This morning as I was eating my blueberry pancakes, I realized that I was SO not dressed interestingly enough to meet such a gorgeous day. {I was dressed for work in a long sleeved t-shirt and jeans.} So I ran upstairs and changed into a maroon ruffled peasant blouse and a black velvet vest and put tiny glittery clips in my hair. I snipped a perfect hydrangea blossom off the bush by our porch on the way to work and stuck it in my backpack, and then I felt ready for whatever magic the day might bring. ps: happy birthday, Trish!

Went chalking this morning: "But if you have nothing to create, then perhaps you can create yourself," from Carl Jung. It reminds me of when I was in middle school and didn't fit in — I didn't know how to be popular, I didn't know how anything about fashion, I didn't know how to talk to boys; the only thing I knew how to be was myself. Luckily, I stuck with what I knew and the rest of the world caught up to me. (hee hee hee) I'm happy to be a late bloomer. Plans for this morning: making blueberry pancakes and watching Sesame Street before work. Telly just played "In A Gadda Da Vida" on the tuba. I don't like the new format of the show (okay, I hate it), but at least I know that at 7:30 every morning I'm guaranteed to see Ernie.

Surefire proof that talent runs in the family: here's a screencap from the latest movie of my godson, Joey, Jedi in training: My brother did all the sounds, created the little robot, and of course, made the lightsaber. I wish I could post the movie, but it's too big and I don't have the bandwidth for all that downloading. For now, you'll hafta just imagine. It's simply fantastic. As Joey says, "Just like Yoda!" They're probably just about the same height, too. In other exciting news: I was listed as one of SARK's "websight" resources in her August e-newsletter (the theme this month is Living Juicy)! I have to write a nice thank you letter. Right away. Yow.

You're Nut, the goddess of the sky. You have blue skin and stars all across your body. Pardon the pun, but you're pretty spacey.
What Egyptian Deity are you? go to:the quiz! {found this from Ubiquitous Pixie.} Today I'm going home to watch my little sister Mary's graduation as it's webcast from Arizona State University. And one final note: there are now 13 shopping days till my birthday, 7 more days until our 5-year wedding anniversary, and 29 more days until Paul's birthday. It's a beautiful month.

I get so inspired by new stuff others are doing... Alex has a gorgeous new layout here and a new site here and Claire has comments now (yay!). Although it seems like I've been awful quiet lately, I've been very busy....there are some very exciting creations in the works that you'll be quite happy with. I promise.

Hot dog! The new Harmonytryx CD is out and I can finally show off my artwork! And lest anyone forget, I'm on 5 songs and helped arrange one more. You can check it out for yourself here. I was an extremely proud member of the group for about 7 years or so, and I'm so glad to be a part of this. And tomorrow I'm going to be seeing the girls as they open for Ray Charles! {And if you're in NJ, there are still tickets available!} I'm so amazingly happy for them!

I had a humongous list of all the great and exciting things I was going to do my website this summer, beginning with a grand redesign. Every time I would start on something else, I'd stop myself because I hadn't planned out the redesign yet. So I finally started working on the redesign, and I realized something important: I love my site just the way it is. I'm not ready to overhaul it yet, not until I come up with an unpressured, fully toasty design that really makes me warm and happy inside. And I don't want to hold up all the rest of the nifty things I want to do, waiting for that to happen. When it's right, it'll be right. I need to trust my instincts on this one. I did a poll a while ago asking the Loyal Readers what they liked and didn't like. {The most common respose was to stop opening things in a new window.} The other responses all said, "More art, please!" and "More writing, please!" and "When the heck are you going to post your HOW section?" So I'm going to concentrate on just that. More art, more inspiration, and more about french toast. The rest will come when it's time.

I don't get this. I just walked downtown to get a scoop of ice cream. One scoop. So I go into the shop and ask how much it is for one scoop, in a cup. It's $2.25, no matter what flavor I get, in a cup, or in a cone. "For one scoop?" I ask. The guy behind the counter says yep. So I say, sure, I'll get a cone of peanut butter ripple ice cream with one scoop of ice cream for $2.25. What the heck. I just want a taste. He proceeds to jam three huge scoops on top of this cone, wraps the bottom with a napkin and hands it to me. "This," I say, gesturing with the cone, "is ONE SCOOP?" Yep, apparently so. It's not one, it's three, and it's two more than I wanted or needed. It's 96 degrees out, and by this time everything is melting. I lick off my hand and give him the $2.25. Next time, I'm going to vault over the counter and show him what one scoop means, i.e., you stick the scoop in the ice cream, scoop some up, once, place it in a cup, and you're done. Either that or hand him a dollar and a cup and ask him to fill'er up for a dollar's worth. It was great ice cream, though.

Just got back from wonderful D.C., home of the free museums and clean-and-easy-to-use subways. We tooled around and visited lots of exciting stuff, including the Natural History museum, where I was able to watch my favorite movie. It's cheesy, old, and absolutely delightful. We asked in vain at the giftshops for some CHON t-shirts; they didn't have a clue what we were talking about. I saw it at least 3 times and sang along. This describes it pretty well. We also giggled a lot at the new and really cool John Paul II Cultural Center — it's interactive, and we got a little crazy in the Gallery of Imagination. I firmly believe that God the Creator loves it when you get creative. We stood on line for ages to get into the amazing Treasures of Egypt exhibit {totally worth it}, whirled through the National Geographic headquarters, visited the planetarium at the Air and Space Museum {quoting Homer Simpson: "What do you mean, there's no air in space? There's an Air In Space Museum, isn't there?"} hung out in Union Station, went to Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where there's lots of beautiful artwork featuring different countries' depictions of Mary — very cool — and got to visit with Paul's school buddies. As if that weren't enough, we also visited the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and saw a free concert and a dance recital going on, seperately, on our way to dinner. We didn't get to visit the newly opened International Spy Museum... I think we packed enough into 2½ days for this trip. That'll hafta wait for next time. {phew.}

I just read this book: "Anatomy of a Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers" on our camping trip. It's all about the sneaky and amazing ways flowers adapt to get what they want: namely, to get pollenated. It was really a fantastic read, and talked about the titan arum, the "world's biggest and stinkiest flower". Nature is so cool.

I have been listening to some mighty interesting music lately. In addition to the usual lunacy, I've been singing along to gems from these electronic geniuses: The Moog Cookbook: A cover band that pays homage to that great instrument of the 70's, the Moog synthesizer. Listen to their awesomely playful renditions of "Black Hole Sun" and "25 or 6 to 4" (my faves). They're addictive. The Minibosses: It's hard to get cooler than this. They cover background music from Nintento 64 games. The music was a lesson in composition simplicity, due to the limited instruments available on the soundcard. Darn catchy little tunes. My fave: the Kraid/Metroid theme. {ps ~ they're not the only ones out there that do this, but 90% of any mp3's you look for on this theme will be credited to them. Just enjoy.} The Laziest Men on Mars: Famous for "All Your Base Are Belong To Us", you'll also want to check out "The Terrible Secret of Space". Complete with video. Do you have stairs in your house?

This weekend was spent camping in the great outdoors! Did I mention that the great outdoors also happens to be bear country? High Point is a great place to camp, but all food has to be hidden from the black bears that live in the area. “Hidden” means in the trunk of the car, and making dinner gets to be an ordeal as the cooler is never supposed to be visible. Bears who see it in the backseat of the car have been known to rip the car apart to get to the food. We saw all kinds of wildlife on our trip; cows, horses, cats, dogs, three groundhogs/woodchucks, a rabbit, deer, and one very persistent little mouse who kept nosing his way around our campfire in the hopes we’d dropped some food, but thankfully, NO bears, despite the warning from the rangers that there had already been several “incidents” that weekend. We did have absolutely gorgeous weather, polite neighbors, and a view of the shimmering lake. And the most important thing – lots of marshmallows and books to read around the campfire to each other.

According to my SARK calendar, today is Sidewalk Chalk Day! So naturally, I went out this morning and did my chalking thing. Today's quote: "The greatest achievements were at first, and for a time, dreams. The oak sleeps in the acorn." (by James Allen). So then I wanted to draw a circle, put some acorns in it, and write, "Take one..... dream big." Only those squirrels had sucked the park dry; there wasn't an acorn to be found! So I had to content myself with drawing an acorn instead. If you do have acorns around you, feel free to use this when you go on your chalking adventure!

I find this just fascinating. It's a site about the nature and origin of symbols. Paul and I have this symbol carved on the inside of our wedding rings.

happy i yam all on a new day happy i yam people and flowers are one and the same all in a chain at the beginning of a new world someone's singing and i think it's me... someone's painting and i think it's me... someone's living and oh gosh it's me... ~ "someone singing" by Donovan

Paul and I went out at 7:30 this morning and picked raspberries in our front yard, and had raspberries and crunchy granola out on the porch this morning. {Yum.} Our garden is joyously flowering, and soon we'll have more zucchini and pumpkins and tomatoes than we can handle. And yesterday the broad expanse of dirt we call a yard finally got seeded... I can't wait to walk across the new grass with my bare feet. As Bobby McFerrin said, "I am so happy/Simple pleasures are the best."

We spent a lot of yesterday at the town pool, watching the incredibly long line of kids waiting to try out the two new slides they just put in. Sitting next to me was a family with 2 kids under 10, 2 women of mom age, and a man in his 40's who was clearly mentally disabled. Eventually everyone but the man got up, and he began talking to himself, making comments about the water, how hot it was, the fact that he was hungry. I pretended I was asleep because I was really tired and wanted to relax, not make conversation, but I felt a twinge about doing it.... he was literally 3 feet away from me. When it came time for the family to leave, they packed up all their stuff, and then struck up a conversation with an friend the mother had run into. The women completely ignored the man, who was hanging hopefully on the fringe of the group. The children tried to ignore him too, turning their backs to him and peering into each other's eyes, comparing who's were redder from the chlorine in the pool. "Let me see," said the man to the little boy. "Oh, you're just fine," he reassured him. "How would you know, you moron?" asked the girl derisively, turning away. The man put his hand on the boy's shoulder, but the boy brushed him off and ran away too. "But you're my buddy," said the man to himself. "You're my little buddy." It just about broke my heart. What would it have cost me before, just to give a smile, a nod, to say. "Yep, you're right. It is really hot!" A conversation that might have made someone feel like he belonged, just for a minute?

Here, as promised, are the many more details about meeting SARK. {Warning: it's looooooonnnnnng!}

This weekend's chalking: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." {Eleanor Roosevelt} As always, I went undetected... well, by humans, anyway. The squirrels seem to like it.

I'm back. Exhausted, exhilarated, uplifted. Manymanymany more details will be coming, but I can say this: I met the delightfully zany SARK. And she already knew who I was. How's that for excitement? ps ~ if you're reading this and I met you last night, either for the first time or just for the first time face to face, it was wonderful to see you. Hope you had as much fun as I did.

Another day of excitement... I'm going to see SARK tonight with my wonderful Mom!!! I'm bringing: a camera, a copy of my favorite SARK book {Inspiration Sandwich}, bubbles, and a small bucket of chalk to give to her as a thanks for all her inspiring ways. Am I giddy and a little star-struck? You betcha!

This really gets me steamed.

SO excited.... I just put the package containing the artwork for the CD I've been working on in the FedEx box. Soon it will be winging its way to New York, where it will be pressed and printed and become a real CD. {My voice and my art will be on it!} On the way back from the box I picked a sprig of Queen Anne's Lace growing wild and tucked it into my hair as I sashayed back to work. Think it's a coincidence that it's Succulent Woman Day today? Oh, I think not....

Today is Succulent Woman Day {according to my SARK calendar}! suc·cu·lent (suk'-yoo-lent) adj. 1. Full of juice or sap; juicy. 2. Botany. Having thick, fleshy, water-storing leaves or stems. 3. Highly interesting or enjoyable; delectable Thanks to all of you who are the living version of #3. I'm glad you're a part of my life.

Yahoo and hooray, I'm back from vacation. I read, slept, read, hiked, read outside, painted, slept... well, you get the picture. It took me a couple of days to loosen up {of a couple of bad paintings} and do a few fun and good ones. We saw in the Solstice at 5 am, on the dock at the lake, watching the sun come up, and greeted the Summer with all the birds, fish, and dragonflies around us. After all this nature, it's going to be kind of a shock to sit in front of a computer all day today... maybe I can slip away at lunch for a walk or something.

