I received an email a few days ago from PJ Spur. She shared a doggie portrait a good friend of hers painted. This doggie portrait is sooo cute. If you’ve ever loved those psychedelic cows or those other animal prints, these will strike a chord. When I opened this image, one of the dogs, in particular, really spoke to me. I could literally feel her spirit coming out of this canvas! How can that be?

But, like I’ve shared for a long time over the years, a true artist can capture the energy…the essence… of, well, anything. Sheba’s loving and excited energy bubbles forth right off of this canvas! Can you feel it?

When I went to learn about the artist who creates these wonderful creations, I found that she also creates women’s self-empowerment portraits. How divine!

If you’ve been mentally writing your Christmas list like I have…perhaps a Paula Mitchell original is the perfect gift for that special someone who has everything!

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• tina ferguson artist
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• portraits cliparts
• heart shaped glasses clipart
• smiley zentangles
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• Hilsinki finland Baby art
• friendship horses clipart

Most of you who read my blog know I love art. I come by this naturally as my mother is an artist or what Spirit calls, a craftsman artisan, meaning that she works with her hands and is more of a ‘craftswoman’ than a ‘fine’ artist. She has sewn, painted, woodworked her way through life, and I often came along for the ride. My nature is to ‘finish’ things…in the StrengthsFinder talents, this is called an achiever. My art tends to look like things I can open and close in a single session. When I get out to my mom’s workshop, my achiever goes crazy wanting to finish all of her projects, but she, like me, works from inspiration. If I am inspired, I can start and finish anything. If I lose my inspiration anywhere along the process, I’m done. So is she.

When Minette and I did our 5-month project with Violette’s journal bliss online class (highly recommended!), I learned how to focus in on starting and finishing a single ‘step’ and to be happy with that.

Most recently, I took that wisdom and applied it to a Zentangle project I was inspired to create for a friend. The first night, I collected all of the pieces I would use to create the ‘shape.’ Then, I flipped through a Zentangle pattern book to see which patterns felt good. Then I slept on it.

The next day, I started with the motif, and filled in the rest of the pattern.

The next day I started Zentangling and did not want to stop, so I didn’t. 10 hours later, it was finished.

Inspiration can fuel us to the greatest heights! In inspiration, time slows down and evaporates.

If you have not discovered ZENTANGLES, please go to the site now. I have always loved to draw in pen and this is a new twist on that art form. I am forever grateful to Minette for introducing me to it!

I also am including some pictures of my art date with Sally Felt where we created jewelry! She commented that she thought it was interesting I flipped through a book, found something I liked and said, “I’m going to make this” without any regard of whether I would be able to according to my current jewelry making abilities. That’s where my mom’s influence stepped in… if we can ‘see it,’ we can usually create it!

By far, one of the best things about crafting together is the conversations that flow upward in the creative energy. I hope you will try this out for yourself if you feel pulled to do so!

Can you believe Sally made EVERY single one of those line pieces? Isn’t this so pretty?

I made some heart earrings with rose quartz.

Looking for a Dream Life:

• prize clipart
• zentangle jewelry
• winner present
• zentangle projects
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• zentangle horse
• winner clipart
• prize winner clip art
• zentangle projects inspiration

Friday, I went to Minette’s house for an art playdate. I felt so excited because I knew we were going to do a ‘thank you’ video for Violette because her online class, Journal Bliss, literally gave us 5 months of art-full play! I highly recommend grabbing a friend and getting one of her classes (Violette’s energy gave us a creative confidence boost and inspired us!).

While we created the video, I looked over and saw one of Minette’s Zentangle gift cards. She has made many of these over the last year or so (and they are all GORGEOUS), and last year, even invited me to a Zentangle class where I was introduced to this thoughtful, meditative creative expression.

As I looked at the card, I felt myself drawn to the card itself. I liked the idea of small creations that I could start and finish and know they are ‘done.’

When I came home, I had some other projects to finish for work and I deliberately chose to take a day off from school. I felt pulled to more art, and so I grabbed my watercolors and started painting.

As I painted, I thought of those cards again. I really wanted some. I thought, I wish I had some of those cards. I painted in my watercolor notebook and thought of different things I could paint on those cards. I have always said “I wish” ever since I was a little girl. I wish works as fast and as magically for me as anything. But, last night I was not even thinking of manifesting the cards when I said it, I was simply expressing what I most wanted from my heart.

