Tag Archives: Art

A Sunshine Award for a Lovely Monday!

The Sunshine AwardI am very excited to report that I was nominated for a blogger award!!!

YEAH!!!

The Sunshine Award!!
😉
This nomination came from the awesome Procrastitorian over at her blog A is for Amuseless.

The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers.

The recipients of the Sunshine Award are:

Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.

The way the award works is this:

  1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
  2. Answer some questions about yourself.
  3. Select 10 of your favorite bloggers, link their blogs to your post and let them know they have been awarded the Sunshine Award!

The Thanks

First, I would like to thank the academy for this amazing award…wait..no…that is not right! I would like to thank The Procrastitorian for the lovely nomination! I was both happily surprised and equally touched that I was even nominated for such an award!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!! You have made my week! Truly!! 😉

 Questions

1.  What inspired you to start blogging?

I have been blogging for a few years, but mainly I was just logging my random thoughts and photos without any real purpose or focus in what I was saying. In early 2013, I knew that there was more to me than what I was sharing with the blogosphere and decided it was time for a change. I wanted my message to do more than just entertain! I wanted to, in some small way, change the world, by creating a community of creative people to venture out and starting with small measurable steps start creating the lives of their dreams. If that meant I would be able to explore the artsy side of life and share what I found, the better.

2.  How did you come up with the name to your blog?

I had been looking for a new blog name for a few months, and I actually stumbled across This Artsy Life while I was doing my morning pages. I was going on and on, writing down what I wanted my dream life to look like, when I wrote the sentence, “When I think about this artsy life, I can’t helped but be totally jazzed!” It was then that I saw it, “This Artsy Life”, I knew I had finally found my new name.

List your top 5 “Big Girls”! These are the women who I most want to emulate in my life/artsy career!

  1. Melody Ross – Brave Girls Club
  2. Kelly Rae Roberts
  3. Christy Tomlinson
  4. Jennifer Lee
  5. SerenaThompson – The Farm Chicks

Tell about your dream job.

I would love to be able to say that I was a full time artist, life coach, photographer, art instructor, and art retreat hostess!

Is your glass half empty or half full?

I am definitely a glass half full kind of girl!!

If you could go anywhere for a week’s vacation, where would you go?

I would go to France and just take in all of the culture, the food, the sights, the sounds, people watch like a crazy American, which I am, and have THE BEST TIME EVER!!! 😉

What food can you absolutely not eat?

Mushrooms. I am allergic. 🙁

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

Dark chocolate any day!!

How much time do you spend blogging?

I figure I blog between 10 and 15 hours a week! 🙂

What top 3 pieces of advice would you give a newbie blogger for starting a blog??

  1. Be consistent in your posting so people know when to come back to find new content.
  2. Share your beliefs, thoughts, opinions, etc. That is how we, as your readers, are going to get to know the real you!
  3. Find your own authentic voice.

10 Nominees

  1. Danita Art
  2. Dilly Bean Inspirations
  3. Dina Stamps
  4. Donna Downey
  5. Jenni Horne
  6. Juliette Crane
  7. Liv Lane
  8. Roben Marie
  9. Some Fiddling on the Kitchen Table
  10. The Kathrine Wheel

Thank you again for the Sunshine Award nomination! I hope you enjoyed reading this! 🙂

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening! 😉

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

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Friday Bliss List!

CrownGood evening!

I am a big believer in living every moment of your life with an attitude of gratitude, which is why I LOVE Bliss List Friday!! That is the day that I take a moment to reflect over all of the awesome things, and little things, and all the things in between that make life BLISSFUL that have happened during my week!!!

