Inspiration and The Rolling Stones??

This past week I blogged about big differences I noticed in myself between two days earlier in the week. One day was all rainy and gloomy and the next day was all sunshine without any clouds in site. The inspiration I found in how good the sun made me feel then is still going strong today, granted there have been no cloudy days since.

I decided that I shouldn’t let my sun inspired inspirations go to waste so I set to work on a couple of sun themed projects. My first project was to plant sunflower seeds recently purchased from my last visit to Home Depot’s lawn and garden center. Sunflowers are great plants that help stimulate nature. They entice bees into the garden which is a good thing because bees pollinate other plants giving more plants the ability to pollinate and bloom. Sunflowers also attract birds into the yard to snack on their seeds which is also good because birds help keep the mosquito population down which is important to me. Aside from these benefits, sunflowers are fantastically cheery.

My other sun themed project took me into my art journal. Over the years I purchased many rubber stamps depicting the sun. I pulled out several that I wanted to use, turned on some Rolling Stones, made some tea and set to work on my pages. Have I mentioned before how listening to The Rolling Stones while crafting takes me to a Zen like place?

If you are wondering why the sun in the center of the right page looks blurred it’s because it was intended to look that way. Sometimes when there is a lot of permanent ink built up on the rubber; I will twist the stamp on scratch paper to help remove the build up. While doing that with this stamp, I thought the effect was kind of cool, sort of like it added movement to an otherwise still image.

I love that I found inspiration from the sun to feel better, garden, create some art, and just be in nature this week. I would love to hear what inspires you; whether it’s crafting, getting through a day, decides your reading choice, decides your travels, etc.

Cheers!!

“You've got the sun, you've got the moon, and you've got the Rolling Stones.” Keith Richards

The Sun returned today

Fantastic! The Sun is back out today and returning with it are my cheer, inspiration and an overall sense of wellbeing. I am amazed at how different I feel between yesterday and today. Yesterday was gray and rainy and left me feeling achy like I was coming down with a cold. And today, the Sun is out and all the aches and cold symptoms appear to be gone.

Living in the ‘Valley of the Sun’ as I have forever, I was never aware of any differences in myself between sunny and cloudy days. I am not sure why I am now, but I guess for one thing, it’s Arizona and it’s not very often that the sun isn’t shining. So when I woke up this morning to the sun peeking through my blinds, I was instantly inspired to do something today that connected me to this wonder.

While still in pj’s, I began my day photographing how the morning sun was playing off the flowers in my backyard. Lately, capturing the morning sun on flora, whether in my backyard or on some trail, has become a passion for me. There is something magical about the early sun as it lights upon the earth that just fascinates me.

With the Sun’s life sustaining power and the affect it has on me, I can understand why civilizations have and still do worship the Sun and their Solar Deities, like the Roman Sol Invictus, the Germanic Sol, and the Egyptian Ra and so on. Even in Yoga there are a combination of poses that when combined together are referred to as Sun Salutations. Hmm, I think I will do some Yoga in the back yard this morning as my personal salutation to the Sun.

Whatever you are at today, may the sun shine on you and warm your heart.

“The earth has received the embrace of the sun and we shall see the results of that love.” Sitting Bull

One breath at a time

As a kid, I never cared much for strenuous exercise in school, nor did I have any particular athletic ability. I played badminton and volleyball, but anything that required deep breathing was hard and painful to do. I blame terrible allergies that I had as a child and believe that it affected my lung capacity. Strenuous meant having a difficult time breathing so I avoided it. I was physically able to ride my bicycle all over town and skate up and down the street for hours, but throw me in a P.E. class and I just gave up.

As I got older, I discovered that I really liked to go hiking and do outdoor things, but I still found it difficult to catch my breath going up an incline. I thought the only way to improve this problem would be to dedicate myself to strenuous workouts. I found slight improvements when I consistently worked out, but not enough to keep me motivated and so my workouts became sporadic. Like most people as they get older, I realized that this wasn’t going to get any better and in fact I was beginning to see signs of lost mobility. I was also falling because my balance was bad. It was then that I decided I needed to do something that I would like doing and that something was Yoga.

I remember that even as a child Yoga held a fascination for me. I remember watching our local PBS station and thinking that while the lady in the leotard looked a little like an old hippie, her movements and her energy were calming to watch and reminded me of watching the movement of water in a stream.

