I reached 50,000 words at 4:30 on Sunday November 28th. Whew I am tired.  I think I will go have a nap now.

After the blizzard

The blizzard is over with so now the cleanup begins.  Sarah is up in Butte so she is missing all the fun. I know she wants to see lots of pictures so here they are.

This is right out my back door

Here is Flynn right out our front door.

This shows the drift in the front yard.

Here is the driveway.

and here is why we can't get out of the driveway.

Another shot of what the snowplow left behind.

Dave is out here with snowblower working on that monster.

Look at Flynns face, he looks like a raccoon. He got that from the spray from the snowblower.  He likes to be out there helping, but I made him come inside for a little while. I had to wipe his face off to get that fine crystal snow off of him. It may take all day but at least we will be able to get out and go to town.

I am Wellness

This is my last painting for Tam's class. I did an angel for good health.  My new mantra is I am wellness. I wanted green for the background because it is the color of healing but never liked the shade till the end.  The background was a real pain but I finally like it. This was a perfect example of never giving up. Keep working through your processes and eventually you will come out the other side. This piece using watercolor crayon and both types of golden acrylics, stamping and charcoal. I put spirals on her hands because its a personal symbol for me.

This class was a lot of fun. It made me rethink how we can use our art for our own healing and other stuff in our lives. I highly recommend it.

Blizzard 2010

I've got a mug a hot cider in my hands and the snow is blowing like a banshee outside.  Dave found some really good cider at the store so I have warmed it and threw in a cinnamon stick for flavor.  It tastes really yummy.

I went outside to rescue the prayer flags that had come down.  This is the back yard.  The wind isn't so bad in the back.

This is our driveway, that is about 4 ft of snow piled up. We won't be going anywhere any time soon.

I tried taking a pic of me by the snow bank but as the wind was blowing so hard I couldnt keep my eyes open and my hands were getting cold too.

Flynn didn't mind the weather as long as I made a trail for him. The cats are bundled indoor except for Boromir who didn't want to come in. She is holed up in the garage probably sitting on some wool fleece keeping warm. I will check on her later. The sheep are all nestled in the barn so all is well in my world.  How about yours?

Update:  Boromir the little grey kitty is  inside now....

Still Journaling

I realized I had a few journal pages almost done so it seemed silly not to finish them up today. This one all I added was the journaling

On this page I just painted the bird and then added the brick wall and sky later. Then it sat for several weeks. I just couldn't think of anything else to add so I am considering it done.

This is one I did yesterday, it is found art. I had a vision of this turban like hat but it didn't work out so it morphed into a ski hat which I really don't like. I am not sure if that hat is too big or small or just sitting on her head funny. Any thoughts?

We have been dumped on my old man winter, snow and high winds make it miserable and tomorrow we have a blizzard warning. What fun is that.  I did make 2 xmas gifts today but I can't show them here or the recipients will see what they are getting. I really need to make a run to JoAnn's but weather is not permitting that, so I will just have to wait.  Gives me more time to work on my work count and other art projects so thats good.

To all my US readers, have a great Thanksgiving!

DaVinci Is In Town

The Museum of Idaho has been holding its exhibit Decoding Da Vinci for several months now but I had not managed to get there yet.

When I walked in the door I met my friend Robin who works as a docent at the museum. She is so much fun, it was great to see her.

The exhibit was full of models of his inventions but I of course was more interested in seeing the art. There were replicas of his most famous paintings like this one. I had seen the original at the Louvre in Paris back in 2006. This one was bigger, most people do not realize that the Mona Lisa is actually a very small painting.

and this one which I had not seen before.  I thought it was perfectly lovely.

I

I was surpised to see that some of the pics we used in Misty Mawn's painting class were actually done by Da Vinci like this one.

and this is one too. I had done a transfer with this and painted over it. I had not realized I was working with a DaVinci at the time.

Of course I had to pose with one of the posters. After listening to a movie on Leonardo I realized I am a lot like him. I have started many things that I never finished either.  It feels good to know I am in good company.

When we left there was quite the snow storm. This was taken sitting in the truck after just a minute or two. I have never seen such big snow flakes before. Winter has hit with a vengeance this weekend.  It melted a lot yesterday but today its snowing again.  I am glad that I have nowhere I have to go.

