monday photo-a-week and a sketch of my new wallet

SKETCHBOOK 2009

i've been looking for a decent-sized bag and wallet for some months now but i've never had much luck. the bag i've been using is always packed to the hilt, and literally bulging at the seams, while my wallet has been showing serious signs of wear and tear after years of use. the bags i've bought previously have always been that bit too small or, they're large with no dividers....a girl like me NEEDS dividers! otherwise i fumble around for ages trying to find the item i'm looking for. with dividers, i know exactly where everything is.

as for a wallet....apart from a small amount of cash, i have A LOT of different cards to consider....driver's licence, medicare card, RACQ breakdown service card, library card, many store discount cards, credit/EFTPOS card, lotto card, membership cards, etc. so i need a decent-sized wallet to hold them all.

well.....today was my lucky day!

i not only found the perfect sized bag WITH dividers
but i also found a new wallet!

which prompted my sketch for today

graphite, pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook

click on any image to enlarge

if you follow feng shui or colour therapy, you will already know that the colour of your wallet can attract more money or abundance into your life. green is the colour for abundance. my previous wallet was green too and even though i had a different colour in mind for my new wallet, i still ended up with a green one. i LOVED it so much that i also bought the smaller version in the same design and colour for my smaller bags.

i welcome abundance into my life!

you can read more about feng shui and wallets here and here.

--------------------------------------

MONDAY PHOTO-A-WEEK

earlier this week, we woke up to a very foggy morning. i had to drop reece off at the bus stop around 6 AM and, as the fog was clearing quite quickly, i stopped to take this pic on the way back home. i know it's nothing like the london 'pea-soupers' that i've heard about but i love the mystical feel of foggy mornings nonetheless

then, the very next morning, we were treated to this glorious winter sunrise....i LOVE the colours but darn that street-light! the bird in flight is a crow and i didn't even know it was in the shot until i uploaded it to the computer. YAY!


love, light and peace

weekly mantra card, michael and farrah

when i woke up this morning
i was shocked to hear that michael jackson had died and
i think i'm still trying to get my head around it. May You Rest in Peace, Michael

i grew up on michael jackson (and donny osmond) and i've always been in awe of his talent. my kids have grown up on him too. i know his life has been quite controversial but there is no denying that michael jackson was a legend in his own time. i choose to celebrate and remember the phenomenal entertainer that he was.....putting his heart and soul into every performance.
so many of his songs have touched a chord within
and i am deeply saddened by his sudden death.

i watched tribute shows for michael jackson, as well as for farrah fawcett, earlier today

the brady bunch, bewitched, six million dollar man, the bionic woman and, last but not least, charlie's angels, were some of my favourite TV shows in my younger years. i haven't seen the documentary where farrah had her battle with cancer documented on film but watching the tribute today was very emotional for me. farrah certainly fought a courageous battle against this monster of a disease which, sadly, seems to touch so many lives nowadays.

May You Rest in Peace, Farrah

-----------------------------------

MANTRA MONDAY (but YIKES, it's Friday!)

it seems i'm having trouble getting my weekly affirmation cards ready for the monday posting but i do try
this week's mantra speaks for itself
i focus my thoughts and feelings on serenity and joy
acrylics on 5"x3½" CANSON acrylic paper
© serena lewis
click on any image to enlarge

i'm sure this affirmation will help me to cope better with today's sad news

love, light and peace

Photo a week and sketchbook entry

i'm not doing too well at managing daily sketches but i'm happy that i'm doing any at all. life gets so darned busy with lots of distractions. yesterday, i spent the biggest part of the day sorting out an internet connection problem that brad was having with his computer. then today, the morning was spent teaching my art student and, after class, brad and i popped to the shops.

i did manage this quick sketch late this afternoon. i thought the subject fitted in with my photo-a-week post too. this little camera has been so handy and i have used it heaps.

micron pigma pen & coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
click on any image to enlarge

------------------------------------------

MONDAY'S PHOTO A WEEK
though i'm actually a day late

it's been raining on and off the past few days so i really didn't get a chance to get outside of the house much apart from shopping. however today i walked up to the school to collect aaron in the afternoon and, on the walk home, i took theses pics.

