Forever is composed of nows ...

 

“Forever – is composed of Nows – (690)


Forever – is composed of Nows –
‘Tis not a different time –
Except for Infiniteness –
And Latitude of Home –

From this – experienced Here –
Remove the Dates – to These –
Let Months dissolve in further Months –
And Years – exhale in Years –

Without Debate – or Pause –
Or Celebrated Days –
No different Our Years would be
From Anno Dominies –”

― Emily Dickinson, The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Goodreads)

a month to love and be loved ...

feel free to print and use for your personal enjoyment ~ peace

There is only one happiness in this life, 

to love and be loved.

George Sand

George Sand, pseudonym of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant, née Dupin, (born July 1, 1804, Paris, France—died June 8, 1876, Nohant), French Romantic writer known primarily for her so-called rustic novels.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Sand

Pay attention!!! Stay eager!!!!

feel free to print and use for your personal enjoyment ~ peace

“Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”

 Susan Sontag

Summer is on its way ...

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. 

The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”

 Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib

Betsy-Tacy and Tib was a favorite for me and the girls for bedtime reading! 

peace ~

 

May is here: live immediately!

 

“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow, and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune's control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining?

The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

Seneca

peace, virginia 

be the light ...

“Light is to darkness what love is to fear; 

in the presence of one, the other disappears.

Marianne Williamson

I have posted this collage on my P.O.P. site (society6and Redbubble) and I will donate the entirety of my portion of the sale of this print, 'be the light ... ' to UNICEF to help the children in the Ukraine.

print on society 6:

https://society6.com/product/be-the-light6628744_print?sku=s6-23296111p4a1v45

Print on redbubble: 

https://www.redbubble.com/i/art-print/be-the-light-by-Virginiacreate/103391524.1G4ZT?asc=u

Click here to go directly to UNICEF's site to donate directly:

www.unicefusa.org

When I sat down yesterday to create this month's collage for my #virginiacreates monthly calendar - this collage came quite clearly to me.  I didn't struggle with it or question it, which usually happens with most of my work.  But this piece seemed to flow. 

 I was listening to an interview with the lovely and talented Anne Lamott (see link below) and she was speaking about the importance of being the light - especially for creatives - and so I named this collage, 'be the light ...'  However as I was putting together my March calendar page I started seeing that this piece speaks to the heart-breaking situation in the Ukraine.  

As I do with many of my collages I cut shapes from  pages of different foreign text.  I am always picking up foreign books when I see them!! Unknowingly I used pages from one of my book that is in a Slavic language.  This particular book seems to be about Walt Disney and is in some East Slavic language though I am not sure which language. I love to use text in my work and especially text using different alphabets.  I find lettering/text/language so inspiring and beautiful of many levels.  

Also when I first sat down to make this collage I felt the need to stamp a peace sign, something that I don't always do, but yesterday it felt important.

I mention all this because I really wasn't consciously thinking about the Ukraine crisis, but as I look at the finished collage I feel like it speaks to the crisis, peace & light with a slavic text sprinkled around.  And this is an idea that Anne Lamott talks about, that we, as creatives, need to be open so that we are receptors of the world and that it what feeds our work.

A Conversation with Anne Lamott - 2007:

Best-selling author Anne Lamott returns to San Diego with more hilarious tales of her life as a mother, daughter and writer who is drawn to the struggles of imperfect characters. The humor of host Dean Nelson puts the normally reclusive Lamott at ease and the two keep the audience laughing throughout this edition of the 2007 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University. [4/2007] [Show ID: 12220]

https://youtu.be/PhP5GmybvPM

this is the year for our wildest manifestations ...

Happy 2022!!!

Letting go creates the space we need to welcome our wildest manifestations.

Taj Arora

virginiacreates' october calendar ...

 

for your personal use - peace

This month, let us never cease from thinking ...

 

...Let us never cease from thinking--

Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas

Thank you Virginia Woolf, for this most appropriate quote for this month of learning, 

September when many are heading back to school and work.  

To me thinking and questioning and exploring is so important for us all ~ 

I believe that we are students all our lives.  

Happy Learning & peace, Virginia

august is here and so is your #virginiacreates calendar ....

 

feel free to print and use as you wish!

keep peace with your soul ...

... and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. 
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,  
it is still a beautiful world. 
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. 


Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952

This month let us remember to be gentle with ourselves ...

Desiderata - Words for Life

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

— Max Ehrmann, 1927

\

Feel free to download and print this calendar for your personal use this month. to print: open up the calendar image by clicking on the calendar, then with two fingers click on calendar and your should get a menu and select download file. 

Once it is downloaded you can print as usual.

