from moss cottage to wherever in this big wide world you happen to be, happy wondrous new year!
now for the random thoughts you’ve come to expect…
i just finished deleting all 7 of the blogs over at typepad. 6 class blogs including my very first class offering way back in april of 2009 – stencilry. wow. that was the class that started me down this road of taking my teaching life in a classroom with little kids, onto the vast interwebz where i host classes for grownups. also deleted was the old DFLA which i began in february of 2007. almost 9 years ago. of course you probably know, everything that was over there now lives here. all the same, it was nostalgic to press the delete buttons.
it felt BIG and final. like cutting something loose. so good, at long last, to have everything under 1 roof over here at wordpress. by the way, there’s no deadline for former students who aren’t quite ready to let go of their classes. i wrote about that HERE. i’ve been v. busy adding people to the new sites. if you emailed and didn’t hear from me, email again. i’ll get everyone sorted out soon enough.
at this moment i have no clue where i’ll be traveling this year, but i know i’ll go somewhere. i am ready to be summoned to my next adventure in a new place.
i’m ready for more reading, more daily writing, more trips up the coast to santa barbara & carpinteria, more desert sojourns, more walking adventures. more watercolor, more gouache. more more more.
i’m letting the wind fill my sails, gliding out of the 2015 harbor and heading out into the open sea of 2016. it feels vast. uncharted. sort of wild. i love that about a new year, that delicious sense of freedom & possibility.
see you out there.
Dearest dear-been thinking about you and where you’ve ended up school wise this semester. I can’t wait to hear of your abentures of a different kind when you’ve caught your breath and are ready to tell.
Had you heard about this yet, Mary Ann? http://news.yahoo.com/guatemala-warily-monitors-erupting-volcano-184249631.html
NO!!!!! thanks for sharing. i’m so glad i got to see the old guy erupt while i was there, but it was nothing compared to this! wowza! i think i’ll need to skip school and head south to do some reporting. (wish)
This one has pics! I am sure you will recognize the views. It wouldn’t surprise me if you took off to there again…our lady of the volcano! They had to close the airport Sunday bc of the ash clouds. When Mt St Helens erupted I lived in South Seattle and could see her blow from there. It was really something…awe inspiring. Sadly, people died though. Here is the link… http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-31231744
Oh, I loved that stencil class……I lived it with such wild abandon. I still have my “folder”. Will never part with it.
HOPPY NEW YEAR!!!! So delighted to be able to knit again…hand issues meant a 5 mo. hiatus, but back in the swing of things now. I’ve also ended a reading slump of several years. Read two books, each of 300+ ppg. finished in 2 days for each. Yeehaw. The Girl on the Train, by Hawkins and Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey, a debut novel that takes place in Britain during WWII and 2011, a love story, lost letters found. Wonderful. GOTT, 3 out of 5 stars, mystery. No zinger ending but a decent read.
Hope your new beginning of the New Year is all you hope it can be.
I love your smile. Can’t wait to embark on another year with you! You make life so much more fun!!!!!
Great metaphor about the new year. I feel the same.
I’m with you — I don’t know where I am going this year either but I know I am going! Bring the travel on!! And happy new year to you, MAM!
Look at you – striding down the road with determination and the charismatic, but understated floppy hat! Happy New Year! Well, I’ve said it before: I depend upon your sidewinding humor, inspiration and general off-the-beam attitude. You’re on my must-have list. No change in that status for 2016. I can identify with the joy of cutting the rope off the dock and letting the boat float free. Consolidate, lighten up, new harbors! Love the ocean picture. Lovely wishes for a wonderfully creative year, Mary Ann! xxoo
Hello from the trail…although the trail is mostly paved now for me. Enjoying your wonderful Sketchbookery class and just today cleaning out all my beloved magazines (eeek) I took out my Remains of the Day journal and lovingly looked it over. Then saw your post. Yes, a trip down memory lane which for me began with Remains of the Day and lead to a craft room filled with ephemera and a cache of images, piles of journals and other collage projects. Oh, let’s not forget the wonderful SEWN class that lead us all into a new dimension. Thank you for the journey that continues. Read a great book that I will recommend to my book club later this month. Norwegian by NIght by Derek Miller – a quirky mystery, but it has it all and Norway. I think you might like it.
