Savor It

Just Breathe with me at the Wishstudio!

Come check out my monthly column, called Just Breathe at the Wishstudio. I'll be offering my take on yoga, pranayama (breathwork), creativity and inspiration. 

My friend Mindy has created the most amazing, magical and inspirational creative community online (and will soon be doing it in person!) I am so thrilled and honored to be a part of this wonderful network of women who are living their most passionate, creative lives.  Thanks for taking the time to visit me there and let me know what you think! 

Time to get messy.

I'm so excited!  I'm participating in this awesome playgroup online called Wish Play Create over at the wishstudio.  It's a 5 week artistic adventure that will allow me and Jonah to get our hands dirty in some child-friendly (and mama inspiring!) art. Yes, I know it's probably overly ambitious to think about creating some of this stuff with a 2 1/2 year old, but we are focusing solely on the process, not the end product.  Even so, I'll do my best to share what we create so you can play along too.  And the playgroup started just yesterday so it's not too late to sign up if you're interested!

wish*full artist retreat

 

Are you looking for some creative inspiration? Or to try something new from the comfort of your own home? Then you should definitely sign up to attend the wish*full virtual art retreat, a 3 day experience (Apr. 30 to May 2) filled with creative workshops, a trunk show and a chance to virtually meet an inspiring group of women artists!  All the information can be found here.  This seems like a wonderful and exciting unique experience that is sure to bring together a powerhouse of women from around the world.  I really want to attend, but at this point (not knowing when the baby is coming) I'm afraid to commit to anything! Of course, if I won an entire retreat package I would definitely be there and nothing would stop me!! ;) 

Dreaming starts here.

Our first assignment (and Jen's magical wisdom)

Can you feel it? This is the start of something BIG.  Don't know what yet, but it's brewing.  Today is the start of my Mondo Beyondo online class (all about dreaming big) and already I am excited by sheer possibility.  When over 150 women build a community to support one another in fulfilling their life's passion(s), it can only bring good GREAT things.  So over the next 5 weeks, I'll be spending time in dreamland, scheming with possibility, brimming with potential and seeking guidance from the universe.  Wish me luck!

Blending Baseball and Blankets

 

The family at the Suns game (notice my vintage Suns jersey)
Me wearing it brought Jared much happiness, but it was hot and scratchy!

You may not know this but my husband LOVES BASEBALL WITH A PASSION. (Well, actually you may if you've been reading along for a while).   He is not crazy fanatical (i.e., making ME crazy) but he loves to go to games, collect memorabilia, tour around the country visiting minor league stadiums, and passing the passion on to Jonah.  We recently went to a Hagerstown Suns game (a class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals an hour and a half north of us) so Jonah could experience the thrill of our great American pastime.  In fact, Jared returned from his annual boy's baseball weekend on Sunday, where he went to Philly, Trenton, NJ and Pittsburgh to see games with 2 good friends.  

So needless to say, my love of baseball is not quite as strong.  Two games a season is enough for me to get the wonderful flavor of it all, but after that, well...I'm a bit bored.  It's not usually very action packed, I have no idea what's going on, it's hot and usually there are bugs.  ;) But because I love my boys, I have to find a way to love the game. 

Enter my sewing machine (which you know I have been having lots of fun with).  I made this adorable blanket for Jonah to experiment with my sewing skills.  The blanket (about 3 feet by 3 1/2 feet) was a kit I purchased from A.C. Moore (time constraint a factor when picking out fabric, etc.) so really all I had to do was cut the fabric and sew.  It came together in no time, and the big news is is that it is still stitched together!! I have renewed hope in my shoddy sewing skills and can't wait to make more STUFF.  Did Jonah need another blanket...absolutely not.  But if it makes me like baseball just a bit more...then it's worth it. Over the years, I see scrapbook pages about baseball games, crocheted baseball bat cozies, and other crazy baseball-related crafts.

  

My baseball quilt

And my own little baseball superhero found a very creative way to use his new blanket...

 

Mondo Beyondo.

 

Jen's soul-stirring artwork

It's finally here and I am SO excited.  I signed up for the Mondo Beyondo online e-course, offered by creative dream manifesting extraordinaires, Jen Lemen and Andrea Scher.  Dreaming big.  It's all I know how to do.  Getting those dreams to come true? Well...now that's where I need a bit of help. But Jen and Andrea are going to show me how it's done and I am willing to follow them anywhere.  :) Between the two of them, these amazing women have brought to life creative dreams including a jewelry business (A), a photography business (A), becoming an artist (J), traveling to Africa (J), effecting tremendous social change (A & J), winning $50,000 from Microsoft and Lenovo to photograph "hope" on 5 different continents (J), and now starting a dream big revolution for all of us to take part in!! 

So I want to encourage you to join me in making space for your own dreams to come true, but I just found out that the first session (starting August 24th) is sold out.  But you should definitely sign up for the second session (starting October 5th)!  Banish all the skepticism, silence the gremlins telling you that you don't deserve it, and bring your beautiful dreams to light!  The fall is a wonderful time filled with new possibilities and fresh starts.  It's a perfect time to imagine what your new life can look like. 

One of my dreams came true (not a mondo beyond one, more like a mini biddidy one) when I met Jen Lemen at our local bookstore.  She does happen to live in the DC area.  She was there to meet up with someone else, and I recognized her from her blog.  Despite me falling all over myself and looking like a stalker, she was incredibly generous with some much needed advice, and is just as genuine and wise in person as you would expect from her blog.  I wanted to spend all day with her and soak in her life experience and her gentle spirit.  As you can see, I'm a fan. 

As I go through this process, I'll do my best to share my thoughts here.  (I'm sure we'll need some accountability for our dreams).  Thanks for supporting me on this and I look forward to us sharing some of our dreams together soon! 

Postcards from the Edge (of my sewing machine, that is).

I have been getting my crafty goodness on lately and have been working on some very fun projects. The sad news is that to find time to create means less time to blog, but slowly I'll find a balance.  I'm finally able to share these fabric postcards I created. My sister and family received this goodie recently in the mail. Yep, you read that right.  I sent a FABRIC postcard through the MAIL.  Totally super cool.

The front (with address smudged out to eliminate unwanted houseguests)

 The back

This project was inspired by my crafting guru, Donna Downey.  She wrote a fabulous, drool-worthy book called Fabric Scrapbooking (Yes, It's a Scrapbook!).  If you at all like fabric and cherishing memories, you must buy this book.  I am not really a sewer, BUT I LONG TO BE ONE, and I thought this was a perfect small project to cut my teeth on.  I used 4" x 6" Heather Bailey fabric scraps (and a few scraps for appliques) and then small wallet-sized photos.  The "writing" is stamped on muslin with StazOn Ink.  This is ink that is permanent and great for all types of materials, including fabric.  There is special fabric ink, but I didn't have any in the house.  I used my Mom's 1970's sewing machine (thanks, Mom!) to sew some irregular (!) decorative stitches around the photos and the muslin, as well as the edges.  Fusible interfacing is placed between the two large pieces of fabric to give it some stiffness and weight.  To make it mail-ready, the piece must be 4" x 6" and no thicker than 1/8 of an inch.  I think the postal lady thought I was crazy when I went to send it (and asked it to be hand-canceled) but it got there! Woo-hoo!

Here's another one I did for my Mom and Dad.  No mail this time, because I saw my Mom in person first, but the concept is the same.  

The front

 

The back

I took this little baby with me on our trip to NYC and hand stitched around the photo, the muslin and the xo's on the felt heart in the car.  So happy to have a craft project to take on the go that is not messy and can easily be started, paused, then resumed.  I can't wait to make a few more of these babies!  I love the idea that you can use scraps, recycled bits of ephemera, notions, old photos, etc.  It's craft recycling at it's best. Let me know if you have any questions about this project and I'll do my best to answer them!  I encourage you to make one for yourself--they are so easy and incredibly satisfying!

Still So Very Inspired

It's been 19 days since Inspired, and I am still so very enthused about all things artsy and craftsy.  The ideas floating through my head are in over-drive and I think I have been having dreams about Donna Downey.  Creepy, but true. 

I thought I would share some of the projects that I created during this Art Fest of Epic Proportions.  I'm digging up some inner courage to share, in the hopes that you, too, will be Inspired to get your creativity on soon.  The projects that I am sharing are, I would say either done, or 90% done, and the others..well, still in the works.  But if I don't share now, it may be 2012 before I get around to it.  So without further ado, here we go with the show and tell--pull up a chair:

First, Jennifer Stewart's class.  Loved this project with all its layered goodness, memory art madness and most importantly, the glitter!! I was in heaven, since glitter was  banned from our home in 2005 by the husband (due to an unfortunate New Year's Eve disaster). The project is a stretched canvas with fabric, and then lots of multi-media elements, like beeswax, sewing, vintage jewelry, etc.

This is a little chipboard book and when you open it, it looks like this:

Next up is Heather Bailey's Flutterby Flip-book. The photos are of Jonah and his cousin, Mina.  This is undoubtedly girly, so I think I'm going to fill the rest of it with photos of the nieces. 

Then comes Jennifer Grant's "Picasso Who?" class.  This was actually the last workshop I took and I COMPLETELY veered off course.  We were actually supposed to create a photo canvas, but I just wanted to have fun playing with the paints and gluing things down.  Going against the "rules" is so unlike me that I was giddy with the rebellion of it all.  :)  No one else even noticed though, because that's what Inspired is all about.  Doing your own thing, finding your own voice and shaping every project to work the way you want it to. 

Next is a wall hanging created in Susan Edmonson's class.  This class both terrified and excited me because I do not sew, but I've always wanted to truly learn and excel at it.  Although the class was truly free-form, I loved it because there were no rules, no measuring, and no cutting--just tearing of fabric! And thanks to the incredibly sweet Aimee, I was able to sew most of it in the class. I'm in the process of finishing the edges of the piece as we speak and might add a few more layers of embellishment, but we'll see. 

And this was from Paulette Insall's class on expressive mixed-media painting.  Well, I'm not sure how expressive she is, but at least she looks like a person, right? She needs some more work on the face and hair, but for now, I'm okay with her just hanging out like this.

And finally, Carol Wingert's class where we made a travel journey folio.  We actually made this book and then created all the embellishments and used lots of different techniques.  Waiting for my cropadile in the mail so I can punch holes in the tags and add ribbons, the last remaining finishing touches.  Loved this class too and am excited about trying to replicate in the future! 

 

Overall, I had an AMAZING time at Inspired and I am really revved up to get messy and dirty and create something everyday.  It's been a challenge, but I am much happier when I am able to do an act of self-expression (even if it's a tiny one) every day. 

Wishing you a VERY creative weekend!

 

Already so inspired....

and I'm not even there yet!  I am almost finished packing and getting so excited to spend three blissful days creating.  Can't wait to meet her, her and her and reconnect with her. The sheer magnitude of so many "hers" is going to be insane!  I can't wait to be immersed in the energy of so many empowered, creative women. 

I don't think I'll have access (or time) to blog during my trip, but I will definitely fill you in upon my return.  I am trying to stay open to whatever occurs, and not have too high expectations (too late!) but I truly feel as though this event will be transformative for me.  It's an overwhelmingly exciting, but also kinda scary, feeling.  Right now, I must get back to packing and head to bed to get some sleep! 

Photo Credit: tea_and_toast, Flickr

Angels & Demons.

First order of business:  I had a GREAT time at Claudine Hellmuth's Collage Discovery Workshop on Saturday.  It was great fun to learn new collaging techniques and just to set aside some uninterrupted time to just play and get messy.  It was also great to hang with my friend Cameron, who I hope to be spending more time with at Inspired (just 2.5 weeks away!).  Thanks for giving me some much needed time away, Jared!

I wasn't really expecting to come out of the workshop with anything, but I was hoping that I would!  Here's some pictures of a small collage I created (6x6) on an artist panel (a wood board essentially that is coated for use with oils or acrylics).  I used the peeled paper and peeling paint techniques that Claudine taught us.  It was a bit of a collaborative effort, as fellow table mates provided some background images, suggested ideas, and gave feedback.  I am so excited by this little piece, and thrilled to be able to use my friend Sally's photo of Jonah (in angel wings no less!). 

So it's quite interesting that Jonah looks so sweet and angelic here.  Which brings me to my next order of business--our week last week.  It's not like Jonah was purposefully being a demon, but it was one HELL of a week.  I think know we are still recovering.  Jonah was getting his second tooth on the bottom, which finally popped through on Wednesday.  There was very little sleep to be had beginning on Monday night, and no real napping to speak of.  And when he was up, he was clingy, fussy and pretty miserable to be around.  Then, when I thought we were in the clear, he had his one year check up on Thursday, and he got SHOTS.  Which led to 4 days of fever and a full body rash (all quite normal, so they say).  So there was STILL no sleep.  For any of us.  We were are all a wreck. 

Quite honestly, I don't know what's up with water boarding and electric shock and all that torture of war prisoner nonsense.  JUST DON'T LET THEM SLEEP.  They will tell you anything you want to know.  It is pure and utter torture to be denied this basic human need.  Anyway, I *think* we are getting back on track, since Jonah slept the whole night through on Monday, woke up briefly around 6 am, only to go back to sleep and sleep in until 9 am!! Then I forced the naps yesterday--YOU WILL SLEEP DANGGIT!--and am doing the same method today.  So hopefully this will be a week of catch up and we will all be more pleasant people to be around.  And Jonah will get to use the smile that lights up an entire room much more often than the horrible scowl and wail that so often empties it completely.