29 Faces in May

above is my 'pond mermaid' ...wondered whether she was a water nymph but no she's a mermaid finding tranquil still water and sleeping amongst the water lillies until she feeling more sea worthy...

Here is Radiant Flora....she wore a crisp headdress of gorgeous seasonal flowers initially but my attempts to bring more of the gold shimmering background onto her blurred her crisp beauty a little bit I think she is a little more shimmering in real life! and i loved creating her...i want to create more flowery haired and tattoed ladies i've decided ....

This one is my favourite she's 'Purely Thought'.....simple and kind of crisp and non cluttered  I really like hows she's turned out ...

These 3 faces I completed for the challenge 29 faces in May....inspired by our everlastingly motivitating Effy in Book of Days.. When a little lost with regard to where I am going with 'arting' I find myself following water, earth, air and spirit elements (I think this is mainly inspired by what I learnt from the elements of Art Journalling course that I took in Wild Precious Studio about the same time last year). The faces are painted on gesso'd  250gms A3 cardstock (nothing too fancy in the way of paper...but it's nice to play and to create something A3 quite a liberating experience). I used graphite,watercolour pencils and coloursoft pencils, acrylic/craft paints/decorating tester paints (they have such nice colours!) and lots of metallic and shimmering acrylic inks and paints ...how I love working with the shiny glittery mediums they are yummy and magical to play with and all silky smooth to paint with..... I hope to complete just one more face inspired by 'Spirit' and that will be my lot for the challenge....but i may be tempted to experiment with some smaller whymsical faces with BIG EYES  and quite fancy creating some ACEO's for my book of days.I've used my Book of Days to celebrate what I'm grateful for and to form 'intention' for my week recently and mainly get time to do pages on a weekend....Art journalling around 'intention' has been pretty powerful and I will share more as I practice it more xxxxxxx

Weekend wantings.........

Saturday morning and the sun is shining, I have the back door open and I'm breathing in the fresh air ...its great...no where to dash off to no stress just TIME to BREATHE...heaven on earth really.I had set myself a goal of sleeping in! but its sooo difficult for me to 'sleep in' I guess I've just mastered actually getting a good nights sleep so I shouldn't be giving myself a hard time about it.Well I want to change the plans for today i was going to challenge myself with a Zumba class ( i had felt quite energised after my lovely holiday and break from the daily slog!)but there's something tells me a long walk would be a lot more 'uplifting' and gentler on what feels like a bit of thyroiditis raising its wee head again...yep the old signs of some sort of low grade virus has haunted 'the old shores for a while' but not really been to significant, the bearable aching joints and treatable cold sores and other succinct signs that the old immune system has had to put in a bit of effort where manageable but I'm a little worried that the cummulation of these symptoms now to the dreaded hoarse and sore throat may be my body saying ....slow down give me a little bit of recoup time...so I'm reasuring my precious body that that is what I am going to do...I'm not going to over think it I am simply going to take some action and love myself by caring about myself x

N.B A bowl of porridge later..... and I did make it to Zumba yehhhhh a first heeey gonna art now and share my finished faces of 'Radiant Flora' and 'My Pond Mermaid'
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Lovin' spendin' time with the 'one i love' ...

We had such a lovely week or so together exploring and relaxing in the sunshine.........i feel so lucky and so grateful for these times.

Gratitude Sunday moving into 'Intention for Monday'

So today i'm filled with gratitude once again...a lovely feeling that comes about from my reflecting on all the positive things in this life and in the people around me...I checked out Effy's blog and explored some of her resources(you are an amazing inspirer Effy!)and this site led me to the focusing on some intention for next week..it's going to be a challenging week energy wise as it is my first 5 day week for some time...but i've 'sheila' and some acupuncture to buffer my physical and emotional energy for the week and am sooo grateful for that as it gives me a confidence i can do it without an emotional meltdown response to difficult interactional happennings with certain folks or if any of my buttons are pressed to hard!I am really tolerant so when i say TOO HARD it really is usually in the case of an opinion needing to be expressed so as i am respecting myself professionally and personally...so art journalling and setting some intention is key for me today in my book of days!

Nying Je.............

Whilst hunting though my lovley clutter i found poems and books i adored or had only glimpsed at.I opened this one and started to read it where it fell open....'The Ethics of Compassion' and I'd had an experience at work that i'd acted compassionatly about but inside i was questioning life and society and entertaining cynical thoughts.I chatted to chel only briefly about the concept of Nying je and the circumstances that would allow an individual to live their life fully embracing it.
Alongside struggling with my health over the last year I've lost a part of me .....I had put it down to being so low on my reserves and sooo stressed a work but i think it has been a bit of an awakening really.It has always been in my nature to be a compassionate soul ...but now the deeper belief of 'compassion for others at all costs' I question.....it has to be balanced with 'compassion for oneself'.
'If the rope breaks nine times then we must splice it back together a tenth'

i do still art..............

I had a surge of physical energy today and had to strike while the iron was hot although i am a little worried i will pay for this with a dip in my health tomorrow, Chella was more or less saying that would be the case but i thrashed around and huffed and puffed ......i cleared the attic...lovingy collected clutter was carefully plonked into bags and recycled..and i've a car full for the charity shop tomorrow!thats if i can get out of bed tomorrow .......I haven't blogged about arting for a while or posted photo's of what i am working on so i caught a quick snap of my stylized faces they are far from finished but i felt insired after watching Effy last week and cracked on with the one on the far left...i simply need to remind myself that i am a wee gal that still arts!

art journalling revive

Oh i soooo need to get back to my art journalling....I am little flat on energy these days but trying to appear as if i have some! could sleep for oh so long and am used to this intermittent feeling nowadays so must simply get on..... my book of days needs a little more attention ...love what i did in there last week but time for some more as gratitude sunday is on the horizon.....so i am going to do my pages around the lovely time i spent with mum last week.