The Joy Diet - Treats

The subject for this week on the Joy diet is Treats. Marhta asks us to give ourselves 3 treats a day. When I first think of a treat chocolate somes to mind. Truffles to be exact. I like Lindor truffles but even more so are the white chocolated/machademia nut truffles I can get from a local candy shop.

Now theres no way of course that I am going to have 3 truffle a day even though I might enjoy it. So that leads to more thought on what else can I consider a treat. What small little things can I do everyday to give myself pleasure. I guess its time to make a list. Lists are one way I make sense of things.

contaneous smile sparkers

* hearing my daughters voice, a friends voice
* when the UPS driver brought me my new computer
* seeing my dogs face as we took a long walk
* sunshine coming through my window
* the taste of home made mac n cheese


list several things that delight your senses:

* sight - family, sunrise , birds, rivers, ocean, wolves
* hearing - celtic music, listening ladies in lavender soundtrack, wolves howling, birds singing
* touch - hugs, kisses from those I love, feeling my body move when dancing, anice warm scented bath
* taste - chocolate, white chocolate, fresh juicy peaches, good red wine, my apple pie
* smell - lavender, scented candles, incense, fresh cut hay, ocean, newly shorn fleece

My collage this week is just full of fun treats. This was a fun chapter I am all for giving myself treats. I don't do three a day though but I could work into that practice. I am going to be on the lookout for simple things to do just for me.

My New Computer Arrived Today

My new computer arrived today, don't I look happy. I have been on it most of the day. Downloaded a trial word processor, uploaded some pictures, watched some tutorials and generally worked on figuring out how to use it. There will be a bit of a learning curve in learning to use a Mac but worth it I think.

Nanowrimo( National Novel Writing Month) is about to begin. I have a day to figure out how to use Pages the apple version of Word, but I think it will be ok. I may also download the free version of Scrivener and use that. It is supposed to be a really great writing software. Hey I have 24 hours to make up my mind. That should be enough time I think

I hope you are having a great Saturday.

All dressed up

This is Kate and myself at the auction last weekend. We are dressed as literary characters. I can't remember who Kate was, a character out of a Nebraska authors novel and the name escapes me at this point. This is my Eowyn costume that I wore to the movie the Return of the King. I had to alter a little before the auction since I had lost weight. The sleeves are quite something. I have to have help getting dressed.
















Here is a closer picture, aren't the sleeves amazing. It was interesting trying to eat at a Spaghetti dinner with this outfit on. The auction was a fun night, about half the people came dressed up and fun was had by all.

My dog Flynn has been sick with the runs since Sunday. I have cleaned my carpet twice. Took him to the vet on Tuesday and now he is on an antibiotic and special food. He seems to be better. Decided not to rent the Rug Doctor again until I am sure we are over this problem. For now I have been scrubbing the carpet with a stiff brush. It doesn't look to great,lucky I am not having any visitors anytime soon.

Now Dave is having an issue with a tooth so the trip we planned this weekend to see our daughter in Missouls may be cancelled after all. We were supposed to leave tomorrow morning but now it seems that might not happen. Plus I am having trouble finding someone to watch Flynn. Sometimes when everything seems to be going wrong I think you have to realize that maybe this trip is not supposed to happen after all. All week it has been one thing after another. Oh I just heard from dave and he is still in a lot of pain so now the trip is officially cancelled. I am disappointed not being able to see Sarah but sometimes that is just the way it is.

The Joy Diet - RISK

I really liked this chapter. I resonated with everything that Martha said. I think that is because it reminded me so much of the Be Brave project that Jessie started a couple years ago. I participated for thirty days and it really did change my life.

Now does that mean I spent the week risking all over the place. Not really, I have been swamped with life. I think the only think I really risked was sharing with a few people what my Nanowrimo novel was going to be about this year. Although that is a small risk I still think it counts. So I guess I should be risking that here too, so here goes.

This is just a rough idea, so my story will be about 5 women who meet at an Art retreat like Squam or Artfest. They become friends and meet yearly to reconnect. One of them will lose a child and be unable to recover. That is where the friends will come in. The five of them will take a journey, either a camping trip, a trek accross the US or Europe,(I haven't decided yet)to help her heal.

Through this trip the women will all deal with some kind of loss. Some will be from their past and some will be current. So am hoping to have humor and adventures along the way. Ok that wasn't so hard, the butterflies in my stomach have gone away. Risk is easy well maybe not. Its after you'v e done it that you realize it wasn't that big a thing after all. Thats the easy part. I think the more you do it the easier it gets. I am sure that is why Jessie's project was so life changing.

What little thing can you do today to further your creative dreams.

Artist Way Week 10 A Sense of Self Protection

Week 10 of the Artist Way is about self protection. Really just protecting that Artist self that is recovering from being blocked for so long.

