Category Archives: Quote

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!!

dsc07749As, 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!! 🙂dsc07750

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! 😉

dsc07751On 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.dsc07767

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! 😉

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

 

Getting Unstuck!

Let Go!Good evening!

Do you ever feel stuck???

I do, and have been struggling with this nagging feeling of being stuck for quite some time.

Today, while I was listening to some positivity, it hit me like a ton of bricks when I heard the speaker talk about getting unstuck. He said,

“Are you really stuck, or are you just afraid to let go??”

WOW!!! That really hit home for me, and reminded me of something I had heard earlier last week,

“You have to let go of who you are to become who you were meant to be!”

Ok, I am listening, God!! I think I hear what you are telling me!! 😉

I have known for some time that I have been needing to take some brave steps to get from where I am to get to where my soul is wanting to be. If you were to read my morning page entries for the past few months, you would see that there is a recurring theme!!

I want more.
I want to be an artist.
I want to live creatively.
I want to make a difference.
I want to be free.I want more. Oh wait – I said that already!! 😉

Well, it is true! I want more. I don’t want to sit in a cubicle day in and day out, doing what others would have me do with my life. I’m stuck!! Or at least that is what I had been telling myself, until today!! 😉

I am holding on.

That is the reality of my situation!

I am holding on out of fear.

Fear of the unknown.

Fear of what people might think.

Fear of failure.

Fear of falling apart.

Fear of hanging out on the ledge all by my little lonesome!!

But you know what, today is a new day! and I am determined to take those baby steps to get to where I want to be. No matter how long it takes. No matter how many do-overs I will need to take. No matter how many comments I may have to ignore, or how many shoulders I may have to lean on along the way.

My life, my dreams, my aspirations, and I am worth it.

and you know what???

SO ARE YOU!!!

What might you be holding on to out of fear! Isn’t today the day for us to get unstuck together!!

Let’s do this!!! What action(s) can you take today to get unstuck?? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!! 😉

My Take Action Challenge: I am going to get my information packet together for an art studio here in town that is looking for new artists to instruct classes. WISH ME LUCK!!! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUS ARTSY evening!

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

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Inspirational Thought Wednesday!

CrownGood evening!

“A day at a time, a walk at a time, even a simple step at a time, my sad and tangled life began to sort itself. I say sort itself because all I did was “walk through it.” I have been walking ever since.”

~Julia Cameron

This quote has really resonated with me this week. You see, I have always been a bit of a walker – that is until the last 6 months. I am not sure why, but I just kind of stopped. No real reason…just stopped. now don’t get me wrong, I still walk a lot, to get to meetings, go to lunch, to find my car, but it is not the same as walking on purpose – with a purpose. For me that means to walk with no other intention but to get out into the fresh air, while enjoying nature and raising your heartbeat so you can listen to your inner voice. That is what I had given up! It was one way that I listened to my soul, and what it was trying to tell me.

Well, this past week, I have taken up walking again. On purpose. With no other intention but just to get my booty out of the house and spend some time with my inner thoughts while out in nature! Simple. Simple, yet oh so gratifying!! 😉

The benefits I have discovered for walking:

  1. Walking clears my head, especially if I am suffering from artist’s block! New ideas seem to just find me while I am walking.
  2. Walking alleviates anger and frustration! Things that are stressing me out just doesn’t seem as important after a long walk.
  3. Walking gives me the chance to change my perspective! I have a tendency to get channeled the finite details of things, and sometimes I really need to step back and see the big picture – walking does that for me!
  4. Walking really energizes me! If I take a 30 minute walk, I find I have way more energy then when I first started out!
  5. Walking helps me get a good nights sleep! If I take a long walk, like 45 minutes or more, I sleep like a log!! That is a GREAT feeling especially to someone like me, who has a tendency to be an insomniac!
  6. Walking really makes your legs look good, and if you take large enough strides, your booty gets a nice toning too! ALWAYS DESIRABLE!!! 😉
  7. Walking is a peacekeeper! If my sweetie and I are arguing or disagreeing about something, we can just take a walk together, and the energy we expend walking helps deflate the sales of whatever it is we are arguing about. Again – maybe this one fits under the changing of perspective benefit!
  8. Walking is a problem solver! When I am struggling with a decision, especially when I have more than one option at my disposal, walking helps me get focused and come up with my solution AKA make that decision!

