It's officially summer - weekend recap

Good morning, blog friends.

♥

"Welcome to another exciting edition of weekend happenings on PaperTurtle," she wrote sarcastically. "Doug was out of town, it was hot outside, I taught yoga and I drew mandalas."

 

{first cup of coffee consumed...}

 

Ok, it wasn't that mundane. You know, these weekend recap posts I do never fail to remind me how fortunate I am. There was beautiful sunlight, yoga practiced, pedicures with my girl C, and dinner/movie with a friend on Saturday. And on Sunday I drew mandalas. Come to think of it, I had a really great weekend! :o)

Doug and I came across some photos of our backyard when we first bought this house and wow what a difference! So much has changed back there in four years! I want to do a before/after post on this space...soon.

 

Our local grocery store had a great selection of roses on sale last week ($6.99/dozen) so I picked up this beautiful bouquet. They were tight little rose buds on Friday, and by yesterday each of them had opened to beautiful full roses. I think I'll pull at least one of these out of this bouquet to have on my desk at work for the next few days.

 

Item #1 - a bouquet of flowers
Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt

I spent a considerable amount of time with my mandala sketchbook this weekend, and my trusty sidekick, Whiskers Jay, was right by my side. He was a loveable pest every time I sat down to draw. I've recently been loving watercolor pencils, and the cat loves it too...

Yes, he's drinking my watercolor paintbrush water.

I'm in the process of scheduling my next yoga/mandala workshop which means my mind is pre-occupied with plans for a class theme. Now that I have that first workshop under my belt, I'm even more excited about the next one!

I'm also in the process of creating some simple mandala kits and plan to offer one up in a little blog giveaway soon. Maybe next week if I get my act together.

I'm in need of a little attitude adjustment, for sure. I know my morning yoga will help (maybe I should start practicing yoga before I blog in the morning...) but I also think I need a little retail therapy. Some new flip-flops and a sundress maybe... Yeah...I just decided...I'm going shopping on my lunch hour today...

 

Time to hit it. Have a great week, everyone!

♥

How do I make my sunflowers LOOK like that?!

My six-year old nephew, Stone, is poised to be an amazing gardener someday. Last spring I sent some sunflower seeds to him with instructions on how to grow them. He was so excited when the seeds sprouted!

Stone planted a new crop this year and once again has loved watching them sprout and grow - taller than he is! You can just imagine how it warmed my heart when he was so excited about his first sunflower bud - just on the brink of blooming - that he had his mom (my sis) post an Instagram and tag me to take a look. "Look, Aunt Deb!!!" he said. :o)

My sister recently showed one of my sunflower Instagram photos to Stone and his immediate response was, "HOW does she do that?? Does she grow them in wood chips??? That must be it!"

I love that he is already trying to figure out how to grow the best sunflower; that his mind is always open to learning and discovering how things work. I love that he is having so much fun growing sunflowers and that he is striving to improve his already successful technique.

Stone couldn't wait to show me his sunflowers when we visited at the beginning of this month. Ah! Made this aunty so proud!!!

And here's part two of this story. After Stone showed me his flowers and I took the obligatory photo, I flipped through my photo feed to show him some recent photos I had taken. A sunflower photo caught his eye and Stone said, "See, Aunt Deb?! How do you make your flowers LOOK like that?!" and I realized that what he's seeing as the difference between my flowers and his is the photography factor. I have a feeling that Stone's next lessons will be photography related.

How do I grow sunflowers? Plant a seed in full sun and make sure to water it regularly.

How do I photograph sunflowers?

With my iPhone and making sure the sun is behind them at a pleasing angle.

A little skill and lots of luck.

Oh, and a little bit of love.

I do love my sunflowers, you know.

♥

Where did my weekend go?!?!

Hey there friends.

Welcome to my slightly grumpy Monday morning weekend recap.

♥

~sigh~

 

Grumpy does not necessarily mean unhappy. It's just that this past weekend seemed to go by so quickly that I am really wishing for just one more day before it's time to focus my attention on my weekday job.

Our mild temperatures during May and even the first week of June have all of us in Arizona grumbling about the heat now that summer seems to have officially arrived. We were spoiled! Even my sunflowers are beginning to fade...

Anyway! You didn't come here to hear me complain, so I'll tell you something good. Let's see...

 

I taught yoga on Saturday morning and had a good class turnout. ♥ After class my friend Barbara and I had breakfast at the crepe bar next door. So cute - a little girl came up to our table and asked what my name was. I told her and then she pointed to Barbara and asked me, "What's your sister's name?" So perceptive of her to pick up on the fact that Barbara and I are kindred spirits.

We could have sat at the Crepe Bar for a long time on Saturday - just talking and discussing art supplies for mandala drawing. Both of us agreed that we'd rather not go home and clean our respective houses but duty called so off we went.

I proceeded to spend Saturday afternoon with gold and black Sharpie markers, my mandala journal, an affectionate cat, and I even squeezed in a little nap. Delicious Saturday from start to finish!

By the way, I have been so inspired by a new blog I've recently found. I discovered the beauty of Louise Gale's mandalas and have been obsessed with gold and black lines.

Having played away my Saturday, I spent yesterday running around this house like a crazy woman. We'd been out of town the weekend before, so there was lots to catch up with in terms of dusty furniture, pet hair floors and laundry. I focused on having a happy outlook while cleaning - feeling grateful for the home I have that needed cleaning. When Doug came home from his weekend of camping I greeted him with, "You can't come in that door! The floor's wet!!!" eh-hm. "Welcome home, Honey."

I also managed to make a small dent in purging/consolidating/organizing my craft supplies. So, yeah, a really great weekend now that I read back over this blog post. Am I still grumpy? I little bit. But it's nothing that a little yoga won't cure so I'm off to receive my morning practice.

Grumpy Monday morning or not, I have a feeling this is going to be one amazing week!

Catch you on the flipside, my friends.

xo

♥

Wrapping up May in sunflower style

Hey there, blog friends!

♥

Ahhh...the last weekend in May was beautiful around here. Mother Nature treated us right the whole month of May with unseasonably cool temps for Arizona. And now comes June and we're bracing ourselves for summer. Doug even started working summer hours this morning - up at 4:00 a.m. and out the door before 5:00.

I can sum up my weekend with two words: yoga and sunflowers. Oh yeah, and a side of baking. I attended my monthly yoga teacher training so that occupied a whole bunch of time, and when I did land at home I was outside snapping a few photos of our sunflowers in bloom. I managed to fit in some baking too - chocolate chip banana muffins for an upcoming road trip, and red velvet cupcakes to take to work today. :o) ♥

 

Saturday morning I taught my regular yoga class and then I lead my first private yoga session with a long-time friend of mine. I loved leading a private practice so much! My friend had been wanting to try yoga for a long time but was unsure of herself in a classroom setting - not sure what to expect or if she'd be able to follow along. I always feel so honored to introduce someone to yoga! I think my biggest challenge is dishing out yoga information in small bites - knowing what a student needs in that moment and what they are ready to grasp. There's so much information - SO much that I want to share - but I don't want to overwhelm with too much at a time.

 

Speaking of lots of information, my teacher training weekend was filled with all sorts of fantastic stuff to mull over and digest in the upcoming weeks. In a nutshell, we learned about planting the seed of affirmation when a student is in correct alignment on the premise that when the heart is open the mind is ripe for receiving. I loved that my teacher used the term "plant the seed" during this weekend's workshop. As a yoga teacher I plan to use this method with my students. And as a student, I plan to use this method myself whenever I find myself in a backbend/heart open pose. Good stuff!!!

I came home from the workshop on Saturday evening to catch some yummy sunlight in our backyard, capped off with a beautiful Arizona sunset. ~sigh~ If you follow me on Instagram you are probably in one of two categories: 1) loving all of my sunflowers posts or 2) slightly bored with them. #sorrynotsorry

And now it's June: Carrie's birth month and a time for celebration! Time to begin teaching a new yoga class for my local parks and recreation on Wednesday evenings. Time for Rinda's annual Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt! Yes - it's back for the fifth year in a row! Time for a road trip to California for my nephew's high school graduation, then a trek to Disneyland for Carrie's birthday.

 

Time to hit my yoga mat and get this party started.

Happy first week in June, my friends!

♥