My Gifts All The Way From Scotland

Back in December I signed up for Julie Gibbons year long program Mandala Magic. Then I won her giveaway of the class and two books on Mandalas. I have felt blessed indeed. My package of books and other gifts arrived last week.

This first one has line drawn mandala that you can color in your own way.  Some of them are quite intricate and beautiful. I am going to have hours and hours of fun coloring in these beauties.

The Mandala Source Book is fabulous, with 150 mandalas and narrative about each I know I will perusing through this book for some time.

This is called Two Trees From One Root.  I call it the tree mandala, I think its just beautiful. Then I discovered several other tree inspired Mandalas in the book. The book is broken down into three categories of mandala; Healing Nature and Other.

This one is called the Salmon of Knowledge. When I first saw it I thought Pisces since that is my astrological sign.



















I also received a few extra's, this beautiful card of Julie's art.

This are small reproduction of her art I think they are about 2 X 2".  What fun.

Then there was more wrapped in tissue paper, At first I thought this was a yak but on closer look a Hairy Coo from Scotland. Also got a tiny plaque that will hang in my studio. It says "What would you do if you knew you could not fail" What a great treat all of this was. Thank you Julie.

Jackson Hole Art Festival

When I found out that my friend Jessie Marianiello was going to be a vendor at the Jackson  HoleArt festival I had the perfect opportunity to meet her.  Dave was a willing participant so we planned to go to Jackson for the day.  Its only 100 miles away so it was easy to do.  We spent time at the festival and then headed to Grand Teton National Park for some awesome scenery.

Here we are in front of the most gorgeous painting of a horse.  I was mesmerized by its beauty. She told me the it was a wild horse.
















Here she is next to her beautiful painting. I think she really captures the horse's essence.

After visiting with Jessie for awhile we headed out to see the rest of the show.  I was surprised to run into another friend.  Judy Colvin sold me my first sheep Emily.  She now does nuno felting and became a milliner. She makes felted and straw hats and is a regular at the show.  I love wonderful surprises like that.

Here is what I came home with; a raven for my garden which is mostly weeds this year.  I think he looks quite at home.

You know meeting people on the internet and following their lives for years is quite its own reward but then meeting them in person is like icing on the cake. What a delight it was to meet Jessie.  Her paintings were even more beautiful in person. She is such an amazing talent. You can see her work on her website Stray Dog Arts.  Do yourself a favor and go look in her gallery she paints the most amazing dogs, cats and now horses too.

On The Road In Oregon

I just got back form a short trip to Eastern Oregon. We went to see the Great Gray Owl. They are the one of the biggest owls out there. We have only managed to see one once before. We heard about owls nesting in a certain area in Oregon so thought we'd give it a try and see if we could see some. It was hard to get pictures since you needed to be there are sundown.

 













Here is the female sitting in the nesting box.















Here she is looking up a little more.  At times you could see her moving around.  We never saw the babies.  Dave saw the male but I didn't as I had gone back to the car to warm up.  It was really cold and wet.

With several days of rain we also went exploring in La Grande and Pendelton.

I found this Aboriginal fabric at a great quilt shop in Pendelton.





















Of course I couldn't leave with just one fabric.
















I am attracted to color and pattern and always hope what I bring home will go with some of the fabrics in my stash.

I found a couple bead stores too and came home with a couple treasures. The ones on the left are silver, the celtic knot is stone and the feathers were more like bone.

I also got to meet Betty Boop herself.

This boot was all mosaic and each side was different. I saw it on the street in Pendelton. There were other painted boots but I like this one best.

One side was the cowboy and the other the Native American representing the two cultures in Pendelton.

I love the look and color of this facade, the artist in me had to take a picture. Next I went to the Pendelton Woolen Mill but I'll save those pictures for next time.

Prayer Flags For Friends

With two friends dealing with health crisis's I have been making prayer flags.  To make them I start with at least an 8 x8 piece of canvas and paint them with gesso. Then I made a simple drawing and started adding paint. My friend Connie has been dealing with a husbands illness so this flag was for the entire family.

After doing the first flag the second piece of canvas I had cut was just waiting for an idea. My friend Patty is fighting inflammatory breast cancer. She own a labyrinth and has prayer flags everywhere.  I don't know why I had not thought about making her a flag before.  She loves orange and this is a representation of her garage labyrinth. She also has a Chartes style labyrinth. If you are ever in Montana its a must to experience. Its called Red Sun Labyrinth.

Making prayer flags for friends is a simple thing that can make such a difference in someone's life.  They can add them to their yard or treat them like art and hang them in their home.  Its a great reminder that someone truly cares about them.

Do you know someone who could use a boost? Why not make them a prayer flag, I know they will love it.

Time for self

Sometimes I end up adding too much into my life and there comes a day when you think about those things that need doing and then you are really stressed out.  I try to stop before I get to that point. I often have to let go and step back a bit.  Take a little time to regroup and take a look at all the restraints I put on myself and really decide what is important and what is not.

I have been doing something called the Daily Challenge.  Today it said Take something off your To do List. So I took off the Fake Journal.  I am three days behind and just don't feel like putting the effort to getting back in the groove with it. I will still do it but not in the time frame of the group.

I also decided to skip my knitting group and take the dog for a walk.  I grabbed my ipod to listen to John Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go There You Are.  Its my favorite meditation Cd to listen to when I feel life spinning out of control. Its not a meditation but a book on tape.  The calmness of his voice and thought of meditating like a mountain or a lake always bring me back to the present, to that moment of stillness that I am craving.

One of the things I learned at the Writers Spa with Jennifer Louden a few years back was about conditions of satisfaction,  We were to decide what we wanted to get out of the retreat.  We set those conditions at the beginning and then we were also allowed to change them too.  I decided to also use that idea today. I had set a goal of having my next class ready by May 1st and have been scrambling to get things done. Yes its driving me nuts and putting extra stress on me that I do not need. So I am letting go of that date. Instead of pushing for it I decided to take it slow and just do what I can. If its not ready till June well that is ok too!

So I have had an interesting day because I have done nothing that I had really planned to do. It feels great too! Maybe that is what freedom is all about.

This is Fascinating

I have seen artists use CitrSolv or NevrDull on magazine images to make interesting backgrounds but this is the first time I have seen someone painting with it.  Take a look, its fascinating.  I bought some of this for a class a couple years ago but never really used it, I think it may be time to schedule a day to play with it.



 Another new thing to share is the Google Art Project which lets you go to many museums around the world and see their art.  You can really zoom in and make them big and you can make your own art collection. You could literally spend hours looking at the art.  It is fantastic and full of inspiration.

Musings in a Cafe

First I better acknowledge that my daughter gave me this award.  She blogs about writing here

As per being nominated, now I have to do stuff. Sigh.

1. Thank and link to the peep that nominated me.
2. Share seven things about myself.
3. Award some other cool bloggerly people.
4. Contact said bloggerly people and tell them that they're awesome

Well I have listed things about myself countless times but I will try for something new.

1. I have a kindle and just love using it to read books but I still love regular books too.

2. I started going to laughter yoga when it became available in my town and I really love it.

3. I just started feeding a stray orange cat whose living in my garage and decided to name him Colonel Mustard.

4.  I am a level 3 Reiki master.

5. I don't like the taste of coffee but I think it smells good.

6. My favorite tea is Ginger Peach.

7. I like going to cafe's to write.

I'd like to award this to Jolene of Pieces of Me.

and Lynn of Getting my Feet Wet  They are both amazing ladies that always inspire me and they have wonderful blogs.

