This is my October calendar. I printed off 2 x 3 pictures and fitted them in. Some of them are of other people's art and sewing that I liked and some are of fabric that I liked. I have started another one for November as it is quite fun looking for things to take photos of. Some pictures of of my own sewing and crafts:
This is an art journal page that I did today. I have been re-reading Care Of The Soul by Thomas Moore and these are some quotes from his book:

SEE THE SACRED DIMENSIONS OF EVERY DAY.

IN ORDINARY LIFE CREATIVITY MEANS MAKING SOMETHING FOR THE SOUL OUT OF EVERY EXPERIENCE.

WE CAN ALL CREATE SACRED BOOKS AND BOXES - A VOLUME OF DREAMS, A HEARTFELT DIARY, A NOTEBOOK OF THOUGHTS, A PARTICULARLY MEANINGFUL ALBUM OF PHOTOGRAPHS - AND THUS IN A SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT WAY CAN MAKE THE EVERYDAY SACRED. THIS KIND OF SPIRITUALITY, SO ORDINARY AND CLOSE TO HOME, IS ESPECIALLY NOURISHING TO THE SOUL.

This is how I wish to live my life.

A soulful, healthy meal:

Tomatoes, cucumber, orange pepper, walnuts, German butter cheese, brocconini cheese balls (it's the first time I've had these and they are pretty tasteless), basil leaves and sour cream for a dressing/dip. Very delicious (except for the brocconini!!!)

Rain on autumn leaves is so beautiful. That is the ocean in the background. It was evening and the lights had come on, you can see the reflection on the water, especially in the second one:

I have been working on my purses and my calendar which I will photograph tomorrow.

I am at a plateau with my weight loss and I am eating a little too much to lose right now but that

is okay. I only have six more pounds to lose to reach my goal. I will get back to it soon and shed those last few pounds.

My great granddaughter will be three on Friday. Time sure does fly!!

Amazon came to my door this evening. Yay!! New books! Hand Lettering by Marci Donley and DeAnn Singh and Raw Art Journaling by Quinn McDonald. So, you know what I will be doing this weekend. I want to do more art journaling but feel like my life is so boring, what is there to art journal about? I hope these books will help me to see my life differently and find interesting things to record.

I went to Michael's today and got a few more jewels for my handbags, it's always fun to go there.

Last night I got back to my calendar which I haven't touched all month so I decided to put a photograph for each day. I have a small Photosmart printer that prints two or four pictures to a 4 x 6 page so I printed a bunch off and stuck them on the page. I will take a photo when it is finished. I didn't complete August or September but will work on them and post when they are done. I chose zentangles and animals and it is just too much to do so I will make something easy

for November.

Have a great weekend.

Autumn is such a beautiful time of year. It was a sunny day today, we have had quite a few lately and it has kind of made up for the non-existent summer. I love the seeds in autumn, I snapped this thistle plant today:

I have been beavering away on my handbags and should have a couple finished soon to show.

On Thursday, I go for my third Life Coach appointment and am looking forward to it. I had to fill out a Wheel of Life, choosing the areas of my life that are the most important. I am certainly lacking in the relationship and fun/entertainment categories. I have lived in survival mode most of my life and don't really know how to have fun. I have never been on a real holiday or stayed in a really nice hotel. I wouldn't know how to balance out this area of my life. The only entertainment I have is going out with my DDs occasionally and my art.

It will be interesting to see what my Life Coach has to say.

I spent all day yesterday constructing the first step of these handbags. This is a hit of what is to come:


Now come the deciding what embellishments to use. I picked up a couple more things at Michael's today.

I had a great weekend working on these handbags, going for coffee with a friend, going shopping and for a coffee with my YDD. I bought a plant pot to re pot a plant that has been outside and now need to be brought in for the winter and a couple of things from Michael's, as I said. It was a very relaxing and fun weekend.

Visit: http://silverthreadsanartistspilgrimage.blogspot.com to see my LITTLE MOMENTS.

I had a great visit with the Life Coach on Thursday and will see her again in two weeks. She is going to help me get over the blocks I still have to creativity. She takes a mental, emotional, spiritual approach to her coaching and believes that I will find the focus I am looking for and will look forward to my days. I believe I am in the right place for this now and will benefit greatly from her support and guidance. I am already more productive just from seeing her twice.

I will keep you posted.

I spent several hours this afternoon and evening working on my handbags. I should have some to show soon. I started another four bags today so have lots on the go.

I went for my workout walk this morning and took a different route. I passed by this fountain, a little oasis in the middle of the city.

