Stay In Your Cloud

A few months ago I got a new down comforter.  A King Size down comforter.  I do not have a king size bed, but that doesn't matter.

It is huge.  It is like sleeping in a huge cloud.

My Cloud

Isis likes to snuggle and purr under the cloud with me.  That makes it difficult to get up in the morning.

Especially with these temperatures:

Yes it does feel like -3!

Now, I'm a hard-core fan of cold and winter, but even I closed my windows.  (Except in the kitchen)  Because, IT'S REALLY COLD! Now, if *I* am saying that, you know it's cold.

I went outside before Jenn.  I warned her.

That says it all.

Red

Red is not one of my go-to colors normally.  I like it just fine, especially Cadmium Red Light, but I tend to naturally resonate with greens, turquoise, blues, and violets.  (I cannot pass up a good green!)

Williamsburg Cadmium Red Light

Oh, but red has been calling me.  I keep red 7-day candles on my altar now instead of white.  Sephora's Pantone color of the year is a wonderful marsala red!  They came out with a gorgeous palette too. It's not Urban Decay but I still had to get it.

I'm on a red eye shadow streak

Most paintings need more red. Especially landscape, to balance green. This is why a red ground is often used- it enhances everything else in the painting, especially when allowed to show through.  Interestingly, paintings that have more red in them tend to sell better.  Red is also a color a lot of people shy away from working with, painting-wise.

Here is a bit of fun info about red from this site:

Red is the color of extremes. It’s the color of passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the color of fire and blood – energy and primal life forces – and most of red’s symbolism today arises from its powerful associations in the past.

I do LOVE a good adventure!

It is also the color of wonderful fiery hot peppers!

I Love Cayenne Pepper

Red is also the color of the root chakra. The root chakra contains your information about your family/tribal culture/basic survival.  Keeping this chakra balanced is also important in staying grounded.

Nice Root Chakra image

From this site

Cat Profile: Isis

Name: Isis
Color:  Black Tortie, Angora
Also Known As: Snuggle-Floof, Queen Isis of the Fur
One word description: Insane
Backstory: Isis was picked up on the streets of Brooklyn and carted off to ACC.  She was either dumped or she escaped.  In my experience with her, both are equally plausible.  She was a New Hope cat.
Household Roles: The Queen.  The Snuggler
Favorite food:  Wet food
Favorite spots: The Bathtub- with or without water.  Between the back of the couch and cushions.  Any window. Daya's top bunk.
Oddities: Loves water.  Loves strangers- will run up to them and talk. Will smack anyone who walks by, just because.  Loves to smack other creatures across the face without any warning.  Bites regularly but doesn't hurt.

Smooshed in the couch

Isis is the cat I got in honor of my Sigynn.  She came to live with us about a month after Sigynn died. Before we went to Brooklyn to get Isis, I had a talk with Daya about how the new kitty would be scared and hide, to leave her alone and let her settle in, don't bother her etc etc.

Well, that's not what happened.  Isis was so ridiculously happy to be out of a cage.  She played. She sniffed around.  She hissed a little. She woke me up three times in the middle of the first night because she wanted love.  So much for being shy.  I heard a loud bang in the bathroom- when I went in there she was halfway out the window above the bathtub.  I pulled her back in and had a heart attack.

She's ready to strike!

Isis was incredibly obnoxious at first.  She would attack anything that moved.  She wasn't aggressive at all, she was just playing.  No social skills at all, just a big overgrown kitten.  I did some research on cat behavior and concluded that Isis was probably taken from her mother too young, and raised with people who interacted with her a lot and probably played rough.  When I adopted her the rescue said she should be an only cat.  We couldn't walk without getting attacked.  She even attacked the landlord.  (He didn't mind)  She was seriously obnoxious.

Itchy cat

That's why I decided Isis needed a kitten to play with.  I was going to adopt one of Pebbles' kittens, but it died.  So I took a different kitten (Furball) and Pebbles and that's why I have three cats instead of one.

