CONTRARIETY

Without contrariety, there’d be no yardstick to go by.

food for thought: “Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.”—Emerson

IDENTITY

Your identity is unique because there is no one else like you. (Ms. Kitty had to get in the picture.)

food for thought: “What’s in your wallet?”—line from commercial

CORRELATION

In case you’re counting, I’m at word 12 in the old thesaurus… check out older posts to see what I’m doing.

I need to improve my correlation, or do I? I used this word in relation to reciprocate. And no, it makes no sense at all, does it?

food for thought: “We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.”—Shaw

 Have you gotten the idea that when I’m clueless as to how to draw something related to the word, I color the word or a word that’s related? And you also can see just how bad my vocabulary and use of words are… yikes. I'm striving for progress and improvement, not perfection. Good thing.

CONSANGUINITY

Who would have known that consanguinity is like kinship, sisterhood, brotherhood, homefolks, etc. I never heard of the word before. I belong to a consanguinity of writers – the WWWPs.

food for thought: “Blood is thicker than water.”—Unknown   

“But sometimes the water is better.” —Me

IRRELATION

There’s a definite irrelation when I’m around those who do not think like I do.

food for thought: “I do desire we may be better strangers.”—Shakespeare

RELATION

In relation to my relations, I’m a lot like them and then again, I’m not like them at all.

I have to say that these first words (this is number nine in my old thesaurus) have been rather hard to figure out what to draw “relating” them to the word. But when I picked out the food for thought, that gave me the idea of what to draw, and it was F-U-N.

food for thought: “A man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots.”—Emerson

Happy Birthday Malachi! Happy Birthday Marty!

Two birthday’s in one day. That’s not so unusual, but I just realized that I’m not sure what Marty’s favorite thing is… 

I do know Malachi’s… unless of course, he’s outgrown being a champion bull rider. Yes, and he’s young! Too young for me to watch him hanging onto the rope being tossed around. Wait, he might be a teen now, but I don’t think so. If he is, I’m getting old. Malachi is my niece’s son, so I’m his great aunt.

food for thought: Is riding bulls like riding a bike—once you learn, you don’t forget?

Happy 30th Birthday Terry!

Terry’s favorite sport is hockey. He’s a goalie for the team he plays with and he loves to play, to watch, to do anything that’s hockey.

food for thought: What’s your favorite sport?

CIRCUMSTANCE

Considering the circumstances of my past, I am one lucky lady, in more than one way.

food for thought: “Circumstances are beyond the control of man; but his conduct is in his own power.”—Disraeli

STATE

My state of being is usually not affected by others, but sometimes it can be.

food for thought: “No one lives content with his condition.”—Horace

Hoppy Easter

I saved all my kids’ artwork from day one. Maybe not everything, because with three kids, it adds up. But when they were in kindergarten, maybe first grade, they did ceramics. Rita made this cute little bunny. I drew it for Easter. 

Remember, I’m still learning to draw, still practicing. Some things I draw better than others. And although this bunny is a little crazy, even in real life, Rita’s is so much cuter. But still, this is pretty darn cute too!

food for thought: All animals are soul, even bunnies! And somebunny out there loves you!

EXTRINSICALITY

The sixth word in my quest to go through an old thesaurus. This word stumped me, even reading all the words relating to this word. Bah. Drawing something was a challenge too, so I resorted to being creative with just the word.

food for thought: “Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth”—Aesop

Happy Anniversary Sue and Frank!

Okay, I forgot how many, many years since your wedding day. Over 40. Hard to believe it’s been that long. You can read an old post that has a picture of your special day. (And now that I reviewed the post, this is your 45th? Really?)


It was a rainy day that day… so here’s a perfect sketch for you.

Just so you know, there are 45 little hearts in that puddle of water... one for each year of love.

food for thought: Can you remember the weather of a special occasion? And why?

INTRINSICALITY

Stumped again… I understand the meaning, but putting it into a sentence is another thing, and I have a hard time pronouncing it!

food for thought: “Character is higher than intellect.”—Emerson

What is the innermost recesses of my heart?

UNSUBSTANTIALLY

n. (something unsubstantial) shadow, air, thin air, mockery, “such stuff as dreams are made on” (Shakespeare) 

Another tricky word – who can make a sentence?

food for thought:  “Out of nothing nothing can come, and nothing can become nothing.”—Persius

SUBSTANTIALLY

If one is substantially together, are they well-grounded? (Does that even make sense?)

food for thought:  “Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.”—Aesop

The Artist's Way Winner is...

We have a winner…

LISA

food for thought:  And that’s no hog wash!

NONEXISTENCE

See previous post to understand what I’m doing… drawing and writing via Thesaurus.

The nonexistence of the physical body when we die is just that... but really, we live on forever.

food for thought: “Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.”—Millay

I have been inspired ever since I took a workshop by Brother Brian. He has one coming up on May 10 (however, I have other plans – as do some of my other writer buddies who are going to see Sioux perform in Listen To Your Mother), but if there’s someone out there who is interested, check out Brother Brian’s blog post.

Thesaurus Drawing/Words - EXISTENCE

When my friend was moving, we hauled a tub full of books into the van before my husband could notice. Most of the books, I ended up giving to Goodwill. I took out the Thesaurus just because it was old and I liked it. 