Now on to the musing in a cafe,  I have gotten a lot done here today which is unusual for me.  Usually the net really takes me away from my planned work.  I have been working hard at getting things going on my  network. It  a little bit of a struggle starting something from nothing. I think immediately those doubts and negative thoughts pop in and you begin to wonder if you made the right choices in the first place.  When I started the network I really thought everyone I knew would sign up but found that  not to be the case.  Those who didn't had their reasons and they were very legitimate and I honor those decisions. Some  joined to show support and I am grateful for that.  I know they won't participate much and that is ok.  I  figured I would need to attract enough other people who really didn't know me to really make a go of it. Some of that has happened like I thought too, but its a slow process.

Then I swear people left and right started opening their own sites and people who never offered classes choose to do so.  You wonder if its worth it anymore.  Are there really enough people out there to take all the things that are offered online? With all that talent out there maybe you should not even try. But you've invested so much time and money already you can't give up yet. So you plug on through hoping you have something of value to offer and that someone out there really needs to hear it.

Its a funny journey we artists take. We have this dream and we jump in to make a go of it but it never really happens in the way we imagine. Then we have to nurture it because it is so easy to just give up at that first frustration. You wonder were you crazy to try this in the first place?  You gather your friends and they encourage once more and you keep at it.  Maybe that is all we can do, just keep at this artistic life, with all its ups and downs.

Tell me what do you think about your dreams?  How do you keep your focus where it needs to be?

The Kings Horse

I am in a Facebook Art Journaling group through Milliande's network and this was posted one day last week. I just loved it.







The story is called "The King's horse". It's about a cruel king who ruled his kingdom as he pleased.Everyone was afraid of him and he only loved his horse. It got sick and he ordered all of his servants to look after the horse, like it was his own son.He then orders them to take it to the countryside, for it may get better there. It dies and afraid for their lives, they ask a young,country girl to bring the news to the King, in exchange for 6 coins. They warn her that the King threatened to behead whoever told him that the horse is dead. She is received by the King and explains that the horse was very sick and could not eat, drink or even breathe. "So, it is dead!", says the King. "You said that it is dead, not I!" She saves her life by using her cleverness and with her 6 coins, she finally manages to buy the little house of her dreams. The End! Phew! :)

The translation cames from Palma Rea, one of the members of the group.  I hope you enjoy it!

I am Wellness

This is my last painting for Tam's class. I did an angel for good health.  My new mantra is I am wellness. I wanted green for the background because it is the color of healing but never liked the shade till the end.  The background was a real pain but I finally like it. This was a perfect example of never giving up. Keep working through your processes and eventually you will come out the other side. This piece using watercolor crayon and both types of golden acrylics, stamping and charcoal. I put spirals on her hands because its a personal symbol for me.

This class was a lot of fun. It made me rethink how we can use our art for our own healing and other stuff in our lives. I highly recommend it.

Announcing Many Lands Many Hands

I am happy to announce my artwork is finally published in a book.  I participated in a moleskine adventure on Gary Reef's ning site. We passed 4 moleskine Japanese fold journals around the world and a book was created from the experience.



If you are interested you can order the book here
Even if not you can look inside the book, the preview does not show my art but  my art is on the back cover, now how exciting is that.

Paper Dresses

In Missoula I walked down a street and saw this store with this wonderful display in the window.  All these dresses were made out of paper. The store was closed so I had to take my pictures from outside through the window so they are not the best but I wanted to share them anyways. There is a dress inside the store made of newspaper that is pretty cool too.  I had seen it the day before but I did  not have my camera with me.  The store is called Noteworthy sells stationary and has their own printing press where they make invitations. It was a fun place to see

The view from the front showing all 6 dresses.

Here is a closeup, those tiny figures are buffalo.

Another close up of one of the dresses.  They were all quite spectacular.


The other artsy thing I saw was this electrical box.

All four sides of it were painted with this beautiful scene.  Here are trees with tepee's in the background.

Once again another beautiful scene with the words Montana is a treasure.  Montana is known as the treasure state.

In this view it is similar to the other side but is still different.

















This last one says Missoula is Magical. I thought this was one of the most fun things to find just by walking down the street. Too bad other towns don't have art like this, it would brighten them up.