Tonight is going to be a short and sweet post! It has been a very long week and my sweetie and I are heading out to go watch a play this evening with family!! 😉 Before I head out the door I want to make sure I share my Bliss List with you this evening! 😉

  1. I am so thankful that when I was just beat from a very long day with very little sleep, my sweetie surprised me by taking me out to dinner so that neither of us would have to cook.
  2. Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to listen to an interview between Jeanne Oliver and Melody Ross, and I was so blessed to hear Melody talk about how she is usually a wreck, is emotional, an empath so she takes a lot on emotionally, and has to isolate herself a lot! I had NEVER heard anyone say those things about themselves except me. Hearing her say it made me feel so “OK”, and I really REALLY NEEDED THAT!! 😉
  3. I am thankful that I have such a large amount of This Artsy Life hits and feedback this week – that is so encouraging! I know that I am heading in the right direction, I just need to stay persistent and focused on my purpose!! My dream career will happen!! 😉
  4. I am thankful that not only have a found a 6-week community art class to participate in, my day-job boss has agreed to let me work half days every Wednesday so that I may take this class!! YEAH!!! 😉
  5. I am thankful that even though I have been struggling creatively (I seem to be struggling to find my style again!), I have been putting it out there anyway!
  6. I get to go hang out with my sweetie, sis-in-law, and niece this evening to go watch a play!
  7. Have you ever smelled Bath and Body Works’ Warm Vanilla Sugar body cream?? It is DIVINE!!! 😉
  8. My sister’s family is coming up to visit for the week this Sunday, which I am very excited about! 😉
  9. I am so thankful to get to sleep with the warmest, fussiest, cuddliest red and white striped socks when my feet are freezing!! It sometimes really is the little things that bring the biggest bliss!! 😉
  10. And finally, this afternoon I stumbled upon a gentleman whose message really resonated with me, his name is Simon Sinek:

I hope you all have had a LOVELY week, filled with many Bliss List items of your own, and I KNOW that many more Bliss List items heading your way, just keep your eyes on the lookout for them!! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening! 😉

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

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Artsy Blog HopThursday!

Inner Child Blog HopGood evening!

Welcome to Artsy Blog Hop Thursday! 😉

Are you an artist, or an artist at heart? Would you like to have a way to share your art with the world??? Me too, and that is why I started Artsy Blog Hop Thursdays!! Join me and other artists every Thursday evening as we paint, photograph, collage, crochet, write, draw, sketch, doodle, bead, knit, sculpt, cross-stitch, make fancy mud pies, or whatever your chosen artsy medium is to your heart’s content! You can make your art as personalized as you wish.

With every weekly Artsy Blog Hop Thursday Post I’ll suggest a topic for the following Thursday, and each weekly post will have a linky widget so we can visits each others masterpieces with ease.

Sounds like fun?

Give it a try, you know you want to!!!

If you have any questions please let me know and I will do my best to get you an answer. Please remember we are learning this together! If you would like to leave a topic of the week suggestion, please feel free to do that too, in the comment section of this post!!

Happy Arting!!

This week’s topic is  😉

Your Inner Child

A little bit about my chosen piece for the topic “Your Inner Child”. I actually thought this would be a lot easier to do, and I had done a few pieces, but nothing really made me happy. What I ended up doing was thinking about me when I was little, and I remember LOVING to draw rainbows! EVERY ONE of my pictures had to have a rainbow in it, so that is what I decided to paint today as a reminder to myself that my inner child is still in here! 😉

Now it is your turn!!

To share your link:

  1. Click on the blue frog head entitled “Links in Collection” button below (This will take you to a new page)
  2. Click on “Add Your Link” button
  3. Enter your URL, Name, and E-mail in appropriate fields
  4. Click “Next Steps”
  5. Choose an image by clicking “Select” under the picture you would like to show for your link

And that is it! It might take a few minutes for your link to show up, but be assured, it will be there! 🙂

Next week’s topic is:

Topic of the Week - Nature

Now before I let you go this evening! I am very excited to share the winner from my first ever monthly giveaway!

YEAH!!

I am happy to announce that I will be gifting the book “Inner Excavation: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media” written by Liz Lamoreux to our lucky winner, who is…

***vjstracener***

YEAH!!! I will be contacting you this evening to get your mailing information, so I can get your new book out in the mail first thing in the morning!!

Thank you so much for all who commented! It was very inspirational to read all of your dreams!! I hope that we all get the chance to act on those dreams sooner rather than later! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening! 😉

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

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Inspirational Thought and a Monthly Giveaway!

Good evening!

I am so excited to let you know that tonight I am doing my very first monthly giveaway! However, before I get to that I wanted to share tonight’s inspiration thought! 🙂

“Why should we all use our creative power…? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.”

~Brenda Ueland

Now for my first monthly giveaway! YEAH!!

