Birthday month

It's going to be a busy month for birthday cards. Apart from me and my eldest, there's also one of the ladies at the Cubby Hole. Normally that would be it, but when we started talking about birthdays in the meditation group we discovered that out of the 6 of us, 4 are pisces! The other 2 are also water signs - spooky :o

So, here we are - 2 down, 3 to go :)

Mantra

The latest challenge over at 4x4 Friday is "Mantra". A Mantra is a sound, syllable, word or group of words that are considered capable of "creating transformation".

"No worries" is a phrase that's considered part of the Australian language, and is even referred to as the National Motto of Australia. Now, I've never been to Aus (maybe one day) but it's something I use all the time - no idea why, but it's a good mantra to live by.

So, if your challenge doesn't come out right, just say to yourself - "No worries" ;)

Queen Crow

This week's challenge over at 4x4 Friday is Crow Lady, posted by the talented Athena. Last week's theme was King Raven, and as every king needs a queen, allow me to introduce the Great Queen aka The Mórrígan.

In Irish mythology, she offered her love to the hero Cúchulainn who rejected her, not realising who she was. In return she prophesied his death and her part in it. At the end of the battle he dies, tied to a standing stone, and The Mórrígan appears in her guise as a crow, perched atop the stone.

Last of the Great Romantics

This month's swap over at the Cubby Hole is a set of mounted inchies. The theme is "Love and Romance" and has been set by "That Woman".
Whilst sitting here wondering what to do, I came across an article about Rudolph Valentino which prompted me to produce this piece. The images are mounted under glass, with embossed edges, and fixed to canvas board.

Relax & escape from it all

Yesterday was Crop Shop day at the Cubby Hole, and I decided it was time I did some more work on last years 12 questions project which is one of my many UFO's.

September's question was "What relaxes you/how do you relax?" As there's two pages for each month I figured I'd split it into 2 answers.

The first one is nature. I love to get away from it all and spend a few days away in the van. Rather than working for months on end and then having 3 weeks in Summer, I prefer to take a shorter breaks at fairly regular intervals. The pictures are from two of my trips to Scotland - Cape Wrath and Isle of Lewis.

In between getting away from it all, I tend to keep myself chilled by meditating. There's a small group of us who meet once a week to meditate and generally chill out. It's a great stress buster, and I either get home and zonk out, or occasionally come home revitalised and have a crafting frenzy.

Finally, I've posted my entry for this weeks challenge over at 4x4 Friday (after nearly missing last week's).
Kersten posts some interesting theme's and this week's is "Spirit". Here's my take on it, the Spirit of Adventure - getting out and exploring this wonderful thing called nature and seeing what comes my way :)

King Raven

My entry for this week's challenge over at 4x4 Friday (and I've only just scraped in at the last minute with this one). It's another experiment with inks and charcoal, and probably not my best work, but I guess part of learning is making mistakes and admitting them.
The theme was King Raven, one of the noblest of birds and the subjects of much mythology. In the old Norse tales Odin had two ravens Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory). Each day they fly over the whole world and report back all that they see .

From Grímnismál (the sayings of Grímnir)

Hugin and Munin fly each day

over the spacious earth.

I fear for Hugin, that he come not back,

yet more anxious am I for Munin

Pigeon post doodle ATCs

A couple of sneak preview pics.

The first is one of my ATCs for the swap over at Crafts By Carolyn. The theme is "Postal".




The next are some doodles that have been scanned in ready for further work. They are the start of my entry for the "Doodle" theme over at The Artist Trading Club.