Mandala Monday ~ Since We Last Spoke

Why helloooo!

Hi there, my dear WordPress friends! 💕

It’s been such a long time! I hope this finds you all doing and being well! I’ve had many of you on my mind off and on throughout this time I’ve been away, and have thought of posting something on numerous occasions, but frankly, I just didn’t have it in me. There’s many reasons for my absence, none of which I’ll go into right now, but today I thought what better time to pop in to say hello than on a Mandala Monday?!

I must confess, I haven’t created a whole lot of mandalas since we last spoke. I haven’t had the time nor the inspiration for as much creativity, but there’s been moments. Blessed moments, where I haven’t been on survival mode and have been able to settle into the stillness and create…

From my birthday last summer…

On top of a tambourine! A gift I received on said birthday…

Playing with sidewalk chalk.

Some keychains I painted for gifts recently. I can’t remember the last time I painted!

More sidewalk chalk shenanigans…

A work in progress from this past summer solstice. I was trying something different. Don’t look too closely at it, it’s sorta crooked oops! 🙃 I plan to paint the bottom half in greens to represent grass. We’ll see how it turns out. 🤷‍♀️

And these aren’t mandalas. But they are circular. Little dandeLIONS I made with my sweet grandchildren…

They’ve grown so much! My granddaughter is 6 and my grandson is 3. They are such a joy and blessing, I can barely contain the immense love I have for them! 💕

And this isn’t a mandala either, but I have to throw this into this post as well. I’ve recently taken on a few Swallowtail caterpillars to foster and I’m very much looking forward to it! I’ve fostered Monarchs several times in years past, but never Swallowtails. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to share some of the process with you.

Well, I better go get ready for work. I hope to drop by some of your blogs soon!

Sending you all good vibes!

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Mandala Monday ~ Welcome March

I thought I’d share another diamond painting I did. I love the open flower burst look and the colors of this one.

I also love when the first of a month falls on a Monday.  I think because it feels like even more of a new beginning or something?  🙃

 

Wishing you a bright and happy Monday and March 1st!  May beautiful things come your way!

 

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Mandala Monday ~ Valentiney ❤

 

I haven’t much of a chance to get outside to create any of my nature mandalas lately.  Whenever the temps haven’t been -30 windchill, it’s been snowing like crazy and the only thing I’ve had the chance to do when I’m out there is shovel.  To be honest, the snow has sort of been kicking my ass haha!  But it sure is pretty and I refuse to begrudge it.  Last night when it finally stopped snowing and I went out there to shovel, it was absolutely breathtaking (and not because of the cold 😉), dusk was falling and the colors were so soft and lovely. 😍

In between the frigid temps and the snow, I’ve been nice and warm inside, painting.  I got a really good deal on some little 4 x 4 wrapped canvases a while back and I thought I’d experiment a bit with painting mandalas on them using some Valentiney colors.  💘

Painting a round design on a square shape is not very forgiving and you can really tell how crooked they are.  I think I might have to try to figure out how to draw some sort of grid on them before I start painting so they’re not so crooked.  The only thing is… I never know ahead of time what sort of design I’m going to paint, it just sort of becomes whatever it becomes…

You would think that as I’m working out from the center and going around and around that it would sort of automatically be centered on the canvas, but apparently not, in my case. 🙃  I need more practice making my dots more uniform in size.  Good thing I have all these little canvases to practice on. 😉

 

Stay cozy, my friends!  Wishing you all a wonderful, love-filled day! ❤

 

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Mandala Monday ~ Christmas Ornaments

I’ve been back in painting mandalas mode over the past couple of weeks making Christmas ornaments as gifts for friends and family.  I’ve had a lot of fun painting them and I really hope they like them.  Here are a few of the designs I created.  They’re all a bit similar, especially color-wise (red, green and white), but each one is different…

The ornaments I used were clear glass, so they pick up whatever is in the background.  It really affects the look of the design and I’m not sure if I like that or not.  I tried using an etching cream on one of them to create a frosted glass look, but omygosh that was a complete fail.

