March 2017 - my new website is launched

I am so stinking excited. What a difference it makes using a professional - Tisha Oehmen of ParaduxMedia has given my mosaic website a completely fresh and new platform.  I could not be more pleased. The fact that Scott Palmer of Bag&Baggage recommended her spoke volumes to me, but feeling heard when explaining what I was looking for was the greatest joy in the process.

Peek around - ask questions, make suggestions, and of course, let me know if you have a mosaic project for me!

Yahoo!!

And, it is still in my birthday month so I am claiming this as part of my continued celebration.

Thank you Tisha, I couldn't be more pleased.

Where I have been

Much about where we go is influenced by where we have been.  Sweet cousin Cathy tells me I should write it down.  It feels daunting to track 52 years of movement.  The same things that have enriched my life - the travel, living among other cultures, the people I have met (so many I have forgotten many names) make it very challenging to think about accomplishing this goal.  And yet, today I started...didn't get far, but the first steps are as important as all the rest. 

Telling my story

I think I had started to become daunted by the process of meeting someone and feeling like there has been so much life before this moment, so many experiences, people, connections triumphs and struggles that brought me to this point....how would I ever go about explaining all of that to someone new?

Then, out of the blue, I find myself in that exact position.  Laughing at his stories; freely sharing mine. 

I am beginning to think it less a chore and more a joy as we explore each other through our pasts in all the tarnished glory, the laughter filled present, and the hints of possibilities for tomorrow and beyond.

Smiling.  Smiling. 

Closing out 2011

September marked the passing of my pops.  I will save the long story for those who know me enough to ask (if you really want to know) over an adult beverage sometime, and just add that it was a consuming change. 

Not because there was so much to do, I mean, there was a lot to do but a good list and keeping notes helps that process along, but becuase it changes the day to day.  For mom, for me, for friends - the world looks different when a loved one passes. 

The pup and I keep moving forward.  God I love that furry face.  She never tells my secrets.  :-)

Friends are well, and the work front likely holds 6 more years for me - I had hoped to start the full time artist gig sooner, but number crunching tells me the extra years at the county will prove their worth many times over.

Still, I look for ways to keep creating, and I am currently signing up to be considered as an artist for a contest (of sorts) that asks for 10 pieces, 90% of the materials coming from landfill (yep - the dump!) and I am super excited.  More news on that should I get selected.

Already over a week into 2012, I set the following intentions:

• Identify and hold my gratitudes DAILY - hourly if it is hard
• Spend quality time with family and friends
• Assess the ways I can grow and take action
• Breath deeply
• Listen more
• Eat good food
• And always choose love, not fear

How does time pass so quickly?

Should be heading to bed; I was talked into a "you are certain to get wet and muddy" 5k obstacle course tomorrow - though for a good cause - what was I thinking?

My yard looks awesome - there are always more projects, but the pruning is so so so much better. 

I need to write more.  Make more art.  Breath deeper.  Count my blessings.  Keep walking forward.

Smiling, I am calling it a day.

Clarity

I am doing what I need to to be clear.  Sure.  While at the same time dreaming and visioning the future I want.  I like to think that we can have it all - all the things that bring us joy, especially the parts where that feeling comes from bringing joy to the lives of others. 

It isn't about predicting, it is about setting clear intentions, and then making the choices that lead us to the desired outcome. 

I know how to do that.  I have done it.  I am doing it right now; I just want to make sure I know what I want for the future.

For the present, making this tanish gray furball that curls up next to me and stares at me through bright yellow eyes, happy - giving her a good life in exchange for all the times she has been a patient listener, is a pretty darn good place to be.

I am grateful to have a career I love; that I do fairy well, that gives me a chance to influence lives of others positively.

I am grateful to be healthy, surrounded by family and friends who I love and I know love me. 

I am grateful for my connection to spirit, and the world, and all the live and love in it.

I am grateful to know who I am at my core, even if I don't always know where I am going in the moment. 

at the airport...again

Funny, as much as I like travel, the back to back thing is not my gig.  I need down time to recharge and I am not sure my battery is full.  Seems especially hard since though I know this training for Rotary president is required, the timing is just bad. 

San Jose of all places...oh well, it isn't like I will have time to explore even if it had been somewhere more exciting. 

I am craving time to relax at home, play with the pooch, mosaic, and have true calm and unscheduled time with Mark.  Trying to pry visits in during the midst of a busy week wasn't great for either of us. 

ok... they are calling the flight.  Paste on a smile, remember the mission of Rotary and why I love the great things it does and stands for. 

Buck up Buttercup. 

YAHOO! It works.

