Sad/AEDM...

This is sort of a twp-part post today...
So first, I'm just gonna get this out of the way.

I'm having a really sad day.
As you may know, my son Trevor was here visiting me (and seeing Seattle for the first time),
for the past 10 days...
(hence my inability to keep up with the Art Every Day Month challenge!).
I so enjoyed his company and getting to know my 23 year old "baby boy" even better.
It was so wonderful to fall asleep & wake up knowing he was once again slumbering safely under the same roof as me.
It's been too long since that has happened.
(over 4 years).
And I had not even SEEN him since last January.
(WAY too long!)
I love and miss him every single day, probably more than he will ever know.
And now he is gone again...he left early this morning to fly back home to St. Louis.
After arriving, he called me as I requested of him.
To my silly question of "so you got home ok then?" he replied, in typical Trevor fashion:
"No Mother, the plane crashed and I am calling you from the tree I landed in"...!
I laughed at his smart-ass-ness (and my dumbness), as I-miss-him-already tears rolled down my cheeks.
Right now, I'm listening to a "dubstep" music station on Pandora.
Just one of the many interesting & cool things I learned from him while we were together.
Did I mention that he is an amazing artist?
He always has been.
But he doesn't really like me to talk/ask too much about it...
Although I do feel like he shared more than he ever has and I discovered more about what he does/likes.
So now I have been alone all day long for the first time in 10 days.
Lots of time to get back to creating.
But I just don't feel up to it today.
Maybe tomorrow.

So...part two:
Another sorta-cheating attempt to catch up with the past few days of AEDM I have missed...
Here is one of the small pieces I created at my very first attempt at Encaustic Mixed Media creating, at a 2 day, 10 hour workshop I took over the weekend.
(which I booked before I knew Trev would be here!).

I ab so lutley LOVED finally getting a chance to work in this medium.
I had bought all the supplies I needed to start a few months ago...
then just kept looking at them in a panic since then, at the thought of even trying it, when, even though I had read tons of books & online info and watched tutorial videos, I feared I'd fail completely or get stuck or it would be too hard or...well, just pick one of a million of those kind of reasons maybe you also come up with to NOT try something...(FYI: they all fall under the "fear of failure" category, for me at leas!t)
So when I found out about this workshop, I signed up immediately... ignoring my ability to come up with yet another fear: to be creating in close proximity to "strangers" / other artists participating, who possibly/likely possesed far more experience/talent than me!).
(Plus I am a very private "creator"...hmmm, sounds like someone else I know!)
Shockingly, once the class began, I did not feel a single moment of the anxiety and self-conciousness I  had feared.
It turned out that we had such an amazing teacher, and we were all so excitedly into the Zen of learning, sharing, experimenting and creating, that it never ever even crossed my mind to be "nervous" about what I was doing (in FRONT of other ARTISTS even!)
I just jumped in, soaked it all up, let it all out, and wow.
Wow.
WOW!
I think I feel an artistic addiction coming on...!
I made a total of 16 (small) pieces during the workshop...
Here are a few more...(not great representations of the intense colors & details, sorry!)

Thanks for "listening" to me today.

I'm missing the presence of my son...
But hopefully tomorrow, I will feel a bit more like my usual:

Happy Me-Laurie Z!

AEDM Day 2!

I got super inspired by something I read this morning in the 30 Days of Goddess e-course I am currently participating in, and decided that this lovely little creative project would be my art for today!

The idea is from Pamela Belding.

And I so adore what she says about making... A MAGIC WAND!

"Letting your light shine is your gift to the world.
Your magic wand is simply a physical representation of it,
a reminder of your power to make a difference.
I make magic wands because I believe
faith in yourself is the strongest magic there is."
(ooooh...shivers of delight and Goddess goosebumps!)

I had no problem finding several sticks which were parts of branches of about 5 trees that were knocked down in our side woods by a recent windstorm, which Jeff & I just worked on cutting & clearing from our yard last weekend...

The stick I chose to become my first magic wand has a slight curve in the end,
and is such a perfect fit in my hand, like it was just made to be a magic wand in its reincarnation!
There is even a small, naturally comfy place for my thumb to press against as I hold it-amazing!

I picked three of my very favorite fun, whimsical, feminine colors to paint on it:
pink because it is just such a happy, fairy-like, girly color!
aqua because it reminds me of my beloved ocean and tropical things!
purple because it is the color of power, royalty and, to me, magic...
(plus matching glitter paint, of course, because glitter makes all things magical!)

