I need a lil breaky-break

Hey - just wanted to stop by to let ya'll know that I'll be on break until after the holiday. I need a lil slow down. Got a lotta stuff on my mind. Feeling a lil overwhelmed.

I might pop in if my energy level picks up, but I'll definitely be back on Monday.

I'm closing my eyes and wishing peace, tasty meals, love, and laughter for you all!

I'll be here laughing with the goofballs I live with. :)

~I am Thankfull for YOU~
Melissa

Kim told me to

Did ya'll see this? http://queen-of-arts.blogspot.com/2008/11/november-19-day-of-sharing-words.html

Here's some shining light just for you.

Yesterday, I was doing more of this......

and I was thinking this........


I love everything about it.....my writing, the paper I use, what I say, the cute stuff I draw, the fun stuff I include. I make the bestest snail mail! Is that okay to say? Sure it is....I am allowed to LOVE my own creations. I am allowed to ~Shine My Own Light~ and be proud of it!!!!!!

Reading Kim's blog reminded me of this - a conversation between Oprah and Maya Angelou:

O: So when you hear someone being modest....

MA: I run like hell. The minute you say to a singer, "Would you sing?" and they say, "Oh no. I can't sing here," I say, "Oops! I wonder, where is that train to Bangkok?"

O: Because?

MA: Because that person is not reliable. She may not know it, but modesty speaks volumes about falseness.

O: Pretending.

MA: Lying.

Wow.....Lying...that's where she took it. At first I didn't agree, but the more I thought about and boiled it down....well, I saw her point. If someone can sing and won't sing, what does that mean? That person is holding something back. There is something there. They aren't able to, for whatever reason, be open, up front, or honest about Who They Are. In base terms (I love to get down to the base of something), not being truthfull, in any sense, is lying.



Perhaps that person was crushed by someone else or more likely a lot of someone else's and this has caused a lack of self-confidence. I can totally relate. I believe this was the reason that I didn't agree at first......I've been crushed by a ton of someone else's so far - my parents, my siblings, my lovers, my friends, my co-workers, my bosses, blah, blah, blah. Their lack of care caused me to question myself and my worth deeply and torture myself without mercy to the point when I was broken-hearted (you know that deep physical pain in your chest like someone tore something out?) and all I could do was lay around like a pathetic lump watching tv and sleeping. That's real. I don't believe in the "people can't make you feel" this way or that. I've had them do it. If it wasn't possible, than children who are abused would never feel that it was their own fault. I truly feel that you have to have some confidence in Who You Are to begin with to avoid that.


I pride myself in being an honest person (If I like you, you know. If I don't like you, you know.) and the thought that my shy'ness, my lack of self-confidence, my 'modesty' - in reality - IS LYING. WOW. I'm lying to myself, I'm lying to everyone else when I don't believe in me or what I create or what I do or say or WHO I AM. I didn't want to see myself as unreliable and a liar.....that's why I couldn't agree with Maya.


At some point, I decided to believe in myself and my very personal expedition into Life, so that's what I do now, mostly. I'm sure I'll be crushed again. I know I shouldn't allow others or even my own self to stop me from being the wonderfull, wildly whimsical, witchy woman of the woods that I AM, but sometimes I do. And that's okay. It's all part of the 'game.' If there weren't times that I didn't 'Shine my light,' I wouldn't know when I was. I am in the 'bubble' of shining my light.............

I am fabulous, wonder-full, amazing, beautiful, caring, honest, talented, wise, loving and lovable! I create cute, lovely, exciting, magickal, color-full, fantastic, gorgeous, use-full, smart creations!
YAY.



I'd like to shine someone else's light too: 2nd Surf

She made this for me. I am in the loving space of it.


Oh, and about that snail mail: one is for a person who's hot for hearts and one is for a person who's coo-coo for cats. They'll be mailed on Saturday. I hope they delight your spirits!!!!



I wish you all......

~Love and Light~
Melissa

Welcome to My World

Drum roll please......................Here it is - their debut on YouTube!

We still haven't given most of them real names, except Twix, but they all have 'nicknames.'

They've gotten so fast! Check out 'Marble' playing in the background at the end of the video.





Here's 'Blackbeard' and Twix "fighting." They're constantly crawling on my lap (in this video you'll see 'Buckwheat' and 'Marble' hanging out). 'Girl' is sitting in the hole watching her brothers.






Here's 'Girl' playing.





Mommy Zoe makes an appearance here: 'Girl' tries to get her - she jumps up to a place they haven't made it to.......yet.






They just did their first "business" in the litter box! YAY!!!!!

~Tiny Whiskers~
Melissa

My Birth~Day

I don't look at birthdays as special....well sort of special, but maybe more like this:

A normal day is like Hot Chocolate to me on a cold day. (most of the time)

Today is Hot Chocolate with a lil whipped cream on top.

I suppose it's because I try to enjoy the time, capture the moments, realize how special 'today' is EVERY DAY.

There was this guy who was part of the group I hung around with. No one knew when his birthday was. He wouldn't tell anyone. He said, "Why do you need to know? So you can treat me nicely that day? Treat me nicely every day!"

