The Magic, Miracles and Joy of an Artist: 2017

Sunday, December 31, 2017

2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I wish my family and friends a New Year of BLESSINGS, JOY, and GOOD HEALTH! May each day be filled with light. Live each day of this New Year with positive thoughts and let us spread PEACE everywhere we go.

♥

Saturday, December 30, 2017

The Cold Bug Got Us

This is what the 3 of us did today off and on. Jake is not sick, but Mr. Magic and I brought colds home with us from Ohio. We are coughing and doing all we can to not let these colds get out of hand. We are headed to bed for the night, hoping the coughing will not keep us awake.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE

Couldn't help myself ~ bought this adorable "Jake" ornament yesterday!

Monday, December 18, 2017

WOW!!

WOW!! So glad I watch the sky. Early this afternoon I noticed rainbow colors in the cloud right under the sun. I was blessed to have captured it as it wasn't there very long.

Spring in December

More like Spring than Winter today. Sunny and 60*.

The Smell of Christmas

Nothing beats the smell of fresh cut pine!

High atop a mountain in Roanoke on Saturday.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Imagine

Climb the steps and imagine what/who you would like to find at the top.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Isabella!!

It's your time to be Princess for the Day. Celebrate YOU and your life. And if you can, extend that celebration for a week or so. I always do!

Friday, December 15, 2017

Annual Cookie Package

I just opened a package that came today from my dear friend in Ohio ~ Susie Spear Bruhn. She never fails to send a box of her home made Christmas cookies! They are SO pretty and always delicious!

Thank you, Susie!!!!!

♥♥♥♥♥♥

My Christmas Collection

I had a fun time yesterday unwrapping my vintage altar boys and angels that I display every Christmas. My collection has grown ~ not enough room on the mantel anymore, so I stretched them across the top of the bookcase. Took closeups so you can see their sweet adorable faces. I put some of the angels on the mantel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Holly!!

Well, my friend, another 365 days have gone by and here we are again celebrating the day you were born!! Wishing I was there to celebrate with you. I know we would have fun and we'd eat somewhere exciting and complain about our weight while we ate.

I miss you SO much and look forward to spending some time with you during my next visit to Ohio. As fast as time is passing, that visit won't be too far off.

Have a fantastic day. Celebrate the special person that YOU are.

♥

Gorgeous Sky

Our sky last evening. It was amazing!!

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Vintage Altar Boys

Be still my heart.

These arrived today. Could they be any more precious?

New Snow

New snow blew in this afternoon.

Monday, December 11, 2017

Many Deer

We went to the cemetery on Saturday to put some Christmas flowers on Mom's and Patrick's grave. While driving up the hill toward their graves, I yelled "Stop"! I couldn't believe I was seeing about 15 deer all together beside the woods and SO close to us. I couldn't get them all in one photo ~ they were too spread out. They were beautiful and they didn't run. So, I snapped a lot of photos with my phone and my Canon. It was a beautiful sight that made my day!

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Christmas Tree 2017

I put up a small tree this year ~ topped it with Jake's little stocking that was a gift from his Aunt Patty and Uncle Jim.

Bullington Art Show

I spent the morning with Mary Bullington at her home where she is having her Christmas Art Show until 4:00 this afternoon.

Stop by to see her latest paintings and to have a snack. Her paintings are SO wonderful.

Tree

Our Salem, Virginia, 2017 City Christmas Tree!!

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come!

I AM A "SEARCHER"

"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it be to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves."

~ James Kavanaugh

I am THE LOVERS Tarot Card

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse. THE LOVERS represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made. Originally, this card was just called LOVE. And that's acually more apt than "LOVERS." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that you have or will come across a person, a career, challenge, or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.