truly spacious

El Espiritu de Hallowe'en

How I love the cover of this book;  El Corazon de la Muerte, Altars and Offerings for Days of the Dead.

 

(click pics for more juicyness)

Hallowe'en, Dia de los Muertos..... I'm a Big Fan. Here are more books to Love.

These 3 kids books are wonder-full:

The Spirit of Tio Fernando

Day of the Dead

a different Day of the Dead.

The Skeleton at the Feast is deeply delicious. It's the one topright of second pic.

And 'Pagan Mysteries of Halloween, celebrating the dark half of the year' looks good, tho I never yet got to reading it thoroughly...

I'm sending Thanks to Rhomany, and to Mary Ann, for bothering and corazon-ing like they do. Inspiratrices, both. Dunno where I'd be without you both...

Here's an Eerie Doilie for today from Basic Grey:

And finally, for now;

May I and all my Ancestors wish You and all your Ancestors, Very Well Indeed.

xxx

glint

I forgot. I forgot this thing I have that lets me put something from inside onto the page. Deep, strong. Made visible, palpable, with a few simple gestures and pure focused intent.

I remember. I got a little scared. But it's time for courage again. Time to bring it on thru. "Something Is Being Learned."  

 

 

The lighting is a bit late-night in these pics - but I am impatient to post. I'll post more daylit versions too...Rekindled enthusiasm is such a sweet delicious thing.

 

And further sweet deliciousness ~ scone-making is being learned, too.

Is it just me or is this scone also smiling?

xxx

gettin a wiggle on

Suddenly seeing echoes, between my new Proper on-Canvas Painting, and this pic of my splendid black hose.

The latter I just posted in a Medley over at My Lovely Garden, with some other lovely wiggles.

It's spiral-Love time again. Once previously, I posted about my SpiralLove, in 'flourishing'.

I have a bunch of new swirling stamps winging their way to me too. 

Creativities brew, as the chill Autumnal winds come twisting on thru...

xxx

Just Put

Once again, dear Mary Ann catalysed some creativity overhere.

Her links today gave me that gottogettoit artistic jealousy that is the only good kind of jealousy I know. The one that wishes it was doing it's own thing too. So I got to it, and did my own thing too, and here are some views of what the product of that process looks like.

With warm Thanks to the Divine Ms Moss for keeping on keeping on so very bright heartedly; keeping me keepin on too. 

 

 

 

 

There are Archetypal Autumnal pics galore, and some Proper Painting beginning to happen, overhere. More of all that andandand as and when...

(all pics click clearer)

xxx

Like Stars

It seems the Summer Break is upon me, in terms of not posting much overhere....

So for now, here are details from a card which I made for a Star-like friend recently, 

and a stitching, finished in new-departure style onto canvas, for a recently-met Stellar pal.  

Who was kind enough to fall in Love at first sight (of said stitching) and ask to purchase it. 

Flattered and delighted, I rustled up a way of making it hangable for her, 

which may prove to be a fine way to finish some of the stockpile of stitchings-in-waiting....

Some stitching-and-stencilling speriments will be happening soon - with some happy encouragement from The Divine Miss Moss.  

Hallo to my new playclassmates peeping on thru from there!

I'll be twinkling around not very far away, and will shine on through here again, 

flapping stencilry and allwhatnot around, some clear night afore very long....

And, Yes. That is indeed a Broomstick. And a Drumstick. Andandand.

Click pic to see clearer.

XXX

Disintegration Collaboration

(All pics click larger + clearer.)

Wayback in February 2009, the bundle was bundled.

I'd found Seth's invitation to disintegrate and document, and o it seemed like a fine thing to do.

bundle love was my first post of it, Feb 11; followed by this one on Feb 23rd.

On May 1st, the bundle came inside again.

Not hugely disintegrated, but thoroughly imbued with the experience. 
Time passing.    Weather happening.   Buds and warmth coming, after coldcoldcold days and nights.

And today, August 1st, 2009, is the Disintegration Collaboration final reveal day.

Sitting in the Sunshine, on July 31st, with a Blackbird eating the already-ripe Rowan berries overhead,
I made a little Something from some of the weathered treasure:

Thank you for visiting. Thank you, Seth, for the sweet Inspiration you bring.
Thanks to all the Elements who contributed so Grace-fully to the making of this, along the way.

It's been a joy, indeed.

xxx

3 boats in a post

1. Boats, 2. Blue boat, 3. Grass Boat

"A propos de rien du tout" is a phrase my friend E and I use. For when the thing comes from nowhere, but seems worth mentioning.
For artistry that just wants doing, without it being obvious where it joins up.

These sweet pics are in the "A propos" folder. Pics I found while looking for other things over at flickr.
I find boats such deeply Beauty-Full Things. And Canoes? Oh I can swoon over a Good Canoe.

My thanks to the boatphotographers here. Click pic for larger boats, and links to visit originals.

xxx

treasure mosaic

Saturday morning Inspiration Synergy.                 I just love how they dance together.

It started with seeing this post at the wonder-filled Studio g.
Rochelle shares so many joys and inspiring Things overthere; one of my current feasting grounds.

I mentioned studio g over at My Lovely Garden, my new blog,
but it since it's still in the budding stage overthere,(ie, not many visitors yet),
a repeat mention here seems a good idea.

My hearty thanks to all the generous flickrfaves artists for sharing these treasures.
Click links below to go to their pics directly, and to the worlds beyond.
Click pic for an altogether juicier large view.

1. fond de pot, 2. Rusty Stuff, 3. Edi's Chair, 4. Patina, 5. window, 6. Looking Up,
7. astrantiasq, 8. Is this really gonna keep people out?, 9. Celtic Symbol

New pool finds while hunting these down:
The Rust Bucket and Unintended Jewellery.

Mmmmmmm!

xxx

PS  -  I just put a new 'mosaic' category, so it's now possible to bring all the flickrfave mosaics which I've created onscreen together. 
Click the word 'mosaic' below the post, or in the categories cloud in the sidebar. Sorted.

Creative triumphs come in many guises... that task has been on my 'list' for A Long Time. And now, it's done. Whoooop.

xxx

7th June 2009 style

Low key, big Gemininity fun, Birthday celebratory recipe:

First, find a good friend to blow bubbles with.
(Gasp when she admits to not having done so for years.)

Then, fall over giggling as you both blow up balloons, (literally, in one shockingly loud case), together.

Continue blowing bubbles all the while.

Have aforementioned good friend present you with a candle-laden cake.

Continue blowing bubbles all the while.

Have aforementioned good friend hang big bunch of balloons at the window.

Open a fine selection of lovely gifts, eat some delicious food,
admire beauty-full cards, specially chosen or made, sent and delivered, all in perfect time,
yabber a lot, enjoy,
marvel at the rain outside and be glad not to have planned big garden party after all,
sigh contentedly,
with heart-fed gratitude for the many simple-yet-deep-sweetnesses of the day.

xxx

weathered bundle love

Y'see that dancing heart there? It's lived through all kinds of weathers. xxx

This is the disintegration project bundle.... and for a few days it seemed as if I would be posting about a disappearing bundle.... the ultimate form change!

The bundle vanished from the Tree, and was nowhere to be seen.

Happy to say, a neighbour went hunting for me and found it again. So here we are now.

Not quite as much disintegration visible as I antici...pated.

I love that the papers and things are now imbued with all that they have lived through.

And that I went through the letgo, and then got them back, after all.

I'll unbundle the bundle later on, and then, we'll see some more...

(meanwhile you can see some more by clicking these pics.)

Happy May First to You.

xxx

 

 

la la, fa la la ~ But But!

xxx

stencilry andandand

 

 

 

 

This was/is week 3 of Pure Experimentation, and O I am pleased with my splashings this weekend.

I made two 12x12 Things.

I just Like how these details all look. Little worlds within the bigger Thing.

Collage from magazines, hand-cut stencilry (the starburst-flower and petals), Proper stencils, and inks, paint, pens, stamps ~ whatever was handy....

Good to be making pics I'm proper proud of!

xxx

stencilry speriments

 

(Wrestling a little with Typepad today, but apart from strange unbudgeable underlines, I think I've cracked it now...)

