Recently, this adorable fairy house appeared on my morning route. I saw it tucked away in a tree overlooking the bay. It was clearly constructed with great imagination, care, and love. I especially appreciate the popsicle stick grate thoughtfully placed on the carved out window on the up cycled kleenex box. It boasts a charming full bedroom suite complete with bedding and a leaf chair.

So grateful for the being that created this and lovingly placed it here so the fairies could be super comfy and enjoy the view.

I have always been a big fan of parades, and the more "small town creative" the better in my book. The annual Christmas parade in my new world of Los Osos, California, was themed "Christmas Under Construction" this year and made light of a current nuisance we are experiencing, our little slice of coastal heaven is undergoing some serious street surgery for sewer installation, and the construction is creating a bit of chaos everywhere. It seems we have embraced the inconvenience and are celebrating our progress towards completion soon.

I was pretty inspired by the creative use of standard everyday construction icons throughout the parade and thought these two were quite something. Who knew a horse could be turned into a unicorn by a strategically placed traffic cone and another horse decked out in full parade regalia fashioned out of construction vests and dazzling with a construction tape tail bow?

Grateful to be part of a creative community with a well placed sense of humor and a new twist on a holiday parade.

One of my favorite things about Oregon is the surprise and delight found in little doses everywhere. I have seen several varieties of bike racks covered in crocheted granny squares, artisan-upholstered bus stops, and many other cool examples of creative expression in unusual places.

This is the most inspiring and original so far: the Japanese maple in the heart "sweater" to protect it from the cold Oregon winter, with its fancy matching slipcovered planter and trashcan, and its neighbor tree decked out in rainbow stripes.

You have to have to stop and appreciate the tremendous effort, the TLC and the soul it took to do this, grateful for the anonymous knitter for the sweet surprise and perfect sense of humor ... after all every tree deserves a heart "sweater"”

One of my favorite things about Europe is the thought provoking street art found all over the continent. I particularly love this series, which I found in several spots in Amsterdam recently. It seems the artist was enticing the casual passerby to pay attention and follow the trail. Grateful for the creative and thoughtful effort and, as always, the message.

mom

I just returned from a sort of retreat where we were asked to identify our core values, strengths, etc., and my "aha” moment was that creativity has been a consistent thread in all areas and stages of my life.

I was encouraged from an early age to be a creative free spirit by both my parents, and I was a daily witness to the joys of creative bliss from my mom.

The evolution and cycles of her creative exploration and mastery range from a pottery studio in our garage where she taught and whipped out an endless array of dishes, vases and slab art to making three guitars from scratch and then learning to play them. When mom was studying interior design, our dining room table became the hub of the house as she built impeccable 3D scale models of houses and assorted other things.

I always had the best, most perfectly detailed dioramas for my book reports, and the book "Free to be You and Me” was my childhood manual, and I still value and appreciate the lesson and philosophy today.

I am sure I don't tell you enough. Mom, I love you, and I appreciate and am so grateful for the gift of creativity and inspiration you have blessed me with—much more than you will ever know.

Happy Mothers day