A circus parade of grey bottom pachyderm clouds lumbered nose to tail across the Alice blue sky, fluffy white puppy clouds gamboled in between, while the sun, headed another direction entirely played hide and seek between their legs. Reaching the mountains one after another, after another trudged up the ridges stepped over the top and disappeared.................

...............Mercy we must all be waxing poetic, I was looking out the window at the cloudy sky yesterday when my mind started visual descriptions that I especially liked so I wrote them down. Don't you just love similes and metaphors, I do.

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE...

I believe that our lives are our own, to make of them what we will, and every decision we make leads us in the direction we have chosen to take ourselves. However several times in my life, I have felt the hand of fate move me in a different direction, wheels have turned, gears have shifted, cogs have fallen into place, to set my feet on a different path.
I know why my earth was moved before, once so I would meet the man I would marry, and once for my redemption. What I don't know is why God has set us here beside a river in a house we should never have been able to afford, in an area we never wanted to live, and never ever would have looked to buy a house in. Several minor miracles and much divine timing had to occur so that we would be at this place at this time. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and my scary question is why??? (I know it's not just so I can brighten my blog with pretty photos)

Someday I am going to write it all down, the story of how we came to live on the "Edge of Heaven".

GOD BLESS OLD GLORY....

Happy Flag Day to the beautiful icon of our freedom. What joy fills my heart when ever I see this proud and unique emblem of our country waving in the wind. I thank God everyday for the privilege of calling this, my symbol of home.

" When we look at a statue of someone great,
we think they've got something we don't,
We are trained to think that only a tiny
percentage of us have the stuff it takes to be a hero.
Not many of us will cure any diseases or slay any dragons,
but every single one of us,
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US,
is called to be a king, a queen, a hero in our ordinary lives.
We don't build statues to worship the exceptional life,
we build them to remind ourselves what is possible in our own."

from a Timberline Ad

In the chilly hours and minutes,

Of uncertainty, I want to be,

In the warm hold of your loving mind.

To feel you all around me,

And to take your hand, along the sand,

Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

Donovan

It is cold and 40 shades of grey here today the skies are dark, low, fingers of rain reach down from the clouds across the valley. I am alone and the grim weather only serves to exaggerate the solitude. Wandering room to gloomy room like a bebe in a boxcar, even the lights seems to be consumed by the oppressive greyness.

I decided to read but my restless mind still wandered. I closed my eyes and burrowed back through my memory looking for something warm and fuzzy to wrap myself in. A cozy dark memory, yes, lying in the upper berth of a sleeper car on a train bound for Denver, rocked by the subtle swaying motion of the rail car and seduced into sleep by the rhythmic click, click, click of the wheels rolling along the track. It was a trip made with my Grandma, kindred spirits us, I adored being with her. Together we looked out the ceiling windows of the Dome liner car at the towering Rocky Mountains as the train snaked it's way through narrow mountain passes, and gasped at the abrupt night and day of tunnels and the sight of the rail bed off the side plunging visual miles over jagged rocks to the river below. I felt like a potentate munching cinnamon toast in the fancy dining car. Moving from car to car was a rush, loud and fast scenery whipping past while rail ties flash by beneath your feet.

This is when I fell in love with travel by train. A lovely warm haunting memory of power in motion, tandem wheels, steam whistles and smiling black porters long gone the way of my Grandma. It infused my life with desire for a ride on the Orient Express but alas she is a ghost too. So the engine rolls on in the endless cinema of my memory calling back the feelings, the sounds, and the love, an excursion for a rainy day. Thank you Grandma.

picture by Circle of Light Studio

Let me fly Lord,

give me wings that I might soar across the sky

let me revel in the clouds for just an hour

rise to realms of breathless solitude

and drown myself in endless fields of blue.

just let me fly...

DSW 09

My son has taken umbrage with the quote on my blog title picture. When I told him that he should "Leap and the net will appear." He looked at me and said "Mom I'm still picking stalagmites out of my a** from the last three times I did that." After I quit laughing I thought about that for awhile and remembered the good old axiom "Look before you leap." What a conundrum...I put the quote up to motivate me to move forward, now I don't know what to do!!! What would you do, look or leap?

