{gratitude} support

{thank you by drew melton}

truly.

many thanks for your support of my very first officially published work.

it was scary and exhilarating!

there was such incredible joy in creating the work - in collaborating with wise wonderful women - in pushing through artistic challenges - in seeing it come to life.

and to have you, dear guests, welcome it with such wide open arms...well, that was sweet beautiful icing on an already delicious cake.

my gratitude to all of you who responded to my first inquiry, watched the videos, visited the site, bought the book, joined the launch dance party, emailed friends, tweeted, and blogged about it. i am a lucky innkeeper indeed to be surrounded with such enthusiasm and generosity.

merci beaucoup, mes cheris!

xoxo

{launch} come fly with me: whimsy for wendys

dear guests, a message from your innkeeper...


drum roll, if you please...

**********

{the official book cover}

**********

**********

{the official book trailer}

**********

**********

{the official badge}

**********

**********

{the official website}

**********

to celebrate the launch of this wondrous work, you are invited to join us today for a google+ whimsy party marathon!

twelve solid hours of camaraderie, dancing, and fun. drop in for a minute or an hour - it's entirely up to you. throughout the day, the wendys will stop by the party to get groovy, give away some spectacular prizes, and whip up all kinds of whimsy.

if you would like to join us for the party, just add annie passanisi on google+ and join her hangout throughout the day between 10-10 CST.

i will send out a tweet each time i join the party, so if you want to join me you'll know precisely when i am whimsyshimmying my heart out in the hangout.

thank you so much for all of your love and support!

{creativity} coffee + alchemy

"cafeona" is the spanish word for the smell of roasting coffee beans...

every monday my clothes exude this aroma.

at the beginning of each week, i spend two hours in a coffee shop with my best friend benjamin.

we meet to work on "the alchemy project" which is an artist collective that we invented...

"the alchemy project" grew out of our work on julia cameron's vein of gold. we met weekly for over a year to complete the process and decided that it was important to keep this creative routine alive.

traditional alchemy was the idea that base metals could be transmuted into gold. our modern version of alchemy is the idea that we work magic with the stuff of our everyday lives, transforming it into art...

at each meeting, we discuss what is happening for us artistically and set specific creative intentions for the week ahead. the inn was imagined and brought to life through this process and continues to evolve because of it.

our monday meetings have been absolutely vital in my artistic life. my behavior and thinking have changed dramatically. plus, i get to drink a double macchiato with my best friend and soak in the "cafeona" at the start of each week...

dear guests, do you have a creative support partner or group? i would love to read about it...

{adventure} whimsy for wendys

hello, dear guests!

your innkeeper is floating back down to earth after a whimsical adventure in the clouds...

{peter pan + wendy}

i spent the weekend flying with peter pan.

why?

because i'm a wendy.

please allow me to explain:

remember when i asked you about adventure and gushed about annie passanisi of happiness advocates?

well, annie invited me to be part of a wondrous e-book called whimsy for wendys: joy-infused living for grown up idealists.

annie's description of the project...

As I child, I was enthralled by the idea of being whisked away into the sky by a mysterious boy in tights who wanted nothing more than to hear my stories and save me from homicidal fairies. As a college student, I was seduced by the idea that I was not the only girl on the planet drawn to a specific type of magnetic narcissist. And as a gray-hair discovering, credit score monitoring adult, I was terrified by the idea that once you leave NeverLand, as everyone must, your life...just...stops.
You see, in the last chapter of J.M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy, there is no mention of Wendy ever flying again. Instead she ships her kid off year after year (when Peter actually shows up, that is) and then her grandkid and so on and so forth (which, if you really think about it, is just plain odd and a little bit gross). And what does Wendy do? Oh, she sits at the window and longs for her youth. And the Lost Boys? They get high-profile jobs in foggy Londontown and forget anything ever happened.

That is absolutely, completely, perfectly PREPOSTEROUS. Surely there was be a way to keep the wonder going, right?

And that's where the "whimsy" comes in.

I knew that whimsy, a burst of childlike joy or enthusiasm intentionally brought about for restorative purposes, must be the answer to the dregs of adulthood, but I didn't know quite how. (It became remarkably apparent to me while in England that everyone has their own unique recipe for joy...what delights one may terrify another) and so I gathered up a whole council of Wendys, the most joy-infused remarkable women I could find, and asked them to answer the same simple question, "how can we continue to fly?"

so you see, i'm a wendy!

i spent the last month researching how adventure and whimsy are magically intertwined, and this weekend, i flew around in the stars with peter pan and wrote it into an essay.

the book launches on november 9 - officially known as "whimsy wednesday." i'll be sharing more about it in the next few weeks. 

until then, you are cordially invited to join in the fun - meet the wendys, join the mailing list, and tweet about your whimsy! 

beginner's mind part two: convincing the angel

dear friends, your comments and posts about beginner's mind have got my heart leaping + my mind twirling in the happiest of ways.

i am deeply grateful to be able to share the inner workings of my self + connect with such lovely humans all over the map.

in the spirit of this discussion, i decided to try something new to me.

earlier this year, i wrote a quote about beginning in my journal. tonight, with our discussion floating around in my mind, i wrote it on a scrap of blue paper, photographed it with a new hipstapak lens + film, and digitally edited it...

it is a tiny little package of love + magic sent from the inn to you.

xo

spring cleaning + creation inspiration

i truly adore restoring things to order, clearing out winter dust, and repurposing old into new.

lately i have been spring cleaning in my studio. it is inspiring me to create. decluttering stuff and clearing out cobwebs gets my brain zipping again after the cold months. suddenly, i'm dreaming of design changes at the dew drop inn, planning this year's garden, and playing with a plethora of crafty supplies.

on saturday, i dusted off a trusty old fishing tackle box which contains my twenty-year-old bead collection. over two decades, i have purchased, thrifted, and inherited quite an interesting stash of beads. spring cleaning inspired me to open up that box and make something new out of old pieces.

i made this green glass pendant...

out of these upholstery tassels given to me by an interior designer years ago...

easy, fun, satisfying.

for my next trick, i shall clear out my closet and freshen up my summer wardrobe. i fully expect that this behavior will inspire me to pull more odd beads out of the tackle box and create new pieces to wear.

i believe that this is the wondrous combination of spring cleaning -> taking inventory of what you have and making space for new things to grow. i find it most delightful.

am i alone in this joy, or are any of you inspired by this process? 

now announcing...

post number...

wow!

here is a quick glance back at fifty + one hundred.

what i want to say here is simple:

* i love blogging.

* i adore each of you who chooses to spend some of your valuable time here at the inn.

* i am surprised + grateful to have made it this far.

* i feel endlessly excited about the days ahead.

xo

{love} one hundred things

there is a lot of love in the air this week!

i love to celebrate love.

in the spirit of l'amour, here is a recent list i made:

word project: recall + release

i started this month with a bag full of words.

the project was a tiny flutter of an idea from many years ago.

it was a tradition i had never before shared beyond my local urban tribe.

when i posted about it here at the inn, it suddenly became a living, breathing piece of art.

i was shocked and delighted!

my heart was filled with joy when i saw this word...

...come to life in a truthful post written by my lovely friend caren on tea & chickadees.

the magic continued soon after when i discovered this word...

...springing into action with my kindred spirit sara on the beautiful sagebrush coast.

and i found myself once again over the moon when i saw this picture...

...accompanying a vibrant post written by cb at the citybird's nest.

thank you, friends, for writing about your words!

i am grateful to everyone who participated in this project. your presence was so appreciated. there were heartfelt emails, tweets, and comments that brought me much energy and happiness.

what an unexpected and fantastic way to start my year. each of you helped my word come to life...

in the next eleven months, i would love to hear any word stories that you would like to privately or publicly share!

on display: word project

one week ago, i wrote about my new year's word tradition.

i was overjoyed by the response and participation in the project!

my evenings were spent photographing and sending the words out to wonderful people in different parts of the world.

this weekend i looked at all of the pictures together as a set and fell in love.

so, i thought perhaps you would like to see the collection...

there are still a few words left in my bag, and for now i put them next to my inspiration board.

if you did not receive a word in the first round and would like to join in, i would love to give you one. just leave a comment below and i will send a little love to your inbox.

and if any of you who participated have had an experience with your word, i would love to hear about it!

watercolor + ink: classic halloween treats

it was a rainy weekend on the hill.

we got super cozy in the treehouse, opting to stay home for a few days while water poured out of the sky sideways.

saturday afternoon, i pulled out my watercolors and created a few sketchbook paintings of my favorite halloween sweets...

close up snaps of the delights...

note: the last picture inspired me to choose caramels as my treat to make this year.

today: i got really excited about this choice and stocked up on heavy cream, wax paper, and treat bags.

later this week: a forthcoming post about my astonishing repository of caramel recipes and my first attempt at making homemade caramels.

'bury me in leaves' journal project: round two

earlier this year, i started an art project with heidi from bury me in leaves.

we have been swapping a creative journal back and forth between california and virgina.

if you would like to read more about the project...

round one: from me --> heidi

round two: from heidi --> me

round three: from me --> heidi

it just arrived on her doorstep this week.

here are the round three prompts heidi sent and the pages i designed...

{color: fill a page with a color}

{dreams: explain a powerful dream}

{stories: describe someone who had an impact on you}

{goals: five for the rest of the year}

so now, the art journal is in the hands of the amazing ms. pumpkin pie!

it will be wonderful to see what she creates next...

fanfare for...

post...

number...

oh my!

it feels like i just arrived at fifty.

i must express that writing this blog brings me true joy.

here at the dew drop inn, i am experiencing:

the power of jumping in, 

starting something new, 

+ learning as i go

the freedom of releasing perfectionism

the value of small devoted steps

the feeling of virtual connection + friendship

daily artistic inspiration

a space where my dream of being

a magical innkeeper + creative curator 

is real

i am grateful to you, dear readers, for your presence, support, and energy.

it is my pleasure to have you at the dew drop inn.

and it would delight me to have you as my honored guests for at least a hundred more posts.

xo

swap and journal project: bury me in leaves

when i was a student in indie business 2.0 earlier this year, i met heidi of bury me in leaves.

we were fast friends and exchanged words of mutual adoration for each other's style.  thus, we decided to collaborate on a project.

after brainstorming ways we could mix our art, we decided to create a traveling art journal.

the journal is divided into four sections: color, dreams, stories, and goals.

we are creating prompts for each other in each section and sending the book back and forth between virginia and california.

i purchased the journal in a local art store...

and i started the project by designing the title pages for color and stories...

we also decided to do a swap with the first round of the journal, so here is the fabulous combination of delights that she sent me...

i love it all, from the teeny tiny nail polish in baby blue to the cursive alphabet fabric.  i wore the necklace to school today and the leafy book is now going to be my official garden journal.

here is the post of the swap treats i sent her.  of course i absolutely had to send ms. pumpkin pie a jar of trader joe's delicious pumpkin butter!

oh, and heidi designed lovely title pages and beautiful work in response to my first prompts.  the dog who dreams of wings melts my heart. <3

now that the journal is back in my possession, i have new pages to make.

i'm sooooo excited and i love this project.

heidi is a truly cool, charming, positive, and talented artist/friend/collaborator!

soon, i will send the journal back to her and when she gets it i will post my new pages.

fun!