foggy to-do's lead to great ideas

I could do this tree!

love this idea for hanging art:

there may not be a lot of decorating at our home this year, but I am still inspired by some wonderful ideas out there. might do the wreath as a christmas card display.

photo by victor schrager

this looks like fun!

one more...

great idea for hanging pictures, artwork or how about recipes in a kitchen? oh the possibilities! just wasting time. avoiding my to-do's today! how about you? what is inspiring you lately?

little bits...

from "inspired"

official 2009 inspired necklace created by lisa:

first class with donna "ART rings". mine on the left and hers that I won on the right:

very kewl as we used UTEE and ya know I have buckets of that left!

second class with teresa"clear dome ring and necklace"

I really enjoyed the clear dome ring as I was able to incorporate photos of some of my journal pages within the ring.

so far that is about all I have completed and as they get done I will post more. inspired was as always delicious! I saw old friends from last year and met tons of new friends from this year. I love the energy, the inspiration and the quality of instructors. bill and donna put on a class act. very unique from anything else and although this was only the second year they did change it up a bit. kept what worked and came up with new ideas for more goodies for us. the instructor line up was so incredible that you wanted to take all the mini workshops in addition to your already two day packed classes. some women even made up wacky workshop buttons to signify that they signed up for 10 or more workshops. unreal! donna and bill spoil you when you are there and you end up not wanting to leave. it takes a mountain of work and organization to put on a event and have it be so successful that a majority of first year attendees went back for more and they were greatly rewarded for their return. high five donna and bill and see ya next year!

OH YES! hold onto your medication cups ladies! mom has graduated from "one person assist" to "supervision". she was so freakin' excited! she could not wait to show off her new walker or as she calls it her "bike". she now has four wheels instead of two. she is whipping around that hospital old school. no helmut! no regard for obstacles (if ya know what I mean laurie)

this is a huge step for her and she is looking forward to "going green". the green signs indicate "independent". she has a goal and I love that she is working so hard. she was a bit cranky yesterday, but a little bird told me that she went to bingo in the afternoon and won! hopefully that perked her up. I know that she is itching to get home and out of the hospital. not the best place in the world to heal. I end up "playing nurse" myself sometimes and help her room mate. I bow down to all nurses. your job is hard and I applaud you for your dedication to providing quality care to patients.

in other news...

kelly rae arrived yesterday.

and although I wish it was a personal visit this was just as good. a new addition to my artist inspiration wall.

while at "inspired" I soaked up all the motivation she was handing out. gobs of advice and buckets of beautiful thoughts and stories of her journey. I will share more on "inspired" as I am finally feeling like my schedule is returning to a somewhat normal state. either that or I am realizing that I NEED to "create everyday".

off to use up mom's mother's day gift certificate. heee heee! what is a girl to do when her mother is in the hospital and unable to keep her pedicure appointment? the "world's greatest daughter" takes her appointment! pretty toes here I come! ciao!

day 1 - inspired

the kewlest name badge! note the "alumni" yay!

christy tomlinson - total sweetheart!

susan and cd - friends from last year and SO much fun!

jennifer's first crunchie bar! I start my day off with her class tomorrow.

kelly rae - she is SO pretty! I saw her walking down to the plane in her dress and I was awestruck.

teresa collins - love her! 

melody ross - awesome surprise to see her here

paolo's back - love that smile! and this year he has his own photo booth! complete with costumes!

and the tradition continues - end of day one long arm shot with the inspiring donna! tattoos tomorrow, right?

"oh to be a pup, again"

as is the above picture I too am dazed and coming to you from north carolina where I am attending this.

I have mixed feelings about my time here.  last year I was SO excited to meet new people and be inspired by all their different talents.  this year in light of all that has happened I have given myself permission to move at my own speed.  whatever that may be.  yesterday had its highs and lows and I was sure that someone had put another needle in my voodoo doll with all the strikes I had against me, but today?

today will be a good day!

-ciao-

finally "inspired"...

I received a call from bill (holla) today and decided that I should probably complete my projects from last year's "inspired" before I attend this year's "inspired".  SO excited to be able to go again!

first up we have jennifer stewart's class "welcome spring".  I was very overwhelmed by the amount of product I received in my kit and ended up leaving the classroom for a bit.  I wandered down the hallway and into the vendor's marketplace and picked up some papers hoping for some courage to just get it done.  

Jennifer was an absolute sweetheart (holla) and was very understanding and encouraged me to go for it.  my project included bits from our trip to the dominican republic.  there are sea shells, sand and pics of dan.  he loved the end product so much that he scooped it up and put it in his bathroom.  he really liked how it reminded him of the beach.  perfect!  thanks jennifer!  can't wait for the starbucks date!

next I finished up my project from christina's class "textile anthology".

and now that the projects were all completed that meant that I could also complete my travel journal for the event.  enjoy!

presenting "garage band art girlz"

these are my girls! my peeps, my table mates, my new friends. gosh! when you attend an event like inspired alone you just never know who you will meet. well as luck, karma or whatever you want to call it would have it - I sat down at the first table I saw and so the fun began.

we were sharing things from the get go. making sure everyone had what they needed. helping each other out. it was real good.
by the second class we were more relaxed and I guess making poppet puppets will do that to ya. here is Jenn (our drummer) with hers. Jenn forgot her camera and so I became her official photographer.



