2009 Project

I took a break from cross-stitching but have begun a new project that I’m very excited about.  I’m doing a Cuban Mandala design from Chatelaine.  The pattern is released in sections – one section each month for twelve months.  I just finished the first section and will begin on the second section tonight or tomorrow.  I’m using hand-dyed sahara flair 32 ct. lugana fabric from Enchanted Fabrics (I’m in love with my fabric – it’s exactly what I had in mind).  I’ll post updates after each section…

Here’s Part 1:

Isn’t it lovely?

Glassy Goodness…

Greetings from Tucson, AZ where I think it’s about the same temperature as it is in DC now.  I was looking forward to spending a nice, sunny week in the desert with my mom for the holidays but it’s been cold and yesterday, while we were shopping, it started spitting snow… seriously, no joke.  At least the sun came out today.  And what a lovely day it’s been.  We drove to Phoenix to meet Richard and Dale, Mom’s two friends from high school.

Dale Chihuly, the most well known glass artist in the country and probably the world, has an installation of blown glass sculptures on display throughout the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.  It was awesome and I’m quite excited about some of the detail shots I got of some of the pieces.  Here are a few that I particularly like…

And quite possibly my favorite from the day:

Getting ready for Friday

I hope everyone had a really lovely Thanksgiving.  Mine was very nice and I was especially thankful to have a long weekend because I have two presentations this week that I needed to work on. 

Mostly I’ve been working this weekend on a presentation that I’m giving in Corning, NY on Friday.  It’ll be my first “real” keynote, and I’m actually feeling just a bit nervous, which doesn’t usually happen with me before presentations.  I think it’s because this one is going to be a pretty personal presentation.  My topic is body satisfaction and why it’s important – it’s interesting for me to speak to that because I don’t exactly have it figured out myself.  I’m hoping that’ll make it seem more comfortable for others.  I think it’s possible that, in preparing for this talk, I’ve lost my mind…  I say that because, about several hours ago, I decided it would be a great idea to make tiny little hand made cards out of pretty paper and sew a bead on the front of each one for every audience member.  So, I’ve been busily working to create 100 of the darn things.  I like them but have 79 to go and am wondering what got into me…  This is pretty typical Joslyn-style, though. 🙂  Here are a few of my little doo-dads, as I’ve been calling them…

The other thing that I did for this presentation was to create a short video using pictures of me growing up.  This idea came to me two weeks ago when I was at the Renfrew conference in Philadelphia.  This is what happened…  On Friday night, they set up a dance floor and called in a DJ so that conference attendees could have a fun time dancing.  I sat by watching for about an hour with absolutely no intention of dancing.  However, then one of them women I was there with said, “Come on.  We’re dancing.”  To which I replied, “We are?”  Reluctantly, I joined all the crazy dancing folks on the floor and proceeded to have the time of my life.  I still had moments of feeling very self-conscious but they would pass because I was surrounded by some of the top eating disorders experts in the country and I knew that they really, honestly didn’t care what I looked liked because they accepted every person for who they are not how they look.  Clearly when I was feeling uncomfortable it was my own stuff coming up rather than those around me being judgemental.  And then I realized that it’s been about five years since I went dancing, which is really crazy because I LOVE to dance.  That made me start thinking about what else I’ve stopped doing because of how I feel about my body.  I had my mom scan some pictures from when I was growing up and, it became pretty clear to me that I have always been a pretty active person.  It also became clear to me that at some point, the way I feel about my looks became more important to me than doing things that I love.  That needs to change.  And, so I created this video (music by Libby Roderick) that I’ll use to end my presentation.  Here’s a preview for those who read this because I’m pretty sure none of you will be in NY on Friday.

Gifting

I’ve found myself wanting to paint for others – maybe it’s me getting into the giving spirit of the holidays.  My two newest paintings I’ve done are for two women I know – both named Carolyn and both eating disorders treatment providers who do amazing, admirable work.  I’m 99.9% sure that neither of them will look at this blog, which is why I’m posting pics of their gifts before they receive them. 

The first is a large piece (3′ x 2′) and somehow I have to figure out how to package it and transport it on the plane with me when I go to NY in a week and a half.  A tree of life image with my own little twist.  This is possibly my favorite piece yet.

Some of the limbs are highlighted with gold – the gold is only visible when the light hits it at an angle, though, so it’s very subtle.  I like that.  Also, there are three rust-colored leaf beads sewn on that you can see in the following image:

My newest painting is called ‘Soul to Soul’ and was painted for another Carolyn – this one in California.  She’s a huge inspiration to me and, when I saw her last week at a conference in Philadelphia, she spoke a lot about doing ‘soul to soul’ work (rather than ‘ego to ego’ work) with clients (not that I have clients but maybe one day I’ll go back to school and do clinical work, so I was paying attention).  She also had several mentions about the heart chakra.  So, this is my piece in honor of her.

