Dispatch From LA

getting shaggy

yard work anyone?  my front yard is getting shaggy!

i attached my tunnel vision goggles to my head bright and early and got crackin' on building my label empire.  the path was fraught with distractions.

emails!  phone calls!  cats! 

doesn't mama moss look spiffy and up for anything in her new mother's day shirt?  2 birthdays and 1 mother's day within the same week.  it was a trifecta of celebration in kansas this weekend.  wish i could've been there.  i imagine sometimes living in the same town as my sisters.  wish they'd hurry up and move here.  then they could mow my lawn!  and make me dinner!  i am the youngest child!  i have needs that must be met!

alas and alack i stayed at moss cottage under the big shady umbrella out back and put tape in my old ledger. 

don't feel too sorry for me though.  it was fun!

i marveled at how the old pages were held together with 90 year old tape.  tiny tears patched up.  i did the same thing.

with brighter tape.

i hope someone patches me up with bright tape when i get old.

also, because it seemed quite necessary and important, and also because i was curious, i painted on some of the pages.  they held up just fine.

this is going to be my Fast Fool Around book.  as in do whatever i want and try stuff out.  today i tried out some watercolor brush pens on a few of the pages {not seen here}.  a few splishy splashies and i was done.  super fast.  versus my Slow Fool Around book.  which is my regular visual journal.  FFA & SFA.

it's sunday!  i have 2 hours left to fool around on my ipad, make a fruit smoothie, and watch t.v.  OH BOY!

p.s.  this post has over 10 exclamation marks in it!  sorry!

morning has broken like the first morning

i ♥ liquid sunshine!

and pink flowers...

and painting shapes in an old ledger...

i'm cutting up the vintage paris poster...

from where i sit...

i spy a napping spot for later...

i enjoy every single comment.  yes i do!

happy birthday sister!!!!

i am sitting here sipping spicy christmas coffee.  mmmmm

getting ready to sit down at the art table and put the finishing touches on  my little project.  handpainted labels if you hadn't already guessed.  

it's gonna be a late night here at moss cottage.  music's on.  night sounds are drifting in the open windows.  paint & ink are flying.

i've been in the deep end of the photoshop pool ever since i got CS5.  these little frames are called:  real simple shaped masks by jen allyson.  i got them a little while ago, but hadn't used them.  don't know if they're still available or not, but they're super easy to use.  i added the thin grey outline.

happy friday.  i can't say it enough.  it never gets old.

xo

p.s.  today is my sister's birthday!!!!  monday is my other sister's birthday.  may babies.

playing checkers & knitting sweaters

this morning i reported for duty at yesterday's journal center for a playdate with myself.  i like my new outdoor studio a lot.  a larger than normal troop of birds kept me company.  hummingbirds, red-headed finches, sparrows, crows, and hawks.  everyone was doing fly-bys.  chortling, twittering, cackling, beeping.  a duck might've flown over and quacked.  i can't be sure.

i was smack dab in the center of my pink & orange happy place.

here are a few snippets.

pam started the background of the one below and i finished it today.

i haven't sat for long stretches in my big visual journal in quite awhile.

gwen (a blog reader) sent me an email about the big red farmhouse she and her posse of art girlfriends used to gather at up in the pacific northwest.  doesn't that sound nice?  they still meet 3-4 times a year.

i'm pretty sure if kim jong-un,  bashar al-assad,  mahmoud ahmadinejad, barak obama, gathered at a big red farmhouse and played checkers or knit sweaters, crocheted rocks, or drew portraits of each other our world would be way less tense.  i'm gonna suggest it.    

i found the stars poem!

tomorrow!

hello praying mantis

click, then click again to see him up close and personal.  so cool!

a new friend has come to moss cottage.  he was perched on a chair on the back patio this morning.

  i keep going outside to look for him.  he stays in the same place for a loooong time so he is easy to find.    i've been talking to him in a cat voice.  i can't help it!   he is very personable and swivels his head when i come around.  his hearing and vision are supposed to be keen.  he climbed onto the honeysuckle vine shortly after I spotted him.

he is a lovely charming creature don't you think?  and so good for the garden, eating all the ne-er-do-well insects.

