I have a zen doodle book at home that I copy designs out of. Sometimes I create my own designs but I have to admit that the process of creating art as a copyist comes much more easily to me and has a heightened effect of relaxation for me.
I guess I still carry that child’s reflex of learning by copying in me. That’s how I learned back then and still do nowadays. So my credo is: Don’t give up what’s working well and brings you fun!
over the weekend my phantasy gave it’s all during one night when I woke up twice to a mind-bogglingly outrageous and slightly disturbing dream. Let’s just say in one a huge fish on ice turned out to be still alive and then magically transformed into a girl I befriended and we were best friends ever after…
I think I might be in need of some quality friends-time 😉
Take care and don’t let the dream bug bite you!
Yours, s@m
Calendar week 12. Ski vacation Zermatt. This kind of weather. Every. Single. Day.
Today we went to the senior citizens’ theater. My auntie and uncle are still actively supporting the performances (my aunt with makeup, my uncle staffing the bar) while my mom stopped working with them (she was the master makeup artist before she left :-)) because of the commute that was getting too tedious for all the rehearsals and two weeks of performances.
The play was a hoot as usual and the actors put all their passion into their play. What an inspiring performance.
A little morning doodle with a very spontaneous quote that just popped out of my head into my hands.
Yesterday evening’s run awarded me with an amazing sunset (unfortunately my doodling skills don’t even start to match the real beauty of it).
Ruins of ancient buildings wherever the gaze wanders. Beauty and glory behind every corner. This city truly feels like an open air museum. So much history in every corner. And don’t even get me started on the food… Glorious, indeed!
Sometimes I’m a little turned around. I reckon it happens to everyone. But once in a 
while I take it overboard… like the other day when I walked around half the village only realizing when I got back home that I had put on my sweatpants backwards!! How did that happen??!? I honestly have no idea. All I know that I put them on backwards again last night but at least noticed right away.
Ah well, what can I say? I’m just a real Johnny Head-in-the-Air… does anyone know the female version of this expression? Is it simply “Jane Head-in-the-Air” or does it not exist at all?
Take care and make sure your clothing sits right 😉
Love,
s@m
Saturday, March 19th, 2017 – Ever since I moved into my apartment there’s been one thing that’s been bothering me: The incredibly low pressure at which the water trickled out the kitchen faucet. So a couple of weekends back I decided to fix it: So I descaled the faucet, took it apart and built it together again the way it was supposed to fit together and – voilà: Ever since it’s been working like a charm. And to this day that makes me very happy. Small pleasures sweeten my life 🙂
Sunday, March 20th, 2017 – The week before last I fell sick. I’d caught the crud. My throat felt thick with a cold and over the weekend I got a very sore throat. It later turned into a bad cold with fever, coughing and sneezing galore.
So I put on my beanie and surrounded myself with my favorite stuffed animals… okay, my one favorite stuffed animal: Hedwig, the snow owl.
Monday, March 21st, 2017 – Later in the week I started to feel way worse and when the voice at the end of a 10 min. meditation session I tried to follow asked me how I was feeling now the first answer that shot through my head was “Like someone had stuffed my lungs through a meat grinder!”
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017 – It has become customary for me to celebrate my second Birthday on March 22nd every year. It was that day in 1994 when I was rushed to the hospital with a thunderous headache (seriously, it felt as if that monster from the “Alien” movie tried to escape from my skull instead of my gut :-p) and a boiling fever, a stiff neck and arched spine. Turned out I had a bacterial meningitis and after a spinal punctuation to confirm the bacterial part they flushed me with antibiotics immediately. I was lucky the first antibiotics the pumped into my system worked and thus I am who I am today: A lucky one who has gotten through some rough patches.
Thursday, March 23rd, 2017 – That’s the face you make when your doc tells you that you’re not suffer
ing from the flu but “just from a common cold”. The addition that it was a severe cold and undoubtedly serious doesn’t really help to pick up your ego after such a blow.
Friday, March 24th, 2017 – I dared to go for a walk as the weather forecast promised a lot of sun, thanks to the southern wind coming over the alps and us
ually bringing splendid weather with it. Unfortunately, the “Föhn” – or “chinook wind” as it is sometimes called by English speakers – was quite frosty and fierce this time and almost blew my hair off my head… as you notice my beanie’s already gone. Luckily, I took it off myself. And just in time – a ferocious gust of wind managed to blow a fellow walker’s cap off so he had to chase after it – and in my imagination he’s running after it to this very day.
Saturday,
March 25th, 2017 – I have to admit: I’ve never been the biggest fan of curtains. Mostly because however thing they are they steal my daylight. So I try to avoid them wherever I can. Since I do have a pair of windows that is facing directly my neighbors windows/balcony door I decided I needed a little privacy, so I designed my own visual cover. I am pretty pleased with the result. And I dare say my neighbor doesn’t have much to complain about either.
What did you do last week? Did you manage to get healthy through this winter?
Sources & Resources
Saturday I attended a Zentangle© Basics Course in Zurich with the first ever Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) in Switzerland, Hanny Waldburger. Even though I didn’t feel my best I decided to attend. My state was clearly past incubation so I wasn’t in danger of infecting anyone. And I thought a couple of hours of creative time might be the best cure anyways.
It’s not like I didn’t know anything about zentangling, meaning I could have attended the advanced course but I was interested to learn the basics, the phylosophy behind the whole zentangle movement. And it is fascinating, I’m telling you.
The three hours were well spent, even if it meant that I sounded like a failing steam-engine Sunday morning. That would most certainly have happened anyway. At least now I know that I had three memorable hours with a bunch of creative ladies who to begin with thought they were utterly talentless but as it turned out they were all amazing artists. That’s the beauty of zentangling: It takes out the stress of competing with either your own expecations or others work – each and every piece is unique and beautiful in it’s own way. See for yourselves:
I hope you all had an inspiring weekend with at least one activity that took you to that place of calm contentment that one only finds when being in the here and now, finding the flow.
What’s your go to activity to find that state?
Photo credit: All photo’s by evozeta
