New baby Seahorses born today! with short Movie

Boy my mama and papa seahorses have been busy this past month!  Another new brood of babies!
Pictures are not coming out very good, but took this short video and now you can see them swimming around!  SO CUTE!  Hope this works!



Took us 2 hours to corral them from the big vertical tank to a small tank.  Now they will have a fighting chance to find food better.

And here is another one too!  They are about 1/4" big.
These are best viewed full screen or on YouTube. :)

Never a Mundane Monday around here

So after all the rain... ahem, 'flash flooding' last week, I thought, how wonderful for the garden and the trees! Well... maybe not this much, but we so needed the rain. You might have caught this on my Facebook posts last Wednesday when Casey (my son), and I ventured out for an afternoon unaware this is what was up at the end of the street 1 block over. Yes, that's a street. LOL

So this USED to be my itty bitty veggie/herb garden.... couple tomato plants, some lettuces, and some herbs...  My photo from last April soon after everything started sprouting nicely. 

And this is what it looks like right now... I noticed because it sits right outside my window here and had water spurting onto my window... which I assumed was only a broken sprinkler line.  HA!  Chewed more likely, not broken.  And now all above the soil, not buried...  kind of like those roots on the tomato plants.

I turn around and guess who's looking up at me?  Looks sweet huh? Do NOT be fooled!

Yep... Cocoa, the puppy from H E  double hockey sticks! LOL  Yes she looks adorable... and yes, she is very lovable... but this puppy (my grand-daughter's puppy mind you), is creating chaos around here lately.  

We won't even talk about the screen door with a new puppy door... or the upstairs carpet right now looking like an art project... OR the hallway freshly painted woodwork that is more like a natural grunged woodwork at all the corners, OR the other 3 plants by the pool now chewed up all over the sidewalk... this time, she struck on something that is more sacred than those things... my Herbs!  And I thought putting that fence around would help? Or putting my two terra cotta mint pots where she dug the last BIG holl 2 feet down would help? HA!  LOL  

BAD COCOA!  

 Do you notice how she has this little grin on her face even though she is being scolded?!  

So where is the other tomato plant?   Found it!  Well... part of it.  Other side of patio.
What's a mother to do? -sigh-   

Published again and playing catch up with life

Hi there everyone!  I know, I know... been a loooooong time!  It's been a H __ LL of a month around here and if you know me personally, you are probably wondering if I still have a brain left! LOL  read to the end for my summary of the month.

But first... I am honored again to have been published by Scrap Street Mag and the cover story for  Make it Manly. 

Here's a peek.  Click the preview too to read the techniques I used to create this page.

I created this page with my Beautiful Mess 2 Mixed Media Kit. 

Thank you ScrapStreet for requesting another  layout to be shared with your subscribers!

So onto the my past month's summary for you inquiring minds who need to know….

My jaw surgery went fine, so they tell me... but I have somehow lost 2 weeks to little green men who stole my brain and made me an up and down emotional mess on pain meds.  Not completely done yet, but the bone grafting and 4 mini posts in my jaw are tolerable now and I won't be reaching for anything stronger than aspirin again! {can you hear my family cheering in the background? lol}  Now just to recover from the financial blow of it all (and pay for the next 5 years on a loan), and not having medial insurance.  big ugggg!

As for the rest of the month... my son finally passed his kidney stones after several weeks of agonizing pain... I learned he handles pain meds much better than I do!  

My daughter has recovered physically from loosing the baby and time will heal the heart.  And we have been firmly reminded that everything happens for a reason... and unfortunately she also had to learn a difficult life-Lesson this past month too that had nothing to do with the pregnancy, but ended up with her and Miss Bailey taking shelter with us for a spell... 

And that made for a little chaos around here as they brought with them a puppy.... who has made herself at home finally with my yellow lad/golden retriever Gracie. She really is a good puppy, overlooking her need to eat anything paper including the occasional toilet paper roll and excitable peeing when someone new comes to visit.  

My bf was laid off for the 2nd time in just over a month, but did find a new job thankfully AND he even got my daughter a full time position there too as she couldn't find anything other than part time for the last year! Whoo Hoo!  

Now it's just a matter of waiting for those first checks that doesn't come for a month... uggg.  We had just about recovered from the month before lay off financially.  

Does the drama every end? lol  Hate drama! So ready to get back to normal days and life!  {without the green men mind you!} ;D

Just breathe Cilenia, just breathe!

Off to get caught up now.  I have your new Art Journaling challenge at Digitals for June to get posted! Watch tomorrow for all the info how to play and receive your Bonus Mini kit for participating. :)
Little sneak peek of the bonus kit.  And look for a full kit to coordinate with this later this week too!
Ciao!