Refusing To Go There

I had one of those days yesterday. You know moody and all of sudden you start feeling depressed. I just didn't want to go there, Fought it all day, so I put it into a little journal page. I liked the crack in the woman's head.  That is sort of what you feel like when you're depressed.

This next one I did this morning.  First I didn't  like the background and then I found two images in it so I decided to paint them. The one on the right came out a little wonky but I decided to just leave her. This was my first attempt at collaging the dresses, they might be a a little too boxy for my tastes. I did have fun making them and I think that is all that counts anyway.

I used some pieces from a collage sheet I bought from Zorana. I got the one called She Reflected  but now she has a whole group of them.  What fun they are to play with.  Go here to get yours.

Life in the Country

Now this is how to sell milk,  I never knew cows could be so sexy, ok maybe it wasn't the cows.

The Space Below

This was a creative challenge on my network the Queen of Creativity Castle.  We used this poem for inspiraiton.

the space below 

“ there was a whole world inside of her

 filled with stars and caves and  

demons and gold. 

she tinkered and played in that world

 - but it was in the space below

 - in the depths of deep

 - that the real stuff was. 

and it was there she needed to go. ”

-terri st.cloud

Terri from Bone Sigh Arts sends out daily poems.  If you would like to recieve them go here 

The piece was done on an 11 x 14 gallery wrapped canvas. I used golden heavy bodied and fluid acrylics, stamping, pastels. watercolor crayons,  and charcoal.

I really like what this poem says, I think I tend to stay in the play faze and not dig deep into the space below. I can see that in my life and my art.  I had really wanted to go wild with this but its a pretty safe piece. Maybe my next challenge will be to go wild with your art.  If you are inclined to play with this challenge or others, head over to my network by using the button on the sidebar.

Tell me do you go to that space below or do you like to play it safe?

The Night of Writing Dangerously

One of the events for Nanowrimo is held the 3rd Sunday in November in San Francisco.  Its a big production with lots of people and prizes and all that jazz. Our local group decided we needed to have our own version. It was held Friday night. It  is an all night event but I only stayed till 2:30 AM. Also note the Viking helmet is a Nano symbol.

Here is my friend Amber and our ML this time, as a Viking.

Robyn our host on the left in the back. That is Sarah beaming because she got to 50,000 words that night.

I had to have the hat during the night too!

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen where all the food was.

and finally some serious writing got done.

At the write in on the next day.  Sarah has her army buddies.

Then the army got all lined up and ready for war.  Now let me tell you that we all got soldiers in our goody bags at the beginning.  They were there to help us push on through to success.  I have a whole collection.  You need to have something to play when you don't feel like writing.

A great time was had by all, I did manage to get quite a bit of writing done. Thanks to Robyn who hosted this event. We now have 3 people who are finished. That is pretty amazing since we are only half way through. Congrats to the winners!

Just Meditate

This is my latest art journaling page. I started it so I could practice filming myself, but then the memory card filled up. So I don't have a film of it but I did finish the page. This was one of my found art pieces. Just in case you are not familiar with that term, it means I found the image in the background and then just brought it to life. I really like working this way. I think this was my subconscious coming out.  I sure wish I made time for meditation because it really is something I enjoy and reap great benefits from.

Tonight is the Night of Writing Dangerously for my local Nanowrimo group.  Its starts at 8 pm and goes all night.  I am not sure if I will stay up all night but I do hope to get some serious writing done. I am on track with my book but I would like to get ahead so I could take a day off.  Sarah will probably finish tonight.  She is one over the over achievers in the group.

Have a creative Day

Having Fun Trying Something New

My friend Eden over at Draw Doodle Decorate put up a challenge today.  You start with her drawing and finish it any way you want.  See her post here  and there is a give away too.

Here is the drawing I started with.

This is after coloring it with InkTense Pencils. I haven't a clue why the background is pink.



















and here I added water to the pencil to bring out the color, added some embellishment with micron pens and faber-casteel markers. This was really fun. Why don't you try it too.

Wishcasting Wednesday How do you wish to grow older

Jamie asks us today  "How do you wish to grow older" If it had been any other Wednesday I would write a post about living authentically.  Grabbing life by the horns and hanging on for a wild ride. Today my wish is just to be able to grow older.  I just heard the news that my dear glitter sister and blogger friend Ninnie's cancer has spread to her bones and her brain. With this heartbreaking news and having had my own bout with cancer recently.  My wish is to have the privilege to grow older.  Sure I still want that fulfilled life but to be honest I think I am already living it.  I just want to explore it a whole lot longer.

