Category Archives: Community

A Charming Day!

Good evening!

I wanted to share with you the jewelry class I was fortunate to take yesterday! 😉 I spent the day up at the Tarte store up in Aurora, Oregon. The shop is ABSOLUTELY DIVINE!! I could LITERALLY purchase EVERY SINGLE THING in that store and decorate my house with it! EVERYTHING is my style to a T!!

The room that we had our craft class was EXACTLY the way that my craft room SHOULD be!! 😉 I have thought about how to describe it to you, and words just could not describe how girly glam this room was!!! The room was basically draped with an indoor tent for grown up girls, and there was a gigantic chandelier right in the center of the room, dripping in beads.

Here are a couple of pics:

This is a large parachute that they sewed tulle to. Isn’t that INGENIOUS?!?!?!?

Do you see what I mean?? You just couldn’t help but feel the girl glam vibe that was in that room! That was P-R-I-C-E-L-E-S-S!!

They had a place setting for every one of us women, there were 15 of us. These were just soooo charming, and I now want to work from a silver tray from now on! What do you think??

So chic!! 😉

The lovely, Terri Brush was our instructor, and the first thing we learned how to do was to design, etch and form copper bracelets – this is a good project for working your arm muscles!! There was SO MUCH POUNDING going on!!! WHEW!!! 😉

Next, we got to play with solder!! Using some old keys, we coated them in solder and played with some letter stamps! That was fun!! (Just in case you can’t read these, they say “Dream Big” and “Inspire”)

What came next were create mini collages to place inside of charms that we then got to solder!!! This was my FAVORITE part of the entire class!!

Here are the backsides of my charms, the previous picture was a view of the front of the charms! I literally could have done this all day!! They are short and sweet, and HIGHLY gratifying!!! 😉 I am planning on using these to make a couple of charm bracelets!!

and last but not least! I got to play some more with the letter stamps, and I decided to make one last charm for my bracelet! but, this one ended up being MY FAVORITE OF THEM ALL!!!  This is my sweetie’s and my initials, and the date of our wedding!! I LOVE that the letters and numbers are all catty-wompous! It just seems to make this one all the more charming!!!

They left us at each of the place settings, it is a, dare I say it, a charming box of chocolate!! It is decorated so chicely, that I have a feeling that this little package will NEVER be opened!! 😉

I have ALWAYS wanted to learn how to create these charms and I am soooo THANKFUL that I have finally acquired this skill!! Terri is a gem, and this class was really a fun way to learn all of these fun jewelry making techniques!! I would highly recommend this class to anyone fortunate enough to be able to take it!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

The Farmhouse Show!

Good evening!

Jason and I had such a GREAT time today!!! 😉 We headed out to Turner, Oregon to check the Farmhouse Show! I was very excited!! and Jason was hesitantly going along for the ride, with his book in hand in case he got bored, HOWEVER he ended up getting MORE INSPIRED than even I was, and that is saying a lot!!! He is now talking about building furniture, which you HAVE TO KNOW I LOVE!!!

First thing I want built is some small bookshelves that can be used on top of a pair of matching dressers that I have in craft room! I could SOOOO TOTALLY use the extra storage space!! But, I digress! I wanted to share some pics of some of the FABULOUS merchandise that was at the Farmhouse show!

I hope you enjoyed all of these pics!! These have really inspired me and have given me ideas on how I want my art studio/craft room to look!! I will keep you posted of my progress!!

As for tomorrow! I am off to my next craft class! I am going up to Tarte in Aurora to learn some metal smithing skills for making cuff bracelets and charms! I will post pics tomorrow! I can’t wait!!!

Until tomorrow,

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

As Promised!

Good morning!

As my hubby and I finish up and get ready to head out for the day, I thought I would stop and take a moment to post those pics I had promised from last night’s belly dancing performers!

Yes, she is actually dancing on top of glass!! AMAZING! 😉

We really did have such a GREAT time last night!! The costumes were beautiful, the dancers varied and extremely talented, the music was energetic, and the room was just electric! I can’t wait until it is MY turn to get out there and show my MOVES, but first I had better get out there and keep practicing so that I can HAVE moves!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day! 😉

Belly Dancer’s ROCK!!!

Good evening!

Tonight my sweetie and I had the most fun going to a club tonight to watch a bunch of belly dancing performers and troops shimmy, shake, pop, and wave! To say we had fun was quite the understatement. I mean, just look at this man’s face!!

Does this look like a man who is NOT having fun!?!?!?!? LOL!! 😉

The performers were just BREATH-TAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL, and I am so envious of their dancing – I can NOT WAIT to get to that level of ability!!