Studio Remodel Day 1

So now that my Kallie and Miss Bailey have moved out in their new home I get my Loft Studio back. Thought about just moving it all back in, but had a better idea. I want a fresh, clean new look to the Studio.

Found this AWESOME neutral grey paint color I used for my downstairs bathroom, but OMG, I LOVE it up in the loft with all the natural light flooding in! We started out yesterday with doing only one wall to see how it would look. LOVE IT! So we did 2 of the walls with it. I'm leaving everything else white and am painting all the molding white too. It is GORGEOUS! Pics just don't do it justice here. This was early morning light… will try again today with afternoon sun coming in. :)

Snapped my daughter Kallie putting on the first coats. ;)

One Wall done!

The Plan!

I'm going to paint 3' or bigger tall poppies in the corner and cascade down and out each side with paper white coneflowers and daisies (and maybe a little other wildflower looking ones too between).  These should look sweet on the neutral slate grey walls and plan on doing some negative under painting to really pop them.    Starting sketching ideas... like the poppies, but think I will do the coneflowers like my art quilts instead of these... but hey, was fun sketching. ;)

Coneflowers like these on my art quilts I think would look good on the wall…. yes? :)  Nice big life sized.  Undertones of slate grey with a touch of sage maybe... hmmm where is that color journal, need to test that out first. lol May do a slate blue instead. Not sure the sage green would look good on the grey wall.

And maybe some word art... either...
"To be True, you must embrace the life that's calling you, and listen to the whispers of your soul."
or my usual
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes... Art is knowing which ones to keep."
Tough one to decide.... but leaning towards the first one right now. 

Then I have this awesome idea for a focal point on the long wall with a art quilt wall hanging. Taller more than wide grey quilt with white inner border with a white dandelion blowing pieces across the quilt.  Haven't decided yet if I will paint or applique yet.  Need to sketch that too. ;)

So off to the studio to make my plan and get out the pencils and start sketching on the walls. :)
I'm allowed!  I've been working for 5 hours already on the compy! LOL  Gotta play too! 

How I got from there to here - A personal Journey

WOW!  I'm NOT alone!  I'm not the only one who wants to live a happier and healthier life!  lol

I shared a layout on our Follow Your Art Blog The Plan is the Key and received LOTS of emails from others who seem to be on the same path as I and wondered how I am using visual journaling to help me on this quest. I want tho thank all of you who wrote and putting trust in me to share. I felt honored!

Yes, I guess this was a grand awareness somehow... I knew it in reality, but receiving the emails I did over the past few days somehow proved it to me that I really wasn't alone or so abnormal.  Somehow, this renewed my quest even stronger.  You gave me strength.  I even had a few "old friends" who have not seen me over 8 years ask me "why"?  Why do I feel like I need to be thinner, have more energy... because after all, the last time they saw me was before I moved west, I was the 43 year old mother of 5 who could walk 3' stilts carrying a 40# bucket of plaster. lol  I was the one who was 120# since I was 16 (except for those baby months).  I skied every week, I played 2 man sand competition volleyball every week... I had more energy than a 2 year old energizer bunny. lol  

I'm going to share something VERY personal with you today.  It is my hope, that in sharing this, I spark the motivation in others to take that first step in their own personal path. But there is a selfish reason too.

I KNOW by sharing this with others, I am making myself responsible and accountable to me. I am a very private person for the most part.  A lot remains private and only shared with a select few.  But I believe this is something that should not be. Something wonderful is about to happen because of this grand revelation. I feel it!  Actually something already has with a few I have shared this with so I'm hoping by sharing even more openly it helps others.  It is only one facet of my story... but it's a good example of how I tackled something through visual journaling and learned something very profound about myself.

  

SO,  

"Why?" they asked.  Well... the answer is...  life. And an unfortunate turn of events one month 10 years ago.  That's what happened. 

I was one of the thousands Telecom Engineers laid off that month when a major company went under.  

I had the most difficult break up in my entire life and that led to the onset of depression setting in. 

I had just bought my dream house, (from that break up), and now feared I was going to loose it.  

I was in a motorcycle accident, that left me off my feet for months, I got severe pneumonia during that time and doctors put me on steroids when nothing else worked and between it all, I gained a whopping 50#.  Yes, I just said that publicly.  And no, the doctors never did cure me after months and months, my herbs did… whole other story. lol

And all of that occurred in matter of a months.  And I lost me.  Took me years to realize that. (And it was my Art that made me realize that. More on that in a moment.)

Each month and year after that I assumed (secretly hoped), that it would end.  The weight would come off.  The energy would return. My perfect job would reappear, my perfect soul mate would return, I would feel better about myself, life would be better in general....  It didn't.  So I dug into a negative thinking pattern and way of life.   Sure I found a new job, started dating again 5 years later, ended up moving across the country for work and did loose my home I loved so much...  I did make new friends... but I wasn't happy with me still nor my life in general. It started to be… but more of the same repeated… and then... I basically gave up.  Why bother?  I was never going to be that again.

Then one day, sitting thinking that, and actually letting the words breathe from my mouth...

"REALLY?"  I asked myself, more like yelled at myself.  "I don't think I want to accept that."  And by then my RA had really kicked in, because of the weight gain, because of the unhealthy living, because of the inactivity, and I could not walk up or down the stairs without severe pain and feeling like I was 80… and I could not hand sew any longer, I could not run around and play with my dog or my grand-daughter, I was not going out and enjoying life with friends, I had become a hermit, I again was not having an easy time with finances, life, a relationship.... it hit me!  Do something!  I was screaming it at myself!

And this appeared in my journal.  Notice the black background of doom, but the peak of a brighter thought with color.  Says a lot to me at least.  

Art from Beautiful Mess 3

As we all know, it's hard to get motivated to change something so huge that has become such a norm in our lives.  It actually became overwhelming... which is how I ended up there. We let all those little voices inside of us tell us we are fat, we don't look in the mirror because that's not us.  We don't go out because we don't feel good about ourselves or how we look.  Etc. Etc Etc.  I was so there!  I could see it everywhere in my life, but mostly in my journaling.  It was screaming at me and I was not paying attention.  This, along with another statement I wrote later, "You can not become whom you want, by remaining what you are." It was my wake up call. 

So what did I do?  How did I begin a new path?  How did I change my reality? I journal it.  Not just write in a diary of being miserable or not having or being what I wanted, but take my old lessons of whenever I wanted to manifest something or get rid of something negative I would get creative and do a visual art journal page or pages to make it sink in.  I would put all those negative thoughts down on a page, and cover them all up with paints and something pretty.  I released it!

This is a page I did that day of realization.  What you don't see is the writing under the book page covered with white gesso paint.  Those are the negative thoughts. I painted over them, I glued AND stapled paper over them.  They were put away!  It felt good!

Art from Beautiful Mess 1

Then I did a page of positive affirmations of what I wanted to become, what I wanted to attract in my life.  But I would do it in a present tense.  "The mind is a powerful thing" my mother always told me.  If you believe it, it will be.  Everything you can imagine can be real.  Somehow, believing and knowing makes us take note of everything around us and helps us work towards making that belief a reality.  Yes, the first step is usually the most difficult.  But I had a plan... or at least an idea for one.  :) 

I would dig in and make a very defined plan on how to get from here to there!   DEFINE, CREATE and BE the person I wanted to be!  Not just my physical body, but ME all around and the life I want to be living.  My Happy Place.  My perfect True.  My deepest Intensions.  I wanted to be the person I was, but BETTER!  And a side note of honesty here… if others didn't like, so what! This was for me and no one else.  And if I didn't like me or wasn't happy with me, no one else would be either.

What I did… 

Step 1:  List 5 things I want to be or have in my life.  My Goals.  My Intensions.

Step 2: Break each of those down into bite size pieces of mini goals to reach for.

Step 3: Focus on each of those mini goals and implement something, anything, in my daily life to attain them. 

Step 4: PRACTICE each day, working at least one thing for each goal and make it my reality. 

Remember these?  The first one was actually from almost a year ago, but I felt the need to do again so I did another page.  And the 2nd one was my first step for my first goal renewed this month.  

 

Art from Follow Your Art January

How?  By being honest with myself. By Following my Heart, my True.  How again?  For me, by following my Art!  Let my creative side of my art seep to the top and spill into my daily thoughts and stimulate my creative thinking... to get creative with My Life!

I am using my daily visual art journal pages help me grow, help me create and form my reality.  I have never art journaled for just fun and whimsey.  I do it with purpose, with meaning.  Just like most of us don't scrapbook just to put a bunch of meaningless pictures on our pages.  They all mean something personal to us.  They have value and purpose.

Visual Journaling is the same for me.  I use it as an outlet for negative thoughts.  I use it to affirm positive thoughts.  I use it to be creative and get all my creative juices flowing and it always sparks me to be more creative in many other areas of my mind and my life... like how to get my body and energy back! lol  

And when I do art... it rejuvenates me.  It makes me happy.  It gives me a feeling of accomplishment. It makes me believe I can concur something bigger. 