I am sure that I have many many more positives to say about walking, but this is what I am able to come up with at the moment!!

My Take Action Challenge for you this week:

Get outside, into nature and start walking!! 10 to 15 minutes if that is all you can muster, but I highly recommend 30 minutes or more every day, ON PURPOSE!! Take note of how this one simple step changes things in your life this week! You just might be pleasantly surprised, and might even want to make this one of your life habits!!!

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening! 😉

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

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Inspirational Thought and a Monthly Giveaway!

Good evening!

I am so excited to let you know that tonight I am doing my very first monthly giveaway! However, before I get to that I wanted to share tonight’s inspiration thought! 🙂

“Why should we all use our creative power…? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.”

~Brenda Ueland

Now for my first monthly giveaway! YEAH!!

I am happy to announce that I will be gifting the book “Inner Excavation: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media” written by Liz Lamoreux to one lucky winner.

Inner Excavations

The way to get your chance to win this lovely book, all you need to do is to answer this question in the comment section of this post:

If you knew that you could not possibly fail to make your dream life come true, what would you do starting tomorrow to make that happen?

That is it. Sounds easy enough right? I will post the winner in tomorrow night’s post, which will come out at 6 PM Pacific Time.

Good luck to all of you, and I can not WAIT to read your answers! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARSTY evening! 😉

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

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Box of Stars!

Good evening!

I just could not help but stop and share this beautifully visual quote this evening! 😉

“Caddy got the box and set it on the floor and opened it. It was full of stars. When I was still, they were still. When I moved, they glinted and sparkled. I hushed. The jewels glint and gleam with reflected and refracted light.”

– The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner.

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening! ;-)

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

Be A Queen!

Good evening!

I have been reading “Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul” and came across this FABULOUSLY inspiring commencement address that Oprah Winfrey gave to the graduates of the all-female Spelman College in 1993:

Be a queen. Dare to be different. Be a pioneer. Be a leader. Be the kind of woman who in the face of adversity will continue to embrace life and walk fearlessly toward a challenge. Take it on! Be a truth seeker and rule your domain, whatever it is – your home, your office, your family – with a loving heart.

Be a queen. Be tender. Continue to give birth to new ideas and rejoice in your womanhood…My prayer is that we will stop wasting time being mundane and mediocre…We are daughters of God – here to teach a world how to love…

It doesn’t matter what you’ve been through, where you come from, who your parents are – nor your social or economic status. None of that matters. What matters is how you choose to love, how you choose to express that love through your work, through your family, through what you have to give to the world…

Be a queen, Own your power and your glory!
-Oprah Winfrey

I hope this inspires you as much as it has inspired me! :-)

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

Inspirational Thought of the Week!

The Right to Write“We should write because it is human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It makes it directly and specifically our own. We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance.

We should write because writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living. Writing is sensual, experiential, grounding. We should write because writing is good for the soul. We should write because writing yields us a body of work, a felt path through the world we live in.

We should write, above all, because we are writers, whether we call ourselves that or not.”

~Julia Cameron

The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

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

Randomness Tuesday!

Good evening!

I thought I would share with you some random thoughts on this randomness Tuesday!

I woke up this morning, with my first alarm, which is not something I have a tendency to do. I usually let the first alarm wake me up, but the second one, that goes off a half an hour later is the one that says, “Ok, you have been lazing around in bed long enough – get up!!” Well, today I got up with the first one. You see, I had this thought that was running over and over through my mind, and it was saying:

“If you want a different life, live differently.”

Simple, sweet, and powerfully true!!

This was a message that apparently my subconscious thought I needed to hear, and my conscious self has been taking it to heart all day today!!

So, I got up with the first alarm, because it was different then I normally do, hopped in the shower first thing, and I was ready, having eaten a healthy breakfast and all, and I got to work a little over half an hour earlier than normal. I concentrated on staying focused at work, and trying to find the very little things to do better than I normally do. It made for a pretty good day! I even got a 15 minute walk in, which may not sound impressive, but when you sit confined like veal in a small cubicle all day, every day, a 15 minute walk, out in nature, with one of my girlfriends really means a lot!!

