This week...

You should remember: Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. --Bill Nye

Fuzz brain

Always be a little kinder than necessary --J.M. Barrie

I was playing around with elmer's glue as a resist for watercolor. It's much more subtle than white crayon. And the glue tends to get tacky where the watercolor pools. It might work for relief on an image that you weren't going to do a lot of detail work on, but I think that I will stick with my white crayons.

As today's title suggests, I have fuzz brain. I feel like I'm trying to communicate through a layer of cotton. Maybe I need more sleep, maybe it's paint fumes--I'm repainting a dresser and the primer is very odiferous. 

I'm sure there was something else to share but it has slipped from my forebrain like a squirmy slimy fish. 

More later, loves!

Forget not!

Halloo!

Your quote for the week: 

Forget not that the Earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair --Khalil Gibran

I'm pretty sure that's from his work The Prophet. At any rate, he is a wonderful author if you are interested in poetry and/or spirituality.

And I really enjoy the phrase "forget not!" in lieu of "remember".

Also: GO OUTSIDE. The weather is beginning to tip towards fall. You can see it in the seed pods being created by flowers, the ripening apples and pears, the tiny acorns that are forming on the oak trees. Go look!  I'd like to say this is my favorite part of the year, but honestly I love all of the year and how you can see the seasons flow into each other. Well, all of the year with the exception of the very coldest winter days. This Thursday is Lammas, the first of three harvest festivals. There's an interesting article over on the Project Britain site that gives a little history. We will be celebrating with fresh baked bread and a walk around the neighborhood to look for signs of Fall approaching.

The weather here has been truly bizarre. I find myself reaching for blue jeans instead of my usual late-summer dresses. The benefits to the cooler temperatures are that it's easier to shoo the kids outside and we don't have to run the air. 

Last week I officially registered for my classes.Woohoo! I will be taking: Intro to Library and Information Science, Organization of Knowledge, Reference and Online Services, and Management of Library and Information Centers. I am anxious to start classes but I still have a month to wait. 

This week I am finishing up some art for a mail swap I am doing, trying to get my excessively loud car in at the mechanic's*, and working on a present for my sweet niece's first birthday. 

What are your plans for the week?

* Seriously, unnecessarily loud. It sounds like I am driving a fleet of motorcycles. 

For my next trick...

I seem to have lost my sense of fun, which is a giant load of crap. I love to laugh and to hear the people around me laugh, and I feel like there hasn't been nearly enough goofy silliness this summer.

I think it comes from having to make good choices for myself and two little people. As summer wears on, they get stir crazy and start making me wholly crazy. Constantly playing Jimminy Cricket has me wore out. 

This week's quote is a reminder to myself: do something goofy, weird, and altogether unexpected. 

I invite you to join me in my quest for mischief.

Bon Voyage...almost.

Here's your quote of the week! It's the first page in my art journal. 

I have my stuff packed, Fiona's stuff packed, and the instructions for the house sitter typed up.

I still have to pack for Adrian and clean the house.

Strangely I am struck with the desire to bake cookies instead of do any of that. 

If I can get the kids to cooperate (ha ha) I may be able to accomplish both my to do list and bake cookies.

Quote of the week

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. 

--Robert Louis Stevenson

BEST Monday ever

The Earth has music for those who listen

--Shakespeare

The weather is finally spring-like around here and I am spending many blissful hours outside. But that is not what makes this the BEST MONDAY EVER.

This is the best ever because today I found out that I was accepted to the graduate program. Starting this fall, I will be pursuing a masters degree in Library and Information Science. I am SUPER EXCITED. Today, I am enjoying the good news. Tomorrow, I will buckle down and get all the paperwork started--financial aid paperwork, health history paperwork, enrollment paperwork...and probably paperwork I don't know about yet. 

Oooh, I just love it when a plan comes together!

This week...

Your quote for the week:
Don't let them tame you
--Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) is considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. She believed that emotion and movement were connected and that you could communicate through movement . She drew inspiration from Ancient Greece, both in costuming and in the view that dance was a sacred art.

She was brave and unconventional. She was entirely herself.

This week...

It's spring break! For the kids, not for me (obviously). It was glorious to get up without an alarm clock this morning, slightly less glorious to realize that my ear hurts because I was doing that teeth-clenchy thing I do when I sleep. I was dreaming that our cat was stuck in a vending machine and I couldn't get him out. It was oddly stressful.
ANYWAY, the quote for this week comes to us from Arthur Ashe--an amazing man who left this life a wee bit too early. His legacy is in education and self-awareness.

This is my go-to quote whenever I am feeling overwhelmed. 

Happy Monday!

Art!

I'm trying to get into art journaling. It's a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I think I've worked so long with the goal of making a finished, stand-alone piece that the concept of putting all that time and energy into a page that will be hidden away seems foreign.
But I thought it would be a good place to record some of my travel experiences. So I'm going to keep at it.

March!

Throw your
Dreams into space
Like a kite,
And you do not
Know what it
Will bring back,
A new life,
A new friend,
A new love,
A new country.
--Anaïs Nin

I'm working. And recovering from what turned out to be a TMJ disorder. Apparently clenching your teeth is really bad for your jaw-joint. One side of my face was swollen--which left me feeling like a lop-sided hamster--and incredibly sore. It was decidedly unfun, and I don't think I will try it again.
I'm working on a painting inspired by Anaïs Nin (and after stumbling across a few more quotes of hers I would really like to read a biography); as well as my articles for this month at the Pagan Village, preparations for my mom's visit, crafting more items for consignment at locally owned shops, and learning about making herbal oils and incenses.
Today was a snow day for the kids--I have set a bowl out to catch as much as we can for the purposes of creating snow ice cream--and we spent the day in our PJs eating crêpes and getting ready for Grandma's visit. It was a pretty good way to spend the day. They got to go out and play in the snow for an hour before dinner, which worked out perfectly for everyone.

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Week

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases from being shared.
-- Buddha.

This week is Random Act of Kindness Week! I challenge you to do at least one random act every day. It doesn't have to be huge; you can open the door for a stranger, make sure the wild animals in your yard have water, send a greeting card in the mail to a loved one. It's the little things that can turn someone's whole day around.

In art news, I am in the process of finding a printer to convert my drawings and paintings into greeting cards and posters which I will sell locally, and eventually on Etsy.

What's going on in your neck of the woods?

DO SOMETHING

We are what we repeatedly do
--Aristotle

What do you do? When you're not busy surviving? When you have moments of uninterrupted time?
Do you read? Bake? Make soap? Knit? Do you compose operettas?
Please don't tell me you do NOTHING.

Life is full of amazing things to do, places to explore, and people to meet. Stop doing nothing and go do SOMETHING.

Take pictures, make a map, play with Legos, plan a trip, visit a new restaurant. The world is out there, waiting for you: go and meet her!

This will be the week...

Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see --Mark Twain

This will be the week that I will live in kindness. 

This will be the week that I will forgive myself for not accomplishing everything on the list.

This will be the week that I remember how many wonderful people I have in my life. 

To be inspired by the kindness of strangers, please visit I Believe In Strangers. It's a website dedicated to stories of kindness, and I'm not going to lie I was crying like a baby by story number 3. 

Creativity

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." -Maya Angelou

Have you ever started a project with an idea of the finished product, only to have the idea evolve and change as you work? This is a regular occurrence for me. When I was a teenager I found it infuriating. Now I roll with it. My brain and the universe have reached some kind of agreement wherein the universe provides a constant stream of inspiration and my brain mashes it all together and stirs it up and then provides me with what I need as I work.
The biggest, hardest lesson is this: if you don't work, the ideas don't come.

Quote of the week

Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have a fondness for Emerson. He was an American essayist and poet who was born in 1803 and died in 1882. He believed in the divinity of nature and the equality of all people. He influenced Whitman and Thoreau. If you want to read more of his work you can go here.

I had planned on spending this week outdoors doing outdoorsy things, but when I woke up this morning it was 12 degrees. If it can crawl above 20, I'll bundle up and brave the chill. I was hoping to introduce the kids to geocaching this week. I've looked and there are 3 caches within walking distance of the house. This is all part of my grand plan to spend more time outside with them. Lately we have gotten lazy and have spent more time indoors than I care to admit.

Quote of the Week

The body heals with play,
The mind heals with laughter,
And the spirit heals with joy.

Happy brand new week to you!
This week I am aiming for more play and more laughter. My kids are back in school after winter break (yay/boo!), my mother in law has come to visit (yay!), and I'm in tech rehearsals all week ( I'm assistant light designer, so there's note taking and cue fixing to be done). In short: 2013 has hit the ground running.

What are you up to this week?

Quote for the week, and a sketchbook peek

If your mind is attuned to Beauty,
You find Beauty in everything
--Jean Cooke

I'm once again studying birds. Probably it has to do with the way they all vanish for the months of December and January; leaving the dawn to arrive unheralded.

Happy Monday!

Quote of the week

Keep smiling,
Because life is a beautiful thing
And there's so much to smile about.
-Marilyn Monroe

Keep smiling!
It's hard to remember on days when laundry and dishes and sick kids make it impossible to sit down.
But life IS beautiful.
Today I'm finding beauty in the unseasonably warm weather, and in the smell of cookies wafting through the house.
Tomorrow (providing sick kids don't get sicker) I have a really fun and easy winter craft for you!

Quote of the Week

December is nearly here and in an effort to get on Santa's nice list the kids have been super helpful. Which works out to my advantage, so I don't mind at all.
We'll be coming up with a list of good deeds that are easy for the under-10 set, so look for that later in the week.
Have a good Monday, and be sweet!