Monthly Archives: July 2010

One of my all time favorite stories (both the book and the film) is Practical Magic.  The story is wonderful and sweet and I seriously covet that house!!!!!

The clothing the Aunts wear, the incorporation of magic into everyday lives, serendipitous moments that mean something.  It is all so rich and wonderful!

The kitchen and the room right next to it that has all their potions and plants and tools in it are I think my favorite rooms.  They are light, airy, full of wonderful vintage items and magical things.

I love how the room is open to the outside with lovely blooming branches both inside and out in the garden.  There is a promise here of wonderful things to come.

But then I love the darker richer salon room with all it’s lovely leather and candles and old wallpaper.

The house is both dark and light…  like life and people I guess.

Can’t you just picture yourself curled up in this chair, with a cat on your lap, the blustery wind and rain pounding on the roof a fire in the fireplace, a cup of tea, and a good ghost story?

I have the tea, tea cups, cats (a plenty!) and ghost stories (anything by Barbara Michaels)…  I just need the house.

Every detail is perfect!  I think I could loose myself in here for hours.

All these lovely pictures and thoughts make me ache for more…  not sure how to put it into words, just more…  more richness, more meaning, more magic, more serendipitous moments.  I want to feel full with life’s magic, heady with it’s perfume.

I am working on more wonderful faerie costumes for a huge magical celtic forest themed event coming up soon but I am feeling not truly full and magical enough.  I want to be working with spider’s silk thread, gossamer fabrics and faerie dust.  I want to hear the faeries whispering in my ear.

I go to the beach and I want to get into the water, immerse myself in it, breath it, taste it, see the fish and the coral with all it’s magical color.  But then I want to swim like a mermaid not as I do in my human form.

I want to fly like the birds, play in amongst the tree branches.

I want to see stronger colors… like the mood and color palette of the 2006 film Peter Pan.  The colors in that movie were so surreal and dreamy.

I want to go to a school like Hogwarts and learn…  everything!

I am so blessed in my life, I do not want to sound ungrateful.  I live a life most people would be thrilled with, and I am.  I adore my life, my art, my work, my husband, my kitties, I just want more.  To feel like a child again and run and jump with abandon, loose myself in my imagination and playing.  Do you know what I mean?  Do you ever feel that way or am I just in a funky frame of mind.  My girlfriend and I are planning a trip to Sedona soon.  I have a feeling that will help.  I know all this desire is just a need to be more deeply connected with the universe and my soul, my inner muse.  Just can’t seem to get there.  Wow… cosmic stuff, thanks for listening.

Anyway, I promised several days ago to post my mermaid party pictures, I still haven’t got them from the photographer yet.  As soon as I do I will share them with you.  It was so beautiful.  In keeping with the sentiment I expressed above the centerpieces of this party were so scrumptious, so wild that you just wanted to crawl in them and LIVE there.

To tide you over I will show you these two pictures that my husband took at the end of the party in the dark of the night.  The table glowed with the little lights I set into the centerpieces.   The pictures are a little hard to make out but they convey the feeling well.  Very fun!

See you in my dreams, hopefully it will be in technicolor!

Our newest addition to the family,

Meet Cleo, aka Turnip or Bevie!

I went to the farmers market the other day with only a few minutes to spare to grab some flowers for a friend who was at the end of her life in a beautiful Hospice here in Santa Barbara.  My morning appointment had ended earlier than expected so I was only just able to squeeze in a run to the market before they closed.  As I was quickly picking out some flowers I overheard the vendor speaking to a customer about the kitten she had found and that she didn’t know what to do with her as she was only getting worse.  My concerned cat ears perked up right away and I further heard that the vendor had no money to take her to the vet but that the poor kitten didn’t look good.  A rather long story shortened I butted in and discovered a very dear and pathetic kitten completely unresponsive wrapped up in a towel in the van.  After a bit of fast talking the seller gave her to me knowing I would pay for the care she needed.  I literally dropped everything and ran the kitten to my car, drove my cat ambulance just as fast as the human variety to my vet and ran her into the office.  They saw me bolting across the street and opened the door for me, took one look at her and whisked her to the back.  For about 20 minutes they worked on her without stopping.  They got her back from the brink and told me she had about a 50/50 chance of making it.  They were not sure what was wrong with her but at the very least she was malnourished (her back bone was sticking up like a mountain ridge line), dehydrated, and hypothermic.  If they could get her stabilized then they would investigate further to see if there was a deeper underlying problem.  I went home with a heavy heart.  There is nothing more sad than a sick baby animal.  By the evening she was perking up a bit, although she could not be left on her own overnight.  The clinic does not have an overnight attendant and I was hesitant to bring her to our home until we determined that she did not have any serious diseases. It was unthinkable to possibly infest our 45 plus cats.  Our dear vet Dr Harmon took the little furry bundle home with her and got up every 2 hours to feed and check on her.  To say we love or vet is an understatement to be sure!  Dr Harmon got her through the night and the little sweetie improved quite a bit.  By the end of the next day they determined that most likely she was simply malnourished and dehydrated.  We brought her home but to be completely safe we created a most comfortable home for her in our flower delivery van with the idea that at the end of 5 days we would know for sure if there was anything more seriously wrong with her.  We treated the van as a quarantined area, completely changing clothes when we entered and exited the van.  To see this sweet TINY face looking at us with such big tired eyes just leveled us.  We spent lots of time in the van, typing on the computer, reading and just loving her.  We also got up every few hours during the night to feed her and make sure she was ok.  Well…   I am so relieved to report the she is a most happy and healthy 6 to 7 week old kitten whose back bone is resembling more of a hillock that a mountain ridge line.  She is totally full of beans, running all over the place completely confounding the other cats and generally behaving like a normal sweet kitten.

By the way her name(s) derived from the following, Cleo just came to my mind when I asked her what we should call her.  As soon as I said the name out loud she started purring.  Turnip is because Dr Harmon was having a very hard time getting blood out of her (“can’t get blood out of a turnip”), and Bevie is the name of my very sweet friend that I was getting the flowers for.  She passed away within the week and if it was not for her I would never have gone to the market and discovered the kitten in the first place.  So the tiny little sweet bundle is saddled with a rather long name I’m afraid.

” Boy this modeling for the press release is sooo tiring!”

Here’s to wild abundant gardens!

No box cut hedges for me, just Mother Nature in all her glory,

All flowers are welcome, no discrimination with this flower or that flower being more important, all are beautiful in my eyes.

I adore vine covered walls and roofs, Mother Nature decorates so much prettier than most of us.

To look out my window and see such natural beauty is to experience magic and wonder.

I could easily live in a green house, a Hobbit Hole, or a Faerie’s den.

Just wild overgrown beautiful flowers and plants.

Hello everyone, I am busy with two very fun events at the moment, a vintage styled wedding and a mermaid themed birthday party!  I will show you lots of pics when I am done but for know the image below of a typical evening at our house when not in event mode.

Puddy Tats and Potter…   how wonderful!

Life is puuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrfect!