Wild & Remote + In-Laws

Casa Grande emerging from the clouds, Chisos Basin, Big Bend National Park

The December holiday season is a time that my husband has a lull in-between two of his busiest times of the work year, and it is usually a relatively quiet time for me, too. This equals a good time to take off for a few weeks. Traveling over this holiday period is not necessarily ideal, but when you take a road trip to a remote part of the country you don’t experience the normal holiday chaos.

We decided to take the opportunity to go to Big Bend, Texas. We’d been one other time partly because Tim’s mom is a campground host at the Chisos Basin Campground in the National Park for a few months each winter. Our trip could quench our thirst for adventure, our love of national parks, and  also afford us time with Tim’s mom.

Big Bend National Park is a pretty remote place, and it’s one of the least visited National Parks in the country. It lies in the ‘lump’  in the southwest edge of Texas and borders Mexico along the Rio Grande river to the south. Terlingua and Study Butte, the closest towns, probably boast a few hundred permanent residents each; the park probably has that many residents with all of the employees. On the Mexico side things are just as remote and unpopulated.

Big Bend National Park is also wild place. The harsh desert country, is filled with sand, canyons, cactus and a smattering of mountains. Water is scarce, except at the river. It has a rugged beauty that offers an interesting variety landscapes and ecosystems.

Here is a snapshot of some of our adventures…

Carrizozo – a funky, artsy town in New Mexico was a good leg stretcher. We got a warm welcome and fun tour from one of its colorful characters who befriended us the minute we hopped out of the van.

Sunset at White Sands National Monument while enroute.

The first three nights in Texas were spent at Big Bend Ranch State Park where they have a great network of fun, mostly single-track, mountain biking trails. The trail signs are so cool – and with names like Contrabando – conjure up stories of smuggling and adventure.

Casa Grande is the dominant mountain view in the Chisos Basin campground.

We celebrated the solstice at a back country campsite near the Rio Grande river and watched the sunset on St Elena Canyon with its 1500 foot canyon walls that the Rio Grande River flows through and is the  the U.S. – Mexico border

We lit luminarias in honor of my mom, and dear friends Richard and Susan.

The rest of the nights were spent in The Basin with Samwise, our trusty camper van, nose in to Kay and Doug’s 38 foot RV in the ‘Host’ site. Samwise served mostly as our ‘bedroom’ and the RV was ‘home’ and included the luxury of a gas stove & oven, microwave, running hot & cold water, shower and bathroom. Tim’s mom was thrilled to have her ‘baby boy’ home for Christmas, and she planned meals while we took day trips to bike and hike.

Tim in awe of a Century Plant (in the Agave family)

Hiking in Pine Canyon

Mother nature surprised us with a ‘white’ Christmas when a moist front rolled through leaving not much snow, but beautiful hoarfrost on all of the trees and cactus, shrubs and grass.

This post feels a bit like a boring travelogue of what I did on my Christmas break. And I guess it is, but the trip was so much more…
I didn’t photograph the van and the RV nose-to-nose. I couldn’t get images of the dedication of the rangers and volunteers we saw, the community of friends that has formed over the years, or  the ‘park gossip’ we heard.
I didn’t write about what I learned about how I can best ‘work’ on the road and what kind of art I’m motivated to create on vacation (although that might be for another post).
I didn’t capture my feelings about my realization of what a national treasure the National Park Service truly is, and how I hope the government keeps politics aside to preserve and nurture it.

As family of one of the campgrounds hosts we were invited to a ‘park’ Christmas party – at the Park’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer’s home. We met so many interesting employees and volunteers – and learned of the many opportunities available for volunteers to the Park Service. It’s quite a long way off, but Tim and I have talked about ‘campground hosting one day’. Now I know that is not the only opportunity and also that I can be, and one day would like to be, part of one of the great National Park communities.

Finding Joy in Everyday Moments in 2012

Life is short. It moves along quickly. Moment to moment it doesn’t seem that fast, but a year seems to go by in a flash.

Moments are filled up with life’s tasks – doing laundry, brushing my teeth, cooking dinner, going to the store, balancing my bank accounts.

They are also filled up with everyday joys – a morning hug from my husband, a smile from a friend, light fading from the mountain as the sun sets, a jaunt on the trails near my home,dinner with my husband and/or friends.

I have a tendency to get frustrated by not having enough time for all the adventures I dream of. I beat myself up for wasting time (yes, getting sucked into social media for too long included). I struggle to fit in all of life’s tasks. My emotions run wild and I fear not being enough.

These things all get in the way of my enjoying the beautiful, simple everyday moments life offers.

So one of the words I’ve chosen to guide my year is joy. It is defined as a feeling or state of well-being and contentment.

It is a beautiful word, and finding joy is easy if you let it be. I can too easily let the opposite emotion attach itself when things are not going just right, but really I have lots of everyday moments to be joy-full for.

My friend Susan just said good bye to her husband after he spent the past two years fighting brain cancer. During this journey she always inspired me by finding joy in their simple, everyday moments.

I am blessed with my health. I live in a beautiful place with a beautiful community of friends. My husband is my best friend and play mate and he supports me unconditionally.

This year I wish to let go of any discontent that arises, the fear of not being enough. I want to be intentional* in finding joy in the everyday moments of life.

This passage, which I found on the spiritual practice of joy on spiritualityandpractice.com, really resonates with me and how I would like to be this year:

Joy is an essential spiritual practice growing out of faith, grace, gratitude, hope, and love. It is the pure and simple delight in being alive. Joy is our elated response to feelings of happiness, experiences of pleasure, and awareness of abundance. It is also the deep satisfaction we know when we are able to serve others and be glad for their good fortune.

*Intention is another word to guide my year. Whatever I am doing – whether it is working on client projects, connecting with friends in person or on social media, playing outside or simply relaxing – I want to know that this is what I want to be doing right now, and I want to do it with 100% of myself – with intention (a determination to act in a certain way).

I would love to hear how you are being guided to move into this new year. Wishing you many joy-full moments.

Is it a card, or is it a book?

When Jamie Ridler mentioned her Holiday Hands-up How-to Project on a recent Creative Living interview, I knew right away that I wanted to participate. My mind swirled with ideas, and of course, with doubts about whether any of my ideas were worth sharing.

Since I knew the idea of this project was not to question myself and if my ideas were enough, I decided to share a simple structure that I just love to make and send to friends for special occasions. At the time I was in the process of finishing one for Jamie for her birthday! I took that as a sign that this was what I am meant to share!

Happy Birthday Starshyne!

It looks beautiful, and really it is simple – an accordion fold with a second accordion woven through it. I like to use arches text wove because it is a nice weight text paper that takes all kinds of water media – it’s hardy stock, but also easy to fold and manipulate.

For the sake of this tutorial I cut up some Mohawk smooth text to create a prototype to show you. I find creating a prototype with not so special paper is always helpful when making a new structure. And really most any medium weight paper works – the structure allows the piece to stand up beautifully. Just know the limitations of your paper as far as what media you can use to embellish it.

What you’ll need:
Paper that is at least 20″ long – two 20″ pieces: one 5 1/2″h, and and the other 2 1/2″h (you can make this other sizes, this just happens to be the size I generally create)
Art supplies to embellish with – whatever paints, pencils, markers, stamps, collage materials (notice the stars on Jamie’s card – they were collaged on) you want and work with the paper you’ve chosen! Have fun!
Cutting mat
Exacto knife
Metal ruler

Step 1: Cut your paper strips. I like the size indicated below, but you can experiment with sizes that work for you:

The next step is to decorate your pages. Here is where you really get to have fun! I like to use some contrasting colors for each sheet – so they pop out from one another. If you have text that you want to be absolutely readable you’ll want to make sure it is on the top or bottom 1 1/4″ of the taller sheet (20″l x 5 1/2″h).

Once you’ve painted/decorated your pages as you want it is time to start folding. Work as precisely as you can:
Fold the bigger sheet in half, then open it back up. Fold one side into the center, and open it back up. Then fold that end into the new fold. If you use the 20″ long sheet you’ll end up with 7 folds and each panel will be about 2 1/2″w. See images below to give you an idea of what you need to do.

Once you have all the folds in place you can make sure they are in the correct directions to create the accordion.

Make sure that the two pages are folding in opposite directions. I like my larger sheet to have a ‘valley’ fold on either end – so the end of the paper is facing toward me when I look at it.

Once you have both pages folded you will need your exacto knife. Fold the larger sheet so all of the folds are closed and it is 2 1/2″w x 5 1/2″ h. I make a small tick mark in the center, and then a mark about 1 1/2″ from the top and the bottom. You need to be able to cut a slit through all the layers to weave the smaller sheet through the larger sheet.

Use your exacto knife and a metal ruler to cut your slit – you need it to be a hair (or two) longer than the 2 1/2″ so the smaller sheet will weave through without getting mangled. I usually bring that extra length towards the bottom of the card.

Then you can begin the weaving…

And Voilá!

Heal Well Marina!

You can click on each image in the post to make them bigger. Notice the cut outs on the main card on this one. These are hearts that I cut out before weaving the second accordion through.

Happy Birthday Karen!

This is the first tutorial I’ve written as a blog post, so I hope my directions are clear and helpful. If you have any questions on my ‘how-to’, feel free to comment with your questions and I will get back to you. Have fun, and I’d love to see what you create!

As the full moon rises and the days wane

Tonight the full cold moon has risen and is shining brightly above the Arkansas Hills. As the days wane for 2011 I wish to share a poem I wrote – inspired by the coming of the solstice and new beginnings.

Sunlight hours fade; Opportunity to pause and reflect

Celebrate her return; New beginnings

I will be in Big Bend National Park during the Solstice, with my husband and mother-in-law (Chisos Mountain campground host extraordinaire).

I will be celebrating her (the sun’s) return by lighting luminarias in this remote desert park that hugs the Mexico border along the Rio Grande River.

This is a tradition I’ve had the honor of sharing with  dear friends Susan Tweit and Richard Cabe for the past few years. This year it is somewhat bittersweet the lighting will also be a celebration of Richard, who lost his battle with brain cancer just a few short weeks ago. I will also be honoring my mother who created a luminaria celebration on the street where I grew up, on Christmas Eve.

I will be make time to pause and reflect on the beauty of life’s ordinary moments. I will shed any negative beliefs that have crawled into the year and celebrate the opportunity for new beginnings. I will remember my friend, Richard, and mother, Amy, with love and admiration.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post is in honor of my second ‘blog-iversary’. I am honored by the bloggers who have taken the time to visit my blog. I am in awe of the community I have met from reaching out through blogging. I started the mountain mermaid on December 9, because I missed being prepared to start on my birthday 9/9, and nines, and those numbers that have nine in them or are divisible by nine, feel auspicious to me.

I still feel like an infant blogger – I don’t have a consistent weekly schedule, nor do I know exactly why I’m here. But I know I am the mountain mermaid for a reason, and I am loving the journey of exploration. I’ve been here for two years and I really appreciate when visitors feel moved by my words and images and they share their thoughts with me.

In celebration of life’s beautiful, ordinary moments and the opportunity for new beginnings!

Thank you so much for visiting.

aedm final check-in: following the threads

It is hard to believe that November is nearly over…just a few short hours to go.

Before proceeding with my little aedm story I want to acknowledge all of the dedicated creatives that participated. So many of you posted to your blogs each day – and/or consciously created a new art piece each day that was part of your month of creating. Everyone found their way – and that is the most important thing.

And I want to thank Leah Piken Kolidas for creating this community and this month of creating. Swing by her site and see what she and others are up to.

I started my month with an idea, although I knew I would not make the time to post to my blog each day. I could say I don’t have the time, but in truth although I wanted to create every day I knew I was not ready to prioritize my time to post something about this each day. One of these times I’m may take on that challenge – to post each day for a certain period of time.

The idea that I started with quickly morphed from Every Day a Line to a more mixed media project where I basically used something beautiful that Julie Daley said in her interview with Jamie Ridler on Creative Living with  Jamie.

I am this woman who is here creating – following the threads of what wants to come into being.

I did not work on this project each day, but I followed the threads of what wanted to be created. I really enjoyed the process, although I like some of the pages more than others. I’d love to hear your feedback if you’re so inclined.

Originally I planned to make a book from these sheets, but they just did not work for me folded in half. I flattened the sheets that I had carefully folded (fortunately Arches Text Wove is very forgiving for this), and I created a simple envelope to house the sheets. I still need to add some lines and color to the enclosure.

Art Every Day Month helped me become more aware of how I was spending my time, and what my priorities are. This is something I’ve been working on understanding. And I wish to continue to work on this as the year winds down…following the threads…

Thank you again Leah for hosting AEDM, and to all the participants and readers who have stopped by to see what I’ve been up to. I truly appreciate it.

Nourishing myself with self-love!

I wish to nourish myself with self love and trust.

I wish to nourish my confidence – to trust that I am OK – even if I can’t please everyone.

I wish to love my imperfections.

With this nourishment I will truly embrace that I am enough just as I am.

How do you wish to nourish yourself?

NOTE: This is Jamie Ridler‘s wishcasting question from November 2. Not answering the wishcasting question of the day has become my way – and since I am enough, this method is perfect. I appreciate the thought provoking questions that Jamie offers each week, and I am grateful to be part of the wishcasting community.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

AEDM check in #2

As I mentioned in my #1 AEDM check-in post that I am not very good at committing to something every single day, except brushing my teeth. I have for sure brushed my teeth every day since November 8. I have probably made a line every day, but I do not have a separate piece to show you for every day.