I bought a book on Yoga and found other resources in self-improvement magazines like Prevention and Body and Soul, and began doing a 20 to 30 minute routine. When consistently practiced I found that my balance and mobility were getting better, but like all my previous attempts at working out, I found that my devotion to Yoga was also sporadic. Unlike working out, I knew that there was something about Yoga that I really missed when I didn’t take time to practice.

While currently in between jobs, I took the opportunity of extra time on my hands and I decided I would dive back into Yoga. Over the past two months I was able to improve in my previous routine and increase the number of poses. Also, Yoga has taken a more meaningful, spiritual presence in my life. I find so much peace through the meditation of my movements and my breathing that it has now become a necessity in my daily routine. I am now up to 60 to 75 minutes and usually practice 4 days each week. I find that on the days when I don’t practice, I am missing it. Aside from these qualities, I am also finding that when hiking, my balance on the trail is much better and I have increased my lung capacity so it is easier to hike up those inclines. I also find that my regular workouts are getting better because I have increased the oxygen in my muscles making it easier for them to move.

Some other great resources I found are on the Yoga Journal website. They have a wonderful resource of Yoga poses, providing detailed instructions and even some video. They also have a very cool tool were I could build my Yoga sequence and print it off. This will serve as a great reminder, especially with the new poses.

I am thrilled that I have been able to dedicate this much of my time to Yoga. In doing so, I now know that when I skip a day of practice I am missing out on the added peace and calmness it provides me. Yoga will be part of my daily life just as air, food, exercise and sleep are a part of life.

“Some perceive God in the heart by the intellect through meditation; others by the yoga of knowledge; and others by the yoga of work (or Karma-yoga).” Bhagavad Gita

Spring time in the house

These are the latest flowers for the house shown here with a beautiful glass piece made by my friend Donna. 

Taking time for tea

Recently, we discovered this wonderful Korean Tea House in town called Born, Green Tea and Beyond. They have a wonderful variety of loose teas and a simplistic formality to serving it that completely took me in.

First you select which tea you want to try. Then find a spot to relax and enjoy the process. The tea and its accoutrements are brought out on individual trays. Each tray has its own tea pot, strainer, pitcher and cup. Loose tea is added to the tea pot, then they pour in hot water. After it steeps for a couple of minutes, they pour the tea through the strainer into the pitcher and then they pour it into your cup.

There is something so peaceful and serene in watching this process unfold and because of that, I naturally wanted to bring the experience home. After investing in all the necessary paraphernalia, this process has become part of my daily routine. I found that there are two mindsets to making tea. You can simply make a cup of tea and go about your business, or you can make time for tea. Both are satisfying in their own way, but my preference is to make time for tea. In doing so, I find that bit of peace and serenity, taking time to relax the stresses of the day.

I take this tray of tea into my office, or out on the patio with a book. It's a wonderful way to relax.

My favorite tea is Chrysanthemum. Yum!!

Field of Dreams

After I finished my 'Fly' project, I was feeling a little lost. I knew I wanted to keep my creative juices flowing, but I didn’t have any ideas in mind for another project.

As it turned out, when I purchased the canvas for Fly, I had also purchased a large jar of Gesso. When I got home I discovered that the canvas was already covered in Gesso and then I found my old jar of the stuff. Since I had been feeling like I wasted money, an inspirational spark fired and I thought I should get busy covering things with all this Gesso. I found my stash of old children’s board books and some cool chipboard pieces that I purchased several years ago and I covered them.

Maybe it was the meditative like state I was in while covering these items or my own version of Field of Dreams, but I began to develop some ideas on how I wanted to alter them. I went through my stamps and several themes began jumping out at me with their possibilities.

I am thrilled that all it took to find inspiration was to start covering stuff and the ideas came through the corn field. There is a moral in this for sure. Hmm??

Check back for how these pieces turn out and for other possible revelations that might walk out of the corn field.

Cheers!!

Shall we fly?

My inspiration this past week came in the form of an assemblage project.  I chose Fly as my theme which is symbolic for this period in my life.

This first photo is the layout of materials I picked to use resting on top of a 12x12 canvas that I painted and stamped earlier in the week.  I used a variety of Golden Acrylics for the background and Memories black ink for the stamped corners.  I then applied a Tea Dyed varnish over the canvas to seal it.  The paper images are from various companies. 

This next picture is after I grunged up the graphics a bit, glued them in place, applied beeswax and added some of the dimensional objects.

I never used beeswax before and I had a blast.  It took about 90 minutes to apply it using my Melting Pot and tiny long handled iron. 

This last picture is the final product with the addition of a dimensional birds nest at the bottom of the piece.  Now to find a place to hang it...