Tomorrow’s Blog-Hop!
Over 50 Surface Pattern Designers from all over the world (including myself) have created
wonderful collections inspired by

Pantone’s 2013 Color of the Year
EMERALD GREEN
and  organized to showcase them in an awesome bloghop
to celebrate New Year’s and our willingness to fly as professionals.
This event was curated by Rosie Martinez-Dekker from Believe Creative Studios

So what’s a Blog-Hop and how does it work? It is a nice way to promote not only the work and ideas of many, but also their blogs. The first person to start it writes a post on his/her blog and adds a link to the next blog at the end of the post. Everyone does it like this until you hop to the last blog of the list.

It will be awesome, inspirational and with lots of beautiful brand new work that we can’t wait to share with all of you.
Each designer will be creating a mini collection based on their own interpretation of the theme and showcasing each their own unique style.
Now save the date on your calendars, January 10th to 13th is the duration of the hop,
3 days of beautiful surface designs! So you don’t want to miss it…

 
Blog-hop Logo: Let’s Fly • designed by Majo Bautista V

 This blog-hop Let’s Fly will start on January 10, 2013 at https://www.patternaddict.blogspot.fr,
the blog of Gill Eggleston an enthusiastic British textile designer!

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I signed up to the e-course “Life Book, a celebration and honoring of YOU”,
a year-long mixed media art class organized by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts.

Our first project was to create our Fairy God Parent. Here’s a glimpse…
I can see the fairy dust spreading around the studio. 
This is the most whimsical I have ever gotten… Let’s see where this leads me to! 

“You should treat a muse like a fairy.” ~Paulo Coelho

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings…
closing line of “Sympathy” poem by Paul Laurence Dundar

Why National Bird Day?
Celebrated January 5th, National Bird Day was established by bird activists to call attention to the plight of captive birds. The annual event that takes place is organized by Born Free USA in coordination with the Avian Welfare Coalition to take action on behalf of captive birds by drawing attention to the exploitation of other countries’ native birds by the U.S. pet industry.

 

• The beauty, songs, and flight of birds have long been sources of human inspiration.

• Today, nearly 12 percent of the world’s 9,800 bird species may face extinction within the next century, including nearly one-third of the world’s 330 parrot species.

• Birds are sentinel species whose plight serves as barometer of ecosystem health and alert system for detecting global environmental ills.

• Many of the world’s parrots and songbirds are threatened with extinction due to pressures from the illegal pet trade, disease, and habitat loss.

• Public awareness and education about the physical and behavioral needs of birds can go far in improving the welfare of the millions of birds kept in captivity.

• The survival and well-being of the world’s birds depends upon public education and support for conservation.

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Listen to Tom O’Bedlam’s spoken verse recitation of Dunbar’s Sympathy:

“RENEW”

…this is a “very carefully picked” word. 
It is my chosen word for this year 2013! – WoTY 

Why this word?

It is a renewal of —faith + love—, as simple as that!

This realization came upon me when 2 deaths met me in 2012.
First ‘my dear father’ Miguel Angel peacefully passed away after  a long and extended illness, on 12-04-12
&
…next the sudden tragic and terrible death, a week later, of ‘my loving cat’ ComeHere on 12-11-12. 

Having these deaths occur so consecutively and both on a Tuesday at around 6:00 am, was a bit disconcerting.
This was not exactly coincidental for I felt that they were linked somehow! 

I spent about 3 days truly grasping at straws, very heartbroken and also very angry about the loss!
My feelings were shattered, my mind blank and literarily my thoughts started racing.
I saw myself running across plains and fields, covering great expanses;
passing through mountains like magic and into caves of time.
I swam across many oceans of sorrow where immense flocks of birds flew above with the fleeting clouds.
These swift mental voyages actually became very soothing for me.
But also quite puzzling!
And I wondered, asking… WHY? Why would I be running so? Am I fleeing from something?

Then it dawned on me I was traveling like this because I was free in some wild way.
These travels were showing me the depth of our world, the dimensions and its charms!

This was Love! It engulfs us constantly, it makes things happen and I needed not to forget this! 
All of a sudden I felt as if these deaths were telling me to let go, of the habitual,
and the restrictions of the dreary path of selfness.
I so needed to change my perspective, I had been gifted with a glimpse and now an opportunity.
Here was the chance to revisit old paths with renewed enthusiasm.

By receiving the word “Renew” deeply in my heart,
I am committed to understand and embrace it!
And accept this hard lesson about love,
that was delivered to me, through the sad death of my dear ones.
In some sense I am renewing this unconditional love in my life.

:heart:

After despair, many hopes flourish
just as after rain
thousands of roses open.
Surrender to the Almighty and be led into life. 
~Rumi

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Synonyms: freshen, recharge, recreate, refresh, refreshen, regenerate, rejuvenate, repair, restore, resuscitate, revitalize, revive, revivify

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Now for change and a bit of a blogging bliss! Go and discover Kathie Gadd’s “WoTY” (word of the year)

Please visit her blog: 

https://lavenderchalet.com

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