Doing A Little "Flying".

Hi friends!

School is in full swing. We are all pretty groggy in the mornings now. Sweet Brenna sounded a little confused today when she was explaining to me that she was still tired when she got up. How does one explain "good by summer, hello school schedule?" I guess we just work through it..

Today, I'm spending some time in the 'ol art room today.

And the day is SPEEDING by!!

I am taking the She Had Three Hearts class from  Christy Tomlinson, and I have glue and paint and stencils and alcohol ink spread out everywhere.

....heaven!

This piece isn't finished yet, and I'm loving the way it's turning out. 

The colors are making me happy.

The bird shape is one from Heidi Swapp. I got it in a bag of items from a class. 

I'm stumped as to what it is..not a sticker, but the back is sticky. The shape is plain white and it feels like a vellum. I thought maybe it was a rub-on, but that wasn't the case. It's plain white on a plain white background and you peel off the bird shape.

Are you as confused as I was now?

 I used it as a mask and it ended up tearing off some of the paper when I peeled it off, but I still liked it and covered the inside of the form with alcohol inks and some paper.

Sometimes I just love little corners of a page the best:

Don't you wonder why some days just "work"? 

I wish I could bottle the formula for a great art day.

No complaints here today!

Hope your day is just as good.

xoxo

lynn

Notes On Being Brave.

Well, friends.

I am touched how we are all trying to be brave.

As promised, here are some brave things we are doing:
**edit as of 8/29:**
*(these are taken from the comments from the "Being Brave" post. I'm not moving!!!! )*

"Moving 2,500 miles away."

"putting myself into two flea markets."

"Wading through peri-menopause."

"taking on a large order."

"Choosing to create."

"showing up as who we are and learning to be that person."

"Putting on my big girl britches"

"Reaching for dreams and believing in myself."

"Asking for help."

"Continuing through a day(s) when I just want to give up and cry."

How wonderful, just utterly wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing these acts of bravery with me. I hope others will read this and realize they are not alone in being brave.

Someone else in my life was brave today.

To me, she is the epitome of being brave.

She began her school year as a Sophomore...

At a school that now will give special needs kids a place to learn in a private setting..

have a wonderful day being brave in whatever capacity you can do!

xo

lynn

Liberate Your Art Swap

I participated in the Liberate Your Art Swap this summer.

It was the brainchild of talented photographer, Kat Sloma, of

http://www.kateyeview.com/.

It was a chance to send our artwork out into the world and receive art back into our world.  Over 200 of us took photos of our artwork and created postcards and mailed them to Kat. She then swapped them out and EACH person got FIVE beautiful postcards, once a week, over the summer. Oh, yes. It was fun!! Who doesn't still love snail mail?

I know one of my postcards went all the way to the Netherlands. How cool is that? 

Here are the gorgeous cards that graced my mailbox:

A photo of a sunset is from 

Darlene Cunnup Photography:

Stunning, yes?

This card made me want to lie on the grass and look at the sky, and  was simply signed 

love, Kirsten:

From Anna at VanDemark Designs:

I have to tell you, I was a little star struck, as Anna is one of the inspirer's over at 

Inspiration Studio.

This beauty is from Janet:

This one makes me sigh every time I look at it.

Catherine took it in San Galgano, Italy.

Because we reached over 200 participants, Kat sent one to EVERY participant!

It's also from Italy.

If you would like to see more of the particpant's work, just scroll down to the cool linky Kat provided at the end of this post!

Enjoy!

xo

lynn

Being Brave.

"It is hard to be brave," said Piglet, sniffling slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal."~A.A. Milne

Have you had to be a little bit brave today?

Some days I choose to be brave.

Some days I think it's very brave of me to get out of bed and be nice and make breakfast.

Could be I've been brave because I chose to put my hair up,walk out the door and decide I didn't look like an awkward teenager.

Quite posssibly I was brave today by finishing this page in my journal. 

I kept going on it, adding bits here and there, trying colors, covering something I didn't like instead of declaring it a disaster.

Some days, it really is a choice, don't you think?

Choosing bright colors. That's pretty brave. 

Or grabbing the top of my diamond glaze and putting it in the inkpad and finding out it makes a great circle stamp, and was just the size I needed.

Were you a little brave today?

I'd love to hear it, and then I'll post what you all did and we can encourage each other.

Even if we are feeling like it's hard because we are a very small animal.

xo

lynn

Hi! Hello! How ARE You??

Hello?

Anyone still out there?

Twelve long (but needed) days....

I've missed all of you!!!

I feel like it's been all summer. What's new? How's summer? Is it over for you-in the sense that your kids are back in school? Has the heat wave broken in the south? What about Oklahoma? Any last minute summer get aways?

Here's what's been going on here:

Miss Brenna is officially 17 and will tell anyone who will listen. She said to me, "Why do people keep telling me I'm old??"

Lauren is off into the land of college. "See you in three months, Mom!" Ha. Sooner, if I have a say in it.

My house is trashed from the after math of my eldest leaving the nest again, but we have been having fun in the midst of it all.

I am continuing in my e-course by Kelly Rae Roberts. I am leaning so much! Blogging, marketing, dreaming, setting goals, time managemen, creating, social networking...the list goes on. I am overwhelmed at times, but each day I get back on track and forge ahead.

