Greetings everyone!  Its been a great week here with lots going on!

My first piece of news is:  I now have an Etsy store!  Yay!

While I was away in Peru this summer, I decided to bring back some of the lovely things I found abroad and make them available to a wider community.   Textiles, bags, unique scarves, a sweater, wantana wraps, pouches and even more to come. 

The mestana cloths and carry all bags are woven energy used to wrap medicine stones and other sacred items, to swaddle them so the energy can be focused and used. The Q’ero cloths are weaved with energy symbols, which in turn bring energy to the medicine stones. Traditionally used as birthing cloths for the babies, they then help us to birth ourselves along our Spirit path. Made of pure100% alpaca fiber. Hand woven by the Q’ero women in Chinchero outside of Cusco, these items radiate life with their bright colors and strong patterns of energy.  The colors are 100% natural plant dyes.  The whole process is done by hand in the ancient ways of the Inca.  Washing the wool, spinning it, dying it, and finally weaving. 

See a video Here

 All the items are handmade with the love and sweetness of the beautiful women of the High Andes. I will be adding things as I go, but I’m excited to finally have the store stocked.  Please stop by and have a look around!!  Your purchase of these fair trade textiles allows entire villages to maintain the life, culture and dignity of their ancestral homes.

AND IN THE STUDIO:

Vito and I are working on the “next” tune in the line up for the album, slated for release next Spring.  I came across THIS fun ‘demo’ version produced and arranged by the super talented Daniel Mengesha a couple years back.  Its a feel good, danceable vibe, harking back to my hood in Compton/Long Beach where I grew up.  Let me know what you think!  Meanwhile, I have been doing some major rewrites on it.  A “new” version will be forthcoming on the album. See a “Behind the Scenes” in the studio video HERE

….AND, – get this!  Next week, I am taking a one week writing sabbatical at a friend’s empty house in Atascadero (THANK YOU BRIAN HAYNES FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE!  AND MISS JANIE GRAVES FOR DONATING YOUR BEAUTIFUL HOME IN THE WOODS).  I have a lot of writing to accomplish for this album, and doing it between dinner and laundry isn’t working out so well LOL!  So, I will be totally ALONE for the first time in over 10 years for 5 whole days.  Writing and creating.  Wow!  What an amazing blessing.  Again, thank you, Brian, for making it possible.  

CLICK THE PIC AND TO GO TO MY STORE AND PURCHASE THIS GORGEOUS SCARF!