Peeks Around 25 is the bulletin board at my desk. It's covered with some cool, inspirational stuff and a wacky thing or two. There's the Rumi calendar, some way cool Celtic art, some other goddess type cards and little mini Girlfriends scrapbook. The wacky things are related to my mom. One is a pin of a cat with wings. Not sure why it's there but it is. The other is a postcard from Greece. My mother took me to Greece in 1994 for my 30th birthday. While we were there looking at postcards she called me over to see one she was looking at. It's a photo of a scultpure of some kind of half man, half beast. And that sculpture has a raging hard-on! And my mother pointed it out to me. I may never recover from that but I had to get the post card nonetheless.
Peeks Around 24 is the kitchen window. Agate slices with other stones and rocks, mini plants and pots of different colors and a couple of photos of me and Shawn. Plus the orange window sill. All the colors match our kitchen in that we have rugs, towels, shelves, magnets, etc... in all different colors, bright and cheery.
Peeks Around 23* is the second Buddha to find a home. This is Meditating Buddha with a Begging Bowl. I still don't know the significance behind the hand positions, etc... and need a good resource. The internet is not helping with this one.
So this Buddha is maybe brass or copper and I'm guessing that the color is some sort of patina. The little table this sits on gets used a lot and it moves around depending on space and need. My bff Lisa found this table and two matching but smaller ones. And each table fit underneath the other. I don't know what happened with the other two but I got this one. It has followed me through something like 8 moves. Maybe more. And it's not the most stable thing, although I think Shawn may have done something to it to make it a little more sturdy. It's also painted gold and has some sort of damask type of pattern on it.
This past summer it was in the living room. Once the plants came in Big Buddha had to move and the table had to move into our bedroom. There was stuff from the Big Buddha altar that needed a home so I decided to make a small altar in the bedroom for the winter. This new meditating Buddha is perfect for it. He's in the photo with his buddy Ganesha, a Buddha candle from Soaring Spirit Yoga studio, a shiva lingam stone, a couple of crystals and some other stones. It's exuding some really great energy.
And ultimately there was a lesson learned from this altar that I didn't realize until this very moment. When the plants first came in for the winter I was bummed about having to move Big Buddha and losing the space. There was a hard attachment to the way things were and I was having a hard time letting go of that, even though I knew it was coming. And attachment only causes suffering. The end result of the change that I didn't want, is a beautiful altar with amazing energy that I see every. single. day. Not such a bad change after all.
Peeks Around 22 is the mantle above the fireplace. There's a tree man incense holder, gargoyle bookends for half of the mini book collection, a zen garden with sand and a rock, agate slice bookends for the other half of the mini books and a mosaic vase.
Above the mantle are a staff and a wand that Shawn made. I'll save those details for a future peeks around.
Peeks Around 21 is my nightstand. The cool lamp that was a wedding present, a poem Shawn wrote for our first anniversary, the first photo of me and Shawn together (as adults and I had to photoshop it together!), some crystals and stones and book of wisdom, all grace the nightstand. The alarm clock is on there and I really can't stand that. At one time, I had a "Zen" alarm clock. Instead of blaring sound, it would chime. And it would gradually get just a little louder. It's pretty cool, except one night, I noticed that it ticked. And the ticking kept me up all night. And that was it ... the Zen alarm clock was no longer zen. I think they make digital ones now which I should check into.
Also on the nightstand is a spray bottle. Why might I have a spray bottle on my nightstand, you ask. That is to chase away bad kitties. Bad kitties that pester in the middle of the night by digging in the trash can or scratching on something or licking. Sometimes all you have to do is pick up the spray bottle, maybe shake it a little and they take off. Other times they will stare at you with complete and utter defiance, like, go ahead, spray me bitch ... I dare you. Then when you do spray them they are completely indignant.
Peeks Around 20 is a shelf hanging in the stairway to the third level of our house. The shelf is about 6 feet long and it holds a bunch of framed photos. The first two are photos of my Shawn's dad and my dad. Shawn's dad (first one from left) is probably in his mid-twenties and I think my dad is about 17 or 18 (second one from left). I remember when my aunt gave me that photo of my dad and I was like, who's this? Of course I had seen photos of my father but they were of him when he was 29 or 30. It's hard to believe our fathers were ever this young.The other photos are of me and friend, me and my Persian cousins (all the girls), the Triumvirate (Nelli, Tiki and Mr.) and Shawn and one his buddies.
Peeks Around 19 is my jewelry box. I've never found a jewelry box that really works. None of my necklaces fit on the necklace thing, so I hang them on the little door. Earrings are in a drawer and I couldn't even tell you without looking what's in the other 3 drawers. Clearly stuff I don't wear, probably because I don't know it's there. I'm the kind of person that needs to see things in front of me to keep them in the forefront of my mind. So much for the jewelry box.
