Avoid Botox Cut Bangs Self Portrait

I did a silly thing, I cut bangs to cover up my wrinkles. It's my botox solution. I don't know what I was thinking. The impulse was brought on by sallow looking winter skin and the desire to look youthful at the age of 40. This first words out of Brian's mouth "You don't like bangs." I used to wear them as a girl and they do make me feel kind of girlish. Hair grows, that's the beauty of it, always changing. For now I'll just embrace the new look and wait until my next hair cut to see what my stylist says. Lesson learned: embrace life in all stages. It always has something new to offer. Flaunt it with style and sass and enjoy!

Working with Kelly Rae's 3 Second Rule and a Journal Page Dedicated to Kate's 13th Bday!

Last week while teaching my art journal class, I was demonstrating Kelly Rae's three second rule for creating a patchwork background. I struggled with the whole 3 second rule during the art nest retreat. I am so used to carefully choosing my colors and patterns of paper that I incorporate into my work. I was amazed how Kelly could just randomly grab a piece of paper, tear it and paste it to her background in just about 3 seconds. Her results were beautiful!

I went into the art nest retreat with the intention of placing myself in the roll of the student, not the teacher, and tried my hardest to follow the instruction. So I did best to let go and just randomly pick my papers. My end result was not all I had hoped for. I seemed to cover most of my patterns and images with paint.So I knew I needed some more practice with this technique. Much to my delight, my results here brought to life a background that I decided to use to dedicate to Kate turning thirteen. When I was finished I had a beautiful background with a birthday cake image still left glowing through a transparent layer if colorful paint. Next came the words to share how wonderful and privileged I feel being Kate's mom.

So here is to life as a mom of a wonderful person who turns 13 today on Friday the 13Th. I am so lucky and blessed share a journey in life with you Kate. I love you sweetie!

Back From the Art Nest

Wow what a week, I returned home this past Monday from my trip to the art nest in Utah and my head is still spinning. It is so hard to jump back into the real world after having three full days of making art and having all our needs taken care of by Julie and Candice, the two amazing women who put together our cozy nest retreat. I entered my world during the tail end of the big snowstorm we had here on the east coast. It was so wonderful to be back to my home, even though I was enjoying the early spring like weather with pansies planted and tulips budding in Salt Lake City. I have never felt such home sick feelings as I did during this trip. It really made seeing my sweet Kate, Brian and pets so emotional for me. Today was the first day that I actually felt like I could start breathing again. Brian, Buddy and I went to Kingman farm for a lovely cross country ski. Then we returned back home and sat on our front porch to enjoy some down time in the afternoon sunshine. I took some time also to download my photos from the art nest and posted them on flickr. I feel a bit more grounded and ready to process my whole experience from the art nest. I am looking forward to sitting back and creating in my art journal tomorrow to put down and release what I learned about myself from this whole experience.

A Busy Bird Getting Ready For the Art Nest Retreat

I have been in a creative whirlwind lately getting ready for my trip to the Art Nest Retreat.
Organizing my art, prints, and scrap bags for the art sale.
And finishing up a bunch of new small mixed media pieces featuring lots of birds and the start of a new series "She carries...."

Here is "She carries Joy", I am hoping to create a couple of pieces in Kelly Rae's workshop to add to this series while learning some of her techniques for painting the girls. It's hard to believe that in three days I'll be in Utah. In the meantime I still have lots of packing to do, some last minute travel arrangements to make, and hoping to get my studio cleaned up so when I return it will be ready for me to share what I learned on this blissful creative trip.

Tiny Trades for the Art Nest Retreat

Here is a sampling of the tiny trades that I made for the Art Nest Retreat. It was fun picking out these fun papers and sewing them into little pockets to hold the inspirational quote tags. Of course I had to add little birdies (it is the art nest.) Can't believe that it is almost here. I am so excited to be flying off to Utah next week to have 3 days of creative workshops. I am so grateful, I have never been to an art retreat before and this is such a big treat. I am hoping to learn a lot and have fun with all the other creative ladies that will be there!

To The Flock of Birds of a Feather: Happy Valentine's Day!

Greetings of love to all you creative birds who are joining this fun celebration today. Much gratitude goes to Kathryn, our creative diva extraordinaire, who arranged this blog party.

I Hope you enjoy my journal entry. I just love adding bird imagery into my artwork so this was so much fun for me to play with. XOXO, Caryn

A Heartwarming Month Ahead

I am so excited and looking forward to the month of February! So much is happening this month, the biggest and most exciting for me is my flight to the art nest retreat. I have been busy working late into the night and rising bright and early to make my sweet pockets of inspire me! cards for the tiny trades. Last night I was up until midnight cutting out little birdies to attach to the fronts.

Today I am off to the studio. I have been working on this bird piece (One flew away) and hope to get it finished today. I also have several others in progress and hope to get some new backgrounds painted too.

My last two weekends I have been away skiing in VT at Mad River Glen. So this weekend I am really looking forward to having time in the studio. I am meeting my new creative soul sister Kathryn who is part of my soul journal group .I am really looking forward to getting together with her and spending the afternoon being creative together.

My heart is filled with love and happiness. I am so lucky that I am living my creative dreams.

Soul hugs to all during this month of love!

XOXOX