Seasons

This Christmas season has got me thinking...its usually a time when we celebrate but Christmas also gets me thinking in a lot of ways...about my childhood because I miss my mother at this time, about friends with whom we used to have so much fun at Christmas time and also about a lot of people who are needy...Christmas is the season of giving and I make it a point to try and give as much as I can this season, but really this time I started thinking that its a season like any other season in our life...not weatherwise!

The Bible says there is a season for everything -
1 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.....

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I have been going through a season of uprooting, and mourning, a season of refraining and searching, and sometimes downright tears....but I can rejoice knowing that seasons are not permanent and that after these seasons comes seasons of planting, rejoicing, embracing and giving up on searching questions...

This Christmas I can look forward to lots of good things coming my way...and so can you... Wishing you a very happy Christmas and lots of good seasons in your life...

Christmas Season

Christmas season has been my favorite time of the year ever since I was a child. It brings back memories of my mother making cake and cookies and sweets that would fill the whole house with a distinct "Christmas" smell...in fact the whole lane we lived in would be aromatic!
Times were simpler when I was a child, my brother's job was to get the Christmas tree and he would go and ask a kind person to allow him chop off a branch of their Christmas tree..so the tree would usually be 3' feet tall and we would decorate it on Christmas Eve with home made decorations. We would each get one gift each and that would be the gift that we were just "dying" to get...These days, I use an artificial 8' tall tree decorated with beautiful shining baubles and lights put up much earlier to bring in Christmas much earlier, stacks of gifts pile up under the tree. It was different then but its still good now and I have a few handmade ornaments that remind me of our childhood! Christmas traditions are a wonderful way to celebrate this festive seasons..though we had different traditions then, I have made new traditions with my own children for them to remember and carry on...One such tradition is the "Advent Calendar" - every year we make a calendar with a countdown to Christmas! And on each day we do a Christmas related activity/craft or some holiday special deed..This way we remember Christmas each day and do something special. It is a fun time and the kids really look forward to it..

The spirit of Christmas is about love, joy and peace which our Savior came to give. So this year we made a calendar with the exact same words. And everyday we will change the number of days by writing on an icecream spoon we stuck into the gifts !
So get ready for 25 days of activities !
Merry Christmas !!

Mi Amore..!

Week 3..

Time to celebrate the love in the air and the power that is "My Love"
My Love  i realize is Potent! Each of my thought , word and deed that stems from love will create magic, am assured!

and I say it with Chocolate here!
Want a bite ?!

Pooja.. This one was (!) for you..

You inspire me to express my love in a myriad ways in your own silent way ! You certainly did inspire me to pick up the heart shaped baking tin !

Go love some more ..Sprinkle the magic dust every where ....

Doodle Pro!

Pooja, Thank you so much for the zentangle!

Guess what , i realise i have been doodling too!

I find doodling highly relaxing.. and thanks to Zentangle.. this otherwise unassuming artform has just got elevated to zen heights!  What a  way to beat boredom...

Talking about boredom.. I think  boredom that festers makes you blue !
No stranger at fighting some serious blues , i find doodling can steer you out of  even a very blue spot(!)

Heres' one such of my creations (!)... It did pull me out of a deep blue moment and that moment did pass!

Zen tangle..

Week 2 .. Beat that boredom!

To beat the boredom and  add some funk to the  mundane is... to Zen tangle.

If you're wondering what on earth is a Zen tangle, do not worry because it's nothing but 'yoga for the mind' !

I've been a compulsive doodler all my life drawing on paper, jeans and my arms and legs too...I was always fascinated by Mehendi (henna tattoos) too but didn't like the way it gets patchy after a few days and so would do it with a pen and wash it off or just create Mehendi like designs on paper.....

I recently learned that doodling just went the zen way! it's called Zen tangle ..the zen way of creating tangles to relax, create or even develop certain intelligent skills! And here I was oblivious that I was Zentangling all my life!

I'm going to show you how to create a Zen tangle step by step. All you need is paper, pencil and a black ink pen...and lots of creativity....

First you draw an outline (I drew a box) but you can draw a circle, heart any random shape or just make up shapes as you go along.















Then you fill the spaces with a repetitive design like waves, circles, dots or checks...