I dug through my many boxes, bins & bowls of assorted "stuff" to decorate it with
(and in the process, discovered a hand full of trinkets I already know that I want to use in creating my next wand...and the next, and next...!)
And the perfect adornments appeared to assist my wand in its conjuring...

Then I found just the right fibers to hang from it too, in luxurious materials and matching colors...

I listened to Enya as I worked (played!) in transforming the stick (already a magical artwork of nature, if you ask me!) into my magic wand...


And so, without further adieu, here is my very own, hand, heart, imagination (and Mother Nature)
created magic wand...

(You may notice in the photo that I left the end of the wand where my hand holds it unpainted...i liked the idea of being better connected, skin to bark, to the magic of nature without a layer of paint between the energy)



and a closer look at the adornments...

Now...what kind of wonderfulness should I conjure up first...?!
(did i mention that i can see myself creating a whole forest full of these?!)

Making this today magically created a very:
Happy Me-Laurie Z!

My Love Affair With Michael(s)!

Oh how I {heart} Michaels! (or pretty much any big gigantic stuffed-full-of-creative-goodies store!) The possibilities among the thousands of supplies to create with is just magical to me! To think you can buy this, and that and one of these and a little of that...and it becomes ~*gasp*~ something beautiful and unique and brought forth from someones imagination and talented hands...! ~*sigh*~ What a lovely concept!

Another of my favorite craft supply, fabric and decor shops is the ever-expanding Jo Anns (which I remember from my kid-hood as just having material & notions-boy, have they jumped on the handmade bandwagon over the past few years!) and also, “back home” (in St. Louis), I adore the amazing Hobby Lobby…which of course I plan to spend much time (& $$!) in on my upcoming visit there (18 days & counting!).

Because I currently (and usually!) have quite a few art endeavors in various stages of completion, I needed one or two specific things and hadn’t been to Michaels since a few days before Christmas, so off we went!

They still had a surprising amount of holiday items left, but it was mostly random things which just exhausted me to even look at---I am pretty much over the red & green for awhile. We were quite amused, however, by two long aisles which basically consisted of fallen-off glitter from whatever sparkly holiday items had been displayed there for the past few months…it seemed like inches of it, in every color, covering every shelf and all over the floor. It was fascinating to look at, yet disconcerting to think that likely very soon, someone, some poor someone, probably making minimum wage, had to clean it all up. I mean, I am kinda ***glitter crazy*** myself but everyone knows that the downfall of glitter is…well, that it falls down…everywhere…on everything, and is beyond annoying to try to clean up. I even have some glittery eye shadow which I adore wearing but whenever I do, I inevitably end up seeing something shiny out of the corner of my eye for the next week and a half after applying it! So believe me when I say that I feel for that poor pixie-dust-picking-up employee!

So I went in for, what did I say…two things? Hmmm...according to my receipt, I somehow ended up purchasing THIRTY NINE ITEMS!  But my total -including $3.41 in tax- came to just $39.32!      So that means I paid less than a buck for each item! Whoo-hoo! Better than Dollar Tree! (which I also have to make a run to before Valentines Day!)

My current obsession seems to be rubber stamps. Even though I am like a 6 year old using them. Meaning more ink on me than the desired object…and ink all over the stamper, which messes up the stamped image. But hey, practice makes perfect…and since I got 24 new ones today, I will be getting lots of practice real soon! I have recently started to really enjoy creating pretty tags using different mediums-including stamping, and am also making some stamped ribbon for an art swap (and my own use!). Just look at the luscious holiday ribbon I scored for 60% off! 

(glittery, of course!)

So thank you Michaels, for making it possible for this wanna-be crafty diva  to indulge her ever-changing artsy whims at an affordable price. 

AND a great big smoochy thank you to my sweetly tolerant BF for taking me there(on a practically weekly basis!), occupying himself for the almost hour I browsed (even with no more Christmas Village to manipulate the inhabitants into goofy scenarios!), not making me put anything back, paying for it all, supporting my creative wanderings and above all, not minding our that our home consistently has a little glitter here and there…and there…and here…and over there…and over here too…!!!

But he knows me well, and knows that a little bit of glitter here and there makes for a very

Happy Me-LaurieZ!

Creating my "Perfect" Day!

So today, to me, was the "offical first-day-of-the-new-year-to-get-goin'-on-makin'-good-on-all-those-good-thoughts-and-plans-and-hopes-and-dreams-and-such-which-I-have-set-forth-intentions-of!
I always did have a thing about starting anew on Mondays! (if today had been the 1st, it would have been an over-the-top perfect start-anew day...but then again, perhaps a bit too much pressure! Kinda relieved I got the weekend to sorta practice, rest and charge up for today!

