Stuff!!

People sent me stuff! I went to the PO box this morning and there it was. Thanks to Ashley from Washington State and Leta from Indiana. I’ll get the painting set up and get things started. Anyone else that has stuff, send it! I also got the Traveling Journal in the mail. I’ve been wondering when it would show up. I’m thinking hard about what I want to put in there. But I’ll get it off before too long. Thanks, Paige.

No One Cares What You Had for Lunch

Maggie wrote a great book. No One Cares What You Had for Lunch, 100 Ideas for Your Blog. But each one of those ideas has its own ideas and variations. So, it’s actually like 1 Million Ideas for Your Blog. (You can use that, Maggie.)

In chapter 4, Take Your Time, which, incidentally, has the darlingest, tiniest picture of a glass of wine and a burning cigarette next to the page numbers, idea number 63 is: Make Contact.

You miss real mail. The kind with a stamp placed on the corner of the envelope and your address scrawled out in human handwriting. Get a P.O. box and turn your readers into pen pals. You can send postcards, bookmarks, photos, and small tokens of affection. Agree on themes for swaps and post photos of the results on your blog.

It might be cheating to take this challenge since I already have a P.O. box, but I’m not going to let that stop me. For a long time I’ve wanted to do a painting that has contributions from all over. If you aren’t familiar with my paintings, you can view them here. You’ll see that I use a lot of found objects like leaves, seeds, papers and twigs but I could also be using things like buttons or string or any small bit of a thing you have around the house.

So, send me stuff! Maybe only what fits in an envelope. I don’t want anyone having to pay lots of shipping. Make sure to include your name and where you live so I can give you credit both in my blog and on the final painting. I’ll post periodic shots of the painting getting done here so you can all see it coming together. I’m so excited!!

Send stuff here:

Leahpeah
543 Country Club Dr #B 538
Simi Valley, CA 93065
Updated to add: this address no longer works. Please email me for the address.

Painting

I’m working on some paintings inspired by Southern Utah. I’ll post images in a week or so. In the meantime, here are two from last year that are still available. Kind of a set but fine by themselves.

Weekend in Food

Friday
Left a little later than we wanted. Dropped off a painting donation to The Museum School. The poor guy has to come back to get it since it’s now 7:30 pm. As he gets out of his truck, we realize he is our across-the-street neighbor from when we lived on 21st street 2 years ago. Odd moment. Cool. Late Dinner with Matt and Margot. Instead of our usual, Turf Supper Club, we went to BJ’s so we could get giant potatoes the size of footballs to share. Sleep with Sparky and Baxter, the two best dogs evah. Baxter licks my toes THROUGH my shoes. That is how doggie his tongue is. Good times.

Saturday
Matt made taco salad for brunch. He has a secret ingredient. Awesome! He also makes the best tuna melts on the face of the planet. Went to Vons to get fish and salad for the BBQ at Jenn‘s house. Bought sushi from the deli for a quick protein punch. Bad idea and did not eat due to bad fishy smell. Had a great time with some old friends and some new ones at the BBQ. Tried not to eat roommate’s dog, Chico. Hard because he is that cute. Party games make me feel dumb. I don’t like to dance for you. I am not your monkey. Or, I am a party-pooper. Or both. Everyone else is having a great time. What is wrong with me?

Sunday
Late brunch with Mickele. Yay! Looks great as always. Smells like lavender. Yumm. Eat a pancake with bananas and whole grain. Very good. No syrup. Go to BBQ at Greg’s home. House infested with reptiles. Oh, wait. Those are pets. Also, ferrets and Skeeter, the best dog evah. We talk about channeling and quantum physics and existentialism. Greg also has a kazzillion cameras in his collection and LENDS ME A ROLLEI for a few weeks!! I get reacquainted with how a film camera works. My brain fizzes. *Pop* We leave late because I can’t stop watching the ferrets trying to hide the toilet brush up under the cabinets. Susan and Doug wait and wait and wait and then finally start dinner at Aqua Blu without us. (They have no choice. It was about survival at that point. Either eat calamari or each other.) Funny story – Aqua Blu is not The Oceanaire. Still good, but not the same. Note to Self – next time, when you make reservations for you and some friends, you might want to make sure you are making them for THE RIGHT PLACE. After a great dinner with S&D, Joe and I drive home in 2.5 hours. Awesome. I sidestep a woman that tries to hit me up for money and a ride at the gas station. We see a huge, freeway closing accident on the south side of the freeway and are so glad we are not going that way. As an after thought, we feel bad for the people in the accident thereby proving we are good people and only 78% dead inside.

