Those who don't believe in magic will never find it....

Little beetle visitor

I have been journaling these past few weeks and in the process came across this inspiring quote from Roald Dahl;

"And above all watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

These words really resonated with me.  It's so easy to miss the magic in everyday life while rushing around from place to place, job to job and so on.  Roald Dahl is such a wonderful wordsmith, I must read some of his books again.  Childhood favourites on mine from this author were George's Marvellous Medicine and Matilda. 

Mr. Beetle

Anyway I digress, back to journaling.  Integrating art in to my everyday life is something I am working on and to help me along the way I signed up for this Art Journal All Year E-course from Red Velvet.  It has been a great prompt and reference for creating art regularly.  Being artistic more often has been satisfying and feels like getting to know part of myself that I had almost forgotten (I used to draw and paint often at high school).  So far I haven't managed to sink my teeth into art journaling daily but am documenting thoughts more often. 

Thinking about art and 'seeing' potential moments to document has been a wonderful side effect of this course.     It is such fun noticing everyday moments that I might have missed before.  The quality of light, the way objects cast a shadow, contrasting and complimentary colours....it has suddenly become so much more vivid. Feel like I have been wandering around with dirty glasses on! It annoys me how complacent I had become in the absence of creating pieces of artwork regularly.

Evening light catching on my favourite glasses,

 dancing on my bed

and sparkling on the kitchen floor!

Mind you I haven't been just wandering around in a wondrous state!!  I have been at the sewing machine too. Whipped up some snack bags on the overlocker and sewing machine the other day.  Used some lovely fabric because these little beauties are going to be used everyday.  Better than staying in the fabric stash waiting to be made into a 'special' quilt that I just may never get round to making.  This Angry Chicken tutorial is the one I used; my goodness these are super fun to make.  Soo quick to finish and are lovely to eat morning tea treats from.  Some of these wee bags will be sent away as gifts, too much fun to keep for myself. 

Pretty snack bags

We have a friend staying for a while. It's awesome to have another person in the house but this little apartment is not so private.  So to make the stay more enjoyable for our lovely guest I made some curtains for the doors that join the bedroom with the lounge (there used to be some horrible, grubby, net curtains there).  This was another quick project and I like them so much I think that I will leave them up even when we don't have any company!

Chirpy new curtains

Down the hill in front of us is a construction site.  A new house is being built on what was just an empty section. I can only imagine how very exciting it must be for the owners seeing their dream home becoming reality, it certainly is fun to watch the progress. However I was concerned for a certain little Mr. Kingfisher friend that spent most afternoons flitting around the empty plot. I was ever so excited when Mr. Fox saw him again.  Such a funny little fellow, he seemed rather nonplussed by the changes. So glad he is back!

Hello wee friend.