Soulistry: Doing Good

Got to week #8 is Soulistry through Book of Days Premium. 

The quote this time was:

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” 

~John Wesley~

The questions centered around what 'good' was to us, moments of 'good' etc...

I found this the easiest Soulistry to date, the timing was right.

***

My mind went for my favorite Bible Quote:

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels."

~Hebrews 13:2~ 

In short, my thoughts are:

 good = kind. 

 ***

I did have another story come to mind and used it for my 'journaling' since it was *just* what I would liked to have expressed, but soooo more succinct than I ever could have expressed in my own words.

 

-Tale of the Two Wolves- A Cherokee Legend
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

 

Well worded ---> perfection!
***

On the right I Art Journaled using yet another quote... 

They all just popped out and jumped in the book this time, lol.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

~Abraham Lincoln~

 

Hand drawn and colored in with Markers.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 159

It's still Wednesday,*just*... 11:43 PM here.

Whistling in.... weeeee....

Hop on over to:

Stamping Ground

To check out all the other, not as late, postings. 

Today I DID get some art done: Week 7 in Soulistry (It's posted just before this) this morning when I took the picture I had everything laid out to get started.

Also had a yummy Starbucks 8-pump Caramel Frappuccino with my name on it and some flavor co-ordinated caramel-toffee scones waiting for me... yum. 

The usual mess, Hero sneaking in the door to look mournfully at me in hopes of being blessed with a scone (not happening) and the new victim, er... Polka Dot Plant hubby bought as a sacrifice, er... um gift. I have no luck with them, but they are so cute and people keep bringing me more. *shaking head* Poor thing.

lol

The rest of the day was eaten up by a hospital endocrine appointment for the eldest boy and then preparations to celebrate Summer Solstice tonight. Beautiful BBQ dinner with the 1st watermelon of the season, followed by a lovely (quick due to the extreme heat here) fire... with a wee blessing and some marshmallow roasting. Simple and Splendid.

Soulistry Week 7: Secrets of the Spiritual Life

Feeling a bit better so I decided to start the Art-ing of Soulistry again through the Book of Day Premium Program.

 They are up to week 10, I'm trailing behind having only finished up to week 5 before my health took a hearty tumble downhill. 

That means I have the luxury of picking and choosing what to do, bonus! Started with week 7 since the prompt jumped out and my muse grabbed it happily and danced off to do it...

Journaling side reads:

Week #7 - Secrets of the Spiritual Life

__________

"The Whole secret of the spiritual life is just this painful struggle to come awake, to become really conscious" -The Creed of Christ- Gerald Heard

___________

For me 'coming awake' has been my struggle with/in-between/around my Christian Faith but also my belief and 'worship' of the older Celtic beliefs... Fairies, Nature, Seasons and the turn of the Sun/Moon.

It is a dance and I have several partners...

Sometimes I struggle and trip with one, sometimes I dance fluidly and gracefully with another... then the tune changes and it goes the other way. Each step is part of this dance, each partner to me is as important as the last... or the next. Often we all dance together in a Ring... THIS is when I am at my very best, THIS Harmony Dance is what I wish for. 

Art Journal side reads:

Balance...

Finds a partner or more...

and join the dance...

 I danced in the morning when the world had begun

I danced in the Moon & the Stars & the Sun...

I came down from Heaven & I danced on the Earth...

Dance then, wherever you may be... I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!

and I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all

in the Dance, said He! I am the Dance & the Dance went on...

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 153

Weeeeeeeednesday is heeeereeee....

Time to pop on over to:

Stamping Ground

Come see what's on everyone's desk this fine What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday!

 Let's see what mess I have today... 

Up at the top-ish left: 

Finished spread for Soulistry, left to dry (again), dabbed a bit more white on just before bed. 

Above that:

My Steampunk hat... 

Maaaay be tweaking it a bit since it looks like I'll be spending Mother's Day at Ottawa Comiccon!!! 

*squeee!!!* 

So the rest of this week will be spent yanking outfits together for the family. 

Main Area:

One of the steampunk outfit sketches I'm always working on -tweak-tweak- 

and another self-portrait, just the outline, not sure what I'm doing with it... 

