One Word: A new take on New Years Resolutions

My word for twentytwelve {love the way that word looks typed together!}
is going to be
Contentment
Check out this blog post about the power of choosing your one word.
One Powerful Word: A Simple Approach to New Year's Resolutions

Book of Days - Week One

This is my book for my book of days for 2012 for Effy Wild's 2012 program. This is a very plain book, titled the Complete Book of Terrarium Gardening.Overall size is 7 1/2" x 10".














This is the back cover. Just several layers of paint, with eucalyptus walnut ink applied through punchinella.

This is the front cover of the book. I printed out Book of Days twentytwelve on fabric in a fun font called Rat Infested Mailbox, isn't it great? The cover is vintage upholstery fabric with frayed edges, and the spine of the book is crumpled kraft paper with painted interfacing applied.

 

Right Inside book cover. I applied some decorated paper, and made an expanding pocket from Kraft paper with paints and inks.

 Inside cover, left side with small twentyeleven envelope in black and white, and partial shot of the right hand page with the expanding pocket.

January, 2012 will be $0 Budget/Spend Free month

I am an artist and recycler, and I have taken a pledge (from Full of Great Ideas) to not make any non-essential purchases during the month of January. I will be retiring in February and think that going a month without any non-essential purchases will be a way to get ready for it. I have been gearing down for this for all of 2011, but the holiday season got me a little off track.

Part of the process is deciding which things are essential and which are non-essential. I am sure that it will be an on-going issue. Since creating art is an essential for me, I plan to use what art materials I have on hand and not purchase anything. That also helps reduce my stash!

Some of my ideas include making postcards, ATC {artist trading card) Buisness Cards and product hang tags for my wares. I use recycled cardboard boxes, paint and embellish them, and then cut to the size I need. I apply tags that I downloaded  that I have customized with my company information. This gives the recipient both a small work of art and my business information. See my prior posts  here and here for July. 

These are postcards for a mail art swap that I was involved in for October. These use recycled materials and supplies that I already had on hand. Only cost was the postage.

Winding down twentyeleven

I misplaced my camera (finally found it thank goodness) so I have been very word oriented (and I wrote up posts while I would be out of town). Anyway, since I have now found my camera, I am back with pictures.
This series of pictures was inspired by Spirit Cloth.
I call this piece Bubbles #1

I put a 3" square of batik fabric behind the muslin, then trimmed away all but a small margin. I turned this under to do a reverse applique.

Some finished bubbles and some unfinished.

Finished and pressed, ready for backing and a hanger.

Great poem from my mentor Jan Phillips

Jan Phillips is an inspiring teacher and a sacred teacher! Got her winter newsletter and found this quote:
If prayer would do it

If prayer would do it
I'd pray.

If reading esteemed thinkers would do it
I'd be halfway through the Patriarchs.

If discourse would do it
I'd be sitting with His Holiness
every moment he was free.

If contemplation would do it
I'd have translated the Periodic Table
to hermit poems, converting
matter to spirit.

If even fighting would do it
I'd already be a blackbelt.

If anything other than love could do it
I've done it already
and left the hardest for last.

~ Stephen Levine ~

(Breaking the Drought)

Seems to be a prayerful week???

As the Year winds down

This quote is from the winter solstice section of my We'Moon and I wanted to share it with you...

There is again a gathering of forces, aligning to re-story ourselves;
to go beyond Empire Culture,
and though the discomfort of not knowing exactly what shall come to pass,
to oracle earth’s wisdoms, in preparation for the journey of coming home to ourselves.

Padme Rain Crowe

I love this guy's art.. Happy Holidays

One Small Face

This is a responsive reading out of the Unitarian Universalist Hymnal that sums up my feelings of the season:

With mounds of greenery, the brightest ornaments,

we bring high summer to our rooms,

as if to spite the somberness of winter to come.

In time of want, when life is boarding up

against the next uncertain spring,

we celebrate and give of what we have away.

All creatures bend to rules, even the stars constrained.

This is a blessed madness in the human need to go

against the grain of cold and scarcity.

We make a holiday, the rituals as varied as the hopes of humanity,

the reasons as obscure as ancient solar rituals,

as clear as joy on one small face.

Margaret Starkey

I don't believe that I slept through this...

Looking ahead to 2012...

Just in the last two weeks, I have four possible clients and two leads on part time creative opportunities... 2012 will be a fantastic year!

The Legacy

In a heartbeat of ages
The Grandmother enters the cave
The shaman
The priestess
The pathfinder
Red Ocher hand print pressed on the wall
Her mark, her grandmother’s mother’s mark
The maker, The keeper, The wise
Fire lit images come to life;
chalk-ochre-the colors of the earth
Bison and cloven hooved spirits
Dance in the flicker of Grandmother’s magick
Birth mother of my dreams
Leads me to the cave
and I paint my visions to life
My way lit from within
Dancer, Singer, Artist
Gallery of my fore crones
whispering moonlit secrets
I awake with dirt under my nails
Sacred soil of grandmother’s cave

Lisa Noble

I am not the praying type...

