December Challenge -I went to the woods

This has been an oh so busy month and in the last day and a half, I have managed to get in some readings by Muir and Thoreau on the wonders of nature and I am looking forward to going into nature for my birthday. I am looking forward to continuing my monthly challenges for my own personal enrichment and now that the holidays are over, I received my last gift today, I can dedicate more of my time to my challenges. I am looking forward to continued growth in 2012. Here's to sucking out all of the marrow of life.

December Challenge -I went to the woods

I have decided that for the month of December even though I probably will not physically go into the cold damp woods, I will read daily thoughts and meditations on nature and I am have starting off with Thoreau and Muir. When I find quotes that I love I will post them and my thoughts on the subject. I know this is going to be a hectic month and reading my daily meditations will help to ground the stress right out of me.

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately

I wanted to live deep and suck out all of the marrow of life!

To put to rout all that was not life...

And not, when I came to die, discover

that I had not lived...

Henry David Thoreau

November Challenge--My Quest to Become Centenarian

My quest to become a centenarian is of course an ongoing adventure but in November I was suppose to focus in by reading a couple of books on the subject and well, I am only a quarter of the way through one of the books. Between preparing my home for the holidays, finishing the last Harry Potter book before Twilight came out(I needed a goal in order to complete the last of the series), and traveling to visit my sister who has been in the hospital for a month, I fell short on this challenge. One thing I did do this month that put a smile on my face was to create what I call hanging protection altars for my pen pals as we celebrated our penniversary by exchanging art in honor of our year.

Shadow Shot Sunday

I hope you all have had a marvelous week and are looking forward to the coming week.

Tonight we set our clocks back one hour, yes, we fall back and I am looking forward to being cozy in my lovely cottage which I named Hummingbird cottage about seven years ago.

This is my small contribution to Shadow Shot Sunday!

November Challenge--My Quest to Be a Centenarian

Decades ago I read a story in the old Prevention magazines about a land where people lived to be well over a hundred and I decided that I would love to be a centenarian. I have always been a late bloomer so let's hope that I can keep this bloom blooming for at least forty more years. I want to be a healthy centenarian but I have not done all of the right things when it comes to my body, I have spent a lot more energy working on my mind and spirit. Over the past five years or so, I have totally dropped the ball when it comes to physical exercise which for most of my life was dance. Don't get me wrong, I still love to dance but being in a dance studio with all of the creepy competitive energy just doesn't fit my nature so, I walked away from it all. This past month I found a wonderful Pilates instructor and signed up for private lessons. It is time to whip my body back into shape. To help me achieve my goal of becoming a centenarian, I have study the books to find out what all I should and shouldn't be doing. As long as there is life in my body, I can make changes in my life that will enrich my health. This month I will continue to eat smart and to do my pilates and I will also read a couple of books on the secrets to longevity.

My husband has a nook and I have the kindle and today we started reading, "The most Effective Ways to Live Longer by Jonny Bowden.

Shadow Shot Sunday

I have been a little too busy lately but when I laid on my new couch to rest a couple of days ago and saw this shadow, I remember all of the crew over at shadow shot sunday.

October Food Challenge

Fall is not quite here and so instead of doing things around the home fire, I am still out and about having fun at street festivals and cafes with friends and family. I am sticking to my food challenge and as a result, I have some new old clothes that I can finally fit into! Fitting into cute clothes was not my goal in this challenge but when I stop eating pasta, sugar and rice, it is as though someone stuck a pin in me and let all of the air out. White flour really does a number to my body. Also, my pilates class is helping to put my body back together again!

October Food Challenge

Today is day nine of my October food challenge and all is going well and I have added some great new things to my diet. In the mornings and evenings, I have four ounces of beet kvass and it is working wonders on my digestion tract. I have heard the name ghee but never asked what it was and none of my friends even knew what it was,but it is made from butter and now I have something yummy and good for you to put on my also good for you, spelt bread. And lastly, I have added bone broth to my diet starting this week. Bone broth is very healing for the body and my body needs a lot of help because I need it to last at least forty more years if not more!!

At the beginning of this food challenge, I was craving sugar which I get from my pasta so I found myself eating too much fruit but now I have that under control, it is an apple a day, not four apples. The other good news is that I started taking private pilates lessons and it is so much fun, I love being pushed.

October Food Challenge

October is going to be a real challenging month for me and I am so ready to kick this off. I plan to cut pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit drinks, and any other junk food from my diet. The junk is very easy but the pasta and rice, oh my, that is going to be hard for me because I love love love both of those starchy foods. I really did not eat that much today. I ate couple of boiled eggs for breakfast and I drink some beet kvass which is a medicinal drink. For lunch I had a tuna salad sandwich and an orange. I was too lazy to go to the store today so, for dinner I had some cereal and an apple but tomorrow I will get back to cooking healthy meals. I had planned to eliminate bread also but decided to limit it to only the weekends just so if I am out and about and need to find something to eat, I can grab a sandwich from a deli. So I am off and running and will check in every few days to let you know how it is going.

