My sister gave me this blue teacup and saucer set - since i'm not a teacup kind of person (for drinking tea in that is) i decided to put it in the studio and fill it with beads and buttons.

Yesterday i was getting organized in my studio - getting papers sorted out into categories so i would not feel all in a muddle. I hadn't tidied up after the two ladies were over last friday and had done a rather cursory clean up after the Glittersister gathering. You can imagine how chaotic things were! Sometimes i simply have to take my own advice like what you do when you are overwhelmed - like eating an elephant - how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! When i revert back to that then i can calm down and start reducing things to their simplest form - like itemizing things into folders or boxes.

Mr. G bought me this elephant planter last year for my birthday after i was overwhelmed with my book project. I had just completed a cartoon for the book on "how do you eat an elephant?" so he thought it was appropos that he give me this little reminder. I look at the little elephant on my deck and remember that yes indeed, i can do this, i just have to break it down into manageable chunks. So that's what i did yesterday when i needed to organize materials for my final online class. The gremlins all love to come out to play at this point and make me feel bad about not being able to manage, not knowing what to do next and forgetting everything i know about handling things. I'll bet you think that these thoughts go away after a while....well they don't....we just learn certain techniques on how to deal with the gremlins and how to push through resistance. I needed to clean up so that i could hear that "still small voice" within. When i'm existing in chaos it's difficult to hear it above the din! Sure enough after i had tidied up i came up with all sorts of ideas! Yay!

We are making the sign i blogged about a while ago - you know the sign for my studio? Well tomorrow i'll post some photos of the sign in progress!

Fourth of July DIY ideas
For my American friends why not hop over to Twig and Thistle for some fun Fourth of July crafty ideas! You can access a downloadable PDF for matchbox wrappers, sparkler cards and more!

I spent part of yesterday painting the sidewalk, stairs and front porch mauve - i used porch and floor paint. I had to ask the clerk at the paint store if it could be tinted since i really didn't want it to be beige. The paint on the front walk had chipped and looked terrible so it was well overdue for a sparkly make-over! Magic takes a bit of work ya know!

Yesterday i was thinking about my sister Linda and how she has such great taste in decorating and clothing that her advice is sought after - to the point that she can't come visiting without someone wisking her off to a store to get her opinion on whether or not they should go for the floral pattern or solid colour for their couch. She spends so much time helping others decide that often what she really wants to do gets pushed to the side. I remember shopping in N. Carolina once (that's where Linda lives) in some big store (can't remember....it was all a blur....can you tell i don't enjoy shopping). My Mom, Linda and i were in the store but off in different corners. I could hear my Mom yelling from one end of the store "Lindaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! Which one should i pick?" as she held up two items to choose from.

The Advantages of being eccentric
Being a bit on the eccentric side does have it's advantages. No one EVER asks me for my opinion around decorating or clothing choices. No one ever asks "which dumpster should i frequent to find the best items to make marks in my art?" or "Which dumpster has the best broken furniture that i can revamp?" "Which fabric store regularly has cast offs that i can get for free?"

A Magpie Attraction
I think my magpie-like attraction to trash (with potential mind you) occured when i was a little girl and the family would go fishing by the Fraser river. The spot my Dad liked happened to be next to a putrid smelling dump - rather than thinking this is the worst thing that we could possibly be doing my sisters and i thought it was such fun - an adventure! It was like going on a treasure hunt. Boy...were we ever lucky! We found wooden chests, a gold watch, jewelry and a petrified black lab which we sat on mistakenly thinking it was a log. That was scary!

A fascination with cast-offs
But i think that's where it all began....my fascination with cast-offs.......the dump experience and also frequenting church Rummage sales. My Mom and Grandmother outfitted my sisters and i with pieces of fabric and large dresses which they deconstructed to make something new and fun. My Mom and Grandmother (meme) would never have said that was their hobby since they were creating it out of necessity however i do think they derived so much pleasure in fashioning clothes for us from scratch - no pattern nothing....all i can say is AMAZING!!!

Happy Canada Day everyone.....soon my American friends will be celebrating the 4th of July!

For dinner last nite i decided we would barbecue some zucchini and peppers - very yummy way to get your daily dose of vegetables. I also made a wonderful salad and added a bit of mango for a sweet tang. Do you remember Sark's book Eating Mango's Naked? Well she had an aversion to eating mangos because of the extreme sticky factor. One day a friend invited her to swim in her pool naked and she floated mango's all around Sark so she could eat them and not feel sticky! How cool is that? I have an aversion to all things sticky too - like getting honey on my fingers or juice or any such thing. I don't feel the same way about paint though! Funny eh?