we get to our third class of the day and after another Jennifer (our keyboard player) froze and I yelled "and GO" we were off and there was ink, paint, paper stuff everywhere.



at this time the announcement came from Carla that we are "garage band". I LOVED it! we are SO garage band and so we became the " garage band art girlz" from that moment on. here is our lead singer Carla.



put your coat on - she is kewl!

here is Jennifer and I love that she lets her child get messy and play and create. love that!



another Jennifer (yup, 3 in my group) and she tried to tell us she couldn't sew and then passed all of us in christina's class. whatever! lol!



let's call her our bass player as she rocks with thread!

and Susan who I see as our back up singer. if we needed something, she had it. question about a product, she was your girl. full of knowledge and little tricks. unfortunately I spilled a whole bunch of her wonderful product! sorry Susan!



and a pic of us with Donna and Bill after they surprised us each with a white rose.



a photo of the apron, tote bag and name tag. loved the canvas name tags! of course I am a member of the canvas chicks! check out what we are up to with name tags!



and finally the last picture with donna on day three. love her! miss her! and am totally inspired by her.



more tomorrow! now go make something!

let's clear up a rumor.....

it seems that some people (laurie and anam) were under the impression that I was stalking cathy this weekend. no, no, no! she was rubbing elbows with ME every chance she could get. trying to say that we had the same taste. and wore the same style glasses. I mean REALLY! all she had to do was say "hey" and I would have talked to her. there I was washing my hands and she came out of the bathroom stall. what? she totally followed me in there! and again at the airport were she admitted that she was stalking me. I finally gave in and let her have her picture taken with me.



but seriously can I just say that she is one gorgeous lady. wow! she was exactly how I imagined her to be and MORE. it was one of the highlights of the event for me. thanks cathy and "hey!".

speaking of stalking! here a few other people I paid asked if I could have a picture with:



me & cd. one word "SWEET" and so creative. she was so much fun and was a great help when I was looking for donna.

I loved seeing ali again:



and I am sure you have seen this guy a time or two.



paolo is to ali as miguel is to me.

this special guest who took time with me as I was such a loser in the yo yo making department. she made a stem and leaf for me. another truly sweet and super talented lady.



now you know that I am not what you would call a scrapbooker and probably not what you would call a digital scrapbooker, but you do know that I am always open to trying new things. I sat down and had a wonderful chat with renee and she is such a kind soul. I loved the way she made it all sound so easy. I checked out her mini workshop class and came out of there confident that I could do the digi thing!



and if you recall that I mentioned hanging with one of NC's finest? no I did not start a drunken brawl or attack any celebrities. I was simply shopping at the marketplace when I ran into this beautiful lady.



we chatted for quite a while and I really enjoyed it. she, like I, not a scrapbooker. she, dabbles in quilting and crime prevention.

and last, but not least our end of day 2 photo:



I am off to bed to catch a few more zzzzz's and I ain't talking cathy. I haven't even begun to touch the surface of how much stuff I want to share with you about this weekend. you still need to hear all about the "garage band art girlz" and you will. THEY are well worth the wait. trust me on this one! ciao!

livin' la vida "inspired"

what an amazing weekend! SO many wonderful workshops and brilliant instructors. inspired. I am not sure I can even begin to explain how huge this event was. perhaps it is because I am in dire need of sleep as I stayed awake as much as possible because I did not want to miss a single second.

if you were there, then you know what I mean. donna chose instructors who challenged us, let us see inside their creative process and who encouraged us to find our own style. we played with the good ole stuff using new techniques and the new products in fun ways. all through the process we were encouraged to relax and have fun and feel free to stalk as many well known artists as possible. LOL!

here is peek at who I rubbed elbows with this weekend:

Tena who was losing her voice day 1, class 1. she encouraged us to look at her book as "an example" and make ours "ours". loved her techniques and speed and pace in class. perfect!



much to my delight claudine was on my shuttle and her class was fun, unique and SO cute! she shared exciting news about her new product line and as always helped us to succeed with our projects. I love her supportive style of teaching and her willingness to share her creative process. SO lucky to take a class with her for the second time.



now stephanie (and probably without her knowledge) could quite possibly be the reason the "garage band art girlz" came to life. we froze for a second and then "GO". creating pages without measuring, spritzing color, brushing paint, and before you knew it carla declared us GBAG's. I loved how stephanie let us play and encouraged us to be free and have fun. met up with her at the airport and we had some fun taking self portraits. hope you enjoy this one steph!



a fellow canuck, kal started us out by scribbling with pencil crayons and woo hooing at our proudest moments. I have always admired her work and love reading her blog everyday. she is such a talented artist with an amazing story about her childhood. she is honest, beautiful and possesses that true "bulletproof positive attitude" that she encouraged us to adopt.



and jennifer who had gobs of product stuffed into our bags. she spoiled us with all kinds of treasures and treats. I certainly felt challenged and even went for a little walk to get my head together. came back and with her support I pushed forward and am quite happy with what I have so far. still more embellishing to be done! she is very sweet, organized and has awesome taste in music!



christina who hosted ARTistry last year had us working with fabric, transparency transfers, flowers, beads and buttons. it was great seeing her again and I loved the project and will probably make more for gifts.



that is all for tonight. come back tomorrow when I share how I too was stalked! more pictures, more familiar faces, giggles and snorts and hanging out with one of North Carolina's finest.

and one last picture of donna and I after day one.



ciao!