I finished painting, put up my palette book and paints, and then played a game with Mark and Chance.

As the evening went on, I felt drowsier and drowsier, so I went to bed and quickly drifted off to sleep. The cards were a distant thought and memory.

Today, I woke up and got right back at my school work, but I couldn’t force myself to get going. Instead, I wandered outside and talked to the plants and birds. I fed our mama and daughter mockingbirds as they chirped nearby. I felt the breeze on my skin as I listened to the chimes gonging in the background. I looked at the color of the sun on the surface of the pool water, and noticed the sun trying to poke through the foliage above me. I soaked up the warm rays and felt them pelting against my pale skin.

I thought I might be able to read outside, but I couldn’t. The energies didn’t match up and I felt myself wishing to just relax, to enjoy this abnormal 70s weather in May and to take time out. So I did. I put the books aside and just enjoyed the rhythm of nature complete with the smell of mint nearby.

I walked inside to get some water and met Mark’s mom coming in from the front. She excitedly exclaimed, “Look what I got for you!” And, there, in her hands were two brand new boxes of Strathmore (one of my most FAVORITE papers) greeting cards…100 cards total! I am amazed at how fast things come to me when I wish from the depths of my heart…my dreamer’s desires. She has been saying that she wants to paint and draw, and with all of this schoolwork on the intellectual plane, she has been throwing tantrums! I have been keeping my promise to her to draw, paint and play at least twice a week. Yesterday, Minette and I only had 30 minutes, so I knew more painting was in store for me. And, now, I’ll do more Zentangling, too. Thank you, Nana, for being the messenger.

I wish… Please send… I ask for… whatever way you ask, ask and expect to receive it!

Looking for a Dream Life:

• allowing others to serve you

One of the best things about having a 10-year-old in the house is the art that comes out of his imaginative mind. Each day, he wanders into the dining room and creates some kind of art for the day. No matter how much I ‘play,’ I simply don’t create art that looks like this. It’s whimsical, playful, impractical…so, well, artistic. I mean, if this was mine, I would only have one smiley face…where the face goes, you know? But here’s Chances, and the more smiley faces the better, it seems. I appreciate these days. Wandering in to see what he has drawn today and to enjoy it until tomorrow when another equally as childlike piece will take its place. So fun!

One of my favorite things to see in my inbox is an email from Lynn Scheurell. Lynn is a great lover of life and people, and an extraordinary finder of really cool, crazy, thought-provoking pop culture tidbits. Thanks, Lynn!

Her latest find? All the way from Finland, photographs one mother took of her sleeping baby posed in all kinds of things this new mom thought her baby, Mila, might be dreaming of.

Soooooo sweet! Go, right now, get a cup of tea and spend five minutes in Mila’s big dream world!

To see the photos of Mila’s daydreams (there are more photos here than are in the video and they are all TOOOO precious and utterly creative and clever): http://www.milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

To see a 2-minute video (featuring her Dad’s music):

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• mom takes pictures of sleeping baby
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• iron willow kelly moorhouse
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• mom takes sleeping baby pictures

Love to color? Ever melt down crayons? What about sculpting with crayons?

I’m always fascinated about what other people see when they look at things. Most of us know that our filters ‘filter out’ ideas and opportunities based on beliefs and such, but what about how artists look at the world? They seem to filter through their medium… enjoy!

Artist, Herb Williams, sculpts magnificently with crayons. His work reminded me of two other sculptors who use everyday items in their work: Ann Carrington (if you watch the show 9 By Design – love them! – on Bravo, you can see Ann on a couple of the episodes) and Page Hodel’s Monday Hearts for Madalene. If you’ve never heard this love story, it’s one sure to touch you! Oh, and who can forget Mr. Toothpick?

Original artwork by Herb Williams

Looking for a Dream Life:

• ann carrington
• anne carrington
• herb williams sculpts with crayons

Well, Dusty Rose (a.k.a. Mom) sent me yet another amazing creative spirit to take a gander at (gee, I even start talking like Mom when I connect to her!).

God speaks to each of us. The gifts that await are delicious. Are you listening?

Oh girl, oh girl. Ever since I watched Stephanie’s story the other day, I’ve been in this place of gratitude. Wow.

I’ve been thinking about my blogging sisters. I have loved talking and meeting each one of these REAL women. Inspiring, amazing, wonderful… what a blessing they are.

