Dare to be outrageous

More from my altered book of me from Tam’s class.  When I started this book, I went through my parents old photo albums looking for pictures to copy and use.  I came across this one of me and my decorated, tin foil covered bike.  I remember decorating the bike and riding it in a parade in the small town we lived in at the time.  I was so proud of how we spiffed up the bike!  I get to decorate up my bike doing crazy things twice a year now as part of the route safety teams for 2 of the 3-Day for the Cure Breast Cancer Walks.  We decorate as pirates in Cleveland and I have a magical pink treasure chest I strap on the back along with a pirate flag, decorated bras and whatever else catches my eye.  In Michigan we are the Pink Panthers and my bike gets decorated with as many Pinkies as I can attach (and of course includes a few bras too!).  I even made a pink panther bike helmet cover and a pink panther bra that I wore this year!  It is fun to see the walkers perk up and laugh as they discover all the things on my bike.  Sometimes that one little smile can change the course of their day and that is worth pedaling around all the extra weight of the decorations.

This spread is all about embracing the unusual and loving it.  One of the quotes I have on there says “Life isn’t about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself.”  I believe it is a quote from George Bernard Shaw.  I love this as it reminds me that we can go beyond what seems like our limits and really do anything that we set out to do.  It goes right along with the feelings of the last post on not letting others decide what you can or should be.  I choose to be unusual, remarkable in my own way and no one else will ever be the exact same.  Isn’t that amazing?  We are all one of a kind and bring so many special qualities to this world.  We are all irreplaceable and that is incredible!  So I challenge each of you to do something you’ve always wanted to do, but were held back from for some reason.  Be outrageous and enjoy every moment of it!

Dream Big

It’s a bright and cheerful morning here although still cold.  We’ve been having some beautiful pink sunrises that I really need to get out and capture with the camera. 

It has been a very busy week here.  Monday’s appt. lasted over 3 hours, Tuesday I had an allergy scratch test that lasted about 1 1/2 hours and then went to visit my Grandma at the nursing home.  She wasn’t in her room and when I asked where she was found out she had been sent to the hospital.  She is ok, but I spent a portion of my afternoon sitting with her there.  I’m hoping to stay away from any more doctors offices or hospitals for a good long time!

Today I’d like to share a bit more of my Altered Book of Me.  Again, thanks to Tam for giving away the Art, Heart & Healing class.  I’ve gotten a lot out of the class and have really enjoyed the projects.  This spread was all about not giving up on your dreams, and enjoying all the steps that might be involved with reaching some of your dreams.  I feel that you really can reach your dreams, no matter how big, but they often require a lot more work than one would expect.  I think its important to take pleasure not just in the attainment of your goals, but in all the hard work that helps you meet them.  Think of all the things you’ve learned along the way to each goal.  Its usually much more rewarding and involved than you would have initially thought and the lessons you learn along the way are just as priceless as the satisfaction of reaching the goal itself. 

Most of all its important to believe in yourself and give value your dreams.  Fight for what you believe in.  If you don’t fight for what you want, no one else will.  Be strong, be happy, be you.

More altered book of Me

This is the second spread in my altered book made for the Art, Heart & Healing class.  As you can see I had a terrible time with doing transfers.  I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.  These are “fuzzy” and I left them at this stage because they were starting to rub completely off the page.  I don’t really mind the rough effect of them, but would like to be able to figure out how to do the process properly.  Guess I’ll play with that technique some more.

For my third spread I didn’t use any photo’s.  I simply painted a girl with her mother and talked about unconditional love.  Every child should feel support and love from her home.  I was fortunate to grow up in a loving family.  That doesn’t mean things were perfect, but I knew my parents were there when I needed them. 

We are having yet more winter weather today.  Everything is closed and I’ll be calling to reschedule the appointments I had for the day.  I have everything I need for the painting I want to start today and I’ll be moving down to the art palace to get started after enjoying a little more coffee.  My hubby called and made it to his office safely so I’m free from worry til he calls to say he’s on his way home.  I’m hoping for a productive, enjoyable day.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  Happy Friday!

Altered book spread “advice”

As promised, I’m showing more of the pages from my altered book of me, made as part of the Art, Heart and Healing class done by Willow.

This page spread is full of advice and positive comments that I think every child needs to hear repeatedly.  I didn’t grow up with a lot of confidence and felt awkward in my body so I focused on sentiments that would help ease those pains.

    I still struggle with body image on a daily basis.  I was underweight until after I was married.  So that is the norm that I associate with my body.  After settling into our married routine, I gained and was in a “normal” weight zone, but I felt fat.  Its stupid, ,I know, but that is how I felt.  A few years at this weight and I had a major stress with my dad getting very ill, very suddenly and some food allergies/intolerances that I now realize I had had all my life, kicked into overdrive and I got sick.  I couldn’t eat anything without spending hours in the bathroom.  I spent about 2 years eating very little and going to many specialists who couldn’t help me.  I was back to “underweight” but very sick most of every day.

I finally tried a natural treatment that combines energy medicine with accupressure and got my reactions to food back to a manageable level.  That meant that I could once again eat foods I loved and not get sick.  And that is just what I did.  I ate.  Everything.  And I gained lots of weight and actually tipped out at an “obese” (don’t you just love the terms for weight) level.  I have to say that I enjoyed every bite that got me there.  It was wonderful to eat and rarely get sick and I took pleasure in tasting things I hadn’t been able to have for a long time.

Of course, I did not take pleasure in my body.  It led to my depression flaring and lots of self-worth issues.  It was a very rough time where it seemed my only pleasure was in eating (kinda a double edged sword huh?).  I stayed at this extra large size for about 2-3 years.  Then I took action.

I worked hard.  I did daily workouts (many times 2 a day), and I ate very carefully.  The weight came off and I returned to the “normal” weight zone (which I still sometimes feel fat in) and have remained there for the past 5 years.  Most days my body image is ok now, but their are days I look in the mirror and see all the faults instead of the strong able body that I have.  I am still a work in progress.

I know many women struggle with body image and I wish that our society would lend itself to celebrating the diversity of our bodies instead of idealizing those few and far between perfect ones.  So, my spread focuses on the words that I wish I had heard more growing up (I did hear them, but I think every little girl should be able to hear them ALL the time).  I try to say these things to my nieces so that they hopefully they can celebrate their individuality rather than struggle with it.  And I try to be a positive, healthy role model for my students.  I celebrate their uniqueness with them and I hope they grow into strong, beautiful women.

So, dear readers if you’ve made it this far in my lengthy post I hope you’ll respond with compassion.  I’ve bared a part of me that is raw.  I’m hoping that by doing so I’ll reach a better level of acceptance of my body and be stronger overall.  Thanks.

One World One Heart

Here are my giveaways for the one world one heart event
I could not choose what media I wanted to giveaway, so I'm going to draw 3 names (assuming at least 3 people show up here). The rules for the event are to leave a comment on this days post, you need to be a blogger, and I'll draw names on Feb. 14th. I'll leave the winners names on my blog and also try to follow your comment link to notify you and gather your shipping information.

The first prize is my colorful "Be Yourself". I used Pinata inks for the background, metallic acrylics for the dress, arms and legs, trimmed the piece with an art yarn. I used a polymer clay face (made with a Maureen Carlson mold) and gave her hair trimmed from a boa. She's a very wild woman.

My second prize is an original design beaded necklace. I used 2 shades of pink seed beads and accented with fire polished glass beads. A flower design appeared when I started playing. I finished the piece with a sterling silver s clasp.




My last prize is one of the stuffed paper fish. This one is the prototype I used before my girls night. She is made by cutting out 2 paper shapes, stuffing and taping shut modgepodging tissue over top and then decorating.

I am really excited about this event as its the first time I've done something like this. I did go through a bit of panic and stress when picking out what to offer because that old fear of no one will want your work came up. Sometimes my confidence just disappears on me and I have to go look for it again. It has been a blessing for me to recently discover the artistic blogging community. Its therapeutic to see other souls inspiring, encouraging and supporting each other. I thank each and every one of you.

And the winners are:
Junierose who will be getting the necklace,
Kathy was will receive the fish, and
Stacyzimmerman has won the "Be Yourself"

Thanks to all of you. Your supportive comments have made a tremendous difference to my self confidence. It will be a pleasure to peruse all the new blogs I've found throughout the coming months.