these are tibouchina flowers


an orange trumpet vine overhanging a fence


a close up of the orange trumpet flowers


and some orange fungus attached to a stump
i'm not sure of its correct name


my mantra card will be late again this week, sorry ~ :(

i will catch up with everyone else's weekly photos tomorrow as
i'm feeling quite tired so i think i'll call it a night

love, light and peace

caneware and knitting

i skipped a couple of days sketches with daily life getting in the way but, today, i managed a sketch of one of the cane chairs while watching a movie with aaron and bradley.
pigma micron pen & coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
click on any image to enlarge

we had already seen marley and me at the cinema and loved it and, yes, i sobbed my heart out yet again. such a beautiful movie and, as far as i can tell, it was based on a true story. if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you have some tissues at the ready. i must say i'm relieved my cody isn't mischievious like the dog in the movie. i'm not sure i would have coped as well as they seemed to

SACRED LIFE SUNDAY

even the simple moments can be sacred ones

as i've been knitting lately, aaron expressed a desire to learn so here we are.
i cherish these special moments with my kids
not the best of photos because it was taken early this evening when the flash was needed but still special nonetheless

i was actually surprised at how quickly aaron picked it up. i had taught bradley and aaron how to do french knitting some months ago and they have been thoroughly enjoying it so i guess this was the next step for aaron. an art friend of mine told me today that her father would happily knit socks for them when they were kids. i think that's wonderful! my uncle was in the british army in his youth, quite the male-chauvinist too, and he knitted. my great grandfather was a tailor back when clothes and suits were sewn by hand from scratch. mum told me that dad even learned to knit though he had the habit of ending up with a lot more stitches than what he started with. lol it seems that handcrafts run in our family, even among the men, and i'm quite proud of that fact.

i'll be back tomorrow with mantra monday and photo for the week.

love, light and peace

poncho and whipping it up

we went over to garden city today (a shopping complex in another suburb) to do some shopping....mostly browsing. we had hot chocolate with doughnuts at donut king...YUM!! i bought myself a pair of boots for winter and a hooded, fringed poncho. it's made out of blanket fabric and is so soft and warm.....i can hardly wait to wear it.

i used the poncho as the subject of my sketch today

micron pigma pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
click on any image to enlarge

beau bought a stock whip last weekend, so we've been getting treated to many cracks of the whip. beau has mastered it quite well.....the 'cracking' sound can be very loud, to the point where i'm concerned the neighbours may start to complain. lol thankfully, beau does take the neighbours into consideration and chooses appropriate times of day to practise, plus he limits his time.

beau



reece



and for those of you who inquired about the tempeh, here is a pic of how it usually comes packaged

with us being out most of the day, i only managed to get the design area blocked in with gesso on the tray but, at least i did something in the studio so i'm happy about that.

i'm trying very hard to do something art-related each day. not always easy but so far, so good.

love, light and peace

tempeh burgers, more on the tray, and another self-portrait

it's been a nice easy-going day
just the way i like it

my quick pen and coloured pencil sketch for today is food-related because, for lunch, i made tempeh burgers with lettuce, tomato and south-west dressing. they were delicious!

click on any image to enlarge

for those who haven't heard of tempeh before, it is a solid, flat cake-form made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans together. it is a very good source of protein and quite popular in vegetarian cuisine. click here to read more on tempeh.

i also gave the wooden tray a fresh lick of paint i've gone with a dark blue as i'm leaning more towards a sea-theme.....after i've finished painting the design, i'll decide if this dark blue will be covered with white paint and then distressed or not. you can see my mug of green tea in the background....i pretty much drink the stuff all day long. gotta have my hot drinks!

still catching up on self-portraits so here is another


it's now almost 6 PM so, i hope you all had or will have (northern hemisphere readers) as pleasant a day as we did.....i'm off to heat up curry and rice for dinner. YUM!

love, light and peace

stockpiles and knitting

i'm always getting sidetracked. i will go into a room to do something and then i'll get caught up doing something else instead. today, i went into the studio to look for something....and i ended up sifting through some of my wooden items awaiting a lick of paint.

this is only a part of my stock-pile click on any image to enlarge

that wooden hut, on the right side of the pic, has shelves inside loaded with wood pieces and i have another cupboard in the studio that is loaded too. it looks untidy because i had pulled things off shelves onto the floor so i could get a good look at what i had. i keep saying that i'm going to make a dent in them there piles but i never do.....until today!

this tray will be my first victim
you can see it's still pretty dusty in the pic which was taken after i'd already given it a good dusting down with a stiff, coarse brush. i haven't even decided about what design i'm going to paint on it yet....maybe a sea theme, animals, birds, flowers, or something mystical.....but by placing it on my painting desk, there will be no excuses this time.

i did some more knitting today too which prompted this quick pen sketch in my A5 sketchbook. i've decided i would like to attempt a quick sketch on something i've done, or experienced, each day as a way of keeping myself art-motivated. not sure if i'll be able to post a sketch each day or that i'll even keep it going but we'll see.

