One Creative Summer is HERE!!!

"Pictures of perfection as you know make me sick and wicked."  -Jane Austen


Welcome to "One Creative Summer"!! I am so grateful you are here and look forward to seeing your creations in our FB group Mind.Body.Soul Art Journaling. Be sure and stop by to say HI if you are playing along with us this summer!!

My idea for this challenge came about because I knew the  I would be crazy busy for the next few months working in our family's shaved ice shack. And even though I may not get to spend the time in my studio that I would like...it was very important for me to stay inspired and create. I am just so grateful you are here to join me in this journey!!

Here's what you can expect...

*this challenge is ALL ABOUT working at your own pace
*there won't be any "have-to finish" projects
*finding ways to inject creativity into your days and nights
* a SUPER laid-back approach is what this challenge is all about...like our summer days!

I want you to think about your expectations of yourself when it comes to creating. Are you so caught up in the perfectionism of it that you talk yourself out of doing what you love?

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way says this about perfectionism....

"It is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop...an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck. Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough...that we should try again."


This was view this morning...

I have been waking up an hour earlier so I can enjoy my first cup of coffee outside. I love hearing the birds sing, smelling the beautiful summer air and feeling so alive!

Just a  few weeks ago I would make my coffee then proceed to sit on the couch watching the news for the next TWO HOURS. It was making me feel extremely anxious and tired. The more I sat and watched the more I realized that my life was just passing me by. The affect on the rest of my day was crippling me. It seemed my zest for life was being depleted.

After making that one change to my morning routine I am feeling so different!! I can feel my creativity coming back as the sights and smells of summer awaken my spirit.

This was my studio this morning...

(see my sweet Gizmo wanting to come out and play too!!)

Last week I packed together an "art kit"...a small box full of some of my favorite supplies so I could create whenever the mood struck. And I can take it to Kool Kats with me, too:)

It's filled with a pack of 4x6 index cards, painted papers, Brave Art sayings, magazine images, vintage girl images, a glue stick, one black pen, scissors and a few stamps and one black stamp pad. The pink folder with the typewriter on it (found this at the Dollar Tree!!) has a few more Brave Art quote sheets in it as well as some stamped images my friend Sherry Canino sent me:)

Here is my index card from this morning....

Another one I created during our slow times in our ice shack Kool Kats.

As our Challenge kicks off this week I encourage you to create your own portable art kit. You can use a tote bag, a large zip lock baggie, a small plastic tote like mine...anything you can carry with you.

I look forward to seeing YOUR art treasures in our group!!!