Mindfulness exercise for peace and fun. View from my front gate

Manipulated photos to look like abstract impressionist studies.

Take your camera out to your front gate.

Like A kaleidoscope

What do you see?

In Photoshop you can manipulate anything to look like anything you want.
It can be deliberate or random
What are the photos you choose saying about the way you view your world?

Creativity like this helps keep you in the moment.
 It doesn't matter what your view at your front gate is, you can make it look intriguing.

It is a great way to be mindful
 It's a matter of being grateful for what you have in the now and looking at what promises it provides instead of always hankering after something better.

Transportation into another world or realm.

Being grateful and focusing on the positive brings at your very doorstep brings  a kaleidoscope of possibilities to the fore.

 

 

Painting, photography and mosaic lessons available.

Rotorua,  New Zealand.

 

Email janet@jkeen.net for a schedule.

 

Send me your altered front gate views.

I love to receive feedback.

 

 

Creative Quote of the day  

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite, it actually takes guts.

Perma Chodron

 

 

 

 

 

Mosaics in Adelaide

Janet sitting on a giant mosaic 
Travelling overseas to Australia is great for a mosaic artist.
Australia takes mosaic artists seriously and considers it a proper "fine " art. 
The sculptures in all sorts of areas are pretty spectacular and well constructed.
 In my classes you won't learn how to make a structure like this as it's too large and time consuming but you will learn the principles with smaller projects that you can take hiome and place in your garden as focal points.

Mosaic makling is very fashionable again. 
Classes from 9.30 to 11.30 Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings. 
Phone 073463435
 or text  0273513887 to enrol. 
Also email enquiries to  janet@jkeen.net

Palmers for amazing punnets of annuals and vegetables.

I  often go to Palmers for seedlings because they are all very well looked after and healthy.
You could say they feel loved because the people at Palmers are passionate about plants.

 Impatiens,  Palmers, good for shady areas .
I bought some of these for my goldfish pond area.
I love their pop of colour.
They last a long time so are good value with their repeat flowering, especially if you pick off spent blooms.

Petunias, Palmers.
I have some of these in my vege garden.
 I mix flowers with veges to attract the bees and also to make the garden look more attractive.

Marigolds are my number one preference for companion planting in the vege garden.
 They ward off harmful  insects because they do not like the aroma of marigolds.

 Petunias come in an array of almost lolly like colours.

Petunias are a great choice because they repeat flower.
They don't seem to sulk with all this rain we have been blessed with.

The merchandising in the garden section is very inspiring with water features and statues dotted around the area.

 I love angels and I think sculptures in a garden are good for focal points and  add interest and texture.
I have a lot of mosaics in my garden that sparkle along with the flowers.
At the moment I am painting tulips with Resene test pots to dot in amongst the veges and to be a support for peas

 I bought three of these Platycodins at Palmers.
 I loved them for their balloon like flowers.
 They are sitting in amongst the silverbeet, parsley and lettuces in one of the vege gardens.

 They come in pink and purple.
One of my friends came around to see my garden and fell in love with the purple Platycodin and high- tailed it to Palmers to buy one for herself.
 She has it in her conservatory in a pot and it makes a lovely focal point.
 I recommend them for their repeat flowering performances.

Lettuces are my favourite at the moment.

We are having salads out of the garden most nights.

Eating veges out of your own garden taste crunchy and fresh.

You can't beat them.

I just go around my whole garden with some scissors and  chop herbs edible flowers lettuces young silver-beet small courgettes, basil, parsley and beetroot leaves and pile them all into a salad.

Drop some cider vinegar, mustard and garlic, plus olive oil dressing on top and with a can of salmon it's a quick,  nutritious dinner.

 

 

 

Parsley is another herb that I grow  in  my vege garden as it is a great companion plant and helps others to grow.
My garden is organic.
I don't use any pesticides as I am surrounded by beehives from neighbours and I don't want to kill them.

 I have a lot of mosaics in my garden but I have my eye on these angels because I think they are very sweet.

 They go well with water features.
I have a goldfish pond in my garden that my husband made me.
At the moment we have 14 residents.
I want some more because I used to have 23.
 I will be buying them from Wonderworld Aquarium which is down the bottom of my road.

