365 Days – January

Posted on February 2, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

Didn’t the first month of 2014 go quickly?

I completed the first mile-stone in my year long project [whew!] it was a challenge at times, but I’m getting more and more into the swing of it. What I have found especially interesting is to see where my attention goes in any given day – there is definitely a theme for the month.

I showed you the first 14 days here if you want to have another peek – and here is the rest of January’s cards – read them as you would a book and double click for enlarged views:

The second card with the sun celebrates the second sunny day of the year – the back has a note ‘two out of fourteen ain’t bad!’ a wry nod to Meatloaf. The inception of my ‘Choose Joy’ painting is noted, and my brother and other siblings carry the last three.

These next six begin with a reminder to keep my thoughts clear, continue with the painting and past memories and end with the gypsy making her entrance into my consciousness.

I kept peace for my brother, birthed the gypsy and created a new garden as January ended.

Just one month complete and I begin to wonder how big is this project going to get?

Here are some thoughts from looking at these cards this morning.

My brother’s health is ‘stable’ and I continue to hold him in my thoughts. It is such a wonderful thing to see that when we deal with our human mortality our instinct is to balance this with life. Over the years I have lost many loved ones and been at many funerals and noticed that the conversation often turns to birth – stories of birthing and new-borns for example – and have come to see that this is part of our grieving process, for life and death are so beautifully entwined. And here in January I see I have done the same thing, entwined as the month is with memories of siblings and aunts who were loved and lost, and who I felt draw near from time to time, while I grieved for lives cut short and unfulfilled potential, I birthed my own inner Gypsy [Narf7 gets full credit for her midwifery skills!] and ended by creating a new garden. 🙂

Life and death, life and death – being and becoming, experiencing and letting go, living and dying. We experience it every day in a hundred different ways yet only become fully conscious when it is our own mortality we are faced with. Personally I remain convinced it is just another door way we walk through, which unfortunately, once closed cannot be reopened for us to have another shot at this particular life. Which is why I also think it is really important to learn the lessons we are here to learn and to love one another. All the rest is rather unimportant and simply the means by which we learn [or do not learn] our lessons.

Right, down off my soap-box, things to do, lessons to be learnt and another day card to be created……

Thanks for coming by, I love that you did! 🙂

Choose Joy

Posted on January 23, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

Today was a trying day for me. My brother is very ill and in the final stages of cancer and for the past couple of days as I go about my daily doings, my thoughts are mostly with him. For those of you who read the first installment of my memoir and know some of my history, he is the one I call the memory keeper and I hold him sacred in my heart.

And, more mundanely, despite the fact that the whole world and his dog believes we are in the middle of summer, it was cold and it had rained overnight. The wind was howling and roaring over head in wild gusts. I didn’t sleep well and got up at 4 am to finish the latest painting.

Five hours later the last flower was in place, the last leaf embellished and the mantra written.

I’m in love with this painting! There is something quite magical about it and I am excited to share it.

So off I went to the photocopy shop with it. I get my mixed media paintings scanned and prints can then be made for my Etsy Shop. But today I was told “No!”

Whaddaya mean “No!” ??

Turns out that I have missed a vital piece of information and my painting is too big and too inflexible to be put through any of the copy machines. If it is bigger than an A3, it has to be on paper to go through the flat bed scanner…. Don’t ask, I don’t know why, or how they work. That appears to be the truth of the matter – I got the same answer in two different places so that is that.

No cards, no prints, no post-cards, no options, just the original.

Battling the cold howling wind and with no sleep to sustain me, I got a little tetchy with the world!

I came home and took some photographs, I propped her up in the corner and there she sits dancing happily urging me to ‘Choose Joy’.

Bah, Humbug! I said to her in my best Ebeneezer Scrooge voice.

I opened my email and ran my eye down the list, there was a post from the lovely Alys over at Gardening Nirvana.

I thought, that will be a nice wee visit to help cheer me up, and opened the link. Imagine my surprise to see one of my paintings looking back at me – and then I read her words ….. You can follow the link to see what I read.

All my grouchiness vanished in the twinkling of an eye. Wouldn’t yours? Who would elect to remain grouchy when it is so much more pleasant to feel that actually everything is just fine – it will all work out one way or another – it always does!

Thank you Alys for that beautiful testimonial – in one of those wonderful serendipitous moments that we both love so much, you turned the sun in my direction at the very time I needed it most . That does indeed make you a true friend!

So here is the latest whimsy girl. She is mixed media on a rigid canvas board measuring 35 x 46 cm. You can double click for an enlarged view.

And here she is again propped up in corner of the bookshelf

The wind has died down the sky is clearing and we just might get our fifth fine day for January tomorrow 🙂

There are more options, tomorrow I shall call some printing places and see if they can help me out – there will be a solution!

