kookiness

Life has been all sorts of busy and even slightly kooky for the past few months. My head has been wrapped around so many different things I think I got a creative concussion. There has been a bit of the foggity fog, the blues, allergies, and other party crashers; but I think things are clearing though maybe not the fog...or maybe there is just a residue fog gathering about...

I just wanted to give a little shout and say "Hey there! I'm here! I'm at the end of a very long tunnel but my flashlight has batteries so I'm good! I hope to see you sooner rather than later. Cheers!"

Phew! How's that for a lot of blather?

So, hey there. Hi! Howdy!

celebrating 80!

The mama a-go-go turns 80 this year and one of the sisters thought it would be lovely to gift her with the gift of 80. I put my thinking cap on and came up with this lovely (if I do say so myself) little books full of 80 bird stamps. Why bird stamps? Good question. The family a-go-go is pretty keen on birds, and pretty keen on letters, and the mama a-go-go has broken out her watercolors again so the mister and I thought it would be sweet to gift her with 80 lovely bird stamps from around the world that she could use for inspiration and engage that paint palette of hers.

I ordered the stamps from etsy and of course had to play with them when they arrived. I had no idea how these would be presented, but after much sorting and fiddling...

I found I could present them in a rainbow assortment...there were 100 stamps in the package and so I set about sorting them by color. Once that was done, I pulled out the extra, extra duplicates and put my thinking cap back on...rainbow...check...but how?

After wandering through Michael's for forever and a day, I discovered this sweet little accordion book blank housed in a tin..this could work! I used repositionable glue dots and repositioned the heck out of the stamps until I could fit all 80 into the wee book. I have to admit, I was quite smitten...

Some duplicates could not be helped but I think it is purty either way...I did have to sneak stamps onto the back cover though...shhhhh...

The stamps on the tin do not count towards the 80....the mama a-go-go liked it so much it sits on the mantle in the living room...

The leftover stamps went towards the card...I am in charge of the gift and the mister is in charge of the card, which in my opinion, is much, much better than any gift! Other gifts included a jar filled with 80 sparks of joy and a gorgeous box filled to the brim with letters from the mama a-go-go's old friends and family, sharing their favorite memories of her.

Happy Birthday, Mama (a-go-go)!

oh how i love the bird boardwalk....

one day later

there is orange!

the things you return to

We weren't gone very long on our summer road trip but we returned to a whole new garden...sometimes I love the little ways time changes everything...like those enormously gorgeous lilies up there...

Or a freshly made bed that I set up for us to return to...not a garden thing but how nice is this? I love a freshly made bed...heck, I love my bed...hello bed...so happy to be resting my head at home now...

Before we left...there were tiny fuzzy green knobs all over the peach tree, and now there are peaches! Delicious, California grown peaches!

My classroom plants have all survived...thanks to the mama a-go-go's watchful eye. Phew! I do love a table full of plants and succulents.

And how happy was I to see the bee balm had survived...the mister planted all of the seeds in the pack and only one made it. It's such a pretty plant and not exactly what we thought we were getting but the bees like which is the whole point...

Lastly...we have pumpkins! The seeds we plant never seem to grow but without fail, the compost pile will produce at least one vine! I wonder how many we are going to get this year? Happy summer!

and just like that....

I was in the car, on my way to work and I looked down at my right hand, thinking, "I need some lotion". Which made me think of my mother's hands and how they had no wrinkles which made me think of her face and how young she looked even if she wasn't as trim as she wanted to be which reminded me of how I look a lot like her and am also not nearly as trim as I once was. As I thought that, I wished she was there with me and just like that...

tears.