I'm actually creating. Yep. My blog that is supposed to be about art and life has been mostly life these last several months and I really would like to turn back to the ART side of things!!

Here's a peek:

I have been adding to the journal I started in when I took the class from 

Pam Garrison.

The color on this page is done with my new favorite toy,

My newest love......

Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Artist's Crayons.

They can be found at Dick Blick's, or a much smaller set like mine, at Michael's.

I'm also learning to write in different fonts....Lauren turned me onto dafont.com. 

Gazillions of FREE FONTS. Literally.

I'm using a Faber-Castell Pitt pen in black.

It's perfect for filling in or making etchy-lines.

and little-bitty dots!

On this sweet envelope I used a mailing stamp that I found at an antique store and added more color with ink pads and the crayons.

So happy to be back in the swing of Blogland. 

Stop by and tell me what you have been up to so we can catch up!!

xoxo

lynn

Back In a Bit

It's that time of year....

Three weeks until school.

 This is when the days tend to get a little crazy in comparison to our lazy summer days.

We are celebrating Brenna's 

SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY

Tomorrow!!!

Then it's time to pack up the eldest and drive her back to school.

Next, getting Miss 17 ready to begin her Sophomore year in High School.

AND continue with the e-course by Kelly Rae Roberts.

AND finish up one by Christy Tomlinson.

The best part?

Getting up at 6:15 again when Brenna begins school. 

Not.

I'll be back after we pack up the eldest, after the 21st..

Happy end of summer to all of you!

xo

lynn

Happy Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!

This week, I'm beginning an online course with Kelly Rae Roberts, entitled, "Flying Lessons."

I'm so excited to begin this, that I am getting up EARLY to read through the day's lessons before anyone wakes up in my house.

No small feat for me, especially in the summer. I hate getting up early. So, for two days, at least, it's happening!

Since I'm saying HAPPY MONDAY, 

I thought I would share some photos I took from my sister's house.

This is a place that makes me especially happy!

The garden is aMAZing to walk through...

so peaceful, lots of gentle colors.

A good place to reflect and dream.

Dinners out on the gazebo, a soft breeze, a stroll. 

Nothing quite like it.

Love it.

Hope you find something that makes you happy today!

xo

lynn

Thanks for joining me this week for my "moments". I have enjoyed waiting for them each day so I can share them with you! This is my final one. As always, there is nothing more restorative to me than the beach. I hope you find joy in each moment of your days this summer.
xo
Lynn

For This Moment...(4)

In case you didn't know, this week is......

SHARK WEEK.

Yep, that's right. Every night on the National Geographic Channel you too can see the most vicious sharks ever. You can see them leaping out of the sea, chomping on seals, bashing into small boats, and re-enactments of people on surfboards getting legs and arms eaten.

SHARK WEEK.

It's kinda our family thing to watch, horrified, all the comings and goings of sharks. (If you are wondering, this is after Brenna goes to bed. The one and only time she watched 4 minutes of the show, we realized she was muttering to herself, "That won't happen to me. That won't happen to me." We learn quickly.)

The point of the moment of the day?

Lauren brought home frozen yogurt for us to eat while we watched 

SHARK WEEK.

(Are we hardened, or what?)

This was on top of my yogurt:

I love my child.

xo

lynn

For This Moment...(3)

I heard the whisper as I walked by:

"Would you like to buy a sea shell?"

Redemption!!!

We picked the purple one.

xo

lynn

For This Moment...(2)

"She sells seashells down by the seashore."

The moment for the day:

I have a thing for seashells. I have been known to drop down in an area that has a lot of seashells and become fairly concentrated in my searching. I will carry them home in anything I can find. An old cup, a pocket, a t-shirt, the beach bag. Each one is a treasure to me.

That's why I stopped dead in my tracks on my walk today when I saw this:

Girls after my own heart!!!

With precision and care, they were lining up each found treasure. The seashells had been rinsed, lined up to dry and...

ready for sale.

One penny each.

Oh, you might say I was severely tempted. You could even say I was willing to drag my family back to the house for some dollar bills....ummm, I mean change. Sadly, I did not do this.  Can you imagine how exciting it would have been for them to sell the shells? Can you imagine how cool these would look in a glass jar?  (I need another glass jar full of shells like a hole in my head. But I have heard holes are in fashion this summer....)

I wonder if they will be back at it tomorrow?

xo

lynn

For This Moment...

I thought this week I would post about one moment that caught me during the day.

While walking the dog, in a particularly gorgeous area, I stopped to look at the flowers.

This one caught my eye. 

 This sweet Cosmo seemed like it was so proud to be blooming.

It was standing at attention with it's face turned toward the late morning sun as if to say, "Yes!! I'm here!!! And I'm pretty darn happy about how pretty I am."

So, I decided to take notice. I think if a flower is so happy about being so beautiful for the day, one needs to pay special attention. Maybe even learn a lesson to take with you for the day. 

It's hard to put it into words, the lesson I learned. All the words I come up with sound pretty cheesy. Like,

 "Be your most spectacular today."

Sounds like I need a cheerleader skirt on.

Or,

"Soak up the day and ...I don't know, live beautifully or something."

See?

What I do know is that it caught my attention and I took the time to stop and take notice and admire it.

Maybe that's the lesson!

xo

lynn