Anyway, after work today, I knew I had to head over to Nordstroms to pick up some more of my facial products, which I did, and then I picked up two eye shadows that the old me would not have tried before!!

Jason sent my camera off to Texas to be fixed or replaced. I don’t care which as long as my baby returns to me in one piece and in working order!!! I really miss taking pictures!!!

Tonight would have been a great time to have my camera, because in my quest to have a different life by living differently, when my sweetie called me while at work and asked if we could have a spontaneous dinner, I jumped at the chance. I am sooo glad that I did!! Dinner was delicious, and I haven’t had a chance to hang out with my sis, Nette and her kids in AGES!! Megan had basketball practice tonight, and she asked me if I could go watch, normally I would have made excuses, because I knew that my to-do list for this evening was just so long, but again, if I want a different life, I have to live differently. So, you guessed it, I agreed to go with her and Nette to her practice. Nette is one of her coaches. It was so much fun to watch Megan!! She is really growing up so fast, and she is such a girly-girl, and yet still such a sporty girl that she is such a hoot!!! I really love her so much, and sometimes I feel like I am missing all of these special moments with the kiddos, so I am really so thankful for my new attitude about living!! AND I can’t wait to have my camera back because I would have had SOOOO MANY GREAT pics of the girls practicing!!!

I am finally home for the evening, a little later than I had expected, but feeling really blessed! I still have a little time to get a couple of chores crossed off of the to-do list before I crawl into bed early this evening and get some reading done before bed!!

What a good life. I am very thankful for new beginnings. I know it is still early, but it is looking like 2012 is really going to be a GREAT year!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

The Life of My Dreams?

Good morning!

“Who you’re meant to be evolves from where you are right now.” ~Oprah Winfrey

Since I have have to get going to class today, and am not sure how mentally exhausted I am going to be when I get back, I thought I would take some time to blog this morning!

After breakfast, this morning, I have spent some quiet time reading the latest issue of Oprah’s magazine. I picked it up in the airport yesterday because the headlines plastering the cover were exactly the same things that I have been questioning a lot lately.

“Find Your True Calling! A Guide to Discovering Who You’re Meant to Be”

“O’s Self-Awareness Workbook”

“Tired of Being Tired? 5 Ways to Bring Yourself Back from Burnout”

These are all things that I have been seriously searching for answers to!!

I have just finished one article where the woman, Today Show anchor, Ann Curry. I won’t tell you her whole story, you will have to pick up O to read that yourself, but something in her story has really struck a chord with me:

Ann had found a lump in her breast, and after going to her doctor and finding out that she did not have cancer, that was not the end of her physician’s news. He said, “Every day I have to tell a women she’s got a disease that might kill her. Each one of them says, ‘I didn’t get a chance to do this,’ or ‘I should have done that.’ I don’t want you to be one of those women.”

He then proceeds to tell her that no matter what is going on in her life, she needs to start by taking one full day to take care of herself, to make sure she was taking that time to do whatever fulfilled her.

At the very end of her story, Ann says, ‘I’ve learned to be deliberate about how I spend my time on this Earth. I choose to fill my days with that I’m passionate about, and live with purpose. In the end, I want to be able to say, “My life was what I made it.”

WOW!!! This really resonated with me!! Here I have been complaining about where my life is heading right now, and I realize that I have power to redirect the entire direction of my life, one decision at a time!

So this has now led me to more questions,

If my life is what I make it, what the heck do I want to see in it?

  • A strong spiritual connection to my creator
  • Loving and healthy relationships with family and friends
  • Adventures in traveling and experiencing different cultures firsthand
  • Giving back and making a contribution to the world around me
  • Helping others see and realize the potential in their own lives

The question is, how the heck do I go about making all of that happen? Ok, I guess I have already answered this question – by being mindful in every decision I make! That is going to be easier said than done, I am sure! 😉

Anyway, I am g0ing to go enjoy some more quiet time before my class gets underway, oh that, and checking in with the office to make sure that I am not missing anything urgent!!

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

Don’t Quit!

Good evening!

I stumbled upon this poem, and I knew that I wanted to share it with you this evening!

Don’t Quit

by: Unknown Author

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit.
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns.
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out:
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow –
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems so far:
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)