Sew Right!

Hello everyone! Look at what I did, I am sooo proud of myself for learning to make this bag and I enjoyed it so much. Look it has pockets too!

At first I must admit was a little apprehensive about sewing, even at school I never did well. But I love the whole idea of making things like bags, skirts and softies for myself and the kids. So now I feel with the limited knowledge I can go forth and learn more progress and have more crafty fun!

My next project in sewing might be a skirt!?

This bag is now my art bag, it has a charcoal, 2b, 4b, 6b, 8b pencils, water colours, brushes, sketch water colour pad and a journal. I take this to my art classes on Thursdays.

I am learning so much from Kim my teacher, she is fabulous and so energetic and inspiring, a real gem! So far we have been doing a lot of sketching and learning about value tone and colour, also a bit of dabling with water colours, next week we start with acrylics which I am excited about and then mixed media, can't wait!

Happy creating everyone, Angie :)

The Joy Diet - Nothing

Wow second week of "The Joy Diet", I have felt kind of rushed this week, kids are on school holidays, and I suppose this is the purpose of the book to allow myself to see that I need time to let myself be, to reconnect with my authentic self.
The goal for this week was to take 15 mins everyday of stillness, let the body relax and the mind find quiet from the chatter.
Before I began this challenge i had already been doing some meditation taught to me by my father, I was , and that is the operative word WAS, meditating for a while maybe 2-3 times a week, then as usual old habits creap in and one "forgets" to do it.
So I thought that to start again would be easy enough. But to be honest it took me much longer than 15mins, more like 30mins and I could only do this at night after the kiddies were asleep, to get to that place of quietness.
Once I got to that quiet place daily I felt better each day, calmer, fresher. Yet to get to the chair where I sit at night still feels like a struggle, I resist, and I ask myself why?
Has anyone else felt their body resisting?
I would rather be doing something else.....like my art!
That is my 'Amanpuri' my place of solitude, doing my art work in my artroom. When I am home alone and noone interupts me I feel so at peace and my mind is filled with silence.....But to get to this place has taken me a long time, to understand how important art is to me, even on those days when i don't feel like it, or don't feel good enough.
So I sit there and try to remember that feeling of creating, that familiar place, feels like coming home.

I did this journal page thinking about the book and what it meant to be doing "Nothing". It is like a sacred time, space, retreat from the rest of the world to reconnect with my soul. It was a fun page to put together, a first for me in collaging, will be doing more for sure.

Happy reading for next week and all the best in finding your one moment of truth! Angie oxox

It isn't too late to join this great group, link in the photo above to join in the fun!

"The Joy Diet"

I am so excited!

This week I started on a new venture, I joined Jamie Ridlers "Next Chapter" and the book being discussed is 'The Joy Diet' by Martha Beck.

I bought the book a few months ago but never got around to reading it. It feels almost serindipitous that the book being read is this one, and if you have read my last post I mentioned all these things that i have noticed happen, I am sure things like these happen all the time but I have been trying to look more, use my senses more, my awareness of my surroundings, feel more!

I have also started a gratitude journal to allow myself to see life more positive, even the small stuff, it all counts. I suppose to allow more joy in!

So this week we introduce the book and ourselves, then we start reading the first chapter about 'Nothing' and talk about how we can make more room for nothing in our lives and how this can positively effect us. And I must add with how I have been feeling these last few weeks, I can do with more joy in my life, a little boost of positive energy.

Heres' to new ventures in all our lives, let's step out of our confort zone and into something delicious and joyous!

Angie ox

Giddy Up!

So here I am back on the horse riding a slow trot towards the light.
Well apart from everyone been sick, one after the other this winter I feel totally exausted and needed the time to replenish...I really did feel like I had nothing to share and felt like my art had no where to go. After procrastinating and feeling sorry for my self, I realised how lucky I really am, I kind of had an Aha! moment.
Let me explain...My daughter who started kindy this year wasn't meant to get into kindy, the places were all filled up they told me when I desperately rang around, then a week later they rang back to say a spot was available. From kindy I met the teacher who's sister teaches art, and after some encouragement from my husband and friends, I am attending her art lessons once a week, and they are excellent! and I am very excited about the exibition where we all get to display our art work! (it makes it feel so reall)
Then other little things kept happening, like Jamie Ridler's next book, she is doing "The Joy Diet", and I had just bought this book recently through Amazon.(and I really need something like this at the moment, joy filled)
I met another mum through school who is organising an Art & Craft Fair and I put my hand up to help out maybe put up a stall?
So it all feels wonderful and positive, yet I still struggle with that gremlin at times and I feel myself shrinking back saying to myself, what have I got to give? Who am I?
But I am ignoring its voice for now and am trotting forward, onwards I go....

We have school holidays here for two weeks so it will give me more time to post and catch up with all you lovely people, I really have missed the interaction, blogging is such a positive and sharing environment....4 weeks seems like such a long time, how often do you post? Do you have particular days or randomly post when you feel the urge or inspiration?

Journal Pages

I am happy to say that this week I feel I have accomplished something positive!
I have finally started my journal pages. I am now no longer afraid of the blank page starring at me, I feel that now I can allow myself to let go of my fears and just paint, draw, and sketch, or what ever takes my fancy.
I must explain why this feels like such a big deal to me. For a while now I have felt paralised by the white canvas or page not knowing where or how to begin, but really being afraid of the whole outcome.
Being able to shed this skin has given me so much freedom and calm, I truly feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. The best thing about it is I don't care about he outcome of the work in my journals because the process itself has felt so liberating, a real letting go (which is one of the words I wrote in one of the journal pages). It was so satisfying to let the paint dribble or flick in what ever direction it went without having the self critic come out and create that negative feeling of never being good enough, or not creating enough, or painting like this or that artist.
"What ever!" I say. Let that creative muse out she will show you the way.....;)

Wanted to show you one of my his first pastel drawing in a long time, it was done last year, and it is of my first baby, he is our gorgeous chocolate labrodor who always takes care of us and if we are in any way upset he can tell and he will come and sit by you and lay his head on your lap as if to say, "It's O.K. ".

