piece of work.

The Best ME Challenge: Week Nine-A Leap of Faith

This week is all about taking a leap of faith and doing something for yourself that might even be more than a little scary. Sometimes taking risks is the best reward. I am not a big risk taker. I am a creature of habit, I don't like to make waves and I love my routines. I am not often okay with change so for me this weeks challenge is quite difficult. I am trying to get better but being a natural pessimist makes it hard to look on the bright side and see a happy ending ESPECIALLY when I jump off a cliff, so to speak and take a chance with anything.So having faith that ANY change good or bad will work out in the end is very hard but, I want to be a better me so I am deciding to take that leap of fatih and KNOW in my heart that sometimes risks are need for those bigger rewards. Sometimes you have to put yourself out there, and while it may not always pay off the way you planned, it will change your life and it's how you deal with that change that makes you stronger or just afraid.

The Best Me Challenge: Week Eight- Just For Fun...Nothing Else

A simple but VERY effective one this week.....

So we all have a million things that we want to do, see, be part of, experience...whatever but, we just never do. Sometimes we can go WEEKS without doing something just for fun, no other reason but FUN. That's this weeks challenge......DO SOMETHING FOR THE PURE FUN OF IT........NO OTHER REASON!
It doesn't have to be something big. Take the time out to jump on your bed, have tickle time with your kids, eat your favorite ice cream sundae, what ever is FUN FOR YOU!!

I'll show my work from last weeks challenge sometime this week. And remember we still have the Flickr group for the challenges. I know that it have been a bit but, let's get back into the groove, let's get back to being a better me.

The Best Me Challenge: Week Seven: Back in the Saddle

So.......HELLO!!!!!! This weeks challenge is about getting back to it. Starting up again. I realize that it REALLY isn't week seven but, for all intensive purposes it's just gonna be since the month of February was a wash!
So let's  get back on the saddle. Think about some of those positive habits you wanted to adopt in the new year, those things that you wanted to start doing to make your life better but, they just didn't stick. Think about WHY they didn't stick. What you can do to start again, to stick to it. What will help you in your process. What will make you WANT to stick with it more. We all have something that we wish we had stuck with, something that we look back and say......look where I would be if I had only stuck with it. Well no is the time to pick it back up and try again, to be a little less hard on yourself and say....it's cool, I just took a little break, I'm allowed to do that, NOW I have to get back on it. Why?!?!? BECAUSE IT WILL HELP MAKE US THE BEST ME!! And that's the end result here, right!??!

The Best Me Challenge: Week Six-That One Song

I want to start by saying how proud I am that all of you are diligently going along and doing these challenges every week. I REALLY AM SO HAPPY!! I also wanna share that I totally am aware that I haven't shared my project from last week but, things are a bit hectic right now and project sharing just needs to wait but when I get back(mid February), I will be sharing TONS and there won't be a challenge posted next week because I won't  be here but, I will post all that I have missed when I get back.......never fear. I will also have LOTS of photos to share from California and Las Vegas and Santa Fe, so it will be busy busy on this blog when I get back. I just wanted to say a quick note about my classes. I will be posting a schedule of my monthly classes soon probably end of Feb. or beginning of March.

Okay now that all that is said, this weeks challenge is to find that ONE song that is just speaking to you right now. When you hear it, you really FEEL it. Describe the reasons why you love this song, how it moves you, what it says to you. Anyone who knows me, or visits this blog on the regular knows how much music means to me. It really is one of the best things we as people have ever created, in my opinion. I think there is so much that we can learn from music, the stories and the mood, the joy and even the heartbreak. Do you have a special song that brings back memories, whether good or bad? Do you and you spouse have a song? Do you love a certain song because it reminds you of your kids? Or do you just love that one song because it just makes you get up and move, whatever the reason. WRITE IT DOWN! And if you choose, make a project to go along with it. Remember to post on Flickr. I go through almost daily and look at all the work, I just LOVE admiring all of this purpose to better at being us. It is so moving for me.

With that, I will be signing off for a bit. I bid you found farewells and lots of creative juices. We'll talk again soon...

