Nourishment

Today I started a new project. One I won't share until it's "completed," which could take a while. I suspect that, while I have a concept, and a process too, this will be an expressive evolution. This sort of suspense is such nourishment for me!

I "finished" the latest autumn art journal pages and this exercise has inspired some other creative ideas and expressions. More nourishment!

I made a really good dinner too!

Fun with Fall -n- Green

As the world fretted over falling green today, I made fun with much the same. It started with morning of autumn meditation and scribblings . . . 

. . . followed by a little layering . . . 

. . . gathering my dried fallen green . . .

. . . adding more layers . . . 

. . . and more . . . 

. . . and more to come. No doubt.

I have a knack of finding humor in heaviness . . . of finding light in darkness. And if I can't find it, I create it.

That's what I made today.

Little Peaces

In honor of the new Etsy Street team, PeaceNiks, I invested some time in artful, heartful meditation and created these . . . 

. . . one of them will be our Whimsy this Wednesday!

Down Time

After my class and apprentice time today I made down time for myself. Down time to put my leg up and quietly sip some warming tea. 

You see, I twisted my knee this morning. I twisted it pretty good too. It hurts likes a you-know-what-er. And I have a pretty high threshold for pain. The boy picked some comfrey leaf for me and I'm about to wrap my knee in green love. I have my Hypericum and Salix and other herbs to comfort me physically . . . and then some.

So, I'm gonna go care for myself now. Send me love!

On this beautiful rainy Freya's day I made time for a client and time with my herbs and time to prepare for tomorrow's classes.

I made this sweet little notebook by embellishing the covers with pages from an art magazine. I'm not done with it yet. Or maybe I am.

I made kuchen from absolute scratch and it is truly yummylicious!

I made a little peace. Well, started a little peace. Well, little peaces!

And there's homemade pizza with garden veggies in the works.

That's what I made today.

Layers

In between making love with my gardens, in my kitchen, and making a kind gesture or two I made layers . . .

Remember this one I started a bit back? You may have seen the first few layers.

I added paint and pen and more paint and more pen and a little gesso. 

And at least one more targeted layer of gold.

I wonder what I'll do with this next? Maybe let it rest.

Then I played with layers of crayon and acrylic paint. This was inspired by a blog post from Zom.

Then . . . fresh art journal pages give way to a layer of swirled gesso and three simple colors.

I doodled pen on top of that. 

I'm starting to see a palm tree and some wildlife.  Maybe even a boat? We shall see. We shall see.

I also made a kick-ass garden soup for dinner, complete with calendula flower petals. Yum!

Win a Whimsy Wednesday!

It's time to play again and this week I'm giving away not something I made, but rather something my spouse made: This sweet little autumn note card . . .

So just leave a comment - any comment at all - and you'll be entered in this week's silly whimsy game. I'll draw and announce the winner tomorrow morning.

Congratulations to this week's winner :

whimsicalpam 

of Whimsical Jewelry and Accessories! 

And thanks everyone - for playing!

A Goddess Gift

I made this new spirit cord.

I made her as part of the 31 Days of Halloween that Mrs. B is hosting at her blog during the entire month of October. There, you will have the opportunity to win this goddess spirit cord as well as other handcrafted items by talented artisans.

I think it will be great fun to follow her blog in October, don't you?

Note: For the sake of clarity, I purchased the goddess pendant and simply spun her into the cord.

This, That & Time for an Old Friend

I made this to express blessings of the season to my fine online friends!

I worked in the gardens, harvested eggplant, beans, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, celery, and ... shaman's berries. I played in my art journal and made another layer.

I wonder what I'll do next with these pages? The fun is playing with layers and seeing how that can work.

I made a lime-yogurt dip with fresh oregano and cilantro from the garden and a pasta frijole with fresh beans, tomatoes, celery, pepper, basil and oregano - also from the garden. And old friend that I rarely see is coming by soon with a bottle of cabernet and I have food ready for her. I'm sure we'll make loads of laughter!

Merry autumn to you all!

A Harvest of Peace

May all be happy.

May all be in peace.

May peace prevail on earth.

May all be happy.

May all be in peace.

May peace prevail on earth.

May all be happy.

May all be in peace.

May peace prevail on earth.

Shadow Shot

as inspired by

Hey Harriet.

(more later)

Art Journal Fun

I was a good girl today. I got lots of practical matters tended to early in the day and that afforded me some time to sit with two of my art journals. The spouse will be home soon and I have dinner prepped and a nice tomatillo salsa ready for Freya's Day happy hour. With that:

The "new" art journal, first pages ...

The chakra journal has some new pages prepped ...

... and one more started ...

Now ... Cheers!

My Entry ... An Image

OK ... I started a couple pages in that chakra journey art journal. And I had fun! Here's one of them:

Red chakra, pages 5-6 . . . 

I cracked up as this simple idea started to take form. Oh, I still laugh - right out loud - when I look at it. 

See - that's me at about 4 months. Until two years ago I had never seen any photos of myself prior to age two. My mom had a little photo album that was part of the package deal when she claimed me. Oh . . . my . . . what a journey!

Laughter IS good medicine!

Taking photos of shiny surfaces is a challenge that I hope to improve upon. In the meantime, these will have to do.

