More ICADS to share..

I’ve been off sick last week with a cold that went to my chest, so I just spent the sick time quietly doing art, no need to talk or use my sore throat, it was lovely.. and as a result (the only GOOD thing to come from being sick) was that I got some lovely art done… sadly no blogging, sorry I’ll try to be better this week..

This is the background collage for a piece I’ll share soon, why I’m showing this is because one of my penfriends does lovely envelope art and I promised her I would use her envelopes in something of mine.. so in this piece I used two.. the right pink in the middle saying “G’day Mate” and the green square and the right yellow and orange pieces are all snippets from Terri’s envelopes… which went on to become this…

our “Mantra and Spirit Animal” class with guest teacher Martice Smith 3, on Sunday Mornings 2 The koala had significance to me at that moment and I’m glad she chose me even though my painting of her didn’t really do HER justice.. Koala stands for according to this site.. http://www.whats-your-sign.com/symbolic-meaning-of-koala-bears.html

The symbolic meaning of koala bears speaks of connection, protection and memory because of their original affinity to ground dwelling life. As burrowers, koala’s shared a special connection with the earth. Aboriginal wisdom recognizes this relationship. Certain Australian myths claim koalas were first earthy clumps of grey clay and slowly crawled from their clay-bound lives in order to bring sacred wisdom to humans. They were also said to teach humans how to climb trees in order to gain a broader view of the grand world in which they live. This is also symbolic of memory.

If you’ve been reading my log for any time you’ll understand my journaling and photo taking etc, I am the “Memory keeper’ for our family unit.

it also says…

Those who resonate with the koala, and share a totemic bond with this fascinating creature will share many common attributes. Koala people are naturally likeable. Friendly, amicable, and content to ‘go with the flow.’ People with koala totems are also protectors and nurturers. They look after their tribe, showing keen interest in their society, and willing to help others in need. They do this casually, with aplomb. Koala people don’t force change, they have scads of patience. Where most people try to shove reform down the throats of society, koala people introduce gentle adjustments into society and take a “wait and see” approach.

Those who share the koala as their totem have calm, contended demeanor. In fact, I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with some friends who share close connection with their koala totems, and just being in their presence has had a calming effect on me. If your totem is the koala, you likely put people at ease just by your mere presence. Observe this in your surroundings. Have you ever entered a room charged with high-energy (stress, anxiety, etc) only to experience the room settling after your arrival? That’s the effect you have on others. The down-side to this, is that others may have a tendency to suck you dry. They see you as a stabilizer, somebody who is “all together” and often people will rely too heavily on your amiable nature

My Bloke always says to me “Sheila you have the patience of a Saint” I don’t know about that but yes I do have patience, all things in their own time… and I have patience with our babies too because they need to learn to grow and learn from repetition so when I sing the wheels on the bus 47,000 times a day and then see a hand movement or catch the odd word coming out of their mouths I know I’m winning… slow as it might be! Yes I have patience for “MOST” things… there are of course other things I have less patience with people who talk Sh*t are a classic example!

I have also been told many times about my “calming” influence. I just wish I got to sleep for 20 hours a day like a koala!

Back to art….

ICAD day 12- Parsnip and Kiwi.. loved this one.

ICAD day 13- Plum and Blueberry.

Day 15- New Week, this week we are using “Collage” anything found… the Prompt was “Route 66”

Day 16- Greeting Card- I wasn’t in the mood, so I just threw something together to “get it done”

Day 17- Wabi Sabi- I had no idea what that even meant, thank goodness for “google” LOL

Also new for this week is Bible study is back and e are doing the Book of Proverbs, which I really like, today is day 4, it took me a few days to get back into the routine, so I have decided next time the “group” have a break I am not going to because I lose my momentum and then it takes me a week to get back into the flow of my morning pages.

In my art class “Sunday Mornings 2” I did..

Our final class was this one called…

“Wonderfully made” by guest teacher  Jeanette Montero, I used Psalm 139:17
“How precious to me are your thoughts God! How vast the sum of them!”

So that brings us up to today.. I am now officially finished the “Sunday Mornings 2” class with Mindy, and I will get started on my classes with Tam’s Lifebook, that were gifted to me by good friend Carrol.

Also today, in fact right as I speak, 9;12am, my daughter Amber is out doing her driving test, she left at 7;30am to do one more driving lesson pre test.. fingers crossed that she passes because my Bloke has found her a car, through one of his work colleagues. I know I have told you all before but I am SO very proud of my daughters, they are so much more than I ever was at their ages, so much more outgoing, lively, adventurous and open to new things, by the time I was Amber’s age I’d only just gotten my license but I never and still don’t drive, where as she is excited by the thought of having a car and being able to go! Also by the time I was Amber’s age I had been married 4 years and had two small daughters, and a house mortgage, so I think I like HER way better. The one thing I promised myself when I had my girls was “they will never turn out like me” and they surely have NOT!! So that is one parenting goal I have met and succeeded on.

