Happy Birthday to Meeeee... and some other stuff

Yesterday was my birthday. Yay me! I love birthdays! I had a wonderful day with my hubby. I got a SARK book about creative dreams and a class on glass fusing. I am so excited with both!

As I was sitting at my kitchen table, I noticed the interesting objects before me. See pic <~~~ . The coloured pencils I have been using to colour a mandala. The mug is from a local artist and one I often drink my tea from. The compass is representative of me finding my direction in life (but was actually being used by hubby to set up a satellite dish). The journal is the altered book WIP. The lighter is for the candle in the silver bowl which I light in honour of my muse whenever I am going to create for a few hours. The far right paper is measurements for my hubby's slippers. This picture is a good snapshot of my life right now. Cool! And yes, that is a bottle of wine in the background. Woohoo!

Whoops!

Hmmm...whoops. Haven't posted in a while. Will do so soon!

The pic of "wounds" project

Woot! Here is the pic of my latest "wounds" project. It is called "Wounds of Memory II"

Continuing with "wounds" project

I have had a piece of art for the "wounds" project in my head for a while now. I finally worked on it tonight, and it came out very close to how I imagined it would (can't post a pic because blogger is giving me trouble :( ).

After finishing, I still felt restless but creative. So I pulled my gel medium back out and started to do an altered book. Do I know what I am doing? Ummm, not really, but I did have a lot of fun. Now I am pooped but my muse is content. Gotta keep the muse happy, dontcha know!

Hmmm...

So I was over at Tealeaves again, and I got this reading for the second time this week:

Reading No. 20

When you come to the edge of all the light you have and must take a step into the darkness of the unknown, believe that one of two things will happen to you: either there will be something solid for you to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.

Do you think the universe is trying to tell me something?

It's Friday the 13th!

Ooh! It's Friday the 13th! Here in Ontario, Friday the 13th is especially special to motorcyclists. They all converge on Port Dover, rain or shine, snow or sun. This sleepy little town on Lake Erie gets thousands of bike riders that day. I have been once and it really was a sight to see. Hope your day was good and nothing untoward happened!

Spring has sprung (kind of) and I have started some spring cleaning. Yesterday I cleaned out a closet and today I replaced the screen on our front door and started on the bathroom. Note the job I did as well as my puppies. I just can't resist adding gratuitous pics of my pups whenever I can! Note that our mail box is not lit; we have some reflective material behind our house number so you can see it. Poor Shadow always looks like a "devil dog" when we take his pic with a flash!

After the stuff I did today, I had a nice long soak in the tub, with Enya drifting up from my downstairs computer and a can of pop at my side. From the bathtub, I could see a bit of a maple tree out the bathroom window. Its lightly budded branches were waving in a gentle breeze and almost seemed to be bobbing to the music. I know that is not possible, but in that one instant, it seemed that the music, the tree and I were all connected in a very deep way. The moment passed, but it was just nice to feel a connection to the world around me through my senses: the gentle harmonies of the music, the warmth of the water, the scent of the bubbles, the dancing branches against a deepening blue sky.

I sometimes wonder if I am weird, noticing these tiny moments of life. I feel maybe I should be focusing on larger things. These little moments, though, feed my soul. And that is exactly what I need.

Internet meanderings...

Lately I have been wandering around the internet, poking in dusty corners and seeing what is there. Some of the sites I have been to are interesting...

Soul Food Cafe is a wonderful, labyrinthine and impressive site. It is geared towards writers and encouraging daily writing. Even though I am more of an artist than a writer, I found the site fascinating and helpful. Some of the weekly writing prompts are in the form of "Grand Tours"; one very similar to what upper-middle class men would do in Europe, and another in the form of a fantasy world called Lemuria. The Grand Tours are just a small part of this site. I just don't have the words to describe this site accurately! There are some dead links, but that doesn't diminish the overall effectiveness of the site. I am also not sure how active some of the forums are as the few I poked my nose into had very old posts. However, it is a truly a magical site. You can easily get lost in the site and spend a LOT of time wandering, which I fully admit I have done recently. I highly recommend this site.

Tealeaves is a cute, but accurate, tea leaf reading page. Try it, you'll like it!

Sandart is a fun time-waster. Make your own sand art!

Reasonably Clever is another great time-waster. Lego-lover (yes, Lego!) or not, I'm sure you can find something here to interest you. Make a Mini-mizer version of yourself or someone else, or read through the tarot decks made up of scenes of Lego.

Have fun; I know I did!

Donna, I did it!

My wonderful cousin Donna recently sent me a lovely package in the mail. It included a fabulous bamboo crochet hook and very cool tri-colour cotton yarn in fuschia, green and orange. I was so hesistant to use the yarn as I am a total crochet newbie; what if I screw it up? Anyway, this weekend I took the plunge and made (drumroll please: brrrrrrrrrrr ting!) a facecloth!

So, I think I messed up the first few rows as I think I missed some stitches, but I don't think I did too bad for a beginner. I used a basic half-treble stitch. Notice the very chic hanging loop! The cotton yarn is much different than acrylic; it has much less-to-no give. I had to adapt my tension to be able to actually get the hook through the stitches. All in all, I'm pretty proud of it!

It was a quiet weekend around here. Hubby had Friday off, so it was nice to have him home for a long weekend. We pretty much stayed close to home. Easter Sunday we just stayed in our jammies and ate yummy Easter chocolate! Mmmm... bunny ears! If you observe, I hope you had a Joyous Easter.

We rented the documentary Shut Up & Sing by the Dixie Chicks. Hubby and I both like the Dixie Chicks, even though neither of us listen to "country". Although I did not learn anything earth shattering in it, it definitely was interesting to see the differing actions of Americans to Natalie Maines' comment. As a Canadian, I found some of the reactions incredible. I'd give this documentary 7/10.

I woke up today grumpy and restless (maybe coming down from sugar overload?). I am going to try and channel some of that energy into something creative. I have been mulling around another painting in my head. Today would be as good a day as any to start it.

WTF?

Ya, ya I know. It is still early April and I know snow is not that uncommon this time of year, but geez. The last few weeks have been so beautiful that I thought spring was here for good. Oh well...

How to paint?

How to paint?
Take Brush in hand.
Dip Brush in Paint.
Put Brush on Canvas.
Have Fun.
That's it.
"The Birds And The Beans"
Copyright 2007 Brenda Johima

I think I over-think painting too much!

Emotions

Today my emotions have been running the gamut. I started out feeling down on myself; you know, the "I feel fat and therefore hate the world" feeling. Then my mood picked up and I didn't feel too bad: the "crocuses are in bloom and spring is here and the birds are chirping" feeling. Now I am in the "I hurt all over" feeling, and I think it is here for the evening. So I have great plans: I will crochet my huge-o blanket while I watch t.v.

Miscellany:

My doctor wants to rule out any organic causes for some of my pain, so he is sending me for some tests. We'll wait and see.

It is maple syrup season here in the great white north. We got some maple flavoured cookies from the store and boy are they yummy! Me, the sweet-a-holic can only eat one at a time, they are that rich.

Happy Passover to all those who observe. This year in Jerusalem!

I am trying out Mozilla Firefox. So far, I like it. I am having less issues than Safari. Any tips, tricks or suggestions are greatly welcome!