Announcing ... Princess Magpie's Nest & Studio

You read it right, friends. 

I am taking my art- and soul-filled adventure in a new direction.  An "additional" direction, if you like.

I have ... started a new blog with my new business in mind ... http://princessmagpiesnestandstudio.blogspot.com ... I know, that's a long long long address ... I'll do something about that when I can figure out how to make it SHORTER via some kind of link-up ... Ann ???

If you visit the new blog, via the handy dandy link above, you can read the beginnings of this new venture.

I have also "opened" my very own ETSY shop, called Princess Magpie's Nest ... you can visit it at www.etsy.com/shop/PrincessMagpiesNest ... although the "shelves" are still empty :-) !!!

So far, I've shared my dream (in most of its entirety) with only the grandchildren, two of our daughters, my husband (yes, Mark; and he is intrigued and engaged in the ideas I presented), and my friend Nina, who I frequently "art" with and whose input I appreciate and value.

But the more I "speak" the dream, the more "real" it gets for me, and I can hardly sleep any more.

More to come ...  more to come ...

-- Princess Magpie

An ARTFUL Post over on 2 Travelers ...

... I just posted the longest POST I've ever done, with the most photographs, I'm guessing. Whew. What a project. And there are SO. MANY. MORE. photos that I could post from the outing on Friday to the LONG BEACH QUILT SHOW.

at right, artist Jane LaFazio's ZEN EUCALYPTUS quilt on display in the "edges" category ... this was done with pieces that were hand-dyed and wet-felted by Jane ... isn't it amazing?!

For now, visit my other blog at: www.DH2travelers.blogspot.com for a peek at today's post. Then, when I have caught my breath, and maybe even caught a nap :-), I'll post JUST IMAGES on this blog. Later.



Okay?

Your,

Princess Magpie

The Joy of Less, by Pico Iyer

Thank you, PATTI DIGH {Life is a Verb: 37 Days} for posting this on Facebook this morning. WOW, what a powerful testimony to the simple(r) life / lifestyle.

The Joy of Less
By Pico Iyer

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/the-joy-of-less/?pagemode=print

I read it, each and every word, and it so resonated within me. Yet, I am not ready to "give up" and to "simplify" to the same level Pico has. But it's something I aspire to ... with maybe my art supplies left to add to my happiness :-).

Funny thing is, I had a most vivid dream last night:

I was in a large apartment-style building, with hundreds of other families. As we all looked out our front windows to see what the commotion we could hear was all about -- we saw a sea of emergency vehicles -- fire trucks, police cars, paramedics, ambulances -- literally thousands of them - just across the avenue from our building. {now mind you, I live in a single-family house now, but have lived in my share of apartments & condos over the years - yet nothing like this; this was in a big-city setting. ANYWAY ...}

They were trying to shout to us something important -- but we could barely hear them. We asked them to use a bullhorn - which they did - and what we heard was this:

"A huge fire is rolling this way and you MUST evacuate in 5 minutes. TAKE ONLY YOUR MOST PRECIOUS POSSESSIONS, AND YOU MUST CARRY WHAT YOU BRING WITH YOU."

You can imagine, I'm sure, what went through my mind {sub-consciously, or was I now partly awake?! it was hard to tell ...}. PHOTOGRAPHS. CHILDHOOD MEMORIES. THINGS FOR THE CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN THAT THEY MIGHT NOT THINK TO TAKE ALONG. {you see, we were ALL in this one large apartment - and it was filled with "things". Possessions. so the question really became: WHAT is so important about all this STUFF?!} So I grabbed several sacks and totes and bags, filling them with irreplacable items, and even some replaceable items {including a Breyer horse statue from my childhood ... which have in reality long since disappeared from my possession, although I miss them to this day}.

And all the while, my mind kept repeating ... "so now I will get to live that simple life - with not much of anything around me. I wonder how that will go?"

The whole LESS IS MORE quandary -- is that true? Is it true for everyone, or just for some?

And this morning, I woke up to Patti Digh's post that we "must read" this article.

Powerful validation that my dream was trying to tell me something.

Your,

-- Princess Magpie, aka Davielle

and don't you just know that my nickname, PRINCESS MAGPIE, is now ... worrying me. I really am quite the magpie (gathering things), and I wonder if it's offensive to people. I even wonder if somehow, it's offensive to myself.