A synchronistic moment

Well it has been a while my blogging buddies but an eventful few weeks for me so pour yourself a cuppa (or a nice glass of wine), pull up a chair and let me fill tell you all about it. I have missed your company.

Firstly let me show you some photos from my first art journaling class. 

It all went really well and I am  thrilled to say that next months class is already fully booked. I had a great group of really lovely ladies who were all willing to learn and have some fun, which we did. 

For the auspicious event I thought I would paint myself an apron. As you can see here it is all the colours(my favourite colours) and techniques from the class with a couple of extras. I am also happy to say that we will be doing this as a workshop early next year.

 

 I also made some bookmarks to give to my students.

So now for my synchronistic moment.... 

A week after my class I went to see my footy team play, the Sydney Swans. It was a semi final ahead of the grand final this weekend. 

I went with my girlfriend and her family and we had great seats on the boundary line so we were nice and close to the action. I took this photo as they ran through their banner before the start of the game. How good is the effect of the light in the photo? I was hoping it was a sign from above that we were going to win :)

 

Anyway, unfortunately the Swans lost the game and so it on to preparing for next year.

But I digress; during the game I somehow lost my watch that my husband gave me a couple of years ago. I have several old cheap watches in my bedside drawer but I always have seemed to loose my good watches. There were 55,000 people there at the game on Friday night so what were the chances?

Anyway, I rang the MCG lost property on Monday morning and low and behold some honest person had handed it in. You see it was not engraved so they could have easily pocketed it and no one would have been the wiser. 

Doesn't that reinforce your faith in honest, decent people in this world? 

Another point to give you shivers was that when I spoke to the guy in lost property he gave me an item number so that I could identify it when I went to pick it up. Guess what the numbers were? the last 4 digits of my home and mobile phone number. 

Now if that is not a message from the universe I don't know what is!

So I was going to show you what else I have been up to but I think I will leave you pondering that little synchronistic event. 

Have you had moments like these that have made you stop and think, that have made you stop and realise that we are all one, all connected?

 

I am supremely grateful to that person that handed my watch in and thought of others instead of themselves so I am passing on that good energy to one of my blog followers. 

Yes, I am having my first giveaway and I can't think of a better reason to do it.  I haven't decided what I am giving away yet but if you are up for a lucky dip  of goodies then leave a comment and I will draw the winner next Tuesday night.

I did do some journal pages this past couple of weeks so will be back in a couple of days to show you.

I hope you are having a great week

namaste 

Lee

Progress report

Hi everyone,

So nice to touch base with you again. It has been a while but I know you'll understand when you see what I have been up to. 

I want to say thankyou to everyone that comes and visits me, I am grateful for this lovely community where we share ideas, encouragement and dreams. 

I hope you are dreaming big today...

Here is a sneak peak at my studio so far. I have been busy sorting, buying containers and storing my things just where I want them. I didn't realise how much "stuff" I had until I went to put it all in one place, suffice to say that the local op shop will be getting a nice big donation from me soon after I have purged what I no longer need.  For now, it is all coming together. This weekend we put down the carpet and put my desk in and a few other bits and pieces.

Last weekend I was busy teaching my first batik watercolour on rice paper class. It was a long but enjoyable day with everyone finishing their paintings.

 We used Atelier Interactive paints because you can reactivate them much like watercolour paints so we had time to lift off colour or blend edges.

I have been playing around with this technique for a while but this is the first time I had taught it, so it was a bit of an experiment and I think it worked really well. We only had a small class which was good to start with and we all had fun waxing and painting and probably the only time I will say that I enjoyed ironing.

 here is what it looks like before we iron the wax off for the big reveal. A few people had heart attacks when i scrunched this up into a ball before laying it out.

Here is the finished piece.

 So no journal pages have been done but I have started a couple so it's not a total barren art wasteland. I tell you though I am over the sorting and moving things around, I just want to get into my studio space and start creating. More to do today so I had better crack the whip and get into it.

I hope you all are having a creative week. I have been trying to get around to visit everyone , there is so much creative inspiration out there at the moment I think I need 6 months off work just to try all the things I've seen.

My quote today is from the book by Deepak Chopra called "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" in the chapter - The law of Dharma or Purpose in Life. It goes like this

"Everyone has a purpose in life... a unique gift of talent to give to others.

And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals."

How can you help or give to someone today with the unique talents that you have been given?

Have a great weekend

Namaste 

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