I'm back!

Finally!! I'm settled in enough to begin to get back into my blog. It's been quite an eventful few months - we are now moved and settled in our new home in New Mexico. it was quite an adventure, but well worth it. I'm now sitting in my wonderful studio/office, looking out at South Mountain in the San Pedro Mountains - the smaller, narrow photo is what it looked like this morning as the sun came up and the clouds were still hanging around from a rainstorm we had last night. The top photo was of the sky this morning just as the sun was rising - at about 6am or so! Isn't it fabulous? I feel so grateful and happy to be here! Life is truly good!

This past weekend, we went exploring in the Jemez Mountains just to the northwest of us, and on Saturday, we took in the New Mexico Indian Art Market. The artwork was just beautiful, and it was very interesting to see the differences between the art created by the various Native American tribes. I found I repeatedly was drawn to the art created by the Navajo artists. Perhaps I'll find a piece in the future to have a place in our home!

More later! Enjoy the day! Nadine

Mountains of Boxes !

The move date is drawing closer and closer! A week from yesterday we will be heading out in our little caravan to our new home in New Mexico! And, when I look around almost anywhere in the house and garage right now, all I see are mountains of boxes and other things we've got loaded with our stuff! So, what could be a better photo to reflect our mini mountains than a picture of one of my favorite mountain areas, Mount St Helens in Washington state! This image was taken on a backroad sort of behind the mountain. We were attempting to find a back way to get to the crater, and sort of stumbled acrosss this wonderfully beautiful lovely scene! The backroad we were on quickly turned into a very rough dirt road and we weren't able to continue on it in our little RV, but it was worth the detour just to see this area and capture this image.

In terms of our moving, I think we're doing really well. I can hardly believe it, but we really seem to be under control, so that we're not having to make ourselves crazy with last minute packing! We were even able to stop and see a movie yesterday - Angels & Demons with Tom Hanks. Good movie - however, I'm glad I hadn't read the book first. I think it might have ruined the movie for me, knowing the ending!

Enjoy your day!

Sunflower

I'm having a tough time getting to sleep tonight, so I thought I'd play around with filters in PhotoShop. Here's a sunflower image that I took in the Southwest a couple of years ago. I applied a colored pencil filter. I think it looks rather abstract, but still like the sunflower that it is. I guess it sort of fits my mood at the moment. I think the reality of how quickly our move is coming up is sticking with me tonight. I'm excited and looking forward to it, but the "it" is rather abstract. I know what the basics of our life will be, but there's so much that's unknown, and abstract when I try to imagine some details. I know, I know, I get to make those up and create a future, but, right now, my imagination about it isn't clicking and I'm feeling a bit anxious about all the unknowns and uncertainties. This will pass, I know, and I'll embrace all the unknowns and just let the creativity flow. I just need to keep the faith, and embrace whatever is next! Enjoy!

Zelda

Good morning! I just visited my friend and fellow artist's blog - penandpaints.blogspot.com - and was inspired by her background for her Alphabetica piece to use the photo I took of my finished Alphabetica piece & use that for today's entry! Our group actually first did the Alphabetica theme a year or so ago, which is why my piece is already done while she was still working on hers.

Given that my last name begins with a Z, it was seredipity when I blindly chose the letter Z from among several for my inspiration letter. It took me a while to land on the theme of the piece. I remembered the old sort of song that we used to sing when I was a kid that involved our ABC's - A, my name is Alice, and I come from Alabama with a basket full of Apples, etc.. I decided to do a variation of that for Zelda. My little Zelda (and old photo that I came across some time ago, and scanned so I could use her over and over - I love her spitir!)came from Zuni (a pueblo in New Mexico) and is depicted in the piece by a torn piece of map with Zuni circled on it. She has a suitcase instead of a basket and it has zucchini in it (the transparency of the photo allows the definition of the word zucchini to show thru right under her suitcase!), along with some zinnias ( a fabulous flower beginning with a Z). She also has brought a zebra with her!

The background of the piece was various torn pages of an old dictionary at the Z page, a telephone book (also a Z page) and some zip codes! I did a wash of a sort of sienna color over the background, and then added the fun items. I also included some fun tags, crests and even a stylized postage stamp all with the Z theme! I did end up using a handmade paper strip, so that Zelda's transparency would show her off in a good fashion.

Thanks to Marge for reminding me of this fun piece! Enjoy!

Social Butterflies

Howdy! I came across this fun ATC that I created a while back, and it just seemed like a good theme for today. I'm heading out to lunch today with my friend, Jeanne, so I'll be a bit of a social butterfly. I also need to do more moving prep stuff today. I've got a couple of boxes that I want to pack today to get closer to being totally done. Jeff will be off on his pre-retirement vacation this week, and he plans to really get down to business in terms of packing more stuff, including his stuff. Our move is really getting close now. Three weeks from today, we'll be almost all the way to New Mexico & the beginning of our new life together there.

Mom's Day was really nice yesterday. The weather cooperated, and we were able to sit outside on the patio and enjoy the day and our cook-out meal! Very nice. I will miss this next year...sigh....perhaps I can get Mom out to New Mexico for Mom's Day next year, tho!

Well, on with the day! Have a really great one - enjoy!

Beascochea Bay, Antarctica

Good morning! What a fabulous day I feel like this will be! It's pretty humid and foggy this morning, and when I skimmed thru some photos, this one jumped out at me. Probaby because it's of water & clouds, which could be some sort of mind-connection to humidity and fog - who knows?!? This image was taken at Beascochea Bay in Antarctica. The bay is one that we were told was not routinely explored by expeditions to Antarctica. The icebergs there were just breath-taking and magnificent!

Well, we're in the final weeks before our move to our new life in New Mexico. Packing is underway, and I think I've finally gotten everything that's going to be packed at my old house packed up! Now, there will still be the decorative items and things on the walls that will need to be packed once the house is under contract, and we've got a few furniture pieces that we need to take now, but I'm feeling like we're pretty much complete with what we can do for now. We've got more packing to do at Jeff's house (which is where we now live), but that's coming along well. I think I'm going to start "wrapping up" the packing for various rooms starting this weekend or next week for sure. I know what's left can be done fairly quickly, so I'm not making myself too crazy over it!

Better get going with the fabulous day! Enjoy!

For Jeanne

This collage is one that was inspired by my friend, Jeanne. She has hard a rough time of it over the past several years, and has endured some great sorrows. However, she is one of the most resilient and positive people I know. She is truly brave and courageous in light of what life has thrown at her. This piece is inteneded to reflect the sorrows in her life (the upside down heart shaped tears) that serve as nourishment for her new life with her children and friends who care so much for her (flowers). And, the basis for life, as I see it, is the ability to dream and envision better days.

I believe that dreams feed what will become reality. Another friend recently told me how proud and happy he was for the new chapter in my life that I'm beginning. As he put it, he saw that I once had a dream of what I'd like my life to be like, and it became a vision and a goal, that I worked to turn into a reality. I hadn't really thought of it that way, but I suppose that deep down inside, that's really what happens to most of us, whether we recognize it or not. That is, unless we're one of those poor souls who are, what I call, victims of their own lives. That, to me, is truly the saddest thing because it says to me they've given up and are just going thru the motions.

Here's to dreams - don't just go thru the motions!! And, thanks Jeanne, for being in my life!