Sunday, March 24, 2013

Listening- Week 3 of our Challenge

IMPORTANT- Next sketch class has been changed to April 6th!!!! Mark your calendars!!!

Hi everyone, well did you get your passions written down?? Was it hard or did they just flow once you started writing? The thing about stopping for a minute in our busy schedule to take a look at some of these things is that it will help us better plan where we want to go and what we want to do. If you're like me you have come to realize that there are only so many hours in the day and you can't possibly do it all. By realizing your passions and what you would like to be free to do you will help you make better decisions on how and what you want to say "Yes" and "No" too in your life.  This week will be harder as I am going to ask you to do something that might seem very uncomfortable. I wouldn't ask you to do it if I didn't think it was important, so I hope you will do it.

As we go about our day we hear things about ourselves, compliments, comments, acknowledgments, affirmations. For example: you look nice today, you are such a good cook, you are so patient, so kind, etc. Immediately what happens when we hear these positive comments is that our negative inner voice begins to work overtime. Attacking the words as they come in, causing us to not believe them, causing us discomfort. Why is it that we feel uncomfortable with people paying us a compliment, because we don't believe it! Our negative inner voice is very loud, and strong and it wouldn't want us to get full of ourselves. It will also take some training to start to hear and believe and learn from what you hear. This week I want you to really listen to what you hear around you. I want you write only the good things you hear since our negative voice is so loud in our heads that we don't need to record anything negative. Really start to listen and write it down! When you hear the comment make sure you thank the person and don't play it down, receive it graciously and happily! Sometimes its nice to repay the compliment with a compliment, "You are so sweet to say so" or something like that. Now start your lists and as you do I want you to hear what your negative inner voice is saying and stop it right away. By recognizing that negative part of ourself we can better know how to combat it. Talk back to it, argue with it, but don't believe it! I think we are far too hard on ourselves and sometimes we can fall into a place where it is easier to say negative things to ourselves than to believe anything positive. If for some reason no one says anything positive to you then we know what the problem is! (You will need to write down the positive things you feel about yourself). For most of us, we will really have to listen, sometimes they come quickly and under the breathe of a passer by. Like, dinner was great, thanks or You make the best desserts. If we want to get compliments we need to give them too. My husband is always saying he loves me, and I have gotten into this really bad habit of responding with, Really, Me? No way! Oh that is so bad, and its almost habit now, that negative voice trying to rip me off. My husband started to call me on it, threatening to not tell me anymore and thats when I started to really see what I was doing. Sometimes its just habit to think we aren't worth loving and it comes to the surface without any thought at all anymore. Just jokingly shaking it off before we can really absorb it.  OK so we are going to stop that! This will be an ongoing list, keep writing as you hear them, carry your journal with you everywhere so you can capture them when they happen. You only hold a thought for 3 minutes, don't let these go.
In your sketchbooks make a page for compliments and start to write them down. I put people on mine but your page can be anything you like. You can call it "My Accolades" "Who I Am" or anything else you like. I can't wait to see what you have come up with!! 

I will be posting a new challenge a bit earlier next week since we are meeting earlier this next month. Go grab your goodies, your accolades, your kudos and write them down. It will be uncomfortable but who cares, get past it and seize the moments!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Passions- Week 2 of our Challenge

Well how was it? Did you find that the Free to be Me page was hard to fill out? Did you have to really stop and look inside to see what you wanted to do with your life?  Well I know you have done your "Free to be Me" page right?, I know you all did it . Now we are moving on to our passions. Although our dreams can also be our passions in some cases they are not the same. So now we are going to list the things that we are passionate about. What excites you, gets you up in the morning, makes you anxious to see what tomorrow brings. What is the thing you heart longs to do, energizes you, the things that you never tire talking about. Write down those things. It could be exercise, eating well, gardening, quilting, painting, cooking, entertaining, friends or  creating. Are you passionate about sharing a message? For years Jenn and I have gone to high schools to share our story and the message of "Don't drink and drive" so that we might spare a family from going through what we went through, that is something I am passionate about as an example.  It isn't necessarily on my Free to be me list of things but might fit better here.  You all know I am passionate about motivating and getting people excited about art! I am passionate about my health. etc  Think about what you are passionate about and write it down as they come to you during the week. I would love to see you create your own passion page but you are free to download mine and use it or email me and I will send it too you and you can print it and put it in your sketchbook. Have a passion filled week!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Christa's Purse!

Finally I got a chance to post my purse!! Been a wild ride the past few weeks...husband retired, bought a new motor home and in the middle of all of it had to have my gall bladder removed!!! I am finally on the mend. So here's my purse...never big enough and I am always looking for the perfect purse when I am out shopping. Someday I will find it!!!!!

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Your Challenge and Assignment for the WEEK

Hi everyone, sadly I had to cancel our sketch class today. I know that all of you had other things come up so I decided to spend the day painting and working on some things. Surprisingly I ended up spending part of the day with Gurutej who never got the canceled class message. It was great and we feel it was meant to be as we talked about the soul searching that we are both going through. I think we all come to these places in our lives where we want more but either don't know how to get there or what to do and so we avoid the issue altogether. I want to ask each of you to do something this month that is a bit different. It will be a challenge but I think it will be great for all of us.

 I woke up in the early morning and got this idea for a "Free to be Me" page. As I shared in the Newsletter, I have been doing business plan seminar in an attempt to get focus and move forward. I think I know you all enough to say that most of you are going through the same thing or something similar.
Here is my sketch. I love Flowers, I wrote the text and I have a Ladybug looking over the edge!
Many of us are so busy doing for everyone else that somewhere we got lost. Sometimes we just spin, because we haven't taken the time to write down what we really want to do or we are afraid to do anything because we are afraid to fail.
I painted the background with watercolor then when it dried I added inktense pencils and created layers of colors in the background

This is your personal page to dream those dreams you want. I am showing you how I did mine and I hope you will do one of your own. I want you to create a fun page of whatever you love to draw, even doodle. It shouldn't take too long to do and you can fill in your goals and dreams during the week as you think about it.
My butterfly is FREE!
Now I want you to color, paint, pencil, ink or stamp it until you are happy with your page. Make sure you leave room for a box that you can hopefully number 1 to 10.
I colored with my pencils and then wet them with my brush, easy and fun!
On your page somewhere write, "Free to be Me!" Then I want you to think about those things you really want to do wether its more art, gardening, traveling, write a book, starting a business, whatever you think about, and write it down on your list. Each of our lists will be different.


I am going to give you more homework next week on Saturday so look for it! I hope you are up for this challenge. It will give us lots to discuss next month
After I colored and painted, I outlined more, added white and pink details with gel pens to liven it up a bit. I love my page and you should love yours too!

I ran out of room and could only fit 8 items.


I missed you all and our time together, see you in April.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Where is everyone??

This seems to be my standard post here! I know that most of you know how to post now, so post something, anything. Even if its not a sketch or painting but what you hope to paint. Lets get some talking happening. I have been busy getting ready for market in May, a new fabric line etc. I haven't painted in my journal but I have been painting. I did these cute ladybugs for fun! I first sketched them, then I outlined them in pen and scanned them into my computer. Then I went back to my art table and painted them. These are the scanned in image that I took into Photoshop and just painted there! I choose a color with the eyedropper tool and then switched to the paint bucket tool to fill each section. You can even use the eraser and erase any boo boo's you might have on your drawing. Then I just did a "save as" and save the photoshop painted version  on my computer and I still have my scanned drawing that I can paint different colors! I can paint a bunch of different colors and save, I almost have a new fabric line now! Hey, did you notice that I painted their shoes! LOL Cute huh!? Why don't you just paint something for fun, a whimsical, little something that makes you smile! I am calling these Ladybugs and Kisses, don't forget your shoe for March sketch class!