Arthur wanted to be shown the outline/trace technique, grabbed the nearest picture to show him.

...aaaaaand the usual junk and sh-tuff...

So, What's on YOUR Workdesk?

Zee hat... and earrings. lol

Mom Update:

She's a trouper!

Slow, steady improvements. 

Looks like the cane will be with her for the next 6 months or more... and she'll need physiotherapy. 

(paperwork... insurance... waiting... tapping foot)

Eye, however, is GREAT! nearly 100% better.

 

Soulistry: A Spirituality of Play (and 29 Faces)

It seems Face # 9 snuck into my Soulistry Journal today... she's Windy!

 

 This section was about 'celebrating holy uselessness'... ie. PLAY.

So that's what I did... sat down with no plan, no scheme, no ideas and just started.

Primed my book then looked around for something to start adding...

Paint! It was in the carrier by my feet... just reached in at random, yanked a color out, squirted it on, then reached for another. 14 in total.

Then I finger painted...

Once that was dry I started looking for patterns, pictures or anything (and apparently anyone...) that popped out. Started doodling over with 3 different black markers and 2 white... 

Pure Play

I also added journaling... it reminded me of one of my boys favorite books. 

'My Many Colored Days' by Dr. Seuss.

Video of the book being read:

 

Soulistry: The Well Within

 Finished Art-ing the next section in Soulistry for the Book of Days -Premium Program. 

Only a partial share this time... 

The actual written bit was quite personal so I'm not posting it on the Blog. 

Will share the round-up Quote added to that section:

Knowing what is right is like
deep water in the heart;
a wise person draws from the well within.
~Proverbs 20:5~ 

 

Which led to the Quote I used on the opposite Art-ed side:
To fulfill the well within, we must 

commit our bucket to the well of another. 

Only then will you pull a full pail of 

living water from the well spring of life’s 

love. Only then will you have sufficient 

living water flowing into the cups of friends, 

coworkers, and neighbors. Commit your heart to 

loving another with the freedom to share from the 

well of love. ~Lee Down~

 

Picture was taken several years back near to when I reached a major cross-roads in my life, 

One that had me re-evaluating and learning to reach out again after being isolated within for too many years.

 

Journaling:

A single drop of water is not a well

In the deep I learned I needed to TRUST... Reach out... and share... TO BE.

I need more drops to fill my well... and I need to help fill others wells... TO BE.

Book of Days: April 20th - 24th

Picture catch-up... and DONE the 11th Multi-Day Spread!

April 24th:

Full Spread

11th Spread DONE

April 20th:

 Worked on my Soulistry Animal Totem: Rabbit spread so I made a small version in my BOD. 

Background was created with scribbled Stampin'Up! Markers then worked around with a wet brush. 

Rabbit is colored with SU! Markers too. 

April 21st:

Worked on Dragonfly Soulistry page today.

Used the scrap page I flipped the sprayed Mask over onto as the background.

 

April 21st:

Full Spread.

  

April 22nd:

Earth Day!

My migraine started today, thankfully I had already planned to use some sort of clip-art 'Earth' for today. I'd set the page up for a circle in the middle... made for a quick write up before slipping off to bed.

 

April 22nd:

Full Spread.

April 23rd:

Migraine Day 2... another 'cheater' with a printed image.

More Marker-Washing in the background. 

April 23rd:

Full Spread

April 24th:

One-eyed Pirate Art Day!

Day 3 of the Migraine and loss of vision. 

Had a little fun with my face and some fancy pirate duds. 

One-eyed Pirate Artist Day! Soulistry: Nothing You can Do

Today has been an interesting Art Day... I only have one eye to work with!

MAJOR Migraine started very early Sunday morning, still in residence in my head... it seems far to cozy there. My eyes feel ice cold and the inside of my head feels like it's full of hot molten lava pressing out. The pain is something I can work around it's the vision loss, which is not uncommon for me the rare time I get these, that's more of a 'pain'. 1/3 of the vision in my right eye is 'wavy': picture looking out over a hot stove element or over a very hot cement road. It gives me nausea. The past 2 days I spent heavily drugged and in a dark room, mostly asleep. I can't do that very long, just not in me to be idle. yuck. Idle time lets me think about my Mom, her accident and the other stresses we have going on... which likely aided heavily in the making of this migraine. That and we had SNOW yesterday... system changes much?!

