Our little Instagram adventure

A lot of you know that I enjoy to doodle or draw. I have been following some doodle challenges for the last two months - with mixed results. I have even managed to get some of the guys and girls in the office to join in. What has most surprised me is our secretary who at first said that she can not draw and then started and has turned into an excellent budding artist. I am so impressed with her. Our student in the office is incredibly creative and I literally can not wait to see his drawings every day.

So last month we all struggled a bit through another Northern hemisphere challenge - our initial challenge choice has a topic that was not even know in South Africa - Satuday morning cartoons. The other one we chose had camping - which was ok - well sort of. The when we looked at September is was choc a block full of back to school doodles. So we decided that we were going to host our own challenge - with Southern Hemisphere topics and a good sprinkling of South Africa.

We have done our first 14 days (see my page above) and have thoroughly enjoyed it. What has doubled our joy is that we have had 3 Instagramers joining in - and wow, some of the drawings has been amazing. You have to see Cupcakemommy's - she has an amazing talent. Karen at Mom again @ 40 is also doodling along.

I usually doodle in outlines with markers and then colour with pencils - this month I am trying markers to colour in too. I am not quite sure I like them but it does make for bright and happy pages.

So join us if you want to -there is an incredible pleasure in producing something pretty and therapy in the act of drawing . And honestly - anyone can draw! Find me on Instagram as @catjuggles - our handles for this project are:

#rsadoodles #rsadoodlesseptember #rsadoodlesaday

So who are joining in too? You can start any day you want. We are alos planning on doing it monthly going forward and have already started on our October prompts.

In the same line - what do you do that makes you feel happy, creative and calms you? 

It's a friendship thing

I have never talked much about friendship here. The honest truth is that Hunter is my BFF and this friendship just grows and grows and still grows. My other two BFF both moved really far away - one to Calgary Canada 8 years ago and the other to Canberra Australia 3 years ago. I miss them both, and I am a lazy email friend. Time differences means that Skype is not such a great option either and neither of them are on iPad or iPhone Face time or enthusiastic Facebookers.In fact, the one is not even on Facebook. And although we keep email contact I miss the day to day things, I miss just having an impromptu coffee date. A quick phone chat - which I did with both of them regularly.

Yes, I am trying to build new IRL friendships - I have one mom at the school whom I have met for lunch a few times and will again - she is wonderful - best friend potential right there. Only problem being I am a bit like someone dating - they are planning to move to Australia next year. I do not want to go through losing another good friend.Our friends that we as a family spend a lot of time with does not really "count" here - they are on the brother and sister level - family , well better than family. Pure gold. But I do count I as a great girlfriend - BFF too, but we seem to always visit with the families.  I do have other not so "heart" friends around that I sometimes meet mainly for lunch, but it's not on that great friendship level. That one that you share so much with. They take time, commitment and a whole lot of understanding to build, mostly over years. I have my cousin /friend A who is possibly the closest to this is have at the moment. And the book club girls and other friends I love to spend time with but we still have to walk that mile together, eat that bag of salt together. It may come.

In the meantime, I have a great pack of friends I made here in the virtual word of my computer and iPad. What I love about bloggers is that we also talk about the things that you do not often get the time and chance with IRL. We support each other through comments, emails, Facebook chats. Some develop into IRL friends with time. We talk about our dreams and our visions - and our word for the year. As part of my word for the year "Embrace" I decided to as a friendship gesture ( Embracing friendships) doodle a few blogging friend's words for the year. I have posted quite a few (some delayed thanks to the post office strike) and some are still in process of being made. If you really want one let me know and I may just send you one. I just made notes of words as I saw them and as you know the first part of my year has been rather hectic, so I may have missed a lot. These doodles are giving me so much joy - I love making them and even more love sending them on and the joy they bring on the other side of th epostal system.I include a little Typo note book for each to write about what their word brings to them this year.  (BTW I only took a photo of each and did not scan them and sent the original to the recipients so they are uniquely your little doodle - a one and only original)So let me share the ones that I know have been received.

Marcia's

Julia's

Lynette's

Shayne's

Tania's

Pamela's

If you were wondering, yes, there is a process and some words "come to me" easier than others. I find very short words or phrases more difficult than single words. Yes, some symbols do have meanings to me but only one is in every single doodle (can you spot which one?) And tell me why I have it? The rest is mostly a process of drawings what the word/person/sketch "feels" like. As to the colours, I try to reflect a bit of what I see in you in those or I may just ask you to pick colours.

Joining Marcia today