Tag Archives: butterfly

Milestones and Butterflies

15 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by in Photographs

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I have made 200 posts! Wow. Thanks for stopping in and sharing some kindness. I hope you enjoy this butterfly that helped me celebrate my birthday. My husband took me to a labyrinth that is a flower garden. It is one of my favorite places in Wisconsin and it happens to be up the street from a lovely art museum and a delicious restaurant. So I will be posting a flower a day or so for a while. I hope your day was as beautiful as mine.

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Another Gratitude Journal Completed

09 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in Gratitude journal

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Well, rats. I had a great post all written out and I THOUGHT I posted it. Something is different with WordPress and I am going to have to figure this out.

Anyway… The post was absolutely brilliant. My best post ever. Let’s see if I can capture some of the faded glory.

Just over halfway through 2014 I have completed another altered book full of so many things I am grateful for. What abundance I have in my life! Sunshine and chocolate. A wonderful husband and two cats. Two sons who are nearly grown and sisters and friends and coffee and yoga and lots of meditation. I have selected the next book I’m going to alter for use as my journal. It is a notebook-sized picture book that will be fabulous for the adventures I have planned for this summer. You will have to stay tuned.

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Here we have a lovely collection of totally unrelated images and words. The story behind the left page is another stab at calligraphy and a new way of pain monitoring. I have been filling out these worksheets that I turn in to the neuropsychologist I work with on pain management and they are the record of my pain and activities and meds and stressors and I turn them over to her and I have been for years. As a compulsive journal keeper this has not quite sat right with me. So… now I am keeping them in a journal for me and I will make copies of the pages for her. She doesn’t mind the extraneous quotes and book recommendations, etc. and I get to keep this very intimate record of my days. Yeah, I will not be sharing that journal on a blog. My art journal, however, is still going to be my record of the 3-5 or more things each day that I am grateful for from that day. The right hand page is from yesterday. I had a lesson this week on how to hang an art exhibit. Did you know it involved hammering nails? You would think I could have figured that one out. This might not be a great volunteer opportunity for me. I really support our local art center, but migraines come with plenty of pounding!

Anyway, I am sticking to watercolors. I tried strawberries again because they are so pretty and delicious. Unfortunately they are probably the last of the season. The lips are my meditation self-portrait. I was listening to a guided meditation by Tara Brach and she quoted Thich Nhat Han on “smile yoga” and that tickled my fancy. Another random thought during meditation was to wonder if butterflies have flashbacks to the chrysalis. Ok, this second try turned out ok, but I’m going to save a copy just in case.

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Becoming

17 Thursday Oct 2013

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Becoming

Here I am in my creative den. I suffer from chronic migraines and I spend a lot of time in my room in the dark. Today as things were feeling better I opened the curtains a little and took this self-portrait. You can see the zentangle that I designed for my tattoo. I call her sunshine in a nod to John Denver. “Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy.”
I really identify with butterflies and I try to think of my time of rest as my transformation into a butterfly. Some of my best creative ideas come to me while I heal. I believe I am becoming someone better.

Posted by | Filed under Self-portrait

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