the Sun is rising today!

After yesterday's blustery wet greyness..the SUN! has come out today!  Though the yard is still very wet...causing my Molly's feet to be encumbered with mud as she runs along the fence-line barking at the top of her lungs trying to engage the neighbor's dog, Lucky, into play...it is still a beautiful morning.  A bit nippy! (we went from 70s to 44 degrees today!) 

I spent many hours working on a new endeavor yesterday...I started an online course:  Letter Love by Joanne Sharpe  http://joannezsharpe.blogspot.com/

First things first...here's my practice notebook cover...

Then comes the alphabet practice..

and a little art with the alphabet...the bright colors are because my knee hurts and I didn't want to go downstairs to get new colors!

I get lost in the doodling and the making of the letters...it's a process that takes some concentration as I would like to find a way to make the letters cohesive (Outlining hides a multitude of sins I find!) and in the posting of these pics to the blog...I'm learning how to shoot, upload, publish, and arrange photos AS I learn to blog.  
It's a pretty big challenge for me as I'm feeling like I need to go back to school and learn about how to use a computer properly!  There's happiness in the learning and finally accomplishing the task!


Here's hoping you find an endeavor that gives you joy and opens doors to learning new things!

 

sometimes....yesterday is today.

Sometimes, the today we're in feels like the yesterday we experienced...

I went back to read the few posts on my little-used blog...and though the seasons are different, the feeling is pretty much the same.  This day is the mirror image: grey, overcast, wet sidewalks and grass dripping...The temperature has plummeted to cold from bright, sunny, springlike.  

I feel like I'm in a haze...

of spirit.  

Revisiting the yesterday blog reminds me of where I was...

where I wanted to be...

So I will do the thing that I need to do...

Go There.

The day is grey.  Overcast, pale grey, dull skyline. Oh, but how beautiful!  My spirit rises as the temperature cools.  A few leaves float in a zigzag path to their home on the parched thin blades of grass outside my backdoor.  I hardly notice the pain that seems to encompass my body...the constant ringing in my ears...my cloudy vision.

The television is playing an angst-ridden movie on motherhood in a big city.  My anxiety level is heightened, but I'm glued in place.  Unable to turn it off as I identify with the craziness of the main character having a meltdown on her way driving out of town, leaving her family behind.  A crisis.  As she screams a conversation over the cell phone with her husband relaying her plans, she whips the car back around at a harried pace as her youngest son is choking on a lollipop.

When she gets home, the child is fine.  She and her husband have a heart to heart...and he ends up asking:  "What would be a better life than you have right now?"  She's lost her voice, herself, through sacrifices and compromises she's made for her marriage, her children, her place in the neighborhood....He also asks:  "What do you really think?  Feel? ....what makes you want to live a life of passion, no matter how many socks you may have to pick up?"

......  Somehow, I haven't managed to find my joy for living every day with the expression of passion and eagerness....

There are so many blessings in the everyday things....I need to focus on them. 

I need to see with thankful eyes the beautiful and the mundane and feel gratitude and....joy!  Every day.

                                                       Posted by the Green Bee

DIY swap...I'm IN! .....or am I?

Okay...I pay my $$, I make my cards....I log onto Flickr and get my photos posted...but then when I try to get to the original blog post about the swap...I'm stumped!  There's some kinda glitch that won't allow me to see the blog where I can be inspired!  I can't get back to it!  

I can't get in!!  

I'm feeling very discouraged..

and sad...

I was on it! 

I made the postcards....

I painted....and pasted...

layered...

and wrote...

I mean I got Started!

                                                                

All of the lovely words..

and sentiments.. 

 

were good reminders of where I want to be

 right now.....

   If only I could 'get in'....

                                         

                                 

    I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall

  The brick wall..

Maybe it's the wall of China..

Hopefully, Not.

But here's the reality.

I go on a retreat.

I don't feel great, so there are a few times where I don't allow myself the time to spend getting to know some of the other people there.

I try.

I engage in what I felt was meaningful conversation.

Sometimes met with openness.

Sometimes met with reserved quietness.

Sometimes I feel invisible.

I don't want to feel empty.

I don't want to feel disconnected...

Yet, 

I'm still

alone.
and in that place I find I can still be 
Inspired.

Anyways...

I finished my cards!

I enjoyed the process of making them.

I'll keep trying to live the words I put down on the postcards.

Maybe I'll mail them to myself.

just sayin..

DIY Postcard Swap...

I am a 'Last Minute Lucy'....I've just signed up for a postcard swap on ihanna's blog:  http://www.ihanna.nu/blog/2012/02/diy-postcard-swap

I guess I like to work under pressure...it looks interesting and there are people from all over the world involved.  Lots of tutorials and ideas...I especially like the idea of recycling an old book into a binder for the postcards!  This will be a motivator! To get to work...to use up some old 'things':  supplies, recycled goods, vintage items, etc.  You still have time if you'd like to join!! Cut off for signing up is March 7th...$6 on paypal...a little work (10 postcards) yields some shared art!  

How do you spell Fun?  

Onward....