Entries from: October 2009
Connecting with Your Inner Child
October 15th, 2009, Comments (11)
Oh my goodness, there's nothing like Disney World to bring out your inner child! I've always loved roller coasters and other rides, but I got particularly giddy in all the parks we visited last weekend. Disney does such a great job with their parks.
The hubster got such a kick out of my reaction the rides. I'd laugh and scream louder than anybody, which is kinda funny considering how small and fairly quiet I am. I don't know what it is, but put me on a roller coaster and I go totally bonkers. It's awesome. Hehe.
The whole weekend made me realize that I want more of that kind of silly fun in my life. I've always been a big supporter of play when it comes to creativity. I think it's an important part of learning to let go, experiment, and have fun while you create. But sometimes, you can just go out and enjoy a playful good time.
Some of the ways I get connected with my inner child:
- *Breaking out the crayons to color outside the lines.
- *Dance around in my silly print pajamas.
- *Wear kooky socks.
- *Play with kids.
- *Read children's books or see children's movies
- *Go to amusement parks!
- *Draw with chalk on the sidewalk
- *Dress up for Halloween or for no reason at all.
- *Make up silly songs with the hubster.
- *Paint with my fingers
- *Have breakfast for dinner
- *Have an attack of the giggles
- *Collect shiny rocks
- *Wish on stars
- *Make up bed time stories
- *Roll around on the floor with the cats
- *Cut peanut butter sandwiches in to triangle shapes
How bout you? What are some of the ways you connect with your inner child? How can you bring more of that childlike delight into your life? Where do you go to have a fun-goofy-totally-silly-good-time?
Connect with Those You Love
October 13th, 2009, Comments (16)
This weekend, the hubster and I got away to Disney World for a long weekend. There was a business meeting involved, so it wasn't all playtime, but a majority of the time was spent together, exploring 4 amusement parks, laughing and screaming on the rides, and enjoying each other's company. And it just so happens that today is our 2nd wedding anniversary! We've been together for 8 years now and we still adore each other. The weekend felt a bit like an annivesary celebration and it delights me how much we still enjoy spending time together. It also reminded me how important this kind of quality time is to connect with those you love.
I thought you guys might enjoy seeing a couple wedding pics from our big day two years ago (which was perfect in every way.) I can hardly believe 2 years has gone by already!
The whole wedding experience was filled with creative moments from both the hubster and I and seeing it come to life was so amazing. Walking down the aisle to a string quartet playing a composition that the hubster wrote for me, was one of the most romantic experiences of my life. Ack, I'm getting teary writing that! I added my touches in the invitations, programs, table cards, cake design, and other decorative touches. And then we both wrote our vows, which had everyone laughing. It just goes to show, that there are lots of ways to show your love, from words to art to kisses.
What are some creative ways you can connect with those you love?
p.s. The photos above were taken by the utterly amazing Tirados, a super sweet husband and wife team. We loved working with them!
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: October 12 – 18
October 12th, 2009, Comments (18)
This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.
Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 10/12/09 - 10/18/09.
The widget below is an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post (or posts) during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.)
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.
Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here.
If you want to sign up to be a part of the challenge, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know. When you contact me, please let me know how you'd like to be listed in the list of participants, which resides in the right sidebar (I can list you as your name or as a link to a blog if you have one. A blog is not required to participate!) Please email or comment to let me know you're participating before you start posting links in the comments or on the "Mr. Linky" widget.
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for October is connect. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here.
Happy Creating!
Art, in the first place, has to connect with yourself. ~Andrew Brown
Connecting to Your Longing
October 8th, 2009, Comments (39)
I have these pictures from a nature walk I took the other day and when I was thinking about posting them, I thought, "Oh, but you already did a post about connecting with nature for the connect theme! Write about something different!" But sometimes you've just gotta go with where your heart is tugging you.
It's kind of funny because of all the Joy Diet chapters (the book I'm reading with Jamie Ridler's book group), the one on Desire has been the most difficult for me. I'm not sure if it's because it gets harder as one chapter builds upon the next, if the exercises themselves are getting more difficult, if I'm losing steam, or if I have some kind of resistance to looking at what it is that I desire. I have a feeling it's the latter.
I've continued to get in my nothing time (mainly in the form of walks), I've done the truth exercises, but by the time I get to the desire piece, I've "run out of time" or "forgotten" or brushed it off. Hmm. And this is something I've been working on too, speaking up and saying what I want instead of being so easy-going to a fault all the time. Perhaps there's a fear underneath it all that something I want is too big, too grand, and the disappointment would be too great. Or perhaps I feel like I have enough and who am I to want more?
For now, I'm going to continue to practice Martha Beck's method of "picking a pebble" of any small desire and follow it where it leads. On my walks, I've been so thrilled with colors and shapes and have been so glad to have my iphone with me to capture snapshots of it all. I've been especially excited by reflections of sky in water and the shapes of leaves. Color and texture and beauty, oh my!
I feel like I've been successful in following my desires in terms of inspiration. It's something I'm more familiar with, allowing myself to be pulled by the inner nudges that lead me to mediums, subjects, and experiments in art. And perhaps this is enough for now and maybe if I continue to practice this, my desire skills will expand into other areas of my life.
I guess I did end up writing about a different sort of connection here. And in reality I could write about connecting with nature and all the things that come up from doing that all month long! (Although I doubt I will.) But isn't it interesting to see where following desire can lead?
Where are your inner nudges leading you in your art? Are you following them despite what you may "think" about it? What are you longing to do creatively? And if you don't know yet, how could you connect with that part of yourself?
Art Every Day Month Survival Guide
October 6th, 2009, Comments (11)
Art Every Day Month, a challenge I lead every November, is just around the corner! I will continue to offer the challenge to anyone who wants to join in this year, but I'm also going to be offering something extra for those who want to join in, but could use a little extra help along the way.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Art Every Day Month, it's a challenge I started about 7 years ago. I was interested in doing a month-long challenge, like Nanowrimo (in which participants write a novel in a month), but I wanted it to be about art. For the first year, I committed to creating art every day for the month of November and I posted it on my blog. The next year, a few people joined in with me, and it's grown from there. Last year there were over one hundred people playing along!
When I say art in this challenge, I mean it in the broadest sense, so your daily art could be a painting, a doodle, a photo, a poem, a meal, a scrapbook page, a piece of jewelry, a craft project, a quilt square, etc... It doesn't have to be a finished project every day either. For example, one day I might start a painting and the next day I might go back to that painting and finish it. And if you miss a day, or a week, you can just brush yourself off and jump back in. There's no guilt factor here, the challenge is all about adding more creativity into your life.
Having done this challenge for many years now, I know that even with the incredible support of doing this with a group, it can be hard to stay motivated for the whole month. That's where the Survival Guide comes in!
The Art Every Day Month Survival Guide will be delivered to you in a daily email, one for each day of the 30 day challenge. In the email you will receive a dose of inspiration, encouragement, tips, tricks, and prompts to keep you energized and flying through this creative adventure. I'll also include beautiful images and a weekly mp3 recording with a mix of visualizations, stories, and ideas to keep you creating from day 1 to day 30. And it's only $30!
You can get all the details and sign up here to start receiving your Survival Guide emails on November 1st.
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: October 5 -11
October 5th, 2009, Comments (15)
This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.
Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 10/5/09 - 10/11/09.
The widget below is an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post (or posts) during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.)
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.
Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here.
If you want to sign up to be a part of the challenge, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know. When you contact me, please let me know how you'd like to be listed in the list of participants, which resides in the right sidebar (I can list you as your name or as a link to a blog if you have one. A blog is not required to participate!) Please email or comment to let me know you're participating before you start posting links in the comments or on the "Mr. Linky" widget.
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for October is connect. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here.
Happy Creating!
Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. ~William Plomer
Connecting with Nature & with Myself
October 1st, 2009, Comments (30)
It is the month of connect for the Creative Every Day Challenge, which has me thinking of all the ways I connect in my world. One of the things I've been loving about the home I've moved to, is that it's close to nature trails. Since I'm reading The Joy Diet with Jamie Ridler's book group, I've been using my walks in the woods as a time to do nothing. It's a great practice in staying in the present moment, letting my thoughts march by as if they were in a parade, returning and returning and returning again to my breath, forward movement, step, step, step.
There's a lovely resting point at the end of a wooden pathway that trails right into a pond, filled with frogs. I'm already enjoying the ways the trees are changing all around it and the way they reflect in the water. So peaceful.
This week in The Joy Diet, the focus was on truth. At the end of your nothing practice, you ask yourself what you're feeling, what story you're telling yourself about it, and whether another story might work better. I've used this sort of practice before (it's similar to Byron Katie's The Work), but having the reminder to do it every day has been helpful. And I love the practice of asking these questions after the meditative time.
Although winter will make it hard to take these long walks, I plan to continue them as long as I can. When I'm out connecting with nature, I feel like I'm connecting with myself and my spirituality. And that fills me in a wonderful way.
What are some ways that you connect with yourself?
