my virtual christmas card to you.

Here are some fun things that got me into the sprit this Christmastime. Hope you are enjoying and soaking in all the bits to the end of this year!

- First off, a song by these dapper, dapper men:



- I kept track of Santa's whereabouts on this site!

- I guess this is how Santa let go of some steam during the push of those last couple days before Christmas.

- Here a sassy fruitcake is interviewed.

- A festive tweet capturing the perfect holiday moment:

I was just sitting on the floor of a cabin in front of a fire with six sled dog puppies climbing all over me. Ugh.
— Jason Sweeney (@sween) December 7, 2013

- Thanks to my 9th grade locker partner for sharing this Christmas gem I hadn't heard of (but my parents were all about when I played it for them):





And below are some photos I took around town, capturing some of the holiday spirit. 

I was sick for my first art show at my new art studio.  Still stopped by for a hot minute to check it out.

Shopping at Renegade Craft Fair Winter Market.

And I got into the painting spirit as well, had to get some new watercolors to scratch my artsy itch.

Some dancing geese downtown were busy tying up gifts.

And the big holiday dinner came with cuteness and homemade cookies!

 Homemade orange cranberry relish, Grandma's recipe.

Mission Pie pies.

And a bright day after, capturing pretty sights.

Hope all your holidays were merry and bright!

xo,
z

before i miss the twelfth night and last bit of christmas...

Here's a video I wanted to share with my sister. Watching it, I learned a bit more about the storyline of Les Miserables, and must say, it changes how I view my little cousin singing all the songs from the stage version, as he's done for the past few years.

The Sad Off with Samuel L. Jackson and Anne Hathaway from Samuel L Jackson

And special shout out to all of you still needing to take down holiday decorations. FYI, my sister did today, and she won. [The above video is your prize, Kiddo.]

P.S.  So tidy in those bags!

happy memorial day

Thank you for fighting for me.  For keeping peace for me.  And for being  brave for all of us. 

I smiled catching this collection on the front page of Etsy earlier today and am grateful to those who serve our country so I may pursue my passions.

(A shout out to my big bro!)

april fool's day inspriation by one of the greatest pranksters..

You may recall the jello prank, but do you remember these other ones too?  Here's to safe pranking.  (Or none at all, as is my preference.)

here's to blogging one more time in 2011!

It's been a great year. A challenging year, but a good year of perseverance and patience that I've made it through. In February I picked up on the Power Year idea and choose a representational animal (the walrus - my own addition, not part of the official Power Year agenda) and set about choosing SMART goals for myself.

I did go from having a short-term part-time job, to having no job, to having a full-time job with benies. That was great in addressing my survival mode outlook. I finally could look at what would be best use of my creative time and talents, my health, and my social needs and no longer do what ever it took to make cash. It was at the end of the year, settling into a regular income, that I made tons of progress and, again, though challenging, got to see a very clear picture of my life and priorities.

I now understand I super-value my time. This is something many people with competing interests, commitments, jobs, families... can understand. Yet, add to it a body that has limitations and isn't always available to meet even my basic needs. I had to get really good at letting things go and living in limbo, in the in-between time. Which is actually an awesome lesson as we are all in limbo and in-between time. Nothing is guaranteed to us, nothing is certain. But what I'm practicing to make certain is that I'll always do the next right thing to take care of my health and well-being.

I can get through *tough* when I have faith and hope. And I'm grateful those didn't falter throughout the year. The thoughts of "this too shall pass" and "when you're going through something tough, keep going!" come to mind. I kept chipping away and making any progress I could. I also had patience when it felt like I was just standing still. With stillness comes insight. (Add more meditation to my list!)


Here are a couple of sites that I've read over in preparing for 2012.  I'll be sharing more of my outcome in the next few days.

Nicole Is Better
She shares how to celebrate this year and prepare for the next year.  There's even a download to plotting out 27 action items per month!

A Beautiful Mess
Elsie shares how to make and keep resolutions.

When I Grow Up Coach
Some links Michelle shares to closing up the year.

I'm excited for 2012 and look forward to sharing the year with creative and courageous people!

Until then... xoxo!

my rendition of black friday

I met up with the sister again today and she let me in on the idea of Black-Out Friday, which really charmed me, and we did get to some wine/raspberry drinkies, but below is my tribute to *literal* Black Friday, finally being posted after shopping for organizing stuff all day.  And dim sum.

Inspired by this black crocheted blanket, I'm off on an all-black interwebs collection of beauty.

via Remodelista

via Ladies & Gentlemen

via ArchetypeZ

 via FFFFound

via FFFFound

 via FFFFound

 via Monicaj

via Sweetpea & Willow

And then we saw The Muppets.  It seems pretty autobiographical when I learned from my sister that Jason Segel wrote it and had grown up a big Muppets fan.  It was even forshadowed in his movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Then I scored me-points when I called it that a Flight of the Conchords had to be involved in the composing of a couple of the musical numbers.  Bret McKenzie.  Point.