i read that in french culture he leads lost children home.  isn't that sweet?

reflecting

After spending the day with 29 (the number grows bigger each day) basic trainees it's really a relief to come home and sit quietly out back.  Reflecting on what worked & what didn't.  Thinking of how to do better tomorrow.  Having a much larger class creates a buzzing humming beehive of a class.  Fueled by junk food, video games, constant stimulation, noise and not enough sleep they present problems.  Riddles for my higher self to solve.  A monkey whisperer spends many hours of contemplation in the beginning of the year.  Especially the beginning.  Working out ways to use stillness, slowness, calmness and repetition.  You'd be wrong if you think I have it mastered.  I do not.  

Coming home to my brand spanking new fence calms me.  I walk through the yard admiring each picket.  so happy!

A gate will go across the walkway between the 2 posts.  You know more fence updates are coming.   You just know they are.  And in the meantime how about a couple more Budapest photos.  Both involving water.

Szechenyi Baths, where art thou when I need you?

picket fence

In memory of dearly departed Buck Moss a fence is being built around the perimeter of Moss Cottage.  Will be finished in a few days.  I strongly regret not doing it a long time ago.  A big dog or coyote can scale it if they really want to, but it affords some sense of protection and security from roving dangerous dogs.  There are too many off the leash in my neighborhood.

A privacy fence will also go up on the hill behind my house which will prevent dogs or humans from wandering around back there.  I'd like some more  bougainvillea, maybe a trumpet vine rambling along the fence.  The ground is solid and rocky up front - extremely difficult to dig.  Whatever I plant has to be hardy enough to grow in adverse conditions.

Went to see a beautiful movie this afternoon.  The book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog was a favorite.  So so good!  

Click off the ads so you can read the subtitles.

 

If you're a big crybaby like me you'll need kleenex.  The friend I went with didn't shed a tear so your mileage may vary (!)

the arrows point to the loot

Moss Cottage had just been gussied up when a cute friend knocked on my front door.  I was all prepared to pick her up and spin her around but, she was NOT empty handed.  A giant box of overflowing wallpaper was in her arms.

 There were several more back and forth trips from her car to my house.  Magazines, fabric, mountains of paper...more paper. It looked like she had stopped first at a really cool flea market, packed up her car, and drove straight here.

Cool old iron candalabra and lanterns and other things I know not what they are for.  The lantern will come in handy when I go out on neighborhood crime-solving jaunts at midnight.  I think I will secure it to a staff with a heavy rope or chain.  Or maybe I'll dangle it from my pergola!

That sounds safer.  

  I just went on a cleaning slash decluttering spree.  So really, you could say I needed everything I got.  Although I did make up a box of paper goods for my sister.  Because that's just how I roll.

2 new outdoor pillows!  Seriously I needed 2 new outdoor pillows.

We had a 6 hour non-stop gab fest.  If you put your ear to the window it would've sounded like Alvin & The Chipmunks talking.  Speeded up yackity yackity yaks.

sunday afternoon in LA

I like to walk along this ridge where I can look out across the hills.  I look for Moss Cottage nestled in a rabbit warren of trees and power lines.  If someone walked by I might say, "That's my nest!"  They might say, "See the green house over there that's mine!"  People doing things people do.  Looking for the place they call home.

Happy Sunday

My new spring Keens.  As cute on the outside as the inside.  I'm patiently waiting for Keens to find me like a needle in a haystack out here in the blogosphere, realize I'm their biggest fan, and subsequently decide to sponser my next trip abroad.  Which is occuring in August.  Which will be fabulous. Which I can't tell you about yet.  But soon.

In the meantime I'll just be out here on the back patio morning, noon, and night.  (back here now writing this post!) By the end of the day there are a dozen or so glasses to herd inside.  And other stacks of stuff.  See that slatted table?  found!  On a walk.  It belonged to a nice young Matt Damon look-a-like who was on his way to Tanzania.  Now it lives on my back patio and it's 459 times better than the old rickety wooden thing that didn't nearly have enough room for all my stacks. 

My extra cute Spanish friend Maria José, came over earlier this week with a bottle of 2007 Castillo Rioja Spanish wine.  I went to Fresh & Easy and picked up 3 more bottles this morning.  If you live near a F&E and you like red wine I highly recommend.  highly.

