Walking for a cure

My wonderful, gorgeous, patient, handsome, sweet husband, Ed (can you tell that I think he's pretty amazing?) has signed up to walk the Nike (half) marathon in San Francisco in October with me.
I walked it 2 1/2 years ago and it was really fun. My knees aren't so great, and my feet pretty much suck, but I just took my time and eventually crossed the finish line. The fact that I knew there were handsome firemen in tuxedos waiting at the finish line to hand me a Tiffany necklace from a silver platter definitely helped keep me going!! Anyway, Ed and I started training last week and we are holding a Trivia Night fundraiser on July 23rd benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). It will be the fifth one we have done and it is always a REALLY fun evening. So.....if you are in Albuquerque, please come and join us. And if you're not in the neighborhood, please help us by donating to help with the research to find a cure for blood cancers. The link to our website where you can donate is
http://pages.teamintraining.org/nm/nikesf11/hootens
I have participated in four LLS Team in Training endurance events and have raised over $20,000 and Ed has been a cycling coach with the teams for four years. We have friends and family that have been affected by these terrible diseases, and we will continue to train and fundraise until a cure has been found. Please help us by donating today!! And a big thanks in advance!!!

Artist Fingers

I adore Artfest. Teesha Moore does such a wonderful job of gathering artists to teach all of us. They are the best of the best, and Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington is a truly magical place. But I must say, that the hardest part about the experience is what it did to my poor nails. Here is what they looked like after three days of making art. I thought they would never be the same.

But lo and behold, after weeks of treating them to lots of oily mixtures, I was able to get them back into shape. Here is what they look like now. Didn't I do a great job of the manicure? Yep....not a salon job....my own work of manicure art. I guess being an artist also applies to getting the polish on neatly!!

Beauty and the Mess

This week I went to a meeting of the LIBROS Book Arts Guild at the Treasurer's home (I am the new Membership Chair...wanna join?). Her home was awesome - very cool and arty and the view from her patio was breathtaking. See?

Not so beautiful was what happened to me at work......I pulled my desk drawer out too far and it ended up on the floor!! Gave me a chance to clean it out, and now it, too, is beautiful!!

Sorry....I don't have an "after" shot. You'll just have to take my word for it.

The Artist's Way

Often I am the last one to discover cool new things, and this time isn't any different!! I was looking at Dayna Collins' website (http://www.alleyartstudio.com/) the other day. She is an artist I bought a postcard from at Artfest earlier this month....beautiful work....check her out.
She talked about "The Artist's Way" so I checked that out, too (http://www.theartistsway.com/). Julia Cameron has written books about "discovering and recovering your creative self". Well, I certainly have a need for that!! So I started doing the morning pages and now I get up every day 45 minutes early to write in my journal. I thought I would hate it, but I make myself a chai tea and pour my heart and brain into my pages and I am really loving it.
If I understand correctly (and tomorrow I am going to the bookstore to actually get the book), I am not supposed to spend time reading what I wrote and not necessarily share my thoughts. Part of exploring my creative self .......so I can't let you peek into my journal. I can only make you curious by showing you the front of it!! Some day I might be famous and this photo could be in People magazine and if I showed you the pages, there would surely be some scandal about them. So you'll just have to guess (and continue your subscription to People.....just in case!!)

So I've been telling everyone about my great, new discovery, and it seems many, many people have already been using the techniques. That's ok........slow and steady wins the race, right??