Gratitude Giveaway, Part One

This month I'm focused on gratitude. I believe if we cultivate a feeling of gratitude in our lives this helps us stay in the flow and allow more abundance and love into our lives. Plus, it just feels good to think about all we are thankful for!

A quick list for this week: the smell of lilacs, crispy leaves crunching under my feet, a sky full of stars, the Lensbaby Muse lens, dreamwork, and roasted vegetables.

All month I'm hosting gratitude giveaways right here. This week I'm giving away an 8x10 print of the lovely redwood forest adorning this post. How do you win? Tell me about one experience in your life where you felt someone's gratitude for you. Leave your story in the comments either here at my blog or on Facebook. On Friday I'll announce the winner.

AND...

The fabulous Leonie is also holding a sponsor giveaway at her blog and I'm one of the featured sponsors! Leave a comment on her site by Wednesday to win an 8x10 image of this beautiful California oak.

Good luck!

Gratitude Sale

I have so much gratitude for those who read my blog, support my art, and make me and my work feel welcome in the world.

And so, for the rest of the year, I am having a sale to say thanks.

Details
Buy any of the following:
*two 11x14 prints from October Photography
* a one-hour aura reading
* a one-hour dreamwork session
and get another item from the list FREE.

Mix and match! Buy two fabulous gifts for two fabulous friends, or get one item for a family member and treat yourself to the other item! There are endless possibilities.

THANK YOU for all of your support this year!

Favorite Shots

I went through the photos I've taken the first five months of the year and chose several of my favorites to post (or repost) on my Flickr. This one was taken sitting under my favorite oak tree.

I also spent some time looking at my old photos...some of them are five years old! My style has changed and my knowledge has grown, and I am really happy with how my work is progressing. And to think: it all started with two photographs, one of a hibiscus and another of an orchid, taken in Kauai on my honeymoon. That's something else to be grateful for.

So Much Gratitude

I am grateful for this man. We celebrated our five-year wedding anniversary this weekend and I spent much of it in awe of how Lance allows me to be exactly who I am.

We balance each other perfectly. We can spend hours in silence in the same room, doing our own thing, and I love that. One afternoon he painted at the dining room table while I sat on the couch and read about the wonders of mushrooms. Every once in a while one of us would say something, sharing a bit of our experience. Mostly it was quiet. Bliss.

I am grateful for this cottage. Lance and I stayed at Helen's House, an amazing getaway right in the middle of Point Reyes National Seashore with breathtaking views of Tomales Bay. The owner Jeff's grandparents once lived on the five acre property, and now Jeff and his wife Barbie rent out the cottage and live on the property. I have not experienced such quiet since I house-sat at age 18 for people who lived miles outside of town. The only things we could hear were the birds and occasionally the cows from the dairy farm up the road.


The first morning we stayed at Helen's House the sun woke me up at 6 a.m., an hour I don't often witness (and normally don't want to). However, I jumped out of bed and grabbed my camera. I wanted to capture sunrise over Tomales Bay. I spent an hour (or maybe two) watching the hummingbirds dance among the flowers and taking in the clean morning air. I felt at peace.

I am grateful for nature. I experienced mile after mile of gorgeous scenery this weekend. We visited the elephant seals at Chimney Rock, lounged in the shade at Heart's Desire Beach, and hiked the serene Palomarin trail. I saw wildflowers I could name like indian paintbrushes, irises, and queen anne's lace, and many more that I couldn't name. I drank it all in with big gulps.

I filled up on the beauty and peaceful energy that radiates throughout the Point Reyes National Seashore. I hope it doesn't take us another year to return this time.

I am grateful for my life. Although trips like these often inspire awe, I wish to cultivate that awe during all the moments in my life. Moments like those when my cat claws at my leg, hoping for a snack or when I'm frying eggs in the morning before work. Whether mundane or grandiose, all moments are divine; all moments can inspire awe if we view them as sacred.

Grateful

I am feeling quite grateful for many things in my life right now. Friends. Family. The rain. My cozy house. The super-fuzzy and warm pj pants I bought this week. Being an artist. Being a student. Being surrounded by amazing nature. Having access to talented healers. I am truly blessed.

I've been so busy this week I forgot to update about the Sonoma show! It was an incredible gathering of talent. It's a miracle I didn't spend my earnings from the last two months buying something from each person's table. I hope Tara organizes it again next year.

I did pick up a kick-ass journal made from the cover of Madonna's first album. It was made by Vinyl Frontier, a fabulous shop that takes old record covers and turns them into journals made with 100% recycled paper. I can't wait to use it.

