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Today on the MuseCraft (tm) Facebook Page, I asked a Muse Question:

If you could do or be anything, what would it be? What's one tiny, little thing you can do today (or in the next day or two) to connect you to that dream?

I said I would be a surfer.  I'd also be a dancer, a photographer, an interior decorator, and a rocket scientist.  And probably some other things I'm forgetting...

For now, here's my little, tiny connection to my surfing dream for the day:

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. ~Jon Kabat-Zinn

So what would you be?

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Today's prompt was "simply divine."  I see the divine, the beautiful grace of the universe, in many places.  But there  are two things that always make me feel closer to the divine--the ocean and the sky.  I wasn't able to get to the ocean today, so I took some sunset photos.  I was hoping to get a sky full of stars tonight, but clouds have rolled in.  Still, the sunset photos from my studio seem right because I often sit looking out the window at the sky and the clouds in the west, and I always feel that expansion in my heart that comes from communing with the divine.  I still haven't decided which of these I'm using for the project, so they appear here in the order I shot them.

 

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To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.  ~e.e. cummings, 1955

Today's Picture the Holidays prompt was "express yourself."  The post mentioned self-portraits.   The whole thing made me a little twitchy.  My hair is awful today--I'm weeks beyond needing a cut.  It needs coloring, too.  I'm feeling tired and have dark circles under my eyes.  I don't photograph that well on a good day.  Today?  No way was I taking a picture of myself.  So I worked on writing some things about what being me means to me.  Who am I?  What am I?  What is important to me?  What makes me me?  I thought maybe I would do a quick collage or art journal page.  That's self-expression, right?  And then I could just take a photograph of that.  But this didn't feel right.  So I let the thoughts simmer all day.  And then I knew.

I'm a writer.  I'm a lot of other things, too, but it always comes back to words for me.  Books and writing and pens and journals...those are the things that are nearest and dearest to me, at least in the inanimate categories.  And then I knew.  A self-portrait was exactly the right thing.  Here it is:

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Today's prompt is about finding or remembering the things that help you slow down and feel calm, peaceful, relaxed.  This is something  we should all take some time to pinpoint, really, so that when we're feeling frazzled, frantic, and generally out of sorts we don't have to try to figure out what to do to help ourselves.  If we know the things that soothe us, we can just turn to them when we need to.

Here's my soul soothing photo:

A good book, my journal and a favorite pen, a hot drink in a favorite Matisse print mug--these soothe my soul
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Today's post is about love.  And hearts, because hearts and love go hand in hand, right?  So here's my photo:

This is Jack, one of my two kitties who are one the biggest sources of love in my life.  I chose Jack for this prompt because I always think his little nose looks like a heart.  He was just made for this prompt, wasn't he?

Here's one more, because I'm sure you want to see more of that adorable nose:

See you tomorrow with more photos!

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In my last post, I mentioned how my delightful friend Jo of Tanglefrost sent me a beautiful necklace, and I was making her something in return.  I was so excited to be doing this because I love my necklace so much, and Jo has been a lovely presence in my online life this past year, and I was also rather thrilled to be sending something to England as I've never sent anything off the continent before.

I started a mixed media painting.  I wanted it to be oh-so-special so she would know how much I love my necklace and how much I love this real world connection idea.  I started another painting.  I gessoed over that one.  I put my things aside and played online.  I took out my canvas.  I looked at it and walked away.  I don't think I hit a wall.  I think the wall hit me.

I spent several days worrying about taking so long with my painting, about it not coming out right, about my gift not being good enough.  And then Sunday evening it hit me.  I was being a goofball!  This wasn't at all about making something perfect or out of the ordinary or anything like that.  It was about making one of the paintings I love to play with and create and then sending that little piece of my happiness and enjoyment to a dear person to share the fun.

So now the painting is almost ready.  I think two more layers will have all the pieces on it I want, and I've been having lots of fun playing with colors and patterns and papers.  And I think that will show in the final product.  And this will be exactly what it was supposed to be all along--fun and happy and friendly!

So take note--don't try too hard.  Do what you love.  The joy will show through, and those who experience what you've made will know that they are in touch with a little bit of your heart, and it will be a good thing all the way around.

Go out and enjoy your creating!

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I've been trying to write this post for over a week.  I've started it so many times in my head, and a few times on paper, but I keep feeling as if I'm missing the emotion I want to get down on the page.  I'm just going to stop trying.  I'm going to write up the bits and pieces, disjointed as they are, and put it out there for you all to see.

The story started when I was a young girl, in my teens.  I inherited my great-grandmother's knitting bag.  It had been around the house before then, but it was put away somewhere.  My mother ran across it, and it became mine because I was the only one in the family who would be likely to have a use for it.  Plus, I love (ridiculously, madly, unreasonably) bags.

I didn't really use the bag, but I kept it because I loved the vintage look of it (I loved "old fashioned" things decades ago, before the current vintage craze was a glimmer in a hipster's eye), and I loved that it belonged to a woman that my mother and aunt and all of their cousins spoke so fondly of.

There was an oddity about the knitting bag, though, and no one could explain it to me.  Inside the bag, although there were no holes in the lining, a safety pin was pinned to the fabric.  No one knew why it was there, but they left it there because their Baba had put it there.  So I left it there, too.

Fast forward to this May.  I took a beginner sock knitting class because I've always wanted to know how to knit socks (I'm told my great-grandmother could knit socks and sweaters without a pattern!).  I didn't use her knitting bag because the fabric is starting to come loose from the wood, and I don't want to ruin the bag.  Someday I'll figure out a good way to repair it, but until then I just keep the bag as a cherished memento.

I bought my own brightly colored, pyramid shaped bag:

And I learned how to read the pattern.  And then I got to a part of the pattern that called for marking a row with a safety pin.  I bought some fun, anodized metal pins in different colors and thought, "I think I'll pin these inside my bag so they don't get lost in the bottom."  Light bulb!  After all these years, suddenly I knew why that safety pin was there.  It was her row marker just as the brightly colored pins inside my bag are mine!

I told my mother and my aunt the story, and they were touched the same way I was.  It just gave us a warm, tender feeling in our hearts, this connection I found with a woman they loved so dearly but I never met.

This brings me to part two of my connections, and it's not about knitting at all, but I'm going to include it in this post because it's sort of related.  The same week I made the safety pin discovery, I found out I'm going to be going to Faerieworlds.  And I remembered that my friend Jo of Tanglefrost, someone I met last year online who showed me so much kindness and encouragement, had a beautiful leaf necklace in her shop, just perfect for a faerie gathering.

I contacted her, and some magic happened, and a gift of an amazingly gorgeous necklace has arrived in my hands (I cannot express how exquisite the work is on this necklace--it is delicate and ethereal and simply amazing and I seriously encourage you to gift yourself with one of these or one of her other works--you will be stunned by how much more beautiful this is in person even though it is already so beautiful in the photo!).  And with it came a real world connection between us even though we have never met.  The work of her hands is now held in my hands, and a small piece of art I am making will be headed to her this week.  And suddenly the friendship that was just online has stepped out of the virtual world and into the physical world.  My heart is so full with the joy of this connections!  I didn't even know I was missing this sort of connection until now.

So through the connection with my great-grandmother and the connection with my distant friend came an idea.  I love it that we can meet people and become friends with them online.  But I realized that there's nothing that can really replace real world connections.  I realized that I keep in touch with almost everyone on the computer.  I realized I don't actually have the addresses of most of my friends.  Sure I know how to get to the homes of my local friends, but I couldn't send them a card or a gift without having to spoil the surprise by asking for their addresses first.

My idea, formless as it is so far, is to find a way to make real world connections in our lives.  I'll be writing more about this as I come up with more of a plan, but if anyone wants to participate with me, to make connections, share things off the internet with each other, and tell each other about it, let me know.

There it is, all my disjointed rambling about connections.  I hope I've conveyed a bit of the feeling I wanted to share.  I hope I've planted some ideas in your heads about connections you can make for yourself.  Let me know what you're thinking, and together we'll move this idea forward, off this computer screen and out into the world where it can see the light of day.

 

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For me, making myself a little something is so much better than going out and buying something.  Maybe not always, but when I'm feeling restless and dissatisfied, a feeling that used to send me to the mall as a teenager, making something makes me feel way better than a shopping spree does.  Usually costs a lot less, too.

I was feeling a little bit of that restlessness yesterday.  Then I found this fabulous tape from Duck brand (I really want to find the green peace symbol one!).  Then I remembered this cool journal making tutorial I saw last week.  And so I made this:

The Outside

 

Outside, Opened
The Inside

You can see from the photo of the inside that I got the bottom staple a little off-center.  I decided I didn't mind it enough to re-do it, so there you go.  I did change the final step and add one final step.  I stapled from the inside out then put another piece of tape over the staples on the outside of the spine to keep them from snagging.  It was easier for me to do it this way since I didn't have a long-armed stapler and also didn't have an eraser.  Experiment a bit and see what works for you.

