2nd Set of Twinchies - Advent of the Sun Calendar

Happy Holidays Everyone!
Since we are snowed in (today it was up to my waist as we waded through drifts to rescue our Fir trees whose branches were weighed down by ice and snow!) I took the snow time to finish off the last set of twinchies and who knows I may get to put it together before the New Year!

*
13. The Gift of Forgiveness







*
14. The Gift of World Wide Friendship
This journey which began in 1971 has been so rich in blessings of World Wide Friendship that I scarce can count or know where to begin. This image is composed of an ancient Compass Rose with a Celtic Stone Compass laid on top and a world clock placed in the centre.
I have a world clock on my desktop so I can see at a glance what time it is in my friend's respective countries. Since we are 'waiting on a kidney' (only another 4 years to go!) and cannot travel as much as we would like, the Internet serves our wanderlust.

*
15. The Door to ?

Doorways have always fascinated me, especially those in Provence which are directly influenced by the Moorish occupation many centuries ago. In this country, doors lead not to the house itself but rather a courtyard, often with a garden. In fact, the word 'Paradise' means 'Garden' in Arabic and these ancient residents could not imagine a paradise without plants and flowing water.
Doorways also lead to dreams and visions and crossing the 'threshold'.
In this image, I would like you to take the Key and unlock the Door of Imagination.

*
16.The Gift of Prosperity: what could be more fitting for someone like me who is busy exploring her celtic roots than to find out that the Apple Tree was that Symbol? I recently learned that there are even two 'Wassail Days' depending on which calendar you follow:
January 6th or January 17. On this day, you pour a libation of cider at the foot of your apple tree, sing or 'wassail' it and ask for a good harvest in the coming Spring.
This year I hope to do the same around ours!

*
17 - The Gift of Prayer - On an amazing day in chilly February, in an old churchyard, a fig tree was absolutely loaded with fruit! To have a mediterranean fruit tree this far north, not only thrive but bear fruit is very much a Miracle!


*
18 - A Gift Admired: my husband's amazing 'photograhic eye' and who has taught me everything I know about taking a good shot :
a Gift Remembered: as an Engagement present, my husband gave me an Olympus Trip camera to take with me to Israel in 1976.

*
19. The Gift of Peace, Joy and Goodwill.
A shot of a quail in our first snow reminescent of a 'partridge in a pear tree' only in this case it would be a 'quail in a fir tree'.
Soft snow, plenty of cracked corn and no predators - this was a place where 'Quail could Safely Feed.'

*
20. The Gift of Happiness: my sleeping cat curled up in front of a roaring fire, books and plenty of CHOCOLATE!




*
21. Gift of Lessons Learned: Part of my celtic studies was to investigate and become familiar with the Ancient Celtic Calendar.
I used two images: one of a more modern interpretation (the black and white) and the background is a photo of the more ancient celtic Coligny Calendar.

*
22. The Gift of Kindness - especially the Unexpected Kind!
In this image, I wish to pay homage to my 'Knights' -
Stephen who drove over 2 hours (ONE WAY!) to pick me up since I had damaged my left heel (now diagnosed as a stress fracture) and took me from Warwickshire allllll the way to other side of London where I was put up for a night (gratis) by Graeme who then made sure I got my to hotel safe and was able to make my flight the next day! PHEW! Knights to the Rescue? ...INDEED!
Blessings on you Stephen and Graeme!

*
23. The Gift of Service.
This December while gift shopping, I discovered with delight a small storefront establishment which sold items for several non profit organizations.
A beautiful leather bag caught my eye with the nonedescript tag of the 'Nepal Education Fund'.
By googling the website, I found that the bag I had purchased for 50 dollars would help with the costs of a Nepalese child's education.
The Nepal Education Fund, I am pleased to say, was started by a local lady here in town so it has the true beauty of 'acting Locally and serving Globally'.
I thought it appropriate to use an image of Quan Yin the Goddess of Compassion with her outpouring of blessings on the two Nepalese children.
*
24. The Gift of Faith








* Blessings to all who view these.
For those who might like to know, I used Serif's Digital Scrapbook Artist software to create these images and have found that my love of photography can mingle nicely with my collages!
Shanti

Advent of the Sun Calendar - my first 12 twinchies!

Hi Soul Journalists:

Happy Holidays !

Since my hands are too sore these days to do much cutting (other than wrapping presents and tying ribbon,) here are my twinchies done digitally.

I am doing an Advent of the Sun Calendar with a surprise foldout heading towards the Winter Solstice on December 21. Since this is my first attempt at doing this, I hope it works out and I can show you the ahem result ..

