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~✿
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