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I know it’s weird but The Ocean at the End of the Lane was my first Neil Gaiman. And it was such a lovely one. I read American Gods years and years ago. Well tried to read it. And didn’t like it. And with that, I wrote off Neil Gaiman. Until I listened to his graduation speech and then fell in love with him all over again. So when I saw this short novel, I decided I would give him another chance. And I am so glad I did. It’s a truly lovely lovely lovely story. Highly recommended.
today’s quote is:
This one had me thinking for a while, too. Maybe this is because of movies or books but I think we always wait for others to do the nice things for us. Part of growing up, for me, has been realizing that I can buy my own flowers. And chocolates. And presents. I don’t need someone to buy them for me. And even more importantly, someone buying or not buying them for me doesn’t mean anything. I’ve had it both ways and I can’t say that the guy who bought them loved me more than the one who didn’t. Some people are into those little things and do them all the time and others do not. In fact, the guy who always bought me flowers was also considerably less nice to me overall than the one who didn’t. Who made the rule that we have to be waiting? Why do others get to decide when we get to have flowers? Why does anyone else ever get to decide my worth? My soul’s joy? Part of growing up is owning who you are. Stepping into that fully. Decorating your own soul. Planting your gardens. Buying whatever you desire without waiting for approval. Being not just okay with who you are but beaming in the unique beauty of fully being you. That’s what I want for myself. And for all of those around me. So, I start the process of decorating my soul.
Life Book week eleven was taught by Tam. The Lesson was on creating a painting around the idea of a Tree of Life. I decided mine would be a girl sitting by the tree, reading. I did this whole page in about twenty minutes. Mostly with my fingers. Tried not to overthink it. It’s all acrylic paints. It says: we are all part of the same story. Aren’t we? Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
Today’s quote is:
As I grow older and older, I understand that this is one of the fundamental truths of life. It’s true for couples, siblings, parents or any other relationship you can think of. People love you the way they love you. They can love you will all of their hearts and souls and it might still not be what you want or need. But it’s all they have. We often don’t understand others’ perspective. Sometimes we don’t even understand ours. We don’t know what makes us do what we do and we certainly can’t understand what motivates others. But when it comes to judging people, that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re measuring them from our perspective. I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I’ve been realizing how much the people in my life love me. And even if they don’t always love me the way i want to be loved, I know in my heart that they love me with all they have. And how can I possibly ask for more?
For this week, I picked engaged. One of the parts of being active for me is to be more engaged in all areas of my life. When with my kids, at work, when talking to Jake, when out in social situations, and even when alone, I want to be more engaged. I want to be fully present. I want to be very conscious of this very moment. I want to be in it. So engaged it is. The lettering I used here comes from this pin. The image here is an eye. I wanted it to look like it was looking you in the eye as in engaged but it looks tired and sleepy to me. Listen with Intent is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
these are family photos just to back fill because we did take them:
they are blurry i know
but they were our only chance this week
and so we went with it.
and here we go. so grateful for my life. i hope your week was lovely, too. Weekly Diary is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
Nathaniel Reads to Mommy is a project for 2014 that I am doing with my 4.5-year-old son. You can read more about it here.
This week’s inspiration comes from this pin. I loved loved loved this little image. I drew this page and then colored it using watercolor pencils. I colored the whole background with Neocolor II crayons. prompt says: today i know that i spent way too much time I wrote about carrying the weight of my past and feeling broken.
Today I Know is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here. This is a layout I made for My Mind’s Eye. I have decided to continue my attempts at telling the longer stories and combining the two 6x12s to create something that’s interesting to me. For this month, I decided to take the journaling from this blog post on my core desired feelings. Something I want to remember all throughout 2014 and hence a great layout subject. Like last month, the journaling took up an entire page, and here’s what I ended up with:
This page brings together several lines that I love: I cut out the hearts from the Cupid’s Arrow – Chevron paper and I also used the back of the Love You Foiled paper from the same line. I added some bright pink from Find Your Wings and Fly’s Up and Away Big Top and the bright green of Krafty Floral’s back side from the same line. The final paper comes from Kate&Co’s Cambridge Court “Striking” paper. Who knew you could mix all those colors and end up with something lovely? I also added little tidbits here and there, including these chipboard arrows I love and adore.