First I have a confession to make: I am NOT a Crafty Person! There I said it; I was known to one and all at Girl Guide Trainings as 'the one who would glue her left elbow to her ear with the glue gun'!

I followed Kathryn's suggestions for Day Themes for the most part and added a few things here and there of my own.

So here are my first set of 12 twinchies:

.

Day 1 -This took us 25 years to find - a home with land.

So yes..it's the best present and Number One on the list.The key holds a tag with 07-07-07 on it as Quail Hill 'found' us on July 7, 2007.

.
Day 2 - 32 years of Marriage to this wonderful man

.
Day 3 - Sense of touch (due to my limited eyesight) has always been important.

Besides it's universal, you can say so much with touch.

.

Day 4 - A Gift to Pass On- in our area, we have Garry Oak Groves, very rare and precious and endangered.

Recently a developer CUT DOWN 20 of them to make way for a condo!

They are found ONLY in our area and a limited bit in northern Washington and take twice as long to grow as the regular english oak.

Yes they are 'listed' but only on Public land, private land owners can still cut them down.

.
Day 5 - A Gift to Share - this year I made Oregon Grape Jelly from berries picked from our neighbourhood.

.

Day 6 - The Best Gift you can give....

This polar bear came every day for a week to play with this husky sled dog.

.

Day 7 - Gift from Other Artists: THANK YOU SOUL JOURNALISTS!

.
Day 8 - Gift of Childhood - Bringing home the tree with the (to a 4 year old) BIG RED Tractor.

.

Day 9 - Gifting myself - THE BIG SOAK with a GOOD BOOK

My fantasy Roman bath filled with hot water and rose petals, a good selection of steamy novels on the edge and floating candles.

.

Day 10 - Gifts I brought into this life: My passion for Music Art and Writing.

Surprise gift from my subconscious... I didn't realize until I posted this twinchie that it 'sort of ' spells 'Joy' Can you see it?

.

Day 11- Gifts of Nature - O my there are so many around here, I was hard pressed to find a photo that expressed it all, but here is what I came up with- The Gateway to the Hidden Garry Oak Grove at the top of the hill.

.

Day 12- Gift of Time - I was playing with the idea of the 'Sands of Time' and the wonderful hidden city of Petra which is slowly returning to sand, came to mind.

Looking for more 'sifting sand' pictures, I found this photo of a young woman with sand running through her fingers, but to where ?

Then I remembered the Buddhist Medicine Sand Wheels which take 2 days to build out of coloured sand and then are destroyed in a very beautiful but sad ceremony.

So...here She is: the Goddess of Time, giving the monks sand to build their mandala with, but knowing like the ancient city of Petra in the background, that it too, will one day become sand and slip through Her fingers.

"Make the most of your Time", She says, "I can't hold on to it forever".

Blessings to all who view this.

LN

Personal Lexicon - The Sea Unites Us All

I can lay claim to 3 very distinct Cultures.
Viking from my father's side, Celt from my mother's and somewhere in there (according to family legend) First Nations - perhaps Mohawk, Navaho or Hopi.

This was very much a 'O NOW I remember!'
I never knew my mother's parents but I had the great good fortune to be raised within a toddler's distance of my paternal grandparents.
The smell of lefse cooking on a dry skillet as a Winter treat.
My grandmother's soft humming.
The sound of my grandfather's fiddle.
Constuction:
The artpiece is surrounded by treasures of the sea, bits of arbutus bark, broken shells, feathers, and a wonderful 'scroll' of sea dried birch bark which made a perfect inkpot for my quill.
The twisted rope was a natural for a triskele to bind all three countries together and as I was working on this all week (despite Shower and Bookcase installation and cold/flu hacking coughing) the words 'the sea unites us all' came to me as the title; as it was the sea that brought my ancestors to this New World.
Blessings on all who view this
LN

My First Soul Journal - Healing Love

This is a very apt one for me to start with.

This particular entry is dedicated to my dear friend John who has just come through as he put it, ' A WALK IN HELL'.

He suffered, and won! through 6 cycles of chemotherapy to combat his lymphoma and will be starting radiation on October 1st.
*
A bit about the entry:

The Black Knight represents John and his battle against his cancer, leaping over the Flames of Hell to the Recovery area (which has more blue and green in it)

There are flames peeking out from the top of the left upper corner of the Book Of Life, and he is riding onwards to the Healing Love side.

The Black Knight's fist is wrapped around a lock of my hair representing in sympathy, his own hair loss, the Day Before he finds out he doesn't need any more chemo!

The dried corn leaf is a traditional symbol of Sacrifice - 6 months of not being able to work and every two weeks going through this nightmare of a Journey.

Blessings and Shanti John, as you go onward to Healing Love and Recovery!