Happy Wednesday or whatever day you're visiting, dear blog friends! I have some new buys on my desk today, a set of water soluble gel crayons and the book "View from a Sketchbook," with the beautiful paintings of Marjolein Bastin.
Last Wednesday, I was away from home and Lisa so kindly linked me up to What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (thank you so much, Lisa!) If you're wondering where I was (together with my whole family - my parents, my brother and sisters and all our children), here are a few pictures as we went island hopping in Caramoan, Camarines Sur.
Here is a man selling fresh coconuts near a sand bar...
We had this island all to ourselves...
Crystal clear waters and powder fine sand...
What a lovely time we had!
If you think you can't draw, you might be interested in my previous post and if you haven't joined yet, there's still time to join my giveaway!
I was in Boracay Beach last week and I want to share with you some pictures (some of them taken a few years ago) of this wonderful island where the water is warm and the sand, believe it or not, is as soft as powder.
A Paraw
Riding a Paraw
Awesome Sunset
I also took some pictures of the arts and crafts and souvenirs...
Handpainted Personalized Keychains
Handpainted Personalized T-shirts
We had the opportunity to visit Asya Premier Suites, located in the far end of the island...
And we had a wonderful outdoor dinner, watching the sunset.
I hope you enjoyed my Boracay "photo album." Being in Boracay and seeing the beauty of God's creation is soooo inspiring to me, so I'm sharing this today in Inspire Me Monday. Happy week ahead, dear blog friends!
Here is a set of mixed media ATCs that I made last year. I started out by coating the cards with some gesso (or maybe it was wall putty), painting it on randomly.
Then I used watercolor to paint each of the cards in different colors. I also painted book pages in a darker shade of the same colors as the cards.
I used watercolor and colored pencils to draw the tree trunk and the ground.
I used colored pencils to shade the background and bring out the texture...
adding darker shades at the edges and swirls in the parts that wouldn't have leaves.
Then I cut out leaf shapes from the book pages and pasted them unto the tree trunks.
After pasting the book paper leaves, I painted more leaves on in the same color.
I added "fruits" using dimensional paints and this last one even got a bird...
Hello to my wonderful blog friends! I thought I would share with you a collage I finished the other day. I made it by first coating a board with wall putty and when the putty was dry, I painted it with watercolor for the trunk, the grass and the background. I like using a variety of shades when I do this. Then I used colored pencils (also in various shades) to outline the tree trunk and grass, and to put swirls in the background. I love how the colored pencils bring out the texture of the wall putty.
Then I got some book paper and colored a few pages in various shades of green, purple, aqua, fuschia, yellow orange and blue. When the book paper was dry, I cut out the leaf and fruit shapes, trying to find nice words on the page. Some of the leaves and fruits have words like love, time, truth, God, heart, teach, prayers. After pasting all the leaves and fruits, I decided I wanted to put in some birds (oh, you know how fond I am of birds if you've visited before). After painting the birds, I pasted them on as well. I plan to use this image for some of the products we make for our shop, Papemelroti. I will add some quotations to the background (digitally) for some of the products. Hope you like it!
That little bird has chosen his shelter.
Above it are the stars and the deep heaven of worlds.
Yet he is rocking himself to sleep without caring for tomorrow's lodging,
calmly clinging to his little twig, and leaving God to think for him. - Martin Luther
While I'm on the subject of birds, let me tell you about Squirt...
A few years ago, while on vacation, I was walking to the beach when I saw a baby bird on the footpath. The poor bird was just sitting there and some ants were starting to surround him. For a while, I thought he was dead but when I realized he was still alive, I looked around for a nest or a mommy bird. There was none in sight. What could I do?
I hurriedly rescued him from the ants and brought him back to the beach house, putting Tina, my environmentalist/ birdwatcher sister in charge of him (fortunately, she agreed to adopt him).
Back home, Tina researched on the Internet and found out that taking care of a baby bird is no easy task. She had to keep the baby bird warm all the time, specially at the start. That meant she could hardly get any sleep at all (does that sound familiar, mommies?) Everyday, Tina brought the baby bird to work with her (fortunately, my 3 sisters and I all work in the family business and she could do this). We eventually named the baby bird, "Squirt" because, well, he wasn't toilet trained and he squirted bird poop all over. I took to wearing toilet paper "epaulettes" or wearing a shawl, or sometimes putting toilet paper on my head because Squirt liked to perch on my shoulder while I worked!
We taught him how to fly, first, just from one hand to another, then arm's length, then across our office room. He started flying wherever he wanted, one desk to another...
...inspecting my designs (no, no! don't squirt on that!)...
and feeling so comfortable with us.
(Edit: My sister Patsy told me a post about Squirt is not be complete without a video. And although so unflattering for me, here is one where it seems he does not want me to talk on the phone...)
To be "friends" with a bird made me feel like St. Francis (known to be the patron saint of animals and the environment)! What an amazing experience!
But as he grew, we knew that we would eventually have to let him go. By the time we felt he was ready to be released into my mom's big garden, my mom was so attached to him, she didn't want to let him go (she was the baby bird sitter when Tina went out). But of course, Tina told her that it was best for Squirt to be free. We had to let him go.
The big day of Squirt's release came and we all gathered in my mom's house to say our goodbyes. Then, we took Squirt out into the balcony, where he could fly off into the garden. We sat in the balcony for some time, showing him the garden, but he just stayed with us, flying from one head to another.
After waiting for some time, we decided to try again another day. My mom was so happy and perhaps all of us were half hoping he wouldn't fly off.
The following day, with my mom and sisters in my mom's garden (unfortunately, I wasn't there), Squirt flew off and after a few minutes, returned to them and flew from one shoulder to another, from one head to another as if to say, "ok, I've checked out the garden and I'll be going soon, goodbye!" They all went to sit in the balcony and after a few minutes, Squirt flew off. It was a bittersweet moment and the end of the wonderful experience of having him with us.
Sometimes, we have to say goodbye and it is hard, even if it is just a bird! And sometimes the thought of having to say goodbye can keep us from doing something we want to do. Recently, my sister Meldy started the process of becoming a foster parent, taking care of babies who are waiting to be adopted (You need to be accredited first). We got to talking about how we had to say goodbye to Squirt and what will happen when we have to say goodbye to the babies she will be taking care of! "Oh, we are going to cry, we will find it so hard to do", my sister Patsy worried. It was funny because Meldy had not even started submitting the requirements for accreditation and we were already thinking about how hard it would be to say goodbye.
But then, life is full of goodbyes, little ones as well as big ones. We say goodbye to youth, to friends and classmates, loved ones, familiar places, familiar ways of doing things. We can't let our fear of saying goodbye keep us from loving or from doing what is right and good. I have learned that the experience of loving is worth far more than the pain of saying goodbye.
And back to birds, here is the ATC I was making in my previous post...
Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
Every morning, I wake up to the sound of birds chirping outside my window. There is a bird feeder hanging outside and they have their breakfast there.
It wasn't always so. For months after we put the bird feeder up, we kept waiting to see if the birds had found it. We were so happy and excited when we finally saw one bird perched on the feeder. Finally, we thought!
Sometimes I think we are like these birds, not knowing what blessings God is so eager to give us. In His goodness and generosity, He is just waiting for us to claim these blessings. How He delights when we receive the blessings He wants to give us!
And is not His Word a great blessing just waiting to be discovered? Are not some of our bibles just kept on a shelf, waiting to be discovered? So many words of blessing, consolation, hope, help, encouragement, healing, promise, wisdom ("For the word of God is alive and powerful. Hebrews 4:12"), just waiting to be discovered.
And are not those who have discovered these blessings like the birds who first discovered our bird feeder?The first bird brought another and that one brought another and today, so many birds come every day. My prayer is that I may always be open to receive whatever blessings that God wants to give me and I may always share these blessings with others.
The birds that visit us are my inspiration for my latest Artist trading cards. Our visitor birds are little brown Maya birds (that's what we call them) but the birds I am making are colorful birds copied from an old children's book my son (who is now 16 years old) was giving away. (Edit: If you like birds, I think you will like the story of Squirt, the baby bird I found and befriended).
So this is what is on my work desk this Wednesday. For a peek at other work desks joining What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, drop byJulia's blog.
I am from the beautiful tropical country of the Philippines and I like to think I am sowing seeds around the world as I make my blog - seeds of faith, or hope or maybe, creativity. I am blessed to have a wonderful husband and three great children and I spend my work days designing paper products, gifts and decorative accessories for our family gift shops, Papemelroti.
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