40 Days of Something Beautiful...

"Let us do something beautiful for God." -Mother Teresa

  The Artist's Way Basic Principle # 5
 

"Creativity is God's gift to us. 

Using our creativity is our gift back to God."  

Let me do something creative everyday for 40 days.
Let me walk each day, enjoying the beautiful.
Let me capture the beautiful with the camera. 
Let me create something out of nothing.
Nothing is too small, too simple, or too silly.
Let me find 40 days of color.

"As I open myself to the divine creative energy which flows through me, I am both the prayer and its answer." -Blessings, Julia Cameron

I also decided to give up Diet Coke for the 40 days of Lent. 
And then I pull up behind this truck...

"Every day's a start of something beautiful."
All We Are - Matt Nathanson ♫

Dream With Me... my graceful bee.

 Some time ago I wrote this post. 

     "how cool would it be to one day feature gracey's blog in this magazine?  remembering the day we sat together and began the adventure of creating it."
  

  COOL showed up in my inbox one November evening, with an email from the editor of Stampington magazine, wanting to know if Grace and I would like to write an article to be published in their winter issue of Create with Me.

  If only words could capture the excitement Grace and I felt.  Grace skipped off to bed beaming.  I thought I'd pee my pants.  They needed the article in four days!  It's one thing to dream, but when the dream is right in front of you, it's another thing to catch it.

  The next morning I found my inspiration in this treasure scribbled in Grace's bedside notebook. 

“My blog is a canvas to my thoughts.

It is my very own art museum,

showing the world what I have. 

It is memories and ideas that others can relate to and cherish.

I have notebooks scattered around my room,

 page after page filled with my mind’s undiscovered words. 

My blog is a new page to my notebook.”

 And the magazine arrives in the mail!

And we make a trip to Barnes & Noble to see it on the newsstand for ourselves...

 

Yay!!!

- Colors, April Smith and the Great Picture Show ♫

New Green shoes...

Love these green shoes!  $7.98 at Ross's.  I have no idea why I had to have them.  They look like something out of Christmas Whoville.  So ugly they are cute? My daughters beg to differ.  :)

I have a friend who is fascinated with color therapy.  Earlier this year I got the dreaded call back...breast cyst found on my mammogram.  All is well.  But I freaked out a bit.  I pulled a healing book off my shelf and searched "problems with breasts"..."over-mothering, over-protection"...  ugh... I had been a complete mess with letting go of daughter number one.  My color therapy friend said to surround myself with the color green...which symbolizes nourishment and growth.  I put a plant by the kitchen sink.  I ate on green dishes.  I bought a green pillow.  I drank green tea.  I wore my daughter's green bracelet.  I did everything but eat green eggs and ham.  I focused on the color green as a reminder for me to pray, asking God to help me let go and embrace the "what's next". 

Fast forward...all is well.  The cyst has been aspirated.  And my girl is doing well at college.  I miss her, but she came home from Christmas break a sweet woman.  We both grew.  I can see now that I was holding on too tight while she was trying to pull away.  Anyway, today I put on my new green velvet shoes and I feel rich.  They sum up my year.  

I let go and I'm okay.

-New Shoes, Paolo Nutini ♫

Color...Word for 2012

My word for 2012 is color.  

Other words fight for their place...

discover, explore, journey, keys...

but color takes lead.  

I can discover color's healing. 

I can explore color on a canvas. 

I can take in all the world's beautiful colors on the journey.  

On that journey 

I will find keys 

that open doors 

to undiscovered rooms 

that just may need 

a pop of  color!

Thank you 2011, for allowing me to dream.

This year I'm dreaming in color!

-Color on the Walls (Don't Stop), Foster the People ♫

Merry Christmas!

-Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Judy Garland ♫

Gratitude...

"A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure." 

--Sirach 6:14

Gratitude for the sugar and spice in my life... all the girls young and young at heart.  gratitude for my grandmas.  one gave me the gift of faith.  one mothered me with her gentle spirit when my own mother moved away.  gratitude for my mothers.  one gave me life and love.  one welcomed  another daughter into her family.   gratitude for my daughters who completed my dream.  gratitude for my sister who understands completely on those days when living the dream is not so dreamy.  gratitude for sisters-in-law who became my family and my friends.  gratitude for my friends who encourage me to keep dreaming.

