...onto the next task of the day.

I still haven't taken pictures of our new house and all it's box glory. Sorry.
Just wanted to get that out of the way so I could move on rather guilt free....
It's a busy show month for us. Last weekend we were in Pittsburgh at the 'Three Rivers Arts Festival". We were slam dunk busy and it was a good time. The Wailers played on Sunday evening and it was a nice way to end the show.
So, I'm home for 2 days and running around like a mad woman. Today we (Michael, Xan, and I) are being filmed by a new film maker that is making a documentary about LowerTown (the arts district that we live in). And that means this morning is shopping morning. Petsmart, Office Depot (or Max, whatever it is) and Sam's Club are all on my hit parade.
Did you fell that? The wind?
That was me racing past onto the next task of the day.

Enjoy Mary's writing.....

I want to share a blog with you that my friend Mary writes. Jane she reminds me of you in the way that she is so lyrical and deep and expressive.
I have been so excited about the responses to my post about manifestation, the law-of-attraction, and Abraham.
I think that Mary's post titled, 'where spirit meets matter', should be required reading in every household and public forum across the world. Yeah, I do Mary!! She has put into words what I have always known to be true. And by the by...I don't know how to link to a specific post so you get the added bonus of listening to her most current one titled, 'peace', and then the one I want you to read is next.
So please forgive me Mary for not asking your permission first. I kinda figured that if we're writing here on the internet it's for everyone.
I have been thinking about it and I have decided to create a whole line of posts on deliberately creating and asking some of my friends to do some guest posts.
Enjoy Mary's writing.....

It's my lame excuse and I'm sticking to it!

I'm feeling scattered. I put that comment up on my facebook page and put out the offer that anyone could come over and help me find my bits. I got a funny array of responses.
And I still feel scattered. I dislike it when I have a feeling and I can't trace it's roots. Why am I feeling this way? It beats the bananas out of me!!!! And what I dislike most is that when I get to feeling this particular way I don't seem to get much accomplished. I can't even figure out where to start.
It's like standing in some sort of void that is filled with fog and I just walk around and around with my arms outstretched trying to find something. Anything! I find nothing. Nothing to touch, grasp, anchor my direction too. Nothing.
Jane be proud....I then make lists. Lists help. They really do. Yesterday I made a list and spent most of the day sorting our mail (man, a couple weeks of non-attention really makes a pile), bringing all our show files up to date (some of them I just want to ignore because 1 show wants you to bring proof that your tent is fire retardant, another says you can't use an E-Z-UP tent which we have, another one we have to check in at 10:45 at night and unload our booth in the dark) and figuring out the logistics for the next three shows coming up. This took me most of the day. I know, I know you are all thinking that I know how to have fun, fun, fun.
I even washed the 'new to us' 3 welled sink in the early evening. Xan and I were out there scrubbing off grease with a vengeance.
I emailed our friend Will and gave him all the different scenarios that could be applied to his daughter (Xan's best friend) coming to visit us in a few weeks. YAY!
And with each task I got to make a deliberate scratch on my list.
This done.
That done.
And I still feel scattered.
Maybe it's the boxes that are being left unopened. Or the make-shift shower still being make-shift. Or the table loom that I bought on ebay that is still sitting nicely packed in the box that it arrived in.
Or maybe it's Mars. Yeah let's blame it on some planetary alignment.
The planets are out of whack and therefore I can't get seem to grasp the feeling that I've got my shit together.
It's my lame excuse and I'm sticking to it!

...feel better?

This is something that I wrote as a comment on a friend's blog. I want to share it with everyone because I have been meaning to write about my views on manifestation and the law-of-attraction for a while now. I was thinking that maybe we could get a group of people to play......

Ok...the game background, where I'm coming from and other ramblings by Victoria Terra:
For many years I have been interested in manifestation, law of attraction stuff, and deliberate creation. I follow and practice the teachings of a group of entities that call themselves Abraham and they channel through a woman named Esther Hicks.
As an aside....before we moved here I found out about a group of individuals that meet at the local library once a week and study Abraham. Michael, my husband, and I meet with them once a week. We read and talk about stuff and try to put what we are learning into daily practice. Anywho....
I believe that we are the creators of our realities and that creation is manifested through our thoughts. What we think is what is reflected back into our lives (law of attraction). What I love about Abraham is that they talk about spirit and our connection to that part of ourselves. I believe that I am spirit having a journey in a human body.
Now, the physical guide (the part of ourselves that is our compass) is our emotions. When we are connected to spirit (or source energy) we feel positive emotions (like happiness, enthusiasm, joy) and when we are not connected we feel less positive emotions (like frustration, fear, anger). When one is working on attracting and manifesting they have their guidance system of emotions to let them know how they are doing.
Now...you ask for something (ask the universe, god, goddess, whatever it is that you believe in). I call it 'Manager'. So I tell my Manager that I want a new car. Let's say I want a Toyota Hybrid Prius and that is what I ask my Manager for. Now after I ask it is my job to allow myself to have it. It is my task to align my vibration with the vibration of allowing myself to have that car. Tricky.
This is where our emotional compass comes into play. Positive emotions align and connect us to our source energy and the creating of our wants. Not so positive emotions create a block and we then cannot align or connect to our source energy and therefore can't create what we are wanting.
Now...there is a game that Abraham suggests we play where we write down the things that are frustrating us, things that are making us unhappy and we re-write them in a way that makes us feel better. That raises our vibration.
In a nutshell:
If you take the statements of dis-satisfaction and you re-write them in a way that makes you feel better (gives you hope for instance) then you will feel better and by feeling better you raise your vibration (energy) to be more of a match to your source energy and then you can attain what you are wanting.
It's all there for the taking really. We can have whatever it is that we want. It's just that we keep getting in our own way. Hah!
So, what do you think. Want to post some statements that we (your friends) can help you turn around into more positive things and make you feel better?

Silly me.

I have an amazing daughter. Well, two actually but this time I want to brag on the oldest, Artie.
I was feeling lonely here in my new neighborhood, in my new house. Feeling left out and rather sorry for myself. It's nothing new really. I have felt this way before, probably will again. And I have felt this way every time that we have moved.
I think that I'm over friendly by a couple of degrees. I am a bit 'too much' for people. Too open. Too friendly. Too intimate. As a result, I sit around waiting for new friends to catch up with what I already know....that I am sincere in my love for them.
So, I was feeling lonely and left out. I was thinking about how I'd been here before (who hasn't, right?) and I would just ride it out like I have in the past. I was giving it a lot of thought (because being lonely really isn't pleasant especially the part where you think people aren't warming up to you). You know how there can be one or two people in a group that aren't particularly taken with you and that colors your whole perspective? I hate it when that happens and I tend to fall into that trap.
It occurred to me that Artie had talked about this a while back. She was sharing with me her feelings of loneliness and trying to create ways to get yourself 'unstuck' out of self-pitying behavior. Artie is a great 'intention' creator. She will grab onto an intention and fly with it. She will decide that she is going to open and friendly and make friends. And damn she will. She will decide that she going to think good thoughts all day. And damn she will. She is terrific at deliberately creating. She sets a mean example, my kid.
I was thinking about her and how I have seen in action the power of turning a situation around. So I thought that I should put a post up on my facebook page and on the neighborhood email list that I was going to the movies that night and whoever wants to come over beforehand for wine, cheese, and salad should come on by and then we could all go to the movies together.
I got to fill my table with a group of lovely folk. I got to fill my heart with warmth. I got to see a good movie with a gaggle of fellow movie buffs. I got to remind myself that I am cherished and well liked in the eyes of my neighbors. Believe me, the feeling is mutual.
Loneliness. Feelings of not being liked. Oh, I'm sure that I'll feel those emotions again. Who won't, right?
Hear this my dear friends...when these not good for anything much feelings seep into your being put yourself out there and invite someone over. Do the opposite of what that self-destructive thought pattern in your head is telling you to do. Throw away the pillow so you can't hide under it. For every person that is not attracted to you there a 10 who love and adore you.
I forgot that for a minute.
Silly me.

...I feel complete.

These are pictures of our mailbox and our dome on Lopez Island.
I just got off the phone with a guy that is leasing our meadow from us out on Lopez. It made me homesick to talk about plum trees, the heirloom apples, and the old well. We talked about the history of our property. How Michael and I sat down with one of the island old timers and heard his stories of how he and his father cut down all the apple trees on our land (it was an apple orchard) and how they pulled up all the roots with a team of horses.
We talked about how our leasee's daughter has named all the sheep that he has running on the land at the moment. We talked about what you do with wild roses and canary grass. How to get rid of them is what we really talked about. Burn em? Disc the field?
Do I look like I know such things?
It was a joy to hear that the heirloom plum trees that stand over by the place that was the original farm house are now producing some fruit. They were prolific for the first three years we owned the property and then they got some sort of fungus and we never did figure out what to do about it. I'm glad that our decision to let nature run it's course worked out OK in the long run.
Lopez.
The whole time that we lived in Saratoga Springs I told people that I was from Lopez. Since living in Paducah, I have told people that I from Paducah. I guess I must like it here so far. I do. I like our house (I will post pictures soon). I like our neighborhood. I like being able to walk to the river and to downtown. I like the activities that I am getting involved in. Last night I started my new volunteer job of co-chairing the committee that is screening films for a local film festival here called The Rivers Edge Film Festival. It was great!!! What a hardship to have to sit around and critique films. Oh, it was so hard (ha, ha). I am also involved with a group of women called, COW. Yeah, I'm a COW. It stands for Community Of Women and all they do is fund-raise and do good deeds. How lucky can I be?
I miss my dear sweet dome on Lopez. Michael designed and built her. She has driftwood posts on the inside that hold up the loft. The railing on the stairs is also driftwood. How could we leave? How could we go back and still make money? Ah, the decisions that that thing called 'destiny' is made of.
So, here I sit on my couch in my 'new to me' 4000 sq ft. house that is a grand 130-ish years old and I'm thinking that my destiny has been pretty good so far. Will we ever live full time back on Lopez? I don't know but I do know that our meadow is being well cared for, that our friend Jeffery (who lives on our land) is well and resurrecting the garden, and our dome can be seen by all who drive by as a reminder that 'those hippies' still have a place in the world.
In this moment....I feel complete.