Art by Oblinsky

Up there on the list of my impossible dreams is to be an author of wonderful romances in the early nineteenth century and like George Sand, to dress outrageously in men's attire and scandalize a tightly laced society with my outrageous behavior. But foremost in this dream is to lay beneath the grand piano of Fredrick Chopin and listen in rapture to him play and feel the music vibrate through my soul.
So turn the volume up my dears and dream on..............What's your dream?

Words cannot express the gratitude I feel to the brave men and women who have given themselves, as a sacrifice on the alter of America's freedom.

For myself, for my children and my grandchildren,

I thank you.

GRAVE THOUGHTS...

I spent the best part of yesterday with my Husband and my Mom hanging out in graveyards, remembering those loved ones who made my life what it is and thinking about how lucky I was to have had such kind and good souls to help start me out in the world. It's good to think about the good old days when in my child's eyes things were so straight forward and simple, I marvel at how many life things got so complicated and out of control, and all the truths and things I believed and held in my hand as a child seem to have scattered like a dandelion in the wind.

I think contemplating your dead kin conjures up many a bazaar thought, I wondered if my Dad was annoyed that I "wasted" money on a pot of mums for him when he would have much rather had some homemade peanut brittle. How strange it is that one day a year we all run to the cemetery and plunk down a fortune in flowers to remember those who have gone before. I wonder how many people do it because the really want to or because they think the dead are somewhere watching and keeping score. And am I really doing this for him or me.?..?..and if it's for him I really ought to leave him something he'd like, maybe next year I will leave him a plate of peanut brittle.

THANK YOU MY FRIENDS...

CLOUDBURST...

Working at my kitchen table, a low rumble draws my mind to the view outside. The sky the color of cold ash, the pond like a mirror set in the grass, no life, no motion, still, like the world holding it's breath, the calm before the storm. I feel it creeping up my back, the dog moves to sit by my side, dark Jurassic cloud shadows loom over the house and across the lawn and on. The surface of the pond breaks into hundreds of pebble tossed rings then suddenly erupts into what looks like violently vibrating marbles. The trees are whipped into a frenzy of reach and recoil, the reeds and grass flattened against the banks of the pond, the winds howl and strum the slats on the porch railing, the windows rattle and the dog snuggles closer to my feet.

As quickly as it came it slithers off over the ridge, and across the valley, toward the mountains, chased by the sun. The pond now sparkling bright with greens and golds, the ducks back dipping and splashing, but the sky and mountains are the color of blue black slate, a single white bird flaps across the heavens waving it's benediction to the storm.

One of the joys of living on the edge of heaven is having your own tree of hearts just outside your bedroom window.

THE BLISS CHALLENGE AWARD...

Where there is a challenge there must be an award. After giving it some thought I decided this award should go to all those who participated in the challenge because in addition to their obvious creative talents they are all worthy to be called members of the L'Ordre de Coeur (The Order of the Heart). Just like the expression of their bliss, each sister brings their own special kind of "Heart" into the world.

Clytie is a seeker she goes out into to the world everyday looking for hearts, beauty and wonder to share with all of us.

Jann shares her heart and friendship with all those who need love and appreciation.

Beth cares, everyday she leaves a bit of her heart with her friends and family so they know they are loved, and she treasures what they give in return.

Becky puts her heart into everything she does, her art, her friends, her family.

Deann is a heartsmith if she needs a heart to give, she will create one.

It is my hope that Clytie, Jann, Beth and Becky will be proud to take this award which in it's self isn't worth much but to me what it represents is priceless.

THE NAME YOUR BLISS CHALLENGE

The gauntlet was thrown down and a challenge was given...

Name your bliss …..Search your heart and then…..Paint, paste, photograph, create, or compose your personal masterpiece in the medium of your choice….said masterpiece to be entitled “MY BLISS” and indeed reflective of that subject.

