! ! ! Happy Birthday 2ME ! ! !

My birthday arrived two days early in the form of a package from California! My incredible AND talented friend of many years Sharon Bloom sent me goodies!  I'll turn 40 on Friday and you'd think that at this age I could be mature.  HA - not a chance!!  I tried to be so good and wait until Friday to open this package but the little kid in me won out!  Its impossible to have a box from Sharon Bloom sitting on your table and not tear into it right away!  I want to share with you what she sent and why I'm a lucky lucky girl!

It starts with this great card - love this cat!

Sweet as sweet can be clay house and tree!

The most AMAZING owl plate! (insert your jealousy HERE!)

I have a shelf in my bathroom that I display many Sharon goodies on - check this out...

My son Joel's birthday is nine days after mine and Sharon always remembers him too - she sent him a gift card in this great owl card - I will frame the card for his room!

Thank you Sharon, not only for these amazing gifts but also for your friendship - I am glad that you are in my life! Together we will rule the world!!  XOXOX  Christine

.... My First Spun Cotton Creation ....

I'm home sick from work today hanging out with a not-so-fun friend, stomach bug.  For the moment I feel ok so I thought I would try to sneak in a post.

Saturday was my spun cotton class with Paula Walton - I had an amazing day with her learning this technique!  With Paula I made two people ornaments and a cat - The cat is not finished yet but I will post once it is.  I had a little bit of time on Sunday to practice and made my very first solo creation!  I took the traditional techniques she taught me and tweaked them a bit making an ornament with a bit stiffer feel.  I created this precious bunny girl. She's a cut little thing measuring about 5.5 inches. So very fun to make - I look forward to creating many more!  It was my sister's birthday at the beginning of February and I owe her a present so this very first creation is going to her!

!! Excitement !!!

Tomorrow is my private spun cotton ornament class with Paula Walton of A Sweet Remembrance.  I am so excited to learn this technique and to spend the day with her.  I turn 40 (ugh) next week and this is my birthday present to myself - Happy Birthday to ME!  I will post tomorrow and show you what I learned!

Hanging Art Doll

I have to agree, this does look great hanging on my wall! - I found the perfect wall space between my kitchen and living room. She looks small in the photo but is actually 16" tall.

Something I have failed to do in the past is to keep art that I have made for myself - so I am going to make a few pieces to keep and then get busy filling my etsy store!  I'm so in love with these dolls and the process of making them -  I hope when the time comes I will be able to part with them - or I could always become the Great Art Doll Hoarder!!!

Creative Stride!

I am excited to report that I have captured creativity and I have no plans on letting it go!
It's MINE all MINE!

I worked last night and this afternoon in my studio & I have some
goodies to share!!!!

I like how these three pieces work together & decided to create a new blog header from the group shot.

Next goal......create more and add work to my Etsy shop!

This guy is not finished yet - I wonder what I should do do with him?

coconut curry soup for the creative soul

Another passion of mine is cooking - I love to cook (the cleaning up after myself part - whole other story) How I decided to be creative tonight was to craft a pot of coconut curry soup! I owe my love of cooking with curry and thai ingredients like lemongrass, ginger and kaffir lime leaves to my friend Kara Lynch. Kara introduced me to curry paste and kaffir lime leaves and a whole new world of cooking opened up. Thanks Kara! I would love to share the recipe I used for this soup but to be honest I don't have one. I read a lot of recipes and then take what I like out and create my own. So the best I can do is this phot0 of my ingredients and to tell you that it smells and tastes incredible!

Ah Ha!

For a while now I have really been hard on myself for my lack of creativity. I head down to my studio and rearrange my space. I move this here & move that there (stall tactics - that I am VERY good at). Knowing that I have stalled enough, I sit and grab a canvas or my sketch pad, thinking I'm going to come up with something great....... and within 20 minutes I'm angry with myself and I shut the light off and turn away defeated once again. I beat on myself and send that creative spirit fleeing even further away.
I have been thinking a lot about this lately and I'm working very hard at putting an end to this destructive thought pattern. I have decided to cut myself some slack! When I was creating art full time to support myself and my son I was in the studio every waking minute with my hands dirty working on different projects - The creativity flowed as easy as breathing.

What changed? How did I fall off my path?

Feeling a bit burnt out an opportunity arose and I took a full time graphic design position with a publishing company. That was five years ago. Don't get me wrong I am very thankful that in this economy I have a job. Its just that everyday I'm creating at my job for someone else and then when I get home I have nothing left for me! Its time for some balance in my life.

I've recently had one of those Ah-HA! Moments.

When I go into the studio to create and nothing happens its not because I'm not creative or because I suck as an artist and have no talent. Its because I have put my creative spirit in a different direction. I need to be a whole lot nicer to myself and lighten up! I can't expect myself to creatively preform on command if I haven't been working in my studio in a long time. I am going to turn that creative spirit back in a direction that makes ME happy! Yea!

So here is my plan!

I have been kicking around the idea for a while of taking a class from Paula Walton - I'm lucky enough to only live about an hour away from her. So I did it and signed up! On March 12th I have a private class on spun cotton ornaments!

I also will be taking an online course in June - Painting with Plaster.

I am so excited to be getting my hands dirty again! I will keep you posted on this journey back to creativity!