Friendships and doodles

Just a quick post today to share the link for my latest post over at Your Heart Makes A Difference and some photos of my latest journaling and travels.

My latest post on Your Heart Makes a Difference went live today so if you would like to read my musings about friendships pay a visit to this heart-centred blog.

For the last 2 weeks I was camping near the beach,

a beautiful relaxing time to regroup, to gather my thoughts about the year ahead and reconnect with one of my greatest loves, the ocean.

I took a small kit of art supplies and a couple of journals with me. I found a great little plastic box with a handle and it perfectly housed my pots of twinkling h20's, small bottles of gesso and white paint, paint pens, pencils and black pens and an old store card.

This was the perfect place for me to get back to my doodling, an activity that you can pick up and put down at any time. You can spend minutes on each piece or play and doodle for hours.

With my limited art supplies I was also able to keep up with my Book of Days

as well as catching up with the Big Dreams, Small wonders ecourse that I am doing with Louise Gale.

How are you going with the courses and classes that you have signed up for this year?

As I listen to the rain falling heavily on my roof, I am reminded of the craziness of the weather at the moment and am so grateful that we are all safe and sound and hope you are as well.

Namaste
Lee

Day 6 - Inspiration in nature

 I see texture and patterns in everything. It inspires me.

 Apart from capturing family and friends and important life happenings, it is a big reason why I rush to get out my phone to snap another photo. I do get some weird looks when I am honing in on a pattern that no one else has noticed and I just have to commit it to memory. I am often heard saying "oooh that would look fantastic as a background" "that would make a great painting" "hang on I just have to get a photo of that to use later on"  When you express yourself visually as in art, photography, etc I think you just see the world through different eyes and my favourite place to find inspiration is the beach. 

 

 All the texture of the water, the sand, the shells and the way that it changes from minute to minute, day to day. I could walk along here every day and find something different to inspire me.

  The beach is so calming to me but also it really focuses all your attention on mother nature and how grand and beautiful she is

 To be there absorbing the energy of gaia, mother earth; to breathe in the fresh clean air; to touch and feel the earth in it's untouched state - to me there is nothing better. It is refreshing, cleansing, grounding and so, so peaceful, yet so exhilarating.  

 Luckily my relatives all live near beautiful beaches and each year we take the caravan down to Anglesea, my favourite getaway place close to home. The call of the beach has always been with me. it is my favourite place to visit.

I love the beach, plain and simple, no if's or but's. I dream of living by the beach.

What do you prefer? The beach or inland?

Namaste

Lee

Book of Days update

Back again to finally show you some art...

While I was away last week, I did do a few pages in my Book of Days which I can show you now.  I am a bit behind in art journaling the pages but because I am also working through Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance I am writing it all down so I can refer to it later on. I am really enjoying this process as it stops me from sailing through each week unconscious of what is going on around me but also within me. If you feel like joining in, just visit Book of Days here.

This is a page with the challenge of doing a mosaic of some kind. As you know I love my spirals so this was the shape I first thought of. It expressed perfectly what I was feeling on the day, going within and listening to your inner voice instead of all the chatter that can sometimes send you off course.

  This was my first spread for the start of last week using crafters workshop stencil in the background (white sponged over the stencil on a blue background), glazing with various colours of Copic markers, white paint and punchinella, cut outs of thongs from a scrapbook paper collection, and a white signo pen for the writing.  

 As I had limited supplies, I actually used a few supplies that I don't normally use and it just shows how much you can do with very little. The background for this one was water soluble crayons, then white paint and punchinella and journaling with a black copic marker.

 This last page of the week was to celebrate my youngest sons 20th birthday 

(yes I did say 20 and this makes me feel.... ummmmm... well more advanced in age than I was last year lol).  I am not saying 'old' because I think that it is all in the mind but it did make me pause - in a good way :)

The background was Inktense pencils, a circle border stamp in Black Staz-on and journaling with a purple artline marker and white Signo pen.