I am going to see a Life Coach tomorrow for a second visit and then I will decide whether to carry on with her. We met once for coffee and I really liked her. I am hoping it will help me to stay motivated and get more focused with my creativity. Just the fact that I am going to see her has made a difference. Also, the talks my daughters and I had on Thanksgiving has helped so much. The are so supportive and lovely!

These are two bags that I have finished lately. I am hoping to accumulate a few so I can take them to a craft sale sometime.

I was shopping all afternoon at Dress-Sew:

And Michael's:

Gathering supplies to make some more bags. I have about five on the go right now. This is certainly the weather for staying in and crafting.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have been absent for a long time again as those of you who still drop by have noticed. I am going to see a Life Coach on Thursday, hoping it will help me to get more focused and as disciplined with my art as I am with my exercise routine.

I had a lovely day yesterday with my girls. We had turkey dinner and all participated in making it and cleaning up after. It was a very fun day!! We talked to my granddaughter and great granddaughter on the phone. Who could ask for more. For my little family I am truly thankful, especially on this day.

I have so much to be thankful for. I have my health, my creativity, a lovely, warm, comfortable place to live and everything I need for a good life. I truly am blessed!!

Where does the time go????

I didn't post the finish of my July calendar and now it is the end of August, so here it is. I really enjoyed this challenge and may do something similar again:
I decided to do Zentangles for August and, as you can see, Ihaven't done too well. I am way behind. I will catch up slowly:

I don't know what I will do for September, I guess I had better make up my mind seeing as that is tomorrow.

I was on a bracelet making kick for a couple of weeks and ended up making 18 bracelets to go with my new clothes:

I have had to buy new clothes because I have lost 30 pounds. I have 9 to go and then I will re-evaluate to see if I want to lose more. I feel much better, it makes such a difference to my mobility.

Today I cut fabric to make some small purses but couldn't do anything more as I need to buy some interfacing to give them some body. I will do that tomorrow.

I will try to keep up with my blog now and maybe join a couple of small challenges to get some more people dropping by.

I am still here!!! I have been working away on my faces in my calendar and have done quite well but I am behind a little. I need to do some catch up painting and have three more faces to draw. I hope to get that done in the next couple of days:

Now I have to decide what to do for my August calendar. Maybe dogs or cats or zentangles.

On of my intentions for this year is to do some art journal sketching out in the world. I hope to feel more connected to the world and myself and be more observant. I want to develop my own style and become more confident in my drawing skill.

Today I sat outside of Cafe Citadell and drew this picture. I am pleased with it because I used some of the patterns in the wrought iron table for the design around the cup of tea. I wanted to draw a sparrow and made up my own bird. This is exactly what I want to achieve. My own style. I drew in ink instead of drawing in pencil and redrawing in ink. Letting go of perfection.I don't know if the picture will enlarge sometimes it does, sometimes not.

I have ordered Artist's Journal Workshop from Chapters and another Journal book, can't remember the name of it now but they should be here this week. I love getting new books!!
Blessings.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF FACE

I thought I would challenge myself today and try an aged face. It was interesting to draw. I find I am paying more attention to things since I started doing this. I want to do character faces rather than just your usual pretty faces. More of a challenge with I Micron Pigma pen than with pencil. I did draw it with pencel first and then went over it in pen and added more lines and shading:

This is the picture I copied for the Modigliani picture, below, right:

I didn't quite capture the sagging but I think it is quite good.

MORE FACES AND PRAYER FLAG #3

I have tried something different for two of these faces. The brown and green one is done with an eyedropper with acrylic ink, the next one is in the style of Picasso. The last one was supposed to be a caucasian woman but I messed up and so had to paint over what I had done and she ended up being a dark skinned woman (not a very good one at that, LOL):
The next three faces are in my sketchbook #12, 13 and 14 of the 100 to be done by the end of the year:

My prayer flag #3 is for forgiveness:

Yesterday, I went for an artist date and bought the new Somerset Art Journaling magazine and Somerset Studio. I treated myself to sushi and a latte' then went to Michael's and bought a set of different coloured calligraphy pens and a white gel pens. It is so hard to decide what to buy there because I won't buy anything without the 40% off coupon because there prices are so inflated compared to the American prices - almost double. I think I have mentioned this before but it is really annoying when our dollar is actually a little higher than the American dollar.

I am off to do some more creating, not sure what yet.

DAY 6 AND 7

These were quite interesting to do. I am amazed every day at how the faces just appear. The one for the 6th is done in the style of artist Modigiliani. So few lines. I was so impressed to look at his paintings on google and see with such simplicity how he captured the character of his models. I think I will do more of these. This drawing was from a face I cut out of a magazine:
The one for the 7th is scribble drawing an actual character emerged out of the scribbles. Completely made up:

Some of the ideas come from a book called Drawing Lab For Mixed-Media Artist by Carla Sonheim. This is a fun book.