Why is my journal making experiment important to you?  Just as a reminder--it took me longer to tweak my photos and write this post than it did to make the journal.  You do not have to have big stretches of time, lots of space, or many supplies to make something fun and satisfying.  So go ahead.  Go out and make yourself a little something.  You're gonna love it, I promise!

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I've been away.  A little bit physically, a lot mentally.  I'm wont go into the messy details.  They really aren't important right now.  But I did come back with a few things to share, so I'll just get down to that.

First, I am now a certified Muse Group Leader!  I will be leading in person workshops and retreats based on Jill Badonsky's book The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard).  I'm so excited about this!  I love this book, and I love Jill's work, so this is really a big thrill for me.  I'll keep you posted as I get workshops up and running.

The second thing that happened was an unplanned and unnerving trip to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  My mother was having surgery, and things were really scary and stressful for a while both leading up to the trip and for a bit after.  Things are better now, so that's a relief.  But one thing I did during the travel portion of this crisis was really helpful, so I want to share that.

Going in to a crisis situation, we often think of only the necessities.  Underwear, toothbrush, medicine, contact numbers.  And you do need those things (and don't forget your deodorant and dental floss!).  But more important than any of that is packing things that will care for your heart and soul.  Whenever possible during a stressful situation, give yourself a soul break, a refresher of sorts.

I took some art journaling supplies with me (I wrote about that in my March newsletter), although I didn't end up using them.  But putting together my travel kit and stitching up a quick little journal were very calming activities all by themselves, so it was worth carrying the stuff with me.

I took my written journal.  Didn't write in that, either, although I did flip through it a bit and look at some pictures and quotes I have in there.  Just having it near me was comforting, so again it was worth carrying.

I took my camera.  I was going by train to a place I'd never been before, so I consciously decided that I would try to be a little touristy.  I didn't get any photos from the train--it moved too much for my little point-and-shoot.  But I did look around the places I was in and try to see them through creative, visitor eyes, and I ended up getting some good pictures that I am happy to have even if most of the memories around the trip are all about stress and worry.

A glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly in the Gonda Building at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
And another...
And one more...

I am completely in love with these glass sculptures, so expect to see more photos of them in other posts.

While my mother was in the hospital, I stayed with my aunt in a hotel on the Mayo campus.  We did make some excursions into the town, but I only got one fun picture of a very odd corn cob water tower:

I wish I'd had the presence of mind to get some photos of Red Wing, Minnesota, the charming little town where the train stops, but I didn't.  And that's okay.  And it you think you should have done something while you were dealing with an emotional situation but didn't actually get to it, that's okay, too.  Do what you can, arrange things so you can give yourself a little "me time" if you get time and feel like doing it.  Don't worry if you carry things with you that you don't use.  Security blankets (and books and paintbrushes and journals) are highly underrated.

That's everything for now.  I hope you'll excuse me if I was a little scattered in this post.  I was trying to condense a lot of thoughts and feelings into something that would come out shorter than the dictionary.

Until later...

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Happy New Year!

Do you make New Year resolutions?  Or maybe set intentions for the year or just list a few goals without calling them resolutions?  Most of us have some hopes and dreams and plans for the coming year on January 1.

Many of us have creative goals we want to accomplish.  If you have a goal to bring more creativity into your life this year, I thought I'd offer ideas for two ways you can make that happen:

Try Something Completely New

One of the best ways to rev up your creativity is to try something new.  Do you paint?  Try writing poetry.  Are you a photographer?  Try knitting.  You could even try something new and tie it in with your usual creative activities, for example by incorporating one of those poems you write into a mixed media painting.

If you go this route, let yourself get really involved in the new pursuit.  Join a group or two, read blogs, take a class.  Really dive in and immerse yourself in your new activity and give it a chance to really take hold.  Give yourself enough time--weeks or even months--to really get to know the ins and outs and ups and downs of your new creative pastime.

Delve Deeply Into Something You Already Do

Do you sketch?  Plan a year long project to do one small sketch every day.  Do you like to cook?  Sign up for a class in one particular cuisine, or plan to try recipes from a different region once a week.  Take something that you enjoy doing, go one step further (or more!) than you have so far, and become an expert.

I'm planning to go the first route this year and learn to quilt.  I've read up a bit on quilting, and I love the look of beautiful quilts. I've even bought a few supplies, but I've always hesitated to actually try it out, so this year I'm diving in.

How about you?  What creative fun are you getting into this year?  Drop me a note.  I'd love to hear what you're up to.

And again--Happy New Year!

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