Thanks to all who wrote a nice note, I'm feeling better. I need to refocus on my art, which is why I'm taking a week away from the computer to paint and read and do yoga and just be with my hubby. {I promise to scan in stuff when I get back.} So in the meantime, enjoy the rest of the site. ps ~ Today I was linked to at Dress Up Games... if you haven't played dressup with the French Toast Girl, now's your chance.

Feeling rather down about art, design, other people's opinions of it, and web pages in general. Any cheery thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I am really digging this new John Mayer song, "No Such Thing": "I'd like to think the best of me Is still hiding Up my sleeve They love to tell you Stay inside the lines But something's better On the other side..."

My day started off just right this morning — with yoga and french toast. Plan on repeating tomorrow and as many days after that as I can manage. It's funny; I've been talking for so long about starting up yoga again and have been doing so sporadically, and just as I was about to heave another sigh of I-really-have-to-get-my-act-together-ness, Paul comes home with 2 yoga mats, bricks, straps, and orders us this DVD with multiple workouts on it. I stopped in mid-sigh, surprised out of it. Instead of thinking about it, he just did it. And planned for the two of us to do it together too. I joke about "butt-kicking for goodness" as my battle cry, but sometimes when I need a butt-kick to get me back on track, Paul's example gets me there.

Something really annoying happened to me today where I was exposed to rude, inconsiderate behavior. I wouldn't even mention it except for the fact that I was proud of my reaction — I behaved politely and professionally, and I stood up for myself. In the past I would have been a wimp and agreed with everything the other person said because I could maybe see their side of it too. I can still see their side, but when people get caught in some wrong-doing they try to laugh it off, and I wasn't going to laugh along just to make her feel better. {Note: this was not office related. Work is groovy.} The evening took a much nicer turn when I went over to a friend's to sing. We're not certain what just yet; we just enjoy the singing together part of it. {Luckily she can play the piano, since my piano repertoire is limited to "Martha My Dear" and various other Beatles songs; "My Cherie Amour"; and the ever-popular "Fish Heads".} In any case, harmony ensued and I had a wonderful time.

What Jelly Belly flavor are you? I'm — Find your flavor here!

This is actually not too much of a surprise, since I just bought shampoo with the delightful name of "Tangerine Tickle." The marketing folks got it just right: I bought it for the name {and the fact that it was 97¢!}. Where else can you find something that cheap that puts a grin on your face? This is going to have to get added to the toasty list, because it's waaaaaay under $20. linkage: Today Paul McCartney weds again. Good for them.

This weekend Paul and I went out for bagels and noticed the girl behind the counter had a brightly-colored card pinned to her shirt above her name tag. Being super nosy friendly, I asked her about it. It was a coupon for a free hug. "Yeah, the hug lady comes in every weekend and makes sure each one of us has one on. It's supposed to remind us to be courteous and friendly towards everyone we come into contact with today." How amazing is that?! They don't even know her name, they just call her the hug lady; and apparently we missed her by 5 minutes. I have a plan to lay in wait to meet her and to give her a hug.

The recitals are done! DONE, I tell you! I did the woo-hoo-recitals-are-done-dance last night, which looked something like this {click on "Who's Your Daddy" and you've got it}. Tonight we're partying with the other teachers and their spouses. I'm a little down that it's the same night that Beatlemania is coming to town, and I really wanted to go. The only time I've ever seen them was in college, when Heidi and I sat right in front and danced to EVERY song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Paperback Writer"; you name it, we danced to it. We impressed the guy playing John so much that he jumped down off the stage to dance with us to "Lady Madonna", all dressed in his Sergeant Pepper uniform.

from a GREAT book I'm reading right now: "For God is anything but sterile, and 'the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man.' I want God to be foolish. I want being-in-God to invovle a certain amount of Dionysian giggling, rude snorts, pennywhistles piping through woods where there are bonfires blazing and figures leaping in very ancient dances. Maybe others want God to be black-and-white, a figure of neat divisions and clear-cut law, but I want God to be in flagrant swirling Technicolor. I have seen what it is to be a Very Good Girl, and I'm not sure that's what God's goodness is like. I think maybe God's goodness has a fair streak of mischief. Or so I hope." ~ from Angels & Dragons: Of Sorrow, God and Healing by Molly Wolf

Night 3 of 5 piano recitals It's one of those "I'm up for a challenge, bring it on!" kind of days. I think it's because I started my day with a complete nutritious breakfast, which consisted of french toast with strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and fresh-picked-right-out-of-my-garden-two-minutes-ago strawberries; and a cup of tea with fresh mint leaves, also of the f-p-r-o-o-m-g variety. {Insert huge contented sigh here.} Wearing a sundress and picking strawberries on a sunshiny morning can't help but put me in a good mood. The only thing that would have made it better would be to eat breakfast with my husband. Or to have him play some nice piano breakfast music to eat french toast by. That would work too. ps: the illustration above, which has nothing to do with strawberries, is for the song "Harmony Tricks". Paul wrote the music, I did all the illustrations. Creating books together is pretty fun.

Last night I was talking with one of Paul's adult students about Beatles records and what the B-side was to "Yesterday." {Never mind that I wasn't born at the time, I know this stuff.} He pointed out that most kids today don't have a clue what a B-side is! Okay, his kids know, but they're the exception. Then this morning I heard that the new edition of the American Heritage Dictionary is adding in some new words, but one of the ones they're taking out is "record-changer." How sad.