Thanks for coming by today, you know that I love that you did! 🙂

Falling Behind …

Posted on January 21, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

In the inimitable words of Bruce Springsteen and the Mighty, Mighty E-Street Band ….’If I should fall behind, wait for me’ this is the song my mind always goes to when I’m playing catch-up. I generally put the DVD on and enjoy the whole concert again – I so love Clarence and his wonderful saxophone!! I don’t think the band will be the same without him……

Having mentioned it – here ’tis, enjoy!

I’ve ever so slightly over extended myself and am deeply immersed in my latest mixed media – which is taking simply HOURS! Happy hours, but hours none-the-less.

I am two days behind on my daily cards and don’t want it to become any more – otherwise the spontaneity is lost and that was definitely not the point of doing this exercise!

One good thing about my definitely non-summer summer days is I can happily play inside. Though I hit the wall recently when I decided to use designer paper for my latest whimsy girl’s dress rather than paint and froze into indecision followed by prevarication for a couple of days but then, happily, if somewhat abruptly, sprang into action again.

Here is where we are up to I’ve just finished building her hair….. She’s worked on a canvas board which is quite big – 35 x 46 cm so everything takes a lot longer as it is bigger and more definitely there rather than just indicated – but so much fun!

I still have all the background bits to finish, and flowers and butterflies must be added too – and the mantra must be placed………. might be another couple of days before I’m back with the finished painting. 🙂

Thanks for coming by today, I’m happy that you did! 🙂

365 Words – A Beginning

Posted on January 15, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

My personal challenge this year is to make a small art piece every day and to record a word or short phrase that encapsulates some aspect of each day.

I didn’t actually decide to do this until 3 or 4 days into the New Year, so I started on the back foot. Which is a fairly typical place for me to start anything really.

I settled into work one afternoon and began by preparing a load of old defunct business cards. I taped two together, then another two, then another two, until I had about a months worth of daily cards.

I adhered some torn book pages to a few of the cards and then happily sploshed some paint around and got something happening colour-wise:

Here is what I had produced at the end of the first seven days of January:

These are the second 7 days:

I journal a bit more detail on the backs of the cards because I know that in six months time I will have no idea where my mojo had got to or why I was urging myself to ‘slow down’ …….. And why am I surprised that it is virtually impossible for me to stick to one word every day? If you’ve been tagging along for a while you will be well aware I am a woman of many words – how can I use just one or two words when sixteen or twenty give a more in depth and juicy image? 🙂

Here are a few individual days cards. This first one refers to how I felt the day after I had remembered to take the long view and see just what had been achieved and how I had been blessed in 2013……

Surely you know what this one refers to:

This one celebrates the life and memory of someone very dear to me still:

This was a happy day – the sun actually shone and we reveled in it – the next day it had gone again!

This is the latest one. One of my oldest friends blew into town – [I’m god-mother to their youngest daughter]. He turns up three or four times a year and we sometimes miss each other as he never thinks to actually give me prior warning. But this time it all worked out and he took me out for a meal. We teased the Italian waiter for leaving Sardinia to come to a place that Summer had deserted, ate probably the best fettucine and calamari I have ever tasted, drank good Otago chardonnay and finished with real Italian dessert – I had Tiramisu which had a party in my mouth and he had Chocolate Torte….. We watched the waves thundering and crashing against the sea wall and had a wonderful three hour long conversation that served our souls well.

So there we are – the first two weeks of January are gone already. In retrospect I realise I spent it dealing with technology issues, pining for my lost summer and being saved by charming men! 🙂 Happy Dance!!

Thank you for coming by today, I’m so happy that you did 🙂

Happy Mail

Posted on January 14, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

It’s a lovely thing to get unexpected gifts – and my life is rich in them at the moment.

Just prior to Christmas I received an email from another blogging friend Katyoparty over at ArtOutWithYourHeArtOut telling me she had a few spare gelatos and they were winging their way to me, along with ‘a few other bits’ she thought I might quite like.

If you aren’t an arty-crafty type, gelatos are a newish product somewhere between a pastel, a crayon and a paint. They come in something resembling a lip gloss tube, are richly pigmented, easily moved about with your finger and are water soluble. You can use them like a crayon, an oil pastel or watercolour paint. They are a lot of fun and in my part of the world anyway, exorbitantly expensive.

I was very excited – I didn’t have any gelatos and had never received ‘Happy Mail’ before.

The courier delivered a box to my door a few days ago. It was battered and beaten and torn open at the top – it looked as if it had been round the world twice and through a few storms along the way.

The first thing I saw was a beautiful wooden box – a cigar box, just perfect for altering.

