Category: Artistic Endeavours

Mid Month Check-In

On By Widow BadassIn Artistic Endeavours, Health TransformationLeave a comment
So far, so very good!

How’s everybody doing so far in 2017?

Your friendly neighbourhood WB is trucking along, counting the days till she boards the plane to Barbados at the beginning of February. Nah, not really – although it is a constant cheering thought at the back of my wee brain…hehehe!

I am (really, truly) managing to be more active however! I had a plan to be walking daily, but high winds combined with temperatures in the minuses kept me indoors more than I would have liked. So I expanded my plan to include yoga and barre exercises, thanks to my collection of DVD workouts. And, once a week I attend a yoga class in real life; ditto for barre. The stretching makes my muscles hum and I feel so wonderful and wonderfully relaxed that I don’t understand why I don’t make this a daily part of life. Hopefully this is the year that changes.

And this is the year that I devote to artistic pursuits. This month I’ve made some changes to my studio (aka laundry room), moving my big adjustable sit/stand desk from my office, and setting up a much smaller desk that was given to me, in its place. It’s great to have a dedicated surface for drawing and painting, and not to have to share it with computer activities.

View facing the laundry closet
My view, when working at the desk. My office is across the hall. I just love my dollar store vinyl tablecloth!

My year-long study of the mandala has begun and I have started my first-ever art journal.

January is the month of the Void, in Mandala Magic 2017.

Entering the lessons of the Void via Julie Gibbons’ videos and prompts. Heating the last of the Christmas stroopwafels on my tea mug for the necessary “fuel”…hehehe!

 

First exploration into the Void.

To me the Void is a very welcoming place, a resting place, a place to rejuvenate and grow strong again. Some of my fellow Mandala Magicians are not happy working with the Void. I think I can understand that. I am sure I will come up against Mandala stages that will be difficult or scary for me, as the Void is for others in our group.

One of the Void ideas that came to me was a drawing involving the Hindu goddess Kali and the Void.

Pardon the Trump-tiny hands I have given Kali. Definitely a work in progress.

In my head I see a full drawing of Kali with the Void as her womb, as well. I also see the Om symbol and the Void together in another – Om being the primordial noise, the first sound to come out of the Void.

So far I am not doing much journalling in my art journal. Using it more to capture images from my brain. I still have half a month to go on this exploration of the Void so perhaps the words will come to me yet.

I feel like I am living in the Void quite a bit this month…very content to stay in my cozy abode, alone with my thoughts and ideas, dreaming and scheming and napping the month away. Resting and gestating and amazingly not feeling the least bit guilty for spending an inordinate amount of time not being productive, but instead mostly just “being”.

Rock on,

The WB

Happy 2017!

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Artistic Endeavours, Goals & Dreams, Good Times, Health Transformation10 Comments

I hope everyone had a restful, meaningful and thoughtful holiday this year!

Although I tend not to take any additional days off during the “season” due to the nature of my work (cows don’t know it’s Christmas), the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is generally quieter and I can get a fair bit of catching up and tidying done in my office. And thinking about the projects and plans for the next few months while the phone is not ringing.

Outside of work, I use this time to ruminate (cow pun!) on the past year and sharpen up my plans for the new.

On my lunch break, I tried to open up my 10 Year Plan spreadsheet a few days back to review it and add some stuff and IT. WASN’T. THERE. This led to much (inner) screaming and (outer) hair pulling and cursing.

I checked everywhere the damn thing could possibly be instead…every folder in Dropbox, every folder on my laptop…it was nowhere to be found. Fuckity fuckity fuck fuck fuck – to quote a friend.

Then I got home and checked my iMac. Again nothing. I resigned myself to having to create it all over again…from memory (OH SHIT). Then I had a brain wave when I remembered that the last time I opened it up, I was using the for-Mac version of Excel on my home computer. I opened the program and went to Recent…sure enough it was listed! With trembling fingers I called it back up. Success!!!!

Somehow, it had gotten saved to iCloud and, in so doing, the Mac gods removed it from Dropbox instead of making a copy to save (like the PC gods would have done). Hmmmm. I kinda get why this happens…so you don’t have multiple, different versions floating around…but hell-to-the-no…I am not a fan of this enforced document control. I would much rather have multiple versions (backups of backups ad infinitum!) and I WILL MAKE SURE OF THIS FROM NOW ON. Whew.

In happier news, I finally completed my Flower of Life mandala between Christmas and New Years. I am beyond pleased with how it turned out.

