And That My Friends, Is What I Call, A Great Weekend

Oh my goodness!!!

Did this weekend really just happen?

This was one of the most perfectly relaxing weekends ever!!!!

 

It started out perfect when I went to work on Friday.

I was certain we were having a St. Patty's Day party

in our classroom, but I was wrong.

But I didn't care.

Another teacher made me a party hat, I went and bought some

kid friendly (that means stuff I wouldn't normally eat) snacks

and we had a St. Patty's Day party by crackie!!!!

 

My Party Hat clearly shows that I am always down for a party!!!!!

 

Nothing says 2 year old party like Cheese Puffs and Sugar Cookies!!!!

 

Kids were happy when they woke up from their naps

and I didn't feel like I had let them all down.

Next year I will remember we don't normally do

St. Patrick's Day parties;)

 

So once I was home, the weekend had begun.

The sun was still up, the temps were comfortable,

I poured a glass of wine and headed outside to

find my husband.

 

Cheers to the weekend and St. Patty's Day:)

 

Saturday started off with a fabulous visit from our lovely post lady.

When I saw her car coming up the drive, I knew I had goodies arriving.

I had been anxiously awaiting a necklace I had bought from the

amazing Danita's Etsy Shop.

It was a Frida necklace she had made and I wanted it badly.

 

Isn't it pretty in it's little pouch and the cute little post card with it too?

Love this lady!!!!!

 

I had to put the necklace on immediately and hoped that the spirit of Frida

and some inspiration from Danita would send me straight to my

studio ready to create, create, CREATE!!!!!!

 

Isn't she just the most precious little thing you have ever seen?

God I love Frida!!!!!!

 

I had also ordered two books to help with my creative process.

The first one is called Daring Adventures In Paint by the wonderfully talented

Mati Rose McDonough,

The other is by the equally amazing and talented

Flora Bowley

and it is called

Brave Intuitive Painting

let go. be bold. unfold.

 

These two books are filled with great ideas of how to get in touch

with your own style and learn to let what is inside of you come out

onto a canvas as art.

 

I was so excited, I didn't know what to do first,

read my books, work in my art journal, work on a piece i am making for a friend or

work on my LifeBook 2013 class.

I started reading but then all I wanted to do was start making art.

So that's what I did.

First I did a few pages in my art journal.

 

 

 

Then I decided to get serious.

I have a friend I have wanted to make an art piece for.

She said something to me a few weeks ago that stuck in my head.

After a while, I realized this was actually a little snip of inspiration to create a

new piece of mixed media.  So I went to my studio and set myself to work.

 

Several layers of papers, layers of color, some molding paste for texture,

a transfer or two, a sketch and then....

 

 

I topped it off with a layer of beeswax which I have never done before.

That was a lot of fun and I do need much more practice, but now the finished

piece has not only color, but it feels good and has a very earthy smell from the wax.

 

 I used some of my old patterns I inherited from my mom for some of the

under layers.

Used some of my stamps and a few of my transfers

and was so proud that I could draw my elephant free hand:)

 

Wish you could tell I had sealed this in the beeswax but you will just

have to take my word for it.  I need a lot more practice with this technique

but I really enjoyed it.

 

This is how happy i am after all is said and done and all that is left

is cleaning up.  What a great day in my favorite "space".

 

The only thing left to do was to make a wonderful dinner.

I had started dough for french bread earlier in the morning so all I had to

do was put that in the oven.

 

Two lovely loaves of french bread.

 

Next was to start up some homemade pasta sauce with garlic, olives, peppers we preserved from

our garden last summer and some Italian Sausage.

Oh my goodness, the kitchen smelled so wonderful!!!!!

 

 

My sweet hubby had been watching his beloved NASCAR Race while i was spending

amazing time in my studio and kitchen.  At last it was all ready and we came together

for a lovely Italian dinner on a wonderful Irish Holiday.

 

 

What more can one ask of a weekend?

(only that the snow falling outside right now is enough to keep me from having to go

to work in the morning ;) )

 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that the week ahead brings you so much

happiness and love you think you are going to burst at the seams.

Make it a great one!!!!

Hugs and kisses

Deb

 

 



Wow, Now That Was Fun!!!!!!!

So this past week, I spent a lot of time being creative. 

I made a lamp for a friend for a birthday gift, I doodled a lot on my lunch breaks.
Did some sketching and painting with water colors in the evenings and on our snow day.
Altered the cover and back of a new small journal I bought to sketch and paint in.
Cooked up some pretty yummy recipes.
Found some new artists who inspired me and gave me some ideas.
Took some pictures with my real camera and not just my IPod.

It was so much fun spending so much time doing something that I LOVE!!!!!!  Many of my sketches were sketches of other artists paintings and creations.  But they were a good way for me to practice and try to work closer to finding my style.  Obviously from the list above of things I did, I am still all over the map with what I am doing, but oh well.  Being creative is being creative right?  Today I am going to start and hopefully finish a mixed media project I want to give to a friend.

The best way to explain what I have been doing is showing it in pictures.  So that's what the rest of this post shall be.  My girl drawings and Little Frida painting were my interpretations of Danita.'s artwork.   She is an amazing artist I came across thanks to my LifeBook 2013 class I am taking.  I just can't get enough of her work and just love, love, love her style.  I even wrote to her and asked her for some guidance in how to go about finding my style.  She was so kind to write me back and gave me some helpful tips, including that while copying her work was a good way for me to practice my art, it would not help me develop my own style.  I know this is so true, but I just so enjoy the process, that until I feel confident in my own ability, it is at least a way for me to do something.  I am strongly considering doing her online workshop too, but maybe I can get my hubby to give that to me as a birthday gift:) Hint, hint!!!!!!

"Reading" Lamp idea came from

Shabby Creek Cottage 

 

 Just as daylight was breaking, a beautiful blue sheen was cast across into the world

from the freshly falling snow.

 

Poulet Chateau was not showing much activity

as the chickies don't like the snow 

 

 But Beauty sure does love it!!!!!!

 

Something about all that gorgeous snow in the trees and surronding the house

makes it feel like a magical place to me.

 

  My Danita inspired Flower Child.

 

 With the electricity out, my creative spot became a seat in

front of the woodstove.  Boots drying on the hearth and natural

light being my lighting. 

 

Decided to start working back in my Art Journal I had started last year and had

stopped working on in March.  Oddly enough, the last day I had made an entry in

it last year, was the exact date that I brought it back out this year to work in.

First entry, my Little Frida painting.

This journal was for an online class I did called

No More Excuses by Gina Rossi Armfield.

I found all kinds of excuses not to complete it, but that is okay.

I have picked it back up and back on task now:)

 

 My new small journal with watercolor paper pages.  Loved finding this at

Hobby Lobby but not crazy about the plain brown cover.  No worries

I just altered it to a nice inspiration cover and back:)

(MegPie, notice your lovely gift of amazing slippers right beside me!!!)

 

 

The new cover. 

 

The new back

 

 My "Little Frida"

Thanks Danita for loving Frida as much as I do

and bringing these cuties to my attention.

 

 The sun finally came back out and the snow started to melt.

Poulet Chateau is once again loud and active.

 

Waiting patiently for me to let them out and about!!!

 

 Love me some blue sky

 

 Looks like I need to fill up some bird feeders!!!

 

A little something I am working on for someone

 

 

Yet another Danita inspired girl.  I just LOVE her work and would buy every single

piece if I could afford it!!!!

I am anxiously awaiting a Frida necklace I bought from her Etsy shop to arrive.

 

 

 

So, there you have it.  My amazing week in pictures.  Here's wishing you a fabulous Sunday, a Wonderful Mother's Day to those of you in the parts of the world that celebrate it today and a great week to everyone.

XXOO

 

 

 

 

 



Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None

Well, okay, not really even a jack of ALL trades, but, you know what I mean.

This is the story of my life and lately it is making me crazy!!!!!  I have always been a little off center.  Not quite like anyone else I know, march to the beat of my own drum and hard to fit it in a category.  But, not quirky enough or out of the box enough to be really good at the things those TYPE of people are good at.  You know the type I mean, the artsy ones who are able to somehow put the quirky thoughts and ideas blasting through their minds at rapid speed, down on paper, or shape into clay, paint onto a canvas, sew onto some type of medium, write into music, choreograph into a dance, fashion into a piece of jewelry, etc.

That type is who I am in my mind, but somehow, there is a glitch in my wiring and I can't get put into play those thoughts in my mind.  It is a most aggravating predicament.  I pour through pages and pages of articles and pictures of other artist's work in magazines such as Mollie Makes and any and all of the Somerset magazines wishing I had what these artists have.  I read their stories, and sure, some of them claim to have never known they had the ability and talents that they have until later in life when suddenly they realized what they could create.  I am pretty sure this is not my case as I have always, since I was a little girl, wanted to be able to create something.  I mean sure, I can look at other artists work and create my own version of what they have done.  I can read any recipe and pretty much cook or bake whatever the recipe is for and it turn out pretty darn good. But what I can't do is come up with anything on my own.  How do these artists, and I consider a chef or a baker an artist too, come up with the original ideas?  How do I find what it is, that is my style?  I love so many different forms of art and so many styles, but there must be something that is ME, my style.

I am obsessed with creating these days.  I find more and more inspiration everyday.  The internet has become a drug for me, sucking me farther and farther into a world of creating that I never knew existed.  With each new artist I find, there is a link to another artist who inspires them, and off I go to find that artist.  I can't get enough.  Every waking moment is spent wanting to make something, find my style,  my niche.  I read blog after blog and search artist after artist looking for something.  I carry a bag full of scrap material, watercolors, a sketch pad with watercolor papers inserted throughout, embroidery thread, a pack of needles, markers, sketch pencils, blank note cards to decorate just in case I get hit by a  moment of honest originality and need to get it put on paper at that moment.  I haunt thrift shops and flea markets looking for bits and bobs of old stuff: doilies, embroidered hankies, table runners, table cloths, cloth napkins, vintage fabrics and anything else I can re purpose into what, I don't know. 

All I know to do is to keep signing up for the online workshops I find, beg others to please tape their workshops so that they can be put on line and keep on creating the way that I can.  Most of what I make no one but me ever sees.  There is the rare occasion that I may give something I have made to someone, or most likely make a handmade card for an occasion. I would love some day to have enough confidence in what I do to share it with others besides the Flickr groups that are in my online classes.  I would love to come up with something completely my own from start to finish and it be good.  But regardless of who does or doesn't see my work, I am having a great time pretending to be amazing and creative.  There is just something so fun about painting, cutting, sewing together, taking apart and putting back together in a new way, gluing, drawing and imagining.  I long for the day when I can spend all of my time doing just this, but when that day comes, it will also be time for me to get my little farm animals and be working my on going garden which will sustain my family all year through.

Oh dear, I fear that at the age of almost 48, I have waited too long to follow my heart's desire.  I pray my body and mind hold out for all that I want to accomplish in my lifetime.  Perhaps one lifetime is just not enough to do it all.

I would like to thank the artists that I can think of at the moment, for all of the inspiration they have given to me.  Many have responded back when I have written them either on Facebook or their blog or etsy shop.   One I get to call my sister and have the blessing of being a part of her life and work.  These ladies all hold a special place in my heart and give me the fire and drive to keep trying to find my groove, my niche, my STYLE.

Vivian Driskill
Viv Sliwka
Jane Schouten
Phoebe Wahl
Rachelle Blondel
Tif Fussell
Tamara Laporte
Jeanne Oliver
Christy Tomlinson
Meg Duerksen
Megan Richards Modderman
Kelly Rae Roberts
Michelle Allen
Pam Garrison
Gina Rossi Armfield
Marisa Redondo
and last but not least, Frida Kahlo who was my very first inspiration.  A truly tortured soul with amazing talent.

Creative Juices Flowing

Tomorrow is a day I have been waiting anxiously for.

It is the start of JEANNE OLIVER'S CREATIVELY MADE WORKSHOP.

Words cannot describe how super excited I am for this class to start.

What I would do to have won the lottery this weekend

so that I could quit work and stay home just to do this workshop all day.

Guess it will just have to be good enough to come home from work

and start it tomorrow night.

Last Thursday I made the mistake of watching one of my

favorite shows: Grey's Anatomy.

It was a mistake because although I have been doing

better with my grief over my mom's death,

I was unprepared for the scene in which a girl had

to take her father off of life support.  On the show,

the process was much faster than how it is in

real life.  My mom did not pass as quickly once

she was taken off of the ventilator, as the actor on TV.

Re-living that night was heartbreaking for me.

It took it's toll on me that night and the next day.

Luckily, I was able to come home from work

early on Friday and pull myself together.

I did what works best for me now.  I went to my

art journal and started working on that.

This journal is proving to be a huge

therapeutic tool for me.  Little did I know

when I signed up for this class back in the summer,

that I would need it so badly.

Perhaps I was led to that class by a power greater than

myself who knew what the future held for me.

Here are a few pictures of  this weekends assignments and entries.
For those of you who are looking for some wonderful creative class to take,
I would strongly recommend signing up tonight for Jeanne's class I mentioned up top.
Just click on the link I posted and it will take you straight to it. 
Hope everyone has a great week.

My first full week.  Picking a color that represents me each day and a word to describe how I feel.
Also illustrating the weather for the day.

First Card Peek assignment.  Cut out magazine pictures for a month, then choose 1 to
recreate each week.  This weeks was the barn.

Not sure you can read it, but the directions for this page are on the left.
Divide paper into 4 rooms: Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual.
Fill in room with words and images that represent how you are feeling.

Close up of page.

Following My Heart

Happy 2012 to All.

I am looking forward to this year

being a year of firsts for me.

I want life changes that I make happen.

Since my mom passed away,

I have become a different person.

I cannot explain it to anyone,

not even to myself.

But it is a sincere appreciation for life

and a driving force to want to be

a better person, that I have never felt before.

This year I want to dedicate much of my time
to being at home working on myself.
I want to work on being a better parent, a better child,
better wife and just a better person.
Through my art and through my faith,
I want to grow as a person.

I wish I could say what I feel inside,
but for the first time in a long time,
I am at a loss for words to explain myself.
Today I started Gina Armfields workshop called
No More Excuses.
I am really looking forward to everyday having something
to do in an art journal.  I have been preparing my journal
 for the past 3 months. 
It was really nic to finally be able to do some art in it.

On the 9th of this month, I will begin Jeanne Oliver's
Creatively Made Workshop.
Words CANNOT express how excited I am for this class.
I wish I could go to a class in person, that would have all the
instructors she is having at one time.  That would be heaven for me.
Between these two workshops, I feel certain I will be able to move
myself forward in my desire to pursue my creative side.
It will be through my art that I will best be able to express
what I no longer can find words for.

I would like to share a few pictures of today's entries into my journal.
Each month and day has an assignment, so what you see will probably have no
meaning whatsoever. 

I wish all of you a very happy 2012 and that the year brings you all
incredible happiness and fulfillment.
God Bless all of you.

New Year's Eve with our dear friends and one out of four of my kids.

The colors and words that come to mind when I think of January.

January's writing assignment.

My January words.