When You Were Two...

So spend some time with a two year old if you can.

It is so very helpful in learning how to live in the moment.

That's what "Baave" and I did this past weekend.

Of course the two year old who we got to be with is pretty damn special !

Brilliant, funny, cute as a button, and check out her fashion sense !

She is also a fantastic teacher.

She taught Uncle Dave that the sillier you are, the funner it is to get the job done,

like completing the plain old puzzle.

(The hilarious giggles from these two were amazing !)

WonderKate also reminds us that if we know what we need, we should make sure to ask for it, and also make sure we get it !

Like nap time for example.

For a perfect nap, make sure you have a doo-doo (a cozy blankie)

A ba-ba (bottle with warmed milk)

A tou-tou (a soft stuffed animal - little brown bear in Kate's case)

And of course a Dada ! (A Daddy, or a Mommy or a "Pimmy"(as Kate calls me) in a pinch)

Yup, that Katie-Girl is pretty great at reminding us

to be present and count our sweet blessings everyday...

Oh, and also how the perfect footwear can make an outfit...

(I want these rain boots in my size !)

"Baave" and "Pimmy" are so thankful for the sweet time

and the wonderful lessons we shared with you and your cozy family

on this spring weekend in 2010, Little Wise One.

We love you !

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems." -

Rainer Maria Rilke

****************************************

Things are feeling a little dry around the studio right now.

You know dry, like toast with no jam (love that line from the father in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding") !

I am doing journal pages, and enjoying the process but they feel a little flat and uninspired.

I am thinking I need some time with other artists to inspire me or a class to learn something new to add to my usual bag of tricks...

Part of me knows that a dry spell is normal for me...but like any artist, I kind of worry about it lasting too long...

I am looking around and keeping my artist's mind open to the possibilities...

In the mean time...little bits of art to go and add to the branches until the real color arrives !

tree tags - fronts

quotes on the back (for the tag on far right)

( back quote for the middle flower tag)

(back quote on tag on the left)

The tags are covered with packing tape so will hopefully stand up to the damp out there.

It has finally stopped raining though it is still very grey.

At least it will be nice for a tree decorating, tag photographing and rock dropping walk...

Let's go, Cheeks...

Happy Wednesday, Beautiful Ones.

The Circle of Love is a good place to be...

My lovely Canadian Chickie Friend, Dawn did a post this week called "What makes you Happy ?"
She asked us to tell her our answers and link back to her.

It took me a couple of days, but here is my latest journal page in response to her question :

(click to enlarge)

I have, of course, thought of a ton of other things that I love but didn't include on the page.

One of them is the poetry of Rumi.

Like this quote :

"Come out of the circle of time

And into the Circle of Love."

Have been spending too much time in the circle of time this week,

not to mention too much time in my own head !

This weekend, David and I are off to visit my sister Kristina and her gang in La Conception.

I will be getting me some sweet Love Therapy

from you know who !!!!

Can't wait !

I will be back Monday night !

Hope your weekend is full of what makes you happy !

Big love, Beautiful Ones !

Thankfulness Thursday - These Eyes

I am grateful for these eyes...

I don't know what it is about you that closes and opens, only something in
me understands the voice in your eyes is deeper than all roses....e.e. cummings

I can see clearly now

A Royal Honor Bestowed Upon the Queen...

So a little while back I received a sweet email from a dear Blogland friend and extremely talented artist, Jane Royal (Painted Heart Studio). Jane asked me if I would mind if she took this picture of me which she had seen on the blog:

and used it as inspiration for one of her fabulous portraits.

I was very touched, honored and excited by the idea, needless to say !

Imagine my joy when she said that she would even like to send me the piece when it was done !

Then triple that and apply it to my feelings when I opened the special delivery envelope and found this :

(sorry about the so-so photos - it is pouring rain here today)

Isn't it beautiful ?

My first reaction when I saw it was "I only wish I was that beautiful!"

Then my second reaction was "Well, it really does look like me...so maybe I am..." ;)

Anyway, I am just thrilled and honored to have this piece in my home. David and I went looking for a good frame for it over the weekend (he loves it too, Jane !) and we will hang it in the living room which we are in the process of sprucing up.

Thank you, thank you , thank you, Jane, for sharing your art with me and for making me feel beautiful.

You can find more of Jane's wonderful art work on her blog, the Painted Heart Studio.

***********************************

As I said above, it is a really rainy and grey day here today.

I am playing a little in the new journal.

