My New Blog

by 9grace

It’s that time of the year already!! I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone.

I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging this year, and since I am moving next year, I have decided to set up my own personal blog so I can continue!

My new blog address is gracefulartsblog.wordpress.com . I’m still setting it up at this point in time, so if there are not many posts (or no posts at all), don’t worry, I’ll be writing regularly once I settle into school.

Thanks to everyone who read my blog and left comments. I really enjoy posting so seeing that people are reading my work is really cool!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Everyone.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

Where Has The Time Gone?

by 9grace

At the time that I am writing these words, right now, it is 10:54:11 am on Monday 5th of December, 2016. There are exactly 26 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes and 49 seconds until the new year of 2017 (Perth,Western Australia time zone). That is less than 1/13.76138147566719th of the year left!

…..and with that, here are some more fun facts and statistics about 2016.

  • As of right NOW, there are approximately 7,468,392,182 people in the world (and it increases 2<4 every second).
  • In the last 35 years, extreme poverty has decreased by more than 70%.
  • The dates of 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, and 10/10 have all fallen on a Monday, as will 12/12.
  • The last US, British, and Australian troops will withdraw from Afghanistan on December 31st, 2016.
  • The 2016 calendar is exactly the same as the 1994 calendar, right down to days and dates (including festivals).
  • There are approximately 3,515,474,044 internet users as of RIGHT NOW (and it increases by 8<11 every second).

So, there are some interesting statistic facts for you all to ponder over!

Yours faithfully,

Grace.

I’m Back

by 9grace

Hi again Everyone!

Sorry that I’ve been away for so long, There’ve been a few things going on that have meant I haven’t been able to get onto the blog or simply have not had time to blog at all.

However, I’m back at home now and things are starting to fall back into place so I should be able to pick up writing once a week again.

Thanks guys!

Yours faithfully,

Grace

Aloha

by 9grace

Okay so as my first post after a long time away from the blog, I thought I’d write something that is relatively significant or meaningful to me.

A while ago my parent watched a movie called “The Fundamentals of Caring”. I had a fair bit of homework to do so I didn’t watch it with them, but I could hear some of it from my bedroom.

At the start, there was a female narrator, and she was addressing helping others (I think). She had a few good quotes, but the one that stuck in my head was a quote for a method for helping others, linking to the abbreviation ‘Aloha’:

Ask,

Listen,

Observe,

Help,

Ask again.

I think it’s really beautiful way to remember it since “Aloha” also means “Hello”. I think It’s also quite a lovely thing to have in your mind, not only for when you are helping people do something, but for everything.

For example, you wouldn’t just go up to someone who looks upset,  give them your thoughts and assume you’ve helped. You’d go up, ask them what’s wrong, listen to what they have to say, and then do what you can to make them feel better. You wouldn’t leave, however, until you had asked again if they were okay, or if they needed anything else.

I think it’s also great for helping yourself. If you’re struggling with something or having a hard time juggling things, you’d ask yourself what you are doing to cause the problem, consider what you are doing and your options, and depending on your situation, you might ask someone else for help.

Although, sometimes it’s hard to help ourselves. We don’t know what to think or how to express yourself, or how to ask for help. There was another quote later in the movie: “My needs are equal to the needs of the person that I am helping, and I cannot help that person any more than I can help myself”. That quote is very important when you are helping yourself or others. If things are bad, you need to get yourself back on track before you can reach out to others, and that’s something I am finding more and more as time goes on.

Umm so yeah, those two quotes have been circling my mind a bit recently, which is why I wrote a blog post about the two. I hope they make a bit of sense!

Yours faithfully,

Grace.

 

My Apologies

by 9grace

Hi Readers,

I just wanted to post that I will not be blogging for a while since my brother has suffered an accident and has thrown our family schedule out of whack. There are a few complications which mean I won’t be writing for a while as a have other things to attend to.

My sincere apologies,

Yours faithfully,

Grace

Emergency Bedside ‘Kit’

by 9grace

Student Blogging Challenge: Week 4 – Activity 2; ft. Mrs Smith’s post

For one of Mrs Smith’s activities, she asked us to write a post about what we would pack in an emergency bedside kit for if a natural disaster were to occur.

Here, one of the only major natural disasters that occur regularly in or around our region are bushfires. Now, I’m not sure if my family has an emergency kit, but I know that I don’t have a bedside one. I do know, however, what I would grab to take with me in an emergency before I left.

The first thing (after my family) would most definitely be the dog. Even if we do not get anything else out of the house, as long as my family is safe (including pets), everything will be fine.

The second thing I’d grab would be a phone, as well as dad’s two-way if we can get to them. That way we would at least be able to contact people.

The third thing I’d grab would be some water, for obvious reasons.

I would also like to grab my wallet so that we have some money. At least we would be able to buy some food. I would have said a map, but I know that we have a good travelling map in the car which we would take with us or remove from the car on the way out.

For a little while now, I have been putting anything that has a special meaning to me, or that I want to keep special, into a small box next to my bed. It includes letters, photos, trinkets and gifts, some drawings and some of my old journals. If I had time to, this box would probably be the final thing I grabbed before heading out the door.

I often think about what I would do if my family had to evacuate due to an approaching bushfire. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be thinking about it, we need to be prepared anyway, but if I stick to the subject for too long then I start to stress myself out.