Getting a kitten for Isis dramatically reduced her obnoxiousness.  It worked perfectly.  She has someone to chase and wrestle with, which is so cute to watch.  She is still pretty evil though.

Ridiculous cat

Isis is my snuggler!  She is the only cat that will really snuggle, and she is a champion snuggler!  She's soft and fluffy and has a loud rumbly purr which is always turned on full volume.  She snuggles under the blankets.
She also likes to come say good morning- when I wake up I call her and she comes flying over from wherever she was to say hello.

She truly loves the bathtub.

The Snuggler

My Vices

Every girl needs her Vices.

I'm such a color junkie.  Oils, pastels, other paint stuff....and eye shadow.  I love eye shadow. Barring exceptional circumstance...which has to be really truly exceptional... I have limited myself to Urban Decay.  And I do have a LOT of Urban Decay.

Yes I will and do wear any and every color.  Though not together. Neutrals, contouring, and blending are very important.  Normally I have 5 colors on, sometimes 6.

I do get a lot of compliments on my makeup, which is nice because even I sometimes wonder if I have gone too far by wearing red eye shadow to work. (answer: no.  red eye shadow is awesome.)

It's fun.  And I do everything in under 10 minutes. :)

My vice 1 looks (top left) very new because that's my backup.

I keep another at work which is well-used and beat-up.

Baffled

I'm completely at a loss regarding a few things.

1.  When I went to wake up Daya, I happened to look up above her door.  This is what I saw:

Where is the smoke detector??

That's really bad.  It had to be there last month, because the landlord was in here and he has to do a stupid paperwork inspection thing every year because there is a child under 10.  I don't know why they do it, it's not a universal thing.  Something with the building regulation maybe.

Anyhow, he has to check for the smoke detector so it must have been there but now it isn't and I don't even know where to begin looking.  I am completely at a loss.

It is not in the shower.

I'm fairly sure (but not positive) that the cats didn't get to it.

2.  I discovered that the second disk of The Fellowship of the Ring is not in the case.  I have the really nice collector's edition of the Lord of the Rings movies, and I'm good (or so I thought) at keeping it nice and together.  That missing DVD is driving me batshit crazy.  I looked everywhere I know to look and then some and...nothing.  

Looking in here was a rather brilliant guess.

Except the DVD was not there.

3.  I got an email saying the automatic payment for Daya's dance tuition got rejected.  That didn't make any sense since the card is good and the money was there.  I tried putting the payment through myself.  12 times.  Rejected.  Called the bank.  Apparently there is a fraud block on my card even though (for once) no actual fraud happened.  But I was on a list.  So my card got blocked from any signature transactions because there was a list somewhere that said fraud MIGHT happen.

I just had to pay in cash.  And now I need a new debit card.  Again.  For maybe-in-the-future-fraud.

Is one of those mine?  Or yours?

Day at the Museum

Daya has pretty much grown up in the Museum of Natural History.  I have been taking her there regularly since she was 2 or 3.  It is a special place for both of us- one that continues to hold appeal as she gets older.  I am a member there mostly because I don't want to wait in the admissions line.

I couldn't wait for Daya to be old enough to go to the space show...as soon as she turned 7 I took her. We see the space show at least once a year.  They change it every year too, so it is always something different.  I never get tired of it.

If you ever come to NYC the space show in the planetarium really is something to do.  It is... AWESOME.  Gorgeous.  Amazing.  Spectacular.  Every time.  There is just nothing else quite like it.

We saw the space show today.

Someone in the gift shop came up to me and asked me if I am a ballerina!

Daya and I have a Museum of Natural History tradition dating back several years- we always get rock candy.  Neither of us can eat much, and I end up using it in my tea.

Turquoise rock candy tastes rather like mint bubblegum,

A Little List

As truly infuriating as parenting can be, I have been blessed with the Best Daughter Ever.  Here is a little list of just a few of the many reasons why Daya is so cool.

