• Art - Blog - Creativity

    Listening is key

    I was inspired to create this journal page after reading a college student’s first hand account of why he was walking for suicide prevention on his college campus. I was moved by his very eloquent yet heartbreaking words describing his journey. I couldn’t help but think of all the young men and women in my life, especially my own children.  

    Often when I have high emotions, I turn to creativity as an outlet. I let everything go and work by intuition…not over thinking anything. Eventually I get to a place that the page starts to take a shape in the direction my mind was subconsciously heading.

    I’ve always been told I’m a good listener by my friends. They often will turn to me to vent, gab, or problem solve. I may not always have a ton of advice but I do always have a shoulder to lend.

    It is my wish that my children will find someone in their lives that will be able to do the same for them even if its not me. And that they have learned the skill of really listening. It is the key to so many things.

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    T on the 2nd edition

    Ok this is one of those crazy days that happens…we have a crossover post.

    Honestly its likely a good thing because I have so many things to talk about but have nothing prepared and I’m already late to the party. How does that happen?

    Anyway…Mini-me made it back from Costa Rica on Thursday evening…we left for Duluth the next morning. Busy weekend then back to school on Monday. WHEW!! What a crazy few days.

    I’ll share more about all that in another post but I thought I’d at least share a bit about the coffee Mini-me brought home the Doka Coffee Plantation.

    I borrowed this photo from Twitter of the group tossing the raw beans in the air.

    This is one that we’ve opened and tried. It’s very good. It seems to me that the caffeine content might be a bit higher than what we usually drink. We haven’t tried the other kind she brought back yet.

    Now on to Second on the 2nd….

    I have been attempting to join more challenges lately. Before I rejoined the workforce I participated in challenges regularly and it really kept my creativity flowing. Here’s a post from on of those fun challenges I did way back when.

    Take a look….

    7/15/2013

     Sage and SepiaThis is the last week of Summer of Color! I can hardly believe it.

    This is the color combo I’ve been voting for each week. The strange thing is now that I got it…I had trouble making it work. The photo color is a bit off for the green but my “Photoshop fu” is off this morning.

    I painted the background with sage then distressed it a bit.  After adding the sepia elements, I used some white rub-ons for visual interest. The bride and groom are my maternal grandparents circa 1929.

    Incidentally, this is my 1000th post! WHOA! That’s a lot of blogging. Thanks to everyone who continues to read. I love it when you leave comments to let me know that you’ve been here.

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    Thanks for stopping by my twofer post today!

    What are you doing today?

     

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: somewhere in paradise edition

    We are temporary empty-nesters as my neighbor so perfectly phrased. The boy is off at college and the girl is traveling around Costa Rica. Crazy!

    I’ve been keeping up with her through a few random texts and Snapchats…otherwise I’m using social media to see photos from their adventures.

    Mini-me sent me this photo she took at the Irazú Volcano.

    And this one of the La Fortuna waterfall. They rode horses to get to there then swam at the base. WOW!

    Meanwhile in MN…we are watching the snow melt. 🙂

    I am so excited that she has this opportunity..once in a lifetime.

    AS far as myself…I’ve been knocking things off a todo list. Feels good. There just haven’t been enough hours in the day or week lately. I’ve been creating and experimenting with my supplies. I think these may become tags….or at least tag backgrounds…or starting pointsAnother thing on my list for this week is to clean up this chaos. I want to streamline and phase out some things that I really never use, are too old and junked to use or lets face it…never liked in the first place but hung on to it anyway.

    It’s a big job but I think I’m up for the challenge.

    Mini-me comes home on Thursday. Friday we leave for the state archery tournament. Well, at least she gets to sleep one night in her bed.

    What are you doing today?