So Today I said F**K iT! got up, made a pot of coffee and have tried to pick my way through emails and some Art-ing. Still on meds so I may be here-der-and-everywere...

er... the emails worked fine...

Art has been a disaster. 

But I don't believe in hiding the bits *I* don't like so here it'll be the good, the bad & the ooogly. 

First a bit of a taste from my Book of Days for today... 

I'm going to try to get the past 5 days blogged after this if the pain holds back. 

We'll see, reading seems to make it worse. 

Today I am a one-eyed Pirate Artist!

 

The topic as Effy summed it up so simply this time in Soulistry is:

The 'G' Word.

The question:

Where are you at with God?

I made 2 spreads since that is were my Muse was heading... 

First spread I started by looking up Dog and God: Different spelling same unconditional love and found this lovely *perfect* video that expressed *exactly* what I was trying for...

Sketched and traced out before the Migraine started, colored it in today.

Spread is based on this little song:

Made a pencil sketch, traced in sharpie and colored in with Stampin'Up! Markers. The background was made by washing scribbled marker around with a wet brush (like water paints). 

God's love is that simple to me... unconditional, like my dog. 

This is a snippet of my 'answer-y' bit to the question of where we're at... 

(the rest doesn't pertain to *this* page...)

"Unconditional Love as a parent: Like God I 'Love' my children, all  of them, equally... there are times I don't 'Like' them or what they are doing, BUT my 'LOVE' doesn't change for them."

This is the page I made entirely today, with 1 eye and I.am.not.happy.with. it. 

but meh, it is what it is and that is DONE.

Started by doing a bad image transfer, then tried to make it look like a Plaster Fresco, think Sistine Chapel Ceiling... I traced in some outlines, drew in my gurl and colored her with markers... Then I used straight TopBozz ink refill brushed on and UTEE. 2 layers... then I scrunched it up to crack it. At this stage some peeled off so I gave it a coat of Matte Gel Medium to keep the rest on and an few spritz of Caramel Glimmer Mist for aging. I does look 'better' IRL, the light reflect really sucks the color out of it.

Meh... not my favorite by far but DONE.

I have bad days too.

Soulistry: Gifts. Animal Totem: Dragonfly

Back with the Second spread created based around my Totem Animals for the topic GIFTS in Soulistry for the Book of Days -Premium Program. 

About six or so years ago I started to notice more Dragonflies in my life.

A few at first, then as the years went by there were more and more... 

After reading about the Dragonfly Totem I am not at all surprised. 

They starting flitting in about the time my life started to subtly shift and change.

...big move, separation, divorce... 

...medical diagnosis that changed my life course...

...my art came back... 

...new relationships, new people... 

...and a new found joy with the simple things in life and peace.

On the left again (like I did for the Rabbit Totem spread) is some information gleaned from varied places on the internetz. This time I highlighted a few things that really *pop-ed* for me:

~Dragonfly is the keeper of dreams, the knower within that sees all of our true potential and ability. 

~Dragonfly also connects us with the power of color and the ability to work with many different colors to achieve anything we want to experience in life.

~People who carry Dragonfly medicine are often quite talented in the use of Color for healing.

~Dragonfly people are also very talented at helping others navigate their own emotional waters.

 

On the right I Art-ed:

Background was painted white then sprayed with Glimmer Mist (Blue, Pink, Purple). 

Then the Tattered Angels Dragonfly Mask went down, I adding more spray. 

Next I took Pearl White Lumiere and painted the wings in. At this stage I also took the frame stamp from the Stampin'Up!: Celtic Knots set and stamped everywhere in Pink. 

Also stamped the Tattered Angels Dragonfly stamp over the masked/painted image with black StazOn. This I only inked the edges of the image for and stamped twice... wanted to have a feeling of movement in the wings by making several impressions. 

Washed the whole page over with white paint and added a second layer of Lumiere to the wings. When this was dry I stamped and heat embossed the Dragonfly in black.