1. When we were coming home from New Jersey this past Monday, we took the PATH train back to Manhattan.  We were in the very front car.  There was one seat.  I told Daya to sit down, She said "No Mommy, you sit."  The conductor was right there and he said he had never seen that before- a child offering the seat to their parent instead of taking it for them self- a child having consideration for their mother.  He was very impressed, and kept saying he had never seen that before.

2.  Daya has been into cooking.  I taught her how to use the stove (with the non-negotiable rule of not using it when I am not home)..  She likes to make pasta and scrambled eggs.  Yesterday morning she made herself breakfast AND then she made me breakfast!  Her scrambled eggs are PERFECT.  Not overdone, not under-done, but PERFECT.

3.She leaves irrefutable evidence of her crimes behind.

I wonder who has been drawing on my makeup mirror....

4.  She will put a new roll of toilet paper on the holder-thingy (what is that called?) on her own without being asked.

5. Santa brought her a set of soft pastels.  Look at this portrait of me she did!

I'm not sure what I am wearing in this portrait.

But it looks kinda superhero-ish!

Cat Profile: Pebbles

Name: Pebbles
Color:  Cream Tiger, medium hair
Also Known As: Pest, Pebbz, Pebberz, Peebo
One word description: Pest
Backstory: Pebbles was discovered in an empty apartment in the Bronx starving to death with a litter of six kittens.  Four of them eventually died.
Household Role: Caretaker.  Will check to make sure I am still breathing during the night.  Several times.
Oddities: likes to clean her fur while laying on her back.
Favorite food: plastic.  and everything else.
Favorite spot: my bed

Pebbles is a pest, a clingy velcro-cat who will be anyone's instant BFF.  Loves to be right in my face. She gets static electricity in her tail which makes it look funny. Has an uncanny knack for photo-bombing any picture.  She cannot figure out how to cover her poop but she tries very hard at sweeping the litter box walls.  After the other cats visit, too.  She is mentally afflicted from starving in the apartment and will eat anything.  Loves to chomp on plastic. Is always in the way. Is extremely persistent and enthusiastic about head-butting when I am typing.  Is a very pretty cat.

Pebbz knows how to rock Urban Decay.  She is an ELECTRIC cat.

Spiritual Endurance

Here is a passage from Spiritual Madness by Caroline Myss.  When I heard this for the first time, it resonated with me so deeply I got chills.

********
Endurance and patience are two of the classic lessons of the mystical experience.  What does endurance solve? Endurance makes your soul come up to the surface.  Endurance gives you spiritual stamina.   The biggest fear I see in people- bigger than the fear of dying- is being alone.  

I have witnessed and met very few people 

who are genuinely on the mystical path- 

who have not been asked to endure alone-ness.

Why?  Because you must be able to wait for the voice of God.  And how do you do that?  You literally have to listen to all of the voices that talk to you all the time that are based upon your fears. That are based upon what you have expected from life.  What you are invoking when you are alone and going through endurance is how you thought your life should be, and you've got to be able to give that up.

********* 

I know that spiritual learning and purpose is always more important than human wants and needs. But sometimes, I sure would like for them to be one and the same.

The Hermit

This card symbolizes so much of my life.

I don't mind that at all but I feel ready for change.

Image is from the Art Nouveau tarot, which is a gorgeous deck and was one of my first.

*********
Something I have been thinking about a lot lately is how our own healing naturally extends to others, If we have successfully dealt with a certain situation, hardship, traumatic event, whatever it is- if we have overcome it then that pathway is created to help others.  It opens up an energy frequency. We are able to relate to and see people from the inside out, guide them, and love them.  It gives us the right to speak with authority that healing is possible because we have been there.

Raphael

2015 Intentions

It's time for another new year and intentions.