This calendar should  fit on an 81/2 x 11 piece of paper, however I always click the printing option "scale to fit".
enjoy!! 

Go placidly into 2020 ...

 a wonderful poem for a new year ....

wishing all a joyful and peaceful 2020.

Desiderata - Words for Life

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, 

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

— Max Ehrmann, 1927

Feel free to download and print this calendar for your personal use this month. to print: open up the calendar image by clicking on the calendar, then with two fingers click on calendar and your should get a menu and select download file. 

Once it is downloaded you can print as usual.

This calendar should  fit on an 81/2 x 11 piece of paper, however I always click the printing option "scale to fit".
enjoy!! 

subscribe to receive my monthly calendar in your inbox! 

                             and only my monthly calendar, scout's honor!

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Email Address *

 

Email Format:  html text

 

thank you & peace ...

December is upon us ....

Remember This December, 

That love weighs more than gold! 

Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

Feel free to download and print out this calendar for your personal use this month. to print: open up the calendar image by clicking on the calendar, then with two fingers click on calendar and your should get a menu and select download file. 

Once it is downloaded you can print as usual.

This calendar should  fit on an 81/2 x 11 piece of paper, however I always click the printing option "scale to fit".
enjoy!! 

subscribe to receive my monthly calendar in your inbox! 
and only my monthly calendar, scout's honor!

* indicates required

Email Address *

Email Format:  html text

thank you & peace ...

Happy November ...

In November, the earth is growing quiet.
It is making its bed, a winter bed for flowers and small creatures.
The bed is white and silent,
and much life can hide beneath its blankets. 

Cynthia Rylant

thank you and peace ...

Start celebrating summer with my June calendar ...

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.

Gertrude Jekyll

Feel free to download and print out this calendar for your personal use this month.

p.s. if you are having problems downloading or printing the calendar, 

just leave a comment & email and I will send you a PDF.

Thank you & peace,

Virginia

Your May calendar and the morphing of an idea ...

download and print for your personal enjoyment.

Here is your May calendar for you to print and enjoy.  

Also, this calendar works is part of a body of work that I am currently obsessed with, 

which I call 

#100daysofwomenwonders.

This project has grown out of my dailydress blog, on which I posted quotes of women in March in honor of Women's History Month, #femininewordsofwisdom.  Then with April came the #100dayproject and I decided to continue my celebration and sharing of words/quotes of women which I named, #100daysofwomenwonders. 

As so many of my projects go, in the first few days of posting women's quotes with a mixed-media dress collage I felt the need to do more, so now I am sharing women's quotes with a drawing of the woman and a brief bio of her.  

Who knows how else these project may morph by the end of 100 days?!? I do know I am loving doing the project, finding different quotes and researching the women. My head is swimming with amazing women that I hadn't heard of.  I feel like I student again (which is a wonderful thing) and my desk is a mess of library books.  

If you want to follow along with this project there are a few ways you can:

you can follow or subscribe to my dailydress project blog
https://dailydressproject.blogspot.com
or
follow my #100daysofwomenwonders on my Instagram account, virginiacreates:
https://www.instagram.com/virginiacreates/
or
you can join
'the dailydress project ...' group on FB
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookofmotherlove/

Also if you want a 'virginiacreate's monthly calendar in your inbox'
you can sign up here.
https://virginiafitzgerald.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=8978699b24201ab4b3138cbdf&id=4a8fde0071


“In a world where thrushes sing and willow trees are golden in the spring, boredom should have been included among the seven deadly sins.”  
Elizabeth Goudge, The Rosemary Tree

March's calendar is celebrating Women's History month!

And the celebration of women will continue on my dailydress blog, where I will be posting quotes by women daily, and whenever possible a bit of a bio of that day's woman.  

Some history behind Women's History Month:

Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”

CLicK here to read to learn more:

https://womenshistorymonth.gov

Thank you and peace, 

virginia

Subscribe to receive my dailydress calendar in your inbox! & only my monthly calendar, scout's honor!

And for the new year, your January calendar!

HAPPY 2019!!

Feel free to download and print out this calendar for your personal use this month.

p.s. if you are having problems downloading or printing the calendar, 

just leave a comment & email and I will send you a PDF.

thank you and peace and 

Happy New Year!! 

AND if you would like to receive these calendars into your inbox, 

please fill out the below form & you will be added to a monthly calendar list, ONLY!! 

promise!! scouts honor :)

can be a phone wallpaper

for your computer desktop image 

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Remember this December ... Happy December from me to you!

Remember this December,

That love weighs more than gold!

Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

Here is my December printable calendar for your enjoyment!!

 I am so pleased with the quote that I discovered for this month, 

it is a new quote to me and one that celebrates what I love about this time of year!! 

Happy December 

peace