Art Inspiration..... Just Imagine...... Of Toads, Horned Toads and Other Friends!

It was a perfect summer morning with my grand daughters.

We beaded jewelry for them,

built Duplo houses, (complete with vases of flowers :) 
for their horned toads that have been having sleepovers and
snuggled on the couch and read stories.

We made a huge pillow pile in my bedroom and they rolled
on the big, blue exercise ball and crashed into a heap on the
softness! It was a memorable, magical time.

Do you have memories of those simple times as a child?
I can remember opening up very large card board boxes
and sliding across them in my stocking feet like I was skating.
And one of my favorite outdoor memories is of raking leaves and then
making rooms for a house using the leaves as walls.
All the rooms were connected and there were openings
 in the leaves for doorways.

I used to imagine a lot but somewhere in my life's journey,
I began to be too practical.
I became the girl who wanted to do things right..
To always color in the lines using the colors of reality..
A horse couldn't be pink!
I had never SEEN a real pink one.

But in my search to find what I love to create and growing in this world of wonder
and unexplored realm of art and and beauty, my life has changed.
I have changed..morphed...and it all continues
to make me more curious about what is to come.
I'm so excited to see what's around the next corner.
It's like opening a door and walking into a world where
anything is possible!
And it is.


A Small Tale

AND..

 upon a time there was a toad princess.

Her name was Wilhelmina. 

She had a gypsy spirit and in her wanderings, she had heard of the sweet, light- hearted

 fairy girls who would sometimes fly in for a visit to the great castle.

Their laughter could be heard ringing through the land

and their squeals of delight echoed from the far corners of the kingdom!

Their kindness and joy touched the hearts of the people.

 And so many would come from

faraway places to catch a glimpse of them.

 How Miss Wilhelmina   

 longed to meet them and join in their adventures!

So, she found some lovely flowers to wear to celebrate the occasion

 and began her journey of three days to the castle.

She hadn't gone very far when she saw her

 friend Miss Maisy, the snail.

How she loved her forest friend and decided to

 invite her to come along!

Miss Maisy was delighted at the invitation and

 loved an adventure.

 And of course, she asked if her friend, Starfire,

 who was hitching a ride could tag along as well!

"Yes...Indeed!," exclaimed Wilhelmina. 

So she said, "Thank you." and quickly accepted.

Wilhelmina was over-joyed that Miss Maisy and Starfire were coming along!

It would be a gloriously, grande time traveling with friends.

She placed a pretty pink flower on Maisy's head and their adventure began as

they were off to see the fairy princesses.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

I hope you enjoyed the little story.

Thank you for indulging me! 

This has been an interesting journey...and one of learning to be bold and be myself.

It helps to have friends along the way. 

I want to mention some of my sweet blogging friends who have 

been encouraging.

THANK YOU to:

Kris

Stephanie

Kezzie

Kelli and

Karen

and my family of course!

Discovering what's within ourselves and beyond

reality is a fun adventure.

SO much HAS to be lived in reality..

and that's wonderful, too!

I love my life.

There's a movie that was so inspiring to me.

Have you heard of

Finding Neverland?

It portrays the story of Peter Pan and how it came to be..

It's what can happen when a person follows their heart and dares to

believe in their dreams. 

Do you have dreams that you've tucked away and you'd like to 

dust off and see them realized?

**********

Some of the little friends on our wild piece of earth.

A tiny sunbather....

Meet Daisy...

Have a wonderful week and thank you for coming by!

Hugs..
Tamara

Where We Play Music and Just life...

Hello!

I've sure been enjoying re-connecting with many of my blog friends.

I have missed you all so!

One thing that I'm learning to understand very well is that there

are seasons and sometimes they are short-lived.

So I'm trying to be as present as possible and

make the most of each one.

Live it to the hilt.. Keep that momentum going.

Celebrate.. reflect..

 give it all you've got!

My youngest daughter (19) has developed a love

for 70's music. Every evening she turns on her Spotify

playlist, cranks it up and we dance and sing and laugh

while we clean up the kitchen.

