June. "My" month.Why? Because it's my birthday month and because it seems to be, together with December, one of the most supportive months for me. Maybe that's true for everyone's birth month plus December having some special powers but I have been looking forward to June and the gifts it will bring. And they are already coming my way ♡ ♡ ♡

Let's see. In the last post I was all excited about my new brand name and everything but things turned around again, as they like to do when they need to so I came to the conclusion, lol, that I will still use "made by nini" for my little creations - jewellery or felted things or tiny sculptures or you name it - but my name is what is an umbrella for all these things. Because, it is. It's me who makes and Nini who inspires, it's a collaboration between two worlds that are not separate, just invisible to our eyes, for now. 

So I am currently translating one of Guy Needler's books - The Anne Dialogues - making earrings and trying to paint whatever wants to come out on paper or canvas. Hikes are an absolute must because of all these things as is meditation and time for meeting new people and discovering new ways to connect to the bigger picture :) It's full-filling and exciting and I am so curious about what's next. Not that this isn't enough but Universe loves to inspire and surprise us and I do love joyfull surprises.

I'll end with one of my findings from this year. I came across Abraham Hicks when I needed to hear him/them the most and the energy and vibration that ooze from these videos is amazing. Do have a listen and feel for yourself. Wisdom and sense of humor are just a bonus ;)  

Oh and let me share some of the earrings I made :)

Wishing you all a great summer and lots of high vibe days :)

With much love,
Nina

It's been a while and A LOT has happened in between. A lot. This sentence I've seen around sums it pretty well:

It's true. So much has been and still is going on energetically that all I can say is "Thank you Universe". I have definitely been thrown down and experienced quite a few very unpleasant situations but I learned a lot from them. I am also receiving more and more guidance and am just trying to keep up with everything. Which is hard. Old patterns keep emerging and it's so difficult to shed them, let them go because they are my comfort zone, my go-to doings, my familiar and known spaces. But I am not giving up and as usual, I have taken on a wee bit too much on board. But I need to own it now and deliver :) 

There's also a quarantine going on these days - almost 14 days here in Slovenia - due to this Covid-19 virus spreading around causing all sorts of mayhem. It looks pretty bad but I choose not to focus on the bad as it's not helping me nor those around me. I am staying away from others as we were told to do and trying to lead my life as I did up till now. I am so SO grateful to be living in a house outside of our city so that we can still go out in the nature and enjoy it's healing and good vibes. I hope that things do indeed level up mid April.

Now let me get to the usual log kinda post. The rest of February was pretty creative. I finally tackled one of my big curiosities and that was circular weaving. I made it on one of my embroidery hoops and among other wools I used glow-in-the-dark thread for some added spark magic. I needed to test it out and it's great but very thin, so for sewing it definitely needs to be double.

The end of February put me in bed with high fever but otherwise good overall feeling. Which was sooo weird. I couldn't exactly create but just prior to that I did a spread in my beloved Volvo magazine and it sparked something in me. I need to explore that more but just thinking about exploring stops me. Odd, right? Might be the fear of finding something special :)

Whatever I caught lasted for more than 3 weeks and then Covid-19 came and we were all grounded anyways. So I did some mending and tried to sew new pants for M which... well... didn't exactly turned out as planned :(

In the beginning of March I finally finished my illustration work for my friend and her novel. I can't believe how hard that was especially when I always wanted to illustrate a story! I have no idea why but it made me question if this work is for me. I'm only sharing a sneak peek as the book is not published yet :)  Right photo shows the beginning of a very special gift which is super top secret so I won't say no more :D

The before mentioned gift had to be postponed due to another special gift :D Didn't send him out yet as he still needs a tin home but I love him very much and I can't wait to hear what my friend thinks of him. Meet Jože the Frog:

And the painting on the right is a special, hopefully first in a series of many more, energy painting. I have been observing energies on 350th frequency of our Multiverse when being outside and I had this idea, more than once, that I should paint them and sell them. I have a long way to go to capture what I really see but the connection and intention behind what I make is very much present nevertheless. As is in all the things I make. Which brings me to this new chapter in my life that is all about sharing my gift with as many people. Oh I hope they find my creations and that they will speak to them. I plan on making earrings and necklaces from some of these paintings because having them near would be very beneficial to anyone wearing them. 

Oh and another important thing I need to share is - I am re-branding!

I have had an idea about the logo for a long time. Really long time actually. It came to me whilst doing my morning pages, when I was drawing everyday before breakfast. Another thing that was really valuable. Well, I haven't put it on "paper" so to speak yet so until I do, the name shall suffice :)  And I love it. I think it's perfect. Can't wait to have the logo :)

And with this I conclude this log. Interesting times indeed :)
Staying creative and in good vibes is a must!

Much love and light until my next post. Do comment and let me know how you are doing.

♥
​
Nini

Wow, what a start to 2020. So much inner shifts already, so much a-ha moments and quite a lot of creative work done too. Can't share that yet but it's making me sweat and learn at the speed of light ;) Or not. But probably.

I'll be brief today because I just wanted to drop by and write something for the beginning of this - as it looks like - quite a year of changes. My word of the year is "focus" and it's about focusing more on myself and my art making; basically being as creative as I can be without the need for any outcomes.

For the first time in a very long time I have no Facebook group to take care on - which was never a problem at all, I loved holding those spaces - but it became clear to me at the end of last year that I too, need a break sometimes. So my dear friend took over the 52 weeks group and it's running lovelier than ever and I am really grateful to her for stepping up like that.

I am currently illustrating a book for my american friend and it's giving me as much of a hard time as it does the good time. It's all about perspective definitely. I am learning a lot too and am only hoping the final result will be pleasing to both of us.

I am also redesigning these pages - or better - uploading more works into the galleries and linking outside to my Etsy shop. Will need to work on all of this much more but not now. I am really not sure if it was necessary to spend so much time here today (yes, I've been doing this today instead of being creative with wool which is calling me) but I guess it had to be done :D

Looking through photos from January till today I just have to share some very special moments and my sketchbook plays.

These are pages in my altered magazine I tackled probably 2 years ago now (I think I mentioned it here) and I am realizing I just love working in it. It's a Swedish magazine made for Volvo and if I understand correctly they publish it at least twice a year. It has some gorgeous visuals in it - illustrations (as seen on the whale photo - the whale was there and I had fun around it) plus some beautiful photos which I sometimes cover up completely or leave and alter a bit. Really fun and relaxing play. I can't wait to get my hands on another issue and this time I will alter it a bit differently - I need to make it much better that it is (the binding is not good for such a creative play). 

At the end of January my creative friend and I went to the seaside for a weekend full of art making and being outside. Well, the second part didn't really work as it was raining and the weather was so gloomy but the art part was definitely done! We also put up a gallery of my old fractal works and they completely changed the vibe of the place. I still love them so much and in a way I am still exploring depth and perspective in my more abstract work:

Another rather special thing took place in January and that's a short but fun workshop with my old friends who don't exactly play with paints. We had such a nice evening exploring watercolors and making little books out of them. Too bad we had to go home but it was in the middle of the week and people have to work and the younger ones need to go to school :)

Wow, once again I can only thank my "one photo a day" ongoing project for all of these memories.It's crazy how quickly one forgets what happened not so long ago, especially when one is pulled into something deeply that takes all the focus. Oh yeah, I'm ending with my word of the year :D

Thank you dear blog for being so patient and thank you dear reader for dropping in. 

As always, wishing you all the best, always.

With much love

​♥

Nini

I almost can't believe it's September already and yet at the same time, I sure can because time is acting so weirdly. 

I'm having a bit of a writing block at the moment but wanted to jump in here nevertheless before it's next year and I need to write long posts to catch up :)

This week is Ex-tempore Piran week. I participated three years in a row and very much hope to finish something up to take in this year as well. So far, I have nothing yet. Just a blurry sketch and I only stamped one piece of paper. I figured I'd do a submission on paper because I really don't have any space left at home to hang what I participate with. And I have a big lovely 1 x 1 m canvas in works downstairs. So there's that. I can show it  to you, here's how it looks up close:

It just dawned on me that August's Sketchpak-ing is over. I mentioned the Sketchpack Project in my last post because I jumped in to use it as a catch up thing for my own My 52 in 2019 Project. It worked really well I must say. I only missed two entries :D and I am rather happy and proud I did so well. Some pages were done with such ease that it took me by surprise and I wish to be able to experience such ease more often.  Here's a few of the drawings I made:

I also had quite an interesting month related to my spiritual explorations. It isn't finished yet but I can report I will be finally making those sketchbooks I set out to do last year. Yes, it's been over a year now :/

Sooo, I hope in my next post I'll be able to show some of the books I'll be making - of course I have (too) many ideas :D  And can't possibly make everything at once. Sadly :D

I might also get an opportunity to teach. We'll see. Exciting times ahead for sure :)


Wishing you only the best, always.

With much love,
♥
​nini

Right, so I said I'm back in my previous post and then I disappeared again :)  Well, luckily I didn't say I'll be more consistent this year since I know how easy it is to fall into whatever is going on at the moment and just not carve out time for this. And this, this does take a bit of time, who would have thought eh ;)

It's August now and I'll do my best to be as short as possible to cover what was going on till the present moment.

For starters, I kept my morning pages routine. I found this adorable and irresistible blank notebook and decided it'll be my first "sketchbook" to fill up. It's pages were of absolutely no good watercolor quality but I know that sometimes such a thing makes you be more creative and more inventive and also makes the book less precious to use. You can see in my first photo, second picture, that I did use watercolors in it and it kinda worked. Paper buckled a lot but as long as I kept drawing on one side only it was ok. And I did come to the last page with two things going on in my mind:

1. I did it!
2. Let me get back to the proper watercolor paper now! :D

Looks like it really is a good idea to use the best paper you can, especially if you like using watercolors, as it makes for a huge difference in the experience of drawing itself. Not necessarily the outcome, but the doing, the painting and the way color behaves on paper. And since with a morning page one kinda sets up the whole day, it's good to have fun not experience bleh moments due to paper. I basically ended up using mostly black pens and fineliners as they worked really well on that paper so all in all, everything was good in the end. Phew! 

At the same time I launched, or better said, continued with my group activity over on FB. I resurrected My 52 Project and named it - My 52 in 2019.  What a surprise eh ;)  Since it was such a last minute thing I used the prompts from 2017 and only adjusted the second one, which covers Chinese sign of the year. I read my blog post abut the 2017 experience and how I wrote it wasn't as successful as I wanted it to be - mostly by doing a lot of catching up in the last days of December and how it wasn't supposed to be this way. Well, it's happening all over again :)  I'm in a big catch up mode at the moment and am using Di Metcalf's Sketchpack Project to come even with the prompts. I did do some at the appointed weeks but mostly not. There are two reasons for it if I think about it:

1. I did my morning pages every day and that made me think I already was creative enough and that I could do other things - Ego chat for sure, keeping me away from my own project
2. I'm creating visual posts for these prompts to post on IG and FB - and it kinda makes me think I did them already - really weird trap to fall in

Speaking about these visuals, let me put all we had till now right here because they look soooooo cool all together :D  And because I'm inviting you to use them and hashtag your creations over on IG should you wanna share them:

I don't want to be too long so I'll just write down my conclusions about art challenges so that maybe, somebody else can find some use in them. And for myself of course, because I need reminders! 

1. always finish what you started - what you said you will do - because if you don't, it will nag on you and make you feel bad and with this, lower your vibration significantly (and we all know that's a pretty bad thing).

2. if you like a challenge and would like to participate but don't know if you can commit to finish it - go in just for fun, no strings attached a.k.a. "I will do this!" as you don't want the line 1 to happen. Just do it and see where it takes you, you might even finish it and be really happy about it. Which is high vibrations and something we strive for :)

3. Jane Davenport wrote it down somewhere and now, I can only wholeheartedly agree with her - "Life is too short to use crappy paper." It was somewhere along these lines. So do yourself a favor and buy the best you can and use it with joy and pleasure. OR Know what your paper is suitable for and don't go over that. 

4. It's never too late to start and never too late to finish - so dust your art supplies and start finishing what you started and get all excited about it again :)  Yup, I wrote this in my last post too.

5. It's OK to fall back with the project because let's face it, life has other challenges as well. The important thing here is to not feel bad about it but to return to it as soon as possible and just catch up and be all positive about it again. There must have been a good reason it resonated with you in the first place you just need to remember it. 

6. Share your challenge with your like minded friends as they will most certainly support you and cheer for you along the way if not even join you. Everyone does better with a cheer-leader :)

7. For drawing challenges - if they take a while - choose small pieces of paper to work on (or a small sketchbook) as it will be easier to accomplish your daily task. Trust me on this one, my 52 in 2017 was about A3 in size O_O ! No wonder I procrastinated so much. It also had the crappiest paper which I had to gesso prior to creating on. Must be my take on learning the hard way :D

8. I asked my dear teacher Guy Steven Needler about getting out of a challenge before finishing it and he said this: "One can only truly stop before finishing if the experience of learning has been achieved and the rest is supplemental or a slightly deeper experience but with no additional growth."   It does make sense, doesn't it? Only, it's hard to know if we really learned all we were supposed to so I think it's better to finish than to be sorry later :)


Now let me wrap up this post as it's a bit longish and I don't want to keep you here too long.
If you have anything to add to my conclusions, please write a comment and I'll add it to the list. I can't think of anything else right now but I'm sure there's still something to be mindful of before jumping into a creative challenge. Right?

Thanks for reading and all the best, always!

With  much love,
♥
nini

Wow, it's July 29th, 2019 and I'm writing about the end of 2018. It might look crazy to you but I need a closure for the Blogging Project in 2018 so that I can move on. I just re-read my posts from the beginning and oh my do they look familiar. It's like I'm in the loop of the same things going on without much advancement. Well, maybe I did advance a wee bit since I'm actually listening to my own advice and finishing this off properly :) 

It's never too late to start and I think it's also never too late to finish something - don't let old promises weight you down.

Let's log the end of last year out, shall we :)

I made it to the new sketchbook for my morning pages and was really so happy about it. It made a huge difference on my days because I started the day with something creative and it got me connected right away. Looking at it now, seeing I stopped with my third full sketchbook, I could be missing it a bit. But I did need to stop for a while because it became a chore not a joyous thing to do every morning. August will change this but let's keep this for another post (yes, I'm back! :D). 

The second photo actually shows my word for a year! I received the word in November already and am still using it. It's such a great word to me, it definitely motivates me if I don't forget about it. Which I of course do. A lot :/ I think having the word of the year on your wrist is THE perfect way to go about it. Instant reminder and many times a day. Ok, making a note of this too :D

I actually got lucky with the Artober thingie (that was our Inktober hosted by the art shop) and won this lovely set of Micron pens. I also got to meet the uber talented Vixi who was also posting daily and doing an amazing job with her drawings. I'm happy to say we became friends and thanks to her, I got to know a few more Slovenian artists I'd otherwise probably never would have. 

Right picture shows my little collection of Daniel Smith watercolors - OMG FABULOUS! I finally filled the pans with the ones I have (posted about them here). They are all simply gorgeous and really hard to choose from! I still haven't finished with the color testings and haven't ordered any since. Well, I really don't need any new colours plus I've discovered (or better, Vixi discovered) Paperkay and her handmade watercolors which are, if you ask me, REALLY AWESOME too!  

In December our local art supply store Art invited me to host a needle felting workshop. I was really looking forward to it and I came up with this little mushroom ornament for this occasion but nobody applied so it was cancelled. Oh well. Maybe this year :) 

I also got myself this gorgeous looking unlined notebook to have as a diary, the one where you have a week per spread and I made it all in advance. But. The poor thing just never got used. Looks like I am not able to keep a journal/diary/to-do/bullet journal anymore. Really weird as I do have a few. Must be my Instagram and one photo a day project that killed it, in a way. I am keeping the covers of this little notebook to use for a watercolor sketchbook. They are the reason I bought it in the first place anyway :)

The rest of December kinda speeded by as I was busily preparing for a craft fair. It didn't go well at all, the fair I mean, but at least I made quite a few things that I was later able to donate for animal charity auctions. Glad to help if I can. 

So this is it, really. A quick review of my creative endeavors in November and December. Looking back now I am amazed at the fact I was incredibly creative throughout the whole year and yet it didn't feel that way at all. My initial wish for recording my thoughts about the won e-courses vanished somewhere along the way but I still have them and am happy I can watch them any time I feel like. I may have bought a few new ones since but who is counting, right? ;)

Now let me thank you 2018 for being so good to me and for bringing so many new people into my life. Things are definitely changing and I love it. 

And also, thank YOU, for reading this ♥

​
With much love and gratitude,
♥
nini