AEDM 2009: DAY 30 The End

Part of what I created during Art Every Day Month. Those are 3 scrapbooking double layouts plus 13 single layouts.

Add to that some cards and many art journal pages. Oh, and the Christmas cookies! Those were certainly a piece of art. :D

I got more than finished pages out of AEDM. I got a lot of cool artists to be inspired by, new techniques, old techniques revisited and new friendships. I will be visiting many of those cyberhomes again.

AEDM 2009: DAY 28 Zentangles

Just like a few days ago I was reading about many artists experimenting with weaving and gave it a go, this week I have been reading about Zentangles and did the same.

Monkey see, monkey do springs to mind. :D

Anyways, I got the basics of fine point black pen and the technique, but of course Zentangle rhymes with rectangle, not circle, so you know what happened next. ;)

Picture in the morning. :)

ETA: sorry it is a bit late, not enough battery to download in the morning.

The Joy diet: week 11

Chapter # 10 Feasting is here! Isn´t feasting a bit like Treats on steroids? *giggle*

We had a good experience with Christmas smells this week.

I also took a step back from the crazy rythm to list and celebrate my achievements these past months.

Today we have another reason to celebrate.

First, a quick summary on the education system here.

Classes go from beginning March to mid December for primary school and beginning of December for secondary school.

They are divided in three terms. Kids need to have an average grade of 7 or above PLUS a 7 or above on the last term (that is to avoid kids getting a 10 in the first two and then float around in the third as they only need a 1)

If a child fails one term, they need to go to school for two more weeks to study whatever they need to reinforce, if they fail that or have failed more than one term they have to sit for an exam in February that covers the whole academic year.

Mati (13 years oild which explain a lot ) had been on the verge of having to go two more weeks for Maths and Physics. I must admit that the subjects are hard plus they are in German (they go to a bilingual school) but nothing a good few hours of sitting and studying wouldn´t fix.

All this to say ... Mati passed everything!!! Yay! Proud mom alert: not many can do that "free till March" dance.

Jamie asked about our Joy levels, has there been a change? I had a bit of a look around the 10 weeks of posts. I´m so glad I have this record of our family life! It reminds me I have reasons to smile. And re-reading the comments made me smile even wider. Thanks for your connection, your support, your advice and well wishes.

Some weeks the chapter got me all stressed up and then the solution hit me. After that I could incorporate it to my diet. I´m not saying it was plain sailing or that I used every ingredient every week but it took me forward on certain ocassions like: I can´t believe now how afraid I was to make Tati´s flower crown. A risk that was totally worth it.

Sometimes I couldn´t handle what I had to do, others I jumped in with both feet.

In between The Joy Diet, Wednesday Wishcasting and Art Every Day I have learnt one very important lesson. SHOWING UP IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

I showed up EVERY week, even when I was stuck or throwing my toys out of the crib. :D

AEDM 2009: DAY 27 Scrapping

You know what always comes after scrapbooking ... scraps scrapbooking! :D

This pages are made with the tags page of Crate Papers and a bit of scraps.

Firts page is "Godmother", that´s my son with his godmother, my cousin Alexa. I used a green scrapworks square ... can´t remember the name, it sets as a brad. I also used eyelets, remember them? Not very much seen nowadays, brads are quicker and come in lots of shapes.

Lots of sewing going on the second page, although you can´t tell from the picture. Again Crate Paper scraps and Thickers for the number and the asterisks that are on the side circles. My punches are smoking this month! ;) This is the traditional "First day of school at the main door" picture. The page is A4, as teh rest of the "Home" album.

AEDM 2009: DAY 26 It is starting to smell like Christmas

Based on a sketch by Rachel, aka Taniwha. My nephew Santi first communion.

"Christmas airs" is this floor cleaner´s name. I´m lucky the kids are old enough not to be tempted to drink it!

The Christmas cookies Tati & I baked yesterday.

Which step do you wish to take?

When I read Jamie´s question this morning I was stucked. Step? Which step? Where do I want to go? More places togo to? I´m on the verge of being overwhelmed with all I´m taking on board as it is.

I read a couple of posts. All steps forward. I want to do this, that or the other.

More? Where to?

