pink skies of possibility

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show notes:

in our first audio post (yay!), i look back on the evolution of the wishstudio and share some insight and inspiration around celebrating our big and small accomplishments.

mentioned in this post:  christine castro, brianna privet, christine mason miller, teresa bennet, emily perry, irene nam, the wishmamas series including madalyn ducher ~ leonie allan ~ lisa ferante, the book the necklace – by cheryl jarvis, the necklace project, our summer book group, and becoming a studio*girl.

i will have more information coming soon about our new local (boston area) creativity circle, and all the scoop on my texas trip i mentioned, where i hope to connect with some of you!

thanks again for being a part of my creative world.

by kimberly wilson

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” – Coco Chanel

These days I find tranquility in a myriad of ways – sipping tea, writing in my journal, getting crafty, and sitting on my meditation cushion. In addition, playing “dress up” on a daily basis is also a favorite dose of tranquility. When I look put together, I feel put together. When penning my latest book, Tranquilista, I would don red lipstick before settling in for a day of writing. Truly, I felt like it helped me write better.

The way in which we present ourselves to the world is our style – communication, fashion, home décor. Let’s take a moment to explore what your style is currently saying about who you are and whether or not it is bringing you tranquility.

Communication: My new favorite mantra taken from a beloved surgeon turned meditation teacher is “respond vs react.” Hmmm. How often does that happen in your day to day? Moi, I’m a recovering reactor doing my best to proceed with mindfulness. Also, can you give kudos where kudos is due? What about penning a snail mail thank you with a tea bag or small trinket tucked inside? Are your emails curt and to the point, long and overly verbose, or clear and concise? We must communicate so let’s do it in a way that promotes tranquility for all. Savvy Source: Non-violent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenburg

Fashion: Love me some comfy, chic clothing. I chose images from my latest TranquiliT fashion shoot to share for this muse. My tranquility is found in items I can mix and match to create effortless looks. Peruse your closet. Does what you wear speak to what lies within? Are you donning Talbots, but feeling more Betsey Johnson? Make a change. Low on funds, but craving a new look? Accessories are your answer! Etsy is full of amazing finds AND you support indie artists. These small touches can spruce up the most basic togs – earrings, long necklaces or chokers, armwarmers, scarves, headbands worn across the forehead, feathers, and bangles. Don a small, colorful scarf around your neck and notice a new skip in your step. Fashion is how we live. Savvy Source: A Year in High Heels by Camilla Morton

Décor: Let your personality shine at home and at the office – even in your mode of transportation. J’adore hopping on my white beach cruiser with pink rims and a wicker basket to dash through DC traffic. One of my favorite ways to pull together revamp ideas is to create an inspiration board. I grab images from magazines that appeal, fabric swatches, paint chips, and photos of items I currently have but am not ready to surrender. From here I work to create a cohesive look. The first step is always a big dose of decluttering – toss and donate what no longer works for you (or that you haven’t touched in eons). Then I bring to life what came out on my inspiration board. It may be as simple as a new paint color, change of slipcover, rearranging furniture, or replacing a dingy lampshade. What does your home and office reflect for you? You spend a lot of time here, make it tranquil and authentically you. Savvy Source: Living a Beautiful Life by Alexandra Stoddard

Kimberly Wilson is a yogini, do-gooder, entrepreneur, and eco-fashion designer who penned Hip Tranquil Chick and Tranquilista. Learn more at kimberlywilson.com.

suggested by shona cole:

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By Kate Swoboda

Okay. So you’ve set a goal. Or you have an idea in mind for something you want to change. Maybe you’ve even laid out a few action steps. It feels heady, this goal-setting business. There’s a kind of a rush, whether it comes from finally getting over the fear that surrounded admitting you wanted something, or realizing that you’re completely stoked to have it and ready to dive in.

“It will take time,” some cautionary voice inside of us warns. Perhaps some more fear crops up then, too, and then when we push that away there’s a new surge of that great feeling. You did it! You set a goal! You identified a dream! You’re going to make it happen!

Days, weeks, months pass. Then perhaps you realize: Shit. It really does take time. Maybe lots of time. Maybe the kind of time where I don’t know what the hell to do with myself now that the bubbly rush feeling is gone and (WARNING: BOAT METAPHOR AHEAD) I’ve got one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock. That boat isn’t setting sail yet, so I need one food on the dock, and yet it kind of is, so I need one foot on the boat, and I’ve got a groin muscle that is seriously complaining right now.

And somewhere, in some part of ourselves that we don’t want to acknowledge (usually, anyway), we are bummed that the goal did not happen instantly, with a snap of the fingers. If you are anything like me, you might even have moments where you want to claw at the walls and cry, “Does this mean it’s not meant to BE?” (Caution: this is the moment when most of us go out to buy a new self-help book, commit to a meditation practice that we won’t follow, sabotage ourselves by talking to someone who doesn’t really support us, consult a psychic, passively quit, or actually quit).

passively quitting: not out and out quitting, but slacking off on doing whatever needs to be done to a degree that things start to sputter and stall, or retreating into complaints and defeat, until things get worse so that you can more legitimately say “Well, it wasn’t working.” Think of men in relationships who grow inexplicably distant and stop returning phone calls so that you will do the dirty work of breaking up with them, and you get the idea.

