It has been a wonderful day!!!!!

[Scones waiting to go in the oven!]

A sunny, wonderful first day of 2010!

I managed to take a walk with dear Mr. Pear which made me so full of energy and hungry that I decided to bake some scones.

I happened to have some clotted cream just waiting to go on the warm scone, along with some wonderful jam (Four Fruits).

Mr. Pear helped me get the scone photo with our temperamental digital camera, then we sat down with a pot of tea, and enjoyed every lovely bite!

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After all the baking and the tea time treat, I felt my creative energies going in a good direction....so down to the studio, though it was getting late. No time to execute a masterpiece, not even time to set up a still life, but I could pull out my scissors and glue and do collage!

First, I did this cover for an inexpensive "brown paper bag" moleskine. Now it will be fun to use as an art journal.

The other collages I did were in a hardback book which my friend Paula and I are "altering" with paint and collage.[ I posted a couple of the pages I did today here .]

Notes on Gratitude

I often think how lucky I am to be able to cook and eat lovely foods and to post about doing it. This is a wide, international Internet and I do hope that no one who is suffering from hunger stops by and suffers even more because of a post. I am grateful for being able to eat as well as we do, and I do not take it for granted! Cooking takes a lot of my creative energy and I love sharing the inspiration and enthusiam!
"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." (Cicero) [So, I am working on having gratitude!]

Opening......

When I returned from work yesterday, I needed to rest, so I sat down with a magazine I had picked up at mother's. "Good Housekeeping" for September 2008. Opening the magazine at random, it opened to a page which was an essay by Kate Braestrup entitled "Open Your Heart". Perfect, I thought,.... and it was!

When we are in times where fear is being spread, we must breathe deeply and learn to reach out to those around us. Here is my favorite paragraph from her essay....
"The spiritual challenge we're offered as human beings doesn't vanish when times are hard. If the economy is contracting, a human heart can nonetheless continue to expand, finding new opportunities for gratitude, compassion, and generosity. To stay open to love is doubtless an effective way of weathering a recession, and I could recommend it for that reason alone. If I am honest, I have to say it more plainly still: To stay open to love is simply and always The Way. "

Other blog posts encourage us to open our hearts. If you missed the trip Maryam made to Rwanda, see my previous post.

Colette of "A Bird in the Hand" had a post about more local needs.

[note: the photo above, of the open window, was saved in a desktop file. I save photos for inspiration. However, I have no record of whose photo this is. Please leave word for me in the comments or email if it is your photo....I apologise for using it without permission and would like to correct the issue!]

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Don't forget to leave a comment on my October 1st post if you'd like to be entered in my birthday art giveaway... through tomorrow. I will be drawing a name on the 16th.

AND.....please go by Julie's blog (Celtic Lady...in my sidebar) and vote for a winner (vote for me!!LOL!) in the Fireside Fancies art contest!

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Another place to open your heart, for a young friend with ALS.