Instead of spending time tonight posting pictures, seeing that it is so EXTREMELY late, I am going to say goodnight! I will post tonight’s pictures first thing in the morning!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

A Wednesday of Art Class!

My Homemade Business Cards!!

Good evening!

I know tonight is Chunky Dunker’s night, so we can still chat in the comments section after I post – is that alright for everyone?? It so too difficult trying to come up with a health related topic when right now my life is revolving around art and being creative!! 😉 So from now on, Wednesday evenings will be the same kind of posts that I normally post, my life’s journey to creating my dream life, and Chunky Dunker’s will “meet” in the comments section!

On to my day!!!

I spent the day over at The Art Department, in downtown Salem. I was taking an art class being given by Sharon Geraci, who, BY THE WAY, is PHENOMENAL!! She is talented with a capital T!!

Here is part of the class description:

Rev up your collage experience with an expanded repertoire of materials and techniques. Work on wood or canvas as a support, with an assortment of gels, household materials, and alternative methods of attaching objects and materials.

DOESN’T THAT SOUND AWESOME???

There were six of us in class, not including, Sharon. There was Sandra, Marcia, Cheryl, Brigitta, Linda and myself. Everyone besides Sandra and myself had already taken classes from Sharon, so they already knew what to expect!! Here is my workspace:

Each student had an ENTIRE 8 FOOT TABLE TO THEMSELVES, which is a REALLY good thing because collage is a VERY W-I-D-E art form!!!

This class, was a collage techniques class, which was formatted much differently than the kind of collage class I took last Saturday. Not to say that one was better than the other, but to say that they were different. This class was much more educational in feel, with A LOT of demonstration time. After leaving the class you didn’t really walk away with a finished product per se, however you did walk away with a TON of samples, and a very clear and practical understanding on how A LOT of cool techniques worked!

That was VERY EXCITING!! The fact that I now know to do SO MUCH MORE in creating interesting and creative AND ARTISTIC collages!!! 😉

Here are some of the techniques we learned, and some pics from the samples that I had made:

We learned how to make acrylic skins, which is something that can be used to lay over the top of and enhance your collage design:

This one was inspired by the next collage that I am wanting to work on.

I wanted this skin to be a little more earth tone and nature-inspired. This one I actually used mica flakes (the little shimmery things)

This one is clear and is meant for the sole purpose of adding something sparkly to one of my next projects! This one utilizes the mica flakes again, and then who couldn’t use some glitter???

The next technique we learned was the foil technique!

This project was really cool because we got to try out a lot of different kinds of professional grade acrylics, and then we got to try out a heat sealing iron, and iron on foils, that was a lot of fun! I can see how THAT could be VERY ADDICTIVE!!! 😉

The next technique was called, for lack of a better term, TSqeegee Method of decorating paper!!

I just loved the blues and greens that I was able to create in this one, and I think the whites in this just really makes everything else pop!

Here is another blue-centric design (I had Jason on my mind a lot today, and blue is his FAVORITE color!! On this one, Marcia had just shared a technique that she found cool, which was using a painters comb to swirl loops – so I “borrowed” a variation on her technique to come up with this on water color paper! This one is my favorite, and there is NO WAY that I am going to cut or tear this one – I think this one is ready for it’s frame!

Here is another blue sample, using different sized combs – this is the one that I actually use in some of my later samples.

Then we learned a couple of more techniques for making backgrounds, and we got to play with making some of our own:

This one is a yet to be finished board, it is missing something that will tie it all together!! (Do you see any of my papers?)

This piece is a finished piece! I think the embossing really finished this one up for me! I LOVE It!! (Do you see any of my papers in this one??)

W learned SOOOO MUCH in this one day of lessons! WAAAY MORE than I have even itemized out here!! This is an art that I can see has ENDLESS possibilities! and I am JUST SO HAPPY to be able to be a part of it!!!

Thank you, Sharon, and all of my class mates for such a FUN day!!! I look forward to next time!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Motivational Quote of the Day!

Good afternoon!

Here is your motivational quote for today!

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.  Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.“
~Theodore Geisel

Have a FABULOUS afternoon!! ;-)

A Magical Night Out with My Sweetie!!

Good morning!!

As I have been promising, today I wanted to tell you about what an AMAZING time I had with my love out on Friday night!! Before I do that, let me tell you a little bit of back story! My sweetie and I met when we were 18, and married 8 months later! It was a passionate romance that has lasted much longer than anyone ever expected, and is still going strong today!!

