Easing Into 2013

I am called to rest and putter, stepping away from creative work and play to sink into quiet time, books, hearth & home.

I'm tidying up my physical spaces, enjoying movies and documentaries like this one (if you're an artist, you'll love this insight into a painter's mind and process), this one and this one. I'm sleeping, reading, and doing a lot of research for a certain trip to PARIS. <giddy>

post-Christmas goodies from Amazon

It hasn't been all idle though.

I've been crafting a new website, feeling the time has come for a fresh look. Stay tuned for that and a bloggiversary giveaway (seven years!), the latter later this month.

a fresh new look for my website in progress - coming soon!

I also wrote this article for Scoutie Girl, about claiming our path into 2013 and honouring our transition pace into the new year. No one's keeping score on how quickly we make the switch.

My part time work is keeping me preoccupied and heading into a busy, challenging-to-me period.

All the while I'm reflecting on last year's accomplishments and lessons, dreaming of work and projects for 2013, still unsure of how I will convert my dreams to action and let it all unfold.

Life is uncertain. Life is good. Life is full.

~~~

How about you? What've you been up to?

May Days Ramble II

I had a post ready to go earlier today, but alas I lost it. So here I am, with no post to go.

Yet I write.

I write about how fulfilling life has been during the past few weeks. About how I've been busy, yet not overwhelmed. About how there are things I feel bad about not having done, but how others unfolded perfectly, like how I...

~ inhaled the scent of the lilacs and the lily-of-the-valley.

~ spent time with my parents who were visiting from New Brunswick. I only see them once or twice a year and that's not enough. I'm already plotting a road trip down east to see them again.

~ worked my way through another chapter of Julia Cameron's Walking in this World. It seems that book is having as big an impact in my life as its precursor, The Artist's Way (the Artist's Way rocked my world more than ten years ago already!).

~ stretched my comfort zone through voice lessons, realizing that I can now hit a note with power that only a month ago I never imagined I could have produced.

~ noticed that the confidence gained through my voice lessons is seeping into other areas of my life, not yet through action, but through acknowledgment of possibility and worthiness.

~ felt inspired to dream.

~ felt tired and slept.

~ delighted in documentaries that were part of TV Ontario's Photography Month, highlighting the work of photographers David Bailey, Mike Disfarmer and Yousuf Karsh. All Photography Month documentaries are available for viewing on TVO's Website, here.

~ found the owner's manual to Matilda, my trusty point & shoot, and discovered settings that could enhance my current photographic play.

~ practiced trust in "guidance greater than my meager mind" (thank you Oprah!).

~ registered for a sculpting workshop that uses old cotton tees and a textile hardener to produce something that could (eventually) look like this.

~ laughed at old Dick Van Dyke shows with my Dad.

~ cried at American Idol and Oprah's last shows.

~ submitted artwork to Art for Alabama, raising funds for people affected by the tornadoes in that state back in April. Only one more day to bid!

~ did, felt and was much, much more.

Well look at that, I ended up re-writing my lost post. It's amazing what happens when you put fingers to keyboard, non?

What a full and fulfilling month. I am grateful.

What have you been up to lately? Tell me...

May Days Ramble

My writing mojo may have settled in for a well-deserved snooze, but it's been a full week! I offer you a rambling list of what I've been up to these first few days of May...

~ Painting, experimenting with a bigger canvas and a fixed colour palette.

~ Watching my peonies grow, listening to the birds sing and catching my first whiff of that sweet spring air that comes with budding leaves and blossoms.

~ Walking through Ottawa's Arts District, enjoying a taste of five different galleries in one evening in the company of like-minded art-lovers. If you live in Ottawa and like art I highly recommend Wellington West's 1st Thursday Art Walk (the link is to a great description on a new-to-me local blog called Visual Encounter).

~ Toying with the idea of a painting experiment involving Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.

~ Looking forward to picking up this piece that's being professionally framed - my first one!

feels like jazz, 16x20 on canvas

~ Working hard at the office to meet a deadline. (We met it!)

~ Mulling over federal election results (and staying up too late doing so), feeling grateful for having the right to vote and living in the country in which I live.

~ Crashing early, curling up on the couch with D. and Cassie, enjoying a few hours of TV escapism.

~ Pondering a theme for the blog this month, but opting to hang back a bit and relax after last month's Matisse Month.

~ Looking forward to TV Ontario's Photography Month and the photography-related documentaries they'll be showing during the next few weeks.

~ Feeling confident about my art one day, questioning it the next.

~ Musing over the past four months and how I've been moving forward without really setting hard, fast goals or knowing where I'm going. Feeling a little disoriented by it, but satisfactorily intrigued enough to continue down that path for now and see where it will lead me.

~ Mentally drafting a blog post on my word for 2011. I know, it's late. But I'm ok with that.