Father

watch in full screen size, for full emotions

Love,

Ayanna
:-)
xx

Full Moon Rise

Full Moon Rise, yesterday, afternoon- over the Mission Mountains, in Polson, Montana. :-)

xxoo,

Ayanna*

La. La - la.

{eco felt pins by moi}

{Ships o' Sailin ~ Organic Lavender Sachets, by Moi}

Oh, I'm here :-)...

I just haven't been Blogging =) ....

Tis the Season, tis the Season, tis the Season, tis the Season......

~LOve~

Ayanna*

Gettin' Comfy

I am so committed in so many arenas of my life: friends as family, love, community, nature, food, good health as a right for all.

But then I am Hilariously non-committal in so many other areas...! I have lived in Montana for 7months now, and have still yet to buy or acquire a single piece of furniture!!! What the heck :P. lol. Somebody needs to look at wider ways of grounding. :-)

In any case, I love this Rachel Ashwell sofa!! Love most of her lovely things in general. Check out her blog- Shabby Chic!

(photo credit (c) Rachel Ashwell and Shabby Chic)

Cakes {and} Trees

As I sit here, *devouring* some of last night's fresh fig and strawberry crumble for breakfast, with some yogurt, I am also visiting my regulars, on the interweb.

I have been wanting a cake stand for some time now, and had not found the one yet. Well I've found it! This Gorgeous, rustic, tree limb cake stand, by Laurie Cinotto, over at lalalaurie, is so far up my alley, that I have no idea why I never thought of it myself!

It's a cake stand! An art display piece! A mini altar!

I'm already imagining it, with a home made paper lace doiley, a cake on top, and surrounded by crafted goodness, lil mini red and white mushrooms, a la here.

In any case, do jump over to Laurie's site, and check out the DIY instructions for yo' self. :-)

http://www.lalalaurie.com/2009/05/tree-pedestal-cakestand.html

Happy Monday, Lovelies!

xo
~Ayanna*


(photo (c) lalalaurie.com)

A.B.C...

One of my Favoritist urban experiential places in the whole wide world, has a Brand New updated website! Annnnd... You can finally shop with them online! Joie! :

http://www.abchome.com/systemPage/home/tabid/190/Default.aspx


(image (c) ABC Carpet and Home)

I'm Here!

Hello Lovelies! I was going to write that I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since I've written here- but, Alas, I completely can! :P

I hope all of your summer's have been going Awesomely, and that you are gracefully shifting into the Seasons' own gracefull shift.

xo
Ayanna*

safety

Safety means many different things, to many people. These photos are about small letter 's', safety, for me. I always need to be living near Movement. Flow. Some kind of moving body of water. And when living and working, back home in NYC last year, I took my energy moving Rivers where I could get them.

There is a calmness. serenity. and safety(small letter 's'), and healing that I would find from going to Grand Central Station during rush hour.

When I was stuck. Or couldn't see clearly. This was my "moving body of water" that I would often go to(as opposed to the Hudson, or East rivers. Though I went to them as well..).

I would sit somewhere, or stand in the midst of the hurried flow of NYC humanity. And like standing knee deep in a rushing river, or stream, I would let myself go into that rapture of rapidly flowing water.

And surely, surely, I would feel my cobwebs dislodge. My energy free up.

I regularly look for Nature's patterns, in places, also, where others are not looking.

And I find them.

I find them...

{ Much Better }

This

and this...


plus this...



equals {Bliss} *

Barns

{In} Sketch

Just a wee peek, into some of the Lovely Ones currently appearing in my sketch book....

a {Berry} good day

I really do love a good forage through the wildwoods, hedgerows, what have you... So on Wednesday, I headed out to the hedgerow, along the creek, near my home, in search of some ripe wild berries. And I found some!


The above photos are of golden currants(yum! yum!), and purple Saskatoons(also known as service berries, shadberries, and June berries). If you've never had Saskatoons, they are sweetish, with a lovely nutty flavor, once you really dig in.


Right near to the wee little golden currant tree(it's really a bush, but was not at all bushy lookin'!), was a yummy red currant variety. Mmm... Juicy!


This last berry photo, is of the red variety of the Saskatoon. Also with a nutty-ish flavor when you bite in.

What did I do with all of these lovely hedgerow treats?? {Besides the obvious, of simply gnoming on them, directly, of course} The red Saskatoons, I baked, just this afternoon, into a yummy cinnamon granola. The purple Saskatoons were Dee-licious a few days ago, a top of some yummy hot oatmeal with raisins(it was coldish that morning!). And the red currants I baked into some strange, but very tasty little treats, with random ingredients left in my house, pre- grocery shop. Blue cornmeal, chocolate and red currant little brownie bites. They were weird! But, they were good! The golden currants, I simply gobbled up, as is. :-)


While I was down by the creek, I dug up just a few wild onions. So delicious! So pretty!


I hope your summers are progressing very nicely, and that you too are having some very berry, Berry good days :-)

Ayanna*
xo

(p.s.- as I am rolling in dried organic lavender buds, I was planning on doing a give away, here at the Luminous Sparky blog. But, alas! Though I know there are some readers, it's been pip quiet, so need to know if folks are out there to participate in an upcoming Give Away. Sing! Lovely Lurkers, Sing!)

Home

Car Show!

Summer Saturday's in Missoula, are blessed with many a festive happening. There are 2 farmer's markets, 1 craft market, and always some show/event something or the other, happening down by the River at Caras park.

I spend my Saturdays, generally, at the Clark Fork farmer's market, because it is close to the river and I, too, have an occasional stall there.

Then I wander under the bridge, over to Caras park, to see what's happenin'. This weekend, to my extreme old car and motorcycle lovin Delight, that there was a muscle car show on! Hurrah! {If I am extra "good", can I puhleeaze have the mint condition Ford Mustang??? Puhleeazzee??? Lol.}

After all that good time havin', it was a cycle home, and a nap amongst the flowers for me.

xo
Ayanna*

Red Cap Love { joie! }

I have been having a Crafting Love Affair with said fly agaric faery 'shroom for going on weeks(well, months, really)now. Napkins are oh so more delightfull, when they've a mushroom or oak leaf upon them ;-). The little sachets were made for a local all natural kids shop, and are stuffed with organic lavender.

But pins. Oh, I've been sewing and sewing(and gratefully, selling and selling) lots and lots of little fly agaric pins! The felt is made from 50% recycled plastic bottles, and the innards are shtuffed with 50% cotton, and 50% non gmo spun corn fiber. And all of their little backs are from different lovely cotton remnants from other Crafty goodness projects.

Two pins, have actually made it into said Luminous-y Etsy shop..

here:


and here:

Fantabulous Day, peoples!

Remember to Consciously count your blessings, as the shit things are quite good at counting themselves. ;-)

xo,
Ayanna*

Lavender lovely-ness...

So I am loving the heck out of the summery, warm days :-). Hurrah!

Wanted to show you some snap shots of life for me over the past week... I went and helped out a lovely farmer on her organic flower and herb farm for a couple of days. She specializes in growing yummy varieties of English lavenders! So I'm blessed up to here with gorgeous, amazing, organic lavender products-fresh bouquets, dried bouquets, dried buds, hydrosol and essential oil!- at the moment, and have been in the kitchen, throwin' it inta near 'bout everything ;-)

First off, I just finished watching my friend's 4 1/2 yr old girl and 6 yr old boy for a couple of hours. For 1st lunch, I made us all some japanese style rice salad. For 2nd lunch(yes...Hobbitses..), I made us some miniature organic buckwheat pancakes, topped with some of the organic huckleberry jam(from said lavender farm) pictured below, with young mr. chipmunk:



Here's some fresh hidcote, munstead, and a pink varieties of lavender, in one of my lovely tea-for-two tea pots in my kitchen window:



And earlier in the week, in the midst of making not one, but two batches of fresh granola! The "everyday" granola I make is hazelnut and vanilla(No sugar. I use either honey or maple syrup, depending on what's on hand), and then I tried out a new "specialty" granola, for use with yougurt or ice cream and the like- Lavender and dark chocolate! It was quite strong right out the oven, but once it cooled, and the flavors mellowed a bit, it is quite delicious!!:


Sending you all Delightfull vibes, for Delightfull summer days...

xx
Ayanna*

I, too, have been bitten by the Silhouette art bug...

Here, in the Raven King/Queen countryside, I have been juxtaposing between "light" and "dark" art. After a couple of weeks of sewing little fly agaric mushroom plushies and pins, my Heart turned to some darker art, and some Silhouettes were born.

"Crow" is a paper cut Silhouette, mounted on white medium weight sketch pad paper, and framed-sans glass- in one of the many Lovely vintage frames I got last week, and decidedly painted a nice Victorian Black.

"Free". Ink on paper.

The Silhouettes spread("Free", "The Raven King", "Oh, Deer" and "Crow", respectively.), on my wee table at the Missoula Made Fair, this past Sunday. It was great to be showing/vending at a juried fair again. I was really quite impressed at the quality, quantity and range of the Artists there. And happy to be counted amongst them....