Here are some of my this-week's-productions, inspired by the continuingly fine Pure Experimentation class.

Week 2, and feeling free-er overhere.

Having procured Exacto blades, and stencil film, and then glass via my local charity shop, off I went on another adventure. Cutting my very own stencils for The First Time Ever. 

Wee small hours last night, and glorious sunshine Sunday afternoon hours today.

As I sat and painted in my garden, I thought; "this is it, this is what I was dreaming of last year".

So grateful for such fine moments. And grateful to have been reminded that stapling is allowed, too.

I've realised that watching vids of M.A. doing what she loves to do has given me more permission to play than any number of written encouragements might have.

Seeing someone relish making her Beautiful Mess has been such a sweet catalyst for me.

All pics here click much clearer, as ever. 

And in other news - my leg continues to heal, tho you'd still swoon if you saw it for the first time...thanks for continuing prayers/well-wishing support with that. 

And in yet other news, I took a bunch of lovely pics of the garden booming forth this week, and will post those as and when. And my seedlings are peeping through too!

Here's a final pic from today. My Tree reflected in my new stencil.

No, wait. That one's a Mask.

xxx

pure folio

This week's Pure Experimentation class direction was to create a portfolio to contain the products of the stencilry fun which we'll be having in the forthcoming weeks.

Seeing the richly inspiring vids had me rummaging yesterday in stash bought long, long ago.
And today I set to.
Enjoying the shadowplays that come with synthesising multiple patterns.
And being quite Happy with what I've put together. Inner and outer, both with their own flavours.
It's about 13 inches square: I intend to work on some of the 12x12 card stash I amassed years ago...

Good to work loosely, tho I didn't get quite as splashy with it as I think I will.
MA's freedom with paint and stencil and overpaint and wipe andandand, made me realise I'd like to play more easily with it all, too.

Still, it's a fine start, eh. Good to be in Beginner mode again.

Here are some detail pics. All pics click much clearer. 

xxx

stencil newness

 
Warm Hallo to my new cyberclassmates, coming in from Pure Experimentation!
(via Dispatch from LA, for noncyberclassmates, who will remain passwordless.)
Looking forward to sperimenting with y'all.

Here is my very first spraypaint speriment, done last week, sitting in the sunshine in My New Garden.
I was dismayed at the toxicity of the sprays.  I felt rather a clumsy human as the birds looked down from the trees at the clouds I created, and the new buds sneezed.
I do like the product tho.

Second pic is a detail from a recent birthday collage for my dear pal Kathryn.
Maybe more pics of that, asandwhen.  Both these pics click to juicier.

Going out into the sunnyness again now. Sigh. Feeling blessed, this first Spring, in my sweet new Home.

xxx

weebill and friends

1. 碗, 2. Green Snake in the Serengeti, 3. sparrow and pigeon, 4. 1995081301, 5. 020618_130,

6. Weebill, 7. Japanese calligraphy / 草書(sousyo), 8. Decaying concrete pillbox, 9. Blackbird

Sometimes this mosaic thing just won't leave me alone...

As always, hearty thanks to the generous photographers of my flickrfaves.
And ~ click pic for clearer mosaicness, and click links to go to individual pics and worlds beyond.

This time I used the colour tool, to get a juicy bunch of the soft greens beginning to stir my Soul.
It happens, every Spring. Suddenly, nothing else will do. Suddenly, Winter is waning, after all.

Thank You to everyone who's sent me word of prayers.
And to everyone who hasn't sent word but has sent prayers.
Truly; more spacious, more Grace-full, more Peace and more healing going on, with some help from my Friends. Thank you. Please keep em coming.

xxx

visible echoes

 

First I made a stitching for my friend Jane's birthday. She's a Dragon, she likes a bit of sparkle....
And then I made some collage.

And only when I posted pics of them together, did I see the echoes.

Click pics to see clearer echoes.

xxx

a sort of phase

Thanks to wordle.net for letting me play overthere.

Thanks to Mary Ann for cooking up smoke signals.

And for leading me meanderingly (via cobaltika, whose current home is cobaltika) to this delicious White on White exhibition. ("White on white follows a trend in the visual arts to reduce the art down to very subtle variations in tonality, surface or texture. Certain artists seem to pass through this as a sort of phase in their exploration.")

And for being part of the catalyst~team for my new collage, on Proper Canvas, finished tonight. My first.
Pics of it when I can get to that bit too. It's full of subtle variations.
xxx

pick a pink...

Further pink focusings...

Over at the Year of Color project, the sweety pinks continue to bring me a desire for something else. It's Earth, I realise. I need a little gentle brown, a hint of gold, sometimes a darker blush, in with my pink these days. And with the help of the fab tool which Lani found, I was able to go hunting and gathering, and here is the fresh tasty flickrfave food I returned with.
Good to find my peace with this pink thing.

"There is evolutionary value in my personal preferences", says Abraham, and when it comes to colour, my distinct and shifting, or abiding, preferences are a source of intriguing navigation for me. What is it that shifts or continues in the attraction? It's a resonance thang...

As always with the flickrfave mosaics, click the pic here for juicier version, and click the links to visit each individual pic, and the treasures to which it is portal.

My big thanks to all the generous flickrartists. xxx

1. Canyon de Chelly, 2. IMG_0167, 3. Forbidden City, 4. PoFA Flowers, 5. pink bark, 6. pushed bark, 7. Egyptian Grasshopper, 8. In front of the sun, 9. Untitled

bundle love

 

(All pics click larger + clearer.)

Yesterday, on my cybertrails, I spotted a lovely project. I saw that things were being bundled into the elements in Beauty-full ways, by Be...Dream...Play Elizabeth, x2,  and by RedVelvet Judy, and by many others, following the inspiration of The Altered Page Seth and his 'disintegration' project.

Today I woke up thinking about it, and so this afternoon I gathered the Things which were calling me, and put them all together. O how good to get to putting things together willynilly and yet precisionengineer artfully. Knowing they were all to be soaked and transformed in breezes and freezes, beams and drops, between today and the first of May. Knowing some of the carefully-quick chosen texts might vanish inbetweentimes.

Such a joy just to wrap and stitch, easy and fast. To bundle. The original recipe was for paper only, but I reeeeally wanted to include a little stitched Thing, and some too-shiny-for-my-taste things, just to see...

And then, I hung it outside, not very far from my kitchen door, in the last of the evening light.

 

A rare forray out into the coldness, where I found another weather-beaten form: my lovely stone, cracked in the frosts. It must have survived several million Winters till this one, but today it is a changed form again. This too shall pass.

Thankyou Seth for setting this sweet elemental project into motion. Good to be fired up on a chilly Winter's day in Norwich, UK, February 2009.

While we live and breathe, eh? xxx

a crow in the snow

... as seen through my window last week...   (click pic to see it juicier)   xxx

mothlove

I saw a moth pic, and spotted the heart motif therein, and went hunting for an image to play with.

The original within this one I found at a lovely informative page about Birch Trees, on a lovely Scottish site about Biodiversity. 
Moths love Birches, I learned.
I love Moths and Birches.

Plenty Love for all manner of Nature, All the time.

Sweet how pink-Februaryness and NatureLove synthesise in a little pic, eh.

xxx

exquisite timing

As often happens, a trip over to lovely Lani's cyberhouse has sent me romping along into new creativities.

She pointed me to A Year Of Color, which I hastily signed in to. Since I have been mad for white all January, I don't feel like I missed out...
And I just enjoyed a wonder-full cyber-safari through the month's postings.

Anyways; given that this is the last day of the BlueWhite month overthere, I thought I'd throw together a quick mosaic from my flickrfaves. So many of them are of the blue-white persuasion.  Scan down the page here to see more glimpses of blue-white love.

So here is my first post made to celebrate my new colo(u)r-full participant year. Last day, first day... Here we are Now, moving on through.

Mercury is stationary today. It always gets a little backtofront overhere in the turning times....  Zoooooom went January. ZooooomZooooom went the retro window.

"This Day Will Never Come Again".

Big thanks to all the generous flickrphotoartists. Click on pic for larger clearer version. Click on links to go to each pic, and the treasure trove which each artist has cunningly cyber-stashed behind it. 

One good thing leads to another. And another. And so on.

1. doorway, 2. Blue on White, 3. blue boat, 4. Untitled, 5. white paint chips, 6. Untitled, 7. No Name Footbridge, Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, 8. Cable & Blue, 9. Strong

xxx

wordle-full

Swoon. I just discovered http://www.wordle.net/, where I rustled up these two creations. (Click pics to see how I saw them whilst patting them into shape.)

Great font selection, great ways to change the image, juss altogether a great Thing.

Happy Gemini splashing about in her Merc-retro cyber-sandpit.
xxx

3 Snowy Sweeties

Three more Sweeties, from those vast vaults at Mazaika.com
Next time we get Proper Snowing, I hope one of these fine beings comes along too...
Gorgeous Snowy Mamma, Compassionate Snowy Mister, and Baby Happy Snowy...
All portraits click larger.
xxx

mosaic moment

1. We Have Ice !!, 2. white floor, 3. Rustico, 4. Kasteel De Haar, Haarzuilens, 5. White Square., 6. St Margaret York, 7. Premières neiges, 8. Untitled, 9. Cable Reel

I had a sudden impulse to gather favourites over at flickr, to create a mosaic, to post on truly spacious. So I followed through, and here's what became of it.

Sometimes form develops through time and repetition, and it's so comforting to enjoy beauty-full newness in a familiar form.

Thanks to all the generous artists whose work is visible here.  And on my faves pages.

Happy creative weekend wishes to us all.

xxx

just because

A couple more of the pics which I took at the weekend.  xxx

Turning times, WetWeb, Pics + Pie

So. Mercury just turned direct, I just found my wire. Over 400 images just came on in to Joy Lovinia Swift, my newly-wireless-again delight-full laptop. Thanks for bringing on in more freedom overhere, Allan + joy. 

These two pics were the Autumnal morning glory greeting me today through my kitchen door. It's glass. I can see my Garden through it. I purr.

And. This:

is the unspeakably delicious Apple and Blackberry pie which one of my neighbours brought to me last week. Her husband had made it. It was still hot. I got that feeling again. The one about being in the right place.

I feel a new photo gallery coming upon me. I'll get to it, as an aside from patting a new home into shape...

Happy Directness to us all... xxx

ps; There is another wetweb pic, which my dear departed Dad took, many Moons ago, in the Made By Jack gallery, too. Whatcanyedo?

We see Beauty, Time and Time again. xxx

visible

A pic!
I posted a pic!
A little thing I made Quite A While ago.
Image found in my email clearouts just now.
Still hoping to recover some other images.... and there are new ones awaiting in the digiwings.
For now, just this.
And Happy Weekend wishes.
Sun is forecast, I have a Garden to be in, inbetween sortings and doings, now; Bliss, overhere.
xxx

no boggling + botching

Goodness, there was a lot to think about when stitching in 1900. 

Do you know what fudging is?  To be avoided, anyways...

The phrase 'frowned upon' comes to mind. There was a deal of frowning upon in those days, eh.

This is from the lovely Art in Needlework which I found via sharon b's great generous post of many free needlework books online.

My (non-boggled) stitchings for my stitchin fingers TAST group project are visible over here. 

xxx

more medley

1. Blue on White, 2. Mire Loch, Mirror Calm, 3. in the street (3), 4. Adventure Awaits, 5. Sheaf of Wheat, 6. Anasazi Cliff Dwelling, 7. Three Kiva Pueblo - Afternoon Sunlight, 8. Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling, 9. Monterey Kelp Forest, 10. Vertebrae, detail, 11. IMGP0341, 12. Coiled storage basket, 13. Untitled

Further developments in the mosaic medley department.
I'm mad for the synergy of images just now.  Cancerian-ness galore. Qualities and resonances, forms, dreams, echoes. Click pic for a clearer view.

Many of these pics are part of marvelous collections, so clicking thru to them may lead to pools full of beauty, or sets of wonder, or rich streams in which to bask. My thanks again to all the generous flickrfave artisans. (Some more beauties, whose makers have opted out of the mosaics, are visible there.)
And to you who leave encouraging comments. It feeds me to hear of enjoyment of my creative efforts here. Thank you all, too. xxx