Weekly Round-Up for the First Week of September

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The first full week of September is behind us-how was yours?

Mine was nice and I feel I am settling into a nice, flexible rhythm. If you are wondering what I was up to this week you can see all that’s been going on below:

New Video: Creating Without a Plan (aka my favorite way to create)
I wasn’t sure what to create so I picked a journal I hadn’t worked in for a while and one of my most fun materials-Tempura Paint Sticks. The paper is black and it was fun to see how the paint sticks showed up. Initially I was just putting color on the paper and deciding to try and blend it a bit. From there a whole magical scene emerged.  (You can keep reading on the blog here)

September Book Club Update
Here is an update of what I read and didn’t read this month.

The Week in Flowers
This week I have a different kind of flower to share with you. The good news is it won’t wilt!

This Week’s Podcast
In this week’s podcast I am chatting about digital versus physical creativity and sharing my current projects.

So that is what has been going on with me. I would love to hear what you have been up to. Feel free to comment below this post or on any of the posts or podcast listed above. I would love to hear from you!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

The Week in Flowers: First Week of September

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It has been a rainy week here in the North East. I am not at all complaining as the garden needed a good watering. I haven’t spent much time in my garden really and never got the second round of flowers planted at the end of August like I wanted. Still, the flowers are forever giving and I have some asters and zinnias that are still filling the space with color.

Since there wasn’t much to photograph I thought I would try for something a bit different this week and share some painted flowers.

I am working on painting watercolor flowers at the moment. I really want to combine watercolor images with words, quotes and the like and I thought it was a good idea to start practicing.

So, as I love to do, I found a little course on painting watercolors over on Skillshare. (Not at all sponsored but I am sharing an affiliate link that, if you use and make a qualifying purchase I can earn a free month of Skillshare-so that’s fun!)

I’m still working on the roses. Couldn’t quite get the technique down but I’m going to keep trying!

If you are interested in the exact class I am taking you can find that here. The teacher is really clear and it’s a quick and fun class that will have you painting some watercolor flowers in no time. I also love that she shares inexpensive materials as well. While it’s nice to have the fancy stuff I hate to see someone not painting because they can’t afford the goodies. In fact the images I am sharing with you were painted with an $8 set I found on Amazon-and that I really love!

So I hope you enjoyed this little spin on The Week in Flowers. I am not sure where this will go as the weather gets colder but I refuse to end Summer until it is official and then, I will squeal with delight as I welcome in Fall!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Book Club September 2022

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Happy September!

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these I receive a small commission but it doesn’t cost you anything more.

September? Really? When did that happen? I know it’s always said that “time flies” but sometimes I really cannot comprehend how quickly a year goes by.

Have you been reading a lot? I feel pretty good about what I finished this month and just the fact that I consciously made more time to read. Writing these posts keeps it in the forefront of my mind and I seem to make more time to read with them so I hope you enjoy them as well 🙂

I think I am going to leave last month’s list alone and just share with you the books I actually finished. If you are interested in the books on my self that I am in the process of reading you can visit my August Book Club post here.

Lessons in Truth by Emilie Cady: I just cannot say enough about this book. It offers me such comfort and I feel like I am reading a letter from a dear friend. If you like metaphysics/spirituality with a Christian focus you might enjoy this book as well. I purchased the collection of her works that include this book and I am currently reading the second book as part of my daily devotional time.

Hiring the Heavens by Jean Slatter: Another book that just made me feel positive and happy while I read it. This book focuses on hiring the angels to assist you as you go about your day. It’s a practice that I have implemented in my daily devotional time and it really strengthens my sense of connection to the Divine.

The Darling Dahlias and the Voodoo Lily by Susan Wittig Albert: I love this series so much and I really enjoyed this story line. If you like some cozy mysteries and historical fiction you might just like this series.

The Darling Dahlias and the Red Hot Poker: The most recent book in this series I really enjoyed this one as well. I was able to get it on loan from my library which was nice. Sadly I don’t have another one to read as of yet-hopefully the author will be writing another one 🙂

There were 3 children’s books I had borrowed from the library last month but I ended up returning them. I hadn’t started them and to be honest I wasn’t into reading them at the time so I decided to return them and maybe try them again at another time. They might be fun to bring into our homeschool when it starts up next week.