I think someone's cat whisked some away but I have no hard evidence.
Not even a whisker.
I 'm pretty sure it wasn't my  cat Jasper as I have never seen him snooping around fish.


My last cat Gary managed to catch some until I dunked him in the pond and he didn't go near it again.

 This is an utterly beautiful hibiscus from Palmers  that I would love for my garden

And here are some more statues that look so lovely in amongst the plants.

 

So if you want a quick "Pick me up"  go to Palmers have a look at their lovely shop, water features, flowers and vege seedlings.

Buy something and dig it into your garden.

It is really uplifting to see how rapidly they grow.

 

When this rain stops I will go around my garden and show you some of the plants in it that I have bought from Palmers.

 

Creative Quote:

It's been proven by quite a few studies that plants are good for our psychological development. If you green an area, the rate of crime goes down. Torture victims begin to recover when they spend time outside in a garden with flowers. So we need them, in some deep psychological sense, which I don't suppose anybody really understands yet. Jane Goodall 

Palmers Garden World Rotorua For Interior design accessories.

I always love going to Palmers in  Sala Street,  Rotorua because their shop is so professionally and stylishly merchandised.
Just entering into the home décor area makes me gasp with pleasure.
Beautiful items to transform your home are sorted into colour waves and everything flows so invitingly.
It makes choosing something for yourself or as a gift so easy.
 Your mind keeps going; I'd like that and that and that and that.

Palmers
At the moment I am giving my home an interior  facelift so I am especially interested in artificial flowers and cushions.
Taking photographs of these in Palmers was an exercise in  composition. 
How do you get the objects to look like they have come out of a House and Garden magazine? 
 It's a real learning curve for me and has me analysing magazines for styling tips at least once a day.

The artificial flowers are so well made these days, it's hard to tell them apart from the real thing isn't it?

Palmers

Palmers

I have taken some photos of  artificial flowers in my bedroom and  lounge.
 I have two vases of them in the kitchen, one vase in the lounge and one in my art studio.
The ones next to my bed have a few drops of lavender essential oil splashed on them occasionally to help relax and send us to sleep.
 
Flowers with lavendar essential oils in our  bedroom

Does it work?
Ask my snoring husband and purring cat

Jasper the sleepy pussycat who always comes when I call him. 
Adorable boy. 
His nickname is couch potato.
 I replaced the old throws which were shredded in places with new sage green ones and hes been told to keep his paws off.

Cushions and throw rugs are  interior accessories that I think are essential  for a cozy, snuggly  home.  
They provide texture. comfort and pops of colour. 
I have used them for the past thirty years and it appears they are zooming back into fashion.  
Minimalism is out yay, lets cover the walls.
My style has always been eclectic with an emphasis on original paintings; either  mine or ones I have collected from galleries. 
 The boy manniquin's name is David.
 I like to have a touch of the bizarre or quirky to add curiosity.

This adorable fox cushion bought from Palmers goes perfectly with the green, cream and burnt orange  of the artworks I have on the walls. 
 It makes me smile every time I go past it and  I figure this must be good for health. 


Creative Quote of the Day. 
There is beauty all around when there is love at home. 

Roses for Valentines Day, Taking Time to go into public roses gardens and smell the roses.

Smelling roses is a mindful activity.

I recommend it when you have a headache.

You can almost get drunk on the perfume

The ones that are the strongest seem to be the old fashioned ones.

Some of the showiest ones have hardly any smell at all but if you sniff their leaves you get an almost acrid  leafy smell which is quite invigorating.

 The best time for the perfume is in the morning.

See you there. 
Photography with roses in Rotorua
$45.00 per person per hour.

Email janet@jkeen.net
Phone 07 3463435

Painterly Impressionistic Photography

Mt Maunganui an impressionistic day at the beach by Janet Keen, Rotorua Art Photographer

  We drove an hour to Mount Maunganui   to try out  my new 800D Canon Camera.

 I wanted to perfect or start to embark on my landscape photography journey for 2018.
  The weather was hot and sunny while in Rotorua it was cold and grey.
I almost felt like I was in Australia, Noosa to be wishfully precise.

The Mount has a great buzz this time of year.
Lots of cafes, people, lovely shops ,wide walkways, people with their cute designer dogs and the sea rolling in splashing up  on the rocks.
Boys jumping off rocks into the sea.

 
I could not be bothered  carting my  tripod in the heat to the beach because it took ten minutes to get there by foot.
We were lucky to find a park.
The place was teaming with people.

My husband went for a swim so I just stayed under a Pohutukawa tree taking shots with different settings. 
I felt like a bit of a voyeur.
I was the only one around with a camera.
I felt lucky to be a woman because people might have thought I was trying to shoot bikini clad women.

Of course when I arrived home and put them up onto the computer  the  initial results were underwhelming because it was not the right time of day.
 The light was not magical
So I did some work on them and what came up?
Ghosts of course.


I was super happy with this. 
Which brings me to the lesson I think that may have been held up for me to see.
In life you can have all the best intentions and goals in the world.
You can try to change everything and control it but in doing so you are missing out on what the world wants you to see or produce.

Every time you take your camera out if you are observant and flexible enough, you will find the magic comes to you.
Cutting your mind off to the power of possibility means that creativity can be suffocated and forced.
 You can feel unhappy that you haven't achieved what your initial vision was.
Being a mindful photographer takes care of anxiety.
You just shoot what you see and see what happens.

 

 One day I know I'll be able to produce the perfect landscape but it's just not now.
It will require some more effort,  the right light, more research and some special equipment.
But one day it will happen.
 Until that day I will enjoy the journey and share with people on here the results of my adventuring.


Prints For sale
Photography Beginners lessons for women for sale
Phone 346-3435
Email janet@jkeen.net
Text 0273513887

Creative Quote:
It is only an illusion that you do not have what you want
Sanyana Roman.


 

Mindfulness and Prosperity Thinking

Mantra for today...I appreciate my life.
 Say this throughout the day and notice the difference to your life if you say it for 365 days.
Write it in your diary.

Look deep within.
What inspires you?
Keep doing more of it.
I am inspired by photography and posting on my blog for people to read
What can you do today?

Send your inner critic away from you to  rest on the beach.
 We all have one
Don't let the inner critic win.
My inner critic says that people are trying to copy me and take away my greatness.

This stems from childhood past.
It  is nothing more.
It isn't true now.
The past is the past is the past.
Remember this and be open to abundance that the universe so wants to provide. Can you identify a redundant childhood belief? Write it down on a piece of paper and put it in the rubbish where it belongs.

Take notice of what changes your mood for the better and do it.
I always feel better walking in forests, gardening, planting seeds and harvesting vegetable for a meal
Simple things like this often lift my mood.
Life is too short to be angry all the time.

If you believe in yourself, others will reflect that belief
If you have high self esteem you will be respected
If you are fascinated by life others will find you fascinating.
Make an effort to be fascinated by something today.
What is something you are fascinated by?
Write it down and take a step towards finding out more about it.

Remember to show appreciation to people who support you, these are the most important people in your life.
 Find time to show your thankfulness
I am thankful to my husband ,friends and clients.
May 2018 bring more people into my life to be thankful for.

The next time someone tries to bring you down, just realise that it is their problem not yours.
 Don't let their version of the truth affect you.
Know your worth, value yourself. 

Create positive thoughts by making statements like, I am valuable and worth it with my boutique, artistic photographic business.
 People love my arty photos and they always want to buy them to uplift their home.
Better still write it out and place it on a mirror so you can read it back to yourself.

Do something outrageous, see if you can tell the truth for a whole day.

Brilliant work comes from 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent dedication.
 I am dedicated to producing beautiful, unusual arty photos.
What is something that fills your heart with joy and which you can dedicate yourself to?



If you have been inspired by my photos  and words of encouragement please drop me a line in the comments.
It fills my heart with joy when I get positive feedback.
It will fill yours as well when you give someone a compliment from the heart.

Email janet@jkeen.net
Text 0273513887
Phone 073463435
 
Painting , mosaic and photography lessons Monday to Wednesday
 Art photographic Prints for sale please contact me for a quote:)
.