This summer, the movie Julie & Julia came out and so now we can look back and vicariously see what can happen when you let yourself go in an online web+blog=blog. But even with all of the blogs out in the world, some may only be read by 1,000 people a day like Stephanie’s was (until her plane crash and coverage of her story accelerated it to 20,000 a day).

However… who are those 100, 200, 500, 1,000 people? Every day I realize we have so much potential to inspire, uplift others. One at a time, 100 a time, 1,000 at a time… 20,000 or more at a time. And, while we are doing that, we uplift ourselves as we share ourselves with the world – and ourselves.

In honor of the amazing bloggers who have inspired me, I wanted to share some of my favs. Some you may know… some you may not… feel free to drop by! I’ll post more later… so many blogs to share, so little time!

Tara Fey – Loving her! Smart, chic, a woman’s woman and a man’s woman, too. I love Tara’s photographic eye and how she delivers up the yummiest photos. I don’t have her new book yet, but I am in LOVE with it already… just from the cover. So TARA! Ooh, and Tara inspired me to find my party rhinestone rings (notice the ring AND the bracelet)… they manifested just a few days after I saw hers on her blog!

Southern Hospitality – This is our kind of gal. Sent to me by gal-pal, Debbie Mrazek, this is our latest favoritest blog! I really appreciated Rhoda’s passion for life, and LOVE of yard sales and antiques!!

Tammy Swales – I knew Tammy back in her days as Idea Girl on her blog. Boy am I glad that she went with her muse and became a photographer (this is so cool). Her work makes me happy in a very good way. I was invited to speak in Toronto… wondering how I can drop through Rochester to get my photo made (a MUCH needed photo update). Even though Idea Girl is deleted… RIP… had to include the new site!

Lipstick Ranch – Met miss KC Willis through Dusty Rose (a.k.a. Mom) a while back, and while I’m not goo-goo ga-ga over cowgirls like mom, I can appreciate Miss Willis’s ability to channel her inner Calamity Jane. I love KC’s artistic bent.

The Pioneer Woman – Cool, grounded, funny… this woman will leave you with a smile. Her site is so pretty, too, and did I say witty?

For as long as I can remember, my mom has been sitting behind a table of fabric scraps, glue, paint, and various other ‘crafty tools.’ I feel nurtured by this energy, a reminder of days when I was a little girl and enjoyed the gifts that sprang from her creative mind.

I always had the best costume at Halloween!

My mom hasn’t always had (or made) the opportunity to do what she loves. She often worked three jobs to support my brother and me. Between watching her work her fanny off and my grandmother pulling double shifts as an LVN, it’s no wonder that I decided that I would follow pursuit.

I say decided, but it was more like an auto-pilot, pre-determined script I followed. Unaware, asleep, sleepwalking… I followed in their footsteps. At one point I even signed up to take a SECRETARIAL course – you know, those ATI classes.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!???????

Well, I wasn’t thinking. I just followed along with the examples in front of me and did what I did.

I packed up my inner writer and put her on the shelf. I tucked away the performer in me and put her in the bottom of the closet. I grabbed the money making train and held on tight!

I’ve enjoyed a crazy, perilous ride on the money-making train. One that I finally found would lead me nowhere I truly wanted to go, so I stepped off a few years ago.

It wasn’t a graceful landing. It wasn’t even without broken bones and bruises. Today, I’m better than I’ve ever been.

Perhaps that is why I see my mom and I want to help her know there’s an easier way. A gentler way to do what you love and allow the money to come.

We set up her shop last month, and already she has ‘friends’ coming over to ‘see’ her designs. Mom makes jokes about people stealing her ideas, and the truth is… there are more ideas coming out of her head than thousands of people could ever have time to copy!

Mark and I spent a couple of days out there working in the shop this past weekend. We had fun. After a day of wrestling with my creative energy, everything finally slotted in and I took off. My mind started churning out ideas and I felt so inspired! I made the cutest little witch with a raven hovering over her head with a star attached.

This is the energy of abundance… and Dusty Rose will get there. She already has the energy… now it is only up to allowing it to flow!

And, this weekend was a great reminder to me that when I get TOO busy, I stop the flow. The last few weeks have been a blur. I don’t do well when I am busy like this. When it takes me a day to start flowing creative ideas… that’s my cue that I need to SLOW DOWN!

Love you mom…

When she ‘gets around to it’… her site is here. If you like Rustic, Cowgirl, Texas-y stuff and uber unique holiday decorations… she’s your gal.

