little magics...

good evening, or whatever time of day it is when you are reading this. :-)

i'm not even sure why i pulled up my page as i can barely keep my eyes open and it is only 7:56pm right now.  but i've been feeling a little alone today so i thought i'd come on and say hi and share a little that i've been up to this month.

i gave myself a couple of challenges for this month, since it is the shortest, but i'm not going to tell you what they are until march 1 so i can see if i keep them. i've had a habit in the past of self-sabotage by talking about something and then failing in it.

i know... the suspense must be killing you, right?  bwaahahaha! :-)

well, to tide you over, here are a few pictures of some things i've done during february.

meet "Sol" 

i finished this beauty today. i love her so much, there is just something about her face that gets me. 

next we have this lovely.  she gets to me to in a different way.

this is "feel your fire"

i think she was done on the 3rd of february after watching some news about the state of things here. ugh, but i do like her very much.

and last, for today, but not least is "laura's leo moon"

my art witchery for the full moon. it felt really good since leo is my moon sign. :-)

well, there's some art for you. a few things i've been keeping myself sane with. 

what little magics are you conjuring to save your sanity in an insane world?  i'd love to know.

thanks for sticking around, 

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

 

 

sometimes i follow along...

how does the time go by so very quickly?  i can't believe it has been 18 days since my last post.  i did not intend to be away that long.

but, i'm here now, so...

the photo is from my painting i did with Effy Wild in her almost weekly free YouTube series "Prayers to the Moon".  sometimes i follow along and sometimes i go my own way while we paint.  i am so easily distracted that i have trouble painting along.  anywho... at least i've been painting a little. (ps...the link will take you to her youtube channel)

there hasn't been a lot happening around here this month.  mostly just trying to stick to basics and figure out a few things.  

tomorrow is the aquarius new moon, an excellent time for intention setting. it's time to figure out what intentions i want to set for the future.

anyhoo, i just wanted to say hi! 

hope you are all doing okay.

thanks for stopping in to read...

love & magicks

~*~

 

 

finding a groove...

 

is it really only the 3rd?  oddly, it feels much later in the month than that to me.  i'm not certain why that is.

i did a little bit of everything on the 1st. cooking, reading, cleaning up.  i spent the evening in the studio, playing around with paint, an old prompt list and some music.  i completely LOVE her!  entirely inspired by Effy.  i learned the spirals in the hair from her and it is fabulous! 

i stepped outside today after a zoom meeting and a few hours arting, to find the sun trying to break the clouds.  it was stunning and reminded me of a cloudy full moon night.  yesterday was so cloudy and full of fog, it was nice to see that little bit of sunlight today.

i seem to be finding a groove right now. spending time making art, reading and getting house tending stuff done each day.  

how have your first few days been?

thanks for being here and reading along...

love, kisses & magical wishes...

~*~   

word of the year...

happy new year, my dears...

here we are, ready to move on from 2020 and explore the new calendar year.

my word of the year for 2021 came to me during a session of morning pages back in october.  i immediately thought it was perfect.  but, of course, as is typical with me, i started to overthink it.  i searched for a word that was similar and might work better. 

then i realized that i needed to stop second guessing myself.  it felt very important to listen and FOLLOW my intuition.

so, i did...

my word of the year for 2021 is ART.  

i'm scheduled to attend two art retreats this year.  this is highly unusual, but one is a reschedule from last year.  i am beyond hopeful that we will be in a position to attend in person events by the time they arrive.  One is in september and the other october. (fingers crossed...and toes and eyes and anything i can cross to let this happen!)

i also am participating in two year long art courses.  and there is another art retreat in my state that i'd like to attend.

so when the word art popped up as my word of the year, it fit.

above you can see, in the last photo, my handmade journal for my two online art courses (both with Effy Wild).  that will hold all my art related to anything effy.

the top photo is the last, i think, piece i did in my art journal from 2020.  i know i made that on the 15th of december and i don't think i did anymore art journaling after that. 

the middle photo shows my favorite night sky color combo.  i used them to create the painting on my planner/journal and art journal covers.

art...  i hope to make a lot of art.  not just the painting kind, but the stitching, knitting, cooking, writing, baking, exploring kind...

i'm looking forward to seeing what i create this year and how my arting grows and changes. and i hope to share that here with you.

now, tell me, did you chose a word for the year?   

thanks for being here and reading along...

love, kisses and magical wishes...