And here is what was inside the box or packaged alongside it, all piled on the little table for my delighted eyes to feast in.

There is an array of flowers large and small, pretty papers, sundry embellishments, templates and masks……… and of course the gelatos.

Here is the pretty hand made card Katie sent and just peeking out from beside it is – I’m guessing – some of her own delightfully hand painted paper.

And here are more embellishments and masks and some die cut flowers and sundry bits and bobs:

It quite made my day! I sift through them as I go about my daily art task of recording a word a day – I’ll show you some of those in another day or two.

So, many happy thank yous to katieoparty – it was a real treat! Do check out her blog and her videos if you get a chance.

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did 🙂

Happy New Year Give-Away Winner

Posted on January 7, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

The coffee cup was emptied. Washed. Dried. Refilled with names on paper strips. And the winner of our latest giveaway – sponsored entirely by our Anonymous Lovely Person is

Alys over at Gardening Nirvana.

Congratulations Alys, at your leisure do have a scramble through the Etsy Store, make your choice and contact me [details on ‘Contact Me’ page] 🙂

*************

I just want to take a moment to reflect on being the recipient of unexpected gifts.

I think that life gives us gifts all the time, but often it is not really appreciated – I know for me this is absolutely true. It has taken me a life time to move to a place where I am aware, am open, am accepting and choose to practise acceptance of what is on a daily basis. To see life as a gift rather than a chore…… and to realise that what I want may not be actually on the list of things I need or can have.

I have some days when I say to myself, I’m not getting out of bed until I feel grateful for something – anything. Some days I stay a longer time in bed than I should 😉

And I know each day is made up friendly asides, fortuitous events and serendipitous meetings. I know there are countless occasions when disaster has been narrowly avoided and even more countless occasions when a smile or friendly word has made someones day better.

Yet when, out of the blue, someone does something genuinely kind, caring and generous for me I am utterly blown away – I feel a ‘yes’ move through me like a soft breeze of awakening, my heart opens and expands beyond my physical body, my lips curve in a smile, first of astonishment and then of joy. I feel a sense of wonder and elation. It settles and I feel a gentle ‘wow’ that fills my body. I notice that the negative voice becomes still.

I have paid attention to my physical and emotional response to this gift. I wonder if it is the same for you all?

I have always been the person who gave and this is the first time I have been given to – in this particular manner. It has made me really aware of what an amazing thing it is to receive an unexpected gift.

My dear anonymous donor did far more for me than make this give-away possible – it has been a really lovely experience! Thank you xoxo

Happy New Year and A Give-Away To Start Us Off!

Posted on January 1, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

January 1st 2014.

This cannot be – I think 1994 was just a couple of years back – who turned up the speed?

I finished yesterday with quiet introspection.

On a day to day basis it seems as if nothing much happens or changes and life just ticks along. If I want to get maudlin I could say none of my wishes have come to pass. But when I took a moment to step out of the forest in order to see the trees I saw a quite different vista.

I see that all my daily needs are easily met. I see that I have all I need and even some of what I want. I see I can meet my expenses every month. I see my friends and family. I see my neighbours. I see I started blogging. I see a community that has grown from that first unremembered step. I see I started painting again. I see I opened an Etsy Shop. I see I wrote 100 posts. I see I had a lot of fun. I see new laughter lines. I see that I love. I see that I am loved.

I see a vast landscape of serendipitous meetings, events and inspirations. And I remember to trust that no matter what I think I want, my life is happening even – as John Lennon said – while I am busy making other plans.

I see and I remember that I am a most fortunate person!

Look what I got in the mail yesterday

125 10.5 x 14 cm super shiny postcard sized prints from the good guys over at Vistaprint.

I ordered sticky back labels and business cards from them early in December and they arrived the day before we went off on our jaunt through Central Otago to Queenstown. [Click here for that post] I was really happy with the quality and the price. These postcards were an add on at a hugely reduced price and with free postage as a thank you for my order. At the time I thought why not – may as well give it a go – and it is absolutely a WOW!

The postcard size cuts off a bit of the original painting, which was purchased by the sweet Alys over at Gardening Nirvana on the day I opened my Etsy Store – which kind of made my year really – but I think she still looks kind of neat 🙂

I’ll be sending some of these out as freebies with every order I think. And I’ll get the others made up this way too – who knew my paintings could look so great? Tra-lu, Tra-lay, Oh happy day! 🙂

[NB:- It appears I’m giving up modesty for 2014]

Now lets get on with the business at hand.

The first Give Away for 2014

is a signed print of your choice from my Etsy Shop.

Now should you be a person who ticks one or any or all of the following:

A person who likes whimsical art
A person in need of something to put on their wall
A person who forgot to buy a gift for a female friend/relative recently
A person with a gift needed for a female friend/relative soon
A person who likes free stuff
A person who supports my attempts to become an artist
A person who has previously won a give-away before
A bloke

………..then please feel free to enter into this New Year Giveaway – entirely sponsored by an anonymous, generous, kind, loving, thoughtful, patron of a would-be artist and

Hit the ‘Like’ button on the Contented Crafter Page on FaceBook
Hit the ‘Follow’ button on the Contented Crafter Blog
Hit the ‘Leave A Comment’ on this post and leave a comment

If you already ‘Like’ and ‘Follow’ I know – and I love you for it, just leave a comment.

If you don’t ‘do’ FaceBook, I absolutely understand, just mention that fact in your comment.

If you have stumbled onto this post through my cunning ploy of naming and tagging ‘Give Away’ and ‘Free Stuff’ go check out my Etsy Shop The Contented Crafter for a full list of the prints you could choose from should your name be drawn.

That’s it folks. You have until midnight on Twelfth Night – 6th January – and the draw will be made the following morning. We shall continue the age old tradition of my coffee mug, having emptied it’s early morning contents of delicious hot coffee into my eager being, becoming the receptacle for your various names. I’m hoping the coffee cup will be full and the ‘Likes’ and ‘Follows’ will therefore be quadrupled………..Ah well , we must have a dream for it to come true 🙂

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂

Seasons Greetings One and All!

Posted on December 25, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

We got home from our road trip last night – utterly exhausted, but very happy!

We celebrated YD’s birthday in style

……with copious amounts of seafood and chardonnay and silly picture taking

And now it is Christmas morning and there is Champagne to be drunk and presents to open and more family time to be indulged in. The full story of our adventures must wait for another post.

Merry Christmas my friends, thanks for making these past nine months so much fun!

I love you all xoxo

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂

Joy – Part II

Posted on December 18, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

Despite all your lovely and generous comments on yesterday’s post, I felt my little birdie was crying out for something more and this morning I woke with another of my genius ideas – I could frame it – just to see how it looked.

I rummaged around in the magic cupboard and eventually emerged with a somewhat battered and grubby frame. I didn’t even stop to do more than give it a cursory wipe-over before popping in little Joyful birdie and voila

The frame measures 42 x 30 cm and the painting is 29.5 x 21 cm.

Oh Joy!! Tra-la!! Happy Dance!!!

Now she is completed!

What say you?

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂

Joy

Posted on December 17, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

I’ve been working on this piece for several days – it started as one thing and, as so often happens, morphed into another.

I am determined to continue in my practise of using colours that are not common to my palette – it’s good for me to stretch my wings… This one started off with red and orange, which should be fine as they are side by side on the colour wheel – but when the green came along that simply didn’t work so I morphed the orange into yellow in an attempt to lift the image.

Zing!!

I have developed a decided love/hate relationship with it!

I love my little birdie, I hate the composition! It’s messy and crowded and the bird is in the wrong place ………… I really need to develop a plan of action before I start drawing and painting and gluing random bits down ……. so much to learn!! 🙂

And it’s an awful photo – there is so much sparkle and texture that it seems to be impossible for the camera to get its act together. That shadow in the lower left corner is I believe my head. The floor of the conservatory is the best place to take photos – the sun was shining and it was close to midday……… Sigh!

I’m sounding decidedly grumpy to my own ears – but I’m not really – maybe the combination of red, yellow and green doesn’t agree with me – though it is decidedly summery 🙂

I shall get it scanned and see what I think about it then – maybe it might make a nice card….. or it may just end up in the art archives folder

Click on the image to get a bigger view, click again for detailed viewing.

Mixed media collage on A4 300gsm art paper.

Acrylic paint, papers, stamps, paint pen, gel pens, charcoal, pitt pens, gold metallic pen and Inca Gold paint. Heart punch by Sullivans and butterfly punch by Martha Stewart.

The original layer is two shades of red and some white acrylic paint. When dry I stamped with three different stamps and applied gesso through a template randomly. A third coat of thinned white paint was applied and wiped away while still wet to grunge it up a bit.

The bird was drawn freehand on lunch-wrap paper [deli paper to some of you], painted and then fussy cut and glued down to the substrate using gel medium. I stuck her down too far to the left.

The tree branches were also made originally on deli paper and attached to the substrate.

The flowers and leaves were all made from 200gsm paper which was painted and then dry embossed and punched out in two sizes using heart punches. When they were assembled and attached to the substrate I went in with pens and pencils and paints and gussied them up some.

When everything was in place I used charcoal and pitt pens to define edges and bring it all together.

What do you think?

When you look at it do you feel joy? Or do you, like me, sigh and think – oh, that could have been so nice! 🙂

Onwards ans upwards!!

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