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  >^..^<

Under the Shagbark Hickory Tree

A provincial park near me has a wonderful tree that I love to sit under.

It's a huge, mature Shagbark Hickory that takes a while each spring to fill out... but when it does... it's glorious!

Lush, thick leaves tower toward the sky, providing welcome shade on hot summer days.  It has a nice amount of space under it where there are no branches - more than 8 feet of clearance.

I take a chair, blanket, snacks, book and camera and can happily spend a day there.
Some lovely sights within a few feet of my chair:

This is the sunny St. John's/Joan's Wort, the plant that helps keep my mood balanced without side effects since I've become sensitive to pharmaceuticals. It works best for mild to moderate depression but I have found that it does help lessen my severe depression and SAD, especially now that I've discovered some other supplements that help including (but not limited to :) folic acid, selenium, B12, vitamin D and 5HTP.

One of these days I'd love to grow and harvest it myself instead of buying it.

(please consult health care provider before using anything I mention :)

Does anyone know what kind of butterfly that is? 

P.S.

Just for fun... here's a photo of my cat sitting on a box... why not!?  ☺☺☺  He loves boxes and was a bit put out that 'his box' had been turned on it's side so he could no longer do his fancy leap into it.  But he made it work for him this way too ;-)

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.

Repurposing Failed Projects

Some watercolour experiments don't turn out well so I use the paper as background or scraps for other projects.  All of the words shown in the lefthand photo will become fun inspiration tags like the Magic one shown above.
Update: I finally came across the photo that inspired me to do these (although the method is a bit different, the core idea was from here).  Like much of my favourite inspiration, this came from Daisy Yellow (thank again Tammy!).

I made a strange little decoration for one of my plants including this lovely Blue Jay feather my mom sent me in a Valentine's Day card - thanks mom!

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