I confess that I have experienced this phenomenon myself in the past few months (this is the bummer realization about becoming a Coach—learning about ways to change behavior and hold space for others in the midst of a rough patch does not automatically translate into my own problem-free, reaction-free, rough-patch-free life).

I wanted to declare that I was starting a new career path of coaching + retreats + e-courses, and I (secretly, of course) wanted everything to be wildly successful. In my mind, this meant a completely full coaching slate, retreats that sold out within a few weeks of announcing them, e-courses that also sold out within a few days of announcing them. Also, everyone would be wildly pleased with everything I did. I told myself that this was a “reasonable” thing to expect, because after all, (imagine me puffed up with pride for not being “perfectionistic” about it) I wasn’t saying things needed to sell out in a few hours. I was saying a few weeks. Also, I really liked this word: wildly when attached to this other word: successful.

In reality, clients have come and gone at the same rate that they always have, some retreats have filled easily while others have not, and my e-courses have filled over weeks, not days. In reality, I was being perfectionistic about it, an old habit, even though I didn’t want to admit it to myself. The past few months have been an experience of living in Trigger City. I had expectations, and if they weren’t met, I needed to keep having Talks With Myself about perfectionism and boundaries and not telling myself a Story that I was failing if I didn’t automatically have the same level of financial security working for myself that I had had working for someone else. I kept fretting about how I wanted to make a living supporting myself, forgetting that duh—I am supporting myself. That rent check each month? Written by me. Not a sugar-daddy. Me.

I make it a practice to “look for the gold,” to find out where in life’s challenges there’s something of value, and from that place—and of course I can only speak of this now because I’ve made quite a bit of headway and processed through many of the feelings—I see a lot of value in my experience in the past few months. Talk about practicing acceptance. Talk about practicing Letting Go. If you ever feel like diving into those practices, start a business.

But the biggest thing that I have needed to acknowledge is that I Wanted It Done Now, and I forgot that I Am Doing It.

(Now, before you start wondering if I left my career as an English teacher because I am challenged by proper capitalization, let me just add the disclaimer that I’m aware of how to properly capitalize things.)

I Am Doing It. I’m in process. I’m doing everything that needs to be done, and have had a number of successes along the way.

Remember the metaphorical boat? When I get stuck in I Want it Done Now I actually maintain the fearful, spread-legged, “I’m going to fall into a pond of duck shit” feeling. When I step into I Am Doing It, a sort of thrilling realization hits me:

The boat has left the dock, baby.

Both feet are in. We’re sailing.

Time to enjoy the ride rather than skip over the part where I’m out on the open water.

From a really deep place, I am now excited to see what is before me. I mean, how cool is this—I have started to work for myself. There will never again be a year like this one, my first year. Never again will I have quite the same freshness of beginner’s mind that I have now. This is something worth savoring before it transforms into something else.

And how neat it is that I can already look back over the past few months and see, and feel, a real shift in who I am that has resulted purely from taking this leap. I can even see how, based on the experience I’ve had with this, I would be a better teacher should I ever decide to return to the classroom. I can see how I am a better partner, a better friend, a better human being on the planet, walking with more patience and more insight and more willingness to trust and a drastically expanded comfort zone around taking risks.

we are kicking off summer here in the wishstudio with our very first book group (yay!).  because we had so much interest in this book that inspired our necklace project here in the studio, i decided that it would be the perfect read to take along with you to the beach and to stay connected to that energy of community over the lazy days of summer.  i read this book a while ago and the message within the pages really stuck with me… that experiences and connections allow us to transcend our own lives and can lead us to wonderfully unexpected places of discovery and beauty.

the book is the true story of 13 women who came together to buy a diamond necklace.  little did they know that this social experiment would lead to fulfilling friendships, amazing events, and surprising revelations in their own lives.  it’s a story that we all can relate to in some way shape or form and speaks to the power of women, community, and how both can be a catalyst for change deep within ourselves and far reaching in world around us.

join us this summer as we read the necklace.  we will kick things off on sunday, june 2oth and will finish our last discussion on august 29th.  each week, a new discussion topic will be posted in the cafe where you can pull up a cozy chair and chat with fellow readers to talk about that weeks chapters.  it will be very fun and low-key.  all you need is a copy of the book and to sign up for the group in the cafe.

on june 20th you can meet me in the cafe and i will post the breakdown of the chapters for each week.  we’ll also have a little intro discussion of the book as we kick of our summer reading.  so sign up today over in the cafe!  it should be loads of fun.

by jennifer lee

What brings you alive? Maybe your spirit soars when you see a stunning sunset. Perhaps you feel most at home when you’re experiencing the thrill of foreign cities or cultures. Or you beam with excitement when you’re creating and connecting with your best girlfriends. These moments of aliveness speak to your core values.

