Friday, June 29, 2012

Insta Friday

WHEW!
Today was a super hot day!
103 degrees...
Insta Friday is back 
after last weeks brief hiatus....
My Tigerlilies are blooming...
St. Francis stayed calm and cool even in the heat...
 Beautiful sunset
after an epic CRAZY storm here...
 Totally yummy lunch
at the Williamsburg Lodge!

 Just a snippet of the
lovely blooms at 
Colonial WIlliamsburg....
LOTS
of research for some classes
and the Beach Retreat I'm hoping to make happen
next year.
p.s. - let me know if you are curious....
basics HERE
(scroll to the bottom of the post)
Lastly
trip to my favorite
Tar'jay
to get a little glitz for our neighborhoods
annual Fourth of July Parade!
Hope you had a wonderful week
and you have not melted from the heatwave!
Stay Cool!
 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Thriftshare.....

I have been itching
to do some thrifting lately...
I had been restraining myself
and
the few times I stopped anywhere lately
it was a big fat zero
as far as items went.
Maybe because this time of year more people
are having yard sales.
I haven't done too many of those 
 because chasing my 4 year old
 around a strangers yard is not my idea of fun
and I wouldn't get to really look anyway.

SO earlier in the week
I stopped after work
to kill a little extra time
and I finally found some great treasures!
 I am a total sucker
for this kind of kitschy,cutsy, cake decorating girlie stuff!
.45 cents!
Partial to these anyway because I remember 
having them on my childhood
birthday cakes for years...
Found this great Pyrex dish
for $2.98!
I'm not a collector but I decided
 after going through a lot of our things that had been in storage
I'd rather use items like this instead of
"putting it in the cabinet"
of course I'm going to take great care of it.
Just a great addition to my vintage kitchen wares.
 This huge vintage scrapbook / photo album
was only $3.00!
I couldn't believe they priced it so low so I grabbed it!
It has not been used at all.
The cover is embossed and the  
title says
"Snips and Scraps"
I have been trying to re-organize all my art supplies and crafting
items into some sort of 
orderly system.
This little tin was only .40cents
perfect for pins with the sewing kit!
The Doodle diary had been marked down to .58 cents
Only about four pages had been used
but what was on them is part of what made me buy it.
I also thought I could use it for any number of
mixed media projects...
The page asked
"What happened today? Doodle and write about your day."
Cute because she wrote 
"farmyard - Barnyard"
then drew a picture of both of them
and then an airplane
and wrote 
"A plane to get away from Isaac"
could that be an annoying little brother?
The next page is what I liked the most...

 List of what
"I am looking forward to"

#1 - Having fun ALL my life
#2 - Never giving up

Great Philosophy from an 8 year old huh?
Something to live by...
Hope you had a great weekend.
Linking up with some other awesome treasure seekers at

Make more lists..Possible retreat.....

InstaFriday
FAIL...

I can only have Insta Friday
if I remember to
bring the IPOD home from work!
OOPS...
Sorry guys!
 Time to have that yummy brownie 
and
cup of coffee
and make a list...
of stuff to remember to do this week!

Also wondering if anyone would indulge me...
I am wondering if anyone would be interested in an
artists retreat?
ANY skill level
Beginners and beyond.
Beach location...
East Coast
Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina
voted Best Beach by Dr.Beach in 2007...
classes, beach time, food, fun, sight seeing,wild ponies, dolphin watching,
shelling, and MUCH more?
Just throwing it out there.
I have had it in the planning stages for a while now
and want to try and keep it low cost.
Would try to include almost all meals,
ride to and from the airport if needed,
most all supplies.
To get a ballpark though ....
 first I'd need to see if ANYONE
was interested.

 
Just e-mail me or leave me a comment.
 More details available if interested.
 Hope to hear from you!
Have a great weekend!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Whole 'nother planet?

I had 
a conversation with someone this week
and during that conversation
I started to
see
in this persons
eyes that they had no idea where
I was coming from.


They listened politely
but
I could tell
that
this person wanted to know,
but
 was not
"ready"
to hear how I had achieved
a certain level of freedom and happiness.
It was kind of weird.
Most likely she went home and had
a
"She has gone crazy"
conversation .


I guess what I am trying to say
is that for some of us
being truly
happy
may involve some risk taking and
going against the traditional grain of things..
Giving up the safety of 
what society says we should have
to be
NORMAL.

 Leaving my regular paying job
to try something on my own
was very scary...
it has NOT been easy.
I can say there have been times
when all we have honestly had in
our checking account is $5 .
We have family that loves us ,
friends that love us ,
and somehow
things keep working out.
I am happier than I have been
in a very LONG time.
But is it
work? YES
Is it easy - NO.
Was it worth it?
YES
I forced me to work through
some issues I kept putting bandages
on in my personal life.
It sparked another side to my creative self that
got pushed to the back of the closet years ago.
I guess what I really wanted to say
was that you 
Choose
what is important to you.
If you keep doing the same things
you get the same results right?
No change is easy
but
you will never know the possibilities
unless you try.
If you really want something bad enough
you will do whatever you can to make it happen.



  Happy Day!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Doorways , Gateways, and cool Knockers....

Collection of
images....

Iron door stop?









Just a little bit of fun with ornamental elements,
design,
and age.
You know a few times I must have been pretty tired cause I'm just a tad 
off kilter!
Hope you enjoyed!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Creative spirits......

I recently
came across some interesting
reads about
the origins 
and original beliefs
about the word
"Genius"

When I hear that word
I think..
O.K....
someone with an exceptional ability...
 in the top one percent of
the incredibly smart people in this world...
Right?

Well instead
lets apply the word 
to 
the process of creativity....

Genius
is what Romans called
the sort of guardian angel, spirit, or God
that stayed with you ,
 lived in your walls,
your home
and helped
to get you to your potential...
Greeks called it
your Daemon...
of course which we have changed to Demon...
so not all Demons are bad huh?!


Now see where the title
"creative Genius"
comes from?
 I  do agree that
maybe it is smarter to not view the individual
as a "creative genius"
but that we as individuals
have a spirit or a thought process
 to guide us to our creative potential.

History lesson aside...
What do you think your
Genius would look like?
 (made this back in March at Art and Soul)
she immediately came to mind!
Maybe a little shrine to
 creativity
 is in order for my tiny studio space?

and
if my dad isn't a true Genius
I don't know who is!
 Happy Father's Day!