Artful Journey

 Purchase, My word of the year one includes one new or different challenge every month. January was dry January, with no alcohol. After that fun, February posed a new challenge, Frugal February, with no unnecessary spending or purchases. Ouch! Thank goodness I picked the shortest month of the year. Luckily, this isn’t a leap year. So far, I have been doing really well, and only succumbed to temptation once. I am thinking progress not perfection, so it’ s in the win column. And now for my purchase. I attended Margaret Shepherd’s opening reception of her calligraphy from Song of Songs at Yale Divinity School. The book contains the artwork on exhibit which took her five years to complete, as well as her thoughts on why she picked the passages and how she interpreted them. The book is beautiful and inspirational, perhaps moving it to the realm of necessary…at least in my opinion.

  Sunset walk with Bailey I took a watercolor class recently and the subject was a couple on a sunset walk. I decided to add a dog to my painting as Onz and Deets adopted a shelter dog 6 months ago. She is super cute, affectionate and loves to go for walks. We are always available for Bailey sitting duty.

Winter in the Dunes  Over the past year, I have taken up pastel painting. I love the vibrancy of the pure color and the impressionistic quality. The medium is challenging, but fun. Fortunately, we haven’t had much snow here, so the inspiration here is from a photograph. 

One That’s it…one, some days, one is all we can manage and that has to be enough. Obligations, responsibilities, distractions…and whoops that second, that minute, that hour, that day is gone. So this year I am committing to one, getting one thing done. Changing one thing. Eliminating one thing. Improving one thing. Accomplishing one thing Maybe they won’t happen on the same day, but there only has to be one thing. That’s enough to count it as a win. Because in my book, today something is better than nothing.  And now, I have completed one blog post. Nothing special, but sometimes you have to start with one and keep it simple.

 My January reads were all excellent and varied. A favorite author An Author I admire Informative and empathetic  Poetic nonfiction full of surprises Barnes and Noble 2020 book of the year A lovely book of poems that I read daily A very different book that made me think  Because I am still trying to pick my favorites of 2021, I am starting to categorize monthly. I may even ask Fiona to help me set up a spreadsheet.  January Favorite.    How to Love the World   This a beautiful compilation. I keep it in the kitchen and start my day by reading a poem a day. A treasure! And a little time for artistic quotes in watercolor and pen and ink. From a calligraphy zoom get together With a big thanks to CJ as Administrator 

A blogging friend was hosting a stamping challenge using 2 colors- black and red. I have been interested in participating in her challenges for a while and finally got one completed. Sticking to just 2 colors makes the card making process quick and easy.  One of my favorite treats when shopping in Wegman’s grocery store is to grab a golden milk latte. Grocery shopping in Wegman’s is a real treat and I don’t get there very often as I have a few shops much closer. I am also trying to keep my carbon footprint small, so I plan my errands with that in mind. Fortunately, I will be over in the Wegman’s area next week  and will pick up some specialty items, flowers and a golden milk from the cafe. In the meantime,  I am enjoying this camomile and turmeric tea. Turmeric is an Indian flowering plant in the ginger family and is said to have many health benefits. On my last trip to Costco, I saw that they are carrying the rhizomes (similar to ginger but smaller) in the fresh produce ...

 I have been looking at my books of 2021 and trying to pick my favorites. My reading choices are often made by looking at reviews, award winners, personal recommendations, a book written by a favorite author, a topic I find interesting or a book I have picked up when browsing the stacks. It’s no surprise then that I end up with so many I love and picking the top 21 has been a challenge. One book stands out as the clear favorite for number one. My favorite book of 2021 Also on the list I read Patrick Radden Keefe’s book Say Nothing for my library’s book club choice in March.  It was a phenomenal read and I immediately put my name on the wait list for Empire of Pain. This historical narrative   is a testament to the power of investigative journalism and winner of the Baillie Prize for non-fiction and the Goodreads Choice Award  for History and Biography.  Also in my top 21 of 21 and in observance of Black History Month, Caste  by Isabel Wilkerson, another Goo...