Flowers continue opening and closing over here at Moss Cottage.  My America's Sweetheart Epi bloomed on Friday and is still open!  She's the first of the season to bloom, but she's shy.  This blossom faces away from the patio.  It's okay.  Her back side is every bit as gorgeous as her front.  (btw My Nikon is in the shop so I've been using my little Fuji point & shoot lately.)

Now for some good old fashioned plant porn... Check out those big lusty Eden buds  She's such a show-off!

~

A little blurb about this lacy digital frame I made today.  You can see the original card it came from in THIS post.  Leslie from A Creative Mint uses the sweetest lacy digital frames from time to time.  I've been wanting to make something similar so when I was in Paris and spotted that card at a flea market I instantly thought:  digital frame!

If you have a hankering to make a digital frame from a found treasure, this is my method using Photoshop CS.  For further questions on the process I defer to google where the answer to everything in the known universe lies.

• scan
• correct color
• select the center and fill with white
• use the magic eraser on the middle part to create a transparent center
• drop your photo on top of frame
• in the layer's palette drag that photo underneath the frame layer 
• voila!

Something Lost, Something Found

Sunday on the back patio!   A tray of journal supplies and some cats.  A cup of coffee, scissors, an enormous travel journal.

My regular writing journal. 

A stack of photos I'd printed.

A few roses.

I have a little pocket tucked inside my book for things I found on the street in Paris.  Exhibit 1:  2 recipes found in the labyrinth of metro passages underneath the streets.  Must scan and send to Chrissy so she can translate and I can make.  I'm sorry French cook person who lost them.  But please know they were found by the right person.  Me!

I love adding photos to the journal.  Scribbling on notes or things I remember.  Thoughts I find inside my head. 

Happy Sunday!

p.s.  I lost my Parisian umbrella.  With the ruffle.  Accident or tragedy...  Still trying to decide, but I'm thinking the latter.  I hope whoever finds it, loves it!

The Rain

Winter patio tales.  It rained all through the night... 

...and left tiny goblets of water on every leaf and petal.

Up on the hill the trees shook the water from their limbs.  And stretched.

The lone rose dipped and swayed under the weight of so much water.

The Burmese honeysuckle wound herself tighter around the post.

While the rain fell I stayed indoors sifting through wallpaper.  Sort of mesmerized by all the floral sprays.

Hello

Happy Thanksgiving American readers!  I decided against a road trip to see an old friend and stayed tucked inside the cottage all day.  The nights have been downright frosty so a morning fire outside wasn't out of the question.  That's how I began.  Early today.  In the milky light of morning.  Outside, listening to all the little live things waking up.

Then back inside.  Watching the light rotate from one room to another.  

Sitting in my orange chair and reading.  And swiveling.

Thinking about grey.  About painting my walls pale grey.  About mixing shades of grey.

I spent the day alone, but I wasn't lonely.  I was filled with crafty thoughts.  I finished Visual Journal No. 11.  I made cinammon rolls.  I watched Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.  I attempted to make some felt Christmas tree ornaments.

Whether you had a gathering of 20, or a gathering of 1, I hope you had a warm day.  Spent doing things and being with people who fill you with gratitude.  From a frosty LA to wherever you are on the planet.  I'm sending you warm wishes.  Sleep tight. xo

 

This Bear Is In Her Den

Rainy weekend in LA.  This bear is in her den.  Wondering what the other bears are doing in theirs...

Drinking roasted pinon coffee from New Mexico.  Mulling over patterns.

Somehow it seems like there is more light in the house.  I've scattered more rugs around.  I brought one home from Istanbul.  Got a few more on ebay for a song.  The one Wyatt is laying on is next to my bed.  It feels like a wooly sweater.

Packages from Istanbul are v. fun to open.  Even if there aren't any other bears in your den to high-five you.

~

Daniela from Germany,  your paypal email address doesn't accept emails from my server.  contact me.  link above. top right.

Hey You Up There!