I hope your Thursday is full of adventures..

Busy long weekend. Update, Book reviews, photos.

This weekend was a long weekend, which simply means that it was a public holiday today for the Queens Birthday..like most long weekends in Australia it’s just an excuse to go away and party or in our case relax!

We spent the weekend at our holiday place in St.Leonards and I’ve written lots about that so I won’t bore you again, instead I’m going to tell you how amazing I am that I got so much done this weekend. Its amazing really when I have some baby free time how much I can achieve. I had a stack of penpal letters to reply to so I took those along, seven letters to be truthful and so I got ALL of those written and posted! Yay! that in itself is a job well done, because I hand write all my letters and  they are usually 4 or more pages long.

Next on my list of “to do” was to finish a book I started back in April it was called “Adams Empire” by Even Green..

Mine was a different cover, but this is the one “god reads” has on display..

From Publishers Weekly
The protagonist of this robust and sprawling saga set in the untamed Australia of the first half of this century is a true child of the outback. Orphaned at age nine, at home under the stars, completely unschooled, Adam uses his fists and his wits to rise from poverty to prosperity. He befriends an aborigine, performs dangerous work in the opal mines, falls in love with a sensual half-caste, has a run-in with a murderous policeman, marries a cold and manipulative beauty and finally treks west to carve himself an empire. This striking first novel tells a colorful and entertaining story, vividly evoking a vigorous, multiethnic society and a beautiful, diverse, often dangerous land. Green is a journalist and the author of Alice to Nowhere.

Nine-year old Adam is orphaned when his father is buried during an Australian desert sandstorm. A childhood of roaming the outback with his father’s drilling partner instills in him a fierce determination to have a place of his own. In this fast-paced, gripping saga, the reader follows the hard-working Adam and his mates, Jimmy, the practical aboriginal, and Josef, the impetuous young German immigrant, from the opal mines to the desert. They feint with death in mine disasters, at the hands of Mailey, the revenge-seeking law officer, and in the ravages of flash floods. A more deadly threat for Adam is his beautiful, calculating, near-mad wife, but a seductive half-caste woman lends her own type of danger to all of the men.

Taken from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4116936-adam-s-empire

So it had 780 pages and normally that doesn’t phase me but I’ve been so busy it’s taken me almost three months to read it all.. shame on me.. but to be honest I did read other things in between..I loved this book which started in 1919 and went up to I think about 1940’s so a nice long-span of time, and I like that it mentioned places we have been as a family. I enjoyed it but it was time to finish it and move on… I’m giving this one a 4 out of 5 star rating

So I wiped that off by Saturday morning and then, my cousin Lee went to a charity shop to look for bargains because it’s kind of a thing we do whenever we are down there together, and while we were there we heard about a BOOK SALE! at the St. James church. They have two a year one in January and this one in June, and this year I missed the January one because it was star son’s 13th birthday party weekend.

So we went to St.James in Drysdale and spent an hour wandering through endless rows and tables and shelves of books! I love it! I was able to replenish my supply of “Christian books” and I was very pleased about that and I ended up with about 10 books or sets of books for only $8.50! Bargain!

So while I was book shopping I found another book which was “Australian” for my “Read Australian Authors” challenge..

This  book was called “Diamonds and Dust” by Sheryl McCorry

Sheryl McCorry grew up in the outback carrying crocodiles to school for show and tell. When she was 18 her family moved to Broome, and it was the first time she’d ever used a telephone or seen a television.

A year later, only hours after being railroaded into marriage by a fast-talking Yank, Sheryl locked eyes with Bob McCorry, a drover and buffalo shooter. When her marriage ended after only a few months, they began a love affair that would last a lifetime and take them to the Kimberley’s harshest frontiers.

Sheryl became the only woman in a team of stockmen. She soon learned how to run rogue bulls and to outsmart the neighbours in the toughest game of all mustering cattle. The playing field was a million acres of unfenced, unmarked boundaries.

Sheryl went on to become the first woman in the Kimberley to run two million-acre cattle stations, but her life was not without its share of tragedy. Her story is an epic saga of life in one of the toughest and most beautiful terrains in Australia a story of hardship, drought, joy and triumph.

Taken from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11864222-diamonds-and-dust

This one was much easier to read it’s a true story and therefore fascinating to me a “City Slicker” I loved it and finised reading it this afternoon! I’m giving this a 4 out of 5 star rating.

