The Fine Art of Play

I have wanted to attend Teesha and Tracy Moore's Play Art Journal Retreat for years. This was the year I finally attended! And what a life and art altering experience it was! For 5 days you are submerged into a world of creative skills, sparky and fun fellow artists, surreal creations, brilliant teachers, and exploration. Teesha and Tracy are the most generous instructors on the planet! They teach you new techniques and their latest finds in skills and materials as well as help you get the coordination of using the tools while you experiment with them. There is a table of the journals that Teesha and Tracy created in the back of the room that is worth the whole price of the retreat to study and get inspiration from. I have to mention also, that many of the students remarked how they admired Teesha and Tracy's relationship. Two artists supporting and encouraging each other while sharing that same support and encouragement with fellow artists to keep them blossoming. These two work and play hard to keep artists sparked both during and after the retreat. I am guilty of enjoying a workshop or retreat long after it's over as my mind takes 'feeling photos' and I re-live them every time I go practice what I've learned. I left that retreat with enough new skills to try out and play with for years! THIS WORKSHOP NEVER ENDS EVEN THOUGH YOU LEFT IT LONG AGO!
I loved the skills they taught us using paper, but my inner fabric soul was hungry to try out what they taught us on a pair of pants I own that I rarely wear. They are now journal pants, which has been done before by artists, so it's nothing new. I love to try a new skill or different journal entry on them daily. I'm having many favorite parts on these pants already....my most favorite being the autographs of Teesha, Tracy, their awesomely talented daughter Tiphoni, and brilliant detail drawing phenomenon, Theo Ellsworth. I also have autographs of a few of the very gifted artists that were at my table on the front of my pants. I just love how artists sign autographs....why do it in just writing?
Another thing I want to mention about this retreat. I've met my tribe! They do not care how much clutter you have in your space. Every item in existence is art journal fodder. You are not a slob...you're an artist gathering materials for your creations. I get tired of being judged in every day life for saving items that may be considered trash or useless clutter. That rule that professional organizers use...if you don't use it within a year, pitch it....DOES NOT WORK FOR A COLLAGE ARTIST. I've had items I've saved for 20 years and only found the right use for them recently.
I see that both life coaches and journal artists see the potential in everything. Just go to the grocery store with a collage artist. Witness the perspective with which they see grocery items....potential art projects. One man's trash is a collage artist's treasure. 
I highly recommend any retreat Teesha and Tracy give to anyone needing a sparky kick in the art journal pants.
I have more to say about this retreat, but I have to finish tax receipts, so I'll continue next entry.

Make it Yourself!!!

I grew up with the same affliction many Baby Boomers had.

 When we didn't eat all of our dinner, we'd hear about people starving in China. When we didn't like walking to school we'd hear about walking 5 miles in the snow, uphill, to school. I was raised in an upscale suburb of Chicago, but because my parents had to work hard to keep the bills paid, my clothes came from the thrift shop. The high point was having to wear some other girl's hand-me-down underpants!!!! It was challenging being around classmates who had the latest this and that. When I asked if I could get the latest, I'd hear the response/mantra, "make it yourself."

As a child, I got so upset hearing "make it yourself." Living by that mantra through her own childhood experience, Mom taught me to sew, Mom and I learned to knit at the local yarn shop, and if I wanted to send a greeting card I'd have to design it, often with Mom's help. Oh...did I mention Mom used to be an art teacher in a Jr High School? I need to blog about that some time.

Now that we're in a recession, I hear thrift shops are thriving! Shabby-chic is the way to survive the recession. Did you know "recessionista" is a word defining the people who can find creative ways to dress stylishly while surviving the current tough economy? I much admire the creative knitters who are buying sweaters at the thrift shop, unraveling them, and reconstructing them into new sweaters. What a creative way to get classy yarn! Not to mention the recycling kindess to the Earth they are engaged in.

That make-it-yourself mantra and upbringing led me to get a fashion design degree because I love that space between idea and manifestation called process! Today I teach/coach others how to express through creativity and run a shop/studio with creative supplies and workshops. My hugest pleasure is uninterrupted creativity time in the studio. It never ceases to amaze me that the very things we didn't want to hear or do as a child are the very things that molded our lives today. Isn't it always the things that upset us most that bring the hugest gifts and lessons in time? How else would the lessons get our attention than to be challenging or upsetting? I thank my Mom for teaching me to defy what goes on 'out there' by making it myself.