Ask Leahpeah

Hello Leah Peah,

I don’t get your new headline picture. I liked the other ones that I have seen. I liked the one with the trees. And the one with the hands. But this one? It looks like a calculator. What happened to telling everyone you are Leah the Peah?

A faithful Readher,

Shane

Dear Shane,

Well, I can see why you would be confused. It does look like a calculator. But, can I tell you what it really is? It’s a calculator. I KNOW! Can you believe it?

If you are a geek, and I’m guessing by the way you said ‘calculator’ that you aren’t one (because all of us geeks LOOOOOOOOVE to say calculator and pronounce it Cal-Cue-Lay-T-Her) you would have recognized that Leahpeah was spelled on the display, but upside down. My friends and I in 7th grade Lov-Huv-Huvved to spell words to each other during math on our calculators. Words like 7734 and 5318008 and 0.8537. (not that there’s anything wrong with that). You’re right, there’s not really a number to represent the letter P but I improvised with the number 5, since back in the day, we didn’t have the possibility of just adding in a P on a whim. Not like they do today with their leetspeak. We did it Old School, baby! And the dirtier the words, the better. But, although I appreciate the vote of confidence that goes along with a new title, I can’t say I’m comfortable with a ‘the’ in the middle of my name. And really, what is a the Peah, anyway?

Thanks for reading. Thanks for caring.
xo

Robin's Eyeballs

Robin came over yesterday with a mutual friend, Jane, who also happens to be one of our clients. While Joe talked shop with Jane, Robin and I recapped the past year for each other. I haven’t seen her in quite some time and I’ve missed her.

Whenever Robin and I get together, we do something crafty. (Yes, Heather, we do. And it’s never involved pom-poms or googly eyes. Next time you and I get together, I’m bringing clay and glass eyes and we are going to make heads!!) I’ve been too busy to think about anything remotely creative so I wasn’t even thinking about it. But she came prepared to do a little crafting and what did she pull out of her bag? Heads.

Robin_art_doll_head1

And eyeballs.

robin_eyes_bouquet3

She’s currently crafting Art Dolls, which is something I’ve never even heard of but am now a little compelled by. (Some of the dolls I found online are slightly disturbing.) Look at the detail in the teeth and lips of this one she’s making! Robin makes wonderful things and hauntingly beautiful art. She made the cover for my book. Soon she’ll have an online space that showcases all her artwork and you will pretty much die from how beautiful it is.

Robin is truly one of the most wonderful people that I have the pleasure of knowing.

robin

Here is one of her paintings from a year ago or so.

Ask Leahpeah

Hi Leahpeah,

I just got done reading your book. Thank you so much for sharing your life with me and everyone in the entire world. There are lots of people like me that are so happy to have someone talk about it. I’m going to take it into my next group meeting and share it with everyone. I looked through the art therapy paintings you have on your website and wondered why you didn’t include those in the book? And I wondered if you ever did any paintings or drawings about getting integrated. I mean, about the actually ‘getting integrated’ part. Because I’m thinking about doing it. And I’m not so scared about it anymore.

Silent Night Owl

Dear Silent Night Owl,

Thank you so much for reading and thank you for letting me know that you liked it. It means a lot to me.

I did do a painting about the actual integration process.

integration

You might recognize the description of the rivulets going together into one large area from reading about it in the book. At some point in the near future I’m going to put descriptions with all the art therapy paintings so they make more sense.

I wanted a way to put the paintings in the book but it was just too expensive. Maybe if the book gets picked up by a publisher they can figure out a way to include them but in the meantime, I hope this will do.

Best of everything to you,

leahpeah