Soul Humming

The Photo Print Winner...

is Lovely Judi Delgado!

I'm having the photo printed and will pop it in the mail to you as soon as it arrives.

Congrats, Judi! And thank you all for your random acts of kindness!

Everything Old is New Again

last of the road trip pictures.

enjoy!

 

crown of thorns

french kiss

 

dark and twisty

monkey

sea urchins

 

bunny rabbit

 

quietly

 

tire swing wanted:  apply upstairs

the road less traveled

 

high hosannas

 

cactus skeleton

not to repeat myself...

second best boots forever

 

dead second best boot forever and ever amen

standing in the road with a big cheesy smile

 

a little dangerous in Carlee's red leatherette

 

spring gift

 

a wish to build a dream on

American pastoral

end of the line

rest in peace

tree ghosts

 

all that remains.

the end.

#  #  #

Golden Teeth and Silver Medals

Soundtracks are key to a good road trip. For mine, I told you I picked the new Bob Dylan song, Hell's my Wife's Hometown. If you like Dylan, this is a must. Julie has the video posted at her blog post about our day trip. It's a keeper. For me, the song that has been stuck in my brain this past week even before it became the final soundtrack tune is this one by A Camp.

Golden Teeth & Silver Medals - sung by two voices

(the title sounds like things you might find in the desert, if you were lucky)

 

Anybody tell you that there is no resale value
When your romance goes to hell
You better say farewell to what you thought was wealth

Ever get the feeling that the paint has started peeling
Are you staring at the ceiling of your castle
Dreaming that you're someone else?

Would you like to meet me in this song?
I've been hoping to
Would you like to come and prove me wrong?
No, I'll agree with you

Golden teeth and silver medals, beauty marks and scars
That is what we got
Raindrops in a reservoir and minutes in a jar
That is what we got

Maybe if I had another drink
I'd see the pattern in the blinking of the traffic lights
Do you think you're happy, Nicolai?

I don't know the answer, Nina, life is like a melody
A pendulum that swings between the major and the minor
It's a lullaby

Now, I'm so glad I met you in this song
It's just a breath I'll throw
I'm so glad you're here to sing along
My voice into the flow

Golden teeth and silver medals, beauty marks and scars
That is what we got
Raindrops in a reservoir and minutes in a jar
That is what we got

I'm a little worried that the worst is yet to come
I'm afraid they'll leave us out here melting in the sun
We'll be second best until we know we have won

But until we do we'll sing this song
'Til we know we've won
We'll sing until our need for it is gone
We'll be singing this song

Golden teeth and silver medals, beauty marks and scars
That is what we got
Raindrops in a reservoir and minutes in a jar
That is what we got

Golden teeth and silver medals, beauty marks and scars
That is what we got
Raindrops in a reservoir and minutes in a jar
That is what we got

And now, back to the pictures...

 

oh those clouds! 

 that's what we were driving on.

 

julie brought a big bag of lenses for us to play with. one was a Lensbaby. it allows you to focus on one point and make the rest of the image look like a wild blurry mess. well, that's how it looks the first time i used it. some of the ones i made with it make me car sick just looking at them. But it is very cool. with a little toying around it could be especially cool.

 

i took this cactus picture at our first desert stop. right after i took it, i decided to run (i'm really five years old. i run and dance around a lot). somehow, this evil cactus reached out and grabbed the front of my left shin. while they say the spines of a cactus are not poisonous, they can be barbed (check) and do some serious damage as they are pulled out (think burning, stiff, muscle pain). just ask the 11 purple spots on my shin. Ouch. julie later knelt down on some cacti so we both claimed we were dying for about half the day.

one thing that cracked me up about julie, she is one of the only people i know who is as crazy/fatalistic as i am. i didn't seriously think that every empty truck we saw was full of creepy murderers, but it crossed my mind. i'm always on alert. :0) i've seen too many tarantino movies. ends up julie is the same way. when we weren't sure we were dying from cactus poison we were sure the earth was going to crack open and swallow us or that the two german tourists we saw had shovels to dig our graves. it became quite hilarious as we each topped one another in terrifically terrible tales. we're weird.

these were taken at font's peak. it's like a baby grand canyon.

okay. that's all i've got in me for today. and still so many more photos. i haven't even showed you my favorite one yet. i'm saving it for wednesday. cause that's my birthday.

xo-k

 

A little adventure

Yesterday I set my alarm clock for 3:30 a.m. That right there is an adventure, I tell you. It is pitch black dark at 3:30 in the morning. But, no matter, my cats were sure I was getting up just to feed them. You gotta peel your eyes open for cats in the dark. They will FLY down the stairs and trip your sleepy butt on the stairs. But you gotta keep going until you reach the coffee pot.

As I got in the truck after four my first drink of coffee leaked out of my new travel mug and poured itself on my pants. Okay, I said. It will dry. This is an adventure. Soon I was cruising down the 405 through intermittent rain and fog. Still pitch black dark. But I had Sia, Angus and Julia Stone , and new Bob Dylan to keep me company. I had my camera, a cooler of drinks and snacks with me. And I knew that my friend would be up and ready by the time I got to the end of the road.