Oh, also before I forget. I had the great pleasure of being a part of a wonderfully artistic publication called Artful Blogging, I have to say I was stunned and so happy when they asked me. If you got the last edition of the magazine, you KNOW how inspiring it is! There are so many talented and amazing artists in this one too. I am shocked to be in such great company. There are some SERIOUSLY cool blogs in this mag, definitely worth checking out. I have read it a couple of times now, and I keep finding something different that sparks me. Great great stuff....

The Best Me Challenge: Week Five- Let GO!!

So sometimes we need a break a small space of time to just LET GO!! We need to be carefree and happy. This week just try and take steps to be more carefree. If you are like me and you NEED to be totally in control of everything, let go a little, take a deep breath and just LET GO!!

The reason I decided to do this challenge this week is because it's kind of a second part to last week. I bet some of you haven't even mailed you parcel yet, and I know some of you haven't gotten yours back in the mail and neither have I, well guess what....... WHO CARES!!!! You DO NOT have to do these challenges in order, you can even pick and choose the ones that you feel will benefit you the most, it's ALL UP TO YOU!!!

So this week STOP STRESSING!!! Stop worrying about getting everything done, let go........trust me IT FEELS GOOD!!! At the end of the week journal about how you felt letting go a little, being a little more carefree. You never know, it could totally spark something in you, it could be the start of something you feel like you could do more. Let's face it, we ALL need to lower our stress levels and chill for a bit...... 

The Best Me Challenge: Week Four-Parcel of My Personal Best

This week is about igniting that spark that may have gone out, remembering why we are doing this, remembering who we are and who we want to be. The end of this week marks a MONTH we have been doing the Best Me Challenge together. Do you feel yourself changing? Do you feel your personal relationship with yourself getting better? If not, maybe you just need to dig a little deeper, or maybe just give yourself a break. Either way, as long as you ARE trying to improve yourself, you are doing what you set out to do, and that's awesome.

So this week is about what is inspiring us right now. Look through magazines and photographs, scraps of paper, ribbons, junk mail, passages from books, poems, fabric, anything that will fit in an envelope, because that's what we are gonna do, we are going to put all these things that are making us feel that little twinge of a spark, those things that make us smile or just feel good about ourselves, we are gonna put those in an envelope address the outside to ourselves and put it in the mail, YEP. you ARE mailing yourself an inspirational package to yourself, and then your gonna take all those pieces that you love AND THE ENVELOPE and make something, anything you want, but you need to use all of the contents of the envelope AND the envelope itself. Something else you need to include in the envelope is a letter to yourself, it can be long or short, a postcard or a post-it note, it just needs to be positive, talk about why you love yourself right now, why you are proud of yourself RIGHT NOW. So, in the envelope include what's inspiring you and your letter and mail it to yourself. Does this sound silly to you? It shouldn't, I feel like it shouldn't be silly to appreciate ourselves, it shouldn't be embarrassing or strange to be able to take a compliment from ourselves. If we can't even accept the positive words we write about ourselves, how are we suppose to accept them from others? Right?!?!

It will be fun to get this in the mail and know you have to make a little something out of it. It will be fun in a couple of days to read our words that we wrote about ourselves, believe me, you might have even forgotten what you wrote, it will be nice to read such wonderful things about yourself.So do this as soon as possible, it will take a few days to get it back in the mail, but, it's worth it.

The Best Me Challenge: Week Three Project

So I wanted to share really quick a photo of the art that I framed last week, then I will post the new challenge for this week a little later.

I am excited to get back to blogging and the challenges! I took a bit of time to spend with my husband, he left on Monday, he will be gone for a month again and I already miss him!! But life makes us do things we often would rather not, that's how it goes.... look for the next Best Me challenge later tonight, it's a fun one!

The Best Me Challenge: Week Three-Frame it

This week is about recognizing the things that you love and honoring them. It's about doing a tiny something that can brighten your whole week, or the rest of your year, it's up to you. This week your challenge is to frame something that means a lot to you. Get creative with the way that you frame your item, it doesn't have to be "in a frame", I'm just using the word FRAME as a way of saying......putting it out there where you can see it everyday, for as long or a short a period of time as you want. You are doing this to recognize those small things that make us think, those small things that make us laugh or daydream, those little things that just make us happy, that make us remember who we are and what we want out of life.

