{So Much Happiness}

Autumn beauty and a poem to share

So Much Happiness

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.

With sadness there is something to rub against,

a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.

When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to

pick up,

something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs

or change.

But happiness floats.

It doesn't need you to hold it down.

It doesn't need anything.

Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,

and disappears when it wants to.

You are happy either way.

Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house

and now live over a quarry of noise and dust

cannot make you unhappy.

Everything has a life of its own,

it too could wake up filled with possibilities

of coffee cake and ripe peaches,

and love even the floor which needs to be swept,

the soiled linens and scratched records…..

Since there is no place large enough

to contain so much happiness,

you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you

into everything you touch. You are not responsible.

You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit

for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,

and in that way, be known.
~Naomi Shihab Nye

{Sisters}

I am so enjoying creating this personal art journal

of my sisters visit.

I find myself so completed immersed in the creative

activities of art, poetry, nature it is overwhelming at times.

Is it my soul that speaks to me?

Why is it I find these images, colors, textures, words soooooooo
beautiful. It seems as only images and poetry can even come close to expressing the thoughts and feeling I have. Yet at the same time it seems I do not understand.

{Capturing the memories}

The first couple of pages to my personal art journal

Facing pages

I took the above picture of my sister trying on this huge crown.

Then I used photos from magazines of some of my favorite crown

pictures to further embellish the theme.

My sister and I have always taken care of so many others.

Now were learning to think about our own needs.

{Creating a Personal Art Journal}

I've created this art journal for myself.

I want to collect the fun we had in a personal journal

It's a small one only about 6x7 inches. To hold photos and other

small quotes and images
Inside of front and back covers.
The image below is a thread stitch pocket.

And the outside back cover

{Sister's Personal Art Journal}

My sister and I created this art journal while she was here.

She will have lots of fun over the next year adding the pages.
We had such fun creating it together.
We used one of my original face painting and she was able to add
elements to match her style. Hint: It will include lots of tea dyed pages.

{North Rim Adventures}

Taking some time out to play with some of the photos I took of my sister and I on our road trip to the North Rim.

They all have the same "frame theme" which was what I was attempting to learn.

I've come a long ways from where I start 10 months ago with my blog and Photoshop. The frames still don't have the drop shadow. But soon I will figure that out too.

I love this great old tree and sun shining through the branches was an extra bonus.

Kathy was the one who spotted this little beauty

{Two crazy weeks}

Now for at least a couple hours of relaxation

{Road Trip to the North Rim}

My sister came for a visit and we took a road trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, my favorite place
stopped at Lee's Ferry along the way to stretch and catch a view of the Colorado River.

Road food

{cont.Road Tripping with Sister}

The Colorado River
Sunset at the North Rim. It was cold and windy. And we were loving it. The North Rim closes Oct 15 for the winter.

Sun setting. Pictures can't even come close the actually being there.

But its fun to try.

The wind during the night blew over a lot of trees. This one stopped us.

The road drops off the edge and we could see another tree across the road just around the corner. And we had just past 2 other fallen trees across the road. A couple hours later the rangers did close the road.