Category Archives: Positive

Happy Independence Day!

Good evening!

I am going to make this a quick posting this evening!

My sweetie and I have just gotten home from spending the evening with our friends, Dawn and Errin. They are in the process of moving into a beautiful new place, and we had fun hanging out over there for a while and just catching up, before we all headed out to dinner and a movie.

We headed downtown to go to Cinebarre Salem 7, which was a first time visit for Jason and I. This place is kind of like Northern Lights that you get to eat your dinner while you watch the movie, except that the movies are first run movies, and the prices, unfortunately, are much steeper – OUCH! Other than that, the food was delicious, the company was fun, and my sweetie and I enjoyed the movie we watched and had a nice discussion about it on the way home. But before heading home, we made one last stop to watch the fireworks display from over the riverfront. I just have to quickly say, that I love fireworks, they make me feel like a kid again!

Back to the movie for just a moment. The movie we watched was Larry Crowne, with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. This movie is about a middle-aged man who loses his job and then decides to head back to college. We all agreed that this was probably not our favorite movie of his, but  it was still  a really sweet movie. My favorite part is the message, not that I gleaned for myself, but one that my husband said he was taking away from this movie:

Sometimes making important decisions, even though they are difficult, need to be acted on in the moment. Don’t let procrastination or fear of the unknown keep you from doing what you know you should be doing to take care of you and your family, this just might change your life.

I wholeheartedly agree!

I hope all of you have had a safe, healthy, and happy 4th of July!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

PS: The simple guy who has every reason to think his life has stalled will come to learn an unexpected lesson: when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might discover your reason to live.

A Day of More Art!

Good evening!

I have had a fun day today! When I wasn’t out running errands, and spending some time with my sweetie, I spent a good portion of my day up in my art studio playing amongst my art supplies! I did manage to finish one piece that I had started a couple of weeks ago. I am calling this piece

The Caged Bird Sings:

I LOVE this color scheme – this green really resonates with me! I tried a couple of new products, at least new to me, to do this project. I started with an acrylic base, and then used a crackle medium, however I had made a mistake and it didn’t crackle exactly the way I had expected, but at least now I know what NOT to do for my future crackle pieces! I also got to use a few different colors of ink stains to give this piece some depth.

I hand painted this bird using basic acrylics, and then pulled out some of my old jewelry supplies to create this wire bird cage, which I can see is not too easy to see in this picture – Something else to think about if I should ever create a cage again!

I really had fun creating this piece, but had some trouble trying to come up with some text to convey what I was wanting this piece to say. I stopped mid morning, and did a quick meditation to clear my head, and this thought just came to me, and knew that it was perfect.

As always, I would love to her your thoughts, please leave me a note in the comments section! I always appreciate your feedback!! This has and will continue to be a great learning experience for me! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A New Piece of Art!

Good evening!

As most of you know, I have just recently become a new collage artist, so I am really learning about different techniques, and flexing my bravery muscles by putting some of these techniques together in a way that represents something inside of me!

Tonight I have finished my latest collage piece and I am very excited to share it with you to get your feedback!

At first glance this piece may not look like something that I might have made. There are no deep reds, vivid blues, or brilliant greens, but I am in a mental place right now that is really a lot quieter, softer, more reflective, and more embracing of my femininity than where I have been in the past. I wanted this piece of art to become an inspirational reminder to myself about the possibility of dreaming.

This particular collage started because I had found this thought in a magazine, quite a while ago. If I remember correctly I think it was part of an advertisement of some kind.

“Let yourself whisper and wander and wonder.
Let yourself anticipate the bliss.
Let yourself have all you deserve.
Let yourself remember the unforgettable.
Let yourself let it go.”

This sentiment is something that I am actively working on taking to heart, especially as I start to get more daring in my delving into my world of creativity.

I added a butterfly to this piece as a symbol of my journey of change, to metamorphosis from who I am to who I want to be. In doing this my goal is to honor my authentic self.

I was very interested in playing with textures here, and a color palate that is not my typical jewel tone fare. I did a lot of paper crumpling, sanding, scraping, rippling, painting, stamping, tearing, inking, writing, and even some hand embroidery, as you can see above, in this picture – I just LOVE how that turned out. I am sure I will be using that technique more often.

And of course, how could I create a piece of art that doesn’t have a crown in it? I love the idea that this represents:

I am blessed.

I am worthy.

I am loved.

I am good enough.

This is the third art piece that I have ever finished, and only 1 of 2 that I like enough to actually display, but I know that as I finish each piece I learn a little more about myself and what I am willing to do and what I am not willing to do in my art. Not to mention, collage/mixed media is a great way to not only lose yourself, but a great place to also find yourself as well.

