63 and flying

I turn 63 this Wednesday. Just like everyone else, I don't know how, can't believe I am this old already. I feel 35 everyday. Don't look 35, just feel it. I love my life, every aspect of it. But one of the things I love the most is looking back at all the things I have learned, all the things I have been able to do that a young person can only dream about. I have taken a midnight ride in a canoe on the Nile River with Arab men who were total strangers to me and my 2 very blonde girlfriends.

I have stood in front of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza.

I have hiked through the jungle near the equator to the cremation of a Balinese Prince and delighted in the piles of fruit that were perched upon the heads of the mourners who walked along side the float that delivered the dead prince to his burial pile.

I have traveled down a red dirt road lined with gum tree forests to peer inside a cave at Aboriginal Hand Paintings.

I have sat across the table from patients who were crying because they didn't know how they would possibly handle a life with diabetes in it and then seen them leave my office with a smile on their face because now they knew where to start and how to make it happen.

I've laid next to a river in the Sierra in the pouring rain fearfully wondering exactly how Dave and I were going to die when the river purged its banks…would it be quick or slow?

I've played golf with a caddie at a fancy country club and with kids at Las Po and found I like playing with kids far better.

So, I was thinking this morning of some of the wisdom that has crept into my life because I have had the privilege of living 22,995 days, some tough days, some miraculous days, but all days that have been designed just for me to grow up.

My 22, 995 days have taught me to...


Laugh every day…a belly roar with a nose snort is best but even a baby chuckle makes me glad to be alive.

Give a lot…stuff, money, time, sweat--- until you know the difference between giving because you have to and giving because you want to.

It's safe to ask God to give you someone to love. He never says "No."

If you ask God to give you a friend, be patient…you'll be blown away by the answer. I was.

The sweet smell of a cat's fur nestled under your nose is a gift from heaven.

Golf is not a game for old people, it's a game that keeps everyone young and full of crazy hope.

Stop wearing a watch or jumping on a scale to see where I am.

Christmas Perspectives…thinking of Amy Grant

Every Christmas I listen to Amy Grant's song about Mary, wondering why she had been chosen to carry the son of God and wondering if it is a mistake on God's part, but then she gives into the breath of heaven and asks for this breath to lighten her darkness. Who doesn't need that? Light in a dark place.

Now I see she has a new kind of Christmas song…Better than a Hallelujah…it might not be a Christmas song to everyone but it is to me…to me it says sitting in a church and raising hands doesn't say who we really are, and God cares who we really are.

"Honest cries of a breaking heart
Are better than a hallelujah sometimes.

We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful the mess we are…"

You can listen to the whole song here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD_pCr_Xrnc

sorry about the ad, but you can skip it in 4 seconds...

Homes For Heroes

Today Dave and I made a donation to the Gary Sinise Foundation to help with the construction of "Smart Homes" for our multiple amputee veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Although Gary has many different avenues of helping, I decided to support their "RISE' program because it is aimed to help the most severely injured gain a sense of independence.

On the website you can read about the heroes, select a specific veteran to sponsor and see a video of one of these incredible homes. I selected USMC Cpl. Mark Litynski who was wounded on November 19th, 2010. My birthday. He is living a new life with the help of 2 prosthetic legs.

USMC Cpl. Mark Litynski playing golf!

Here is the link to learn more and donate.

http://www.garysinisefoundation.org/programs/restoring-independence-supporting-empowerment

What are we doing here?

What are we doing here?
Ever wonder why we're here
On this planet, breathing this air?
Just taking up space?
Taking it in or passing it up?
The precious, the momentous, the invisible.
Are we missing it?
What am I doing?
Am I supposed to be doing something different, better, bigger?
If I am, I can't.
Not on my own.
All I can ever do is what God lays before me so clearly
that I cannot walk a different path.
That's what I'm doing here. 
For now, I'm making flowers 
and giving them away.

Free Forever Flowers For You!

Last Sunday, I set up a table outside of Studio 7 in downtown Pleasanton with my goal to give away as many of my paper flowers as I could…

I sat back and watched people pick out the flowers they wanted…it was so much fun! I love the birdcage my neighbor gave me as a way to display the flowers. Very eye catching if I do say so myself.

All I can say is…I wish you could have been there to see the smiles on people's faces as they walked away.. A real treat for me.

It's BeautiFall!

Up on the ridge,
a lone golden leaf splits from its home 
and twirls toward the rocky path
It travels silently between a forest of naked arms
upstretched to a grey, quiet sky.
It’s that time of year again:
The time when a walk in the hills 
has a surprise around every turn.
The tired landscape baked by summer’s sun 
has gone to sleep
Sweet misty rains have washed every giant oak clean and brought life to swatches of fuzzy moss and blackened bark resting side by side.
Shorter days have beaten back the blanching heat and every night brings a respite of cooler air to breath color back into the land.
It’s the time when the land once brown gives rise to orange pierced with lime green and  firey red etched with gold.

It’s just beauti-fall!

It just may be that Autumn is THE very best season of all…the changing colors dripping off leaves, the gentle temperatures, a touch of misty rain to clear the air.

