Category Archives: Inspiration

Mixed Media with Chrissie B #2

Good evening!

I am very excited to announce that I have posted a new Mixed Media with Chrissie B video, this is actually video #2, to be exact!

SIDE NOTE: mama is tired!! I am having a BLAST putting out so many new videos, but man, is it a TON OF WORK!!! I am hoping this will get a tad easier, in the next coming weeks, more to come!

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled program!!

As, I was saying, before I so rudely interrupted myself. I have a new Mixed Media video out, and this week I decided to go old school and do a full art journal spread! I thought that this would be a piece of cake, but in all honesty I have been doing 1 page, loose leaf, journal spreads for the past 6 months or so, and I found myself struggling more than usual to get something down on the spread! Plus, to start a spread from start to finish, is not easy on my poor brain right now! Mama is seriously busy, I have mentioned that haven’t I? 🙂

When I first started this spread out, I had a completely different direction that I was going to take this spread. The only thing that remained the same to my original idea was the sentiment! When I found this piece of gauze hidden in my tissue paper drawer, it just screamed to be used – so here it appears!! 🙂

Here are a list of all of the supplies I used in this week’s project:

Golden’s Matte Medium
1-1/2 inch utility brush
a piece of gauze
Ranger Heat Tool
Golden’s fluid acrylic: teal
Dr. Ph Martin’s Bombay India Ink: turquoise, grass green
Staz On Ink Pad: forest green
Crafter’s Workshop 12×12 stencils: Well Rounded, and I apologize, but I can’t find the name of the 2nd stencil. I will update this post with the name if I can find it!
Sentiment printed out on regular printer paper
Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue
Scissors
1/4 inch utility brush
White tissue paper that has been stamped with various stamps, using black staz on ink
Ranger Craft Mat – used as a paint pallet
Faber Castelle Pitt Artist Pen Big Brush: Indanthrene Blue (247), Purple Violet (136)

Whew! That seems like a lot of supplies, but I am thinking that maybe is very normal for me! 😉

On a more serious note: I chose this sentiment this week because I think that some time in the past 6 months this happened to me. I looked around at the life that I had created, and thought to myself, “How the hell did I get here?” It was like I had this plan for what I wanted to do, be, have, and experience, and then somewhere along the way I got sucked up in the rush of traffic of what is “normal”, “responsible”, and “expected”. When I finally really, truly looked around at this life that I had created, through all of my choices, and actions, I was shocked that I had ended up here. It was kind of like driving to work in the morning, and you let your mind start to wander, when you finally get to the parking lot at work, you do a double take and ask yourself, how did I get here??? That is what happened to me, and my life. It is not that my life is so bad, it is just that it is not what I had set out to create! That is freaking scary.

So I am changing things up, some of those changes I do not have much control over, but even those changes that I didn’t choose has caused me to wake up and really look around at my life. So for that, I am so incredibly thankful!!

I keep saying to myself I want a happy ending! I want a happy ending!! I realize, that it is not too late to create that happy ending for myself, on purpose! And thankfully I have an AMAZING support system in place of AWESOME people who will help support me in creating this new life! I am not sure how all of these changes are going to come to fruition, but I need to remember that no matter how scary all of the coming changes are going to be, it is waaaaay scarier to wake up and realize that you have arrived at an entirely new decade of your life, and you have no idea how you created the life that you are living in, because you are too busy flying on autopilot!

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much!” ~Jim Rohn

I know this video was really short and fast this week, I will work on that for future videos! In any case, I really hope you enjoyed this video! I know that I learned a lot about myself while creating it!

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know in the comment section! I am always happy to be of help!

Here is to living a Beautiful Creative life! 😉

If you want to have a different life, you have to choose differently!

Mixed Media Techniques #3

Good evening!

This week, for my Mixed Media Art Technique video, I had some fun showcasing 3 of my favorite quick and easy art journal background techniques. More specifically, 3 easy ways to take the fear out of getting started on a white art journal page! I find that some times when I am faced with a fresh new page, I can overthink what to do first, and then end up getting frustrated, or worse, giving up and walking away. These simple techniques takes that fear out of getting started!