One thing we are to do is to make a list of touchstone. They are just simple things we love, that give an instant pleasure. Here is my beginning list. I know it will grow the more I think about it

river rocks
seashells
fresh peaches
blackberry jam
airs incense
the smell of a campfire
my daughters smile
how touching someone feels
fresh flowers
smell of lavender
having orange juice in a wine glass
having wine in wine glass (smile)
new art supplies
Lindor truffles
Sunshine
Gently falling snow when I am spending the day at home
walking by the river, in the woods, fields or desert.

What habit do you have that gets in the way of your creativity?

For me that one is TV. I tend to watch too much, thinking its a way to relax but the more I watch the more I watch. When I could spend some of that time in the studio. I know its a crutch and sometime I give in and other times I break free and think why do I spend all that time watching reruns when I could be creating wonderful things.Then I go create and the feeling is wonderful.

What is your payoff for this behavior? I think that it relaxes me but I now I can see that is I am mistaken. If I am drawn into a drama on TV I carry that with me. I think I may need to be empty of these kind of infleunces to be able to tap into creativity.


What can you do about it?

Become aware of it and limit my TV time. Go for a day without any TV. Now that will be a challenge but one I can accomplish now that I know what its doing to my creative life. Also I can find other ways that help me relax.

Which friends make you doubt yourself? I have eliminated most of them from my life.

Which friends believe in yourself and your talent,?

These are the ones I share my dreams with. I know they won't stomp on them and I know they will encourage and support me when I am no longer feeling it. These friends are a must in my life. Some of them are physical but a lot of them are blogging friends like you.

List five small victories this week.

1.Doing the black art journal pages when I was not really feeling like it.
2.Risking my ideas on the Joy diet post
3.Finding out that the weight I gained was due to increased muscle mass which is a good thing.
4. Actually doing the things I promised myself I would do the night before.
5. Keeping up with all these posts and doing my morning pages every day.

List three nurturing actions you could take to comfort your artist

Spend some time in nature
Treat yourself to a new art magazine
Have a spa day in your own home

Now I think I will go do one of those things.

GPP Street Team Crusade # 34 - Come Over To The Dark Side

I have always wanted to participate in the GPP Street Team Crusades. For some reason I never take the time. This months crusade is # 34 - "Come Over To The Dark Side" , and I wanted to participate but lately I am so busy that I could easily have let this one slide too so I just forced myself to do it. I love working with black gesso so yesterday I did these pages. I loved all the things Michelle did and if I had used spray paint mine would have looked so similar so I decided on a different approach.













I think this pages says how I was really feeling. Too much stuff to deal with lately. In one moment I am really excited about things and the next down in the dumps. So what is a girl to do, well journal about it of course. It gave me the opportunity to also use my cricut for some embellishments, that is where the city on the bottom comes from.













This next one evolved just because I found the crane picture on my desk and I liked how it looked on the black surface. I used some portfolio oil pastels to color the white of the picture and just blended it together. My white gel pen was giving me fits but I finally got it to work. This was fun. I think I will try to do this again.

Finding my groove

I have been behind in the Gut art class so I have been trying to play catch up. These pieces are all results of my field trips in the class.













In this one I was encorporating a style, yes only part of the horse is supposed to be there.













The inspiration for this was some native american black and white pottery. I really liked working on her. I started with black gesso added the paper and then drew her on the page. It seemed to be too dark so I added the background at the end.














Finally got around to painting a Raven. The artist whose work I was encorporating used a lot of vertical lines so I added them to my background. I am pretty happy with this piece too. I am finding if I treat these experiments as pure play the work is easier and I feel better about it. I am so loving this class.

The Artist Way - A sense of Compassion

Its time to check in for the week. We are headed into week 10 and I am so pleased that I am still doing this. I think Morning pages are a habit now, perhaps that is why this book is 12 weeks long, you need enough time to establish a habit. I did my morning pages every day and attended an Artist date as usual. This was the week we are supposed to read our morning pages and take stock of what we see. I found that mine were constantly about lists and working out things I need to do or to get inspiration on. This time around I am finding them very helpful and I am thrilled that I have been able to keep it up.

Creative goals for the week:

To catch up in my Gut Art Class and my Photo- Jounraling class.
To finish altrering a costume for a dress up auction I am going to.
To do my Joy Diet collage and post.
Play with the cricut machine a little more.
Work on Nanowrino novel ideas.

Creative goals for the month:

Continue with work with all my classes and book groups.
To do some art that is not related to these classes.
To do some work on my Nanowrimo novel idea.

Creative goals for the year:

Finish online classes.
To paint something every week.
To grow as an artist.
To finish writing and sell the book on creativity.
To have a good start on a novel that I really want to finish and sell.

The other thing we were to do was to choose an Artist Totem. I actually have one for writing. Its a Laini's Lady , the writing Angel. I don't have anything for Art though. I've been meaning to look in my studio and see what I could focus on but I haven't found anything yet. I think it should be an inspired choice so I am not going to rush it. Now on to week 10.