Peace from within

Hello friends!

It’s mid-week and I thought it was time for another mandala from my little book of Wisdom Circles.

There is definitely something calming and centering about drawing mandalas.  If you have never tried it, give it a go.  You start from the centre point and you work your way out and around from that point.

A mandala is a map of your universe and of your life, its central point represents you, surrounded by the cosmic maelstrom that is the world you live in, the mandala is a joyful expression of your life and work.  Any time you can tune in to the universe it’s bound to be good for you.

Oooh I seem to have gone a bit deep and mystical with this post.

Have a good week my friends and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

 

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You don’t have to be perfect

Hello friends!

OK I am officially obsessed with the weather and it is still very, very cold here.  Fortunately we have not had snow again, but other parts of the country have.  It is however still very wintery and I don’t like it!

On Saturday I was going to do some work in the cemetery, recording inscriptions from memorials,  but it was just too cold and wet.  Instead I spent the day with my friends in the Learning Centre setting up display boards for our next exhibition.  It was an enjoyable day spent with lovely and enthusiastic people.  Even though we had the heating on all day, it never warmed up.  We had to keep our coats on all day!

This weekend I have had to download a copy of the history group‘s website to my external hard drive (because we are moving it to another host).  The website is so huge that it took from 7pm until nearly midnight on Saturday and from 7am till 6pm on Sunday.  I didn’t want to do anything else on my computer while it was downloading just incase it messed things up.  So I didn’t have time to post to my blog yesterday.  I spent the time preparing some more pages for a new art journal.  There is always a good side to things that seem a problem 🙂

On Saturday I went to the Library to see how registration for my workshop is going and was delighted to hear that there are only four spaces left.   It would be great if all 12 places were taken up, as I have prepared goody bags for 12 people.

The page above is the second page of my third Teesha Moore inspired journal.  As you can see another strange creature  popped up to join me on this page.  I have no idea where they come from but I suspect there are plenty more just waiting to materialise themselves as soon as I give them a chance 😉

Have a good week everyone and if you are in the UK I hope you are managing to keep warm.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

See the world through fresh eyes

Hello friends!

It’s the middle of the week and all is well here. It is officially the start of spring and we even had some sunshine 🙂  I have been enjoying myself at work which is somewhat surprising considering how boring and repetative my current job is.  This just helps to prove to me that being happy is definitely a choice I can make.   I hope life is being good to you too.

The page above is the front cover of my third Teesha inspired journal.  The journal was finished before I got the new Molotow pens to play with.  So how are the new pens?  They are lushious!   (I know that is now how it’s spelt but this spelling seems more appropriate to me).   I don’t know if the Molotow  are better than Sharpies or Uni Posca pens, but there are more choices of colours AND they are refillable so those are two points in their favour.  I just love pens of all kinds, it’s good to have a variety and selection and, personally, I don’t think it’s possible for me to have too many pens.

My exciting news is that I signed up for the Mermaid Circus an eight-week online workshop with Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport.  It starts in April and I’m looking forward to it immensely.  The workshop I did with Teesha at the Art Retreat last September was the best and I really would love to spend more time with her.  Teesha is not only a great artist but she is a beautiful,  lovely and generous soul.  It’s unlikely I shall be able to afford to get over to Seattle where Teesha lives so an online workshop is going to be the next best thing for me.  The workshop starts on Monday 8 April (that’s 20 days away) and  I am sure that it is going to be a good investment for me.

I made a little video of my completed 6×6 journal:

That’s all my news for now folks, see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

A completed journal :-)

Hello friends!

At last my 6 x 6 journal is finished.  I started it in August 2011 and completed it in February 2013, of course it was not the only thing I was doing during that time, but it is always so satisfying when a project is complete.   There are some pages in this journal that I don’t really like, but the whole, completed journal is quite lovely I think.

I have one more journal with a spiral binding that I have already started but from now on I am going to use journals without the spiral binding because I don’t really like how it disects the page.  I always cut that bit out when I post them on my blog, but that ugly bit in the middle is just not attractive.  So from now on it’s going to be altered books and handmade journals, several of which are already on the go 🙂

It’s raining again here (what a surprise!) and my plans for cleaning my car and taking Mum for a walk are ‘out of the window’.  Still on the positive side other projects are progressing.  My room needs tidying up again, but I just can’t seem to find the time for that.  Yesterday I cleaned the whole house apart from my room.  There are just too many distractions here, that’s the problem!

Anyway, I hope life is treating you well and filling you with joy.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Little things can make me so happy

Hello friends

We had snow on Monday and it’s been even colder than it was before.  The snow has gone now and the sun came out today which was lovely, but I’m still longing for some warmth.

Today the postman brought me a parcel of pure joy!  These pens are just so fabulous.  I had them delivered to my workplace and after I unpacked them I lined them up on my desk and excitedly showed them to everyone.  None of my colleagues could understand why I was so excited, but then I don’t understand why they are all so fascinated by the boring game of football.  I’m sure it’s a very good thing that we are all different and I’m glad to be the ‘odd one out’ in the office.  🙂

Short post tonight because we have to go out to a surprise 60th birthday party for a friend in a minute.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Madness

Hello friends!

Woo! What a good weekend I am having.  I’ve done loads of art – I’ve have four journal pages in various stages of completion to use in my workshop to demonstrate the process AND I’ve started a new (Teesha inspired) journal and have completed the collage, shading and outlining on four pages.  I love doing the collage but I really love doing all the penwork and lettering.  So let the fun begin 🙂

Yesterday I went to a friend’s 80th birthday party and that was great fun.  An afternoon spent in good company with excellent food and a fun quiz thrown in too!

Today is Mother’s Day in the UK so Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mums out there.  T and I are taking my Mum and Dad out for lunch.  We were intending to go for a walk afterwards, but I’ve just been outside and it is very cold again, probably too cold for Mum to want to walk.  In fact they have forecast snow for tomorrow here!  What is happening?  It’s March for goodness sake, winter is supposed to be over by now!

The page above is the front cover of my second ‘Teesha inspired’ journal.  Thanks to my friend Jeanette House over at One Little House I also found another source of inspiration for this type of art journaling – Sandra van der Geest who does fabulous work.  Check this out : http://youtu.be/LpKUCC5CNmg It makes me happy 🙂  Sandra also has a great blog here.

I hope you are keeping well and happy.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Mandala time :-)

Hello friends

I hope your week is going well, I am feeling really great.  Yesterday we had a sunny and WARM day!!!!!  It was fabulous!  Today it’s been overcast and dull (but dry) and this evening it started to rain again.  But that doesn’t matter because we had a whole day of sunshine yesterday.

Normally in February the small pond in our garden fills up with frogs for their mating season.  I mean it really fills up so there is barely room for them to move and the croaking sounds they make are fantastic, but this year there haven’t been so many, probably because it has been so cold.   However T reported today that while he was in the garden he saw three frogs and a toad making their way from the hedge to the pond.  If this carries on we will have to put the mesh cover over the pond again to protect the frogs from the cats.  Jack and Bill like nothing better than fishing the frogs out of the pond and playing with them.  The frogs of course don’t enjoy the game one bit.

I’ve just ordered some more pens (like I haven’t got enough already) and I can’t wait to try them out.  I’ll let you know when they arrive 🙂  These are supposed to be the last pens I buy before the workshop in April, that’s what I’m telling myself anyway.  Some people have already signed up for the workshop 🙂  It’s still 7 weeks away and I’m already getting excited!

The page above is page 3 of my Circles of Wisdom journal.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

An Invitation

Hello friends!

I am now fully committed to running my art journaling workshop and some people have even signed up for it!   It’s quite good that for my first attempt at this type of thing I can do it without charging as Ryde Arts Festival are going to pay me to do it.  In return for this I and the participants in the workshop are going to produce pages that will be temporarily bound into a book that will form part of an exhibition during Ryde Arts Festival week June 28 to July 7.  After that everyone gets to keep the pages they contribute.

I am getting on with my preparations for the workshop and I just have a few more pens to buy so there are enough for eveyone to use on the day.  That is an excellent excuse for me really as I LOVE buying pens 🙂

I hope your weekend has been good, mine has been fairly productive but I am still wishing for warmer weather.  Come on!  It’s March and time to warm up!

Have a good week.

Big love

AJ 🙂