Shadow Shot Sunday - January 17th, 2016

Lots of great shadows today. Thank you sun, weeds and grapevines growing wild in the backyard.

You can see other people's shadow shots at www.shadowshotsunday2.blogspot.com.

Fun spotting flowers while walking home

Yesterday I decided to walk home from my daughter's house. We share a car at the moment and she was tired after work and didn't feel like driving me home. I could have taken the car but that would have meant getting up early this morning to take her to work and as my other daughter is away for the weekend I wasn't keen to miss out on the opportunity to sleep in. So, although I wasn't especially keen I decided to walk home.

I'm participating in Joyful January at the moment, which has been a great way to start the year. I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a photo of some flowers I saw on the walk home as my photo for the day. At the moment there are not a lot of flowers around with it being Summer here. There are quite a few dry ones which contribute to some great shadows.

A photo I took a few days ago.

Despite there not being a huge amount of flowers around at the moment I felt sure I would be able to get a good photo before I got home.

I wasn't wrong. I saw these purple beauties early on.

Soon after I saw quite a few Hibiscus flowers. There were lots of red and pink ones hanging over a fence but I couldn't get close enough for a decent photo. Then I noticed some of a more unusual (at least to me) yellow colour.

Just as I was thinking I'd use one of those photos for the Joyful January shot I looked across the road.

So bright and happy! This was the only one still in bloom. I wish I had seen the others before they dried up. The dried up ones were also quite beautiful though. I took a picture of the biggest one.

Spotting the flowers along the footpath and in front yards made the walk home that bit more pleasant..

This is a post for Six Word Saturday. It's good to be back again after a bit of a break. To see how other people describe their week or part of in six words go to www.showmyface.com.

Fun spotting flowers while walking home.

Tangle with Y-M-#

I had lots of fun with this week's challenge from Diane and Carolien. I started by choosing three patterns and began a tile. I didn't like it but really likes a couple of the patterns I chose so started again. I started with 4fun by Mina Hsiao. What a fun pattern! I did it fairly big and my initial idea was to fill a couple of the sections with another pattern. But then I liked it so much I decided to leave it as a monotangle. I may add some shading later.

The other pattern I tried and liked first was Y-FUL POWER by Shoshi. I decided to try doing it quite large too. Then the search was on for a couple of patterns to fill some of the sections. I chose 4MOM by Jane Eileen and did a couple of variations of it. Then for M I chose MIANDER by Mimi Lempart. Cute in the tiny size!

It was a lot of fun experimenting with the sizes of the patterns, as well as enjoying my new pens and paper.

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #250

This week's challenge from the Diva is to bring it back to the old school. This means using a white 3.5" tile, using a black pen, creating a string and then using a few tangles. The idea is to not think about the composition too much and to really enjoy the process. I found it quite a challenge as I'm so used to thinking about what tangles would look good in a particular spot and paying quite a lot of attention to the composition. I chose tangles I know by heart and did go to some of the earliest ones I learnt. Knightsbridge is a favourite one although I don't use it that much. What I really enjoyed about this challenge was using the new pen and paper that I picked up at the art store today. Where, once again, I took much longer to decide than my daughter wanted. It never seems to be a quick pop in, pop out visit despite my best intentions!

Here's my tile -

Tangle with J-S-W

'No mistakes, only opportunities!' - zentangle saying. You can probably tell where this tile did not turn out quite as I originally anticipated. I'm still fairly happy with it though and particularly with the Jalousie shading. As well as Jalousie by Stephanie Kukla I used the tangles Screen by Margaret Bremner and Warts and Wobbles by Cindy Straight. Here's my tile for Diane and Carolien's zentangle challenge this week.

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #249

This week is the fifth anniversary of the Diva's challenge. Wow! I wish I'd known about it for longer but glad to be here now. I've been joining in for about nine months I think. The challenge this week is a Duotangle using Diva-dance and Aura-knot. I've never tried Aura-knot before and now that I have I'm really not sure why not. What a lot of fun it is.

As I posted this I realised I deviated a little from the usual Aura-knot on the larger one. I knew something didn't look quite right! Oh well, I'm going to leave it here -  'no mistakes, only opportunities' as the zentangle saying goes.

Tangle with A-F-M

This is my second attempt at Diane and Carolien's challenge for this week. I wasn't really happy with the first one. Perhaps I'll change my mind when I add some shading. I did the second tile today. Tangles I used are Arukas (an original tangle), Fireworks by Heidi Cook and Minline by Mei Hua Tang (Damy). I particularly enjoyed learning and drawing Minline with it's continuous stroke.

Nourish - my word for 2016

It's that time of year when many reflect on the year just gone and think about wishes and hopes for the year ahead. Some party hard, others see the new year in more quietly, some talk about New Year's Resolutions and some think about a word or a theme for the coming year. There are so many ways people notice (or not notice) and celebrate (or not) the ending of one year and the beginning of another.

I've done a little bit of thinking about the coming year. A few years ago I discovered Susannah Conway's workbook for reflecting on the year gone and thinking about hopes for the year ahead. I highly recommend it and it's available free at this link. She also has a little email offering where she sends emails for five days to help you choose a guiding word for the coming year. I signed up but haven't read the emails (though I have no doubt they are amazing). Partly the reason for that is that my word for 2016 came to me fairly quickly. It is NOURISH. It builds on some of what I began in 2015 in terms of making some small changes to look after myself better. I feel sure it will be a great guide for me during the year ahead and it feels just right.

The year began on a nourishing note for me. On New Year's Eve Brianna and I played a couple of board games, watched some television and I worked on some artwork containing my word. It was a lovely relaxing evening.

Joyful January - I'm in!

Next year (it feels weird writing that and it's less than 2 days away) I will be joining in with Joyful January where people from all over the world will be noticing and sharing things that bring them joy.

The idea comes from Satya Robyn and Kaspalita Thompson who began the River of Stones a few years ago which involved writing to capture a fully-engaged moment. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in that and wrote a small stone every day during January, 2012 (and in fact continued for the rest of the year). I still write them occasionally and you can see them at my other blog www.pausingforsmallstones.blogspot.com.

Satya and Kaspalita write -

"You might want to share an old photo of your dog, a quote you’ve found or a story you’ve heard. You might want to write a few sentences about something that you appreciated during the day. It doesn’t matter what – just anything that makes you smile or brings a little burst of joy."

You can find out more information at http://www.writingourwayhome.com/31-days/31-days-of-joy/. There's also the option of expanding the experience and receiving an email each day as well as other goodies.

To join in with Joyful January you post an image, a few words, share a quote or something that brings you joy and share on facebook, twitter, instagram etc with the hashtag #joyfuljan. I'm sure it will be great fun and inspiration looking through the images and words shared.

I'm planning to share an image or some words each day in January (I'm not quite decided on where yet) and some longer posts going in to more detail here. I'm looking forward to noticing and sharing what brings me joy in January.

Tangle with L-P-N

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! I'm back from a fun and yummy lunch with family and looking forward to a quiet evening ahead. A well-balanced day in my opinion!

This week's letters for Diane and Carolien's zentangle challenge are L, P and N. I did this tile yesterday on Christmas Eve and is a little influenced by the season. I chose Pixiose by Margaret Bremner for P, Lantern by Donna Blair for L and N-meshed by Linda Rainsford for N.