Happy Holidays....Never forget these words....

I thank Jan Phillips for keeping artists inspired by reminding them that creating is as important as breathing. My prayer for 2009 is that everyone honors the creative ideas that are sent to them by manifesting them. Happy holidays!

Seeing Possibility After a Break Up

Ever see that Swiffer ad on TV where the Domestic House Goddess has "broken up" with her mop and broom? (I can hear the soundtrack of "Baby Come Back" that they use, going round and round in my head as I write this.) The mop and broom try to lure our Goddess back with flowers, all kinds of gift deliveries, hot tub invitations, etc. I think this ad hits home for a bunch of us!!!!
I can picture sequels to this ad. Sequels showing this Goddess at the police precinct getting a restraining order. Maybe even a scene in court, where the Goddess reveals all the abuse the broom and mop put her through...or even a scene in the shrink's office where the shrink finally says their client is cured from attracting abusive mops and brooms into her life.

The reason I bring up this ad is because I recently "broke up" with my couch. Every time I sat in it, besides it being horrible for anyone's posture, it brought back past boyfriend memories on that couch. I just couldn't stand to be around that ambience, so I moved it to my studio. It now has a new use....I take off the cushions and block my finished knit projects on it. And what a perfect blocking tool it is!!!

As far as the sweater in these photos....last Summer, I was so hungry to take a certain Drop-Stitch knit class I read about, but I had a schedule conflict. Instead, I saw a pattern for a drop stitch sweater in Cast On Magazine and gave it a try. One day I will make it to that Drop Stitch class if they ever give it again. Until then, I'll keep learning from patterns I find.

Have you ever used an item, appliance, or piece of furniture for a totally new use and loved the results? Please inspire us with your story!

Hidden Hotel Nightmare

A friend had sent me this video clip quite a while ago. It was quite disturbing. I remember going to a conference once and returning very sick and not knowing why. Many in the conference got sick as well. Could this be the reason?
Now, whenever I stay in a hotel I pack a small bottle of dish soap. But, still....there's ammonia in the window cleaner some cleaning staff uses on those hotel glasses! So, lately I bring my own mug to drink anything from in a hotel room.
When I went on my knitventures this Summer, I actually did wash out a dark coffee cup in a hotel room that was next to the coffee maker when I got in my room. All this dark coffee came out in the rinse water! Dark mugs hide stains. It was a pricey hotel I stayed in too!!!!
Maybe you have seen this clip before, as it's been going around the cybersphere. If not, I hope you remember to bring your own mug or dish soap when you stay in a hotel.
Do you have any hotel nightmare stories to share?

Talent and Inspiration Everywhere!

It was a wonderful education-filled Summer. I attended the Knit and Crochet Show in New Hampshire and Stitches Midwest in Chicago. Not only are there high quality teachers and classes there...but the attendees sport their creations. That's just as much reason to go to these shows as the lessons and market reasons are.
Starting with the photo with the gorgeous knit skirt....this fellow student was kind enough to let me take a snapshot of the beautiful layered skirt she made. I am embarrassed I don't know her name, but the skirt she knit definitely blew us all away!
Then there was this most attractive crochet dress worn by Jennifer Hansen (Stitch Diva Studios) About Us (thank you, Amy Shelton, for that info!) She taught a class on how to make this dress at the K&C show. The dress so magnitized us to it every time she entered a room. So incredibly done!
And then there is the crocheted purple wonder outfit made and modeled by co-owner of Crochetville, Amy Shelton, who offers a whole crochet world online Crochetville Forum.
If anyone can identify the name of the model of that wonderous knit skirt let me know, so I can edit this post and not be so ashamed of my middle aged memory.

The Knit and Crochet Show and Crochet Dude

It's "The Crochet Dude!!!" The Crochet Dude I took his blogging class at the Knit and Crochet Show in New Hampshire this Summer. What an excellent teacher! And such an inspiration to introverts like me. I love to read his blog and watch him evolve his life as if it were a crochet project. He's endlessly experimenting and trying on new aspects of the design of his life.  He puts himself in a challenging situation that stretches him beyond any kind of comfort zone...and then he comes out on the other side a seasoned pro! When you see what he does with his life, it makes you want to follow the instructions of his design and make a design of your own. We need more role models like this.