And I do! I always have.  I have always been the one they talk about and say that I always get what I want.... How? Because I work for it!  Because I create it! We make our own reality.  We make our own accomplishments along with our own failures.   And I know it's because of the fear of failure that can stop me from accomplishing by goals.  So I know I need to make smaller goals and even mini daily goals to have that feeling of accomplishment and the positive energy to tackle a bigger ones.

We are responsible and accountable to only ourselves for everything in our lives that happens.   Something else my mother's voice is always reminding me in my head.  When something is not right in your life, look at what I am contributing to that negative path and change it.  Change the negative thoughts and actions I am contributing, and the path will change. Whenever I have reminded myself of these words, and put this into action, it absolutely works!

SO

What am I doing towards that negative path of being overweight and not having any energy?
VERY easy to see once I sat down and thought about it, and was honest with myself about it.

I think that cookies and ice cream are ok to eat because it makes me feel 'mentally' better and what's one cookie?  or two, or three....

I don't get up and do something active.  I use work as an excuse not to.  Or I use that I'm overworked and too tired to get up and be active.

I over salt my food for flavor knowing it aggravates my RA, knowing it's not good for my heart and body and makes me retain water which makes me feel bloated, which makes me feel tired.... See the circle?  

I think that staying in oversized clothes hides this from everyone... but it really is only hiding it from me.  I only had to stand in front of a mirror naked to have that one slap me into reality.

I think all of this will just magically go away and be better one day.  

NOT!  

Art from Beautiful Mess 7

SO

Begin agin Today! I am working for a better me!  I will be that me that I want to be.  I will love who I am.  I will do what I love.  I will have what I need to do it all also!  

I am putting it out there to the universe to attract all that I need to get it done and be my reality.

Today:  I will put the salt shaker out of site and reach. I will ask my family to help me by doing this also.

Today: I will do at least a 30 minute walk.  I will make a time each day after to drop what I am doing and just do it!

Today: I will not reach for cookies, or chips instead of  lunch.

Today: I will eat breakfast

Today: I will not work more than 12 hours and will stop in time to have an hour for me before evening duties.

Today: I will put a happy face or a pretty stamp in my journal for accomplishing these things. :D  

Tomorrow?  I will do the same and add another thing I can do towards my goal of living healthier.  

If I falter in something, I will focus on that one thing and then add something else the next day.  I will NOT let it get me down, I will not feel like a failure, I will just learn to tackle one thing at a time until it becomes my new habit.

I know me... I know what tempts me and how to remove that temptation.  And I need to make an honest effort doing that. Most likely those Oreo cookies cannot be in the shopping cart next time and if the kids want cookies, they have to have something different that is not so tempting for me. lol   I also know that if I explain that to them, they will help me. Love my kids! And if not, I will learn to look away.  I will learn to find something healthy as a substitute.... like frozen Strawberry Banana Smoothies. :)  

Want to know a secret? I have been, and am, using this exact same method for several things in my life.  Work, love, family, and even time for playing in my art studio happy place. :)  I have them all broken down the exact same way.  Doesn't matter what the goal is.
DEFINE IT! CREATE IT!  MAKE IT A REALITY! One step at a time.  
Only YOU can make it happen.  No one else can.  No special pill can, no amount of money can.  Only YOU!  oh, that is for me by the way, not for you reading this. lol  But you can take it with you if you like. :)

Want proof it works?  I've lost 20# in a matter of a couple weeks.  I did fall off a tad over the holidays, but jumped right back on.  I didn't put any more weight back on, but I didn't loose any either.  But, I do feel better and have learned my triggers.  I don't think of it that I failed, I reviewed it for lessons to learn.

I now know I can not have ANY salt or sodium in my diet or the RA flairs up and it is one of 2 things that really really effects me physically.  I know now if I don't make time for my walk, or time for personal time out for some kind of art, I feel down and have no energy.  I know that if Oreo cookies are in the house, I will find them and I will eat them. lol 

But I only learned all this from journaling each day and looking back at the patterns.  I could see my up days, my down days, even in my art... I could see this by the daily eating record I decided to do, to figure out what exactly was effecting me physically and mentally, and putting it in my journal.  I saw that when I was not doing my private time happy hour of art quilting or art journaling I would mentally be down.  I saw that all of this effected me as a whole in how my days were in general from everything from being too tired, to being edgy and negative with my family. 

 It ALL effected me.  Which just made me work harder sticking to what I was doing and would make it better and easier not reach for the salt, the cookie, etc. and force myself to stop and walk, to make time to vent using my art as a tool, to be creative in art for me, and on and on.  

See the circle?

Knowing your circles, your habits, your patterns can be a very enlightening experience. But even more for me personally, it became empowering! I am now armed with what I need to succeed.   And I will!

I hope by sharing all of this  lengthy story helps others reach for their goals.  And if you want to journey with me, you are more than welcome to.  If not, that's ok too.  I still will.  I have learned that expressing through my art is my way of working it all out and setting the goals and sticking to them.

And all those other facets I am working on?  They are on their way to being accomplished too. :)

Bonus? My closest friends and my family see all of this and are taking mental notes.  Some will look at their own lives, some will not.  But if they learn even only one thing from all this, it was all worth it. 

ok… now all I have left to do here is click that publish button on top… it's a little scary, but here it goes. lol
Hugs, C

PS: I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, I'm just me, a spiritual creature of nature, who has chosen to learn and grow and decided it would be a good thing to share. And if you read this far, God love you! LOL Cause this was a whopper of a post!

Where in the World is Cilenia? My week in a nut shell

SO - The year started out a little rough for me personally.  I had all these great intentions and lots in the works to get started on… and then it happened!  Compy melt down!  (Also why you have not seen me online anywhere and posting here or on my personal blog).  BUT, it does make for a great inspirational post right now. lol This week I will have a lot more inspirational layouts from all of us too. 

Now, if you know me, my compy is my right arm, I admit it!  It's where I work, I play, I journal, I teach, I chat, I keep in touch with my friend's and family… yes, right arm is the only way to feel about it.  I felt crippled!

The problem was, I had seen little issues coming up and knew this was coming and procrastinated about it for a few months now.  My Bad!  And really bad that it took this for me to do something about it actively.  So guess what has been added to my 2012 goals list?!  lol  To never let this happen again and make a plan of a maintenance schedule so it never does. :)

So what does a Visual Journaler do in a time like this?  Journal of course!

Why? First because I was able to express the negative and get it out of my system.  I put it away. I have lovingly named this layout Melt Down partially because that's what my compy did, and partially it's because that's what I did that day.  Not good!  And I'll be honest, if I didn't journal about it, it would have been far far worse… not a pretty picture. lol

I did write in my paper journal (BECAUSE MY COMPY wouldn't cooperate! lol)  But I did also transfer it to my digi journal for the last 4 days. :)  I like to see my progress over the 4 days of the situation and somehow it makes me feel all better inside. I do know that the process gave me the time to think and be a little creative AND helped me test out the restored computer and as you will soon read, it also was my hour today for ME!

  I had my frustrations that first day, (denoted with the red paint and ink splattered and the scribbled scratch (which was far more intense in my paper journal but thought I'd spare myself that here.)

I took a negative experience and have now, four days later, turned it into an opportunity.  An opportunity for me to get it together, create a plan, not let it get there again, and get control back over my compy and some chaos folders!  

Ahhhh A deep sigh of relief came as I created my new plan.

So here you are… my days of melt down and progress in my visual journal. 

Credits: Follow Your Art Jan Beautiful Mess 1 Sewn paper strip Beautiful Mess 6 brush and butterfly

NOW I can get back to my plan of attacking my other intentions with this behind me.

You can read about those on our Follow Your Art Blog.

Hugs!  Of to start my new plan. :)

Anything but a Mundane Life

This week Miss Bailey hit a milestone!  And as Nana, I claim bragging rights. lol

Bailey has always taken an interest in being involved with anything I do, but takes extreme interest when it has to do with gardening, art or sewing.  I make art quilts, bed quilts and wall hangings and usually have several projects going at once depending on the stage they are in.  This week, I was adding the final touch to a wall art quilt we were making as a gift hand stitching the binding on.  Normally over the past 2 years Miss Bailey would sit next to me and want to pull the needle through the fabric after I had taken the stitch.  So we'd sit together, I'd poke the needle in, come up carefully catching a few threads and then Bailey would want to pull the needle the rest of the way. She'd watch very closely and with such interest, but would never want to poke the needle herself out of fear of sticking her finger.

As usual, I explained every step to her, showed her how you go down right next to where you came up just outside the binding edge, rock the needle and come up a scant 1/8" up through the binding catching just barely a few threads, and pull the thread taunt and repeat.  WELL!  This day, she informed me she was ready to try herself.  She carefully did as I had shown her… a little hesitant coming up with the needle so close to her little thumb nail as she poked through, but she did it!  She smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen.  Yeah, you did it Bailey!  Immediately, she wanted to do another, and another… and after about 5 stitches, her's were perfect!  I mean PERFECT!  I was totally amazed.  

She ended up finishing the other half of this quilt all by herself… that's about 30" in length and an hour of time.  She just kept going! Not making a sound, looking so serious and paying close attention to her stitches and even backing out and trying again if she hit a hard spot or it wasn't close enough to her liking…. reminding me that I've always said 10 stitches per inch. lol I explained they didn't have to be that close because this was an art piece… I only do that when it's going to be used like her bed quilt.  I did have to help her with the finish end as there are 5 layers of fabric where the two ends bind together, but she did all the rest by herself.  

And you know what that child said when she was done?!  "Can we do some more Nana?  I want to make a woobie for the couch now!"  lol  And what's REALLY funny is when I told her mother Kallie, about it later and showed her the photos, Kal RAN to find her unfinished quilt and handed it to Bailey and said she could finish hers if she wanted! LOL  Now understand, Kal has had that quilt in a bag for about 4 years unfinished because Kallie hates to do the hand quilting part. lol  Bailey was SO excited!  So guess what we are doing with our craft time this week?  Yep, finishing her Mommies quilt! :)

What's even more awesome, is Bailey helped paint this quilt too and sat on my lap and helped guide the fabric while we machine quilted the interior areas.  I SO wish I had someone here at the time who could have taken photos of that too.  What an awesome story this would be to give to the person who will receive this art quilt now as a gift.  :)    Can't show you the whole thing yet for obvious reasons that this is a gift.  But we have the photos and will post later.  So we are off to the post office today to send our little presents off.  Little later than I wanted, as Miss Bailey wanted to be a part of each one and it took a little longer than we had hoped while she was still in school past few weeks, but they will get there. :)  

And I was so excited I just had to scrap a page about it right away! 

I am one proud Nana!  

Credits: Art Journal Challenge Dec 2011 Full Kit and Beautiful Mess 7 Stitched Alpha

Weekend Fun & new blog!

Little glimpses into what we did this past week and weekend here in the studio and Kara's concert. :)
The weekend was half lost because I had a high fever Saturday and spent most of it in bed.  But we tried to make up time for it. :)

Do you like the new blog?  I wanted to make my blog match my website and be 100% my own art.  The coding made me a little nuts last week but I was determined! lol  Spent 19 hours straight on it the one day.  Still tweaking, but almost there.  You might want to scroll to the bottom too. :)  ok, geek in me was really really proud of how I got those to appear and work.  I wanted somewhere people could see content by subjects since I'm usually all over the place playing with my art. :)  Hope you like!


My Kara had her Dance Team Christmas Concert and Kallie tested out my new iPhone taking movies. lol  I couldn't go Saturday as my fever was spiking.  Was very disappointed.  This this is the first time I have ever missed one of my kids concerts.
Still learning how to use the iPhone, and was also difficult because Kara's boyfriend saved seats front row and center, which was a plus, but hard to video.  Here's just one of them, but it's one of my Fav Christmas songs, so it's the one going up!

   
I also got a new canvas word art piece completed too!    Miss Bailey helped me of course, can't keep her away from the studio when Nana has something going. lol  I took my 8x8 word art pieces and made them fit for the canvas I had on hand.  Gotta love digi!
I already have abetter way to do this learning from the mistakes.  I had basic instructions from someone else to start, but already figured out a better ways to do this after seeing how it went.  Hope to get the other 2 done this week or next weekend.  First I created my inspiration art in digi from my Beautiful Mess 7 kit (funny how that started out from real life art scanned in and now is back into.)  I did create the alpha just for this as I went.  I printed here at home and put onto canvas. We had a lot of fun with this project! But then again, Bailey has fun with anything messy and sticky and has to do with a paint brush. lol
Sorry about the poor photos, but I'm learning how to take these on manual for practice. :)  See girls, I'm trying! LOL Not too bad for my first attempts right? ;)

We also made some new art quilting blocks.  This one is going to be a collage of blocked pieces.  I wanted to try out some different techniques and also some different needle tip bottles I got last week.  Much nicer for sketching with the paint.  And we tried out using the Inktense pencils too on these.  Has it's pluses but still like working with the blocks better for painting.  I found I had to add too much water to the sketched pencil work and that made the color bleed too much for what I wanted, but can think of times I'd like this too.  All play, that's how we learn. :)  This is now sitting on my sewing machine pieced together and ready to quilt.  Now… to come up with a kewl quilt pattern for the open area blocks. :)  Next one is gong to be poppies I think. ;) But Coneflowers and Daisies are my favorite flowers so several of these had to be them.  These are all Christmas gifts this year as cash is a little shorter than we would like.  Think they will like?

Hope you had a creative weekend too!

Feel free to link me up with what you have going on!  Love to see what others are doing in their own little art studios.  Doesn't matter if it's digi, fabric, wood or anything, it's all art!

Tips, Tutorial and $2 specials oh my!

Long time no talkie!  I'm sorry… I usually pride myself on being able to stay on top of things, but the last couple weeks got totally out of control for me here… just come over and take a look at my house! lol  It is definitely showing the results of the chaos.

Besides helping Stacey at Digitals start up some new Bi-Weekly Newsletters, besides writing and recording the new classes for Renee Pearson and lots of tutorials, and besides getting ready to start up a new Designer's Studio and an Artist's Journey for life & art journaling starting in 2012 with two awesome designers Aria and Angie Young… It was my Miss Bailey's birthday yesterday, yes my Hallow's Eve grand-child.  Look out world because she got those roller blades she's been wanting! lol

And it was trick or treating of course, and I swear we had over 300 children come knocking at our door, and to top it off, it is also the mark of new years in our house.  It's the time for honoring the dead and those who have passed and a time for looking inward and the beginning of a new year and the beginning of Winter.  Which I did not get to celebrate in my normal fashion unfortunately.  Today I will spend the majority of the day cleaning, reorganizing and getting my head back that I left somewhere under all this chaos. "I'm right on top of that Rose!" lol I digress… So ready to take a deep breathe today and regroup.

I did manage to create an affirmation page this week to mark my new focus for the new year.  Too many things in my life have been slipping by the past year and I need to stop and enjoy the moments with my family.  So I made this reminder to myself to take that time. :)  Call it my New Years resolution.

I created the background from 3 cardstock papers and used my brushes to mask off pieces and parts to create a whole new background paper, which I'm sure will end up in one kit or another eventually. lol   Then I added in some pieces from my Beautiful Mess 1 kit  and some of my art used to create that kit to finish it off and did my personal journaling.  I also managed to create a new tutorial on How to Pin a Tag using masking, which you can find at Digitals now too.  Click the preview for the PDF at Digitals.

It was the mini tutorial in the NEW Building Skills with Digitals Newsletter yesterday.  If you don't get these and want to, you can find the subscription for them here at Digitals.  And you receive a wonderful new kit from Amanda too when you sign up!

Also featured in today's newsletter I have a $2 sale item.   My kit Tween Years! Hurry though, it's only on sale till midnight EST at 67% off.  I made this kit at the request of my teenage daughter for some artwork she wanted for her room.  15 papers and 34 Elements.  Pretty good deal for $2. :)  There are two other $2 specials in the newsletter too from two wonderful Designers.

I also uploaded some tip cards this week too!  You can find them here below or in Digitals Tech Talk Forum too if you prefer.   

Photoshop Quick Tip 009 - Cutting Alpha from Sheet

Photoshop Quick Tip 010 - PSE Circle Text Path

I also have uploaded a re-release of my Blue Winter kit in the shop today.   This was one of my most favorite kits last winter so I decided to bring it back after a few requests.  Make sure you look at the additional images because this is not just a Winter or Holiday kit! 

Well, off to get a little work done and then work on getting this house back in order. :) Then it's time to crack the whip again on myself.  Do the cycles really ever end? lol

Have an awesome week everyone!

Weekend Fun

So we went to the movies last night and saw Contagion.  Good movie by the way, a little too close to reality so it scares me more than a horror flick.  But I like those kind of movies. :)

So this is what I woke up to on my desk from my little Miss Bailey.  :) Come on, say it…  "Awwww!"  She's always making me happy little things and leaving them as cute little surprises to find. This little card will remind me how precious she is and how the littlest things can matter the most. :)  Kind of like getting flowers for no reason at all. (which is what she did yesterday, but from my neighbor's yard! lol  At least she asked first this time! )

So what does a girl do when she feels happy and inspired by such sweet little thoughts 

and wants to doodle and play?

Draw her wild hair that is reflecting back at her on her window! LOL  

ok, so I put it on a youthful face, cause this is NOT mine! lol  Now just to think of a way to use this!   Lynne seems to have it all figured out! lol Will have to see what she does.

And now I have tremendous urge to play today.  

These colors are screaming out my name sitting here beside me.

Which of course leads my eye to the sewing table and my almost finished latest art quilt.

Which in turn leads my chair from my desk and magically slides over to my sewing machine.

Guess where I'll be the rest of the morning in my quiet corner?

Well, until Miss Bailey gets up at least and then we both will be there with her on my lap sewing our happy hearts out. :)  Then we will be cleaning the pool, and tending to the gardens this afternoon enjoying being outside in the warm fall sunshine admiring the migrating humming birds taking roost in our tree for the winter. :)  

Enjoy your day and your weekend!  

Do something for yourself today that makes you feel happy!

Remember, you don't have a soul, you are a soul that has a body.

Inspiration Tuesday - Art for Healing

Most know that I am not only a scrapbooker of life, but I am also a Life Journaler who expresses in her art and creates a mixture of art journaling and a diary which I like to call my Visual Chronicles.  I also use digi art to create a LOT of wall art for our home and as gifts, but will save that for later.

Today I'd like to talk to you about using art and scrapping as a way of healing.  I believe expressing yourself in your art and getting feelings and emotions out using it is one of the best ways to start a healing process.  Many times I put all that negative on there and then paint over with possitive thoughts and words.  Sometimes I just need to reinstate my positive affirmations too.  It all helps!

I posted a little 2 weeks ago about needing some of these affirmations in front of me.  I created the page, printed it and put it above my desk.  It was filled with words of wisdom as a reminder to myself daily.  You can see it here.
I also felt the need to create a page about the negative feeling so I could get it out of my system and put it away.

Next time life decides to throw lemons at you, dig into your stash and journal it and make some lemonade. :)  I can just about guarantee you will feel better after.

Here are some samples from myself and a few of my "Creative Hearts" that I share with.  And if you so choose to share yours, please link us up here so we can give you a big cyber space hug and some love on taking that first step towards healing within. And it's ok, not to share too!  Took me a lot to post this one, but when I shared with a few very special friends, some of them were inspired to try it and have said how much it helped them too.  So my wish is to reach out to more and share.  We all know life is not always a bed of roses, but if we didn't have the bad with the good, the good would not be so wonderful when it did happen.

By me on a very sad day of realization

But this was me the very next day rejuvenated by releasing those negative feelings! 

By Betty Jo

By Valerie

By Gail

By Sabrina

Updating my photo albums and new releases

Hi there!
I've been busy this morning updating my website with new photos, my newest releases and added a new album for my art quilting too!  Hope you find something here to inspire you either with your scrapbooking and/or artistic hobbies.

Look how easy my iWeb made this for me! :) Everything updated with links. lol

Beautful Mess http://www.cileniacurtis.com
Home - New Releases PU and CU
Mini Tutorials - Newest tutorial on creating Creases and Folds
Art Quilting - The beginning of a mini art quilt.  Actually the doodles here are how my new kit was created. :) Will update as we go and will blog our techniques later.
Bug & flower Art Quilt - Progress photos!  We are basting!
Scrap Pages - New page created from my newest kit Beautiful Mess 1
My Spaces - Update photos of the new Art and Sewing Studio


Here's a look at my newest kit Beautiful Mess 1 - Mixed Media and there's even a CU kit of the papers too! Beautiful Mess CU Textures and Papers
This started out with some doodling while out at the pool with Miss Bailey on some fabric.  Go figure right? It has turned into one of my fav kits so far!  

And check out some wonderful Layouts by my CT and one from me too for some inspirations.

From Nicky

 By me

From Lynne 

  

My undersea world of ponies in my office

Thought I'd do a little sharing today cause I'm so happy my ponies are happy!

Some know, some don't, but I have 2 salt water tanks.
My baby female seahorse has not been well and refused to eat for 3 days.  After exhausting everything I could do including hand feeding, I took her into my local fish store for help.  They decided it was best if they kept her and treated her as they were not sure what was wrong either.  We suspect she got too close to the anemone and was stung. But, they did give me another female to bring home so the other baby wouldn't get lonely. They were all from the same breeder so I think it was like a reunion. Hopefully they can help out the other female.

Here's the release of my newest member. She's only about and inch an half long. 

Released, she heads for the sea grass.

She appears to be looking for something.

They find each other and curl their tales around each others body.
I think it's love at first site! 

And just for fun, here is one of the the larger ponies. She is about 4" in length. Her mate is there in the background on the left.  She's looking in the shell feeding trough I have set up a few inches above the bottom to train them where to get their food so all the other Scooter Blenny fish and the Blue Mandarin don't eat it all first.  She learned fast!  Took only one time putting the food down the tube so they could see it coming and she seems to know now that this is where it comes. :)  

Learning to sit at the shell table for her food.

They are all happy now and eating well. :)   They are all together as I type with their tails curled around the sea grass in a group.  A happy little family again…. but then again, the male baby, who I have to come up with a name yet… just started playing in the bubbles again.  He rides up… swims around and right back into it. LOL  He is a very happy little horse right now.  Reminds me of Miss Bailey and the big slide!  Rides down and then right back in line to do it again. :)