We have been having

*SO MUCH FUN*

Last evening, my husband joined us and he 

was playing his electric guitar!

 Imaginary of course. 

{Big smiles}

*******

I had shared a couple of weeks ago about playing

music in the neatest place with the nicest people.

I promised to share some photos.

Well, here's a picture of

The Foxfire stage.

Wednesday evening is pickers night.

Anyone who wants to can come and play.

Any kind of music.

We take turns and we also sing and play together

(My favorite part is blending everyone together. It can

get pretty crowded up there sometimes.)

We're building a wonderful camaraderie.  

We' re supposed to go tomorrow eve.

My 6 year old grand daughter has caught on to the chorus 

of one of my new songs and will be singing it with me some time.

That will be a special time for us for sure!

Here's Emmy Lou singing it if you'd like to watch and listen.

I didn't take pictures about the place. It's a small,

intimate gathering and I didn't want to disturb anyone.

There's a restaurant also.

It's only seasonal. 

There are two rooms to it and they both have

 garage doors opening to the outside. 

It's all very unique with rustic decor, wonderful owners, 

sweet waitresses and delicious food!

And the scenery is breathtaking.

It really is a fun place to spend a summer's evening.

It's a mix of locals and travelers.

My little dog... A heartbeat at my feet~

Edith Wharton

That would be Liberty. 

She is really the sweetest dog and so sensitive.

She hugs ..she smiles.

And is very obedient.

(Except she sneaks cat food now and then ;)

Here I am taking a break from my morning

watering and outside work 

and there lies my faithful companion.

Every now and then, I lay her comforter on my bed

and we have a snuggle time. She gets a caramel cream candy and

then takes a nap while I read or rest.

 Lovely lilies..

They're all sunshiney for me even when it's cloudy.

 Some  flower container fun.

Yard sales and thrift stores are a great place to find 

unusual pots for your flowers.

I found this one for a dollar!

Hmmm... 

Here is a purple coneflower that I rescued from the ground

after a little kangaroo rat chewed it off. It was his last dirty deed as

we live-trapped him. He was eating away at my flowers..

Quite quickly I might add! 

(He was released by the Little Colorado River also..

So he/she and the bunnies are now neighbors :)

And, as you can see, there was a small eight-legged passenger.

Critters .. critters everywhere!

That's just one of my favorite things about gardening.

All the new friends one makes :)

Speaking of friends, I've been thinking of our Piglet, Eyore and Roo

a lot lately. It's been a year since we turned them loose back into the wild.

 About 10 days old..

Their eyes weren't even open yet.

Such sweetness.

About 4 weeks..

We miss them a lot and wonder how they're doing.

They're in a bunny paradise by the Little Colorado River.

We released them at 6 weeks. 

 I've been collecting petals all summer long.

I've filled a jar on my dresser and now they're overflowing all over

the top of it. They're just as beautiful as they dry.

I can't bear to throw them out.

Two of my favorite colors together. 

Pink and yellow.

I'm working on a beaded bracelet combining these two colors 

then adding some bronze to that.

Nature is so generous with her beauty and the inspiration that flows 

from mingling with her is boundless!

I hope that you're enjoying your summer.

Oh my..

So much to take in on a daily basis. 

We are so Rich Rich Rich...

in so many ways.

I hope that you feel it, too.

It's beyond amazing to live this life.

I understand there are trials and sorrows, too.

I could go on about that. 

You might be surprised, Dear friend.

Do you think that sometimes, tho, it's the ones that

have lost the most that celebrate all the more?

Something to ponder.

Have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious week! 

Maybe we could all use a little more

of "Mary Poppins' " magic 

in our day. 

Hugs and blessings..

Tamara

This Gypsy's Early Morning 'Air Frais' Devotions ~

 It's 6:30 AM and I'm being called outside..

It's my gypsy heart that says

"Come on! Let's meet with the early morning. We can greet Him and the sun

with fresh energy and an open heart to begin the day."

