"Life is a great big canvas

throw all the paint on it you can."

~Danny Kaye

I think the question here is, what's your paint?  For each of us our creativity and imagination are so personal, so we each paint our canvas so differently.  Lately my paint has literally been paint, but also this week I created stuffed animals out of old cashmere sweaters, dyed silk scarves with indigo and created new jewelry with unique stones from all over the world. I love creating and learning, so my paint is full of variety and I am still adding more to my repertoire.

This painting: I have been trying to enjoy a looser feel for some of my work and these watercolour puddles and squiggles are fun.  It is fun to play with what colours to choose and then the addition of Caran D'ache Neocolor pastels add another layer of interest.

Enjoy throwing paint around this week!

Watching for Lessons from Nature

Let nature be your teacher.

~William Wordsworth

This is so true.  It can be so helpful to come back to nature for guidance, and a lightning rod to lead you back to where you need to be.  Listen, look and be present to soak up the beauty and inspiration.  

This image: I had another piece in mind for today, but I was walking to meet my husband and the leaves and bark were all over in the blustery, beautiful weather.  This heart shaped hole was just perfect, so I went with it.  Love is everywhere, if you look for it.

Then, when I got home and went to take this photo, it began to sprinkle, adding to the natural texture of the photo!   Isn't nature just lovely?  

And nature's reminding us of life lessons every moment, so keep watching!

Enjoy your week! 

Spread Love and Kindness!

Happiness blossoms when ever one

 plants seeds of love and kindness.

~Melanie Koulouris

This week I decided that this is our most important action- to plant seeds of love and kindness EACH day and in EVERY interaction with others.  Even though I have felt this way and say, "Have a great day!" to almost everyone I cross, I think I can do better.  This week brought the challenging question of "how can we make sure to spread kindness and remind others the importance of this way of life?"

Because kindness is a way of life- and all or nothing approach.  I am trying to go all in.

This painting- I had the background for a while and loved the colours and the little silver squares I painted all over.  But then I didn't know what to do with it until this week.

Please make a point to spread more seeds of kindness. 

 We need more love and it starts with you!

Be your own every-day goddess with your own positive self-talk

thankful

caring

strength

happy

beauty

This is not a quote! What!?! But this is a direction I have been wanting to take and feel out for a while.  I love collecting words from magazines and then using them to create statements that are almost like mantras- to help and remind us of the power of our self-talk- which is vital to be checking for a positive life.  So here is me using the Creative Quote ritual to begin to branch out to other things that move and inspire me.  

I created this painting as an homage to all the young girls out there.  I love the idea of creating posters that girls can put up in their room to remind us of the types of qualities we want to foster and grow into to each be our own humble, caring and beautiful "every-day goddesses".  We will see where this leads to.  This one has a lot of pink, but only in her setting.  She is more dynamic than the typical princess girl persona, since she has nature in her hair and she is looking inward instead of worried so much about what the world thinks.

What do you think?  

Are you an everyday goddess working on your own mantra?  

I am.

Where ever you are and what every your mantra is, enjoy your week!