Lil' Treasures

http://spoonfulzine.com/

I'm BIG on believing in being positive and looking at the good things that life bestows us, and really...it doesn't take much except maybe a little pause now and again to stop and take in ALL that blesses our lives! So you can imagine that when i stumbled upon this GORGEOUS little "happiness companion" called "spoonful" it was devoured and relished cover to cover! The idea is its a bite-sized morsel of happiness which can be finished by the time you hop off the bus. A little reminder of some of the good things in life, a collaboration of poems,stories,anecdotes, art and images....my only wish is that it came as newspaper size, and replaced all the current circulating fodder!! And while I'm on the topic...one day I also dream that the tv news will feature only amazing stories of joy, love,good fortune, looking perfect just the way we are etc etc.....then I would DEFINITELY watch it!!

How likely do you think that is??:)

Anyhoos, this little joyful spoonful spurred me on to putting my "JOY journals" out there into the world! I've had them sitting collecting dust for a LONG time which is really NO place for a JOY journal to be! I've stuck 2 of them on my etsy shop for just now...

And while I continue on all things good and joyful, I just wanted to share these delightful smiley girls I received the other day from http://www.etsy.com/shop/creativeproducts. Aren't they adorable :)

So what brings you that little bit of happiness?? XX

Ocean Green- "to the sea"

Well, can I just say it's VERY nice to return to creating after a weekend of sick children, and not feeling so great myself! But with a small window for being creative I had to grab it with both hands (and a paintbrush!)...and so the reason I am unabashedly early and organised (which if you know me is not like me at all!)

So this weeks Colour challenge is Ocean Green with the twist of "to the sea" theme too....

First instincts were immediately drawn to the sea turtle which Louise Gale posted..we have this beautiful little kids book, probably as old as me, called "the smallest turtle". We all know it as "to the sea, to the sea" because that is the song that he hears whispering and urging him on past all the perils...so it was the obvious answer....

However, I went with the next obvious one instead!..for me anyway..as being a midwife and mumma I'm never too far away from the connection with water and where we all came from.

I have spent many a day on the beach feeling my soul cleansed and refreshed, burdens lifted as i watched the waves roll in and drift away, imagining myself floating weightlessly in its womb. (it is Scotland remember...subzero temperatures almost all year so I'm doing well imagining !!) and often wondered if my affinity with the sea came from my origins in water?

This curiosity goes further when having a waterbirth with my youngest girl....with her gentle transition from womb to water, such a tranquil entrance to the world...i wonder if this connection will be even stronger in her? She is certainly never happier than when fully submerged in water...clothes on or not!! :)

I wonder if any of you feel the same? Does the sea or ANY kind of water speak to you?!

Anyhoos, that is inspiration behind this weeks piece...I hope you like it!

I've added on the last pages of the "Smallest Turtle" by Lynley Dodd, so sweet!

New things

I've been trying to free up my creative anal retentiveness! My mum swears blind I'm a control freak/perfectionist. I say i just know what I'm trying to create and that i have to keep going till I'm done! I do however usually have to have the finished image of what i want to make/paint/create in my mind before i start. This is so I know where I am going and therefore i guess ="perfect" results...ok mum so maybe there is a hint of truth :)

Either way because of this all the wee snippets of inspiration and flurries of ideas often get left behind because an end idea can't be visualised....this is what I'm working on!

I have started these funny little "journal pages" inspired by the amazing Teesha Moore (click on her name on sidebar and it'll take you to her website) She creates the most amazing works of art from her journal pages, each page is just brimming with colour and random images all pieced beautifully together. I can't say I have followed in her footsteps, but the best bit for me is just letting go!...Beginning something without the end in sight...just going along to where I am being taken and having a HUGE ammount of fun along the way!

If you click onto Teesha Moore's journal pages there is another link that will take you to a step by step process and of how she goes about it...go on..try for yourself :)

Step with me into the turquoise sea

Front and back cover of "Step with me into the turquoise Sea"

Open up and step into the waves!!

So here I am again with this weeks Colour Challenge - Turquoise ...my first thoughts being wooohooo! I loooove that colour! (my wardrobe would probably confirm this!) There is something so nurturing about that colour, uplifting and enveloping...

Naturally I'll not be alone when i say it makes me think of the sea..the kind that you bathe in when on holiday and travelling in sunny climes (though I CAN actually confirm I've witnessed the most turquoise of seas at the most northerly spot of Scotland! ) So...it'll not take a genius to make the connection when you see my piece for this week.

Yep, I've gone for a book again, flag book stylee this week. I've been fancying making a flag book with a wood/tree/green effect but the colour turquoise has taken me on a detour to trying waves first.

