Day 1 Creativity Challenge 2014

Phew. I’m back! Happy belated new year. It seems I took a break from blogging for a while–what with all the celebrating and enjoying my family and winter break (my favorite) and…oh, yeah….finishing my book in December. Woohoo! The editors and designers over at Stash Books are busy bees now. They are working on it and I will be able to share much more this summer. But I can say that I love what I created and I know you will too. It will be out in November 2014!

In honor of so much bounty and general creative goodness, join me in my 10 day creativity challenge over on instagram. Every day I’ll give you a simple challenge to help loosen you up, inspire, remove perfectionism, promote your unique creativity and express yourself. Use hashtag #yourcreativitychallenge and share what you create. It will be fun. You don’t need to be an artist to do this…you just need to be willing, open-hearted and ready to be inspired.

All too often we begin to think inside of our own boxes…these simple exercises will get your juices flowing. Share, tag, invite your friends and join me! Here is the first exercise: go outside on a short walk or hike…take a bag with you…collect stuff as you walk… make something simple on the ground with what you gathered. Make it as a love gift to life and the earth! Use trash, flowers, rocks…anything you find. I used quartz and creosote flowers. It doesn’t need to be perfect…or even good…or even art!


You can make art everywhere, with anything you find. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Lately, I am in love with the flower petal art Kathy Klein creates over at Danmala. (You can buy her beautiful hexagonal calendar–see below.) 

read more

post-holiday Billy Collins poem

Feeling grateful today.

I hope you had a peaceful Thanksgiving.
I am grateful if you are reading this–
or have read any of my posts–
or bought my products or fabrics–
for the past few years.

This morning our house was quiet-
a rare morning with the kids away-
we laid in bed and drank our coffee-
and we watched a feelgood movie-
The Wedding Date–
remembered what it felt like when we had nothing but time
to watch the shadows in the corners of our wakening room–
then I grabbed the book of Billy Collins poetry from the nightstand-
and found this one-
with a dogeared page-
the one that had been my favorite nearly 8 years ago–
when this book was given to us as a baby gift–
and read it aloud.
If you are a mom-
or have one-
you will cry.
We did. read more

The idea of colors

A painting of mine from this year called The Ecstatic Beauty of It All (Carrie Bloomston)

I wrote in the last post here about the “idea” of colors. I also wrote about how we are instructed early by painting teachers to never use paint right out of the tube. This is such an important point and I want to explain it further here as it applies to every area of art, design, sewing, crafting, etc. read more

Be the color!

From the graphicmac.com

From mood rings and chakras to seasonal color analysis and the psychology of color in design, we use color all day, every day to navigate our world. Companies use it to tell their story and sell to us. (Look at the cool color chart of logos here.) We use color to get dressed each morning and tell our own story. Color draws us to people, places, and things. It communicates our feelings. We use color to express ourselves. read more

more unplug

Elephant Journal just posted my writing about my #UNPLUG from social media here. Go read it and share! You wouldn’t believe how many of my friends have called/messaged/texted me saying that they really want to unplug, too. Scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see my list of healthy habits for social media. They are totally working for me and might help you, too. I look forward to unplugging each Friday (and coming back on Sunday). read more