Sunday Trees – 263

Sunday Trees (Becca Givens)

I missed last week’s Sunday Trees because I was away for the weekend celebrating my birthday with my sister in Half Moon Bay.  It also didn’t help that my wisdom teeth decided to become infected while we were gone.  It was a beautiful rainy weekend.  Luckily neither of us isn’t afraid of a little rain.  We had a fabulous girls weekend with good food and drinks.  We visited the beach to see the crazy waves and the even crazier surfers.  Then  we walked around town window shopping for a bit before heading out to the real reason we were in Half Moon Bay, a glass blowing class, my birthday present from my sister.  I have been in love with these little glass pumpkins that I saw the first time I visited half Moon Bay many, many years ago.  They aren’t cheap, especially the one I really liked, and so I never bought one, but I admired them every time I came to town.  A few years ago I found out that there was a class where you could make your own glass pumpkin at Half Moon Bay Art Glass, but it too was expensive.  A few months later I was reading my AAA Via magazine and found a coupon for 50% off.  I took it as a sign that I was destined to take the class and finally get my pumpkin.  I was nervous going in.  I was afraid I was going to come out with a paper weight instead of a pumpkin, but we ended up with a fabulous teacher who put us at ease and I am happy to say that we each came home with a beautiful pumpkin.   They let you pick your colors for your pumpkin and stem.  In the pictures below you can see the finished products.  I chose the blue and white and my sister the emerald with spots.  Before we left the next morning we had breakfast at a local diner and on our walk back to our Inn to check out, I found this tree with the little bird house attached to it. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving for those who celebrate.  Onto another week we go.  I can’t believe this year is almost over.  It has flown by so fast.  Here are our pumpkins.

 

One Word Photo Challenge: Distance

OWPC: Distance (Jennifer Nichole Wells)

We continued our Random Acts of Kindness this week by collecting and painting rocks with positive words.  The kids and I really enjoyed transforming these boring gray rocks into these beautiful works of art.  I hope we were able to put a smile on someone’s face today.  I will wonder, just like the kids (they wanted to stay on the walking trail to watch people’s reactions), whether someone picked up one of our rocks and took it home. Will they look at it and smile every time they see it?  Did we make a difference in someone’s day(s)?  All I can do is hope and continue to do these Random Acts of Kindness.  The kids have been inspired and I hope they want to continue this journey with me despite not knowing for sure if we are making a difference.  Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 

 

Gratitude Days 15 -18

Day 15 : What season are you grateful for?

I guess right now I would have to say Fall.  Fall is the season that rescues me from the heat of the Summer.  Plus it’s the time of year that has some of my most favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving.  And well I also must admit that it’s the also because my birthday is in the Fall.

Day 16: What about your body are you grateful for?

This is a hard one, but I finally settled on my eyes.  I love to read and see beautiful things.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to not be able to see or to even to be color blind.  My Dad was color blind though he could see burgundy and some blues.  His wardrobe was black, burgundy, gray or blue.  I would sit around and try to imagine what it was like, but my brain could never quite fully imagine it.  I am definitely thankful for my eyesight even though it’s not 20/20 and my ability to see all the colors of the rainbow.
Day 17: What knowledge are you grateful for?

I wasn’t really sure how to answer this one.  I have so much knowledge yet I there are days feel like I know nothing compared to the amount of knowledge that is out there.  I see pictures of giant libraries and I think about how long it would take to read all those books and it’s mind-blowing.  That being said, I am grateful for my knowledge to read a map.  I love to take road trips.  When I got my first car, I bought myself a Thomas Guide to make sure that no matter where I went, I wouldn’t be lost.  I kinda miss having that giant book in the pocket behind the passenger seat.  There are so many Map apps nowadays that having an actual map seems pointless, but I still love maps.  I love to see all the roadways and imagine racing along them.  I think I need to take a road trip.
Day 18: What piece of art are you grateful for?

My brother in law is an artist.  He doesn’t sell his art.  He’s just one of those guys that must constantly doodle, draw, paint, sketch, takes photos, sculpt, etc.  His work is eccentric yet amazing, but he doesn’t see it as such.  Many years ago after a trip to see his family in the Philippines, he came back and painted many different paintings about the things he saw.   One of them looks like just a bunch of squares, but it’s actually his interpretation of his home town and how crowded all the buildings are there.  I have had that painting hanging in every house and apartment I’ve had since he gave it to me almost 16 years ago.

Share Your World

Week 44 (Cee’s Photography)

What was your favorite subject in school? 