The message on the right hand side describes how I was feeling after a lovely relaxing week away, realising that you don't need all the latest gizmos, the clutter of "stuff" and other distractions to make your life complete. Sure they can make it easier but I have found recently that they can also make it more stressful. The technology that was supposed to make our lives easier can often end up taking up more of our time as it gives us more and more things to do while we try to fit it into our already busy lives. 

Sometimes you just need to  

stop, breathe and listen to the stillness. 

Find a quiet retreat, even if for only a few hours and  

just "be". 

This is often when you realise just how much you have to be thankful for.

My quote today is the one I used on this spread.

"Who is content with nothing,

possesses all things."

Have a lovely day

Namaste

Lee

Nearly back from holiday mode

Just checking in while I get back into the swing on things from my holiday at the beach last week. My head is still relaxing in the sun so i would like to share a couple of photos of my week. 

So we were at a lovely beachfront caravan park in Anglesea.

 This was the view that greeted me as i wandered down to see if the tide was high or low....

 .....with my morning cup of tea.

we had lots of lovely beach walks with friends and family...

 drove a little way down the Great Ocean Road.....

 saw some spectacular coastline.....

 worked a bit in my Book Of Days journal.....

 more beach walks, swimming and catching waves on the boogie boards....

 and shared breakfast and afternoon tea with a little family of wrens that came and visited us each day at our campsite.

I did work in my Book of Days which I will share later in the week.
So you can see why I am taking a few days to get back into it. I am slowly working my way around to visiting my blogging friends. I am sure I have missed a bit so I can't wait to catch up with you soon.



Have a great week everyone

Namaste

Lee

Happy New Year

Tomorrow, while some in my household have to stay home and work, my youngest son and I are off on a little road trip to see my parents for a week. It will be a rather long drive of about 8 1/2 hours but we have been doing it for a long time now so with some great conversations and some great songs on the ipod Matt and I, will be there before we know it. 

I am taking my art journal and doodling journal so I hope that I can get some art in when I am not at the beach or relaxing spending time with my family.

Here is where I will be, on a beach near Ulladulla, so forgive me if I don't get back online for a week or so.

I thought I would  have a last collection of bags to show you before I go but between packing and taking down the Christmas tree and decorations, I have run out of time so I will show you when I get back. Promise it is my last lot for a while.

I wish you all a Happy New Year and I am looking forward to a great 2012. Please stay safe and have a great week.

Namaste

Lee

Back from the beach

 Hi everyone

I really appreciate all the really kind comments you are leaving, thanks for visiting.

Well I thought I would post when I got back from holidays before I went back to work but can someone tell me where last week went? It is over a week since I have been back and last week was a blur so here I am catching up. 

We took our camper down to a lovely seaside town called Anglesea where we stayed at the Anglesea Beachfront Caravan Park. We have had the same site for the last 3 years and I just love it. I'll show you a couple of holiday snaps and you will see why I can't wait to get back there.

 Every morning I enjoyed a nice hot cuppa 50 steps from our van......

 Each day we walked to the main beach at Anglesea for a swim and lay in the sun...

 the sites are huge so we have plenty of room to put our camper, annex and sun shade...

Each afternoon after a hard day at the beach and a walk we relaxed before dinner, my eReader, some nibbles and a wine - very relaxing.

 Here is the boatramp at high tide, where I sit with my cuppa and sketchbook...

It was so relaxing to sit here at sunrise and dusk.

While I was gazing a the ocean, I did a couple of doodles.

 I reflected on why I feel such a strong connection to the ocean and how it makes me feel.

 I have always felt drawn to the ocean and holidays by the sea rather than by a river, say, even though I love visiting scenic inland places, the ocean is just relaxing to me.

 

What about you, where do you prefer to holiday, by the ocean or inland?

Since I have been home I have been working on a couple of submissions to our annual art group conference so I haven't done anything in my art journal but I will share tomorrow a page I gave you a sneak peak of in my last post.

I had trouble picking my favourite ocean quote so here are three to share

“Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.”
- Robert Henri

“It’s hard for me to put into words why I like the beach so much. Everything about it is renewing for me, almost like therapy...Beach Therapy.”
- Amy Dykens

 

"I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought."

-Helen Keller

Have a great day

Namaste

Lee