I also got a cute little four-pack of pins from Caitlin Kuhwald who creates some of my favorite art on Etsy. The pins I bought were illustrations of an owl, a rabbit, and two deer. She does portraits of people like Ira Glass and Audrey Tautou. There is something magical about her illustration style, and I'm so glad to have met her.

Now I have a little more than a week to prepare for my biggest show yet, the Berkeley Farmers' Market Holiday Crafts Fair. See that image of a tree in the lower left-hand corner of the postcard? Recognize it? It's my oak tree picture! I'm so thrilled that I am featured on the postcard advertising the show.

At this event I'll have a tent! I feel so official. It's definitely going to be a whole other world. I'm bringing out the big guns, kids. And I have a really good feeling about it.

Full

My heart is full to bursting.

You know when it all of a sudden HITS you and you realize just how freakin' lucky you are? When you stop worrying about your busy busy life and have a moment to let it all sink in and you realize that you are blessed because you have such amazing people in your life? I'm having one of those moments.

First, it was hearing from a dear friend, Denny, who is back in Pennsylvania trying to do what he was meant to do: introduce dreamwork to the East coast (or, at least for now, his part of Pennsylvania). He saw a Minnie Evans sculpture last weekend and read about how she became an artist. She "began creating art after experiencing a vision that compelled her to use her talent." He said the statement made him think of me, and the adventure I'm on. I couldn't stop smiling. He is one of my biggest supporters, and he was integral to me taking the leap with my art this summer.

Then, I heard from Penelope, one of the shiniest lights in my life. She's having a baby and I am thrilled beyond words that she and her delightful husband Colin are going to welcome a little bean in just four months (right around my birthday!).

And it spiraled from there. I thought about my friend Susan, who always always supports me even when our schedules get crazy and we can't see each other very often. She is amazing.

And my friends at school, Julieann, Lori, and Megan...who have seen me through quite a number of transformations and who keep encouraging me to go on, even when it seems overwhelming. I am such a better person for knowing them.

And then there's Lance, who is last here, but is certainly never last in my heart. He is the one who reminds me to slow down, who reminds me to take care of myself, who reminds me that I can do anything I put my mind to. I am endlessly lucky to be married to him.

I can't imagine a better life right now. I feel like I have it all.

Feeling the Love

Today, I want to say thank you.

Thank you to everyone who voted for my photo (the one decorating this post) in the Etsy Challenge last week, making me the winner in the photography category. (Now I'm up for weekly grand champion! Go over and vote, if you've got a minute.)

Thank you to Aevan who featured my fairy photo in her blog on Monday!

Thank you to all those who feature my photos in their treasuries on Etsy. I've been on the front page of Etsy three times in the last week and it just warms my heart that people are finding out about my shop because of the kindness of others. I am grateful to Etsy for coming up with such a fabulous means of promotion within the site.

Thank you to Ken & Charlotte of Paper Street for featuring me in their newsletter last week.

Thanks to my fellow POE members for featuring me twice on the blog in the last couple of weeks.

Thanks to Tara of Combustion Glassworks for creating the Sonoma Artisan Faire...I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be part of what promises to be a dynamic show!

And finally, thanks to everyone who is stopping by this blog, cheering me on, and encouraging me not to give up on my dreams. You are all in my heart.

Gratitude

Last night I met with a group I started on campus called EarthSpeaks. We meet to talk about nature, the Earth, the environment. We meditate, do consciousness exercises, and even dabble in a little art.

I was feeling incredibly frazzled and stretched thin and I wasn't sure I could even make it to the group. I'm glad I went.

First, we walked the labyrinth fellow students created out of rocks on the south side of campus. It was meditative and relaxing for all of us to do this. It was my first time walking a labyrinth, but the experience was calming and restorative and I know I'll be back to the labyrinth much more often now.

Once inside, we created gratitude circles. I passed out pieces of construction paper, and we took crayons and markers and drew a circle. Inside, we wrote or drew what we were grateful for. Afterward, we shared our creations.

My heart was so full after hearing what everyone in the group is grateful for. So many of us were grateful for the people in our lives, both those close to us and those who help make our lives easier, like the people who work at the grocery store or the farmers who raise our food.

I put a lot of people into my circle...my friends and family, the people at school, the people who work at the stores I frequent, the musicians who have made a difference in my life.

I do this exercise every once in a while, especially when I am stressed out, to remind myself of all the blessings surrounding me each day. Sometimes it's as simple as being grateful for my eyes and legs and heart. Other times I am grateful for the air and the sky.

Try making your own circle. See what shows up in there. I find that I can never cram everything I'm grateful for into the circle I create, and I always end up leaving something or someone out. It goes to show just how much there is to be thankful for in life.