I know that what I have written isn’t exactly an ’emergency bedside kit’ content, but it is what I would take if I had a minute to get out of the house.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

 

Above Water

by 9grace

Student Blogging Challenge: Week 3 – Activity 4; Write the beginning of a story relating an image.

I Capture The Majestic Power Of Ocean Waves

Captured by Warren Keelan: http://www.boredpanda.com/author/warren-keelan/

 

Above Water

Stay, they’ll bring the boat back ’round…

I’d hurt my back when I got flung off. It was all I could do to try and keep my head above water.

Find the boat…

If I could do that I would be fine. You’d think, being a reasonably sized vessel, it would be easy to spot. Apparently not.

Stay above water!

This is getting harder. Paul had left the life jackets on shore to ‘make room for the catch’, though we didn’t need it. I could use a life jacket right now! I’m a good swimmer, but it seems like every time I take a breath, I’m shoved back under.

Where’s the boat!?

Okay mate, hurry up… I’m panicking now. Maybe it’s just my imagination, or my energy exhausting , but the waves seem to be crashing harder now, and more frequently too. Where are they?

Probably made a run for it…

NO! Don’t think like that…They, they saw me! Josh was on the deck with me. A wave crashed over the starboard side, pushed the boat down… I slid down the deck, flipped over the side. They saw that.

They knew today was going to be rough…

Yeah, so did I. I was stupid for agreeing to go with them, here of all places. Where are they! There’s not enough time to look for the boat anymore. The weather is worsening. Making it to the surface to get a breath is hard enough.

You knew they were being dodgy…

STOP! They’re coming, they’re just navigating the waves! It was just a fishing trip, not a murder mission. Soon they’ll come past and I’ll be able to hurl myself over the side. Then we can get out of here.

They aren’t coming back…

 

Dun, dun, dun!!

I think it would be really cool if people continued the story in the comments. I’d love to see how it unfolds. Take it to wherever you want. Have fun!

Yours faithfully,

Grace

 

Falling

by 9grace

Student Blogging Challenge: Week 3 – Activity 6. Find 5 images that create a story.

img_5558

img_5557

img_5551

img_5553

img_5555

Again, I have chosen to use my own images of some of my sketches. These definitely aren’t my best sketches, but I thought they made quite a good story.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

 

Disclaimer: All the sketches, drawings, artworks and selected photos that I post on my blog are my own pieces and are all subject to copyright under my blog and my name. 

 

 

Joke’s on You

by 9grace
Student Blogging Challenge: Week 3 – Activity 3. Find an image or piece of music & write a poem relating to it.

squeezing,

shaking,

a deep breath in,

squeaks and snorts,

breath in again,

a slap,

multiple slaps,

because there is nothing else you can do.

falling to the ground,

holding yourself,

yourselves,

each other,

pointing,

rolling,

you thought I was writing about something violent,

now the joke’s on you….

Laughing Uncontrollably

Well, that was interesting!!

I haven’t included a picture in this post because my inspiration actually came from a quite ~unflattering~, yet utterly hilarious snapchat message of one of my close friends laughing.

That poem was actually really fun to write. At first, I just started describing all the different actions that go along with laughing, but it sounded…well, it was not what I was aiming for. That, however, meant that I was able to give the poem two meanings almost, and completely alter the way it could be interpreted. Being able to turn a poem on its head like I just did is something that I always love to do because it makes the reader think about the words they have just taken in. Tricking people minds is always fun.

Well, I had fun just now!

Yours faithfully,

Grace.

 

 

Who is She?

by 9grace
Student Blogging Challenge: Week 1 – Activity 1; Create an avatar/Write a post about your avatar

If you’ve been on my blog, or seen any of my posts on the class blog, you will have simageeen my little avatar hovering in the corner of the page.

For the last… I don’t know, say, 8 months, I’ve used one of my own personal pictures as my avatar. I’ve always liked this picture and felt that it represented me quite well. The first thing that I see is the colours. Yes, I have got a bazaar filter over the top of it, but I like it. I think the colours somewhat represent myself as an artist; new, inexperienced, yet optimistic, fun, and successful.

I also like the photo because, well, how many photos do you see with a rainbow filter? Hardley any! If a photo does have a rainbow filter, you either love it or hate it. The stuff that I do, my projects, my art, what I write about, it might not be for everyone. I like to go against the grain; be independent, different. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes not. Just like a rainbow filter, I guess!

There are a lot of reasons as to why I’ve chosen this photo as my avatar. But I think if I went on, I could write a full page analysing it…

So, with that, I will move on to my next avatar.

img_5539

https://www.bitmoji.com

This avatar is just a bitmoji from my account, which I am using at the moment for the Student Blogging Challenge. It’s my favourite one, though I kind of see it/her as my ‘alter ego’. Again, it (kind of) represents my artistic side. She has curly blond hair – although mine is much curlier, I assure you. Umm, I also think she looks a bit cheeky, which I like. People who don’t know me well will say I am anything but cheeky, but in some cases, I could say otherwise.

So, those are the two avatars that I am using at the moment. I’m not sure how long I will keep up my bitmoji one. It might be for a few weeks, perhaps longer. I haven’t decided yet.

Anyway, that is my little description of how I think my two avatars represent me. I’d actually really like to hear whether people agree with me or not, since everyone interprets things a different way. Let me know in the comments!

Yours faithfully,

Grace