Quote - Afternoon Drinking

"I love drinking in the afternoon.

It’s like you’re keeping a secret."

Quote Time

Time is the music of our being.  

It is to us what water is to fish.

~ Jessica Julian

Quote - Company

What I love most about my home is the company I keep.

Quote -

"Wanting something is not enough.

You must hunger for it.

Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome

the obstacles that will invariably come your way." 

-Les Brown

Quote - Love

Love is the condition in which the happiness 

of another person is essential to your own." 

  -Robert Heinlein

Quote - Love

"As the ocean is never full of water,

so is the heart never full of love" 

-Unknown

quote - Art

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves

at the same time.” 

-Thomas Merton

Quote - Marriage

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times,

always with the same person."

-Mignon McLaughlin

Quote -

"I believe in manicures.

I believe in overdressing.

I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick.

I believe in pink.

I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls.

I believe that tomorrow is another day, and...

I believe in miracles." 

-Audrey Hepburn

Quote Death

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."   -Thomas Campbell

Quote - Love

"For you see, each day I love you more

Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow." 

-Rosemonde Gerard

Quote - morning

"As each day comes to us refreshed and anew,

so does my gratitude renew itself daily.

The breaking of the sun over the horizon

is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world." 

-Terri Guillemets

Quote - Life

"We're so engaged in doing things to achieve

purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value,

the rapture that is associated with being alive,

is what it is all about." 

Joseph Campbell

Quote

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when

our hearts are conscious of our treasures." 

-Thornton Wilder

Quote - Love & Cooking

"Cooking is like love.

It should be entered into with abandon

or not at all." 

-Harriet van Horne

Quote

"To unpathed waters, undreamed shores." 

-William Shakespeare

Quote

"To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh

at what we normally take for granted." 

-George Kneller

Quote - Love

"When you realize you want to

spend the rest of your life with somebody,

you want the rest of your life to start

as soon as possible." 

-Harry Burns 
When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Quote- Coming alive

"Don’t ask what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.

Because what the world needs is

people who have come alive." 

-Howard Thurman

Quote - Living

"For man, as for flower and beast and bird,

the supreme triumph is to be most vividly,

most perfectly alive." 

-D.H. Lawrence

Quote

"Love is no respecter of age or practicality

Neither morality: unabashed

She enters where she will

Unheeding that her immortal fires

Burn up human hearts..." 

-Phillip Pulfrey

Quote - love

“A loving relationship

is one in which the loved one is free to be himself --

to laugh with me, but never at me;

to cry with me, but never because of me;

to love life, to love himself, to love being loved.

Such a relationship is based upon freedom

and can never grow in a jealous heart.” 

-Leo F. Buscaglia

Wonderful Quote

"Whatever we are waiting for -

peace of mind, contentment, grace,

the inner awareness of simple abundance -

it will surely come to us,

but only when we are ready to receive it

with an open and grateful heart." 

-Sarah Ban Breathnach

Love Bug Valentines from dandee

You may have seen these on Pinterest.. that's where I saw them....be sure to visit dandee's site

Magic Decal Paper Tutorial - from the Painted Hive

Kristine at The Painted  Hive has a beautiful tutorial and free printables as shown in this picute on her web site. 

Be sure to sign up for her mailing list when you're there!

Good stuff!

Many thanks to Kristine for her generosity - this is great information to have.

Custom Thank You Card

Art Journal - Balance

SheArt Girls

Mixed Media Needing Space

Close up - The Long Road Home

This is the close up of the collage I did for my folks - everything in this collage symbolizes his long hospitalization, months in the nursing home rehab unit and his eventual return home, 6.5 months later..

The 6 birds at the top symbolize his 6 children watching over him.

The turtle symbolizes him, the slow process of rehabilitation

The white bird... his goal... flying the coop and getting HOME

The hands... my mother, the ultimate caregiver's hands,

Moon Phases... the passing of time..

white texture... snow... daily trips to visit him, in the worst winter we had in years

The swirly thingies... bits of happiness for each milestone he crossed during his progress.

The raised, hard texture.... because therapy is hard, as is growning older.

As Paul Harvey used to say....And now you know... the rest of the story

Heavy Texture 12 x 12 Canvas

Art Journal - Recipe

Art Journal - Found Poetry

Note to self - stop using glue sticks!

Art Journal - Adding Recipes

Art Journal - Fast Forward in Time

Texture and Layers - Practice Piece

Acrylic Abstracts

Mixed Media Collage

First Attempt at Torn Paper Collage

I know torn paper collage may not look hard... it is ... esp when you use magazine pages... this would have been easier with my own hand-painted paper... but I wanted to give it a shot... will do more... would love to find a video to watch by those who have mastered this art form.