But mostly feeling kind of grey and rainy myself...

Good tune for today...

Maybe I will brighten up tomorrow...

Spring Has Sprung - My Art Journal is Blooming

It is the first day of Spring !

How marvelous !

It is glorious here today.

Spring-y in very way.

I am happy to say that I have completed my "Journeys" Art Journal slide show and it is here for you to peruse.

Looking through it really makes me feel like my garden is blooming !

This is my third completed journal and most definitely, my favorite.

Some things I love about it...

The vibrant colors,

How much of the content is all my own,

The discovery of India ink,

How it shows how far of a journey I have made since I started it just over a year ago.

I guess these are like snapshots and postcards from my trip. :)

Enjoy the show !

**Edit - Here's a song I feel is like the soundtrack to the slide show...

Hope your garden is blooming too...

Happy Spring, Beautiful Ones !

GPP Street Team Crusade #38 - Grab A Tissue

So I am working on a slide show of my lasted art journal - March 2009 through March 2010. The thing is, creating a slide show is very time consuming and means lots of computer time. It is too beautiful and springy to be stuck doing anything too taxing ! I am making other art, getting out with some pals and soaking up the sweet sunshine as much as possible while I have lots of energy. This spring feels so good to me !

I did want to complete the black covers of my spiral book (from Barnes and Noble - Canson All-Media Book - beautiful watercolor type paper that takes a beating but looks gorgeous !). I decided to include a piece from within as the front cover. I framed it with bits and pieces of paper scraps.

The back cover has another scrap paper frame, a piece of fancy card stock and a photo of the artist...

I liked how they turned out but I definitely needed a title.

I have also been wanting to try out the fun challenge that Michelle Ward proposed in her GPP Street Team Crusade this month - "Grab a Tissue".

I have played with tissue paper before - especially using it to add texture to a page - the wrinkles can be great. Michelle changed things up though and encouraged us to paint on the tissue paper.

It doesn't really matter what color you are using for this part as the first step is to add some gesso to the paper. This is best done as dry as possible as the tissue or course tears and bunches when wet in any way. I has this dark burgundy paper and gave it a thin coat of white gesso with a dry brush.

After it was dry, I went to town with the painting techniques. I dry brushed, rubber stamped, used stencils with acrylic paint and a make up sponge, etc...again all trying to keep it relatively dry.

This shot doesn't do the paper justice ! The tissue holds the paint beautifully and has this strong yet so flexible feel to it when the acrylics and gesso dry. I like that it is thin enough to add to any collage and not stick up off the page in spite of multiple layers of paint.

Michelle used this great rubber stamp alphabet to stamp on her painted tissue papers, and creates gorgeous letters to serve as titles on her pages. Most of my alphabets were too dainty or small for that but I did use my favorite alphabet stencil and a make up sponge to create some letters.

(sorry for the lousy color in this shot too - it was too sunny in the studio ! ;) )

Then I cut them out, added them to black rectangles of card stock...

and added them to my cover page on the front...

and on the back...

I think the tissue paper letters were just what I needed to finish the pages off.

I am now working in my new journal - feels strange to have so many blank pages to fill. I have lots of other wonderful pieces of tissue that will serve me well in the new book too, I am sure !

Today is another beautiful Spring day in NH. In the mid to high 60's and sunny ! Woo hoo ! I am off to take a drive down to Ikea in Stoughton, MA - about an hour and a half drive. My pal Sonia and I are sure to have fun on our Friday afternoon girl time.

I hope you have lots of play time scheduled too. Nothing better !

Happy Friday, Lovely Ones !

PS - Head over to the GPP Street Team Crusade page and see what other great things Michelle and the Crusaders are creating with toys and tissues ! Cheers, Crusaders !

Thankfulness Thursday - Spring !!!

Heard cousins of these guys honking away over my house this morning.

I ran outside to watch them fly noisily by.

What a treat !

So many wonderful treats in Spring time, aren't there ?

Part of me is having a hard time believing it is here already.

I was blessed with a relatively easy winter this year.

Both in terms of my mood, and in terms of the weather we had in NH.

But I have to say,

that on this Thankfulness Thursday,

March 18th, 2010,

I am so very grateful that Spring is here !

Bring on the green and the blooming !

Happy Springtime, Lovely Ones !

Hope good things are starting to bloom down your way too.

Some Final Art Journal Pages...

So I have all this inspiration floating around in my head as a result of my trip to Mexico.

But at the same time, I have just a few pages to finish for my present journal to be complete.

