One World, One Heart Giveaway ~Magic Carpet Ride

It's that time of year again! It's time for open hearts and making new friends, and for giveaways! This year, I will be giving away one of my clay creations. Matter of fact, for every 200 comments I receive, I will give away another angel or fairy!

This years One World, One Heart Event runs from Jan 25, 2010 - Feb 15, 2010. On the 15th, I will print out all the comments and will cut them apart. My trusty assistant, handyman and all round good sport of a hubby Mike will draw names of the winner(s).

What is this OWOH you ask? To read the story behind it, you can go to OWOH and read the whole story. Lisa Swifka's idea (which I think is GENIUS) behind this event "was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way." OWOH also is the place to go to find all the links of the other participating bloggers...

Appropriately this year's theme is the Magic Carpet! What a perfect metaphor for traveling to all the wondrous places these links will take you! Happy traveling, and the best of luck!

PLEASE MAKE SURE you either have a blog link, or a valid email address IN YOUR COMMENT so I can contact you if you are the lucky winner! On the 15th I will contact you to get your mailing info and your prize will be addressed and put in the mail ASAP!

Angels Angels Angels

I've been busy creating Angels and Mermaids of late. I find once I begin, they are so much fun, I can't stop with just one!


If you would like to learn how to make these enjoyable little creatures for yourself, I will be teaching this class "Mermaids, Fairies & Angels" in April at the Shady Ladies Altered Art Retreat. If you mention that you saw this blog post, I'll arrange for you to get 10% off of my class fee!

It's sure to be a wonderful new annual retreat! Jeri, the coordinator has pulled out all the stops to truly make it a luxury weekend, with all the creature comforts in mind! She's taken the economy in mind, and provided creative and talented, local and nationally known instructors, at "girl next door" pricing! Jeri has thoughtfully arranged for lots of time with these instructors, both in the classroom and socially through out the weekend. It's sure to be the event everyone will talk about this year! I hope you'll join us.

SO far so good!

So here is my accountability for my goals this year so far...
I've cleaned out my jewelry drawer, and 2 medicine cabinet shelves, the little one's entire room- closet dressers, shelves and all, and I've cleaned out the pantry...

For my health, I've eaten salads when I wanted ice cream, I've walked up and down stairs about 60 times in 3 days, and I've been drinking more water... (not so good- I had 2 oreos on New Years Day- but good because I stopped before I ate the whole bag!) I've been eating brown rice and lean meats and generous spinach salads...

For my ART! I've called several art friends- just hearing their voices charges me up! I've written up several class proposals and I've been in the studio several hours per day. I also allowed myself to surf the web for inspiration, a luxury that has to come in very short spurts.

The biggest thing is I almost have my giveaway gift completed for the One World, One Heart giveaway which will take place later this month! I love this being ahead of schedule stuff! I don't miss the pressure at ALL!

Erosion Bundles Art Project

I'm very excited about this new art project I'm participating in.

It's called The Erosion Bundle Project.

It's been organized by a very talented artist I'm proud to call my friend Kris Henderson.

This is a simple personal and creative challenge: to create a bundle made of my favorite media and hang the bundle outdoors.

Mother Nature is to be our collaborative partner, other participating artists will be our sounding boards, and our inspiration!

In my bundles I placed some old sheet music, large colored post-it notes, some cotton, coffee grounds, colored tissue paper dots, paper flowers, old keys, copper tags, old keyboard parts, printers heat foils, colored construction paper, colored printed papers, and cardboard tubes. I can't wait to see what nature and time does to them all!

The schedule for the project is as follows:

On January 1, 2010 - I placed my Erosion Bundles in nature.

In between = we will share thoughts and photos

On April 15, 2010 - I will retrieve my bundle from nature

By August 1, 2010 - I will finish an art piece using my eroded stuff!

http://erosionbundles.blogspot.com/ if you are curious to follow along...

I chose to do 3 identical bundles, to allow Mother Nature to tell me WHEN to use the treasures inside. I will take one down on April 15th, but I've tied all my bundles on with cotton string, so when they disintegrate and fall down, I will create with the other bundles. I think it will be interesting to see different time intervals of the disintegration.

!Happy New Year!

• I love New Years! I love the fresh "clean" feeling you get from starting something new! I love making lists, and checking things off those lists... I love starting new journals, I love making new goals for myself and my art! Maybe it's a little weird, but I am never successful starting diets on any day other than a Monday (a "new & fresh" week), and I love squeaking in under the deadline wire...(too many years of graphic arts I guess...) I love the challenge of beginning something to change myself for the better. What better time than a fresh new year! Since I soooo love checking something off of my list, I've set a few of this years goals as small, incremental tasks so I can keep track of how I am doing on my way to bigger life changes.

• Right now, I am in the middle of a major health crisis. My overall goal is to get healthier this year. To that end, I have vowed to do 1 thing each day that is better and healthier for me than I would have done in the past. Small, measurable...plus, I am going to try and document these tiny steps in a journal.

• Organization. Goal number 2. I would like to have my house a little more organized. So the smaller step is that I am going to try and average organizing 1 drawer or 1 shelf a week. I'm not going to sweat it if I miss a week, or if I do 2 or 3 in one day, as long as it averages 1 a week. By this time next year, I should be feeling dandy and more settled about the clutter that seems to build.

• Art goals are every bit as important to me as any other area of life. This year I resolve to try and create one new technique or project every month. Big or small- it does not matter, as long as I am not just simply repeating what I know, but truly experimenting and trying new things. It is merely a target, and I will not get stressed if a fully formed project does not evolve each month, as long as new ideas are being explored.

• Also, I resolve to clear out the "clutter" of other peoples art projects and ideas that suck me dry of time and energy, and pull me away from being able to create for myself. I will be limiting the number of swaps I participate in, and limiting the number of civic and professional groups I participate in on a regular basis, in order to have more time to do what I really am passionate about. Last year I missed out on at least 5-6 really great swaps I wanted to do, because I was working on so many others. (All of which I enjoyed, but sometimes felt really stressed because I was booked so far in advance and had no time for spontaneous things that came up.) I resolve to participate in more unusual events that truly truly challenge me as a participant.

• I hope you will join me this year, as I try to be held accountable to these goals here. I'll try and report periodically as to how I'm doing! I've found that feeling I need to "report" or be held accountable goes a long way to inspire me on days I feel less than energetic... Bring it on 2010!