Sturdy shelter...made of rubies and jewels...
my friend who encourages me to write.  my friend who doesn't look at me like i have four heads when i tell her words are whispering to me.  my friend, who interprets my dreams.  my friend, who understands my shortcomings and loves me anyway.  my friend who sees me not only as who i am but who i want to be.  i don't know what i would do without the treasured sugar and spice in my life.  they are my soul sisters.
they are my home.

p.s.  oh and what would a home be without some snips and snails and puppy dog tails.  :)

-Home, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros ♫

Happy Belated Birthday, Louisa.

A little over a year ago I wrote  this post.  It was my very first post on this little blog.  It was a day I decided to play and discover this whole new world of blogging.
I admired so many creative blogs.  There was one particular artist that drew me in with not only her beautiful mixed media paintings, but with the words in her book.  Her words affirmed that the whispering words that I felt to be following me, were words encouraging me to take flight on my journey.  I wasn't going crazy.  This was how it was for her too.  I found myself stalking her older posts...fascinated with her journey on becoming an artist.  I wondered if I could one day create and inspire.  I wondered if this was what the whispering words were saying..."Come follow me."
I kept asking..."But what am I to do?"  I kept waiting for the inspiration.
But then I thought about the root of why I was so fascinated with this artist...aha...the journey!  That is when I decided to just go for it and blog the journey.  Just maybe along the way, I would find something.
My kids tease me..."So Mom, have you found Louisa yet?" :)
I suppose I'm still searching her.  But to date, here is what I found over the past year...
I've found sanctuary during the summer months of morning devotion on my porch...and I found that this is what I want to bring into my home for the winter months.  I still get overwhelmed with where to start.  But I've found that if I start small, like cleaning out a closet or making a new pillow, little by little a room can be transformed.
I'm finding my voice.  I've found that through writing, the thoughts in my head, that come out all jumbled when I speak, actually settle comfortably on a page.  
I'm finding courage in taking a leap to share this blog with just a few choice friends.  I haven't discovered how to not worry about what they'll think of me, or how to actually believe them when they tell me they liked a post.  But little by little I gain a bit more confidence.
I'm finding kindred spirits.  I've found that when I take leaps on my creative journey, God sends me kindred spirits.  Synchronicity meets me at the poolside and brings me a friend who read the same book that wowed me.  It meets me in my inbox with a friend who wants to take a painting class.  It meets me in a conversation about a new Artist's Way sacred circle forming in town.  It meets me in the answered invisible prayers for a friend.
I've found that I have a quiet and gentle soul who is so excited to be nourished.  For so long I ignored her because I was afraid of what they would think of me.  When I take her by the hand and play I discover a new part of me that is free to do anything.
And in doing all this I've found that my inner child wants to be seen.  She wants people to take notice.  "Mommy, look at me.  Look at what I made."  "Daddy, do I look pretty?"  My inner child loves to play, but she sometimes has difficulty knowing just how to do that.
I've found that I'm living my dream.  When I was little all I really ever wanted to do was to become a wife and mother.  I would sit and draw my plain little yellow house, adding a porch with all the gingerbread trimmings.  Today I'm living in my big yellow house with many porches, with my handsome prince and my little princesses.
I'm finding that change is good.  Dreaming never stops.
I'm finding the joy of possibility...anything is possible with God.
Good Golly, I learned to run more that 3 minutes at a time without dying!  :)
Feeling like an artist imposter, I signed up anyway, for a group forming to discuss and journey through the book, The Artist's Way.  A year ago I would have never sat in a room full of strangers pretending discovering how to be an artist. 
I took an abstract painting class...totally out of my comfort zone.  The class ended with a dreaded critique.  My painting was horrible.  The experienced folks were very kind to this new soul.  I walked home with my horrible painting by my side and with a smile on face.  I was okay.
I am okay.  This is what I've found.  I am enough...today...a mother discovering what's next...a dreamer...a wanna be runner...a wanna be artist...a new soul fluttering about, finding her way.


-I love the little circle of light in the hot air balloon, that appeared in this  photo.  I call it, My Soul Taking Flight.

-New Soul, Yael Naim ♫