This morning I went on a Craig's List reconnaissance mission to Pacific Palisades & Santa Monica.  Following an hour behind in his truck was Dude With Truck.  His job:  to pick up what I pay for.  The little file cabinet on wheels was a steal for $30.  And it looks new!

I donated the old cat scratch post to science and got a new one.  It's not a velvet tangerine sofa, but it'll do.  It'll more than do.  I wound my way up into the hills with a view of the pale blue Pacific.  Plunked down some hard cold cash for my new comfy chocolate sofa, and sped down the hill to a cool loft like apartment on Main Street in Santa Monica for the pine desk. 

Glittering sunshine.  I breathed in lungfuls of air that smelled like oranges, fresh laundry, the sea.  I had one of those big thoughts we get sometimes.  There's a whole series of these.  They go together.  Today I had the one called Life Is Beautiful.  I think it was right after I passed a fellow in the front seat of his parked VW bus strumming his guitar and singing off key.  One argyle stockinged foot sticking out the open window.

I went home.  I waited for Dude.  I unpacked more boxes.  Rearranged the supply closet.  I made a mess.  He delivered everything.  I made a bigger mess. 

I took a break.  Let my thoughts twist themselves around each other. 

Now it's night.  On a Saturday in November.  In a little cottage.  On a little hill.  Surrounded by the gleaming metropolis.  Hey you up there in the airplane flying over the carpet of lights looking down at all the tiny houses!  Hey!  It's me, mary ann moss down here.  Blowing you a kiss.

The Cracks. They Are Big.

I present my new and improved supply closet.   There was a lot of stuff in here that was clogging up my artistic super highway.  All gone.  There's even room for my sewing machine (!)  I'm still moving and shifting the containers around.  Getting everything exactly the way I want.  You know...so I can mess it up again.

I have reclaimed my art table.

More from the neverendingTurkishtraveljournal...

~

I've added a new link section in the sidebar.  ROD members who are selling their lovely surplus journals on Etsy.  I know I've left plenty of you out!  The cracks.  They are big.  Sometimes people fall through.  Send me your links and I'll throw you down a rope.  Plus add you to the list.  In that order.

Storage Schmorage

Layers of happy over here at Moss Cottage on this blustery autumn day.  When I arrived home from monkey whispering yesterday the moulding had been installed.  Things were back inside.  Some dust had disappeared.  It felt a little like I had moved into a new nest in a new tree in a new part of the woods.  Everything feels spruced up, lighter, less crowded.  That probably has something to do with getting rid of so much stuff.  Good riddance!

I have whittled my art supplies down to 1 organized closet in my hobbit sized art room.  Instead of getting a big somewhat pricey storage unit to hold everything I decided to buy a mid-century orange swivel rocker from Craig's List.  I dunno.  Seemed like perfect logic this morning.  I'm going to enjoy reading in my new chair, staring out across the hills. Or at the floor.  I moved my art table closer to the windows.  A new place to make creative mischief.  That is, when I'm not swiveling or rocking.  Storage Schmorage!

Progress

100 degrees.  Powertools.  Full steam ahead.  They ran out of wood when they got to the art room.  By tomorrow that last strip should be nice and woody.

The baseboards are next.  Maybe tomorrow this Safeway salted-in-shell-peanut box that is my temporary computer desk and dining table will end up in the recycling bin.  Maybe not.  I know one thing:  it will be 20 degrees cooler than today!

In a holding pattern until the moulding goes down.   Hardwood Floor Limbo.  Or purgatory.   Depending on how you look at it.

It's okay.  Boxes, or not;  mess, or not;  I'm already enjoying the view.

gone camping!

  There's wood.  There's dust.  There's wood dust.   There's dirt dust.  There are holes.  In the subfloor.  Leading to the gates of Hades.  I mean my crawl space.   There's a really yellow wall that wishes it were white.  There's me camping out in the middle of it all.

There are tools, equipment, cords, carpet, and dust.  There is bright hot sun.  Blue skies.  Summer in November.  Good thing the recent rains are gone because dust + water = mud.  I know that.

Countdown To Hardwood Floors!

Gianter

I have a giant task ahead of me.  Which just got gianter.  I have to P A C K.  A lot of little loose things into boxes.  Hardwood floor man is going to wish he hadn't told me to just leave the boxes in the house.  I know that.

