Week Word: Observe

Junebug was responsible for choosing this week's word, observe.

One of the definitions of observe is to 'notice something and register it as significant' which led me to thinking about the way we see and read meanings into things around us... meanings that may or may not 'really' be there.

Visit Junebug to see what else has been observed this week.

Week Word: Unity

John at The Healing Seed chose our word this week: Unity. Do visit him to see who else is playing and what they've come up with.

It's clearly true that wedding planning takes over your life a bit, as the idea I kept coming back to when thinking about unity was marriage. Particularly the tradition of handfasting, where the couples hands are tied together to symbolise their commitment and partnership.

I didn't want anything too sentimental or romantic for my image though, as unity also seems like a very powerful word; by uniting, you create something stronger than the separate parts.

Week Word: Desiderata

I chose this week's word, desiderata, which means 'desired things'. 

It got me thinking about the things that we want or need (often not the same things) and that feeling of longing for something that is, as yet, out of reach. But how yearning itself can be sort of bitter-sweet; how sometimes getting the desired thing makes you wistful for the period of longing and anticipation.

A little introspective for a Friday... I'm clearly in need of a weekend!

Visit the other participants to learn a little about their desires this week:

John at The Healing Seed

Carmen at Tales of a Biomouse

Helen at Autistic Inner Space (welcome!)

And I'm going to bounce the Week Word ball back to John to pick for us next week.

This Week's Word

Just as I was hunting around for inspiration this week, someone on a forum I used posted the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. As well as being wise advice, the word also means 'desired things' or 'things that are wanted or needed'. So that's going to be our word this week - as serious or as flippant as you want!

Leave a comment on this post if you'd like to take part, and I'll do a round-up on Friday.

New participants are always very welcome and you can see the 'rules' here. 

Things that are desired...

Week Word: Widdershins

Carmen at Tales of a Biomouse chose our word this week, the very fantastic 'widdershins'.

My immediate association with this word is Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, where widdershins is one of the four directions (along with turnwise, hubwards and rimwards).

In this world it generally means anti-clockwise, the opposite way to the sun, or just the other way to the usual one. I also found a few interesting warnings about what can happen if you do things widdershins... walking widdershins round a church is very unlucky and might whizz you off to goodness-knows-where, and dancing that way round a ring of toadstools could result in falling under the power of fairy people. 

Consider yourselves warned! And visit Carmen (although possibly not till Sunday) to see who else is playing this week.

Week Word: Transition

John chose our word this week, so visit his blog to see his take on it and find out who else is participating.

Pondering this word, I was thinking about the difference between change and transition. I came up with the feeling that a transition is more of a process, something that has definite steps involved. A change can come out of the blue, but a transition is more gradual and, perhaps, cumulative.

I then tried to come up with transitions in my life, and realised that I'm probably living through one of the biggest ones at the moment. Being engaged is actually a transition, as you move from being single and responsible only for yourself to working out how to be part of a marriage.

It's certainly something I hadn't really thought about till I found myself in the middle of it... I think I felt that I'd just go from single to married in one easy step and have done with it! But, actually, it's a more gradual thing; working out who you are going to be together, deciding what things are important and which ones you'll compromise over, planning a future where you're responsible for someone else's needs and hopes as much as your own.

(My bike and I had a bit of an altercation with the road yesterday, resulting in a fun ambulance trip and some glue currently holding a little bit of my head together. I'm fine (and so is the bike!) but my picture uploading abilities are a little disrupted, so apologies for this rather wonky photo of my sketch. I'll replace it with a decent scan next week once everything is back to normal! (Now done!))

Week Word: Inspiration

I chose this week's word, inspiration. But I'm not going to talk about sport. (I wonder if anyone will, or if we'll all try to come up with something different!)

Two things that have recently inspired me sprang to mind. The first is this quote from a letter Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother:

'I cannot tell you how happy I am to have taken up drawing again. I've been thinking of it, but I always considered the thing impossible and beyond my reach.'

Isn't that amazing? Van Gogh felt like drawing was beyond his reach but decided to ignore that feeling and get on with it anyway.

