Lovely Autumn Shadows

On sunny mornings lately I have been loving the shadows on my dining room wall. ♥
They are created by the sun shining through dried up flowers outside my patio door window... and also a few butterfly 'window clings' I have on the glass.

I still don't have a camera so these are taken with a video camera that has just one quality setting: 'sure-to-make-you-wish-you-had-a-real-camera!'.  That's not the official name of course... but it should be LOL!

Here's the view looking out the window showing what's creating those shadows (in the background you can see the pink sweet peas that have only succumbed to cold weather in the last couple of days!):

 

I also enjoy these shadows created by brass bells amidst leftover morning glory vines.  I played around a bit in my photo editor to give it an antique look.  Sometimes it doesn't look like shadows on a wall at all to me but rather objects seen through heavy fog:

One of my cats likes to 'help' with the photos  >^..^<

Finding Beauty In Everyday Things

I try to notice the beautiful in everyday things - pleasing colours, shapes, textures and light.
Here are some pictures of things that have made me smile recently (apologies for the poor photo quality - neither my camera or editing program are great):

Vibrant pollen on Jacob's Ladder stamens - these smell divine!

Variegated yellow corn on the cob dripping with butter looked so wonderful against the blues of this awesome plate my mom made (she's a potter)

Both of the cats fit together on the tiny stool!  Which is more impressive if you know how... erm... wide the cat on the left actually is :-)   The cats love open windows.

I loved the contrast of the purple and green on this spring violet.

Luscious buttercup soaking up the sun.

I couldn't resist another photo of this amazing plate.  It is the most perfect toast plate ever!  I eat some pretty curious food - that's gluten-free toast and sunflower seed 'butter' with stevia sprinkled on top (to make it sweet) and sliced organic banana on the sides.

Home has cats, plants and gardens

I love noticing things that bubble up or trickle down into my art from my sub or super conscious.
This is the second yellow house with orange roof I've done!  I like this one much more than the 1st one.
I would never consciously choose those colours but they are in me somewhere!

I'm working with Speedball waterproof ink in a fountain pen I unearthed that is likely older than I am - and loving it.

first the drawing (which I let dry overnight so the markers would be less likely to smear):

then colour with markers:

5" x 6"

Very cheerful, sunny house.  I think it's straw bale with yellow stuccoed walls (and solar panels) :-)
I wasn't positive I could draw the garden well enough so I drew it elsewhere and cut and paste when I liked it (which thankfully was on the 1st try).  My work tends to be abstract or very loosely representational so I'm not too good at proportion or realism.

Home Is...

What is 'Home' to me?

I'm having fun working with this month's Creative Every Day theme of Home.

Have drawn a background, still have to glue on all the words and then plan to paint over everything with watercolours.  May add more words or ink after that.  I will post another picture of it when it's done :-)

February CED Theme 'Home'

The monthly CED theme for February is 'Home'.

I love this theme and got started on it by creating this blog as a place to be my online 'Home' for being creative.

Part of my creating involved choosing a blog template I liked and learning how to edit it, making sidebars more narrow, content wider, things like that.  There's still some work to do before it feels like 'Home' but it's getting there and the process of learning how to make changes was a good challenge for my brain.

In my non-internet life, the 'Home' theme is very fitting.
I've been living in this house for 3 years now and have only just begun making a room entirely mine in the last few days.  Until then the only space I had was shared space - there was nowhere for me to spread out and be totally 'me' without considering how I impacted others.
I am so excited to have a room I can decorate exactly how I want, leave creative projects around partly finished and expand energetically.

Much tidying and sorting is involved (not entirely fun), repotting a number of plants... the cats will not be allowed in this room so I can have plants without them getting eaten.  I love potting plants - it feels very nourishing.

Soon I will cover the walls with things I have created, with possibly some of others' art that inspires me.

A house is not a home to me without plants