By 5:30 a.m. I was in front of Julie's house. She came out looking like a cowgirl. Adorable in her sweet new boots.

After warnings of naughty Eiichiro, Julie's little biting dog, offerings of toast, and already cackling with laughter, we loaded up the truck and took off.

We headed to Julian. I've always wanted to go visit the little town of Julian. All those stories about pie entice me. But I had never been. By the time we arrived, it was about 37 degrees, super foggy, and wet.

i think julie (aka LittleMissNoCoat) might have gotten bleeped for whatever she was saying here. it was just a couple degrees above freezing. and it was super wet, windy and foggy. i'm a country girl. if there is a field, i take off running. julie is born and raised in san diego. her southern california hiney was Frozen.

 

Julie captured this fab picture of me flying across the cold wet field through the fog. I felt invincible and vibrant as I tore out of the warm vehicle into the quiet early dawn.

and i saw...three friends,

 

yellow hair,

 

a lonely tree,

and warriors tromping single file over the hill to battle.

then it got icy cold and we ran back to the truck and it's happy seat heaters. :0) no one said an adventure had to full of suffering. we headed on down into the desert. julie had gotten an awesome map online. but, the thing about the desert is that there weren't roads where we were going. instead, there were creek beds and washes full of huge boulders and soft sand and many, many males on dirt bikes. the map was crucial but when you are barely fitting your truck between walls of dirt it really doesn't matter any more.

 

i admit i had to laugh when julie told me that of course her truck had four wheel drive. but i would have to read the manual so we'd know how to use it. and we DID read the manual and we DID use it. we drove through creeks with water flowing right on through. i didn't take any pictures of those because we were four wheeling at that point. that's not really conducive to clear photos. but we think it might be conducive to kidney stones. :0)

i'll show you some more photos later. i've got a list of things as long as my arm that HAVE to be done yesterday. xoxo!

road trip

i'm not someone who gets really excited about big things. if there's a trip planned, it's all good but i don't get too jazzed about it. i dunno. that's just how i am. maybe, somewhere below the Freudian rug of thought, i don't want to jinx it by getting my hopes up too high. i don't want to lose my head over it.

BUT, this weekend i'm road tripping with a friend of mine. just us two girls. no children demanding videos and updates on how much longer. i don't want to jinx it but i'm so, so excited and looking forward to it. it's far flung and seat of the pants a bit, my favorite sort of road trip. i like the sort of trip where i know that whatever happens is exactly what should happen. no big expectations, just rolling with it. and...i cannot WAIT!

Appalooosa

While visiting the Kentucky Horse Park this past month, I saw a wonderful Parade of Breeds which featured several of the different breeds of horses that live at the park. One of the most beautiful was the appaloosa.

This breed has been around for longer than most. In America, there beginnings are chiefly as a horse of the Native American tribe the Nez Perce. Most Appaloosas are identified by their colorful, spotted coat, striped hooves, mottled skin (most prounounced around their eyes and muzzle) and white sclera around the eye, like a human's eye. Appaloosas can have brown, blue or hazel eyes, and an individual horse may have eyes of two different colors.

I fell in love with the appaloosa we saw. The rider was so awesome. She worked the horse as if it were an extension of herself. They were excellent. And, I decided to work up a painting of the horse as a gift to my friend who had watched my house and animals while we were away. She really loves horses so I thought this would be a perfect thank you for her.

As I didn't bring my acrylic paints with me, I used my mom's oils. If you aren't used to painting with oils it is a bit tricky. It is just completely backwards to working with acrylics. So while I liked where the painting was going, I got frustrated working in with oils. As I was leaving the house after painting, my mom asked how it had been going. I said not so great and didn't she want to go work on piece and fix it for me. 

When I got home she said she thought the painting was well on its way but that she had tightened it up a bit. And boy did she. It really looked great after Mom came in and eased the form along. When you are working in a studio that is not your own, with paints you are not familiar with, different brushes, etc. it's just not the same as sitting at your usual space with all your good old things. So it was so wonderful to have Mom's help. We worked on it a couple more times each and I think it turned out to be very lovely. And my friend was crazy about.

Smelly Hippie

...having fun on our vacation...

see you soon!

post sleepover

it is a sleepy post sleepover morning here. i have nothing in my belly except tamoxifen and strong coffee. this is not the proper way to start the day. i am holding a canvas in my lap so i will not forget to paint (not the one that is above. that is an old something but i needed an image so that's what you are getting. you are free to make of it what you will). yesterday was a marathon day of laundry. have i lulled you to sleep with my most boring post yet? i'm preparing to head back to kentucky. but i have a slew of projects that need to be finished prior to departure. all projects that cannot be shown yet. what a bore i am. 

in other, more interesting news, my friend laura is well on her way to taking sign-ups for her class, multiple streams of income. today she's talking about one of the experts contributing to the class. i've had a class with this expert. she's fab, fab, super fab. be sure to sign up!

 

i may be slightly scarce for a while. life is busy. travel is quickly approaching. then the boys begin school right on the heels of our return. i have a couple of cool greeting card sets to put in my shop and a truckload of sunshine cloths. i'll do all that come september when i return.

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” - Jack Kerouac