More wildlife in the meadow

A kite spent an hour or so and I made video footage - got these stills of it. May be my very favorite bird in the whole world!

A New Year 2010

Here we are in 2010 and its already speeding by. I have been very active on HubPages lately and have ignored my blog here. I want to add a link to my actual website, although I am not sure how well it works but I'm not sure if anybody is reading this blog, either!

So what am I doing? a lot less beadwork, I'm sorry to say, since I've gotten addicted to HubPages where I can write articles that get a little attention. If you want to check those out they are here:

It is so much fun talking to people in the HubPages forums that I don't get other things done. But I have made a resolution to get some more beadwork and leatherwork done this year so it will have to happen.

Also I have been photographing wildlife around here. Bobcat, coyote, birds, rainbows (rainbows are wildlife, right?) It's a beautiful world!

Residue

Halloween is over once again. The residue of the holiday is still around. Including the emotional stuff attached to this Pagan holiday. I am looking at the reasons I always get so bogged down when Halloween is over. I think its because no matter how hard I try, the expectations are more than the actuality. The party, festive, be happy ideas are great, but I always want more.

I'm thinking about the rest of the year. Well, this is going to take a lot of my time, I know. I have some catching up to do.

Please go read my HubPages blogs - they're a lot more readable than this. For today, I am saying - Peace!

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HubPages

BAD FUN - Do I Have Time For This?

Not knowing where you are going in life is supposed to be a BAD thing! I have tried to play that way, but still I think in the depths of my being that not knowing where I am going is FUN! BADFUN! but enjoyable. At the very least, enjoyable. Even now, nearing the dreaded retirement age, trying to know where I'm going, even when it seems so clear that the where I'm going is nowhere, is still so much more BORING than the BADFUN of ENJOYING I know not what!

I have gotten tired of always LOOKING FOR MEANING in everything.

I haven't been blogging here lately and instead have been obsessively spending my time on the Hub where I have found it so enjoyable to make wicked humor and wait for quite serious comments regarding my inane jokes. My kind of fun! Everyone around me deadly serious - really, me, the only one laughing in the room. Everything outlandishly serious! Which is FUNNY! to me.

You know? like when you say something YOU don't even understand and then look around and people are deligently trying to find something politely complimentary to say to encourage you, even though they know you just jumped off the deepest end! For a moment. Those moments of freefall I cherish. And make a permanent place in my brain for the images of the looks on their faces! REALLY IT IS BADFUN!

This year's first mask was rather silly. A dragonfly thing that obsessed me since last July. I'll put up a photo here. Working on another that is still in pieces. I usually work that way - molding the clay and pinching it and letting it fall apart, then putting it back together. This may not be "fine art" this may just be "art therapy". Ask me if I care! It goes nowhere, and that's somehow wonderful! Much better than lethargy, at the very least!

It is fun to work with the clay, the photos, the videos and not have to try to explain any of it to anyone. Let it alone. See what you see. It is pure communication that way. Don't even worry about what you think of it, and especially don't worry about whether your friends will like it!

Ya - BADFUN! You can find some more of my blogs on the Hub @ Mega1. Try a little BADFUN of your own! The only rule is - cause no harm, to anyone or anything.

But DO WE have time for this? Do we DARE NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS? It is a way that leads to relaxing, and may save your silly life! BADFUN! (more fun at my hubpages see below)

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HubPages

current beadwork

These beaded rosettes and a barrette are examples of my current work

I started beading when I was about 16 so it has been awhile. It began with one of those little craft looms and a fascination with Native style designs. Over the years I have experimented with many styles but I still like Native designs best. I have never had a teacher, but my inspiration comes from old things, nature, and things I see in museums. I often sit down to bead a rosette and have no idea what it will look like. Other times I muse on the design for days before I put it on graph paper, and then it still turns out different. I've been selling my work to a leather worker who mounts the rosettes on leather jackets and bags. I also make hand-laced leather apparel and bags, but I am still a beginner at it. For more images, please see my website adahsarts.itgo.com or stay tuned here as I learn to post on this blog.

Masks

I'm thinking about nothing pretty much all day today - that happens sometimes. Its a more visual day.

These pics are from the Masques for Owein 2008 video I made last year and want to load here but I can't get it to load. I'm still learning about all of this.

Going through old projects that I've never shared with anyone is a good idea sometimes - throwing stuff out and editing etc. Glad to have a place to share things that would otherwise just sit on the shelf.

Today August 25 2009 I discover >>>

I discover new things everyday, without meaning to. Today, first off, I find the site engrish.com all about those wacky misuses of English on foreign signs and instructions - a whole website is dedicated to even blogging (brogging) in engrish-speak. OK, many knew about this already but I discovered it today. And now I've started thinking in engrish and I want to inflict it on even those who don't think it all that funny.

Then, (when reading a great book called Off the Beaten Track by Jerry Parker, a naturalist writing about Sonoma and specifically the valley and mountain where I live) I discover with his help Chuang Tzu - who famously dreamed of being a butterfly and then was no longer sure which was the real thing - man dreaming? or butterfly dreaming?

And I was sad when the day started! I was sad, and bored, and frustrated with the loneliness and meaningless-ness of it all. My tasks seemed dreary and the fog was just fog. Now I have hope again. Thank you internet! Thank you Jerry Parker!

It also seems important to me, somehow, that all of this knowledge is available instantaneously since I am now a "senior" = which reminds me to research that word and see if I can find out when all this talk about "seniors" started and why. Why can't we just be the "old folks"? I like the term, and it describes us, while "senior" is so relative. ah well. But anyhow - the time seems short and if I want knowledge I must grab it fast!

Chuang Tzu says it for me "Already my will is vacant and blank. I go nowhere and don't know how far I've gone. I go and come and don't know where to stop. I've already been there and back, and I don't know when the journey is done. I ramble and relax in unbounded vastness. Great Knowledge enters in, and I don't know where it will ever end."