A happy Tuesday to you all

love, light and peace

mantra monday, photo-a-week & self portrait

MANTRA MONDAY

acrylics on 5"x3½" CANSON acrylic paper
© serena lewis
click on any image to enlarge
i thought i'd use the mantra card this week to talk a little more on our emotional guidance system and how we can use it, at any given time, to indicate whether or not we are in alignment with our higher selves/spiritual source/the creator/god.

we all want to live a joyful, loving and peaceful life, right?

well, we can use our emotional guidance system to know if we are on track or not. it is important to understand that this is a mental process and not an action-based one.

e.g. - you've had a really bad day at work which has left you in the foulest of moods. you arrive home and your significant other greets you with a welcoming smile. now, you have the power to choose what the outcome of this scenario will be. their actions in that moment are not related to your feelings as they cannot know how you are feeling unless they are you. you can allow your foul mood to continue and ruin the evening OR you can reach for the better feeling thought, which in this case, would probably be appreciation and note what a difference it makes to how you feel. you begin to relax and go with the flow.

only we can know where we are on the emotional guidance scale because nobody else can 'feel' what we are feeling. what may feel good for one person may not necessarily feel good for another. if we're feeling depressed, we need to reach for a thought that will make us feel better....even if, for some, that may be anger because at least it will be an emotion we can relate to in that exact moment and anger is a better feeling emotion than depression. however, if we're angry about something and become depressed over it, that is a step backwards and you will only 'feel' worse therefore putting yourself further out of alignment. wherever you are at on the emotional guidance scale, just reach for a better feeling thought to improve your wellbeing and bring yourself into better alignment.

note that feeling/emotional thoughts are quite different to ego thoughts and this is where we can get confused. when we are in emotional alignment, things will flow to us easily and joyously and it will 'feel' right.....we will 'feel' good about it. When we are not in alignment, we will 'feel' on edge, even negative....like things aren't quite right. outcomes may be difficult, disappointing, and/or not be as we had hoped for.

practise knowing your feelings, use them as your guide, and you will soon recognise the difference between your ego mind, which is usually power-based, and your emotional guidance system.

EMOTIONAL GUIDANCE SYSTEM
(partial extract from ask and it is given by esther and jerry hicks)

joy/love/freedom/gratitude/empowerment
passion
happy/keen
positive
hopeful
content
bored
frustrated/impatient
overwhelmed
disappointed
doubt
worry
blame
anger
revenge
hatred
jealousy
insecure/guilt
fear/grief/depression/despair/powerless

-------------------------------------------

MONDAY'S PHOTO A WEEK

this was the pretty sunrise reece and i were greeted with this morning. i love the colours!


-------------------------------------------

52 WEEKS OF ME

i LOVE wearing long, flowing skirts, even in winter

which is probably just as well because since i went back to being pescetarian (vegetarian who eats seafood) in december, after being vegan for 11 months, i have gone up a whole dress size so my body isn't really liking my jeans right now anyways. i plan to rectify that.

LOVE, LIGHT AND PEACE

sacred life sunday

today, i was so grateful to spend some quality time with my parents. it's been a few weeks since we've seen mum and dad though i have spoken with mum on the phone a few times over that period. we all enjoyed a lovely hot lunch of salmon loaf, garlic cream potatoes, sweet potato, carrots and brussels sprouts. YUM!

after lunch, we had a fun afternoon playing cards. it was so nice catching up with them.

aaron took this pic of mum and i together

here is a pic of brad with mum. don't you love the purple colour in her hair?! i love that mum isn't your typical 73 year old woman....with four piercings in each ear plus a nose piercing, mum is pretty much game for anything....though i have her beat on the tattoo....she has none

dad must have been hiding when these pics were taken

i am so grateful for my parents who have always been there for me. as they are aging, it makes me even more aware of just how precious these sacred moments with them are and i feel so blessed.