And here’s a detail shot of it that, hopefully, shows the beading I did a little better:

We had our first snow flurries yesterday and this morning it was 18 degrees – that’s right… 18!  So, I hope everyone is keeping warm – wherever you may be.  Until next time…

Nice November day…

I had a nice afternoon photographing one-year-old Benny.  Here are several of my favorites:

 

His sister, Rachel, wasn’t too keen on the idea of being photographed, so instead of photographs in the park, I did a few of her inside… Here’s my favorite – using her special flying faery powers to jump off the couch.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and is looking forward to Monday!

Remembrance

So, today is three years since my really good friend Alyson passed away.  She and I met when we were admitted on the same day to the eating disorders program at the University of Iowa.  During our time there we got to be friends and were in very close contact until her death.  On this anniversary the past two years, I’ve gone to the women’s veterans memorial at Arlington Cemetary to be in a space that I know was deeply important to her (she was a veteran and made a trip to DC specifically to see the memorial).  This year, I wasn’t able to get away from work to go.  Instead, I spent some time with one of my really good friends at the end of the day, which was nice.  And I thought I’d do a little writing here… 

There were several things that Alyson and I had in common and many that we didn’t.  The commonality that we shared with one another most often was our prayer that the other would fully recover from her eating disorder.  And, ultimately, the biggest difference has ended up being that she didn’t get that opportunity.  Too much physical damage had been done already and she lost her battle.  On days like today, I remember how important it is for me to 1) recognize when there is still a battle raging inside of me and 2) continue fighting it. 

Tonight, I find myself a little teary-eyed… for the loss of my friend, for the acceptance that I still have a ways to go with this myself, and for the way that hating our bodies instead of celebrating them has become normalplace for the majority of us. 

Tomorrow, I know I’ll wake up, as I do most days, ready to go back out and try to change things so that perhaps one day I’ll have a daughter or a niece who might be spared the experience of thinking (and being told) that dieting and shaping and molding her body into anything other than its natural form is what’s expected of her…

I have a particular candle that I light in memory of both Alyson and Andrea, my other friend who lost her life to an eating disorder.  When I got home tonight, I lit it and took a photo to share here with you… 

Woman, with a candle lighted / to help her keep faith with her own life… / a centered presence / spreading in concentric circles around her.   

~Judith Duerk, ‘Circle of Stones’

Art & Music

I’ve spent the last two days making art for the group room at Ophelia’s Place.  I’m pleased with how my three pieces (that are hung together) turned out. 

On the music side of things, last night I was reminded of how much I love art AND music…  Mary Ellen, Danny, and I went into Syracuse to a songwriter night at a jazz center to hear our friend Chris play.  Chris is a phenomenal Christian musician – I’m not just saying that because I know him, either… check out his stuff at www.christopherames.com.  It reminded me of all the live music sessions I went to in college and how much they relaxed me.  Here’s my favorite one of Chris playing…

Happy Friday!

Syracuse pics…

Hi from New York.  It’s beautiful here – all the leaves are amazing colors and the temperature is perfect.  It’s been a busy trip so far.  I got in on Wednesday night (and had to take a cab but that’s another story… my friends decided to sleep instead of picking me up at the airport – 10 minutes away from their house) worked for Mary Ellen preparing for the conference all day Thursday.  The conference on Friday was incredible.  I presented with Margo (Maine) about the potential problems with mandatory BMI testing/parental reporting by schools – it got a little emotional for me at the end but was pretty powerful nonetheless.  The conference was followed by a showing of the documentary America the Beautiful (www.americathebeautifuldoc.com) – if you get a chance to see the film PLEASE see it… for me. 🙂 

Today I took photos of my bestest friend Mary Ellen (you know, the one who left me at the airport and has worked me non-stop since then) and her husband, Danny.  Here are a few of my favorites:

That’s all for now…  I’ll have more pics and more stories from my trip when I return.  Tomorrow, it’s to Elmira to have my metabolic levels tested – cross your fingers and think “protein, protein, protein…” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday girl pictures!

Today, I got to photograph an adorable little girl on her first birthday.  I did a few portraits and then captured some of the party moments.  I love photographing kids, so it’s been fun getting a couple chances to do just that in the past week or so.  Next week, I’ll be presenting/vacationing in Syracuse and am going to take some band portraits for my friends – so, there’ll be some variety here soon enough.  For now, here are some sweet ones from today.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And two of my favorites in black and white (which is typically my preference)…

 

 

Sticks are SO much more interesting than birthday gifts!

I should be sleeping…

I just got back from a really great trip to Napa, CA (and I should be going to bed instead of posting these pictures, but I can’t help myself…).  While I was there, I photographed the grandchildren of my dear, dear friends Tom and Doris – we were at a petting zoo/pumpkin patch… It was so much fun!  They’re such incredible children and taking these photos was one of the highlights of vacation.  Here are just a few (it’s so hard to choose) of my favorites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s a series from the day that makes me laugh:

 “PLEASE just let me get in the water!”

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                        “Who cares if my pants get wet?”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                  “FINALLY!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last thought and photo from the weekend… Happy October birthdays to Barbara and me!!!