Hearts of Friendship Swap

Last month my blog friend Tammy invited me to participate in a small Valentine's Day swap called Hearts of Friendship Swap. We were asked to create a heart ornament in a medium of our choice and the only requirement was to include a quotation about friendship. The box of ornies arrived at my door earlier this week and I could hardly wait to tear open the box to see what everyone had made.

Tammy - "Friends meet you in a tender place where it's safe to risk your heart."

Sandy - "Right next door or miles apart, friends are always close at heart."

Vivian - "Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold."

Vivian also sent us this sweet bonus heart ornament!

Lee - "Each friend represents a world in us."

Ruth - "Friends live in your heart."

Carla - "Friends are the stitches that hold our hearts together."

Natalea - "A friend is someone who sees through you and still enjoys the view."

Grace - "A friend is one of the best things you can be and the greatest thing you can have."

Me - "A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

I decided to hang my ornaments from the chandelier in my craft room, so the lighting isn't the best in the photos above. Tammy has posted some more detailed pics of all the swap ornaments here. I really enjoy these small exchanges because they are totally manageable to complete. It's so much fun to receive these small works of art from people whose work you admire. And the idea of including quotes about friendship was a fun addition. Wasn't it amazing that all the quotations were unique with no duplicates!

Journal Pages

I've been working in my art journal and thought I'd share a couple of my favorite recently completed pages.

On the pages above I was channeling Donna Downey and her infamous poppies. You can see how to make a page like this by clicking here. The quote by Mary Lou Cook says, "Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun."

And here is my first She-Art girl I made after taking Christy Tomlinson's fabulous She-Art class. This quote says, "She knew the answers would come with time."

Well, I'm heading over to my daughter's house today. She recently broke her foot and has a big old cast on her right leg - poor girl!

Be Soft

Sometimes this is a difficult concept to achieve. . .

. . . but just keep working at it, because in the end it's much better to be sweet than to be cynical.

And the Winner is. . .

Well , we have a winner in the drawing for the "Just a Matter of Thyme" illustrated cookbook. None of my usual helpers were available to pick the name out of the hat, so I had the Random Number Generator select the lucky winner this time and her name is. . . . . . . BETH LEINTZ!

Congratulations Beth! Please email me your address so I can send out the prize to you. And thank you to all who entered ~ It was so much fun, I think we'll be doing this again soon.
I am starting a brand new art journal for the Journaling Without Fear Group and I began by creating a few background pages using watercolor paper and watercolor crayons. Below is my first entry featuring a favorite quotation.
You've all seen these vintage flashcards people are using in their artwork. Well, sweet Heidi over at Everyday Cookies at Sweet Woodruff Acres, came up with a little tutorial showing us how to make these little cuties for ourselves. What fun these are! ~ I've been dreaming up words for new flashcards all day long like sunshine, warmth, flower, robin, garden. . . .

Happy New Year!

It's that time of the year when we look ahead to a brand new year and a fresh new start. . .A CLEAN SLATE, as we refer to it. I'm putting together my list of resolutions and goals during these last few days of 2007. I write them in a Goal Journal that I started several years ago. It is fun to look back and see what I wrote in past years and which goals I achieved and which ones I am still working on. The key is to LOOK at them often throughout the year. Better yet, post the list on your inspiration board or refrigerator or tape it to your desk so you see the list EVERYDAY. I'm looking forward with anticipation to whatever excitement 2008 has in store for me. The possibilities are endless and all we have to do is set our sights in that direction.

I received a newsletter the other day from Sandra Magsamen, author of "Living An Artful Life," in which she talked about making "conscience choices for conscious living." Sandra focused on the word BE as she looks toward the new year.

BE You

BElieve in Yourself

BE Passionate

BElong to Something You Believe In

BEgin Today

BEcome What You Dream To BE

BEdazzle With Your Smile and Laughter

BEhave Like It's Your Last Day on the Planet

Sandra also included this great inspirational quote from Eleanor Roosevelt:

"I believe, with all my heart, that we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes."

As I was blog-hopping today, I ran across some wonderful SARK-inspired goal sheets that Lia from ArtJunk Girl designed and posted on her Flickr Page. These are a fun way for you to list your goals. You can check them out here.

Whatever goals and/or resolutions you decide upon, AIM HIGH and don't sell yourself short. With each other's support, I know we WILL achieve them!

~ GO FIGHTING ILLINI ~

UPDATE: USC Creamed Illinois 49-17 (Boo-Hoo!)

21 Day Challenge {Day 8}

21 Day Challenge {Day 7}

Confession time: I am an 'all or nothing' kind of gal. It's not a good thing. In doing something like this 21 Day Challenge it is dangerous for me to miss a day of working on my goal because I have a tendency to feel that because I messed up, then I have to start all over at the beginning and let's face it, that's just not going to happen. I noticed this problem when I would go on diets. I could lose the weight as long as I kept strictly to the diet plan. But as soon as something would happen and I would have a slip-up, I felt like I had blown the entire diet. I did learn (after a long time of doing this) that the trick is to put the slip-up behind you and continue on. We shouldn't punish ourselves over eating a cookie or a piece of chocolate cake. Like me, many of your goals are life long changes and we can't be expected to be perfect and never fall off the wagon. So when I didn't make the time to exercise yesterday, I tried not to beat myself up about it. I just moved on to today and picked up right where I left off. This is a BIG accomplishment for me to be able to do that. So if you're feeling down because you skipped a day or didn't accomplish your goal for the day, don't be so hard on yourself. This quote from Emerson offers some good advice on this subject:

"Finish everyday and be done with it. You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in;

Forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and

with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This day is good and fair.

It is too dear, with it's hopes and invitions, to waste a moment on yesterdays."