The following brave souls took up the challenge and named their bliss for all the world to see...

...................

CLYTIE'S BLISS

What could possibly be more blissful than kicking back outside on a warm sunny day with a favorite book and a bar of chocolate?

Enjoy more of Clyties wonderful photos on Random Hearts and also Random Stuff.

JANN'S BLISS

“Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.” Eleanor Roosevelt

MY BLISS IS CHIQUITA. MY SWEET TEENY TINY TEA-CUP CHIHUAHUA. SHE HAS BROUGHT ME SO MUCH JOY. I LOVE TAKING CARE OF HER AND HOPE YOU ENJOY VIEWING WHAT BRINGS ME SUCH HAPPINESS.

Check out Jann's beautiful Altered Art, pictures and wonderful posts at Forever Jann & 13 Thorny Roses

BETH'S BLISS

Here is my most recent cloud painting. I was so inspired by the spirited challenge from Painted Garden, that I finished this cloud painting lickitysplit, and since it's been done, I've been chomping at the bit, to post it! Here you see the cloud which portrays My Bliss. If you look closely, there is a faery hidden nearby. You may have to click on the drawing to see....Below is the original cloud which caught my fancy. I took this picture of a stormy sky out over our back fence. Since then the trees have unfurled all their leaves, and it does not look the same.

Don't miss Beth's extraordinary Cloud Art, Photography and Artwork at Beth Niquette Fine Art & Expect the Unexpected.

BECKY'S BLISS

My bliss the place I can find peace and tranquility, A sense of humor, Laughter, Pain, Beauty, Love all rolled up into one.......I find my bliss in so many things but one that I cherish is Creating Artwork. I love how something black and white can hold so many textures and sing to me! I add color or not, I see in my minds eye what I would like to create and then I am taken away on a Creative Journey. Sometimes it turns out just as I envisioned but other times it takes on a whole different entity altogether.

I love black and white artwork and thought you might enjoy a couple of beautiful pieces I own. The first is an ink on Mat board by my beautiful Daughter Leslie. She has a gift a beautiful talent. She made this drawing (This is only a portion of it) when she was in college. It is a collage of things she knew I loved. It is 16X24 and framed in my living room. I chose to show you this portion because it is of an Old Butter Churn that I painted Grapes on. It belonged to my Great Grandmother Cronk and I cherish it. Leslie also threw in a bit of Nature which I also love.


The next picture is one my son Sean bought for me at an Arts Festival here in Oklahoma. He was 8 when he purchased this for $3.00 he saved his allowance and used it on me! What a treasure this has been. I can not give you the name of the artist because when I had the piece framed it covered it up. At the arts festival they set up a tent where the artists allow children under the age of 12 to purchase prints they sign of the pieces they create they date them and talk with the children about artwork. Instilling in them a love for all kinds of art. Sean had this signed to the Mom I love from your son Sean.My son Sean has become a welder. He uses that medium to make artwork his latest usable piece is a cooker which I will post when it comes home. He has made it look like the atom bomb. (Such a guy thing!) Sean draws a bit and does beautiful pastel chalk pieces.
I have gotten off the subject! I love this picture because it shows the beauty of life unrolling in a symphony of Joy. The beauty all around us each day. A divine and delicate dance of life.To all I hope you find your Bliss and Embrace it! Enjoy it! Let your heart sing it's own Symphony of life!

XXX TO ALL Becky

See more, more, more of Becky's gorgeous Altered Art at Whymsical Musings

DEANN'S BLISS

My bliss is bringing ideas, objects, picture, colors and characters together adding a little love and arranging them all in a manner that is hopefully pleasing to the eye and the mind. I love the whimsical and the profound and seek to combined the two into a kind of thought provoking fun.
This piece is called “Time in a Bottle” it is a new medium that I plan on exploring for awhile. Thank you my friends for letting me indulge my fantasy, I hope I make you smile once in a while.