Jason and I are almost exact opposites!! He is casual, laid back, spontaneous, and I am uptight, worrisome, and a planner since way back!! Well, we complement each other in most every way, and that is why we work so well together!! He reminds me how to be a kid, and I remind him how to be a grown up!! LOL!! It just works, and I am just coo-coo for this man of mine!! To say the VERY LEAST!

Well, as I have been going through my Artist Way journey for the past 6 weeks, I have been unknowingly changing at warp speed, and I hadn’t realized how that was affecting Jason. He, ever my biggest cheerleader and supporter, decided that he would surprise me with a date for Friday night. Now Jason almost NEVER plans A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G!!! Matter of fact, his favorite line is, “honey, what are we doing today” because he just KNOWS that I plan E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!! He informed me on Tuesday morning that we were going to have a date on Friday night, but it was going to be a surprise, and he would take care of everything. I was skeptical, but also excited to see that he had finally planned a real date – you see in 16 years of marriage, there may have been one, or two times TOTAL that he has ever planned a date. He is more of a spontaneous, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of guy, and that means that we may go out to eat, or to the movies, but it doesn’t get too much fancier then that unless I am taking care of all of the arrangements!

Well, this past Friday was our date night, and to say that he dazzled me may be a HUGE understatement!! He had been giving me little hints all week, because as you can imagine, I was freaking out about where are we going? What is he going to make me do? Who are we going to be with? etc. etc. (at 35 years old, I realize that I may not like surprises!)

I met him at the house, he looked GREAT, and smelled EVEN BETTER!! I LOVE THAT!!! and we left for our date!! The first place we stopped was Bentley’s for a FABULOUS dinner!! I had the roasted chicken, and had a spicy red snapper!! He is so much fun to hang out with and just talk about all sorts of anything!!

We had some time before our next appointment, and Jason took me over to Startbucks to grab something caffeinated, since he knew I normally go to bed so early, and he didn’t want me to miss anything of the next activity he had planned!! We sat at Starbuck’s for a while, chatting with each other, and also with a young girl who was there who was apparently a Harry Potter fanatic, so we got to talk books!! Something else that I really LOVE!!!

Well, we were again on our way. We were heading to the Pentacle Theater, and I had heard a lot of great things about it, but never really had the chance to go there myself until this night! What I did know was that the Pentacle Theater is a small company who put on productions of various plays. Well, was I in for a big surprise!

When we got there, the surroundings were BEAUTIFUL!! The Pentacle Theater is tucked back into a woodland forrest, and everything around is green, mossy, and smells perfectly of Oregon!! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was sure getting excited about what was to come. The play that we were going to be watching was Educating Rita, something I had never heard of before this evening, and it was PHENOMENAL, to say the ABSOLUTE LEAST!!!

This play is a comedy about two people, a university professor, Frank, with a growing drinking problem, and a student, Rita, who comes from a undereducated background but wants Frank to teach her about “EVERYTHING”!!! To watch these two actors, one of whom Jason knows personally, was mesmerizing. I have never seen a play in such close quarters, seeing that it was just a small building we were all nestled in. The actors WERE the characters, so it was so easy to fall into the story!! You could literally see the transformation that each of the two characters were going through with Frank and his drinking becoming more and more of a problem as his love for Rita grows, but she is also growing away from him as she discovers more of the world. You watch Rita  grow and change from an ignorant girl who wants to know everything into a sophisticated, educated, and elegant woman whose eyes have been opened to the entire world around her by her professor who she adores, but no longer relies on for her self worth.

During the opening monologue, Professor Frank, played by Michael Swanson, one of Jason’s personal friends, was basically telling us the rules for the theater, while in character, and we were his students in his classroom. He singled out a couple of people in the audience to give specific instructions to, and Jason was one of them!! It was so funny!! and Jason was just tickled!! The whole rest of the evening, Jason just kept saying, “I can’t believe he said my name!!” “Wasn’t that cool?? He said my name!!!” LOL!! 😉

It was a truly MAGICAL night!! Jason had really outdone himself! TRULY!! He has unknowingly helped expand my creative world, and I bet you he doesn’t even realize it!! 😉

We have decided to make the commitment to not only start donating to Pentacle Theater, but we are also going to be attending every production from now on! Jason has even decided that he is going to go back and look into volunteering there, which I think will be EXTREMELY good for him!! He has ALWAYS been such a HELPER!! 😉 I am so proud of him! and so thankful that God has blessed me by placing Jason my life!!! I didn’t realize that when I had started the Artist’s Way, that it might just be changing Jason a little too!!