i love you, mum and dad xo

i love your blog, dahling...and self-portrait

i would like to say a huge THANK YOU to darla who has honoured me with this very sweet blog award. I LOVE IT!!! if you get a chance, please pop on over to artistic accents by darla to see some of her gorgeous artwork.

the rules are quite simple: just post the award on your blog and share it with others. this is the hardest part of all for me because there are many blogs that i love to visit so know that you are all deserving of this award.

for today, i will highlight three of you
maria - what can i say? maria does the most amazing abstract art and i am mesmerised by her work.

then there is, tabitha, who is such a beautiful and caring person. i always feel uplifted when i visit her blog.

and michelle, my daughter, who started blogging in march and creates beautiful designs in mixed media and makes adorable, raggedy style dolls.

check out their blogs if you have time as they are well worth a look-see

--------------------------------------

52 WEEKS OF ME

i'm on a roll with my catch up on self-portraits. i took this one today of me working on a mantra card in the studio
have a great weekend, everyone!

love, light and peace

i am content and at peace with choices i make

winter is definitely here. i know this because it's getting harder and harder to get reece and aaron out of bed in the mornings. lol

i can't believe how fast this past week has flown by. it seems like every day there has been something else to distract me from my art. not that i mind as a break can be good at times. i taught class yesterday morning and then, brad and i did some shopping in the afternoon. today, we went to see the movie, angels and demons...i finished reading the book just over a week ago and i thoroughly enjoyed the movie despite the script swaying from the book in areas.

after a busy week, i finally managed to photograph one of the mantra cards i finished

acrylics on 5"x3½" CANSON acrylic paper
© serena lewis
click on any image to enlarge

sometimes, choices i make require stating my opinion, moving on, and letting it go. all are a necessary process for my wellbeing. this past week, i was faced with a situation where i did just that, hence the affirmation for this card. i can't control inconsideration or negativity from other people but i can control what i subject myself to. i don't see the point in holding onto something negative in my life, out of habit or duty, when that same situation has the potential to just keep repeating itself.
i am content and at peace with choices i make.
that said, i also accept that negative contrasts do have their place as they help us to be aware of the things we don't want which then give us the foundation to focus on the things that we do want.

stay tuned for another mantra card soon as i attempt to catch up.

-------------------------------------

have you all seen michelle's very first giveaway on her blog?! it's fantastic and i'm not just saying that because i'm her mum. :) click here for a chance to enter. michelle will draw four winners on june 30th.

-------------------------------------

52 WEEKS OF ME

another self portrait to share.....meet my 'shadow' self ~ :)

LOVE, LIGHT AND PEACE

spider and flowers - monday's photo a week

michelle and alex visited today.....it seems like weeks since we've seen them so it was nice to catch up.

for this week's photo, i thought i'd share this pic i took of a saint andrew's cross spider which lives in the snake (mother-in-law's tongue) plant under our pergola. this is a female because of its size and brightly striped markings....striking, don't you think? these spiders are named for the white cross they create in the centre of their webs, pretty much like a multiplication (X) sign. this spider hasn't finished her white cross yet but you can see the start of it in the lower left part of the photo. check out this link to read more about it. click any image to enlarge

i also snapped a pic of some pretty flowers which i took last week on my travels. i think they are rhododendrons but i'm not 100% sure.

i managed to finish one of the mantra cards after michelle and alex left this afternoon but i haven't managed to set it up for a pic yet. I'll post it tomorrow so stay tuned ~

LOVE, LIGHT AND PEACE

day-tripping and sacred life sunday

today, we went for a lovely drive up to mount tamborine. as with our trip to forest lake last week, we woke up to rain in the morning and debated whether or not to go at all. i'm glad we did because the rain moved on and we were blessed with a beautiful, clear winter's day.....albeit a little chilly up on the mountain. we also had a few dubious moments which i'll mention below.

as we started out on our journey, the ECM light lit up on the dashboard of beau's car...from what we understand, this usually means to get your engine checked...however, beau only recently paid out for a full service so he switched off and switched back on and all was well again so we continued on our merry way.

click on any image to enlarge
the picture below was taken from the car on the way up the mountain....the dense rainforest is to the left in the pic. you can feel the cooler temperature change too.

