I wrote this little poem on our travels,  in the RV. I was thinking about dreaming big, not giving up… doing good things, enoying family, letting your inner light shine,  and serving a higher purpose.

It reads:
The world is a heavy weight
upon the shoulders
What will give you strength?
Will you buckle beneath
the weight?
Will you stand up and be great?
Will you listen
when your soul cries out?
Or ignore it and let the fire
burn out?
Will you let the world
pass you by?
With inaction, distraction…
compromise?
Or, will you be deliberate
in every step you take?
Will you walk toward your
goal… Daily, not wait?
What will it take for you to
wake up from your slumber,
To walk in the light, in all
God’s wonder?

What calls you? I would love to hear from you,  please do share in the comments below 🙂

Birthday Invite

Hi all, just wanted to share this little invite with you. I had to do it in a hurry so I nabbed some images I had setting aside that I still needed to develop. What do you think?

So, here is my week 2 assessment for my MATS course: HOME DECO

Assessment:
I LOVE this market. I had so much fun playing and matching plates up. I have never been into decorating much, mostly because I hate to throw out gifts people give me and I don’t have room for more (HA!) So I didn’t realize I would ENJOY it soooo much! It was loose and fun and felt freeing. FUN! So many possibilities!

For me: I think bathroom, kitchen and wall sculputres would be the funnest. Bedding the most difficult maybe.

Dream scenario: just to be commissioned by a company, working closely with them. Not a huge goal, but hey, it would be huge for me!

I learned: I think my strength is playing with the items I make in Photoshop, it’s very enjoyable. I need to make sure to cutoff my hand drawing time and make time to PLAY in PS.

Sometimes my heart starts racing because I get excited about what I’m doing, it starts flowing – THAT’s Joy! and THAT joy makes me feel like the possibilities are INFINITE! lol (Lilla!)

Drawing skills: I CAN DO IT. Don’t get discouraged by where I’m at in my walk. Just plug away and try to learn something new everyday.

Color Sense: I am really freaking out for colors & pastels. I can’t get away from them. I feel like I’m over the dull and ready to LIVE OUT LOUD. But that doesn’t take me to Retro like I’d hoped 😦

Art Style: kind of a hash up. supplies and stepping out from this course has already helped! …and will continue to.

Grown: Not as scared to try new things. Trusting in my own abilities.

To work on: NOT COMPARING. You all are SUPER TALENTED. It’s hard not to, but my work comes out better when I don’t compare and I TRUST myself. Always room to learn and the RESEARCH Lilla has had us doing is creating a great HABIT that I will continue.

I NEED TO FIND MY EDGE. What every artist needs, right? This is mostly what I need to work on. Hopefully that comes with growing.

What would I say about my plates: Love the different looking flowers. Cute sayings and trim. Watercolor rocks. Great colors.

I have been thinking (nearly every waking minute, haha) about designing again, now that I have more time.

ScrapbooksGoneDigital.com, the digital scrapbook shop I sold my kits in, has shut off all designers except the owner. She, much like me, has had children, and run out of time for: designing, watching and paying designers. While I totally ready to move on, I am sad to see my little corner of the shop closed. I have been promised a welcome return, when the time comes. However, a new journey, for me begins.

So, I have decided to enter the Spoonflower.com contest this week. Above is my entry.  It was done a bit in a rush, but was fun to make, nonetheless!

There are tons of beautiful designs that will surely rank above mine.  This was basically an exercise for me. I just loved the idea of hand drawing pie (that was the subject). Of course, great minds think alike, because many of us have versions of the poem, Sing a Song of Sixpence.

Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye.

Four and twenty blackbirds,

Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,

The birds began to sing;

Wasn’t that a dainty dish,

To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,

Counting out his money;

The queen was in the parlor,

Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,

Hanging out the clothes,

When down came a blackbird

And pecked off her nose.I have been trying to decide if I should take this new art course. I love art. I am drawn to all things art and craft and creating. I loved creating digital kits but as I had more babies, I had less time.  With 2 of them in school all day now, I find I have time to begin designing again.

I had been praying for an answer: If I should or should not take this art course. I decided to make myself a deal. If I could get a halfway decent entry in (with only a few days left) to Spoonflower, then I could make time to commit to this art course.So, among tons of computer problems and shut downs, and things clearing out of my schedule that would have prevented me from making my deadline, I was actually able to get my entry in on time. Maybe that’s a sign?Pretty amazing after the issues I had, hahaaha.

I found that after I submitted my entry, there were several things I would add or change with my design, so I now know that having extra time will make my art better. However, for now, I will let it go and move on to the new art course I am taking.

I am super excited about this art class. I really need to hone in my style. I want to learn and grow and just….. well everything! I find that because I love everything so much, I haven’t perfected a style. (except for scrapbooking maybe) I just want to do ALL of them. I love modern but I love boho, I love watercolor and of course vintage and grunge! I guess, there are benefits and disadvantages to liking all of these styles. But I find making the decision to narrow it down daunting.

I love art. There was a time that I wanted to finish my degree, in art. When I talked this over with my Dad, I was told, why bother, you can’t make money in art.  He wasn’t trying to be negative, just realistic, practical. I believed that though. Many people believe that, I think. We are all creative in our own way. Sometimes we talk ourselves out of our own creativeness.The biggest hurdle for me is comparing to other people. There is ALWAYS someone better at everything we do… Someone smarter, someoene faster, someone more successful.  But, now, I think I know that if you follow your passion, use your God given talents, that true fulfillment will follow. Enjoy the process!! <——–I will have to remind myself of this again and again, lol. Squash the perfectionist in me 😉

I guess I should have learned a long time ago not to listen to naysayers, but hey, that’s part of life, learning who to listen to, who not to and making choices for yourself.

Looking back, it is the decisions I made for myself, the ones I trusted in, that were most rewarding. For instance, my decision to birth at home. To do real estate. To step out of any comfort level, haha.  I am extremely lucky to have a husband who supports me in all my adVENTURES 😀 but the one thing that remains….  I love to create, always have.

Life is a never ending process of making choices. Reminds me of those adventure books I use to read when I was growing up. I loved deciding whether I should go to page 320 or 150, and the book ends according to the decision I make. It’s often not until you get to the end, that you can see all the things you did wrong or right.As a child I use to sit and draw for hours…. or create or craft for hours. I love living in my imagination. My biggest challenge is getting what is in my head to look the same on paper, haha. I don’t think I have ever had taken a professional art class. Last night I drew a pirate. I had the idea of making it look mean….ARRrrrrrg… it came out the cutist looking little kid pirate. Not at all what I had in mind… cute but not mean, hahaha.

For the first time in my life, I really prayed about a decision… to take this new art course or not. I asked for direction. In that alone, I feel good about this new adventure. I am sure I will be posting some new creations here and there.This post is longer than expected. Just wanted to do a little catching up. So, for any of you that may be reading this, I sure hope you will come along with me.<3  Vivayne