Intention ~

I'm ready for 2012.

Believe me, 2011 was filled with some amazing moments, but it also kicked our butts and made us step off our paths of focus a lot.  When it comes to setting your true passions aside to keep your head above the waters, then I really tend to dislike the 'lessons and trials'.  

In our perfect world, every day would be devoted to health, art, happiness, helping, learning, {and copious amounts of good food and wine}. Really, is this too much to ask?  One life to live, let's do it right, non?

Over christmas, my amazing Sean created the above masterpiece.  The moment I first laid eyes upon this gorgeous chalk drawing, I wept.  The strokes of genius took my breath away, and awakened a yearning for more.  More art, more culture, more healthy endeavors...more living in the moment of beauty. 

This will be my intent for the new year ~ to not stray from our passions, our goals, our dreams. 

New beginnings are good.  Fresh starts with the rear-view mirror detached.  A focus on what's ahead and the glorious path which is before us.  

Cheers to a new year.

[drawing by Sean Patrick McArdle]

Magical ~

I believe her day sparkled and shined.

[Union Square, San Francisco ~ Christmas 2011]

Wishful Thinking {a guest post by karey of mackin ink}

so i was thinking and thinking and thinking about this post - probably far too much, but that's always the way i work when i really adore the friend to whom i'm giving my words - and maybe it was one too many viogniers one night, but all of a sudden i found myself all "forget wishing! wishing is for wimps!"

i said it way naughtier in my head.

but it's true, you know. someday, i'll have to tell you all the time i feel i've wasted on wishes. the months that added up to a full year that i wished my dad wouldn't die; perhaps i messed it all up with the one who's in charge of such decisions with my begging that he not suffer anymore. i can see how that would be confusing. then there was the matter of my sister. i don't need to tell that story again, but i will tell you this: my stomach muscles still remember the clench of wishing so hard that she'd get to stay with me forever. i still ache.

there are always silly wishes in between serious, at least one every hour in my head, from "i wish uncle sugar would make me a coffee" to "maison martin margiela...be mine" to "please please please let the girlies three be ok." i must spend that half-hour before they hit the door at the end of their school day waiting with a million wishes and wonderings about their someday lives. their someday health. their someday love. i wish it would all be perfect. in spite of all i know and all i've endured, i still make that silly wish that they skate through it all. unscathed and unbruised and unbroken. especially their hearts and hopes.

wishes can be pretty empty. they're like a bottle full of bubbles in a way, filling the air up around us with iridescent invisible circles that fly away and disappear a second or two after we've made them. no offense, but i've never seen a wish really do anything - like win a race or cure a disease or even make me thinner than that mom at the pool i kind of despise - except look pretty and make us gasp with the possibilities and then leave us wondering...what now?

wishes are good for one thing and one thing only. they make us realize, with the falling of a lash or the tick of the clock at 11:11, exactly what we want. and that, my sweet friends, is that. what comes next is entirely up to you or up to someone else or maybe completely out of anyone's control.

listen. i've made wishes on stars that exist only in my eyes, solitaire games, whether the traffic light would turn green in an even number of seconds, and the last red jellybean in the bag. and i'm still not the woman i'm wishing i'd be. still not the mother i'm wishing i'd be. still not the writer, either.

2012 is going to be different. kickass, for sure. i feel it in my bones. i'll still probably be wishing for everything to be all right - especially my girlies three - in between wishes that include that jerk mom at the pool, the size of my bum, my someday book, and just one more red jellybean - every day at 11:11 or even 12:12 if i miss it. but maybe i need to take better care of those little bubbles of mine. keep watching over them long after they pop. they're still there, you know. even when i can't see them so well anymore.

p.s. plus a white bikini for my move near bali.

wishes found here.  bubbles found here.

oh that karey, i always fumble for words after reading her perfect ones.  i'll never forget the day i discovered her blog.  she was on 'posting' hiatus, but i read every. single. word she had ever written within that magical space.  then one amazing day, my reader sparkled and shined...she was back!  since then, i've been begging for her to write a book, adopt me as one of her girlies, and just be that really cool writer friend i've always dreamed of having in my circle of life.  

Good Luck Soup ~

 

Being able to make a gift with my own hands, using resources offered unselfishly by nature or repurposed materials, and presenting something that is useful or full of meaning to my dearest friends and family is what Christmas is all about ~ the gift that is filled with love.  So this year, my dear friend, Sherry of Culinary Getaways, and I decided that her Good Luck Soup recipe packaged up with delicious heirloom beans and fresh garden grown herbs would be the ideal gift for anyone on our list.  Growing up in the South, my grandmother always prepared a New Year’s Day lunch or dinner that included black-eyed peas {and collard greens}.  According to her, black-eyed peas were for good-luck.  Even then, as a young girl, I would eat at least two helpings of these delicious legumes because everyone hopes for the lucky goodness to be on their side 365 days of the year.  More so than ever, I believe we all could use a hefty dose of good luck in our lives!

[Reverie-Daydream Images]

An Elegant Evening ~

...with my Prince Charming.  

It was a night of total splendor, festive glory, and fine art.  My handsome artist husband and I were invited guests to this exquisite holiday gala in the Court of Honor at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco.

For two souls who love art, this was a dream come true.  An entire evening devoted to celebrating the artistic masters of our past as well as  present-day artists...the museum galleries were ours to peruse, linger and enjoy.  With cocktails in hand, we mingled among the elite, but mostly we giggled and gasped at our good fortune to be included in such a grand evening.  

A dinner fit for a king was served by candlelight, an orchestra enticed all to join on the dance floor, and memories to last a lifetime were made underneath a tent draped in sparkling decor...an elegant evening indeed.

Wishful Thinking {a guest post by French Essence}

I have always had my head in the clouds… dreaming of something different… wishing upon a star… searching for ways to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary… I think that is why I love words as much as I do… the endless possibilities to stir the imagination and to craft fantasy from the everyday… This is the time of year when we are all wishful thinking. We wish that the holiday season would slow down, that we could gear up our pace a little to accomplish all that we desire. We wish that the year hadn’t passed in a puff and that they weren’t slipping by quite so quickly and we wish, with all our hearts, that our children’s hopes and dreams come true.

When I snapped this photograph in Paris it made me pause for reflection… The beauty of the cobblestones, the architectural details of the buildings, the faded shutters and the hanging lanterns caught my eye… I had to capture that moment. But more than that… It was the family, for I imagined that they were a family, walking in step, in simpatico… with their perfect strides. This image made me wish that time could and would stand still, that this beautiful family could forever walk together through the streets of life harmoniously, as they were on this particular day… My thoughts turned to my own family and myself and I realized there and then that my one true wish was for nothing to change. This moment in our time together is good… great even… may it last…

Melissa, thank you for inviting me to participate in your ‘Wishful Thinking’ series… it is such a great pleasure to be a part of your exquisite blog amongst such wonderful company. I wish you and your readers a holiday season filled with lots of love, light and laughter… xv

 

Vicki Archer

December 2011

I'm assuming most who read this blog already know the beautiful and lovely Vicki of French Essence.  Before I even entered the world of blogging, I knew of Vicki Archer and her exquisite way of life and love for France via her first book, My French Life.   Then I found her blog and my heart swelled with glee because I am able to live vicariously through her dreamy world every. single. day. In short, Vicki is definitely one of my heroes, for she lives the life she has always dreamed of and she lives it with grace, beauty, and enthusiasm. I'm still pinching myself that she took the time to share her wishful thoughts on Reverie...merci beaucoup Vicki! 

[Image via Vicki Archer]