Happy Thursday!

Wow! One World One Heart participants are popping up all over the place and I'm having a BLAST visiting everyone's blogs! Check out the above give-away - Catherine Matthews-Scanlon is giving away TWO copies of her book and I WANT ONE! Okay, well, there are 2 copies so go ahead and enter. As long as I get one, I'll be happy. :-)

"Love Potion #9" ACEO
c. 2008 by Annie Farnsworth

In other news, I've been busily uploading and organizing a backlog of my work onto Flickr. What an awesome site! I was using Picasa for a while, because I am a die-hard GOOGLE Girl, but folks, Flickr has really got it going on. The sorting features are killer. Take for example my latest ACEO, the latest in a series of "Love Potions." I'm posting it to my Etsy shop and also including it in the Etsy Love Challenge. So with but a few clicks of the mouse I can include it in my "Daily Devotions for January" set, plus my "Love Potion Series" set, as well as the "Etsy Love Challenge" set. Meanwhile, other friends on Flickr can visit your collection and leave comments, and you can comment on theirs. I have an OCD streak a mile wide, so these organizational features make Flickr more than a little addictive. Don't say you weren't warned. (and thanks again, Chantie, for your tip-off!)

Happy One World One Heart blog-hopping, my lovelies, now I am off to hit the books! My February residency is coming right up and I have papers to write!

Valentine's Day Give-Away!

This is my first year participating in the

One World One Heart Valentine giveaway!

Please click on the badge, above, to learn more about the project and how it was started. How do you enter? Just leave me a comment. That’s IT! I will be tracking all comments and assigning visitors numbers. To choose my winner, I’ll use the Random Number Generator to choose among the numbered participants.

Here’s what’s on offer:

The Gif-Tea Bag.

Earth-friendly craft paper gift bag, stuffed with red hologram-dot tissue and full of goodies.

The Goodies: one gold tin of spicy Chai blend Infini Tea – my own blend. This tea is so yummy on these cold winter nights and I taste-tested lots of blends before settling on this one. It’s only slightly peppery, heavy on the cinnamon, and absolutely delicious and warming with milk and a dash of honey. Serve it up in this monster Valentine cup screenprinted with hearts. Now, while you’re sipping that hot cuppa, put your feet up and read something good. I have just the thing! A copy of Infini Tea ~ a divine brew. This is a lovely collection of poems – each poem inspired somehow by tea.

Oh but that’s not all… (do I sound like a game show announcer yet?)
Tied to the bag with a pretty metallic gold threaded ribbon is an original collaged bookmark, signed and dated by the artist (me!). I made it especially for this give-away. It measures 3"x8.5" and can double as a gift tag if you give this item as a gift!


I’m so excited to see who wins!

[pssssst: Listen. I can make more. If you are interested in ordering one of these for a special someone and don’t want to wait until February 14th to see if you’ve won, I’ll be offering Gif-Tea Bags in my Etsy shop ~ only $15.00 and shipping is free. ]

GAWD I love this holiday.

Guerrilla Kindness (x post)

It's my "birthday season!" [addendum of 1/23/08: my birthday's not till 1/29, but I don't like to limit my celebrations to just one day. A few years back i decided to institute a birthday "season." This is also known as "milking it."]

For my birthday, I would love it if you kept in mind the following, which I often share with others on their birthdays:

"Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished. No, we say: Thank you for being born and being among us. ... Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life, and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people's birthdays every day, by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and affection. These are ways of saying: It's good that you are alive; it's good that you are walking with me on this earth. Let's be glad and rejoice."

~ Henry J. M. Nouwen ~ (1)

Last year I wrote a pre-birthday blog full of gift hints (if you can call full-color photos with ordering info "hints") but this year I have a rather different request. Instead of a gift or act of kindness to me, I am requesting that my lovely friends & family do one of the following:

1. Commit a random act of kindness. You know what I'm talking about. Pay the toll for the guy behind you, put quarters in someone's parking meter. Help an old lady carry her groceries, shovel the neighbor's walk. Call someone you haven't talked to for a while and just tell them how much they mean to you. I could go on but I'm hopped up on enough Sudafed to immobilize a rhino, so if you want more ideas, please go here. Or here. The caveat is that you then have to tell ME what you did. Write it down, take pictures, record it somehow, and then send it to me at Miz Annie, P.O. Box 1344, Kennebunk, ME 04043. That would be the MOST AWESOME BIRTHDAY CARD EVER!
   
