portrait 14 ... Amanda Delight

Hi! I hope everyone is keeping warm. It's supposed to get up to a balmy 45 degrees here this weekend ... I'm looking forward to it.

Amanda Delight is a super talented portrait artist who puts her work on youtube. She's so talented, so it was totally intimidating, but i did a portrait of her ... the video is below ... (youtube pixilated it horribly) ...



xoxo

veggies are sexy ...

xoxo

portrait 13 ... annspade

xoxo

music i love ...

this is a friend of mine … I think he’s awesome and very talented … I like him very much … maybe you will too … xoxo

Old Haunts

This probably isn’t going to make much sense to anyone but me. But did you ever have a seriously melancholic need to examine your past? Maybe in order to figure out where your future is headed? I think that's what this is.

Quite a while ago, I lived on the East Coast: Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, etc. Recently, I realized how much of an impression that time of my life made on me. There were some very good and some very bad experiences there, like anywhere else. I got married in Philadelphia, and had a miscarriage in Pittsburgh. I stood out on the beach every single morning to watch the sun rise in Lynn, Massachusetts. I went to Atlantic City with a drug dealer friend named Laz. Everywhere, I fought and made up with the man I loved at the time. I saw amazing art at so many galleries and museums. My beagle was stolen in Elizabeth, New Jersey. I still worry she was sold to the horrible animal experimentation lab just north of there.

In the grand scheme of things, it was a short time out of my life. But still … there was the impression left.

I feel changes coming up and needed to look back. I colored my hair today. Very dark brown. It doesn’t suit me, but I like the change.

Images from my past … in no particular order …


































XOXO

A Home For Louie

Louie was my turkey. He wasn’t rescued in the traditional sense, but I bought him as a day old chick almost 2 years ago. He’s been with me ever since.

But, turkeys grow up. And Louie’s a tom. And he weighs about 45 lbs. And was the only bird here.

So, with the help of Farm Sanctuary, we found the most amazing woman living very close by who wanted a turkey. She’s awesome. She’s vegetarian but has always wanted farm animals. She has some chickens, a wonderful barn, and now a big tom turkey, named Louie.

I was very sad to see him go, but I think he’ll be very happy there. (Thank you, Sharon)

XOXO

kreative blogger ... awesome :)

Julie-Ann, from HeavenlieghArt, gave me this super awesome blog award! Thanks for thinking of me Julie-Ann!

Julie-Ann's art is just beautiful, btw. She does primitive angel paintings.

Six thing I love are:

1. I love my family. My two children and my grandchildren are the lights of my life. My parents, who've been married 54 years, well, they've known me all my life :). And I'm lucky enough to still have my lovely grandma, who will be 94 this year. I have more unconventional family as well ... people who have become family through long association. And I love them, too.

2. I love art. What a little word for such a big world. I think art & creativity are the foundation the universe rests upon on, springs from ... and includes all the senses. I love visual art, music, dance, all of it.

3. I love the wonderful people I've met here online. There's an openness and generosity that has enriched my life immensely. For me, it's always been difficult to find that niche where I felt I fit. By having access to so many people all over the world, I've found there really ARE people like me out there!

4. I love animals. People usually think I must be a "health nut" because I'm vegan. But that's not at all the case. I'm vegan because I love animals and the world we share, and I believe in every fiber of my being that all animals have the right to their own lives and they exist for their own sake and not that of anyone else. They're each a unique & beautiful expression of the creativity of the universe.

5. I love spring air. Here in Michigan, we only have a few of those damp, warm, breezy days that smell absolutely heavenly, but they're wonderful.

6. I love gardening. I love growing plants. Indoors, outdoors, in pots, in the ground, in baskets. I love flowers, Lilacs are my favorite. But what I really love is growing food. It's awesome to eat what you helped to grow and just as awesome to feed it to others. Last year, there were 2 or 3 months that I ate almost exclusively out of our garden. This year, I hope to increase that to several months or even the full year. As well, we'll be cooperating with a local food pantry to get fresh produce to people who may not be able to get it.

7. I just love that I'm part of this amazing and wonderful world.

Now, I need to nominate 7 other people for this award.

1. Renee aka PaintedSkyWoman is a talented painter and awesome person. She's very generous with everything she does.

2. Morna Crites-Moore is an awesomely talented textile artist. Her creations are just stunning.

3. Gigi is SO supportive to everyone.

4. Amanda is an awesome person who is on a raw journey to vibrant health. She creates an amazing life every day and that's awesome.

5. Anne does just about everything. Photography, painting, etc.

6. Leslie is fabulously generous and contributes in some way to so many worthy causes. She's a true inspiration.

7. NollyPosh ... omgosh, what can I say about Nolly? I'm totally crazy about Nolly. Her writing makes me laugh, makes me cry, makes me think, feel, see. She's amazing.

8. (yes, I need 8!) Elizabeth Ruffing is an artist and illustrator ... I love her work.