And the second is Shakespeare. I saw Timon of Athens at the National on Wednesday, a brilliant production and very appropriately set in modern-day London. Shakespeare's ability to have written words that still seem relevant and insightful so many years later always inspires me... not to write, necessarily, but just with the knowledge that although material things change around us people seem to stay fundamentally the same. I find that strangely reassuring.

Please do go and visit the other participants this week:

Emma at The Gift Shed
Rebecca at Purple Sparkle Days (a new Week Worder with a beautiful and already inspiring blog)
John at The Healing Seed (good to have you back, John!)
Margot at Tulsi Crafts (sorry to have forgotten you Margot)

I'm going to tag John to pick next week, to hopefully keep him with us for a while!

This Week's Word

Peggy tagged me to pick this week's word. 


I'm going to go for 'inspiration'. It seems appropriate with all the sporting achievements going on around us at the moment, but if running and jumping leave you cold then feel free to tell us what inspires you in any other part of life!


Pop a comment on this post if you'd like to join in and I'll do a round up on Friday.

An 'inspiring' chocolate cake... (because all blog
posts must have a picture!)

Week Word: Water

Peggy chose this week's word, water, so visit her blog to see who else is playing, and what they've come up with.


This was quite serendipitous for me as I'd been wanting to create a drawing of Putsborough beach in Devon, where Nick's family have been every year since the dawn of time (and probably will continue going until its end).


It turns out, though, that drawing the sea was more of a challenge than I'd anticipated. Resulting in the following rather down-hearted scribble in my sketchbook...

I think I got there in the end, though, once I realised a dry watercolour brush gives a stipply effect like the foam on the water.

Week Word: Summer

Emma chose our very appropriate word this week... the long awaited 'summer'.


Unfortunately, as I sit in an over air-conditioned office and the streets outside are thronged with tourists I haven't really had chance to enjoy it too much just yet. In attempt to find some inspiration I looked back through some sunny holiday pictures, so my contribution this week is a sketch based on what felt like a very summery photo.

And yes, when anyone points a camera at me I tend to make a stupid face and adopt the most unusual pose possible. Getting the arms and legs in vaguely anatomically correct positions for this drawing was quite a challenge!


Hopefully everyone else is getting plenty of sunshine this summer... visit Emma to see the other summer-y posts.

Week Word: Goodbye

Emily chose this week's word, Goodbye, so go and visit her to see who else is playing this week.

All my immediate associations with this word were pretty downbeat and negative... it's quite hard to think of a positive spin to put on a goodbye. Even if you're leaving something bad behind or moving on to something better, there's still the acknowledgement of the bad thing in the goodbye to it.

So instead I thought about things we say goodbye to. Or rather, don't...

These are my favourite ballet pumps. I bought them many years ago (2005/6?) at Waterloo on the way to a funeral I'd only just heard about (there's another, not so positive, goodbye for you) as I'd gone to work that day in funeral-inappropriate shoes. I'd never have bought them otherwise, as I don't really like gold, even old, silvery gold like this.

But it turns out they go with everything! So I have worn them to death. Quite literally, I realised the other day. The soles are almost worn through and there are patches that aren't even slightly gold any more. I'm going to have to say goodbye to them pretty soon, but I reckon I can get a couple more wears out of them first...

Week Word: Empty

I chose this week's word, empty, after emptying my little flat to sell it at the weekend.


It was actually lovely to see it empty after being full of all my clutter for so long! It hadn't looked like that since we bought it and it seemed much bigger and lighter. The feeling of it being a blank canvas for someone new to create a life in was also quietly satisfying.


My 'moving out' song has always been Sun in an Empty Room by The Weakerthans, so that's what I've called my drawing.

Go and see Emma and Emily to see what empty things they've got for us. And I'm going to tag Emily to pick next week.


ETA: And I think there might be a late contribution from Katy as well!

This week's word

I sold my little flat today. It's such a relief and I'm so pleased, but it definitely feels a bit end of an era-y.


So, in honour of lots of hard work on Saturday giving away furniture left right and centre, this week's word is going to be 'empty'

Let me know in the comments if you'd like to join in, and I'll do the usual round-up in my post on Friday. New participants are always welcome!

Week Word: Character

Katy chose this week's word, character.


