Love Never Dies…

this month marks the sixth year since my mother’s passing…

in some ways it seems like only yesterday and yet…

I am extremely grateful to have had a wonderful relationship with her with so many fun times and no regrets other than selfishly wishing she could have lived forever…

still inspired by my mother’s painting on the step stool I shared earlier this week here… 

I printed out several copies of photos I had taken doing lots of cutting and layering…

I painted several shades of red on top of the heart I gessoed in the center…

I am pleased with how these pages came together and am sharing them for Linda’s “Fifty Shades of Red” challenge over at Art Journal Journey…

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” -Robert A. Heinlein

♥ February ♥

here we are in February already…

heart month…  I have accumulated a bit of a he♥rt collection over the years and even have a “heart” category on my blog…

something very precious to me is a stool Mr Magpie made many years ago and my mother painted with intentions of giving it to me (the apple tart is from the shop in the photo above with the ♥I wheely like you♥ sign…they sell wonderful organic farm bread too)…

my mutti found the stool so useful (she wasn’t quite five feet tall) that she had it in her kitchen for many years before it came to me…

each speckle adds to the patina and charm of so many years in her pantry…

wishing you a Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover where all you need to join in the fun is to share anything related to a drink (guess what! I found a way to post photos again that can be clicked on for a closer look = hoorah!)…

as an aside a few of you have asked from previous blog posts what was inside the Paris box I have shared in photos…all is revealed above… (I was content with just the box but the candle is very nice too!)…

“February, a form
Pale-vestured, wildly fair,—
One of the North Wind’s daughters,
With icicles in her hair.”
~Edgar Fawcett, “The Masque of Months,” c.1878

my calling card…

red is a strong hot color…

the color of blood and fire…

it also represents passion, heat, strength, danger, power and courage…

Linda K from heARTfully Inspired is hosting the February Art Journal Journey challenge with her theme of “Fifty Shades of RED” and I am excited to join in the creative fun…

this week’s lesson in Lifebook 2017 is about using lots of layers of watercolor and other kinds of paints (hot mess at the moment LOL)… not wanting to waste any paint left on my palette for the work in progress above …

 I smeared the dribs and drabs of paint onto smooth blank journal pages and then played with a new circle stencil and assorted colored pencils…

thank goodness for Super Heavy GESSO I was finally a bit happier with the pages…

inspired by words I saw on Facebook along with a few rubons one side of my spread is complete…

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King, Jr

cup of courage …

with news that is cringe worthy each and every day I am trying to keep my balance and focus on the good…

being grateful for little things like fresh flowers and being able to arrange them in our new farm sink which is one of my favorite things about our recent kitchen remodeling…

I have noticed that WordPress no longer offers a way to click on photos to enlarge them or it could be my limited tech knowledge that hasn’t found the right button in the new format for creating blog posts…

so you may not be able to read my BE BRAVE canvas or see that the cup says: Cup of Courage…

I held off for months but now there is no longer a choice to revert to the old and friendlier way of drafting a post…

as our son would say these are “first world problems”…

I am joining the group over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover to wish you a Happy T Day (all are welcome to join in!)…

“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go, it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.”  -Alice MacKenzie Swaim

 

out with the old and in with the new…

we have lived in the same house for over 32 years which was newly built when we moved in…

the original cabinets and laminate counter tops were nothing fancy but they served us well over the years (I really liked my stainless steel sink a lot too)…

since the contractor that did our recent renovations did such a nice job and there happened to be a 25% off cabinet sale we decided to get new white cabinets and counters to update our kitchen…

that means moving everything out (Mr Magpie built these shelves for us years ago)…

over the weekend we enjoyed some cherry apple canelé baked at our local Le Pain Quotidien bakery… they were almost as good as the first ones we got to try at a Sunday fresh air market in Libourne, France back in April…

our tour director introduced us to a gentleman that still made them the old fashioned way brushing the fluted metal molds with beeswax which gave the cannelés a special crunch on the outside YUM (that is a new heart rock that Mr Magpie surprised me with above)…

it was such a special happening right there on the street that we did not get any good photos of that encounter (the old metal pans were a thing of beauty)…

2016 has been an exciting year of changes for us…

not sure how plugged in I will be while the renovations are going on the next couple of weeks because the main computer has to be moved and that is the only way I can do blog posts or comment…

here’s wishing you a Happy November (ALREADY!) and a Happy T Day too as I join everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…

teach…

an all time favorite Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song TEACH YOUR CHILDREN  inspired this two page spread for Elizabeth’s BACK TO SCHOOL theme over at Art Journal Journey…

I challenged myself to use colors I don’t often use and found a napkin along with some of my mother’s old paints that helped move me in that direction…

not totally comfortable with my color matching my favorite heavy gesso came to the rescue once again…then I got distracted for a bit by my paint tray noticing a small corner of paint sticking up… sure enough the layers of paint peeled out easily and yes I did save those bits for what I am not exactly sure 🙂 …

then it was back to trying to make my pages work on a lovely rainy day here in Virginia…

it was fiddly fun cutting and pasting thin pieces of napkin to carry the design from one page to another (that napkin was too good to cover up completely)…

it took me awhile to get some matching turquoise and greenish yellow for my painted pages…

some Adirondack BOTTLE stamping ink applied with a wet wipe worked for one part since a lot of my Tim Holtz DISTRESS STAINS seem to have lost their color over time…

a little more doodling with my gold paint pen and my pages are complete (tricky to photograph on a rainy day)…

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good-bye.
Teach your children well,
Their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
Their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.

Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

Songwriters: Graham Nash

Teach Your Children lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Spirit Music Group

Herz… serce… cœur… hjerte… hart… cuore… heart…

February is known as “heart month”…

St Valentine’s Day and heart health awareness are a couple of  reasons…

as it happens two very special people close to my heart were born in February (Mr Magpie and Alex)…

I have a HE♥RT Category  for my blog posts that have hearts in them…

back in the 1990’s I had a little business called “Works of the Heart” and I sold hand woven baskets… orphan pieces of china filled with dried flowers and herbs… wreaths and decorations made out of dried fruits… cinnamon ornaments and more (this photo shows me along with a small sampling of my wares … WOW those glasses)…

then life took a drastic turn and everything changed…

I recently had fun playing with hearts and paper and paint and enjoyed making a few cards…

Mr Magpie picked up that sweet Angel Vine heart and tiny pot of pink roses for me beating the 14 February flower rush…

here’s wishing you a very Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…

thank you very much for your visits…

you help fill my he♥rt again and again…

 

 

 

creating Love always…

there was a time after our son’s death in 1999 when I thought I might never make anything again…

all my life I have enjoyed doing things with my hands inspired by creative and busy parents…

several years after Alex’ death I took a class on embossing on velvet with rubber stamps (with thanks to everyone at ARTFULLY SCRIBED in Herndon Virginia… wish they were still in business)…

 creating a few accordion books with embossed velvet covers after that class brought me back from the brink and had me headed toward the mixed media life I now enjoy so much…

this time of year with the anniversaries of loved one’s passings and birthdays that they aren’t here to celebrate I have to work extra hard to try and keep my balance and not sink or fade away…

I am so very grateful for the community of creative souls that I get to connect with here and thank each of you for being a part of my healing journey…

(9 x 12″ on watercolor paper)

I am joining Art Journal Journey’s February challenge “If Music Be the Food of Love“ along with Paint Party Friday where I am still a newbie and so happy to feel inspired to play more with paint…

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I am going is what inspires me to travel it.”
― Rosalía de Castro

(I just noticed this is blogpost #2000 since I started blogging in 2007)

the work of our hearts…

another spread in an altered book for the Art Journal Journey February challenge “If Music Be the Food of Love“ …

torn pieces of a vintage 1911 invoice (I used the original instead of a copy like I might have done in the past) … German book text… and a digital collage on the right of L♥ve stitcheries and assorted buttons…

the birds are from my photograph made into a TAP transfer and ironed onto book text…

Hazel’s challenge for AJJ this month is an inspiring one…

 

the desire to create …

the February Art Journal Journey challenge is “If Music Be the Food of Love“ which can include things like music …

food or anything you love…

my art journal pages are full of things I Love like paper and gesso and buttons (even button papers) and words…

creating is something that brings me endless joy…

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. Creation brings satisfaction and fulfillment.” -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

rest from the wheel of the mind…

for me the winter months hold cause for celebration but also the anniversaries of loved ones lost…

bringing a range of emotions along with the chance to notice how far I have come in the healing process which is ongoing…

working in my new larger journal again with paint and magazine transfers…

the heart is a photograph of a metal hanging heart that holds a tea light…

I printed out two sets of wings and layered them snipping the feathers on the top layer gluing just the heart onto the page so the wings are free…

joining in with two of my favorite challenge blogs:  Mix it Monthly/What Wings Are For and Art Journal Journey/Winter Wonderland…

a really special way to help pass these winter days is taking an online workshop with a brilliant artist… the talented and very generous Misty Mawn… there is an early sign up rate this week and you can find out all about it HERE…

a day…

 new pages in one of my gesso journals (I can only declutter for so long and then I have to play!)…

paint and paper and bits of old lace curtain…

I have been drawn to those words before…

my pages fit Mix it Monthly’s “A Facial Profile” and AJJ’s “Masculine/Feminine” challenges…

we are enjoying some surprise blooms on one of our succulents … 

Spring parade tea …

Spring has sprung here in northern Virginia with a wonderful parade of blooms everywhere you turn (the nature photos here were all taken in our garden)…

some recent cooler temperatures helped keep the blossoms fresh and in place a little longer than in other years…

Mr Magpie is healing nicely after trigger finger surgery

and is getting some rest away from work while he’s on the mend (even the stick on message from a breakfast sandwich supported that) …

we are enjoying sitting out on our back porch again…

 here’s wishing you a very Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…