I ran into a friend the other day and when I said "Isn't it gorgeous today!'..It sounded like she answered, 

"Yes, It's just BeautiFall"…

and I thought, man that is the perfect sentiment!

So now, I'm going to add it to some of my little cards and make some new fall flowers.

Mono A Mono: Put this on your bucket list

Pioneer Basin in the Eastern Sierra is a wonder of this world. If at all possible, get there. It's not that far over Mono Pass (to reach the trail head, take Ca 395 then turn off at Tom's Place, onto Rock Creek Road,head to the end of the road to Mosquito Flat trailhead and start walking! You are over Mono pass at 3.5 miles and into PBasin after another 4-5 miles depending on which lake you are aiming for). We crossed the Pass and stayed at Forth Recess Lake which was a 7 mile hike from the trailhead and then did a day hike to PBasin. Unforgettable vistas!!!

The Mono Recesses are seen from Pioneer Basin easily…they are the finger like projectiles in the far distance at over 12,000 feet. We camped at the Fourth Recess Lake on the right side of the lake…no one but us.

This is view at Mono Pass…we had the most spectacularly blue skies after 2 days of rain in our campground at East Fork off of Rock CreekRoad.

This looks stark but it is SO mesmerizing at the top of the world..Mono Pass in 

Inyo National Forest.

You can barely see Dave with the red pack on about two thirds down the photo in the center…we were just totally awestruck at the magnificence of this landscape.

Add caption

Of all the backpack trips I have done, this one moved me more than any other. Grand. You feel so small. Such a varied landscape. Happy people. Lots of water. Your brain can take it in far more than a camera…so again I say…find a way to go, day hike or backpack…anyway will do.

Why did you get that tattoo?

I was checking out at Trader Joe's the other day when I saw a huge tattoo on the checker's arm. It was 3 or 4 dead skulls. Huge. It covered most of his forearm. I couldn't imagine why anyone would want death tattooed all over themselves so I asked, 

"Why did you get that tattoo?" He said, "It has a story. My mom was a drug addict and an alcoholic and she left me and my brothers and sisters. My dad left too. We had a bunch of bad step fathers and never had a real home." Pointing to each skull proudly he said, "See this is me, and my brothers and sisters. We are lost souls. We are all alone in the world."

Are you kidding me? Who would want to identify themselves in such a horrifying way. To remind themselves every moment of every day that they are a lost soul? All alone?

I actually blurted out, "No you are not alone. That is what God is for. That's what Jesus is for. He will never leave you alone." He told me he had tried church but it didn't seem close or comfortable to him. I told him I  didn't go to church either these days and that I had had some very difficult times of being abandoned too, but that it actually led me right to my real Father who told me I would never be alone. I suggested instead of church he could just read the story in the Bible of the Prodigal son to see who he really was and who God was…to see what kind of father he could have if he wanted.

I thanked him for telling me his story. Did he listen? Did he hear? Did he want something other than being a lost soul for the rest of his life? I have no idea. But I heard him and I realize there are so many people who live life feeling alone and abandoned when there is an answer bigger and better than anything they could have imagined. We all get the chance to continue to identify ourselves by awful things that have scarred and wounded us in the past, or move on into a new life and new identity. 

I love this verse and cling to it every time my mind wanders back into the past and hurtful events in my life...

"Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!
Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

I have a desert of bad things in my life. There is a wasteland in my past. But I want the new thing God promised for me. I want a good thing instead of a wasteland...Drink that satisfies and  keeps me alive. I don't want to be a lost soul. Why would I want that when I can be found? Anyway, I am praying for my new friend to want to be found and made alive. Maybe someday he will replace the symbol of death on his arm with the beautiful new thing that has sprung up and given him life.

Monster Mammoth….

The Eastern Sierra and hiking possibilities right outside of Mammoth Lakes Ca and Highway 395 are just simply spectacular and our latest passion. After 20 years of camping and backpacking, we are done with  Desolation Wilderness, Emigrant and Yosemite and into hiking any destination off of 395.  This year we decided to spend a week doing recon for our next backpack and after day hiking to several passes decided to backpack over Mono Pass (12,040) into Pioneer Basin--the Mono Pass trailhead is at the end of Rock Creek Road and 10,250 feet. With just 1,200 feet gain in 3 miles and beautiful views all the way,you make the pass...Like my  little friend next door says.."Easy Peasy". 

Mono Pass is weirdly beachy looking because of all the sand and no foliage
but pretty up there with the true blue sky and horsetail clouds.

The next day we hiked to Bishop Pass and Bishop Lake…a 10 + mile day. You pass lake after lake and it is really a beautiful hike. We plan to return next year to hike over Bishop into Dusy Basin.

We also hiked to Blue Lake from the Sabrina Lake trailhead. The trail was frustrating as it is used by stock and is very narrow and up up up with no chance to hit a stride. It's no fun to be dodging horse poo and trying to find decent footing. Besides that, the first half of the trail is in the trees with very few views. I'm glad we made it to Blue Lake but this hike helped me decide not to attack it with a backpack.

