How To Be Alone

I love this video. Tanya speaks the truth.

The Perfect Protest

Brene Brown is hosting The Perfect Protest this week in honor of her new book: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.

Doesn't the title just say it all?

Really, it's such a relief to just relax into yourself. I've spent years planning how great things will be when I finally get it all together. Problem is, I'd always rather have fun than do all the yucky work that I think I need to do to get it all together. Endless yucky work that can never all be done. So I'm finally learning that if I let go of the idea that I am something less until that mythical day when I get it all together, I can have the fun without the icky anxiety that I should be working harder to get it all together. I am enough. I really don't care if I have messy hair and a messy house. I am enough. Such a powerful message.

I am enough.
And so are you.

And on a very thrilling side note, I have a dishwasher!!
An adorable little miniature dishwasher!
I think I actually jumped up and down when I got home today and walked into my kitchen and saw this. It was the only thing on my "must have" list that my house didn't already have. And now it's here and I'm so happy! Now if only I hadn't washed all the dishes by hand last night to make room for the handyman to work - I don't have any dirty dishes to put in it!

Blessings

I'm counting my blessings today. Here's a few:

Warm, soft cozy bed with a pretty reminder from a dear friend.

Window I can look out of into a big tree while lying in the bed.

Lovely sturdy house with pink and aqua walls that is ALL mine. The whole thing!

Sweet funny cat friend who wakes me up at 5 am because he wants to cuddle.

Family who are fun to hang out with.

Warm, smart, funny, supportive friends.

Garbage service.

Lawn service.

$$ to buy art supplies.

Sunshine!

What blessings are you counting today?

Ohmigosh!

I'm tired. I have an ear infection. I'm living on iced white mochas and delivery pizza. And my heart is full to bursting with happiness and excitement over my new home.
No, I'm not moved in, I'm not even done painting. But I'm starting to get glimpses of what it will be. It's even better than I imagined. Pistol and I will sleep there tonight and tomorrow we'll just hang out and rest and get used to the new place. Lovely!

Art Journal LOVE

I'm indulging in some delicious art journal LOVE with the excellent Connie over at Dirty Footprints Studio.
Check out her 30 Journals 30 Days project!
Here's my contribution for the 31st day:

• How long have you been Art Journaling?

I started art journaling after my first trip to ArtFest 2.5 years ago. It seemed like EVERYONE had journals at ArtFest and they were all so AMAZING! I wanted to get in on the fun.

• How has Art Journaling impacted, changed, or enhanced your life?

Art journaling has really freed me up creatively. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and a lot of a procrastinator. With art journaling, all the things that were holding me back just don't exist. My journal is a place where I'm just goofing off so it doesn't matter if I mess up or hate a page. That freedom to experiment and play is contagious and spills over into my other artwork.

My art journal is also my ambassador in my regular, everyday world. I carry it everywhere and show it to anyone who's interested. It explains the art that I make and my creative nature much better than words ever could.

• What are a few of your favorite Art Journaling materials?

Cheap acrylic paints, my brayer, mod podge, chisel and brush tip pens, sharpie poster paint pens

• Who are some of your favorite Art Journalers?

Pam Garrison, Judy Wise, Teesha Moore

• What kind words of encouragement would you say to an Art Journal newbie?

You can do whatever you want in your journal! And there are no mistakes!

• Where can we contact you...give us some link LOVE!!

www.artquiltplay.blogspot.com

• Short Bio.

I am a mixed media artist in LOVE with color, texture, words, sunshine, flowers, books, fabric, embroidery, embellishment, raspberries, my cat Pistol, art journaling, creating, cool grass between my toes, tank tops, pizza and tons of other things.

Paint Party!

Saturday was a beautiful day for painting. Painting my house, that is. No more peach! I was up early taping all that lovely white trim that I wanted to keep.

This hallway has 8 freakin' doors!!

Girlfriends absolutely ROCK! Bridget, Kathy and Maureen worked so hard and had so much fun!

The peach was quite determined and required a coat of primer before we got to the lovely blue.

The color is weathered glass and it's everything I wanted. Lots more to do, but thanks to my amazing friends, the bulk of the painting is done!
I need to finish painting, do some heavy cleaning on the floors, get a dishwasher installed and install the new sink/vanity in the bathroom. In the meantime, carloads of stuff are going over every day. I'm hoping to actually start living there the first week of August!

I've got skillz

I spent a wonderful weekend in Tacoma at the Puget Sound Bead Festival with my mom and Aunt Susie. In addition to a ton of fabulous shopping, I took two classes and greatly expanded my jewelry making skills. I learned to solder with Stephen James and I learned mad metalworking skills from Linda Larsen. Hammering and torching and sawing, oh my! The pic above is the wearable journal pendant I made in Linda's class. Both classes were SOOOOO much fun. Now I have to buy a torch!

creating a home

Yikes, apologies in advance for the crummy pictures - the iphone camera doesn't like bad lighting!

Yes, I'm moving and I'm still putting things on the walls in the current place. I have an intense need to "see what it will look like". LOL! I bought some chipboard letters that are about a foot high and covered them with a patchwork of pretty scrapbook papers. Then I randomly brayered them with gesso to shabby them up a bit.

I finally got the keys to the new house yesterday, so I took the cat and a load of stuff over last night. Pistol was kinda freaked out, but he liked the back yard. I made this little altar of blessings on the mantle to start things off on the right note.

And I taped an impromptu welcome up in the hall.

And yeah, I totally tagged my house! This is in a corner of my studio space, the beginning of what will become my graffiti wall. It's my house, I can write on the walls if I want to!