Here and Now

I am watching Firefly and appreciating its unique vision and compelling story.

I am reading Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. I've only just started, but I love stories about the dark world of faery.

I am eating cupcakes with pink icing. I made them for the dinner my Mum and I had last night for my Aunt and Uncle. Yum!

I am wishing I was in Japan. It seems to be everywhere at the moment - in books, newspapers, on television, in my memories.

I am writing and it is going well. October's story is starting to take a definite shape and I know her world as well as I do my own.

I can't wait for the world to meet her.

Art in Progress

I don't pretend to be a great artist.

I do not think I am gifted at art, or have any particular aptitude for painting or drawing.

I'm an imperfect artist, because my art comes from me, from who I am, from my imperfect self. I paint because I enjoy it. I like putting the paint on the canvas and swirling it about. I like mixing media and trying things out. I like art journaling and paper cutting and creating little wooden dolls. I like clay and glue and stickers.

Creating brings me joy, and the end result of whatever I create is less important than what it took to get there. It took me a long time to understand that. I'm a brave artist, perhaps because I don't have natural talent or ability. I have nothing to prove. And all the joy in the world to discover and hold close to my heart.

This is the wrong way up, but I don't know how to flip photos on blogger. It is based on a dream I had about golden bees chasing me through a gate. It's a work in progress, no where near finished. The bees were tricky and I'm not sure I'm completely sold on them, but whatever. I know they're bees, right? *wink*

Oh, I love this page. This is a page in the Moleskin watercolour journal I'm creating for my cousin for her 30th birthday. I love the cherry blossoms here - they're cotton wool!

This is the first page I did in the Moleskin watercolour journal and my first time playing with watercolours. I love it. She's standing in front of a well. I created this after I read that if you are at the bottom of a well and you look up you will always be able to see the stars, no matter what time of day it is.

The Joy Diet: Nothing

Firstly, here is my vision card for nothing:


My favourite parts are the Japanese writing and the purple elephant. I'm not sure why all of these things evoke the feeling of nothing for me, but I figure that isn't something I need to examine too closely.

I have only just finished the Nothing chapter, so I've really only tried the process of doing "nothing" once, which was today. I haven't had the greatest of luck with previous still meditation so I chose the busy activity, which was cutting out hearts for an art project. It was very steadying, very peaceful just to be in that moment, with those hearts and just let the thoughts come and go. I will definitely be trying more nothing this coming week.

I have the week off from work (yay!) so I'll combine Truth and Nothing and see how it goes. I think I'll be doing a lot of art work this week so we'll see how the themes play out.

Happy Truth week everyone!

Beginning The Joy Diet at Another Chapter

It is time for a new book at The Next Chapter with Jamie Ridler!

This time around the book is The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life by Martha Beck. Jamie chooses such good books. The first time I got a lot out of Soul Coaching, the second time it was Wreck This Journal, which I enjoyed but didn't really participate in the blogging side of things. I was lucky enough to pick up The Joy Diet from my local library, which is always exciting. I live in Western Australia and I have to say, my state has one of the greatest library systems ever. Every time I want a book (and I want a LOT books from a lot of different interest areas) nine times out of ten it is somewhere in the state and they are happy to loan it out via my library that is 5 minutes down the road. So exciting for bookworm like me!

I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up with The Joy Diet. It's a busy time for me with lecturing, keeping up with my reading and assignments for two external university units (I'm really kicking myself that I signed up for them now...studying always sounds great, but the reality of it leaves something to be desired). But here's hoping!

I look forward to undertaking some projects (the vision cards sound fun!) and getting to know my fellow journeyers. Yay!