all I see is yellow and cosmic

Ah, nothing like new tie dye. NOTHING! And you'd be a NUTCASE to have come here and not know that I love one color only, and that one color is TIE DYE :D And since you pretty much have the entire contents of my closet before you (you think I jest but alas, except for my jeans and my "Life is Good" shirts, I JEST NOT), you can see that as much as I love color, I was lacking in the pinks and turquoises that I so dearly love. Or in other words, you could also say I was lacking in the colors that separate myself between all the testosterone that I live with. 

I e-mailed my favorite tie dye place in all the land (wait for it... wait for it...) and chose a few designs I was also missing, and asked if they could make me some custom shirts with those designs and colors I felt I was really in need of. I had been saving a bit of money and now was the time or that money would fly out the window. Well the shirts I received are the ones you see above, and I nearly cried with happiness when I unwrapped them. (is that normal, to cry over tie dye shirts? when I don't really cry anyway? just wondering) Are they SO AMAZING!!!!!!

On with my little story. Over the years I have been asked over and over and over again where I get my tie dye shirts. No, I don't make them myself. No, it's not local. No, it's not even in the US! But it IS online, and it IS the best. And they have WAY more items of clothing than just tee shirts - WAY more! So get ready to bookmark this site - I'm pretty sure you'll love it, and no, I'm not joking around. So I'm going to take you on a tiny little tour of my tiny little closet, and then I will reveal my source. Then just like me, you too can wear tie dye shirts and get compliments from WalMart employees and teenage boys sitting on bus benches smoking cigarettes.  

Orange Mandala, Blue Swirl (I have it in purple too, but I hate purple), Rainbow Swirl

Vibrations, Rainbow Heart (*love*), Green Mandala

Shhhhh... a reverent moment of silence for The Holy Ones. They have earned our utmost respect.

These are they who have lasted at least 10 years - yes, really truly. Faded? Never! Marked with paint? Yes. 

Torn by rose bushes? Yes. Out of commission? Never! Relegated to nightshirt status? Yes.  

one of my fave things EVAH - my tie dye socks :)

OHHH!!! Is this not the most gorgeous tie dye Tapestry Art! Now I get to introduce you to... (drum roll please)...

❀ Wildflower Tie Dye ❀

They are the best of the best of the BEST! Created and run by Valerie Shane in beautiful British Columbia Canada Wildflower is the one and only place I ever purchase my tie dye products from - for about 10 years now!

It's true, that once you've found the best, you don't mess with the rest! Wildflower is a bit more costly, but their product is so much more superior, there is just no comparison. Quality fabrics, dyes that never run OR fade, products the entire family can wear or you can choose for gifts, and TONS of beautiful and fun design choices. Wildflower even offers custom orders - which I have also done - and Valerie has always gone above and beyond to make sure I am satisfied with everything she has ever made for me. I really enjoy supporting her business :)

So having made my little speech, here are just a very few samples I pulled from Wildflower's site. This will show you a small variety of what they have to offer. There are MANY items I'm not even showing here - and everything you do see here comes in more sizes, styles and colors! Hard to believe so much variety in tie dye - but it's true!

baby onesies - sooo cute :)

little girl/toddler dress - I know, I know... this was my very most favorite thing :)

woman's "Ocean" summer dress

black & white spiral tee - my next purchase for sure (it's so Tim Burton)

"Earth" tee - I don't know how Valerie does some of the scenes she does, but they are fantastic

Thanks for sticking around for all the eye candy! Give Wildflower Tie Dye a visit & join them on Facebook :)

have a hippy day

Just bringing you a little tie dye love to help you WAKE UP! the week of daylight savings... now that we've sprung ahead and lost an hour. By all the comments on Facebook it seems like everyone is having a rough time of it! Except you lucky people in Arizona who don't acknowledge it. Way to go Arizona! I'm not having a hard time this time around, but overall, I am NOT a fan of daylight savings. WHY can't we just let it go, for heaven's sake!?!?

This week is my photo/Photoshop week. Supposedly. I am working on a lot of projects regarding all my photographs, including trying to get them all organized in one place (yeah. I wasted my entire day yesterday doing it all wrong) to eventually make it easier to locate them. Then of course I need to enhance the ones I'm using for so-called professional purposes. And then comes my new Photoshop skills which my friend Brad taught me (read saved my skin) in order to do a special project I've been hired to do and I will announce soon. Fun :) Stress :/

And yes, these pics are from my own tie dye shirts. Those of you who know me well will recognize them immediately :) I probably have about 6 or 45 that I rotate frequently. I don't dye them myself - these ones are complicated and require actual skill. I get the vast majority of them from HERE. They are expensive but by far the best quality. Very cool designs too. Well my peeps, I hope all of you have an extremely GROOVY day today!

A Small But Meaningful Life - first post

Well, here I am. The first post ever on my blog. My blog? Weird. I can't believe I'm attempting to fake my way through this. I'm not young, hip, or cool. Actually that's not true - I am still cool. But definitely not young or hip. And I don't really know what to say of particular interest. But I love to write. LOVE IT. And I love to do crafty, creative things someone other than myself or my kid's friends might like at some point along the way. My life lately is feeling just a bit on the scattered side. This and that are all over the place. In between kids and friends and chores and errands and definitely hiding behind laundry. Paintings here, poetry there, photography still elsewhere. Dogs, drawings, ideas that keep me up at night. Projects constantly simmering. Mosaics still patiently waiting to be created. An Etsy store that MUST be created! And of course antiques all over the place. So I'm going to try to bring all these loose ends together here on my blog. A tall order, I know. But it might be a great thing - it could be a terrific thing.

I guess I need to introduce myself, considering this is my first post. Most of my friends still don't know what a blog even is, and the ones that do think it's mainly an exercise in narcissism. Fine. Nevertheless, I still need to establish my voice here. So because I have a headache and can't think of anything too creative, I'm going to rip off what I wrote about myself in my Facebook profile:

I'm the mom of 3 boys. There's a husband (of 26 years) in there somewhere too. I'm a bohemian. Color makes me happy. I'm so tie dye I need my own Ben & Jerry's flavor. I have more favorite scents than you would believe. I have a weakness for peace signs. I'm super creative. I will only use McDonald's straws. I don't know what I'd do without music. I love sunshine but I HATE the heat. I love food way too much. I read magazines backwards. I have 2 tattoos. Abused and abandoned animals make me cry. I love decorating but I hate excess. I'll do anything to avoid a public toilet. I am fun loving but I love to be by myself too. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. My speed record in my Bug is 120mph so far.

So that is pretty much me. Let me explain the "small but meaningful life" part of this post. Remember when Meg Ryan said that? In "You've Got Mail"? She was explaining her life to Tom Hanks via the internet. That description really struck me. Because no matter how small a life is, you still affect a lot of people, a lot of things. No matter how small it is, it can still be full of meaning and richness. I definitely have - and am blessed to have - a small but meaningful life.