Tag, You’re it !

I got tagged by my friend Corrine at Sparkle Day Studios (also known as Dos Fishes) with this kind of different meme. I decided to do it and pass it on. If you don’t feel like doing it, that is fine, but if you do, have fun and play !

The Rules
…you must post the rules
…answer 11 questions the tagger posted for you
…create 11 questions to ask the people you tag
…tag 11 people
…let them know you’ve tagged them

Corrine’s Eleven Questions for me with my answers in purple.

1. If the moon were a wedge of cheese, what kind would it be? Jarlesberg. It has holes like the moons craters. It is also the special cheese that my Mom loved when I was a kid and we only ate Kraft Singles.

2. Where would you ride on a unicorn? Along the white sand beach by the warm ocean.

3. Are you a left brain or right brain or my brain doesn’t fit into this world kind of person? My brain is uniquely mine, thank God for others !

4. Are your boots made for walking or do your heels make you tall?

My boots made for walking in my forties but they were made for strutting in my twenties and thirties. Miss that sometimes !

5. Spelunking or the sauna? Spelunking followed by sauna.

6. What is your favorite vegetable to draw and to eat? I like drawing carrots but I love eating summer radishes.

7. Do you chat with the night owls, or hang out with the morning doves? Morning doves, definitely.

8. What is your most favorite creative tool? My Hands, my magnificent hands !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  art journal page 2010

9. If you were a muse what would your name be? Henrietta. I have crazy, wild, black, curly,long hair and wear a tiara everyday. And a kimono over my jean overalls.

10. Sing me your song? Que Sera, Sera by Doris Day

11. What color is your heart? It’s like a rainbow !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

art journal page - 2010

AND…

My Eleven Questions for my Taggees !

1. What color do you imagine is inside your head ?

2. What artist would you most like to spend the day with ?

3. Cupcake, apple pie or chocolate éclair ?

4. If you were to suddenly get wings, where would you fly to first ?

5. What superpower would you most like to have ?

6. Watercolor, acrylic, pastel, or finger paint ?

7. What song most reminds you of your mother ?

8. Luxury cruise or canoe/backpacking ?

9. Do you have a tidy organized workspace or messy, chaotic workspace ? Which works best for your creative process ?

10.What was your favorite candy as a child ?

11. What is the one thing you love most about yourself ?

Here is my list of Taggees :

Michelle Yesterday’s Trash

Mary of A Splendid Adventure

Carmen of A Playground of Imagination

Janet of Artopia

Kate of The Queen of Creativity

Jessie at PurpleTree Bird

Marit at Marit’s Paper World

Kelley at One January Day

Jane at A Painted Heart Studio

Sherry at Indigo Girl

Kathy at Kathy Maximo Studios

I hope you ladies have fun !

I head out tomorrow with my Artsy Friends to Cape Cod for a long weekend.

It is supposed to be very March-like weather rather than the June like stuff we had last week. It doesn’t matter though. We will all be together, and give one another a lot of good loving. Plus lots of laughs !

Kim & Heart Rock –Cape Cod 2010

Be back next week.

Sending you big love, Beautiful Ones !

GPP Street Team Crusade # 61–Restraining Order

Well, I had to join in !

I did so under the wire, but just in time.

The awesome and incredibly talented Michelle Ward is hosting the last of her fine Green Pepper Press Street Team Crusades and I had to take part.

In the past, I used to do these great prompts every month.

They inspired my journal pages and also connected me to a great community of artists all over the globe. Michelle would link us all on the GPP Street Team blog, and we could visit one another, see how each artist had interpreted the great prompts and get feedback on our own entries from the other Crusaders.

I don’t have any excuses as to why I stopped doing the Crusades. Life just changed things…

But when I read that Michelle was ending the project after 61 months worth of projects, I wanted to join in one last time and pay a little homage to something that brought me many treasures over the years.

Crusade # 61 is entitled “Restraining Order” and our prompt was to create a journal page while focusing on avoiding clutter or overfilling the page and paying attention to composition a little more. Trying to leave some space, some open air for the eye to rest a little.

I knew I wanted to do a bit of a self-portrait piece for my art journal.

This week, the question of what “success” is came up several times in conversation and in thought.

I realized that to some people on the outside, I may not seem conventionally “successful”.

Upon some pondering though, I actually concluded that to my own sense of what is success is measured by, I am a very successful person.

I believe success should be measured by how close you are to achieving the goals of your Heart & Soul, and not so much what society or your bank account may reflect.

My Heart and Soul goals are to love strongly and fiercely and to make a difference in the world in my own little way.

I do this.

Most days, I do this very, very well !

When I go to bed at night and I can say, “Today, I loved. Today, I was loved back. Today, I saw beauty. Today, I created a bit of beauty of my own.” When I can say those things, that has been a good day !

A successful day.

A successful life lived.

For my minimal journal page, I created a colorful background with spray inks, Golden fluid acrylics and Twinkle H2O watercolors.

Then I took a copy of a photo of myself and trimmed it with some decorative deckle edged scissors.

I added a piece of torn piece of ledger paper to the center of the page, tapped down with some polka dot Smashbook paper tape.

I stamped my phrase out with rubber alphabet stamps on some white tape.

It reads : “I live a simple little life.”

I think the simple composition works well with the message of this page.

It was a challenge for me to keep it this simple. I wanted to add more pen work, etc or maybe some scribble, maybe use some stencils to add more to the background, etc

but in the end, I love how it turned out.

I live a simple ordinary extraordinary little big successful sweet life.

And for that I am extremely grateful.

 

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As I contribute this post for the final GPP Street Team Crusades, I am also grateful for the wonderful treats that this project has brought me.

I made so many awesome artist blog friends through the Crusades.

I got to “know” Michelle and her fabulous heart, and contribute to some amazing projects offering special help to the community that she has lead.

I also learned the value of creating art work and sharing it with other artists, the best kind of audience and the best kind of support for the creative process.

So thank you, Michelle, for all the things you have contributed to the on-line art blog community ! You Rock, Lady !!!

And thank you to my fellow Crusaders who have shared their art and their hearts along the way ! Keep on rocking it, Crusaders !

Haiku My Heart–That Kind of Brave

Let me be willing.

Trusting like a small spring bud.

That kind of brave.

 

Happy Friday, Brave and Beautiful Ones !

I hope your weekend is full of sweet, sweet moments.

Big Love !

 

For more haiku loveliness, visit Haiku My Heart at recuerda mi corazon.

Share the Joy Thursday–Lots of Little Joys

From the JOY List this week :

More blob art.

Love the ‘tude.

A gift that Colleen found for David and me.

Ya, it kind of fits.

This little brat cat who jumps into my office chair every time I get up!

These trays of rocks, varnished and ready to be sent to Colorado

in support of Cassandra Perkins and her amazing work for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society  there.

This sweet Hallmark card that jumped out at me yesterday and came home.

One of my all time favorite Pooh & Piglet moments.

That I am headed here today with my friend Colleen.

They are announcing temps in the mid-eighties.

In March.

Hampton Beach, we are on our way

to soak up

the JOYS

of the day.

 

More Joy at Meri’s Musings !

Time to Play Ball

Life has been all over the place around here lately.

A lot of sad news, like my friend Colleen’s untreatable metastasized breast cancer diagnosis.

Some scary stuff, like facing a lot of fear about medical tests myself, as well as waiting for results.

(All of which came back fine yesterday. Next up, Mammogram on April 3rd.)

Processing the sadness and the anxiety resulted in a whole lot of crazy monkey brain last week!!

So much so that this nutty page and equally weird haiku turned up in the journal.

I so wish I could get through my emotions a bit better instead of basically making myself a rather sick, nervous wreck.

I am proud of the fact that I did use some newer tools to help me through, and that the really icky, scary anxiety stuff was a little less intense than it has been in the past.

I told many a friend about what I was going through, and got a lot of wonderful support for my fears and feelings.

I used medication where needed, and also turned to meditation a few times. Man, those deep breaths and quiet moments can be so comforting.

And of course, the amazing support and unconditional love that my husband, David shows me is unbelievably precious to me.

This week, having received good news from my doc yesterday, and the fact that the weather has been so warm and sunny, I am coasting into a more hopeful and peaceful place, thank God!

That kind of shows up in my journal page today, don’t you think ?

I have been able to spend some important, tender and often sweet and fun time with Colleen, and will continue to do so as many times a week as our schedules allow.

Yesterday, we went to Pandora store at the mall and chose this Friends Forever Butterfly dangle charm for our bracelets.

It is so perfect as a symbol of our friendship !

It reminds me of the magical day a few years back, where we stopped at this out of the way attraction called “The Butterfly Place”, and shared an hour or so in awe as butterflies of all kinds flew around us in a spectacular, beautiful show.

Our gang of artsy friends have planned a long weekend away on Cape Cod in two weeks.

Girl time, sea and sand, and LOVING. I know it will be such a balm for all of our tender spots.

So today, I will find some sweet ways to celebrate the first day of Spring,

also the birthday of Thomas, my whiz kid awesome nephew!

I think it will include the first grilling time of the season

and definitely some time outside playing with this beautiful Chica-Dog !

Spring is here, so let’s play ball, Beautiful Ones !

Big, big love to you !

Warning : Some Joy Ahead

From this week’s JOY List :

David and I visited an awesome place called “Old House Parts” in Kennebunk, Maine on last Sunday.

We were looking for a doorknob to fit the 100 year old fixtures we have in our house.

As you can imagine from the name, this place had some amazing things to peek at and photograph !

like this interestingly placed warning sign…

or this Chick with the amazing hat, hanging out way up on top of an old wooden telephone booth.

But the thing that I saw that thrilled me the most was this guy :

This is Napoleon, and he is one of the most magnificent cats I have ever, ever seen.

He is the size of a full grown Jack Russell terrier but probably heavier.

And what cat have you ever seen that has a heart-shaped nose like this :

and the word “JOY” spelled out on his side !

Napoleon was such a treat ! He is featured on the shop’s website and has free reign over the place. I left him purring on an old ratan recliner, curled up on a Winnie the Pooh blanket.

Loved him !

I have also been getting joyfully getting back to creating and painting,

though slowly for some reason.

Here is what has been popping up in my little “Blob” journal.

I prepped a whole bunch of pages with red ink and a eyedropper so they would be ready to go.

This strange bunny with her flower backpack appeared in this blob. She got a random line for poetry from an old book page. I love how the perfect line just appeared on the page I grabbed to cut up !

I used markers and Twinkle H20 watercolors to fill in the drawing.

The blob on the page next to the bizarre rabbit became

these interesting flowers. Some of my new ProMarkers, some Pitt Artist pens and a Liquid Paper pen brought color to this piece I did in front of the tv.

I love that there are more blobs waiting for me to play with too !

Speaking of waiting, this is a 12X12 inch canvas that I started this week as well.

It is waiting to see where it will go next.

I love Golden Fluid Acrylics !!!

Oh and one more thing that brought me joy this week :

the spring weather that has allowed me to take out the new purple glittery Chucks !

They make my feet and eyes happy !

Don’t you just love “little happies !”

I hope your list of joys is long this week, Beautiful Ones !

Big Love !

For more joy, visit Meri's Musings. It will make you smile !

A whole lotta hugging going on…

Mom with new friend, Zay.

(she tried to change his name from Monsieur Zay to Bob, but it just didin’t stick !)

Thomas with visiting dog cousin of love, Logan.

Katie, Thomas and Logan Love.

Katie and the Old Tree of the Lake.

And that is just what I captured on my iPhone during my time up north last week.

Thankfully, I was involved in a lot of the hugging too, so no pics of that.

I needed the loving very much.

People who give love need to make sure that they soak it up a lot too.

(Art journal page created at Suzanne’s place during playtime. Photo printed on my new Pogo printer by Polaroid. Such fun for an art journal keeper!))

And since, at this point in my life, I know

that Love is the answer to every question for me,

I am going to make sure I keep that flow going…

Big hugs and lots of love to you, Beautiful Ones.

Happy Monday !

It’s March Break here !

Some of my companions this week…

Thomas, my bright nephew full of imagination and curiosity.

We will be doing some art together for sure !

The fabulous Katie Cupcake, Boogie-Queen extraordinaire !

We will be dancing together for sure!

Then there is this sweet boy, Logan with his stuffed namesake close by.

My sister and her sweet family are dogsitting this awesome pup for a few weeks

and enjoying all the fun of having a big fluffy love bug in your house !

We will be snuggling together and romping in the snow a bit for sure !

It’s March break and time for a Auntie Kimmy visit !

So good for my heart and soul !

I hope you have a great week, Beautiful Ones !