I have enjoyed playing with the idea I generated around the quote from Julie Daley:

I am this woman who is here creating following the threads of what wants to come into being.

Julie and Jamie also talked about our ‘evolving identity’ during their conversation, and this journal entry sprang from that term:

Evolving Identity Journal entry

Here are the other pieces I’ve been working on. I like some parts and other parts not so much. I will add some more layers, and I hope to make these sheets into a small book. We’ll see how it will evolve…I promise to share.

I’d love to hear any thoughts you have! Thanks for stopping by. Happy creating!

Chillin’ with the Full Frost Moon

The full moon is burning brightly in the sky on this chilly night. It is so beautiful, and I feel that she is watching over me.

My board has many images on it, and I like the idea that they are telling me to look inward for nourishment and build my roots of belief in myself.

It is an exciting time as I begin to build a clientele for my Virtual Assistance business – and also sometimes scary and disappointing when things don’t go as I would like.

I have been sleeping restlessly recently, and I am hoping the woman smiling as she lays with closed eyes on comfy looking pillows, and the other pillows are here to help me to rest peacefully. I know I need this for nourishment! I believe the lemons, water bottle and woman meditating are also indications of nourishment I need.

This is the second month in a row a woman looking through the lense of a camera – and an ‘older’ camera – has appeared on my dream board. I am not sure what she is telling me, although since the can with brushes and such appeared next to her this month perhaps she is encouraging me to create!

Bicycles also seem to appear on my board frequently. I am an avid cyclist and pedaling is my preferred method of transportation around my town.

The snuggling apes and couple are reminding me I am loved! My hubby is so supportive of me and my dreams!

I love the sea kayaker that appeared. I hope that means there is a sea kayaking trip in my future!

Who is that woman behind the window screens and what is the door below her – there must be some mysteries I need to uncover this month.

I am so excited to have a special place for my monthly dream boards now that I’ve reorganized my studio! I hope this brings me some continuity to my dream board practice which I am beginning to love more and more. Thank you Jamie Ridler!

Have a fantastic month!

Next New Moon: November 25
Next Full Moon: December 10

AEDM 2011 – check-in #1

or should this really be titled Commitment?

I agonized over whether to commit to art every day month (AEDM). The truth is the only thing I do EVERY day is floss and brush my teeth (and I am the oral hygiene queen).

AEDM is only for one month, so I should be able to commit to that everyday, right? It doesn’t have to be elaborate art everyday.

So I went to Leah’s site and signed up. I had an idea – Every Day a Line – from reading about a workshop my calligraphy teacher Laurie Doctor teaches called Not a Day without a Line.

How hard could this be, I thought.

day 1 art

I decided I needed some structure so on day 2 I cut pieces of Arches text wove down to 14″w x 5″ h with the thought I would make a book and then have a 7″ x 5″ page for Everyday a Line

Day 3 I was crawling into bed with a sheet of my paper and my watercolor pencils

day 3 art

On day 4 I got that day 3 sheet wet, and I lettered on another sheet

“

day 4 art

This is part of a quote from Julie Daley’s conversation with Jamie Ridler on Creative Living. I am inspired to work with the entire quote on my AEDM sheets as the month goes on. You’ll have to check back to see the entire quote, or listen to Creative Living with Jamie.

Day 5 turned totally off topic when I was spending the afternoon in the kitchen preparing for dinner guests, and my apple pie became a work of art in itself.

Day 6 I rested…

Day 7 I continued my work with the quote.

“

day 7 art

This post and AEDM is as much, for me, about commitment as it is about creating art every day. Although I am not sure I will be close to Everyday a Line (day 8 is not over yet), I am inspired by the ideas I’ve begun to cultivate and I am committed to continuing the  journey this month.

How is your journey with commitment?

Let go…and shine

Last week for Wishcasting Wednesday Jamie Ridler asked, what do you wish to let go of…?

I always have feelings and thoughts when I first read these prompts, and I always need to sit on and manifest them before I can create a post.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson’s quote is something that really resonates me, and illustrates why I want to let go of fear

…of not being enough
…of failing
…of succeeding

I don’t live in lots of fear any more, and in the last few years – since I lost my corporate job in the beautiful small town where I had recently moved and found this beautiful online community of creatives, I feel that I have really begun to let my light shine.

Fear still creeps in (can you ever get rid of it completely?), but I feel that I’ve developed such nurturing communities that allow me to let go of these fears and be ‘who I am meant to be – brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous’.

Life is too short to live in fear and not embrace fully my beauty, light and life.

What can you let go of to help you shine?