Tomorrow night is the first of many piano recital nights! There are so many adult students that they have the first night all to themselves; and then the following nights will be a mixture of all ages of kids for the rest of the week. It means we have manymany nights of dressing up, taking pictures, clapping enthusiastically, and slicing up ice cream cake. We've gotten it down to a science: where to take the best photos, how to hand out programs, when to take the cake out so it's sliceable but not melted, how to make sure it gets eaten. I'm really looking forward to the whole thing. And I'm also looking forward to the end of the whole thing, because that means summer's officially started and I get waaaaaaaay more Paul hours of the day. More Paul = a good thing. While Paul's printing programs and setting up chairs, I've been under self-imposed house arrest to finish up the CD cover. So far I've done the front cover painting and two versions of the back cover to try out. {So far, so good!} It's funny; I always need to do multiple versions and then I almost always pick the first one I came up with. I think this is some kind of throwback to college, where we had to bring in 50 thumbnails of a project to show we had thought it through. It never hurts, I guess. When I was in my senior portfolio class, we had a summer assignment to come up with 100 prospective logos for your letterhead, resume, portfolio — by the first day of class I only could come up with 97 but I hoped that would probably be okay. Apparently, I was the only one who actually did anywhere near that many; most of the class did 20! Oh well, I've always been a teacher-pleaser. Anyway, the winning logo for me was somewhere in the 50's, so I guess it was a good idea. {Incidentally, the class picked it out as being the one that most represented me, and it was the little girl with braids over there on the right who became french toast girl over the years.}

Updates aplenty at french toast girl. Read about why why I've had an amazingly, astoundingly, blessed life, and check out the latest updates to my year-long Learning project.

I'm on my way out to the art store to get a new Rapidograph {or its like}, since my old one is all dry. I was explaining to my husband how I need to take the pen apart, run it under hot water while keeping a careful eye out for any teeny parts that might end up down the drain, and hope that would do the trick. If not, I'd need to run out and go shopping for a new one. He said to buy a couple of spares first so that I could get started as soon as I got home, and clean the old pen later; and then he said, very seriously: "The quality or availability of your art supplies should not be keeping you from making good art. Go out and get your pens." Well, of course. This is why he is the entrepeneur extraordinaire; I would have spent half the night trying to clean out an ancient pen or seeing what markers I had that might pass muster, instead of doing it right the first time. I can picture a split-screen in my mind: on the left, frustrated and ink-splattered Elena is washing out a pen with a 000 nib to no avail. Then she runsrunsruns around the studio, trying out markers, desperately wanting them to be waterproof, knowing they weren't last night but hoping something magical happened between then and now that will make them work this time. At 9pm, she runs to the art store and is too tired to do any work when she gets back..... On the right side of the screen: Elena, happily drinking tea and with The Simpsons on in the background {don't laugh — this is how I work}, is inking and painting up a storm. Her biggest problem is remembering not to dunk the brush in the tea. Of course he's right; I just was {wrongly} obsessed with the idea of cleaning my pen rather than actually doing work. I could choose the right side of the screen every time if only I would plan a little.

Question: why is it that when I have the time {i.e., 3 days off from work}, I'm so darn exhausted that all I want to do is sleep? I had all these great things planned and the only thing I painted was the living room! I wanted to be watercolouring, paint flying everywhere, and all I really got good at was falling asleep in mid-read. Darn. I had this total craving for scones, looked up recipes, got all the ingredients out on the counter, and then realized I was too tired to follow through and make them, so I put everything away and took a nap. Darn. It's not like this weekend was a waste, I just wish I felt better and stronger and had gotten done what I set out to do. If I don't have the energy on a 3-day weekend; how am I s'posed to have the energy after a full day at work? {sigh.} At least I didn't say any of the forbidden words....

How's this for interesting? Someone left a little doll dressed as Little Red Riding Hood sitting in our front garden! Heidi just said it wasn't her, so we're not sure how she got there. Hmmmm.... Saw the new Star Wars movie; Yoda's kick-butt maneuvers made up for the boring and tepid love story. The whole audience was cheering and screaming for him. I just wanna know one thing: who was doing Amidala's hair when she was away from all her attendants and on Tatooine? R2?

In just a few minutes we're on our way out the door to watch the Memorial Day parade. We're lucky enough to be right off the main street in town, so all we have to do is wander down to the end with a cup of coffee and go hang out until we see the first marchers approaching. There's something so special and sweet about a town parade; it's not perfect and polished, but you do get to see the girl scouts and boy scouts and the high school band, and anyone who has an interesting or antique car, and the first aid squad, and the snow plows {they always get huge applause}. We shout and clap and wave to the firemen and policemen, and Paul's students, and everyone who's been practicing their instruments for just such an occasion. Then you head on home, chatting to your neighbors who are wheeling their kids behind them in a little wagon, and contemplate what you're going to do with the rest of your day. And today, especially, you're a little more contemplative.

I need:

to do some serious painting this weekend

to play outside with my husband

to eat large quantities of strawberries

to not use the following words: powerpoint, template, interface

to not wear shoes

to dance around to James Brown

to do some chalking

to read my big bunch of library books

to nap

I also need to do laundry, paint the living room, and help get ready for recitals, but I'm sure I can squish them in somewhere between strawberry-eating and James Brown.

Nice news all over the place: today's the debut of my new faery skirt! Unfortunately, nobody in the office seems to have brought their digital cameras so the fashion show will just hafta wait for another day. On the homefront: everything is all planted, and a family of housefinches is building a nest in one of the geranium hanging baskets on our porch. This will be the third or fourth year they've done this; it's a little hard on the geranium but they're quite adorable — we call them "the peeps" because you can always hear when the babies are hungry! Did I mention that at the park there are 16 baby ducklings and 4 goslings? Darnit, they're cute. And after work today, Krystyna and I have a date to go out for gelato. I am SO ready for summer. linkage for a happy day: Spend some musical time here and with your headphones on. Some extremely dedicated fans with way too much time on their hands assembled a list of every wacky little Beatles anomaly you can think of. Example: in "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" George and John substitute their own lyrics; when Paul sings "Desmond lets the children lend a hand", George yells out, "Foot!" while John calls out, "Arm!"

And now, in the careful what you wish for department: I said yesterday I couldn't think of anything to be fearless about. Now there are terror warnings for NY for this weekend, and I have to give a presentation in NY on Friday morning. I'm not overly thrilled about this. It's not that I think an office building would be any kind of target, it's the Holland Tunnel that I'm a little concerned about. I'll be fine, I just don't have to like it. I've been very satisfied with the level of work I've been getting done, both at work and in personal projects. Sometimes it seems that you trudge along and are working on the same thing forever and ever and ever; but I'm finally seeing real progress in a lot of my work. My skirt of fairy material is just waiting to be hemmed, I'll probably be doing the final cover painting for the Harmonytryx CD this weekend, and most of my garden is all planted. At work I'm doing projects that require my design perspective and it's fun coming up with new solutions. I bought a journal just for work and it's been helping me keep all my sketches in one place.

