Happy Birthday to me! (Well to my blog anyway ...)

Oooh - and I've just realized my first blog birthday has come and gone by a few days - it was on September 23rd. May there be many more blogging days to come!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LARA'S ART SPACE!!!

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y T O L A R A ' S A R T S P A C E ! ! !

(Says the same in Webdings - too tempting not to use that font for something!)

Two extremes ...

Warm enough even to dip my feet into the Indian Ocean!

Beautiful blue skies and sun at the weekend ....

.... grey skies over our house this afternoon ....

.... the rain and hail storm that followed minutes after.

My blogging has a few gaps whilst I'm showing mum around Perth. I've taken some awesome photos though and must share some here with you - photography is after all another form of creativity. And I do enjoy it so much (I am wishing for a fab camera for my 40th birthday, and already planting subliminal messages into my family's minds!)

Also, I know I call this an art blog and it is supposed to be about my creative journey - but here I am posting photos of flowers and the beach and weather. What's it all about? But as I stood on that beach I got to thinking that creativity is food for the soul - visiting the beach and listening to the surf is soothing to the soul - everything is inextricably linked! I see my soul and creativity as being intertwined, my soul would indeed be miserable without my ability to create - enjoying the colours and sounds of nature is just another aspect of my soul and feeds my creativity. So I will keep posting photos of things that stir my soul!

Just being ...

I've been having lots of fun catching up with mum and news of the UK. We haven't done much, just mooched around drinking lots of tea and chatting. Next week we'll start with the day trips as it's school holidays and we can go out with the whole family. Should get some good photos of the countryside to share :)

So for now I will simply share a quote with you from a book I've borrowed from the library called 'The Soul of Creativity' (edited by Tona Pearce Myers). Several creative people from artists to musicians share their beliefs about creativity; it's very inspiring. This morning I read about an artist called Michelle Cassou and I love her approach to art, believing that free expression is the ultimate aim. Of creativity Michelle said,

"Creation does not need anything added to it, no reward, no approval, no praise. Creation is a moment filled with spirit, a moment when the soul reaches far and brings back God's heart."

Amen to that.

Chilling out ...

I'm making a new label today - an 'embracing your inner child' label as I think we can all get a bit too serious about life and need to remember the little things that make us smile or take us back to those childlike lighter moments in life. Yesterday as I was on my own I treated myself to a pastie and a chocolate cupcake for lunch - yum. The baker in the village makes the best ever cupcakes, the icing being the best part. The tricky part is whether to eat the cake and icing together or to pick the icing off and eat it on its own - delicious - just like my kids do today! I also don't tend to drink dairy milk very much any more, but when I do I like to partake in a flavoured milk, hmmm, banana this time! I remember when I was very little and travelling around the UK with mum and dad we used to stop at the services (rest break) on the motorways, and my very favourite drink was strawberry milk which we only used to get on these journeys. So I embraced my inner child in a big way yesterday!

Do you like the teatowel I used as a background? It was actually a freebie with a magazine, but I like it too much to use for its proper purpose, I'm thinking of making a bag with it instead.

We've been making order out of chaos in the house today after having two new floors put down - just before mum gets here tomorrow! As I write she's in the air somewhere, wondering what she will find in Australia, a country she's never visited before. I think she'll like our little home in the Hills.

Spring is sprung!

Oh, I have missed visiting my little home in the blogosphere! As I've been really tired in the evenings lately as we've been so busy, I had the wonderful idea of blogging in the morning, but that didn't materialize either! Where in the world does all the time go? I'm so glad that nature still has her cycles, death in winter, birth and renewal in the spring. It's comforting to have that connection to time progressing in it's natural order.

Spring officially begins on the 1st September here. And it's been decidedly mixed up spring type weather! (Oh go on, let me moan about the weather, I haven't done it for a while, and it's in the British genes you know!) Yesterday, I managed to do a bit of weeding in between the showers and the puddles they left in the flower beds! Couldn't resist taking a photo of the beautiful tulip in one of my pots. True creation - a still, apparently lifeless bulb, planted in the ground, given the right conditions, grows and develops into a beautiful, vivid flower, apparently by magic. It still takes my breath away, and I see my little bulb blooms every year!

Work and play on a Saturday

Doll number 13 of 100-art-dolls-challenge

Well, I thought I was going to be talking about something deep and meaningful today, but I'm tired after a hard day's work (and play!) so I won't. You'll just have to wait for that treat! Instead I'll share piccies with you of a spirit doll I made for the expo - it's my Sun, Moon and Stars doll. A break away from the colour wash effect, painting in flat colour instead and embellishing with twinkly sequins - ooh, I love them! You may be able to see the clear crystal on the front of the doll - I wrapped that in thin jewellery wire, so that I could sew it to the doll using beading thread.

My mum is coming to visit next week and we've been moving furniture around as we're also having a new floor fitted in the front room before she arrives - it's exhausting work. Luckily for me I had a break when I went to my Chakra workshop at the Creative Seeds studio. Today we learnt about the colours indigo and gold and how they respectively represent the mysteries and magic of life and our inner wisdom. I got to play by painting a canvas and drawing a picture of a wonderful golden warrior in soft pastels. Seems like I can still produce original art despite my doubts I've been having recently.

Here's a doodle drawing I made at the Expo in between talking to people! I decided I wanted to do a 'freeform' doodle, doodling without thinking, covering the sheet with shapes. I started with a treble clef squiggle and made shapes to fit round it - it soon became apparent that it would take days to fill the entire sheet of paper, so I drew my favourite shape and decided to fill that instead. It was purely to keep me amused during the quiet times, but people were quite interested in seeing me create something from doodles and would watch as I sat there in my own little world. It received lots of compliments from its start to the finished product. You never know how your creativity may touch others!

I signed up to an ezine called 'Creativity-Portal' which is edited by Chris Dunmire. It offers snippets of other articles about the creative journey. I found out about the inner wizard from Chris' ezine, there's much of interest to creative spirits so visit the site and sign up! Today there was a lovely quote which I felt fits with my 'just for the sake of creativity' doodle!

“Allow that creation to be a creation. It's not a measure of your talent. It has naught to do with your worth.” — Angi Sullins

Go on, have a look at the website, there's plenty of food for the creative soul!

Coming back down to earth ...

OK, so you may have been able to tell that the Expo was the most fab experience - today I am slowly coming back to the real world! Actually it's been lovely, I spent a couple of hours wandering around the village with my youngest who was dressed as a knight. We had to take his fabric helmet off when the wind was too strong and threatened to blow it down the high street!! It was lovely being a mum and just ... being. I need to write all my experiences of the last 4 days down in my old fashioned paper journal before I forget them. There's a few artworks in there. Anyway, happy Monday and may you have a lovely rest of the week!!

Extraordinary Expo

Photos top to bottom: Linda at the stand; yours truly at the stand; a close up of some the canvasses we were painting at the expo - we were encouraging people to tell their story; a close up of more canvas art and my spirit dolls!

Oh my, where do I start? The four days at the Conscious Living Expo were totally amazing! We met so many people, stallholders and the general public who were really taken with our belief that art and colour do indeed have the power to heal. A startling amount of people said they either had no creativity or that they had a creative block and could we help them remove it! Well the answer to the first part is EVERYONE is creative, and we can help you discover that, and the answer to the second part is also a resounding yes - if you have a creative block, come to us at Creative Seeds and we'll help you work through it. We spent so much time talking that my throat is now sore!

I need to give a special mention to Billy from the Pure Spirit Personal Development booth - he kept us grounded when we were away with the fairies in our arty realm, and his cheerful smile and hearty laugh kept us cheerful during the slow times. Thank you Billy! Also, Brigitte, a gorgeous woman who kept us company at times throughout the four days and joined me on the journey in the yurt! (More of that later!) She had a communal art installation - people were invited to make a friendship bracelet out of yarn to tie to a huge net to remind us all of community spirit; that we are all connected. Take a look at their websites when you have the chance, they are awesome people.

One of the highlights of the weekend for me personally was getting to meet Caiseal Mor in person. What an amazing man. I first read his first novel 'The Circle and the Cross' about 8 years ago and have always secretly wanted to meet him. Imagine how excited I was when I knew he would be at the expo. I was like a little kid when I bought his book and he signed it for me! His flute playing is out of this world, and at one point whilst I was watching him on stage I nearly fell into a faraway trance myself and had to shake myself awake. Absolutely spellbinding. Then I took part in his meditation workshop in his yurt with a small group of people. Caiseal was drumming whilst we all went on a meditative journey. I cannot tell you how absolutely amazing that experience was, but I am truly thankful for it. As I went back to our booth, Linda looked at me and said 'It looks as if you've had a healing' and she was absolutely right. I feel totally at peace with myself. Though we didn't need it, this weekend has been proof of our belief that we all have the power within ourselves to truly heal ourselves.

Caiseal Mor does a lot of work with parents and carers of autistic children as he is himself autistic. At one point a lovely lady walked past who told me she couldn't be creative because she is autistic. It was before I knew of Caiseal and his autism and I wish I had known because I would have told her to seek him out and see everything that he has created, despite the labels put on him throughout his life. Maybe she did find him, I do hope so. Caiseal Mor has written an autobiography on his life with autism if you would like to read it - 'A Blessing and a Curse' (see website for details).

I suppose I shouldn't leave out the news that we also won a prize for having the most creative stall at the Expo. Totally unexpected, but yes, we are very, very proud! We have been so stressed and anxious at times that we almost walked away and made excuses so that we wouldn't have to do it, but we hung on and finished the whole four days and enjoyed every moment of it. We had so much fun, laughing at the silly things we did each day, hugging people who wanted/needed a hug, sharing our passion for art, listening to people tell their stories. What a privilege indeed to share a moment in people's journey of life - thank you so much to everyone we came into contact with - you are all truly amazing!

So tired - but great fun!

We had our first day at the Conscious Living Expo today - and it was such fun from beginning to end! We talked to a lot of lovely people and got to look at some of the stands whilst we were there. I even got to meet Helen Wells who is the most amazing portrait artist, her work is simply breath-taking. There's too much to tell right now as I'm so, so tired, but in a good way! Can't wait until tomorrow!

Ooops, went to find the link to Helen's website and got caught up looking at all her lovely art and her blog! But do check out the link, you won't be disappointed!

Photos tomorrow I promise! Brightest of blessings! (still buzzing from today's experience - fantastic!)