What I've Learned, Week 10

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Back:

This week my technique is Photoshop and that's it. I learned so much in Kim Klassen's skinny-mini ecourse I tried to apply some of it to ideas I had. And of course, while I was stretching my brain on the technical side, I was learning all kinds of things about myself.

Friday Haiku

Last Tuesday's field trip

damn near killed me. No kidding.

Swear words needed here.

Wordless Wedneday

{Virtual Coffee}

If I was meeting you for coffee today, I would tell you I am rushed off my feet and running late. Tuesday mornings I go in to read with Riley's class and usually there are three parents there but I was flying solo today which meant I had the whole class for two hours instead of 45 minutes. Phew! I am exhausted and didn't have my coffee before I left. Yesterday in the mail I received a lovely gift of a handmade prayer shawl from Gail (whose link I don't have). I won this over at Kim Klassen's site awhile back but since Kim was looking for the Bodhi Chicken, it was delayed.

Isn't it lovely? I'm showing a detail of one of the shell-like beads on the edge. And it arrives at the perfect time of year as the mornings are much cooler at 5:00 a.m. without the sun yet up (who am I kidding, the sun isn't even up at 7:00 a.m. right now) and I felt quite cozy wrapped up in it while I sat on my zafu this morning.

I would tell you as I rush around trying to get done in an hour and a half what would normally take 3 or 4 hours, that the colors have been magnificent lately as the sun rises and sets, when it deigns to show it's face that is.

And Halloween was one crazy-ass day/night here with my mad scientist and I am not ashamed to say I am glad that THAT is done with for another 363 days.

One of the brilliant things Riley received in his trick or treat bag (no toothbrushes from our neighbor the dentist this year) was a tiny bottle of bubbles. It was great fun filling the living room with them last night even if it made for some slippery footwork this morning. It kind of made me think of summer.

Which is a good thing because the night BEFORE Halloween I opened the door and saw....

the dreaded four letter "s" word....

I gotta run but I wanted to share my pumpkin from this year, I sort of identify with it metaphorically and literally.

Can you believe I volunteered to go on the class field trip with 48 7-year olds? I really should have my head examined. If I don't surface again for a long time it's because I've been arrested after parents of my son's class have complained about me manhandling their kids (likely the parents that hoped their kids would get lost downtown).

Addendum: I almost forgot to link to Amy's site for more Virtual Coffee (although she might not be too happy being linked to in the same post as a reference to manhandling children and potential arrest).

Boo!

Dia de los muertos

Have you seen this beautiful and haunting video?

I came up against a bit of an anti-halloween spirit this week. It's hard to explain but it involved a parent in a group I actively participate in, objecting to the celebration of the macabre. She had her reasons, I listened. I also listened to my own spirit (for a change). I held certain ground, I didn't waffle. I let much be. A huge, HUGE lesson for me, well learned.

Many thanks for Connie at Dirty Footprints Studio for being who she is, all the while helping us to be ourselves. Thanks, Connie.

What I've Learned, Week 9

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Back:

The front is dry pastels, Pitt pens and collage from the collage sheet I made last week. The back is a photo with two of Kim Klassen's textures with text. The back reads, "I hope to reach a point in my life where I am able to be in a crowd and simply issue blessings to all life around me instead of feeling the annoyance, the judgment of people and my own inner judging voice".

This was inspired by a moment downtown a few weeks ago when I felt overwhelmed by the sheer presence of people wound up, bustling and shoving. I was transported back to the retreat I took in July studying with Penelope Smith and an experience we had as a group where we had all been given very personal and individual blessings by a soul incarnated in a cat. I remembered thinking what a gift it had been to be there, receive the blessing and wonder if I would ever be capable of that level of presence.

Dinner

What do mad scientists eat for dinner?

Mummies? Ninjas? Vampires? Or ladies in aprons and hairnets?

Stay tuned...

Wordless Wednesday

If it's Tuesday, it must be time for Virtual Coffee

If we were meeting for coffee this morning I would say "hi" and come on in, I'm spending the morning in the studio.

Last night I was the only taker to walk the dog because it was rainy. The light was so beautiful outside though, it was a bit foggy and just so orange-y; must be the reflection from the leaves on the ground. I had to get my camera and go back outside to try to capture the right shade.

Then I spread out the leaves Riley and I have been picking for a school project. I was thinking how each is so very beautiful in its own way.

Over at Amy's Lucky 13 place, the theme today continues to be Halloween. She's wondering what everyone's favorite Halloween candy is (she says she buys hers at the last minute so they don't eat it all which I say, is the whole point - to get to gorge on your favorite stuff). My favorite is the SweetTart rockets.

Oh my. I usually eat so many of them I get sores in my mouth. My least favorite are those molasses Ste. Catherine ones that I used to throw away even before I got home. So imagine my surprise when iMan said they were one of HIS favorites and he proved it by buying a big bag of them.

Oh now look, I've gone and finished my coffee already, I guess I had better get back to work. Thanks for stopping by.

What I've Learned, Week 8

Simple line drawing on sticky back canvas, inktense pencils, the back is collaged with gel pens.

Techniques this week

It's been a couple of weeks of play for me. I've been watching the Skinny-Mini photoshop videos by Kim Klassen, experimenting with that wonderful program, learning where some useful tools are. Here is a shot of a few mini pinecones I've fiddled with:

And yesterday I made a collage sheet, not my first but my first with butcher paper gifted to me by the Queen of Arts last summer. You end up with a nice flexible sheet, easier for cutting up and the collage pieces lay a little flatter. I was thinking pink yesterday and just had a great time with it.

Friday Haiku

Ode to yoga class:

Downward dog, happy baby,

sun salutations.

Can I be grown up

about the tooters? Errr, just

breathe and smell the feet

A little Canadian humour

My niece first alerted me to this YouTube video on her Facebook page. And since I've recently - ahem - mentioned the Bieber haircut, I couldn't resist posting the video. Maybe it's the cold, the language issues, the geese - I don't know - but it's all "ours".

Wordless Wednesday

Virtual Coffee

I've been reading Virtual Coffee at Lucky 13's place for awhile but I've never poured myself a cup. But today I'm inspired because we are talking Halloween and pumpkins. So if we were meeting for coffee today I would show you some photos I took last weekend from our trip to the pumpkin patch. First I would tell you how this guy scared the crap out of me when I filled the jug to water the houseplants.

Then I'd let you know that as pretty as the orange ones are, there are some ghoulish looking pumpkins as well.

And since it had rained like the dickens the day before, there was plenty of mud to go around whilst climbing the hay bales and lurking through the labyrinth.

There were a few unforgettable animal friends we made

and row upon row of trees to hug.

But right now I'm going to sit back and sip my iced mocha coffee and finish off that last raspberry sablette bought in the market store last Saturday.

Having a little fun

Is it just me, or is the comb-forward look, well...a little ridiculous. It's things like this that make me feel old, out of sync and moving backwards. Of course, it's just an illusion. So we decided to try to be hip and cool. May I introduce, Baby Bieber

and Bodhi Bieber

complete with our best rockstar sneers. Yup, it's our real hair.

What I've Learned, Week 7

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Back:

This was a new technique I had in mind for last week's card before the whole mask idea materialized. It comes from the Cloth, Paper, Scissors May/June issue using tissue paper to create texture. Acrylic, stamps, pens.

P.S. I forgot to mention that the back was done with text over one of Kim Klassen's textures.

Friday Haiku

Hormonal mood swings -

fasten your seatbelt and put

your air mask on first.

This is your pilot.

PMS has nothing on

peri-menopause.

Just in case you think

I'm kidding and are laughing

softly to yourself,

ask any woman

over the age of fifty.

If they don't agree

I will eat my hat.

But not before I've swung it

at your head. (bugger)

Wordless Wednesday

All NZ, all the time

I've mentioned my friend Sally here a few times. A dear friend who used to be my neighbour, we have boys the same age who went to the same school. She left last July to move back home to New Zealand, literally the other side of the world. So far we're managing to hold onto our friendship through technology and the good old fashioned post (thanks to her lone efforts). She recently sent me this astonishing koru for my birthday. It is made out of rose quartz and together with the Maori meaning of the koru is my current talisman for new life, growth, strength and peace. I am so very grateful for the people who bring these things into my life.

We also had this little e-discussion over the word, "bugger" which, apparently, is quite a popular expression in NZ. I grew up with not being able to utter the word (of course the adults in my childhood imagined a slightly different spelling of the word) for fear of dire punishment, whereas it is commonly said where Sally lives. She sent me this video that had me howling and convinced me that I had to experience this place for myself.

What I've Learned, Week 6

I started this week's card off intending to use a new technique from the May/June issue of Cloth, Paper Scissors but instead this came through with a life of its own. Collage on black gessoed card. The back is photoshopped text on a texture from Kim Klassen that reads, "How often I wear this mask that everything is alright when deep down inside it doesn't feel alright, none of it is alright. "Fake it until you make it, " is an adage that sometimes gets me through. And sometimes it doesn't. Aging isn't mellowing me the way I expected it might, instead it is making me more defiant to live as I believe."

Friday Haiku

Cutting back the mint

is more significant than

than simply chopping.

Garden fall clean up

means saying good-bye to warmth,

sun and lazy days.

So now that my mint

has finally invaded

the territory,

I'm finding it hard

to take the final blows that

will leave it but sticks

poking through the ground.

In my heart I know, no one

needs to remind me.

Wordless Wednesday

What I've Learned, Week 5

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Back:

Acrylics, collage and embellishments on sticky back canvas. No real new technique this week but I found that I was working bolder (for me) with the chosen materials.

Friday Haiku, the Friday Edition

Ate a falafel

for lunch yesterday. 'Nuf said,

my pipes are clean now.