FUN Friday!!

I know. It's not Flip Friday, but we went through all that on Wacky Wednesday.

And, Miss Zoe and I resorted to Wacky Wednesday only because the thing we had planned for Wednesday wasn't quite ready.

So, now, it's Friday, you've already enjoyed your Miss Zoe movie fix for the week, and it's time to move on to other things. Like the little surprise we have planned.

Don't you love a surprise?

Miss Zoe LOVES a surprise.
Especially if it's Willow Balls coming in the mail.

OK, so first, a little history: You remember how I asked all of you to help me to choose my new logo and you all voted and sent me the most wonderfullest of comments? (Did I hear a yes?)

Well, someone who lives with me who is extremely wise and has long ears (hint, hint), brought up some of those comments a couple of weeks ago. In her great wisdomosity, Blisschick (did you think I meant Zoe?) said to me, "What is it that you really want to be painting? What is it that you want a logo to really represent?"

I thought about that for a moment. I exchanged glances with Zoe. She looked away.

"Because," the Blisschick continued, "you have to think about all that. You made a nice logo and you have lots of ideas, but what is it that you love to paint more than anything else?"

Miss Lilly jumped into the Rabbit Room and cleared her throat. Miss Zoe coughed a bit from behind a pile of hay. I scratched my ear.

They were being a bit obvious, but they were right.

"Animals," I said with confidence. "I LOVE to paint animals. Especially cats and rabbits. But also dogs."

Another cough from Miss Zoe. (She's not too sure about dogs.)

And the Blisschick replied, "Animals. Then that's what you need your Etsy store to be. That's what you need to be painting and focusing on. Paint what you love."

With that in mind, then, I set off to sketch some ideas, which incorporated my new love of milagros with my obvious love of painting animals.

From there, it has all fallen together.

Add this bit of history: Over the past two years, we have said goodbye to the Fur Suits of two extraordinary cats who we were fortunate enough to know and love during this life. Those beautiful cats, Jobie and Ernie, have gone to a place we call Sparkle Pond.

If we want to visit Jobie or Ernie, all we need to do is close our eyes and trek to Sparkle Pond.

It's a gorgeous place. There's the Pond, of course. There's a rock Ernie likes to sleep on that's always in the sun. There's a Paper Ball Tree ripe with juicy, crinkly paper balls that Jobie loves to sleep under. And at night, there's always a clear and swirly sky filled with stars and a bright and lovely Moon. And, the cats are almost always wearing little hats or crowns. Sometimes they glow or wear wings.

And so, my new paintings and pendants come from here. They originate at Sparkle Pond and are meant to celebrate the Lives of Animals, whether they are in Fur Suits or Sparkle Suits.

Without further adieu, I hereby announce the opening of my new and improved Etsy Store, Ordinary Enchantment.

It's a pretty small inventory at present, but it will grow.

I want to thank you all for your help and guidance, for without your comments, suggestions, and votes, I think I'd still be a little lost about what I wanted to work on.

So thank you. Let Miss Zoe know what you think. She'll break it to me gently.

Look! It's new!

So, I came home from work yesterday, and Blisschick was giddy with excitement.

"I have a su-pri-ise," she sang as I walked in the door.

Then she added, "It's for you AND Zoe!"

I wondered what it could be. It was just my birthday last week, so I didn't think it was another present.

I do know that I have a new black, and therefore more formal, Disapproving Rabbits T-shirt on the way, so I thought it might be that (here's a link to the official disapproving rabbits mugs, as I think they are revamping the T-shirt right now).

No. It wasn't that.

Blisschick scurried up the stairs. I followed.

"Grab your rabbit," she giggled as we got to the top of the stairs.

I went into Zoe's room. It was time for her crunch, so she wasn't especially thrilled about being picked up or about leaving the room. But, she snuggled in for the ride to the next room anyhow.

"Are you seriously going to pick me up
and carry me around
when it's time for my luscious dinner?
Really?" (Sigh.)

Yes, Zoe, I really did pick you up.

So, what was Blisschick on about?

My new banner!! SMILE!!

While I was away at work, one of the many things she did was revamp the banner at the top of my blog to feature the unequaled and always fashionable Miss Zoe! It was the coolest surprise after a taxing day.

Thanks, Blisschick!! You are awesome!!!

This weekend, I will return the favor by helping her put together her new, magical apple green desk. A fair exchange, I think.

Also, in response to some of the wonderful ideas many of you sent in about new milagros, Zoe and I will be working on some new pendants.

Tune in next week to see what those are all about.

Until then, I have to go freshen someone's hay and water. Now that she has top billing, she's EXTRA demanding!!

Can you even imagine?

