Removing Obstacles, Ready for Fun !

Things have been a bit messy in the studio since my Mom left last week.

Not that Pumpkin cares.

She just lies down on top of the piles and settles in to keep me company.

There have been Rock My World orders to fulfill.

And fun stitching swap bits to stitch on.

Now it’s time to tidy things up a bit.

Ganesh emerged from a box of treasures

just in time to help me remove some obstacles.

My dear old friend Tracy,

who I have know since I was 8 years old,

and her man, Craig,

are coming to spend a few days with us.

They arrive tomorrow and David has a few days off too.

On the agenda ?

A Dolphin/Manatee watch cruise, good food, some cocktails, the beach, and lots of love and laughter!

Bring it on !

Happy Wednesday, Beautiful Ones !

Haiku My Heart–Altar of my Heart

Dear bits and pieces

Gathered along the journey

Altar of my Heart

 

*********************

This week seems to have been gathering intensity every day.

Perhaps because of the blue moon tonight ?

Whatever the reason, finding moments of stillness and peace has been a challenge.

One thing that worked beautifully was taking time to recreate my altar in my studio.

New space, new items, and some old things revisited.

The act of placing each item brings a calm I appreciate.

The end result is like a deep cleansing breath.

In this world of go-go-go, do-do-do, and the rush to finish,

taking quiet moments to feed the spirit is so essential.

I am grateful for my little Altar of the Heart.

Happy Friday, Beautiful Ones !

I hope you get to celebrate this long Labor Day weekend

with some good rest for the weary soul !

For more haiku magic, visit the gang at recuerda mi corazon every Friday.

Share the Joy Thursday–Re-establishing the Flow

Perhaps some of you have experienced this.

You come home from an experience that felt so wonderful

and so very transformative in a lot of ways,

and while you are so happy to be home, and have your

kitty cat back on your own pillow in your own bed,

(not to mention the love of your life close at hand for hugs and smooches whenever the mood grabs you),

you feel kind of lost and missing the flow that was happening while you were away.

You try to reestablish it at home,

perhaps by tearing your studio apart,

and putting it back together again.

Maybe with the best tools close at hand

and some space created by a major purge,

the flow will come back again.

You try and maintain some of the patterns from your time away,

like creating a journal page every day.

They turn out okay but are lacking that inspired juicy feeling

you found while you were away…

And then you get the sweetest reminder of your experiences in the mail…

A package full of love and inspiration

from your friend/mentor/artist/soulsister

who lives her art so well.

And shares it so generously !

Like a big hug full of love, this beautiful gift reminded me

to be gentle and patient

as I re-establish my new Self

at home.

I am changed.

And there are bound to be some growing pains

and some necessary readjustments.

Relaxing into it, and looking for

the joys and little miracles everyday,

I know the flow will find me again.

I love you, e.b..

Thank you for the joy and the reminder !

 

For more joy, check our Meri’s Musings.

Haiku My Heart– A Daffodil Song

 

I am here today.

Let me mark the day with love

And savor the gifts.

 

 

Happy Friday, Beautiful Ones !

What’s up for your Friday the 13th ?

I have cleared the calendar today so that I can get this crazy messy studio cleaned up and hopefully spend some time creating in it afterwards !

I feel like I have been spending way to much time on-line reading about the art that other artists are creating and far too little creating my own art.

It is time to correct that !

It is a beautiful Spring Day in NH ! The sunbeams are making rainbows all around the room through my crystals hanging in the window and the Bose speakers are just waiting for some tune to stream.

Talk about your gifts to savor !

Enjoy Being Here today, Beautiful Ones !

 

For more haiku and lots of heart, visit the beautiful Rebecca at recuerda mi corazon.

Everything has a place...

A lovely friend of mine, Kriss, is moving to California.

Because she is unsure where she will be living right now,
she is storing all of her stuff in one of those POD storage things.

Because those things get hot, she decided that she didn't want to have all her art supplies get ruined and that she should give most of it away.

She asked me if I would be willing to take her stuff.

I said yes. I figured that whatever I couldn't use, I could find good homes for.

The thing was that my own studio was kind of bursting...

Especially my art armoire from Home Depot. The shelves were a mess and I couldn't take a lot of things out without causing a bit of an avalanche.

So my friend's need and my own obsession with art supplies meant time for a big clean up !

Purging, re-organizing and prioritizing...

It took entire three days...

I didn't take before pictures (I always forget that !!!)

But I did take a couple of during...

After three long days, two full garbage bags, five bags of art goodies for friends, two boxes of art supplies that need to go to a classroom somewhere, two large bins of fabric that are now in another room and about $50.00 in plastic storage containers from Walmart

I now have a studio that looks more like this :

The top of the armoire - tidy and accessible tissue paper and canvases...

The inside of the armoire - everything organized, paper on top according to colors, and no avalanches in sight !

My altar back in order...

Instead of junk piled on it, I have inspiring things

Like my newest addition,

a little box

that came from Kriss that houses my funky mermaid from Mexico and some of the rocks

from my friend Lynne very nicely !

My work table still has a lot of stuff on it but that is how I like it - everything I need at my fingertips !


A place to paint and journal...

and a secondary place where I can set up the sewing machine or do jewelry making or even have a friend over...

Even the Computer desk got a bit of a purge and a tidy...

It all feels so wonderful to have a place for everything and have everything in its place.

I know it won't stay like this for too long but it is fun to jump into a summer of creative fun with this clean space just for me to play in !

Speaking of creative fun...

a little while ago, the lovely Deb from what's deb doing asked me for a 5x7 print of the

"Leaves of my Heart" piece I had done.

I sent it to her as a gift, and in return she sent me this gorgeous hand-made creation :

It is a lovely banner of flags made from bits of soft and sweet vintage fabrics.

Deb also embroidered words on extra bits and added them to the flags.

So pretty and so feminine. I loved it !

I though maybe it should go in my studio

but then I realized that the colors, the mood and the words fit perfectly into my other sanctuary

in my house..

our bedroom...

I hung the banner over two of the four windows that make up our bay window...

See how perfectly it works with the lovely bright flowers of my Pottery Barn duvet cover ?

I slept well last night with the words "breathe", "bliss", "allow" and "relax" hanging above me...

Little Boo says he likes the new addition to his window just fine too !

Thank you for your gift and your sweet friendship, Beautiful Deb.

Time to go put all those glorious and organized art supplies to work !

Happy Sunday, Beautiful Ones !

I have work to do !

So I am working on making this the summer of the purge and de-clutter. Last week, I did my closets and the dressing room. Got rid of 4 big bags of stuff to Goodwill and threw out three bags of garbage. Now I am turning my attention to the studio.

I know that for me, art making is always a messy process. I also love to dabble in many pots which requires a lot of tools, materials, ... stuff ! But this is what is happening on my 8 foot work table right now :

I feel the really strong need to get it under this mess control ! It is just too far gone right now. It probably won't end up being "perfect" like some of the work spaces I have seen in magazines lately...

You know the ones...where it looks like a gallery or a craft store...They make me think that that is their "studio" for the public eye, while they have some messy, paint splattered, cluttered room behind a secret panel where the real magic happens ! ;)

But my lovely space does need some t.l.c....

This week is going to be a busy one !

My pal Suzanne is coming down from Montreal today to stay for the week. She is bringing her 110 pound Old English Sheepdog, Sam, with her, so Chica will have one big playmate ! The cats are just thrilled ...NOT !

We will probably hang out on the back deck if the sun keeps up, take the hounds for some swimming adventures, do a little art stuff here and there and, hopefully, hopefully, get the studio cleaned up enough to get back to the Queen of Arts Royal Standards ! (Not to worry too much - those standards aren't too high ! ;) )

This probably won't leave much time for blog posts so it may be a little quiet around here. I will try and find the time to check in on all of my Blogland pals though.

Hope you have a super week, beautiful Ones !

Finding Art In the Everyday

I haven't had many ideas for posts this week. Too many unfinished or un-photo-worthy projects going on...Today I was cleaning the studio - my work table is actually clean and white (I love MR. Clean Erasers - they get rid of paint stains wonderfully!) and ready to mess up when my friend Sonia comes over to play tonight ! Yay !

So I was surfing the blogs and checked out InspireMeThursday, since it is Thursday and I needed inspiration ... there I go stating the very obvious again ! Anyhoo, last week's topic was still posted and the theme was "Finding Art in the Everyday". So I grabbed the camera and wandered the house and the deck looking for art. Here's what I shot :

Are you my art ? - Guess what this is ? I was cleaning, remember ?

Are you my art ? - Azzy says " Hey, I'm eating here !!!"

Are you my art ? - Chica says "Do you have to ?"

Are you my art ? - Is a bug on the pool filter art ? Maybe....

Are you my art ? - Ahh, flowers - God's Art, don't ya think ? New Daisy

Old Daisy - love the curling petals...

Cosmo/Pansy Jungle pot - the flash made them look electric !

So that was my photo play today. Did I find art in the everyday ? I think so...

To end off, here are two shots of page one in my brand new art journal. I did a page based on the "Proust" interview with myself a few posts back. One question was about what object would you like to come back as. I said a piano. The photo is from Flicker, not me ! I forgot to get the artist's info.... bad me ! But I claim no part of it's photographic beauty !

Hope you have an inspired Thursday ! By the way, the first photo was what my "Swifter Duster" looked like after my dusting ! Now that is art ! Isn't it ?

Cheers,

Kim