I am happy to announce that I will be gifting the book “Inner Excavation: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media” written by Liz Lamoreux to one lucky winner.

Inner Excavations

The way to get your chance to win this lovely book, all you need to do is to answer this question in the comment section of this post:

If you knew that you could not possibly fail to make your dream life come true, what would you do starting tomorrow to make that happen?

That is it. Sounds easy enough right? I will post the winner in tomorrow night’s post, which will come out at 6 PM Pacific Time.

Good luck to all of you, and I can not WAIT to read your answers! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARSTY evening! 😉

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

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Artsy Blog Hop Thursday!

Live Your Truth
Good evening!

I am so very excited that this is my first ever blog hop!! YEAH!!! 😉

Are you an artist, or an artist at heart? Would you like to have a way to share your art with the world??? Me too, and that is why I am starting Artsy Blog Hop Thursdays!! Join me and other artists every Thursday evening as we paint, photograph, collage, crochet, write, draw, sketch, doodle, bead, knit, sculpt, cross-stitch, make fancy mud pies, or whatever your chosen artsy medium is to your heart’s content! You can make your art as personalized as you wish.

Live Your Truth 2

With every weekly Artsy Blog Hop Thursday Post I’ll suggest a topic for the following Thursday, and each weekly post will have a linky widget so we can visits each others masterpieces with ease.

Sounds like fun?

Give it a try, you know you want to!!!

If you have any questions please let me know and I will do my best to get you an answer. Please remember we are learning this together! If you would like to leave a topic of the week suggestion, please feel free to do that too, in the comment section of this post!!

Happy Arting!!

Since this is our first week, and you are getting almost no notice, the topic for this week is…well… you can pick the topic for yourself!! 😉

To share your link, click on this button here:

get the InLinkz code

Next week’s topic is:

Your Inner Child

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening! 😉

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Finding My Creative Stride!

Good evening!

I have been busy in my art studio, practicing various mixed media techniques, trying to figure out what my art style looks like. I am very happy to be sharing with you my latest two pieces.

Art #1:

I love incorporating positive thoughts into my pieces. I feel like in some small way, I am able to help encourage other women, possibly, just like myself.

There is something in the way that these womens’ eyes have turned out, thoughtful, withholding some secret, and just a hint of sadness. I didn’t realize that would show up in these paintings.

Art #2:

I just LOVE the texture that the joint compound created when I used it with my doily stencil.

This is a thought that I am learning is really true. Miracles really do happen everyday!

Both of these pieces were adapted from a couple of doodles that I had drawn a few weeks ago. I was playing with the idea of learning how to draw women’s faces. I figured if I could doodle it small, maybe I can doodle it larger as well. They turned out just like my doodles! I used book pages, acrylic paints, markers, stamps, ink, joint compound, gel medium, and a stampinella, and doily stencil to accomplish both of these pieces. I also incorporated a lot of smaller doodles in these pieces. I am finding that doodling has really helped me stay loose, and relaxed when trying to come up with something to fill my blank white canvas.

Well, I hope you enjoyed these two pieces, I know I have really enjoyed creating these and hope to have a lot of art studio time in the next few days to create some more! I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. 😉

Here’s to a FABULOUS evening!

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently

My Blue Phase!

Good evening!

This is going to be a short post, I am busy happily spending time visiting with my sister while her and her husband are up for the week! In the meantime, I wanted to make sure that I shared with you one of my most recently finished art pieces.

This was made using ink, stamps, join compound, gel medium, tissue paper, ink pen, and acrylic paints.

This piece is my first steps into the world of mixed media and various texture techniques. I think for my first piece this turned out pretty well. I am happy with how it turned out, and I can’t wait to see how my next textural piece turns out. I will make sure to share pics!! 😉

Here’s to a FABULOUS evening!

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently

Back in the Art Studio!

Good evening!

I have been busily and happily arting away in my little art studio, and am very happy to finally be able to share something that I have finished with you! 😉

This piece is made on a square of plywood, my sweetie cut for me, and the materials I used were: acrylic paints, tissue paper, stamps, ink, gel medium, and fine tip marker.