There's been a whole lot of planting going on... finally, the garden beds have been made up and the seeds are in! We planted tomato and basil plants, and pumpkins, gourds, zucchini, spinach, and sweet peas from seed. I've been soaking morning glory seeds and will be planting those today; we have a lamppost outside that it'll look lovely twined around. There's something wonderful about staring at these beds of dirt that hold the promise of things to come. Last night was Movie Night at work, we watched Strictly Ballroom {my pick!} and afterwards, I gave my co-workers a cha-cha lesson. I was told to go home and brush up for another one, so today it'll be the rhumba. The theme of the movie: A vivir con miedo es como a vivir medias {A life lived in fear is half-lived}. I'm trying to think of something fearless I can do today, but nothing comes to mind... I guess I'll just have a fearless attitude and see what comes my way.

a thought for today... If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring. He sends you a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He listens. He can live anywhere in the universe, but He chose ... your heart. God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way. ~ from the Postcard Fairy board, posted by Trish ps ~ I could use a little light for the way right about now.

The stupidest darn things are making me get weepy: Ernie on Sesame Street this morning singing "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon;" a retrospective on Princess Grace, one of Paul's students playing "Good Night My Angel"; and something so stupid I heard on the radio that I don't even remember what it was. I don't get it.... chalk it up to the 75-degree, incredibly rainy weather. On the artsy side: delivering sketches for that CD cover today... it's gonna be a really fun project. Actually, there's a very slight possibility that I'm singing somewhere on this CD too, but regardless, I'm really excited about being a part of it.

A ladybug landed on my butt today. That's the whole story. We laughed about it at work, saying that it sounded like the first line of a Shel Silverstein poem. No, I didn't sit on it; we thought it was some very scary-looking spot on my khakhis until I reached down and it climbed onto my fingers and flew away. Apparently my behind makes a more than ample landing strip when you're a ladybug. I hear that having a ladybug land on you is good luck; I guess it doesn't really matter where it lands. Anyone who wants to write me a ladybug poem is encouraged to send it to me here. Woo hoo! Now that my comments are back up, feel free to leave a poem there if the mood strikes.

From the french toast girl journal...{the real one, it's leather-bound and looks like Indiana Jones's dad's Grail diary; a mixture of sketches and thoughts} This is exactly what my hair looks like with 100% humidity. You who know me know this look and know it well. The next day was really windy, so by comparison I had to draw my hairstyle for the day: The note accompanying it says, "kinda like the Princess Leia look only with aqua beads in my hair too." Today: it's tied back in a ponytail with two blue beads, one at the base of my neck and another 2 inches down. Brandy wore her hair last night that way on Moesha, and of course, it looks 9 zillion times better on her but at least it's out of my face. More about my love/hate relationship with my hair can be found here.

6 random things about me:

1. I think that the bass guitar on "Band on the Run" is flat. I just listened to it with the bass cranked up, which leads me to believe that either they tweaked it for the digitally remastered version, or the speakers of every system I've ever heard it through in the past are faulty. Maybe it was really humid when they recorded it.
2. The quickest way to annoy the graphic snob in me is to use the inch mark instead of proper curly quotes. {note: this doesn't count for web pages, just printed material.}
3. The quickest way to my graphic snob's heart is to use ligatures. {sigh.} I've never forgiven Quark for not enabling them for the PC.
4. If I had a theme song, it would be "Bein' Green", with Stevie Wonder singing "Hold On to Your Dream" in a close second.
5. I have relative pitch and can hum middle C before playing it on the piano 95% percent of the time.

Tonight the plan is to actually work on new projects! In the works:

a CD cover for an incredibly talented a cappella group some of you might have heard of {who I used to sing with...}. Painting for yourself is all very well and good, but it's nice to do it for a reason.

a family portrait of three very sweet little girls

another CD cover that's for a contest; I won't win, but it'll be fun to do it anyway

my online artshow showcasing talented creators from all over, which I plan to get together this summer... I am writing up the specs now and will send them out just as soon as my email will allow {it's being mischevious again!}

redesigning my website... frenchtoastgirl is getting a major overhaul for its 3rd birthday this July! Somewhere in the midst of all this will be me, perched in my Tower Room of a studio, surrounded by paper and brushes and markers and glitter and loving it all...

Today's entry starts with a song {sung to the tune of "La Cucaracha"}: I got a Hand-spring! I got a Hand-spring! La la la la la la la.... To help me in the almighty pursuit of organization, I now am the proud owner of a Handspring Visor Neo. It's smoke-colored. It's see-through. It lights up at night so that when inspiration strikes me at 2am, I can scribble down my ideas without getting out of bed {already done this} or waking up my hubby. This is part one of the great plan {see 4/9} to sell my artwork: get organized. I have a list of promotional websites, a big to do list, and my little address book, and it's all right there in the palm of my hand. cool programs: Sketch Pad lets you sketch and doodle right on the screen! Ebony/Ivory plays the piano on your Hanspring or Palm. Lists one of its uses as "impressing young children." Ring tones changes your alarm to Beatles songs or the highly coveted Inspector Gadget theme song {my personal fave}.

Artgirl to the rescue! Friendly neighborhood artgirl uses the color wheel of goodness to cut looming projects down to size. Although her ponytails have been registered as lethal weapons, she prefers to kill with kindness. Secret identity: mild-mannered chalk-carrying, magic-wand-toting Art Director Élena. linkage: Get yer own Superhero here Check out my company's Justice League

This weekend I painted a lot, did some walking, helped with a downtown street fair, knitted, met a baby rabbit in the park by being verrrrrrry quiet, and planted a mini herb spiral. {I learned about it from Loobylu.} Mine is much smaller, about 3 feet across, and I only have three types of herbs planted in it so far, but darnit, it looks neat when you get the aerial view from the porch. Paul and I had fun planning out the rest of the garden, which should come into being any day now. This year, as we have more garden space, Paul is finally going to get his sincere pumpkin patch. linkage: I found this guide to making your own "do-it-yourself beauty solutions." The leave-in conditioner for dry hair requires a handful each of rosemary and mint... which I just happen to have in my little herb spiral. Neato. ps: we had to skip the bike ride, as Paul was sick. This means I'm lame, but I had an excuse.