Good night lovelies, mmm.

thanksgiving with arlo guthrie

It's about to start!  KFOG playing Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie.  One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions.

Happy Turkey Day, y'all!

Listen streaming online here

And if you missed it, they'll play it again at 6pm, PST.  Or find it on Spotify!



xoxo

happy st. patty's day, people!

 Ah, the luck of the Irish... I went and found my old bagpipe band I use to play with.  They rock!

hero

thinking of mlk today...

{via yoly petra}

"nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. the foundation of such a method is love."

martin luther king, jr., nobel prize acceptance speech, stockholm, sweden, december 11, 1964.

"the curse of poverty has no justification in our age. it is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. the time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty."

martin luther king, jr., where do we go from here: chaos or community?, 1967.

"it is necessary to understand that black power is a cry of disappointment. the black power slogan did not spring full grown from the head of some philosophical zeus. it was born from the wounds of despair and disappointment. it is a cry of daily hurt and persistent pain."

martin luther king, jr., where do we go from here: chaos or community?, 1967.

{mlk's last speech, the night before his assasination}

"darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....the chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

martin luther king, jr., strength to love, 1963.

{via daogreer earth works}

"like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. it causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."

martin luther king, jr., strength to love, 1963.

and lastly for my crafty friends…

"almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better." -mlk

have a blessed day,

rm

here's to twenty-ten!!!

happy new year precious readers! there's a rainbow-like ring around the full moon tonight, a blue moon at that! what a spectacular way to enter the new year.

earlier tonight i met with friends at ocean beach and we created are own ceremony to shed the old year and welcome in the new year. (as some folks burned christmas trees on the beach and others followed a rio de janeiro custom.) i realized how diabolical it is that not only am i invited to something like this, but that I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE INTO THIS TYPE OF THING TO BEGIN WITH!!! i love it! i love them!


we had noise makers, we meditated, we shared what we wanted to leave behind, we spritzed with yummy smelling essence, we embraced what we wished to welcome into our lives, we hooted and hollered. a bit like a wild rumpus! we burned our lists in a huge bonfire pit while being sage-smudged. super-awesome.

i left with a sense of an open heart, possessing the courage to move through obstacles, embracing being a beginner and the stumbling that goes along with that. twenty-ten is going to be so much fun. i feel so blessed to be able to share it with you!

in honor of new year's customs, i made sure to sweep out my home, empty all trash, recycling, and compost, along with the old vacuum bag and filter, before the new year. i will incorporate activities into new year's day that i welcome in abundance for 2010. note: this does not include doing dishes, cleaning, lending, being in debt, um, and cutting my hair (?). not until the 5th of the year.

a couple years ago i heard on an etsy forum that leaving your house with a suitcase and entering your home again will attract travel! walk in and out as many times as you want to travel, or more, just to make sure it sticks! it totally worked for me. that was my year with the most travel to date! it even carried over to this year. oh, and the suitcase doesn't even have to be packed!

i'm not aiming at a lot of travel this year, though i've got two cousins getting married on the other side of the country, but i AM aiming to create something everyday. i will share more about that in the next post.

let me know how your new year's eve went and what you're looking forward to doing in the new year. if you need some help, check out this resolution generator here!!! monina velarde has hooked us all up!

xoxo,
rootmix

santa gets to rest now!

hope you all had warm and cozy holidays! i enjoyed time with my family and sending out holiday cheer to my friends far and near. i was a surprise leader in all the family games; who knew sudoku would train me so well for boggle!?!?!!!

i'm getting excited about the new year... all the seasons to come again, saying *twenty-ten* a lot, kicking off some daily crafty projects (*fingers crossed*), and FINALLY participating in thing-a-day february! whew! most exciting of all may be my round-the-clock decluttering & organizing marathon - can i get done by december 31st? stay tuned...

before i get to work, here's a look at some of my favorite holiday images and links i've been enjoying on YOUR blogs. you've really been getting me in the holiday spirit this year. it's been inspiring!

{click on pictures for source!}

this is a fun one! get one more dose of that holiday spirit while listening to some christmas songs on ukulele by lady harvatine! she's even got links so you can download the songs and a tutorial to fashion a fancy cd sleeve, if you so desire!
xoxo,
rootmix!!!

p.s. did you hear about the home alone twitter project?

i'm dreaming of a pink christmas!

i was *this* close to picking up a pink tree to decorate this year! but instead i did one of those foldy-magazine trees which took up a lot less space. i'm glad i can enjoy these pink delights online and won't have to pack anything away come december 26th.