It was a nice visit home with T last night. We had a good morning this morning as well. My son, my grandsons and my grand-dog were in town and came to visit. If I hadn't been home, I would have missed them. It was a joy to see them all for a couple of hours. They live about 4 hours away and I don't see them very often, as much as I'd like to.
I got back to my aunt' s at around 5 pm, in time to get supper. My BFF helped me, and said that she is up for the respite caregiver's job. They got on well last night and she feels comfortble doing it three nights a month for now. Wuhoo!
I got four new books in the mail from Chapters while I was gone: Journal Fodder 365 - Daily Doses of Inspiration for the Art Addict by Eric Scott & David Modler; Zenspirations - Dangle Designs by Joanne Fink; Zentangle 2 by Suzanne McNeill and Zentangle 7 by Suzanne McNeill. I was so excited to get them, I couldn't wait to look them over. They all look great, particularly the Journal Fodder book. I've been skimming through it this evening, and there are tons of journaling prompts and suggestions for both writing and art. I think I'm going to love it!
Gotta start putting photos in iCloud or somewhere out there so I can add them to my posts from my iPad. Using it for posts is much more convenient.
Looking forward to Effy's Moonshine journal binding video. Sweet dreams!
Friday, 2 August 2013
Blog Along With Effy - Day1 - I'm Home!
My home is 90 miles from where I've been staying with my aunt since October when she started on oxygen 24/7 (she has advanced emphysema). I've spent maybe a half dozen nights in total at home since then, and tonight my best friend is test-driving being my respite caregiver to see how it goes. If it goes well, I'll get to come home once a month for three nights, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
In the meantime I'm in my own little house with my Sweetie (I'll call him T after this)...sitting in my own living room watching our nice big TV and sleeping in our incredibly comfy bed. Yay! I feel like I won a prize! I have to go back tomorrow, but hopefully can come home again soon.
This is my second time writing this post, so now it's August 2nd and it doesn't qualify as Day 1. The first one wouldn't publish (there was no Publish button on the screen at the time) and I hoped it would save in Draft somehow, but when I restarted Blogger it was gone and it was after midnight, so I guess I lost out on whatever was the incentive. It's ok, though. I love this 30-day idea - it'll get me in the habit of posting every day. And I love Effy. She inspires me to keep going no matter what, and her art rocks!
No art journaling, or even doodling tonight. Most of my art supplies are at my aunt's, so I just have my travel kit here (and I already gave all the details in the post I lost so maybe another post, another day I'll do it again). I've been reading Effy's stuff and reading the latest issues of Somerset Studio and Where Women Create magazines and now I'm going to bed (my comfy, cozy, snuggly big bed) and I hope to sleep like a baby. I hope you all had as good a day and will have as good a sleep as I do. Night all!
In the meantime I'm in my own little house with my Sweetie (I'll call him T after this)...sitting in my own living room watching our nice big TV and sleeping in our incredibly comfy bed. Yay! I feel like I won a prize! I have to go back tomorrow, but hopefully can come home again soon.
This is my second time writing this post, so now it's August 2nd and it doesn't qualify as Day 1. The first one wouldn't publish (there was no Publish button on the screen at the time) and I hoped it would save in Draft somehow, but when I restarted Blogger it was gone and it was after midnight, so I guess I lost out on whatever was the incentive. It's ok, though. I love this 30-day idea - it'll get me in the habit of posting every day. And I love Effy. She inspires me to keep going no matter what, and her art rocks!
No art journaling, or even doodling tonight. Most of my art supplies are at my aunt's, so I just have my travel kit here (and I already gave all the details in the post I lost so maybe another post, another day I'll do it again). I've been reading Effy's stuff and reading the latest issues of Somerset Studio and Where Women Create magazines and now I'm going to bed (my comfy, cozy, snuggly big bed) and I hope to sleep like a baby. I hope you all had as good a day and will have as good a sleep as I do. Night all!
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
30 Days of Blogging!
OMG! I'm so excited! I haven't been keeping up with my classes at Effy Wild or reading her new Inner Excavation blog lately, so I missed the new happening (see below):
I'm really excited about this, as it will get me established in a habit of updating my blog...Yay!
I'm really excited about this, as it will get me established in a habit of updating my blog...Yay!
Monday, 25 March 2013
What or Where is HOME?
Home. This is something I've been struggling with for quite a while now, as I've been displaced from my house, (which I think of as "home") for some time now. I spend 99.9% of my time 90 miles (?km) from it, being a caregiver of sorts for my aunt at her house, where I grew up. Looking out for her isn't the problem. I love her and she's been good to me, so I'm ok with it. What's been hard is being away from "home." Home is generally where my "stuff" is, but even though I've moved all my most important stuff here, I've still been having a real struggle. There's something about not being in my own surroundings, doing my own thing, with my own stuff, in my own way, that makes me feel kind of trapped, or claustrophobic, or something - I don't know what. I've thought about selling my house, but my Sweetie Pie (hereafter called SP) of 14 years lives there, too, three or four nights a week when he's working and I don't want to leave him without a place to stay. But I digress.....HOME is the issue. What is it.
Yesterday I was reading Effy Wild's blog, which I do every day, and it almost always makes me say OMG!! She's 44, been working through some really rough shit for years, and has made progress so impressive that it blows my mind, considering all she's been through. Now she's going through a crisis of the heart, and watching (reading, actually) her deal with it and work through her feelings is inspiring, to say the very least. She's a wonderful artist and writer extraordinaire. Once again I digress. In her blog yesterday, Effy touched on the concept of "home."
Home is where you are at the moment.....Home is not the relationship or the house I'm living in. Home is right here in my solar plexus. Home is mindfulness. Home is being in it. Home is right here, right now.
Effy Wild
www.effywild.com
That little paragraph jumped right off the screen at me. It was an AHA moment....it's a concept of home that I used to feel back in my twenties (a long time ago, but from the inside looking out, I feel like the same person, except with more experience behind me).
After reading the blog and ruminating on that quote, I thought again - Where is home? And Effy's right - it's right here, right now. But then I also got to thinking.....home is where I live right here and right now....where I really live. Now in actuality, if we are "spiritual beings having a human experience," which I absolutely believe is the case, then the place where I live, the place I inhabit, is my body. It's where my spirit, my soul, the very essence of who I am, resides. So physically speaking, I essentially carry my house around with me, like a turtle or a snail (not really the same thing but you know what I mean).
When you get right down to the nitty gritty, I am ALWAYS HOME. My home is my essence, and my essence (or "witness") lives right here in this body. That's kind of a nice feeling. No matter where I go, I'm home. Thanks, Effy.
Yesterday I was reading Effy Wild's blog, which I do every day, and it almost always makes me say OMG!! She's 44, been working through some really rough shit for years, and has made progress so impressive that it blows my mind, considering all she's been through. Now she's going through a crisis of the heart, and watching (reading, actually) her deal with it and work through her feelings is inspiring, to say the very least. She's a wonderful artist and writer extraordinaire. Once again I digress. In her blog yesterday, Effy touched on the concept of "home."
Home is where you are at the moment.....Home is not the relationship or the house I'm living in. Home is right here in my solar plexus. Home is mindfulness. Home is being in it. Home is right here, right now.
Effy Wild
www.effywild.com
That little paragraph jumped right off the screen at me. It was an AHA moment....it's a concept of home that I used to feel back in my twenties (a long time ago, but from the inside looking out, I feel like the same person, except with more experience behind me).
After reading the blog and ruminating on that quote, I thought again - Where is home? And Effy's right - it's right here, right now. But then I also got to thinking.....home is where I live right here and right now....where I really live. Now in actuality, if we are "spiritual beings having a human experience," which I absolutely believe is the case, then the place where I live, the place I inhabit, is my body. It's where my spirit, my soul, the very essence of who I am, resides. So physically speaking, I essentially carry my house around with me, like a turtle or a snail (not really the same thing but you know what I mean).
When you get right down to the nitty gritty, I am ALWAYS HOME. My home is my essence, and my essence (or "witness") lives right here in this body. That's kind of a nice feeling. No matter where I go, I'm home. Thanks, Effy.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Fabulous Faces - Assignment # 1
I finished my first assignment and I'm so happy with it! I think it's way better than the previous one that I did while watching the class video. Here it is...
More and more I'm realizing that if you want to learn how to do something, especially something like this....you have to practice, practice, practice....and then practice some more, until you get it. And then you have to keep practicing to develop your own style. I have a long way to go, but I'm totally into it now. The key will be finding enough time to practice and to do more classes while I'm still journaling. Rumble on.