As promised here are the art supplies that I used this week:

DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic Paints: Wild Green, Tutti Fruitti, Tropical Blue, and Buttercream
An old plastic credit card (a palette knife could be used as a substitute)
Dina Wakley Media 1 Inch Flat Brush
and a small square of hard plastic, that I had repurposed out of a piece of the packaging of something I had purchased (you could easily use any flat hard item to do this, or you could use a piece of overhead projector plastic, cut into a square)

I hope that these examples give you some inspiration to go and try doing some of your own quick and easy backgrounds! The sky is the limit on what you can do over the top of these backgrounds, but I hope I can help get you started. I am sure that in one of my future videos I will be showing how I finish each one of these pages, so please stay tuned! If you haven’t done so already, I would recommend that you subscribe so that you don’t miss a thing! 🙂

Thanks so much for visiting, and here is to living a Beautiful Creative life!

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If you want to have a different life you have to choose differently!

Today I Choose!

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Quote taken from the movie, The Answer Man:

Kris Lucas: Why can’t I do the things I want to do? There’s so much I know I’m capable of that I never actually do. Why is that?
Arlen Faber: The trick is to realize that you’re always doing what you want to do… always. Nobody’s making you do anything. Once you get that, you see that you’re free and that life is really just a series of choices. Nothing happens to you. You choose.

Where you are standing in your life right now, is a direct result of all of the choices you have made over the entirety of your life.

You choose.

You may not have chosen events that have happened around you, what family you were born into, what your financial status was, or other events that may have directly happened to you, pain or suffering that others may have caused you, people who may have come, or those who may have left you. You may not have chosen those events, but you chose, either consciously or subconsciously how you responded to those events. You gave those events meaning, and you chose which path you would then travel after those events.

You chose.

You chose then, and you choose now.

The choices that you have made were innocently made. They were meant to keep you safe, to keep you feeling whole, to keep you free from pain, and to keep you alive. But since when is safe, whole, pain-free, and alive enough. What about having life in your life? Where is the joy? The connection? The adventure? The passion? The creativity? The wonder? The abundance? Where is the thing that makes you so excited to wake up every morning and go take on your life?

Every single day you have the ability to choose something new.

A different viewpoint, a different attitude, a different emotion, a different meaning, or a different path.

You choose.

That change happens in an instant, but you still have to choose.

If you do not choose, someone else will choose for you. You will not be happy. Your soul will feel unsettled, as if something is not quite right, and you may not even be able to put your finger on what is the matter, but your soul will know. You will feel like your skin is itchy, or a little too big, or maybe your skin is too small, but your soul knows that you were not meant for this. Your world will feel as if there is something missing, or lacking, or lost, or sad. You may not know what that something is, but your soul will know. You might find yourself repeatedly asking yourself, “is there more to life than this?” “Is this it?” “Is this all there is?”

Your soul will start to send you messages, small, quiet whisper, to try to nudge you to choose differently, to live differently, to be authentic. To live the life that you and your soul were meant to live. To do the thing that only you and your unique, awesome, supah-powah self could do. The longer you stay away from that path, the sadder your soul will become. It will start to get louder, more persistent. It wants so desperately to get you to where it knows you are supposed to be.

The path that only you can walk.

The adventure that only you can take.

We will start to hear it, your soul, even if we do not yet understand it. Our soul’s voice may sound so foreign, that we will ignore it as not possibly being our voice because we are so unfamiliar with it’s sound. But there it will remain, no longer whispering, but now whining, and persistent, clinging to your leg as you try to walk on someone else’s path, holding on, like a child afraid of their mama leaving, desperate for your attention, yearning for your time, crying out for it’s need to be fulfilled.

You might find a moment of clarity, when you look around, in your life, and you do not recognize this life that you have created. How have you gotten here? You don’t recognize yourself in your surroundings. It is as if you let yourself be lead on autopilot to some unknown destination where the language is foreign, the food tastes off, and the room is always a bit too cold.

You realize that are uncomfortable. How long has this been going on?

This is a moment where your soul has finally gotten your attention, and you get to see this world you have created , through your entire history of choices. You finally see your world without the lie filters of “normalcy” and “settling” and “status quo” and “fitting in” that we have a tendency to look at the world through. At this moment, you have a choice to make. Do you decide to do what is safe, and slide those glasses back on, and keep on living the benign life that the world has laid out for you? Or do you choose something different? Do you choose to leave those glasses of lies, sitting on a shelf behind you; knowing full well, that at any time, if you really need to you, can always rush back to your shelf and put your glasses back on?

Choose.