Please feel free to go to the comments section, above, and let me know what you think. I am always open to your thoughts. Thank you! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Happy Anniversary!!

Good evening!

Today is Jason and my 16th wedding anniversary!! Whoo! Hoo!!!

I knew that Jason and I were meant to be together, almost 17 years ago. It was the day that we were both volunteering with a large group of young adults at a young adult fundraiser, where we were raking seemingly thousands, and thousands of leaves from a giagantic farm out in Independence.

We had just finished up for the evening, and Jason had accompanied me on a walk  around the farm. We stopped at this gate, and look across the land, and admiring the view of this little lake that was a ways away. It was a spectacular scene. I realize that I was gazing at the landscape, and Jason was gazing at me. When he caught my eye, I remember not being able to take my eyes off of him. In that moment, I had this jolt of electricity run up my spine, making all of the hairs on the back of my neck rise, and I just knew that somehow, I was going to spend the rest of my life with this man. That moment was like magic! Needless to say, Jason and I were engaged two weeks later. We were married at the age of 19, a little less than 8 months later in a small ceremony attended by our family members, at the church that I had grown up in!! Whew!!

No one was sure we would make it, being so young and all, sometimes we had our doubts too. Marriage is quite literally the toughest job we have ever had, but one that ultimately has brought us both so much love and joy!! I would marry him again in a heartbeat! I really ADORE that man of mine – I know I say that a lot, but I just can’t help it!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MY LOVE!

I thank God for you more and more every day!!!!

😉

Anyway, last night I told you I was going to “go out into the world and find something juicy” to share with you this evening! I am not sure I found anything juicy, exactly, but I did get out into the world for a little while today! I am still not back to 100% yet, having been sick for the past few days, but I am doing my best to just walk it off!!

This morning, I got up early, did my morning pages, which I had been putting off. I then spend a couple of hours on a piece of art work, that is almost done, and my goal is that I will be able to share that finished piece with you tomorrow.

After being cooped up in the house for so long (being home bound for the past 3 1/2 days), I convinced Jason to take me out, even though he knew I wasn’t feeling completely better yet. So, we headed out to Borders where I found a new book series that I dove right into and am now totally hooked on!! It it The Immortals series, by Alyson Noel. The first book is called Evermore, and I am over halfway done with that book this evening! I made sure to pick up the first 3, of the, as of right now, 6 book series, so that way I will be able to keep on reading!!

The premise of this book is that there is this girl named Ever, and  her family has died in a car accident. Ever since that fateful day she can read minds, see dead people, and she can see peoples’ auras. Well, there is this new kid in school that comes along, name Damen, and for some reason she feels this instant, magical kind of connection to him. We are not sure who or what exactly he is yet, but so far we know that there is a definite connection between the two of them!!

I JUST LOVE THESE KINDS OF STORIES!!!

Anyway, I am not going to give any more of the story away, but so far, the book is delightful, and intriguing!! I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Jason and I ended our evening with a nice quiet dinner out, and we are now having a peaceful evening at home, which I must admit is rather GREAT!! Him reading at one end of the couch, me writing on the other end with my feet in his lap, and our girls sleeping cozily on both of us!! *SIGH!* The good life!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Being Sick Is So Inconvenient!

Good evening!

I would love to tell you that I am having a great day today, but the honesty is, I left the office early today, because someone, me, has some kind of a bug, and I am feeling kinda crummy! I have tried sleeping it off to no avail, so I am downstairs with my sweetie, trying to distract myself better! I am not sure if it is working, but it is nice to have something else to dwell on!

I have been giving this weekend a lot of thought, seeing that it is going to be a 5-day weekend, and Jason and I have agreed on doing a kind of stay-cation! We have a small list of things that we are wanting to do, and I am sure that combined with these activities we will have a GREAT anniversary/4th of July weekend!!

  • Hit the movies
  • Casino for brunch
  • Spend some time over at Borders
  • Picnic in the park with our girls
  • Do some serious swim-time in our pool
  • Maybe peruse a couple of garage sales

Salem doesn’t exactly have a plethora of entertainment opportunities, but I am sure we will manage to find some place/activity to make our weekend memorable/restful!! Not to mention, I do need to get caught up on some house chores, and make some time to clear my head and just focus on creating some art. That is the goal after all, isn’t it?

I haven’t really been making much time to be creative lately. I think subconsciously I was getting warm to what I was looking for, and really scared the heck out of myself! So, I had stopped almost cold turkey, including my morning pages! Ok, so I see what I have done, I will get back to what I know I should be doing tomorrow morning! I will keep you posted!

As I hunker down for the evening, and cherish the ice cold popscicles my sweetie just brought home for my ache-ey throat…

Have a FABULOUS evening! 🙂