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!

 

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

Her Library Adventures 
and
Apron Thrift Girl 

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.

(Via)

(Via) 

 

Just e-mail me or leave me a comment.

 More details available if interested.

 Hope to hear from you!

Have a great weekend!

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!

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!

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!