There isn't a lot there yet, but I am so proud I was able to follow the complicated (to me) directions and reroute my website name to the new site.  A big deal for the less than computer savvy.

Next I will figure out the best way to start adding photos.  Stop by, feel free to offer suggestions (though I don't know if I will know enough to be able to act on them if they are too much about format) and let me know what you think in general.

I am probably going to have to add a page for her Highness, Ms Isabella Rosalini Tyler.

It may be a little thing to most, but I am excited.

trying to make a website....

ok - so - finding a way to get it out there means I MUST have a website - so...conside me under construction.

snakewomancreations.com is coming soon to a theater near you. Or perhaps, the internet. That might get me more exposure now that I think about it.

gratitude

maybe after the phone call to the doctor, I will shift, and rather than admit the pain, each time I think of it I will announce something I am grateful for.

I am so very grateful it was only one arm. For example.

Montana Adventure and the story of why my arm hurts sooooo much

ok - so as I write this I am actually in Upham North Dakota. My arm is severely broken, the upper arm sporting a new rod from shoulder to elbow, and my shattered wrist held together with a plate and close to a dozen screws. I have been off work since September 10th, and we are well into October...what the heck? don't fall down a stairwell - that is what I have to say about that!

Left Mark's place in Sisters on October 7th and have been through Washington, Idaho, Montana and now North Dakota - heading back to Montana for Mark to hunt deer and antelope.

The pup, Izzy, has been enjoying the trip and maturing, though she has yet to point a bird...which is her job during the bird hunting!!! She has found and fetched a few, and I love her crazy.

Mark has been amazing taking care of the dogs and me and there has been so much scenery along the way...gorgeous. Facebook now sports close to 100 photos of the adventure so far. and the most exciting news is come February, I will be headed to Austin Texas to see my mosaic, Albacore Tuna on Dock, in the Mosaic Arts International show. I can't believe it got in the show and I can't wait to see it in the gallery. I will include a photo!

my potential SAMA project

What gets into my brain to make me try to do stuff that A) I have not done before, B) I haven't researched the process for, and C) could wind up being a lot of time spent with no useable end?

I want so much to be excited about this mosaic, but I keep finding that I can only do it in tiny little steps, and each step closer to actually putting glass on it, winds up pointing to some other inbetween step that I hadnt thought about.

Maybe it is just too hot to be doing this...

On a totally different topic...I am so crazy in love I can hardly stand it.

writing again, for real

I got the gift story done...a combination of the old one bracketed by inspiration from the life and times of this snakewoman and a fanciful thread to connect it all. Based on the reaction of the two that have read it so far, it is a success!

This weekend the pup goes to college - learning to hunt and hold birds, and then to fetch when they are shot. I will get time to have the carpets cleaned and yard work done...but I will miss her furry face.

New love though, makes up for missing the dog, and then some!

Back to it - the writing spawns a deep desire to do more...I want extra hours in the day, I have ideas, I could see writing a story that is accented with the mosaics...

Mostly, my life is feeling more balanced, more filled with love and light and purpose than I can recall. I am healthy and happy and truly grateful.

The things we see

Just realizing it is time to start the inward journey...off tomorrow, home with the pup and new man. With the women on Saturday. My head is already moving that direction.

oh my good golly does time fly...

Facebook apparently draws one away from the prose and more detailed blog updates. But then maybe, I just forgot about this. It's time though...good exercise to write more regularly, and maybe move away from the FB all things Isabella, all the time. A bit more of the personal here.

ok...finding it, remembering my log in, saying hello...its a start.

Reconnection.

Hello.

I am doing fine, thank you, and will expand on that soon.

in the Philippines

to minimize redundancy, please stay tuned to the travel blog and I will return to my personal blog after I get home.

http://tagalogtravelblog.blogspot.com/

be well!

My life is remarkable.

I am not sure if it is possible to not wake up in complete gratitude for this life. But it doesn't matter. I am happy to have so very much to be grateful for. Time for work, so I will leave it at that for now.

9 days and counting

hard to believe - but I am having bittersweet feelings about leaving for a month. Crazy talk, eh? I am just so happy. But the month will speed by, at least for me. Philippines, I am coming back!!

I will learn to row it...

of course, this is an advertisement for a brand new drift boat...but I so want to learn to row them...what an amazing weekend

departure is getting closer

and it is bittersweet. I am excited to be going back to the Philippines, really I am. And yet, I never expected that I would be thinking how much I would like to be spending this coming month tucked in some cabin in the woods, or traipsing around Alaska, or fishing anywhere or relaxing on the beach or even just snuggled up, watching movies with him. It is all good, it just draws out all the scary wonderful vulnerable places I didn't expect to surface again.

Makes life interesting, right?