squares for Halloween:
6x6



4x4:

Happy Halloween: Inspire me Thursday has the prompt of trick or treat for Halloween. On Saturday my husband took me for a bit of a drive in the country and we were able as our last stop to get quite close to this abandoned house. I've a particular interest in abandoned buildings and so took the opportunity to take some photos.
I didn't step inside of this particular house. As my husband pointed out there's a basement, which this picture shows, could be dangerous.



















The floor looks absolutely beautiful as do some of the other details. Unfortunately it's been left behind to stand as a perfect example of a spooky Halloween house. I didn't spot any critters at the time of day we visited but there are definite indications of house swallow nests from the past.














Here's wishing all a happy hallow's eve.

Thank you for all the fabulous birthday wishes- to Suze who is probably extremely busy today but has granted me so many gifts already, to Karen, Elena, Jeanne, Darcy (going through a difficult time right now and needing our prayers), Barbara, Jenny and all my dear family and friends.
Angels be with you,
Wendy
p.s. much art to follow in the next days, certainly weeks
Thanks again.

Birthdays:
As I approach my 50th birthday on Sunday I am feeling quite blessed.

this road on which I travel

at times

seems so rough

filled with obstacles

which appear, at first, impossible

but as I look back

I pause

and take wonder

at all the beauty

the miracles along the way

Though I've been feeling somewhat muddle-befuddled the past few weeks I really do not believe it has anything to do with the approaching age. I am quite proud to have had diabetes for 46 1/2 years without any complications to this time. That is quite unusual considering the very bouncy ride it has always been. If you click on the above photo you can go to my comment part way down in which I mention the diabetes.
Then today I discovered this fabulously optimistic lady who celebrated her 108th birthday last Sunday. I love Olive and her enthusiasm for life. She has such a beautiful radiance.



And I love the idea of the sing-alongs. I used to do them with my Mom and aunties when I was a teenager and now once in awhile I do them with our daughter Cat. If my Mom happens to be around she'll try to join in too. Maybe you didn't realize I'm one of those kind of people to occasionally burst spontaneously into song. I don't need accompaniment if the song is familiar LOL.

More art in progress and another journal page to share. I'm also working on the banner for my etsy shop so hopefully in the next few months LOL.














I'm realizing now that I would have preferred without the black trim around the words from the book for the journal page. Oh well, better to learn on a journal page than on a canvas.



I remember now the difficulty I had with the face also. Because I used a pastel for the purple I got a bit of smudging where it wasn't supposed to be. Also, the face being smaller I wasn't using the right tools - mouth especially got larger than I'd planned. Like I said, oh well.

The robin started out as this crappy photo from a long time ago. I wouldn't be able to tell you how I ended with this image.



I did use my old photopaint program and I think I did lots with effects. other than that I'm not sure. You'll be seeing more of it as I don't really like using others images, if possible, even the copyright free.

And a couple of pics of the fabric I've been painting for the last few weeks.

This time of year is filled with so much mixed emotion for me. I carry so much sadness and yet because I love colour and richness texture, the artist of me wants to rejoice. Trying to find balance between the two has been quite the challenge, especially this year as I am bounding full force ahead into the creative pools. I have been spending very much time, as some of you will be aware, with photography and flickr. As this is so much a part of the artist in me I find the time well spent. As soon as I can get my brain round to that left brain part some bit more, I will be trying to sell some of the pictures. I have already had some tiny success with that piece locally. I also like to incorporate my words and my photos within my art. This all takes muchness time.
I have also been greatly inspired by suziblutube in the past days as you may also have noticed. I adore her people and their eyes. I greatly appreciate Suzi's sense of humour and feel some connection to her way of thinking. She has commented in one of her video's about the marketing and something about her thoughts around that. The same video also contains words by Rumi with which I much identify. If I can remember which of the many videos it is I will share it here.



These are just a couple of the pages I have done recently in my journal, having been inspired by Suzi.



I'll also show a couple of my more recent photos which seem to have grabbed the interest of the flickr community.





I have as well stretched my bounds in the past days and have purchased more canvases. As I am so self taught I have never "touched" a canvas ever before in my life. On Thursday eve I actually spread some gesso on three tiny flat ones. I've energy to bound forward with that as quickly as I can step away from this noisy, blasted, I mean blessed, computer and look after bodily needs. I hate taking time to eat- just bring me some chocolate.

Enough for now - hopefully more tomorrow.

Listening these days mostly to Vivaldi - no words to bring thoughts, enough excitement to keep me energized.

happy thoughts:
For Thursday photo day at Create a Connection we were asked to think happy thoughts. Angels immediately come to mind.
Angels be with you,
Wendy

feeling helped this day by:

forgiveness: Art journal pages I started on Friday - completed last night. There are pages from "Alice in Wonderland" glued. Next I used three of my handcarved stamps for stamping with red, blue and gold ink. I used other ink and some acrylic for putting more colour. The butterfly images and the face were printed and cut from my photos. I used caran d'ache crayons for the dress and my hands. Note that I have dark coloured gloves and, well, find it for yourself - further whimsy. I used some brads and flowers to further embellish the "angel" tag. The cherish small paper had been in a swap package I received. I finished with the words which have become my newest mantra to self.







Angels be with you,
Wendy

While reading Autumn to our small writer's group a few nights ago, I realized as I was reading, through the rich images - "heathery scarves, warmth of wool", "pumpkins, squash and gourds" that I do too still love autumn even though... most of the leaves have already fallen from the trees and we've had teensy-eensy sprinklings of snow that vanish as quickly.

I would mention that if you want to see a larger version of the slideshow and also be able to see the others I've made you can click on "view all images".

Happy Autumn!

Someone asked us recently, "Is there any limitation to the body's ability to heal?" And we said, "None, other than the belief that you hold." And he said, "Then why aren't people growing new limbs?" And we said, "Because no one believes that they can."

Abraham-Hicks Publications

Looking to more fun, more humour in my life: While I've been trying to clean up my blog a bit, preparing to forgive myself for mistakes and get that etsy shop happening I found this very cool, FUNNY video. I’ll try to post more of them over the next couple of days so I can have a bit of this humour to remind myself.

Seize the day: This will be the saying on the new cheques I ordered yesterday. Even though it will cost me $5 more I absolutely felt the need. I was looking for "angels be with you" of course. When I didn't find it I thought how devastated I would actually feel if the whole countryside started using my saying. This way I can still write it in and it is my more personal touch.
I am finding myself pushing, pushing, pushing my left brain to try to get it more in gear. I have SO many works in progress. The main one of course is my etsy shop.
I will tell you right now, and you may not be surprised, that I will not be calling it windyangels. I put some deep thought into this. It may not be the best choice for advertising purposes but it is the bet choice for me. I will probably also start a new blog that has just my art on it. Because my writing and photographs are a huge part of my art, this may be tricky but I'll let you know, for sure.

Here are just a couple of the pieces I actually completed quite recently.







This lady is Wallis Simpson, Mrs. Simpson, the lady who married King Edward.

from Inspiration Peak:
Humility is perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, or irritable, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing that is done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Creator and Sustainer in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble.

Author Unknown
But Very Much Appreciated!

Listening the last few days to Andrea Bocelli. This is "the prayer" with Celine Dion.

Why I again changed the look of my blog OR my love affair with autumn:

More autumn photos until I hopefully have time to finish some art. My apologies for once again being so negligent about visiting all of your blogs. Happy Autumn!