I’m sure you’ve seen all the posts everywhere that say love yourself, take care of yourself, and on and on –
We love waving to each other! © LYON 2025
Well, what does loving ourselves, taking care of ourselves, even look like?
Is it fun? Serious? Drudgery? Happy? Silly?
Does it mean gardening? Swimming? Drawing? Waving to friends? Going on adventures? Staying home and being a recluse?
When I moved to my new place a couple months ago, I noticed a feathery young plant sprouting from one of the pots on my doorstep.
Watching the life cycles of plants – © LYON 2025
I haven’t had time to take care of it more than watering it every few days, so I’ve been surprised at how it has thrived, despite my inattention – it’s now almost six feet tall!
It has several whitish umbral flowers that makes it look like many other wild plants, but what interests me is how the umbrals change, day to day.
What are we waiting for? I’ll get the blanket and the food basket, you get the drinks, and I’ll meet you out under the tree!
Come join me! – © LYON 2025
It’s a lovely day, not too hot, not too chilly – just right to sit around and nosh on our favorite sandwiches (and chocolates!), and climb trees and pick flowers and play with the birdies.
Don’t you wish sometimes that your hands could transmit light, healing, and well-being to anything you pointed to or touched?
Light and Healing zapping hands – © LYON 2025
I would see people who are suffering, and I would lay my hands gently on their shoulders as I stand next to them, so all their heavy cares would float away, and they could live an optimized life from then on.
I would go around hugging trees and holding hands with plants, and transmit love and healing to all the plants and bugs and bees and birdies that live on them, and dissolve the chemicals that kill them so they would be safe and happy from then on.
I was asked how I do my drawings. I’ll show you a part of the process – some of it I keep proprietary because I don’t want every Dom, Hick and Tarry copying it. This gold-on-black drawing is the end result of a long series of alterations:
In the first images, below, you can see I used a quadrant setup – where there are four iterations of an image pivoting around a central point.
This is the initial sketch for the energy of the piece. Can you find the singer, the flute player, the cat, the howling wolf, and the pianist? They will become more obvious soon!
One of my friends is experiencing hair loss, so I was doofing around tonight in my herbal remedy book, and came across the following info on Evening Primrose.
Evening Primrose has many uses – © LYON 2025
Which, besides being a really pretty plant, has a gajillion uses – from helping with arthritis to psoriasis, inflammation and menopause! I hope it helps you in one way or another!
The chapter about Evening Primrose in The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies has way more about this helpful plant than my little list here, so you’d be smart to check out the book itself (link is to its amazon page).
Here are some of the things Evening Primrose helps with:
I’m including below a few things dandylions do for us. It makes me sad so many people rip them out of the ground, and spray and poison the soil with chemicals.
Don’t pull out your Dandylions!
Maybe you don’t know this – dandies only come up in soil that needs nutrients. Their very presence means the soil where they are growing is sick and needs help!
I’ve seen it here – people in this area walk their dogs on the grass – they pee and poop, and the grass dies. Next thing I see is dandies sprouting up all over the place!
I love springtime! Everything is so fresh, so green, so full of blooming life. And the mosquitos and other annoying bugs aren’t out yet, so I can sit on my doorstep and enjoy the blossoms and scents without getting eaten alive.
It’s spring! Birdies & bugs and two-lipped tulips!
I’m careful about which bugs are good for the garden, and which ones to squish. Even some of the squishable ones can be considered good, since they attract other critters that eat them, and the birdies I love to watch.
A gal I see on facebook posts multiple times a day about the harm lawns do. Harm? Lawns? Yep. They are essentially dead spaces, chock full of the chemical and solutions people spray to keep weeds down and grass greener.
I wasn’t planning anything of any great importance when I set out to draw this one. It took me by surprise! All I wanted to do was see if I could draw something using steps as a foundational theme.
The natural path of Evolution and Destiny
So I drew a simple set of steps, played around with stripes and angles … and all of a sudden, all these silly people came crawling out of my pen!
The top ones appeared first, and I thought, ooohh, look! I wonder what they’re celebrating! The sun was out, and hundreds of birdies flew all around!
I had a dream this morning where all these funny looking folks were out playing in the trees. They were climbing and swinging and diving and flying and just being loud and laughy and silly, being naughty and having way too much fun.
Playing in the Forest with my buddies – © LYON 2025
Why can’t we do that, too – and way more often? We take life so seriously! We focus on making a living, instead of Living our Making.
Of course, if we did that, then people would have to know what their soul’s deepest calling was, so they could be aligned with their Making. I think most people don’t know.