You choose glasses free, and now glasses free, you take one step forward into your world, that world you have created. At first your world may frighten you, and make you sad, it may make you angry, it may make you feel resentful, this place that you have created. You might feel that where you are is not quite fair, that you deserve better than this. You see others who appear to be doing so much better than you, and it fills you with sadness, and maybe a bit of despair.

I am here to remind you that you choose. By making one choice at a time.

Make one choice.

Close your eyes. Breathe deeply, slowly, on purpose. In. Out. In. Out. Do this again and again, and think of nothing but that breath. Feel your heartbeat; consciously climb deep down into who you are. In. Out. In. Out. Move around in your subconscious. What do you see? Are there cobwebs? Clutter? Chaos? Do you need a deep cleaning? Start the process of cleaning your soul up, one choice at a time. Hug yourself tightly, be loving, and gentle, forgive, and be kind. Know that you are going to be okay. This process can be painful, slow, and lonely.

Choose to slough off one thing that doesn’t fit you, serve you, or fill you with joy! Be gentle with yourself, this is a process, but you must make the choice. You must take the action. After you have taken the action, sit with this new, fresh, clear space for a moment.

Close your eyes, and let that feeling fill you up. That feeling of, it was only one thing, but that one thing felt so authentically honoring to your soul, that you have a moment of clarity and peace. Your world is by no means perfect, and you may still not know where you are going, or even where you will end up. You know you still have such a long way to go, but you recognize that feeling of peace. It is a feeling that calls to you. It is a feeling your soul was born for.

As you start taking stock and cleaning up what needs to be cleaned, and you do the process of sloughing off one thing, and then another, and then another, you will start to notice that there will be rays of sunlight breaking through, here and there, and slowly but surely these rays will start filling your soul house with love, joy, recognition, and enthusiasm for what really has been in there all along, but hidden from mismanagement and neglect.

Soon, you will start to recognize your soul, as the powerful goddess that she is. She will no longer be a whining, child, hanging as a dead weight on your leg, dying to get your attention, but she will stand tall, and proud, and strong. The amazing Amazonian warrior that she is, and she will be standing right beside you, hand-in-hand. You will have empowered her to watch out for new and exciting paths for you and her to travel on.

You are a soul. You have a body. You only have this one vessel. You need to take care of her, and love her, and treat her like a sacred space. Feed her good, real, and whole foods. Provide her plenty of delicious, and refreshing water. Let her play in the sunshine, and dance in the rain. Give her opportunities to run, jump, swim, stretch, climb, swing, and twirl, every single day. Let her rest. Let her get quite and reenergize. Let her sleep, a deep, quality, and restful, healing sleep. Let her ask for help, and share her story. Let her connect with other soul sisters on a deep and meaningful level. You and she will be so much happier this way. You and she will be stronger, and have more energy, and you will have such a better ability to live the life that you were put on this earth to live.

What is your soul trying to tell you today? I dare you to stop, close your yes, breathe deeply and just listen for her whispers. She may need a hug, you may need to be extra especially gentle with yourself today, you may need a nap. Do one thing that moves in the direction of peace. That direction that leads you to healing, to wholeness, and to authentic you-ness. Only you can know what that is for you. You choose.

What will you choose today?

Here is to consciously choosing a Beautiful Creative Life!! 🙂

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If you want to have a different life, choose differently!

Cuppa Chat #4: Starting a Revolution!

Good morning, my Beautiful Creatives!!

I am just so FREAKIN’ JAZZED about this week’s Cuppa Chat video!!

I can BARELY CONTAIN MY EXCITMENT!!

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

Ok, I am feeling a little bit better now!!

This week’s Cuppa Chat was in response to me going back to last week’s Cuppa Chat video, video #3, and not liking what I saw in myself! I have a tendency to wear a mask when I am scared, or about to be raw and vulnerable! To find out more about what I am talking about, grab a “Cuppa” of something DELISH, and pull up chair…

How do you feel about starting your own PERSONAL REVOLUTION!!

Here is to our Beautiful Creative REVOLUTIONS!! 🙂

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

New Website!

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Good evening!

I am so happy to report that my new website is now up and running!!!

YEAH!!!

I can honestly tell that I have had to learn this whole website building thing as fast as inhumanly possibly, and that little adventure was not without it periods (multiple) of crying, cussing, and throwing my hands up and seriously considering quitting the whole darn venture!!

BUT NO!!!!

I have beat the stupid thing called technology!!