The lighting wasn’t the greatest trying to photograph them indoors, so I brought them outside and snapped a few photos of them hanging from the branches of my arborvitae…

I don’t know if you can tell in the photo, but I put fake snow in the bottom of this next one.  I thought it’d be a whimsical way of providing ‘snow’ for loved ones who don’t get snow where they live…

I also put rhinestones in the center of some of them for those who might like a bit more bling, but at the time of this post, I’ve already wrapped them up for giving and don’t have a good picture to share.  Oh wait, here’s one…

It’s not very sparkly in the photo, a real crystal would look prettier, but I couldn’t find any flat-backed ones in the proper size.

I made them in two different sizes and the details got a bit muddled up trying to paint the tiny dots on the smaller ones, so they don’t look as nice blown up in a photo, but they’re pretty and dainty in person.

Due to the same color scheme, they all started feeling like they looked too much alike, so I tried to create different patterns, at the same time as keeping the person I was making them for in mind.  This one turned out be sort of a star burst design…

A few of the recipients of these ornaments follow my blog and I’m hoping they don’t see this post before they receive their ornaments, but I wanted to share because it’s one of the things I’ve been up to lately.

I know I’ve been a bit absent from my WordPress community this December (posting and reading) and I’m sorry I haven’t had the chance to stop by your blogs as much, but please know this… I’ve still thought of a great many of you quite often during this time, truly I have, and I’ve been sending love and good vibes your way as you’ve come to mind.

Please be well my friends.  Sincerely wishing you all that is good and lovely in this world, a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and lots of love to you and yours…

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

 

Mandala Monday ~ Kaleidoscope

This week’s mandala sort of reminds me of a kaleidoscope.  And that brings to mind the words of a poem I wrote some time ago…

 

Autumn leaves, colors so bright

a feast for the eyes, such a wondrous sight

Shades of crimson, rust, and amber

a brilliant kaleidoscope of nature’s splendor

© Julie Rehnelt 2012

 

Except the colors mentioned in that old poem don’t quite match because they don’t include yellow or gold and this autumn ‘kaleidoscope’ has lots of yellow and gold in it.  Oh well.  🙃

 

Here are a couple photos I snapped during this mandala’s progress…

Have I mentioned lately how satisfying, enjoyable, and enriching this practice of creating nature mandalas with autumn leaves is?  Of course I have.  😉

And I don’t know how much longer it’s going to last, as fall is nearly at an end here now.  I’ve tried to preserve some of the leaves I’ve gathered this fall, but I don’t know how well they’ll keep.  But I’m sure I can rely on nature to provide other beauties to create with if this urge to make mandalas continues.

 

Wishing you beauty and creativity in this coming week…

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Mandala Monday ~ Pumpkins

It was a very busy week for me last week, but it was filled with so many precious moments.  I finally made it to the apple orchard and the weather was absolutely glorious the day we went.  I forgot it was MEA (all Minnesota children had school off), so it was terribly crowded there, but I still enjoyed it.  Mainly because I got to go there with my little granddaughter.  She brings me so much joy.  💕

They have a little pumpkin patch on the grounds at the orchard and she enjoyed that the most.  It was so fun to watch her frolic around, inspecting all the pumpkins.  She loved it!

What isn’t there to love about pumpkins?  They’re orange and round and somehow just automatically bring a smile to your face….

We are planning a separate trip to a local pumpkin farm, so we weren’t looking to pick one out to bring home, but somehow we ended up with one anyway…

Out of all the pumpkins there, she picked a crusty little “Charlie Brown” one, but it was just her size.  🍊

I also got the chance to go on a little nature walk with my granddaughter this past week and this is where I gathered the leaves for my mandala above…

It’s an area near my home called the Qaking Bog.  I used to take my daughter here when she was small.  I can’t even tell you how wonderful and precious it was to go there now with my granddaughter… 😍

 

Autumn is progressing quickly here and I’m just absorbing as much of it as I can while it lasts…

 

May you absorb beauty and joy in this coming week…

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Mandala Monday – Apples

I’ve been craving all things apple lately, but haven’t had the chance to get to the orchard yet this fall due to the wet, rainy (and then snowy) weather we’ve been having here.  So I caved in the other day and went the boring route and bought some apples at a local store.  I’m feeling like some fresh baked apple crisp is in my near future…

I’ve also been feeling like creating a mandala with apples, so after the snow melted yesterday, I went out and did just that…

This one sort of reminds me of a wreath.

My sister was with me while I was making it, as she had driven down for the day.  I hadn’t really been ‘planning’ on making a mandala, but she helped me prune a few branches on the crab apple tree out on my boulevard that were hanging on the power lines attached to my house, and when I had noticed them earlier in the week I had had an idea for possibly using them in a mandala and I wanted to use the sprigs while they were ‘fresh’.  Thankfully we didn’t get electrocuted while we were at it.  😉 ⚡

We laughed a lot yesterday and it felt really wonderful.  She watched me as my mandala took form and felt my ‘glee’ (as she put it) when I discovered a few browning pieces of Cedar on my shrub, as they were just what I needed to brighten and provide a little contrast.  It was fun to have her out in the garden with me while I was making it.  We always have fun together.  My seester. ❤

So this one has joy mixed in it, along with some delicious little apples. Thanks for letting share!

 

 

Wishing you a joyful, delicious day!

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Mandala Monday ~ Autumn Equinox

I haven’t been painting mandalas much these days, but I made a few using some elements from nature that I collected during a couple of nature walks I took this past weekend to celebrate the beginning of my favorite season… autumn!🍁😍🍂

There isn’t really any fall color happening on the trees in my area just yet, so I didn’t have much to work with as far as colorful leaves go.  But I do have some autumn-y colored flowers blooming in my garden at the moment, so I used those and I really like the way they added to the look of my autumn themed mandalas.  I created three different designs and I can’t decide which one I like best, so I’m just gonna share them all…

Although it was a bit sad to dismantle each one in order to create a new one, it was such a therapeutic and enjoyable activity.  I wish I would have thought of doing this at the beginning of the growing season and had had the opportunity to create mandalas from all the different stages of nature and the garden from spring through fall.  But I’m grateful to have thought of it now.  Leave it to Autumn to spur on some creativity… 😄

Wishing you a beautiful Monday – or whatever day it may be when you happen across this…

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Mandala Monday – August

The month of August sort of signals the end of summer, which can be a bit depressing to realize, but there are a lot of wonderful and beautiful things about the month of August…

For one, I love all of the gorgeous late summer flowers that are blooming everywhere – sunflowers, lilies, phlox (whose scent is completely intoxicating here at the moment, by the way), coneflowers, liatris, and black-eyed susan, just to name a few.  And it’s also when my vegetable garden starts kicking out lots of yummy things – for example, my zucchini (as you may have seen in my post the other day), and also beans, jalapeno peppers, and the first of my cucumbers are just about ready to pick.  August is a very rewarding time in the garden.  😊

For two – it’s my birthday month, and I tend to celebrate it all month long, which is always fun, and this year is no exception – I’ve already started before the calendar has even turned to August by going to see the butterfly exhibit at my local zoo and conservatory with my daughter and granddaughter last week.  And I also went to the salon this past weekend to get my hair color freshened up and to get a bit of pampering before my birthday.  My stylist, who is also a good friend of mine, gave me an early birthday present – a gorgeous book about lavender that had belonged to her late mother, such a beautiful and meaningful gift.  I browsed through it while my hair was processing and it was the perfect reading material to enhance my pampering session.  Ah lavender… 💜

For three – August is when the Minnesota Renaissance Festival starts and that is something I love going to each year.  I’m looking forward to going with my new bionic knees this year (even though they are still paining me a bit), hopefully I’ll have an easier time walking around and enjoying all of the festivities there.  I have a new project that I’m working on for my costume this year too – a staff/walking stick that I hope to embellish to make it look more magical.  Yeah, I know that’s totally nerdy, but I don’t care, I chose long ago to embrace my inner nerd.  🙃

