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  🙂