To see what others are wishing today go here

Soul Journey Pages

I thought I'd get a head start and do the exercises in Tam's class right away. Here in the cover of my book.  I so loved the quote she used for her tag that I used the same one.  I wrote Just Be on the cover to stand for just be who you are, an original. I sanded the photo first, which is a technique that I have done before.  Then I learned something new. If you paint the photo with water you can scratch right into it.  I made swirls and then words.  I think I will do that again it was fun. I had a tag already painted with watercolors but it was al ittle pale, I added portfolio oil pasted to the edges and a little water to blend it.  I wrote the quote on it, added some stamping and more dots.

 Then we worked on the next pages which were to celebrate something in our lives.  I chose on this page to celebrate following my dream of opening my own network.  I took a picture of my banner and added papers and stamping.

On the other side of the page I am celebrating friends. These friends came to my bonfires this summer and were instrumental in helping my heal from my surgery.  They are the best.  This page also honors all the communities of women I belong to. All these pages were fun and easy to do. I sure love it when I can use all sorts of different materials together.

A little whimsy - Tams second class

Its taken me a while to do the work in Tams's second class. The assignment was to find pictures of us around age three. There are almost no pictures of me as a child. There are tons of the older kids and the younger so I had to make do. There is this one baby picture and then nothing till I am in school. I have to think that my parents were too poor for pictures in those years. Sometimes I wonder what I looked like back then and how it was for me as a child.

Baby Kate  and 5 year old Kate

We were also to write wishes for that child and then add them to the piece. You can click on the pic to see what wishes I wrote.

that's me on the left and my friends

Here we were to do one of those things we wished for. I was a very quiet and shy child. I wish that I had more friends my age. The girl on the left represents me and the other three all my friends. These were done on separate paper and then glued to the background. I had baloons on the page on the right but alas I should have checked where the girls were going to be ahead of time since I lost most of the look. The girls on the left are in front of a school so I like to think of this as recess and my playing with a fun group of girls.

I am finding the exercises in the class to be very interesting and thought provoking and healing too.  You can still sign up for this free class, check the button on my side bar.

Wishcasting Wednesday What do you wish to enjoy?

Its Wishcasting Wednesday and since Jamie has been out of town at a wedding I wasn't sure if she was going to be posting today or not.  Since she is back now we get to wish.  So the question of the day is What do you wish to enjoy?

No question about it I wish to enjoy doing Nanowrimo this time. Now I really do enjoy it or I would not be doing it for the fifth time. It is more that I wish for less stress about the whole novel writing process.  I wish to get a grasp on what this story is really about.  I wish to have fun with it and not take it too seriously. I wish for the ideas to come easily and that I  just enjoy discovering what its to be.

What do you wish to enjoy?  Come join in here and see what others are wishing today!

Let the Games Begin

Let the games begin. Just a heads up for all I won't be blogging as much this month as most of my words will be going into a novel.  I usually start at 12:01 November first and get a few words in before I go to bed.  Last night I was so tired I just couldn't stay up. So this year I am behind already but I can catch up easily.  I am giving myself a little procrastination time this morning.

Yesterday I had the most interesting day. Some of you may have been to Sedona or know that Sedona has these amazing vortexes where the energy is really different. Well apparently Idaho has some similar areas and I so wish I had pics to share. It had been a stressful morning where everything went wrong and I left my camera at home.  I know you have probably seen cairns before.

This is one in Sedona from a couple years ago.  Sometime the rocks are flat or other times you can see them more like this.

These cairns also in Sedona are all smooth rock piled in beautiful arrangements. Now picture yourself in a very rugged landsacpe of the deserts in the west. There are rolling hills filled with 

lots of sage brush

and juniper bushes

and lava rock

 and then you see these cairns piled in these high points.  There were 5 in the first place we stopped and they are called the five guardians. All the rock piled are jagged lava lock and the energy felt so amazing there. You can not help but wonder what the native people used the area for.  I also learned there are also areas like this with cairns all over the dessert.  We stopped at another place and had a fire and a gratitude circle.  It was the last day of the Celtic year so we wrote out all our wishes for the new year and put them in the fire.  I was with a big group of people of all ages.  It was a really special day.

I even decided to use the area as a setting for my novel.  I like how that worked out.

(Sedona pics were by taken by me but all others are from the internet.)