Once upon a bike, long long ago...

I was going through some old pictures this weekend and came across my first ride pics. This was right after I got my license (I aced both tests!) Oh what a fun day that was! It was one of my life goals to be able to ride and I waited YEARS to do so. I don't quite know why I waited so long. Okay. Actually I do. I played the "what if" and the "I'll never be able to do that" game.

I started out as a passenger on Mark's bike and we had a blast! We joined STAR Touring and Riding and met so many wonderful people in our travels and of course, our best friends Danny & Margi (Cobra & Tweety). Mark gave her to me (650 V-Star) when I got my license and I couldn't have been happier with her! He bought a bigger & louder bike for himself (Yamaha Road Star). Oh, and because of my real nick-name, Mark was tagged with "Bullwinkle" - which was fitting because of his silly humor :)

We no longer ride, nor am I able to ride. It's been several years for me (sniff sniff) and Mark had to stop last year due to his bad knees. No, I did not stop riding due going down or from any injury. It was due to my health. I ended up with C.F.I.D.S. / FM and it hit real hard back then.

Just a brief note on my 'crud', as I call it. I love the summer as I do especially well during this time of year - cold weather is not my friend. I have good & bad days/weeks/months and although it took a long time, I have learned to manage my life around it quite well - they don't call me "Rocki" for nothing. My nick-name actually came from one of my docs way back when - she meant it like 'Rocky Balboa' as she called me her "little fighter". No matter what, I never give up and never will. Life is too precious to not enjoy what you have right in front of you.

My girl. I miss her, but sure enjoyed every moment we had. The wind in my face, the sun on my back and freedom of life. I accomplished one of my life goals and have many more to go.

Peace & love to all - ride safe,

☼ Rocki

p.s. I don't normally just blurt out about my 'crud', but it's been a long hard road, I am proud of my fight and not afraid to say it :)

Peeping Quail

About a month or so ago, the little family of quails that frequent our home stopped by for another visit. I love quails and enjoy watching them stroll about as a family. This particular type of quail is quite beautiful and very peaceful - plus they make the coolest sound. It's rather sad to think that people actually "hunt" them.

There are usually 5 of them that leisurely walk through our yard looking for food and maybe some shade to rest under. Well, on this particular visit, I was in my pool doing my morning exercises when I heard little noises coming from our roof. There on top was the Dad, as I call him, just checking out the sites and every once in while would look down into the pool at me. It was cute at first, but then it started to feel a little weird - like a peeping-tom. Naw. Birds aren't like that.

Anyway, so I ran into the house (with my towel on) and grabbed my camera. I started clicking away and then, as if he realized he had been caught red handed in his peeping-tom act, he snuck off to the other side of the roof. Who knows, maybe the Mrs. was calling him or he was just camera shy, but he sure moved pretty quick.

I got back into the pool and floated around. I couldn't help but smile with the thought of being able to see our happy little quail family. But then I started to feel a little creeped out and kept looking up at the roof to see if I was being watched. Naw.

Happy Friday everyone!
☼ Rocki

Bald is BEAUtiful!

Saturday we had our boat trip as planned with my brother Chris, nephew Christopher and Danny & Margi. Danny had his first Chemo treatment the first of this month and was pretty sick for the first week or so, but he's feeling pretty good right now. So we were very happy he was able to make this day trip. He has another treatment this coming Thursday and I'll be with him then, so our next adventure will be in the next couple weeks or when he's up to it.

Mark had decided that he was going to shave his head and facial hair once Danny started losing his, but didn't want Danny to know. Well, it started happening over the past week. So, Friday night we shaved everything off to surprise Danny. It was pretty scary at first because I was afraid of cutting his scalp, but no emergency trip was necessary - not even a band-aid! I have to admit that it was rather weird and creepy at first because his head reminded me of a newborn baby bird - it wasn't pretty, but it's sort of growing on me. He may let it grow out a little bit, but no longer than a number 1 - which is basically stubble.