So that is my Book Club update. I hope your September is off to a great start! What are you reading? Please comment below and let me know-I am always looking for new suggestions!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Video: Creating without a Plan

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I sat down to create without a plan.

Don’t you just love doing that?

I wasn’t sure what to create so I picked a journal I hadn’t worked in for a while and one of my most fun materials-Tempura Paint Sticks. The paper is black and it was fun to see how the paint sticks showed up. Initially I was just putting color on the paper and deciding to try and blend it a bit. From there a whole magical scene emerged.

Would you like to play? Even if you don’t know what to make-you can always make a mark. Let me be your studio buddy as we play in our journals and listen to what the muses are guiding us to make. You can watch the full video below.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Art Journal Page: Letting the Cranky Out

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Today I am creating in an old Happy Planner I found. It was a dated planner and I hadn’t done all that much in it so I decided to turn it into an art journal.

I love using items like this to create in because they don’t feel precious and it also feels good to be using something I might not have otherwise.

I had a little fun looking through the beginning of the planner as it was when I was pregnant (and had just found out) with my youngest. I took those pages out to be used elsewhere and began thinking about what I wanted to do in the journal.

I started off with a coat of gesso, some paint and some tissue paper and that was as far as I got the first day. You can see the little video I made about the planner below.

When I sat down to work in the planner for the first time I wasn’t feeling great. My thoughts kept running negative, cranky and no matter what I did it just felt like I couldn’t shake out the negative. So while I was painting, and feeling cranky, I decided to just let all the thoughts that kept coming up in my mind out onto the paper.

I did a lot of illegible writing which I love. It let’s all the emotion out but there is no need to go back and read it again so it’s perfect for use in an art journal.

Especially when it’s cranky thoughts.

I wrote everything out using a Tombow marker which was great because it reactivates when it gets wet and I was able to blur the words out completely.

I stopped on Friday with the page just started but I felt so much better! It was a release of that energy and went into the weekend feeling great.

When I came back in to work on Monday I really didn’t know what I was going to do. I felt so different so I decided to just have a play and see where it went. As you can see in the video below, it went all over!

That’s my process though. I need to feel my way into most things and eventually the screaming girl that was going to look like me turned into a completely different, happy person with blue glasses.

Who knew?

I had so many moments during this process when the negative voice was jumping in telling me to turn off the camera and stop pretending to be an artist. I decided to keep making art anyway and I am so glad I did because I just love how the pages turned out!

I was inspired to add a house and I am not really sure why but I love how it came out-even though it’s not where I thought it would go. I think my favorite part of creating is to set out on a wave and ride it in never really knowing where I’ll land.

I hope you enjoy the videos and that perhaps you can set aside a few minutes to create along side me. Wishing you a lovely day!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Weekly Round-Up for the 4th Week of August 2022

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This week feels like it moved quite quickly.

I kept forgetting my schedule and was uploading things a bit off calendar but in the end I got there. So in case you are just stopping by today I wish you a beautiful weekend and here are some things you might enjoy along with some iced tea and swing in the hammock.

Making Collage Papers: On Monday I shared a little “Create with Me Session” where we had fun with paints and making papers for collage. You can read the blog post (and watch the video) right here if you like.

The Week in Flowers: For the love of Zinnias, and Asters, and FeverFew and well… all the flowers really. You can see some photos of my cut flowers right here.

Dilletante TV Has New Episodes: If you love watching a creative video (I know I do!) you can jump to all the videos and just the videos right here on the site. No chatty blog posts just the videos for your viewing pleasure. I realized I missed a few so it is now all current and up to date with all that’s visual here on The Dreaming Dilettante.

Creative Podcast Episode #8: Recorded, although not actually recorded (I explain in the podcast) and then re-recorded and uploaded a bit later than normal this podcast does get there in the end. We are chatting all about creative resistance and sharing the journey not just the results. You can listen right here to Episode #8 or check out all the creative podcast on the podcast page

So that is what has been going on here this week. I hope you had a lovely week and are looking forward to nice weekend. What do you have planned? I would love to hear!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante