perfection

'perfection' - watercolour/ink.

i called this little piece of art 'perfection', mostly because i made a mistake somewhere in the design. can you spot it? i bet if you zoomed in closely enough you would find it. if we seek imperfection in something, it is guaranteed that we will always find it. actually, now that i've looked more closely, there are two mistakes! on the day i made this i was tired and my concentration kept dropping out like a dodgy phone line. never ask me to fly a jet plane, perform an operation or anything else that requires precision when i'm tired!

i am enough

if christmas has left you feeling that you were somehow not enough....

i am enough

i have enough

i love enough

i risk enough

i fill enough

i get enough

i handle enough

i am loved enough

i am healed enough

i am ready enough

i am enough

thanks to olivia, who posted this poem a while back. i have reproduced it here.

'frolicking fish' - water colour & ink

a gift for you

a very dear friend sent me this link today.

this is my christmas gift to you..... please pay it forward!

wishing you nothing but love and happiness tomorrow - breathe deeply, look around at how much you have, smile, then think of someone less fortunate than you and do something for them. make them smile too.

two more sleeps

'earth energy' - water-colour & ink.

the lead-up to christmas has been nice and steady for us. we have had end of year school activities, watching phil perform (electric guitar) for the first time on stage; a family christmas get-together, where we all stayed overnight in apartments at a golf resort (max & phil loved it!) and a neighbourhood christmas bbq, meeting lots of new, lovely people.

gifts have been bought and wrapped. we will give them out in the evening on christmas day, since max will be working & we don't want him to miss out on the fun. can we hold out till christmas evening? it's going to be tough! :)

keep on swimming

with the style of art that i like to make, the challenge is to try not to be too 'colouring-in book'. so i attempt to marry the simplicity and detail that i love together, to make what i hope is an artwork. sometimes it works and sometimes not. i was happy with this one though.

'keep on swimming' water-colour & ink.

aussie sunshine

here's some aussie sunshine for my friends snuggling up in the northern hemisphere.


can you imagine a hot summery christmastime?


cicadas chirruping, pavements too hot for bare feet, cold beer, sweat trickling down your back, purple agapanthus stalks blooming - everywhere, backyard christmas barbies in daylight saving time, beaches, sunscreen, seafood & sand. christmas carols outside on summer grass, electrical thunderstorms, ice cold air conditioning, lawnmowers droning, heavy humidity, evening walks to view christmas lights, swatting mozzies, mango juice trickling down your chin, doors and windows open wide, candles flickering in the breeze.

i wouldn't trade this for anything.

ask, believe, receive...

i had lunch with my friend jenny last week, at a cafe in a group of shops known as the 'gnostic village'. while browsing through a book shop, jenny, who works as a holistic health practitioner with a focus on energy psychology, recommended 'spontaneous healing of belief'- shattering the paradigm of false limits by gregg braden. so i bought it.

in between vegetarian lasagne, a liver cleanser juice and later a pot of chai (all recommended) and a vegan muffin (not recommended!), we happily spent a few hours discussing how our reality can be affected by our thoughts & beliefs. how powerful the mind is. how much more powerful the heart is & how important it is in the decision making process.

the book likens the universe to a large ancient computer. the message is that we participate in creating our reality, at the same time that we are observing it. we can alter the 'program' at any time, thereby influencing the outcome. shades of 'the secret', louise hay and eckhart tolle. interesting!

after giving us ways of identifying our beliefs, braden gives us a simple formula: live as if you already have what it is you want, believe it in your heart, be grateful for it, then be prepared to receive it. amen!

pic: 'seashells' ink & water colour.

day of magic

if you are going to visit me, come on a monday afternoon. monday is drala day - or day of magic. some people call it housework, but i like to think of it as making good energy. like the boy santiago in the alchemist by paulo coelho, i 'polish the crystal'.

windows & doors are thrown open. beds are stripped & re-made. sheets & towels are washed to line dry in the sun. floors are mopped and vacuumed, mirrors & glass polished, bathrooms scrubbed, entrances swept & house plants given attention. everything is back in place after a weekend of family living.

today i have been burning incense in each room as a sort of weekly space clearing. sage is supposed to be burned here (and a gong should be banged!), but i'm improvising. out with the old energy & in with the new!

pic: 'ice flowers' - ink & watercolour

summer saturday

some artwork (watercolour & ink) created for a friend to cheer her up. i have set up a corner of a spare room with an art table, so i'm back making art again.

today was 35 deg C or in other words, a bloody hot summer day! i kept cool by playing with watercolours, changing my blog template (after lots of messing around, but fun) and by doing some gentle yoga in the afternoon. afterwards i made a cool lentil salad with homegrown cucumbers and tomatoes, and a fresh tub of hummous to keep in the refrigerator.

at dinner time, a cool breeze began to waft in through the back door. relief. it is now 8pm and the crickets make an endless chirp as the sky begins to darken. the rest of the neighbourhood is peaceful. inside our house lauren is busy in the kitchen cooking - i smell baked sweet potato and fresh basil chopped for bruschetta. max is drinking a quiet beer after a long day at work. there is no electric guitar in the background tonight - phil is staying at a friends house. no tv. christmas lights on the house across the street change from blue to red to yellow, flashing fast, then slow. gardenias perfume the air. i love summer!

one word

in 2007 , christine kane wrote about choosing one guiding word for 2008, instead of making a famously ineffective set of new years resolutions. this year we are invited to do the same for 2009.

my word for 2008 has been 'balance'.

this one word has been surprisingly powerful and has encouraged me to constantly check for my centre, no matter what it is i'm doing or thinking about. it is such an ingrained habit now, it will continue to be my word in the years to come.

i'm not certain what my word for 2009 will be yet. i'm still thinking on it. if you would like some inspiration too, check out these posts.

balancing act

thanks for your comments last post. i needed some balance. thank you siblings, suki, martie...

no, i don't want to 'become a nun', but i do want to become a yoga instructor. i checked with a yoga school to see what the requirements were for yoga teaching and the response was vegan, practice every day, no alcohol and moderate behaviour.

often yoga instructors are not moderate - one i read about drinks only rockmelon juice ie. no food. this is insane! my naturopath/dietitian tells me that my diet is excellent and well balanced. this should be enough i believe.

my body tells me that i need meat, not every day, but sometimes. vegan at the present time seems impossible to do and replacing food with supplements seems somehow wrong to me. i like to socialise with family and friends, so a drink now and then is enjoyable, but it's not the end of the world if i don't drink. i do like to practice every day, but my policy is 'family trumps all'.

now that my art studio is a yoga studio, i miss my art studio. i miss the colour and there are paintings queuing up inside my head that need to get out. it's a passion i find difficult to sit on.

passion is not moderate, being a strict vegetrarian is not moderate.

i will meditate some more on this.