Take the time

So it isn't a big surprise to me that one day gets away from me.  I have been toting teenagers to and from Band Camp this past week, with one more week to go.  My hour plus compute starts at 8am and I'm good to get in by 9:30am, then I start again later in the afternoon.  I know there are people that do this everyday and I have total respect for you!  I don't know how you do it, my body is having a hard time.  I might complain a little but my heart is happy to hear the stuff going on with the car load I have.

So this summer has been about making art, slowing down to relize what is most important, just not worrying about things and rekindling a friendship.  Then you have tackling a list but just taking your time doing it.  This is what my family and I needed, no regrets.

I have also taken Soul Restoration 2.  While I am not completely through the class projects, I did make it through all the videos.  I never thought of myself as a goal setter, not like some anyway.  I've never been one to think about the dreams I have in my heart as ones that could happen.  I share them with very few and I am not sure they will ever be shared here.  I believe somethings should remain private and for now that is okay with me.  In Soul Restoration 2, we have talked about goals, dreams and setting rules for our daily lives.  Again, I never thought I had to many rules but as I am going through the materials I have relized I am a goal and rules person.  This has all helped this summer to find a center that I thought I had lost a long time ago.  I've been able to stand and say no to things, that before I would have just gone through with because it is what you do.  It is a good feeling to start believing in yourself again and know you are okay.

The BIG thing that I have taken away is a solid thing for me.  Something I have known for a long time BUT this time I REALLY got it, to the point of making me cry.  To relize I am enough..........

As I have been creating my Life Journal, filling it with things that are important to me.  I find myself changing, healing and becoming stronger.  I NEVER in my life thought I would be falling so much in love with my book.  In a sense falling in love with my life, something I almost lost sight of.  I use to look at Melody and think I don't know if I will be able to understand what she is talking about.  How she can be so happy, well I'm getting it.  I am blessed and so happy to be right where I am.  

Take time to see your life, you won't regret it!    

The Summer of Color Class started yesterday.  I have pulled a few things together that I want to use.  One of them being my purple/pink moleskin journal that I have been holding onto for just the right project.  The tags were from the Nic Howard Color class I took last fall so I'm thinking they will be a nice addition.  Of course things that aren't pictured that will be used are photos, paper and embellishments.       

Soul Restoration 2, started today.  I am going to be honest......I'm nervous.....already today questions are being asked that I haven't thought about in years.  This week we are to concentrate on journaling through some questions and making our life journal.   

Finishing up She Had Three Hearts, which is so full of techniques it is unbelievable!  Keep and eye open for the class on Christy's blog, if she ever offers it again take it!  I personally haven't done any art journaling for the class.  I have my supplies together but my space seems messy.  So I decided to concentrate on watching all the videos and take loads of notes.  I'm glad I will have access to the videos for a few more weeks after class because that will allow me to put together technique cards. 

The winner is........

BUT first I need to let you all know how much I appreciated each one of your comments and have read them all.  They were all so touching.  Welcome to all my new followers.  I hope you will enjoy the journey I share here.

I believe that there is a God that knows what each and everyone of us needs to continue on our own journey.  He puts things in our paths that can result into beautiful things.  When I went to the Random generator I plugged in the numbers, then went back to my list of comments.  I counted and then relized that one of the most touching comments for me was the person who received the blog gift.  This is so like God to provide something special to help someone along their way. 

So to number 35, Kristy you are the winner!!       
Kristy said, "I am so loving this BG blog hop ! Being able to read your stories and sing praises for SR at BGC is wonderful .I am so excited to say I am signed up for the April session. IS it April yet ? I have been so touched by your story and for being brave enough to post it. I am happy to add you to my following list. I would just die to win this amazing gift. I am on a journey to heal after the death of my dear husband in July 2010. On a journey of discovery and being Brave in my new "Widow" walk. I am over the top with joy that you girls put this together. What a wonderful gift to all of us !! Hugs.. KRisty ...Krissi57 at BGC...You can reach me at my blog...http://myhealingthroughartstory.blogspot.com/ "

I linked Kristy's blog so you lovelies can go leave her some sisterly love.  Her artwork through healing is amazing, which makes God pretty amazing!!  Blessing to you my new Brave Girl Sister!!

What it means to be a Brave Girl

Welcome to the Soul Restoration blog hop - if you're following from the beginning you came from Leslie's blog  to continue hopping on your way you'll visit Kai's blog.  If for any reason you get lost or a link is broken you can go here, here, here or here to get yourself back on track.  Several of the ladies are having give aways, so have fun!  That is what it's all about making special connections.

As you go along this blog hop journey you are going to see my sisters hearts, please be kind and leave lots of LOVE for them.  We would love to see you join the most powerful and fun online workshop taught by Melody Ross.  This class is being enjoyed and loved by women all over the world and the one thing in common you will see is it is all about connections.  Connections between other women who get you and to the little girl that is still inside of you waiting to be healed.  Soul Restoration online classes have now been expanded to TWO sessions:  Soul Restoration Part 1 - Finding your truth(6 weeks) starting April 5, 2011  Session $99 Registar HERE and Soul Restoation Part 2 - Living your truth(6 weeks) For graduates of Soul Restoration 1 only June 7, 2011  Session $99 Resister HERE 

You DO NOT need to be an artist to do this.  Melody is so awesome and she walks you through it all.  After watching all the technique videos if you are still having trouble, go to your sisters for support.  That is what it is all about lovelies.

I personally have been following Melody and her journey for years.  She speaks truth with her words and those words have helped me more than she will ever know.  When I heard that she was starting a Brave Girl Camp I was over the moon and back excited.  I knew with the price tag, I was going to have to wait for quite awhile for my pennies to be saved.  Then it was announced that a special Brave Girl Community would be opened and that Soul Restoration six week course would be offered.  Have you ever just been not able to get something out of your head?  That is what happened with me when I heard about it.  The decision to take this class wasn't something I took lightly.  I knew I would have a lot of soul work to do and it honestly wasn't going to be easy.  Life style changes are rarely easy but in the end rewarding.  

 

My sister died when I was nine years old, this is my favorite picture of her and I.  I loved her so very much and since then I have at times felt like I've been lost.  I only knew for a short time what it was like to have a sister and I have searched for years for that bond.  The bond of undersanding that only sisters seem to have.  A peace comes over you when you a relize you don't have to search empty faces anymore for someone who will be your sister.  That is the peace that I have received from Soul Restoration, my restless sisters heart is at peace.  I don't have to search anymore because I have hundres of sisters who get me.  They are there at a moments notice when I am having a horrible, no good, very bad day.  They center me right back to where I need to be.  I so LOVE each and everyone of you, my heart is full.

Now for the fun giveway that I have put together for you!  In this giveway you will receive the above things to start or continue you on your art journey of healing.   I will choose a winner Sunday 3/6,  9pm pacific time and post the winner by Tuesday 3/8.  Be sure I have away to contact you!! 

In class you will choose your truth teller symbol to remind you of the things you have learned.  My truth teller symbol are birds because they are what God uses to slow me down.  This little guy was found in my garden one day when I was going out to my car.  Yes, he let me get that close with the camera on my phone!  It looks like he is smiling and that is what I like to imagine God doing when he looks at me.      

Please join us in the beautiful Brave Girl community, that Melody and her sister Kathy have created for us.  If you would like to read more about the community, please click on the Brave Girl button to the left. 

A bit of Truth

I am loving surrounding myself with special truths.  This is one I made for myself and a couple of sweet Brave Girl sisters.  Be blessed and come back tomorrow for our wonderful Soul Restoration Blog Hop!!

I painted on lovely canvas paper.  The heart is modeling paste, which seems like it takes FOREVER to dry.  Little fence is a Martha Steward punch.

Doing things anyway

Somehow, somewhere I learned to do things anyway.  It has been that way for as long as I can remember.  It is strange though, when you don't remember much of your childhood to not even really know when you got to be so strong.  I am choosing however to believe it happened over a lifetime.

These are my Anyway pages from Soul Restoration.  The birds I found before Christmas and just stamped several out, cutting them out and placing them over the punched vine and flowers.  I just love how they turned out.

I am choosing to believe what Melody Ross said to us in class one day..........When you go through things you are extremely qualified to help someone where no one else would be.  You are trust worthy because you have been there.  I remember a very dear friend telling me the exact same thing about 10 years ago so what Melody said was just a wonderful reminder.  I do wish more people believed this and that there would be more trust so that people didn't think they add reinvent the wheel.

Be sure to come back this way over the weekend.  A few my new Brave Girls sisters and I have to put together a Soul Restoration Blog Hop.  I'll be doing a fun little give away.  See you soon!    

Attitude adjustment

My attitude hasn't been the best so I find myself being quiet.  I loved the Soul Restoration class and I will talk more about that later in the week, durning our blog hop this weekend.  It was everything I hoped it would be but it doesn't stop just because the class did.  It is hard work to change how you think on a daily basis, to go where the peace is when all you want to do is revert back to your old habits.  I seem to be the master of that recently, falling back into old habits, it seems easier but it sure isn't healthy.  

I just noticed this week that my vistor counter has hit over 14,000!  Totally amazing to me!  Thank you to all of you that visit.  I do believe I will be doing a special give away to celebrate soon, just have to figure out just the right special gift.

More Restoring

I am learning a lot of good stuff from Soul Restoration.  All of the content is really about changing ones thoughts and in turn this changes your life.  It is a for a purpose and helps you to look how far you have come.

In the past few weeks we have done a Timeline of our lives.  When we go through bad things in our lives, we have a tendency to think they go on forever but in reality it is only a short amount of time.  We make the choice everyday to let the past dictate our current lives and even our future.  It is possible to move past the hurt in your lives and not feel that you are stuck in it.  Moving past it is where you will find the JOY you are searching for.

We have also looked at both our strong and weak selves.  While it is hard to see at times each 'self' will take over at different times in your life.  What everyone seems to do though is beat yourself up over the choices you make, usually the bad ones.  Here we learned to love and forgive our weak selves, embrace her instead of telling her how horrible she is.

The background is made with modeling paste, which I scrap with a texture tool.  I then allowed it to dry completely, it took 24 hours......ack, I am not patient when it comes to leaving things alone to dry.  The next day, I painted my pages a medium grass green which turned out WAY to bright for me.  So I wiped as much of it off as I could, then watered down some brown paint to wash it over the green.  It gave it that in the forest mossy green that I was looking for, after it was dry I added Walnut Distress ink straight from the stamp pad.  I fell in love with the pages as I started to Mod Podge the elements on the pages.  It was everything I hoped it would be with all the perfect reminders on how I need to treat myself.    

Better!

I am so glad to have a better start to a new week.  I feel like I have already had a productive one, it feels so good.  It is finals week for my children, they are home earlier than normal.  The evenings are spent studying and trying to get enough rest for the next round of tests.  I am looking forward to the weekend so there will be less stress in the house.

My first art journal.  I took my inspiration from Donna Downey.  I do believe I am in LOVE!  

I am journaling special truths, things I have learned over my life, things I NEED to remember.  The constant glow of Christ, leading to hope into the Guckpit with my Truthteller leading the way.  The Truthteller being my God.  I am so glad that I am NOT in this dark place anymore!!  Thank you God, you are awesome.    

A four day migraine really puts a damper on one's life.  I woke up with it, early last week.  It was frustrating because I normally have some kind of sign but not this time.  I have learned over the years to just push through the pain, instead of feeling sorry for myself.  Feeling sorry for myself doesn't make it better.  I nap when I can(even if it is for only 10 minutes), drink plenty of water and put more protein in my diet.  Creating makes me feel better to, so I am in and out of my corner quite a bit.

So despite the week I was able to do a few things for the Soul Restoration class I am taking.  It feels so good to have something physical, that can help me to remember not to let stuff bother me.  To help me to remember that everyday I can choose to listen to my Truthteller.  Everyone's Truthteller is differant, mine just happens to be God.  He is the foremost in my life and the one I make a choice everyday to listen to. 

Cover:  This took the longest time to figure out what I wanted to do.  When I think of what makes me happy so much comes to mind and it makes it hard to choose.  I started by creating the white flower out of white cardstock and then covered it in Mod Podge so it would hold up to being on the cover.  The colored flowers came from my stash and were also covered with Mod Podge.  After they completely dried they took on the look of leather, very cool.  The butterfly was embossed onto white cardstock and colored in with Distress inks.  You can't tell by the photo but I then cover it with Glossy Accents to give it a nice shine.  Same thing is done with the Closed for Restoration sign.  I love everything about this cover.

A few pages:  I so enjoyed the process of creating my house and all the backgrounds.  It has taken me years to be okay with who I am and to take care of me.  The daisies and ladybugs are stickers I found in my stash.  They took on a real cool look after everything was covered in Mod Podge because a few of the flowers lifted up on the edges, giving a little dimension to the page.  The flowers on the last page shown here are again covered with Mod Podge and I added some Martha Stewart clear mirco beads to the center of the flowers.