I was never really good at any one subject while in school.  It wasn’t until I got to high school that I found a subject really enjoyed which was Art.  I took drawing, painting, and art history and I loved them all.  I know I wasn’t as good as many of the other students in my classes (there were some really seriously talented people at my school), but I just loved being creative.  I usually had Art right before lunch and it was such a welcome break from the other stressful subjects and gave me time to relax a little so that I could really enjoy my lunch and my friends.

If you could have a servant come to your house every day for two hours, what would you have them do?

Ummm…cooking and cleaning of course.  I’m always busy writing, taking pictures, working, cooking, or lately just sleeping.  (I’m so tired of being tired.)  I hate cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, so those two for sure would be on the list.  Sometimes I get so caught up in writing or doing something creative from journaling or sewing, that I forget about having to prepare food, so if my servant could make a few dishes to throw in the fridge or freezer, I would be forever grateful.  If only…

Where did you live when you were in the third grade of school? Is it the same place or town you live now?

I lived in Perth, Western Australia.  Actually it was a suburb named Thornlie if I remember right.  I don’t live there now, though I think of it often.  Third grade was when I finally found a best friend and started at a school that was challenging and supportive.

In your opinon, list some places that are great for shopping?

I hate shopping unless it’s to look for books.  My three favorite bookstores are:

• Recycle Bookstore in Campbell, CA
• Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, CA
• Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, CA

Recycle Bookstore is the one I frequent the most because it is the closest, but I love them all.  I could spend hours just looking around and scanning books into my goodreads.com account.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for the rain we got last week.  It felt good on my skin and the fresh air just smelled so good. Plus who doesn’t love falling asleep to the sound of rain.  It’s almost as good as falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the beach.

This week I am looking forward to getting ready for the holidays.  I made a Christmas Gift List page in my journal last week.  I need to start thinking of what to get or make and start slowly buying everything.  I also started a Thankful Page that I am doing with my little charges for the month of November.  We are going to write something we are thankful for each day this month in our journals.  I also need to start thinking about what I’ll be making/baking for Thanksgiving.  So excited!!!!

Transmogrify

The Daily Post Photo Challenge: Transmogrify

I seem to be going back to my pictures of NYC a lot lately, but when this week’s theme came up, this is the picture that immediately popped in my head.  After 9/11, I flew to NYC to see that my sister was really okay with my own eyes.  My sister had moved to NYC one month before the attack.  It was the first time we had ever lived in different states from each other.  It was weird to not have her so close.  We had spent so much of our lives together, depending on each other because of our parents divorce and international custody.  We had started trying to be a little more independent of each other when we ended up in two different high schools.  It was good for us to make our own friends, find our own likes and dislikes, to have experiences all our own.  It made going away to college easier.  We still visited each other a lot.  After college, we probably saw each other at least every other weekend.  Then she moved to NYC.  It was hard, but exciting because NYC was always a city we wanted to visit.  I had planned to visit her there and finally see the city we had talked about numerous times.  9/11 accelerated my plans.  Once I arrived and was satisfied that she was indeed ok, she took me around the city to all the little places she had discovered.  She lived in SOHO.  There was so much to see in just her neighborhood alone.  So many sights, sounds, and smells.  I felt like I was in the middle of a movie set.  It was so surreal.  This Walk/Don’t Walk sign wasn’t far from her apartment.  We passed it often and every time we saw it, it made me smile, so I eventually took a picture of it to remember those little smiles in a time where our world seemed so unpredictable and crazy.

When Prince died earlier this year, my sister came across the photo below on Instagram and sent it to me.  Again I smiled.  I wonder if it was the same artist who did both.

 

52 Weeks Photo Challenge – Week 11: Round

Round (The Girl that Dreams Awake)

I took this picture at the garden in the Bellagio, Las Vegas.  Whenever I go to Vegas, I always go to see the new theme in the garden.  It’s so colorful, bright and beautiful.    I love seeing all the different designs and use of plants and flowers.  I am terrible at keeping plants, especially those that flower, alive.  Imagine my surprise when I went to the naming ceremony for my tribe and I was blessed with a name that means “she who plants flowers.”  I have come to think of the name in a different way.  I plant flowers on paper through my drawings,  in scrapbooks through my photos, on cloth through embroidery, etc.  I love flowers from the tiny little bitty ones to the big amazing beautiful ones.  I love their symmetry, their colors, their smell, the softness of their petals, their ability to make me smile even on the darkest of days.  Seeing a huge room full of them like this…just amazing.  If you’ve never been there, put it on your list of things to see.  It is so worth it.

Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge

Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge (Cee’s Photography)

This is Andy Goldsworthy’s Wood Line at the Presidio in San Francisco.  I only just discovered this place last year.  For those of you who may not know, the Presidio is a former military base in San Francisco.  After it’s closure, the city has slowly been converting it, the land and the buildings for civilian use.   Some of my favorite things to do there now is the Walt Disney Museum, where you can not only watch Disney movies, but also learn about the life of Walt Disney.  I also love to go to the “Off the Grid” picnics on Sundays, where you can have lunch from any one of the featured food trucks and listen to live music.  Many people also bring lawn games like horse shoes, bean bag toss, and all kinds of ball games.  It’s a great way to spend the day.

I found Andy Goldsworthy’s Wood Line on Instagram and I knew I had to see it for myself.  It really is quite amazing.  It goes on for more than 1,200 ft.  I only balanced part way down it, but it definitely made me feel like a kid again.  I loved gymnastics as a kid and I remember always trying to find things to balance on like a balance beam.  Anything from sidewalk curbs to low walls.  Andy Goldsworthy has a few other art installations within the park, but I have only seen one other, the Earth Wall.  My sister took me to the Presidio Officer’s Club to see the museum there and to check out the findings of the archeological digs in the Presidio.  It’s another interesting stop if you are visiting San Francisco.

 

JNW’s Halloween Challenge: Spiders

JNW’s Halloween Challenge: Spiders (Jennifer Nichole Wells)

My preschool students made these stained glass spiders one year.  The kids in my class were between 18 months and 4 years.  I cut the spiders for the little kids, but the rest they all did themselves.  I gave them each a square of contact paper and put out tissues squares of different Halloween colors.  Purple seemed to be the most popular color.  They had fun filling their squares and when I put them up in the window, they loved how the sun made them so bright and “spooky”.  During circle time, we talked about what they were afraid of and we all agreed, myself included, that spiders are just creepy.

Insects and spiders never really bugged me until I moved to Australia when I was 5.  The first house we lived in there had a roof that extended out aways from the the front door providing an area for shade out front.  Every night, really large spiders would build their webs between the roof extension and the ground.  There had to be at least 10 to 15 spider webs with spiders dead center when we would open the front door in the morning as we headed out to school.  I refused to got out the door with them all like that.  There was no way to get out without having to go through more than one web.  My Mom would bravely take a broom and swing it about breaking all the webs then sweeping away the spiders that  had dropped.  I still get the heebee geebees just thinking about it.  I really, really don’t like spiders, but they do intrigue me.  I like watching them build their webs or catching their food.  I just don’t like them in my house crawling about.  EEEEK!!!  Being a Preschool teacher meant that I had to be the adult and deal with the creepy crawlies that came into the classroom or that we encountered out on the playground.   Thank goodness it didn’t happen too often.

 

Creative Inspiration

I have always loved the moon.  I have spent many, many, many nights just sitting outside staring at it.  The moon has been a silent friend watching over me as I have cried, celebrated, laughed, yelled, broke down, or just sat in wonder.  My favorite time of day is when the sky grows dark and the moon begins to glow.  I feel more awake at night.  If vampires or werewolves were real, I’m pretty sure I would be one of them.  A long time ago before I was a preschool teacher, I worked the over night shift at an adolescent treatment facility.  I thought I would have trouble adjusting to sleeping during the day and being awake all night, but it was easy.  I kind of miss it.

Yesterday, I read a blog post by Charlie O’Shields titled “My Favorite Person” where he talks about being inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, a man that worked on and pursued his passion daily.  I have read Charlie’s blog for a few weeks now.  I forget how I stumbled upon it, but I really enjoy his writing as well as his daily paintings.  His posts often make me smile or laugh.  I have been trying to get in touch with my creative side again and Charlie’s blog has pushed me to want to go further.

I started writing this year, something I have kept telling myself I would do since I was a teenager, but only found the courage to do now.  It felt really good letting the stories out that I thought I needed to do more.  I haven’t been creative in years.  Life has been overwhelming and crazy as well as fun and busy.  These past few years, I have felt seriously drained by my job so much so that I finally quit in June.  I found another job which starts next week.  One that gives me time to keep writing and now as I said, I am thinking I need to do much more.  Today, I got out my pencils and chalks and started sketching my old friend the moon.  The moon is not an easy subject, but I thought it was the perfect thing to draw on this day of inspiration.  The drawing I did was simple though not exactly what I saw in my head, but it’s a start.  I really need to learn not to be so self critical and just be happy with what comes out.  Just keep practicing.  So, I am making a promise to myself to do something creative everyday whether it be writing, drawing, painting, photography, paper arts, or whatever else comes to mind. Thank you Charlie for the creative inspiration!