My Mosaic

Mostly recovered from my schema group @rav3n but then had a psychologist appointment yesterday where we did more schema chair work.

yeah I’ve been very fortunate to of been able to travel a fair bit. I did camp counselor in America when I was 20. That was for 4 months in Ohio and then got to see a lot of the place with fellow counselors. After camp was finished I went to Canada and stayed with some friends for 4 months and had a white Christmas. They also took me to Niagara Falls twice..,, once in fall and then again in winter when it was all froze over.
I then did a missions trip to India with my church. That was a real eye opener into third world life.
Then we did a missions trip to the Philippines. I got to meet my sponsor child which was so very special. She was like 5 then…. And I just got a letter from her this week and she is nearly 18! She remembers meeting me, and having lunch together and going in amusement park rides.
I then took one of my clients (I use to work for a foster care agency) and the only family she had anything to do with was in NZ. So I got to take her there for a week. It was pretty cool cause she would go off with her family and I got to do my own thing. I had some close friends in the same town so spent time with them. And then also explored the north island heaps too.
honeymoon was to Thailand. We spent time in Bangkok and then went south to where all the islands are. I’m enjoyed Thailand.
Then a couple of years ago my daughter and I went to London. Close friend was getting married. Trip was originally booked for 2020, but covid! So we got to see her marry her man. Seen heaps of London. Took the fast train to Paris for one day. First train out of London and second last train back out of Paris. I was heaps disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of Paris. We did a hop on hop off bus tour, so many amazing sights, but we only really had time to get off at the Eiffel Tower, we went up to the second floor, did a seine cruise and then that was it. We often talk about it, but we literally just jumped back on the bus to take us back to where we first got on and it started bucketing down with rain. It was torrential! Roads flooded. We had about a 20 min walk back to the international train station, we did not prepare for rain! We eventually managed to hail a cab but the driver could not understand English. So we had to just walk. We were both absolutely drenched. We had to walk through the international station. Bought some snacks, went through security and immigration drenched. And then our train was delayed by 2 hrs. And then eventually we got on the train and had to sit in our wet clothes for the 2hrs back to London . I was so glad to get back to our hotel and change out of our clothes!!

On our way back home, we stopped off in LA and went to disneyland. We spent a week and half there. 5 days at the parks. Did a bus tour of LA. Shopped and swam.

that was long sorry!! Have you travelled much???

oh seems like there's been some positive progress!! @Bow

WOAH loved reading about your travels!! that's so cool you got to stay for months in the US and Canada, must've been so lovely to experience the White Christmas there. Aww that's so beautiful that your sponsor child exchanges letters with you!!! You can tell how special your visit was for them 💙
How'd you get into sponsoring the child in the Philippines and how does it work?

Oh my I can imagine how uncomfortable that must've felt walking around completely drenched!! Must've been a LONG day but makes for a memorable story for sure! What's next on your travel bucket list? Any countries you're super eager to go to?

I haven't travelled as much as I'd like to - been to India multiple times (my parent's families lives in the south, but I've visited the north ones too). Which part of India did you visit apart of your mission trip?
I went to Malaysia for a few days and absolutely loved the weather and street ambiance! Went to Thailand as well for a few days, didn't enjoy it too much because my parents did the planning and it was a very rushed trip - didn't get visit many places unfortunately. These were all 10 years ago though. Also went to NZ a few years ago, one my favourite trips - went to the south islands and did bungee jumping! Absolutely loved the views, the gorges, lakes, etc.

I loved US and Canada @rav3n and loved that I got to see so much and experience so much. I remember waking up the morning of the first real snow fall. The folks I stayed with said ‘… shhhh don’t tell bow it’s snowed’. I jumped out f bed so quick! I went and made snow angels and a snow man.

I sponsor my sponsor child through compassion. My church organised it all. They do a thing called compassion Sunday once a year. Someone from compassion comes along and shared about the work that compassion does. Usually shares a video of a child that grew up in the program. And then they bring along a heap of cards with kids needing to be sponsored. We always had kids from the one area so that we could go along and visit. Church has done 3 trips to the Philippines and visited compassion sites every time.

We met them at their school, and then they took us to their house which was close by. We then had lunch, went to a supermarket and got them some groceries and then we went to this indoor amusement park.
There is a monthly sponsorship fee and we write back and forth.

there are so many countries that I’d love to visit. Greece. South Africa. Holland. Iceland.

you’ve been to some great places! Shame you were so rushed though… guess we can never have too much time. There is always more to see. When I travel and like to be out and about seeing as much as I can.
hmmm…. Can’t remember the names of the places we went to India. I know we took a long train ride down south though.

@rav3n @tyme @Snowie @Jynx Can you tell what this is???? I strayed away from my usual images to make this for a friend who is expecting. But I showed mum and she wasn’t sure what it was at first??

these are newbies too….

Yet to frame this one…

Nice @Bow !

So you make the art first and then frame them? I still don't get how you do it. Is there a youtube or link that shows how you make them?

With the first artwork, I can see a parent encouraging their child to look up and reach for big things.... is that 'right'? I guess art is open to interpretation...

How are you today?

No YouTube or video @tyme

I always start with the quote first. It’s too hard to write once you have stuff glued down. I type up quotes, print and then trace them onto the cardboard, I don’t have that good a handwriting to do freestyle!

then I pull out all my boxes and containers of rocks and dig through them to find what I want. Some times I gotta go out the back, we have 2 sections in the backyard that has heaps of rocks. Some of them are so pretty! Such unusual shapes and colours.

then I lay them out and try and make the shapes I wanna make. Make flowers- try and find similar shapes and colours for petals.

Then I glue everything down. I go through a lot of super glue! I use the little, so there isn’t much in them. And it often gets on my fingers!

I try to remember to sign each piece. Then I frame them, throw out the glass- so much glass I’ve thrown out!! Then I have a logo sticker that I designed and had printed up which I put on the back and also a little warning stick (every effort to ensure things are well glued down but some may come off. Not a toy. Keep away from children… yada yada)

and that’s it! It’s a bit of a process. Finding rocks can take a while. And I hate framing, so will often do a heap and then leave the framing for later. Trying to build up a bit of stock for markets in the lead up to Christmas. Just had a lady come pick up a $220 order!! 8 pieces in total.

anyways. Today I’m fairly flat. Tired.

how are you?

Wow @Bow you always seem to amaze me with your art work. I think they are amazing. I so wish I could buy some from you.

Also so happy to hear that your plans for your trip are coming together. Memories like that are so wonderful to make.

Oh! That makes more sense then! You remove the glass and get rid of it!

That was the part that confused me.

I made something similar once. I created an artwork, then along the bottom, I glued olive leaves, and olive seeds.

I used hot glue though.

Do you find superglue is more effective than hot glue? Also, what is the card/paper you print on? @Bow

I'm so intrigued. I LOVE your work.

Thanks @Snowie

what things will you do in Japan??

Yeah I don’t use the glass from the frames @tyme cant imagine how many kgs of glass I’ve thrown in the bin!

I’ve not actually used hot glue with this art… but I don’t think it would work as well as the super glue.

I mostly use just thick card. It’s cheaper. But watercolour paper is much better, if the glue runs or spreads too much, it dries and you can see it. Whereas with the watercolour you can’t see the glue when it dries. It’s just expensive to buy.