Worth all the time and effort.

I kept going back and forth on how to create this. I wanted to use my new acrylic inks but felt I needed to use my watercolour pencils for the effects I wanted to achieve. In the end I used both – water colour pencils for the actual inner “flower”, and acrylic inks and black fine-point marker for the rest.

New years Eve at Chez Badass was a quiet dinner spent with good friends. New Years Day will be Gourmetten – Part 2, with the family.

About to enjoy a meal with my friends. The kabocha squash got a bit burnt when I reheated in the oven along with the roasting potatoes. Green veg still to come to table. Hey, how did Seashell Jesus manage to photobomb us?!?!

 

My friends brought me a date for NYE: Sylvester, their grand-doggy. He was the perfect gentleman.

Looking ahead to the new year, I have some plans, natch. I won’t call them resolutions but they are definitely plans.

Such as:

  • Fitness – The cardiologist recently gave me the go-ahead to resume physical activity, just not to be an idiot about it. OK, not an exact quote but she meant to not go from couch potato to ultra-marathoner overnight. Check! I signed up for more yoga and also added a barre class, both happening down the street from me at the old Town Hall. Very excited to try barre. With yoga and barre, I am hoping to improve my flexibility and gently strengthen my muscles without injury. And to add training with free weights for later on this year. I am having some real problems with my left arm and want to get the full range of motion back. I also ordered a DVD called Essentrics – Toning for Beginners – which is more of the same to do at home. I will incorporate a daily walk back into my life and maybe…just maybe…sign up and train for another half-marathon later this year!

    Looking forward to this arriving in the mail next week!
  • Art/Learning – I’ve signed up for  year’s worth of artistic exploration of the mandala via Julie Gibbons’s marvellous Mandala Magic 2017 course. First lesson arrived in my Inbox this morning, as promised. Yay!!
  • Adventure/Travel – In about a month I will be heading back to Barbados for a week with a good friend, to commemorate 50 years of our friendship. This time, the hotel is fronting a lagoon that is full of reef fish and sea turtles. In the hopes of seeing this ocean life in action, I ordered a snorkelling set to take down with me. I also bought a GoPro camera to take better underwater photos and even videos. Last year’s results underwater with a cheap disposable camera were disappointing, to say the least. I had been dreaming of a GoPro ever since but hesitated to pull the trigger on this purchase because – well – SPENDY! But when I read online about the lagoon last week…what the hell…MERRY CHRISTMAS/BOXING WEEK SALES TO ME, I said. Currently no other definite plans for travel (just some nebulous ones) on the horizon for 2017, but money gets automatically funnelled into my Travel Bucks account every month from my chequing account so I will be ready for whatever the year brings me.
  • Work – 2017 will be an exciting year with an expansion to the lab and bringing on new types of analysis. I live for and love this stuff!
  • Renovations – I did about 3 years’ worth of planned renovations on my building in 2016, so this year there will be much less happening by comparison. Some of the projects I had initially roughed in for this year are landscaping, painting the foyer, renovating the second bathroom on the landing (including adding a shower), and FINALLY putting a railing around my rooftop patio. I have some doubts as to whether finances will allow me to complete all of these this year and that will be OK too. The building is looking good; my apartment is finished; there’s always next year.

That’s about it for me. The sun is shining and a walk outdoors is calling! If you want to share your plans for 2017 in the comments, I am ALL EYES.

Rock on,

The WB

 

 

Sunday Night Follies

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, Artistic Endeavours, Health TransformationLeave a comment

Dear Blog,

OMIGAWD, why didn’t any one tell me the Flower of Life was going to be so fucking hard to draw? I mean, it’s just a series of circles you don’t even really draw because the compass is supposed to do all the work for you? Okay, technically Julie did say it was challenging. But I didn’t really believe her. Or I thought yeah, “challenging for other people”. Not I. Hah, I was born with a compass in my hand, or so I thought. (Ouch, sorry Mom).

Bloggie, it took me 4 attempts to get the damn thing drawn. Four. And did you know that if you don’t hold this compass exactly right, the circles can get bigger or smaller because the fucking pencil lead magically starts moving from its predetermined length and suddenly your circles are off-kilter and not matching up any more after the second or third rotation?

Maybe I just do not have a good compass. Maybe. It looks like a good compass. See:

Prevents inadvertent setting adjustments, my ass.
This is my compass. “Prevents unintended setting adjustments”, my ass.

