One Little Word 2017 : April + May

I'm taking Ali Edwards' One Little Word OLW workshop. The monthly prompts encourage you to connect with your word throughout the year and I'm excited to see what happens with my word in 2017. I am still feeling very connected to SHINE ♥
For April we were invited to get curious about our word and come up with questions to make us actively think about what our word means right now. I didn't actually use Ali's idea of post-it notes around the place, but I wrote down questions in my Inner Work Journal and explored my responses. Some questions that gave good insights : 
What does it FEEL like when I SHINE? How do I affect others?
What is the opposite of SHINE? and can that help me SHINE more effectively? 
What do I do if I feel "down" to get myself back to SHINE?
Are there other words that I need to support SHINE this month?
What am I noticing that I am doing to SHINE that is different from 6 months ago? - this gave me a gratitude list and recognition of my progress ♥
The May prompt was photo storytelling. I ended up with a triple-spread in my Inner Work Journal celebrating the things that make me SHINE. First I thought about the words that make up SHINE : 
* SHARE * HEALTHY * INNER WORK * NOTICE * ENJOY *
And then I went looking for photos that reflected the statement "I am SHINING when...." I've taken a photo of each page in case you want to look closer (click to see even larger)

I enjoyed adding pretty tape to add more shine and the notes will help me remember my thoughts later about why I chose these photos.

See more details of that self-love portrait HERE. At the end of the month in my Inner Work journal I always keep a record of what I'm watching, reading, listening to, and since they are all part of * ENJOY *  and sometimes other parts of my word I decided to include them as an extra flip-out

Here's what the entire spread looks like open

And here it is with the flip-out closed - these guys help me to SHINE every day ♥

I shared the beginnings of my Inner Work Part 2 Journal HERE. I began it at the beginning of April, and it's already blooming : 

As well as this journal containing writing for self-development, I also keep inspiring things like some of the daily messages from Brave Girls Club. This one seemed to be written especially for me ♥

Looking forward to exploring further in June. See all my posts about OLW 2017 HERE, and my Flickr album which includes any art featuring my word as well as the class prompts HERE.

Daily Journaling Week 21

I'm following the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. Week 21 : add embroidery floss or thread to your page and also from the blog for Life Documented 2017 HERE : PROMPT: Use stencils to decorate your backgrounds  TECHNIQUE: stencil randomly and loosely, using only portions of the stencils. The guest this week is Anna Friesen of Artful stories - always inspired by her beautiful work. My spread already had some inky clean-ups on it

so I started by scraping some paint over and adding some journaling blocks. I also liked Anna's idea of the tip-in being a flip down so added that too.

I was very happy with the Autumn May Queen that I created last weekend - see my previous post for details about her, so I decided to re-use some of that for this spread. Before I started my stenciling I wanted to put a few photos down - she appears, plus our new lights and I was very taken with the new Netflix series of Anne with an E. Contrary to some opinions, I loved the realistic bits that were added to the story in a sensitive way. The acting is wonderful, and I ♥ the stunning opening sequence that began each episode. Here's the journaling spread with photos and stenciling added (click on any photo to see it larger) : 

I wanted to add some stitch so played with stencils and stitch on the flip-up. You can see I used wool to stitch some large crosses, and my machine for lines of stitch on the left side and to add some sari ribbon on the bottom

I happened upon some the perfect found words in a large print book as well :-) Then I printed the quote from my Autumn girl and that covered some of the messier stitching on the other side. Here's the spread completed showing flip up and down : 

You can see all my posts about this project HERE and my Flickr album HERE.

Book of Days : May Queen - Autumn Splendour

After a planned hiatus with no lessons for April, Effy is back with session 2 of Book of Days which started beginning of May. I've finally managed to finish Week 1 - May Queen. Knew immediately that although our norther hemisphere friends are enjoying Spring and heading to Summer, in New Zealand we have been enjoying Autumn so my Queen's hair would be celebrating Autumn Splendour. 

Began with a layer of flesh coloured paint since I didn't have light coloured pencils. Then added pencil work

The white is acrylic paint (mix of transparent for blending and titanium for highlights) and the purple of her lips and eye highlights plus brown of her eyes I used watersoluble markers which I sealed with fixative before a layer of clear gesso to refine the face. 

