All I have to say today is...

...HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICK!!!

today

There's nothing easy to say about today... September Eleventh will always be a date that sticks in people's throats, as if maybe we shouldn't even say it...
Today I choose to focus on beauty, on love, on all that is possible. Today I choose to make beautiful beads and to look at the sunset and say Thank-You. And today I want to show you some pictures of birds in my yard, in my bird bath, in my world, and in a world of their own. Birds. Just little birds, but of all different kinds. Little birds of different kinds, sharing a bowl of water. There's something in there for all of us...

yurts!

It's Rick's birthday week, so we decided to have a little adventure yesterday. We drove up to Red river, and "camped" in a yurt. All these plans to move to Oregon and live in yurts started to seem really silly... even scary. What the heck are we doing??? It sometimes feels like everything we know is being dissolved into mist, and were being asked to trust that what forms from that will be good for us. OK... I get all that, but I don't always feel it. Sometimes I need something a little more tangible. Yurt Camping was just the thing. We had this sweet little round place, right by the river. It rained. The food in town was weird... vegetarians have trouble rustling up some grub in a cowboy town... The bed was way too small, and the potty situation was far from "private". Still, we loved the yurt, and loved exploring the possibilities of our next adventure, when we start with three little round spaces, and make them our own. I'm OK now... well mostly. Here are pics of our Yurt Adventure...







Tonight it's good to be back in our very own Big Bed.

Drift Away...

I have to be quick... today is day three of Michael Hearne's Big Barn Dance Weekend, and we're headin' out. I know... I'm not your typical barn dance kinda girl, but there's something so great about all these singer-songwriters gathered together for the love of the music. Some of the other local festivals have gotten too big for their britches. They've lost the heart of where they started. But this one... this one has soul, and it's all about heart.

Two of yesterday's highlights were Chuck Pyle, from Colorado, and of course my favorite, Mentor Williams, who wrote Drift Away. I call him "my boyfriend", and I just love him. A silly crush. I don't actually know him. His wife, Lynn Anderson was there too, and they did a pretty kick-ass job with Drift Away. Here's my feeble attempt at a video. I only had my peewee Canon pocket camera with me, and I hit the off-button before the end of the song. Sorry 'bout that... but I'm told you can buy the Drift Away ring tone for your cell phone. Check it out. We'll keep Mentor rolling in royalties!

What If....?

I'm totally blown away by the whole Etsy thing. I built a shop there yesterday, and made an announcement to my Beadist Mailing List folks, and then there was a hurricane of welcoming email and people happy-dancing at the idea of the beautiful simplicity of it all... I'm so excited I feel like I'm on speed! This morning I made a little Store Front design from a photo of my studio. And yesterday I learned that Etsy is really Et Sy, which is Latin for What If.....
Oh yeah! Come on in... the door's always open...
~~~
And... yesterday was just magical on so many levels. Rick rescued a robin that had bumped into the window. He does this a lot. They always survive, and come back the next day to say hello...


... a few minutes after the robin flew away, the phone rang. It was a woman named Robin (!) who had seen the flyer (!) we'd put up at Cid's Market the day before, looking for a loving home for our goats. We've decided that there's no way we can take them to Oregon with us when all we'll have to call "home" at first is a trailer. So, as sad as we are to leave them, we're entirely happy and grateful to know they'll have a wonderful new home with Robin and Stuart. They came out to meet the goaties yesterday, and I know they'll pamper them even more than we do. They have horses and dogs, and some of the horses are from a rescue project. They live on 40 acres, and feed the animals organic food and treat them with herbs and homeopathy and love. The goats are getting a great gig with these folks. So if you want to meet the Kids, better come to the Studio Tour. They'll be moving soon after that... Yes, I will cry, but I'll know my goaties will be happy. It's not all about me.

hold me back!.... no... nevermind!

I feel like a steam engine... a big pile of coal being shoveled in, scoop by scoop, big fire building up big steam, about to blast into a bigger world than has previously been available to me... I woke up today with all kinds of energy and Bright Ideas. Things are changing, no doubt about that, and it feels like we're about to jump the tracks and choo-choo off into space. OK - that's dramatic. But it's fair to say that I'm having a Very Good Morning...

Two announcements...

One - Rick is back to his BLOG!!! He's the resident Holy Man, and he has something to say. After an uncertain start a few months ago, he now feels ready to say it. Do check him out at Scattering Birdseed.



Two - I'm opening a shop at Etsy.com. I've been struggling with organization/sales/software/email for long enough. Etsy has the technology, and I think I know how to use it... a few unanswered questions at the moment, but I'm giving it a try. Here's my page so far: Kim Miles - Beadist.

That's all I have for now... seems like enough.
xo!

a nap on the beach

I haven't been sleeping well lately. In fact I've been awake since 4:00 this morning. The sky is getting light now, and I hear all the neighborhood roosters. OK... I'm up.
It's been this way all week, and I worry about the dangers of falling asleep at the torch. I also worry that I'll just make junk if I'm too tired to think. But sometimes sleep deprivation has interesting results. I think some kind of subconscious creativity surfaces when the conscious mind is too tired to stay in charge. Here's a peek at the latest round of exhaustion beads. They have all sorts of "stuff" in them - even bits of silver tiaras. They're the next extension of the Africa Beads, but with a turn toward the ocean. I've been yearning for a trip to the beach lately. These make me think of wandering along the sand, looking for treasures, and sometimes finding them. They're glass, and they're beachy, so maybe I'll call them simply "Beach Glass".

cheese poetry

Wonderful dinner and company at Anne & Peter's last night, and as we left, they gifted us with a precious jar of home made cherry jam. We wondered what to pair it with this morning. Sunday is Eat Anything day, and we seriously wanted jam for breakfast, but didn't have any bread in the house. But ah! We did have tortillas... and cheese! I made simple quesadillas with little blops of cherry jam inside. Heaven. Trust me. Cheese and jam are Very Good Friends.

Like I learned at my first job ever, at Marie Callender's...
Apple pie without some cheese
Is like a kiss without a squeeze

So I suppose it follows...
Cheesy tortilla without some jam
is like...

Never mind. I'm heading for some sort of David Bowie reference there. I know of at least a few kids who read my blog, and don't want to corrupt any young minds...

Last up on the Cheese Parade this morning, Lauren had to write some Haiku for a class. This is my favorite of the bunch...

Hello Kitty Yum
How you smush my cheesy snack
Best sandwich ever

... I say you might add some cherry jam...

flash!

We had a pretty amazing storm last night, right at sunset. It blew in quickly, stayed a few minutes, and then dashed off like it had someplace else to go. We were making dinner when the sky called - Yoo-Hooooo! Come outside! To the west was a beautiful Taos Sunset, and to the east was the most incredible rainbow any of us had ever seen. It stretched all the way across the sky, bright and clear from end to end. Then it doubled, and the entire area inside the rainbow was glowing, while the outside was dark and stormy. Then the lightening started. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures, and then a whisper in my ear suggested switching it over to video. I got it! I can't believe it! The scream you hear is not someone being struck by lightening... it's more of a "Holy Wow", a reverently loud exclamation of appreciation, because that lightening I caught on video was only one little finger of fire that was filling the sky behind me at that moment. I think we're lucky no one was hit. It was pretty intense. Holy Wow, indeed...