Day 2 of 10 a day

In today's 10 items to declutter, I included a stash of newspapers, foil cartons, a small selection of baking ware, a small paint match pot, a toy mouse, stash of plastic bags.

 Clearing out the foil cartons and baking ware from my pan cupboard prompted me to give it a clean out and tidy up, it's looking cleaner and more spacious:

Getting back on track

I often notice that I will start challenges of various kinds and find it very hard to maintain them, whether that be art challenges, diet or exercise challenges. Maybe it's because some of the challenges I've set myself in the past aren't hitting my core values, and, to be honest, I think my list of core values needs to be revisited so I will do some journalling/visioning work around that. 

One core value that always keeps popping up for me is space and tidiness, I always feel so much better when my living space is de-cluttered and tidy. This has been a bit of a challenge recently with both young adults being back at home for the holidays and managing a 9 month old puppy who loves to drag her toys around the house and dump them wherever she chooses. Not to mention the other half of the act who leaves his tools around the place when he is doing DIY!

A guiding phrase  I set myself for this year was "White Space" and this has involved alot of decluttering, including letting go of bookcases, alot of books and decorating, it's a work in progress. To keep myself aligned with the core values of  my guiding phrase, today I decided to commit to two challenges for this month:

• declutter 10 items a day for the next week

• do not bring any new plastic bags into the home for the rest of the month

These are the items I decluttered today, which have found their way into a bag to go to the Charity shop.

A day when we decide to listen to our hearts

"There comes a day when each of us decides to put fears and excuses aside. A day when we decide to listen to our heart – and follow it. And a day when we decide to take those first small steps towards making our wildest dreams come true.

Let today be that day for you."

I saw the above image and words from the Do What You Love blog.

If I were to listen to my heart and follow it I would:

* downsize
* move to a more rural setting
* have a really big garden/small piece of land to keep chickens, grow fruit/veg and flowers for cutting
* have a small floristry business using my home grown flowers
* have a therapy room in the garden
* have a hot tub
* have a pond
* a waterfall
* a herb garden
*a garden swing hanging from a large tree
* tree-house
*own or have a part share in a canal boat
* own a vintage sports car
* have a garage to house said vintage sports car
*write a fairy story with my own illustrations
*learn to play the cello
*be part of a sewing bee

                                      *And So It Is*

What do your dreams look like?..........I would love to know

Home for nature

I came across an advert for the RSPB in a magazine yesterday entitled "If there's no home for nature"

I was particularly struck by the image of the starling overlooking a concrete jungle and I was reminded how lucky I am to have a garden to help nature along a bit.

I planted a delphinium in the garden the other day as they attract the bees and found this little bee yesterday busy doing what bees do!

I love to watch my garden visitors from my kitchen window and I have noticed this lovely little female blackbird has been a regular visitor to the bird table over the last couple of weeks. She has a poorly claw which stops her from putting her weight on it for more than a few seconds, and some of her feathers look a bit bedraggled so I'm not sure if she got herself  into a bit of a scrape. 

Another regular is this cute little fellow:

And this afternoon it was time for the big guns to arrive:

Jackdaw

 

 

 

 

 

Seagull

Index Card A Day

I've been following the prompts for the Index Card A Day Challenge but wasn't really enjoying it, I didn't feel like I was having fun. So, I've decided to continue but work with my own theme, and as I have always loved Quentin Blake's illustrations, I decided to use them as inspirations for my index cards:

Girl with a crimson balloon

Boy doing a handstand

Birds on the wire

I particularly enjoyed drawing the birds on the wire, they look very cheeky to me!

Whilst on the subject of birds, I came across a wonderful piece of beach art whilst walking the dogs this evening:

ICAD Day 11

Found a sweet holly leaf on the lawn earlier this afternoon so decided to use it as a prompt for the index card a day project.

Not entirely happy with the end result, some of the lines are too thick and not as dainty as I would have liked....but I still enjoyed the process.

Here's the real thing:

ICAD Day 7

The prompt for Day 7 is "Yellow".  I decided to interpret Van Gogh's Sunflowers on a postcard using acrylics. 


Sunflowers had a special significance for Van Gogh. He made seven versions of them.
Yellow, for him, was an emblem of happiness – in Dutch literature, the sunflower was a symbol of devotion and loyalty. In their various stages of decay, these flowers also remind us of the cycle of life and death.

ICAD Day 5

I'm participating in the Index- Card- A -Day Challenge which you can learn more about at daisyyellow.

The challenge started on June 1st, and the idea is to create something on a 3x5" index card every day for 61 days. If you start after June 1 you do not need to catch up, just start. You can do more at the end if you wish. But get going, that is what is important.

The spirit of the challenge is to create one card each day, a little art each day works to instill new creative habits. There are prompts to follow each day if you choose, the prompt for Day 5 being Galaxies.

My index card was inspired by Coldplay and their song entitled "Yellow". It's a mixture of spray inks, acrylic and glitter.