I had a dream last night that I was doing the Farmlands Flat Tour {it's tomorrow}. I was taking a break, all sweaty and disheveled and staggering in, while a group of female athletes breezed in, not even breaking a sweat, and laughed at me as they flipped back their perfect ponytails and drank their designer Gatorade. Then they hopped on their bikes and left me in the dust. Can we tell I'm a little overwhelmed by this bike ride? I'm not overweight, but I am woefully out of practice. Paul said we can do the 20 miles at a nice slow pace and take lots of breaks. It's going to take us all day at my pace, but I'm glad he's so supportive. And I really, really need to do this. Really. Maybe I'll bring the camera so I can take pictures of me and all the horses I hope we're going to cycle past.

I believe in little things That you can hardly see Like honeycomb and spider webs and starfish in the sea. I believe in little things Like icy drops of rain That melt into the morning mist When winds are warm again. I believe in little things Like colors in the sky And noticing the waves roll in And how the flowers die. Knowing they'll be back again Whenever it's July. I believe in little things Like you and me, And just how big Little things can be. ~ Joe Raposo, "Little Things" {one of my favorite Sesame Street songs}

I got up extra-early this morning and DID YOGA! Finally! I used to do this program but since September 11th, this was the first time I've even been able to get that station in. All I would watch on that channel was the yoga show, and reruns of Touched by an Angel and Eight is Enough, but darnit, it's still nice to have it back. Every time I passed that channel and got a wall of static it was another reminder of how much things changed. So how do I feel? Sore. But you can betcha I'll be setting the alarm early tomorrow morning too. This brings up a question I asked myself in my journal last week: Why do I keep putting off things I know would be good for me {and that I love}? Like Yoga? How long is it going to take me to sign up for a class again? And why? Why have I still not joined my town's Art Association? Why is my bicycle all tuned up and yet I haven't ridden it this year, except home from the shop? Why is it that I have a gazillion and one great and creative ideas, but I'm too tired to do even a percentage of them?

After an early-morning walk in the park, I picked some tiny purple flowers in our front yard. I don't know what kind they are, in fact, they're probably weeds, but I don't really care; they're pretty. I picked a generous handful and put them in a cobalt glass votive to make a teeny arrangement. Then I brought them upstairs to do a quick watercolour sketch before leaving for work. Giving myself a 15-minute time limit forced me to work loose and splashy and concentrate on my main focus: the deep, velevety colors.

Tonight was the special on Gilda Radner... I waited and waited, and finally at the very end they showed the clip of her singing "Tap Your Troubles Away" on the Muppet Show when she was glued to everything that wasn't nailed down, including Beaker. {Yay.} I did think it was a little off that they interviewed Kermit the Frog, but not Gene Wilder. Hmmmmmmmmm......

Paul and I went to the bookstore recently to stock up on journals — I've decided after my latest success with journaling this week to get a journal devoted only to work. It's black, spiral bound, and of course unlined — I like being unconfined and to have room for lots of sketches if the mood strikes. While we're in the bookstore {because there's no way you can go in for one thing and not wander around for ages} I decided to go see if they had the latest SARK book. They didn't, but they did have her book "Eat Mangoes Naked" so I had to pick it up since I don't have it. I sort of flipped around, and then decided to just open it up anywhere and see what I got. I opened right up to a story about her chalking up the streets in NYC! SARK! Chalking! 3 pages of it! I grabbed Paul and made him read it too. I had a moment right in the store. My other moment came when we left the store and saw the gorgeous full moon smiling at us. We drove home through the park as usual, and Paul wanted to get out and stargaze. So we did! We walked up to the hilltop and tried to find all the planets in alignment. We found Venus {very low in the sky and flickery} but not too much else. The moon was so bright, I could read the little logo label on Paul's windbreaker clear as day. Since Jupiter was aligned with Mars I sang "Age of Aquarius" to them and the moon and Paul. We smooched under the stars.* *{sigh} Shouldn't every journal entry close that way?

Once I asked Mom and Dad for the recipe to make zucchini bread. I was handed a typewritten sheet from Vacation Bible School way back in the 70s. There was writing on the back in Dad's handwriting: Fill radiator. Check squirter. Elena name plate on bike. Play Winnie the Pooh with Elena and Anthony. Also Silly Sandwich. Dad would always write notes to remind himself of things he didn't want to forget. And that included taking the time to play with us. He never worked weekends. He never went on business trips. Working late for him was such a rare occurence that I can only think of 2 or 3 times in my life that he wasn't there at dinner. We, the family, were his number one priority. And it showed. Happy Birthday, Dad. I'm so glad you're mine.

I have been working on an intensive project, one that's going to require a lot of creative input. Anyway, last night I was worried about all the stuff I had to do, but this morning I woke up differently. I decided to open up my journal at 5:30 this morning and started writing. There's a part that could see all this as oppressive, but at the same time, I felt challenged. I noticed there was a spark; a little part in the back of my mind that was just waiting with its arms folded, sitting there with a little "oh, you just WAIT and see what I can do!" smirk. A part of me that says, "Bring it on, baby!" And that's the part of me, the spark, that I am going to honor and celebrate and feed into. And then I proceeded to write and write and sketch and work my way through almost the whole project — things became so clear to me — maybe my subconscious was helping me work on it while I was asleep.

I have an interview on the Creativity Day website, celebrating "Creativity and Innovation Day on April 21st as an inspirational worldwide event." It's a veeerrrrrrrrrrrry cool site. Also, today is St. George's Day. Hug a dragon today!

This weekend I had chalked for Earth Day: "Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." {Albert Einstein} and drew lots of butterflies around it — three little ones and one so huge we nicknamed it "Mothra." So when we got home, I started watching my Saturday morning cartoons and knitting, and I turn on to the middle of an episode of Recess I've never seen before. Spinelli spends two days chalking up the whole playground and all the kids love it. A passing helicopter touches down and a woman from some art association hops out, praising the artwork. Everyone climbs to the top of the jungle gym to have a look at the whole thing. And then — a hose bursts and the whole thing is obliterated. They find Spinelli happily zooming around on her skateboard, who says she doesn't care that it's gone. "It's doing it that was the fun part." The whole message — chalking is art and doing it {making art} is fun was sweet and not lost on me. Especially since at the close of the show, it started to pour outside.

Tis the season to be chalking... there are new chalking adventures on the site!

I’ve posted the revised “Adventures in Chalking” article complete with photos! And from that page you can access 2 brand new chalking adventures: one from Paul’s latest Earth Day project, and one from my Cornerstone weekend in February, both with lots of pictures! Enjoy!

I went to Fabric Land with Heidi and picked out a skirt pattern and this luscious material....All this is because {a} I went shopping recently and was so disappointed in the selection of clothes that were meant for my size {adult} when the clothes I really liked were in the girl's section. I even rather hopefully help up a pair of pink pj's with unicorns up to my waist in the desperate hope that I could squeeze into them... nope. The second reason is {b} that darnit, I'm a creative person, and it's about time I started dressing like one. Faeries are way more interesting — and way more me — than plaid. I got a little extra material to play with... I may even make myself a little bag to hold my magic wand in.

Listening to Donovan today gave me: People walking around, they don't know what they're doing They've been lost so long they don't know what they're looking for Well, I know what I'm looking for but I just can't find it I guess I'd better look inside of myself some more I'm looking, all right... I heard the story yesterday on NPR about this amazing woman who ran the London Marathon in 11 hours. She's 90 years old! I'm 1/3 of her age and it would take me way longer than that. I was so inspired after hearing her story that I had to roll down the window and blow massive amounts of bubbles to the rest of the cars waiting at the stoplights.

I'm a big believer in synchronicity, and today did not disappoint. I've been doing a lot of thinking and planning on marketing my artwork, starting with a line of greeting cards. Today I went on Amazon and was directed to SARK's latest book: Prosperity Pie: How To Relax About Money and Everything Else {not what I had come on the site for} and the excerpt from the book listed this quote: You are enough You have enough You do enough It's true It's true! I could use some relaxation, about money and everything else. Hmmm. {sound familiar? I put this quote in April 9th's blog.}

A trip to the library’s annual book sale {$3 a bag} got me many goodies, including Lake Wobegon Days, Out of Africa, a book of short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Eight Cousins, and my very own copy of Archy and Mehitabel, one of my latest favorite reads. My friend Craig came to visit today {after a trip to my brother's} and we exchanged Christmas presents at last. I was gifted with the White Album {I own all the Beatles’ records, but not CDs} and Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, which I don’t think I’d seen since I was 8. {Beatles and Muppets... so dear to my heart. I’m pretty easy to figure out.} The biggest excitement of the day was that we moved into our new bedroom – all painted, carpeted, and woodstained. The room is lined with windows and when you lie on the bed all you can see are trees and sky and a little piece of house. Now I just need to paint a good picture for over the bed...

This morning was Paul’s 3rd annual Earth Day with his studio. The kids and their parents cleaned up the park, and then they planted a dogwood tree and flowers donated by the studio. We brought coffee, donuts, iced tea, soccer balls and a frisbee, and lots and lots of chalk! I started out by chalking “Adopt the secret of nature: her secret is patience.” {Ralph Waldo Emerson} and asked the kids to draw things they’d find in nature. Well! They drew, flowers, trees, a snowstorm, lightning, a rainbow, bugs, butterflies... you name it! Heidi and Glenn came by and gave us sea creatures – a crab, a whale, and a picture of my ancient goldfish, Archie. It was an exuberant and colorfully joyous celebration of nature that took up a good portion of the path. We sat in the gazebo, finishing off the coffee and watching the happy reactions of the families passing by who discovered the drawings. {Yay!} Pictures will be coming soon...

Paul and I walked in the park this morning, where we had a magical experience... We wandered along our usual route, and there, at the foot of a tree, was a magic wand! It was a branch that was almost completely straight and just lying at the foot of the tree as if someone had placed it there to be found. I pointed out that I already had a magic wand, but Paul needed one. So he wisely decided to take it with him. While we strolled along, we discussed Harry Potter and general lengths of wands, and whether he should trim it {yes} and stain and polyurethane it {yes and yes again}. Not from Ollivanders, but the next best thing. Just a few steps further and we met up with a pair of wild rabbits. They bounded off to investigate a pair of dogs, whose owner was the lady I met on chalking adventure #1 {who wanted to go to grad school}! How serendipitous can you get? She said hi and that the bunnies were very friendly and not afraid of dogs – and truthfully, they did seem more afraid of the two of us than of the 4-foots. On the way home I sang this song: The moon belongs to everyone, The best things in life are free. The stars belong to everyone, They gleam there for you and me. The flowers in spring, the robins that sing, The moonbeams that shine, they're yours, they're mine. And love can come to everyone, The best things in life are free. ~ from the musical "Good News" {1927}

I went to the park after work today – after a bout of inertia – where I decided that it was time to start acting like the artist I am (instead of gathering dust in front of the tv). So I packed up a sketchbook, a set of watercolour pencils my mom bought me in Italy, my journal, and an extra-thick-and-fuzzy hooded sweatshirt and walked on over. I went straight to my new favorite spot: there’s a big weeping cherry tree that spreads itself over a brook, and its branches hang down in fringes and almost touch the ground. I parted them and sat inside in the little room it made, right at the water’s edge. I started sketching. In front of me and all around me were these dangling branches of blossoms, white but stained a delicate blush pink at the edges. Just beyond this curtain was the brook that winds away at my feet, and I think: I could step onto that glossy surface and walk away somewhere. Somewhere where I’m free to draw and paint and I actually have the energy to do it. I sat there until all the children playing in the park had to go home for dinner and I got cold. I picked a blossom to press in my journal and wandered home to paint.

I just read The Ultimate History of Video Games. This was the can’t-put-it-down book of my vacation. It labels itself as telling the history “from Pong to Pokemon” and it delivers! If you ever played PacMan (no joke – its shape was inspired by the pizza the programmer was eating) or looked for the secret room in Adventure*, you will love this book. You can read about the many court battles, the college students who hacked their way to greatness, and the reason Sega dropped out of the video-game race. This book will make you crank up your Stella emulator and play Space Invaders until the cows come home. *As soon as we got home, I had to find that hidden room again. I had done it way back in 6th grade (thank you, Keith Prior!) but I didn’t remember how. If you want to find it too, check out the links below. linkage: the Stella emulator plays games from the Atari 2600 on your computer. Atari Age is a great site where you can read the manuals and see screenshots of almost every Atari game. Hours of surfing fun. Instructions to finding the secret room in Adventure are here

It's so amazingly warm out; my hair is reeeeeeeeeally curly and fluffy today (humidity, natch). I'm wearing my new Powerpuff Girl socks (from Jim) with my oh-so-comfy MaryJane shoes. It's a relief to finally get some kind of plan of action going for me and my artwork, usually I'm just kind of aimlessly wandering along, doing whatever strikes my fancy. Luckily for me, I am married to quite an entrepeneur and he's just about the best combination coach-cheerleader there is. We're going to start applying for copyrights, making up databases for orders and inventory... I may even get a Handspring (okay, Paul, I said might) and use Paul's old cherished laptop. I need to remind myself that I'm doing everything at my own pace; there is no timeline and the only person I have to satisfy is myself. I keep reminding myself of the words of SARK: You have enough You do enough You are enough I also take to heart her words, "If you're not getting rejected, you're not trying hard enough." I haven't been rejected nearly enough, and it's time for me to try for some stuff that's out of my reach and see if I surprise myself. And if not... I can always try again, right?

I know this should come as a surprise to no one...
I took the What Mythological Creature Are You? test by peacefulchaos! More about me and unicorns here.

Back from vacation! I read, slept, read, knitted, read, walked, read, painted, read... you get the picture. After these action-packed days we'd spend our evenings in front of the fire with bowls of peanut-butter ice cream. (yum.) Paul would read Sherlock Holmes mysteries aloud while I knitted. (We tried it one night with me reading Alan Mendelson, the Boy from Mars, but somehow it just wasn't the same...) One great thing we did this week was to hash out a plan for me to make my own line of greeting cards! This summer will be the first wave (Christmas cards) and then I have projects planned for after that. In my spare time (!) I'm going to start on one of the book ideas I have in mind. When we got home and I powered up my computer, I was thrilled to see this gorgeous ambigram of my name, which reads the same right-side up as upside down. (Thank you, Kevin!) I was also mentioned in the "Inspiration Issue" at Soapbox Girls! (On the Big Inspiration List....scroll alllllllllllllllll the way down... that there's me.)

When I was growing up, my best friend's family always used to call my family on Easter morning and say, "Alleluia! He is risen!" To which we would reply, "He is risen indeed! Alleluia!" I kind of missed that this morning. This year we've had a very non-Easter-bunny-and-eggs kind of season, and a very thinking-hard-about-why-we're-really-celebrating-Easter season. It's been cause for several moments in church, including holding back tears and joyful heartfelt thanks. Next year I want to be as introspective but get some egg-dyeing and jellybean-eating in there too. I'm taking a break from the computer for the next few days to spend more time on the tactile stuff: painting, knitting, reading, sleeping. In the meantime, since I still can't fix my archives, here's my workaround backup archive page.

Today's been a day of beautiful sensations... a brief walk around the park in the 60-degree weather, kids swarming the park waiting for the Easter egg hunt to start, other kids lining up to take their picture with the Easter bunny.... walking home from the library with so many books they wouldn't all fit in my backpack... finding that a sprig of cilantro in our fridge had flowered, we stuck it in a glass with some pink chysanthemums and it matches... riding home with our tuned-up bikes from the bicycle shop... resting on the porch and sleeping late... chalking a heart in my driveway and seeing that my 5-year old neighbor needed to express herself in a similar way. Tonight we're going to Easter Vigil mass and singing. There's something terribly thrilling about being present when people are getting baptized and confirmed, and when so many voices are lifted in joyous song that everything vibrates: the floor, my songbook of sheet music, the air around me.

All sorts of new stuff is up at French Toast Girl.

New: Linkback graphics! Try one out! And now, for some strange reason, my comments aren't working either. Looks like Netcomments is down. (sigh) Go figure. I'm not going to worry about it.

According to my SARK calendar, today is Self Love Day! Things I love about myself:

• My inability to stay very sad (or mad) for very long
• I’m not afraid to be myself
• My faith
• My hair (however wild and unruly it may be)
• My green eyes
• Being able to express myself well by:
  • Singing
  • Painting/drawing
  • Writing
  • Dancing to any kind of music, not well, but usually without embarrassment (I once danced alone at a wedding because they were playing Rainbow Connection and I could have cared less who was watching… I was eventually joined by three other like-minded souls and we were applauded at the end of the song!)
  • Chalking up a storm on the streets of Westfield
• My unashamed love for the kind of stuff kids like (Muppets, Sesame Street, butterfly barrettes, sparkles)
• Being true to myself and not settling for less
• My appetite for learning
• My willingness to help others
• My nickname and the fact that it makes people laugh when I tell them
• The fact that I have a job doing art all day
• Being part of a great team with my husband
• Being a loving part of my family

I'm working diligently on some %$#@&*! javascript that's misbehaving. So for now, I don't have any archives. I guess that'll have to wait until tomorrow.

I had two really good children's book ideas at about 4 am. Maybe I oughta do something about them. I have about 7 things that are done and just waiting to be updated on my website. Maybe I oughta do something about them, too. I have leftover french toast for breakfast this morning. Definitely need to attend to that, pronto.

5 random thoughts:

1. My SARK calendar lists tomorrow as "Nap Day." I will be celebrating this holiday to the fullest.
2. It's Friday. I get to go home, put on fleecy clothes, and snuggle up in front of the fire with my hubby and a good book if I want. {...I want.}
3. I think this weekend we're taking the bicycles to get tuned up so we can do the Farmlands Flat Tour in May; and then I'll have something to get me motivated enough to exercise for.
4. I'm at work in my socks. My feet hurt from wearing really thick wool socks with new boots I haven't broken in yet. Ow. The boots are over there, next to my backpack.
5. Paul and I are singing a duet on Good Friday at church. It's really nice when we get to do stuff like that together.

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