Anyway, Saturday morning Danny & Margi were quite surprised to see Mark's baby butt smooth head (well, felt more like 300 grit sand paper). Danny had a feeling Mark would do this and he really likes Mark's new doo - or lack of one rather. Danny has a wonderful spirit, great sense of humor and is an inspiration to us all.

Danny was diagnosed last month with Stage 4 Lung Cancer that has already spread to his lymph nodes, is wheelchair bound and has no use of his legs, but managed quite well transfering from the wheelchair to the boat, from the boat to the tube and into the water. He even drove the boat for a while and that totally made his day! He rocks.

I really enjoyed the day. It was nice and peaceful, great family times and very relaxing. Even though we hit 115 degrees on Saturday, we made sure to wear plenty of sunblock and hats. So being dumped into the water via the tube was welcomed with open arms.

Yep, that's me in the tube. Had a total blast. We can hardly wait to do it again!

If you're interested in seeing some of the pics from our boat trip, they are in my MySpace pics section under Lake Pleasant Boat Trip.

Peace & love,

☼ Rocki

"Arte Y Pico" Award

Today I received the "Arte Y Pico" Award which is The Creativity and Art Award and I am of course honored!

Sharon from http://manamoon-studios.blogspot.com/ bestowed me with this beautiful award and I'm truly touched by her kindness and honored to receive it! Thank you with all my heart Sharon!

Gosh, sure wish I wore my pretty party dress for this occasion (as I sit here in my tank top & shorts - okay, so that's not really me ;) Seriously, this is appreciated more than you know! I owe so much to my dear friend Janell who encouraged me to join Etsy. Then I started blogging which led me on this auspicious path of meeting new friends near and far. You all inspire me and I cherish each and every one of you. This award will be held close to my heart.

It is now my humble honor to pass this magnificent award on to 5 other fellow artists whom I so greatly admire.To the winners: make sure you copy a picture of the award for your blog and put a caption of who gave it to you. And the winners are:

Janell of Random Musings http://www.dancingmooney.blogspot.com/

Dave & Jo of Grizzly Mountain Arts http://grizzlymountainarts.blogspot.com/

Vicki of Vicki Leigh Studios http://vickileighstudios.blogspot.com/

Jen of A Blond And A Torch http://ablondandatorch.blogspot.com/

Lisa of The Prim Pantry http://theprimpantry.blogspot.com/

To my readers: Please visit their blogs. They are witty & fun, informative & heartfelt, colorful & brilliant, loving and kind, and so much more. Their friendship, amazing art and support inspires me more than they realize.

“Plant a seed of friendship; reap a bouquet of happiness” by Lois L. Kaufman

Happy day & Peace to all!

☼ Rocki

Gas Prices... need I say more?

These are sadly funny. I know, that doesn't make sense, but what else can we do.

Laughing all the way to the gas station,
☼ Rocki

Color My World - Inspire My Life

So I was playing around the other day with my colorful little glass beads and thought of an idea. I know I know - I'm sure others have thought about it as well AND have done it without us even knowing it. But it came to my mind all the same so I ran with it.

Speaking of that, what hasn't been done a million times over in the art world? We are all inspired by life, nature, our surroundings, events, each other, magazines... actually everything is inspiration to us. Many, ideas in the art world have been repeated over and over again without us even realizing it. We come up with an idea, put our own spin on it, and make it truly our own.

Wow... sorry. I was just thinking about another thread I came across where people were bickering about who made what first, so and so was copying, was it the chicken or the egg, yada yada yada. I don't read those threads - just breeze over them. Please don't get me wrong, I know that there are some people that actually copy and cheat and that is terribly sad (karma), but some are truly mere coencidence. One day I was getting ready to post one of my new crystal anklets until I came across one EXACTLY like mine that had just posted!! I mean, almost to the T - colors and all! I sort of freaked and thought, wow - that's weird! I may or may not post it.