This saying is something that I have been really focusing on while taking my Brave Girls Club class, “The real you is still in there you just need to give yourself permission to come out and play”. It is something that I really needed to hear, and something that I have always known, but had somehow forgotten along the way. It was a message that I am so thankful that I have stumbled upon again, and am actively working on putting it to good use in my life!

This piece came about because I wanted to paint something happy! I also wanted to play with some new techniques I have been learning, and one of those that I am really, very glad with the way that it turned out, and that is the little doodles that are all over the piece. I think the doodling really adds a little more of me into my art.

I actually started this piece over many times, remembering that I could always change something that I didn’t like about it at any given time. This was something really hard for me to do, because I am such a perfectionist and always want to have everything done perfectly the first time. I think, in doing that, this piece has really helped me give myself permission to love the imperfections that may come out, they may add so much interest that they become your favorite parts!

After this piece was finished, I was so excited about it, I put my bravery muscles on and took it to display at work, and I am so glad I did! It is really exciting to look up from a very technical job, and see something that you were able to come up with in a 100% creative way!

Life is good!!

I would love to hear your thoughts about this in the comments section! I am hoping to have more to share in the next few days!

Here’s to a FABULOUS evening!

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently

Treasure Hunting!

Good evening!
The other day, I had the opportunity to go treasure hunting, and I thought today that I would share two of my finds with you!

I found these two spectacular pieces at Aunt Bee’s here in town! I was absolutely flabbergasted when I first laid eyes on them, I just KNEW they had to come home with me! They were a little spendier than I am used to spending on a whim, but I knew that they would be a great investment and a great addition to my ever growing art collection. That sounds so cool to me! 😉

These pictures make me long to visit Europe. I dream of what it would be like if I could live there someday. Maybe live in the countryside of France, or the hustle and bustle of an Italian Villa, or maybe even live on a remote and isolated  emerald isle of Ireland. DREAMY!

I can imagine myself walking endlessly, just enjoying the scenery, or holding hands with my sweetie as we enjoy the sights of Europe together. Reading on a blanket under a shady tree, or sloshing in puddles while wearing my wellies, and the rain is coming down pitter-patting on my umbrella, that of course I would have right on hand! I would love to see the magnificent architecture, and learn about the vast history, and I would be proficient in every language – ok that may be pushing it, but I think you get what I mean. I would love to be blend in with the locals, and live the culture the way that they really live it. Living life, loving life, enjoying my friends and family! That would be AMAZING!!!

Someday, you will see. I am not sure how, and I am not sure when, but it will happen!! And when it does maybe I will be able to see these actual scenes first hand. For now, I will settle with enjoying my European view through these small paintings that I will truly treasure! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

I Love This Sunday!

Good evening!

This has been such a COOL Sunday! We got an extra hour today with daylight savings time, and it has really made a HUGE difference in my attitude for the day!! I knew today was going to be the PERFECT kind of naked lazy-do-whatever-you-want Sunday!!!

I woke up early this morning, and spent a little time reading!  Even got to take a mini-nap before breakfast, yes I go t up THAT early!! After my nap, I had a leisurely breakfast with my sweetie, and then made a b-line to the art studio!! (Jason LOVES my art studio time because it means that he gets to spend that time hogging the Netflix, watching EVERY low-budget horror movie they ahve available!!!)

Earlier this week, I had gotten inspired to create two pieces of art for my drab office cubicle! So I had a lot of fun getting these started.I have some more textures, aging, and motivational thoughts to put on these still. I am planning on taking my time and getting these done over the next week. It will be hard, because I am not exactly the most patient person, but I am really am very excited to see them hanging in my office cubicle!!

So, without further ado, here are the pieces I have been working on, please keep in mind that these are a work in progress, but I am very excited how they are turning out so far!

I am not really sure what to say about these, but when I look at them they really make me happy!and the little maps, and word puzzles that I have chosen to accent these have sentimental value to me! I really just can’t wait to see these finished!!!  😉

This is how I wish I could always make art, just get whatever is in me onto the canvas, without worry about what others might think of them, or worry about whether or not they are commercial or sale-able.

Art for the sake of art.

So what do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!!!

Being creative is where my bliss is coming from.

Life is good.

Today has been great.

I am feeling greatly blessed. 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