below is a view from the top of the mountain

then we stopped to watch some paragliders taking off, however, when beau went to lock the car, he had trouble getting his car remote to work. the problem was that the immobiliser had armed itself and we needed the remote to disarm it. it couldn't have been the remote battery because a new battery was fitted only recently so, after some tapping and knocking the darned remote for what seemed like forever, it finally decided to start working..PHEW!

there were a couple of wind-socks which helped the paragliders determine wind conditions

we waited around for 20 minutes or so but the wind conditions weren't quite right for the paragliders to take flight so they started packing things up. time for us to move on too.

on the other side of the mountain, we found another lovely view pictured below. way in the distance, you can see our gold coast.

when we stopped to take the pic above, four inquisitive young llamas alpacas on the property beside where we stood came over to the fence....they were soooooooooo darned CUTE!!!

our winter started on june 1st but i also spotted some rich autumn colours which is quite rare in our sub-tropical climate then it was back to the car to explore a little more but...

....more troubles!! firstly, aaron's seat belt jammed when he tried to put it on and it took quite some time for me to work it free. after that was done, beau tried to start the car but it didn't want to cooperate, it wasn't the battery as you could hear the rotations quite strongly...for some reason, it just didn't want to fire up. after several attempts, it finally started much to my relief BUT....when beau went to move off, the tyres started spinning out....no traction due to the ground being waterlogged from all the rain over the past couple of weeks. we had been deceived by the dense grass. so, being on a hill, beau had to reverse the car backwards down the hill and onto the road.

at that point, we decided to pay heed to the signs and head straight home instead of exploring any further. even that didn't go well because, despite the amount of times we have gone to mount tamborine, we missed our turn off on the way home which added another 15 minutes onto our journey. beau and i are both baffled that we could possibly have missed seeing the huge service/gas station situated on the corner of the road we were supposed to turn into.

what an unusual day it was.....beautiful for sure....but we wondered if there was a message of some sort for us in all the little problems we faced throughout the day.

SACRED LIFE SUNDAY

• i am grateful that the rain cleared early today so we could go on our mountain drive


• i am grateful to have spent such a nice day with three of my five children


• i am grateful for the beauty that nature bestowed upon us at mount tamborine


• i am grateful for the lovely hot chips/fries we ate at lunchtime.....YUM!


• i am grateful that we were able to conquer the few problems we faced on our trip


• i am grateful that we made it home safely


• i am grateful for the ugg boots that are keeping my tootsies cosy and warm as i type this


• i am grateful that we had leftover curry for dinner tonight so i didn't have to come home and cook a meal from scratch


• i am grateful to all my blogger friends who take the time to visit my blog and read my dribble....thank you ~ (((hugs)))

---------------------------

i have two mantra cards at various stages of progress so, hopefully, i will have at least one of them finished to show you all tomorrow also.

for those who inquired after my last post, our low winter temperatures here in the logan area of brisbane are an average of 6°C/43°F....rarely below it. Our high winter temps average at around 22°C/72°F....so nothing to really complain about except for the fact that, in a sub-tropical climate like this one, most homes don't have central heating which means lots of quilts and blankets to stay warm in winter.

LOVE, LIGHT AND PEACE

aching back, knitting and self portrait

i'm such a glutton for punishment. i decided to give the house a thorough winter-clean today so....i cleaned all the windows, vacuumed and washed the floors, washed down the pergola roof, swept the patio, and dusted and cleaned different areas throughout the house. now my poor back is paying for it but i'm so glad it's done. i mowed the lawn earlier this week but i had to leave half of the backyard alone because it is still so waterlogged from all the rain we had a couple of weeks ago.....i was literally sinking in water up to my ankles. we had some rain today and more is expected tomorrow.....a backyard swimming pool in winter is something i don't need.

i've been managing to do a bit of knitting each day and, when aaron saw me with the sticks, he begged me to knit lachie a jumper because, after all, it is winter. lachie is the first boy doll that michelle made and gifted to aaron. i made the jumper without a pattern and i think it turned out quite well considering i haven't knitted for ten years

here is a pic of lachie in his newly knitted jumperclick on any image to enlarge

and here is a pic of cody, aaron and lachie fast asleep on the couch


52 WEEKS OF ME - SELF PORTRAIT CHALLENGE

i've been very lax at doing my weekly self portrait photo so thought i'd throw this one in for today which i took a couple of weeks ago. i thought the reflection would be an interesting take.

i might kick back and rest up tomorrow because i don't think my back will have it any other way.

love, light and peace