I love you, Baby-Jay, and I truly, truly thank your for this SPECTACULAR evening that you had so seemlessly put together for us!! You have KNOCKED my BOBBY-SOCKS OFF and I love you EVEN MORE for it!!! I hope to return that favor for you someday soon!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

A Day of Collage Play!

Good evening!

I have had the most MAGICAL weekend, and it is still only Saturday!! I want to tell you all about my LOVELY evening with my sweetie last night, but I have decided, with his blessing, to save that story for tomorrow!!

You see, today I had a FANTASTIC mixed media collage artist class that I just couldn’t wait to share all about with you! I also know that all of the ladies from the class will be looking for the pics of their art projects too, so I wanted to make sure that I was able to get these up and out there into the universe so that our momentum would not die down!!

You see, I had heard about this class a few weeks ago, which I told you about earlier, but money was tight and I was thinking that I was not going to be able to make it! Well, when the class got closer, I was trying to think of everything and anything that might give me reason not to go!! You see, I was letting my inner critic get the better of me, and I was chickening out!!! Thankfully, my sweetie came to my rescue, told me to go to the class, and next thing I know it is 11 PM the NIGHT BEFORE class, and I am online searching for the Keizer Art Association online and I signed up for today’s Collage Play class!! WHEW!!! 😉

I wasn’t sure what to expect, seeing that I have never done collage before, but on my way to class I was getting more and more excited and couldn’t wait to get started! The class was being taught by Salem artists Linda West and Glenda Goodrich AKA “GG”!! I was the first one at class, like usual, and they were there smiling, and extremely friendly! I was still pretty nervous, as I have a tendency to be in these situations, but they were ABSOLUTELY WELCOMING!!

After every one arrived, they opened the class with GG taking us through a guided meditation, and it definitely set the right tone for the day!! This rang especially true for me, when she told us to tell our little inner critic that they could go find a nice shady place and go take a nap for the day!!!

The whole idea for this class was that we were going to play, and create mixed media collages using decorative and handmade papers, paints, ephemera, ink, all sorts of baubles,  trinkets, ribbons, buttons, beads and ANYTHING ELSE WE COULD GET OUR HANDS ON, quite frankly!! 😉 It was as if someone had walked right into my crazy filled to the brim craft room, and told me that I WAS NORMAL!!! 😉

These were some of my supplies! 😉

We had such a GREAT time!! They only rule was, was that there really were no rules except that we had to leave our inner critic at the door!!!

Both Linda and GG demo’ed all sorts of hints, tips, and new techniques!! and all of us ladies had fun ripping, and gluing, and glittering, and laughing as the day seemed to literally FLY by!!! There were 5 students in the class, and both instructors got to make some collages too!! I was ABSOLUTELY IN AWE of the AMAZING talent that was in that room!!

Before the day was over everyone had made all sorts of treasures!! So much so that we could have opened a gallery! We were really all quite thrilled at not only how much we had made, but at how good all of the pieces turned out to be!! There really was some INCREDIBLY talented women in that room!!! 😉

Everyone’s tastes and working styles were so different, but it was agreed by all that everyone that it was fun spending the day creating with other creative spirits!! I know for myself, it was quite the change from crafting by yourself!! There is something absolutely electric in the room, when you are all using your creative energy!! I think it was GG that mentioned that her and Linda have a once a month craft day where they get together and spend the day crafting! I told them that I was going to have to borrow that idea, because I think that if I am wanting someone to craft with their HAS to be SOMEONE out there who would want to craft WITH SOMEONE too???

Here is a Show-and-Tell of everyone’s handiwork!!

This is Maggie and her lovely artwork! She was inspired by some FABULOUS quotes that she had found!

This is Terri and her lovely artwork! She was inspired by this stone that one of her girlfriends had given to her. There is a shape of a tree in it’s markings!

This is Julie and her lovely artwork! She was inspired by her extremely supportive husband!

This is Vickie and her lovely artwork! She was inspired by her recent trip to Hawaii!

This is one of our lovely instructor’s Linda, and she was inspired by the neutral pack of supplies that she had gotten to create this first piece of art, and her second piece was inspired by her niece, who’s birthday is coming up!

This is our other lovely instructor, GG, and her art work was inspired by the nature theme of supplies that she had chosen and the 3D bird that she fell in love with that Linda had created that was also came out of her pack!

Here are my two art pieces. These were inspired by my love of all things red, and some of the great images that I found that I thought represented me and my journey to rediscover my creative self.

