a Molly Ringwald/Breakfast Club Birthday

***NOTE: i came to my senses and deleted the Molly Ringwald/Breakfast Club lipstick trick photo, except it was a candle. and not Molly. ***** yeah i know - totally immature and just plain eeeeoooowwww! well, would it make it any better if you knew my brother took the picture? ha! we born-again-buddhist-jews know how to throw a birthday party! but it was fun and good. and now i have to wait till next year to do it again. but i've already started planning...next year will be...well, you'll just have to wait & see! this year, i wanted quiet & cake, so just family came by. well, enough...i'll have more pictures soon. NEW TOPIC: i got some spanky cases from my brother for my birthday! they're from some sort of orchestra and have leather straps on them and all manner of cool stuff, including words "TRUMPETS" "saxophones" etc on them. We think they may be sheet music holders, but they are huge! so the sight of these beauties gelled in my mind a semi-gelled thought...this year, i'm going to do a self-portrait of the month project. i wasn't sure what medium i was going to do it in, but now i know : all of them. given the size of the cases, they can easily accomodate all manner of stuff that i may throw at them or stuff into them (unlike my jeans) and can do a fiber art thing one month, and a photograph another, and even a wood/rusty metal thing if i get the tango to. so very cool! Are you inclined? seems like a cool thing to do. and i must say, i've been really Mojave when it comes to art lately - i have had some incredibly serious ideas and wonderings, but have not felt the least inclined to put them to the table, so to speak. i'm not getting panicky or worried...yet. i know eventually i'll settle enough to actualy WORK on something. and poor CrowWoman is still sitting in my soldering chair waiting for her face. Right now feels like a time to close out the books on the old year, and start fresh for the new...art will come, but it's time to take care of old lingering biz and to solidify some new habits and directions. it's all good, as they say. my goodness, i truly have such a wondrous gift of my life...i am truly grateful for the life i have been given. today at my birthday party, my angel-friend made mention of when she was in India. i always thought i'd love to go to India. she was overwhelmed with it...the sights, the sounds, the smells. and the fact that there was so much of all of these things all the time...too much and too constant. i am grateful that i can open my window to fresh air, and have elbow room throughout my day. truly. i am grateful that i can have 2 people, or 5 people or 10 people or more over for an evening, but if i feel like a day or night alone...BAM! it's mine. so these are a few of my gratitude things today. i am grateful that no matter how tasteless the picture is above, you'll still find me charming, somehow. so, i'm off to download more songs into my second-hand IPod! love it! Linda