Deep thoughts... by Marcy and Zoe

Here's something I've been thinking a lot about lately:

If you ask someone like, say, a nurse or a teacher or a social worker or any of a number of other kinds of people, and you ask them why they chose to do whatever it is they do, they usually say and can very certainly say that they chose that field because they "wanted to help people."

That's a great reason to want to do something, right?

"I help people just by being cute.
It does feel good to be helpful!"

I've used that line before, myself. I have an undergraduate degree in English, which led on to a secondary teaching certification in English, which led into a graduate program in English where I worked my way through as a teaching assistant. I come from a family of teachers. And if you would have asked me why I was choosing that field that I thought I would spend my life in, I would have said it was... you guessed it... because I wanted to help people.

It seemed like a worthy thing to do.

But, you know, when I first started painting, I never would have cited "because I want to help people" as a reason for doing it.

That thought wouldn't have occurred to me.

I started painting for me. I did it because I love it. It's fun. It brings me joy. It helps me to think about and see the world in new ways.

Painting/art is a way I connect to the Divine. It is in so many ways my spiritual path.

The more I paint, though, the more I realize that while, yes, painting and creating art is fun and fulfilling for me, it is also a way of helping other people that is just as legitimate and worthy of a choice as anything else.

[An aside, here: Though all this stuff may seem obvious, I am writing about all this, I guess, because I think that too many people make wrong choices about not following a path they should probably be on because they think the arts are frivolous hobbies as opposed to real life choices and professions. This is too often reinforced by our government cutting money to arts programs and schools making cuts to arts programs in favor of what they see as more "practical" choices. It is also, unfortunately, too often reinforced by parents.]

"This post is getting a little too pedantic, don't you think?"

I know-- Zoe's right. I'm a little preachy today, perhaps. Hang on, while I shove a banana chip in her mouth to quiet her down...

There.

OK, so the larger point is this: Doing what we love, whatever that is, is what helps people the most. (See also Blisschick!)

When I paint a commissioned portrait of someone's beloved pet or when a milagro I've designed and made helps a friend to focus her intentions on hopefulness and healing, I've helped someone just as sure as I would have if I had been teaching a 10th grader about reading Shakespeare.

When I look at a beautiful piece of art on my own wall or hold a set of lovely mala beads that someone has made for me or look at a little felt bunny that someone else has crafted with love and good intentions, that helps me just as much as a nurse giving me stitches. Reading poetry or prose can heal better than any medication if I let it.

Art and artists change the world. They help people in ways that nothing else can.

It may be less measurable than a a standardized math test or even an essay, but it's no less real.

The Magical World of Shrinky Dinks!

Yesterday was between 18 and 2o degrees Fahrenheit here in Erie, Pennsylvania. But, as I am so completely tired of riding the bus to work, I broke out my bike, Captain Janeway, for the ride to the Library.

My bike, Captain Janeway, the coolest bike on the planet.

Why do I mention this, you ask? Why do you care how I get to work?

Well, you probably don't care. But, in light of last Friday's post, where I shared some of my "collections" (i.e. my cat whiskers and found-on-road dolls), I felt like it would be prudent to share today's find from my ride home:

Would you call her two faced?
Or, is she just cracking a smile?
Poor thing.

But, that's not what I really want to write about today. (I think I just heard Miss Zoe sigh with relief.)

"Yes, what a relief that we're not going to discuss
dirty things found on the side of the road.
Now, who has my morning banana chip?"

No, in fact what I wanted to write about is this:

I need your help. Again.

I know, I know, you're probably getting tired of me asking questions. Well, I've really only asked the one. You know, about my logo. And I got so many great comments, that I thought I'd ask some more stuff.

So, here it goes.

A couple of days ago, I got a commission to make a new milagro pendant. A stomach. With intestines. Very cool.

I am thrilled about the commission. I love to draw guts and body parts. I never knew that about myself until recently.

(Don't worry-- I'm working up to the question. Were you wondering? I thought since Zoe was taping her nails on the writing table, that you might be, too.)

And, of course, I make my pendants with Shrinky Dinks. Shrinky Dinks are the best, aren't they? I have so many great childhood memories with Shrinky Dinks. And the Easy Bake Oven. And the Play-Doh pasta making thingie (remember that?). OK, enough reminiscing.

As you may well know, Shrinky Dinks come in sheets. And a stomach with attached intestines is really only going to take up a small portion of one sheet.

Here's where you come in.

Blisschick has been urging me for some time now to make animal milagros as memorials. Great idea, Blisschick.

What animals should I make? I mean, I know what Miss Zoe and Miss Lilly would say, but what are your thoughts?

Should these animals bear little wings like angels, or should they just be the animals themselves with no frills or additions?

Also, besides animals and body parts, milagros cover a lot of territory.

What other ideas for helpful milagros might you have? Remember, they are for helping with anything. They are little talismans (talismen?) intended to focus your intentions and help you through difficult periods in your life or the life of someone you love.

Any ideas? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

The brain is wider than the sky

Rosie the Cat can't even believe you're real. Are you real?

Tonight, Blisschick and I are having dinner with some wonderful people at Miss Kitty's house. Miss Kitty is a Children's Librarian at the library where I work and perhaps the best chef on the planet. Seriously. She could give any of those newly famous chefs a run for their money if you ask me.

One of the people who will be at Miss Kitty's diner party tonight is our good friend Ken. Ever since we met Ken, he's been battling cancer. What started as colon cancer went to his lungs and also to his brain.

The most amazing thing about Ken is that he never gives up. He travels. He lunches. He creates. He loves his life. He has his ups and his downs like all of us would, but his downs never keep him down.

It's why he's lived so long and so well against all the odds. If you saw him right now, you wouldn't even know there was anything going on with him. Amazing.

Ken is also an artist. He paints and he decorates like nobody's business. When he told me that he liked my art, I was thrilled. It meant a lot to me. And what painting was his favorite?

This bunny.

I love this bunny, too. It's not a bunny whom I know. It's just a bunny that I had sort of a vision of and whom I subsequently painted. When Ken liked that bunny so very much, I knew that was why I had painted him.

For Ken.

Next time we went over to have dinner with Ken and his wife, Debbie, we took the bunny painting. Of course, Ken had just the right antique frame for him.

A couple of months ago, when Ken was anticipating brain surgery to remove a tumor, I was inspired to paint him a brain. I had been reading about and running into the idea of milagros for some time by then, and it just seemed like the right thing to do. I had to paint this brain for him.

Brain Milagro for Ken

The idea behind this brain was to help Ken to focus on healing thoughts about his brain. To focus his intentions on the part that needed it. That's the whole point of milagros or ex votos or talismans or whatever you may want to call them. They are a tool to help you focus your thoughts, prayers, or intentions.

I have to say it felt a little weird to send someone a picture of a brain. I wasn't sure how Ken would react. To many people, it is kind of weird. Paintings of body parts? But they serve a function.

And Ken and Debbie used to live in New Orleans. Nothing is weird to them. :)

Ken actually framed the brain and then hung it near to the bunny painting and linked them together with a chain. Something about that is very special.

Brain II, The Sequel: A Brain Pendant

Soon after, I made another brain, this time a pendant, for a friend whose brother was recently operated on for a brain tumor. She mentioned many times to me how that brain pendant somehow comforted her and somehow helped her to think more positively. Her brother, who is a mathematician, is recovering quite well at this point with no adverse affects so far. Cool.

Miss Zoe thinks that focusing on her cute belly
will help you feel generally better in all ways.
She's probably right.
She also said it works even better
if you give her a banana chip and then focus on her belly.
I'll have to try it.

We leave you today with this thoughtful poem from Emily Dickinson:

CXXVI

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.

The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.

Zoe and I hope your dinner tonight is as good as ours is going to be. Good friends and good food. You just can't beat it.

Such a Saintly Shelf

Today, Zoe, Lilly, and I are are all hanging out here in the Rabbit Room, a.k.a. our studio.

We avoided doing anything for awhile today. Who knows why? (A rhetorical question. I actually do know why, but thanks. :))

You know how that can be, right?

We opted to play on the computer a bit, do software updates on our iPod, download some music...

(and may I say, we are loving what we downloaded today: Girl in a Coma's debut CD, Both Before I'm Gone. Check it out if you haven't already. Even the cover art is awesome.
"Totally rockin'," reviews Zoe, as she plays a little air bass guitar. Man, that's cute.)

...and then to do a bit of cleaning.

And while we were cleaning (and I have to say, cats and rabbits aren't terribly helpful at dusting
(unless you are this unlucky cat)), I was inspired to write about Inspiration.

There are an infinite amount of Things in the world that I find terribly inspirational to my creativity. But most recently, through the influence of Blisschick's more and more emergent Catholicism, Things like this inspire me in large amounts (see exhibit A, below):

Exhibit A: A Shelf of Saintliness: My Prayer Card Collection
(included in the center is an impostor!--
a piece of beauty from Jennifer Hugon that also lives on the shelf)

Now, you might say, "But you live with Miss Zoe and Miss Lilly and 3 other cats, plus about 5 Sparkle Cats (for an explanation of Sparkle Cats, see this Blisschick). Well, plus Blisschick. What more inspiration could you need?"