I left it simmer before I could do my headless chicken thing. (Headless chicken layout belongs to a UKScappers class)

Then, as it always does, it hit me. Not forward. I want to take a step BACK.

A step back to see what I´ve accomplished this year. Matu is finishing his academic year tomorrow and he has passed all his subjects at school (second year of secondary school in a high performance school). Tati will be finishing in two weeks time (year 4 at same school) and her grades are brilliant. I have supported my hubbie both in his business life and his sports achievements. I have taken care of my family, having them watered and fed. ;) I´m about to embark on a mega baking and crafting season which I am ready for. I have scrapped and lead my team to a decent place. I have met and developed relationships with many cool on line artists (yes, I mean you, you know). I have started to exercise again (even if I skipped it today *blush*). I have learnt new techniques. I have participated in inspiring and soul nourishing projects like the Wish casting Wednesdays, Full Moon Boards and Art Every Day Month.

And most important of all, I HAVE SHOWN UP.

A step back to breath in deeply and move forward with a smile. :)

AEDM 2009: DAY 25

Suzie was talking about owls and crows today. I like owls. :)

Another technique, stamping with foam stamps and acrylics. I hadn´t used the paints in a long time. I still had the black bathroom! I didn´t dare washing my brushes in the new one. ;)

Sticker from Tati´s stash. :D

Edited to add: we baked our first batch of Christmas cookies today. A work of art, I tell you. ;)

AEDM 2009: DAY 24 The season is ON!

My first Christmas card of the year. :)

Even if Tati has been making Christmas trees and Santas for some days I refused to start so early. :D

Today is my official Season Opening. Our first task? To buy ingredients for Christmas cookies, of course! These girls have got their priorities right. Lol!

AEDM 2009: DAY 23 Going in circles

Making little figures with circles.

Just fooling around a bit. :D

AEDM 2009: DAY 22

I´ve seen lots of weaving posts these days, so I had a play too.

On the left hand side a "real" one, with strips of paper weaved.

On the right hand side a "false" one, drawn and coloured in.

AEDM 2009: DAY 21

I couldn´t go on with yesterday´s mandala. It looked too much like a Rollie Pollie in distress.

I played with aquarelle pencils instead. My first time. As a matter of fact they were not mine but dd´s. :D

She played too. :)

As you may see she´s already enjoying the season´s spirit too! :D

AEDM 2009: DAY 20

Mandala. Work in progress. :)

The Joy diet: week 10

Yay!, I thought. Chapter #9 is Connection. I got it down.

Easy, right?

Well, ...no.

First because it is not only connecting which I do naturally, but connecting with requirements.

*Connecting from a place of stillnes in this life at Internet speed is not an easy task. I´m on go, go, go most of the time. Specially this week with different projects going on at the same time. And I´m not talking only about Internet connection, my 3D life is fast paced too.

*Truth must be honoured. Today I watched a video at bubbly girl´s blog. It is totally worth the 16 minutes, go watch it. :) It is about validation. I tend to do that without thinking but sometimes ... I need to think. I need to give it some thought to find something nice to say, specially when the first instinct is to just run away in the oppposite direction. Who was talking about "gut feelings" today? LaWendula was.

(Side note, you may have noticed it is the first time I´m writing the post on Friday morning, so I write as it comes. It reads as if I´m talking to myself, going around looking for things, which is actually what I´m doing. Lol!)

*Haven´t got a clue what our Desires´s got to do with the process of connecting.

*I see Creativity as a way to get our connections "staged"

Second because I´m an "all or nothing" type and of course I went into connection overdrive. Being as empathic as I am, connecting that much and that deeply might be energy zapping. That means something has got to give, then I tend to go to "let everything go" extreme.

I´m working on regaining balance before that happens as I also got some cool connections going. For example, people I met at UKScrappers cybercrop. I´m specially talking about Rachel´s class. I loved it so much I used her sketch twice and was so full of bubbly "I looooove this" that I wrote to her. Thankfully she didn´t treat me as a stalker (which I sounde like in my enthusiasm) and she gracefully answered my messages.

Also some cool people I met at Art Every Day. I slipped a bit there, not visiting as much because I was connecting to my Neo friends and the book tribe, and the wish casters , and the moms from school, and ... you get the idea. ;)

AEDM 2009: DAY 19

Ten extra points for my team due to the use of the sketch provided for November week 3 UKScrappers challenge.

