{music} a sweet tweet

please allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite places in the twitterverse:

"We had an idea. What if we picked tweets we liked from people and made them into songs? Would it be easy? Would people like it? We could call them "sweets." 

A social experiment in music. A way to highlight tweets we love from people we love to follow. You tweet it, we sing it. Songs in 140 characters or less."

a month ago, musicians kevyn smith and jeremy johnson selected one of my tweets...

right now: studio. glitter. coffee. @smasheltooth. photography. glorious saturday!

— diane reid (@thedewdropinn) January 14, 2012

and turned it into this...

{my sweet: a song + video}

i was completely over the moon about this! utterly squee-tastic! so thrilled and silly that i've been gushing about it ever since.

this duo is talented, hilarious, and smart. they make me laugh daily! i love their experiment. it makes me happy and is precisely my kind of fun.

gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to turn my tweet into a sweet. bravo for your stellar sense of humor and constant creativity, oh wondrous tweet troubadours!

follow this project on twitter and visit the blog to view a fabulous collection of past sweets.

collection: in a word {round two}

here is the collection of words from my bag that have zoomed all over the globe this week...

a few details:

* i pulled each word randomly from rob brezsny's pronoia.

* the words are written on paint chips gifted to me years ago by a dear friend and talented designer.

* the background is frank lloyd wright wrapping paper from pomegranate.

* the photos were captured and edited on my diphone with the camera+ app.

there are still words swirling in the glitter...feel free to drop me a line if you would like one.

new year tradition: in a word {round two}

when i moved to san francisco almost a decade ago, i started a new year's eve tradition. on the last night of each year, i write a variety of words on slips of paper, place them in a little bag, and carry them with me on my adventures.

throughout the evening, i offer this bag to people with some variation of the following statement:

this is a bag of words.

would you like to choose one?

it is up to you what to do with it.

you could embrace it as a mystical message for the year ahead.

you could simply ponder its meaning for a moment.

you could peek at it, laugh, and recycle it
at the nearest waste receptacle.

it's up to you...
would you like to choose one?

it gives me such joy when people choose a word from the bag.

there is always an interesting variety of responses: delight, silence, laughter, dismay, amazement, confusion, and recognition.

i often hear enthusiastic stories, explanations of personal meaning, and ruminations on possibilities for the coming year.

some people forget this word completely after pulling it from the bag, and some people still have this word in their wallet from many years ago.

last year, i spontaneously decided to share my tradition here at the inn.

including you was so much fun that i decided to do it again this year!

and so, without further ado, here is twentytwelve's stardusty bag full of words...

how it works:

i will randomly choose a word from the bag for you, photograph it, and email you the image. the photo is a gift from your innkeeper and is officially yours to use in any way you wish.

if you would like a word, please do one of the following:

leave me a comment below

OR

email me here

i truly look forward to sending these words to your wondrous corners of the universe.

cheers to a new year, dear friends!

magical wishes + bubbling brew

hello, dear wonderful guests!

wishing each and every one of you a radiant, happy new year!

i am finally back from my holiday travels, which were truly delightful...

{innkeeper antics on new year's eve}

{a bloom of luminescent dancing jellyfish}

{beautiful live painting}

{multiple macchiatos at sightglass}

{bottle cap wisdom}

{rainbow tunnel at chicago airport}

now, i'm busy tidying up the inn and stirring up a glittery bag of words for you. a simmering cauldron of magic is on the metaphorical stove here at the inn.

i shall return tomorrow, ready with stardust and words for twentytwelve!

xoxo

{video} innkloopers

it has been one month since my first ebook collaboration whimsy for wendys launched into the world...

in celebration of this occasion, the wendys present you with a blooper reel from our original video.

if you would like to see me make some absolutely wacky faces, now is your chance...



as a special gift, from now until midnight on saturday (12.10.11) we are offering a pay-what-you-wish opportunity.

if you have not yet purchased the book, you can visit the site and name your price for the next twenty-four hours.

dear friends, thank you for a month of support!

sending you much love + whimsy from the inn.

p.s. we started a facebook page today for all things whimsical...you are cordially invited to join us!

{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!

{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! 

{query} adventure

{design by zack davenport}

your innkeeper adores adventure.

one of the things i love about adventure: meeting a wondrous variety of mind-blowing and magical people. when traipsing all over the map, i consider myself wildly lucky to meet an array of amazing humans.

one such specimen is the fantastically effervescent annie passanisi of happiness advocates...

i was introduced to annie on twitter many moons ago (thank you fabeku!) and we instantly swooned over each other. as pixie dust spreaders, musical theatre gals, and burn broads, we are kindred spirits indeed.

when my burning man ticket search got tough last month, annie called me and scooped me up out of my funk. after a dismal morning of tears and frustration, she made me laugh riotously and convinced me that it would happen. we actually got to meet each other in person on the playa, and i can say with heartfelt gusto that i will adore her forever...



since we returned from the desert, annie has been assembling her own personal dream team of twelve women who will be collaborating on a beautiful project this fall.

i am ridiculously excited to announce that she invited me to be one of those twelve!

most of the juicy project details will be detailed later, but for now i will say that the result is going to be a whimsy-fest of epic proportions.

right now, i am working on my contribution to this project. i have a big batch of stardust simmering - lots of thinking, outlining, collecting inspiration, brainstorming, and researching going on here at the inn.

which brings me back to adventure, the concept that landed me here in the first place. my part in annie's whimsical creation is about adventure...

{image via shawna laurington}

thus, your innkeeper has a humble research request. if you have a moment to leave me a comment, i would love to ponder your response to the following question:

how do you define adventure in your life? what does the concept of adventure mean in your world?

{inspiration} the self express

yesterday, i visited my amazing cousin duncan...

duncan just graduated from college, embarked on world travels, and has now returned to take a powerful journey across the country via a solar-powered veggie oil bus...

{the self express}

he is part of a group of incredible young artists and thinkers who purchased and converted the bus in june. they describe themselves as:

* transportation to a sustainable future
* a grass-roots vehicle for creativity and change
* exploring solutions to the environmental and social problems we face

the self express came to my little town yesterday and spent the morning at the farmer's market sharing their gifts, making music, and connecting with the community here.

i was absolutely enthralled with the beauty and intention of this creation...

the joy, excitement, and pride i feel about this project could make me explode.

my gypsy soul sings, my artist heart rejoices, my earth mama mind spins wildly.

what a valuable vision to create. such wonderful work, my friends!

to connect with the self express:

website * facebook * vimeo * giveforward

word project: revisit + refresh

at the start of this year, i shared my bag*of*words tradition here at the inn.

if you were not yet a guest here during that time, feel free to visit the place it began, the collection of words that emerged, and the word experiences of wondrous people.

today is the first of july, which in my mind launches the second half of the year. this occasion has inspired me to ponder the journey i have had with my word so far.

the word that i chose from the bag is ART, and it lives in a pile of rocks on the ledge of my loft...

it is visible to me every day as i am creating.

all of the other words live in a little tray nearby...

my word inspired me to post this quote above the pile of rocks...

here are a few ways ART has been manifesting in my life this year...

• my best friend benjamin and i started a weekly meeting called "the alchemy projects" which helps us support each other in bringing our art to life.
• i have started a new practice of planning and protecting regular studio time for creating my art.
• my recent discovery of a local artist inspired me immensely.
• i am currently taking photoshop and photography courses via lynda.com to add new artistic tools to my life.
• more than ever before, i am actually creating my ideas and translating my inspiration in to real live art on a regular basis.

i truly look forward to how my adventure with the word ART evolves through the rest of the year.

also, this curious innkeeper wants to know what the rest of the words are up to in their beautiful corners of the universe.

if you participated in the word project, i would adore hearing about any experience you have had with your word in the last six months. large or small, significant or subtle, once or repeatedly, anything at all that floats into your mind.

please feel free to comment below, tweet, or email me your word stories.

{snail mail} a note from the inn

stationery makes me swoon.

i have been madly in love with it for as long as i can remember, especially when it comes it a beautifully packaged set.

last week, i was wandering around our local bookstore when i found a table full of curious stationery sets.

this one captured my eye...

it combines four things i love: cute, creepy, colorful, carnival.

it features the artwork of mizna wada, an illustrator in tokyo who happens to be exactly my age...

i immediately purchased it with the intention to send these strange ladies to guests of the inn...

i plan to write notes on these lovelies and send them wooshing out into the world to five guests of the dew drop inn.

would you like to find one in your mailbox?

if so, please leave me a comment with your email below.

all global locations are welcome!

the first five to respond will get a sideshow sweetie via snail mail from the inn.

p.s. my pages up above (about the inn, meet the innkeeper, contact, and web love) are finally alive if you would like to take a peek!

now introducing...

the dew drop inn three point oh!

i have been dreaming about this change for many moons.

the inn opened one and a half years ago, and this is my first large renovation.

i felt that it was time to spruce up the property.

now it has more white space, bigger photos, a streamlined sidebar, and roomy new pages. it feels so delightful to tidy up and stretch out.

this transition is a work in progress. i will be tinkering with small details, filling up those roomy pages with fresh delights, and working magic behind the scenes.

in the meantime, feel free to come on in and wander around!

p.s. this project was powered by moonbeams and the effervescent vlog love you gave me. thank you, dear friends! xo 

{project} thirty days of lists

i am a lifelong lover of lists.

if you were to take a peek into my little corner of the universe, you would find handwritten and digital lists all over the place. in my studio, in my phone, in my kitchen, in my car, on my computer...

that's why this project is perfect for me:

{the official blog}

for the entire month of march, i will be making a list each day.

it's a fun way to create a snapshot of the me that exists right now.

today's prompt: a few things about me...

my lists will be written on colorful cardstock and photographed with my diphone. the collection of pictures will live here.

if you would like to join the project, it's just getting started. come on over to the wonderful space that kam, amy, and justine have created!