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. Then this sketching/journaling Ring in Spring happened and although there’s an endless supply of things to draw, I have to have some sort of focus or I end up looking/daydreaming at every single thing… and can’t decide. I walked past this Thesaurus and thought, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll take a page a day, glue it in my journal and then draw and write something about that word. I’ll feed both writing and drawing. How genius.

However, when I started looking at the book, I couldn’t tear out the pages, so I’ll be taking a picture of them. The book’s seventh printing was September 1951. Previous editions started in 1911. I just couldn’t ruin it.

I’ll start from the beginning, which isn’t necessarily in alphabetically order the way this book is designed, and I will pick out a word from all the definitions to draw because hey, how can you draw this word….

Existence

although maybe I should try…

My existence is sometimes a bit sketchy.


 food for thought:  “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” —Huxley

The Seven Year Pen

And in case anyone didn’t notice, I did draw this on the 4^th, however, I AM drawing every day… I drew two things this day, well, more than two, but who’s counting?

I used another pen for some other drawing and after I finished, I threw it away… can you guess why?

food for thought: Do you have a favorite writing/drawing/any kind of object?

Twin Powers Activiate... Birthday!

Happy Birthday Todd and Robyn!  Todd and Robyn are twins—my husband’s children. 

This cake’s for you! Hope you recognize the dolls (smiley face) xxo

For those of you who may not recognize these dolls, their faces are basically the same (especially the size of the face), but not in my drawing! Ha.

Holly Birthday!

Happy Birthday Holly!

Guess you can’t guess why I drew this… I have no idea if this reminds you of your name, but it does me, also the word “jolly” because you always seem to be in an upbeat, jolly mood.

food for thought:  Does your name have a special meaning to you?

Cinnamon Girl

I love Cat Stevens' music. After I finished drawing this cinnamon toast that hubby made for me—the same cinnamon bread that my friend, Gwen gifted us with (we put it in the freezer to save for later), I thought about the song, Cinnamon Girl.

food for thought: What nice gift have you received lately and what did it remind you of?

The Artist's Way Give-A-Way

I shared The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron with my critique group. Sioux found a copy and suggested I give it away on my blog… perfect. I read The Artist’s Way and did the exercises with a group of friends about 20 years ago. It was inspiring and I always recommend it to people who seem to be stuck creatively… or who think they are not creative… or they desire to do something creative and don’t know where to begin.

So, are you interested? Would you like to receive this? Then make a comment so I can put your name in the hat and in a week, I’ll pull out a winner.

food for thought: Do you have a dream or a desire in the creative world? Why aren’t you doing something about it?

P.S. Thanks Sioux!

Happy Birthday Caden!

Even though I don’t see my little nephew very often, I consider him to be all boy, and cute as they come. Trucks, dirt, bugs, adventure are words that remind me of him. This truck cake is for you!

food for thought: What was your favorite thing as a kid?

Another Birthday!

Happy Birthday Steven!  I don’t know your age anymore (although I think your mom said you’re 37), but I do remember when I watched you when you were pretty little and I made spaghetti. You wanted to know what “kind” it was. I was confused and said, “It’s spaghetti sauce.”

“I know, but what kind is it?”

It then dawned on me, oh, like what brand. I told you, “I made it myself… from scratch.” You were totally amazed that the sauce didn’t come from a jar!  Ha.

food for thought: appreciate home cooked meals

Mmmmm, Butter

Hope you can read what’s on the drawing…

food for thought: What happens when you think you get away with something?

And for those who can’t read it:

My little sister Ruth told me a funny story about one of her dogs, Bella – still a puppy. When Ruth came down from being upstairs, she noticed the butterdish on the kitchen table was spotless and wondered how it got so clean, and then saw Bella licking her lips and put two and two together, that Bella got up and ate the whole stick of butter. When I was on the phone with her, Bella was trying to get on the table. “Bella, there’s no butter up here, get down.”

Birthday Time

Decided since it’s my middle daughter, Jessica’s birthday, I’d make her a cake. Make, not bake. Pie is what I baked!

This is a different kind of cake. It also fits in with my sketch a day from Ring in Spring. As you can see, I wasn’t sure how much room to leave for the candles and well, ended up with some extra space. I looked at it as a kind of metaphor for having room to grow. You can figure out how old Jessica is today by counting the candles.

Jessica, here’s a little sketch of your baby, Kitty.

food for thought: We all grow, every year… every moment, really.

Happy Birthday Jessica!

What's Happening?

Since I've attended Ring in Spring, I'm waking up earlier as I'm excited to draw/sketch/doodle in my journal. Okay, maybe not that much earlier.

I've always journaled every day... well just about every day, for the past 20+ years. Sometimes a day is missed. I start out writing my dreams. Then I write a spiritual exercise. Then I free-write. A lot of time that free write is me whining about something. I shudder to think of anyone reading my journal because on a bad day, I'm not so nice... but it does help to get it out so that I don't take that not-so-niceness out into the world. Or so is my excuse. However, I am responsible for my thoughts since thoughts create, so I want to create more niceness.

 

Now if I understand this right, when I'm sketching/doodling/drawing, a different part of my brain is taking over and it becomes contemplative. I'm looking forward to see how my journals are going to turn out... I think they will be nicer. It's also going to be different for me not to babble on and on as much, but allow some time to be more artistic and FUN with my journaling.

food for thought:  A dear friend gave me this magnet that reads: