busy busy and yet

This is the holiday season and everyone is busy, busy getting ready for it. I have to learn to be more disciplined because although I have been busy creating art and making journals, affirmation rocks, holiday gifts and I have done open houses which have been wonderful, I don't prioritize making the time to do my blog routinely. I am one who always tries to figure out the why's of everything. The bottom line is ,of course, that there is only 24 hours in a day. We all prioritze and make choices about what to put into our 24 hours. So clearly if I want blogging to be important then I have to prioritize it and put it into my 24 hours. And then the solution is- just do it! And so I shall-

Here is a picture of my Art Studio Open House that I had last month- I even had a christmas tree up and lighted for it! It went really well and I am having another one- a holiday Open House this sunday. I will post pics from then too. In the meantime I am busy painting and creating!!

Getting Ready

So here is proof that if you just keep at it then good things happen. When I first painted this rock I did not care for the flowers or the colors as they were too bland. Then I kept painting over the words as the paint kept running and messing up some of the letters. So I took a deep breath - and then a small break from it altogether - and came back refreshed and with a new perspective. I decided to get creative and put dots, doodles and swirls as well as plaid. Then I patiently re-did the letters -again! And even changed what they said- and now it not only looks awesome but it reflects the truth : Life Is Good!
And so it is!

Door to Possibilities

Well I making wonderful progress on the front door to my studio. I got the idea when we first started building the studio about doing something fun, funky and inviting to people who enter the studio. After I painted the primer on the door which is grey and then white on the window panes it looked really good and I decided to leave the primer color on and paint my design on top of it. I knew I wanted it to say "Open the Door to Possibilities" but wasn't sure what else or what other colors to use. After many drawings on paper I was ready to do the door but was not sure how to do the dimensions.

I am soooo grateful to my hubby for assisting me with this - he measured it out on the door exactly in pencil and then I took it from there.

Each day depending on the weather I am adding another coat of paint and/or fine tuning the flowers on the door- I still have some work to do but I am happy with the way it is turning out. I will post a picture of the final result.

When the going gets tough ...

The Tough get going! It has been a rough couple of weeks and I am feeling very distracted. There has been an upheaval in my world and I have been on a roller coaster of emotions. However, I have been using my art as a way to heal myself. As this journal page on the left says " Seeds of Self Esteem and Self Worth and Self Love Heal the Heart and Soul"

And the result will be my Healed Self (on the right journal page)

It will be a process and I will be gentle with myself. And while I am 'processing' I will continue to use my art as a way to wholeness and allow an outlet for my little self to express creative healing energy.

More Rocks!

Well I did two more rocks for my Aunt and Cousin and really enjoyed gabbing with them while I was creating the Rocks for them! We had a wonderful visit and it gave me an opportunity to practice different sizes and styles! They loved the finished product!

Procrastination No More!

Well I had not posted for a couple of days due to procrastination. Then I said come on Mary Ellen let's get going! I was doodling, painting and creating in my art journal and taking pictures. And I was painting what I call my Affirmation Rocks and taking pictures of them but could not get myself to upload the photos. The more time that went by the more I told myself "Well now too much time has gone by so just forget it" But then I would tell myself "No! Come on Mary Ellen just upload some of the photos and get it done!" Well enough is enough already! I made the commitment to myself to do this art blog for myself and so I am pushing myself along.

So here are some pictures of the Affirmation Rocks I have done.

And now I am making the promise to myself to post more pictures from my art journal and not let my postings go longer than 3 days. I need to do this for myself to get myself in the new habit of posting on a regular basis otherwise this art blog will fade away like many other things and this is too important to me so I had better follow through and act like it is important!

After all I am worth it!!

Getting Photo Ready

Well today I signed up for flickr and will be loading my pics onto it and then onto my blog. I am learning so much and enjoying it and at the same time feel overwhelmed with everything. But this is the way it is at first. I am having fun experimenting with different layouts, fonts and am really enjoying watching the tutorial videos so I can learn even more!
In the meantime, I am busy painting rocks - I will post a sample tomorrow - and creating in my art journal - I will post a couple of pages of this also.

I went to the bookstore the other night with my husband and we sat in the cafe and he was working on some of his stuff and I was creating a page in my art journal of a giant sun flower with my face in the center of it. My husband looked at it and asked "Did you just make that now?" And I replied "yes" And he responded - "Wow - it's beautiful - just like you" Ahh he is such a sweetie!