More Flowers in my journal - Mixed Media

 

A close up from my journal page.... spent the morning "painting ahead" in my journal. There's something about a blank white page I just hate.... love to journal on pages with color so I try to work ahead... leaving some white pages in between.

 

Grow - Heavily Textured Canvas

I made this for a gift then decided I could not part with it.

Betty White - My Hero!

Mixed Media - Mary Ann Beckwith Class

Hearts and Flowers - journal pages

The Crow - art journal

More Flowers....

I don't typically draw flowers in my journal but for some reason I'm suddenly drawn to them....

Mixed Media Flowers - Journal

Just playing with flowers and a new pen to see how it writes over watercolor and acrylic.

Quote - Soulmates

"Whatever our souls are made of,

his and mine are the same." 

-Emily Brontë

Mixed media photo transfer using Mod Podge

Mixed media photo transfer using Mod Podge

Wonderful quote - love

"He was my cream, and I was his coffee -

And when you poured us together, it was something." 

-Josephine Baker

wonderful quote

All good things are wild, and free." 

-Henry David Thoreau

Quotes - Dark side

“We all need to look into the dark side of our nature -

that's where the energy is, the passion.

People are afraid of that because

it holds pieces of us we're busy denying.” 

-Sue Grafton

Quote - gratitude

We often take for granted

the very things that most deserve our gratitude. 

-Cynthia Ozick

Wonderful Quote - Aging

"Whether sixty or sixteen,

there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder,

the unfailing child-like appetite of what's next,

and the joy of the game of living.

In the center of your heart and my heart

there is a wireless station;

so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer,

courage and power from men and from the infinite,

so long are you young." 

-Samuel Ullman

Wonderful quote - Life purpose

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do." ~ Rumi

Wonderful quote - Mistakes

“After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” 

-Sophia Loren

Wonderful quote - Open Mind

"I would rather have a mind opened by wonder,

than one closed by belief." 

-Gerry Spence

Wonderful quote - Talent

“Use what talents you possess;

the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there

except those that sang best.”

-Henry Van Dyke

Wonderful quote - Kissing

“When he kisses you he isn't 

doing anything else. 

You're his whole universe..

and the moment is eternal 

because he doesn't have any plans 

and isn't going anywhere. 

Just kissing you...it's overwhelming.” 

-Author Unknown

Wonderful quote - Laughter

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

-E. E. Cummings

Large Mixed Media ...watercolor, napkins, silk leaves

Wonderful quote - Be exceptional

"Be exceptional.

Make tremendous efforts to be extraordinary.

What a privilege to be here on the planet

to contribute your unique donation to humankind.

Just make sure you do so..."

-Shelby Lynne

Wonderful quote

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

-Leo F. Buscaglia

Wonderful quote - Letter

To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere

without moving anything but your heart.

-Phyllis Theroux

Wonderful quote - Don't listen

Don't listen to what they say, go see.

Wonderful quote - Magic

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

-Roald Dahl

Wonderful quote - Dreams and Hearts

"There are so many fragile things, after all.

People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts."

-Neil Gaiman

Wonderful quote - Survivor

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

-Author Unknown

Wonderful quote

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, 

then when I die, I want to go where they went." 

Will Rogers

Quote - War - Buddha

The Buddha said “In a battle, the winners and losers both lose.”

Wonderful quote

“Life is filled with fantastic little things

that happen constantly.

Don't take them for granted.” 
 -Lilly Sein McElroy

Wonderful quote _ Life

“A single event can awaken within us

a stranger totally unknown to us.

To live is to be slowly born.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Wonderful quote

Today is a perfect day for lying down and staring at the clouds,and realizing how beautiful life truly is." Unknown

Commitment to Art

Wonderful quote - Love

“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. 

You know that your name is safe in their mouth.” 

― Jess C. Scott, 1: The Intern

Wonderful quote - Life - Maya Angelou

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. 

Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.”
― Maya Angelou

Wonderful quote - Life

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
― George Bernard Shaw

"Chances are that if you’re suffering, you’re believing a thought that’s not true." ~Laura Katleman-Prue

Wonderful quote - Unlived Life

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Quote Loving LIfe

Be in love with your life.

~Jack Kerouac

Art

What an artist makes of painting is not so much a matter of freely choosing among a variety of options as it is a matter of making the most of a few intuitions that are absolutely one's own. Every time a painter paints we want to see what those intuitions are.