I do love you all.

I have been writing posts in me head. I dream about them in my sleep. I now sit here in front of the computer and I'm blank. I feel like a newly washed black chalkboard at the front of the class.
Not that I'm empty or anything. Hopefully far from it. Just that I had so many great ideas and now I can't remember a lick of 'em.
We moved into our house. About a month ago. The house that we were renting next door sold and we moved in here. It was time in so many ways but....now we are camping with a make-shift shower set up and boxes. Oh, my life is full of boxes! How many of you can relate? I'm waiting on Michael to create the shelving so I can do some more unpacking. But, you know, I lived in a travel trailer for 3 years while we built our dome on Lopez and this is a walk in the park. Seriously.
Xan is off on an Alaskan Cruise with her grandmother having a ball. Artie is still at make-up special effects school and having a ball. I (flying solo without Xan) did a soft opening of The Kookie Bar this weekend and had a ball. And Michael had his studio up and running this weekend and had a ball. We're just a bouncy family.
I have missed my blogger community. I think of you often and I'm ready to be a more faithful friend and poster.
I don't know what my absence was about. Don't feel like I need to know either.
I bought a (what I think and hope) is a very cool little table loom on ebay last week. I have been itching to weave and even though I'm not a table loom lover it is an affordable way to get me started and keep me creative. It's been a bit of a disappointment here because I have not met any other active weavers. I miss my group in Saratoga. You see...there is something about Saratoga that I miss. That's about it so far.
We are getting closer to a court date about the whole estate deal. Yeah, we are still dealing with that. How many years has it been?! The executrix finally, FINALLY, submitted the final accounting and last week we (our lawyer) turned in our objections to it. Now we wait....
Just a couple of days ago I booked four roundtrip tickets to Dublin, Ireland. No kidding. We are taking this trip in honor of my in-laws who always talked about going and never did. They even had a large jug that they saved money into (of course that too never saw it's way into the estate). So we found a great deal. We bought the tickets and we're going to figure out the car rental and where we're going to stay later. We go in February by the way. Thus the cheap airfare.
Many have been bugging me about getting some pics of the new home up on the air waves. It's on my radar and will probably happen soon.
You should check out Michael's blog "www.paducahpossible.blogspot.com" and see the wedding cake that we made for a dear, dear friend a couple of months ago. We felt just like "Ace of Cakes" transporting our baby in our van through Brooklyn. It was a funny adventure.
So that's it folks. I think that I will end (for now) my random babbling to catch you all up on what's been going on around here.
I do love you all!!!!

I have a houseful.

I have a house full of cats. Seriously. We have Ethel who traveled here with us. Then in the beginning of December we went to Petsmart and adopted Cadbury for Xan. Artie took in a stray at college and so cleverly convinced me that Daisy was just the sweetest, sweetest little thing. Artie brought home Daisy the sweetest cat sill in survivor, sorta feral, mode that any sweet cat could be in.
We now have three cats in a small two bedroom house.
It's working out OK.
Cadbury who truly is the sweetest cat ever is a bit terrorized. Ethel has thrown her paws up in the air and is looking at us with an expression of, "Why? Why? Why did you do this?" And Daisy will let you touch her (maybe) for a second or two before your fingers are potential hamburger meat.
In honor of our kitty circus here at Terra Cottage I am sharing a funny youtube video (and because I now know how to post videos and I'm going to be obnoxious about it).
First is this one:
I'm just waiting for the day that our cats achieve such harmony.
Now here is the translation:
I have a houseful.

Hee, hee, hee.

OK I have figured out how to get some youtube videos onto my blog!!!
Oh happy day for us all.
And now you can all start the New Year off with some laughter.
May the incoming year bring us all some humor and hope.





Hee, hee, hee.