Preserving sunshine…

Last week I bought this glorious sunshiny bouquet of sunflowers to grace my home when my dear friends Linda and Mike came for a visit.

This morning, the sunflowers were droopy, dropping petals and looking kind of sad.

Kind of like me after a sleep-less night of worrying about some peeps I love.

While my coffee was brewing, I went to my art stuff stored in the garage,

and brought out my Microfleur Flower Press.

I gathered the some of the petals off of the wilting sunflowers and arranged them on the press for drying.

About 40 seconds in the microwave and I had these beautiful bright yellow petals preserved.

Sunshine captured for later use in a collage or art piece of some kind.

Maybe a mandala with some other leafy bits from the past?

All the pieces carefully, lovingly,  preserved in the pages of some old books ready to be given another chance to be part of the beauty ?

The sleepless night and the process of preserving these sunshine petals this morning made me revisit some lessons I am learning

again

for what seems like the billionth time.

Worrying doesn’t change the outcome.

Focusing on the negative only brings more negative to you.

And of course,

Love is the answer to every question.

Going to focus on how love applies today.

Starting with myself !

Happy Thursday, Beautiful Ones !

Semi-Wordless Wednesday–Turning towards the Sun…

“Turning towards the Sun” – acrylic on 8X8” canvas

 

Happy Wednesday, Beautiful Ones !

I hope there is sun to turn toward in your neck of the woods.

Seaside Sunday…

So after the crazy April Fool’s Day snow, we got this magnificent day in the 50’s on Sunday.

It was very windy but I just felt the need to hit the beach and visit my favorite ocean.

One thing I love about North Beach in Hampton Beach, NH is that it is Rock Fairy heaven !

The rocks get rolled around by the waves at high tide and the sounds of it is like laughter.

Like the rocks are playing with the waves and laughing.

You can hear it her, in spite of the wind…

Sometimes, I make rock statues with the gorgeous smooth stones on my beach and leave them behind for the tide.

Yesterday, I continued with the angel making and left this on a huge cement block by the seawall.

I added a little Rock Fairy love to it as well.

It was almost high tide when I arrived at the beach,

which means that there is no sand to walk on on my rocky hang out.

That’s just fine though.

I was able to sit, breathe, listen to the rhythm of those magnificent waves playing with my rock friends and have some moments of peace that I can only get there.

That place fills me up.

It’s only fair that I leave a little bit of my love behind when I leave…

 

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

My Sunday morning also involved some art-making at home.

My postcards for the Postcard Swap hosted by Hanna are almost ready to go.

I really enjoyed working on them in the morning sunlight yesterday.

This is one that I really love :

I actually used bits from a colored photocopy of a page from my art journal from 2009.

I had made color copies of a lot of my pages for some class or something and never really used them until recently. It is really fun to use bits of your own work to create something new !

I recommend that you visit your local copying place with your journal and color copy some of your favorite pages. Then you can revisit and re-use stuff that is uniquely yours in other pieces !

I hope you have a great Monday, Beautiful Ones !

Big Love !

The Many Gifts of Friendship…

Yay, the sun is shining in the studio this morning and we have a new hibiscus to welcome !

I also welcomed my friend Suzanne on Sunday late afternoon.

She is here for most of the week, sharing her March break from teaching kindergarten in Montreal with me.

It is always a gift when Suzy comes.

One of my oldest friends,

whom I have been through so much with,

who gets me,

whom it is easy for me to spend time with.

Her friendship is a gift in my life.

She also came bearing some other sweet gifts.

Suzanne is a talented artist.

She works mostly in felting and textiles as well as stained glass.

And look what works of art became mine this week :

This gorgeous orange-y felt scarf that I admired around her neck and that became mine !

I call it my Patti Digh scarf as it looks like one my favorite writer sports often !

And this custom made for ME black silk scarf with beautiful bursts of orange, green and blue wool fibers !

I love them !!!

And I feel oh so glamorous as I don the black one to head out for our fun day of shopping, (art stores and wool stores of course !), ladies lunching and some time ay the bookstore perusing the pages over a nice yummy coffee of some kind !

So not too much art making today,

but lots of playing !

Yay !

Welcome to March, Beautiful Ones.

It is coming in beautifully here !

Enjoy !

Send Out Your Ray of Sunshine…

Happy Wednesday from all of us in the sunshiny Queen of Arts Studio !

A fine Friday afternoon...

Listening to this ...

Creating this....

art journal page - July 17, 2009

"The Sweet Space in Between"

Enjoying some extra Kindness from here - you can get yourself some too !

All in all, a fine Friday afternoon.

The space in between can be just where you need to BE sometimes...

Happy Friday, beautiful Ones !

More Summer Loving...

(Art Journal page - spring 2008 - Sonia & Kim Go to Camp)

So the sun shone here yesterday.

And it just may be here for the whole weekend.

We have still been stuck under the rain clouds for most of the month so when these days of summer happen, people flock outside and soak it up.

My friend Sonia and I thought about going to the beach. We thought about going somewhere by a lake or something.

But in the end, we chose the perfect setting to spend our Summer Afternoon together...

My Back Deck !

(back deck pre-summer of rain - May 2009)

(It was a lot sunnier yesterday ! ;) )

We had Blackberry Mojitos with sweet mint from my waterlogged garden. Ole !!!

We had a delicious lunch of greek salad, warm pita bread, stuffed vine leaves, salty greek olives and luscious tzatziki sauce.

We sat in the sun for a bit - it felt soooo good.

We chatted about life and how sweet it is, family and how complex it is and taking better care of ourselves, as challenging as it is...

Then we did a little beading project , which of course required a quick and chatty trip to the local craft store to find the perfect beads !

Shaded from the mid-summer sun by the umbrella, cool glasses of lemonade (after the mojitos) to refresh us, and with a gentle breeze that blew in just when you needed it, my friend and I had the perfect afternoon!

Ah, summer !

Ah, life !

Hope you get to take advantage of both today !

Hugs, beautiful Ones !

Eye on the Prize

The Queen is sooooo happy !

The sun is out for the 4th day in a row !!!

Do you know how good this feels ?

Gotta get out there so here is a short Monday post.

Just a few shots of some recent art journal pages.

"It is necessary to keep one's compass in one's eyes and not in one's hands,

for the hands execute but the eye judges" Michelangelo

I am working on keeping my compass in my eye right now...

Eye on the prize, so to speak...

Art journal page and details - July 6th, 2009

Collage elements from Stock photography book, and anatomy book images found on Flick'r,

background painted with Caran d'arche watercolor crayons, black Indian ink line work.

(Click to enlarge any of these photos)

"Pentimento" - art journal page, July 3rd, 2009,

bautched photo transfers, Caran d'Arche crayon background,

alphabet stamps from Michael's dollar bin for lettering on the bottom, Indian Ink details

Read the word on Patti Digh's site in one of her recent writings and had to look up the definition.

Always love to learn a new word.

Especially one that applies so well !

pentimento : the emergence of lines, images, etc. in a painting

that become visible as oil paints grow transparant with age,

thus revealing the artist's earlier ideas.



If it were not for my earlier ideas, I would not be where I am now.


Off to enjoy the here and now,

off to have my day in the sun...

Happy Monday, my Beautiful Friends !

Good Day...

YIP-EEEEE !

Play this loud if you have a sunny day too !

Off to enjoy the day !

BBQ at the Father-in-laws this afternoon,

kiddies and adults round the pool,

Sunshine,

blue skies,

breezy and in the high 70's !

Summer is here (I hope!) !

Enjoy your Sunday, beautiful Ones !