Back to topic... so when I was playing with my idea, I thought how fun it would be to make a pair of earwires that could be changed out with lots of little glass beads. Nothing too fancy or difficult mind you, just something fun and colorful. So I came up with my Color My World earring kit. Oh, and I'm getting ready to make another earwire for this little kit - something with a little more flavor I think.

Inspiration: arousal of the mind from sources of life, art, ideas and so forth; a product of your creative thinking at work.

Happy day and peace to all,

☼ Rocki

Calm Mind, Peaceful Life

This is one of my all time favorite photos of Sasha - one of my 'kids' who has me very well trained. I couldn't resist putting her on the coffee table (you should see all the photos I have from this day!)

Oh the Sunflower - my FAVorite flower of all time! It makes me happy. I actually love wild flowers over store bought flowers. Every once in a while Mark brings me home sunflowers from a local flower farm. Natural beauty - I love how they brighten up the room. I have sunflowers in many forms around the house actually - not too many where it's gaudy, just sprinkled about here and there. Oh and Mark says that he lucked out in the flower giving department because I'm allergic to roses, well, just about all heavy pollinated smelly flowers that is.

The reason for this blog? Not meaning to sound cliche', but we truly need to 'stop and smell the flowers' - just like Sasha. No, it's more than that actually.

I do my best to live my life day by day, moment by moment as we truly do not know what is in store for us tomorrow. But here lately there are so many things going on that I need to practice more of what I preach.

Don't get me wrong, my life is fine. I'll admit though that there is some hard hitting reality going on that is a bit difficult to digest, but I'm dealing with that. With that said, I'm going to take in some fun activities that I've put off for way too long, step away from my studio and get out of the house more, not worry about slow sells (which I'm not actually) and simply enjoy my life as it is. I love my life!

Thought I would share my "Calm Mind, Peaceful Life" creation that came about while reflecting this week. Feel free to visit my shop to read more about it.

Happy Friday everyone!

☼ Rocki

Peaceful Surroundings

We recently had our patio extended by my brother-in-law, who also put in a lattice patio cover and replaced our bedroom window with an arcadia door. Then Mark & I, along with 2 of our nephews, removed the grass and installed granite. Oh, and of course added more rocks & small boulders that we've collected over the years. You know me and rocks - love'em all.

Our favorite place to relax is out on our bedroom patio (above). The view from our bedroom is absolutely gorgeous with the blooms of our Bougainvillea's and other blossoming plants, the pool and the sounds of the waterfall. Now with Kuan Yin overlooking our yard, it makes it even more peaceful and relaxing.

This is a view from our main patio. I can't express enough how peaceful it truly is, at least to us. We like the simple things really. We are humble and enjoy making the most of what we can with what we have. Being able to fix up our home is a good feeling, especially when we do it ourselves. We can sit back and truly enjoy what we have accomplished with our own two hands.

Kuan Yin is known as the Chinese Bodhisattva of Compassion, a female deity (also known by other names). In Mahayana Tibetan Buddhism, Avalokiteshvara (hard to pronounce at first, but trust me it gets easier) is recognized as the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

May everyone have compassion, love, peace and happiness.

☼ Rocki

Back to the real world

I have many things to blog about, such as our fabulous vacation with our little family/best friends! But first I need to get caught up around the house, create some custom orders, grocery shop, rest, clean, relax and .... NAW! I wanna go back to SEA WORLD!!!

Well, Danny's first treatment was today (7 hours!) and that part went well. Now we have to see how he handles it to see if he can continue with them. He & Margi want his story told and they have given permission for me to do this for them. So, in between my blogs about silly things, featured Etsy artists, my creations, weird vegetables and other happenings, you will get to 'meet' our incredible friend/brother Danny & my best friend/his wife Margi (a.k.a. Cobra & Tweety)

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering if we really did color our hair while at Sea World... yep - we sure did! Danny wanted to do it before he looses his so he made us do it too. Okay, so he didn't have to push too hard or twist our arms - we had fun doing it!

Even though we're glad to be back, it sure would be nice to be back in San Diego right now.

Peace to all,

☼ Rocki