And then time to move onto the hair. I did use watercolours but not working on actual watercolour paper so just wet it and added the watercolours and smooshed them with paint brush and thought they'll do as the lower layer. Some dabbing with paper towel and overlaying of colour worked quite well.

Then it was time to start doodling....started with leaves and decided that highlighting with white gives a hint of cooler temperatures to come

Printed a quote by Humbert Wolfe (but replaced the word October with Autumn) on appropriately coloured scrapbook paper. Then decided I would line the words up against the edge of the page so more room for doodles 

And here's the finished spread. Click on any photo to see it larger.

I really REALLY ♥ her - every piece of art I finish in this journal is my new favourite! See my Flickr album for all my art from classes with Effy HERE. Sign up to Book of Days (Full Year or Session 2) or other classes with Effy Wild HERE. 

Quilt inspirations.

Saturday was our club's annual Tote & Gloat show. I've shared these days with you before - after a busy week at school with book week, this was a fabulous chance to slow down and absorb some quilt inspiration and catch up with lovely like-minded creative friends. Great venue with heaps of quilts on display. They are shown on the stage

 and then hung for our later viewing pleasure. I shared my quilt in my previous post.

I took quite a lot of photos this year - what follows are my favourite inspirations, but I'm sorry there are no labels so I can't credit makers this time. Click on any photo for a larger view.

As well as the show and tell, there were challenge quilts made by members. 

A coffee cup challenge (above) and a circle challenge (some of them below). Check out our Rose City Quilters blog with all the challenge winners HERE.

Some special exhibitions gave us even more to look at and be inspired by. Small quilts : 

Dolls and creatures made with Jill Maas patterns or classes : 

And there's always shopping...

although I only spent $2.50 this year! Cute butterfly buttons - pen is just there for scale. 

Lucky person who won our beautiful raffle quilt : 

and I was re-inspired to get on with some Sue Spargo-inspired stitching as I listened to our guest speaker, Rachel Maw from Annies Country Quilt Store. 

As you can see it was an awesome, inspiring day. I always come home wanting to stitch and not sure which one to start with next ;-)

Daily Journaling Weeks 19-20

I am so proud of myself, we're a third of the way through the year and this is the first time I've had to compromise my daily journaling practice. There's just been too much going on in my life, and rather than stress about getting behind, I decided I'd combine prompts this week in a way that works for me. My creative practice is one of the joys of my life - I am not about to make it a chore ♥

I've been following the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. Week 19 : Document a random act of kindness from you and Week 20 : Use a rubber stamp in a new way. And from the blog for Life Documented 2017 HERE : Monthly Theme: Bold and Bright 

Week 19  : Prompt: Make your own Collage Paper 

Technique: use black gesso and tape in an envelope! 

Week 20 : Prompt: Paint colors, draw shapes and paint around them
Technique: Cut up your piece and make a page for your journal.
I sifted through all of that, and my original intention was to start by collaging using lovely inky under paper = a cheat's way of making your own collage paper ;-) , and then to use rubber stamps to put on shapes that I then painted around. Here's what actually happened.  First I went to my journal to look at the page size to decide how I'd do the journaling part with the prompt part - my next spread is clean, but the one after has already had stencil paint cleaned off on it so I decided to use the blank spread for the prompts, and my 2-week's journaling over the already-painted pages. 

The blank pages got the under paper treatment as my first collaged layer

Then instead of a stamp I decided to just use a mask and black paint (close enough to the prompt for black gesso I reckon!)

LOVE! Now to add some of my own touches....white pen dots and found words for a start

Then I just decided to use gold metallic sakura and write and doodle in the black gaps some of the things keeping me busy these 2 weeks.... (this next one is taken in daylight so looks different colours)

Over the page is the journaling - and now I have no pressure on this project and more time for other things....I just have to journal the rest of this week - Winning ♥

Want to share a couple of the photos larger : 

Was our school book week last week - fantastically successful and I loved being the witch for our last day where we all dressed up as book characters ♥
Saturday was our annual Tote & Gloat quilt show - 

That's my Disappearing Nine Patch quilt on the right. 

There'll be more about inspirations from that show in my next post. Hope you are having a lovely week. You can see all my posts about this Daily journaling project HERE and my Flickr album HERE.