New Year!

i am a goal seeker, so here are some things i am looking forward to in the year 2011:


1. going back to school for my special ed and elementary ed dual endorsement

2. expanding my etsy shop

3. this motivating project from elsie and rachel , so much fun and right up my alley


4. as well as this exciting project  (because sometimes i need a little motivation help)

5. much bird watching and journaling

6. finishing up my second americorps term with the washington reading corps

7. and this summer, i don't care, i'm doing it. i'm going to the kenny chesney concert. that's it.


i have had a really great week with the family, eating good food, cuddling with my puppy, shopping, thrifting, relaxing, seeing my girlfriends, and hanging out with my little brother at seedy taverns with karaoke. i am so thankful and happy to have such supportive, wonderful, and amazing family and friends. but now, back to bellingham for a short while before heading to idaho for new years! i am so excited to see more good friends and tromp around in the snow. i hope to see a moose, a gyrfalcon, and Sade!!! happy 2011!

let your heart be light

what's wrong with this picture?

christmas pin

friends and festivites

my baby brother comes of age

when did this happen??? how did this happen??? isn't he cute??

this weekend my little brother turned 21 and we all went out for a few drinks on the town. i mean everyone: the drinkers, the non drinkers, my mom, my dad, my aunt and uncle.... the whole family and a gaggle of colin's best friends. my mom played a lot of darts. my dad danced a lot. it was really fun! colin is the sweetest, most hardworking, funniest person i know. i am so glad that we all got to go out for his birthday, i just can't believe he is this old! it seems like just yesterday he was running around in batman pjs.

this poem starts off sad

Hurry along

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there,
I do not sleep.

n  Hopi Prayer

When you know you have lost

something you cannot get back,

go to the meadow and wait

for your mother to arrive- the once

miscarried baby in her arms.

This is how to die: meet in a field

of unidentified wildflowers.

She is wearing the sheer dress

with eucalyptus print- once

borrowed, once stained. Her

baby is wide eyed and fat.

What hat is she wearing? What gloves?

What flowers are these?

Never mind. Hurry along now,

or you will find yourself skipping 

to keep up.

i have been thinking about my grandmother a lot. i wanted to share this poem that i wrote last spring, during the last couple days of her life. i was very heartbroken to see her, but my mother told me that she was at peace, having seen my great grandmother in a dream, coming to get her in a meadow.

there is always christmas. but there are not always the people that make christmas. this year, will be different.

my favorite time of the year

i've been business making wreaths

My love affair with Linda Pastan

Love Poem

I want to write you
a love poem as headlong
as our creek
after thaw
when we stand
on its dangerous
banks and watch it carry
with it every twig
every dry leaf and branch
in its path
every scruple
when we see it
so swollen
with runoff
that even as we watch
we must grab
each other
and step back
we must grab each
other or
get our shoes
soaked we must
grab each other

The Happiest Day

It was early May, I think
a moment of lilac or dogwood
when so many promises are made
it hardly matters if a few are broken.
My mother and father still hovered
in the background, part of the scenery
like the houses I had grown up in,
and if they would be torn down later
that was something I knew
but didn't believe. Our children were asleep
or playing, the youngest as new
as the new smell of the lilacs,
and how could I have guessed
their roots were shallow
and would be easily transplanted.
I didn't even guess that I was happy.
The small irritations that are like salt
on melon were what I dwelt on,
though in truth they simply
made the fruit taste sweeter.
So we sat on the porch
in the cool morning, sipping
hot coffee. Behind the news of the day—
strikes and small wars, a fire somewhere—
I could see the top of your dark head
and thought not of public conflagrations
but of how it would feel on my bare shoulder.
If someone could stop the camera then…
if someone could only stop the camera
and ask me: are you happy?
perhaps I would have noticed
how the morning shone in the reflected
color of lilac. Yes, I might have said
and offered a steaming cup of coffee.

collections: vintage ornaments