Sweetness, Peace & Focus

I'm spinning again. Spinning spirit cords, that is. I made three new spirit cords and have more on the way.

Hematite Horn

Glass Fish

Red Jasper

I'm creating  a goddess cord for an October give-away-a-day on another blog (more on that later). I have a few goddess pendants, so I'll be spinning those into cords. I have a "new" St. Jude pendant and a vintage St. Therese I want to work with as well. I have a few other purchased pendants and then on to my handcrafted "Impressions of Nature" pendants.

I love creating these cords. The simple act just puts me is such a sweet, peaceful and focused place. My prayer is that such verve touches whoever ends up with these cords. 

I'm making a bit of headway in that chakra journal too. 

Ashe.

Win a Whimsy Wednesday!

Arise! Arise to whimsy and the lure of chance and the siren song of lady luck. Arise!

This week I'm giving away one of my recent ACEOs (Art Cards, Editions and Originals). This one is called "Arise" and is drawn on 100# bristol board with Sharpie brand and other art pens. It's hand drawn and one of a kind.

To enter, just leave any ol' comment to this post as usual, or . . . join up to follow this blog as one my sweet curious friends. Either way - you'll be entered in this week's drawing. That goes for the already curious. That's right, if you're already among the curious then you're already entered!

So, leave a comment here - any comment at all - or join the curious and I'll draw and announce the winner Thursday morning.

~~~~~

And this week's winner is . . . Alison!

Congratulations Alison!!!

You can find Alison here on blogger at Dear Alison or on Etsy at Dear Alison. Visit her and give her some love! Thanks for playing everyone!

Lots

Today I made my way through lots of stuff. Not photo-worthy stuff, but bookkeeping, cleaning, rearranging and more organizing. And there's still more to do! Autumn is almost here in my little corner of the world, and I'm harnessing that still-lingering full moon verve before the curtain fully rises on the equinox and autumn waltzes to center stage.

I did make two new chokers for a custom order today. They're photo-worthy, eh?

That's what I made today.

Headway to Journey

I also finished prepping the pages of that chakra journey art journal that I started the other day. The cover, which can't be seen here, is prepped in greens and golds yet I suspect that it will see layers of paint and collage - much like the pages - before I stray from this particular path.

I was delighted and amused with the sweet comments about seeing the finished work . . . for that is sooooo not what this little project is about. Like life and most (all?) things in it, it is about the process . . . the path and the journey, and not the destination.

Ashe. Ashe.

Order and Chaos

I made order from various aspects of chaos today. I made a little chaos too! One of my herbal students showed up this morning for apprentice time. I was in the middle of several tasks, most centering around housekeeping and was completely unprepared for her. Even so, I had plenty at hand with which to put her to task, but she took the disjoint as a message from the universe to get a jump on the days errands and reschedule.

So I continued cleaning and tending to bills. Tomatoes were harvested and cooked down for sauce. Beans, squash, kale and onion all went into the first oven casserole of the season.

I made some updates and shifts of a techie nature.

I made three new Spirit Cords and listed them for sale.

That's mostly what I made today . . . 

Ferments

My lecture at Taste!Organic Connecticut today afforded me the sweet opportunity to make new acquaintances as well as small batches of brined carrots with shallots and garlic, sauerkraut with caraway seed and a lacto-fermented batch of kimchi. Now I make time to rest.

Preparations

Today I continued preparing a discarded children's book. I'm roughing and gessoing the pages to make them ready for whatever layering might strike me in this journey . . . 

. . . and applying primer color to each page . . . 
. . . to create an art journal - of sorts - that will convey some semblance of a personal chakra journey. 
I still have the purple-to-pearly "white" pages to prep, but I'm making progress. I'll be posting more on this art project as it progresses, so check in from time to time. 

I prepared for my food fermentation lecture and demonstration that I'm doing tomorrow at Taste!Organic Connecticut. Part of that preparation included making harvests from my gardens. Aren't these carrots just lovely? Oh, and tasty! 

I also needed radishes and green onions and grape leaves. The rest I procured at a local Farmer's Market today, where there was only one organic vender who received all of my business.

So today . . . I made preparations. That's what I made today.

A Note to Self

Something in the air (or was it the water?) got me thinking about Masaru Emoto’s amazing work demonstrating that molecular shifts do indeed occur simply through concentrated thought, intention, prayer, and the like. This is hardly news, or even surprising to me, yet I guess it  is—still—to some.

As I was pondering Mr. Emoto’s images and his process for making them manifest, I recalled something I had seen in the shop of this month’s Etsy Bloggers Street Team’s featured blogger, Joey and Aleethea . . . 

. . . and I thought to myself . . . perhaps this is what every child should be wearing.

 ~~~~~

Unfamiliar with the work of Masaru Emoto?
http://www.masaru-emoto.net/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccCsSXuMlLY
and then some . . . 

Garden Time & Woo Hoo

Among other things I made bundles of garden sage for drying.

I made laughter with my bean-eating canine. How silly is that?

I made more laughter with the one that got away - from me! Holy zucchini batman! 

I made to time to celebrate the receipt of my winning! See? I play blog give-aways too and I couldn't be more delighted to be on the receiving end of one of my favorite (heh heh) contemporary folk artists, Tascha of Time with Tascha. I love her work!

Woo Hoo!