2. Dog food. Cat food. Kitty Litter. Paper towels. Monetary donations – not to me, but to your local animal shelter. Local peeps, Animal Welfare Society in Kennebunk. is one of the local shelters that worked extra hard to find the room and resources to take care of the hundreds of animals rescued in that heinous Buxton puppy mill seizure. (the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland is another – they can use supplies and money too!). OR just show a little love to YOUR local shelter. OR offer to take the neighbor's dog for a long walk, or a run on the beach. You all know how much joy the animals bring to my life, so knowing you were sending some extra love back out to the animals would be the MOST AWESOME BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!

You know, every year I thank my Mom for not stopping at five kids (I'm the youngest of six). Because if she had, I wouldn't be here to enjoy this big, messy, sad and beautiful world(2) that we're all sharing and calling home this time around. And I would never have known all of you. So, happy birthday to me, the luckiest girl in the world! Now send some love out to the world I dig so much.

here i am shortly after my arrival here from the home planet. my mom
wrote the caption, which refers to the camp we rented at Square Pond
every summer but as it turns out,"here" means HERE.

______________________________________________________

(1) Who the heck is this Henry J.M. Nouwen guy, and why does she keep quoting him, yo? Well, he was a great guy and you would really like him. He was super-duper religious and "organized religion" is not something that turns me on, but Nouwen was so great at teaching a "theology of the heart" and being a synthesizer of diverse theologies and incorporating metaphysics into the teachings of the church that I can overlook that .... no, actually, i can admire him because he had the guts to inject the old gal with a good dose of mysticism.

(2.) Yes, I stole that from "Down by Law." So sue me. I thought it would be nice for Tom Waits and Henry J. M. Nouwen to share space in the same blog. ;-)

The Tuesday Report: Hoagland, SKIRT, and National Treasure (xpost from my myspace blog...)

One of my very favorite poets, Tony Hoagland, is the featured poet on Writer's Almanac this morning. Go check out "A Color of the Sky" from his book What Narcissism Means to Me (which also wins my vote for most awesome poetry book title of the decade). 

In other poetry news, I just received my comp copy of the January 2008 issue of SKIRT magazine. They contacted me last summer, requesting permission to reprint one of the poems from my chapbook Bodies of Water, Bodies of Light. I had nearly forgotten they were going to print it!

 
January 2008 issue of SKIRT
(cover art by Mayumi Oda)

I'm thrilled with what they did with it – gave it a whole page and lots of fancy squiggles for decoration. I am all about the fancy squiggles. I like it so much, I'm going to bribe the Chairman to bring it to SexyCopy & make a big color copy for me and laminate it so I can hang it on a wall as decoration. Okay, fine, decoration and a little bit of horn-tooting as well. But hey, that's what narcissism means to me.  I'm going to drop a note to SKIRT and let them know how happy I am with their treatment of my poem, and ask permission to print up a few broadsides. If you are interested in a nice big blue squiggly poem about Buddha's mom and what I imagine her parenting concerns might be, you let me know.

Have an amazing day, all. I'll be here at the magic cottage studying and making art and tweaking the Sheltering Pines website and taking care of my still sorta-sick little boy, who is currently on the couch with his friend the Puffs Plus Kleenex box and watching "National Treasure"(1) (again).

___________________________
(1) Have you seen that movie? If not, you must put it on your list. In brief, here's why: Nick Cage, Harvey Keitel, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, a conspiracy theory, lots of cool historical details, smart cute boys solving mysteries and hacking into security, the Masons, the Knights Templar, and treasure hunting! Stuff gets blown up and there's kissing. What more can you ask for?!!

Days 10 ~ 14

Friday's offering is not shown here, as i spent my "daily devotions" engrossed in working on a book design for a new book my small press will be releasing in about a month ("Lords willing and the creek don't rise.") I love how it is turning out but don't want to post it anywhere until the book is about to be released. I'll keep you posted! So here are the rest, in reverse order since I last posted:

"Recycling the Mermaid"
c. 2008 Annie Farnsworth
Daily Devotions 13/265
(this started out as a meditation on the Enso - or Japanese
symbol for infinity, or in Zen circles (ha ha) the dharma wheel ...

but what ended up happening is that i couldn't stop grabbing at all those pretty colored Berols and then i somehow had my hands on some recycled bits and pieces. The bits you see here were culled from a Barbie Mermaidia box. Not the minimalist look i had in mind when i started out, but if recycling isn't a perfect circle, what is?

"Driveshaft Groupie"
c. 2008 Annie Farnsworth

Daily Devotions ~ 14/365

this one is likely only funny if you are a fan of the TV show LOST. And even then, it might not be funny. Ah. Well. When you crank one of these out every day you stop worrying whether you're hitting them out of the ballpark or not.

