MISTY'S MORNINGS

Saturday evening we had a Pioneer Woman Cooks party.  My good friend suggested we actually cook something from the PW cookbooks we both have and bring our families together to enjoy the meal.  I chose a  meatloaf recipe as the main dish and my friend brought P-Dub's Twice Baked Potatoes as the side.  The meatloaf is my new go-to recipe (although I did change it up a bit by adding minced shallots and garlic and pre-cooking the bacon so it would get crispy on top).   The whole meal was delicious and memorable but my favorite part of the evening came when we spontaneously brought out some art supplies and my naturally artistic friend gave an impromptu drawing lesson to RW.  It was one of those heart-warming moments when you realize that your friend loves your children like family .  This counts for a lot when we both live hundreds of mile from our nearest family members.   Friends that become fa...

Have you ever tried to use your camera phone to take artistic photos ?  I have been surprised at how interesting the photos can be using such a small camera.  Try getting in closer to your subject than you would normally ever do.  Allow the camera to refocus itself on the small object and snap yourself a surprise. In the photos above, I followed the prompts from Liz Lamoreux as part of the Create Space on-line class I am taking.  She suggested we take our cameras on a creative walk and find something tiny, fading, surprising etc...  I was surprised to see a baby bud on the branch of our maple tree.  My son's baby face peach fuzz lit up in the light through the living room window while we watched Thomas the Train together. I caught the reflection of my iPhone in my sunglasses while waiting in the school drive up line.  Down on my knees in the mulch, a mini universe appeared in the moss along the air conditioning unit. ...

~PRETTY~ The sight of this floral box (complete with rhinestone brooch on the cover) filled to capacity with multi-colored Sharpies, glitter markers and ball point pens makes me feel that first day of school excitement every time. I have told you before how I am exploring various modes of creativity this year.  This tiny cache of pens has been put to good use since the arrival of this book:      by Stefanie Corfee         Check out her bohemian blog here . As I have been doodling and dabbling around in the world of mixed media art, a beautiful phenomenon has unfolded around me in this house proving this quote, by Albert Einstein, to be quite true:  "Creativity is contagious. Pass it on."   ~HAPPY~ ZJ, my middle son and aspiring author, has caught the creativity bug along with me.  He has his own Smash book , as does RW, my eldest, and we have passed a few beautiful hours smashing stuff side by side. ...

As I have mentioned before, my word for this year is CREATE .  Painting with watercolors is one area in which I have been experimenting.  Michael's has a really inexpensive line of art supplies called Artist's Loft .  I bought the watercolor paints and a few brushes as a way to get started without much investment. (Everything is around $5-$10.)   Being a part of Alisa Burke's on-line class called Create Daily , has awakened my senses to the many opportunities to create quickly .  Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that we must have large blocks of time set aside to be artistic .  Surely, we think, it takes an afternoon to paint, collage, journal or compose a few lines of poetry.  Well, if you are seeking perfection, it does.  But if you are seeking to revel in your simplistic ability to create something imperfect instead of nothing at all ,  there are moments of creative inspiration everywhere you look! On this partic...

CREATE                                  space                             peace                         time                   health             fitness                confidence                   faith                       love                         friendship                            hospitality                               fr...

Sometimes a girl just has to glitter!  I am always drawn to anything sparkly and this easy craft is one way to sparkle up the holiday table.  1.  Gather pinecones or do what I did - buy a small container at Walmart. 2.  Get some decoupage glue, too. 3.  Find some glitter you love ~ any color will work for Thanksgiving. 4.  Place it all on a tray to catch spills. 5.  Paint the pinecone with glue. 6. Liberally douse with glitter. 7.  Set aside to dry. 8.  When dry, top with a place card. 9.  Set the table, light the candles and enjoy the glimmery glow! Sharing here: Inspiration Friday @the picket fence

Remember when I posted recently that I have been looking into  art journaling ?  Well, I found a little inspiration to get me going through the month of November.  Dawn DeVries Sokol is hosting a free month of journal prompts called NaNoJouMo which stands for National Non-stop Journaling Month.   Here is some background on the idea and here is where you can go to join in the creative fun.  I am not planning anything grand, just a month of making time to scribble, doodle and jot in a small hardbound notebook I'll keep beside my computer. Also, for the month of December she is hosting Doodle 12:31 .  This is a paid class but I took a leap and treated myself to it for Christmas.   Another reason I am glad to already have my Christmas tree up - more time for doodling ! So if you are feeling the need to squeeze in some quiet creativity during the busy holiday season, gather up some flair colored pens and a simple journal or even a stack of ...