Creative Every Day Check-In: January 7 – 13
January 7th, 2013, 26 Comments
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: You can sign-up for the 2013 Challenge here!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 1/7/13 - 1/13/13.
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) or flickr image 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 unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (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.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter or Instagram you can use the hashtag #CED2013!
Theme: January's totally optional theme is Dark, which you read more about here.
Happy Creating!
The Mister Linky widget was down last night for maintenance, so I'll have it up as soon as possible. In the meantime, feel free to leave links in the comments! And it's back! Sorry for the delay!
Giveaway! Hooray!
January 4th, 2013, 66 Comments
I love a good giveaway, don't you? And this one is fantastic. Leonie just contacted me to ask if I'd like to give away a combo-pack of her Create Your Incredible Business and Life Workbook to a Creative Every Day reader!! So you'd get both the Life and Business editions! Wowza!
To win, leave a comment below (by Monday at noon EST) with one hope you have for the New Year. I'll randomly select the winner from your entries! Good luck!
Thank you to all who entered!! The randomly selected winner was entry #52, Nandita! I will be contacting you shortly!
Create Your Incredible Year
January 2nd, 2013, 10 Comments
For the last 4 years, I've worked with Leonie's beautiful Workbook and Planner which does an amazing job of helping you wrap up the year that's ended and plan for the next year.
What I especially love is how she gently, but firmly helps you to not only define your goals for the year, but then also break them down into actionable steps. I think that's where we lose a lot our stamina when we create resolutions. We say we want to lose weight, create more art, send out that book proposal, or go to Italy, and then it doesn't quite come together. A lot of it is because we don't know where to begin, the task of losing weight or making more art is too big and overwhelming, we haven't broken it down into smaller, doable steps with a date to complete each of these mini-steps.
Above are a sampling of pages I've completed in the workbook so far, a lovely New Year's Eve activity. I still have more to play with. So far, I especially loved filling out the gratitude page as I worked through wrapping up my 2012. Still have more to add, but it was great to appreciate all the wonderful things I have to feel grateful for right now. And in these winter months, I also enjoyed thinking of some things I want to do to make my living space more wonderful. I'm still working out what my big goals for the year are. I have a few, some that are simple, some a little scary. But a little scary is a good thing when it comes to big dreams!
If you're looking for some assistance in getting your big dreams in motion, Leonie is a powerful resource for making things happen (she's a master at making things happen fast!) and her 2013 Create Your Incredible Year Workbook and Planner is a great place to start.
Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2013, 6 Comments
Happy New Year to you and yours!! I wish you a magical 2013 filled with creative goodness.
I have some things to share with you over the next couple days. Perhaps, they will lead you on an internet journey that will inspire you!
First, my piece, Creating a Forest of Her Own was featured in the latest issue of Sprout, a beautiful online magazine. And next month, I'll be featured in an interview!
Ananda gave me the great honor of including me in her Digital Sisterhood Top 100! This is a list of women who according to Ananda are rocking the web and the world. What a great list of women to check out!
Earlier in the year, I was asked to join a board on pinterest for artists and mothers, called the Artist Motherboard. It's become a beautiful place to seek out inspiration from artists who are also moms! Here's a little more about the board (and how you can join it!), which was created by Lisa Myers Bulmash, about to have her first solo show. Congrats, Lisa!
Tomorrow, I'll be sharing some images from my work in Leonie Dawson's 2013 Planner and Workbook. Always a juicy way to start dreaming up what's to come in the New Year!
Creative Every Day Check-In: December 31 – January 6
December 31st, 2012, 16 Comments
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: You can sign-up for the 2013 Challenge here!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 12/31/12 - 1/6/13.
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) or flickr image 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 unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (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.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter or Instagram you can use the hashtag #CED2013!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is Celebrate. You can read more about the optional theme here. January's totally optional theme is Dark, which you read more about here.
Happy Creating!
Creative Every Day Theme for January: Dark
December 30th, 2012, 23 Comments
At the end of each month I will announce the totally optional theme for the following month. For the month of January 2013, the theme will be Dark.
As always, this month's theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge is totally optional. Use it if it inspires you, continue being creative every day in your own way if it doesn't, or do something in between. You can sign up for the 2013 Creative Every Day Challenge anytime. More info can be found here and the sign-up page is here.
I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month on the blog to help keep you inspired. You can use the posts here for jumping off points or interpret the theme in your own creative way. If you need some suggestions, here are a few ideas to get you started. You could:
- *Start with a dark surface, by drawing or painting on black paper or a black canvas.
- *Work with shadows in your writing or art.
- *Take time to imagine in a dark space or just close your eyes. Or work by candlelight!
- *Work in deeper, darker shades.
- *Focus your creations on the night sky.
- *During the darker, colder months, I like to get crafty and decorate. What craftiness could you get up to this month?
- I also love to fill the colder months with warm soups, are there any warm, comforting meals you'd like to try out?
How to use the CED themes:
If you're feeling creatively stuck or blocked at any point during the month, use the theme as a source of inspiration to get you moving. Feel free to focus on the theme in your creative activities for the entire month or as much as you'd like.
Using the theme is entirely optional for CED participants. Use it if it inspires you, ignore it if it doesn't. I'll be sharing posts throughout the month around the theme (among other things) to get you thinking about how to incorporate it into your life. I'd love to hear how you use the theme in your creative world.
And have fun with it!
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift. ― Mary Oliver
p.s. The art above is adapted from Ophelia available here.
Creative Every Day Check-In: December 24 – 30
December 24th, 2012, 11 Comments
Sorry for the delay today, folks. If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you and yours have a magical holiday! This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: You can now sign-up for the 2013 Challenge here!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 12/24/12 - 12/30/12.
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) or flickr image 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 unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (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.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter or Instagram you can use the hashtag #CED2012!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is Celebrate. You can read more about the optional theme here.
Happy Creating!
Celebrating the Holidays and Other Good Stuff
December 19th, 2012, 3 Comments
Something about the holiday season makes me feel crafty. I am not particularly good at crafts because I'm a bit sloppy, but whatever, I'm diving in! This year, it's been fun making some crafts with Annabelle's help, like these salt dough handprint ornaments that I made of her hand and one each for two of her buddies. I found the instructions here. They're a little warped, but with some acrylic paint and ribbon, I think they came out kind of cute!
I'd also like to say a big thank you to folks for spreading the word about the 20 Little Lights print, which I'm selling to raise funds for the Sandy Hook School Support Fund. I've been touched both by the kind words of those who were moved by the image and by the print sales. Thank you! I was really affected by the tragedy, as were so many and I felt the need to do something. Even if it was a small something.
I've loved some of the other "small somethings" people have been up to. I saw via Facebook and Instagram that people are committing to doing 26 acts of kindness to honor the 26 lives lost that day. What an awesome idea! If you're on instagram, check out the hashtag #26acts to see what other people are doing.
I also saw via Facebook, that my friend Suzi Banks Baum had joined up with a group called The World Needs More Pie to bring free pie to the people of Newtown, Connecticut yesterday. How awesome is that?
It's always nice to see how people can come together and do beautiful, kind things in the world. It makes a difference.
20 Little Lights
December 17th, 2012, 5 Comments
Along with many people around the world, I was devastated by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut last week. Especially now, as a parent, I can't imagine the pain those affected must be going through.
The evening of the tragedy, I sat down and painted this piece, 20 Little Lights, honoring the 20 children whose lives were cut short. My heart goes out to the children and brave adults whose lives were taken that day and the family, friends, and community they left behind.
I will be offering prints of this piece for sale, with all proceeds going to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund (run by the United Way.) If you're so inclined, you can purchase a print here.
Creative Every Day Check-In: December 17 – 23
December 17th, 2012, 11 Comments
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: You can now sign-up for the 2013 Challenge here!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 12/17/12 - 12/23/12.
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) or flickr image 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 unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (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.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter or Instagram you can use the hashtag #CED2012!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is Celebrate. You can read more about the optional theme here.
Happy Creating!