"B & W Lotus Doodle"
c.. 2008 Miz Annie
Daily Devotions ~ 12 /365

This was done on the exact sort of day that I had in mind when i decided to prepare a stack of 4x4" cardboard "bases" for collages ahead of time. I did this propped up in bed with my sore back on a heating pad after a crappy night's sleep and a long shift at the hospital. I didn't even have the energy to color it!

"Serenity Snowmen"
c. 2008 Annie Farnsworth
Daily Devotions ~ 10/365
(This is the last of this year's Pandenominational Holiday
ornaments. Any that I make from this point onward will
be considered part of the 2008 collection.)

I gave the kids "breakfast for supper" tonight (that means pancakes, with yummy boysenberry syrup! woot!) and turning in early again tonight to try to get rid of this naggy headache. My son was home sick from school today with an awful cold (poor kid! he's been catching everything this winter) and i didn't get a heck of a lot done in the home office. But tomorrow's a new day.

And as a HUGE FAN of all things valentine-y and heart-y and lovelovelove I'm pretty excited about this:
Now I am off. I promised my daughter a turn at the computer and I'm off to do today's DD and study a bit before we call it a night.

love and light, all
Miz A

Day Nine

Day Eight

today's daily devotions

It was unseasonably warm today, and after we dropped my son off at school my daughter and I headed to one of our favorite pebble beaches. It was also low tide, so we had lots and lots of beach to roam [read: pillage]. We both found lots more lovely rocks of the appropriate size and shape for use as place cards, paperweights, meditation stones, or just to sit and look pretty lined up on a windowsill. They are nice and flat on the bottom so they don't roll around.

Today's daily devotions were cooked up from three of the stones
you see here, after having their seasalt washed off
and air-drying atop the stove.

I also made what I believe is the last Pandenominational Holiday Ornament of this holiday season. I ran out of ornaments to swap and still owed one! I mailed one today and this one will be given to its intended recipient in person. Hopefully, tomorrow! :-)

Day Three

Today was brutally cold and after bringing my daughter to school (my son was home with a nasty little stomach flu, poor guy!) I then spent the day cozied up at home with my son, making art, and taking care of some long-neglected household chores such as vacuuming under the beds (ew!), taking down a summer window screen and cleaning up all the cobwebs behind it, and cleaning out the cupboard under the kitchen sink. A new year, and I'm inspired to start off with some space-clearing.

I have some great ideas for Daily Devotions and found myself starting three different things today. I'm hoping to have more items to list on my Etsy site soon. I can't wait to show you what I've been working on!

Day Two

"Seafoam Mandala" c. 2008 Miz Annie
Daily Devotions / 365 project

This is day two of the 2008 Daily Devotions series which for me is simply another installment in an ongoing project. I thought I'd take a moment to go over the general idea of the project for those who haven't heard of it. Not sure I remember where it originated, but there was a group of artists who took a pledge to make one piece of artwork every day for a year. The idea was simply to make something, it didn't have to be large and it didn't have to be good. The minimum size was 4" x 4" and you were allowed to use any medium.

I think part of the appeal of this project is that because you commit to making something every day, you don't keep putting it off. Creative people tend to do that; making art is something so luscious that you tend to sabotage yourself by bargaining and saying things like, "You can make art if you have done all your housework first" or "You don't deserve to play with your art supplies until all your _______ <(fill in some other unpleasant task here) is done first." That sort of thing. If you know you have committed to doing one per day, you are essentially putting the artwork on the same par as any of your other tasks, thereby giving yourself permission to create. Not that you need permission, but this is one trap I have repeatedly fallen into myself. This project has helped me to climb out.

Another great benefit of Daily Devotions is that it completely takes the pressure off you to make something "good" every time you approach the paper (or canvas, or whatever). Even the most zealous self-hater can't expect themselves to be brilliant, clever, or otherwise artistically "good" for 365 days. You might start out thinking that you can be, but after a few weeks you are bound to say "Okay, tomorrow's another day. Today I'll just do something quick and not worry about it." Once you give yourself permission to "wing it" you're likely to try new techniques and let go of old habitual approaches. So I'm sure you can guess that sometimes, those haphazard thrown-together devotions turn out to be the best ones!

Here's to a shiny new year full of creative possibility and permission to wing it!

Notes to My Self

Daily Devotions / 365 Project Day 1



I made no resolutions but have simply been chatting with my Self, reminding my Self to keep doing what works for me and makes my soul sing. I would also note the things that don't work but my plan is to be so busy singing I won't have time for those anyway.

Get healthy. Stay healthy. Study hard. Laugh Lots. Love much. Play often. Read. Walk. Create. Write. Yoga. Hugs. Kisses.

Be present. Be in nature. Be honest. Be who you are. Be in touch.

Just be.