Peeks Around 18 is the rusty pliers. Shawn found a new home for them, hanging on the fence in the back yard.
Driftwood turned into a candle holder.
Peeks around 16 is the KISS dolls ... oops, I mean action figures. Shawn was a huge KISS fan when he was a kid and I admit, I was too. HUGE fans. I've dressed up like Paul Stanley more times than I can remember, once as an adult for a Halloween party. Shawn too. His mom took him to see KISS at the Capital Center in 1977, my dad took me and my brother to the same show. God knows how horrified they were. We still get sucked into watching KISS concerts on VH1 but mostly for the comedic value, fully laughing at ourselves in the process.
Shawn collects action figures so these were a xmas present from me about 8 or 9 years ago. But I insisted that he open and display them. Most of his action figures are still sealed in the original box. But, seriously, these needed to be displayed in the full glory of KISS Alive 1.
Peeks Around 15 is the top shelf of my desk. All kinds of stuff. It's an altar of sorts ... favorite things, little collections. There are a bunch of kitty figures made out of sculpy, glass and stone. There are these box altar thingys for Ganesha and Kuan Yin figurines that are elsewhere, so a kitty and a different Ganesha sit in them now. A vase, a sculpture I did, some cool boxes, pictures, crystals and agate slices. I really need to spend some more time in this space to take in all of it's energy and coolness. The problem is my desk and office area is in the basement, where it's cold and dark. Seems that I need to find a way to embrace the cave.
Peeks Around 14 is the Buddha Altar.
There are some photos of Shawn and me and of the original triumvirate, Nelli, Tiki and Mr. There are some awesome candles, the one in the center is the Buddha candle from 13 Magickal Moons. The other two are blood orange from Pacifica. Another candle to the right is Sacred Space from Lemurian Spirit. There's a dish with the sage and some stones and rocks. Buddha is holding a crystal and there is a rose quartz and a shiva lingam. And Ganesha is sitting on Buddha's right knee. I also keep my malas on Buddha.
This altar adds such an amazing peacefulness and calm to the entire house. You can definitely feel the energy and it sits just inside the front entrance to our home.
Peeks Around 13 is at the top of the 3rd floor stairs, looking down. It's a very high cathedral ceiling so what we have hanging goes maybe 2/3 of the way up.
There are various framed photos on the right, a shelf with more photos on the left and a painting of mine straight ahead. There's also a sculpture of mine that won a best of show and was selected for another juried show.
On another note ... one more day and this year will be half over. That means I have been doing this for 6 months. It's amazing to look back and see what has transpired so far.
My friend Rene gave me this cool, beaded candle holder. It hangs out back in our oasis sanctuary.
Peeks Around 11 is one of the walls of my work space. This wall is to my right when I'm at my computer. It's the picture wall with some positive energy notes and clippings thrown in. Kitties, wedding pics, Hawaii, me & Lisa, among others. All I have to do to forget the bullshit that often accompanies work is look to my right.
Peeks Around 10 is the Green Man that hangs on the lattice that separates our deck from the neighbors deck. In about 2 months Green Man will be surrounded by foliage from the moonflowers.
Peeks Around 8 is yet another shelf. We have lots of knick knack type stuff, cool knick knack stuff like these agate slices, glass beads, kuan yin and ganesha. So we need lots of shelf space to put it all these things on. This is another shelf Shawn made right by the front door complete with hooks to hang the keys on. It's painted blue to match other blue decor in this room which is the first room you enter after stepping through the front door.
Peeks Around 7 is the shadowbox. This hangs on a wall between our living room and the kitchen. There is all kinds of stuff on this. Little pewter dragons, wizards, kitties, and trolls and dwarves with crazy weapons that I think go with the game Magic. Crystals and rocks, tiny little vases, dice and other little mini bottles and boxes to stash things away in.
I think the shadowbox may be an old typesetting set drawer. If it's not, it at least reminds me of one.
Peeks Around 7 has an added bonus of some Spring Time Zen. This is the open wall that is next to the stairs leading to the basement. Because it's open it gives us another shelf. This is kind of a zen shelf in general. It has a ceramic yogi in lotus pose incense burner, the Tibetan Buddhism book and a book of poetry by Rumi, the collection of 5 minute meditation books and a candle. I added some Spring Time Zen with some azalea and something flowering from our garden.
Peeks Around 6 is from Shawn's office. This is the top of his desk shelf with all kinds of stuff. From this angle you get the beautiful, blue crystal ball. I gave it to him one year for, most likely, his birthday, although it could have been an anniversary present. We're at the point where we remember the gift but may have lost track of the occasion. More Peeks Around Shawn's Office to come ...