"If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that would not have opened for anyone else." Joseph Campbell

HAVE A WONDERFUL MOTHERS DAY

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY EVERYDAY

To all my dear friends and the wonderful women in my family,

thank you, you're the best!!!

Jessie Willcox Smith a painter of feelings, a superb mother child artist. In honor of all the superb mothers in my life. Happy Mothers Day everyday.

I love Alphonse Sooo Mucha!!!!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO AMIGOS!!

It's the Mexican equivalent of the 4Th of July, so live it up at your local tacaria!

How about a lovely bouquet of Tulips to brighten your day

(please overlook the weeds, I do)

Is this not the most beautiful snail you have ever seen??? It has inspired me I am going to use it on my Bliss project.

THIS IS MY 100th POST ON THE PAINTED GARDEN..

It is the lusty month of May and this is my 100th post on The Painted Garden.

Forsooth I feel a challenge coming on……So I am flinging the gauntlet at the feet of all those artists brave enough to take up this quest…..Search your heart and then…..Paint, paste, photograph, create, or compose your personal masterpiece in the medium of your choice….said masterpiece to be entitled “MY BLISS” and indeed reflective of that subject.

Take up the challenge on my comment page and post your entry on your blog on May 10th. That’s right 10 days to name your bliss, can you do it?

Stout hearts brave enough to undertake this quest will be posted on “The Painted Garden” throughout the month of May, and a soon to be coveted prize shall be awarded. (that and 50 cents will get you a candy bar)

So come one, come all, tell all your friends…and follow your bliss!!!

Artist Daniel Merriam a head trip for your eyes.

A couple of weeks ago I was reading a post on Beth's blog "The Best Hearts are Crunchy" she had posted a card that reminded her of a fairytale by the Brother's Grimm called "Snow White & Rose Red". This was one of my very favorite stories as a little girl, and I always looked for it in storybook collections and could never find it.

Well I decided to look for it as a single book and sure enough there were several versions on Amazon.com. It arrived today along with a Cauldacott Award winning version of "Rapunzel" another favorite. They are delightful and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. I am excited to be able to share stories I loved with my granddaughters.

Now I have a question for you all my lovely blog friends and neighbors;

What is your favorite fairytale story from your childhood???

Today is a music day....Do you have music days? (am I the only one with loose screws??) Generally I love listening to music everyday but some days, like today are special. A music day is when you hear music and it becomes part of you and your whole body is filled with it. Your instantly attuned to the music playing any place you go. It feels like your heart is riding on the melody and your spirit is sailing with it. Right now I feel like sitting here all day just listening to my blog music I am so in tune with it. (weird)
Time to grab a radio and head outside!!!!

SPRING AT LAST!!!!!!!!!

This morning is gorgeous!!! I went out in my garden and work like a dervish. The weeds have taken over and the list of tasks is endless but I don't care it is just soooo nice to have some sunshine and beautiful weather that I'm doing the happy dance.

Hallelujah!!!

Where ever you are I hope the sun is shining on you too..........Literally or figuratively.

I found this little treasure today while going through a box of my Dad's saved things. It belonged to his mother, my Grandma Hilda, and is about one hundred years old. It is extra special because my Grandma wrote in pencil on the hats, her name on the girl in red and her sisters name on the girl in yellow.
My Grandma Hilda and her sister Laura were born 14 months apart they were best friends and very close throughout their long lives. Helping each other through the hard times and celebrating the good times. I have many happy memories of both of them. I am thrilled to have this reminder of them.

Death is such a strange thing, loved ones who have shared your life, suddenly gone. Yet all their things are left behind, their shoes, their hats, their voice on the answering machine, all the little life mementos that they saved in a shoebox, now meaningless. And the world spins on without them just like they never existed. I once heard it said that death was like pulling your hand out of water, you can't tell you were ever there, so true. And for those who do remember all those discarded things take on a new meaning. They become a last link to a loved one who has suddenly disappeared. All his insignificant possessions take on new celebrity because he touched them. As if we needed physical proof that he did indeed exist, or that we could somehow reach him by holding them. In moments of clarity I realize that all I really have left is my memory of him and what he taught me, which fortunately for me was a great deal.