But I can look at this as a meditation:

Everyone should watch this...

I love this video- Seasons Greetings!

Have you lost your link to your goddess?

Goddess Leonie is an amazing young mother from Australia who has the most amazing gifts to offer.
Click here to check out some freebies from Goddess Leonie. I will follow up with some other amazing offers that give you ways to reconnect with your inner goddess.

Re-imaging Finances

I have been following Goddess Leonie's 30 days of the World's Biggest Summit and have gleaned some very good information from it. One really interesting idea was presented by Bari Tessler Linden, who is a financial advisor. She said since so many people have trouble organizing, budgeting and paying bills, that you should make it something fun.
 I took this to heart and changed my quicken categories to the following
Mortgage= My Nest
Car Payment= Chariot Wheels
Electric Bill= Light of my life
Gas Bill= Heat of my life
Transfer to Savings= Feather my nest
Pledge to church= Feather the UU nest
Credit Card payments= BofA ball and chain
somehow paying bills is more fun now!

Nrw Products

During the week, I came up with a new product, I am calling "Cache Bags", small bags on a neck chain. They hold a credit card, drivers license and a small amount of cash. You don't want a lot of weight around your neck, so put you cell phone or ipad in a pocket.

 Green l\Lips, great small plastic button of lips, green rick rack and vintage barkcloth body. Small size, 3x4"

 Orange and White, silver metallic amulet, vintage barkcloth body. Small size, 3x4"

 

Tropical style, wooden amulet with beads and sequins, vintage barkcloth large size 4x5"

 Blue and Silver bag, metallic trim and bronze amulet, medium
 size 2.5 x 3.5"


All "Cache Bags" are handmade with quality materials including vintage barkcloth or heavy upholstery type material for the body and one of a kind trims and findings from my extensive collection.
All items are available on both my esty site and zibbet site.

Time... and 86,400 seconds

Here are six terrific truths about time:

First: Nobody can manage time. But you can manage those things that take up your time.

Second: Time is expensive. As a matter of fact, 80 percent of our day is spent on those things or those people that only bring us two percent of our results.

Third: Time is perishable. It cannot be saved for later use.

Fourth: Time is measurable. Everybody has the same amount of time...pauper or king. It is not how much time you have; it is how much you use.

Fifth: Time is irreplaceable. We never make back time once it is gone.

Sixth: Time is a priority. You have enough time for anything in the world, so long as it ranks high enough among your priorities.

----------

What you've just read is an excerpt from First Thing Every Morning by Lewis Timberlake.

My VERY favorite holiday decoration!

this is my unconventional holiday decoration that I made this year. It is a string of fairy lights, with 1/2" strops of fabric tied around it. I am very happy with it.

Giving This Season

This is from an email that I received from Chris Cade
First UU in Houston did something similar. The kids would make care packages (plastic bags with water, tuna snack packs, crackers, chocolate, and a list of assistance sites and phone numbers). You would keep these packages in the back seat of your car and hand them out when a person was standing on the corner asking for assistance. I think that I am going to do this, especially during the holiday season, and probably into the new year. 


Six years ago I did something that seemed so small to me, but had a huge impact on others (as well as myself). That one single event, that one random act of kindness, has snowballed into a family tradition that now nearly a dozen people (and more now) participate in. This has become my favorite gift of the holiday season.

What is that tradition?

It began when I read in the newspaper that the most needed item by the homeless was not food or water. It was clean socks.

I thought to myself, "How can I help?"

Christmas day the answer dawned on me. My fiance at the time and I went to the supermarket that was open and bought a dozen socks. Then we noticed other things we couldn't ignore:

Bread...

Jelly...

Bags of chips...

Energy bars...

Juice boxes...

And my personal favorite...

Chocolate.

We put 2+2 together and added paper bags to that list. The result: care packages that we would personally give to the homeless.

Later that morning, we drove around downtown San Jose, California. We looked for people we could give our care packages to. Eventually we found a park where many homeless came together on Christmas. There, we gave away all of our care packages.

I remember seeing a man digging through the trash. He had just pulled out a half-eaten burrito. I walked up to him, handed him the care package and wished him a Merry Christmas.

That Christmas experience was more significant than I had realized at the time. I shared my story with my family, and ever since then they have joined me in a new family tradition.

Each year we create more and more care packages. My family goes to St. James Park in San Jose and distributes them on Christmas. Last year, there were 10 of us – of all ages – who went and served.

And when I think back on Christmas I am reminded of the wonderful gifts I’ve received over the years...

The gift of family.

The gift of presence.

The gift of good health.

And my favorite gift of all:

The deep realization that giving is my favorite gift of all.

Your Partner In Transformation,
Chris Cade
Liberate Your Life

If Dr. Seuss met Eckhart Tolle??

This Should Be AWESOME!!!

I will be up and watching!