Since this page is about me and how I want to feel, I decided these photos of me with my kids would be perfect since I look so happy in them. I am feeling how I want to feel for all of 2014. I added some word stickers on the photos. Word stickers make me happy, too.
On the left side, I only put a few little embellishments since it’s so text heavy and there isn’t a lot of room. The colors and shapes of these allow the left page to tie in with the right page, making the layout come together. I also wanted a little more green on this side so I decided to add a strip of tape, simple, easy, and exactly what I wanted.
A full frame of tape brought the whole thing together and I was done. In case you’re wondering how this goes inside a page protector, I can show you that the two sides fit together really nicely to create a 12×12:
So I can just slip it into a normal 12×12 protector. If the looseness will bother you, you can also tape them together in the back, but I like it better this way.
This week’s stitching also comes from urban threads. I loved the two little birds. I used stem stitch and back stitch on this one. The little word is together. Stitching Circles is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
Today’s quote is:
This piece was my favorite of the ones I did in my first week, mostly because the way I did it was so new to me. I first painted the background all black. And then drew my face and painted it on top. Which is why it’s dark looking. But I love it. I loved the process of seeing the face emerge from darkness. I wish I could tell you my faces get all better after this but that isn’t so. As I predicted, I do a few I like and many I don’t. The process is long, tough and arduous. But we soldier on. As for the quote, it’s another one of those that gave me serious pause. I will admit right here and right now that I do this. I do this all the time. In fact, I am doing this right now in various areas of my life. As I get older and have more responsibilities in my life, I’ve noticed that I get more and more scared of the unknown. I get much more risk-averse. The suffering I know is much better than the potential suffering that might come from the unknown. Who knows how bad it might be? I never think “Oh it might turn out so much better.” I just spend most of my energy worrying about how very bad it might get. And while a little risk-averseness isn’t necessarily bad, it can easily get debilitating. If I am always choosing the familiar suffering, I am still always choosing suffering over any other possible path. And here’s something I learned a long time ago: taking risks is like a muscle. Unused, it can atrophy. To be good at taking risks, you need to practice that muscle. You need to be willing to try. The less you try, the more you breed fear. The less you’ll try and the circle will go on. So here’s what I thought today when I read the quote: Maybe I can look at my life and see the small sufferings I’m choosing. Ones that I can risk playing with. Ones where even if the unknown ended up being terrible, it wouldn’t be disastrous. I can start taking small, non-harmful risks wherever I can. This way I can flex my muscle. I can practice and strengthen it. I can also show myself that sometimes the risks pay off. Sometimes the known suffering is much worse than the alternative. And I will only know if I try. Since I had book club last night, I didn’t get to post so I thought I’d post two today if I can. This is actually face #4 and I will post #3 tonight.
This one was an attempt to take a photo Judy gave, turn it upside down and try to draw from there. And then to paint it with just a single color to study values. The quote says:
Since this was a study in shades, I thought the quote fit the drawing. I am not a fan of this face but it’s all part of the process and I am trusting the process. I am trying to show up and do my piece and call it done until the next day. I am actually a few days in now and I can tell you my pieces do get better. As for the quote, this is one of those things that I think is really important to remember. What is there is just words, we are the ones who give meaning to them and sometimes that can be really dangerous. Our own mood can impact how we read an email, how we interpret a friend, how we decide to respond. As so much of our communication has moved to written media instead of the phone (which is interesting to me since on the days before the phone, the primary media was written too, is this progress or a regression i wonder?) I think this idea of human voice infusing words with shades of deeper meaning becomes more and more relevant. It means you have to be careful with the words you choose to ensure it’s not easy to misinterpret them. It means you have to be aware of your own bias/mood/attitude when reading others’ words. These are extra hard in today’s “get-it-done” or “check-mail-while-multitasking” world. We pay less attention. We are not so mindful. And yet I think this form of communication requires less rush and more mindfulness. Email is a tough medium, in my opinion, it leaves a lot of room for interpretation and I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with it. But, in the end, it’s another reminder to live my life mindfully. And I could use many of those. |
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