Sign Sketch
I'm planning on creating (with the help of Mr. G) a two or three piece sign for my studio - it will hang outside the studio door. I'm calling my special creative place - Creative Juice. Well i'm all about creativity and love inspiring it in others plus my maiden name was Naranjo (Spanish for Orange Tree).....so there is the juice analogy. One of my favourite colours right now is orange so the sign will be orange with black and white checks around it. We'll see if it ends up looking as close to the sketch as possible. Oh.....the crow is there and will hopefully be a wood cutout because i love crows and i think they are my totem. I talk to them daily when they come in the yard and hop around. Also crows seem to enjoy all things sparkly and colourful - just like yours truly! this post is short because i'm on holiday mode....even though i'll be doing work today!

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian Friends!

Today I'm auditioning art for my last Journal Bliss online class – that's where I put all of the items together such as backgrounds, borders, doodles and faces together to form a cohesive (hopefully) journal page. I always find that if you can break things down into the simplest form then it's easy to put it all together. It's like being paralyzed by looking at the blank page and not knowing what to do next. You just begin by slapping paint on in different ways. If you begin with a painted or collaged page then the intuitive part comes more easily.

A Template for Life
I'm always looking for templates to understand things better – I guess that's why I love Mind Maps so much – they are like visual guides for right brainers to navigate through life more easily. One of my favourite things to say is “Give me an example.” When people get wrapped up in philosophy and don't have succinct examples to illustrate their point then I get lost – it's even better if there is some sort of visual to accompany their point. I guess that's why Power Point presentations are so popular – plus I believe it makes it easier for the presenter to have something for his/her audience to focus on rather than themselves.

Your Dreams, Your Story
Of course it's fine and dandy to have a template but you must also have a dream or idea to move towards.............something to DROP into the template. Once you have a template it will make you feel safe, like it's all going to work out. Now the cool thing is that once you know you have a template you're free to do whatever the heck you want to do! You will eventually move away from the template and just create in a very intuitive way. Your inner guidance will tell you what to do next and then next and then next again. It's sort of like a treasure hunt – EVEN YOU don't know what the ending will be!

Mr. G kayaking (i'm the backseat driver)

Yours truly chilling in the backseat of our two man/woman kayak

On Saturday we managed to get out and kayak for one hour – first time all year. It's amazing how all of the stress and troubles wash away when you are out on the water.. One thing we noticed is that we are out of shape and heaving the heavy kayak onto of the car and off of it not to mention carrying it out to the water (at low tide) was a stretch. Getting out onto the water was the treat!

After a brief respite it was back to work! I was still working on my videos for the online classes and also creating PDF files. The program INDESIGN is new to me and trying to learn it has been rather frustrating. At one point over the weekend I ended up in tears because I kept forgetting how to do certain things like filling colours in the text box and making colourful outlines etc. I went outside and cried and said “I'm too old for this!”. Then later when I was video taping I used a remote control gadget to stop and start the video so I wouldn't have to keep getting up from working on the art to manually shut the camera off. Wouldn't you know it – somehow I got things wrong at one point and had turned the camera off thinking that it was on and then when it was on I thought it was off. So needless to say I am late in uploading the latest video. Mr. G is a bit frustrated with me because he said I'd been through much of this before (while explaining to me for the umpteenth time how to do things). It's easy for him though because his background is in computers and technological things so he does not realize how difficult it is for me - i'm into art, people and nature.

Being menopausal doesn't help – things do not sink in as well as they used to. Obviously i'm better at some things than at others. Unless you have buckets of money and can hire folks to work on things that you are not great at then you simply need to learn the technology. Sorry about the rant.......just wanted to illustrate how fashioning a dream also involves doing many things which are not easy, fun or frustrate the beejesus out of you.

Prism of the Heart
Many thanks to my friend Norm Tucker of /Prism of the Heart for the lovely book review of Journal Bliss. Do take the time out to explore Prism of the Heart and perhaps submit an article or two. Here are the article contribution criteria:

We wish to explore and celebrate our diversity and creativity from as many perspectives (and they are surely infinite) as possible and so expand our understanding of life and of the value of life.

To combine two or more communications media ( images, words. sound).

To  reflect and demonstrate values that sustain diversity and peace.

To ease the process, you may wish to email me (see address above).

Please also consider entering into a written and ongoing dialogue about subjects you value.

Kathy and Janice, sisters having a blast in the studio creating a fun journal page.

The aftermath of the creative explosion. I can't believe i forgot to take picture of the ladies wonderful pages with faces on them. They were awesome!

Art Parties
Last night two fun and joyful sisters came over for some artsy fun. We made backgrounds, dyed papers, drew faces and then put them all together. My Dream dictionary was used to snip tiny hilarious messages which were then glued to the pages. The session was supposed to be 2 hours long but ended up being 3 hours. It was a good lesson as to how long we would need to fashion one page and make backgrounds. The ladies had several painted backgrounds to use in future pages. If you are interested in having an Art Party here one evening with your girlfriends please let me know - i will need a minimum of 4 ladies and maximum of 8. The sessions would be 3 hours long - we could fashion a couple of journal pages, make talking heads, collage or??? Let me know what you would like to see. Thank you Kathy and Janice for sharing your warm and bubbly energy with me!

An Amazing reading
Yesterday i had an amazing phone reading with psychic and artist Sharon Renae. She blew my socks off! Really she did. I've been receiving readings for over 22 years and i must say that Sharon's readings (based on the vibrations she picked up from the tone of my voice) was in the top 3! Sharon picked up on people who had passed on in my life, had relevant messages etc. Best of all though she was able to accurately pick up where i was at in my life, my emotions, where i was stuck etc. Lately i've been getting very drained when i'm around people and Sharon picked up that i needed to preserve my energy - she gave me some tools to use to do that. So if you are needing some guidance or assurance in your life i would highly recommend Sharon!

Today we are hopefully going Kayaking for the first time this year - it's one activity that "feeds" me rather than tires me out so i'm looking forward to it!

Have an amazing Saturday!

Love, Violette xoxo

This is an image from my book which i shrunk down and had Nicci solder during out Glitter Sister Gathering. It's going to be my special pendant representing my first book!

I applied for a posting recently and figured that since I now had a book (it gives you credence) that I would be a shoe in for the job. You see I figured that Visual Journaling would be truly beneficial. Several years ago I applied for this same posting and was rejected because my art/expertise was – not quite suited to their needs. So fast forward several years and what I am teaching now would be very appropriate and I'm rejected again. This time I'm not the right colour nor do I come from the right ethnic background – Aboriginal, Asian or Indo-Canadian (East Indian). ACK???!!!!!!! Can you believe it? Of course it's nothing personal it's just that I don't come from the right category. The thing is though Visual Journaling transcends all races, colour and creed......but alas.....sometimes quotas have to be filled. So I had to laugh to myself and say..........NEXT......the Universe has something better in mind for me!

No Pouting, No Screaming, No Sadness
I was quite pleased because I didn't pout or get severely depressed or want to jump off the nearest bridge – the nearest bridge is my driveway and the jump is only 18 inches into the ditch! Maybe after a while you start getting used to rejection and realize that it REALLY is not personal – what you have to offer might not fit what the company or person is looking for – wrong category, wrong colour, wrong style (grunge, graffiti, whimsical, scrapbook-y), too difficult, too easy, the timing is wrong, you're ahead of the times, you're behind the times, too shabby chic, not shabby chic enough etc.

So if you look at rejection this way and keep plugging away trying to find your people, your place in the world, acceptance of your art and expertise you will find them. Along the way of finding your tribe or your perfect client you'll meet rejection – you'd better believe it.......probably more than most people because you're stretching yourself more and sending lots of “ships out” into the sea. Some of them will come back - with treasures to boot!!!

Here is an interesting quote about rejection and criticism:

According to one critic, my works looked like scraped billboards. I went to look at billboards and decided that more billboards should be scraped.

- Mark Tobey

.....ya gotta love it!

Chris Dunmire in Tombstone, Arizona
Chris Dunmire the inspiration behind Creativity Portal went on an Artist's Soul Retreat to Tombstone Arizona and wrote about it. She mentioned Journal Bliss in her article - Thanks Chris! The editor of the Tombstone Times newspaper had an e-mail alert out and found Chris' article (really enjoyed it) then reproduced it in their newspaper. How cool is that? All of these amazing connections just by sharing your inspiration on the net!

Here are the Peace Flags I created for a swap i'm participating in. Creating them reminded me of teaching “Peace Flag” art to teenagers at the Girl's Peace Conference a couple of years ago.

About Curiosity
It's more about a five – or ten – or fifteen – year process where you start finding your voice, and finally you begin to realize that the safest thing you can do feels risky and the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe.”

Seth Godin (from the book Tribes)

I'm reading Seth Godin's book Tribes right now and was fascinated by the above quote so wanted to share it with you. When you are a curious person you begin to challenge the status quo, you question things the way they have always been done – you become a heretic. Seth says that in the past heretics were burned, hanged and drowned. Today many heretics are sought after since the only way to survive in an increasingly shifting and changing world is to be open to new ideas.....hence enter the heretics. Heretics rarely settle – no....they are the disturbers, the challengers.

A Stepford Wife Heretic
In my little corner of the world I've been a heretic – deviating from the Stepford wife mentality and …..gasp........dressing differently than the other housewives.....decorating my home in a more boisterous and colourful fashion. It only gets worse with age......ahem.....i mean better. You don't seem to worry quite as much what others will think as you did when you were younger. You are not as “influenced by the crowd” like you may have been as a teenager. When I've had groups of teenagers come through the magic cottage for a tour I am always drawn to the ones who dress differently – the ones with the mohawks or revamped unusual clothing , coloured hair etc. They tend to be the ones who are fascinated by my home and art. The Preppy kids look on with a smidge of horror – and I know what they are thinking “God....if my Mom could see this she would think this woman was a freak!”

You can't have everyone like you – you need to be true to yourself and then your “Tribe” will emerge – they will find you or you will find them. It often happens in an organic fashion. You may as well fly your "freak flag" and be loud and proud about it!

Maybe this should be called Inspiration Bun instead of Inspiration Sandwich?? It's all I had to work with this morning so it had to do!

My first encounter with Sark was through her book Inspiration Sandwich. I think that was about 15 or more years ago. It's a delightful, simple book all handwritten with adorable squiggles and doodles that leap off of the page with joy! My whole world opened up when I read it. Even though I had never met Sark it was as though she had personally given me permission to be that succulent, colourful, eccentric human being that I was inside. Words escape me to describe how incredibly delicious that felt! Today you will find many books with the same sort of flavour but imagine back then nothing similar existed –Sark's book was new, ground breaking and exciting. Today you'll find numerous books on creativity, technique how – to's and general crafts. There is so much available even in the world of paper arts magazines that you have to wonder – How the heck do you find what you need through a saturated creative market?

Sometimes I am distracted by the next shiny new object that appears before my path. Off I veer in another direction leaving the previous project or creative obsession unfinished. It is a constant battle to stay on track. I'm am thinking of creating some kind of tool to help navigate the “creative waters”....if I come up with something I will let you know!

What gives you Juice?
One way to find out what you really love is to flip through magazines – particularly artsy and crafty magazines and see what catches your eye. Is it a quilt that is done in a traditional fashion or one that is messy, splatter-y and glittery? What makes you gasp and stop so that you pour over every detail and read all of the instructions? What gets those cogs in your sweet little creative right brain turning? The answers to those questions are the seeds of your creative quest. Try and see if you can create something with what you have on hand rather than going out and buying new supplies. If you are like me you have collected numerous supplies which are waiting to be used.

So take out your supplies and MAKE SOMETHING! Have a creative day. Your Spirit will thank you for it!

Mr. G doctored up a 25 year old rusty bike of mine which was going to pot amidst the Deadly evening Nightshade which had overtaken it. He sanded it up and spray painted it and then mounted it on my studio wall. I plan on making a papier mache wing for it - you know...to represent taking flight?

Virtual Book Tour at Rhonda's Frugal Artiste!
My friend Rhonda was kind enough to be a part of my Virtual Book tour - please check her blog out! Thank you Rhonda - it's always a pleasure connecting with you. Rhonda is one of those friends who helps center me when i start spinning out of control - she has a great way of sussing out the core issues of a problem and helping you look at them in an objective way. She is a fellow Gemini so we have plenty in common!

“Solitude is mandatory for staying connected to one's own soul” - Gail Jones

Yesterday I craved Solitude after a very busy “people” weekend. The older I get the more I crave solitude. It used to be that I received energy from being around people – now I rejuice and energize myself by spending time alone, walking, being on the beach, sitting in the backyard or creating art in solitude. In Gail McMeekin's wonderful book The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women (one of my favourite books) she states that we need quiet time to connect with your soul's messages. Because we are socialized to “do” for other people – to think of others first often our “creativity” suffers. It's important to give yourself the gift of creativity and to KNOW in what kind of environment your creativity will flourish? Some women feel the need to go away on a retreat to write that book or complete that body of art. Some will become like pit bulls in order to protect this sacred and essential time refusing to answer the phone or e-mails letting their friends and family know that they are NOT available for a certain period of time.

If you don't value your special time to create and give your soul an outlet no one else will. What can you do today to ensure that you have some block of time set out to experience solitude so that your creative expression can emerge from your being?