Happy new calendar year!

I saw this quote on another blog today... and I liked it...

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

~Albert Einstein

...I also liked the blog in case you wanted to check it out... life... as it happens

The author was talking about the new year... and it made me realize... that, like her, I don't really see this as special day. I don't make resolutions... I'm not into trying to use some random date to try to change my life. If I'm going to do something... I do it... if I'm not going to do it... then I don't. Whenever the motivation strikes I use it, and I'm also old enough and wise enough to know that, for me, if I'm not motivated on January 1st then no resolution is going to hold.

I remember, as a kid, always hoping that the new year really meant that things could change, or be different, but now I see that New Year's is just like a birthday. You're no different the day before than you are the day after. And yet, the day is treated like some magical day... and often, disappointment follows. I know... I'm a New Year's Grinch.

All that said, I actually do have a tradition. We go to the beach on New Year's Day. Usually it does not rain on New Year's here in coastal California... although this year there's an 80% chance of rain predicted... so we're headed out today.

Oh... and back to that blog... she came up with a word for 2011... and that sounded a bit more like my style too... so I'm going to copy the idea.

From 2011 I would like:

OK, like 45 minutes have passed since I typed the previous line... at first I thought I wanted all kinds of things that, with more thought, I rejected. I thought this was going to be easy... after all, how hard can it be to know what you want? Reflecting on that, I'd say that we don't often REALLY think about what we want... we assume it, or take some initial desire to mean that we want something... but we don't really think about what we want in our lives.

Anyway, I landed on "balance" in my own mind, but didn't like some of the dictionary definitions like "what is left over".

So, my word for 2011 is going to be:

PROPORTION

I know, it sounds weird, but here are the definitions... and this is absolutely what I'm looking for this year:

pro·por·tion n.

1. A part considered in relation to the whole.

2. A relationship between things or parts of things with respect to comparative magnitude, quantity, or degree: i.e. the proper proportion between male and female energy (this is my comparison... the dictionary had some banal thing like oil and vinegar in dressing).

3. A relationship between quantities such that if one varies then another varies in a manner dependent on the first: "We do not always find visible happiness in proportion to visible virtue" (Samuel Johnson).

4. Agreeable or harmonious relation of parts within a whole; balance or symmetry.

(I deleted the math defintions)

tr.v. pro·por·tioned, pro·por·tion·ing, pro·por·tions

1. To adjust so that proper relations between parts are attained. (Sounds FANTASTIC to me!)

2. To form the parts of with balance or symmetry.

So that's it... I want proportion. I think spiritually this is what we are referring to when we say we're looking for balance. Whatever you call it... this is my word for 2011...

What do you want?

haiku

rain falls steadily
outside my cold window pane
plink, plink, dribble, splash

My homemade holiday gifts!

For Christmas I made my each of my girls a mushroom... it's made out of the coil bowl from Wee Folk Art website with the COOLEST tutorials on making stuff! Anyway, they provide the how-to for the bowl, and I imagined a mushroom!


The cap comes off the mushroom to reveal a little gnome inside. By the time I was done the gnome had accumulated a few accessories... a few tiny hand painted mushrooms, a wooden tree, and some crystals. I wrapped it before I took pics of the whole ensemble!


Also, earlier this week a friend taught me how to wet felt... and I ran with it! I created a whole bunch of flowers, but I only had time to make a few into barrettes and headbands.

Anyway, here's my mad post as I try to get ready to get our celebrations going today! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Solstice celebration...

I CANNOT believe it's been 10 days since I could last find a few minutes to post. Sick kids... need I say more???

Late at night during the week I managed a few cookies to hand out to friends... these are my favorite, I got the recipe from NotHannah at Divining Women. I added cinnamon to the chocolate dough, just because I never pass up an opportunity for cinnamon! I liked the taste (they're not too sweet, which is refreshing) and I love the swirl of light and dark!


My other tried-and-true favorite. I think I just like decorating them! This year I didn't have enough time to go all out... the kids and I are going to decorate some with friends tomorrow, and they'll be a lot more festive!

The other new thing I did this year was make something my friend is calling "hot chocolate pops". Her blog Kitchen Corners is worth a look if you like cooking. Anyway, these are neat, different, and EASY to make...


Just melt chocolate, decide on toppings, and pour into some kind of little pan (preferably silicone - it makes them easier to pop out). I used a "brownie bites" pan. So, our cookie plate to friends looked something like this:


So, even though we've been busy we sure have been feeling the festive and giving spirit of the holiday season. Hope you are all well also! Oh, and I'll be back to show you some of the toys I've been working on... but I have to do it when my 6-year-old is not looking over my shoulder! :)

Holiday gifts...

Wow, I was just checking in over at Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom... and she had some great ideas for gifts for people still on your lists... but I think these garden statues from PhenomeGNOME's Etsy shop are my favorites...

Great ideas for anyone who has a thing for the fey!

Nature's beauty

I was going through some old pictures for no apparent reason... and I found some really amazing pictures. I can't take credit for them... it's quite possible that my husband took them... but after raking leaves today and feeling the beauty of fall, I was especially touched by these photos, so I thought I'd share.

Link to a giveaway...

I just wanted to share a link to a giveaway with you. It's on one of my favorite blogs... A Bit of Gardening Spirit. Nellie is a talented carver of wood... and has made a few really beautiful things that she is giving away. The thing is... you can enter to win the goddess and other carvings... but if you've never been by her blog before it'll be a win no matter what!

Winter garden

Well, I finally got the first half of my winter garden into the ground. I started the seeds back in September... but as with every year I get busy, and I can't bear to tear up the tomatoes until they're really good and dead. So, every year my winter garden goes in late and doesn't tend to do much.

The one thing that's a bit different this year is that I'm communicating with the nature spirits about the garden. I intend fully, to have them plan what will be part of my summer garden, where it goes, and how I tend to it... but for the winter I already had seedlings going. So, I went out there and asked what soil supplements I needed (compost, egg shells, and humic, in case you're wondering)... and I showed them what seedlings I have. I asked for help in organizing it and this is what I got...


We have shelling peas around a trellis, lettuce (red) in the lower right corner of the pic, two broccoli plants, one in the front left and one in the far right, with a few cilantro plants near the lettuce. Oh... and I put in some carrot seeds in the square created by cilantro and lettuce. I have another bed this size, and it will get the potatoes, more carrots, and broccoli.

I like the little space... it felt good as I was doing it. I knew that I had put quite a few constraints on the garden by having some things already going... but I also offered up a bunch of flower seeds that I have... nasturtium, sweet pea, california poppy... but those were all rejected for this space in this moment. I plan to connect with the nature spirits at least once a week to see how things are going... but we'll see how that pans out... it looks like it's going to be a busy winter.