Thank you again, Julie-Ann!

xoxo

playing catch up ...

i'm madly in love with my grandkids ... i know it probably gets tiresome hearing me say it, but it's true ... they're just the coolest little people ...

last night it was green smoothie mustaches ... for

alexandria

and ledger both ...

someone special gave me a star for christmas! ... there it is ... right in the claw of the constellation cancer, which is very fitting ... at least i think it's the claw ... it's in my birth constellation of cancer anyway ... and i LOVE it ... i didn't think i would, but i do ... i feel like the little prince ... i have a star i can point to :) ... and it comes with this nifty map ...

and a very official looking registration certificate ... it may not hold up if i wanted to, say, go stake a claim or something ... but it's still cool nevertheless ...

i've joined so many ning groups ... i can't resist ... they're all so fantastic ... the people i've met there are awesome ... i know i'll forget some but ... milliande has a WONDERFUL creativity class for women, suzi blu has the whole beautiful goddess crew over at her place, and my buddy marguerite has started a new class called red balloon to the moon ... & i keep up with my raw friends over on raw fu ... check them out if you get a chance and are interested in those sorts of things ...

each group has a blog thing for all the participants ... which i've been seriously neglecting ... but i really feel a need to stay connected ... so i'm going to be blogging all over the place ... so if you see repeat posts, that's why ...

omg, i twitter now ... today was my first day of tweeting at my peeps ... who would have twought it could be so addictwive? ... seriously ... it's hard core intwernet crack ... but it's motwivatwing in some twotally tweird tway ... i feel like i have to do sometwing sometwhat meaningful with my day, just so i have sometwing to tweet about ...

and what is this cousin it looking hideosity? ... this is me ... yes ... this is what i look like after sleeping with alexandria (she spent the night last night) ... i swear she's going to be a weaver of some sort when she grows up ... she rubs my hair to go to sleep, and i think most of the night, and i wake up looking like buckwheat and don king's love child ... :)

ok, now why did i start writing this blog tonight? ... oh yeah, i'm busy doing some commissions and i'm going to be putting some originals in my etsy shop ... i have one listed already ...

this is the video of the making of ...

how is YOUR new year going? ... let me know!

xoxo

winter/new year/holiday giveaway WINNNERS

i hope everyone's having an excellent new year's eve ...
i picked the winners of the giveaway and they are ...

1st prize ... PaintedSkyWoman
2nd ... Collette
3rd ... Melanie Moreno

congratulations!

please e-mail me your shipping info and what your print choice is ...
just send it to ...
lisacole690@aol.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

xoxo

my winter/new year/holiday giveaway ...

brrr ... it's cold here!


even the wild turkeys think it's nippy!




i hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season ... it's been a mixed bag here ... lots of folks here are down with that cold that's going around ... including me ... still! ... alexandria and ledger too ... i swear i've never see so much snot in my whole life ...

did i just say "snot" in my holiday giveaway post? ... i guess i did ... but at least i didn't tell you about the stomach flu everyone had ... :)

so, it's that time of year ... giveaway time ... actually i'm a bit late in doing my holiday giveaway ... but anyway ... i'm going to have

three prizes ...

first ... the print of your choice from my etsy shop

second ... a small print of your choice

third ... mini print of your choice ...

all you have to do is leave a comment below that is something i can recognize you from ... of course, i'd love it if you followed my blog ... but it's not required for the giveaway ...

i'll be drawing the winners on new year's eve at midnight ...

good luck, much love, happy holidays, and a fabulous new year to you all!

xoxo

rawfu impromptu giveaway ...

ok rawfuers ... just leave a comment & name of some sort so i know who you are ... and i'll do a drawing ... the giveaway is the print of your choice from my etsy shop ... xoxo

addendum ... i drew a winner this evening just before midnight ... and the winner was leslie ... congrats leslie! ... xoxo

ancestors ...

national geographic has the coolest program ... you can send in a cheek swab and they will tell you where your ancestors came from (you're contributing to their genetic database by participating as well) ... in the case of women, it's a matrilinial geneology ...

national geographic will check the mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) when testing women ... mDNA is what is passed down exclusively through women ... for example, i have the same mDNA as my mother, my mother's mother ... my maternal grandmother's mother, and so on ... my daughter and my granddaughter alexandria, as well as my son and grandson, have this same mDNA ... alexandria's children will too ... but my son's and grandson's children will have the mDNA of the mother of their children ...

oops, sorry, did i put you to sleep? ... i'm totally sick with a cold and i think it's made me overly pondersome :)

here's another cool thing ... a female fetus has all the eggs she will ever make ... so ... at one time, we were all an egg ... inside the ovary of our mother ... who was a fetus ... inside our grandmother ... kind of like ...

russian nesting dolls ...

speaking of ancestors ...

i've been restoring some old photos (still working on them ... i need photoshop!) ... and i thought i'd post them here ...


this is my grandma ramey's mother on her wedding day in 1911 ...

my great grandparents together

my father in korea

my mother at about 12 (about the time my dad met her lol) ...

i think sometimes it's fun to look at where we came from ...

national geographic's genogrographic project

she talks with angels ...

she talks with angels ... not TO angels, but WITH angels ... see the difference, yes?

i found this angel in a piece of wood ... her heart was the center of a knot and her wings were growth rings :) ... i thought she was beautiful ...

she's in my etsy shop ...

xoxo