Confessions of a Hoarder

Hi everyone
Thanks for your lovely comments over the last few posts. I really appreciate the time you take to stop by and visit. :)

After my doodle yesterday I went for a lovely walk in the freezing cold air and came across this flower. It was right in my path, just meant for me.

I love the bright orange and the petals are really shiny and soft. I think I will turn it into a painting one day. What do you think?


I have a confession to make. I am a clutterbug and hoarder.

Phew! there I said it out loud.

It is a time honored tradition passed down from my mother and I have been a "collector" since I was young.

I go through cycles but my husband, who is totally the opposite, keeps it from overtaking. At times I really hate it and then go through a de-clutter that honestly feels so good when I am finished - which is what I have been doing this week, bit by bit. 

I did get into my wardrobe yesterday and tidied up and gathered two bags of clothes to donate to the local op shop. Now that feels good.
Along the way I had a few fights with these...

  I also found a few things that I just can't let go of......yet

yes they are tap shoes from when I was 17

I also love my scarves and have them hanging on a towel rail so I can easily pick which one I want to wear.

 and ended up with this

 Now to my medicine man from yesterday. I did do a meditation to get some insights and I can tell you that after two foolscap pages of writing I had a lot of information including his name, where he lived, who he was and why he is with me now.


This morning I did another doodle. It was on a background that I did yesterday and thought it looked a bit flowery. So here it is.

..From this






















to this.....
 

I hope you all have a great weekend. I have run out of my internet download till the 10th so I will try to post from work next week. Thankfully I have upgraded my internet so this wont be a problem in the future. 

Here is one of my favourite quotes

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."
Henry Ward Beecher

Namaste

Lee

I'm still in my pyjamas at 11am!

Ok, Ok so I have taken this relaxing week off thing too far being in my pyjamas so late, but what the heck. I like doing things just cause I can!

Yesterday I didn't get any de-cluttering done, I had my dear friend (who is also my hairdresser) come and cut my hair while we solve the problems of the world (and our families). After that I rang my mum and caught up with her week (she is 800km away). An hour later I thought I had better do something so I did some background pages in my journal ready for any spurts of inspiration. I then had a physio appointment. By the time I got home from that I didn't feel like cooking so dear husband said "did you want to go Mexican for dinner?" Well you don't have to ask me twice and I was out the door quicker than he had time to say "What wine do you want to take?". After stuffing myself with chilli  and the obligatory chocolate desert (called Death by Chocolate) I rang my sister to catch up (she is 1500km away). Another hour and a half later it was bedtime.  So not very productive on the de-cluttering side but hey it will still be there tomorrow.

Well it is tomorrow and yes the clutter is still there but I can't miss listening to my favourite shows on Hayhouse radio so while listening to shows about dreams, astrology and enlightenment, I did this

Now, I started with the teardrops at the top so where did that face come from? Suddenly he just started appearing. Anyway I say him because I look at him and feel a medicine man. I think I will meditate on him later and see what he has to say.

I also booked in a day for myself in the city Friday next week. I want to go to the national Art Gallery of Victoria to see the European Masters Exhibition and also to go to the Melbourne museum to see the Titanic Artifacts exhibition. I have been looking forward to seeing both of these and hope to get some great photos of Melbourne city as well.

So the "plan" for today (notice i said plan in inverted commas, totally up for change LOL) is to declutter my wardrobe. I walked in there before to see what I would wear today and nearly got lost. Today I feel like I am in Jumanji and I need a safari suit and a compass to find my way through the jungle. So wish me luck. If I don't re-surface by tomorrow send someone to look for me please. Anna is coming on Friday for a art play day and I have to be back for then.

Till then I leave you with a thought for the day by Wayne W Dyer

"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way.”

I hope you enjoy each step today and dance like there is no one watching

Namaste
Lee

Doodle day

Well, you can tell I am at home on a weeks holiday at the moment.Why do these precious weeks off always go so fast? Each time I say to myself that I will be organised and will plan the week to fit as much in as possible. Well then life gets in the way - how dare it?!!
After seeing Anna's new kitchen yesterday it spurred me on to de-clutter a couple of cupboards so that everything doesn't fall out when you open the door and so that I can reach the saucepan I need without putting on a rope and workhat to go in and find it. It was good to cross that one off the list.


Today I just needed to do something creative, anything; so this is what I did before the day started in case I don't get to do anything else. A doodle, zentangle.

Now its about time I got off this computer and do something else on my list, maybe another cupboard or read a book that has been sitting on my bedside table for a month now. Well, I think you know which way I would like to go but better see if I can do both. First some sustenance, a coffee and a bit of chocy:)

My affirmation from today is from the dear Louise L Hay

"I am organised and productive. I have lots of energy, and I enjoy getting my life in order"

Have a great day everyone.
Namaste
Lee :)

Grand Final week - Take 2

Hi everyone

Well what a weekend it has been. I love my AFL and especially love watching the season's culmination which is the Grand Final. Even though my team was not playing it is still a great game to watch and Saturday's game was a nail biter, right down to the siren which signaled that it was a draw. Now in AFL only the Grand Final is replayed if it is a draw, that's the rule love it or hate it, so when it was over we didn't have a winner and we have to do it all over again next week. The good thing for me is that I have a very dear friend who was able to get two extra tickets and

I AM GOING TO THE GRAND FINAL!!! 

It will be my first ever grand final and probably my only chance of going to one unless I become a member in the future. To be in the crowd at the MCG at a normal game is great but to be at a sellout crowd of over 100,000 cheering fans will be awesome. The atmosphere is like nothing else ( oh the U2 concert came close) and it will be a day long remembered.

Anyway, i digress....

I received a lovely package in the mail late last week from Gina. You may remember from my last post that I had one a giveaway that Gina had on her blog and I was able to pick whatever I liked from her Etsy shop. I choose the green tree frog and shell stamp. 

I couldn't wait to try out the stamps so thought I would use them in my art journal. This is my first one and I hope you like it. These little frogs are well camouflaged in nature so I wanted to convey that in this layout. 

The prompt I choose what "What green means to me". The same colour can evoke so many different emotions in everyone from calm to irritating, cool to hot, happy to sad, exciting to dull, quiet to noisy. I think it can reveal a lot about your personality in the tone of the colour you use and the colours themselves. You can tell what sort of mood someone is in by the colours they choose to wear that day, further the colour you choose to wear can also then change the mood that you are in. I tend to go for bright colours but also love looking at pastels, I just don't seem to be able to paint soft colours - too heavy handed I guess.

anyway, here is the progress of my two pages

I want to thank Gina for her generosity and I hope I have done your stamp justice. As soon as I have used the shell stamp I will share.

Here is the quote for today

 comes from one of my favourite authors Cheryl Richardson

"Think BIG. There are unseen forces ready to support your dreams."

Hope you are having a great day.

Namaste

Lee 

Well, aren't I just the luckiest? Being grateful..

Wow, what a day of surprises. Yesterday i logged on as usual to visit with my friends here and as I clicked on Gina's blog I was thrilled to learn that I had one a gift on her last post. I just love visiting Gina everyday and seeing what she is up to.
I then clicked on Roseys blog and was again thrilled to learn that she had picked someone from her last post to receive a gift as well (me). I love catching up with Rosey via her blog and seeing all her lovely creations.
Thankyou girls for your generosity:)

When I signed up for this blog, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know whether anyone would want to read what I had to say or be interested in what I do. I didn't know whether I had the time to keep up with it every day, but now I find it is the perfect way to start my day or spend my lunch time at work. I have met so many lovely people, who have inspired me, made me think differently, made me look at things from a different angle and generally enriched my day.
So thankyou everyone for being here, I am grateful for being able to participate in sharing our thoughts, creativity, highs and lows.


By the way there is another giveaway happening so be sure to visit Carin's blog to join in on the fun.

Now for the first picture of my little projects I hinted at in my last post. Well done Serena on guessing the cupcake and pudding.

