Eostre and Nephthys

Eostre and Nephthys are who I chose for my two Goddesses for my recent Life Book class. This week we had Bonnie Rose as a teacher, what a lovely lady! The idea was to find the light and dark or, more to the point, the ying and yang of the inner you
For the last couple of years I have been battling the sadness of losing my Father-in-law, then my sister, then my Mum. It can weigh you down and grief can be all consuming. I know that they would not want that for me, just as I would not want it for any of my loved ones should I shuffle off this mortal coil!!
 Last month my first grandchild was born and I have the second on the way this April. I need to 'embrace' the coming happiness and love. All this helped me choose my Goddesses. Nephthys is the Goddess of sadness and mourning, while Eostre is the Goddess of new beginnings. In my painting Eostre is laying a hand upon Nephthys' shoulder and basically telling her that she can step down now, Eostre will take over and bring happiness and love. While Nephthys will always be there , she will not have to work so hard! ( Heiroglyphic translations can be found at google and are a great way to add journalling if you don't want a casual viewer to know what the entry is about!)

 Bonnie's example was in crosshatching and also completed in pen. I was brave and dove right in. Not the best example of crosshatching, but I think I will definitely look into doing some more!

Journal Pass Page

I am participating in a journal pass at Doll Dreams with Ady Alamanza. This page is for Ady's book and I'm quite pleased with how she turned out. I just have to think of the words to place on the page, then the journal will be off to the next participant. Eek..I can't wait to get mine back... I think only one more round to go!!

And one more

  The BOD project, run by Effy Wild, has really been a great encouragement to use my journals. I LOVE my journals. The feeling you get when you hold them in your hand, the slightly splayed pages with the colours and textures just peeking out. It's just so seductive, you can't resist flipping through them!

 Here is another double spread, inspired by a great teacher that I have mentioned before, Ady Alamanza.  Here is the link to her doodle tutorial Doodle Girl . I love the method she uses.

The words are from a current song, but I have a different, personal meaning from the original context.

More BOD

Back to the Book of Days journal group ( led by the graceful and talented Effy Wild) A few more entries here. I really don't think that I will be able to keep up with an entry a day. Maybe a 'Book of Weeks' would have been more sustainable for me! We'll see!
This entry is for Thursday 4th ( see, I'm already a week behind) I visited my Dad. He's just got out of hospital after a 5 week stay...yes...he was in for Christmas :(
  I'm so concerned. He's such a long way away from me and I really don't think he's strong enough to be on his own. But what can we do eh? He's a grown man and loves where he is! *sigh*

 Anyway,....gardening used to be his therapy so I've included a few flowers. The spread is more about the healing energy I want to send him.

Grid Journaling

This is a cool little technique as learned from the wonderful Milliande. She is an amazing artist located in England, though her accent suggests her origins are elsewhere. Check out her Ning site right here. She also has some amazing You tube movies.
Grid journaling is great if you don't want to commit to sketching out one large picture. I love the idea of little snippets of buildings, fences and such. Here is one page filled with historic Sydney buildings, the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge

Life Book

Happy New Years first of all. I hope you have a safe and prosperous year. Love to all out there in blogland :)

  Okay, today is the first day of Life Book. Woo Hoo!
  This is a Christmas present from my son and I love it already. Watching along with Tam, I finished this first spread, well it's a single page really (with a fold out) We will be binding all the pages at the end of the year. I really enjoyed watching it develop and while I can never quite get the hang of Tam's method of blending with acrylic and watersoluable crayon, I am quite pleased with my girls face. She has an acrylic flesh tone base and then I used prisma wax pencils for the shading and highlighting. I really like my colour palate of pink and orange, very soft and 'goddess' like LOL!