That was one long sentence, lol!

The picture is from the traditional experiment of beans in a jar. Mati´s grew so much we tranplanted it to its own pot and it was fun to see it get around the bars.

AEDM 2009: DAY 18

Two techniques today:

*on the left hand side, draw without taking the pencil off the paper.

*on theright hand side, punches. It is called "The odd one out" Can you say which one? The only one with a third flower of a different colour from the other two? The one that has an inverted triangle shape instead of the other way round? The one that describes an arch instead of a tringle? The taller one? The only one that complies with everything? We all have something that could make us the odd one out, but not the rest. That little detail that makes us unique in a sea of average.

Wish casting Wednesday

This week for Wish casting Wednesday Jamie asks: What do you wish to embrace?

My first thought was Art. I want to embrace art. This month my blog is full of everything I am creating for Art Every Day Month in November 2009. It was fun to look back on Art Almost Every Day Month in November 2008 (yes, I had to rename it as I hadn´t showed up every day but almost every day *grin* ). Even to look back on November 2007 which was Art Every Few Days Month and November 2006 (Can´t believe the huge amount of crafting I did then! Cross stitching, card making, ATCs, scrapbooking. Wooooooow. And I was counting weeks till my 40s)

I like the energy that the feedback creates and also the "use the good stuff" feeling. I tend to save good bits for a better opportunity. Now I´m forcing myself to use my stash up and make it the best opportunity. :)

That lead me to think on the feeling of abundance, of "there is enough", this is good enough. Abundance is a good feeling to embrace.

And then it hit me. Art, connection, abundance, giving ... the Holiday season!!!

On Monday we got a decorating tool for baking. It was from our supermarket fidelity system (the one when you get points for every purchase that you´d do anyway, the kind I like best ;) ).

We plan on making loads of cookies this year. And also a lot of crafting that started with Di O´s class, the advent calendar.

For the past few years I hadn´t been in the mood for celebrating. I´m taking the step now.

I wish to joyfully embrace the holiday spirit with lots of family & friends time crafting and just spending a good time together.

AEDM 2009: DAY 17

Poor old art journal didn´t get any lovingto day. Shame.

But I finished a layout I should have done ... 5 years ago!

How´s that for procastinating? :D

Maru had her child back in 2004. As her oldest daughter and Tati were Kindergarten classmates then I offered her a baby album. She gave me several pics a month until MA was 4 months old. At that point the classes finished and thegirls went to different Primary schools. We´d meet from time to time and she´d always say she´d give me more pics. Finally I told her I´d do the pages from 4 months till 12 months and she´d add the pics herself. Perfect. The album stayed at home for three more years until today.

Maru phoned me because she needed MA´s nursery pictures for school (one of those Who is this baby? projects), so I finished the title page for her album.

I like stories with happy endings. :D

AEDM 2009: DAY 16

I thought the title for my 16th art journal entry for AEDM could be "Sticker sneeze" or "Things that fly" or just "Littlest Pets" as it is a couple of pages with Tati´s littlest pets stickers of birds, firedragons, butterflies and such all with some blue inking for background.

You will have to imagine it as I haven´t found my camera´s USB cable yet. :D

ETA: found the cable, ds had "borrowed" it. *sigh with eye rolling*

AEDM 2009: DAY 15 + UKScrappers cyber crop

Just like yesterday the theme of the crop is the Wizard of Oz, so I staged my layouts with Tati´s "ruby" slippers and a yellow road. :DChallenge 3: Scarecrow: sew on a layout about an achievement/something that made you proud. At "36" I got my ears pierced and learnt how to drive.

Challenge 5 Tin Man: a page with hearts and something metal. I had had these pictures for over a year and today they just clicked. :)
Challenge 8: Good witch / Bad witch. Me and my shadow. :D
Challenge 9: Popular. Chocolate cake is a favourite!
Class 4: Pay no attention to the man behind curtain. Shimelle´s class took me over two hours, almost three to complete! see all those patterns. They need to match and then got to be measured, cut and glued!!!
Class; Dream, etc. Bil &B Sil at Easter. Sketch based class.