Go check out my Wordle

Just a quickie - Go here and check out my Wabi-Sabi Wordle.  Too much fun! If you go to Wordle be careful, it is very addictive!

Craft Month

I can't believe we are already halfway through March. It is my birthday month and so far, I haven't done near enough celebrating! We have a tradition (at least for me, the head chef) of going anywhere you want for your birthday dinner. Since I have such a hard time picking ONE favorite, I came up with an addendum to that tradition of getting to choose one restaurant per decade of your birthdays so..Now that I am in my 50's, I get five choices! Yay & Yum!

Speaking of March, it is also craft month and I would like to thank North Light Shop (a favorite internet shop of mine) for giving away freebie samples of some of their mixed media books.  Check out the button to the right. Click and go there, then look for "sale" in their top menu (far right) and click Craft Month.  You will see all the freebie downloads they are offering and gather ye some fun stuff! 

And for your visual pleasure I have included some pics of some of my crafting thangs for craft month and March birthdays.

B-day CD Case. See inside above.

A little book made from one sheet of 12x12 scrapbook paper.

Altered moleskine journal and pencil for a writer friend.

Altered composition journal and bookmark for a writer friend.

I would love to hear or see your craft projects for Craft Month. Enjoy the free downloads from North Light Books and definitely celebrate your birthday for the entire month! Whatever month it may be.  Heck, celebrate this month too, in honor of my birthday. 

Now to pick my restaurants.... hmmm.... Definitely Red Lobster, Olive Garden (love that lemon creme cake) and some rib place for sure... any suggestions (I get five picks!) or maybe I'll go with five and a half since I'm in the second half of this decade - Half? Yeah, takeout or lunch or breakfast?? Ok, now I'm hungry. Bye.

Check it out!!

I haven't posted in a while, been really busy and frankly, not in the mood.  Now it is March and this weekend begins "I can't believe it is already (insert time here) and still light!" It has been two months since  you made your new year resolutions or goals. How are you doing? Do you need a good kick in the pants? Come explore the goal achievement process from a creative point of view! FREE teleclass on Thursday, March 15...sign up here!

Art Sharing

I signed up for a free "class" called Take Twelve at this site - Ella Publishing and one of the themes for February is 'COLOR' so I decided to tell you about another project I am working on.

I found this video on youTube - Stash and Smash Journal  and I liked the idea so I bought the book. (see right side bar)

Interested in this book? Buy here

So, below have a look at my first junk mail envelope book. Leave a comment and tell me what you think. If you would like to have it for your very own, let me know.  

Happy Valentine's Week! Do you have any special plans? Would love to hear about them.

My New Nikon

Happy February! 

Look at my new camera! It is a Nikon Coolpix. I found it at Target in my favorite color.  Talk about WABI-SABI!

Most people have good little cameras in their phones, but I don't have a smart phone, yet. I was using my Samsung Galaxy Tab. It was doing a good job but too big for me.  I love it for everything else, though. 

I took this pic in a mirror then flipped it so you could read it - Cool, huh? Now, I'm off to take some artsy fartsy fotos!

Ok, I changed my mind.

Wabi Sabi - After all, I am a woman. I am in my Wise Woman stage (although some days I think maybe it is Crone stage and I'm sure my son would agree). I tend toward the hormonal.  Therefore, I can have days of ups and downs, hating something one day and loving it the next.  I was maybe a little touchy about hating computers and blogging.  Today, it is easier.  I was able to figure out some software issues.  Thank you, Amazon (and my wonderful web wizard, Jon) for helping things to be a little easier today.  I do hope to begin sharing creative things soon.  I don't know how all you blessed blogging beauties do it so often with adding photos and instructions and sharing your creativity and making things wonderfully entertaining but I am hoping to join your ranks soon.  I have found the Wabi Sabi in blogging - It is fun when it isn't frustrating! Speaking of Wabi Sabi and Amazon - look at this cute little book:

You can find this cute little book at Amazon.com - just click on my link at left.

Blogging is Hard!

I don't know about anyone else but I really thought blogging would be easier than it is.  I mean, everybody is doing it, right?  I'm beginning to think it is more like one of those "If everybody jumped off the empire state building would you" things?  Frankly, after the problems I'm having getting an "online presence", I think I might just! (Follow them off the ESB!)  If I didn't have a computer savvy husband, I would definitely be bald right now!

Anyway, I just had to vent about the internet and what better place to do so, right?  Hope you all have a better day than I did. :)

Sharing

I really had to share this great gift I got from my Mystery Muse.  I signed up for Artella's (http://www.artellawordsandart.com/) Mystery Muse project.  This is my third year and I love it.  I don't know who my muse is yet, but I received this from the "Royal Mail" (so cool!!) which means Great Britain.

A Bookmark! I collect them.

Creative Adventure (words on the ATC)

Photo Test

Truth be told, I'm really new at this blogging stuff and trying to figure it all out.  What better way than to do actual posting and see what comes of it - All about my wabisabiness, right?  I eventually will get around to telling you a little about myself, but right now, just know that I live in SW Michigan.  People who sadly don't know any better have been complaining we have no snow so we got dumped on the last few days but I have to admit it is pretty to look at, especially if you don't have to go anywhere.  

Something else you should probably know about me - I tend to ramble.  I can't say it is because I like to hear myself talk because I am  not talking (except inside my head) but typing.  I do kind of like the sound of keyboard clicking so perhaps that is the reason.  Anyway, this post is all about seeing what it looks like when I take a photo with my tab and send it to myself email then save and try to post.  What do you think?

Ta-Dah?

My Word - Wabi Sabi

For those of you who were on pins and needles about what word I would choose, my word is chosen - I think:}     WABI SABI

>Wabi Sabi is an ancient Japanese art form that honors all things old, worn, and weathered. It seeks to find “beauty and perfection in the imperfections.”
>Tranquil simplicity, rustic elegance, imperfect beauty...these are qualities that wabi sabi embraces. 
>Wabi Sabi is a Japanese expression meaning "wisdom in natural simplicity." Wabi Sabi helps us to see the beauty in imperfection, to discover that our unique flaws also can lead us to our greatest strengths and treasures.
>wabi, which translates to less is more, and sabi, which means attentive melancholy, wabi sabi refers to an awareness of the transient nature of earthly things and a corresponding pleasure in the things that bear the mark of this impermanence.

My First Post - Happy New Year!

So many blogs I have read to begin the year have asked or suggested one pick a word for the year and basically center everything around that word.  My problem is I have too many words to choose from.  My word for 2011 was disappointment.  I wouldn't have picked that at the beginning of the year, but by Dec. 31, after contemplating my life and memories for the past year, that is the word that stood out.  Now I want to pick a good word, something uplifting and fun.  So far, I have these - Hope, forgiveness, forgetting, remembering, lost & found, cleanse, contentment, joyful, freedom, wild abandon, empowered, stimulate, liberty and transformation.  Uplifting would be good too.  Then I thought I would rather have something totally off the wall - like mittelschmerz or onomatopoiea.  So, what do you think?  It is a leap year and several people have chosen leap.  I wonder if there is a word for laughing yourself to death.  Perhaps my word should be juice or juicy since I am so into making juice with my Ninja.  That word is used a lot in the creative world though.  Too many people use that word too much.  For some reason it always makes me think of KY jelly and vaginal dryness.  Then, maybe I should pick a word from body parts like uvula.  People might be offended if you told them your word for the year is vagina or clitoris, huh?  I do like "hands" though - maybe I can find some medical word for hand or a foreign word meaning creative hand or hand to mouth.

Oh well, thus goes my randomness of thought.  Hey, there are two good words - randomness and thought.  What about Deep Thought (all-knowing computer from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).  I will cease and desist now.  Wait a minute - desist could be good...nah sounds too pimply.  I will leave you with this - FYI I could not find a googled word for laugh to death although the Greeks apparently did it quite regularly, and there was an uncle in Mary Poppins that died from laughter.

Have a great rest of the first month of the year!!

Love & Laughter (although this spot will soon be taken up with a better word).  I do like Namaste.

Let's try this....

Onomatopoiea (think - On a mat peeing, ah) - which leads to another body part - bladder - which also leads to humor and laughter because it is inevitable at my age that I will do the little spritzing when I laugh, heh.  (Have you seen the commercial with Whoopi Goldberg about that?)

Okay, definitely going now.
___________________ (Fill in word for the year) ((which should perhaps be choice or just pick something dammit!)
Karen