a little something for the soul ...

Just listen and be refreshed ...







Thank you Effy for sharing this over on Wild Precious Studio. Head over and be inspired.

mandala madness

Please tell me I'm not the only one who wakes up full of energy, bursting with ideas of things to try, the day ripe with possibilities ...

... and then find myself leaning against the kitchen counter for a half hour, mindlessly shoveling animal crackers slathered in nutella into my mouth with nothing started.

At least they were organic animal crackers.

So it's been that kind of a day. In fairness to myself, the day began at 3:30 when a thunderstorm brought Cowgirl into our bed; an hour later I roused myself to carry her back to bed and at 7 am she shot herself out of bed Evel Knievel-like because today was Dads and Doughnuts at her school. (She enjoys my joke that the school had to use doughnuts to lure the dads inside.)

And that brief glimpse of sunshine? Gone with the dodo and it has been a soaker of a day.

this and the following page when done after watching Flowers are Fun and Decorative Leaf

But what I have been doing this past week - obsessively I might add - is playing with mandalas and doodles. I cannot get enough of them. I need practice to build my repertoire of forms and practice I am doing. I admit, I've browsed the zentangle and zendoodler sites and dabbled some but now I have a fever for the mandala and the only cure? More mandala!



















I'm liking the looser approach through watercolors, although the Pigma Micron pen drawings are very soothing and meditative to do. I love my pens so much, I even created a zipper case for them. How's that for love?








I did write my poem for the day - 12 days in a row! I promise to share some soon. In the meanwhile, I would love suggestions for poetry books for kids as I would love to instigate weekly poetry reading/writing sessions with Cowgirl this summer. Perhaps accompanied by some watercolor mandalas?

Monday Inspiration Celebration: my life in paint

Still buzzing from this:

"... there is a faith simply in the validity of art." (Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet)






Taking time off ... a random act of self-kindness ... packing up knapsack with paints, pads, pencils and pens, Poemcrazy (a gift from a goddess), new poem journal (can you see my gooseflesh?), apple, pbj, water and granola bar ... driving to the botanical gardens and getting lost for a few hours.
























Or was I found?

journal page following prompt from Wild Precious Studios (seriously folks, it is free to join and tons of goodness within ... come over and play!)

Living beneath words, watching for the signs, inspiration found in dreams








and in the middle of my path.








Signs were posted to beware aggressive turkeys as it is mating season; turkey symbolizes the realization that all is one, everything is sacred. Turkey represents giving selflessly because what we do for others, we do for ourselves. Turkey appearing can represent receiving a great gift or the impulse to share. So this amorous turkey was especially eager to bestow his gifts - a beautiful, art-filled day.

Yes, faith reaffirmed. And blessed and celebrated.

Monday Inspiration Celebration: or insanity?

I cannot begin to express how blown away I am by everyone's support and encouragement for my, ahem, little media experiment of last week. I am truly excited by the possibilities for deeper discussion and dialogue that video story telling holds (oh, okay - Vlogging! I vlogged. I'm okay with that!) I know I have already have thoughts for another session jotted down in my book, so I think I will be doing some future pieces. Definitely a Friday kind of event.

I find it thrilling to learn so many of us are Fred and Ginger fans! Here I thought our common link was creative self-exploration, but maybe the glue that binds us is a desire to find the ballroom moment in the everyday? (I now remember my first public-ish video was me dancing for my Unraveling course ... honestly, I am just now realizing the depths of my dancing dreams ... )

Okay, I am a bit scattered today, the result of a luxurious 4 hour coffee break with friends exploring some of the issues raised here last week. My mind is fudge at the moment. Not a whole lot of inspiration, but a dose of insanity?





Yes, the light blue ukulele finally arrived! (Ukuleles are apparently wildly popular - who knew? - and the music store cannot keep them in stock and this batch was delayed in arrived because of the tsunami. Not to belittle a horrific event, but crazy to see how it impacted my life via a much anticipated ukulele.)

Already I can tell ... we are going to love it. I know 3 chords and can already play All Together Now by the Beatles. Cowgirl rocks the chorus. She is more free form, but very intent. When I brought it out, she had her eyes closed and as I placed it in her hands her grin widened and she was giggling and immediately smitten when she finally opened her eyes.






So between the coffee and the ukulele, I haven't had time to do much here. I do want to share one huge HUGE inspiration ... the wonderful ning group run by divine Miss Effy Wild over in her Wild Precious Studio. There are several groups I immediately joined: one for art journaling and another for mandalas. Each one has a weekly prompts with videos and links, bringing together some of the best stuff out there and it is free people, yes free! Here is a piece I did over the weekend after watching one video:






Check it out. I spend one evening perusing the site and already have a beaucoup ideas for things I want to play with in my art journal (and I haven't even looked at the photography site yet! Be still my aging heart!)

Here is one video I saw before on making mandalas that is shared on Effy's site. Get a pen ready ... it is hypnotic:










So much more to share ... May Day celebrations, brownies made







clowns seen, the first farmer's market of the season ... guess I should watch the mandala video again and calm myself down ... I am also contemplating a 21 day power poetry writing class. What do you think? Should I leap?

Welcome May. I am so happy to have you finally here.