Another thing on my “to do” list was.. “do some art”

I had downloaded the video clips at home while I had the internet connection and so I was able to just watch them from my lap top computer down there, Last week I mentioned about a friend of mine who had gifted me some art classes… you can read about it here: https://kimlhine.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/im-back/

So I wanted to do some of the art classes Carrol had gifted me.. first class I did was from the 2013 version of LifeBook the “Tam Edition” which was “Celebration and Journey”

I forgot to take progress photos! Never mind here she is finished.. the Clouds are things we are grateful for and the flowers are things we want to journey towards.

Next up in the series was “our art guardian” and here’s how she turned out..

More info about Tam’s courses here: http://willowing.ning.com/group/lb2013-tam-edition

I also had downloaded a few of Mindy’s lessons from “Sunday Mornings 2” and So I also got done a double pages spread titled “The Crucifixion” This is the second time in the past three or so weeks I’ve painted on this theme and both times it made me cry. Maybe because I understand the background of the disciples deserting him in his time of need.

I am so loving this piece!

Here is the previous “crucifixion” painting I did- I am calling it “Mary’s tears”

But you know what I am finding annoying? I am doing all these lovely pieces in my art journal! Arghhhh.. I had a Facebook friend ask me “how much for a signed copy”? and I replied “Priceless it’s in my art journal” so now I need to do it again and send it to him! I found this weekend that whatever I was touching was turning out nicely!!

More info about Sunday Mornings 2 here: https://app.ruzuku.com/courses/7987/overview

I also got caught up on my ICAD project…

This week the prompts are

and you can find out more about this challenge at: http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/icad-2015-index

Tam’s and Mindy’s classes are at a cost.. and the ICAD is a free challenge.

Today we got back home and took Star Son’s friend home, we took a friend down to the holiday place to keep him occupied and once we had dropped the friend home, we un packed the car and went to visit my Mother-in-law at her facility, we took Sweetpea with us which is always fun because she’s so tiny and doll-like people just cant help but love her.. the Oldies adore her and she’s happy to perform for them, today’s little game was taking off Star Son’s hat and putting it back on each of us in turn, at one point she dropped the hat and as clear as a bell she said “oh shit!” I guess that means now we will all have to watch what we say!!

I wish she’d say Grandma like that!!

How was your weekend?

W is for… Wednesday…more art!

Today was an unexpected “Child free day” well not really coz “Sweetpea” lives here, but “Squishy” stayed home today with his “Dadda” so Grandma was free.. and guess what I did? go on, I know you’ll guess it… I PAINTED.. Ohh MY deliciousness.. that’s three days in a row.. today I worked in my art journal.. and I worked on a course that I signed up for over 12 months ago, I am so glad that it’s a “lifetime” class which means there’s no “finish date” and you can log on and off as often as you like.

So I am talking about “His Kingdom Come” the teacher was Shonna  Bucaroff, see more here: http://twistedfigures.blogspot.com/ or http://www.his-kingdom-come.com/ and I first met Shonna while doing Mindy Lacefield’s “Sunday Mornings” http://www.mindylacefieldart.com/ then Shonna developed her classes so I signed up for that as well. But then you all know the rest, babies came along and I was besotted and spent the last 16 or so months staring at them, kissing on them, loving them to within inches of their lives… now they move around a fair bit and need less Grandma adoration, I am finding my way back to my art and I am loving it..

So today was all about “His Kingdom Come” I really want to do “Sunday Mornings 2” but I also want to finish off what I started. So I was up to week three and here is how that turned out..

“Anchor for my soul”

I didn’t really learn anything new for this page but I still enjoyed getting back into the process of layer up on layer up on layer.. and that Anchor is pretty cool looking! The quote along the ground reads: “Establish your roots deep, so that your branches reach wide with love” and that was a direct quote from Shonna’s Pastor David Goulding.. I just love it. I chose the quote by Hebrews 6:19 “We have this hope as an anchor for our soul, firm and secure” I also like the sound of that! reminds me of an old joke about why men make better coffee than women, because God declared “He Brews!” (Sorry!)

Then I was so pleased with how that turned out I decided while I was on a roll I’d keep going, so week number four was “I exalt thee” which I actually mis-named to “Praise him” I kind of like mine!

First of all we had to do a short bible study about learning how to “Praise him” and write down words or phrases that jumped out at us onto a blank page..

Then we added our first layer of paint, this is so that the intentions stay there but it’s kind of covered if you are worried about people reading your words.. no one looks in my Art Journal anyways so I wasn’t too worried and accidentally used “Pearl white” I was given a bunch of paints bu a friend who moved overseas and so it’s a new experience for me, and I like the effect.

Next we had to draw and paint the girl (ourselves) praising the Lord.. that’s me when my hair has grown back HA HA!

Final step was to add some kind of quote or journaling I chose Exodus 15:2 which says “The Lord is my strength and defense he has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise him, my Father’s God and I will exalt him!“

So that’s three days in a row I’ve started some art and I am feeling very proud of me… let’s see if I can keep it up! It takes 21 days to start a new habit..