Friday-10:30am

I actually got to the Zendala Dare this week, so I will put this up for those folks.

Just my own contemplative doodling. 

And then for the Artist's Playroom I am counting my first wall art that I technically finished the week before (but APR was on a break over Christmas so I thought it would be okay)...

 ...because the theme is "celebrate" and I have been kind of celebrating every time I look at it just because I really am shocked it turned out and I like it almost as much as Karma does--ROFL!

Okay.  New Year's Eve!

I gathered all my "stuff"--which I set on this bright cloth that was handmade by some Tibetan monks.   

I put my "sound" stuff close enough for me to reach.  I found some examples of how they sound on youtube.  A Tibetan bell (mine sings more like the third example), Tibetan singing bowl (I guess mine is a jambati), tingshas, and a chime.  I found these on youtube to give you an example, but maybe I should make a video one day so you could hear mine because each one sounds different.

This is a beautiful mosaic box that Dagan bought me when he was in Turkey on a college trip.

I have it filled with stones and crystals.

Various crystals--Dagan & Leah's and my pendulums. 

More crystals and that hand thrown pot...

...has more stone inside. 

The red-dressed angel and more crystals (I have angels and crystals all over the apartment--LOL!) 

In the very center of the cloth I have this little amber container I bought to hold...

...sand--from the sand mandala that the Tibetan monks took several days to make when they visited Concordia college around ten years ago.  They blessed it with a ceremony and then destroyed it. 

Candles...

...sage smudge sticks (which I didn't use) and my burning bowl (which I did). 

All ready for New Year's Eve. 

I have three pendulums; the crystal one hardly ever seems to work for me, my old dependable brass one, and the wooden one (which holds some of the monk's sand inside).  

I usually try them out to see which one works the best that night (usually my brass one), but that night all three of them were highly responsive.  Wild!  I usually only pick one card, so I wasn't sure if that meant I could use any of the three or that I should use all three and pick three cards because this has never happened before?  I usually just ask what I need to focus on for the coming year and don't have specific topics or questions.  But as I sat there and thought about it, I did have three different areas I could have used some guidance on...so I decided to think about each of them and pick three cards.

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I started with the crystal one, since that one is only responsive on rare occasions, and got Divine Guidance!  Whoohoo!  This one is something I will talk about in the near future.  (I know--mean of me to leave you hanging, but it's going to be a longer conversation.)  Was a very, very good card, though!

The other two questions were about things I won't be talking about on the blog--at least, this second one not for some time.  It's something that might happen in a few years and I don't want to jinx it--LOL!  But it was an excellent card (Expression) and made it look like it could happen.  I am supposed to continue on the way I am going with (card number one) and color in my life (that made me chuckle with my recent wall art and just saying how I wanted to add more color in my life!) and expressing myself in all kinds of new outward ways.  I guess that's the right path for this particular change to eventually happen.  Nice!!

And the last one was about somebody in my life--a painful, personal family issue of perpetual crossed wires and many years of estrangement--that I wondered if I should contact this person once again to try to establish a positive relationship?

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I got Balance.

Nope.  

I should leave it alone and focus on balance in my life.  the card even indicated that worrying about past feelings of lack or failure--that focusing on one particular person or situation--could interfere with my own spiritual unfoldment--my path.  So I shall leave it alone.  Let things happen as they are meant to in the natural course of things.  Was very good to hear that.  A relief--because I do honestly feel like I've been beating my heart against a wall for a couple decades.    

I know.  Sorry to be so uncharacteristically vague, but you get the general idea.  I'll be explaining in more detail about that first question I had--probably on Monday.  This post is going to be long enough and I am sore from being gone last night so that I've had to take several breaks (already after 1pm)...so more on Monday.  But let's just say it was a thought-provoking, wonderful, positive evening!!  :):)

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Karma wasn't sure what all the fuss was about--LOL!  

The only other thing I have to show you is that I did experiment with some of the Silks acrylic glazes on the birthday cards I had printed up.  I was hoping they wouldn't look quite so washed out and have some life to them again.

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  The top pic is the original.  The left bottom is the yellower Office Max copy.  The right bottom is my jazzed up version after applying some Silks.  I like the jazzy version a lot better.  But this would take me a long time to hand paint about 50 cards--LOL!  I can never leave well enough alone, I guess, can I?  ;)  

They don't have to be done all at once, at least, but I like them so much better with more punchy color.  If anyone gets a birthday card from me where the flowers are more yellow...well, you will know I ran out of time before your birthday--LOL!  I mean, they still are okay, you know?  If I can squeeze in the time, I will make them more jazzy.  (Again, I am sounding like Sheldon on Big Bang.)

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Last night Dagan and Leah picked me up after work and we went to Tochi's.  I got basmati rice, tamari sauce, hoisin sauce--and then some vegetarian broth powders and an herbal soup mix with dried veggies, too.

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Then we headed over to Dagan and Leah's.  They made this delicious Squash soup for dinner--really yummy!!  We watched a couple of hours of killing zombies while it was cooking (The Walking Dead)...and even while we were eating (strong stomachs).  Then Leah cut my hair and Dagan's hair.  Lots of chatting.  I didn't get home until after 10:30pm.  Had a wonderful time!!  

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Oh, and they are still waiting on the check for the totaled car so they can go car hunting.  And then they had trouble with the other car starting and had to buy a new battery.  Had a friend help them clear a space for second car so they can at least get it into the garage at night.  It's been starting fine now, poor car.  Been really cold up here.  Too many nights below zero and cars that are outside don't always take kindly to being metal ice cubes in the wind.  ;)

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When they are back to two cars, then Leah wants to start coming by maybe every 2-3 weeks for crafts again.  She wants to start on our Christmas cards for 2013!!  So we can do something putsy-crafty again.  Whoohoo!  Nice!

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Oh, and Ariel (Leah's youngest sister) will be moving back in with them again soon.  They already took in everything her brother Aaron owns when he went into the Navy in December.  They also had a friend staying over New Years.  See--it's no surprise that they needed a big house--to match their big hearts.  :)  Really!  In the ten years they've been married they have taken in friends and relatives so many times that I doubt they've spent a third of their married life alone, just the two of them. 

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So that's about it from here.  Oh, yah!  For the last day or so, Blogger has been acting up and only letting me read blogs but my comments would not work.  Click-click-click...nothing.  I read blogs for a while, anyways, since I was days behind again.  Maybe it will have cleared itself up by today--I hope.  Haven't tried yet.  Blogger can be quite touchy on occasion.  I have to remind myself--it's free, right?  But if there's a big gap in my comments on your blog--that's why.

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Been a wonderful start to this shiny new year.  

R&R today.  

We're having a heat wave!  It's 23 degrees!  :)

Have a marvelous weekend!

Leaving you with some sweet Emily...  

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If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
- Emily Dickinson