I have always liked the feathery leaves of fennel. I’ve painted it a few times, and was never really satisfied with the results. But drawing it this way gives me a look I really like.
Feathery Fennel
I think this image would be great to add to a quilt. I wonder if there are people who make quilts that are based on herbs or healing plants.
This drawing is less refined than my other drawings. I like how wobbly the lines are, and how the blue under-drawing shows through.
I did an experiment back in the mid-80s. I decided to go on walkabout – or, since I’d be living in my truck, I called it truckabout.
Carving again! Oh my blessed heart!
Because for years, I had had this niggling feeling in the back of my mind that art was only a habit I’d gotten into because when I was a kid, my ma set me down in the corner with paper, pencils and crayons to keep me out of the way.
I had been living in Hawaii. When I turned 40, all of a sudden I was aching to know the truth of it. So I made a vow not to make any art unless I felt from my core that making art was really and truly ‘mine.’
I decided to go on walkabout – or, since I’d be living in my truck, I called it truckabout. I gave up my house, packed the bare minimum of what I needed, and shipped my truck to California.
A long time ago, I had a friend who had two kitties who loved each other.
We love each other!
She found them soaking wet and freezing in a turned-over garbage bin in back of a store she worked at. She took them home and nurtured them back to health.
These cats ate, slept, went for walks with their human, and did everything together. So sweet. You know how cats get the zoomies? You should have seen them – it was hilarious!
They’re still at it, but now the leaves look like they’re tired.
Little lacey leaves
The leaves, drooping now, look like little boats trying to drain themselves of excess water. The holes are still on the edges – no bites on the surfaces of the leaves.
And fat happy cattypillars, sidling along the edges.
I told you about the way the cattypillars are munching pretty little round holes in the sides of the Red Bud tree leaves, starting at the edges and moving in towards the center.
Munching in from the sides – © LYON 2025
I have been amazed that that hasn’t changed. I fully expected them to start wandering all over the leaf surfaces, leaving little round chewy holes all over the entire leaf.
But nope! They continue to wend their way to the middle of the leaves by only eating the edges! And they don’t even come near the veins!
This remains a mystery!
They’re eating all around the edges! – © LYON 2025
You know how yesterday I said there are cattypillars chewing pretty little round holes in some of my Red Bud tree leaves?
I noticed something intriguing about them this morning: they only eat around the edges – like a little kid eating the crusts off his sandwich before he dives into the juicy rich middle goodies!
Sun + leaves = glory and delight!
Who is eating my Red Bud tree?
There are two times each day when the sun filters through the leaves of my Red Bud tree, lighting it up like stained glass. I never get tired of seeing it. The way the leaves shimmer in the slight whiff of breeze, and how the lighter parts of the leaves glow softly.
Today I noticed cattypillars chewing pretty little round holes in some of the leaves. What nerve they have, eating my tree!
It’s hard for me to to believe, but it’s been almost seven years since I left my home in Hawaii. I miss it terribly. Hawaii is my Heart Home.
Orchids and Palms
It’s taken me forever to get over the shock and trauma that happened right before I left — I still haven’t told the story yet, it upsets me so much. I will, I promise.
Being in my garden is always a special treat – even though it’s there, every day, every day, sometimes I forget. Weird, no? How could I???
Weavings in the Garden – © LYON 2025
When I wander in the garden, sweet energies weave and whisp throughout the invisible tapestry of energy of flower, bees, bush and bugs – the elusive suffusive scent of joy saturates every atom of color and green – and even me.
Arnica promotes healing; is antimicrobial and antiseptic.
Arnica Heartleaf in Reds & Blues – repeat pattern. © LYON 2025
I’ve used Arnica for years – both in salve and homeopathic forms. It works great, especially for some forms of artritis (which I like to call arth-wrong-iss) and carpel tunnel.
Except it doesn’t seem to work for a deep pain in my hip that no one can quite figure out why it hurts, as there is no deterioration of the bone itself. Ah well.
Stumbling around, feeling like I’m being stabbed with every move of that leg is the least of life’s problems right now. Such a tumultuous time – I wish I could slather thick layers of Arnica all over the planet and make it Better.
In any case, here’s what my handy-dandy healing plant book says about it, in case you’re curious:
I’m entranced by this design – sometimes my designs captivate me, and this one certainly does. I enlarged it on my screen, and can hardly look away from it.
You may not know this, but I set the intention a long, long time ago that any of my art is to radiate Good, Health and Wholeness, Joy, and Peace.
There is something about this design in particular that makes me take a deep breath and feel Full, somehow. My eyes seem to eat it up.