Spring has sprung

the grass has ris

I wonder where

the sunshine is?

The sun will come out tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow.............................forget it, I'll just have my picnic inside!

What better week to follow the death of a loved one, then one in which we celebrate the rebirth and resurrection of all things.

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God ~ Job 19: 25
Unspeakable gratitude to my Father in Heaven for giving us his Son, and to my Savior Jesus Christ our Lord for his sacrifice, suffered in behalf of us all. May I always show that gratitude by living the loving example he has set.
Wishing you all a beautiful and Happy Easter Holiday and may His spirit watch over, protect and guide each one of us.

If you were to search the world for true friendship for women who know how to love and lift and share their hearts, you would have to travel no farther then the sisters of my heart who follow this humble blog. They brighten my day by sharing their wit and humor and when it becomes necessary their love and prayers. They are wonderful artists and wonderful friends. If that were not enough Clytie & Beth have bestowed on me this beautiful award. Thank you so much to all of you, as my son would say "You are the Mac Daddy!"

And to Clytie & Beth, dear sisters you honor me and own a piece of my heart.

This is my little mommy and five of her seven great granddaughters just before we took her out for her birthday party. Heck of a time to have to celebrate your birthday a day after your husbands funeral. But we had a good time anyway, lots of love and hugs all round.
Today I brought her over to read all the wonderful tributes on my blog. We had a good cry together and she said to tell you all thank you so much for your prayers and beautiful thoughts.

So, I send this note to say

My morning prayer included you.

You might be braver if you knew.

And so I send this note to say,

I took your grief to God today.

Your troubled heart,

Your load of sorrow.

Asked Him for strength for your tomorrow.

Because I am your friend, I share

Your pain as well as joy. I care.

So earnestly I give you more

Than love's own gift. At heaven's door,

I lay your broken heart, and He

Leans down to comfort you, for me.

This beautiful tribute was created just for me by my sister of the heart Beth Niquette.

Thank you Beth from the bottom of my heart.

My dear old Dad lost his fight for life today, and slipped quietly away while I watched at his side. It was a very loving, peaceful and spiritual experience.
He was a gifted, and proud man with great wit and a wonderful sense of humor. He created a legacy that will provide for his family for generations to come. He was the founder of our feast. I will miss him dearly, but I am glad his suffering is over.

My friends thank you for your kind thoughts and loving support, I will return to terrorize your comment boxes in a while. In the mean time talk amongst yourselves.

NOTES FROM THE E.R.

It’s funny how every once in awhile life has to teach us who is really in charge. By taking our carefully scheduled life and all our well laid plans and obliterating them in a matter of seconds.
I had one of those, life altering seconds Monday. I was busy painting my granddaughters mural when my phone rang,
“ This is IMC Emergency, your father has suffered a cardiac arrest during his chemotherapy session, he is not doing well, and we can’t locate your mother.”
One phone call, one moment and my whole life is suddenly completely different, and not in a way that I would ever have chosen. It has become an hour to hour roller coaster ride of blips on a heart monitor and the honking of the respirator.
Awe but isn't life is suppose to be a learning experience. I pray that I take away every single bit of knowledge I am suppose to glean from this experience so I don’t have to repeat it.
I know the most important lesson is, if you love someone tell them now because you may never have another chance. ("see you later" has taken on a whole new meaning)
The biggest conclusion I have come to after watching all the doctors and nurses with their endless paraphernalia try to drag my Dad back from the brink; Is that there are far worse things then death. And I'm heading to the nearest tattoo parlor and have D.N.R. tattooed on my chest, that’s Do Not Resuscitate.

P.S. My Dad is finally out of his coma and doing much better today, it is still touch and go and he is still terminal. (aren't we all?) But I thank God for everyday, even if we have to do it His way sometimes.

APRIL FOOL!!!!!!!!!!!

April fools has come to call and I'm the biggest fool of all!!!!