We all have photos that we would love to put in a frame, or maybe a quote, or a piece of art we made, even a scrapbook page. This doesn't have to be permanent and it doesn't have to be something that you want to hang in your living room. you can hang put it in your creative space, in your office, in your car, your closet, the bathroom, the pantry, anywhere you want. It can be something that will make someone else happy too, like framing a favorite honeymoon photo and putting it in the bathroom, for you BOTH to see first thing in the morning. Taping your favorite quote to your dashboard in your car.

Yep, this is another small thing, but this small thing can bring a smile to your face when you may need it the most. If you are trying to reach a certain goal on your best me quest, frame something that will help you reach your goal, something that will help you through those rough spots when you want to give up.

Frame a project you are particularly proud of, something that motivates you to be more creative.

Or you could just frame that picture you've been meaning to hang forever, or that piece of art you bought but don't know where to hang, just FRAME IT AND HANG IT!!!

Now........how do I make a project to go along with this, you ask!?? I will tell you what I am gonna do, I am gonna do a project about what I hung and the story behind it. You could do the same, just remember it can be anything, you can just do a journal entry, a blog post, you can do a scrapbook layout, a tag......anything. So find that special something and put it out there to enjoy and make yourself happy!!

The Best Me Challenge: Week Two Project

So I decided to do a tag this week, the journaling for my project is on the backside of the stamped paper. This week was a little more difficult than last week, hence the word CHALLENGE, lol.....but I knew that if I got done what I needed to do this week, I would be a better me for it. I had been putting off some decisions with work related stuff, which I dealt with and now no longer wake up thinking about it, YEAH!!! I decided to stop lying to myself about my relationship with food, it IS an addiction for me, it IS a crutch and it IS hard for me to control, but just admitting that I DO have a problem and that I DO NEED HELP from my family and friends to help me succeed, and actually admitting that to them........WOW has that helped me. You see normally I hold all that inside, I'm always like.....I can do this by myself, I don't need anyone, it's bad enough that I have to lose the weight I don't want to talk about it(the feeling behind the addiction) with everyone in my life. WELL THAT WAS JUST DUMB!! I have figured out over the last few week that I need to talk things out more, that I NEED to be heard, I need to have my struggles recognized, and yep, I know that this is a little self indulgent, but if that is what it takes to get me on the right track than, I guess I'm just gonna have to be a little selfish for a while.

Admitting THAT is hard too, because doing things for me has always made me feel bad, I don't know why, it shouldn't! I have always thought.....we could use this money for something else, or I don't need that(whatever that good thing might be, not talking like food or crap here). I don't need this to make me feel good, I should be able to do it on my own, when the reality is, sometimes we need things, we need tools or small crutches to help us with the bigger picture. Like when I go to the book store and find a really great HEALTHY cookbook, but I don't buy it, because I tell myself I can just make the same old crap I always make and just be fine or I can make this stuff on my own I don't need the cookbook, I don't need to spend that money.But the reality is THE COOKBOOK is what inspires me to live healthier, the photos and the thoughts of the author. It should be okay that I want that inspiration, that tool to help me GO, get it done!..... Or if I see a really great pair of sneakers that would be great for walking and I DON'T get them cuz I think, I can just use my old crappy ones, noone cares what I look like, but that is when I should do it anyway......that's that little voice that wants me to fail, that is,  one denial at a time,  sabotaging my freedom. When the truth is, if I had just done something simple, like buy the dang shoes(which WOULD have made me feel better about the way I look), I would have been that much closer to my goal.

I understand that this can sound needy, or again selfish, but I am beginning to see the things that I do to unconsciously make myself fail, because the failure and the stagnancy is EASY, the working at it and getting things done it hard, and it should be,  it should take time, if it didn't we would never have anything to appreciate. We wouldn't have a journey to remember, or a story to tell. This was a hard week for me, a week full of growing pains, but I will be a bigger person in the end,,,,,and it's those very pains that let me know I AM GROWING!!!

one thru ten

1. What have I been up to lately, you ask(I will pretend that you asked).Well....I saw Juno, which was the BEST movie I have seen in a LONG long time, really. BUT you have to have a sense of humor.......WARNING:meaningless observation coming...I have to add the day that I went, I was perplexed(my word of the day) at the sheer numbers of senior citizens at this movie, which let me clarify IS NOT a problem, it was just weird for a movie with such content as this one, NO?!?