WHAH-HOO!!! and a HELL-YEAH!!! 🙂

Anyway, I have been actively making some behind the scenes changes to make things more user friendly around here, as well as setting Beautiful Creatives up for future growth.

My dream is that Beautiful Creatives becomes a place where you can come for advice and resources for all things pertaining to getting unstuck and living the juiciest life possible. I also want to make sure I have an undercurrent of all things creative: art journaling, mixed media, creating every day. I want to do this because I believe that when you tap into your creative brain, you clear the way to hear your soul and the Universe speak to you, and I am a firm believer that THAT is when MAGICAL TRANSFORMATIONS can happen! 🙂

If this sounds intriguing to you, and like something that you would like to be a part of, or at least you’d like to hear more of, please take a moment to join our mailing list. There is a sign up form on the right hand side of your screen! I promise you will not be sorry!! 🙂

More GOODNESS to come!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 🙂

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If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

Cuppa Chat #2: 10 Things for a Level 10 Day!

Good morning, my beautiful friends!!

I am so happy to announce that my latest video in my Cuppa Chat series has been posted out on YouTube!

I know you cannot always control what the world throws at you on a day to day basis, but you can do things to help make your day a PHENOMENAL day, AKA a Level 10 Day! In this Cuppa Chat, I share with you my 10 favorite things to incorporate into my days so that, no matter what, I can have a level 10 day whenever I choose to!! 🙂

If you like what you see, please subscribe, so you don’t miss a thing!! 🙂

Here is to a Beautiful Creative life! 🙂

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

What a Difference Some Help Makes!

Good morning!

Do you know how hard it is for someone like me to ask for help????

I am not sure where I got the crazy notion that if I don’t do something completely, like as in 100% on my own, I somehow can not take any pride or credit for a job well done! Where the heck do crazy ideas like that come from anyway!!???

I went to Brave Girls Symposium this year, and I learned SOOOOOOO MUCH!! but one of the things that I learned that I am really striving to take action on is that you do not have to go through this journey, called life, on your own. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have an INCREDIBLE husband who stands by my side through thick and thin, and I have family members who I would take a bullet for – no questions asked, but to ask for help in any other area in my life??? Forget about it!

If I am having trouble with my fitness goals – “figure it out!”
If am having trouble staying on task with my nutritional goals – “suck it up, buttercup!”
If I am struggling carrying all of our personal finances by myself – “you had better work harder!”
If my house looks like it could be on the next episode of hoarders – “sorry, you made this mess”
If I want to take my business to the world but have no idea where to start – “Others have magically done it on their own, why can’t you?”
If I feel that my mental health is suffering – “If you say anything they will just confirm you are crazy!”

LIES!!! ALL OF IT!!! LIES!!!

You, my friend, myself included, are not an island!!

We are a tribe!!!

You need me, I need you!

No one was ever meant to walk through this journey, we call life, alone. That is why the Universe created others all around us! So we can support each other, cheer each other on, and lift each other up, whenever, wherever, and however often we need it! This is what makes the human race so INSANELY AWESOME!!!

Audrey Hepburn once said,

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”

I have always been a big fan of Audrey Hepburn, but it is only now, at 40 years old, that I realize how important, and RIGHT ON this message is!!

In the past month, I have reached out to an AMAZING woman to seek out her help as a life coach, I have started seeing an extremely KIND and GENTLE man to help me with my anxiety, and I have recently reconnected with someone from my past, someone who has always been a second mama to me a real, in-the-flesh, WALKING ANGEL!!! I can honestly tell you, in just one month’s time, because I was willing to reach out for help, as well as put myself out there to help others I have an overwhelming sense of joy, hope for the future, and really just a sense of quiet peace!! Anyone who intimately knows me, knows that that is INCREDIBLE!!! 😉

I challenge you to ask for help. What do you need today? If you can’t find someone to help you, reach out and help someone else! I guarantee that goodness will come back to you!

Here is to living a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 🙂

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Moving at the Speed of Light!

Good evening, my lovely chickadees! 🙂

Life seems to be moving at the speed of light!! SERIOUSLY!!!

This year has been a year of doing numerous self experiments! How can I make a better life for my husband and myself? How can I live a more authentic life? How can I move into he life that we are constantly dreaming about? How can I be as fit, healthy, and happy as much as possible?

