Art Food Soul

Next up for in my treasure sale: my beloved Rosa Pomar doll, #283. I was blown away by Rosa’s exquisite work when I received this doll — she uses incredible fabrics and trims, and her craftswomanship is impeccable. She is a master at her craft in a way that I could never be — here attention to detail leaves nothing overlooked. It even has a gorgeous tag with the number doll it is. She is more than a stitcher, she is truly an artist. I’m not sure if she makes these gnome dolls anymore as her work continues to evolve; this is circa 2004-5 I think and her work will be highly collectible someday if it isn’t already. You can read and see more of Rosa’s work here.
I am asking $95. for this including shipping and handling within the USA. Insurance extra. (I’m happy to ship beyond the USA for cost of shipping).

Think Handmade for the Holidays. Please email or comment if you’re interested.

So, I am clearing out treasures to make room for more treasures in my life and am selling off some of my favorites.

This past spring and fall, I bought some troll beads and a bracelet because they reminded me of a fond Amherst memory. They are all handcrafted glass beads, designed by different artists, and Trollbeads tag line is “every story has a bead.” (I usually get that backwards).

I chose these individual beads for my stories or the meanings I associated with them. Turquoise armadillo for the Indian prayer associated with the armadillo: “Protect my borders, teach me my shield, reflect my pain so I shall not yield.” Gray wolf because I am a woman who runs with the wolves, Freddie because it reminded me of traveling the back roads of New England in my son’s battlewagon when he was a teenager and listening to Queen’s Bohemian Rhasody (plus I am a Virgo and a Mercury girl). The throat chakra because I seek my voice, the rainbow for hope, dreams and the promises rainbows hold, and circus because my kids and I used to go to the Big Apple Circus every summer when they were little. Plus, who hasn’t wanted to run away with the circus at one time or another? Rose for my daughter’s middle name, and buttercups because as a child I loved picking buttercups and holding them under folks’ chins to see if they liked butter. Barely worn. What are the stories you will create?

I am asking $165. for this including shipping and handling if you’re in the USA. Insurance is extra. (I’m happy to ship beyond the USA for cost of shipping). If you’re interested, please leave me a comment with your email, or just email me.

“What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?”

~~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Yesterday when I needed it most, I saw a rainbow in the distant sky. I was amazed because there had been no rain, but there it was, just a piece, but just enough for me to follow it until it disappeared. I needed its promise of possibility.

Today, I met up with my girlfriend and after tea showed her the beautiful Giving Tree gardens in East Sandwich on the Old King’s Highway. We walked through parts I hadn’t yet explored too much, both of us crossing the suspension bridge over the marshes. As always, the space there was welcoming, full of grace, hope and dreams. The Samuel Taylor Coleridge quote is from a box in the garden filled with letters to the world written by other wanderers and dreamers. There is a magical pen provided for those of us who dare…to dream and share our dreams with the world.

The mermaid is from the gardens and reminded me of a certain dancing mermaid.

As I work on my plans for BEAR (Bay End Art Retreats), I get scared at the enormity of it as I’ve never done something like this before, only dreamed of it. As I ride with my vision, it is evolving in small steps for me. For example, I am going to try a smaller retreat first (hopefully March 2010), with about 18-20 participants. I now have the theme and what the general art focus will be. We will all stay in Overbrook House, which includes the use of the dance hall. Instead of Wednesday through Sunday, it will be Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning.

Art, nature and the goddess have been my three muses when times have been tough for me. Art frees my mind, nature restores my spirit and the goddess reminds me of how strong I really am.

Pixie’s in a different time zone or I would have asked her for permission for a couple of her images. So, I had to take my own of Agnes, who soars in the entryway of our old house. Like me, she’s still working on her wings.

“Longfellow believed that situations that call forth our coping abilities are “celestial benedictions” in dark disguises, sent not to try our souls, but to enlarge them.”
~SBB, Simple Abundance

My sister gave me SBB’s book Simple Abundance many holidays ago, and it really helped me through a soul wrenching year in my life. I don’t like to think back to that time because I have many regrets associated with it. Occasionally, I’ll revisit Sarah’s book, but this past year, I have been reading it daily again. Some of it’s trite and I roll my eyes, but much of each day’s writings speak to me in a timely fashion, e.g., on a day I need that particular wisdom the most.