It's a bit of a difficult one... you can give someone a 'character' like a reference, and houses can have character. Both good things. But character actors tend to be the more... unusual looking ones and if you hear someone's face described as having character it tends to mean they're fairly advanced in years. Not that being old or unusual looking is a bad thing, but it could be a fairly loaded compliment!


Similarly you often hear children described as being 'a little character', but I'm not sure that isn't just a polite way of saying they're a bit of a brat...


How odd. No one would want to be described as 'characterless' but I've struggled to think of a way you could tell someone they had character without it sounding a bit... insulting.


Nonetheless, a 'good' character must be something we all want to develop. I found this quote on Pinterest this week, and it seems a good way of summing up the good things about character.

And some characters I've drawn recently...

Visit Katy to see her very different characters!

Week Word: Scent

Emma chose this week's word, scent.

I've gone with the rather old fashioned interpretation of scent meaning perfume. (Does anyone still call it scent? I can only imagine my grandmother saying it!)

I've worn the same perfume for years, Angel by Thierry Mugler. It's a slightly controversial one, as I know a lot of people really hate it (you can read some amusing reviews here and here) but I think it's very dependent on your own skin chemistry. I don't like it in the bottle or walking past the display in a department store, but I do like it on my skin. 

Apparently its 'notes' include melon, coconut, mandarin orange, cassia, jasmine, bergamot, cotton candy, honey, apricot, blackberry, plum, orchid, peach, lily-of-the-valley, red berries, rose, tonka bean, amber, patchouli, musk, vanilla, dark chocolate and caramel. That's a lot of stuff to go wrong, but on me I think I get the last four and that's it. Much nicer.

I've also never had anyone recoil in horror, and occasionally people do tell me I smell nice. So I'm going to stick with it. (I also can't find any other perfumes that don't smell like either Impulse Body Spray circa 1998 or everyone's grandmother on me...)

Anyway, a watercolour sketch of my current bottle. 

And visit Emma to find out what other scents we have this week.

Week Word: Treat

I chose this week's word, and went for 'treat'.


It was Nick's birthday last weekend, so I made him a chocolate cake. On further thought, I'm not sure it really counts as I think treats are supposed to be a bit out of the ordinary and we do eat quite a lot of cake...


However, he got to chose what sort of cake it was and it didn't contain any stealth vegetables. Apparently that made it a treat.

It was Nigella's Devil's Food Cake which I find is a really useful store-cupboard recipe. (As opposed to the ones she thinks are. Her store-cupboards and mine are clearly very different.) But with chocolate butter cream rather than the frosting she uses as Nick is physically incapable of eating too much butter, and as another birthday treat I promised not to mention cholesterol for a few hours.


Go and visit Foxy Bakes and The Gift Shed for other Friday treats. And I'm going to tag Emma to choose next week's word.

This week's word...

Emma said I should, so I'm picking a Week Word for this week and I'm going to go with 'treat'.


If anyone else wants to play, let me know in the comments and I'll do a round up on Friday!

Week Word: Bird

Sally at Sow and Sew chose this week's word, bird.


This is a holiday sketch... he was eyeing up our picnic for ages, but then seem entirely unimpressed at any leftovers we offered him. A very shifty looking individual.

Pop and see Sally to see what everyone else has done with their birds.

Week Word: Boundaries

I'm attempting to embrace technology and post this from my phone, so apologies if it looks odd...


Kirst at Camera Kiki chose this week's word, so be sure to visit her to see what other people have done with it.


Just a photo from me, and one that makes me glad we're not driving in this city!

Week Word: Forgotten

I chose this week's word, after forgetting for a while...


My forgotten thing is a bear. Despite being quite grown up, whilst I lived on my own I always slept with a bear. Admittedly he'd usually end up on the floor by morning, but he was always somewhere around the bed.


Now I live with a man, and the man says there is no room in the bed for the bear. I suspect he has a point. So the bear lives on a chair and gets covered in socks and bags.

I was going to work this up into something a bit more polished, but time is not on my side so I've decided to embrace the sketchy.


Go and see what other people have forgotten this week...


Emily at Ready for Adventure
Heather at Free Spirit
Kirst at CameraKiki
Emma at The Gift Shed

And a late one... Peggy!


And I hope she doesn't mind, but I'm going to tag our newest Week Worder, Kirst, to pick next week's word! Pop over to her blog to see what she chooses.