Sharing the Joy–In spite of it all…

It’s Thursday.

The coldest of the cold snap is over and today is a balmy 25 degrees (-3 C) today.

I haven’t been feeling very well physically this week.

Headache, body aches, maybe fighting some flu-ish thing.

Feeling quite a bit better today after sleeping most of the week away.

In the midst of the icks, I have still found things that made me feel joyful.

Like Black Cats in your lap…

or in a sunbeam.

Figuring out my inspirational phrase of the year…

and making a little rock with it for my Word of the Year Rock in a Box.

This phrase has saved me so many times when life gets a little too overwhelming or unsure.

Coming back to this moment reminds me that this is all we know for sure.

Be

Here

Now.

Ah…

Finishing up little projects like this silly felted and embroidered owl make me smile too.

That was about all the creative juices I had this week, feeling poorly as I was.

Until this morning when this strange but appropriate journal page emerged…

“Headache” – Art Journal Page,

watercolor journal, spray inks, old dictionary page, india ink pens, white gel pen, Twinkling H2Os

Here’s hoping the aches are over !

I know that this afternoon will be joy-filled as I am taking care of my little buddy Jayden for a few hours.

So glad to be feeling up to that kind of snuggling !

Happy Thursday, Beautiful Ones !

May your day be joy-filled too.

First Post of the New Year, 2014!

I have been neglecting my dear blog over the holidays !

That is maybe because I have been living life in the “real” world so fully.

We had an amazing Christmas in Montreal and La Conception.

Lots of love, laughter and good food.

And yesterday, David and I celebrated New Year’s Eve with my dear friend Suzanne.

We bundled up warmly, donned our silly party hats and grabbed our noise makers

and headed to Hampton Beach, NH to watch the fireworks show

under the stars and over the sea !

Cold, cold, cold (about 16 F) but fun anyway

and there was a great crowd of revelers there !

This morning, David and I did the annual dance in the snow in our bare feet,

inspired by my Mommy, who started this tradition when I was a little kid.

Kooky, cold but invigorating none the less !

My pal Suzy is here for the rest of the week.

Since they are announcing snow and cold for the next few days,

we have planned some fun arty stuff to do together.

Such a great way to launch the new year !

Maybe, as we play,

I will get the message from the Universe

about my Word of the Year.

I started to get a bit of impulses towards it today in fact…

If you would like to keep your Word of the Year in focus

in its very own Word of the Year Rock In a Box,

they are available in my Etsy shop until the end of the month.

I would like to wish all of us a 2014 full of present moment living, hearts full of gratitude and an abundance of love and kindness.

Happy New Year, Beautiful Ones !

Getting ready and thinking about The Word of The Year…

Monday and today have been bitterly cold in NH.

The sun was out yesterday though, and the light was spectacular.

Today’s high is only 13 degrees Fahrenheit.

The clouds have moved in as of noon today, and the snow has started again.

Another 4 to 8 inches.

It is really feeling wintery and Christmasy now.

I am surprisingly feeling quite at peace with it all.

I am cozy in my house, with twinkle lights and a gorgeous poinsettia serving as Christmas décor.

David is working from home and

tomorrow, we will be babysitting our 1 month old great nephew,

Baby Jayden, for the day !!!

Yay !

I am happily making some handmade Christmas gifties and

with a sweet reminder from my friend Laura Svencner,

I found some time to update and renew my Etsy listing for

The Word of the Year Rock in a Box.

For those of you who choose a Word of the Year to work with instead of resolutions that are never kept, I can custom paint a small beach stone with your chosen word and custom decorate your little white porcelain box in your favorite colors. You can have a sweet keepsake to keep your word in focus all year long !

These little boxes will be available for order in my Etsy shop through the end of January.

I am still waiting to come up with my Word of the Year 2014.

My word for 2013 was “Live”, as in “Live in the moment”, and I am working really hard on doing just that. The right word will be waiting for me when the new calendar year starts !

Off to enjoy a cup of chai tea with maple syrup and milk, and watch the snow fall.

Stay cozy, Beautiful Ones !

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time…

David and I were blessed with a Christmas time filled with beautiful sights,

cold and wintery, but oh so cozy nights.

Tickles and giggles,

and smiles and good loving…

The time went so quickly but was very full of all the good stuff that gathering together with loved ones brings.

We have spent a couple of days at home now, cleaning up from the big snow, and we are off on our next adventure soon.

Coldplay at Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Uncasville, CT !

Merry Christmas & Happy 12th Anniversary to US !!!

We will be home just in time to ring in the New Year.

Have you been thinking about a Word of the Year for 2013 ?

I like this ritual very much.

My 2012 word was “Live”. It was a good word to refer to and to help me come back to the present moment.

My 2013 Word of the Year is percolating under the surface right now.

I will grab hold of it when it is clear and of course, make myself a Rock my World rock with it to keep as a talisman for the year.

If you are interested in having a Word of the the Year Rock in a Box with your own word, I have these sweet little gifties available in the etsy shop again this year, with a new design for 2013.

There are also a few of the stitched wool felt cuffs that I have so loved making available now as well.

I hope that you are finding this in between/winter wonderland/full moon timesweet, Beautiful Ones, and full of moments that make your Soul hum….

Big, big love to you !

LIVE from the Queen of Arts Studio

I have chosen my Word of the Year for 2012.

The word is LIVE.

I love that it can be used both as LIVE, as in “I will LIVE for today”,

and

as LIVE, “LIVE from Manchester, It’s Kim, the Rock Fairy/Queen of Arts !”

I have to admit that choosing a word was not a sweet, meditative contemplation thing for me this year.

In fact, it was kind of more in response to how intimidated I was feeling by all the incredibly deep thought and soul searching some of my friends in Blogland were doing to begin their 2012 off right and to choose their important Word of the Year.

I think I am in a place where I want to spend a lot less time thinking and planning how I am going to Live this one precious life, and instead get on with the actually Living I want to do.

So the word LIVE feels like a really good fit.

While my  word was percolating, I also thought about how I would want to have my word on a Rock My World rock with “Live” on it for me, and how I have painted rocks for friends in the past with their own Word of the Year on them as a keepsake gift.

And then, I came up with this sweet little box idea :

This small white ceramic box comes from a local craft store.

I added the painted paper flower and the 2012 under a coat of Glossy Accents to create a cute dimensional decoration on the lid

and here we have a lovely place to keep your 2012 Word of the Year Rock !

I also made a second design with a sun.

I have made these sweet things available in the Etsy shop and I would love to send you

your very own customized

2012 Word of the Year Rock Rock in a Box keepsake.

For the month of January, I will be including some extra Rock My World rocks in every package I send out, so you will have your own Word rock in its pretty box and also a few other rock love messages to share.

Also, if the box isn’t your thing, but you would like to have a Rock My World Rock with your Word of the Year on it, the bag of 13 rocks are also available in the shop and I will customize them as you want me to.

Along with enjoying the rocks, you can be glad to know that part of the profits I make from selling the Rock My World Rocks always goes to being able to donate, ship and offer the rocks for free to charitable causes to use for their fund raising efforts.

Here’s hoping that 2012 is full of lots of juicy LIVING for all of us !

Big Love, Beautiful Ones !

In Good Time...

You may have noticed that things are a little quiet around here at the Queen of Arts blog. David has been off this week and we have been doing some stuff together. I have also been feeling very tired and a little under the weather. Nothing major, just a lack of oomph...

I have been reading your blogs and seeing all the great things that you all seem to be up to, but lacking the energy to comment in some cases. I am admiring the focus that so many of you have on creating goals and intentions for the new year. There are some incredible "word of the year" plans out there too.

But

I have to say

that I am just not there yet !

Funnily enough, I looked back to January 2009 to see the post I did for last year at this time and I saw that I was feeling a lot the same. I am definitely in such a better place than I was last year at this time emotionally, spiritually and mentally but the feeling that the world is going at a pace that doesn't work for me is often still there. I want to make some good and clear intentions for myself for the coming year, and yet I don't feel like this week to do it.

I am realizing that this pattern of listening to my own internal clock, and waiting to do things in Kim Time is a steady one and in the end, a good one. There is some pressure to conform to the pace being set by the world out there but mostly, there is a realization that doing things in my Time is the perfect way to do them, for me ! ;)

That being said, I have begun the work towards new intentions for the new year. As of last night, when I created the little journal page above, I have chosen a word to focus on for the year 2010.

The word is emerge.

e·merge (-mûrj)
intr.v. e·merged, e·merg·ing, e·merg·es
1. To rise from or as if from immersion: Sea mammals must emerge periodically to breathe.
2. To come forth from obscurity: new leaders who may emerge.
3. To become evident: The truth emerged at the inquest.
4. To come into existence.

I am still developing what the word will mean for me and I was glad to find the wonderful free download that Christine Kane posted on her blog called "Your Word of The Year Discovery Tool" (mentioned by quite of few of you wise women out there !) I plan on working with the word and the tools in the new year and seeing what comes...or what emerges...;)

This afternoon, my dear friend Darlene is coming down from Montreal with her 2 teenage sons and we will ring in the New Year with some games, a nice fondue dinner and some bubbly grape juice. David and I are excited to have them here in our cozy house. I will try and convince Dar to join me in the annual barefoot snow dance tomorrow morning ! I promise to show pictures of the two or us or just me !

I would like to leave with with this quote that my friend Patti Digh had on her Facebook last night and that rings so very true for me today, and wish you all an amazing 2010 filled with creative, bliss-filled moments !

Happy New Year and Big Love, Beautiful Ones !

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives, not looking for flaws, but for potential.

- Ellen Goodman