Another fun thing that is happening this particular August is a solar eclipse, and I plan on going on a little road trip with a good friend of mine to see it.  We haven’t worked out all the details yet, but we are thinking of making a week of it.  She is bringing her camper, so we plan to camp somewhere that is nearby one of the areas of totality of the eclipse.  I haven’t been camping in ages, so I’m a little apprehensive about that part of it.  But as you all know – I LOVE being out in nature, so that will be the wonderful part of it.  Hopefully we have good weather and clear skies during the eclipse, so we can get the full effect and awe factor.  I love the sky and all things astronomical!  Speaking of astronomical events, August also is the time of the Perseid meteor shower, and who doesn’t love shooting stars?!  🌠

So even though August signals the end of summer and the weather sometimes gets too hot and humid, there are lots of things to look forward to and enjoy about August as well.  Plus, it does mean that fall is just around the corner, and fall is my favorite!  🍁🍂

But I’m rambling and this post is supposed to be about my mandalas haha!  So let me get to sharing a few of the ones I’ve painted recently…

 

This one was partly inspired by my trumpet vine that I have growing up the fence on my patio where I paint.  These colors speak August to me…

So warm and summery!  ☀️

And this one, although not inspired by my phlox, looks lovely pictured with them…

I painted this tile a bit differently.  I wanted the center design to stand out more prominently, but I also didn’t want to leave the corners plain, so rather than continue around the center design, I improvised and painted the corners separately instead.  It’s pretty, but I’m not sure how I feel about it – the corners look a little too separated from the center, what do you think?

 

This one also speaks August to me, although not necessarily for the same reasons as the first one, it reminds me of peridot, which is the birthstone for August…

It also reminds me a bit of clover leaves, so I took a picture of it amidst the clover leaves in my yard…

That’s a whole lot of green!  ☘  This one is a good example of why I don’t always want to continue around the center design, because it takes away from it.  I snapped a few pictures of the progress of this mandala that will show what I mean…

See what I mean?  The finished piece just looks a little too busy or something and the center design gets a bit lost.  That’s why I made the corners like I did on the one pictured with the phlox.  But like I said, I’m not sure how I feel about that either hah!

I guess it’s just a continual learning process, right?  As is all of life…  🙃

 

Happy Monday and happy August 1st tomorrow.  I wish you many blessings in the coming week and in month ahead…

 

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

 

 

Mandala Mondays

While I’m in this mode of incessantly painting mandalas, how do you guys feel about having mandala Mondays?  I could just post one mandala that I’ve made over the previous week or several, depending on how many I have and whether or not they’re worth sharing.  And it may or may not have any text depending on how wordy I’m feeling.  To be honest, I haven’t been feeling very wordy lately, which is probably why I haven’t been posting regularly for a while.  Anyway, here are a few I’ve painted recently…

I found some mini canvases at the art store that I can paint on in addition to the tiles, since I’m having such a hard time finding round rocks.  I also picked up some mini easels to display them on.  My brother-in-law had a liver transplant this past week and the morning of his transplant I woke up and felt the urge to paint spirals, so that’s what I’ve been doing a lot since then, this one is my favorite…

I like how each strand of the spiral goes from light to dark and vise versa depending on which direction your eyes follow it, and how the dots go from small to large to small again as the spiral itself continues to grow.  It makes me wish I had a bigger canvas. There’s definitely some symbolism and metaphors going on in there.

Although I’ve had a hard time finding round rocks,  I seem to have no trouble finding ones that I can paint hearts on.  I figure the universe must be trying to tell me something, so I’m just going to go with it.  Here is another heart-shaped one that I made, this time in purple, my favorite color…

I’m really happy with this one.  It’s a fairly small stone, so it was a bit difficult painting all those itty-bitty tiny dots, but it turned out so pretty, and it feels like me.  💜

This is a tile that I painted with the same colors of a rock that I did earlier on where I wanted to try to recreate the design on a tile, it ended up not looking anything like the original, but I really like the way it turned out…

Well that’s all I got for now on this Monday.  Thanks for letting me share.

We have our fourth of July holiday tomorrow here in the States, so I’m wishing all of you here with me in the US, a happy Independence Day.  🇱🇷 And I’m wishing the rest of you… a happy everything else day.

😊

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