Buzy Summer

Hello Everyone,

It has been a long time and I have so much to tell you. So have a seat and stay a while. Well first the e-course I took from Kelly Rae Roberts on making a creative business is over and I am still soaking up all the information she shared in her course. I would love to think that I can keep up with her standards and I am going to work hard to accomplish my goals, share my thoughts honestly with others, be more open to the wonderful artist community out there, and start my Esty Shop. I have a list a mile long but it is a good list and I am looking forward to it. Starting with making my blog an enjoyable space for others to visit. As Kelly Rae would say, come in to my kitchen and set awhile. I have always lived in the country and have never had close neighbors so I am looking forward to having good fiends stop by and chat for a while. Be sure to leave me your side of the conversation so we can get to know each other. I will put on some tea and we will have a nice visit, so stop often. I love company!

My daughter and I took our first vacation together since she has grown into a wonderful Mother and Woman. We had a blast! We drove from Kansas across beautiful Colorada into Utah. We talked and sang and laughed for 2 days. And then the fun started again when we made it to The Art Nest Retreat put on by Julie Collings and Candice Elton. They are the best! If you ever have a chance to go to one of their retreats I would highly recommend it. The whole experience is so nuturing. They cook and cuddle you the whole time. And this time we were high in the mountains of Utah in a beautiful log home and we had special visitors, a momma moose and her 2 babies. It was beautiful. I will have pictures to share when I learn how to add pictures to my posts. I had visited a previous retreat they did and I wanted my daughter to know the same experience in her life.

Ruth Rae, an awesome altered mix media fabric designer, showed us her way with fabric legacy books. She is amazing. My daughter had not sit at a sewing machine since she was in the 6th grade and she fell in love all over again. It was so neat to watch her have so much fun sewing again. And Stephanie Lee, found object jewelery designer, found her way into our hearts with a simple but really cool book cover that is never ending. The book covers (front and back) are tied together with ribbon so your pages can be added as you want. I loved that idea because I never have all my stuff together at once anyway. And she also spent time with us about journaling. I had always wanted to write or journal but always had an excuse to start. She gave us nice hints to help us get started on our own. My Mother wrote a journal for over 12 years and I take them out once in a while and read through a few pages. She is gone now but it helps me feel like she is still very close to me. We had a wonderful time in our week of travel and it was nice to get closer to my daughter again.

Now that my traveling is over for the summer and it is so hot in Texas that all my work outside is done in the first hour in the morning, I am taking a box of family momentos each day and sorting through years of living with my Grandfather and Grandmother, and Uncle, and my Mother that has been gone for over 24 years now. Being the only girl with 3 brothers, I seem to have gathered the family treasures to deal with. I don't really mind, it is fun and sometimes sad to go through their lives in boxes. But it is also amazing how much I have learned about them too. These are the items I mentioned in my earlier post about sharing items with others. I will be posting soon about my Esty Shop.

I am addicted to art magazines, I admit it. I can look, look, look, wish, wish, and wish...but I talk about making art but I can make more excuses than art it seems. So...I am giving my self a challenge to take a magazine and start from the beginning and do each project that is showed in that magazine. Mixed Media Artists are so giving of their art and I want to show my appreciation to them by using what they have shared so graciously. So I will be sharing pictures with you as I finish a project.

Which brings up another subject, pictures. I will be loading pictures to my flickr account this week too so that I can share my life through pictures with you too.

Well if I haven't run you off by now, I will say so long for a while but please come back soon. I will have lots to talk about always and hope you will too.

Have a good Monday.

Debbie