Creative Life: Week 24 2024 - Music Is Joy

Week 24: Musicality - Today I will listen to or play music. (SoulSistersToo: Creative)

Intention Setting: Take joy in all kinds of music that your hear or create.

Music Is Joy... 

For me music is joy. I love to listen to music all day long, espically when I create art.

I listen to the radio or to CDs

I sing

I create music on the piano

I listen to bird song 

I hear the sounds of nature and the city - songs of the environment

Music makes my soul soar

Music moves me into flow

Music is life

Last weekend I listened to ABC Classic FM to see which songs were voted as the top 100 feel-good classics. My favourite song was number 7 on the list - The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins.

I wonder where your favourite song ranked?

Creative Life: Week 20 2024 - Discovery and Fun

Week 20: Playfulness - Today find time to connect to the child within me. (SoulSistersToo - Creativity)

Intention Setting: Spirit, please show me ways to connect to my child.

Discovery and Fun...

While my chores and work do list is long, there is always time -  even if only for 5 minutes - each day to connect to the child within. 

What does it mean to connect to your inner child? I think it is about connecting to the joy of play, discovery and doing things just for the love of it, that children innately do. As an creative noticing what I love is important because that is what inspires my art.

Mmmm what can I do to connect with my child within? To start I could do some of the following;

• colouring-in
• drawing with textas or crayons
• collecting something from nature
• seeing how many different coloured leaves I can find - especially as it currently autumn

What ways can you connect to what you liked to do as a child?

Creativity: Week 17 2024 - Sharing My Artwork

Week 17: Creativity - I choose to follow my creative dreams. (SoulSistersToo - Creativity)

Intention Setting: Patiently take steps towards preparing for my up coming art exhibition - sharing my artwork with others.

Sharing my artwork...

In the past few years I have shared only a few artworks with the general public at group exhibitions. But now I getting closer and closer to sharing my artwork in a solo exhibition, Interweaving: Gerringong and Beyond. It will be the first time since February 2020 - my last market stall - that I have shown my artwork en masse.

This exhibition is part of am making my creative dreams come true. When I create art I express the natural beauty of the world around me and by exhibiting my work I hope that visitors to the exhibition will experience joy, connection and a curiosity for the natural world too.

Creativity: Week 15 2024 - Showing Up

Week 15: Journey - I am on my own journey. I don't need to compare myself to others. 

(SoulSistersToo - Living)
Intention Setting: When you go in a new direction your path is unknown, there will be new experiences and things to learn. Keep going on this journey, look forward and over come any new obstacles.

Showing Up...

I am on a journey of showing up. I have a bundle of artworks that have not been shared and so I am holding an exhibition 31 May - 6 June 2024.

While on this journey, I remind myself that my exhibition does not have to look like other people's exhibitions. I am curating it, organising every aspect of it and I will be hosting during the opening hours.

I can choose what I artwork I want to showcase.

I can choose my exhibition theme and name.

I can choose to follow the conventions of exhibitions or not. 

I can choose to do as little or as much as I want. 

I will choose to follow the rules laid out by the exhibition space  manager so I can exhibit with them again eg. using white tack to add labels to the walls.

In the process of organising my first solo exhibition I am on a new journey; learning lots and overcoming all kinds of obstacles. And I am showing up.

Creative Life: Week 8 2024 - A Turning Point

Week 8: Reverence - I choose self care. (SoulSistersToo - Living)
Intention Setting: Spirit, May I remember to take moments of self-care as I strive to achieve my stepping stones. 

A Turning Point...

What does this book have to do with living a creative life? Knowledge and the unleashing of creative energy.

Four years ago (actually its really 15+ years but that is a story for another day) I had a goal to live a healthier life because I wanted a body that could support me in achieving my creative dreams. This year when I brainstormed my Ease-filled Stepping Stones, one goal regarding my health was to learn more about food health and menopause. I wanted to move my creative life forward without my health being an obstacle. 

At the end of January I received a medical test result that was the jolt I needed to finally move the dial to full blast, choosing a louder healthier creative life rather than the quite life of an ill artist. 

Creativity: Week 3 2024 - Re-energising My Creative Flow

Week 3: Rejoice - I will celebrate the small things I achieve. (SoulSistersToo - Soulfilled)

Intention Setting: I will take moments to pause and celebrate before I move onto my next project or task.

Some weeks are in between weeks, where my creative energy needs a replenish. This mostly happens upon our arriving at our Canberra home*. This week has been a week of catching up on all of the admin stuff and appointments I don't do while in Gerringong.  

To re-energise my creative flow I;

• listen to podcasts
• journal
• see friends and family
• plus doing some creative play

On this trip to Canberra I found a bundle of recipes from magazines on my art table. So I decided to create a folder that could travel with me between homes. 

I created the folder using a large piece of thick paper, copy paper, washi tape and tombow brush pen. Now I have a Cooking Joy folder - a collection of recipes to inspire creativity in the kitchen - that can be popped into my work travel box that I take back and forth between homes.

*I am fortunate to have the opportunity to live part of each month in our two homes, one in the NSW coastal town of Gerringong and the other in Canberra.

Creativity: Week 2 2024 - Yummy New Cotton Threads

Week 2: Self-Assuredness - I believe in my abilities. (SoulSistersToo - Soulfilled)

Intention Setting: Spirit guide me in knowing that I have what it takes to make my dreams come true. 

Yummy new cotton thread ready to be added to my painting that wanted to be more. 

Some of the DMC stranded cotton colours I selected are;

• light cornflower blue
• bright turquoise
• pale lilac
• light violet
• very light tan
• light pistachio green
• very light pistachio green
• light khaki green
• mahogany - ultra very light

Affirmations: Week 48 2023 - Spirit

Affirmation for Week 48 2023: Spirit - When I let go, I trust the universe to lead me. (SoulSistersToo - Soulfilled)

Intention Setting: May I learn to trust in letting go and let spirit and intuition be my guide.

Adding embroidery to an artwork, letting spirit guide
the placement of the stitches and the colour selections.

Affirmations: Week 46 2023 - Exploration

Affirmation for Week 46 2023: Exploration - Explore something I've never done before. (SoulSistersToo - Living)

Intention Setting: Seek new experiences and ways of thinking this week.

New art process
Preparing to collage pressed leaves onto canvas

Affirmations: Week 22 - Authenticity

Affirmation for Week 22: Authenticity - I choose to claim my authentic life.

Collage Intention Setting: It is time to tap into me and what I love. I am an artist, I deserve to spend time and money on 'finding my joy" and my creative voice. 

Affirmations: Week 19 - Celebrate

Affirmation for Week 19: Celebrate - Journeys have hills and valleys. Celebrate all the small achievements.

Collage Intention Setting: I celebrate all the big and small things in my life.

Journaling and Photos

Today I began a new addition to my journal pages, photos. 

I have been wanting to add images of things that I reflect on while journaling but I wanted it to be quick and easy. I didn't want to have log onto my PC and then print photos. The light-bulb moment was the idea of using instant photos - polaroids like photos.

After some researching I decided to take the plunge and buy a Fujiflim InstaxMini LiPlay camera and printer. 

The LiPlay model allows me to;

• instantly print photos with the added bonus of being able to choose which one to print (it doesn't have to print each photo you take)

Morning Recharge

I love to start my morning by recharging the soul, body and the mind.

Today my morning began with some light tidying up around the house. I like the feeling I get when the house is tidy. The spaces feel ready for whatever will happen next in the room. For me it is an aesthetics feeling, the pleasure and a calmness that everything is ready for the day.   

With the tidying done I felt ready move into my morning ritual. This ritual grounds me and prepares me for the the day ahead. My soul nourishing ritual consists of;

• lighting a candle
• putting on some background music (often some Enya)
• prayer/affirmations/oracle cards
• journaling

During today's journaling session I reflected on the concept of routine vs ritual. It was a rabbit hole of thoughts and ideas, thinking about the automation of an action and the intentions behind an action which makes an action part of a routine or a ritual.

After my deep dive I nourished my body with a yummy breakfast and my mind with a little light reading.

Spring Renewal: There is still time to achieve your 2020 goals

During winter I found my new daily practice began to give way to past habits, old excuses came flooding back. With the colder days I wanted to hibernate inside and by the end of August I didn't want to walk outside in the darker morning light. My energy was low and before I knew it I had stopped journaling. 

With the end of winter there was a shift in the air. A switch had been flipped to spring. With the coming of spring there is more daylight hours. The air feels warmer and nature is awaking from its torpor and so am I. 

On the first day of spring I went for a morning walk. I noticed buds swelling and blossoms unfolding. My energy levels began to grow with the daylight.

Spring is a perfect time to reconnect with my goals.
With one quarter of the year still to come it's not too late to revisit what I want to accomplish in 2020.

Dream Nourishing: Taking a time out of your regular life

Taking a time out of your regular life can be as small as taking an afternoon off work or something longer like a two week holiday. 

It is important to schedule these breaks into your calendar. The intention behind this is to ensure that you have opportunities to relax, recharge, do something you enjoy and to get away from the normalcy of your daily life.

I like to call this time, Dream Nourishing. It is time to do things that are on your dream/bucket list and time to nourish your body, mind and soul.