More and more I'm realizing that if you want to learn how to do something, especially something like this....you have to practice, practice, practice....and then practice some more, until you get it. And then you have to keep practicing to develop your own style. I have a long way to go, but I'm totally into it now. The key will be finding enough time to practice and to do more classes while I'm still journaling. Rumble on.
Saturday, 9 February 2013
Art Journaling - My New Passion
During the past eight months my interest in art journaling has blossomed into a passion which I believe I was led to in order to help me through a very difficult time. I started journaling back in March. I had kept a journal off an on throughout my life but always ended up ripping out the pages and destroying them for fear of someone reading them. I no longer have that fear. The need to express myself has exceeded the fear. Along the the line I also started doodling in my journal, which led me to Zentangle, which was, and still is, a fascinating and very satisfying way to decorate my journal entries. From there I discovered art journaling, and have become hooked on the concept because it allows me to excavate my heart, mind and soul, combining many of my interests - journaling, doodling, painting, Zentangle, collage, photography, meditation and yoga. Yes, I said meditation and yoga. Believe it or not, art journaling can help clear and calm the mind, which makes it a form of meditation and, combined with intention and the breath, it is also yoga (not quite that simple, but it will do). Pretty cool, huh?
OK....I'm not going to get all serious here. I just want to say that this blog will primarily cover what I'm currently involved in, and right now that's art journaling and all it entails. So if anyone's out there, I'll be posting at least weekly, and hopefully more often once things get going. In the meantime, I'll be posting photos of what I've been doing and learning more about blogging as well. Here I'll start by posting photos of doodles and tangles - the first things I tried...and I loved it. It's just so meditative and unrestrictive...and there are so many places you can go online to learn how to do them. It doesn't take long at all! Just Google "doodling" or "Zentangle" and a whole new world will open up.
OK....I'm not going to get all serious here. I just want to say that this blog will primarily cover what I'm currently involved in, and right now that's art journaling and all it entails. So if anyone's out there, I'll be posting at least weekly, and hopefully more often once things get going. In the meantime, I'll be posting photos of what I've been doing and learning more about blogging as well. Here I'll start by posting photos of doodles and tangles - the first things I tried...and I loved it. It's just so meditative and unrestrictive...and there are so many places you can go online to learn how to do them. It doesn't take long at all! Just Google "doodling" or "Zentangle" and a whole new world will open up.
 |
| I stuck a bunch of happy face stickers on this page and doodled around them - and Voila - a Happy Garden! |
Friday, 1 February 2013
Excavation - Tool or Distraction?
Twenty years ago or so, Sarah Ban Breathnach (not sure of spelling) wrote "Simple Abundance" and a couple of other books to assist us in excavating our authentic selves. Before that, and ever since, with the help of Oprah and countless others, we've been working away at finding our true selves, following our "bliss," looking for happiness, and creating joy in our lives. I'm no exception. I've been digging around inside myself for a long time now, trying to figure out what makes me "tick" and what I really, really, really am inside. I'm still digging.....and I'll probably be digging for the rest of my life.
The thing is, sometimes I think we dig too hard. At least I think I've been digging too hard. So hard, in fact, that maybe I'm missing the point. But what is the point? Am I digging just to learn more about myself, or just to learn, period. Am I really trying to make my life better? I guess I must be, but it occurred to me this morning that I get so busy "excavating" that a lot of times I'm missing out on life itself! That's kind of defeating the purpose, isn't it? Excavating my soul is supposed to improve my life, isn't it? Or is it just distracting me from it? I don't know, but I'll keep working on it. In the meantime, here's my photo for today for Project Life 365. I call it Bloom Where You're Planted (which in this case is on my aunt's dining room table).
The thing is, sometimes I think we dig too hard. At least I think I've been digging too hard. So hard, in fact, that maybe I'm missing the point. But what is the point? Am I digging just to learn more about myself, or just to learn, period. Am I really trying to make my life better? I guess I must be, but it occurred to me this morning that I get so busy "excavating" that a lot of times I'm missing out on life itself! That's kind of defeating the purpose, isn't it? Excavating my soul is supposed to improve my life, isn't it? Or is it just distracting me from it? I don't know, but I'll keep working on it. In the meantime, here's my photo for today for Project Life 365. I call it Bloom Where You're Planted (which in this case is on my aunt's dining room table).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)