And, admittedly, that would be a good point.

"Take a good look," Miss Zoe quips with her trademark dry wit.
"I need no plate of eyeballs to accentuate my saintly nature.
It is what it is, yes?"

OK, Zoe, but even so, there's something about prayer cards, don't you think?

Last year, Blisschick and I went to a Catholic store near our house, and she bought me my first 2 prayer cards. I immediately imagined my Scotch Irish and very Protestant grandfather rolling in his grave as my finger traced the shape of the dragon laying at Martha's feet. I'd never really held prayer cards in my hands. I was instantly drawn into the scenes.

I loved the colors.

I loved the symbolism.

I loved the juxtaposition of the macabre and the divine.

I loved the narratives they contained.

I simply loved that they were small.

Sorry, Grandpa. But sometimes inspiration lies in unexpected places, you know?

Two more saintly souls who are a part of our assortment:
Miss Emily Dickinson (left) and Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald (right)

Logos, Ethos, Pathos

Even when one studies at the feet of Miss Zoe's Great Wisdomosity,

one can still have Confusion.

So, I need your help.

Blisschick said to me the other day, "Frog," (she calls me Frog), "I think you need a new logo for your Etsy store."

It was a good point.

We hurried up to get our Etsy store, Ordinary Miracles, open right before the holidays, and because we hurried, which is our usual M.O. because we tend to be forgetful and do everything at the last minute, I drew a little rabbit on a moon logo to stick up for the time being.

But now, it's time to try to make a more permanent logo. Therefore, this weekend, while I was also working on a logo for a friend's blog as a birthday present (more on this logo to come later, as it's a present and MUST NOT BE REVEALED :) ), I thought I would try drawing a few things for myself.

So far, I have four ideas, which I drew and took pictures of. Here they are:

Number one:

Number two:

Number three:

Number four:

Time to vote. Tell me, honestly, which one(s) is (are) your fave.

Or, would you vote then all off the island and hope for a new one to wander onto the beach?

Come on. Be honest. I can take it.

A penny for your thoughts...

V-day

This morning as I was freshening Miss Zoe's hay, Miss Lilly jumped the gate into the room. She ran right over and leaped into the window seat to observe the outdoor goings on.

"He's a cute one," Lilly said to Zoe.

Zoe twitched her nose as she jumped into the pile of fresh, sweet hay with herbs (her new fave).

"What does he look like?" she asked.

"You know," said Lilly, "Brown. Fuzzy. Long ears. Cute hop. He might be good for this year."

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked, not sure I really even wanted to know. I should probably mind my own business.

"Valentine's Day!!" they yelled in unison. "Zoe wants to find just the right valentine this year," Miss Lilly said with a smile and a wink.

Far be it from me to judge the mating habits of a bunny. But they reminded me of one thing: V-Day is on the way. Which reminded me of something else.

New Valentine's Day stuff in my Etsy store, Ordinary Miracles.


Maybe you have a brown, fuzzy, long-eared, cute hopping person in your life that you need to buy for? Or, maybe you know one who needs to buy for you?

Here's some highlights:

All I have to say is, WOW!

"What did you say?" Miss Lilly said while practically choking on a crunchy cat food morsel.

"I'm pretty sure you heard me," I said, pretending not to be totally excited. (One has to show some sense of decorum, after all.)

From the next room, Miss Zoe echoed a similar sentiment: "What are you talking about?"

Miss Zoe in an indignant pose.

"I know, I know," I said. "It's completely and totally weird and cool and crazy. But I just sold a little piece that I made up and painted and had on my Etsy store to Courtney Love Cobain. You know-- Courtney Love Cobain?"

"Yes, yes, of course," said Miss Zoe, her nose high in the air. "Of course we know Courtney. She totally rocks. I love Hole." Miss Zoe does have wide musical tastes. (Note her use of the royal we.)

Well, of course she knows. She is a rabbit of the world. And, she loves sassy female musicians.

Zoe is the one that told me to write up the slip to order Courtney's book Dirty Blonde for the library (where I work). It has since been stolen and reordered a few times. Who would have guessed?

She's also the one who sat with me a couple of years ago when I was devouring bios of Kurt Cobain. Zoe loved Kurt-- he had and loved a rabbit after all.

Anyway, that was a pretty major thing here in this little house. Rather surreal.

And just in case you need a little something for a special someone, check out the updates coming in another day or so to my Etsy store, Ordinary Miracles. Valentine's Day is fast approaching. And what else says "I love you" like an anatomical heart?

Not much, in my opinion.

Coming on Wednesday: News of my weekend past. Good stuff, that.