Make Your Mark

Dip your hands in colors
while the young night flutters in on you and
finger paint me pictures of all you see.
No matter what they say, you'll always be
faithfully dangerous, lost and lovely,
so beautiful to me.
I'm not too blind to see.

-Over the Rhine

"Faithfully Dangerous"

                                               roz stendahl

Kick off your 2011 with color and make your mark!  Here are some wonderfully crafty resources for inspiration!

Make yourself a visual journal to keep track of the special moments in your year.  I took a class from Roz Stendahl, a fantastic artist in Minneapolis at the MN Book Arts center.  Her visual journals are just stunning and offer so much inspiration on how to capture a moment that means something to you in a visual and creative way.  She gives a little inside look at one of her stunning books in the video below:

Some other favorite visual journalists are Sabrina Ward Harrison and John Copeland.  Wonderful mixed-media works and neither are afraid to get messy... both visually and emotionally.

sabrina ward harrison

                                                                john copeland

Seasons of Love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

-Rent

I am sure there have been some spectacular moments in your 2010.  Think about it... How many sunrises have come your way, snowfalls you've felt, bird songs you've woken to, kisses and hugs you've shared...  The smells, tastes, colors of each season.  I live in a small town that quietly naps through the fall and winter and then takes a big yawn in the spring.  And, our town's a wonderful hostess of summer's pleasures.  I like the change of pace from the life I once led in the city... the seasons change slowly when you have time to be present and still.  Looking forward to a new year and what awaits us...  
    .ryn

2010 moments in pictures:

Question

"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... live everything. Live the question now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future,

you will gradually without even noticing it,

live your way into the answer."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Find the poetry in your deepest questions today...
    .ryn

from Pablo Neruda's The Book of Questions

III.

Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?

Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?

Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?

Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?

12.12

"You are not too old
and it is not too late
to dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out
it's own secret."
-Rainer Maria Rilke

It is my birthday this Sunday the 12th and I am so happy to have the best birthday present of all... my parents in town!  This beautiful blessing for a birthday, by John O'Donohue, reminds me of how special it is to be here... and how so many special people have stepped into my life and have touched it in some way.  I am blessed.
    .ryn 

For Your Birthday
By John O'Donohue (taken from "To Bless the Space Between Us")


Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day
the blueprint of your life
would begin to glow on earth,
illuminating all the faces and voices
that would arrive to invite
your soul to growth.

John

All you need is love.
-John Lennon

Music with Personality

If you're like me and are a lover of great stop-motion animation and music with lots of personality, you're in for a delicious treat tonight.  Sergei Prokofiev’s musical tale, “Peter and the Wolf,” (remember listening to that is elementary school?) is reimagined in a jaw-droppingly gorgeous and rawly emotional stop-motion film.  It took home the 2008 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.  Do you need any more convincing to watch this?  And, thanks to my sister Annie, we now have our very own TV!  Thanks Annie!  It's on PBS tonight at 8 (but check your local listings).  Don't want to miss it!
    .ryn    

More info about the "Peter and the Wolf" animated short here

Blue

Strings of lights above the bed
Curtains drawn and a glass of red
All I ever get for Christmas is blue


"All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue"
Over the Rhine

Outside In

"From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens -
the garden outdoors,
the garden of pots and bowls in the house,
and the garden of the mind's eye."
-   Katherine S. White

Hello to you!  And, happy December!  I am planning on bringing the outdoors in this Christmas.  This means many brisk hikes to forage for treasures in the woods... pine boughs, twigs, pinecones, berries that can add the texture, smells, color and peacefulness of the Christmas season.  These finds combined with some candlelight and mulled wine, and we're set!  Enjoy the season's coziness!     .ryn
Some inspirations...