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Through The Lens Thursday #14. Box.

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Through The Lens Thursday. Box
Boxes, boxes, boxes, so many box options! I settled on a jewelry box which is super old and from my Grandma. I love it, the shabby picture on the top and the slot in the side to use as a money box and the bottom which is made from paper (maybe for lost key emergencies!).

The book it is sitting on is a copy of National Heritage which I picked up today, it is from 1949 and chock full of paintings and information. Fantastic stuff!

Next week’s prompt is ‘Baked’, so I had better get baking – oh, what a shame…!

More information on Through the Lens Thursday including a list of prompts can be found here.

Ideas for The 100 Day Project

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Have you heard about The 100 Day Project?  It is a fab thing that The Great Discontent magazine and Elle Luna are hosting and it starts on April 6th.  You just have to make or do something every day for 100 days and record it with a hashtag of your choice on Instagram.  Sounds fun I think.

I just need to decide what to do/draw/make/photo for 100 days which takes us right into July – phew!  That is a lot of doing the same thing every day, well not exactly the same thing but the same project over 100 days.

I know I am not going to be doing something like dancing (although that would be worth it for the laughs), yoga poses (there will be no photos of me doing yoga anywhere, let alone every day on Instagram for over 3 months), there will be no food involved (I eat everyday and may not be inventing anything new or interesting in that department) and I won’t be recording my reading, knitting, crocheting or sewing.  These are all pretty good options, but I fear that a new row of knitting every day is not going to give me the end result I am after.

What is the result I speak of then?  I would like a nice fat sketchbook full of artistic goodness!  I could draw something for 100 days, I could make a new doodle pattern every day – this is a contender to be honest – or I could design something every day, maybe a chair or a table.

I have just completed a lettering challenge so I could carry on and hand letter something every day (another contender) or I could design a new alphabet every day.

I have been really enjoying drawing mandalas in the past, so maybe I will do this for 100 days, that would be a cool finished sketchbook I think.

I could purge one item from my belongings every day, but I could do this for 100 years and still have a house full of stuff.  And I no doubt would look back over the photos and realize that I really really wanted to keep those shoes which I donated to Goodwill on day 22!

How about making something every day?  A piece of jewelry, a painting, a keychain, earrings – one or a pair?

Sow seeds, sow a different seed every day and see what kind of garden I have in 100 days!

Take a photo a day?  I feel this would need a sub category though.  Take a black and white photo, a portrait, a colorful photo or even a shot of exactly the same view, see how it changes over 100 days.  The same view could be a lovely one actually as we are entering Spring now and over the course of the project, summer will start to heat up.

I could make a lip balm or perfume scent every day?  See how many combinations I can come up with, I would have quite the beauty collection by the end!

How about drawing a robot a day or a monster a day or a flower a day or a fish a day or a tree or a face or an animal…?

Blimey, I actually want to do lots of these!  But, I have decided that my 100 Day Project is going to be drawing a mandala a day.  I have a square sketchbook with 120 sheets and I am ready to go! I hope I don’t run out of ideas at day 12.  My hashtag on Instagram will be #100DaysOfMakingMandalas.

Are you doing 100 things for this project?  Do you want to?  All the information you will need is here at The Great Discontent magazine website.

I would love to know what you are doing and your Instagram name so that I can follow along!

It’s all rather inspiring, don’t you think?!

Weekly Photos 13/52. One + Four = Life.

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Drawing
Daffodils and crochet
Veg Soup
Tickets

1. Sketching in Spring Break.  Drawing Cityscapes and getting inspired by the book 365 Things to Draw and Paint.

2. Daffodils and my first ever crochet project (I have since started again as I was losing so many stitches!)

3. Veggie soup for dinner.

4. Line tickets for a local Estate Sale.  I scored some vintage magazines a book all about character from the twenties!

For my weekly photos this week (and maybe for ever and ever) I am joining in with Pip at Meet me at Mikes, taking and posting four photos from my week.

I hope you had a good week and the sun is shining where you are.

Through The Lens Thursday #13. In My Cup.

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TTLT In My Cup
I like this picture for this week’s Through The Lens Thursday prompt – In My Cup. I didn’t think anyone wants to see another photo of coffee this side of Instagram, so I went with Daffodils!

The shadows look great I think.

Next week’s prompt is Box.

Taking Stock. March 2015.

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Daffodils
New Kettle
Book
Rosemary

It is time to take stock and answer a few fun one word questions as posed by Pip at Meet me at Mikes.

Making : A crochet blanket, my first foray into crochet after my lesson with my friend’s Mum!
Cooking : Blueberry muffins for breakfast.
Drinking : Coffee with frothy milk.
Reading: The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
Wanting: A thunderstorm – I like storms!
Looking: Outside to see if the sun is coming out today (before the possible storm!).
Playing: With letters and lettering.
Deciding: What to do today in the middle of Spring Break.
Wishing: There were a couple more hours in today.
Enjoying: My new crochet skills and hoping they get better.
Waiting: For my camera bag to arrive, so I can walk and snap.
Liking: The new scents I am using to make solid perfume, all beachy and summer.
Wondering: If anyone else will like the perfumes.
Loving: Having the kids at home this week and the lovely late mornings.
Pondering: What to have for dinner?
Considering: A trip to the zoo to see the penguins and puffins.
Buying: Japanese fabric to make a scarf or two.
Watching: ‘Big Hero 6’
Hoping: I can think of some inspiring quotes and words for the end of #GirlFifteenLetters.
Marvelling: At all the books I want to read.
Cringing: At spelling mistakes by grown-ups.
Needing: Shaving foam to do this marbling project.
Questioning: How to best keep my teen and pre teen occupied over the break from school.
Smelling: New lovely lip balms I have made.  I especially like ‘Chocolate and Blackberry’ flavor.
Wearing: Red Converse!
Following: Vans Warped Tour, to see which bands are coming to St Louis this year.
Noticing: That my daffodils smell so good
Knowing: That my crochet blanket is going to take a while.
Thinking: About things to draw and paint.
Admiring: Illustrators and letterers.
Sorting: Through clothes to keep for Spring/Summer and ditching the ones I don’t need/like/fit.
Getting: Excited for our summer holiday to Cape Cod.
Bookmarking: ‘Red’ magazine and ‘The Simple Things’ Magazine on my iPad.
Coveting: Pens and paints to fill sketchbooks.
Disliking: The price of decent pens and paints.
Opening: The new edition of Flow magazine.
Giggling: While watching kids movies over Spring break – ‘Night at the Museum’ and ‘Penguins of Madagascar’
Feeling: Like I need to get to the gym tomorrow for the first time this week…
Snacking: No snacks around, hurrah!
Wishing: I had a chocolate bar for a snack.
Helping: My youngest with drawing ideas.
Hearing: Teenage music rocking out all over the house.

Want to take some stock?  It is fun and only takes a few minutes, share in the comments if you like or write your own post and share that!  Here is the list –

Making :
Cooking :
Drinking :
Reading:
Wanting:
Looking:
Playing:
Deciding:
Wishing:
Enjoying:
Waiting:
Liking:
Wondering:
Loving:
Pondering:
Considering:
Buying:
Watching:
Hoping:
Marvelling:
Cringing:
Needing:
Questioning:
Smelling:
Wearing:
Following:
Noticing:
Knowing:
Thinking:
Admiring:
Sorting:
Getting:
Bookmarking:
Coveting:
Disliking:
Opening:
Giggling:
Feeling:
Snacking:
Wishing:
Helping:
Hearing:

 

Girl Fifteen Letters

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Girl Fifteen Letters

Here we are at the letter X in our month of hand lettering practice, March has got it’s running shoes laced up and is zooming by.

I decided at the end of February that I wanted to do some hand lettering and didn’t really know where to start, so I thought I would write and draw a letter every day in March. So, I did, and some fab folks have joined me and we are having quite the lettering party at #GirlFifteenLetters over on Instagram! Many many wonderful ideas are pouring forth, and I have learnt so much and been so inspired by just spending a few minutes a day drawing letters and checking out everyone else’s lettering too.

