Updating Linky Parties

I haven't been doing much art to link to the linky parties (see CURRENT LINKY PARTIES above) and when I decided to get back to that this weekend, I realized I needed to overhaul that page. Some of the links were no longer working and some had changed their URLs. And then there were a few new ones I have found recently and never added.

If any of my dear readers happen to know of any other sites that do arty linky parties (ok I know it is a lame name but that is what they are called!), please let me know, either below in the comments or email me.

In the meantime, time to do more fun stuff and get my inner artist (or some would say, child) on and go to town! Since one of my CDFs is VIBRANT, seems like it is time to use some COLOR! Now where is that gelli plate...?

Querencia and other thoughts about writing...

I have been thinking about writing lately...

From Writing Towards Home by Georgia Heard:
 Querencia: a place where one feels safe; a place from which one’s strength of character is drawn; a place where one feels at home. From the Spanish querer to want, to desire.

          {Where is my querencia?}

This makes me ask other questions:

Where do I feel most at home?
Where do I feel most happy and relaxed?
What is my ideal writing environment?
Where can I write with all my full powers?

I like quiet places.

Places without a lot of distractions.

That is why often writing in public places like coffee houses is difficult for me, unless I can find an out of the way table or a booth.

The quietest place for me is really a time – very early morning before the world seems awake. This has  worked well in the past then I got distracted with work and stopped writing for long time. Now I am retired so I can reclaim my mornings.

Another thought, taken from an art workshop years ago, maybe Julianna Coles? She asked, "Where does your art hide for you?"  So I am taking a side step for today...

          {Where does writing hide for me?}

Where in nature? Where in art? Music? Colors? Tastes? Textures? What memories hold hidden writings? People? Places? Things? I know there are many tidbits of life that are keeping secret writings – it is my job {task?} now to find them and draw them out. Another question might be, WHY does writing hide for/from me?

Another theme: Find my own truth. Seems to be a recurring theme. What is my own truth? Who am I now? What is the path with the heart (Castenada)? What is my bliss? The same question in different forms.

These are some of the things I might be thinking about as I travel this coming month...


“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hanging out...

It might just be easier to post from my phone...

Trial run...

Oh heavens no... not me actually running!

This is a trial run using the equipment I plan on bringing on my trip next week:  my little Lumix camera, tablet and connector so I can plug it and my SD card into the tablet.

Notes To Self:
So ok, for this to work on the Tablet I need to upload to Piassa then to Blogger. For some reason I cannot load directly from Flickr or Instagram on the tablet.

I am probably making this way too difficult!

Friday florals on Saturday...

I am slowly getting back to things this weekend...

Went outside this morning and saw these bits of Spring playing in the flower pots. Cheered me up enough to get a few photos and make a blog post. Spent some time yesterday starting to plan out a summer trip. Slowly life is getting back to normal.

And thanks to all of you new folks who joined my blog and/or left a message on the Grow Your Blog post. I am (very) slowly getting around to visiting your blogs. Thank you in advance for your patience!

Floral Friday...

A big thanks to all my new blog followers from the Grow Your Blog party last week! I am slowly getting around to all the blogs of the people who left comments from last week's post. Some great new (to me) blogs out there to visit! You can see the list on the Grow Your Blog page via the button on my sidebar or in the last post.

So I have been thinking about the blog and wanting to add more floral colors now that we are starting to get some much-needed rain and Spring is approaching... and then when I came home from work today I saw some of the Icelandic Poppies my husband had planted had gone crazy and bloomed up during the day -- what great color!

I think this poppy red-orange is one of my all-time favorite colors!





Linked to:
Orange You Glad It's Friday

Grow Your Blog Party 2014!

Welcome to my blog, a ragtag mix of mostly paper arts and crafts, painting, yoga, photos, travels, thoughts and quotes, an occasional recipe and other assorted nonsense! If you are here for the first time and came via the Blog Party, I welcome you and would like to thank you for dropping by! My name is Rhonda and I am blogging from sunny (although we wish it would rain) Sacramento, California.

It is time for Vicki's Grow Your Blog Party and this year I am participating! I learned about it from my friend Leslie's blog last year and realized I had missed the cut off date by around a week, so this year I put it on ALL my calendars to be sure I signed up in time!

Her "GROW YOUR BLOG" event is designed "to bring more readers and FOLLOWERS to our blogs. The premise is simple-- just visit as many blogs as you wish and sign up to follow those that interest you. In turn, all the other folks will be doing the same thing~ we will all be growing our blogs!" Last year she had something like 500 people sign up! I visited a bunch of cool sounding blogs and found many I still follow today -- not all arts and crafts or cooking, but some just an interesting life somewhere else. So I am hoping some of you will visit my blog and find things you like that will keep you interested in more. Either way, I am so thrilled you have stopped in and would love to hear from you!

One of the keys to discovering new blogging friends is to leave a comment, which I always do when I visit a new blog for this kind of event. So please feel free to leave me a comment below if you are visiting for the first time or a repeat visitor! And of course, always feel free to follow or subscribe to my blog.

Back to Art and Blogging...

Time to move on and let this roller coaster of recent emotions come out in some art! And blogging... and what better combo than joining in on a Blog Party next week! I had seen it on my friend Leslie's blog last year and realized I had missed the cut-off date by a week or so so this year I put it on ALL my calendars to be sure I would remember!

This is what it is all about...

It is going to be on January 25, 2014 this year. A whole bunch of us will post on that day (or the day before for the other side of the globe) and we will all visit each other's blogs that day and following days. Should be fun!

So this week I will be working on a blog post for it and tomorrow have plans to go to yoga then get back to some art! Tonight I am digging out the tried and true gelli plate because that always gets me going... yeah I know, I already have a huge pile of gelli printed papers, and yes thank you I can always use more! Maybe I will work with a new or different color scheme... I have been liking purple and ochre lately... hmmm...

Things to figure out...

I realized a week had gone by and I had not written a single post, although I was doing some art every evening after work. Mostly I was too tired (after teaching Middle School all day) to stay up and extend it to the blog.

In light of that I want to figure out how to get photos onto the blog more quickly. I may try via my phone although then I don't have a chance to crop or adjust brightness or anything, which makes me wonder if I need to do that anyway?

I need to ask around and see what other art-posting bloggers do. I already know that a couple of people who do cooking (Paleo) blogs spend a couple of hours a night on their blogs... I am not willing to do that. Teaching during the day only leaves me with a certain amount of time and energy in the evenings and I don't want to spend it all putting things on a blog.

So that brings me to the other thing I realized I needed to figure out: why am I doing the blog?

For me it is more a record keeping way for me to see what I have been doing artwise. So I ask myself, "Self, why can't you just post to Flickr and not worry about the blog?" I do like the times when people respond to things I have posted but then I could see that in Flickr too.

I spent some time yesterday looking at the art blogs I enjoy and realized most of them (95% maybe) also have the blog because they do other things online: online classes, sell in Etsy, etc. They use the blog both to show people what they are doing but also as a constant reminder of their classes, shop, etc. I have neither, so again, is a blog necessary or just a place to put photos?

I need to think about this...
But today I am going to go play with the gelli printing plate and do other art with a new art friend in Tracy. I always get so inspired when I can art play with friends.