By the 3rd attempt I tried holding the compass differently – very lightly, by the very top of it only – so that my apparent death grip on the compass would not change the size of the circle’s radius inadvertently. Success!

Finally drawn. Using earlier attempts as practice for trying out new acrylic inks.
Finally drawn. Using earlier attempts as practice for trying out new acrylic inks.

Having re-mastered the compass, I moved on to the kitchen to try to make a lasagna for the first time in many, many years…AND without pasta.

I thought slicing zucchini very thin and layering with it would be an acceptable substitute.

Lasagna "zoodles"
Lasagna “zoodles”

Here is the finished product, ready for the oven:

What could possibly go wrong?
What could possibly go wrong?

Blog, it’s either going to be amazing or a soggy mess.

Wish me luck.

Rock on,

The WB

TGIBF?

On By Widow BadassIn Artistic EndeavoursLeave a comment

Dear Blog,

How I wish I could say I spent Black Friday out in the forest  – meditating and eating only vegetables that willingly sacrificed their lives to nourish me –  to karmically balance the rampant consumerism of yea (yay!), this very black day.

But it was just another Friday for me, in the True North Strong and Free. I got up, did my morning thing, went to work.

And found an email in my Inbox with a 55% off coupon at Michaels! Fifty-five percent off!!!!

Bwahahahaha! The spoils of two different stores and two 55% off coupons.
Bwahahahaha! The spoils of two different stores and two 55% off coupons.

So, at lunchtime I decided to brave the big box store shopping centre near my work. I was resolute in my determination not to let the size of the crowds sway me in pursuit of this extraordinary deal.

Blog, it was very anticlimactic. Not only did I have no problem with parking, the line up for the check out at Michaels was 1/4 of the size of the one I had to deal with last week.

Emboldened by my success, I printed off another coupon when I returned to my desk and hit the Michaels in my home town at the end of the work day. Again, somehow I missed all the Black Friday Crowds O’ Frenzy.

I am pretty damn excited to try out these inks, let me tell you Blog. I’m planning to use them in my next mandala exercise – the intimidating and apparently sacred geometry of the Flower of Life. Cue choir of angels singing.

So to sum up – I did cave on my high ideal of NOT EVER SHOPPING ON BLACK FRIDAY.

Totally gratuitous shot of new boots about to worn out to their first official function.
Totally gratuitous shot of new boots (forever to be known as moratorium busters) about to worn out to their first official function on this fine Black Friday. For the record: not bought on Black Friday.

But at least I didn’t come home with new shoes.

Rock on,

The WB

 

Hamsa in Progress

On By Widow BadassIn Artistic Endeavours2 Comments
Starting to add colour
Starting to add colour

Dear Blog,

Slowly I am making headway on the Hamsa exercise.

I had to use the cheapo markers again. I realized that by outlining the pencil work with fine point black marker so early on, I made it impossible to choose watercolour paints or pencils as the (so-called water resistant) marker bleeds when in contact with water. So now I am limited to using these markers for colouring this piece.

As time goes on I will get better art supplies, but for now these will do. I am having fun and learning, regardless.

Much as I am sick to death of being inundated with Black Friday Everything for over a week already, a wee part of my brains asks: I wonder if my favourite art store will be having a sale? Hehehe!

Yes, Black Friday has become a “thing” here in the True North Strong and Free in recent years, even though our Thanksgiving occurs in October. I don’t particularly like our adoption of this American event – but that doesn’t stop me from pursuing a Black Friday deal on something I was in the market for anyway. (Clearly I can’t bitch about it too loudly.)

Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to my American blogging buddies!

Rock on,

The WB

Nature is My Muse

On By Widow BadassIn Artistic Endeavours, The Great OutdoorsLeave a comment
Hamsa - Take 2
Hamsa – Take 2

Dear Blog,

Back at my current nemesis – the Hamsa – and feeling much better about this one.

For one thing, I didn’t use my hand this time (fingers too thin and long) and I was able to achieve a more “proper” hamsa outline.

Once again the natural world is featuring prominently in my design.

The Hamsa is supposed to be a symbol of protection, happiness and prosperity and I can think of no place I feel all of these things more than being out in nature.

This is as far as I can get tonight. There is a battle going on inside my body – between my immune system and a viral invader. So far I think the immune system is winning, but I need to rest to give it a fighting chance.

G’night Blog.

Rock on,

The WB

 

Like Finding An Old Friend

On By Widow BadassIn Artistic Endeavours, Hmmm?, Read BooksLeave a comment
Long overdue for a re-read!
Long overdue for a re-read!

Dear Wild Woman Blog,

Saturday night, while I was searching for hamsa inspiration I came across a mention of this book – Women Who Run With the Wolves –  while googling symbols. Funny where it takes you when you head down a search engine rabbit hole. I wonder if Google is the new Tarot deck – delivering answers that your subconscious is looking for. OK, OK Blog – I agree…that is a bit of a stretch.

I knew I had read it before – I just wasn’t altogether sure that I still had it in my possession. Quickly I went to the dining room and checked the bookcases there. YES! Somehow this book had managed to survive the several purges of my library since I first bought (and devoured) it many years ago.

I’m looking forward to revisiting my old, long-neglected friend. With white supremacist patriarchy gaining more and more strength and approval in the States (nay, the WORLD) again, I think this qualifies as required re-reading.

Just in case you thought the True North Strong and Free was spared this idiocy, I give you This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ take on Sam Oosterhoff. This new world needs more AGNES. That is all.

Rock on,

The WB

Not Feelin’ the Hamsa Love Tonight

On By Widow BadassIn Artistic EndeavoursLeave a comment
Why I am struggling so much with this piece?
Why I am struggling so much with this piece?

 

Dear Bloggie,

Jeez, I am frustrated tonight. Trying to make a Hamsa and just not feeling it.

Don’t understand why this is so. It should be right up my alley – blessings, warding off evil, offering protection, symbolic yada, yada, yada.

I think it is because I don’t have a definite theme or idea for the drawing. Guess I thought it would just magically happen once the pencil was in my hand.

Guess again, WB.

Will do some research and gather my thoughts and tackle this again tomorrow.

Rock on,

The WB

 

 

The Power of Writing It Down

On By Widow BadassIn Artistic Endeavours, Goals & DreamsLeave a comment

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Hey there Bloggie Dearest,

Well, yesterday was the last day of the 5 Days of Mandala Magic online course I signed up for, and with the last lesson came an invitation to sign up for a whole year of instruction from Julie Gibbons, starting proper in 2017.

The monthly cost of this course is so reasonable versus the value I have received already in just these 5 days, that I signed up immediately and with absolutely no hesitation.

(I have to say also that I really admire the way Julie runs her vocation/passion/business. I think it is genius to offer a free 5 day online course as a lead-in for a year’s worth of lessons. It gives the potential subscriber a good insight into Julie’s personality and teaching style, as well as the quality of the material to be delivered. At the end of the free course most 5 Days of Mandala Magic students would know, I imagine, whether or not this course was a good fit for them at this point in their lives. It certainly has made me comfortable with my decision. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear…indeed!)

Remember quite a few months back, Blog, when I told you I was all excited/inspired by an article about Route 66 turning 100 when I am turning 66, and how this led to the development of my 10 Year Plan spreadsheet and an actual rudimentary budget?

As per my way, I created the spreadsheet in a fervour of inspiration and then didn’t look at it again. But then today I got to thinking about it again as I had this niggling thought in the back of my brain that Art was featured somewhere on the spreadsheet. (Actually I thought I might have written it down for THIS year – 2016).

When I opened it up I saw that I had placed Art in the Learning category for 2017. Hmmm…another reason signing up for a year’s worth on instruction on mandala making and art journalling was a slam-dunk decision for me.

This, dear Blog, is why I love writing down my goals and dreams in some format – whether it be in a journal or spreadsheet. The act of committing the thoughts to paper (or pixels) has invariably resulted in manifestation of the same. And if it didn’t happen, it was almost always because I had changed and no longer wanted it. Or, it just hasn’t happened yet, but I can see it on the horizon. Weird! I know, Blog.

Now, I am not going so far as to say that these are declarations to which the universe has responded to me personally. I’ll leave that to the devotees of The Secret.

But what I think is this: the act of stating goals in a physical or digital sense loads them into my subconscious which in turn then guides me in seeing (seizing!) opportunities and making decisions later on down the road of life.

I may have forgotten what I have written down, but my subconscious doesn’t. And going back months or even years later to see what I had envisioned for myself, I am gobsmacked by how many of my (usually forgotten) stated objectives have actually been accomplished.

So clearly I am a fan.

Just imagine what could happen, dear Blog, if I wrote down some goals regarding you? 😉

Rock on,

The WB