Oh, and Mark learned how to use a plasma cutter, so he cut tin most of the weekend. He created crosses, pumpkins, and a love sign. We couldn’t keep up with him!

I still am in awe of craftsmen. Spirit called mom an artisan craftsman once and I still find it amazing how she and Lelon can take a bunch of nothing and create something amazing that will weather any tornado (as in the HUGE beds Lelon builds and mom designed).

The world is a better place with artists in it!

Once upon a time I lived in a house with a woman who was CRAZY about art and creating lively, cool things.

She made the MOST WONDERFUL Halloween costumes (surely the reason why Halloween is one of my MOST FAVORITE holidays – and it IS a holiday – of the year). Her costumes were elaborate and full of imagination.

She made wild, crazy art in her 30s, and into her 40s. THEN, (insert tire screeching sound), in her 50s, she decided ‘enough’ with this stuff I LOVE to create. I’m going to follow the money train.

Soon, this artistic woman’s body began to break down. Her heart lost its vibrancy. She couldn’t sleep. And bears (yes, bears…like the big grizzly bear kind) started coming to her right before she would close her eyes to go to sleep each night.

Bear energy is all about the inner dreamland. Bear comes when we need to go inside again.

Night after night she would blink her eyes praying that big ol’ bear head would GO AWAY! AAAAaaaaaah! She would pull the covers up over her head and then peek outside and there it was – still hanging over her looking at her.

One night she said, “What do you want?”

And the bear said, “I want to invite you to dream again.”

That’s when the artist began dreaming again, and she began to play again with her art and she danced with the ideas in her head and made many wonderful creations that touched the lives of the people she met.

What’s the moral of the story?

Follow your art… not the money. The money follows your art and your art comes from your heart.

P.S. This is based on a very TRUE story. Bear and all…

Some of my favorite heavenly artists…HEAVENLY!

http://www.inspired-art.com/inspiredartworks/home.html

http://www.nanoel.com/

Is this a sanctuary or what? Nancy’s use of light makes my heart smile.

Alright, this is the *last* time I’m going to gush on and on about what happened last week at Canton. I talked about it LAST week here at the blog, and also on the show, but I’m feeling the need to share, so here’s one tiny little post!

First, if you are in Dallas-Ft. Worth or even near or around DFW, and if you haven’t gone to Canton in a while, you’ve GOT TO GO, baby! It is a smorgasboard for the soul and mind. Oh, and you DO NOT have to buy anything if you’ve been laid off or out of work, etc. Get some friends together, go have some fun, and walk your patooties off with some laughter and make some really good memories, k?

I remember that a few years ago a friend was in a low place – didn’t have a lot of money to spend (a.k.a. retail therapy) – and I suggested that she go and take in the ‘energy’ she was craving. It’s not always about the buying… often it is the sensory stimulation we crave – the colors, the textures, the different feelings associated with art.

My friend decided to ‘begin to dream again’ by going and looking, and she said she was surprised she didn’t feel deprived… that she actually felt better.

Last week, as we walked up and down the aisles, my mom just kept saying over and over again ‘I just need color,’ ‘I need MORE COLOR in my life!’ We found ourselves drawn over and over to various colors, and I know the chakra I’m healing right now is my throat. Lord, I feel like the healers have been working on it FOR-EVER, and it still isn’t done! LOL So, I was magnetized to a HUGE 6 foot cross that was – you guessed it, a shade of turquoise/blue – similar to the throat chakra.

Gotta share a couple of really cool people we met last week:

Annette’s Touch of Class – these gals have gotten all gussied up and have more than their fair share of rhinestone-studded rings, tennies, and tees – if you need some sparkle or sass in your life, this is the place to go!

I SO WISH I HAD A REALLY COOL PHOTO OF JONIKEITHCO CREATIONS TO SHARE WITH YOU!

JoniKeithCo. – if you need a razzmatazz of energy and twirl around the rainbow, take a look at these cosmic mosaic creations and tin art love – hard to believe this brother sister team are still in their 20s – rock on!, and last but not least…

Kelly Moorhouse’s Iron Willow creations are what spawned my last post, and the flying pig! These sweet glittery, shiny, colorful iron creations sure will put a smile on your face. You could probably just stand by the side of the booth and be entertained all day long watching people react to her stuff!

Alrighty then, thanks for letting me share, if you have other cool people we should know, share them with me!

Looking for a Dream Life:

• iron willow by kelly moorhouse