I will be glad

Sunday, August 31, 2014












dingy beach, near the big wharf / those gorgeous red Eaton Park Peace Garden red roses / currently I'm having a love affair with paths / coneflower or rudbeckia ? / you can buy this beautiful brick house next spring / more Queen Anne's lace gorgeousness / I rarely cut flowers mainly because we have a vase-tipper cat Virgil - this is the end of the orange-ish bouquet / Monty's Emporium of Goodness window / another favourite annual here in Nova Scotia - morning glories, especially the blue variety / our front garden very old hydrangea tree bush / not sure what this is - found on one of my early morning explorations

I will be the gladdest thing Under the sun. I will touch a hundred flowers And not pick one. I will look at cliffs and clouds With quiet eyes, Watch the wind bow down the grass, And the grass rise. Edna St. Vincent Millay


* found this beautiful poem quote on creative hero Kelly Rae Roberts instagram feed



hello greys

Saturday, August 30, 2014












calm, still & grey early morning on the crescent beach / oh my red roses / devil's paintbrush wildflower / my poplars, my canopy / lavender / the crescent beach & me / meadow love / from the boat ramp near dingy beach / hey you bright lights cosmos / seagull platform / more of those oh my roses 

Black and white thinking limits understanding and feedback, two necessary ingredients for successful resolution in creative conflict and successful understanding. David W. Earle 

I've always been too much of a black or white, an all or nothing thinker. I chocked it up to "that's just how I am" very neutral about that rather severe take on things, not really pondering too much whether it was a good thing to be or not - it just was. It's so funny in life how these soft bonks on the head happen, a whisper from out of nowhere in your ear, or something points you in a direction you've not looked before or maybe you have looked but didn't see. Suddenly I'm inviting grey into my life, grey and all her friends (all 50 shades +), it's going to take sometime to get used to them all, I know that - but I feel I'm not only up for the challenge I welcome it.

Happy Weekend !!

When I learned about the grey existing between the black and white of absolute terms, I began to experience more peace. The more I expanded my grey areas, the more peace I experienced in my life. David W. Earle

19 photos of orange-ish flowers

Wednesday, August 27, 2014


stay tuned (below) for way too many photos (19 to be exact) of orange-ish, yellow & red flowers - calendula, coreopsis, coneflower & my new favourite annual cosmos bright lights + I gotta tell you that first photo - omg sigh, that first photo says absolutely everything that brings joy & love to my heart + I love the dream like out of focus quality - xoxo Susan + gang

a perfect quote in my inbox this morning from Mastin Kipp & the Daily Love crowd, speaking directly to me

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.

Fate is how your life unfolds when you let fear determine your choices. A path of destiny reveals itself to you, however, when you confront your fear and make conscious choices.

I am convinced that the deepest desire within each of us is to be liberated from the controlling influences of our own psychic madness or patterns of fear. All other things—the disdain of ordinary life, the need to control others rather than be controlled, the craving for material goods as a means of security and protection against the winds of chaos—are external props that serve as substitutes for the real battle, which is the one waged within the individual soul. Caroline Myss





















intuition & mixed media

Monday, August 25, 2014











































early on, no collaged paper added - I think, it feels like I like this best .... or do I? who knows ?

In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking, 
know what I want; perhaps I don't want what I know 
and want what I don't know. Marsilio Ficino 

Mixed media art, painting, drawing ... any non digital creative work is scary because the very next move you make - the next collaged piece you glue down, that extra bit of drawing you add, the paint that seemed like such a good idea, mushed on with fingers, could well be the move that causes you to think "oh great !! I've screwed it up - it's ruined, I've wasted all that time".

I do think it's the reason I've fallen so in love with assembling & building my collages in Photoshop because it's almost impossible to make a mistake. Phew ! I don't need to hold my breath. All that said I know without question that it is super important for my creative growth to dive in, hands on (non digitally), without expectations, for fun, for play & just mess around. If this brave creativity is something that resonates with you I'd recommend the following 3/4 e-courses.

Kelly Rae Roberts - Hello Soul / Mixed Media Mantras
Flora Bowley - Brave Intuitive Painting (LOVE, love, loved)
Mati Rose's - Daring Adventures in Paint or in Collage (or both !!!)

I've taken all 3 & loved all 3 because the assignments force me to be intuitive, to trust my intuitive voice (remember I was trained & still have my feet firmly planted in a graphic design background which I would suggest is not quite so intuitive). It's good for me to force myself to not have a plan, to just begin, to not care about the end result but to enjoy thoroughly the journey. - I say that last sentence oh so casually - it's hard work to not have a plan, expectations or a desired end result but it truly is the key to creative growth & freedom !! hooray for freedom ;-)

My scapegoat is I scan as I go - every subtle new layer or change I scan it, I guess it doesn't really matter whether or not I ever use that scanned stage/layer but I've documented it - which somehow gives me great comfort. So for all you braving the hands on, mucking about with paint, gel medium & paper - who knows how this might/will turn out. Scan as you go, scan every minor change. Scan each step or layer ... at the very least it will make you feel good ;-)

Can't say enough goodness about Kelly Rae Roberts and her e-course Mixed Media Mantras starts Sept 8th












































where I ended up - not so crazy about this layer - but that's an important learning/lesson also



a Saturday

Saturday, August 23, 2014











meadow grass gone to seed / queen anne's lace also - the wanna be botanist stirs in me / on the crescent beach my poplars to the left beyond the stone sea wall / seaweed composition No.21 / a rough & churned up (reddish) ocean / another path leading away from the beach / seaweed composition No.22 (from high above) / we call this eel grass / another of my favourite view from the grassy hill at Thinker's Lodge / hey big periwinkle !

You will be fine.
Just you wait and see.

found on Pinterest - which I can't imagine living without, we heart Pinterest big time !!

Things have been unsettlingly slow & quiet here at the TTD* left to my own devices with a tres neatly penned list of a zillion, trillion self directed projects (creative & otherwise) that could, should, might be done - everything from beginning the BIG come on let's downsize declutter, pitch, donate & get rid of half at least of the stuff I own getting ready for the big impending late spring (maybe early spring) move to who knows where - surprisingly little productivity has been happening.

Dragsters, nothing causes me to get the down on myself blues like a lack of getting' stuff done. It's a clear cut case of procrastination combined with an extreme bout of indecisive dithering, or at least that's the excuse I'm giving myself. Even though my passionate heart tells me I wish I had time to create (with wild, courageous abandon) lots & lots of new self directed art/illustrations, but whenever I get a big, fat block of time when just that could/should happen I find myself dreaming & fantasying that one of my fabulous existing customers or maybe even someone brand new would email me out of the blue with something that would tie me to my desk, to Photoshop and a deadline. Sigh.

This plight ... is not mine alone, thank goodness.

Here's what's on the list for today a few things already accomplished

- walking with my girlfriend Winnie √
- walking (exercise) crescent beach laps ;-)
- errands (farmer's market, library, grocery store) √
- cut a big bouquet of orangeness & yellow from my cutting garden (stay tuned for photos) √
- clean out parts of veggie garden that are done (peas, green beans etc)
- dinner prep (cook new potatoes, chicken marinade for bbq, yellow & green beans) √
- walk to the park and hang with Deb & Bella (Winnie & Sam's best dog friend) 30 mins √
- tidy my office & desk √
- 60 minute sketchbook drawing
- 2 more days of access to Kelly Rae's e-course Mixed Media Mantras (soak that up big time)
- work on 2 new 9x12 mixed media pieces whilst soaking up all that video inspiration & instruction