Every day I need to check in. Over the years I've wondered if this was a strange thing about myself...this need to check in, to take stock of where I am at a given moment, to breathe in and breathe out, to mark the moment, taking in the sights and scenery around me. Now I'm … Continue reading Where Are You?
Category: Artful Living
Sketchbook Chat #5: Ordinary Drawings from an Ordinary Life
It is my desire to resume my Sketchbook Chats, so I'm picking up where I left off and offering you the fifth one! I was out in my backyard drawing the rhododendron bush that is showing off right by our deck. I had planned to video more outside there, but alas, a neighbor began to … Continue reading Sketchbook Chat #5: Ordinary Drawings from an Ordinary Life
Weaving Through Lent
For several weeks now I've been working diligently toward a rather extensive project. I got the idea to create tapestry weavings through the season of Lent culminating on Easter Sunday. As I voiced the idea to my husband, we came up with a way to work together with another artist in our church to bring … Continue reading Weaving Through Lent
An Everyday Outlet
For Day 6 of #drawtheordinary through Lent, I'm to draw a "wall plug". I should've thought about that wording a bit more because what I meant was "an outlet". No matter, plug or outlet, they are both ordinary things. (At least they are to those of us fortunate enough to live in parts of the … Continue reading An Everyday Outlet
Remembering
It's that time of year when I remember. I don't do it on purpose. It's perhaps the imprint of that crazy wilderness pilgrimage to the hospital for three weeks and then home to slowly heal. Four years ago, my body was in decline, losing a battle with ulcerative colitis, and was eventually required to give … Continue reading Remembering
Discover Your Life Beautiful…One Drawing At A Time
Do you long to find meaning in your life, just as it is? Would you like to be able to sketch and draw more freely? Are you looking for a way to focus on the good things in your life and even help you deal with the challenges? Years ago, I wrote a lesson a … Continue reading Discover Your Life Beautiful…One Drawing At A Time
Drawn To Iron
I do not like to iron. At all. I seem to be in a place where my heart needs re-orienting. Something is in need of being smoothed out. Yet I tell myself I like the chaotic wrinkles, the jumble of piles of laundry. I'm well aware that I'm speaking in veiled terms here. You'll just … Continue reading Drawn To Iron
The Traffic Can Wait
I sit in a car. A lot. It is not my favorite thing to do. At all. On good days I can lay hold of the fact that all this driving around is actually due to great blessing in my life - *an active, healthy, involved-in-everything teenager. *lots of classes in neighboring towns guiding women … Continue reading The Traffic Can Wait
The Verge of Chaos
I sat there in front of a photograph on the wall. Straddling a cushioned cube at a local hangout spot, I was drawn to draw him. Ruffly shirt, dark eye peering out of stark value shifts. My own eyes tracing the shapes, the connections between shapes, the value shifts, squinting in order to see better. … Continue reading The Verge of Chaos
Curbed Beauty
For weeks on end I marvel and enjoy in my living room a gazillion branches shooting out in a most pleasing shape, draped with twinkly lights and sparkly ornaments. I never once consider the base, the foundation, the structure from which all these balsam branches emanate. Well, maybe once, as my son lifted the tree … Continue reading Curbed Beauty