Ah, Mary Ann, I do love your words. Your description of leaving the old year and “sailing into the new” was a lovely word picture. Thank you for all the sharing you do. Such a wonderful talent.
I’m looking forward to all of your romps, local or far flung, either way ‘the journey’ and ‘the getting there’ and ‘the thick in the middle of i’t are all good and I know no matter what, it will be a blast. Here is to 2016 and everything that it holds. You rock girl. Take a walk on the wild side….that song popped into my head as I finished reading your post. I think it fits that photo quite nicely. 😉 xoxoxox
Awesome! Happy New Year!!
Your Stencilry Class was wonderful fun!
I am finishing up my book right now! You are a treasure….Looking forward to watching “it all” unfold…
Have a great 2016 🙂
Happy New Year to you too! So you’re not teaching this semester?? Doesn’t sound like it…
Whatever you do, I’ll be along with you.
xo
Happy New Year! I am looking forward to all your colorful adventures and illustrations in 2016. Thank you for sharing and inspiring all of us out here in webland.
Happy Days Mary Ann. Thanks for being such an inspiring and inspired creator. You bring much to my world. Especially encouragement to go!!
Wows a sister! That last photo is really special. Not dramatic but the spectrum of color from sand to sky is amazing.
mary ann i hope your adventure continues with your incredible art and interesting posts keep on coming……..i love your blog and enjoy every time you post…happy 2016!!!!!
Happy New Year. I cannot wait to see where the getaway car takes you this year. Thanks for always being a light of inspiration and wackiness, for sharing your life, reminding me I need to talk to my sister more, and helping me feel less weird that I like my alone time! I had to work a lot over the holidays (since I work at home, it wasn’t all bad), and I spent the slow times re-living Venice through your eyes again. And made yet another promise to myself that I will get that Venice journal finished This Year, for sure! Carry on….
Happy New Year, my darling wandering minstrel!
Happy New Year, Mary Ann!
Can’t wait to follow you through the year. Last year I learned so much from you, like Sketchbookery and bookbinding, and sewing paper. I never thought I could do such things. But you believed that I could do it, and wow, you were right!!! Thanks for being a wonderful teacher, and a good source of inspiration!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I must share our new travel practice. When we are staying somewhere adventurous for a month or two we take short train trips to other interesting places to see if we want to see more of them. On our way from our housesit in Italy to visit family in Salzburg – we checked out Rome and Venice on New Year’s Eve and Venice is definitely on the list of places to visit (off season) for more than a few days – Rome is still on the “we’ll see” list.
Over the course of our housesit we visited Florence, Siena, Pisa, Central Coast of the west side of Italy and many little towns. I would like to figure out a student visa (I’m 65) to spend a year between Florence and Siena – they are unbelievable and way too much to absorb in two weeks or even in two months.
Anyway I love your blog, you and your art. Love, Lori
Happy New Year to you! Looking forward to reading about all your art and travels for 2016!
I’m loving my finally-completed sewn tape journal and am happily filling it with lots of my bits and pieces. I’ve committed to actually complete at least one Remains of the Day journal before mid-year, but have a feeling that won’t be a problem at all!
I love that photo of you! It’s like you are saying, “Yep! It’s me…walking”! Keep on truckin! I love that you are so brave, and so willing to cut off the past and get on to new and exciting people, places and things. I am such a creature of habit, so I admire that quality in others to cut loose. I bought you a book awhile back that I hoped you would enjoy, but needed an address to send it to, but at the time you were like Carmen San Deigo, traveling the world, and then forgot to ask you bc Christmas happened. Can you email me where I can send it? I hope you like it as much as I think you will.
Anywho, I am looking forward to a brand new year of new possibilities!
The very best of New Years to you!! 2015 was an exciting year in your travels,looking forward to what this year brings!!
Congratulations! It brought a tear to my eye reading you deleted Stencilry. Back in 2009 I was searching for a creative outlet and I stumbled across art journaling and found you and your stenciler class. I was so hooked! I loved your class and your quirky wonderful blog. Mary Ann you gave me my creative spark. I found my way and found my voice. Thank you!
You never cease to give me a smile and a chuckle. I know we have never met, even though we live relatively close by(for interweb standards), yet I feel a kinship.
You go sister!