This is the first of hopefully many journal pages to come, the lay out was an inspiration from Ruby Claire from http://ruby-rox.blogspot.com, a young artist who lives in Sydney, found her on You Tube showing her great skills in Art journalling and Scrapbooking, go see her blog it is full of colour and brightness.
The pages are written in very small print, but they say:

"I sometime find it hard to TRUST in the process.Creating helps me. Making these journal pages allowed me to LET GO I could flick the paint and let it spill without knowing where it was going. But for some reason I knew and BELIEVED it would all workout. I felt a RELEASE from worries. I EMBRACED this great feeling and allowed myself to just BREATHE and enjoy the process."

Click to enlarge pictures and have a closer look. (loved working with gold paint)

This is my second journal page and it is a piece for the Creative Every Day art prompt, this months theme is MOVEMENT .

The bird is sitting on the tree as its feathers are being blown in the wind, but still the bird sits firm on his perch, knowing where he belongs and looking out into the future soon he will make his plunge into the sky.

Have a great weekend and hopefully creating away without abandon, Angie ox.

Do you display your art work?

I have joined a yahoo group of lovely ladies in the True North Arts with Kathryn Antyr, and they have been discussing 'Do you dispaly your art work?'.
For me this question became a profound one, it really got me thinking about my art work and how I perceive myself as an "artist".
The answer to the question in short is NO, I do not display my art work, and as I realised this I became curious with myself and wondered, why? Am I afraid of what others think? Am I not proud of my stuff? Will people judge me in some way from what they see?
Then I had an Ahaa! moment.... I understood why for so long I had struggled to get into making and creating, even when inside my head I had a constant voice telling me to make things to create, to let go!
Even to this day the voice talks to me," create, just get the paints out, you'll feel better"it says. And the voice is right, I always feel better, but yet I found it difficult to keep that creative rhythm, and the reason was that I was too stuck on the end result, on having this perfect image.
Today I realise the time that I have spent in fear of not making something right, I lost in making nothing.
So I have made a promise to myself in getting the paints out more often, in displaying my art work, and creating more often, in listening to that voice who never lets up!
Also lately I have been wearing some of my creations, scarves and jewellry I made a while back.
These are earings which I made a few months ago, but felt too big so I changed the shape and yes I wore them out a few times! :)

Still having fun with my concoctions of homemade things, thought I would share another homemade beauty tip, I make this often to exfoliate the face with.
Oat Face Scrub

• 1-2 tblsp oatmeal/rolled oats
  
• enough water to make a paste

Once you have a paste consistancy, mix in a small bowl using fingers to squish the oats up, scrub on a cleansed face for two minutes.(I sometimes leave on and shower away then at the end I will rinse off with warm water). Rinse and pat dry. Oats are soothing to skin and mildly cleanses.

Other ingredients which you can add oats are:

• tsp of lemon juice, not on sensitive skins!
  
• 1 drop of lavender essential oil
  
• tbsp full cream plain yoghurt
  
• tbsp raw honey

Going away to family for the weekend and will come back with some photos of mums new chooks! The girls have the job of naming all six of them and collecting some eggs for us to bring home....wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Angie ox

Friendships and Creative Spaces

The very first thing I would like to express is a great big thankyou to Hybid J for passing on the "WaterMelon 10 Award" , I believe that it is for people who blog and share their creative spirit on line, (even though of late I have been rather out of touch on the sharing).
So again THANK YOU and I would like to pass this torch on wards to 3 other gorgeous creative ladies:

• Beverly Baird from Bunny's Girl


• Tamarak from Tamarak's Table


• Cynthia from Under a Violet Moon

These ladies have shown me that as women we can be supportive of each other and inspiring too. So thank you girls for rocking my creative boat!!!

As part of the 'Self-portrait' art prompt this month in Creative Every Day I have been thinking about what things express who I am, what things in this world help define me, show my true colours. I wanted to show you my creative space where most of my work is done. (Often this space is also over taken by 2 smaller girls!) As you can see on the left side I have a sewing machine, given to me by mum 2 x-mas's ago, haven't used it yet. But have just bought some material to make a bag, that is why I have the machine out. I love fabrics and the textures of sewing, but have always been afraid to actually do it! I feel myself resisting to do it. But with baby steps, micro movements, I will make that bag. I have already cut the material ready for sewing, just need to iron the batting on.

Another thing I have been revisiting is Aromatherapy, before children I used to make my own bath salts, massage oils and face masks. Somehow in the busyness of life having moved 3 times since having children I kind of lost a part of me, kind of forgot stuff. (I made massage blends for the girls when they were babies but then I stopped)Here and now I am slowly remembering what is important and have started to make up some new recipes for me. I have a new motto, Natural is best, if you can't eat it its best not to apply it on your body. My first new cleanser I have been using at the moment is a sugar and olive oil scrub. I have oily skin but this seems to give my skin a glow, especially now as it is winter and the heaters are so drying.

So give this a try - 2tbls of brown soft sugar with 1tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and a drop of your favourite essential oil, I use bergamot. I do this in the shower and the aromas of the essential oil are sensational. When I started doing these homemade remedies I felt like it was such an indulgence. I was giving myself the time to care for myself and reconnect with my body, in winter I often feel like I hide my body under the layers of clothing and don't even look at it until summer comes!

Hope you all give yourselves time this weekend to reconnect with yourselves and indulge a little in some YOU time...

Angie ox