Your core values are what you hold as most important to you. Values are your lifeblood. They give your life meaning and richness.

Values also help you authentically run a business. Many musepreneurs honor their personal values through their creative work, so your business values most likely will be based on your personal ones. I know mine are!

Identifying Your Core Values

To identify your core values, reflect back on times in your life when you felt fully alive. When have you been happy and totally fulfilled? Your special moments could be significant events or simple pleasures from your day-to-day life. They could be from when you were a little kid or from just this morning.

In these peak moments, who were you being? What was going on around you? What were you doing? What were you feeling? Write down as much detail as you can. Once you’re done reflecting, go back and circle words that stand out to you. Those circled words are a good start to creating your list of values. Begin to group the values into strings that make sense to you. For example, beauty/creativity/expression might be a string and adventure/freedom/exploration might be another.

You can download my free values form for more ideas and guidance through the process of identifying your core values. Ultimately, you’ll want to end up with a list of your top 5-10 core values.

Getting Down to Business

Look at your values list again and see which ones apply to your creative business. It may be all of them, or just a few. What do you and your business stand for?

In your creative work, expressing your values gives people a sense of who you are and what’s important to you. How do your values show up in your blog, offerings, artwork, or interactions?

Create Your Business “Values Chain”

Stay connected with your values by crafting your own business “values chain.” No, I’m not referring to that dry MBA concept of “value chain analysis” and competitive advantage that you might’ve heard suits drone on about. Instead, remember those colorful paper chains you made in grade school? Now that’s way more delightful!

Cut sheets of construction paper lengthwise into approximately 8.5″ x 1.5″ strips. Write or rubber stamp each of your values on individual strips. Feel free to decorate with creative embellishments like images, stickers, or glitter glue to fancy it up. Take one strip – decorated side-up – and curl it into a circle. Then glue or staple the edges together. Take the next strip and loop it through the first circle before attaching the edges together to create your chain. Keep repeating until you’ve linked all of your values together into a gorgeous garland that you can hang in your office or studio.

If you’d rather work with collage instead of making a values chain, consider creating a deck of collaged values cards. They’re another great way to stay connected to your core values.

Refection Questions

How well are you honoring your values in your life and your creative business right now? What do you notice when you don’t honor them? How can you honor your values even more? What new choices are you willing to make in order to live and work in alignment with your values?

Musepreneur and certified coach Jennifer Lee, of Artizen Coaching, is the creator of the Right-Brain

by michelle ensminger

I’m writing this on the eve of my 37^th birthday.  I’m sitting at a table at Barnes and Noble surrounded by poets and authors who both inspire me and bring me to my knees (as really good writing often will.)  Jack Kerouac is softly resting at my left elbow on top of Daisy Zamora (yes, I meant that to sound a little sexual…because that’s how Jack would like it.)  Tolstoy is just behind my right shoulder debating life with John Steinbeck.  Jane Austen is giggling in the distance.  And somewhere below me are Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Lamott, women who are themselves navigating the tangled road of womanhood.  My column for Wish Studio was due many days ago, and I just haven’t been able to write anything.  I’ve started several pieces but I’ve either not been able to find a way to finish the piece or I’ve crumbled it up because it was complete crap (we have to be willing to write “shitty first drafts”, yes?).

I wanted to write something brilliant, something touching about what it means to be me today.  I wanted to write about what it means to turn 37, what it means to be getting ever so close to 40.  I wanted to write not about the fear of aging but about what it means to watch yourself (your body, your life, your opinions and beliefs, your relationships) shift and change…sometimes daily.  I wanted to write about holding the contradictions of yourself and how at times that feels maddening and at other times it feels like a sexy, passionate secret you know you can easily fall in love with—the secret of how full and brilliant and alive you know you are, and how if only people knew you the way you know yourself they would tie themselves to you for eternity.  I wanted to use the words fire and hunger because they seem to want to be said.

Instead I continue to stare out the window.  Thoughts come in disjointed phrases.  None of them say anything about the things I find myself thinking a lot of lately—aging, motherhood, the messy connections between creativity, spirituality, and sexuality, or the way my inner world seems to be in a codependent love affair with my outer world, or is it vice versa…and does it matter?  The two often seem to conflict and contradict.  They face each other like fierce lovers, a standoff of half-truths.  And that which I claim to be me clutches the loose threads at the hem of both their garments.

I wanted to write something beautiful about what it means to be forever hungry for the person I am becoming.  Maybe that poem will come in the future.  Today it simply asks for the quiet ending of years that feel unresolved.  This day seems to call for stillness and reverence.  It seems to be asking me to sit inside of it in complete silence and solitude.  Everything I wanted to say doesn’t want to be dressed up in a poem…it just wants to be.  What places its hand on my shoulder is not sadness or regret but the questions that belong to being.