Some of the experiments that have resulted in some micro changes in my life have been:

Morning Pages: Waking early every morning to write morning pages a la Julie Cameron, The Artist Way author’s recommended practice (one of them)! – this has been helping me deal with some out of control anxiety and feelings of overwhelm that I have been struggling with. This practice basically dumps all of my ever-running thoughts out of my brain every morning, essentially giving me a reboot every morning!
Meditation: 15 minutes meditation most mornings of the week. I have been doing this after my morning pages, and because my brain is wiped clean after my morning pages, meditation gives me the conscious opportunity to fill my brain with the thoughts that I want to carry around, I mean on purpose! I focus on thoughts of thankfulness to my creator for all of the blessings that have come my way, and the ones that are on their way to me!
Personal Altar: For my meditation time, I have created a small altar in my home. More specifically there is a small, comfortable cushion on the floor of my walk-in closet, and a small white shelf that I have cleared off (it is one of my shoe shelves), that I have placed various items that have special meaning for me. These are all things that I want to remind myself to think about while meditating. Some of the things are a glass heart to remind me that I am loved, a bracelet to remind me that I can be brave and do brave things, a candle to call my truth teller to my meditation space, and a small yellow toy farm truck to remind me of my future dream life! I have a bunch of other things too, something to remind me of my sisters, something to remind me to have fun, something to remind me of my amazing marriage, etc. etc. etc. This has become a sacred place in my life.
Exercise: My sweetie and I have signed up for a fun 5k that happens October 1st of this year, so we have started a Couch to 5k training program! It has been hard work not only the exercise itself, but also not giving up!! Right now, we only walk/jog about 3 days a week, but starting this week, I want us to go for a least a strong walk every morning, so that the non walk/jog mornings, we are getting out and spending quality time getting fit together!
Uncluttering: There has been a major uncluttering project that is currently happening in my house! Things are leaving though the front door at a whirlwind pace!! I realized that if I wanted the life that I have envisioned in my head to come true, then I would have to make room for it – both literally and figuratively! God bless my husband, he has been the epitome of patience, and support!
Gathering a Team: I have learned, this year, that you don’t have to do everything on my own. So I am actively seeking a team of awesome people, who know more than I do, to help me in various areas of my life. Mental health, physical health, general life goals, etc. I have found a life coach, and have also been seeking out quality time with friends and family, and going out of my way to nurture those relationships. I can achieve every single thing that my heart desires, but if I do not have friends and family to share that with, then I think my joy will be lessened, and that is not ok with me. Joy that is shared is always multiplied for both the share-er and the share-ee. How is that for good grammar??? 🙂

Now with all of this said, and all of this done, and still going on, I am by no means perfect at these things. I still have to say “oops, my bad” and try it again tomorrow, but I feel like my life is heading in the right direction, or at least the humungous ship, that is my life, is starting to pivot in the right direction!! and that is such a very exciting prospect that it makes me think that my future is so bright that I have to wear shades!! I can’t wait to see what comes next, but baby, I think I will be ready!!

Here is to living a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 🙂

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If you want to have a different life you have to live differently!!

Goodbye to 38 by 38 Hello to 39 by 39!

Good afternoon!

Yep! You have heard correctly, yesterday was my birthday so I am officially 38!! WHOO! HOO!! 😉

As some of you may already know, I every year I put together a X by X list. A # of objects by number of years I will have been alive by the time I finish this goal list! Two years ago was my 37 by 37 list, this past year was my 38 by 38 list, and starting today, I will be actively working on my 39 by 39 list. This is the list where I take 39 things from my master Life List and schedule the 39 things that I want to do before my birthday this next year!

Before I show you my 39 by 39 list, I thought I would start out by showing you how my 38 by 38 turned out!! 🙂

Here is my 38 by 38 list:

~~Put $1,000 into a mini emergency fund~~ – DONE!
Pay off all of my non-mortgage debt – Almost there, almost about $4000 to go!! WHEW!!!
Regularly tithe 10% of our household income – I did better on this one that I expected, but I wasn’t as consistent as I wanted to be.
~~Downsize our belongings so that everything we own fit into our 2-bedroom, 1 car garage condo~~ – DONE!
~~Jog a mile~~ – DONE!
Take the train
~~Go camping~~ – DONE!
~~Blow bubbles out of the car window while on a road trip~~ – DONE!
~~Clean out the garage~~ – DONE!
~~Hike the longest trail at Silver Creek Falls~~ – DONE!
Go on a walking tour of downtown Salem – I get a great deal on this from Groupon! I just have to schedule this before it expires and it will be done!!
Take a cooking class
~~Host a slumber party~~ – DONE!
Create a new line of inspiring art pieces of at least 12 designs
~~Start my own company~~ – DONE!
~~Redesign my blog to make it a reflection of my personal style~~ – DONE!
~~Invest in blog/career business cards~~ – DONE!
Launch an interview series on my blog
Send fifty handwritten handwritten notes (1 of 50)
~~Lose an accumulative 100 pounds~~ (105 of 100) – DONE!
Volunteer in a cause that is near and dear to my heart
Ride my bike for an hour straight
~~Have a weekend vacation at the coast~~ – DONE!
Sell my entire collection of Pink Paisley Boutique jewelry (LET IT GO!)
Host a movie-themed party
~~Inspire someone to write a list of their own~~ – DONE!
Be featured in a creative publication
~~Try at least 12 new recipes (12 of 12)~~ – DONE!
Prepare a meal using fresh ingredients from the Farmer’s Market
Use re-usable shopping bags for all grocery shopping for an entire month
Read every Jane Austen novel (1 of 5) – I read Pride and Prejudice
Get a facial
Revitalize 5 old pieces of furniture
Teach an online class
Read my Flying Lessons class book
~~Wear bright red lipstick out in public for a day~~ – DONE!
Have at least 48 artist dates (35 of 48) – I did WAAAAAY better on this than I thought I would! So, I am going to consider this a win!!! 😉
Have fresh flowers in the house every week for at least 10 weeks (6 of 10) – This was harder and more expensive than I thought, but I may try this one again!! 😉

As usual, I got a lot more accomplished than I thought I was going to, but there were actually a few things I was able to mark off of my master Life List that I wasn’t planning on. Here are those things:

Fly first class – I did this on the spur of the moment on my last business trip!! First class was soooo worth the extra moola spent!!! 😉
Learn to hula hoop – My friend, Jamie, inspired me to give this a try. I went out and bought a hula hoop, much to the chagrin of my sweetie, and I did, right there in my living room – almost breaking a lamp, but having a BLAST just the same!!! 😉
Run a mile – I thought I would NEVER be able to do this!!
Run a 5k – I thought either I was going to die doing this, or I was going to kill my sweetie for making me! But, in the end I was soooo happy I did this!!!
Cross my legs – Who knew???? One day, I looked down, and realized, ‘Hey! I’m crossing my legs!!!’ It might as well have been free tickets to Paris! Yes, I was truly THAT excited!!! 😉
Touch my toes with knees unbent – this was another one that I thought I would never be able to, but my sweetie insisted that I tried it. When I realized I could actually touch my toes, I wanted to sit in that position FOREVER!!
Be able to do a complete Sun Salutation – Another shocker!! I am sure I don’t do it as gracefully as the ladies online do, but who cares???? I CAN DO THIS!!! Good morning, Sun!!! 😉
Buy Jason a truck – Yep! I was VERY happy to be able to do this for my sweetie!!
Create & post a video on YouTube – I am not sure why I thought this was such a scary thing!?? Easy peasy!!
Do an entire cross stitch pattern – Another easy peasy goal!!
Draw a piece of art that I am happy with – After I finished this particular piece I was surprised that it actually came out of me!!
Go to a counselor – this was a requirement of the bariatric surgery, but it was still on my list so I am counting it!!
Hire a nutritionist – same as 12!
Hike the longest trail at Silver Creek Falls (10.4 miles) – This might have been the hardest 4 hours of my life!! UGH!!!
Learn how to manage money – Thank you, Mr. Dave Ramsey!!!
Learn how to purl – I did this, hated it, crossed it off of my list anyways!!
Learn how to walk in heels – YEAH!! I’m a girl! I’m a girl!!
Live without eating out for one month – bariatric surgery made this one easy!
Live without junk food for one week – Same for this one!!
Love my entire wardrobe – This is easy to do when you are down to two pairs of pants, a blazer, denim jacket, 3 dresses, and a few miscellaneous tops!
Weigh less than 300 pounds – I will NEVER GO BACK!!
Weigh less than 275 pounds – This was a little less than what I weighed when my mom died!
Weigh less than 250 pounds – My goal is getting so close, I can almost feel it!!
Weigh less than 225 pounds – This is so much harder than I expected!!! Keep going!!! 😉
Eat at doughnut at Voodoo Donuts in Portland, OR – Such a LOOOOONG wait in a LOOOOOOON line, for an ok donut, but so much fun spending some silly time with my sweetie!!

WHEW!! I have been busy!! 😉

NOW, what do I want to see on my 39 by 39 list????

Go to Brave Girls’ Camp
Weigh less than 220 pounds
Weigh less than 215 pounds
Weigh less than 210 pounds
Weigh less than 205 pounds
Weigh less than 200 pounds
Publish my own e-book
Start my creative business’ website
Start my creative business’ blog
Watch a baby being born (my nephew – Liam)
Become a life coach
Be a mentor to someone else
Be a spokesperson for something positive
Beat Jason at a game of chess
Read all of Jane Austen’s novels (1 of 5)
Become a motivational speaker
Become a plus-sized model for a day
Build a loom
Learn how to use a loom
Grow a vegetable garden
Carve a piece of art
Build a piñata from scratch
Climb a rock wall
Cook an entire meal for Jason’s family
Contact a distant family member & start communicating
Share my art-making-process via a YouTube channel
Purchase a professional camera
Learn how to use it
Create a time capsule
Take a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway
Do a backbend
Do a cartwheel
Do a flip off a diving board
Do a handstand
Gather a group of people to blow bubbles in a public space
Get a life coach
Get a passport
Get a pen-pal from a different country
Get paid to do what you love
Go kayaking
Grocery shop using only reusable bags for an entire month
Hang laundry in the sun to dry
Pay off all non-mortgage debt
Have 3 – 6 months expenses in an emergency savings account
Have a prayer alter in my home with stair-stepped candles
Knit a scarf
Learn French
Learn HTML
Learn the basic ballet steps
Learn the proper way to open a coconut
Learn to can food
Learn to create a frame to stretch canvas over
Learn to make a book from scratch
Learn to make ambrosia
Learn to make doughnuts
Leave $100 for a haggard waitress
Make & send my own Christmas cards
Make a loan to an entrepreneur in a developing country through http://www.kiva.com
Milk a cow
Organize a large family picture
Own a pair of fabulous fitting walking knee-high boots
Own an income producing blog
Perform 100 sit-ups in one sitting
Sell all of my jewelry from my old jewelry business
Start a book club
Take a cooking class
Take a nature walk & press the wild flowers you collect
Take a painting class
Take a photography class
Take a weekend vacation by myself
Teach an online art class
Type up great-great grandma’s recipe book for the family
Volunteer in a homeless shelter
Wear a size 14 pant

Ok, so I can TOTALLY see that there are WAAAAAAY more than 39 things on this list!! I think, at least for right this moment, I am going to keep the list extra long like this, and shoot to complete at least 39 items off of this list!! It is my perogative to change my mind at any moment in time to completely rehash this list or to completely start it over. As it stands right now, this list really makes me happy, and the idea of removing anything from it, honestly, really makes me sad! SO, to heck with it!! THIS WILL BE MY NEW 39 by 39 List!!

Here is to a FABULOUSLY productive, artsy, and memorable year!!! 😉

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Sharing Your True Colors!

Good evening!

As promised during this previous post. I have finally completed my journal project that was inspired by Dyan Reaveley’s YouTube video ‘Creating a Patchwork Quilt with Diane Reavely.’

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As I was painstakingly blacking out all of the work that had taken me literally hours to complete, I just kept asking myself over and over, what am I going to write on this? What does this mean to me? Is there anything more to what I am seeing that what I am seeing? I actually had gotten the black completed, and stared at it for another day before my answer finally came to me.

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This piece, for me, became about my tendency to hide my true colors, my true self, my authenticity, the things about me that make me uniquely me. I have a tendency to hide parts of myself for all sorts of reasons, fear of being unloved, fear of being unaccepted, fear of being left alone. This is something that I am actively working on. Even as I type this evening!

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So the message that I decided to write on these pages became this:

“You were not uniquely and wonderfully made so that you can hide your uniquenesses.
You were not made to blend in.
Your uniquenesses are what make you special.
They give you immense value.
Be brave.
Stand up for who you are.
I promise, your truth will set you free.”

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I may not know who you are, or what your story is, but I know that there is someone reading this right now that needs to hear these words, so I pass this message on to you. Your were not meant to blend in. You were a uniquely made one-of-a-kind special-to-the-core person on purpose. Cherish your uniquenesses, whatever they are, because they are your truth, YOURS ALONE, and your truth shall set you free!

Here is to a FABULOUSLY artsy evening! 😉

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!