I also think there are many days, many moments I have been born, awakened - the moment I was conceived, the moment I took my first steps, my daughter's birth day, fast forward to the moment I realized that joy is mostly my choice, something I must reach for, grasp, and lick - kinda like an ice cream cone. So, I think in a way I celebrate this adventure, this excavation of Life every day all-ready.

I will do some celebrating today though. And I'll do some 'normal' things too.

But here's how I'd like to kick it off.................

Dance with me!!!! Lets celebrate the fact that we're ALL ALIVE today and able to experience EVERYTHING that means - the GOOD, the bad, the smelly. :)



I think that says it all!

And this is just cause this song jams!




I had to come back and edit: I almost forgot that I wanted to share this too:

I have this picture of the beautiful Jamie Lee Curtis in my studio.




This quote is an essential part of my journey. It's a little blury, but you get the idea.



BTW, today, I am 36 and SUPER HUGE PROUD OF IT!!!! No way would I want to go back and be any other age. I'm way smarter than I used to be. Yeah, smarter a$$. HA!

Have a FANTASTIC day everybody!

~I'm so glad we're all here in this moment in time, we're totally lucky!~
Melissa

ps: It's also Mickey Mouse's birthday. So Happy Happy Mickey!

A new Faerie Squarie

Here's a new Faerie Squarie. She'll fly over to the shop tonight.

As promised, the Faerie Squaries, Blossoming Block, and Catty Cubes will all be there too. Pop over and see how cute they all are.

It's a short one today. I'm tired and I've got cats running all over.

~Meeee Ow~

Melissa

Snail mail comes and goes, and becomes part of my studio

Yesterday, I packaged the journal for Nanakin.












I also opened a package from Jennlui - isn't she super cool? :) I placed all of the trinketty treasures around my studio.


Did I mention that I bought myself a Witchy hat? Here it is sitting on my paint caddy (thank goodness for that thing - best investment ever!) I'll use that when I cast all my magick spells. The hat, I mean.


Here's the adorable heart rocks (lower left) and the rockin' black box they came in (upper left). At first I placed them here, with all my other precious rocks. At the right, you can see a stack of index cards sitting in a shell ~ these are various statements I wrote from books or my own knoggin that keep me going when I need it. Currently I'm using ~ "Amuse Thyself" : I like this one because it reminds me to create art FOR ME first. If other people like it, love it, or buy it, great, but my amusement matters to me most. And ~ "Press on Pussy" : This is something a guy friend of mine used to say all the time. It's a little dirty, sorry, I know, but it makes me smile and keeps me going when I feel like crapping out. "Cursing" is part of my regular vocabulary. I very much censor myself here for your benefit. ;)



Anyways, back to the rocks. I decided to place them here. The Lady's hands hold all of my hearts.


Jennlui, also sent me these.


I heart the rocks she makes! Eventually, I will share these with others so they can know about Jennlui and her trinketty treasures, but for now, they reside here.


I can't forget that super cute postcard!




I placed it on my fireplace.


See it? No? How about now? It's right in the middle.


LOVE this fireplace!!!! It's a fakey-fake, but it has a firebox, so I can burn candles inside it. You can see all my Witchy stuff - cauldron hanging in the hearth, broom leaning on the side.

On the right hand side of the fireplace (see the full fireplace picture above), there's a branch that I found outside. I really liked the curvey'ness of it. On the left side of that branch is something hanging. Any guesses what it is?????? If anyone guesses correctly, I'll send you a prize. I didn't mean to give anything else away (but it's so much fun!), so I don't know what it will be, but it'll be cute. (Sorry Ladies - Leah already won. It is my own hair that I kept when I cut it all off last year.)

These are just for added cute'ness and cause everyone goes so wild for them......He doesn't have a real name yet, but so far he's got one nickname ~ Blackbeard ~ cause he has one. ;)


More of my studio to come in the future. Perhaps I'll clean it up a lil first. :) It so needs to be vacuumed.


~Vvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~
Melissa

Creating my creative butt off

Yup, that's what I've been doing. If you follow my blog, then you know how many cats I have bringing inspiration to my life (it's 10 - 5 big, 5 little, for those of you who don't know). So, I've done some cat squares. I haven't decided on a name for them yet. Funky Felines, Catty Cubes (which I think I'm partial to), Clever Cats, Fatty Catties, Talking Tabbies.....I don't know - what do you think????

Awaken to Adore~able

Curly Girly

Live Wildly (This is part of Blossoming Blocks)

These will all be available on November 17 (the day before my Birthday) right here.

This is just for Jennlui ~ one of those magick things that happen. I just remembered it this morning. Okay....I was making some paper for journals. I went to bed that night. I had this strange dream about baby elephants. I woke up and started going through the pages I made the day before. This is what showed up on one of the pages.

That's an elephant, right? I so didn't do that on purpose! But someone did. ;)

YAY ~ snail mail! I received this sparkley cute'ness from Vanessa in the mail the other day. She's hanging around my studio with all my other favorite things and making lots of new friends!

