Monthly Archives: May 2016

Y4 – Day 122 – Transformation

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“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” ~e.e. cummings

Cinderella has always been my favorite tale of rags to riches and how love, kindness and “fairy” help can transform you. I consider the “fairy” character an allegory, part spiritual and  part serendipity, for the awakening of aspiration and possibility.

 My Fair Lady is also a Cinderella story, a woman transformed essentially, by love.

I love to take something and make it different, my own, perhaps better or brighter. That’s why I love to paint furniture, knick knacks and color in my coloring books with pencils and markers. There is transformation and satisfaction in taking a page and filling in the lines with your color palettes of your mind. This is why I love to frequently move furniture around, to my husband’s chagrin. I suppose it is why I like to write and read as the words play and dance, confirming, validating and expressing action, emotion and truths.

When I lived in Farmingdale, NY, straight out of college, in a WWII upper apartment on Main St, I painted and stenciled the claw foot bath tub with orange and yellow flower clusters so it would match the old wallpaper I wasn’t allowed to remove. I distressed the high ceiling walls’ millwork. I painted an old vanity table, I still have today, to match an antique rose pitcher and basin I owned.

Maybe today is a great day for moving ourselves closer to the change we want to see.

Affirm: I intend I vibrate with the many subtle hues of the sunset and exude the powerful energy of the sunrise. – Cecilia

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover.” —Mark Twain

Y4 – Day 122 – Alexandra Stoddard

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“Live by the trinity of what is good, true and beautiful.” – Alexandra Stoddard

Alexandra Stoddard is an accomplished author, speaker, philosopher and designer. She has written just under thirty books on everything from decor to memoir to lessons learned and shared for all mothers and daughters.

I would love to meet this unbelievable person. I just recently finished her Gracious Living book. She can get a bit pedantic and sophistic but I get the sense that is who she is and it is authentically revealed and shown through her literary voice.

I absolutely feel I could connect with her on a personal level, I certainly do via the pages I read. I am not as refined or learned but I am also not as well heeled or traveled either.

Alexandra had an idyllic childhood in Connecticut and an esteemed mentor, the infamous Mrs. Brown of style and interior design who took her under her wing at a very young and impressionable age. Alexandra parlayed her experiences and teachings into her own NY based design firm with hard work, loving staff and passionate dedication in a time when young women were expected to marry, not create a start-up.

She was blessed with Peter, a husband who not only shared her aesthetics ( he was a NY attorney specializing in ethics and a journalist ) but uplifted her further, always questioning and presenting new perspective. Together they shared forty years of blended family bliss (he was married before with children and together they had two daughters) until his peaceful passing two years ago, at the age of 92. She still holds her joyful get togethers they started at their cottage in Stonington, CT on Positive Thinking and Happiness.

Women with great attitude and lives inspire. Here is a woman who did it all with aplomb and documented the whole thing and every step of the way. She lives a fully and balanced existence and has never sacrificed the wisdom of a cozy, warm and serene homestead for any of her worldly accomplishments.

When I read her, I cannot believe how energetic she is. Focused and dedicated with a confidence, zeal and strategy that would make any president or CEO, swoon with admiration.

“To be your most creative self, you need to accept the responsibility of carving out your own niche. Search and seize activities best suited to your unique abilities and aspirations.” – Sue Patton Thoele

Affirmation for today: “I have the power to reframe my reality.” and ” I am worthy ” – Cecilia

Y4 – Day 119 – Bring Nature In

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It is true that every space needs good bones, or at least halfway decent but even the most strategic and staged or stark and contemporary or pale and frilly decor needs a touch of nature.

Making or breaking a look generally comes down to the details. Layering the room with lighting, texture and color gives the room cohesion but also tension. You want a soulful kitchen or perhaps a spa bathroom but it is the composition and play of materials that give it that feeling or not.

Collaborate with nature and you have a winning scene every time.

Every style is graced by bringing in something alive, natural or depicting nature.

Take my pinecones off my distressed, vanilla cream colored tray and you lose the subtle connection. Omit a painting of a still life with a wooden bowl of fruit and your room suddenly seems dull. Move any of my amethysts or crystals and literally the energy of the room will be askew, unless it is time to move the energy around.

Have you ever had the experience of killing off a plant, tossing it and then walking back into the room and feeling something is missing?

You can enhance every space in your home with simple touches of nature and it does not matter if it is real or replicated.

Here are some ideas I came up with:

A real plant in a pretty pot. A small desk fountain with smooth blue stones or one made of slate. A botanical print. A piece of driftwood. A wreath of succulents (but not dried flowers according to all feng shui schools of thought – supposedly they suck the life right out of you and your home). A living bouquet or a single flower in a vase. A primitive wicker or richly woven, grass basket filled with fresh fruit, veggies, unshelled nuts or pinecones. A tray of seashells, crystals or herb pots. A mineral, crystal or rock specimen atop a small mirror. A vase of branches, with leaves or bare. Sprigs of rosemary or lavender hung upside down ( rubber band the ends and it will catch on a nail on the wall ) wrapped with raffia or ribbon. Blue green Aruacana chicken eggs in a wire basket (see older post last month with picture). And of course, pets and animal prints, but not too many!

When you feel your home needs warmth or realism, give a nod to mother earth and bring in the outdoors.

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Y4 – Day 118 – The Critic

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The critic inside you, everyone has one, although some are meaner than others, will keep you from uncovering, discovering, and crystallizing dreams, thoughts and ideas.

Break free from your inner bully, take down the barrier to your creative and wise self. The critic is your ego mind and it wants you to fail, not to do well or dream so it can say “See, I told you so.” because the critic LOVES to be right, but don’t let it be, don’t listen. Be on your higher self side. Have your own best interests at heart. Your positive voice wants what is best for you and what is best for you is to get all the crap out, release the ugly and capture the beauty, whoever you are, because we are all creative. You are already there.

DSC09710Newport Beach – May 1, 2016

 

 

Y4 – Day 117 – Yoga and Me

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I write 10 minute prompts, a stream of consciousness, for practice.

It is usually your first thought, your heart, frustrations and soul screaming to get out.

You can do this too. From Natalie Goldberg, here is your 10 minute prompt. Use long hand, pen or pencil, not the computer. Just don’t pick up the pen or think too much or at all, just let it out. I want to write about……….

I want to write about yoga and how it changed my life. How teaching it at my home, once a week is enough. How it made me realize way back when that I had a problem. How it helped me focus on my health and relationships and healing. How it went deeper than physical.  How it opened up my mind and fed me spiritually. I want to write about how the culture of yoga both educated and energized me, as well as disappointed me in regards to business and human nature/personalities.

I learned certain relationships were unfixable and with clarity watched them hit new lows.

I want to write about how yoga helped me grow, learn and realize that yoga wasn’t the end all either. I had to reach out to other spheres and places but it was still waiting for me in its purest form, unconditionally even when everything went dark and toxic for a while there and I had to dig myself out of a hole.

That was all the time I had.

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Y4 – Day 116 – Pantone Picks 2016

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As you may have already heard, I mean seriously, it’s yesterday’s news, Pantone picked Rose Quartz and Serenity as their two colors of the year for 2016. It’s the first time they highlighted two hues.

Rose Quartz is exactly the color of rose quartz stones. Rose quartz crystals are beloved for their romantic energy.

Serenity is a light, almost powder baby blue which is a color that soothes. Blue in all of its phases is lovely.

Being one with a piece I paint takes lots of time sometimes and then when the vision is clear, it’s an instant.

Lately, I have been really into coral like pink, hot or pastel. Violet, lavender and just barely there blush is also provocative.

What’s your favorite today? You can change your mind daily you know.

Y4 – Day 114 – Cafe Gratitude in Newport

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Cafe Gratitude in Newport Beach, CA is just Gratitude. It is located at 1617 Westcliff Drive along busy 17th St. The name changed to Westcliff somewhere along the two or so miles away from the 55 South but it is the same road.

Everything is fancier for the fancy beach folk in Newport. The eatery is no exception.

Cafe Gratitude in Berkeley is very Berkeley. It’s bohemian and does its own thing which is raw vegan last time we went which was a while ago, Mother’s Day when the eldest was in college, so quite some time. I was raw at the time so it must have been 2009. No one enjoyed it at the time except maybe V. I believe everyone went out for burgers after I stuffed myself with almost the entire menu, knowing this might be my one big chance to eat at the famous Cafe Gratitude I had read about in their array of books I owned and had made recipes from. Their well thought out menu names are touching and positive.

Then, another time, my friend Danananda swept me off to the Peace Labyrinth Gardens in LA and we ate at the other Cafe Gratitude, I remember it was on Larchmont. Here, the restaurant group had already began to expand to include cooked vegan food as well. Again, it was delicious and we both ate from each other’s plates and had desserts. This must have been about three or four years ago.

Today, we went to the new Gratitude. 

“Have you been here before?” asked our server.

“Yes,” we said in unison and then, “I have been to the one in Berkeley.” I said.

“I haven’t been to that one, but I have been to the very first one in San Francisco.” added Dana.

” I had no idea there was one in SF.” I said with a tilt of my head to hear more.

“Yes, it’s called Gracias, Madre.” our server piped in.

“OMG!” I shrieked, almost falling off my chair with the biggest smile on my face, ” That’s where my kids took me and ML to in SF when we were there last September!” and  I added, ” That was incredible! If your food is as good as that, I will be coming back”, I punctuated with a sense of relief as my whole countenance relaxed because now I knew I was in good hands. See blog post on Gracias Madre.

After re-reading the menu in between sharing and contemplating what exactly we were going to pick, I ended up indulging on the item I intuited I needed at first glance, minutes before. Every ingredient is organic and all the offerings are vegan. My kind of speed.

Danananda had the Humble Bowl which included red dal, quinoa, spinach, yams, coconut mint chutney and spicy tomato jam. In place of the quinoa, one had the option of sprouted probiotic brown rice instead, a nice touch.

I tasted her Indian flavors but was relishing my Warm-Hearted entree which was a bit more Northern Italian, clashing with her spices, so I stuck to my plate. She felt the same after trying mine.

My dish was grilled polenta with mushroom ragu, wild arugula, cashew ricotta, brazil nut parmesan and fresh basil cut chiffonade style, with a side of marinara and pesto sauces because I just had to test as much of their food as possible in one sitting, of course.

The presentation is a bit homey looking, less chef like than I expected, but I guess that’s what they are going for nowadays.

And Gracias Madre is still my favorite of the chain.

I savored every bite and we concluded the meals represented us well.

“Humble and Warm-Hearted”

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