• artwork
  • the artist – Denise Daffara / the tea lady – her muse
  • work with me

A sip of my tea.

~ wonderings from an artist's soul

A sip of my tea.

Tag Archives: artjournal

Two Months to ‘ Be’.

01 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by Denise Daffara in being an artist, Creativitea, denise daffara art, retreat, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

artjournal, chicken, creativity, feelings, free, housesitting, inspiration, life, peace, prosperity, quiet, retreat, seaside, sharing, space, thoughts, women, writing

IMG_4648

Two months is what I feel I was gifted this year to simply ‘be’. From 24th April – 24th June I minded a friends home and her sweet cat.  I told extended family members I would be out of range for two months to have a kind of self imposed retreat and take time to seriously consider what is not working in my life and what really needs to be set down. I also chose to ditch facebook for the most part only checking it rarely, THAT was the most wonderful rest giver, my nervous system seemed to vibrate with pure relief.

Some of my most signifant of these ‘things’ weighing me down is the stories of a childhood that had me marinating in beliefs, stories and ways of being that well and truly have past their use by date for me now in my late forties, yet I or my sub-conscious was still clinging to them like a damp spider web, you can’t quite brush it off when it gets all over you no matter how hard you try. Guilt and fear drive a life of suffering.

So, I took some art supplies and a very large license to do as I please and release some of the judgements, pain and suffering I’d been fostering and gathering, and ‘running me’ for way too long.

The location was extremely supportive of this resolve, it was quiet and very near to the sea, with a tidal movement that you had to check on if you wanted to walk on the sand it was only possible when the tide was out.

It’s a bit of a long and personal story the goings on inside my head, but I did want to share how it actually took months of considering all the possibilites and responsibilities in my life to finally come to a place of acknowledging the strong YES my body gave me at the first mention of the invitation “would you like to mind my house while I go away”.

I don’t know that I could have allowed myself to do this (separate myself from life as I know it) a few years ago, I used to be driven quite mad by very loud and strong inner critics. Since committing to build self compassion into my cells and being, my life experience has been changing ‘miraculously’.

All the ‘shoulds and do the right things’ and ‘how can you be so selfish?’ and ‘what will they think’ had much less power, they were just noise and not for my highest good, I knew that. . . . I wanted to step out of the rule book and do this in whatever way showed up as feeling right at the time.

As the days stretched into weeks I was AMAZED at the many joyful moments that overtook me, the warmth of the sun on my face as I walked along the shore, or saw the sun setting any night at all.  I also noticed the deep rest in my body, as a highly sensitive empath I had been stretching myself to the limit taking on or feeling other people’s stuff and energy, with or without them knowing, it’s always felt like an automatic thing. I am learning more about changing that.

So, ‘selfishly’ taking two months to not be around people on the whole was profound!

art journal page DDaffara

I am extremely grateful for the experience and seek to bring the deep inner peace home with me. Reminding myself often that I get to choose how I respond to the happenings around me. I am capable of holding more joy, let me be open to that always.

As this page in my artjournal says, “set this tea-loving sensitive soul free” and I believe I did.

Another magical thing . . .

that happened was the seemingly random yet perfectly timed visit from a rather beautiful chicken.  I was actually have a bit of anxiety at driving a car that wasn’t mine from a tricky spot and chose to sit in the drivers seat, in the garage and breath into the uncomfortable feeling, and even said to myself, “I’m not driving out of here until I feel ready”. Next moment, I’m not kidding… I heard the unmistakable sound of a chicken ‘briiiiirk, briiiiiiirk, briiiiirking her way right into the entry way of the garage where I was sitting, peering at me with a questioning look in her eye.

FullSizeRender 5

The cute and very synchronistically magical part of this was that I had very recently sent a “Little dd” image to a fabulous author, Marilyn Jenett,  featuring one of her quotes from her very helpful book Feel Free to Prosper . In my image I had chosen to have Little dd speaking to a chicken… I happen to find much delight in the innocence, quirkiness and simply beingness of chickens.

MiraclesNewNormal2

IMG_4835

I fed Ms Chicken sunflower seeds and water for a couple of days until her minders spotted her and returned her safely to where she had come from.

bye for now,

Denise x


Free online Creative Retreat … meet 16 teachers and create your heart out over two days.