The year 2014 was just so very strange.  I have no expectations for 2015 other than letting it be whatever it will be. No wishes for "better" or "worse" or whatever.  It will be as it needs to be, however that is.

I'm keeping Intentions short and to the point.

1.  Let God handle details
2.  Drink a lot of tea
3.  Paint some pictures
4.  Meditate

From Tarot of the Cat People

My altar is ready for the New Year.

Kwanzaa in Newark

One of my best friends recently moved to New Jersey, and this past weekend Daya and I went to visit.  It was a lovely time.

We went to the Newark Museum which I loved!  There was also a Kwanzaa event, which was fantastic.Wonderful African drummers and dancers, from the Ivory Coast I believe.  Kwanzaa is a lovely holiday.

Daya got to go dance on stage! She was great.

She looks great with those stage lights!

By the way, drums are a fantastic way to clean your energy.

Blue Light Tree

Here is a little pastel painting I did for Millie for Christmas.  Millie likes dark branchy trees.

4x6 pastel (Senns and pans) on black PastelCard

Intention Surrounded by Love

There's still time

Close your eyes

Only love will guide you home

Tear down the walls and free your soul

                                     -Evanescence

I have many small but powerful tokens representing the most wonderful gifts of friendship from the most significant people in my life. 

They are now all on my altar.  Everyone is represented somehow.  These little but remarkable pieces of them belong in my personal sacred space.  Everything there has meaning, The energy is so powerful and alive.

My Intentions, surrounded by the energy of people who love me, and who I love.

My circle of people is very small.  However, I can say with absolute certainty that everyone in that circle is a true genuine friend.  I have known times- long, difficult times- when I had no one.  To have these people is such a tremendous gift which I am thankful for every day. 

I cannot help but feel deeply blessed.

House Guests

I really wanted a pet skeever for Christmas.

Skeever!  Maybe it winks!

Instead, I get to rat-sit 2 wonderful rat-boys!
They are hanging out with us until Jan 5th.

Blue and Dopey

Christmas

Christmas is here again.

 Before

After

We have just finished opening gifts.  Daya made out pretty well, Santa was good to her.  What I am so glad about, apart from her new dvd player, is that this was an electronics-free Christmas.

Drusilla and Branwen sent a lot of unexpected packages.  
I'm deeply overwhelmed, humbled, and grateful for this amazing display of love.

Branwen went a bit crazy....

 That pile of purple is all from Branwen to Daya.

I am completely in love with this teacup.  

It will live on my house altar.  

It is that special.

These are AMAZING

******

OH YES I DID

The extremely elusive Urban Decay Vice Limited palette...was on sale for about 2 hours before selling out...I...I mean Santa...might have woken up at 4am to stalk the UD site and snag it before it sold out...

not obsessed or anything...nope....

******
Assorted Cat Pictures

 Cats with bows.

 Pebbles wants to rock UD.

 Isis

 The elusive Furball.  I could not get a bow on her.

Queen Isis

********
I hope this holiday season- whatever you celebrate- was full of love.

Stars & A True Miracle

Here are all The Star cards from my little tarot collection.  I just noticed that one of them is upside-down.  Oh well.  I'm not re-taking the photo.

 18 Versions of The Star

Besides, the cat already messed it up.

Pebbles immediately photo-bombed the cards.

*****
This is a True Miracle.  It has never happened before and will likely never happen again.

I know where all the scissors are at the same time

Sacrament

"Every couple of years, the Mystery wakes up.  And when the mystery wakes up, I have to do something about it.  I can't silence the Mystery.

So your promise to love yourself, your sacrament of marriage- is to make an agreement to say to yourself-

When the Mystery wakes up, you will love yourself enough to explore it. You'll love yourself enough to know that- 

I can't stop power from coming into my system. 
That you'll love yourself enough to become empowered.

Now, that may sound almost paradoxical, but I want to explain something.

Most people are terrified of becoming the empowered person they are seeking."

                                                     -Caroline Myss

The Star by joya250