The air is cool and smells of pine needles that blanket the ground under my feet.

One of those scents that I wish that I could bottle and save forever.

 I start a fire and the wood is damp from the rain..

the smoke billows and as it rises, assumes the form of the rays of the sun 

as they shine through the trees.

 I light the candles. 

 I have a little jar of dried flowers that I've saved to bring out as a

small offering of my gratitude for all the beauty that surrounds me and the 

blessings that abound in my life.

 There's a breeze but the candle in the wind burns strong..

I sit quietly and with a thankful heart. I think about God's faithfulness and the

the goodness of the earth and the richness of my life.

 There's just something so serene and reverent about being among the trees.  

It's as if every negative and stressful thought just seems to roll off and disappear

and peace rolls in like a slow moving train.

Steady and strong and sure.

It's the perfect place. 

For me.

I've always been that way. As a young girl, I would roam 

the hills and woods for hours at a time.

Rain... snow or  sunshine..

Beauty and blessings..

Every moment of every day.

They're always there.

Words from one of my favorite worship songs called 

All the Earth

All the earth will declare 
That Your love is everywhere 
The fields will exalt seas resound 
Hear the trees' joyful cry 
Praising You and so will I

You can listen to it here

Perfect illumination..

******************************

The AZ monsoons have started and the skies have been beautiful

all dressed in their layers of fluffy ruffles.

My flowers are loving the summer rains..

Colorful fabrics all washed and ready for projects!

I was so excited to find this little stack of joy at the flea for a dollar a yard.

Bliss~

I've been thinking pillows since I brought this fun fabric home!

They would look so festive with the white pom pom trim that I just ordered

from Wal-Mart. It was a GREAT price. I was going to share it with you but it's no

longer available at that price. But I found another source here

that sells 12 yards of 1 1/8" trim for $16. 

I love pom poms... and lace and seam binding...... ;)

Do you have a favorite trim?

Wishing you a wonderful week and 

many thanks for coming by!

TAMARA xo

Thrifted Box Altered With A Bit of Romance

Hello everyone and welcome to my world of thrifting!

In this world of  discarded and unwanted items,

you never know what you may find to re-love

or make good use of. 

Isn't it fun?

Here is  a suitcase type box that my husband 

brought home for me. He's always looking.

Here's what they looked like. Actually, I only primed and 

altered one. I kind of liked them in their original state and

was a little unsure of changing them at all.

But I had the idea for at least one.

And I'm glad I did it. I'll tell you why a little later in the post.

After using the primer, I painted the box with my favorite color.

Vintage White.

What's your favorite color to work with?

The box needed a handle so I glued a nut onto the box and a 

vintage button onto the nut.

This is the back.

Do you love adding details and extras?

I do.

I made a muslin pocket for the inside and added a few embellishments.

And then I made a little tag to tuck inside the pocket.

It was one of my favorite projects so far.

At the Independence Day craft show, the old sheet music

caught a ladies eye.

She said she was a musician and loved the box.

She wanted to buy it.

She thanked me over and over again

and said that it made her day.

That's one of the reasons that I love doing this.

When the beauty of what we make touches someone's

heart, it's a blissful feeling, isn't it?

As I'm sure you figured out, that's the reason that I'm

glad that I followed my heart and altered the box!

I hope you're having a wonderful week.

I've had some hard things to deal with this week.

Some hurtful things. I'm learning not to let people

take advantage of me though. I'm learning late in my life

the value of me. I used to thing that that was selfish

and wrong.  But I've been learning in the last couple 

of years that it's healthy and right to take care of myself.

Heart...mind..body and soul.

It's been freeing and I feel that the ways I look at myself are

more healthy than they've every been! 

I wish those things for you as well.

Don't be afraid to give but don't be afraid to put yourself first

sometimes or to see yourself as important and lovely!

Because you are.

Lovely...

Full of grace and beauty. 

~Love~

Remember, you can't love others until you love yourself first. 

Thank you and be blessed.

Tamara XO

Joining the party at
Share Your Cup Thursday