CRheaderweektogo

 

 

Advertisements

Feelings onto the page.

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Denise Daffara in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

artjournal, asipofmytea, face, sad, smashbook

a sad page Sip of my teaNot many words today I suspect,

But making these faces on my page sure did help go a liittle way toward allowing some feelings to be felt. Each time a bout of sadness shows up I’m somehow surprised by it,

like it doesn’t seem to ‘fit’ . . . or I don’t know what to do with it, sometimes it seems to take the longest time for me to remember… all that can be done is to feel it.  Not run from it, feed it with food, just, simply be with it.

I’m not even up for the task of explaining it, but arting it.. that is something I can recommend, and share here.

If you’re feeling sad today, I salute you, we’ll get through this.

Being human, is not always easy.

that’s all.

D x

tEaCourses – Taking myself online to teach

10 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Denise Daffara in being an artist, Creativitea, critic, Denise Daffara Art

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Art, artjournal, creativitea, creativity, ecourse, simplicity

teacourse

It’s true, I have quite the affinity with making tea time sacred.

I love making plays on words, to inspire me to think outside the square of my ordinary.  I include many varieteas in my language and in the creating of pages in a smashbook and or art journal.

For me, one of the greatest gifts of putting myself out there, and offering an ecourse has been the flow of my own creativity it has opened up… if you commit to creating something FOR someone a little shift can happen … *if you already create wildy with your own sweet abandon this may seem like superfluous rubbish to you . .  . so all good respect to you, already motivated creators.* I obviously needed to find another way.

Diving off the cliff of ‘perceived safety – stay at home – don’t go outside – they might look at you funny – you’re an introvert – you can’t possibly do this without freaking out – what do you have to say that is of value – they are too busy for this’ all of THAT … is just static.

I have one more week of content to create, so I’ll come back and speak more about this later, it’s a rolling topic in my mind.

I am not yet sufficiently on the other side of having hosted one complete course, so not to speak too soon.

bye for now,

I’ll leave you with a freshly brewed pot of Simplicitea … use your favourite cup today, it’ll make a difference. I’m sure of it.

Love Denise x

SimpliciteaWithCreativiteatime

art of life

20 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Denise Daffara in Denise Daffara Art, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Art, art journal, artjournal, blogging, creativity, face, intentional creativity, life, paint, vent, woman

So… a conversation with a friend, who is also an artist… we happened upon the subject.. of how… when you are faced with some kind of human interaction in your life.. that causes you to loose your ‘flow’ for a time… howeverlongyoumakethatlast … and how.. we often consider.. or arrive at the idea, or is it an ‘assumption’ .. that we can’t ‘do our art’ when we are feeling like shit.

This has been a constant companion of a thought for me, and I’ve been endeavouring for the last couple of years to reframe and train myself right out of that idea toward a more helpful-to-me response to life… so.. today I used that practice.. of intentional creativity.. also known to me as

simply showing up how I am…

and I wrote out my vitriol that the head was running with which then came around to affirming what I did want.. and then .. i simply started to put colour on that.. and so far.. this happened… (image as is then with a filter on app) it’s still a wonder in progress.. but whatever.. you get the idea 🙂

ImageImage

 

wanted to share that… and as I often consider blogging.. as a way to make a note outside of myself… to the universe.. that so long as the internet is a happening thing.. I’ll be able to find it again at the touch of a few buttons… you know how finding things in a diary can be difficult.. so.. even if noone gets it.. it’s done… for some kind of reason.. I feel compelled to share…

love Denise xo

 

my instagram

Taking this one in a different direction... all this blue washed over... reminded me of some of Chagall's paintings... slowly remembering how to let go... and see what wants to happen next... no hurry.. but definitely curious. #painting #blue

Denise Daffara Art

Denise Daffara Art

Cloud of tags

Art art journal asipofmytea chai courage creativitea creativity cup feelings inspiration intentional creativity Jane Austin life love mother Painting red rose self love tea tea cup teapot thoughts women
Follow A sip of my tea. on WordPress.com
Advertisements

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel