"The 3 Part...12 Card Rainbow Swap.."

...at Illustrated ATCs.

...Hot Pink...
...Hostess Card...
...Red...

...Orange...

...Yellow...

...Green...

...Hostess Card...

...Blue...

...Indigo...

...Hostess Card...

...Purple...

...and lastly, the entire Rainbow...:)

What a beautiful page these made in my collection.

They have now individually flown

to collections

around the world...'tis truly bittersweet...

I miss you girls! :)

"Somewhere over the rainbow,

skies are blue,

and the dreams that you dare to dream

really do come true."
~Lyman Frank Baum

"First Impressions..."

...can run really HOT or extremely COLD.

Maybe

it's best to step back a bit and view things

from a distance...before imprinting

our brains with

with hasty conclusions.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression

by saying something,

and sometimes one creates

as significant an impression by

remaining silent.”
~Dalai Lama

"It's Amusing Sometimes..."

...to think about

how one thing leads to another.

That is exactly what happened here.

This started out in November

with the tree...

and was leaning itself toward a snowflake design.

Then

I abandoned her for over a month.

Magically,

she somehow morphed her way last night into

another mandala

with intertwining natural accents.

I flipped it just for fun.

I am sure my Muse was most amused...:)

Tee Hee..:)

“The most potent muse of all is our

own inner child.”
~Stephen Nachmanovitch

"Aspirations And Intentions..."

...see both sides...

take long deep breaths...celebrate daily...

share my journey...

make simple things special...expand my soul...

greet difficulties with patience...

feed all my senses...be inspirational...cherish...

make someone laugh till they cry...

embrace change...dance with delight...be in the moment...

weave lasting memories...

color outside the lines...make a difference...

say what I need to say...linger in beautiful places...

be remarkable...face fears...

love living...♥

Illustration Friday Prompt: Resolutions

"One resolution

I have made, and try always to keep,

is this:

To rise above the little things."

~John Burroughs

"Character

is the ability to carry out a good resolution

long after

the excitement of the moment

has passed."
~Cavett Robert

"Happy New Year..."

May your 2011

be fueled with artistic inspiration and energy

and

may it be decorated

with healthy, bountiful days.

♥

May

your breaths be pure and long and deep

and may they

fill your spirit with the exhilarating

"Ahhh's" and "Mmmm's"

of sweet serenity.

♥

May your eyes endlessly feast on

magical moments and miracles of nature...

and

may they sparkle in joy and wonder.

♥

May your heart

nestle softly in smiles and happy memories

and may it

be blanketed in the warmth and coziness

of friendship and love.

♥

These are my wishes for each of you...

from my heart

to yours.

♥

"Pens, Patterns..."

...and playful practice. :)

Several pieces positioned upon another page

in my Artful Musings Journal

drawn entirely lead free

diving straight in with ink...

and

not a single preconceived thought

in my head...:)

Fun!

Click on image...to enlarge...;)

♥

(BTW... Arizona had BIG SNOWS

in the "high country"...Flagstaff...last night...(2+ feet)!

Closer to home...

the tops of the mountains surrounding the valley

to the north

are snow packed...and soooo gorgeous!

In addition...we even had

a few flurries which danced by and amused us

here in the desert today!

Hmmm...

palm trees, cacti and snow flurries...

who would have ever thought?

"Feathers and Boughs..."

...are combined together in my Zen Journal to create

a twist on the old familiar wintry

snowflake.

This was started at the Grand Canyon

in November...

and just completed last night...

almost a month later!

Good Grief!

:)
And, of course...
(with the aid of Microsoft Digital Editor)
I had to flip her to enhance her more traditional
frosty flakiness.
I just couldn't help it!

“They say that every snowflake is different.
If that were true,
how could the world go on?
How could we ever get up off our knees?
How could we ever
recover from the wonder of it?”
~Jeanette Winterson

"Just A Few Flakes..."

...to celebrate the magic of the first winter snowfall

today

back "home" in Sycamore, Illinois.

(I just saw the Facebook photos of JGL's backyard...

it is a wonderland! )

Ahhh...

those first gentle snowfalls...this is a time

I really miss the Midwest...:)

♥

However,

interestingly enough...

a serendipitous southwest snow encounter

occurred as

my brother and sister and their families

drove up to the high elevation

of "rim country"

here in Arizona to cut down Christmas trees

today!

They found gorgeous deep snow, beautiful trees,

and 50 degree temperatures.

(And...I just know...

the little ones were in "snow angel" heaven!)

Me?

I chose to stay down here in the west valley...

at a balmy 75 degrees,

no snowfall...

(just a few (watercolored) flakes...)

fresh rosemary in the air...a chair on the patio...

a copy of Eat Pray Love in hand...

the sound of Gambrel quail chatting away.

Mmm...:)

No matter where

friends and loved ones were today

it certainly seems like

a lovely, magical Saturday was had by all...:)

“Begin doing what you want to do now.

We are not living in eternity.

We have only this moment,

sparkling like a star in our hand...

and melting

like a snowflake.”
~Francis Bacon, Sr

"Family Time...Well Spent"

We (Scott and I)

visited mom and dad for dinner on Sunday.

(Mom made her special chicken...YUM!)

And...

then went back again on Monday

to help decorate their tree

along with my sister and her 8 year old twins.

I took my sketchbook...

to the absolute delight of the twins

who

immediately filled in a page...:)

It really felt good to get back into the sketchbook
mode...I have let my sketching skills
go by the wayside this past year...
and
they are in desperate need of attention
and polish.
What better time than the holidays to
jump start a renewal program!
All my entries above were made "lead free"...
drawn in ink "straight in "while
either standing at the kitchen counter
or seated with book in my lap.
I just added watercolor
and the floral detailing on the twin's page tonight.
Ahhh...
what a delightful couple of days we all had.
it was such great fun to simply go
across the valley and be
"home again"...:)

“A man travels the world over in search
of what he needs,
and
returns home to find it.”
~ George Moore

"Happy Thanksgiving..."

...may your heart swell

with

boundless gratitude...

and sing a sweet song of love and joy!

"We can only be said to be alive

in those moments

when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

~Thornton Wilder

"Round #2...Zen Moly_X..."

This is Lisa Rene's Moleskine.

She began her lovely book in a vertical format.
Above are Lisa's pages one and two...

...which flow flawlessly into her pages three and four.

It then became my task to join my art to hers.

(Note that on the bottom edge of Lisa's page four

that the curlicue to the left...

and yellow bit to the right are part of my art

which overlaps onto her original pages.)
:)

Here you can see more clearly how I chose

to join my art to Lisa's.

Lisa's page four is on the left...

My page five follows on the right.

Notice that the format

here will now transition from vertical

to horizontal...:)

A full view of my pages five and six...
...followed by my pages seven and eight.
If you look closely you can see how each page
is defined by the way the
Japanese style Moleskine pages are folded.
Above is another view of my pages 7 and 8 with
my design overlapping onto page 9...
where Cindy Michele will then join her art...:)
Here is an actual photo of my portion of Lisa's book
attached to Lisa's page four.
(Note the zig zag folds of the Moleskine.
They are really fun to work with...
but will become more difficult to photograph
as new artwork is added as there are
30 zig zag pages in all...60 if one uses both sides
of each page...front and back.)
Whew!
Here is a final photo of Lisa's entire book
thus far.
I included a quotation in my portion of Lisa's book.
It appears within the sun design.
It reads:
"Simply be aware of the oneness of things."
~Lao Tzu
Those words became my inspiration
for the zentangle art I included in Lisa's Moly.
Her book is now in the artistic hands of
Cindy Michele in Tennessee.
I can't wait until the arrival of the next Moly...
and,
if I have the rotation sequence correct in my head,
it will be Jella's from Belgium. YAY!
My Moly should be soon arriving in Oregon
to the studio of Sandra
A.K.A.
"Madame Zentangle Extraordinaire"!
As always...
please feel free to click on any of the photos above
to enlarge for better viewing...
it's well worth it! :)
I hope you have enjoyed this little tour
I wish you could see all this art
in real life...
it is zenfully amazing!

"Dia De Los Muertos..."

...meet Senorita Desert Rosita...:)

Happy

Cactus Monday

All!

♥

"A Soulful Mirror..."

"The eye

sees a thing more clearly in dreams

than the imagination awake."
~Leonardo da Vinci

"Black and Orange Blossoms..."

...a Pumpkin Squash mandala...
...and a funky Halloween bloom...
both
decked out in their seasonal costumes
all ready for treats...no tricks...:)!
Happy Halloween week Blooming Tuesday All! :)

"Canyonland Autumn..."

Here's hoping that the temps this next week will

become a bit more fall-like and cool

here in the desert!

Happy Cactus Monday All! :)

And

in a personal note to JGL:

The Arizona canyons are calling your name!!! :)

“Should you shield the canyons

from the windstorms you would never see

the true beauty of their

carvings.”
~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"Heart of the Canyon..."

♥

I post this card

in the wee hours of the morning today

as a tribute to honor

the brave Chilean miners

being successfully rescued this very hour.

What a miracle.

These next anxiety filled hours and days

will be a test of all that is

good in mankind.

I send wishes of happiness and joy and peace

from here

in the desert valley of Arizona

to Camp Hope...high in the Chilean desert...

to the loyal and loving families of the trapped miners

and along with it

my deepest appreciation

to the problem solvers...their heroic rescuers.

“Hope is the dream of a soul awake.”
~French Proverb

"A Seeded Autumnal Heart..."

...It seems to me

that most people in the northern hemisphere

really enjoy Autumn.

Personally...

it is my most favorite season

of them all.

So...

in celebration of this glorious time of year

I have put a "heart into my art"

and designed several

seasonal pieces with which to

share my love.

♥

Enjoy them all.

I just had to digitally flip this one for old time's sake...:)

Happy Bloomin' Tuesday!

♥
"This very moment is a seed

from which

the flowers of tomorrow's happiness grow."
~Margaret Lindsey

"Such Is Life..."

...sometimes we run as hot as a pistol...

seemingly unstoppable.

Then, out of the blue,

we suddenly screech to an abrupt halt

turning as cold as ice.

Sometimes we see things

perfectly crystal clear as black and white...

other times

they are hazy, foggy, and muddled gray.

I am currently

artistically suffering from a major dose of

procrastination...

trying to catch up "bloggywise"

with unfinished Illinois travel journal pages,

posting results of massive ATC swaps,

and

keeping up with Moleskine exchange intensities.

All in all it is a classic case of

"over-doing-it-ness".

I am ever eager to draw and lavishly paint...

I feel really great about that...

but

just like this drawing in my zen journal

curving its way across the page from thick to thin

I think I am doing the same.

I am running thin

on blogging energy these days...

but yet

moving ever forward to those "thick times"

when my blogging pages will be filled

once again

with artistic goodies.

As they say..."Such is Life..."

Well...enough said...

it's back to the old drawing board...

with

sincere promises to hit the old keyboard

again soon! :)

Many thanks...as always

for your visit!

"Getting That Vintage Feel ..."

...with a couple of old fashioned sunflowers

banded by

a bit of a gingham inspired border...:)

Illustration Friday: "Old Fashioned"

"As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhock,

and valorous sunflowers...

we shall never have a garden without them...

both for their own sake...

and for the sake of old-fashioned folks,

who used to love them.

~Harriet Beecher Stowe

1813-1887