Rodrigvitz Style

The Memory Keepers

It was nearly a year ago that we lost our grandmother.  Yesterday we got together to go through boxes and boxes of photographs that were at grama's house.  Some photographs were familiar, some new.  This one, taken in 1919 on a camping trip (my grandmother with the white bow in here hair, her younger sister and my great grandparents on the right)  Grama had told me about this trip but I had never seen a photograph from the adventure.

My grandmothers high school graduation picture and....my parents and me, in 1956...

Only my brother and I were really interested in many of the photos.  There were so many photographs of some branches of the family that no one really knew much about...but they are family....

This is how it went.....My cousin would hold up a photo, if no one wanted it they would just by default throw it in my pile.  Then Bruce and I would haggle or decide to make copies.

A print made from an embossed stamp on the photo cover....I have many of these wonderful embossings that I think I'll carve into stamps.

Black, Yellow...and a Touch of Orange

Morning ride today with the girls....to Hamm Pond.  Susan had been out here earlier in the week and saw many black birds with yellow heads and orange tufts on top.  Turns out these are yellow headed blackbirds.

A little video of the colorful bird....

and....

Could this big bird be of the same species?

Sorry Linda, I couldn't resist :)

The Royal Route

Oh those raucous, royal revelers!  Sandy has created a Royal Round Robin resplendent with rosaceous reenactments (what's she saying???) and I wanted to make a special something....A Royal triptych of sorts...

Here is just a little taste...there are 10 cross country trips to plan and I don't want to give away all my secrets.

Borrowed Birds...

The rains let up....that one lone Allium, only one this year....I borrowed a bird...

and played with photoshop.

Years and Words Fly By

Years ago I worked with a young man....every day...at the end of the day, he would tear off a page of his day calendar, fold it into a crane....and throw it in a drawer.

When he left the company he gave me the drawer of cranes.  I take them out and play with them every once in a while....

Mr R and I just returned from a lovely anniversary (26!!) dinner at the SugarBeet restaurant in Longmont....mmmmm good, if you are in town I would highly recommend....

Happy Happy Sweet Mr R! 

Seeing Spots and I'm So Smart

Seeing spots...of color, of flowers both coming up out of the ground and those I'm planting in pots.....of rain, sorely needed....

and.....I thought I was so smart, I found one of those little date stamps, that you can change the month/day/year....for 50 cents at Michaels.  Other similar stamps were $8.99.....SCORE.....

once home, I found....the year only went through 2007....ha on me! Oh well, I fill in the 6 to be an 8, and next year I don't have to use the year at all....it was still worth it.

Have you had any similar "I'm so smart" moments?

Three Cups of Tea and Pennies a Day

I feel overwhelmed sometimes, that I can't do anything to make a difference...the world, the suffering, this war, what can one person do.  I found real hope in reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.  Greg is doing amazing work in Pakistan and Afghanistan beginning in 1993.

His original mission began as a way to give back to a community that helped save his life in his failed attempt to summit K2 in Pakistan.  It grew to be his life long work, building schools to educate, particularly the girls, in rural Pakistani and Afghani villages.  He is effecting change in a real, tangible way....helping these people change their lives and make our world a safer place.

There are many ways we can help too....www.threecupsoftea.com, www.penniesforpeac.org, www.ikat.org.  It costs just $1/month for one child's education in Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1 penny to buy a pencil and a teacher's salary averages $1/day.

If you read it or have read it I would love to hear how it effected you.

EDIT, I just heard from our friend Lea, she pointed out an acknowledgment from Greg Mortenson in the back of the book that thanks Murphy-Goode Winery for lubricating so much of the interview process...from Lea:

That is me. Murphy-Goode is my family winery that we sold in 2006. It is a very long story, of another time, and about a young girl trying to find her way in the world... but to see that acknowledgment from something I was a part of... the beginning of... to have given those two men some pleasure in recounting their stories for us to grow from... well, it makes me cry right now as I write this to you...

Hey Kiddo...

A love letter to my sweet Tess...I'll be thinking of you when I am greeted with my traditional Mother's Day gift, when I'm riding my bike, when I'm having brunch with daddy and planting flowers in pots....all those traditions that started with you.

 

We love you boogie!!

Throw Open that Window for Another Studio Tour

I had just as many people through here last weekend at the studio tour that just wanted to peek at my house than look at my artwork, well....I understand...I love peeking in windows and poking around at open houses and such.....so, do you want to peek in my studio?

I drug an old potting bench out of the garage and slapped a coat of paint on for the tour and realized I didn't want to put it back....I could really use all that storage space in my studio.....so I drug EVERYTHING out and re-arranged my tiny space to make room.  NOW I can open my window!!! 

We have these windows that open into the room so it's always a challenge this time of year when I want to throw open the windows.....in this case my 2 ton sewing machine was right under this window and it was not easy to wrangle that thing out of the way.  What a pleasure now!  I can open the window....

and peek below to see the bleeding hearts still blooming!

This corner houses my work desk with my work computer and all my 'important' work stuff...

I have another desk for MY computer where I sit to make pictures and things to show you....

The sewing machine found a perfect spot under the watchful eye of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

turn your head to the right and you can catch a glimpse of my other tiny studio spot tucked under the stairs.

My little duck family is certainly happy with their new sunny home...I think I'll just roll my chair over by that window and gaze out at this lovely day!

Walk With Me

Listen, listen more carefully to what is around you...right now.  There is an astonishing vastness of movement and Life

Emanating sound and light from my folded hands

And my even quieter simple being and heart.

My dear, is it true that your mind is sometimes like a battering ram

Running all through the city, Shouting so madly inside and out...About the ten thousand things that do not matter?

....Oh listen, listen more carefully to what is inside of you right now.

In my world, all that remains is the wondrous call to dance and prayer

Rising up like a thousand suns...out of the mouth of a single bird.

Hafiz poem borrowed from a post of Tara's some time ago