On reflection I would have liked the waves to vary in size rather than all being the same, and the writing is pants, but I've reached that stage of scunneredness that I'm leaving it at that! However I'm delighted that I got to use some netting and scraps that i have hoarded away since making fairy dresses MANY moons ago!...it pays to be a squirrel for sure :0)

Other than the colour challenge what else is making me smile right now...

*My eldest daughter got a new goldfish which she informs me has been named "Cheeser Pip Jimminy Billy Bob Junior"

*My 2 year old currently has nothing on but wellies and an umbrella and is running in and out of the house into the rain

:0)

Raspberry Red

This weeks colour challenge is Raspberry Red which immediately brings Prince's "Raspberry Beret" to mind...brilliant song! So it seemed fitting to use my found treasure from the beach- a tattered old lid. (Prince's "beret looks like it comes from the second hand store....can you see the connection?!!)

I did struggle this week for inspiration even once my starting object was found...but this accordion book kind of metamorphosized as I went step by step with what I felt the urge to do! Surprisingly enough I ended up using water colours over a glaze sakuri pen, which i have never experimented with before but always fancied. Water colours are my least favourite medium probably because I have no idea how to use them and therefore they scare me! So I give a pat on my back for trying something new out and a thanks to this Creative Colour Challenge for not only urging me to create when i don't feel inspired but for facilitating the use of new things/techniques/experiments!

ps. check out http://www.flickr.com/groups/creativecolorchallenge/pool/

for other raspberry creations X

Dance to the beat of the drum

"Dance to the beat of the drum"can be used as a metaphor for a lot of things..to describe my journey as i listen to my creative heart beating and leading the way, taking me on a merry dance. That I'm following my own rhythm, listening to my own beat, dancing my own dance.

However, last night I was quite literally dancing to the beat of the drum and WHAT A FEELING!

I forget just how much the African drum talks to my soul but when that skin touches the skin of the drum...I'm OFF! soaring high! :0)

We "gatecrashed" this wonderful little festival that takes part once a year, nestled in the Glens, a stone throw from the town that we live in. (mum and dad are involved in organising it so not quite gatecrashing) Every year about 150 people from all over Britain come to take part in african drumming and dance workshops (and more) lead by teachers from Senegal, The Gambia and Zimbabwe (amongst others). I just LOVE this whole experience, the merging of cultures; the bagpipe meets the african drum! And this all happens amidst sheep, heather and midges galore. I imagine initially the locals were a bit perplexed but 7 years on I guess they'll be well used to the echo of the drums!

So, my weekends revelry has certainly reminded me to keep following the beat of my own drum and more importantly not to wait a full year before I'm dancing to the real live beat of the african drum because i truly love it so :0)

For a better insight into the "Drum village" check out www.africandrumvillage.com (sorry you can't click straight into website...computer skills still pretty poor!) Above photos are borrowed from beingfreescotland.blogspot.com....i forgot my camera. Doh!

Yellow Buddha

I was delighted to discover that yellow has the highest symbolic value in Buddhism as I've been

yearning to draw/paint Buddha for a long while and yellow being this weeks "Colour Challenge".... well too good an opportunity to miss! I've always been drawn to the image of the buddha and have various pictures of him dotted about my home. I'm not religious (spiritual..YES!very!) but if I HAD to choose a religion it would definitely centre around Buddhism and its wisdom. (and a wee bit of paganism for good measure!)I do love the humility and peaceful nature of it, and the renouncing of material goods...that speaks true to me too. I've never been happier than when I lived in my wee caravan next to the Irish sea with candles for light, peat blocks for warmth, book for company and my worldly possessions fitting into a backpack . Now,? Well... now i sit with computer on my lap, toys scattered around me, washing getting tossed around in the machine....! And could I go back to that simple life in the caravan?...in a flash ..well so long as I could take the laptop!! (and washing machine and sewing machine and, and....) :0)

My mum brought a lovely bookmark back from her trip to India and it had a quote from the Dalai Lama which I thought VERY poignant..so while we're on the Buddhism theme I shall share:

The Paradox of our Age

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

More conveniences but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sense;

More knowledge, but less judgements;

More experts, but more problems,

More medicines, but less healthiness.

We've been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.

We build more computers to hold more information,

to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication.

We have become long on quantity but less on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall man but short character;

Steep profits, but shallow relationships.

It is a time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room.

XIV Dalai Lama

Definitely worth a ponder!

Anyhoos, I really enjoyed the colour challenge this week and the tangents it has taken me on! Unfortunately you can't see the sewing detail so much from the photo and the colour has come out a bit more orangey than reality...but you get the gist and i promise only yellow was used!

Just as an afterthought ........ i truly don't mean to offend anyone or cause disrespect by doing this painting of the Buddha. It was done with good intentions and that is what I hope is felt.