These are a couple of the pieces I will be teaching with another friend, Karen Brouwer, for our True Blue Christmas workshop and lunch - a Christmas Pudding and a Christmas Cupcake shelf sitters. Don't they look like great friends? I have used Impasto Gel on the icing to make it more 3D and shiny although you can't really see it here. I would love to thank Paulette Itzstein for her idea of the shelf sitter. Teaching at our Christmas workshop is a voluntary thing which I love doing. Hopefully they will love doing these as well.
I have one more piece that I am working on and it is a design that Jamie Mills-Price did for our group which she has kindly given us permission to do as a workshop. She orginally did the design for our groups badges and we have adapted it to become another little mate for these two.

I hope you all have a great weekend

Namaste

Lee:)

Ready for the work week to end so the painting can start

I am so ready for my weekly day off tomorrow. 

 Friday is the one day in the week for me, when everyone else in the family is either at work, TAFE or school. It is my ME time. I like my 'day job' but art is my passion and when a girl has needs, well, a girl has needs and they have to be satisfied! 

I have so many ideas running around in my head that they just have to be put on some sort of surface, any surface; wood, paper, canvas...... I feel like a cat on a hot tin roof, my fingers are itching and each night this week I have had no chance to do anything arty... arghhh!!!

So here is a teaser of the things I am painting tomorrow for our True Blue Christmas workshop. 

Can you guess what they will become??

 

Well, till the next time...............

Namaste

Lee

Some new bookmarks and a painting in progress

Hi again, wow two posts in one day - i had better calm down a bit LOL.

Here is a painting that I started in a workshop on our True Blue conference a couple of weeks ago. Today I fiddled with it a bit but there is still a lot to go.
It was with an Aussie artist Kathy Van Ee. 

She is a fabulous artist and it is the second workshop I have done with her in the past couple of months. This workshop was a portrait study of a photo that Kathy supplied. It is done using Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue and White using the wipe out technique. I still have a lot of fine details and touching up to to but I was quite pleased with my first portrait painting. it really took me out of my comfort zone as I always say that I am not very good at faces but Kathy really made me see a face differently and she showed us how to pay attention to the little details that in the end make such a difference.

The first photo is the reference photo and step by step photos that Kathy supplied. the second photo is my painting.

 At the moment she has a rather large nose but Kathy said I have the shape correct so I have to adjust that. It also needs more highlights and just more detail. I also liked the way Kathy did her background. We just added odorless solvent to our oils on the brush and let it run. That was a bit scary and I had to stop myself from touching it till it had done its work but I really like the effect.

 ******************************

 I also made some bookmarks today while I was playing with background papers. They were adaptations of pages I made in my art journal a while ago. Here are the step by step photos

The paper was first painted in stips of Napthol Crimson, Brilliant Magenta and Orange. Sprayed with water and swiped with a credit card. I also pressed over the page with  a daisy patterned paper towel.

1.This is using the end of a cardboard roll dipped in white to stamp.

2.Then I glazed over the stamping with Clear Glaze and Brilliant Magenta and Napthol Crimson

3. Next I used a favourite daisy stamp

4. Here is the stamp. I also used a heart shape brush scrubber as a stamp too with Yellow Deep. They are the yellow dots.

5. Here it is finished with some liner work in Yellow Deep and Pale Gold.

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

My next one was with the same background colours but with a different stamp and detailing.

1. a paper stencil for the background pattern

2. This is the background sponged with pale gold

An oriental writing stamp

The stamp was random all over using up the ink each time before restamping.

Added a Peace stamp

The finished page.

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

The next one was with Pthalo Blue, Prussian Blue and Diox Purple

Background three colours blended together

Stamped Iridescent Violet with bubble wrap

Used a swirly flourish stamp randomly all over

after the bubble wrap and stamping

then used a birdie stamp set with Pale Gold paint

Finished page.

I have cut them up into bookmark size and tomorrow will write some quotes on the back and laminate them.

Time for a nice long meditation, dinner and then on to painting some Christmas decorations that I will be teaching with a friend at our True Blue Christmas Breakup.

Have a great weekend everyone
Namaste
Lee

I love my crystals!

Hi Everyone
I hope you are all safe and having a creative week.
I am about to start painting but thought you may like to see what else I dabble in.
At our True Blue Conference we have a champagne shopping night where we sell our wares. I started beaded a while back because i love my crystals and the metaphysical properties of them and decided to make something that I could have with me if I wasn't wearing my chip bracelets. As you can see here, I love my crystal bracelets...