This class was such an AMAZING experience! I know I must be saying it over and over again, but it is ABSOLUTELY true!! It was so great to be in a class that was so freeing and open, and to be able to play again as if were all little girls back in kindergarten was pretty special!! I think the thought that summed up the entire day perfectly, which was said by Maggie, was,

“Art isn’t always well behaved!”

What a GREAT quote, and one that I am learning to hang my hat upon!!! Thank you, ladies!! I had such a good time “playing” with you today! I hope that we get the chance again in the near future!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Happy Friday!!

Good morning!!

I wanted to make sure that I get a post in this morning, because I am not sure if I am going to be able to get one this evening, since I won’t be getting home until late!! and for those of you who know, I am NOT a late night kind of girl, so I am thinking that when I get home I may just crash in bed!!! 😉

Tonight I have a date night with my sweetie, and he surprised me by getting tickets to a local play here in town, ‘Educating Rita’! I am excited, and I know we are going to have a bast!!! 😉 I will tell you all about it tomorrow, however I doubt they will let me take many, if any pics but I am sure going to try!! You know me!! 😉

I am still living on the high of last night’s belly dancing class, but I am excited about this evening, and tomorrow I have a collage class, that I may or may not go to yet! I still haven’t decided, but I am leaning towards going! I think just for the sake of hanging out with creative people for the day!!! I also need to get the cojones to start telling people I just meet about my blog! I find that most people I meet don’t even know what blogs or blogging is! It makes it difficult to bring new traffic to my site!!! 🙂

Anyway, I am heading off to the office! I have a day chocked full of meetings, and I am just praying that they don’t get too politically heated!! I am raring to have a GREAT day today!!! and to get out of the office without having gotten slammed to hard is the goal – isn’t that a sad goal??? New goal: to get out of the office having completed some work, learned something, and made someone happy is the goal!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 😉

A Night of Private Lessons!

Good evening!

Tonight was my belly dancing class, just in case you have been hiding someplace and hadn’t heard me say it for the umpteenth time!!

BELLY DANCING THURSDAYS!!!

WHOO! HOO!!

Hee! Hee!! Hoo!! Hee! Hee!! Hoo!!

Ok, I have gotten myself back under control!! 😉


Tonight I wanted to share a bunch of pics that I took this morning while I was taking a walk to go into the office. It was very cold here, and foggy, and I thought that the world seemed very ethereal and magical this morning with all of the hazy fog. So, I took some time just finding some shots that I thought were BEAUTIFUL! I would love to hear your thoughts about them!!

Ok, onto my class this evening. When I started this belly dancing class about a month ago, there were 5 of us, then we became 6 for a couple of weeks, last week we dropped to 4, and I am not sure what happened this week, but there were only 2 of us there, and the other lady had to leave early! BUMMER!!


BUT TO MY SURPRISE! I got to have about a 20 minute private lesson with the dance instructor and one of the students from the advanced class! That was really awesome, and that means that I know some dance moves that everyone else doesn’t!! YEAH!!!


HOWEVER!!! There are two moves that I am going to have to really practice on! They are both spinning moves and you do this thing with one of your feet that you do a 180 degree turn, and let me tell you MAMMA IS GONNA HAVETA FIGURE OUT TO SPIN THIS SHIP IN A SPLIT SECOND!!! SHEESH!! Let’s just say it is going to take me some practice, and maybe some slippy socks!!! LOL!! 😉

I can’t say it enough! I truly LOVE this class, I look forward to it all week!! It is exhausting and energizing all at the same time! I am becoming better coordinated, balanced, and graceful, three things I thought could never be associated with me, and through lots of practice, I am getting better, and better, a little every week!!

While I was waiting for the instructor to get there, I was sitting out in the waiting area with a tall, graceful woman, who looked to be in about her 80’s. She was VERY OBVIOUSLY a dancer, with a dancer’s body and a dancer’s posture! So I got to talking to her, asking her questions, like I have a tendency to do, and I found out that she has been dancing since she was 6, she has 4 dance instructors because no one can keep up with her, and she tells me,

“I can’t help it, when my feet hear the music, they just can’t hold still, so I have no other choice but to get up and let them dance!”

She was right, not 5 minutes later, there was a private lesson going on in the next room, and the music started playing. She got up to watch, and before you know it she was dancing all around the waiting room, and down the hall! It was actually quite beautiful and made me smile all the way down to my liver. 😉

I pray that when I am 80 something, I am able to say,

“I can’t help it, when my feet hear the music, they just can’t hold still, so I have no other choice but to get up and let them dance!”


If only we were all so lucky to find a physical activity that gave them this much joy and pleasure!! I am truly blessed!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