Hard week

I haven't posted for the last few days as we have had a few challenges in the last few weeks and a little sadness.   My husband lost a friend in a farming accident.  He was only 53 years old. My brother in law's niece lost her fight with meningitis on Tuesday, she was only 18 years old.  I have also been flat on my back in alot of pain.  I still don't know what caused the back problems.

Life makes changes for us for reasons. I think the reason I had this was to slow down and smell the roses a little more.  I have learned in the last few weeks

• Life is fragile enjoy every moment
• We don't know when our time will come to leave this earth use each day well
• Enjoy everything we are blessed with
• Don't waste time on uninportant trivialities
• Put relationships first in life
• Enjoy our families we don't know how long we will have with them
• Slow down and see each moment of our live
• Life will go on without us,  we are not indedispensible
• Look after ourself we only have one us! 
• live with a heart of gratitude
• Spend time not money
• Rest when possible

And always put people first,

ALWAYS.

Life

Life thoughts

Life is wonderful and other times it throws at you all sorts of things.  We've had a few weeks of life throwing at us sad, tragic and emotionally draining issues.  Through this time I am reminded how beautiful family is,  how precious life is and how great it is to breathe and live.  So many people never get the chance to live a long life or even a full and happy life. I am so grateful for my life.  That I live and breathe,  that I have precious children,  loving family and a God that cares.  I am grateful for creativity that can help problems become less intense and have an outlet for my soul. 

Life is precious and fragile.  This rose is almost perfect except for a little cut in one centre petal yet it is perfect.  Life can be perfect even with all the little (or big) trials we face.  Even though this rose has a small blemish it is still perfect in every way. Part of life is to accept the good with the bad and to embrace it as part of our beautiful existence. 

Have a lovely perfect day xxx

photography this week

The fragile beauty of spider webs

These photos have not been photo shopped

Sketchbook this week

The theme for this months sketchbook challenge is circles.  I use a lot of circles in my work so this theme has been lovely.  These are 2 of my pages I have completed.

 

Guitar 'circle'

Circles of flowers.

I like this one so much that I am contemplating a small art piece from it. 

Last year I joined the sketchbook challenge online.  A group of artists would each take a turn to choose a theme each month and to post  about the theme on a regular basis.  I decided this would be a great way to motivate myself to draw daily and to improve my drawing skills.

I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and began to draw in my journal on a daily basis. It was an immensely enriching and rewarding experience.  I learnt so much about me as a artist and about where I was heading with my work.  I went down roads that I had never been down before and took risks with my art I had never taken before. 

While participating in this challenge I was invited by Sue Bleiweiss (who was the leader of the challenge) to submit 2 drawings into a book about this wonderful project.  This book has been published and one of my pages was selected for it.

It is a lovely book full of the useful and wonderful ideas I have come to love and expect from this group of artists.  There are so many wonderful pages to look at and lots of tidbits of information to learn and grow from. You can buy it from Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/The-Sketchbook-Challenge-Techniques-Inspiration/dp/0307796558  or at the book depository http://www.bookdepository.com/Sketchbook-Challenge-Sue-Bleiweiss/9780307796554. 

I was given the theme nature as my prompt for this page.  I chose to draw a Protea.  Such an amazing flower,  strong and structured and bright.

What an honour to have one of my peices chosen for such an amazing book.  Thankyou Sue!!

Creativity

We are in the middle of the school holidays here in New Zealand.  It has been a cold one with quite a few beautiful frosts and stunning days.  Being the holidays at the moment has meant less time in the studio.  But that doesn't mean I haven't had any creativity this last week.

Last week my youngest boy got baptised.  It was a beautiful evening for him surrounded by friends and family.  For the occasion I made him a special cake to celebrate his 8th birthday and his baptism.  He really loved it.  The tie on top of the towel has the letters CTR on it.  This stands for Choose the Right.  It is a reminder to each child to make great choices in their life. 

The letter on the cake were stamped in while the icing was still soft

I cut out the circles with a top of a bottle

I wonder if I could try to use any elements from this cake in my art work?

I could try......

• Using pokadots
• Stamping letter on to quilt tops
• Using only a 2 colour palette
• Try variety of sizes of one shape on a quilt to add interest
• Use circles in embroidery or quilting
• Use dots in a border

Look around you to see what inspiration you can see for ideas for your next piece of art work.  You'll be surprised at what you can use.

 

Studio organisation

There are some wonderful blogs online on studio organisation. I want to share with you these two.  They have some creative ideas and some ideas that don't cost much.  There are some great resources here.




http://www.curbly.com/users/capreek/posts/13621-eye-candy-12-brilliant-craft-room-organization-and-storage-ideas






http://craftystorage.blogspot.co.nz/


Catherine xxx