Looking back at Lake Sabrina…finally out of the trees

Trail steps to Blue Lake…lots of em

Dave crossing outlet to Blue Lake

We stopped at Blue Lake for Lunch

Some had some pretty dramatic cloud build up over Blue Lake…we scurried and outran any rain.

After Sabrina, we spent some time in the pool and the bartender told us that Cam Zinc was going to try and set a world record for doing a back flip on a mountain bike that night. We took the tram up the hill to Canyon Lodge…it was a fantastically fun atmosphere and the perfect ending to our trip. His jump was sponsored by MONSTER…and here are the MONSTER gals at Mammoth…(I asked them to pose not Dave).

The crowd was pretty family oriented.

Just waiting for the jump…you can see the starting point
 at the top of the photo on the right and the ramp in the middle.

Here's the jump! Just click.

Recreating Reality…Well Sort of….

One of our local nurseries had some gorgeous begonias blooming under their oaks. I snapped a photo because I thought they would be great to use as a template for making some new paper flowers. I loved the darker edges to the begonias so I wanted to recreate that in paper.

When my first set of Copic Markers (Sea and Sky)arrived I dove right in and started playing around with them. Had no idea how to use them! They are alcohol based markers and all "the rage" with everyone from card makers to professional artists. I just started coloring white muffin cups making

darker edges and lighter brighter interior petals with my markers so they looked like the begonias. I was making the grouping below for my golf instructor's wife whose favorite colors were blue and green…. Remember, I started with white inexpensive muffin cups.

I added some bling with the rhinestone wedding picks I got at Hobby Lobby…The black vase is I chose for the arrangement is an Eiffel Tower, which I found at HL. I love the contrast of the black, blue and green. The little petals are tissue paper cut in the shape of leaves, then pieced into the stems and secured with florist tape.

Can you see the butterfly? She has two layers which gives her dimension…both layers made with my Big Shot, then colored with Tim Holtz distress ink, and highlighted with glitter and little jewels for the body.

So there you have it! 
A recreation of the real deal…well at least,

Sort of like the real deal!
Mother Nature has me beat big time.

Everyday Changes, Forever Changed

Sometimes it feels like each day repeats itself. A routine goes on. The sun comes up, the sun leaves the sky. And sometimes it feels as if nothing momentous ever really happened in-between. But no person is the same today as he or she was yesterday. I am not. I am forever changed, everyday, with each moment I catch sight of a tiny hummingbird flitting in our pepper tree, with each thought that passes in and out of my mind, some kind, some not so kind, with each "happen chance" meeting of a stranger in the store or on our evening walk. Each day, someone, somewhere has said or done something to make a "forever change" even though it seemed like it was just me walking through my everyday routine. 

Yesterday I saw an older lady struggling with her walker in the Raley's parking lot. She was having trouble navigating over the speed bump. I felt so bad for her. Then I could see her trying to get all her groceries into the car while still holding onto the walker and being scrunched by her door which was too close to the car next to her. This just didn't seem right. I had to stop. I asked if she could use some help with her walker. She said, "Oh yes, if you wouldn't mind." She told me how to fold up the walker and put it in the back seat. Then we rearranged her groceries and news paper from the driver's side to the passenger seat. She explained that she hated getting so old and slow, not like she used to be. But what would happen to her if she had to stop driving…even though it hurt her hip and sciatica. She really hated getting old. I said, "Don't give up." She was wearing bright bobble earrings and was very nicely dressed…I said, "I like your earrings." We chatted a little more. She held my hand and said "Bless you." A bunch of times.

This everyday occurrence changed us both. We were both helped and forever changed because the memory remains that once did not exist. Taking each day for granted is so easy. We seem only to appreciate things once they have been taken away from us--as death reminds us. But each minute and each day have their own kind of death. They will never come again. And so we are indeed forever changed as we leave them behind.

Shelly Gets A Garden

My friend Louisa came over with her favorite vase "Shelly" and we made her a garden to wear. Here is her first iteration…love the green butterfly addition…I made it with my Big Shot and glitter. 

We made the flowers from candy cups and cupcake cups. I really like the colorful polkadot one below because I tried out a new edging and added the turquoise jewel. The blue polkadot one is made with washi tape applied on top of a white cupcake cup.

Love the orange and purple flower below because it picked up Shelly's colors perfectly. Here you can see the butterfly better.

Louisa wanted more height to the vase so we added the branches and another butterfly later on.

I think she's splendid!

The Necessary Mess…of Craftiness

My latest obsession is crafting flowers out of muffin cups and candy cups. I watched a tutorial, switched it up a little and started creating…now I can't stop! My office wears the necessary mess of craftiness.

Making these silly flowers is addictive because there is no end to the variety of shapes and colors and do-dads you can add to 

create a one of a kind flower. You can see I added little rhinestone picks to the red white and blue one above.

I used washi tape to cover a white muffin cup..the blue polkadot one above is a washi tape design. I used a raffia covered stem for most of them so they kind of dance in the vase.

My plan is to set up a table downtown 

and give them away...

Along with my little cards…

I'll keep you posted!