I do more sitting and staring into the soft sheen of the stack of hardwood floors than packing.  The facts.

And when I'm sitting staring here's what I'm thinking:   Where'd all these books come from?!  What time can I knock off for lunch?

There's paper. 

There's feathers.  There's orange.  I kept coming across it while I was sorting and shifting.  I stopped and added things to my inspiration board.  Maybe I had a cheeseburger.  Maybe I took a nap.  I might've started reading travel books.  I was definitely drifting.

I found art I bought on Etsy years ago!  My sister must have hidden them when she visited.  She likes to hide things so I go crazy looking for them and then she never tells me where she hides them.  Never.  Ever.  Eventually I forget I own them.  She thinks that's funny.   ha.  ha.

I cleaned out a closet.  I threw a lot of junk away.  I consoled the cat posse.  I did more staring.  I found more hidden things.  The mail arrived.  Oh good I need a break!

Sara surprised me with my very own Moss Cottage pillow!  I'm punch drunk with love.  Giddy.  It has a monkey and a cat and orange.

If there is something sweeter or more dear I don't know what it would be...

Autumn Arrives

~

REMAINS OF THE DAY updates and information:

I've decided to keep your access to the videos and class blog OPEN.  Originally if you registered prior to June 2010 your access ended this coming December.  No more!  I'm postponing the cut off date indefinitely.  This class has been like standing under one giant shining lucky star.  Enrollment has been consistent since the class began last December.  I never imagined it would grow so large.  Or that I would form bonds with so many of the people in the class.  Or that so many nice people would show off their journals and spread the word this far and wide.

THANK YOU.  I am grateful.

Kas, one of the generous ROD class members emailed me the other day to say she wanted to sponser someone in need.  In other words PAY their full tuition.  That really happened.  I'm going to contribute another 2 classes for someone else.  So 3 free spots in the class.  Send me an email with a brief description of your circumstances.  Special consideration given to the unemployed, recently laid off, or stay-at-home moms with no extra dough for yourself. When the spots are filled I'll update this post with the info.  Naturally, your name will be kept private.

*click on the words "email me" top right sidebar

***All 3 free class spots are filled as of 10/12***

A Reading Cocoon

I write on my lap with the wind rocking the wagon.

-Algeline Ashley

I'm enveloped in a reading cocoon.   I lift my head every now and then for a look at the sky, a drink of water, to pet a cat.  Found a book on my shelves that my sister loaned me about 10 years ago.  I've temporarily abandoned The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and taken up with reading diaries of women who traveled west on the Oregon Trail.  Unputdownable.  

Patio + stack of books = bliss.  The facts.

 

{*kindle cover came from beesocks}

Someone Is Singing

Sitting right here reading about Istanbul and sultans and empires and Roman ruins and bathhouses and The Grand Bazaar.  Well, earlier I was.  Now I'm inside typing this.  French windows are open wide.  Cool air drifting across my arms as I type.

Do you know how many times I've opened and closed that little window?  Um.  A lot.  It's the final piece of the back patio puzzle sliding into place.  Absolutely no troglodytes can peer over or through.  None.

I'm on my second Turkish movie in as many days.  Last night The Edge Of Heaven.  Tonight, Head On.  This last one is actually German, but about Turkish culture.  And I have a pile more in my instant watch Netflix queue.  I download to my Roku player and watch on the television.  So cool!  So free!

 A male voice singing Ave Maria drifts in my window now.   It rises and falls over the hills and down the street and up here to me.  Seriously beautiful.

Maybe

Tomato tart, you are good.  You have 2 kinds of cheese.  And a savory crust.  When you were given to me I mouthed the words "Right On" and did a fist pump.  My weekend guest will love you.  If she has a chance to try you.  It's very possible she will never know of your existence.

 

Before the pergola grew into her current shape and dimension she looked like this.  Current shots coming.

Of all the chairs I sat my tuckus upon, these were the most comfortable.  Thanks Orchard Supply Hardware.  The striped cushions are getting a makeover soon. 

 

   

It's possible that I might maybe stop posting epiphyllum photos.  Someday.  Maybe.  I might.

 

But I can't say when.