Under Lavender Skies

 Hmmn... maybe I should think up titles for my sketch book pages like this one, and the one I posted last week, so it's not possibly titled: "Some *more* *more* art to share" next week.  If you have any ideas, what would you name this one?  :D I had fun with this piece but also have some issues with it.  I wanted to try something new so I only used a pen and then very minimal colored pencils and while I don't think it looks terrible it's not a style I'm planning to adopt.   The quote I used on this page is:  "You lost what you had but now you have what is worth it."   Now part of me thinks I just made it up because that's what I know but another part of me thinks I heard it (or something similar) somewhere and I can't for the life of me remember where.  It's also too vague and quotable for it not to have been said before.   Thanks for reading! Leave your thoughts in the comments below!  ✰✰✰  

   I finished up this piece with the color in the background along with inking in the quote.  As I wrote it all I knew was that I wanted there to be an element of "movement," though the poses, the flow of the letters, and the content of the words.  I think I captured that.    Combining art and writing is one of my favorite things.  I know in terms of writing here there isn't much but I think the words, along with the color, are what takes this a notch past a simple sketch.       Thoughts?  Thanks for reading!

Happy Monday!  If you didn't notice, there was no post last week because my family and I went camping (pictures coming soon). Last week was the first Monday I have ever missed a post. I have gone from being really motivated and writing every week, to posting (mostly) posts that I wasn't proud of but putting out because it was a Monday, to saying to myself, and others, that I will make simple posts revolving around a poem, that still take quite a bit of work, to being where I am now and being okay with skipping a week. I actually did finish this post last week but wasn't able to schedule it in time and I wanted to do what we go camping to do: live in the moment and take time to breath. So you know what, I'm okay with missing October 11ths post.  Please enjoy this beautiful piece of writing by Mary Oliver, my favorite poet. I hope it will brighten your Monday just a little.    ✰✰✰

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Hey everyone!  I hope you are all doing splendidly.  This month I am working on the second draft of my book, it's a lot of writing for one month along so almost the entirety of my free time had been going towards writing,  I haven't had much time for anything else.  Let me know if you would like to hear about it!  I adore quotes, some might say I collect them, but I do have several absolute favorites to share with you today.  Every photo paired with these is my own and I use Pics Art to put the quote images together.   #1,  “ So we beat on, boats against the current , borne back ceaselessly into the past.”   #2,  “I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.” #3, "I have been  bent and broken ,  but —I  hope — into a better shape ." #4, "It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world." Thank you for reading!   Did you find any of your favorite quot...

Over the last couple of weeks, I have found some poems with a similar theme.  Each with the idea that life is made up of simple things, and you should enjoy them.  Drastic life events don't happen very often and you shouldn't live only for them.  Find joy and happiness in the smallest things, the everyday pieces of peace and happiness in life.   The first poem I found is called "The Orange" by Wendy Cope.   It is such a beautiful but simple and short poem and I even put it on my Instagram a while ago.  It seemed to set off my Pinterest acct and I found many other poems following this theme.   The Orange  At lunchtime I bought a huge orange— The size of it made us all laugh. I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave— They got quarters and I had a half. And that orange, it made me so happy, As ordinary things often do Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park. This is peace and contentment. It’s new. The rest of the day was q...

Today I will be telling you something you didn't know you needed to know.  My family has so many quotes, if you know us you know that we practically talk in movie and book quotes.  Did you know that lots of old quotes such as: "Curiosity killed the cat," "Rome wasn't built in a day," etc. are actually quite old (we're talking hundreds of years old) and, like language in general, have been changed and altered over the years?   Rome Wasn't Built in a Day but it Burned in One This is the oldest quote of the bunch, and how old it is amazed me.  The earliest documentation of this quote was in a medieval French poem, not by a Roman or Italian citize n but by a  12th-century cleric in the court of Phillippe of Alsace.  Later in 1538, it was said by John Heywood, an English author, and playwright.  He was the first to make the quote more wel l known and popular and also extended.  First, it was said as "Rome wasn't built in a day,"  but John He...