Somehow, the Mexico inspired stuff doesn't belong.

So for the past two days, I have been playing away to finish my journey in this gorgeous document.

Today, I finished !!!

I just have the covers left to complete but every page is filled to my satisfaction !

Here are some of the final pages...

You may remember this two page spread that I shared on a Thankfulness Thursday recently...

The second page is now complete...

Love the girl with the far away eyes...

(The kids sing the Rolling Stones on Idol tonight...we shall see what they do with that...)

And the next page started with some ochre Paint Puddles that had been sitting idle for a long time.

Today, I added some ink, some more lovely Golden Fluid acrylics and some imagination.

The end result became

a Prince and a Golden Goose.

(click on any of the images to enlarge)

I used some beautiful Lumiere Gold paint on the hair and body of the goose that unfortunately doesn't show in the photo very well.

Beware the Golden Goose ! ;)

And yesterday, in the pouring, pouring rain, these two fishes swam onto the very last page of the journal...

reminding me of my friend Corrine, amongst a few things...

Love the Tarot card book quote I included -

"Troubles are more imaginary than real."

So true...

And this page was one that I actually had started was back last September, at Squam,

in my friend and teacher, Judy Wise's class.

Yesterday I added a Prayer Pocket to it.

Been saying a lot of extra prayers for some good friends these days,

and Judy is one of them, as she faces some challenges with the grace and the life-loving force

that she is so full of...

Glued the pocket on...

Cut some prayer strips, wrote down my prayers, said them out loud to the universe

and placed them in the pocket for safe keeping ...

I will be working on the covers on my completed journal tomorrow as well as a slide show of some of the glorious stuff that I have created in there !

It blows me away that all of that art comes from me...

More from the Happy Artist Queen tomorrow or Thursday, Lovely Ones !

Vamonos a la Shopping !

So I have been settling my heart back into home.

David and I had a cozy reconnecting weekend, which feels just lovely.

I have to say that one of the many things I love about my husband his how he always encourages me to use the wings of my heart to fly and then provides the perfect space to land back home again...

This is the little giftie I got him in Playa Del Carmen to thank him for that.

And this is my own tin & mirror one to remind myself to use those wings too.

So hearts and wings were kind of the theme of my shopping trip to Playa Del Carmen with Nathalie and Suzanne during our trip.

We awoke to a cloudy day which was perfect for shopping. We took the 230 peso(20.00US)/30 minute taxi trip to the town from the hotel.

Playa Del Carmen is definitely geared to the tourist trade and the shopping on the 5th Avenue definitely is as well.

I ended up falling in love with this purse in our first shop!

I was happy to bring it home with me as my new spring bag - keeping the bright colors of Mexico with me as we go through the grey and blah of this spring rainy time...

While a lot of the prices and the tourist trap shops had us doing a lot more window shopping and looking than real spending, I loved the sights in this Mexican town.

This art was above the store where I bought my purse.

I got some good shots of the mannequin angel that I want to play with and add to my collage images.

There were some shops with some amazing art in them but most were way out of my price range. So fun too look at though...

How about $1000.00 US for Converse sneakers - hand painted by an amazing Mexican artist ?

Too beautiful to play hoops in, I think!!!

So while I only spent money on a few little trinkets for myself and for David, I did so enjoy photographing all around me in the Playa Del Carmen streets.

As my momma always tells me, it sure does pay to look up...

(A little Buddha Zen thrown in for good measure I guess?)

A shot for those who know how much I love frogs - NOT!

True window shopping - see me in the reflection ?

Aren't these chairs in a restaurant that was closed down amazing ?

I actually topped off my shopping at the Cancun airport before we left, and that is where I got my cool Frida and Day of the Dead skeleton cards and my sweet funny clay mermaid. The little tin hand which you can actually slip a picture in behind the glass heart was another 5th Avenue find.

It was a fun day checking things out in the town. I would have like to have found a little more arty nooks but we were kind of limited with time, energy and knowledge that day.

It is all good because the things I did get make the perfect souvenirs for me !

__________________________________

So my lovelies...

I am itching to get back to some art making. I was so inspired by the colors and feelings in Mexico. I am hoping to get a lot of that out on paper in the next week or so. I did not do much art journaling during the trip. There were no tables on the beach where I could set up and that was definitely where I wanted to be !

So if you are wondering why I am a little quiet around here, know that I am happily playing around in the studio,

remembering sun and sand and turquoise water...

Have a great Monday, Lovely Ones...