Then I cover the Dragonfly with the Mask again and splattered Glimmer Mist in an upward motion (wanted it to look like water spray, where the Dragonfly comes from...), then speed dried it with the heating gun. 

Used a text stamp in blue and corner flourish stamp in pale purple from Fancy Pants were used to continue stamping the page. 

The Tattered Angels Compass (with North at the head) was stamped over the Mask too. 

Then I removed the Mask, spray sealed it and started journaling...

 

Around the bottom of the Compass;

"Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long."
~James Thurber~ 

Across the top:

"What matters is to live in the present, live now,

 for every moment is now. It is your thoughts 

and acts of the moment that create your 

future. The outline of your future path 

already exists, for you created its pattern 

by your past."
~ Sai Baba ~

It's a very shimmery, shiny and lovingly layered page. 

I took many pictures since none of them are truly splendid... 

Very pleases with this one, as I was with the Rabbit Totem page, it just... came. 

In fact this one was keeping me up last night... lol. 

Woke up (read gave-up on sleeping) and hour early to get into the Studio this morning. 

 

 

 

 

 

Soulistry: Gifts. Animal Totem: Rabbit

It would seem I'm not quite ready to move on from 'Gifts' in Soulistry (that we're following along with in Book of Days -Premium)... 

This is the First of Two layouts dealing with Animal Totems and Animal Gifts. 

For my entire life I've had Rabbits hopping in and out of my life... In more recent years the Rabbits have been mixed with Dragonflies (another page for another day...). Started looking it all up today and was *amazed* at how well these two creatures fit with my past and my present situations and 'gifts'. 

The left is some varied information on Rabbit Totem gifts gathered here and there across the internetz. 

The right is my ART:

Started by painting the book page white, then I sketched out a rough version based of El-ahrairah of Watership Down fame. 

The background was created with Glimmer Mist sprays (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple) and a stamp from the Stampin' Up!: Beautiful Batik set. Used 8 different ink pads for stamping: Some 'pure' images and many that were stamped on several pads for 'hybrid' colors. 

Sprayed it all down with water and heat-gunned it dry. 

Then I traced the Rabbit image in Sharpie, painted it in with DecoArt: Burnt Umber and highlighted in white with a Sakura: Pen-Touch pen. 

Re-did some of the face details in fine Sharpie. 

Then finished by journaling the two Watership Down quotes in Gel-Pen.

“The rabbits mingled naturally. They did not talk for talking's sake, in the artificial manner that human beings - and sometimes even their dogs and cats - do. But this did not mean that they were not communicating; merely that they were not communicating by talking.”
- Richard Adams -Watership Down

“Animals don't behave like men,' he said. 'If they have to fight, they fight; and if they have to kill they kill. But they don't sit down and set their wits to work to devise ways of spoiling other creatures' lives and hurting them. They have dignity and animality.” 

- Richard Adams - Watership Down

Very pleased with how this just flowed together... 

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 150

It's a Wednesday... that's fer sure...

Before I start to prattle don't forget to go check out the other spots  at:

Stamping Ground

This was taken early this morning.

 Today has not gone at I had hoped... 

Spread about today are the journals I'd planned to work in when I got back in from my morning workout: Book of Days and Soulistry. In addition there's some artwork and business cards out that I was packing up to send off to a charity event that's going on tonight downtown. 

There should be a post coming soon after this with more deets about that...

 Today I came home to a rather garbled message from our house guest as a result of a rather garbled message left with him by my Dad. Long and short of it: My Mother was crossing a rather busy street a 1/2 block from were they live, she had the right away and was in the cross-walk when a driver turned left quickly and she was struck. She bounced up and across the front of the car and fell off hard on her left side. Luckily though her left side is quite battered up, only her nose is broken, it was partially torn but able to be repaired. She is now at home but my husband and I spent the majority of the day with her at the hospital. 

So that's been my Wednesday.

 

 

Update and more info here:

http://keepsakescrafts.blogspot.ca/2012/04/book-of-days-april-19th-praying-for-my.html

Contact for the WOYWW Card-Crew:

sarahccooper (at) rogers (dot) com