Fill up the box and then add a border and sign it! Your Zentangle is ready! However, if you begin to feel bored its better to put it away and come back later and draw, because the designs might get sloppy and untidy....so go ahead and Zentangle.....

Come September...

Well, I was supposed to paint something for the week 1 of September, but I just could not get down to doing it...since we creative types are very moody *wink* and have to wait for inspiration...I feel inspired now to write a limerick instead of a painting...Enjoy !!

Come September, we both agreed,
to break our fetters and fly away freed,
She painted beautifully a starry night,
while I couldn't get a single stroke right...
Well ! Come October, I sighed...God speed !

~ Pooja

She gaurds her brush close to her chest
Oh..she knows not the magic it holds
Her words are pretty too..
now she chooses to paint with her words..
September still awaits.. your magic..
Go and let go all that you hold..!

~Vidya


Just like an artist has his muse
To push me ahead you choose
My brush and pen I shall now wield
My doubts shall no longer be a shield
Woman..you have cooked my goose !!

~ Pooja

The Starry Night - The Beginning....

Wow, Vidya you beat me to it !!! Starry Nights has always been a favorite of mine, I remember very vividly my first encounter with Van Gogh...I was about 8 or 9 years old and my grandfather used to smoke a pipe that he stuffed with tobacco. This tobacco came in a very colorful pouch and it was printed with one of Van Gogh's painting, and although I was too young to know who he was I remember the vivid brush strokes, the rich earthy colour and my mother told me it was Van Gogh...growing up I also loved the song "Vincent" by Don Mclean and the lyrics start with "Starry Starry Nights..." and the whole song was about how he was never understood and how beautiful his paintings were...you can check out the  Lyrics of Vincent here.

So, when I began my love affair with Art History, I loved the Impressionists and Post-Impressionist painters because they struggled to put forth their ideas, break out of the moulds and break the rules that had them all tied up. Vincent was one such painter...although he began drawing when he was a child, he never took up painting till he was in his twenties...and he painted his best masterpieces in the last two years of his life..Vincent was an introverted, silent and brooding type. He was very religious and longed to become a preacher. He suffered rejection and loneliness. His emotions are so prominent in his paintings..After many years of illness and finally institutionalization, he committed suicide at the age of 37 ! 

The Starry Night, June 1889, was his Magnum Opus, he painted it from the window of his Sanitorium in a village in the South of France, Saint Remy. He painted a lot of Cypress trees in many paintings and included one in this painting too. The village scene and church spire is typical of his hometown. There are mountains, olive trees and a beautiful starry night...

My take on Starry Night...Vincent was a deeply spiritual man and he was also very much in love with and comfortable in the presence of nature...He was put off by the hypocrisy of man and more so religious men. In this picture we see both nature and the church that point upward towards heaven...but the tree, or nature, is much taller than the church spire, indicating that nature takes us closer to God than religion..

Maybe he painted it out of his insanity, but it truly is a masterpiece...Goodbye Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.....

Starry Night

Presenting My( very truly amateur) version of the Classic Starry night by Vincent van Gogh..

This one is for you Pooja...Its Pooja , who exposed me to this beautiful work of art by Van Gogh. A Van Gogh fan that she is and some one who just adored this particular painting.

This painting has  stayed with me, haunted me ever since i set my eyes on it.

Painted by Vangogh while in an asylum battling his blues .. it captures the magic of a star lit night..over  a small , secure town.....

There's' some thing dark and looming threatening to envelop the entire town..

My sense is.. the wonder of the cosmos .. all pervading ..will win over that something dark.. Come September...! 

Roots and shoots..blooming and blossoming

Indeed..

The Magic tree is seeded..Magical that it is .. Its all grown up to give pooja and i , a space to let loose (Ahem!) our creativity under its magical canopy .. woven thick by our collective dreams, thoughts and ideas..under its wondrous shade..

The deal is  Pooja and I  choose a theme to create every week or at least once in a fortnight and show up here with what we conjured up..

Come September.. is our theme for our Week 1..


A time to to cherish all that's dear to us..  to add that extra sparkle to to the dull and the dreary...celebrate the love in the air and marvel  at the magic that Life is!

Are we ready for the magic? .. yes..yes..yes!