And how WAS my today, you may be wondering?

Well, of course I am intention-breaking guilty so I will confess that off the top of my head I can think of 2 MIT things which did not get completed.
(*Goddess Leonie created Goddess Workbook-speak for daily Most Important Task's...I choose 3 per day)

(Yeah, you're doing the math now, aren'tcha?)

Well, they weren't life or death tasks, but still. I did so much better on my two practice days!

Wait! I still have time to do missed task #1.-meditate!
Does it count if you fall asleep for about 7 hours in the middle of it?     ;)

And it's not like my mom is sitting at her laptop 24/7 waiting for those photos I said I'd email (missed task #2) to arrive in her Inbox. I hope.

So see? No harm done, really. I'll just have FIVE MIT's tomorrow.
After my approximately 2 hours dentaltorture appointment.
Or perhaps I will catch up on that missed meditation...all afternoon!  ;)

So back to today's official New Start to the New Year activities:
We've established that I kind skimmed on the MIT's for today.

But the good news is, I did countless LIBIJTST's (Less Important But Important Just The Same Tasks!),
which were fueled by the music of Counting Crows, Inxs, Michael Buble, The Wallflowers, Sarah MacLachlan, Putumayo World Music's "Arabic Groove" and  several hours of the "ambiance" station
on Pandora and included:

~started the day with a delicious fresh fruit, spinach & yogurt smoothie (day 3 in a row-yay me!
so please ignore the fudge confession later in this blog!)
~enjoyed about a half hour of a freezing-my-fingers-off photo shoot in our still-snowy-but-melting-fast side yard
~painted thirteen  1"x 2" x approx. 5-7" tall wooden "houses" for upcoming **Swap-Bot swap creations
(thanks to my Mr. Can-Do for the sawing and sanding part!)
~went through approx. 2,482 pieces of assorted ephmermera and other artstuff (including already- packed-away-and-not-easy-to-get-to holiday decos) to sort/gather/collect go-good-together items in 13 different colors/themes for the creating of aforementioned "houses"
~sent off email photo submissions & bio to 5 business seeking art to exhibit (found on Craigslist-which is how I get most of my exhibits)
~ created 3 art tags for a swap, wrote note to recipient, wrapped tags & packaged them up, decorated & addressed envelopes
~completed another partially created art swap (vintage Valentine cupcake toppers) & ditto all of the above for it
~caught up with all email tasks (2 email accounts, Facebook, various blogs, photo uploading & art business information photo collage postcard creation, Swap-Bot messages, sign-ups, ratings, comments, watchlist, new swaps, group forums, announcements, etc-Etc-ETC!)
~browsed through several books in the stack of over 50 items I currently have checked out from the library (can you guess what another of tomorrows MIT's will be?!)
~spent time working on my *2011 Goddess Workbook and personal journal daily page (well, okay, to tell the truth, that is what I will be doing after I finish this blog post-but it will be today for another 38 minutes, so it counts on my LIBIJTST's that I did TODAY!)

(and throw in some doggie play, random kisses from my man, a delish (homemade) dinner, 2 pcs. of fudge (that's the ignoring part I mentioned!), watching the news, "Jeopardy", "Two & A Half Men (2 episodes), "Rules of Engagement" and "Mike & Molly" (all while doing several something else's, mind you...and there is a big hole in our family room to prove that-Mr. Can-Do's doing, not mine-my tv watching mess  creative project is on the kitchen table!)
and probably another hour or so of random activity that has slipped my quickly tiring mind...(uh-oh, it's now tomorrow...)

~~~~ahhhh~~~~
Now that is what I call
A Perfect Day.
I created.
I read.
I journaled.
I played.
I loved.
I cooked.
I ate good for me (and not-so-good for me...shhhh!) food.
I photographed.
I learned some new factoids (from "Jeopardy"!)
I laughed. alot.
I got fresh air.
and sunshine.
(and snow in my shoes!)
I was inspired.
I inspired.
I communicated.
I listened to music.
I tried.
I kissed.
(man & beasts!)
I blogged.
I made a new (online) friend.
I was grateful.

So does it really matter that I did not meditate? Or email a few pix to my mom?
Nah. I won't hold it against me that I missed a few MIT's.
Tomorrow is another day.
And other than the part where I have to go to the dentist,
it is another chance to do all of the things that I need and want and love to do.
Things that make for a very

Happy Me-Laurie Z!

P.S.
here are links to:
*Goddess Leonie/Goddess Workbook
**Swap-Bot art swaps info

and Happy One Whole Week Of Blogging To Me!
( a big I'm honored thank you to the 5 friends who are following me!)