I am also participating in Made Vibrant‘s ‘Meet Yourself March’ challenge and lettering all kinds of words and phrases for that. To think that I have a sketchbook full of words, letters and ideas is a great thing and I love to look through what I have accomplished and look forward to doing more through to the end of March and onwards!
Here are a few things I have learnt along the way –

1. Colour is a good thing, especially when it is in the form of a brilliant vibrant Koi brush pen, but I concentrate better with a fine line Micron pen than with anything else, they just seem to hone my focus.

2.  Make sure your spelling is correct!

3. Some days the ideas just don’t flow, but we will practise anyway.

4. If you keep at it, every so often a really good idea will pop up, often on a regular basis.

5. If your lines go astray, just colour the whole thing in!

6. Don’t be afraid to give it a go, if it doesn’t turn out the masterpiece you had planned, have another go.

7. Try, try try again.

8. Keep a sharp pencil and a clean eraser.

9. Leave your pen a little longer to dry, erasing the pencil line too soon can leave a less than attractive smudge which will not be erased.

10. Micron Pens dry much quicker than Papermate Flair pens (I found this out the smudgy way).

11. Go wild, mess about – draw, draw over, use tracing paper, draw in the letters and around the letters, you can’t do it wrong!

12. Keep a little sketchbook with you and by your bed, you never know when inspiration will whack you around the head and demand to be recorded. Don’t forget to keep a pencil with that notebook.

Please don’t think it is too late to join in Girl Fifteen Letters, the original post and list of letters and prompts is here.  You can pick up today or tomorrow or anytime!  When we run out of letters, we are going to work on words and phrases, so that should be a fun last lettering week of the month.

Let’s draw and paint and create!

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photos 12/52. 2015

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Daffodils
Green stool. Pink wall.
Flowers
Spring buds
Car Line Up
Cars
Cars and dinosaur
1. It’s daffodil time!  We always grab a few bunches when we go shopping through Spring.

2. Bright walls and furniture at Yo My Goodness frozen yoghurt.

3. One of my daily lettering challenge pieces, I quite like this one.  Hopefully I am getting better!

4. The first tree on our street to start to bud and flower.

5. – 7. Yesterday we decided to line all of the cars up on the drive.  And a car loving dinosaur!

I hope you had a good week and have a lovely week lined up.  We are on Spring Break for a week and it is supposed to be a week of sun, clouds, rain and thunder.  So we have some outdoor plans and some DVDs to watch including ‘Big Hero Six’ and ‘Night at the Museum-Secret of the Tomb’.  Best get some popcorn!

 

Six Word Saturday

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Six Word Saturday
This week’s Six Word Saturday is coming fresh from Springtime! The trees on our street are starting to flower which means I am starting to sneeze!
No complaining though because the windows are open and some of my lavender plants made it through the Arctic style winter!
Happy weekend!

‘I Like’ Fridays

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Coffee and DonutToday brings Spring to the Western hemisphere along with a solar eclipse and a Supermoon tonight.  Phew, quite the celestial action! I hope I captured the atmosphere in my coffee and doughnut photo – Supermoon coffee and eclipse doughnut!

So what are we liking this week?

I got a couple of new t shirts and a dress from Uniqlo which I love.  The ones I got are here, here and here.

This new US magazine, Womankind, looks like a good read.  I have a copy which I have yet to open!  As with most of my favourite mags, this one originated in Australia.

Converse shoes are a current favourite in our house, I just got a pair of red lowtops and my youngest got a pair of black hightops and they are the same size!  Yay that means I can borrow my son’s shoes.  There is something I never thought I would say!

My Wild Unknown tarot cards might make an appearance today as we are under such an amazing trifecta of natural occurrences. They are so gorgeous, I just like to look through them and pick out my favourites.  I find good tarot spreads to follow over at Little Red Tarot which is a great site for the tarot reading beginner like me.

What have you been enjoying this week?  Lots of things I hope!