Hence, i made some crystal bookmarks. These ones have crystal chips that correspond to each of the chakras . They come with an explanation of each crystal and what they are used for.

Here are some brooches I have made using crystals and charms. I have a lot of friends who like angels and together with a wide choice of crystals you can have a different colour to wear with each scarf. Here in Melbourne I wear a knitted scarf everyday and these are a cute addition. 

For our painting group I also made a few with silver charms on them. I found these nice paint palettes on line and thought it might be a nice touch for artistic types like us.

I also painted some angel brooches. I love angels and the serenity they convey. My friends husband kindly cut out these brooches and I painted them in Jo Sonja colours and painted Opal Dust on them to make them shine.

Well off to paint. It is raining cats and dogs outside, the wet washing is sitting waiting to go in the dryer  and my house looks like a laundry with the rest of the wet washing hanging on the clothes horse. I have said it before and I will say it again, I am grateful for the rain that will hopefully fill out depleted dams but gee am I ready for some sunshine and warmth.

Now where is that chocolate biscuit that is my habitual rainy day comfort food and a hot cup of coffee, but before I go

***********

Quote for today comes from Sonia Choquette from her book Your Heart's Desire.

"The greatest miracle in creating your Heart's Desire is that you will discover your own magnificence. Like a lantern, you will shine out in our dark world.  Your creation will be your reward. The realisation of your true self will be your gift to the world...

Laugh, Play, Create."

**********

Are you all being true to your own creative self today? Are you making time to Laugh, Play and Create?

Namaste

Lee

Still here

I am on a short break at work so thought i would just check in with everyone after such a wild weekend weather wise. Here in Melbourne, Saturday night was a sleepless night with gale force winds and heavy rain keeping us on our toes. We were serenaded all night by the crash bang of things in neighbours yards falling over, the constant woosh of the wind on the pergola roof and the gusts of strong winds just as I was drifting off to sleep. We also had to do a couple of surveillance walks around to the house to check if everything was still in place outside and whether or not there was water coming in the house with the constant rain. I tell you what, I don't stand up too well anymore after sleepless nights and when the wind finally died down it was morning and all I wanted to do was curl up under the covers and sleep for a few more hours.

We have been in drought here with water restrictions for a lot of years now so rain is what we have been asking for - I just hope it is all running into the dams. I have also been sending prayers for the people in North East and North West Victoria that have been hardest hit by this weather with homes evacuated and towns completely under water. Together with the earthquake in Christchurch, NZ mother nature is just giving us a reminder that she is in charge.

Yesterday was Fathers Day and it was really nice to go out to a nice long lunch with my husband and our two sons. My father in law passed away a number of years ago and my father lives 800km away so it was just the four of us. A lazy day spent relaxing and paying tribute to our fathers; grateful to have had them in our lives and for all the things they have taught us and done for us. I am so grateful that my father taught me how to look after myself, how to do little handyman jobs and to be independent, oh and he finally has been able to teach me how to do cryptic crosswords after 40 years - thanks Dad xoxo.

I am also over my painting hiatus this past week and ready to get back into the swing of things.  I think I was just all painted out after last weekend. On Saturday I was  preparing for a workshop that I am helping out with a friend of mine. It is half done so will post a picture when it is finishes.

I have been so inspired by Kelly,  Rebecca, Rosey and Cindy that I need to get out my pens, paints and journals and just do something! These girls are truly inspirational.

I hope you are all dry, safe and well wherever you are and doing something creative today

Quote for today

"In order to hear your calling and answer it, you must generously give yourself the gift of time. It's not how fast you make your dream come true, but how steadily you pursue it."
- Sarah Ban Breathnach

Luv Lee:)

Grab a cuppa and join me, now where Do I Start?

Hi everyone, it has been a whirlwind two weeks since I last posted and I am finally coming back down to earth

First, I was at the Hayhouse I Can Do It conference in Sydney a couple of weekends ago and was part of the most inspirational, transformational, relaxing, entertaining and awesome weekend with about 3,000 other people. We were treated to 5 amazing speakers/authors who made us laugh, cry, think and overall inspired me to live a more authentic life.