Yesterday was a day of doubts, perhaps because I was cold and tired. But overall my past week was a blessed one, full of hope. My daughter sent me Halloween photos (Ky*ko check out the green man), I checked out a magical place on the wrong side of the bridge, and the gorgeous Miriam and I met at one of my favorite cafes in Harwich. That is a post in and of itself as that was another bit of magic in my week — how generous in spirit the world is if we stay open to it. That’s the hardest.

My girl and her sweetie pie roommate — my kids smiling always makes me smile.

I am going to run with this retreat idea as far as I can go with it.

So yesterday, I met my friend Miriam at the park and ride in Harwich for tea. We went from there to this lovely little spot I found while on the bike path this summer called the Harwich Central Cafe.

The owners are the sweetest, most gracious couple I have encountered in a business. I met Blaise this past summer (she works as a social worker outside of the cafe), and Chris one of the last couple of times I was there. She was there today, but they were closed! Miriam and I walked in, and after chatting with Chris for a while, she fixed us coffee and tea, a plate of treats and left us to close the space ourselves as she had an errand to run in Hyannis! How cool is that?

“You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.”

This quote popped into my head this morning as I was thinking about how much I love history, heritage, people’s stories. Maybe I made it up, but I don’t think so. Feeling incredibly inspired lately and even though doubts creep in, I am going to go as far as I can to create a particular dream. (Self-doubt being, “who do I think I am? I’m with Emily, I’m nobody, who are you?”)

The dream is an event for late fall 2010, something I’ve dreamed of for years, and as I watch other people doing this, I think why not me?

The food would all be sourced locally and when possible organic, including dairy, produce, coffee and the fabulous Iggy’s breads and such.

The place is amazing, having been in the same family for generations and borders a wildlife preserve. The property is on both sides of the street and you can walk down to Buttermilk Bay from the main house, Overbrook. Kofi and Erin’s organic farm, called Bay End is across the street. Kofi’s grandmother used to host artists there (Kahlil Gibran for one), and the dance hall was built for his aunt (Kofi’s) who was a ballet dancer.

It will be a small retreat (about 30 on-site attendees, 10 off-site nearby), and will be a different kind of art retreat. Many of the beds are doubles, but by the time this all comes together I expect the people drawn to this will be okay with that. I hope to share the development process here in all its bits and pieces as I manifest it, with back-story, more photos and so on. In the meantime, I leave you with a few pictures of the location, the southeastern Massachusetts woodlands on the shores of Buzzards Bay, known as the wrong side of the bridge, the land of King Philip and Hockamock Swamp.

To more photos (my camera battery was dying, my battery was dying — I saved as .gif files instead of .jpg and my editing skills are minimal, but you’ll get the idea of it anyway): 4 bed room, hallway, another view, great room, library, butler’s pantry, pantry, to the dance hall, dance hall, red room, blue room, aqua room, another 4 bed room, dining room, with my travel mug, king, queen, space

For some reason, every year I look forward to Halloween (maybe it’s the magic of the season), want to dress up (this year I actually got as far as a costume), reminisce about returning to the Ted Williams Haunted House in Lakeville, and end up feeling disappointed at another Halloween gone by that I haven’t seized a new memory for; one I want to save for the archives. And I end up thinking the same thing — next year. I do this with a lot of things and the hard thing about it for me is that the years keep going by, I don’t get the moments back, and I have this thing about wanting to live full throttle, with no regrets, yet I allow things (people, opinions) to hold me back. After reading a Shutter Sisters post this morning, I was reminded of how often I have been able to say yes — to others; it’s time to say yes to me.

Today is All Soul’s Day, or Dia de Los Muertos, so I haven’t entirely missed the boat for this year’s Samhain celebrations, but I do have to create my own. Here in the northeast, we don’t have big celebrations today — as a Catholic, it is a Holy Day of Obligation I have long neglected. But today I will celebrate it in my own way. Lighting candles for my loved ones on the other side, taking a dance class tonight, and exploring ancient cemeteries here on the cape with a friend.

** I think my son’s makeup in the above photo is pretty cool for a Day of the Dead look, but I don’t think I’ll go quite that far today.

I’ve been revisiting the Portfolio Project over at Jen Lee’s blog lately. Last winter when she and Jen Lemen were doing it, I didn’t have an IPOD and didn’t realize I didn’t need one to listen to the podcast. That’s neither the here nor there of it at this point. I am having fun exploring her archives now and think I’m gonna hit up my sister-in-law and anyone else who may want to play along for another round of this game. Fast and Dirty. Yeah! The Portfolio Project credo. I’d love it if Jen, Stef, and a few others would play along too.