Jed Perl

Art of painting

I believe that the art of painting, and the painting itself, should convey a feeling of serene satisfaction and inner harmony."  

 - Paul Horiuchi

Quote Picture Poem

A picture is a poem without words.

Quote Afternoon

Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.

- Annie Dillard

Quote - life

She had always felt

that the essence of human experience

lay not primarily in the peak experiences, 

the wedding days and triumphs 

which stood out in the memory like dates

circled in red on old calendars, 

but, rather, in the unself-conscious 

flow of little things--the weekend afternoon

with each member of the family

engaged in his or her own pursuit,

their crossings and connections casual,

dialogues imminently forgettable,

but the sum of such hours creating a synergy

which was important and eternal.

~ Dan Simmons

Making Art

For me, making a piece of art is about the moments of life; being aware of them and being grateful for them. My collage paintings reflect some moment that otherwise might fly by while I am thinking ahead or behind.

I experience poetry in much the same way. Poetry I read and am taken in by is often a window into the life experience of another person. I can resonate with that moment. I think that’s why I like haiku so much.

When I write a moment rather than paint it, I don’t worry about rules, or shoulds, or making something pretty. I try to capture a moment so I can look at it in contemplation.

Here is one of my poems. Although it has a sadness, it also reflects love and honoring the moment, at least in my eye.

Poetry

In response to a poem by David Whyte

What to Remember When Waking

i believe that poetry at its best is found rather than written. traditionally, and for many people even today, poems have been admired chiefly for their craftsmanship and musicality, the handsomeness of language and the abundance of similes, along with the patterning and rhymes. 

i respect and enjoy all that, but i would not have worked so hard and so long at my poetry if it were primarily the production of well-made objects, just as i would not have sacrificed so much for love if love were mostly about pleasure. what matters to me even more than the shapeliness and the dance of language is what the poem discovers deeper down than gracefulness and pleasures in figures of speech. i respond most to what is found out about the heart and spirit, what we can hear through the language. 

best of all, of course, is when the language and other means of poetry combine with the meaning to make us experience what we understand. we are most likely to find this union by starting with the insides of the poem rather than with its surface, with the content rather than with the packaging. 

too often in workshops and classrooms there is a concentration on the poem’s garments instead of its life’s blood. it may be that the major art in poetry is the art of finding this shining—this luminosity. it is the difference between a publishable poem and one that matters.

Linda Gregg

Poem quote

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.

~David Carradine

Poetry Quote

Poetry is just the evidence of life.

If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

~Leonard Cohen

~Brenda Ueland

Quote - Things

I have always loved things, just things in the world.

~Leonard Cohen

Quote - Tea & Trouble

"There is no trouble so great or grave

that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea." 

-Bernard-Paul Heroux

Quote - Winter

"The leaves fall, the wind blows and the farm country slowly 

changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools. 

~ Henry Beston, Northern Farm

Quote - Comfort

"There is nothing like staying at home

for real comfort." 

-Jane Austen

Wonderful quote

"We are the music-makers,

and we are the dreamers of dreams."

-Willy Wonka

Quote - love

"When love is not madness,

it is not love." 

-Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Wonderful Quote - Love

"To find someone who will love you for no reason,

and to shower that person with reasons,

that is the ultimate happiness." 

-Robert Brault

Quote - Creative Life

"To live a creative life,

we must lose our fear of being wrong." 

-Joseph Chilton Pearce

Quote -

"The hardest-learned lesson:

that people have only their kind of love to give,

not our kind." 

Mignon McLaughlin

Quote - picture

"The best thing about a picture is that it never changes,

even when the people in it do."

-Andy Warhol

Wonderful quote - Love

"Live by the sun, love by the moon." 

-Unknown

Wonderful quote - Suffering

“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.” 

-Ben Okri

Wonderful quote - Love

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved

and you leave this world knowing the same,

then everything that happens in between

can be dealt with.” 

-Michael Jackson

Wonderful quote - Dream

“Get excited and enthusiastic about you own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire - you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away.” 

-Denis Waitley

Quote - Home

Home is the one place in all this world

where hearts are sure of each other.

It is the place of confidence.

It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and

suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear

in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved

communications of full and confiding hearts.

It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out

without any sensation of awkwardness

and without any dread of ridicule.

-Frederick W. Robertson

Wonderful quote

It is a tremendous act of violence to begin anything, I am not able to begin. I simply skip what should be the beginning." Rainer Maria Rilke.