I love Saturdays

Citronella scented geraniums in my garden

Photographers Gentl & Hyers at Edge Reps.

These Plaster Dolls from Etsy are just the cutest ever. The top doll is wearing Luella Spring Summer 2008 and the bottom doll is in Prada Fall 2008.

Sarap's beautiful collages at Etsy. From her page, "This collage features magazine clippings, old photos, text, and bits of patterned paper. Part of the beauty of these pieces is the bumps and crannies that add to the overall texture."

Journal page

By hand

I'm loving this hand lettering by Chris Piascik. I like to do hand lettering on my journal pages. It's nice to get inspiration from what other people are doing. Some people might call it copying, but for those of us who are self taught with the internet and books as our only teachers, it's a great way to learn new things - and eventually your own style does start to emerge.

I heart inspiration boards

I love inspiration boards. I always have. I think it's interesting how they reflect a person's personality, and I think they add warmth and intimacy to the home. They can also make great points of visual interest in a room. That's why I love the Flickr Inspiration Board group. Here's a small selection from the group.

Girlhula at Flickr

Inky at Flickr

Lobster and Swan at Flickr

My English Garden NY's flickr page

And my inspirations:

This is the inspiration wall above my art desk

Inspiration wire in my art work space

The whiteboard in my art work space

A close up of a picture I drew that's on the whiteboard

The picture on my inspiration wall that I copied for the drawing

A spread in a previous moleskine journal called My pinboard romance.

PS: OMG! It is totally and utterly ridiculous how a person can disappear into Flickr and get sidetracked! I'm guessing a lot of you know the feeling......okay, okay.....dinner's coming;)

Colourful

Some recent pages from the small altered photography book journal. (Click 4 bigger pix)

Just another Sunday

Firstly, I just wanted to say a huge, big thank you to everyone who responded so amazingly to my previous post and commented on the Listen to My Voice blog. You guys are absolutely awesome!!! I know the kids will be so excited to read their comments.

Here are a couple of recent journal pages, if you like you can click on the pics for a bigger image.

And......a disgruntled somebody getting a bath. When Bandit goes walking in the park he insists on finding the smelliest, most disgustingly noxious piece of decomposing dead matter, like an expired duck, and then furiously rolling up and down and all around in it, until his whole body honks to high heaven of what he thinks is the most delectable perfume. Unfortunately his human companions don't feel the same way.....so, much to his disgust, he has to suffer through the indignity of being bathed.

Spring has arrived in Joburg with a happy vengance, and there is no-one happier about that than me!

Wednesday musings

Journal pages over the last few days. Today was a good day, I got a lot done, starting off with early morning gym. I haven't been to gym since last week friday because I've had a bad stomache flu which started on Sunday morning. It was nice to back, gym really is a great mood booster!

A little highlight of my day today, I was at a work meeting at a small restaurant in our community, and sitting at the table next to us I noticed what must have been a grandmother and her grand daughter, or possibly her great grand daughter eating lunch together. The granny must have been well into her eighties, and the grand daughter was in her very early twenties. They looked to be so much enjoying eachother's company, and you could just see the love and respect between them. The winter sun was out and it seemed to bathe them in a special golden glow. And what was so sweet and amazing also, was that you could see the strong family resemblance that had been passed down through the generations from the granny to the young woman in the strong eyebrows and the shape of their eyes.

I almost wanted to go up to the young woman and tell her to treasure that moment, because one day she would look back on it as an amazing memory, and hold close to her heart all the things her granny had taught her. Important things like family history and cultural traditions, things that you only really tend to appreciate when you get older, and by then it's often too late. Of course I didn't say anything because one doesn't do that kind of thing, it's not appropriate or polite.

I want to notice more things like that around me as I go about the mad rush of my life. I took that little vignette away with me, and it made me feel good. Johannesburg can be a difficult city to be in with all the crime, and grime and corruption and negativity but there is lots of good too, it's up to us as individuals to focus on the good as well as the bad.