One Little Word - Fear

If you haven't discovered the One Little Word monthly challenge yet, hop on over and join in the fun! Each month a word is chosen. This month's is fear. And did I mention that each month a random contributor is chosen to receive a prize? Last month I won!

So. FEAR.

Yes, the big one.

The thing that holds us back.

The feeling that paralyses.

How do we overcome?

How does courage overwhelm the fear?

Quite a few times the Lord has asked me to do something that has fear raising its ugly head and laughing in my face.

Did I do what I was asked?

Yes! Because I have to tell you that the thought of being disobedient has me feeling much worse than those butterflies. And no, it's not fear of God in that I'm frightened of Him. I am moved by love. The thought of missing out on an opportunity for growth, on a chance to make a difference in a way I cannot yet comprehend, is a fabulous motivator to kick fear in the teeth and go for it anyway.

And you know what? That feeling when I have not let fear get the better of me?

That feeling of perceptible growth?

Pure joy!

Giving thanks

So much to be thankful for! There are lots of little things that might not seem much to some people, but to me are small mercies and blessings.

For example, I am thankful that I no longer have to crawl around on my hands and knees to see what is in the back of the food cupboard because I have a pantry. My husband thinks it's extravagant to have a room 'just for food' - and maybe it is - but God is extravagant, and to me this room is a blessing.

I am thankful for a hob that has enough control to set things to a simmer rather than to a constant rolling boil.

I am thankful for a larger studio that means I can have play dates with others.

I am thankful for the high ceilings that make everything feel so spacious.

I am thankful for the lemon and mandarin trees in the garden.

I am thankful for the myriad blessings and mercies the Lord shows to me every day.

What are you thankful for today?

Order out of Chaos

It seems pertinent that my first piece of art in my new studio should be about bringing order out of chaos after the mammoth task of emptying all the boxes (see my last post for the full horror of it).

This page just felt too dark. I tried to lighten it up by printing with cream acrylic on to the blue/grey background, but the arrows ending up pointing in so many different directions that it felt chaotic. I had the definite feeling of wrestling with the page, trying to bring some order to it. In the end, I gave in and let it say what it was saying.

Do you ever wrestle with your pages?

At last!

Finally, we have moved! This blog has been quiet this week because this is what my new studio looked like when all the boxes arrived on Wednesday. This photo is taken from the doorway and the room is about 15ft long (5m). Those boxes are four deep and that's a 3-door wardrobe in the back that needs to not be there.

And here it is about halfway through:

And finally:

My new studio! And it is a deliberate change for me to call it a studio. Before it has just been 'my room' or the 'art room'. I guess calling it a studio for me is like calling myself an artist. It changes how I view myself and what I do.

I'm looking forward to posting some new art very soon :)

Fun with a small gelli-plate

I've spent some time this week playing with a small gelli-plate, using it as a stamp, inspired by this post at Gelli-Arts. These are some backgrounds for my prayer and Bible study journal.

Using the plate as a stamp is fun. You can print through stencils and over masks, use the ghost prints, and also print with the paint left on the stencil.

Once I'd made the background below using the blues and greens, I used a baby-wipe to add yellow over the top to pull everything together.

I found that using stencils with small, repeating patterns worked best, but perhaps that's just my preference for geometric shapes :)

Trees

The theme for September over at Mix-it-Monthly is trees.

I've said it before, and will doubtless say it again - having the seasons turned around when you move into a new hemisphere really messes with your head! There is no mass drop of leaves in the autumn leading to the bare greenlessness of dark brown limbs reaching for the sky in winter. There is no sudden burst of new life with the greening of spring. The new-life symbols of Easter just aren't there as it now happens in the autumn. Christmas brings rising temperatures - the furthest from snow you can get.

So I'm having to learn new cues from the trees. The bottle-brushes are red with blooms and the May blossom is out, so it must be September. When the jacarandas are Dr. Seuss purple, it's November and Christmas is coming, even though the days are getting hotter and longer. If the lawn has suddenly gone from flat, brown, and crunchy to green and knee-height overnight, the first rains of autumn have fallen and it must be April. When there are crunchy leaves on the floor it's of no help whatsoever, as the plane trees seem to drop leaves all through the year depending on how extreme the temperature is!

The seasons may not be so baldly plain as they are in the UK, but I'm starting to see the subtle differences in the trees.

A little catch up

This weekend I finished off a few pages that had been sitting around for a while, just jotting down a few thoughts as I was inspired.

The dahlia on the left is part of a paper that Becky Wentworth sent to me in a swap. The purple went well with what was already on the page and the flower made me think of spring.We've had some lovely warm days in the last week, giving us a taste of spring. Temperatures have dropped again today and are supposed to stay that way for this week, but the taste of sunshine was lovely.

At the moment we are enjoying three weeks of annual leave between posts, resting, sorting, preparing for our move. I've even had a new haircut, which for me is a big thing :)

The arrows on this page gave it a natural focal point. As my thoughts are all on moving at the moment, what better to put there than a house? It brought the phrase 'zeroing in' to mind. As an introvert, it takes me a while to process things and get ready for change. I feel I'm ready for our move now.

Finding bricks

The herringbone stencil I used on this page reminded me of bricks, which set me thinking about building.

All across England there are buildings and walls built out of the local stone. In Sussex there is a lot of flint used. In some places sandstone is the preferred material, and you can see the weathering on the older buildings where that soft stone is being worn away. Further north you start to see drystone walls. Things are built from what is available locally.

Moving from one church to another, I'm starting to think about what will change and how the 'materials' will be different. I'll still be building the same wall, but it will look different because the bricks will be made of different stuff.

Assessing

Five years after uprooting from everything we knew and relocating halfway around the round to take up a post at a new church, we had our last Sunday with that congregation yesterday. Now we have four weeks before we start with a new set of people, a new church culture, a new home just across the city.

This is my time of contemplation; of looking back over these five years and assessing the fruit.

Although the move is a short one this time, still it involves an emotional wrench. We have joined a set of people on a journey, and now it is our time to break off and take a slightly different route with a new set of travellers. But we will take with us the marks of that part of our journey, as we hope they will, too. We cannot truly interact with each other without leaving marks. We hope they will be laughter lines rather than scars.

Planning a garden

One of the fun things about moving is planning a new garden. I like to grow things that I can eat. I like to be able to walk out of the kitchen and gather the herbs I need to make a meal. I'm pretty sure I won't grow all of these things this year, but I plan on adding to the garden each season, growing some things in pots, some in beds, and making the most of the space.

What do you like to grow?