Floating Moon, Indigo Sky

... it really IS all about the colors. That's the way I see things, what inspires me. The color or colors are first, then it's the texture, either visual or tactile. Even words, bring color to mind. This is my new beginning blog. I've tried blogging before, but it isn't easy for me to make a commitment to say something every day, or even every few days. I don't normally think I have a thing to say that would be interesting to someone else, much less waste time posting it on the internet! There are LOTS of blogs on the internet that have worthwhile things to say. But then again, so many times, I find things I want to share with my friends, and so many of my friends are online! It seems to make more sense to create a blog, to just post my shares... the things that get my attention, get me thinking. AND, I'm hoping, a lot less time consuming than sending out a bunch of emails.

So, good morning! Here's what's on my mind today. COLOR. Glorious, gorgeous color... everywhere I look. For those of you who don't know, my "work", as well as my "fun", are both expressed through my studio, which I have named Floating Moon Studio. The name is based on the way the moon often seems to be floating in the indigo sky... sometimes sailing along when it's not full (and it looks like the sail of a ship bowed by the wind), reflected in the water of the bay below me. It was mind-blowingly beautiful last night... the moon so full, the bay so still, almost like glass... a silver pathway across the water, to the mainland, the mountains beyond. Where would it take me, if I followed the path? For years, I worked, I WAS, Firefly Designs and Firefly Studio; then I let my domain name lapse, someone snatched it up, but in the meantime I was seeing "firefly this and that" everywhere, so it seemed like I needed to move on. And I HAD, literally, moved... to a tiny island floating in saltwater here in the Pacific Northwest. Been here for 4 years now, almost 5. I don't think I'll be here many more years. Soon it will be time to move again. But for now, this is home... this place of mountains that nearly touch the sea, snow caps visible all year long, water too cold to swim in... breathtaking beauty of a special kind. Floating Moon, you will follow me wherever in the world I go... Fireflies aren't here... don't live everywhere in the world, much to my surprise, though I take them in my heart.

I have a song in my mind today, an old song by Dan Fogelberg: "the end of October, the sleepy brown world seems to bow down its head to the winter... " NOT YET! NOT YET! Although I love the song... I am wanting to say, today is not sleepy or brown... though the garden is going to sleep. I want to escape to warm waters and faraway beaches when it gets to the greys of winter. Do you?

I am torn today. Do I work with fibers and stitch, knit, or spin? Do I start working with my photographs, sorting them and creating digital albums of pages to save for my family and friends? The whole deal with the photos and digi-scrapping is something I am just beginning to explore, as a way to work with and enjoy the many photos I have taken and saved over the years. They're stuffed into boxes, sometimes shoved into generic albums... but they deserve more. The way they are now, they don't entice me to open the box, the book, and look at them; but I should! There are memories there! Family is there, some of them long-gone, and I miss them. I want to share them, and their stories, with others. The knitting is sitting and calling to me with it's siren song: "come and make the loops, that magic that happens with two sticks and a string..."

The house is yelling, "hey, clean me up." LOL. I can quiet that voice, drown it out with the others I'd rather hear! Do you? Okay. Enough for now. I've taken the step of starting the blog. I think it was a reaction to a post earlier this week, by one of my online connections, Abby, who was answering someone ELSE, (can you see the ripple effect here?) about who should spin, should everyone know how to spin? And it really made me think. Thank you, Abby... you push my "thinking button" often!

Oh yes... warning to those who know and care about these things: Yes, I DO know good grammar. NO, I don't CARE so much about using it here, for now, and maybe not ever... I see this as more of a stream of consciousness kind of thing. I don't tend to think in perfectly formed grammatical essays, though they have their place in my life. But if I am going to blog, then I reason that I must just allow it to flow out of my fingers, without having to concern myself with editing too awfully much. I will make every effort to spell properly, as a mis-spelled word literally does bug the living daylights out of me! But I think someone, somewhere, should probably label me The Queen of Ellipses, when it comes to email, membership list posts, and the like. So why should my blog be any different? It's not a blog about grammar, though I got perfect marks in school for that subject.

And now I will move on, to finish the rest of what constitutes a "blog" construction. And wait to hear if I will get flamed for putting myself out there for the world to judge.