ICADS? Not quite, how about June 1- July 31 of TAG-A-LONGS?

Dear Perusers:
I really really REALLY wanted to Jump on the ICAD (1 index card a day) bandwagon that Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow  founded and the creative daily glories that PackerDi tweets to us.....but those dang lines and the fact that it is Recipe Card size just got in my way. (lol)
(Being a non cook person, anything recipe'ish scares the jelly beans outta me!)
******
 - At this Point, La Musa takes over and whacks me on the head with her pencil.....which leads to this thought,
"How SCARY can it be to do a daily sketch or quote on a Manila TAG for goodness sake?"
As it turns out, not that scary.
Here is  JUNE 2015 - 30 DAYS of wee sketches and words.
June 1-10

June 11-20

June 21-30

How I did it:
I had made sorta fauxbonichi weather stickers out of address labels, put a parchment background on them so they would kinda match the manila and stuck them on. Using my cropadile I was able to do 3 tags at a time. (love that tool, has saved me countless hours of punching frustration!) I did start out with this great perpetual date stamp from Unity Stamps, (that's the star and circle at the bottom of the tag) but found it was a tad too big and the date almost impossible to read, so I went hunting and found my Smash Date Stamp which works much better! (at least I can READ it)
Thank you to APG Jamie who along with her amazing pocket letter chock full of goodies, included a wee sheet of alphanumeric stickers! (As you can see Jamie, I AM 'using them up' - bless you - check out June 14, 25 and 26)
All of this is in prep for our Trip in the Fall in which I hope to be doing tags as well as online journaling. (good luck with that I hear someone say...chortle)

Blessings to all ICADers out there! You inspire me so! Thank you.

March Mandalas

Dear Perusers:
What can I say?
March zoomed by before I could sit down and do more than a few Mandalas.
Here they are:

 I was experimenting with my new Peerless Watercolors which I had made into a Travel Palette
I confess to be inordinately proud of my craftyness.

Blessings on all who view this and remember with fondness the McGyver TV Series.

February Mandalas - in the raw

I have given up trying to frame these nicely,  so as others have done before me (and I have enjoyed the process of watching them 'art in the raw, paint and splatters everywhere) here are the ones I have done so far this month. One is not quite finished, I might go back and do it again.
Blessings of Mandala'ing to all who view this.

Planner Peace or Pursuing* the* Unicorn?

Dear Perusers:
I tend to agree with Rhomany over at Rhomany's Realm that it may be a myth..after all 'planner peace' is a bit of a  'unicorn'?
However being ever hopeful and now fully addicted to planners, dori's (both midori and faux), hobonichis and fauxbonichis and assorted bullet journaling techniques as well, I took what worked for me and came up with the following. I started out with the bullet system and after a month found it didn't work as I needed to see at least 2 months ahead all on the same page.
So I cobbled together whatever my butterfly mind could glean from watching youtubes and reading blogs on the subject. 
To show you how I set mine up,  here goes:
I unearthed my 'ARC' (aka Discbound) punch (bought a couple of years ago in a fit of  'maybe I will find this useful' and 'macgyvred' the Rumi Dayplanner I was given this year.
As you can see, WASHI TAPE is my FRIEND.
I also ordered Tangie Baxter's Tangible Plans  and used a few of her templates to create my Weekly Blessings and Notes page. I found that the ones I chose originally are too busy and dark to really see what I was writing so I will revamp with boxes that are lighter in colour for the next set of months.
I am glad I am doing this now, as I can pick and choose what will work when I take this 'on the road'.
The whole works, my BrainDump journal (created from a Home Depot brochure) and RumiDori along with HER DISCS! fit neatly into my BMWdori as it has a soft spine. Pleased me to no end, let me tell you!
You might be wondering about those turquoise blue thingies: they are my left and right dashboard covers aka page turners made from a plastic cinnamon roll container and cut down to size and washi'd the heck out of them. They are a wonderful invention (Thanks Kent!) and I can immediately go to my Day and get started without 'all that mucking about in hyperspace'.

So far. so good.
Blessings to all Planners and Unicorn Pursuers out there.

Mandala'ing Along - January Mandalas 21-32

Dear Perusers:
I cannot honestly say that this has become a daily habit with me, but I have been trying to do at least one or two every couple of days. I seem to start one in the morning and finish it off at night.
So on top of the 20 I have already created and posted: here are a dozen more mandalas all created within the 2nd and 3rd week of January.
I vary from the geometric to zentangling to typography. Right now I am at the end of a year long series of daily Rumi quotes which gave me inspiration for two of the 'wordy' mandalas in this series. 
May the Mandala Muse bless you this week with Creativity. Thank you for popping in.

Our Shadow Selves Norway Bound!

Dear Perusers:
When I looked in on my twitter community the other day, the hashtag '#twitterartexhibit' was being tossed about in various conversations and the most amazing artwork was being shared.
Being the inquisitive bug that I am, naturally I asked, What is this?
It is a Global Art Exhibit held once a year for a Charity (anywhere in the world, this year it is Norway's Home Start Moss) and the call for both professional and amateur artists to contribute had been broadcasted via the twitterexpress.
Here is the link should you be wanting to join in: twitterartexhibit.org

In brief:
1) You have to be on twitter to participate as that is how they contact you.
2) Your artwork has to be as flat as possible and postcard size (ie 16 x 12 cm)
3) It has to be at the Norway address by March 1/2015.

And here is what I sent: Title: The Road Goes Ever On and On.



Blessing on all artists who donate their work to a Worthy Cause.

Teaching a Dinosaur to Swim

Dear Perusers:

The title was not my idea, it actually came from a conversation that I had with a dear friend who called herself 'a dinosaur that you will have to teach to swim'. She was referring to the fact that she felt that she had zero/zip in the computer skills department.
Like so many women of my zoomer generation, the computer age had indeed zoomed by them and though they can text with the best of them, when it comes to doing things like 'getting those photos downloaded to my laptop from my camera', that particular skill was never taught.
These are the women for whom family came first be it husband, father or children and they never felt that it was in their best interest to learn how to handle that ' grey box in the corner.'

But now, things are different. 

In my friend's case, her father has passed away and her husband is in care, leaving her with time on her hands. 

And o what a learning curve!
She came over to our house bringing every conceivable cord she could round up, her digital camera (thank god, not film!) her aging but still serviceable laptop and most valuable of all, time and enthusiasm.
Unlike others that Mr Bear and I have taught, Ms L had cleared away the entire day just to do this; she WAS going to learn how to download photos, create folders and sip endless cups of coffee by gum!
And so after spending the entire afternoon with us, she went away with just enough skill (we tried not to overwhelm her) and her triumphant texts to me over the next few days were gratifying to read. 

One went as follows, "I have created 19 folders!' and gone through and LABELED over 300 photos!" The push for her to do this was her most recent trip to China (photo on this blog post is hers) and the longing to share her photos with her husband in some kind of format other than lugging the laptop to the care home.

How true it is that when the pupil is ready, the teacher appears and not before.

Blessings on all those swimming dinosaurs out there.

'Almost Daily' Mandala

I like the idea of doing a daily Mandala and even made myself a handydandy diamond folded blank zine template with a 8 scribed circles on it to carry around with me since  I have found that having a sharp pointy compass in your pencil case is sometimes an 'interesting' experience.
Much safer for fumbly fingers such as I.
The Muse was encouraged to visit me, and she did when I made time for her. (hello, note to self, pay attention here).
I am going to persist and perhaps fueled by more cups of beanjuice I will continue to 'circle the square' and share the results on here and on the Pinterest site (see sidebar for 100 Mandala info).
Blessings of a New Start!