Kasia's Advent Calendar : Days 9-11

Loving this project and there is time to catch up now that I am on holiday. I have been so inspired by the mindful prompts, the thoughtful presentation by Kasia of each lesson, and what I'm learning with every spread. I am creating on separate pages so I can include stitch and then gluing them into my cover (to be altered at the end) Here's how my book looked by end of Day 8

Day 9 : Breathe. I was having a tough day when I responded to this prompt - divine timing ♥ It made me just concentrate on the process of doing something that helped me in the moment. I began with the spread I had used on the first day for cleaning off some paint

and I went straight in to draw the heart, the word Breathe, and then filled in with some watercolour before adding the the other elements that are meaningful to me. 

When upset I try and lift myself by practicing gratitude and remembering all the things I am lucky to have in my life.

Day 10 : "Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop" - Rumi. This was an exercise in releasing feelings by free-writing on the page. I have done this before and it is great, but when I saw Tree I thought Pohutukawa = our New Zealand Christmas tree.  So I headed off with my own feelings about NZ Christmas ♥ Began with a stencil and some washi tape, and then free wrote a list of my thoughts, activities, memories about NZ Christmas and this time of year. Again this page was more about process than pretty

Day 11 : The Scents = Lilies is my first thought - followed closely by roses and strawberries. Loving the textures

Once more this page shows I'm a girl from the Southern Hemisphere ♥ 

Not worried that I am "behind". Going through a tough time at the moment and art-making really helps. I will keep working and share 2-3 spreads with you at a time until done. Find all my posts about this project HERE or just look at the photos in my Flickr Set.