Food & Wine Festival: June 19th Noon to 6pm Flagstaff, Pine Mountain Amphitheater

I will be showing the unique design of custom wine bottles and glass sets. They are the perfect gift for that very special occasion when you really want to show someone how much you care!

Metamorphosis: A Butterfly's Story: The Zen of Creating

*** Please note, the above artwork is only a drawing and not the final piece. This was designed with The Glass Eye software.

Here is the first design that has come to me from my trip to Costa Rica. This incredible insect helped me to revealed a part of me that has long been concealed.The finished size will be 32"x 20". I will post more of the actual piece as it is being created tonight...
Thanks,
Christina

So there is a lot of saw work , lots of inside curves. More to come!











It's at the point now where I am so excited about being able to hold it up to the light. This is the thing about stained glass: I've picked out all the glass, scrutinized each color and how it will appear next to the other colors and textures. I cut, grind, foil, solder, reinforce. There are many steps involved in the creation of a stained glass panel, hours of love.....

Finally, the long awaited moment comes when I get to pick the piece up and hold it to the light! Was I right? Did I choose the right colors and textures? It's kind of like gardening, planting all of those bulbs in the fall then having to wait and wait and wonder.... Delayed gratification to put it simply. It teaches patients and love of the craft. I am excited to share this with you.... More to come!

Update on A Little Piece of Heaven.... August 25, 2011

The land sold.... Now it is up for sale again, this time I am really actively working to buy it. Why not? It enhances my existing lot. And it feels like it has been part of my life for years already. So I again ask for your prayers and positive energy in obtaining this little piece of heaven.
Many Blessing to you all!
Chris

Looking down hill to my home and studio. Faithful dog, Lola sits about where my land stops up the hill... My labyrinth is in the foreground, buried in new spring grass...

I have lived nestled on a hillside for 18+ years now. I am also guilty of "squatting" on the top of the hillside for 18 years... You see, my property ends just at about the top of the hill. My neighbor, Mark has graciously allowed me to sit, party, camp, sleep, daydream, build a labyrinth, walk, and pray on this hillside for years now.

I grew up in a suburb of Chicago; houses close together, fenced yards, snug to say the least. Then I came out to NORTHERN Arizona, high elevation and open spaces back then, in 1976. I found my little slice of heaven in 1992. I rented the house for 2 years and was so taken by the space, energy, light and just beauty of the postage stamp lot, that I had to buy it! SOLD; 1994! To the east lays the hillside, an undeveloped acres or so of land owned by an old college friend, he has a total of about 5 or so acres. Since this hillside dips down towards my home, there was/is no value for anyone up hill from it. Like I said I have used the hillside to feed the birds, observe wildlife, welcome the sun and just sit and rejoice for 18 years now. I can look out my studio windows and not see another house or structure, It looks and feels like I am in the wilderness with no others around me on that side of my land, I love it!

Last year my neighbor got married and moved from the property and put the entire 5 and then some acres up for sale. My dilemma is ZONING!!! All I want is less then a 1/4 acre of the 5+ acres that is up for sale. Just enough to buffer me from anyone who buys the uphill property and builds a house. The way zoning works, he is unable to divide the lots up any differently then they are now, which means would have to buy 2+ acres for a lot more money than I have and I don't really want what comes with the 2+ acres which is several building and a triplex. So now I risk losing the small piece I want.

I am writing this blog as a prayer, a prayer that will be sent out to the universe, the heavens, the powers that be to let them know that I need to obtain this small piece of heaven I have known now for so long. I don't want to "squat" any more, but have the right to sit and pray, set a tent up for my grandson to camp in and what ever, on my own property. So I am putting the energy out there now, looking for a solution that works for both Mark and I. There truly is a win-win situation.... I know it!!

Peace,
Christina

Mary Sojourner Is Power and Grace, Real Time

My long time friend, Mary lays out her knowledge and heart in 2 New books:
Going Through Ghosts & She Bets Her Life

Vegas flashback: A woman walks up to me just before the Vegas reading. "I heard your interview on KNPR," she says. "You said one thing that might slice through the noose that's strangling me." "You're a gambling addict too?" I say. "Yes," she says. "I never understood till I heard your words that I've taken care of everybody since I was little. Gambling is the only place I'm in a world of my own." We high five.

http://www.shebetsherlife.com/

New PT post. It is realllllly deep. www.psychologytoday.com/blog/she-bets-her-life/201004/basement-medicine-8-why-do-women-big-packages

Here's the direct link to "Going Through Ghosts."University of Nevada Presswww.unpress.nevada.eduThe official University of Nevada Press web site

University of Nevada Press
www.unpress.nevada.edu
The official University of Nevada Press web site

Imagery And Energy: Insight from Deb O'Connor and Love Dog Design

My Friend and Reader Deb; vision on this week's full moon.

I (Deb) took all the photos which begin these notes in the magical Bitterroot Valley of western Montana.

Full Moon at 7 degrees SCORPIO
6:19 AM MDT or 5:19 AM PDT
Thursday morning
4.28.10

A more intense full moon does not exist. If ever there is a moon with the power to take us deep down into the cellar of our awareness . . . it is the Scorpio moon.

It's so important that we use this Scorpio energy--like all the planetary energy--to facilitate growth rather than to generate or court fear.

You could begin by imagining your metaphorical, inner cellar filled with the most beautiful of jars . . . in some of them you'll find peach-ginger compote, apple butter, elderberry potions or tomato basil sauces . . . or maybe, beneath a basement window, there is a long shelf filled with glass bottles of every color and shape and texture imaginable and you can see these reflecting a quiet and transparent light into this harbor of the subconscious.

It's probable that within this deep inner sanctum there are also a few cobwebs or a jar or two which hold some old substance whose shelf-life is used up and it's contents look a little off or maybe even smell funny. It's time, then, to remove these out-dated things from this otherwise nourishing space.

Scorpio wants us to take the deep dive, to sense our fear of the situations in our lives which make our stomachs uneasy . . . and then, having helped us notice those fears, Scorpio would lead us through them.

I like the metaphor, simple as it is, of our inner cellar because all of us have experienced actual subterranean places which are sort of scary, and yet, all of us have also experienced these same kinds of places when their mystery and beauty was such that we passed through our fear and entered in. Scorpio carries us into the places where we are nourished to the degree that we allow ourselves to be led by our instincts and where we tap into our emotional courage.

A question which I imagine you might sometimes ask is this one: Why does Deb write about an energetic event--the full moon--which lasts only a day or two?

I write because each month the moon is full in a different sign, and it brings our focus to, and wakes us up to the longer term work of its planetary ruler. The Moon itself is like a spotlight leading us to notice what the planet is up to. We get a great hit at the full moon because the moon always heightens our emotional responses.

So when the moon is full in Scorpio, it's directing our attention to the work of Pluto. And as you know from the many references I've made this last year to Pluto's current square to the Uranus/Saturn opposition, Pluto is intensely active now helping all of us, demanding that we face our fear of loss.

One of the great gifts of both Scorpio and Pluto is their desire to bring to the surface the things which we would rather keep buried. Somehow we continue to believe that we'll be safer if we leave buried those issues or feelings which scare us or which have the potential to fuel our anger. But the simple fact is that these buried energies actually take more energy to ignore than they do to face and, by the simple act of facing them down, we help them to dissolve.

When the moon is full in Scorpio, or when Pluto is involved, as it is now in an energetic cleansing with Saturn and Uranus, you can expect many things to continue to be "uncovered" both within yourself and within the context of the collective.

So as the moon shines brightly in the sky Wednesday and Thursday evenings, imagine it as the tip of a cosmic wand whose sole purpose is to tap you gently on the top of your head and ignite your sense of courage in the face of any and every fearful response still standing between you and the freedom which comes from letting go . . . letting go so that you can create the empty space into which the newer, healthier situation can be born.

Please remember that the only real obstacle facing us now, and for all time, is our fear of the unknown. We know from all our years of experiencing ourselves in Time that anything we resist will persist. So lets bow to this shaman-like Scorpio energy as it helps us to continue spiraling up and out of our fear-based responses.

If you'd like to go more deeply into the significance of this energy through work on your own chart, please let me know.

As always, I ask that you share these notes with anyone you think might like a clearer sense of what is at work in the energetic world.

Many deep and rich blessings,

Deborah O'Connor
406.531.5129
www.lovedogdesign.com

My newest commission is now on it's way to it's new home. "Ravens Over Nankoweap" is 22 x 26". Thank you, Cory & Terry for coming to my studio for Flagstaff Open Studio last year and letting me bring your vision of 2 ravens soaring over the Grand Canyon come to life in this piece!

Ravens love shiny things, they are curious and they are mischievous! I love designing glass with their imagery in it. One of my favorite stories is the raven and the sun.

Here is the story that inspired me to create one of my most popular designs; Raven Steals the Sun

This is an ancient story told on the Queen Charlotte Islands and includes how Raven helped to bring the Sun, Moon, Stars, Fresh Water, and Fire to the world.

Long ago, near the beginning of the world, Gray Eagle was the guardian of the Sun, Moon and Stars, of fresh water, and of fire. Gray Eagle hated people so much that he kept these things hidden. People lived in darkness, without fire and without fresh water.

Gray Eagle had a beautiful daughter, and Raven fell in love with her. In the beginning, Raven was a snow-white bird, and as a such, he pleased Gray Eagle's daughter. She invited him to her father's longhouse.

When Raven saw the Sun, Moon and stars, and fresh water hanging on the sides of Eagle's lodge, he knew what he should do. He watched for his chance to seize them when no one was looking. He stole all of them, and a brand of fire also, and flew out of the longhouse through the smoke hole. As soon as Raven got outside he hung the Sun up in the sky. It made so much light that he was able to fly far out to an island in the middle of the ocean. When the Sun set, he fastened the Moon up in the sky and hung the stars around in different places. By this new light he kept on flying, carrying with him the fresh water and the brand of fire he had stolen.

He flew back over the land. When he had reached the right place, he dropped all the water he had stolen. It fell to the ground and there became the source of all the fresh-water streams and lakes in the world. Then Raven flew on, holding the brand of fire in his bill. The smoke from the fire blew back over his white feathers and made them black. When his bill began to burn, he had to drop the firebrand. It struck rocks and hid itself within them. That is why, if you strike two stones together, sparks of fire will drop out.

Raven's feathers never became white again after they were blackened by the smoke from the firebrand. That is why Raven is now a black bird.