't like younger people's music. They would be wrong on my case! For instance, I love Coldplay. (But, I also love the Stones, The Who, and so many other groups from the 1960s and 1970s.) So, while I was thinking of Santorini, I decided to play Paradise by Coldplay. Now I feel like a kid again! 

 

 

Haiku My Heart Friday: Perspective

Nothing like a cold

To slow down worries, hurries,

Bed gives perspective.

No fever, no antibiotics, but doc gave me a breathing treatment with albuterol to help me breathe better and cough up the gunk. It really does give amazing perspective to give up and rest during a time which I make artificially so busy. 

Sorry I'm late, but better late than never, as my old mommy used to say. I'm off to read belatedly what others wrote for Haiku Friday at Rebecca's Recuerda mi Corazon. 

 

Our Lady of the Poinsettias - A SoulCollage® Card

Old Redondowriter finally gave up and went to bed for the day trying to get a nasty cold under control. Fortunately, I had put this SoulCollage® in the posts for a later date. I feel too under the weather to do the exercise that goes with SoulCollage® card making, but I can say that I am the one who gazes at this card and is delighted by the mother and the child. I think I'm having a hard time letting go of the Virgin a Day meme as madonnas and babies are still occupying my reality and my unconscious. 

Rainy World - A SoulCollage® Card

Yesterday my girlfriends and I gathered for our monthly SoulCollage® day and it was very rainy driving over and all day long it rained. Just try to remember that this is sunny California. As we all sat around Mary Lou's big dining room table chatting about our lives (we have a check-in for each person as we work), I kept gazing out the window at her beautiful yard, remembering how much we need rain and how beneficial it is. But, I am one of those people who has a hard time with winter, even though winters in Southern California are mild. Though we were primarily creating cards for Christmas and what it means to us, this card practically made itself. 

 

I am the one who internally becomes chilled physically and emotionally when the weather turns cold and rainy and it gets dark really early. Much as I love Washington state where one of my sons and a sister live, I could not thrive there because of the rain and darkness for months on end. Though I have never been diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder, I assume I might be affected by the lack of light. I am the one who, as a kid, however, loved rain where I grew up in Sunland, CA. I especially loved walking home from school where leaping into puddles and floating leaf boats in the gutters was exhilarating. Now I am the one who hibernates as much as she can when it is cold and rainy, but works hard on getting out among 'em and shifting attitudes when I become too gloomy and homebound. I take comfort in recalling "Singing in the Rain" and walking home with my girlfriends Dannie and Claudia, three umbrellas across, making as much mess as we could. Then this image created itself and I took great joy in thinking about the fact that around the planet there are whole groups of folks under umbrellas and I envision a Broadway production of "Singing in the Rain" and I'm one of the dancers. 

If I could ask this card a question, it might be, "Help me to recall all my rainy day pleasant memories and record them in my journals or in my art so I can better understand why weather affects me so deeply. 

This card would be in my Committee suit under Rainy World Me or it could be a Council card helping me to see that there is Spirit there even when I am uncomfortable. By the way, I have a nasty head cold and I swear that half the people in my school have colds, pneumonia or bronchitis, too. 

Perhaps the card answered me yesterday but I just figured it out today. Driving home at 4 p.m., I saw a huge, overarching rainbow over Torrance, CA.