2. My friend and fellow Fashionista at SIS, Adrienne Looman, is doing a photography class, it's a class on how to alter you photos with funky colors, very artistic, very cool. Like these...

3. I uploaded a bunch of new music to the blog, so there should be hours of cool music to listen to now. I saw on Cathy Zielske's blog, she shared her top 25 songs on iTunes, and I thought that since I get so many emails and questions about my music taste and what I have on the blog, I would share that too, these are in the order of what I play most, so here we go....

25 Sea of Love- Cat Powers
24 Misread- Kings of Convenience
23 The Girl from Ipanema- Astrud Gilberto, Joâo Gilberto & Stan Getz
22 My Moon My Man- Feist
21 Let It Out- The Hombres
20 Paper Bag- Fiona Apple
19 Hell No- Sondre Lerche & Regina Spektor
18 Such Great Heights- The Postal Service
17 Go It Alone- Beck
16 Harder Better Faster Stronger- Daft Punk
15 D.A.N.C.E.- Justice
14 Piazza, New York Catcher- Belle & Sebastian
13 Lover's Split- Broken Social Scene
12 Soul Meets Body- Death Cab for Cutie
11 Dearest- Buddy Holly
10 Mr. Blue- Catherine Feeny
9 Tire Swing- Kimya Dawson
8 Anyone Else But You- Moldy Peaches
7 A Well Respected Man- The Kinks
6 Catch The Wind- Donovan
5 My Father's Gun- Elton John
4 Everybody Here Wants You- Jeff Buckley
3 Happiness- The Weepies
2 The Beast- Angus & Julia Stone
1 All I Want is You- Barry Louis Polisar

4. I found a new photo of my favorite clusterings from Decor8

I think I am so into this because we are going to move in a few months and I am SO excited for a new space, a fresh perspective. I adore that radiator, you can find that a lot here, most of the older homes/apartments here have that steam heat, I guess since it is so dry here, they still use it, I have no clue. None the less, I love the way they look.That stack of mags, YES YES YES!!!

5. Can you tell I have totally embraced the whole list thing?!?!
6. SO SO glad that this is back on, I missed it so...
7. I have lost 5lbs.(dancing with my arms held high....I REALLY am)
8. I plan on having more sneak peeks of my January class, so stay tuned for that.
9.One of my most favorite people and best friends, Ashley Wren is doing something VERY cool, it's called Overlooked and if I know Ash, I KNOW it will be super fun and inspiring, so check that out.
10. I want to thank  the person that pointed  me in the direction of Pandora Radio, I can't remember off hand who told me, but I LOVE YOU all the same. Where the heck have I been, this site is THE BEST, especially if you are a music lover like me. Seriously.......I could kiss you!!

 

The Best Me Challenge: Week Two- Free Yourself...

One of the things I am trying to do for myself in this challenge is cut through all the lies I tell myself and BE REAL. I don't lie to others, so why do I continue to do it to myself. Deep down I KNOW what I have to do to be free, to be happy, to be content with ME. Now, doing them...........that's, well......that's where the lies come in. That's when I tell myself, the part of me that loves to see me fail, the part of me that is selfish and scared that I don't need to do these things. that I AM happy how I am now, plenty of people have it worse off than me, why do I need to be completely happy? WHAT?!?!? Yep. I tell myself this crap, we all do. One of the biggest parts of freeing myself is doing those things that I constantly PUT OFF for a better day, another day, a day when I am ready to deal with them. I put those things off until they have festered SO LONG THEY ARE OVERCOMING MY THOUGHTS!!

One of my favorite quotes is a line from that movie French Kiss(you know the one with Meg Ryan before she looked like Melanie Griffith all botoxed and stretched.....sorry,  I digress) Well she says, "You'll be one of those grumpy old men sitting in the corner of a crowded cafe, mumbling to yourself, "My ass is twitching. Your people make my ass twitch." Hilarious.....But really that's what happens when put off LIVING AND DEALING because we are scared, we are miserable. And lets face it, noone wants an ass twitch, that's just wrong. Now, I kid but, I am dead serious.

SO your challenge this week is to deal with something that you have been putting off, ANYTHING. Again, it doesn't have to be huge but, it should be something that has taken up some of your daily thought process. You know what I'm talking about.......deal with whatever is bothering you, just admit it. DEAL. And FREE YOURSELF, then move on and live.

I have a few things on my "freedom list" this week, some are personal and some I will share. Do the same, if you don't want to share it, DON"T but, I'm telling you just do it, not even so you completed this challenge. Do it for YOU. Do it because you want to, do it because you care about YOU more than anybody else. So...here's to you.....freeing yourself, whatever that entails. Don't forget even though you make a project, that project needs to have some journaling about this weeks challenge. Trust me it will be great, at the end of the year to read about your journey.

AND we have a Flickr group now, YA!!!!!!!!!

The Best Me Flickr Group

I also wanted to add a button that you can put on your blog, just right click on it and save it to your computer, then just add it to your blog sidebar if you want...

I'm in love...

with this house, all the clustering and the color combos against the whitewashed wood, HEAVEN........

this last photo is my favorite, love the stacks of books and the painting leaning on the floor, LOVE IT!!! I found these photos on Decor8.

So I have decided to leave all the challenge stuff right here on this blog, but I do think it would be a neat idea to start a Flickr group to share all of the work, whatcha think about that? I don't want to do anything that you guys don't want to participate in, you know!??! Again, thanks so much for you comments and encouragement.

Monday will be a big day, not only will I post the newest Best Me Challenge, but I will be putting up a little storefront with info about purchasing online classes, plus I will have a sneak peek up of my newest class, "Alterations".......so keep your eye out. This class is gonna be something very different and SO much fun. Another something to do just for YOU. Hope your weekend is a great one, full of fun and possibility!

The Best Me Challenge: Week One Project

Hello Hello!!!

First off I just wanted to thanks all of you for your interest and participation in The Best Me Challenge, it makes me SO SO happy REALLY!!
All of your emails and comments about the challenge are just charging me up more, it is so wonderful that we can all share in the same journey together, being so far apart.

SO with that said, here is my project for this week. I chose to do cards again, I love doing them and they go so quickly. For this week, I went down a little different route. I decided that I wanted to draw my cards. So I actually did six things this week, but never mind... I did a lot of drawing when I was in art school and I miss that SO much, but this time I get to draw what I want not building interiors( I was an interior design major) or perspective sketches,HA!!

So these are my five things...

1. Put Up My Inspiration Wire

This is something that I have wanted to do for a while and I am so glad that I did it. It feels great to have the things that I love in plain view all the time.

2. Find Two New Songs For My iPod

I could spend all day everyday finding new music. One of my favorite things to do is go into the section of iTunes that's like the recommendations section, like if you liked these songs, then you should hear these too, you know what I mean? I spend a lot of time listening to stuff there. It always amazes me how dead on it is too, LOL.

3. Cook Something

This is a big one for me, I don't do a lot of cooking. I enjoy it(not the grocery shopping, hate that) but, I just don't do it a lot, so for me I get great joy out of cooking.

4. Go Outside And Play In The Snow

I will be the first to tell you how important I think it is to, every once in a while, act like a kid. Do something silly. A little silly, fun time NEVER hurt anyone, EVER!!

5. Organize Schedule In Day Planner

Believe it or not, this isn't a chore for me. I LOVE to play in my day planner. I love to look at the months ahead and think of all the things to come. I love filling up my weeks and days on the calendar, it's just fun. Yep. I have a lot of weird quirks like that but, that's why I'm me.

SO let's see more of what YOU guys are doing. I have looked at every SINGLE project that has been shared with me so far. And PLEASE know, I may not always have the time to comment, BUT I ALWAYS look. I love when you guys share with me your work, it really is so inspiring to hear everyone's stories and hopes.

Also, remember I am posting the next weeks challenge on Monday. Another also, would you guys like a separate blog for all this, do you think that would be cool?!?! I was thinking about doing a whole other blog, just to keep it all more organized. Let me know what your thoughts are on that...

Fresh Inspiration for a New Year

I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful new year!!! I hope you all are excited about The Best Me Challenge , because I am!! I'm ready for a great year filled with creative abundance. I wanted to share some photos of my wire wall. It filled with stuff I have created, old photos, current photos, postcards, fabric, magazine clipping and more. It is a new inspiration project I am doing for myself. I am gonna put up a second wire just below this one and have all the things that I am REALLY loving at the present time on both. It's a place for me to hang recent projects I have completed that I want to admire for just a bit longer as well as a place for just all the STUFF I collect that I want to look at all the time. I will switch this out every couple of months, it will be an ongoing thing that I am really looking forward to.

