Saturday Inspiration

Inspiring

I was thinking about putting together a list of New Year resolutions, sometimes when it's out for everyone to see it's hard not to keep them :)
And then I stumbled upon these two quotes by Neil Gaiman, it sums it all up for me really...

"I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind."

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

Beautiful and inspiring words....

Art

"To delight a child, to add a new joy to the crowded miracles of childhood, is no less worth doing than to leave a Sistine Chapel to astound a somewhat bored procession of tourists; or to have written a classic that sells by the thousands and is possessed unread by all save an infinitesimal percentage of its owners. It is, then, not an ignoble thing to do one’s very best to give our coming rulers – children – a taste of the Kingdom of Art."
-Gleeson White
  

Since we decided to do art all month long for aedm challenge, I figured I better put together a list of some children books about art. The books will be displayed on the goodreads widget on the right side, now, the widget displays only 20 books, but the full list can be found here and  is about 40 books long plus I will keep adding books as I find them.  The same goes for books about fall list.

We doodled and painted all afternoon today, D. did pumpkin/apple using Faber-Castell gel sticks (the colors are great but flakes fall everywhere if he presses the tube to hard), I played with D.'s crayons, watercolors and glittering pens to make an ATC.

D.'s masterpiece

Overall lovely day. :)

Inspirational quote

"You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time they go around—and why his parents will always wave back."
— William D. Tammeus

Inspirational quote

"On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.

The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous. On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances.

They build their houses with sand, and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have their play on the seashore of worlds.

They know not how to swim, they know not how to cast nets. Pearl-fishers dive for pearls, merchants sail in their ships, while children gather pebbles and scatter them again. They seek not for hidden treasures, they know not how to cast nets.

The sea surges up with laughter, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach. Death-dealing waves sing meaningless ballads to the children, even like a mother while rocking her baby’s cradle. The sea plays with children, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach.

On the seashore of endless worlds children meet. Tempest roams in the pathless sky, ships are wrecked in the trackless water, death is abroad and children play. On the seashore of endless worlds is the great meeting of children."
—Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali)

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Every October I re-read this short fairy tale by Selma Lagerlof, it is called The Changeling . This story is incredibly moving, I read it first when I was 10 or so, and it has been with me ever since. It's that story that made me feel  for the first time what it means to be a mother.