I bring my art bag with me now all the time and depending on where I am at when I am out and about I will stop at a bookstore and go to the cafe and draw while I have a cappuccino or frappachino (depends on the temperature outside). I am finding this practice to be very fulfilling and very peaceful and centering. Then I will jot down any inspirational ideas in my ideas notebook to follow through on later. It feels so good because this is time that is just for me.

And I am worth it!
More tomorrow....

Making Progress

Well I am making progress! I have gotten to post a couple of pictures and am happy about that.

This picture is of a picket fence I had my husband put in at the edge of my back studio patio. I got the idea when we were in Home Depot looking for fencing. We bought just one section of picket fence and then I painted it white. Then I had my grandchildren each select a picket and decorate it. They had a blast and so did I! Then I added small ceramic flower hooks to the outer and middle pickets and hung small chimes off them.

As you can see there are still white pickets waiting for two more of my grandchildren to paint and my two college sons said they would paint one too! My grandson Brandon decided he wished he had painted something different and the neat thing is, as I told him, all you have to do is just paint over it and start again! And the pickets are only painted on this side showing right now which leaves the backs available as more family and friends decide to get creative.

Well I am off to water my plants!

Coincidence?

Well I am back from up north and feeling recharged! The weather was absolutely perfect! It was awesome to see my friends, watch the boats in the harbor and truly relax and just have fun. Laughter is truly good for the soul and my friends and my husband and I got together played games, sat by the water and gabbed and shared stories and laughed until our sides hurt!
And of course I overpacked everything I brought, including my travel art bag which I hardly used because I was too busy enjoying my friends.
I did however take out my new Blogging book, Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey and read some more and take notes to follow up on this week. One of my friends suggested we go to the movies and several of us decided to go. However the movie we wanted to see was not playing at any of the small theaters up north so we all came to a compromise and decided to go see Julia and Julie. I only knew it had something to do with Julia Child and my husband was not really excited about it but being the good sport that he is he went along too.
And lo and behold! Five minutes into the movie I discover it is about blogging! Wow! Coincidence? I think not! The movie was fabulous, the cast superb, and everyone, including my husband loved it! And it was based on a true story which affirmed even more powerfully to me that I should continue with my Blog.

I am still surprised sometimes how the Universe takes seemingly trivial events like going to a movie out of town and use it to get a message across to me about the truth of a plan of action that I had just decided on!

So I am going to continue on and let the Universe and the powers that be guide me along the way. It is usually much more interesting, powerful and rewarding to do so!

Until next time!

Progress not Perfection!

Well I am back at it. Trying to learn about blogging and have it all come together. I have discovered I have a rather large learning curve to follow. This reminds me of when I got my first computer and was trying to learn how to install and use a print shop program. I used to laugh and tell my husband that for every 6 hours that I was on the computer that I got 20 Minutes worth of actual knowledge. All the rest was a massive amount of post it notes saying things like Note to Self: don't push that button, don't reset that, oops don't hit that key!
Well I bought a fabulous book called Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey and it is wonderful! It is filled with lots of info on how to set up a blog which is exactly what I need! I am learning so much and there are so many examples of blogs and help topics that I know I will be a better blogger in no time!
And I am also reminding myself whenever I get frustrated that it is about progress not perfection! I have a perfectionist inside that wants to trigger my inner critic and team up to try to make me feel like I should be further ahead, I should be able to figure this all out quickly, I should, should, should...
Well I am not falling for all those shoulds. Instead I am reminding myself that a week ago I didn't even have a blog and now I have one, and now I have more on it than I did a few days ago. And I have more knowledge than I did even yesterday! So Progress it is!

My husband and I are going out of town for the holiday weekend and I am taking my Blogging for Bliss book with me and going to learn more! I am taking my art and craft bag with me and will find time for myself to Doodle, journal and find some fun creative ways to express my creative energy and then figure out how to put some of it on my blog to share!

Just Do It!

Well here I am sitting at my computer trying to figure out what the heck I am going to do with this blog I created! I am fascinated with blogs and follow several and after reading many who said they too did not know exactly what to do but just decided to do it I am following the Just Do It! call. It will be a work in progress - just like me. An adventure that I want to go on.
So I guess this is my first entry. And I will work out the kinks as I go along.
It is my intention to use this blog to journal my progress as I venture out into the world of online journaling and share my art, my thoughts, well basically Me, with the blog world.
And so it begins ....