One Little Word: A Project Update

This year I joined an online workshop, Ali Edwards’s One Little Word. I’ve wanted to try something like this for a long time, to be part of a creative community even if we’re all miles and miles away.

Ali Edwards_OneLittleWord2014Promo2
I haven’t updated on a regular basis at all (in January and April), but I’ve been working along with monthly prompts and reflections. My One Little Word is “dare”, as I explained in my January post. Below you’ll find a gallery of my journaling so far. Just click on the pictures to see them larger.

Earlier in the year I worked on intentions, taking a look at different facets of my life: spiritual, physical, emotional, creative, relationships. It took a while, but I also came up with a symbol for this year. The fleur-de-lis. I love this symbol for so many reasons: it reminds me of Montreal, (where my husband and I went on our honeymoon), New Orleans (vacation spot and amazing culture and food), and it reminds me of St. Joan of Arc (incidentally also the name of my elementary school). And if you don’t think she was daring, I don’t know who is.

I made actions cards that have goals and ideas for the year. Some have been successful, while others… not yet. I’ve reflected on letting go. One month, I put together pictures that connect with my word. It’s been so much fun making time to be creative and introspective.

The best part of all of this has been meeting a pen pal and connecting with the community in a private Facebook group. My pen pal was chosen randomly, but holy cow, it’s crazy eerie how we have a lot of similar craft tastes. She and I send happy packages of mail to each other (last picture in the gallery).

Most recently I created artist trading cards with the phrase “I am” on each of them. I’m looking forward to sharing how I put these cards together.

One Little Word 2014: Art cards

Mugshot Monday: What I’m Reading

Monday Mugshots Collaboration

Here I am taking a break this morning from reading my neglected e-mail inbox. Actually the drawing is part of a draw-along I’m hosting on my Facebook page. Come and join me there if you’d like to see what these orange shapes will become.

I recently joined GeekMom as an occasional contributor. (Yay me, but I have yet to submit an article to them.) There’s so much talent in that group that it’s intimidating. And wow – the amount of group discussion that goes on behind the scenes amazes me. I realize now that I don’t have to keep up with absolutely all the messages, but still, I’m trying to figure out the ropes, so to speak. Looking forward to expanding horizons and sharing my own geekiness over there.

Update: My pillow tutorial was posted on GeekMom on Nov. 30. Enjoy!

Mugshot Monday (on Wednesday): The Going-Ons

Surprise visit from my sis-in-law, birthday project, works-in-progress… no wonder I missed posting on Monday! Well, not totally. I did post my mugshot on Instagram. But here’s an “outtake”.

Mugshot Monday: Yerba Mate Tea

Here I have a mug of Café Maté from our favorite tea shop … a delicious alternative to coffee, lovely with milk. Almost enough to wake me up from the Daylight Savings stupor. What it as bad for everyone else? Awful.

Speaking of TeaLula, we did the Harlem Shake! Crazy tea shop friends.

So, what’s been churning in the craft room these days?

Personalized nursery art

Here’s the finished nursery art project for my niece. I went with a monkey theme after the burp cloths I made for her, and she just loves her monkey “binky”. My daughter made the quilled bananas, and I found the little bugs on sale at Michael’s. I added some bling (what girl doesn’t like bling?) and buttons to add some interest. Want a closer look? I posted a picture at the Facebook page.
A Chicago Bulls fan, quilt in progress, read on!

Summer Blur :: Almost Wordless Wednesday

Who knew that it’s been over a month since the last post? No one but my family and a few close friends read this blog anyway… so, it’s okay, right? No, no. I know friends out there are reading. I’m sorry I’ve been away. I always seem to let too much time pass between posts in the summer months. With the kids and husband home, every day is an adventure – except when outside feels like a sauna and we hunker down in our basement and play video games and ping pong. (Not very into the pool scene. I don’t buy pool passes. No chance to break even.)

Forgive me for the lack of posting? Facebook and Twitter have been easier to update on the road and on the fly.

Since I last posted…

For neighbor kids and friends, we hosted a week long art camp in our garage.

Made some great projects during art camp.

Ssampled Brazilian Brigadeiro – chocolate truffle with sea salt and lime zest

Made cake again to make sure the recipe wasn’t faulty.. happy to report that it was not.

Managed to sew some burp cloths for expecting mom friends

Found this little guy on a garden walk which inspired me to get back into my own garden.

Made some Model Magic baked goods with the kids on a “too-hot” day

Checked out the Lego Kids Club

Celebrated 4th of July with family :: cakepops by my cousin

Tasted roasted purple cauliflower at a friend’s home

Worked on a Subway Art sign for a friend

Survived my first t-ball season

Visited an awesome bed and breakfast

Got to hang out a little at the beach, too

… and turned 39.