Often as women we talk bravely of our dreams and the delicious fruit of their possibility.  We rarely talk about the ache of longing that pools inside our chests like sour milk.  When I try to understand this longing, to give it a voice so that it doesn’t seem so unknowable and abstract, I find myself doing a dance of confusion.  I understand my need to make sense of the ache.  It’s the ache that can shut my life off quicker than anything else.  This ache limits me and cripples me as often as it fuels my dreaming and delicately folds back another layer of my becoming.  It stands in my way and robs me of my vision one moment, and in the next moment it comes spilling out of me like blood.

I love my life.  It is beautiful and full.  I love my quiet moments and who I am in this moment.  I stand in awe of my courage and the places I dare to go.  I am enough.  I believe that.  And still I have secrets that I explore with trepidation.  I have poems that exist just under my skin, and I claw at myself to get to them.  When I draw blood they root themselves into my bones, or they seize the opportunity to slip through the scars and into the clouds.  This living is both gentle and mad.  I am enough.  And still there are days I drown in everything I don’t know how to say—“I love you.”; “I need you.”; “I hate you.”; “I can’t feel myself.”; “Kiss me.”; “Touch me.”; “I’m not who you think I am.”; “I’m still who I’ve always been.”; “Please look closer and really see me.”; “I will only show you what I want you to see.”; “I want to die.”; “I want to live.”

There is so much I don’t know how to say.

lisa ferante is the talented artist of this gorgeous print… you can view all of her soulfully inspiring work over in her etsy shop.  she is a self-taught mixed media artist, a wife, and a mother who is blessed with a beautiful supportive family. she has always wanted to express herself in a creative way but could not find the medium at which she could both excel and which would give her the most satisfaction. once she discovered mixed media, years of feelings about her life literally began to flow from her hands and from her heart.

initially she found herself expressing long suppressed feelings about her mother who died when she was 5 years old. intimately woven in are her passionate feelings about my own two baby girls and how mothering them has finally allowed her to work through the pain of the absence of her own mom while celebrating every moment of their young lives. she can get lost in a painting for hours, and is most often completely surprised at the final product. she is never certain where the journey of any one piece will take her. sometimes a word will inspire an entire work; other times it is only when the piece is complete that it is clear what it is meant to say.

all are about love – maternal love, romantic love, self love and self empowerment. these themes are a reflection of me; they are me exposed; each purges another powerful emotion, another profound realization. each piece represents another step in my own evolution as a woman. as the themes have evolved from the worship of a goddess mother she never knew, to her love for her girls, and the loves of soul sisters and romantic love for my husband, she has learned to love and accept herself for the first time in her life!

lisa’s prints are rich and gorgeous ( i own loved boy and adore it! ).  you can win a beautiful 8×10, matted, archival print of celebrate motherhood, shown above.  to enter please share what you most celebrate about your motherhood or about your relationship with your own mom by wednesday, may 26th.  one random winner will be chosen and the winner will be posted in the wishstudio cafe ~ check the giveaway winners thread.  good luck to all!

by shona cole

Living with vision

and all I want to be is brave

I hold paper that is blank,

left, after days of writing

a shoe filled with pinecones

now the games are done

a dog at my feet, chin in the dirt

leaves from the Fall

in helpless curls

half an orange

half-buried near the

edge of the sloping asphalt

pock marked, scored, faded

every word laid bare

by Shona Cole

Late at night every 4-5 days I get out my handmade notebook and make lists. I tweak, I add, I delete, I renew. I make lists of the things I am focusing on, the things I have to do, things I want to make, but more than goals – I make lists of who I am, of my life vision!

I ask myself ‘where am I now?’ ‘what is my vision for my motherhood, my family, my art?’. Then I remind myself that ‘I can create my reality, set goals, make it happen. I can mold ‘me’ into the person I want to be, as a potter does clay.

My vision is big, it is bold, it is abstract. My vision is shifting. I meet new people, learn new things about life, about myself and my vision takes a step in this direction. I go to a new place, I experience a new level in a relationship, my vision takes a step in that direction. I am expanding. I am flowering. I am withering. My branches sing to the heavens!

I write out my vision. Then I print it out. I pin it up at my desk.

It keeps me accountable. I want to live up to the brilliance of that person I describe –

I am a woman becoming her true self

I am creative, discovering new and wonderful ways of seeing

I am an artistic mother, bowing to my children, wrapping my arms around their whole life

I am a lover of my husband, my family, my art, my God.

I honor my people with everything I do.

Each day is a new day. Grace abounds, I am forgiven over and over.

I am a fit, healthy mama who is experiencing art & life to the fullest.

I re-read my vision when I start to drift, it brings me back to me. It fills me with hope and excitement. It carries me through moments of doubt and pointlessness. I come out the other side refreshed and ready to go!

I may not be this woman today and every day, but it gives me purpose and helps me bravely face each new day.

by brandi reynolds

The blank slate (or page or canvas…) is scary right?  All pristine, no directions, no starting point.  Just…blank.  So many possibilities.  So many ways to screw up.

I know.  I remember those first attempts to paint.  I was afraid to pick up a brush and do anything.  What do I paint?  Where do I start?  What if it’s ugly?  I’ll never be able to do anything ever again if it sucks!!!!!!

Or take journals. I looooovveee journals.  But I used to buy them and then not write in them because they were so beautiful and clean and perfect. I knew once I started writing, I’d mess up and scratch words out or write about boring every day stuff and soon, the journal wouldn’t be all pretty. It would be imperfect…like me.

If you are new to art in any form and still intimidated by the blank slate, I totally get it.  If nothing else, I hope you take away from this little article the knowledge that everyone feels the same intimidation and doubts.

Now? I love the blank slate-which for me is an empty memory card in my camera or a new file in Photoshop.  I love the possibilities, I love being able to start with nothing but my ideas and turn them into something that makes me happy. In a way, it’s like…well…it’s like being god.  Not in the ‘wow I’m a totally omnipotent being that is greater than everything else’ kind of way, but in the creation kind of way.

Regardless of your spiritual leanings (or non-leanings), most belief systems or philosophies start with a whole lot of nothing.  Then a force/being/energy comes along, looks at that nothing and says, ‘I wonder what would happen if…’

(I’m paraphrasing, of course)

And then here we are.  This may sound incredibly sacrilegious but I think God screwed up a lot.  I think that because I know that I do and I believe I’m made out of the same stuff that everything else is made out of, and therefore, made out of the same stuff as God.

I think God played with that blank canvas.  I think he/she/it experimented and started over and played around and got tired and then smiled at the beautiful creations that came from his/her/it’s hands.

Okay, so I totally didn’t mean for this to be a spiritual post.  What I wanted to tell you was its okay to be scared of the blank slate and to feel unsure and not like what you create sometimes.  Because I think we all do that.  And what I’ve learned is the only way that I got comfortable with and came to love the blank slate was to be scared and mess up.  It’s the only way I learned.  YOU will learn this way as well.

But maybe I also needed to tell you that you are divine and the messy parts and the scared parts as just as much a part of the divine as the pretty parts.

Go make a mess-you’ll be helping create the universe when you do.

by blanca gonzalez

By kim mcmechan

I was supposed to be a rock star.

At least that was the plan, anyway.

But then that pale blue line appeared on the drugstore pregnancy test.

To say I felt thrown is an understatement.  I called my friends and family in tears.  I tried to use the word “surprise” and not “mistake”.

But the truth was?  It felt like a mistake.

I spent my whole pregnancy depressed.  All rock star plans came to a grinding halt as I threw up into ice cream buckets, slept 14 hours a day, peed into little cups at the midwifery clinic, and wore horrible floral-print maternity shirts (it was 2001—it was either floral or polka dots that year.)

I’ve heard it said that pain has the capacity to shove us over the edge into waking up.

So maybe it was the pain that eventually pushed me over.  But I did.  I woke up.

It was late spring.  The baby was due any day.  I was sitting on my couch reading.  I don’t even remember what book it was now.  It didn’t matter.  A line popped out at me from the page and my whole world opened.  The line was:  Interruptions often come to us as interventions.

I had never considered this before.  I was 27.  I had been so good at moving through life until that point.  I had managed to maintain control, mostly.  I was successful in my creative work and I had recently married the love of my life.  It was not an understatement to say that I had felt, up until this recent interruption, that I was being divinely led.

It occurred to me then (duh!) that maybe this was not a mistake after all.  Maybe my whole life had not, in fact, gone off the rails.  Rather, it was just a little unexpected curve in the road.

My daughter was born on a sunny day between two Winnipeg snowstorms.  I was not prepared for the avalanche of love that would crash over me following her birth.  Her hands looked crinkled, like a poppy right after it opens.  Her eyes were a bluey-charcoal and shiny, like pewter.  Clearly, this was the farthest thing from a mistake there could ever be.

I realized that perhaps I had simply made a slight error:  I’d bought into the tribal lie that my life had to have a straight, tidy storyline.  I was a songwriter?  I had to have a clear-cut place in the music industry.  I was a performer?  I had to work until near burn-out to plan tours and sell records.

Maybe, I thought, my life could be lived more intuitively, more moment-to-moment.  Maybe it could be more layered, more deep and wide as opposed to linear.

I think it was Joseph Campbell that said:  “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.”

Having a child taught me this.

Once in awhile, I still stumble into the gutter of regret.  My creative work is not unfolding quite as quickly as I would like it to.  Having children (a second daughter born three years later) has made the path a little more crooked than I would have otherwise chosen.   And the other day, while I sketched out an idea for a chorus at the piano, Ella, my three-year-old, ate nearly two-thirds of a block of cheese under the kitchen table.

But this lesson, that interruptions can be seen as interventions, has become a spiritual practice for me, one that I return to again and again, one that continually teaches me to let go and to trust in something bigger than me to carry the momentum of my life in the same way my babies grew eyes and earlobes and fingers inside me without my having to do a thing.