I dislike days when I wake up with a headache. Ugh. But I'm going to power through it cause I have too many 'things' to do....most of it is fun, so don't feel too badly for me. Thank Goddess for F'advil (that's the fake advil we buy from Walmart).

~Sunshine on my Shoulder, makes me happy (and squinty)~

Melissa

New Item and The Results of the give~away

First....the newest item (that will be available here on Nov. 17) drum-roll please......................... Faerie Squaries!

They measure about 2 1/2 by 3 inches and are lil'cuties! I was inspired by 2nd Surf. I am so in love with her items, especially this, that I asked her to create a custom piece that says my new favorite saying "Yay Every Day!" It's gonna rock. I'll put pictures of it up as soon as it's in my grubbie-lil-mitts.

Hey, speaking of Second, the results of the give-away. Hey, gimme another drum-roll please...............................................................Nanakin! Please email me your information and your choice (Celebrate Alone~ness or Love Yes). I'll package it up this week and mail it on Saturday.

Have a fan-tabulous weekend!

~Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting~

Melissa

I am so thrilled and honored

to be alive today...to be able to see the first African-American President of The United States! The feeling of excitement, of thrill, of chills running up and down and all the way through and around again ~ I AM SO OVERWHELMED AND GREAT~FULL TO BE HERE! I am not a political kind of person, but the electricity of this moment has touched my very soul. What a fabulous day it is!!!!!

A thought: when "President" Obama was born and almost all through his life NO ONE KNEW that he would be OUR PRESIDENT! OUR FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT! Brings me to a line in "Lady in the Water" when a character said, "No one is told Who They Are."

Today is also a great day to have a TV. I've seen so many historical, soul-shaking moments!

What a victory, what a moment in time, for our Country, for our World, for our Earth, for us ALL! WOW.

Now, I'm thrilled and honored to bring you these sweet souls.

Couldn't you just eat them up? I love their lil ears so much I could kiss them and kiss them and kiss them!

The last picture and the one below is Twix (Tristan says - I say his full name is Betwixt and Between - she's fighting me on it, but I'll win cause I pay the bills ;) ). He's the only bay-bee with a name so far. His eye is infected. We took him to the vet last night and got some ointment for his eye. Everyone loved him and just kept saying how cute he is and they couldn't get over how tiny (8 oz) he is. They also loved his ears.

I'm not worried about his eye. It will either heal or Rowan will have a buddy who is also a perpetual winker. Actually it might work out for Rowan - together they'll each have a lookout for the side they can't see on. ;) Rowan has always gotten along fine...so will Twix if the eye has to be removed.

They look at me now when I speak to them. They cry at me when I sit outside the box. I think they know I'm their Other Mommy. :) My heart sings when I'm with them. If only they could stay little like this for longer.

Oh, don't forget about this: Go here for the giveaway.

~What a purely MAGICKAL Day~

Melissa

~~~Grand Opening of my Etsy shop and a free gifty~~~

After weeks of work and worry and more work and stress and more work and my butt hurting until I can't bear it.....the day has finally arrived!!!

My Etsy Shop is finally open. I'll wait while you take a look.....hmm, hum, hmmm, hum, hum, hmm, hmmm...back? *Kool*

I adore the journals I make. Love them to death!! And I'm really thrilled about being able to offer them world-wide. Thank you Etsy Gods!

For those of you who care, Rain SilverStar* is a name I've used for several years. It was a combination of a name I thought of calling my daughter "Reign" and my first two cats Silver Whiskers and Star.

So, bring on the free stuff!!!!

Anyone who comments on this post from now until Friday afternoon will be entered into the drawing for one of the following. Totally YOUR choice -

One, Celebrate Alone-ness
~ front cover

~ back cover


~ you'll find lovely pages such as this inside (pink ribbon bookmark)

OR two, Love Yes!
~ front cover



~ back cover


~ you'll find lovely pages such as this inside (green ribbon bookmark)


Of course, the winner will get free shipping no matter where, but so will everyone else on my etsy shop (from the US, sorry International peeps * but maybe we can work something out) who makes a purchase in November - the awesome month of my birth!

Wonderful International Peeps: Just so there's no confusion - You are very welcome to enter this give-away. I'm willing to ship to you for free if you win.

But if you purchase on the etsy shop, please convo me first, I'll see what the shipping costs, and we'll work something out. ;)

Also: I will draw the winner at 6:00 EST. So, please enter before then. And I'll announce the winner on Saturday.

My thanks to everyone! And best of luck.

I'll be adding journals all week, so check back. I have plans of offering many more varying items, but for now........

~Joyous, Jumping, Jolly, Journal Magick~

Melissa

Give~away

Today, I'll be having my first celebratory give-away......sometime. I'll get it up here as soon as I can. Oh, how I wish it wasn't a cloudy day....I need to take some pictures.

~shoulda coulda woulda done it yesterday~
Melissa

ps: I wanted to add this http://leahmeetsbrandon.blogspot.com/ just cause she asked and it's a cool project. :)