Saturday began bright and early with us walking into the conference auditorium to the beautiful sounds of the didgeridoo. It is the most amazing sound and it instantly rose the vibration in the whole room and I will never tire hearing one played. If you ever get a chance to hear one live don't miss it.
We started our lectures with Dr Wayne Dyer on his farewell visit to Australia. What can I say but he was everything and more that I had expected from reading his books and listening to his CD's. He is called the father of inspiration and I would whole-heartedly agree with this. Such an amazing man.
In the afternoon Sonia Choquette ran an entertaining workshop that had us all up dancing and singing, letting go of our inhibitions and teaching us to live a spirited life. I just love her books and CD's and she is such a happy soul shining bright.
On Sunday our first speaker was Caroline Myss (who is my idol!) She is a fantastic lady and is so passionate about what she is talking about that you are mesmorised by her every word. She tells it like it is and her lecture was full of wisdom, humour and wit. Her books and CD's have inspired me to live less in your ego and pride and to strive to live more with grace, compassion and love. I can highly recommend her recent book, Defy Gravity.
After lunch we listened to Gregg Braden and his thoughts about 2012 amongst other things. Greg started out as a computer geologist and is now known as a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality. He was absolutely fascinating and really made you think about how each individual can really effect the global energy.
After Gregg we had a lecture/workshop with Dr Brian Weiss. He is a leader is past life regression and had us all doing a past life regression meditation during the lecture. It was amazing.

Sonia Choquette and me

Caroline Myss and Me

During the conference we had a chance to get our books signed and to meet our authors which I must say had me feeling like a school girl groupie at one stage but I collected myself long enough to have a coherent conversation with Caroline, Sonia and Brian and also had some photos taken.




Overall it was a weekend I will always remember.
I listen to Wayne, Caroline and Sonia on Hayhouse radio where they each have an hour long weekly show that I can tap into while I work so they seemed quite familiar by the time we met them. Of course, they didnt know me from a bar of soap (well, Caroline did recognise me from her Facebook page which was a bit of a thrill so we had a great conversation)I came home with an extra bag of books to read (the flight attendants just looked at me funny struggling to carry them on the plane) and a head buzzing.

On to last weekend......

I attended the True Blue Decorative Artists annual conference here in Melbourne of which I taught the two classes that I spoke about in my last post - the iris and the summer rose.


 I love teaching and I was grateful to firstly have people that wanted to do my classes and secondly to have such lovely students. I love seeing people learn new things and gaining pleasure from painting. 


First up was my Summer Rose class . It was only a small piece but there was a lot of technique and we all had the piece finished by the end of class. I used the Atelier Interactives paints and mediums for this one. If you haven't used these paints before they take a bit of getting used to how they work but once you have the feel of them you are OK. I love using them now together with the mediums they offer so much scope to try different things.
At the end everyone was happy with their paintings so it was a good start to the weekend.




On the Saturday was my 6 hour class teaching my Purple Iris. This was a more involved painting using Atelier Interactives paints.







 


The air conditioning played a bit of havoc with the paints and mediums so it took a bit longer than anticipated but we all live close to each other so we are going to put the finishing touches to it one Saturday.








Saturday night we had our conference dinner and entertainment. We all had to dress up in the theme which was Baubles, Bangles and Beads. Everyone had a great night dancing and catching up with friends.

the three winners of our fancy dress - yes she does have a chandelier on her head!

Sunday was another day of painting but I was a student this time and I did a portrait study in oils with Cathy Van Ee. I haven't finished it yet or photographed it yet so will put it up in the next post.

This weekend was a great weekend too and I just love getting together with friends and having a whole weekend just doing what I love without distractions.

Anyway, I just looked at the time and realise that I will be late for work today so back to the grindstone.

Ah well we have to come back to earth some time don't we, even it is just to earn enough money so we can indulge in our passions.  Till next post....

My little quote for today from Dr Wayne Dyer

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change"

Have a great day everyone
Namaste
Lee