29 Faces - September Challenge - Face 1 of (hopefully) 29

Materials used: Background gesso'd, Golden Fluid acrylics, stencils

Baby wipes

Stabilo All pencil

Still need to paint ... later!

Inspired by Mother Nature ...

Haven't blogged in a couple days, and you know what? I'm ok with that! :-)

Drove to Mt. Rainier yesterday to do some communing with nature ... one of my favorite things to do! Being outdoors, soaking in the creations all around, and enjoying the moments ... equals healing to me.

On the way there, a 15 foot tall sculpture of a giraffe caught my eye ... and I'm so glad because I realized as I drove by that there were MANY sculptures. So I quickly turned around and pulled in to the driveway here:

I took lots of photos of this artist's work, but I will not post them here.
Go to his website (www.danielklennert.com) to see for yourself.

You will not be disappointed!!

Go!! My blog can wait a few minutes! :-)

Here are some of my favorite photos from my day on the mountain. I hope you enjoy them!

One of the trailheads

 Christine Falls

Narada Falls before "falling" under the bridge

Trillium

Oops! Accidentally stepped off the trail into some mud!

Narvada Falls

Reflection Lake ... the fish were jumping!

 

These beauties are, as you can see, enormous! 

These "Douglas Fir Twins" are found in the Patriarch Grove.

That is my oldest daughter, Erika.

Here's a close up of the bark on the tree to the left:

I was surprise that the bark was soft to the touch.

Here's a more panoramic view of these beauties!

This Gray Jay and its mate wanted to be photographed!
They flew into the trees right beside us, so we were able to get great shots of them!

And, of course, as we were getting set to leave and head back down to reality,
the mountain "came out" as they say around here!
Well ... it sorta came out ...
there are still plenty of clouds about the top of Mt. Rainier,
but this was more of the mountain than we had seen all day.

I took 200 photos, but these are my favorites!

Feeling refreshed and inspired ...

Emptiness is not vacancy ...

So much other stuff is calling me away from time to create these days. It makes me long more for that time.

Last night I was reading more in Untie the Strong Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD. Here's a quote I've been chewing on ever since:

"Sometimes, emptiness is not vacancy, but rather a long gestation. Gestation by ego's measure is most often too long. But, by soul's measure, the length of the waiting and making within, before what is being created shows on the outside, is ever just right."

So I'm trying to think of this time away from art as a gestation period. I ache to get back to my studio, and I never knew this feeling before. I KNOW creating is healing. If anything, in the short 20 months since I started this art journaling journey, I now understand how healing it is ... and I don't like to be deprived of the time to get to it. But maybe this will be a better frame of mind to think of time away from my art; embracing the time away as the gestation period my soul needs right now. Going to try it on.

Soooo looking forward to the book study starting on Women Who Run With Wolves!! I'm really enjoying Dr. Estes' story telling style.

Ice crystal clouds ...

My view today (and most days) on the way TO work:

My view going home from work last night:

And this explanation from the local news station's weather officianado.  What kind of clouds are these?

Nature showing off her beautiful self again! :-)

What hopeful can look like ...

This is my sweet furry pal, Penny.

She is looking away from the camera and my gaze as I look at her

between her stares at my plate as I eat dinner ...

hopeful that I will not be able to eat all that is there ...

hopeful that I will share what's left.

No art to share today. But I thought some of you might enjoy this photo!

Hope you all had a fantastic and wild Monday!  :-)

Sunday in my Art Studio ...

I ran to the store early this morning to get last minute groceries for dinner. Grabbed a Starbucks on the way home. Threw the food in the crockpot. And headed downstairs to my refuge!

A while back Effy had mentioned little manila coin envelopes, so not wanting to miss out on anything I got some. The next day I happened upon index cards that were half-size the normal 3" x 5" and grabbed a package of those, not even putting the two items together ... until today! I  know I could have cut in two all the index cards I have laying around here from the kids' school days, but for $1.50 my time is better spent!

I watched Effy's week 2 videos over again (I started a page for this week before, but hate it!) and this is what came out. I'm pretty happy with it! You can't get the full effect of the gold veining on the heart and envelopes, but trust me, it's really cool!

A summer day at the Farmer's Market/Art Festival

This morning I took a long walk while the weather was cooler. It really started warming up on my way back to the house. And it has evolved into a gorgeous summer day!

After my walk, I immediately tackled the lawn ... well let me try that again! With so little rain this summer (we had 35 days of no measurable rain until yesterday), and we have so little grass growing through the weeds that our lawn is composed of, that I was merely mowing down the weeds' flower stalks. It's looking much better out there ... and even green in some spots, thanks to the buttercups, clover, and some other weed that's doing really well out there!

Then off to release the grime ... then I grabbed my 23 yo daughter and we headed to Edmonds for the Art Festival -- or so I thought.

It seemed more Farmer's Market to me than Art Festival. But we still had fun ... even brought home some lovely smelling soaps and yummy peaches.

Ran into one of my neighbors who has the most beautiful flower beds around. Turns out she has a glass studio in her home and makes the beautiful glass flower stakes you'll see below. I will have to be saving up for some of those! She made them so that you can completely adjust the head of the flower's angle. Love them! I don't think my quick photos do them justice, though so I'll post her website under the photos.

http://everbloominglassflowers.com/

Some more sights from today, because you cannot go to this town without seeing the water or walking on the beach, and we hadn't visited the Marsh Park in a while (where we were treated to seeing 5 Great Blue Herons):

I don't know if you can see him, but there is Great Blue Heron standing to the left of that large clump of grass near the upper left side of this photo. At the time I took the photo, I didn't realize there were four other Great Blue Herons in the tall grass (more in the center of the photo). You can kind of see two of them, if you know what you're looking for.

He is standing very tall in this one!

OK, off to check Facebook real quick, post my link and get myself into my art studio!

Speaking of this Blog Challenge from Effy Wild: I don't know how any of you are keeping up with checking out everyone's blogs, because I know I certainly don't have time to get to them all ... but I sure wish I did!!! So all that to say, I really appreciate the comments that you leave. It means a lot to me that you have come here to read AND leave a comment! 

The Glitterhood is such a unique and special community. I heart it so much!

Ahhh, rain ...

This blogging thing is hard!! Do I really have anything to say? :-)

It's raining today ... and we NEED it!!! This is Seattle after all! I cannot remember a dryer summer. I'm not complaining because I know this is not the norm. It does me good to get out of my comfort zone. The rain feels good to my soul today, though.

The odor in the air when the first drops fall is lovely ... petrichor is the term for it.

I think my daughter and I are headed to the local Arts Festival tomorrow ... rain or shine! Looking forward to seeing what everyone's been up to.

It looks like I may have time to do something in my art journal today. Hopefully that means a picture to share tomorrow. Until then, here's a picture of my three favorite little people:

Enjoy the moment you're in ...

I don't know why it always surprises me that yet another month has flown by. I feel like while I'm stalled, everything else is flying right past me. Need to find the joy and peace that's been eluding me. I know it's mostly attitude.

I've started reading "Peace Is Every Breath" by Thich Nhat Hanh. She says, "Carried away by our worries, we're unable to live fully and happily in the present. Deep down, we believe we can't really be happy just yet -- that we still have a few more boxes to be checked off before we can really enjoy life. We speculate, dream, strategize, and plan for these "conditions of happiness" we want to have in the future; and we continually chase after that future, even while we sleep. We may have many fears about the future because we don't know how it's going to turn out, and these worries and anxieties keep us from enjoying being here now."

So, working on mindfulness ... being in the present moment, enjoying the present moment because it's the only one I have RIGHT NOW! I tell myself the same things I tell my daughter when she's anxious: if you can't do anything about "it" at the moment, you have to let it go! I KNOW this ... and am wanting to make this habit.

Work is extremely slow. I had one project this morning, but alas, it is done. And I sit here for four more hours, thinking up things to do! I'm thankful to have a job, to work for a good person ... but I need something to do!

So today, I will update my friend's bookkeeping records, read, maybe pull out my art journal ... and blog! And enjoy the moment! Ha!

Last night's sunset: