Stealing fruit

Our orange tree is loaded with juicy navel oranges at the moment. Each day I go out and pick enough to get us through the day. When friends are coming, I pick a bagful to give away. I like to share the fruit and am blessed when others share with me from their own gardens - lemons, peaches, plums and the like in season.

So why was I miffed when I saw someone picking an armful of oranges from the other side of the fence this week? If they had asked, I would gladly have shared, so why was I annoyed?

It took me a while to work it out.

What I was annoyed about was not the stealing of the oranges, but the stealing of the chance to bless.

It reminds me of the time when we moved to a new house. One of our neighbours, on first being introduced, said, 'You have to be nice to me. Your water pipes go across my land.' In one fell swoop she stole my choice. She stole the kindness I would have freely given.

I am happy to share the fruit in my life. I love to share skills that I have laboured to gain. It's a delight to cook and share a meal, some baking, a bagful of fruit or veg from the garden.

But I don't like to have it stolen.

promise in winter

In the winter season, it can feel as if there is little life around.

But if you look carefully at the leafless trees, you can see next season's buds, ready and waiting. The orange tree in our garden is loaded with fruit at the moment, but it also has blossom, holding the hope of a future harvest.

And the same is true when we enter a winter season in life - there is always the promise of future life, if we only look carefully.

I wasn't really enjoying this page until I put the red on. Then it seemed to come alive, hence the journalling that I added.

Summer of Colo(u)r - week 3

Already it's week 3 of Summer of Colo(u)r. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click on the button in the sidebar and see what everyone else is making with 2 purples and a yellow.

This combination was a bit of a challenge as colours on the opposite sides of the colour wheel, when mixed, make mud! I think I've just about managed to avoid that here. It did give me the journalling for the page. It made me think about opposite personalities as well - you have to be careful how you mix them!

And as I'd made vids for the previous two weeks, I thought I should carry on, so here is the time-lapse making of the page.

A little winter sunshine

Another quick page. The days seem to be flying by at the moment! Sunday saw a little winter sunshine where it was much warmer outside than in. This is fine - desirable, even - in the summer, when the temperatures climb into the 40s C, but in the winter, well, Ugg boots are glued to my feet in the house.

Australia feels like Britain in the 1950s - no central heating or double glazing, so the winters, although not generally snowy or sub zero, are still uncomfortably cold in the house. Let's just say I'm loving our open fire when I have to be inside!

Gelli shirt!

If I wear a white shirt, dirt tends to jump onto it, so today I personalised a shirt with a mini gelli-plate mounted on a glass block, using black acrylic, stencils, and stamps. What fun!

And here's the back and some close-ups:

Using up some of my stash

Haven't done much journalling in the last week as I've been busy using up my stash of various bits and pieces ready for a 'Christmas in July' sale - buy early for Christmas. (Plus it's winter here in Australia and for this Brit it feels like Christmas should be coming!)

So I've been knitting and crocheting, making jewellery, binding books, and sewing, just using what I have as much as possible.

I found this piece of fish leather that I'd forgotten about so made a book. This is a small one, only about 6in (15cm) tall as the leather is narrow.

There's something quite satisfying about using up stash. Are you a hoarder, or do you regularly use up what you have?

Summer of Colo(u)r - week 2

Week 2 of the Summer of Colo(u)r and the palette this week is 2 pinks + 1 orange. Love this hot combo :)

Again, I've made a little time-lapse video. Just love my Brinno TLC200 - it's a time-lapse camera that does all the work for you. You just set the time interval and the camera takes photos. When you download, it comes out as a video without any work on my part! Love it. Anyway, it's another quick page, no longer than 20 minutes.

The background is a gelli-print, which I find is a great way to get a lot of colour and pattern across a large area quickly. I used a stamp to put pattern down, printing with the paint I removed as well. This is a technique I like as it moves the paint around on the plate and creates a great layered look.

The journalling reads: We are all unique, each face as different as each sunset.

And here are some close-ups of the background pattern.

Embracing the quiet times

Life can be so busy. Nowadays, if we're not busy we can start to feel guilty - as if we should be doing something. We have lots of leisure time but fill it up with activity. 

I've had a busy week, but there have been pockets of quiet - such as ten minutes waiting for our daughter to come out of the zoo - when I've savoured the chance to breathe deep and slow down. I just sat with my pocket journal and sketched a quick face and made a note of my thoughts. It took two minutes, and then I spent the rest of the time watching those around me and just enjoying being outdoors. Just breathing in the fresh air and being still. 

When I got home, I transferred the idea from my pocket journal to this page as a reminder to enjoy times of waiting.

Evaluating

I'm a bit pushed for time this week, so I pulled out a background that had been sitting there for a while and journalled some thoughts on to it.

I love the way you can work on pages over days, weeks, even months, and nothing goes to waste.

The journalling reads, 'When looking at what has yet to be achieved, don't forget to take into account past victories. Look to how far you have already come as well as how far is yet to go.'

Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed by what is ahead and how far there is yet to go, but it is good to take stock of how far we have already come. We shouldn't belittle what has already been achieved just because there is further to go. Savour each victory and achievement. It will give you encouragement to keep going.

Summer of Colo(u)r - week one

It's that time of year again - Summer of Colo(u)r is here! (Or rather, summer is in the northern hemisphere. Here in Australia it's winter, but we can still have some fun with colour, can't we?) Join in the fun for the next few weeks. Each week a basic palette is given from which you can create in any media you like. 

This week is two blues and a green. I put together a very quick page as it's a busy week for me. You can see how quick it is in the time-lapse video below - a mere 18seconds! Which translates into less than ten minutes in real time. You can fit art into the odd moments if you really try :)

The dark blue across the middle made me think of a wave, so the journalling says 'Sometimes I feel adrift… but feelings can lie.' I might feel adrift, but in truth I am always anchored.

Look and See part 2

This is the second part of my spread in Claudia's journal on the theme looking. My idea was to look at the difference between looking and seeing.

To look is to 'direct one's gaze towards' which is different from seeing. Seeing involves perceiving and understanding. Looking just puts something in front of your eyes.

Anyway, today is a long weekend holiday here in South Australia, so this will be going in the post tomorrow.

Making beads

Busy making paper beads this week. Below you can see a few sets of paper cut and ready to go. 

I particularly like the beads above which are made from National Geographics treated with Citrasolv (thank you, Becky W. for those!) They look like agate.

Look and See part 1

This month I am working on Claudia's journal for the round robin/circle journal. Her theme is Looking.

I am working on a double page, one side will be 'look' and the other, which is the one shown here, is 'see'. I wanted to look at the difference between the two things.

The tag on this page opens like a door. On the reverse it says, 'To look and to see are two very different things.' To see is to perceive, to discern. It encompasses understanding of what is being looked at - something that involves the brain as well as the eyes. Which, now I've written it, makes me wish I had incorporated a picture of the brain, but that would have led to a very different page...

Live generously

This page already had the gelli-print on it when I came to it in my journal. I kept looking at the trees and thinking about the way the branches spread outwards and upwards. I was also keeping in mind my word for the year - flourish.

To flourish, I need to live generously, spreading outwards and upwards, letting God prune me as He will to increase my fruitfulness in the right areas. He will shape me, but I need to grow and plant seeds, otherwise there is nothing to prune and nothing to harvest.