~*~ 

 

eventually...maybe...

it always amazes me how quickly the time goes by when i want to post.  i've been planning to post here several days and it just keeps getting lost in the day. 

but, now i'm here... 

there have been stunning sunsets and a few art journal days.  

there has been lots of little cleaning sprees and re-arranging of things to make room for other things.  i picked up a small poinsettia when i couldn't find a small table top tree i liked.  i just wasn't up to the whole decorating she-bang.  

there has been lots of little stitches on a secret project.  don't you just love when people say they are working on a secret project?  i always ask myself why, if it is a secret, mention it at all?  ha ha... oh well...

i plan to share it eventually...maybe...  :-)

friday i put on my brave and took an excursion to a newly discovered art supply store that is only about 10 minutes from my house.  it is an offshoot of the art supply store i've been driving 3 hours to shop at.

turns out they've been here for over a year... i was in heaven!  it was so easy to find and took no time to get there.  and they are all so nice and helpful! plus they have good discounts.  i still spent a lot, but that's okay.

i also managed to get myself a printer.  i haven't had one for over three years.  whenever i had anything that HAD to be printed, i'd email it to my neighbor and she'd print it out for me.  with the new year long art classes i'm taking this coming year, i'll need to print a whole lot of stuff.  so it was time.  i've already cleared out a spot to set it up.  

i'd been waiting until i had a proper desk, but i'm tired of waiting for that.

so, what have you all been up to?

thanks for reading...

love, kisses & magical wishes...

~*~
 

 

no truer words...

 

 

i found myself in my studio last night, playing with prompt listings from some of effy wild's journal jams from this summer.

it's been a long time since i've played with paint and paper.  i really had a wonderful time.

the top photo is my paint water after i finished the black and gold painting above.  i loved how the sparkles of the metallic gold paint shimmered in the water.

the blue painting is what came through today from another prompt list.  the words came to me when i was trying to figure out what it needed to finish it off.  

 ~ i may be broken but my pieces are all here - i can put myself together again

no truer words...

thanks for reading...

love, kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

slinging paint and grungy fingers...

around the end of september, tam from willowing arts hosted a free taster session for her upcoming lifebook 2021 art series.  i joined up and watched all the sessions.

above are the results of a few of the sessions that i really enjoyed.  i was pretty pleased with the results and had fun, which is the most important part to me.

i haven't actually made any art in a while, since not long after that workshop finished.  well, maybe that isn't true.  i did participate in inktober this year, but i didn't post the drawings anywhere.  i might share a few of them here later.

i do miss slinging paint around and getting my fingers grungy.  here's to hoping i can get myself in the studio soon...

 

do you participate in any online art classes?  i'd love to hear about them...

thanks for reading...

love, kisses & magical wishes...

~*~ 

 

creative a.d.d.

 

hello, i'm laura and i have creative a.d.d.

those photos are of aspects of six different projects i'm currently working on.

my creativity is constantly giving me ideas and inspiration and i have trouble saying not now.  i also have trouble with things i'm not used to doing (ie: learning new things) which is something i'm trying to change.

those six different projects, that's just the start.  there is also the gardening, the baking, the woodworking, the papier-mache, the clay sculpting, the sewing and more.

i know, if i could focus on just one thing at a time, i'd get a lot done.  these things were all started at various times, some as long as three years ago and the most recent was december 2019.

the photos above are all w.i.p.s. and i love them all.  i never know what i'm going to feel like working on or what my body/brain limits are going to be each day so it's good to have variety.  this week the sweater seems to have my attention, but while i'm knitting and purling there are all kinds of ideas stewing in my head about things i want to try.

i've been working my way through "The Artist's Way", a book about creative recovery by Julia Cameron.  one of the things i've found out about myself is that i'm terrified to try new things. so i set a goal for myself to try two new things (that i've never done/made/etc) each month.  last month was just one, i was more than halfway through the month when i set this goal, which was to learn to use my dehydrator.  i know, that doesn't seem like an art goal.  but for me it is, as it is trying something i was afraid to do.  (i don't know why i was afraid of my dehydrator, i'm also afraid to use my food processor, so...)

i had some moderate success with the dehydrator, and am ready to try again.

that's the point i'm trying to teach myself, to try...

so...creative a.d.d. and sometimes creative a.d.H.d. when an urge hits and i work on something non-stop until it is done.  it happens, occasionally.  

do you have any creative blocks? do you jump from thing to thing?  how do you approach trying something new?

thanks for stopping by for a read...

love & blessings

~*~

 

 

10 things...

 

 

-- it's a grey, cloudy, rainy day; and i love it...

-- it's cool enough i can open the windows and listen to the rain fall and birds sing, autumn holds my heart... 

-- studio time is filling my soul right now, art journaling and mushroom repair...

-- i'm thinking of turning last night's journal spread into canvas or board... i'd love to hang some hope on the wall...

-- i need to find a desk - my studio table is not an option and the LAPtop is just not cutting it... so if i can ever make myself hit the thrift/antique/barnsale/fleamarket gig again, a desk is top of my list (of course where the hell would i set it up, is another question, for another day) 

-- i re-read a few of my old blog posts, some of the most read ones...reading them i realized i'm a better writer than i've let myself believe

-- i'm tired.  no really, i'm T I R E D.  always...no matter how much/well my sleep is, or hydrated i am or anything, i'm always exhausted.  like falling in the floor exhausted.  i should probably look into that, but who do i ask?

-- i miss blog tea parties...(and i missed an opportunity for one a few weeks ago)

-- night strolls at dusk are my magic, right now...

-- the search is on for my dream home...which means i've got serious wanderlust happening... 

 

so...how are you?

thanks for stopping in for a read...

love & blessings

~*~ 

a little arting...

One of the things I've been doing over the past months is playing around in art journals.  

In late March, I came across a thing Effy Wild was doing.  She's been hosting live video art journaling sessions, where she creates journal spreads using prompts.  Effy is so fun and inspiring.  Watching videos of people creating art is very relaxing and enjoyable for me, so watching these live videos was fabulous.  It also inspired me to get back to creating and I've seen a marked improvement in my work. 

I first came across art journaling back in 2013 (I think).  I used to watch Suzi Blu videos and videos by A Magical Meliss.  (I sure miss watching them work.)

I had no idea what I was doing, but I just went for it.  I took an old hardcover writing book.  It wasn't really built for art journaling, but I've managed to make it work over the years.  

This is the first journal.  I have four or five others now so I don't work in the same one each time.
 
I thought today I'd share photos of a few of the pages I've created in this journal.

 Inspired from one of Effy Wild's Journal Jam prompts.

 From last July.

 The first page I did back on January 1, 2014. (That's me at age 3, I think.)

Another using the Effy Journal Jam prompts.

I can't remember when I did this one but I think it was before I found the Effy videos.

I really like this one.  I've made my own deck of prompt cards (using Effy's list of prompts) and have been having fun doing my own version of the journal jam.

This one is a favorite and I'm thinking of recreating it on canvas or wooden board.  
So these are a few of the things I've been working on.  I'm expecting some new art supplies to arrive later today.  I'm looking forward to playing around with them.

What have you been doing to keep yourself entertained during the lockdowns?

I hope you have a great weekend.
Thanks for stopping in for a read...

love & blessings
~*~

inspired by...

I've always loved mountains.  I grew up a few hours from the Blue Ridge and spent my childhood visiting every year.  The endless sweeps and drops of green and blue and gray.  So much beauty.

Now I have new mountains to admire and love.  All the rust, gold and tan with splotches of green.  So much beauty.

And inspiration...

The photos above are spreads in one of my art journals I did not long after my return from New Mexico.  

When I first returned, I was obsessed with painting an image that had formed from my flight home.

I call it Above the Clouds.  I'm not sure if I'll keep it this way or if it will go into my re-use stash.  At one point on the flight, I looked out the window and all I could see was the blue above and clouds below.  It seemed like that was all that existed.  

One of the New Mexico sights I've found inspiration from is Cerro Pedernal.  I already shared images that I made in our class project.  

This is Pedernal Weeps.  If I remember the story I heard correctly, the indigenous peoples of the area believed that the world was formed from that mountain.  I think the creators came from there.  I really wish I could remember the story I heard.  I've tried to google it and could find nothing.

Anyway, I'd done the painting and while I liked it, it just didn't seem finished. I remember waking in the middle of the night and going to the studio.  I took the closest matching acrylic inks I had and dripped along the sections.  I kept thinking, the world weeps because of all the chaos and terror in the world now.

I really like how it turned out.

Just before I left for that trip I was experiencing bouts of insomnia and ended up in the studio late night/early morning several times.  This acrylic and pastel is what came from those couldn't sleep sessions.

I call her The Guardian.  

I think this about wraps up my experience of New Mexico.  I'm going to have to find something else to share about.  :-)

I guess I need to go on another trip.  Or maybe just leave the house.  ;-)

What have you been up to lately?

Thanks for stopping in to read...
love & blessings
~*~

Let's go to New Mexico (part 3)...

Back to Ghost Ranch once again.  This time I want to share the art made during the trip.

Our project was a book, with a stitched cover.  The photo above is where I headed with my cover.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but the fabric is representative of the mountains with a heart shaped rock I found on one of my walks there.  I'm actually still working on my cover, so I can't show it yet.  Once I finish I'll post it.

Here is my book, put together.  The stitched piece will be glued over the current orange fabric.  The piece of paper will be incorporated somehow.  I used a burning tool to try to make it look branded.  

The inside cover and the pages all tied in.  There are several blank pages that I can still work with.  I want to get some of my photos printed to place inside.

On my initial walk around the area where I was staying, I found a couple of pieces of charcoal from a nearby firepit.  So I did a couple of sketches, the top is of chimney rocks and the bottom of pedernal.  (click to make the photo bigger)

This is a watercolor I did from my view from my room or pedernal.  

One of the pages of cyanotype papers.

An acrylic of pedernal.

An impressionist type of the mountains using milk paint and a tongue depressor.

This is a few of the things I brought back.  Some large rocks, a bag with small rocks and sticks, a bag of clay from the creek and a few art supplies I picked up at an art store in Santa Fe.

I think that's enough photos for now.  I'm sure I'll revisit and share once I finish putting the book together.  Most people would be done by now and I'm sure the majority of my classmates have long finished their books.  I tend to take things slow and I'm okay with that.  

Soon I'll share the art I've made since my return that was inspired by my time in New Mexico.  

Have you been on a trip that had a profound impact on you?  I'd love to hear about it.

thanks for stopping by, 
love & blessings
~*~