Being digital

As I mentioned before, digital art is not my cup of tea. I don’t get it in general, although I like some of the pieces. It could be a matter of age or temperament.

Unfortunately I fell in love with creating seamless patterns from my traditional artwork, so a basic knowledge of digital graphics is essential. I am getting through step by step, using intuition as well as tutorials from internet. It’s like discovering a new universe that has long existed for many people.

For example, I was totally excited to discover a tool that adds a watercolor effect. As long as I followed instructions, I got an incredible result. But then I wanted to spread my wings and fly my own way. No, no, no!

I tried to vectorize my drawing of a rose and then apply the watercolor effect. Something strange happened, the rose became a kind of shiny candy instead of a loose watercolor flower. Even so, I put those candies into a seamless pattern. Am I a bit of masochist?

To be honest, not every day is awful. I met a great surprise inside of the tutorial how to draw a mandala. Another thing, which is not generally my cup of tea. But watching how every move of mouse is multiplied and symmetrically placed at the same time, was simply wonderful!

I have no use for mandalas yet, but for the great feeling I will definitely repeat this exercise. Probably combined with a “watercolor” background, as in the title image. What do you think about seamless pattern, based on something like this?

No worries, I still draw and paint by hand and still prefer it.

With love and hugs,

Ivana

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Rose of my heart

Many call it weed, complain about ugly smell of blossoms, but they run to it for help in case of heart weakness. Yes, I’m talking about hawthorn (Crataegus) from the Rosaceae family.

I love hawthorn since childhood, mom taught me to know its taste and healing value. To be honest, I prefer hawthorn to a thousand beautiful roses. All the fragrant roses fit into well kept gardens around noble houses, but it’s not me.

I have a thorny nature and hard stone inside. More likely you can meet me on a walk in the forest or wild nature than elegant in the city or artistic garden. I can do it as much as hawthorn. There are cultivars that grow in urban parks, but they almost lost their healing effects through breeding.

I spent a long period of my life in a busy city and I wasn’t unhappy. But I was slowly losing my basic essence, which was pointed out by my physical body. When I was finally willing to admit it and change my lifestyle, the body began slowly to recover.

My whole lifestyle has changed from busy to slow but I have time to see the beauty of life in great details and enjoy it better. From time to time I watch things that I already knew as a little girl. And that’s why I devoted my colorful drawing to all the hearts and healing power of weed roses like hawthorn.

Love, Ivana

How does your inner goddess look like?

I was pretty sure that the inner goddess is a beautiful lady in many variations, but always with kind of dignity because she is a goddess! But recently I draw a picture for my friend, trying to sense her inner goddess, and I was surprised by the picture that appeared to me.

The goddess really enjoyed inline skating, having the rest area in the middle of lotus flower, fueling the strong OOOOOOHHHHHHMMMMM.

My attempt to draw it doesn’t reach the atmosphere of the original perception, but I tried. Happy birthday, Jitka!

And how about you my friends, how does your inner goddess look like? What is she wearing and what is she doing now? Does she look happy? Does she need you to play with her?

Oh, my goddess is sad at the moment, I have to come back to her, so goodbye for now! 👋

With love, Ivana

Healthy heart and blood vessels: Hawthorn

In this season, colorful fruits are ripening on thorny shrubs and trees, and the harvest of rose hips and haws is ongoing. I have already written about wild roses Wild Rose: Beauty among thorns, so today I focus on the hawthorn and even experimental products from it.

This year I’ve heard a strong call from hawthorn since blooming. Usually I’m not a big fan of hawthorn flowers because I don’t consider their odor to be quite pleasant even though hawthorn belongs to the same family as roses. Perhaps the hawthorn is a proof that not every rose must smell wonderful.

Listening to my call, I gathered hawthorn flowers and made a tincture or something between tincture and liqueur. Guided by intuition, I added a tincture from fresh roses to the hawthorn basis. Now, the result should harmonize heart on both, physical and emotional levels. Definitely it tastes great!

