JustMeAgain

Today, a list.

1. My little artist at home is now creating her very own characters.  The way she expresses herself through her own art is truly amazing.

   

2. My friend Crys has an etsy shopwith a line of hand-made jewelry as well as her very own Imagekind shop where she is also selling her photography.  Hooray for Crys!  I wouldn't be surprised to see her own clothing, shoe and make-up line one day soon! 

3.  My church recently had a guest speaker, John Miller, who spoke on personal accountability. I can't wait to get the his books called The Question Behind the Question and Flipping the Switch. 

4. A really good blog entry byLiz Ness on the issue of the evolution of keeping scrapbooks.  I can totally relate to her entry! 

This week I had the best commuter date I could have asked for!

And it was quite possibly the best week for my daily work commute ever!  The three major freeways I drove by every day were filled with traffic almost every day which meant I had even MORE time to listen to my beloved Josh and Placido Domingo, singing together just for me, of course!  Too bad I couldn't used them as an excuse to drive in the commuter lane!  I would have loved to see the face of the highway patrol person as I explained that I was driving with Josh and Mr. Domingo in my car!  But no worries, I was happily stuck in traffic.  With a big smile on my face, mind you.

Yes, you guessed it, I finally got my new Placido Domingo CD.  It was filled with very poetic songs inspired by the poems of John Paul II.  The album included some cool duets with my Josh, Andrea Bocelli, Katherine Jenkins and even Vanessa Williams! These songs, quoting Mr. Domingo, "...will speak not only to religious people but anyone who respects that uniquely great man, John Paul II, who chose to dedicate his life to the service of humanity and of God."

There has always been something about Placido Domingo's voice that is so heart warming to me.  I feel embraced by it. Quite literally, hugged to pieces!  And now,  listening to his voice again brings me so many memories of my childhood and teenage years. In my defense, I used to also love pop music, it wasn't always all about Placido.  Still, his voice was such a refuge to my heart during my misunderstood years. Knowing that I wasn't fitting in with the rest of the people around me at school, I would long to go home to do my favorite thing, listen to Placido while doing homework, or while reading my favorite books.  

I guess nowadays, I continue to find refuge in music. Except now I also have my Josh to listen to! Yeah, I have probably said this about a hundred million times before, but really, Josh's voice is quite a gift to my soul. And I think he is the most handsome man on earth today. And yes, as well as my husband, too.  The hubby knows all about my not so secret Josh Groban crush. We are okay with that. He has his very own big crush on Sandra Bullock.  And what can I say? The man has good taste. He married me after all. 

If you are curious about the duet of Placido and Josh, you can hear it in this youtube link. Go ahead, be delighted!  I've already listened to it for least a dozen hundred times.

 

Today is Linda Woods' 40th birthday!  Let's wish her a wonderful day!  I plan on having cake to celebrate the day! :D

Happy b-day Linda!

All about fun updates today

*Schmap guidepicked up one of my photos to use in their site.  I've been so giddy about it.It was specially nice because they chose a very special photo from one of my recent trips to Los Angeles (to the Rose Cafe.) Here is the link to the map where the rose cafe picture is and here is the flickr link.

* I interviewed one of the most wonderful and prolific artists in the Internet, Rachel Whetzel for the Rev It Up List blog.  I love Rachel's work and it was such a privilege to do this!  Check this interview here and be inspired by Rachel's artful expressions. 

* Had the most fun ever doing a photo shoot with my friend Beth yesterday!  It was specially nice because both of our subjects were game for pretty much ANY location we suggested.  Beth said we should hike down to the bottom of a bridge where she had seen some cool graffiti and along we went.  The result?  The most colorful and fun pictures EVER!  I posted several of my favorite pictures from that shoot here.

 

 

 

 

Hello SPRING!

 

Promise in flickr. 

Spring is always such a happy season. It brings joy and the fresh feeling of new beginnings.  Like that feeling I get early in the morning when the sun is about to come out. When there is that beautiful promise of HOPE and renewal carried out by the start of a new day. A new opportunity to make things better, to work harder, to find beauty and recognize the miracles and the magic hidden in our daily life. To be open to experience life, to learn about new stories, to interact with the world. In whatever form we get to do such a thing.  Whether it is commuting, working, nurturing (or expecting) a baby, educating others, planting flowers, sharing experiences, creating art, researching, looking for work, learning, traveling...in whatever it is that our world finds us doing, in Spring there is always such a strong feeling of promise for a better TODAY.

Spring is just such a happy season!

May your days be filled with new joyful beginnings and a million blessings!   

A baby shower for my soon to be here nephew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little of this and a little of that

* I  simply cannot wait to get my hands into this new CD by Domingo.  And he even sings a duet with my Josh! 

* The new character they added into Ugly Betty's show to play her boyfriend totally looks like Josh Groban!  Has anyone who watches the show noticed that, yet?

* Totally loving the quote from this week's Ugly Betty episode from Claire, "grow up, because not everyone is going to like you. You just have to suck it up and embrace it!"  I think I'm printing that quote and hanging it up somewhere I can see it often!  Ha.

* Even Oprah is on facebook now! 

* Have you seen this youtube video called Christian the lion?  It's amazing!  Not only did it make my face drown a bit in tears, it also made me go hugged my little foxy to pieces (she kinda looks like a little lion with all her Pomeranian fur.)  Here is another version of it. And if you really like it, like I do, you must watch the full version here.

* And I'll close today with a few more ATC pictures.  These are the Starbucks ATC cards that I made using the discarded gold Starbucks gift cards.  The rest of the ATCs in this post were all made by my daughter. She has been totally getting into them.

 

 

Sweet

 

Sweet memories from our the Coffee Wednesday/ATC exchange last week!  I still need to download pictures from the one this week!  But, as promised, I'm finally sharing here some ATC inspiration.  It's been a while. I know. I tend to forget that responsibility takes precedent over the fun stuff.  The themes for this exchage included Starbucks (using discarded Starbucks gift cards), pocker chips and Wonder Woman!   I'm sure you can easily guess who suggested Starbucks and Wonder Woman. 

I made the first ATC using Starbucks WINTER gift card. I cut out three letters to form the word TEN because I made ten ATCs.  It's hard to see, but I covered the card with a layer of mod podge. 

 

As far as the following ATCs, I am finding it hard to describe how truly beautiful they all are in real life!  The pictures really don't make them any justice!  These cards were created by Alona, Mercel, Marjorie, Eve, Pat and Holly.  The last photo grouping includes all of the Wonder Woman ATCs and check out Alona's card, isn't her version of Wonder Woman just fantastic?  She made my dream come true!  I can finally say I am Wonder Woman! :D  I have more pictures to share, but not enough time.  I'll try my best to catch up this weekend!  Happy Friday everyone!

   

  

  

  

 

 

Today is all about her.

I love everything about her creative process. And yes, you may say I am bias, specially considering that I am her mother. However, there is not a day that goes by that I am not impressed by her creativity and artistic eye.

I am just a proud and happy mom.

Can't help it.

Today I had to show off a little.  Just a little. 

It could be worse. I could go on and tell you how many hours she spent working on her science fair project and fill you in with every single fantastic detail about my observations regarding her attention to detail and careful research process.  I could tell you that her Data Journal turned out better than any project I have ever worked on!  Or, I could share all about her Greek mythology project which she completed while working on the science project; or even go as far as share the incredible Egypt brochure/mini album that she created for another one of her classes. I could even show you the amazing Disney characters that she draws free hand when she has a few minutes of free time.  I even had to frame one of her recent drawings because it quite literally turned out perfect.

Do not fear. I won't go on. I'll just show you a few pictures, if I may. 

In my next post I have several Artist Trading Cards that I've been dying to share, too.  Some created by yours truly, but also some by my talented daughter and many from our ATC group in Salinas.  So, do come back soon.  

  

  = 

Snow in Cali

 

 

And just when I was giving up on the idea of seeing snow this year, magic happened on our most recent trip to Anaheim.  I've been meaning to post these pictures in the blog (I had originally downloaded them into flickr) so I could share a little of the excitement we found on this little detour.  It is amazing what a little bit of snow can do for the soul.

It was just a beautiful sight!

And a happy little experience for us snow deprived people.