31 Thursday May 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
That’s what’s keeping me busy the past week or so. The event is Friday night. 85 people, 7 different Southern Desserts, over 500 individual mini servings. I’ll post when I can after the event. But I want you, my dear readers, to know that I haven’t abandoned you. I’ll be back and I will have photographs.
22 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in gardening, Inspirational, nature
Sometimes we are where nobody else has ever been.
Sometimes the view is unexpected and we don’t have anyone to tell us what to do or how to do it.
Sometimes we don’t know how to put down roots.
Sometimes we are making completely new paths that have never been trodden before.
Sometimes we make paths that no one will ever follow. And it’s just a path for us.
And sometimes we’re scared.
But growth doesn’t stop. For now, grow where you are planted.
Grow where you are planted.
21 Monday May 2012
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I babysat my granddaughter yesterday and we made Flower Fairies from Klutz Books. After making the first one, she wanted a Rapunzel, with long braided hair. Of course I had to rummage around in my bead collection to find the perfect tiny flower beads to braid into Rapunzel’s hair. I was not able to finish making it before she went home so Rapunzel spent the night at my house, perched on a bouquet of flowers.
Rapunzel lets down her hair from a bouquet of flowers.
Rapunzel lets down her hair from the bird feeder.
19 Saturday May 2012
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We celebrated the fourth birthday of my precious granddaughter today. There are more photos but I just had to post a few to commemorate the wonderful day.
We were busy watching her blow out the candles so none of us noticed her hand daintily holding her dress until we saw this photo.
She nibbled bites from the side of her sweet little cake.
Of course we must blow bubbles.
I adore her little cake with all the bites taken out of it!
Happiness wears curly pig tails.
17 Thursday May 2012
The first year there were no figs. Last year there was barely one spoonful of tiny figs. But this year, after a mild winter and plenty of cool, spring rain, there are figs!
We do not know what kind of fig tree this is. The figs are plump and healthy. And within the reach of any hungry deer… which I am praying does not happen!
We don’t know what species this fig tree is either but it’s much taller than the other one. We will need a ladder to pick the figs when they are ripe.
“A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. “And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’
“And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”
From Luke 13:6-9
11 Friday May 2012
Posted in art, Inspirational, mixed media, projects, words
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I’m taking an online class, Soul Restoration 2, by Brave Girls. One of the projects is making a vision board using words cut from magazines. I snipped away at the pages until the table was littered with word confetti. As I cut, I got a panicky feeling that I might not find all the words that represented me. My magazine stock was very limited and I worried about finding enough words. The stack grew much bigger than the canvas could possibly hold but I kept snipping away, feeling as though my entire life needed to be fully represented or my perfection-driven soul wouldn’t feel complete.
I paused, scissors in hand, and looked at the pile stretched across the table. There, in a little cleared spot, was U R Going 2 B OK. Nearby were 2 others – Life Matters and Good Enough. A huge wave of relief washed over me. It was OK!
It is OK to be someone that people don’t understand. It is OK to have big ideas and not be able to put them into words. It is OK to try to do your best and still stop right in the middle to smell roses.
I have this photo as my desktop today. Please feel free to save the image for your own use.
U R Going 2 B OK. Word Confetti. Please click photo to see the larger image.
10 Thursday May 2012
Posted in flowers, Inspirational
I do not have an easy life. Thoughts tumbled in my mind, trying to find reasons for others’ actions. I finally had to let go of the jumbled mass of thought because there was no resolution. I looked out the kitchen window and saw roses. It was the New Dawn come to visit, knocking at my window! I opened the kitchen window and the roses rushed in, laying their furled velvet skirts on my window sill.
“I know where you live” was the gentle thought that entered my mind. “I know where you are. I know what imprisons you. I have not forgotten.”
The roses had grown over 30 feet to reach my kitchen window from the ground below.
I leaned over the kitchen sink and smelled the rose. The delicious fragrance filled my senses and I knew everything would be ok. Maybe not today but there is always hope for tomorrow.
New Dawn and Blush Noisette rose bouquet.
04 Friday May 2012
Posted in altered books, art, painting
Welcome and greetings if you are following the Art of Wild Abandonment Bloghop! You probably arrived here from the amazing blog of Paty Shaulis. Her artwork is exquisite!
If you didn’t start at the beginning of the bloghop, you can join in the fun by visiting http://clairesmillie.wordpress.com/ and learning all about it.
Make sure you scroll to the bottom of my blog post to get the link for the next hop on the bloghop!
I and hundreds of others recently finished the e-course, The Art of Wild Abandonment, taught by Junelle Hallstrom Jacobsen and Christy Thomlinson. The projects were crazy and colorful and we learned all sorts of new ways to get our hands messy and express our wild creativity.
In addition to learning how to draw radishes and owls and sheep, altering a purse with paint and turning a roofing brush into an art brush holder, we painted wood blocks! Here is my version of the wood block project – Bloom!
It started with a couple wood blocks my dear husband cut for me.
Supplies gathered to decorate the blocks – my sketches, paints, modeling paste, ink pad, oil paint stick, wood blocks and, not in this photo, a flower and a coffee bean.
Once I got the blocks painted, the rest followed quickly.
I decided to make a 3 tiered cake with swags of thick sweet icing around the side. The word I chose for the top was Bloom. It’s the perfect word to describe what happened to so many members of the class. We all bloomed!
A view from the top of that sugary cake.
But wait, what is this on the bottom of the blocks? Another design?
A view from the top of the blocks flipped over. But then what happened to those sweet swags of white frosting?
Is that… a sheep? 0_0
More sheep!
And a sheep on top!
It’s a whole hill of sheep! Bloom Hill, covered with sheep!
But let’s check out that cake again. The sheep are upside down. And what is that under the rose on top?
The sheep’s hooves!
To make the hoof prints, I glued a coffee bean to an eraser and used it like a rubber stamp.
Eat cake! Draw sheep! Bloom!
Have fun hopping to the next post about The Art of Wild Abandonment on the wonderful blog of Janet Terrien Bracewell. I love her art journal!
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. :)
A huge thank you to Junelle and Christy for teaching the Art of Wild Abandonment. It was a really fun e-course!
And Thank You to Clairesmillie for coordinating this bloghop!
One last pic – my owls.
01 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in art, Inspirational, mixed media, painting, projects
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Mixed media - No matter how far she roamed, her heart was never far from home. Click photo to see a larger image.
This canvas took weeks because I was discouraged so many times.
It started with a handful of disjointed pieces, cut and torn. Bits from a vintage vinyl wallpaper book, a scan of a page my mom colored when she was a young girl in 1941, my sister's beautiful calligraphy printed on tissue paper.
The last thing I added was painting light in the dark door.