I am really aware of how tense I am when I start, afraid I will mess up so this is an excellent way to gain some confidence in my drawing.

Thanks for all your kind comments and coming to visit me.

JULY CALENDAR

These are my faces for July 4th and 5th:
I was trying to capture art nouveau and I think I did quite well with the 4th and the 5th doesn't look anything like the picture I was copying which is good because I don't really like copying but I don't know how else to draw faces, I can't just pull them out of my head. It's interesting that even though you are drawing from photos or other pictures your faces have your own style in them even if you don't know what that style is. From these drawings I learned that very few lines are needed to create a face. I am really enjoying this and am learning a lot.

JULY CALENDAR

I finished my July calendar tonight. I decided to copy an idea I saw at Balzer Designs - to draw a face each day. These are my first three days:

I used watercolours to paint the faces, this is different for me. I think this is going to be a fun project and it will definitely loosen me up.

PRAYER FLAGS

I have been feeling unwell since Thursday night with a cold but have made two prayer flags to stave off the boredom and not feel sorry for myself. I hung them on my patio:
This one is for JOY:

This one is for SELF-DETERMINATION or FOLLOW YOUR HEART:
These are quite easy to make and measure 5" X 8" when finished with a 3" hem at the top to put the cord through. I found this idea at http://vdenegrequilts.com/ and may do some more. She is doing one a day during the month of June but I will just make one when the spirit moves me.

I hope I feel better soon, it is such a drag feeling unwell.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS.......

it just came out of my head!!
I used my Prismacolour Crayons for this. I have always loved these crayons and some of the ones I still have are from my first set that my parents bought me 60 years ago. I love the selection of colours and how clean they are. The little white flowers were done with acrylic paint because the while crayon wouldn't show up on top of the other colours. I tried several other things but the acrylic was the only thing that would cover and the crayon bled through a little.

I have decided that there is no use me setting up challenges for myself. My mood alters from day to day and some days I just feel too tired to create so I will just do what my spirit moves me to do and hope that do something each day.

I really enjoyed doing this one because I wasn't stressed about it being anything in particular and it didn't matter if it wasn't perfect, there was nothing to compare it with.

DAY 4

I did this watercolour watching Jane LaFazio's workshop DVD:

I didn't get my face done tonight because I was watching the disgraceful behaviour of the young yahoos that are trashing our city after the Canucks lost the hockey game. Pretty frightening and so embarrassing!!

DAY 3

Not a very successful day with my challenges today. I struggled with the background on the watercolour:
And didn't capture the youth in the face but, I did complete my two pieces:

DAY 2

For the watercolour, I tried to do colour drop flowers with an oriental brush as demonstrated by Martha Lever on YouTube. I am going to take a course with her shortly. I have never used an oriental brush before so this was a new expereince. I left it until late in the evening and my daughter phoned while I was painting so I was mult-tasking. I got sloppy with the stems as a result. This is the result:
And this is the face:

I remember my Mom saying to me a few years ago that it seemed to take her a long time to do everything. I can sure relate to that now. They days fly by and I wonder why I couldn't get more done. Am I just lazier I wonder?

I have set a goal for myself to paint one quick watercolour and draw one face a day for three months. The saying is that "practice makes perfect" so this should help me to improve my skills in these two areas. These are my first two attempts:

I'm sure this woman wouldn't appreciate this portrait of her.LOL

I have stuck 75 pictures in this small 5.5" by 8 inch sketchbook ready to be copied, so no excuses and I have um! "several" different types of watercolour paper, pad, Moleskine watercolour journals and Strathmore journals so no excuses there either!!LOL

JUST DOODLING!!!


A RELAXING COUPLE OF EVENINGS.

This is my calendar finished for June. I am pretending that we will actually get some summer, LOL.

It's been pouring rain again all day today. It's hard to believe the Summer Solstice is in three weeks. We have had no spring at all. I bought some new clothes a month ago and have not been able to wear them because it is still too cold. Grumble, grumble, grumble!!! I know we are lucky compared to many others who are suffering in floods, tornadoes, etc.

I am off to have some lunch and then work on my paintings.

I went for my morning workout walk and ended up walking for four hours. It was a nice day compared to what we have been having so it was very enjoyable. I took some photos to try out my newly repaired camera and it seems to be working well.
A poppy:
Irises:

Peonies:

I did some beachcombing at Kits Beach. One of my favourite past times and found a few mermaid tears (glass). It was quite misty here as you can see by the photo:

It is such a treat to be able to walk without pain in my feet and legs so I can enjoy another of my favourite things to do - long, long walks.