Do you have "favourites"? I so have favourites. Favourite mini tinbox with yummy teabags in. Favourite colour combinations. Favourite tea and favourite temperature!

Things have slowed down here lately and I must admit I REALLY like it. No more running around and feeling I have to do everything... yesterday! Today I can relax, and looking ahead I don't have many projects coming. And I like it. I like being new to the world and not worry too much. What will tomorrow bring? I don't know.
I am taking some time to dream more. Well, perhaps not in my sleep (although I do dream sometimes when I'm in deep sleep), no I mean when I'm just walking around, doing the daily work around the house. I think about the future. No, that's not true, I DREAM about it. I picture things in my head that I would like to see happen. I don't DO anything about it just now, which is the part that I like SO much right now! I am -just- being and seeing and... dreaming. It's lovely.
I think about how my art studio feels, and how I want it to be. Recently, I heard a woman say that your studio is your life. Your life is your studio. I like that idea. Anything you create is part of your life. Your life is your creation. You create the life for you. And you already know who you are.

The Moon has been very present the last couple of days here. Very clear and very bright. Last night it was shining in through the bedroom window like a Night Silver Sun. I went out for a walk this morning, and it was still hanging in the air. Over the hills.

Do you know Amanda Clark? She makes such wonderful images. This one I borrowed because it talks to me about the Moon, the dreaming. Somehow the moon and dreaming seems to be interconnected. And the wolf. They all seem to be coming from the same mystery. I don't know it yet. But I am happy to step closer.

Today as I sit and write this post, it is my number 100 post for this blog. This blog started as fate would have it, on the 26th of October last year. I don't know about you but I really like mornings. There is something extremely sacred about the mornings. Everything is possible. Nothing is written.Yet.
I'm not sure what this day will bring yet. Yesterday I spent a lot of time with my website again. Initially I just wanted to change a few things but then, as fate would also have it, all my changes from last time (where I spent 2 full days on designing it) had NOT been saved. And so, is it fate handing me a hand, helping me to change it again, to improve and to stay true to my purpose? When I work with computer, I enjoy it for a couple of hours. Then I get tired. I get sad, and I get frustrated. Then I have a break and come back. Return to my vision and keep working.
Maybe it's stupid. You know, maybe I should have someone just do my website for me, fix it up, make it licious. But I can't. Not right now. I want to know that I have given it my all. Because that's what I believe in. Giving it all. Not giving up.

When I started my blog back then a year ago I didn't know how it would look. It has changed appearance many times. All I know is that I wanted to write more, and I still enjoy that. So it's 1 year and 100 posts that tells story about my art, my life and my garden, my dreams and hopefully also my fears.
One of the things I believe is that we let each other see inside who we really are as a person. I remind myself this again and again. It means to tell the whole story. Not just the accomplishments and the goals made. But also the struggles. The meaninglessness. The frustrations.
I could be better at those last parts.
This is the end of a circle. A first circle. Like a New Year's day I celebrate this day as a landmark in my art and story.

Thank you for being here with me.

I am very inspired by the people I walk amongst. The normal people. All the ordinary people. My cards are about these people. The dreamers, the mums, the dads, sisters and friends. We all have a little bit of something special inside. And I find it so unique and so interesting.

Recently a woman came to me, and asked me if I could make a card design for her to give to her newborn granddaughter. I thought this was a very special and powerful request. Because what are the gifts that we want to give to a new born child? A girl coming into this world, all new, all blessed.

As ever so often (thank you Universe!) the images that I create do not come from hours of thinking and drawing and creating. Most commonly they come from an inside place, and they stand out, they shine. When I see this picture inside I KNOW this is the right image. I see it and I can feel the image.

Then I start to sketch and draw what I see. And the first sketch is often very powerful. This sketch fixates the composition in the picture, who is in it, and where they are.

In so many ways this newborn girl (who is not yet born - but just getting ready!) is just like so many other girls being born. She has the same nose as most, the same eyes and the same body as most newborn girls. And then, in so many other ways - this girl is special! This girl is so unique with her own story, her own family tree and her own roots. In so many ways, there is none else quite like this girl - and that's what I wanted to express, with my card.

But I also wanted to express the love and support commitment from the Universe around this special girl. Inspired by Disney's Snowwhite and The Seven Dwarfs I found myself drawing an image much like the scene in the woods (if you remember the fim), where the animals stand watching. They are observing - they are watching. They are the witnesses of the birth as well as the human family. Perhaps they too are depictions of Spirit, like the Eagle in the tree, and the tree itself.

In this card I used a little bit stronger, darker colour than what I usually do in my watercolours.

Every girl is special. Every person is unique.

Here are pictures from my photo shoot and the final design.
The artwork A New Life is available in my webshop.

Do you know Wendy Andrew? Her cards and designs are so wonderful!

Wendy's artwork connects me with the powers of nature: the seasons, the animals, the spirits of nature. It's wonderful. Just now I received the autumn equinox newsletter from Wendy, with this lovely image. Ah, her stuff is so great :-)

Happy autumn!

I light the candles in my studio. I leave the light off. The day is quiet, though many souls are on the streets. It is a public holiday in France - toussaint - all saints day.

I was going to make christmas cards, and I am. But somehow the energy of the toussaint took me, and I realised I can't go on to winter, before having celebrated this important time first. 
In celtic tradition it's a celebration of harvest and stepping into winter. It lies between fall equinox and winter solstice. In the Danish churches, we remember those who are no-longer among us at all saints night. The priest might read out loud names of those in the community who have died within the past year. 

For me the time of Alle Helgen, is about honoring the dead. Lighting a candle in the dark. Saying prayers. Coming together in peace to honor what has been. Even if it's just me alone, in the woods. 

It is a special and magical experience, to come before the darkness, recognize it, see it, and be vulnerable in it. And it is something we can do just now. May this image remind you of that which is sacred to you. Your loved ones, your dead.

It's a festival of light, and of death. Let's light a fire, for those we love. Those who are dead but also those who are still here, even though they might not be present in our lives. Honor that which has been. And step peacefully and gracefully into winter.




'Behind the scenes' making of the Samhain image.