HEALING PROPERTIES
This plant used to grow out near our barn. I never knew it had so many good properties!
Three goodies for you today!
I have so many designs just sitting in little folders on my desktop, each one begging me to let it come to the light and be seen! So today you get not one, not two, but three!
Bearie Dance
Sometimes ya just hafta relax. Or dance. Or sit by the river and chomp down on your favorite trout dinner, cooked over the campfire. Surrounded with your dearest buddies.
My Forest Buddies
Raccoons Love Fishies
I’ll take it – all of it. Life has been too stressful lately, and I’m thinking of getting horizontal in a minute or two. I’m too young for all this.
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All designs © Angela Treat Lyon 2024
See hundreds more here:
https://www.instagram.com/angela.treat.lyon/
I fully believe that no matter the intensity and depth of the swamp and the mire and the mud and the insanity that we are going through – and probably will go through a lot more of in the coming days – even so, sanity will rise and prevail.
Bring the Light – © LYON 2024
I feel if I don’t have the faith and trust in that, I might as well give up and go dig a hole and crawl in and die. I refuse to do that. I can not, actually – it isn’t within me to give up. Ever. Even when life seems impossible.
I believe that we as artists need to hold the Vision for what is true and just. And even within the suffering, the pain and disillusions, we must hold onto and talk about and make art of and display our own movement within our visions of peace and real prosperity of Spirit and Wholeness.
As you know, I’ve been recovering from a two-month ordeal of having been environmentally poisoned.
Roses for You © LYON 2025
Doing the requisite rest everyone tells me to do drives me crazy – seems like it makes the healing take longer than I’d like.
I know, I know, don’t push the damn river! So yesterday I thought I’d give myself some playtime as I made myself sit down and rest.
This is why I haven’t written since January.
Sick and tuckered out. © Lyon ‘22
I was physically and mentally incapable of writing at all. For two months.
I awoke on Christmas Day to the stench of something dead in my house. Within an hour, I was so nauseated I felt like I had to vomit. Add a dizzy-migraine on top, and I just climbed back into bed, pulling the sheets over my head. It was one of the very worst Christmas Days I’ve ever been through.
What if you could top chewing on your pain? It’s tiring, boring, and it’s just spiraling you deep into exhaustion.
– Vitality –
Right now you’re probably stuck in a closed mental/emotional loop that goes nowhere, and makes you feel bad, badder, and baddest.
You play your woe-is-me scenario over and over in your mind, like gnawing on a persistent hangnail.
You post images on social media of places you used to live that you had to leave.
Or people you used to love.
Or you complain about things that happened in your work.
But you forget that in those places, you were treated badly or almost lost everything.
Or maybe you did lose everything.
I want to share this with you right quick – I just ordered one of these magnificent rugs for myself!!! I rarely get to keep my own pieces, so I’m excited!
The top image shows a rug made for a bathroom. No tassels, but non-skid bottom, and soft and cushy to walk on!
Above is the one I ordered – it’s tasseled, 59″x24″ – I can’t wait to have it right smack dab in the middle of my house in the hallway – I’ll get to oogle it and drool over how pretty it is every time I walk to the kitchen, or back to my studio!
Want one, too? Let me know – my site sassybeargoodies.com is where you can find some of the new products – it’s near finished!
FOXY-LOXY GARDEN TASSELED RUG
© Angela Treat Lyon 2024
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Over the past few weeks, I have found myself glued to my screen, watching tiktok and FB reels. I come into my studio with a long list of things to do – and every single one of those items promptly slides right on out of my head.
Generosity
Instead of Doing what I Oughta Do, I spend 900 million hours sitting here watching these things. At one point last week, my inner critic was silently berating me harshly for ‘wasting time.’
But in truth, when I looked closer, I was in actuality learning a lot – about the happenings in the world, about how people act under pressure, in love, when they are hungry, at home, in school, or in business.
You do! I value YOU, and every one of the people who show up, view, appreciate and buy my work, make comments, send support dollars – it means the world to me!
I wish you a very happy after-Christmas/holiday-in-between week, and an amazing, incredible, productive, take-care-of-you, fun, loving new year! You’re just the best!
Stay tuned for some new adventures – I’ll be releasing new art and products very soon!
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You Light Up My Life
© Angela Treat Lyon 2024
https://www.instagram.com/angela.treat.lyon/
I had a dream tonight that woke me up and made me come running here into my studio to sit down and write it out.
Stormy Seas
In my dream, all of my light-filled friends and allies in the entire world got together and sent wave after wave of pure love to all the people in thrall to the dark, and all the demons, devils and creatures of the dark forces.