As soon as the first fruits became ripe, my intuition brought another input. Make vinegar! The rational part wasn’t against. There is enough sugar inside, the taste is similar to apple, and most of the effective substances can act from acidic environment. Since the vinegar preparation takes several weeks, my haws are still in the process of fermentation. Comparing with the apple vinegar, so far the haws are doing very well!  Perhaps vinegar could be another way how to use hawthorn for healthy heart and blood vessels. I would appreciate your experience if you have any.

Being inspired by Lydia with her Pear butter, I tried to make “hawthorn butter”. Since the first moment, it was even challenging or stupid idea. Although the taste of haws is similar to apple, the size is much smaller, and there is a stone inside! Finally I succeeded, but I don’t want to repeat it again! Pitting took ages and proved amount of yellow flavonoids, which has remained on my fingers up to day.

It might seem like I’m already fed up with hawthorn. However in my kitchen is still sitting another bowl of haws, which I gathered yesterday. So far I don’t know what to do with them, but they didn’t want to stay on tree!

Do you have any suggestion? Thanks for sharing.

With love, Ivana

Wild Rose: Beauty among thorns

Looking at the wild rose bush I see the life cycle of nature – four seasons, birth and death, innocence and experience.

Starting in winter, surrounded by crunchy white snow, you see small red fruits full of vitamins and nutrients how they invite hungry birds for lunch. Also for humans are rosehips useful in winter, they help against cold and flu. And of course, they are the promise of a new beginning, surviving drops of blood in the icy age.

With spring days on the bush start to sprout green leaves and shortly after them sprout blooms in various shades of pink. From almost virginal white to deep purple they symbolize different stages in a woman’s life. Regardless of the age, the woman is always surrounded by thorns.

Have you notice, that on the bush always remain some fruits from the last year? They are shriveled like an old woman’s face and they probably transfer the old woman’s experience “how to survive among thorns” to the next generation.

In summer, the bush loses pink skirts of petals and it comes time of motherhood, time of fruits. Rain and heat help to growth, sunlight changes color from green to orange-red.

And finally now in autumn, the miracle is finished, the fruits are ready for harvest. I like to have enough for winter tea; its orange color reminds me warm summer days additionally to the healing effects.

I put part of the harvest into vodka to prepare excellent drink for our traditional Scorpions birthday party. I do it either in sweet and sour or in spicy pepper taste. Both are really delicious, highly recommended.

I have a small part of the harvest also for cosmetic purposes. I love to make and use soft facial soap with wild rose fruits’ extract. Due to huge amount of vitamins and antioxidants the soap is very kind to mature skin. It seems to me as if the soap compensates the thorns, experienced by skin in the run of life.

There are many tips how to use rosehips, what is your favorite?

I wish you successful harvest! But be sure to leave some fruits on the bush for hungry birds in winter.

Cabbage Rose: Follow your Faith

Most of people are convinced that rose is a symbol of love. But there are hundreds of roses’ species and not all of them say the same thing. They cover various forms of love and various aspects of it.

I had an opportunity to perceive energy of the cabbage rose and must say that it was extremely strong energy. I would say uncompromising black and white energy. You are either with me or against me, nothing between. It does not understand hesitation or neutrality. There is a strong instinct and courage to take a risk. This rose simply knows what believes in and is ready to fight for it. Fight and feel no pain.

Who doesn’t have enough courage he never understand the cabbage rose. And he doesn’t understand natural instincts of life. Most of us are cautious to say definite opinions, be honest with no excuses and white lies. We are too afraid of others’ opinions about ourselves, that we forgot what we really want and what we believe in.

Roses often appear on aristocratic coats of arms as the symbol of fidelity to genus. Many people were killed on battlefields and outside of them just because of faith or false promises. But this is no reason to loss the faith and courage to follow it. Ask your children, they always know what they want and what they believe. They are still in touch with their instincts.