A most blessed life...

!!!!WARNING...  SUPER LONG POST, LONG WINDED RAMBLINGS, LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!

Sometimes I am amazed at my blessings...  To the point where it almost makes me nervous.  Is it really true, is this my life, is it a dream that I will wake up from?  When I got up this morning this was what greeted my eyes...



It has rained quite a bit in the last few days and it was rather cold last night...  so...  if only for a brief time...  snow!



My husband and I are very lucky to live on a ranch, Dos Pueblos Ranch. The top two pictures are the view looking to the north from our yard over the Avocado orchard.

This is the view looking across the street towards the west...

That is the ocean in the distance.  As much as I love England and the Smokey Mountains and would love to live in Devon or Ashville, this is pretty wonderful!  It is quiet and the neighbors are great people who obviously love rural areas too. Our foreman often rides his horse up the street on his way to his cows.  There are cats and dogs everywhere, I love it!

Our home is beautiful, my Cat Man honey and I share it with lots of cats (for full story click here).  I also have tons of beautiful things.  Being almost 50, having lots of various lives, lots of traveling and hobbies and NEVER getting rid of anything means I have loads of the most wonderful things.  I have posted pics of our home and a few of my workspace (in mid event mode) before but not yet of my office.  There are bits from my whole life in here, the parts that I love that are an inspiration to me.  It is here that I write my bids for brides, paint, draw, pay bills, practice my guitar (I have just started learning!!!  Yea!!!), read, think, dream.

From here on you can click on the pictures for a larger size.

In the above picture on top of my Indian armoire and to the right is one of the sets of wings from the faerie wedding I had so much fun doing.  I have these wings all over, I just love them so much...

This is the view from my desk...

It makes paying the bills much easier!

I was going to say these are my secretaries but really they are my bosses...  That's Flat Top on the printer and Tiger in front with his tail on the book "A Bit Of Velvet and a Dash of Lace" by Magnolia Pearl's Robin Brown...  possibly one of my most favorite people on the planet!  To see her lovely web and blog click here.

"Munchkin". She is my most special companion and muse.  For more about the precious kitties we look after click here.

Below, this is my art desk, where I play...

The wings I made for the Practical Magic Blog Party.  For the story click here.

My toys...

I love the colors in Tiffany style lamps.  They glow like jewels!

Some of the results of my playing...  faeries...  lately always faeries...

A few (surprise!) non-faerie results...

The painting of the blue door is one I did from a photo in a wonderful book on India.

It sits with several of my inspirational mementos.  That is a vintage picture from India on the top left, isn't it cool?

Below on the right is a collage I made.   For the story that is part of it see an earlier blog (here). Of course I have lots of Tolkien books.  The father of the modern Faerie Tale I think.  I wish he could have lived forever so he could keep writing wonderful stories.  But only if his lovely wife could have too.  I understand they were madly in love...  sigh!

The "taro readings" sign (above hanging on the left) is  from a Moroccan themed 40th birthday party I did.  Like I said I do not throw anything away, especially when it is cool.

Of course I have lots of lovely book-friends I dream with in my office.

That is Nipper at the bottom getting ready to jump on the computer

(what is it with cats and computers, they just have to be on them!).

I love to spend an afternoon loosing myself in great stories...  cup of tea, incense...  bliss!

Of course there is always a cat tucked in here and there...

By the way all the books on the shelves I can highly recommend.  Especially the stories by Sarah Addison Allen. They are most magical and precious, in the same vein as Practical Magic only more sweet and innocent.

More friends...

Below, vintage faerie tale books from Europe.  On top of the stack is a Navajo hogan (their style of house) jewelry box with my tiara from when I was 5 on top.  That is a picture of my mom on the left (the black and white photo, not the painting...lol!).  Sometimes I miss her so, so much.  I think she would have gotten a kick out of my life.  I inherited my creativity form her.

Its weird... she has been gone so long (35+ years) that it feels like she is a figment of my imagination.  In some ways she is like a secret invisible friend I carry around with me, like you used to do when you were kids.

OK, this is funny...  my mom hated having her picture taken, absolutely loathed it!  Every other picture I have loaded so far as been fine.  The one of my mom I had to try 3 times before it would align properly.  I told mom to cut it out, the picture was beautiful and I would put it on the blog no matter what even if it was upside down so she might as well let me do it properly...LOL!

Here is one of my beautiful Indian cabinets that hides the ugly paper work, files and such.  All through out my office I display my most precious belongings.  On top of the cabinet is my collection of Native American pots.  I gathered these during the time in my life when I had a Native American art store.  This was somewhere around 15 years ago!  Boy does time fly!  Also...  surprise, surprise, faerie wings on the wall.  Those were Bathilda Buzzwings, the reporter for the Faerie Wedding I did.

Up close of the beautiful pots...

Just in case you are curious...  from left to right there is a Story Teller from the Cochiti Pueblo, a Navajo pot (brown), inside is a Zia Pueblo piece with an Acoma pot inside.  Behind those are a Chumash basket with a vintage tourist kachina on top.  Next is a San Ildefonzo black pot (not by Maria unfortunately) and a vintage tourist kachina.  Behind these in the center is an antique tea pot from India.  Then there is a Hopi (my favorite) Nampeo family pot with another Hopi pot inside.  Next are two more Hopi pots with a plate from the Zia Pueblo behind it.  Behind the plate is a Santo Domingo pot with a Hopi pot inside and on top an old Pueblo pot of unknown origin.  Behind that is a Navajo wedding basket (whew! ).

On the doors are a collection of Native American and Tuareg fringed bags...  That's a flint bag on the left and a paint bag on the right which has powdered ocher inside.  They are in the Sioux tradition but made by a local Chumash man.

The green bag is Tuareg and the white buffalo bag is from Taos pueblo.

Another one of my favorite pieces is a traditional wedding dress from Pakistan.

That is an Indian wedding Sari on the right.

Another thing I utterly delight in is my ridiculously large jewelry collection.  When I had my Native American store we carried tons of jewelry.  So consequently I have an embarrassingly huge amount of turquoise.

Behind the jewelry is an antique doll clothing steamer trunk.  I used to keep my jewelry in it but slowly it has all come out to be displayed so I can see everything easily.  The jewelry is just too pretty to be kept hidden.

My turquoise...  There is a mix of new and old pawn pieces.

Do you remember the scene in Amadeus where Mozart is trying on wigs before he is to meet the king?  He tried on several, three of which he loves.  He says, and I am paraphrasing, "Oh there all so lovely...  why can't I have three heads"... and then he gives one of those ridiculous laughs.  I wish I had more arms so I could wear all my bracelets at once.

My Indian bangles...

My earrings, definitely need more ears too...

Necklaces too. at least with these the more you wear the cooler it looks...

Look at this beautiful piece.  It is a miniature Buddha shrine.

Here it is open, showing the Buddha.  That is a rather magnificent turquoise pendant behind it.

And look at this adorable mini Christmas tree.  I got it from Karla's Cottage. A lovely lady and beautiful artist.  I couldn't pack it away with the Christmas things as it was just too cute.

Well I think that is enough eye candy for one post.  If you have made it the whole way through...  thank you for letting me share.  Don't you agree I am one lucky lady!

Blessings!

Happy Valentines Day!

A bouquet for you of pink Peonies and garden Roses to celebrate the day...

Have a LOVEly day!

Brides in the making...

The real star of the ceremony is not the beautiful woman in the white dress veiled and demure...

The real star is the more petite cutie standing shyly in the wings hesitant to go out in front of so many people... or...  maybe not so shyly.

A tribute to flower girls.

Hang on to your socks...  I saved the best for last...

Here's to the little flower child in all of us.

Snippetts...

What do you think?

Thinking of Spring...

The weather here in Santa Barbara has been so warm, honestly it feels like summer.  All the Jasmine are budding and getting ready to explode.  Our front yard is going to smell amazing in a week or two.  The warmth has me thinking of Spring and the lovely parties I have had the pleasure of creating.  I thought I would share a favorite with you.

This was a girls birthday luncheon at a local restaurant.  We took over the place, moved out a lot of their things and moved in my fun props.  This was the entrance that greeted the guests.

There were beautiful fans for the ladies.

The restaurant has the most beautiful solarium that we moved my furniture and props into.  We also brought in lots of trees and green plants.

The details tucked in here and there were adorable...

The centerpieces were each different.  This one I used my Mom's antique silver tea set.

This centerpiece had a chintz tea cup, silver tea pot and a cloche over a mini arrangement.

Sometimes you can't even see the vase, I pack so may flowers into them.  I don't know why I take so much time

picking the right container.

This lovely lady is a vintage candelabra that I wired flowers onto for a bar arrangement.

The party favors were beautiful Asian tea sets wrapped in fun bamboo boxes.  The cake was in the shape of a tea pot which I set on my bird bath and surrounded it with flowers.

Wishing you beautiful flowers filled dreams...

New Years... Manifestations?

Instead of New Years Resolutions I would like to share with all of you my New Years deepest most powerful heart felt desires.

First I will say that I believe very much in visualizations.  I have seen this technique work in the most astonishing ways, most powerfully in finding the beautiful home on the ranch where my husband, all the kitties and I currently live.  I now believe is was devine guidence that lead us to the ranch firstly so that we might look after all the cats there that were in desperate need of help.  And secondly so that our life might change its' focus completely.

Many of you may already know that my husband and I run a charity that looks after wild ("feral") cats.  In brief ( I will try though I am not very good at being brief) this is how we came to be...  My husband and I have always loved animals however renting in Santa Barbara is tough with four footed family members so we never had too many...  and they were always rescued animals.  For both of us the horrific problem of animal overpopulation reflected in millions of perfectly wonderful loving dear sweet souls killed every year because no one wants them is really too much to bear.

Shortly after moveing into our wonderful rustic home we became aware of gazillions of cats that were on the ranch.  No one clamed or cared for them, they were just "ranch cats".  These "ranch cats" were starving (as all the rodents had long been over hunted by the huge cat population) covered in flees, reproducing at a frightening rate and some were sick.  I will spare you the details of finding dead kittens.  The Toms were fighting horribly every night for territory and females and getting severly injured in the process.  So in an attempt to keep this already long story short, we quickly edu  my husband and I have as of now trapped, spayed and nutered over 70 cats on the ranch.  After three years of consistently doing this we hit zero population growth.  We are now an official charity called "The Lucky Few" and kennel and care for around 50 cats.  They started as completly wild ("feral") cats but now most are so tame that most of them are in the house with us, sleep on our laps, (and beds!) do tricks and surprisingly they all get along (a few hisses now and then, just as in a human family).  My husband's  and my eyes have been hugely opened to how animals (particularly cats) live and thrive (or not thrive).  We have learned so much, connected with other wonderful charities, read some amaizing books that are completely changing the way humans look at and interact witn animals and generally had our minds blown, this is happening all the while we are putting on weddings and events, creating floral arrangements (and wiping off numerous cat hairs I might add)

Winter whites,

Some beautiful quiet winter whites with a hint of color for your enjoyment...