I Found My Key !

Crow Messenger,

what message are you carrying for me

when you fly over my house with your murder,

each evening at dusk ?

For the last few days, I have been a little trapped by my "crazy brain".

That is when my head spins with analyzing thoughts,

"why" thoughts, "you are not doing enough" thoughts,

"you are doing this wrong" thoughts,

or even stupid, unreal but scary

"catastrophic" thoughts.

It has been a while since I got stuck in that trap.

It took me a little while to remember that I have the key to unlock the trap.

I have it in me all the time.

I just some times forget to use it !

So this morning when the thought trap tried to get me with those crazy brain thoughts

like

"What are you doing with your life?",

"Look at what others are doing. You are not as good as them!"

or

"What are you going to BE for the rest of your life????",

I finally remembered and picked up the key !

Know what, Kimbo, You already BE !

BE in this moment.

LIVE your life today.

Do what you LOVE.

And that is enough.

That is more than enough.

That is all you have to do.

Stop thinking...

Just BE...

Man, it feels good to be free of that trap!

(weird but true - a crow just flew over my house cawing its heart out as I typed these words! I guess he was glad that I finally got the message. ;) )

This Friday for the Queen means beading some sweet birds that will be flying off to a special friend on Monday. Later a nice walk with that Chica-dog and the camera (and a happy face on my exercise calendar). A Saturday with the hubby and then I am headed off to the Great White North for a week for a good long peeps fix. That is what I will BE up too. ;)

I hope you can BE happy this Friday, Beautiful Ones !

I love it when a plan comes together...

So the few days since Thanksgiving have been busy here in the Queen of Arts Studio. And no, I did not hit the stores on Black Friday - at least not until 3:00pm when I was finally brave enough to venture out to Michaels to pick up some packaging stuff I needed for my Big Flock of Love Birdies. By then the somewhat scary and definitely super-hyped hoopla was pretty much over in Manchester, anyway.

My big order of birdies for my mom's office in Montreal, all thirty-five of them packaged up and looking so cute, is on its way to be delivered tomorrow. I am heading up for a whirlwind visit on my own this time.

Tomorrow, I visit with my sister Natalie in the late afternoon when I arrive. It is her official 40th BD tomorrow, but she has her big work Christmas party tonight and as she says, she will probably be a little partied out ! I am just popping in to give her her gift.

Then I am having supper with some wonderful friends, a sleep over at a girlfriend's new apartment and then the visit to my Mom's office with my wares on Monday lunch time.

Monday night, I will hang with my mom a little, and Tuesday morning before I head home, all the planets have aligned so that I will be having breakfast with another wonderful Blogland friend that I have never met in person even though she lives right there in my end of my home town.

Kim from The Bodhi Chicklet ordered a few birds from me too and it works out so well that I am heading up to Montreal and I can deliver them in person and get to spend a bit of time face to face with her just before I head back home on Tuesday morning! I love it when a plan comes together...

There a cheap segue to my most recent art journal page. I have to say, I am out of the flow when it comes to journaling right now. I feel the need to play but the schedule hasn't allowed for the play first, work second timetable that I like. It meant squeezing time in for play time whenever I could.

The results the other day didn't turn out quite a I would have liked. I played with a bunch of words that came out of an old Tarot card book to create an invented "story" phrase for the page. I liked that. I carved a new kitty cat stamp the other day which I also liked a lot, and the background was beautiful. When it came to the central figure of the page - I really didn't like this face - young man with long hair ? Ugly woman ? Bird creature ? Who is this weird looking person on my page ?

I kind of abandoned the page - not sure where it was going to go at all.

Then today, I finally had some time to play around a bit. I started looking for a new face for my being. The first one that jumped out of my big pile of images was this gorgeous Madonna looking figure - it comes from my packet from Judy Wise's Squam PlayBook Workshop I think.

I dropped it down over the face on the page....

and found out immediately that it had to go there !!! Check out the lines and how the size is just so perfect ! I grabbed the camera right after the moment happened to capture it falling int to place for you guys.

I trimmed the image just a little and glued it down. I then added a few lines with India ink to merge the two ...

and this is the page that I ended up with. Using the story phrase, my figure also got her name and her story.

She became the Embroideress of Dreams, a magical female creature who influences the details and flow of dreams so that they merge from the unconscious into your "real" life...

The kitty became the prince whose dreams had been embroidered by the Lady.

It is all kind of silly, but playful as I love journaling to be and came together as though some other voice was telling me what do put where, etc... I love it when that happens, when that plan just comes together...

Besides the squeezed in journal pages and the finishing of the flock, I also took the time yesterday to complete my three Christmas themed ATC decorations for my Canadian Chickie Swap . I can't show you the complete cards but I love how they turned out ! I got them in the mail today so my partner Nicolette should receive them in Edmonton quite soon. We are only opening them to share on the 23rd of December ! Here is a little peek :

Love those twinkling eyes !

So I am off until Tuesday night, sweet Friends. When I get back, I will have just a few days to get ready for my next exciting adventure...

I am having a little reunion with several of my Squamie friends from New Hampshire and Massachusetts here in my neck of the woods next Saturday, the 5th. We are getting together for an arty play afternoon of art journaling at Talk Paper Scissors. I am guiding some fun activites for the small gang of us. Afterwards, we are headed back to my house for Dinner, Vino and Fun ! A few people are even sleeping over ! How cool is that ? The only sad part is that my roomie and dear pal Carolyn won't be joining us for this get-together. She promised to come to the next one though !

It has been my dream to have a community of like minded ladies around me here in my NH home (ie : in my "real" life !) and I am open to doing all I can to make that happen. This is so exciting for me and the beginning of some beautiful friendship and fun times, I think ! Yay !

Okay...that was a long one ! Phew...Now I am off to enjoy the rest of the evening with the sweet Hubby. I will be back in touch on Tuesday when I get back ! Have a great start to the week, beautiful Ones and I hope you find some time to squeeze in some play time for yourself ! Big Love !

Blue Birds, Paul's Wings, Black Cats and Other Queenly Silliness

So the question for today is :

"Can repeating the same activity over and over and over again lead to insanity ?"

You be the judge.

(Turn up your speakers a little and play the soundtrack now.)

Pause here until music starts...

Scroll down really slowly - to the beat if you can...

Okay, you have enough info to make your decision now. :)

Turn down the tune and check out the sunlight photo session Cosmo and I had in the bay window in the studio...

crazy crossed eyes

sweet little boy (when he is sleeping or snuggling)

"No, Mama, I won't eat the leaves or dig in the dirt. No, no, nono no !"

And "THE" shot - the beautiful and silky soft Cosmo Kitty, also known as Little Boo.


I have decided to move on, leave the birdies aside and work on other things

as I get stuff together for my Craft Fair on November 14th.

I think it was a sound decision, don't you ? ;)

(The Lovebirds are still available in the Etsy Shop - if you want a Blue one, just let me know in a comment. ;) )

Happy Thursday, Beautiful Ones !

The Queen and Cosmo in the Aviary

Turn up the sound and have a little boogie to this one ! Chica and I just did and it was great !

Here's some shots David took of me and Cosmo in the Studio/Aviary yesterday.

No, the cat is not a big help !

But if I hold him just right, I can get a snuggly purr massage and still get the job done !

I don't look too miserable, do I ?

Happy Thursday, little birds ! Now, go use those wings !

Enjoy Every Lick of It !

So this morning, I just had to journal !

I have many things on the to do list. But I had this feeling like it all could wait until I had taken some time to nurture myself, to play and to express some gratitude for the lessons I am learning.

I needed to be completely IN THE MOMENT with myself.

Journaling does that for me.

Art Journal Page - "Enjoy Every Lick !" - October 21, 2009

Here's the page that came about quite quickly this morning.

The great thing is that I have many pages of backgrounds all ready prepped in my journal, so I can get going more easily when I do take the time to just play.

The images, the words and the composition just kind of jumped out of me.

Love it when that happens !

I can see the influence of my wonderful Judy again in how this page turned out

and also in the process of PLAY that I went through to create it.

It is so cool to start adopting new little "tricks" into your play time, inspired by others.

That's another awesome thing about being a part of this Blogland art community.

So much to inspire everywhere you go !

Makes for some very fun play time when you just go for it.

A little of me, and little of what I see, a little more of what I feel and

Voila !

Happy Journaling Camper !

Yesterday evening, David and I went to the beach at Hampton to gather some rocks for the Rock Fairy.

Soon they will be covered with the white stuff and she needs a good batch to keep her going for the winter.

We headed there right after David got home from work at 5:00. We had about 45 minutes of daylight left to gather rocks after we made the 30 minute drive.

The light was kind of gorgeous at the ocean at that time of day, at this time of the year.

Sort of foggy blue, misty, blurred and soft.

I took pictures of us in my usual arms length way and captured this somehow without a flash.

I love the blur!

It shows that light pretty well. And I love David's prayerful look.

He was probably praying that I hurry up and take a photo and let him get into the car to get warm ;) , but I think he looks beautiful anyway !

Gotta love this guy ! He puts up with my crazy stuff all the time.

I love that soul mate man of mine so very much !

So I am back in the studio with my birdies and rocks now. I am so thankful for all the orders for my treats ! It just thrills me to know that things I make with love are leaving me and being loved elsewhere !

I added some more birdies to the Etsy shop as I sold 8 of them from there this week. Only the Yellow Bird was left from the first day I listed them. How come the Yellow Bird ? I don't know! I love the yellow zebra bird, myself. I guess it will find a good home when it is time ! ;)

I added a new black one that I just love ! I think it looks like a mini-crow. Cute, right ?

Back to the Aviary as David is calling the studio now !

I promise to take some time later today to catch up with some blog visits. I haven't missed too much, but I feel like I am a little disconnected from my Blogpals and I don't like it !

In the mean time, I am sending big love and hugs to you, beautiful Ones !

Happy Wednesday !

A Royal Announcement at Queen of Arts Studio :

The Queen is happy to announce that she now has some sweet little Love Birds for sale

in the Queen of Arts Studio Etsy Shop.

Here is a pic to tease you into giving them a new home ! So very pretty and filled with a wonderful hint of high quality French Lavender. Hang them anywhere to add some lovely to your world.

Check them out here !