little glimpses...

After the rush of the morning when all is quiet,

I often come across these little glimpses...

sweet reminders...

My littlest cherub placed Teddy here this morn

to wait for him until he came home from school.

This girl's got style...

(Kelly Barton wearing ring by Danielle Daniel)

As I settled into bed last night to work on a knitting project I decided to listen to Creative Life with Jamie on my ipod. As I searched back thru the podcasts I came across this one with Kelly Barton , one of the most wonderful women I have met. Kelly helped out at Liz's retreat where she filled our bodies, hearts and souls.

First, I have to ask myself, why don't I listen to Jamie's podacsts more often? They nurture me and so often get me back on track. And this one was no different...so timely as usual.

Before her interview with Kelly, Jamie spoke about OVERWHELM, that great big word that seems to be ruling my days as of recent. Sitting right here on my shoulders making me run around like a crazy woman thinking that i am getting things done and yet creating a longing to be doing so much else.

This is what I learned from Jamie...

I try to hold on to every ounce of creative anything, be it thought, idea, image, etc that comes to me. It's as though I am afraid that there will never be another. I feel that I have to be like a spider web, catching and holding all of these ideas. Wrapping them up tight and saving them until I have the chance to come back to them and use them. Thing is, that web is getting full...clogged up, actually. To the point that, when I do get the chance to create, I often waste quite a bit of time searching thru it all. And you know what, I am becoming weary trying to hold on to it all.

I like Jamie's suggestion that, instead of trying to hold on to them all, visualize them flowing through you like a breeze through the trees or water through a stream and to see, in this flow, that we are connected to all creativity, that there is not a limited amount of it and that it will be available to you when you are ready and need it.

What I learned from Kelly:

Be real.

Have fun.

Listen to your heart.

Make connections.

Be accepting of who you are.

Stop trying to compare myself to others.

For so long I have looked 'out there', searching for my style (creatively and in my life in general) and it is only by looking within that I will finally be able to look at my art (and my life) and say 'oh, there I am'.

Hot Wax...

Have had a few days over the past 2 weeks to catch up a bit on my work for Judy's encaustic class...

love, love, love image transfers...

wax over water soluble oil pastels

(learned that I need to be patient and let it dry before coving with wax)

another image transfer...

thank goodness i've got a stash from a previous project

free-style...

this was a lot harder than i thought it would be

although it was super fun and i learned a lot about how the wax works together

wanted to use one of my own photos...

not so sure about the ripple lines

created from a tool i found at a big garage sale the other weekend

am very proud of myself for taking the time to play at my own pace in this class instead of feeling like i have to keep up with everyone else, post photos and read all of the comments.

Shake it out...

As Flo says "It's hard to dance with the devil on your back, so shake him out!". So excited Ceremonials is out today!! So come on ladies, let's shake him out because "it's always darkest before the dawn."