why i love youtube ...

youtuber portraits ...

i've been doing some portraits lately ... many of them of people on youtube ... i need the practice ... plus, for a long time, i didn't put faces in my paintings ... or if i did, they had their eyes shut ... (it was a thing) ...

since i usually do first then think later ... my original plan was to do these portraits and then donate them to be auctioned ...

then i realized i can't just donate someone else's image like that ... i mean, i suppose i could, but it's just not nice for several different reasons ...

SO ...

instead, i'm still doing portraits for a while (at least until my new canvas gets here and i can build some frames) ... and will donate something else ...

so, what i love about youtube today is it let's me make mistakes in front so many people ... and realize that's ok ... and no one's perfect ...

ok, maybe ann spade is perfect ... but ... you know what i mean ...

xoxo

sunset & moonrise

we had a particularly beautiful sunset and moonrise tonight and i thought i'd share ... :)

raw vegan recipe: pineapple cucumber soup & 2-tone smoothie

recipe:

pinapple cucumber soup

ingredients:

1 pineapple
2 slicing cucumbers or 1 english cucumber
1 small onion
2-3 scallions
2 jalepenos
juice of 1/2 lemon (or lime)
1 tsp sea salt

peel and core pineapple, reserving core for juice

cut pineapple into chunks and, in batches, blend in food processer with s blade until they become not quite pureed ... more like small juicy chunks ... don't over blend

pour into serving bowl

juice the cores (optional)

finely chop the onion and scallions

finely dice jalepenos

dice cucumbers

add onions, scallions, jalepenos, lemon (or lime) juice, and cucumbers to pineapple

add pineapple juice & salt

stir & serve

********

2-tone smoothie

ingredients:

1 cup pineapple juice

2-3 cups chopped pineapple

2-3 cups frozen mango chunks

1 cup frozen blueberries

add pineapple juice, puree chopped pineapple, then add frozen mango and puree

use 3/4 of puree and divide among 2-4 glasses

in blender, add blueberries to remainder of pineapple/mango mix & puree

pour a blueberry layer on top of all servings

yum!

what's in a name?

... so what exactly is in a name?

recently, i made the decision to begin using my birth/maiden name again ... it's not my legal name ... yet ...

... but it feels like me again ...

i noticed in a book i'd been reading that, from a numerology standpoint, my old name was a number 16, which corresponded to the tower card in the tarot ...

this is the tower card ...

the building is being struck by lightening, two figures are falling through the air, headed straight for a firey pit of hell ... jagged teeth ... fangs ... await them ...

"The Tower tarot card sits at number 16.

Throughout our lives we all strive to obtain and retain a sense of self and individual identity. This starts at The Emperor and our feeling of I Am. We draw people, places and things to us that help us to maintain what we believe to be our identity. Piece by piece, brick by brick, we build this ego personality, which here in the Tower is represented by the Tower itself.

Then something happens that shatters our illusions and the Tower crumbles.

In The Tower card this sudden occurrence is symbolised by lightning striking as if God himself has metered out some divine intervention. The two figures being ejected from the Tower are symbolic of our dual nature.

In life there are two distinct way in which The Tower is experienced. One is when something unexpected happens to us and the other is when someone else deliberately undermines our personality and therefore damages and destroys our self confidence."

by returning to my maiden name, numerologically my name became a 17 again ... associated with the star card in the tarot ...

this is the star card ...

"The Star tarot card sits at number 17.

"In the Star card the woman is naked as she empties out two urns of water. This is the same woman we saw in the Temperance card who was carefully balancing her emotions. Now the emotional waters are emptied, let go of, her nakedness a symbol of her acceptance that any pretence is over and that she must now face the world as she truly is without any artifice.

"Above her the stars shine in the night sky. Seven of the stars define her true nature while the eighth symbolises the breaking of the karma which binds her.

Just beyond her is a tree with a butterfly on it. Often this is depicted as a bird eating berries. This butterfly symbolises transformation and new opportunities.

Once she has finished her emotional release she will be free to turn and see the new wonders that life now offers.

The Star card in tarot is often called a card of hope. Here, however, it is not hope as we often view it as wishful thinking, but in the archaic use of the word which means to have trust and confidence in the future.

tarot information from:

http://www.toniallen.co.uk