the second friday of spring

where to begin! well friday is here and today i am feeling happy and full of 'spring'. i've started walking again and just trying to contain certain gloomy thoughts from sprouting the 'uglies' in my life. funny enouhg, on wednesday, hump day, they seemed to get to me a little more but thankfully i got through that day. thursday i got a call from a friend who lives in another state from me and it was such a joy to talk to her. things are looking up even when you are feeling down and i know i am being lead to where i should be going, even if i don't see the destination. so, here is my week in pictures...

this morning i received my prize from an herbal blog giveaway on herbs from the labyrinth. the prize (which was hosted by sunrose aromatics) is an apricot kernel meal scrub with an organic liquid castile cleanser to mix together and scrub your face with. i also got a sample of their organic aloe vera and seaweed gel to for wounds, minor burns, skin irritations and such. how nice! you can see more of what sunrose aromatics offers on their online shop.

from time to time, i do like to donate to ecolibris to help balance out trees for new books we have purchased. i am trying to teach nat about the importance of taking care of our environment and so she was thrilled to see one of the ecolibris stickers (printed on recycled paper with soy inks too) on her 'the snowman' book. i usually save two of the five stickers for her books only and i am still looking for her other book we just bought (it must be buried somewhere in her new room!) i like doing this for many reasons but also to see her feel like a part of such a bigger thing. she feels proud that her book helped plant a tree. :)



i'm not sure if you remember the black radishes i posted about a couple of weeks ago. well, i do believe they are completely 'shrunken' now and have found their permanent residence in a jar for our own little cabinet of curiousities. i love hoe the jasmine pearls make them look like they have bug eyes and their cut smile look old and wrinkled like they lost all their teeth. they do remind me of the shrunken head from the film harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban and i think resemble the real things more than the shrunken apple heads we did last year.

i worked on another tea rubbing/stained paper this week as well. i am trying to get the hang of how to create the stains/rub without having the paper wrinkle too much. of course, a heavy book does help with the ironing out of the folds. this week, i saved tea leaves from two different types of teas, a green rooibos and berries (thank you mathyld and miss maple!) and another herbal tea with nettle, rooibos and rose petals.



once the paper was dried and i removed the leaves i used it to draw 'when the sun married the moon'. i found the perfect frame for it and now i have it up at the shop. i am really happy with the final product. it has just the right amount of an antiquated look along with a simple, almost primitive style of drawing. i do like this celestial couple very much and when they find the right home, it will sadden my heart a bit to let it go but also make me very happy as well.



yesterday afternoon, nat and i decided to sit outside the front yard by the lamp post and flower bed to do some drawing and just to enjoy being outside. i took along some books and read her a few poems. we look for ladybugs in the flower bed and behold, found just one orange tinged little guy whom she named freddie. she then drew freddie, along with the pollen found in the flower we placed him in. afterwards she wanted to just draw things that started with the little P and so she drew a pixie, the color purple, more pollen and a plant. she is going to send this to her new friend in oklahoma whose momma is my newest penpal.



ah the life of a child, laying about in the sun with a visor over her eyes and a pen in her mouth, thinking about what to draw next!

as the day waned, i was thinking about a verse that jumped out to me this week. it gave me a little visual as i read it several times and this is the outcome of it in my newest journal.

happy friday my friends!