Zen Cat Art

Thanks Ladies...

A lovely lunch happened at my house!  Just when I needed it most!

Everyone is busy with family holiday plans and my family is mostly in North Carolina with some in Chicago and some in Alaska...far away.  I used to have a big party on Christmas Eve when I lived on Long Island but times change and I love Connecticut but sometime I miss family.  So in the midst of feeling a bit sorry for myself (just a touch - silly me) lots of lovely friends came to tea. 
How lucky am I?!

The pictures are not my best but the smiles are heart-warming and the ladies are top-notch!

Sammy has been so excited about Christmas!  She thinks we put up this tree with all the "toys" on it just for her.  And then Nan & Jo came down to her level, so to speak, to help her catch that elusive red dot she was beyond herself with joy!

But once the party was over...it was kitty crash time. I cleaned up the kitchen and went in to the living room to sit down - it was no more than ten minutes.
I'm stuffed with good food!  Nan, the tabouli salad was delicious and Natalie, half the cranberry bread is now gone!  Trish, I haven't opened the orange crackers yet but they look fabulous!  And Karen, the rest of the salmon...well, let's just say it's apt to be breakfast.
Thanks Ladies!   

Merry Christmas 2010

My kids were here for Christmas.  It doesn't get better than that!

Hannah, Tracy, Jim & Michael.
  

I LOVE seeing them laugh! 


Michael has gotten so tall (over an inch taller than Phil) it's amazing.  I feel like a shrimp next to him!


Hannah, age 11.  What a charmer!  
 

Happy Valentine's Day

   
I have always loved hearts but thought them a bit sappy until I saw some painted by 1960's pop artist, Jim Dine.  He painted them in crazy ways, different colors, raw edges, splotches and drips, flat, dimensional, in oil, acrylic and pastel.  Some of them looked like they had been through a lot, just like most of our own hearts and each one of them makes me smile.  There they are, one of our most recognized symbols of love, in all their messy and unrepentant glory reminding us that we all have one (literally and figuratively speaking) and we best use it while we have the chance. 

So, just for today, I will try, with all my heart, to do everything with love. 

Happy Valentine's Day! 
Love, Cat

 

~Red heart by Jim Dine (internet image) and blue heart by me.

Circle of Friends...

My wonderful circle of friends.  We do fiberart and friendship just about better than anyone!  Soup and salad, creativity and inspiration, tragedy and triumph, stories and secrets, time and again I am thankful that you lovely ladies are in my life!  I feel truly blessed!    
I don't know how I would have gotten through this  year without you! 

Grace Notes...

Grace notes are musical notations that represent several kinds of musical ornaments.  They are smaller in size than a regular note and augment the piece.  When I took piano lessons, oh so long ago, I just loved seeing them on a page.  Wikipedia says that metaphorically grace notes indicate concerns which are of secondary importance to that which is a primary concern.  For example, the table setting for a party would be the grace note to the menu or the guest list.
 
But the table setting can be beautiful and add to the experience of the meal.

Grace notes in life are, for me, those little things that you come across - mostly by surprise - that make you smile.  They are not the big things like landing a new job or winning lotto but they add to your day in a "priceless" kind of way.  Ineffable, personal, they touch a place beyond words.  They lift us up, even if just for the moment and they carry us to a better place. 

The catch is you have to be present to notice them.  Here's an example...  I was heading out the other day in a rush and there on the wooden shelf by the door on our deck was this circle of stones.  I had put them there in a pile when the flower pot them were living in broke.  I had intended to put them in the new one but hadn't gotten around to it.  My husband arranged them in this nice little circle, a bit of a mini Stonehenge right on my deck.  It's so like him to do a little thing like that, quietly, without announcement, for no reason other than to please himself, to make a bit of order out of chaos. 

Finding the stones there made me smile.  A bit of grace - an unearned favor from the universe and Phil.  In pausing to enjoy them for a moment, I found a better rest of the day.

I think I will collect these grace notes and tuck them into my day where I can peer at them when I need to be reminded that there is always a bit of grace around if you look for it.   

The Memory of Being Vertical

This story belongs to my friend Holly Hassett.  It is a story about helping others, a parable about friendship. 

After a particularly hard winter Holly and her husband, Rick, were clearing up the twigs and branches that had snapped off and fallen to the ground in their back yard. One of their birch trees had become so bent over in the last ice storm that its top almost touched the ground.  Both of them are so fond of birch trees that Holly asked Rick if there was anything they could do to save the tree.

Rick had an idea.  He said he would wrap a rope around the bent tree and tie it to the straight tree that was next to it and leave them together until the bent tree could remember being vertical.  By the time the summer came, they could take the ropes off and although a little crooked the bent tree was now standing upright among the other birches.

Holly is a social worker and she tells this story to her staff who work with children at risk and people in recovery.  This is what you do, she tells them.  This is how you help.  No one starts out dreaming of the day they can become an addict but sometime the storms of life bend you over.  So your job is to be next to them until they can remember being vertical.

It strikes me that this is also a story about friendship.  No one expects illness, financial difficulties or the basement to flood but “storms happen.”  And when you are bent over by them it is your friends that will rope you to them with help and love and understanding until you can remember being vertical.

~Holly & Rick are straight birch tree to all who know them.  The top picture is a photograph of two birch trees I pass regularly.  It is part of a page for a round robin book passed between some incredible artist friends! You can see more of the book in the post below.  

The bottom photo is a part of a "Little Love Quilt" I made for Holly & Rick.

Thank you all for being my straight birches!

It doesn't get better than this!

Sometimes your heart is so full that there isn't anything to say...but I love you Hannah!

I love red tulips...

I love red tulips.

 

I used to love red roses but I have seen the light.  Red roses come with powerful emotions; they say something, they might even demand something, they have potential, they extract promises and they live in the future.

If you have ever been given a bouquet of roses by someone you do not feel the same way about you will know how heavily they can weigh.  And the cost…no meager sum nowadays.

 

Tulips are within almost any budget and can be scooped up out of the supermarket containers as easily as bread and milk.  Available and inexpensive, they are perfect for the spontaneous expression of shared joy.

 

Red roses mark occasions.  Red tulips live right here in the now.  They are cheerful.  They make no demands and they say “I love you just as you are.”

And who couldn’t use a little unconditional love…

And by the way while we are on the topic of red and tulips, here's a lady that taught me how to appreciate both.  Take a bow Linda.

 

Linda is standing in Renaissance Cafe in Huntington, NY one of my favorite places to eat.  Renaissance is a restaurant, a deli, a gourmet food store and a trip to Italy (Long Island style).

You can hear the opera, Andrea Bucelli, and other Italian playing in the background.  The decor is Italian villa vs. jumble sale but it works for me.

 

Besides it may be the only place where you can order one egg over easy, with six perfect strawberries, two slices of smoked salmon, and home-made whole grain toast done cheerfully to your specifications.  They also have great coffee!

They also serve lunch and dinner and when I was single and working nearby I once had eleven of my 21 weekly meals there without a repeat - with the possible exception of the curried chicken salad which is very, very good.

AND they almost always have red tulips...