*****

you can win a signed copy of kim’s beautiful and soulful cd little gray house (go have a listen!)… please leave a comment on this post and share with us one thing that you have had to let go of in becoming a mother.  one random winner will be chosen and announced in the wishstudiuo cafe (check the giveaway winners discussion thread) on wednesday, may 19th.

by pixie campbell

I’m not really sure I was supposed to be a mom. I mean, I was supposed to be, because I am. I hope you know what I mean. Ironically, the same mismanaged assumptions apply to me being an artist. These two jobs are the two most difficult I could have ever considered. Sandwiched together, life resembles a potpourri of madness: filled with chaos, and lacking in some of my favorite descriptives: structure, predictability, control, quitting time…happy hour.

Once I was an important office girl- single first, then later, married- but with responsibilities I knew I could handle. Becoming a parent would not only hurl me out of the frying pan, but fling me heart-first into the creative fire.

I’d pounded hard on creative pavement several times in my adult life before Miles was born- in higher education repeatedly, as a self-employed designer once- but only since he joined our clan have I never looked back over my shoulder about it. When Miles was three months old, I miraculously completed two paintings, with the dedicated help of his extremely hands-on, new dad. I’d felt exhilarated by it, thinking I surely must be stoned on paint fumes and Elmer’s glue.

In the recesses of my newly dusted-off wild soul, I knew that balancing art and motherhood were going to be big. Just being in front of my art supplies with the intention to make time for them was a holy experience. Sitting on a sofa at a gathering of working artists shortly after my triumphant creative burst, one woman who was contemplating motherhood stared through me, rather than at me:

“Sooooo…”, she lingered, “it can be done…”, she sounded dreamy and deep in thought, saying this more to herself, than to me. I don’t think she would have heard me if I’d answered.

And I’m pretty sure I didn’t answer. I didn’t know. I’d only made two paintings and was simply writing for my little blog. What was she talking about? Possibilities were dawning, horizons were expanding, and yet it would still take me two more years to share my work, and put it in the blender with commerce, and all that follows from there.

Flashing forward, inspiration for blending an artful life with a motherly one is all the virtual rage. And now I know the answer: yes, it can be done.

What I love most about being a working artist and a mom is that over time, I’ve come to believe there is no separation. If I ever had fears about me as an artist versus me as a mother, blurring the lines by being creative with my children and nurturing my work has resulted in complete confusion of identification. Perhaps this serves the mightiest purpose of all, which is to do both at the same time and have as much fun as possible.

As I seem to have a natural way of complicating my own life, returning to what is in my soul to do keeps me on a simple path. Delineating creative goals, which is the sensible thing to do in most cases, lands me up with a to-do list a mile long and a disappointed sense of myself as a mom and artist when I can’t cross everything off of it. And while I don’t mean to discourage anyone from creating goals, I am learning from experience that as I do what is in front of me to do, which is nurture children, and create objects of personal meaning, the inspiration flows freely and I tap the source of what is in my soul to do.

Brushing up against this holy purpose is humbling and childlike, empowering and sacred, it is chaos and harmony, both organic and wild. Being right where I’m at is to be on a quest for the Grail, which I catch peripherally in spilled glitter in the cracks of the dining table, Twinkle Twinkle plucked on violin, rainbow gardens and paper rainsticks.

Late at night when the house sleeps and I go to my paints, the echoes of an inspired four-year old and his eager baby sister guide my hands back to the wild place we are all born from- that I witnessed them being born from- where tangled fur and instincts all come together in front of me.

And I know secretly… that there is no map to here.

*****

to find out more about pixie’s life and art, visit her site here

by jenny doh

Every day, I start with a list. It’s my routine. Usually, there are lots of easy things on the list. And there are a few difficult things on the list. And every day, I force myself to start with the most difficult thing. Because if I don’t start that way, I’ll just check off the easy things and never get to the difficult things …

Like cleaning my studio.

Like balancing my checkbook.

Like helping my kids with their school projects.

Like writing my editor’s letter.

And when I finish the most difficult thing on my list, the rest of the list is like riding down hill on a bicycle without pedaling. It’s easy. And life is good. This is my routine.

And as I coast downhill, I find myself able to realize that it’s only when I face what I dread most and overcome it that I experience the highest level of fulfillment. And I am able to count blessings through this routine. How blessed am I that I have a studio where I can create and conduct my business? How blessed am I that I have a checking account with transactions that need to be regularly sorted out? How blessed am I to be a mother to two children who are attending school and learning? How blessed am I that I have experiences like all of these to draw from, to write editor’s letters and other works of writing?

Routines.

They’re like traditions. They help provide a framework around the work that we do, and allow us to gain focus.  Through routines, I am able to gain perspective of all that I have in my life — my art, my children, my work — that I ought to never take for granted.

Jenny Doh is President of CRESCENDOh, LLC and former Editor-in-Chief of Somerset Studio. Visit www.crescendoh.com.

if you’re a mom and you love to laugh, get great motherhood tips and resources, share stories and connect with other moms, and need a little mommy-time each week, grab your ipod and listen to the manic mommies podcast!

since 2005, at the forefront of the new media scene, erin and kristin have shared a weekly, fun and fresh perspective on motherhood by entertaining us with stories from their own lives, interviewing informative special guests, offering great product reviews, book suggestions and invaluable information for all of us trying to balance life and motherhood.

they have built an amazing and inspiring motherhood community who share, laugh, cry, and support one another along this crazy motherhood path.  every fall they also host a yearly escape (which always sells out!) planned just for you – soup to nuts – to get away and gather with other moms to spend a few days lounging, learning, and laughing.  get all the details on their website for next november’s event.

i recently had the lovely opportunity to be a guest host on erin and kristin’s podcast and ask them questions that their listeners had sent in.  it was a fun show and an honor to be a part of it.  if you haven’t ever listed before, go peruse their archives on itunes and download a show that sparks your interest… you’ll be hooked after that :)

listen to our Q & A show, the most recent episode here… and in the words of the manic mommies “have a great manic week”!

by lisa leonard

When I was little I wished to grow up. And be a mommy and decorate my house and make a cozy home for my family.  I imagined my future like sepia tinted photos with warm baby snuggles, sunny walks on the beach and lots of hand-holding with my busband.

Year by year, I started to gather real life photos – our wedding day, vacations with my husband, our first apartment and I found so much joy in the lives we were building as a family.

I remember the evening we got a positive pregnancy test. The weight and the excitement of having a baby filled my whole being. Our lives were forever changed, but not in the way we imagined.

After a smooth pregnancy and a stressful delivery we welcomed our sweet baby David to our lives.  Well, ‘welcomed’ might be too simply stated. To be honest, he wasn’t the baby I had wished for.   He was born with only two fingers on his left hand, a heart defect and global delay all stemming from a syndrome called Cornelia de Lange (CdLS). I felt like my dreams crumbled in front of me. I was broken and scared. And I wanted to wish all of this pain away.

Those first days and weeks with David were sleepless, tear-filled and intimidating. I didn’t know myself any more. I didn’t know what to wish any longer. But slowly we started to see more smiles, get more sleep and we found ourselves falling head over heels in love with this little boy.  And I began to find joy in the unexpected.  As we began to gather photos of our family and this new life I started to see that although it wasn’t the life I imagined, it was beautiful.

Looking back, I’m so glad I didn’t get exactly what I wished for.  I am so grateful for my sweet David, his silly smile and our sweet, imperfect family.

kim, kimberly, rachel, michelle & joanna with thier finished masterpieces

last night’s workshop was truly delightful.  i spent the evening with five fabulous creative women sipping pink champagne, making collaborative art, eating pink frosted treats, and laughing amidst paint, paper, and kimberly’s curious (and hungry) kitty, bonnard.  thanks to all the gals who came out to share this evening with me and made the event so much fun!  you all filled me up with inspiration and creative love.

each of us began our own mixed media piece which was then sent around the circle on a little creative journey.  as we all got the opportunity to work on each other’s canvases, we had the opportunity to stretch outside of our own creative box by seeing art from someone else’s perspective, trying out new and fun techniques, and sharing the creative process in a fun and lighthearted way.  it was a really wonderful way to spend a beautiful spring evening!  special thanks to kimberly for being such a lovely hostess to our group in her adorable pink palace.

michelle and j.lo creating away

rachel getting messy with paint

kimberly and rachel

kim finding just the right inspiration

bonnard getting crafty

evidence of fabulous evening

it was a joy to create and connect with you all!

xo, mindy

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION SEPTEMBER 16^th, 17^th & 18^th

^{by Sandra Evertson}

Do you ever think about the creative connections you make everyday as a matter of routine? Creative connections from coast to coast and around the globe, we visit web sites and shops anytime of the day or night. We take classes and workshops to enrich our souls and elevate our artistic prowess. Finally there is an event scheduled to take place this fall that will fulfill your every creative fantasy and allow you to connect to others who share your passions!

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION event is the brainchild of Nancy Soriano and Jo Packham. A 3 day conference and market with classes, panels, events and even a smart bar to solve all of your tech problems, one on one! It will bring together women who are passionate about being creative in their lives as artists, business owners, bloggers and more.

You can bet this is going to be THE event of the year without a doubt, a not to be missed opportunity to mix and mingle with some of the most amazingly talented, dynamic women working in the industry today!

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION event is the chance to make some truly fabulous creative connections. There will be a Book Signing Cocktail hour and Keynote Dinner with such enormously gifted people as Amy Butler and Mary Jane Butters who will be the keynote speakers.

Amy is a creative designer known for her sophisticated yet relaxed approach to printed fabrics for home, fashion and craft. Amy’s web site gets millions of hits a month and her brand has become synonymous with creativity, sustainability, quality and great style.