September Challenge - Basic Chord Theory

It was a successful September challenge and I learned to figure out the chromatic and the diatonic scales in all eleven keys. I learned how to build the major chord triad, minor chord triad, dominant 7th, 9th,and 13th chords, major 7th chord, augmented chord, augmented triads, and lastly, the diminished chords which we are still trying to figure out. I will press on in my endeavor to learn the technical side of what I am doing when I pick up my guitar to play my chords.

Creative Exchange

I just love these little what I call glass pears. They were sitting on the fence in front of the glassblowers studio and I am always attracted to color.

Shadow Shot Sunday

I forgot to look for more shadows this week.

Two Talibahs

The two Talibahs is of course inspired by Frida Kahlo's Two Fridas which I saw when it came to SFMOMA. I started this painting two years ago and then just went off and danced, took pictures and wrote, leaving a canvas with a head and a beautiful hat to stare at me in disbelief but thanks to last month's challenge, I am finally done, I think. I have lots of ideas for other mixed media pieces and they have to be done on large canvases but unfortunately, we have run out of wall space.

September Challenge - Basic Chord Theory

I feel like taking it a little easy this month so therefore I plan to study basic chord theory. I have been learning to play the guitar for a few years now and yet I haven't taken the time to learn some music theory. I play but I really do not understand theory behind my practice so here I go.

August Challenge........Returning to the Canvas

Well I am in the last hour of August and this has been a fabulous month and my painting challenge has gone really well. I have not completed the piece but, I am almost there. This is my first mixed media piece so, I have made lots of mistakes in the learning process but it has been a lot of fun trying to figure things out. I am showing you a few aspects of the piece and when it is completed, I will post it on my page for all to see. This piece is inspired by Frida Kahlo's Two Fridas, mine is Two Talibahs. Tomorrow I will start my September challenge which I have yet to decide on.

Shadow Shot Sunday

shadow Shot Sunday

This week was so busy and I only captured one shadow, that would be my car as we crossed over the bridge, and the other one is from my archives, its my husband and I looking into the water at twilight.

One rule that I almost always follow when I am out and about taking photos is that I do not photograph people. I am way too scare to do that because I remember my sister taking a picture of a man in Jamaica years ago, I didn't want her to do it but she insisted and pretended that she was taking my picture. Well, the man road his donkey over to us while swinging a machete and demanded that we pay him for the photo and a big argument ensued between him and my sister. I snapped the two photo below earlier this year because I have always wanted to photograph jazz musicians. I really like this photo but if you look at the second photo, you see the guy giving me the evil eye.

Today I tried to turn my camera on different groups of people and it was difficult but I did it. The shots were not that great but at least I am trying to push pass this rule.

August Challenge........Returning to the Canvas

I am working on my painting/mixed media big piece and it is going to take some time and there is always a chance that I will screw it up but I am going for it. I had a friend over today and I was careful to make sure that the canvas was completely covered because it is not ready to be seen. I have found that letting people see the unfinished project, jinxes the whole thing, you let the energy out explaining the piece to them. I have learned this the hard way, ten years ago I was working on a story, I had written one hundred and eighty long hand pages and I was so excited that I started to share this with a few people and ended up losing the magic and was stopped cold in my tracks and it sits unfinished until this day and the world has changed and I lost my window of opportunity. In the meanwhile, I am still out there with my camera gathering images of my time on planet earth and I am enjoying all of the photo prompts I am participating in given by all of the fabulous creative photographer women bloggers, so much so that I might need to start another blog in order to have some where to put all of these images from the prompts and assignments.

Shadow Shot Sunday

August Challenge........Returning to the Canvas

Day ten of my August travel and my art project is coming along. For the first six days of the month I painted every day but then we went away for our first annual family retreat and I didn't do any painting for three days. I planned to try my hand at water color but, I forgot to pack my paints and paper. So home again and I am back at it, painting and gathering all of my ingredients for this mixed media piece of art. I am taking my time and not rushing, I haven't any reason to rush and that way I will get it right. This photo is just a little piece of the puzzle.

52 Photos Project- Week 16

It is time for another fun photo prompt and this week with the 52 photos project the focus is, reflections.

These water reflections were shot at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Shadow Shot Sunday

I love Shadow Shot Sunday because suddenly I am seeing shadows every where and attempting to capture them with my camera. Here are a few that I captured this week.

Exploring with A Camera- A Frame Within a Frame

I have been painting every night this week and I am super happy and wallowing in my creative world. I am also trying to keep up with my photography assignments, challenges and just for fun prompts because my photography is also art to me. So this is a prompt from Kat eye view and I am loving the class that I am taking with her. These are photos of a frame within a frame!