Name Madala

Things may have seemed normal here on the blog for the past four weeks, but that is only because I am able to schedule posts in advance. In reality, almost every post that ran during October (and a few that will run in November) was written in September. During the first part of October, I spent pretty much every minute working ahead in my three jobs and preparing for an epic trip.

Each year, my parents take our family and my sister's family on a vacation, usually in the fall and usually to Disneyland. For years, my nephew has been hoping to visit Disney World someday. So for his 13th birthday, they not only took all of us to Florida for a week at Disney World, but then treated us all to a Disney cruise. Thanks Mom and Dad!

As always, I packed along some art supplies on vacation: plain paper, a drawing pencil, a Sharpie, colored pencils, and a pencil sharpener. I had high hopes that I'd be able to spend some time drawing and relaxing, especially on the cruise. That turned out not to be the case. In fact, the only creative project I did was to make a Name Mandala on the second leg of our flight, Phoenix to Orlando. I've seen this project many places. I like the step-by-step directions you can find at Art Lessons From Belgium.  

I cut and folded my paper ahead of time so that TSA wouldn't steal my scissors. Then I sketched my name into the first wedge.

 

I used the airplane window to trace my name into all of the other wedges. Not easy with the tiny window, limited space, and airplane movement. 

 

Then I started coloring.  

 

I had to keep stopping to supervise the Language Arts homework going on to my left.

 

Here's the view to my right.

 

And here is my finished Name Mandala. I don't think anyone would know it says Cindy just by looking at it, which is part of what I love about this and all other name art.  

 

About 5 minutes after I finished the mandala, the captain announced that we were entering 'some weather.' Oh my gosh. We spent the next three hours bouncing and pitching with me clutching my airsickness bag. It was absolute torture. I have never been so glad to be on the ground as I was when we landed in Orlando. That flight was so rough that I spent the next two weeks thinking of ways to get back from Orlando to Sacramento that did not involve ever getting on an airplane again. Unfortunately, none of them were feasible and I did board that airplane home. Barely. I was so anxious and so upset. Fortunately, both that leg and the next were ok and we were back in Sacramento about 11 hours after arriving at the Orlando airport. It's going to be a long time before I voluntarily board an airplane again.

Anyway, other than the flight, we had a wonderful trip. The time with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew was great and I feel so blessed to have had such quality family time. Now I'm struggling to get caught up with everything post-vacation. I'd love to drop everything and have some quality time in the scraproom. I've really missed my creative time.