Mary Jane is the editor of her own magazine MaryJanes Farm and author published by Random House, she is a former wilderness ranger, an environmental activist and modern-day organic farmer whose line of bedding is sold in more than 400 department stores including her own retail stores. Her fabric collections are sold worldwide. On her website she sells Project F.A.R.M. (First-class American Rural Made) totes, quilts dolls and more.

Some of the delightful and talented artists that will be teaching classes are Kaari Meng of French General, the one and only Wendy Addison, charming Halligan Norris junior designer at John Wind Signature/Maximal Art, Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Co. and designer for Moda Fabrics, Laurie Meseroll, Jennifer Murphy, Kristin Nicholas and Ruth Rae to name only a few!

There will also be a Boxed Lunch with Women Entrepreneurs such as

Cathie Filian who is an Emmy Nominated television host, book author and lifestyle expert, vibrant Heather Bailey whose apparel designs are eagerly snatched up by celebrities and carried by some of the worlds most exclusive stores including, Fred Segal, Henri Bendel and Bloomingdales, the always

effervescent Vickie Howell, mother, self-taught designer, writer and DIY expert with a focus on needle arts.

As well as Editor extraordinaire Christen Olivarez, director of publishing and editor in chief for Stampington & Company… and Paige Gilchrist editorial director of Lark Books!

As if all of this weren’t enough there will also be The Handmade Market with some of the most wonderful vendors you can imagine, Jen O’Connor of Earth Angels Toys, Debbie Dusenberry of Curious Sofa boutique, Rebecca Sower Designs, The Mermaids Dowry, Whimsy House and AT-CHOO among many others! But wait… hold on to your bunny slippers and join in on the fun at the Pajama Party!

There will also be oodles and loads of treasures to be found and snatched up at Junk Bonanza which is a Fantabulous, drool worthy juried antiques and vintage wares market!

These are to name only a few of the phenomenal teachers, workshops, panelists and events that will be held at this fantastic not to be missed event! Never before has there been so much talent assembled in one place, come learn and create, network and market, be part of the adventure!
****

i will be heading to this sure-to-be fabulous event next fall… hope to see YOU there as well!  also, this summer jo packham will be featured as a wishmama here in the wishstudio, so stay tuned for her inspiring story!

by christine mason miller

I attended Burning Man in 2003, and will never forget one of the art installations that dotted the desert landscape amid psychedelic art cars, neon blue tree sculptures and a bona fide roller-skating rink.  It was a series of five or six doorways, all in a row, one in front of the other.  They were all white – and by the end of the week covered in playa dust – which made them look as if they had risen from the ground, or were perhaps unearthed from another time and universe.  The area of space they took up felt like a peaceful oasis – a place of contemplation, prayer and silence.  In the middle of Burning Man, this was no small feat.

The concept of a doorway is rich with metaphorical possibilities, and I am not alone in my fascination with them.  A search on flickr for doorways yielded nearly 200,000 results; on Amazon, 1277.  And not so long ago, Monty Hall enticed contestants on Let’s Make a Deal to trade in their day’s winnings for the chance to win the “Big Deal of the Day”, which was chosen by selecting one of three doors, behind which another prize awaited them.  The catch was that whatever lay waiting behind the doorway they chose may or may not have been as valuable as their original winnings, so there was an element of risk involved.  Contestants had to decide if it was better to hold on to what they already had or risk losing it all for the promise of something bigger and better, a promise that could be fulfilled only if they chose the correct doorway.

Doorways represent possibility – access to something new, exciting and different; they symbolize hope, adventure and mystery.  When I stand squarely in front of a doorway – whether real or imagined – I stand before an entrance to something different.  How many times have I stopped in front of a doorway to a certain home or building, pausing to take a deep breath before I knock or enter, wanting to squeeze a few more seconds in the space I’m in?  How often do I recognize the instance of crossing a threshold – perhaps as I enter an airplane or walk through the entrance to a sacred place – trying to see if I can feel a change come over me or get a sense for anything beginning to shift in my consciousness?  How many doorways can I remember?  How many have I tried to avoid?  How many will I never open?

Throughout time and history, human beings all over the world have used symbols to make sense of things.  Symbols are shorthand for various thoughts, feelings, wishes and concepts.  I don’t know how to explain in words what portions of a Mendelssohn Violin Concerto sound like, so I describe them as a hummingbird fluttering its wings.  I don’t know how to explain in words what it felt like to take the first steps into mixed media work, so I describe it as walking through a doorway into an entirely new artistic world.  I say the word doorway and everyone gets it, and they likely get it better than if I tried to explain it any other way.

Perhaps that is why I am always returning home from my travels with photos of doorways.  Because it is a metaphor I have returned to again and again, and it is such a widely used and recognized descriptor of growth, change, possibility and adventure.  And the promise of whatever exists on the other side can be realized instantaneously, unlike an airplane or a train – both of which involve time and effort to get from one point to another.  With a doorway, the action required is simple:  Turn the knob, take a step forward, and suddenly, something is different, and a new story begins.