Also, I wanted to post this little snippet of info again, I think it got passed over a little too quickly the last time I posted it, so for those of you with questions, please email me.

Another exciting thing that I am starting this year is a monthly class. I will start accepting class payment(for the January class) on January 7th. I will have a sneak peek of the class up on the 7th too. THE CLASS WILL BEGIN JANUARY 14TH, it is called "Alterations", it will involve magazine pages, fabric, paint, trims, sparkles of all kinds, patterned papers, and more. I will post the supply list the first day of the class. The class will be held similar to my Christmas class I just did. There will be separate blog. And for this class, the blog will be up until the end of the month. There will be VERY detailed step-by-step instructions, along with photographs to inspire, plus all the personal help I can give. I will also set up a gallery for those that purchase the class to share their work. THE CLASS WILL COST $22.

Thanks again for all of your well wishes and excitement for the new year and all the fun it will bring!!!

♥♥♥ much love ♥♥♥

The Best Me Challenge: Week One- Lists

So......lists, we all make them, we all use them whether we want to or not, whether consciously or not. We make, grocery list, to do lists, resolution lists(which never work out), lists(in our heads) of expectations of others, of ourselves, Lists of books we want to read or just general tasks we want to get done. Lists seem to be everywhere, especially NOW, being that it is the new year. Those anxiety ridden resolution lists, they just ride on your shoulders and remind you of ALL those things you'll never get done, RIGHT!?!? It seems like just ONE MORE thing to add to your stress list, lol......

So don't do that to yourself, don't build yourself up to such great heights. Why set yourself up for failure? Now I'm not saying that EVERYONE doesn't complete their new year's resolutions, but chances are if you have a life other than your list, you won't get it all done, you'd never LIVE. You HAVE to start small, to get big results. Like we always say........it's the little things that mean the most.

That said.......lists are NOT ALL BAD. They are an easy and gratifying way to see progress. Each time you cross something off it's like a little weight has been lifted. But let's look at "the list" differently. Let's put things on that list that are not nagging pains of guilt, things that we like to do. Things that we look forward to doing, that we don't get to do a lot but wish were part of our daily lives. Remember, we are starting small here, like taking a bubble bath this week, buying a book you have been DYING to read or  trying a new  latte flavor at Starbuck's.  Yep. that's how small I'm talking here. SMALL.  What happens is we start small and we want to do more, to do bigger, but the small steps are the first steps....

So your challenge this week is to make a list of 5 things that you want to do FOR YOU this week and DO THEM. Think small(I know it's an odd concept), but truly think about the little things. And remember to journal about them in some way, it can be a scrap booking page, a journal entry, a blog post, a page in a mini book, a note on a napkin..........whatever YOU want. The important thing here is writing about what you did and why it was special to YOU. Why that list of 5 small things makes YOU happy.

*ETA*

A question was asked whether or not you need a blog to share your progress, the answer is NO......if you don't have a blog, you can post your work in a gallery of you choosing and link it to this post(in your comment). You don't even HAVE to share what you do, that's up to you.

Just a quick FYI...

When I post the prompt for each week, I will do a regular post and I will also put it up on the "the best me" page, which you can access by clicking on the "the best me" art card icon.  Also, I will be posting MY work that I do for the challenge on Fridays each week, and I will post that the same way, in a regular post AND on the "the best me" page. If anybody has any questions, please feel free to shoot me an email.

Another exciting thing that I am starting this year is a monthly class. I will start accepting class payment(for the January class) on January 7th. I will have a sneak peek of the class up on the 7th too. THE CLASS WILL BEGIN JANUARY 14TH, it is called "Alterations", it will involve magazine pages, fabric, paint, trims, sparkles of all kinds, patterned papers, and more. I will post the supply list the first day of the class. The class will be held similar to my Christmas class I just did. There will be separate blog. And for this class, the blog will be up until the end of the month. There will be VERY detailed step-by-step instructions, along with photographs to inspire, plus all the personal help I can give. I will also set up a gallery for those that purchase the class to share their work. THE CLASS WILL COST $22.

Thanks so much for all your interests in my classes, I love doing them and am excited to get started this year. It will be a BIG year for creating.