*postcards from our summer swap*

it’s time! we had so much fun with our summer postcard swap, the wishstudio is hosting another fun creative community swap for the gift giving season… gift tags! for all those thoughtful goodies you will be giving this season, who wouldn’t love a few pretty handmade tags to top off the perfect gift?

here’s how to to participate:

1)  please leave a comment on this post and email me directly to let me know you will be participating and submit your snail mail address!

2)  make 6 handmade gift tags (you may use precut tag blanks. we are busy gals after all ;)… other than that the sky is the limit as far as size, shape and design.  please be mindful of the multitude of holiday celebrations this season, so general themes and non holidayish designs are strongly encouraged – thank you!  feel free to sign and write your website somewhere on each tag so we can connect with one another, and don’t forget to top off your tag with a pretty ribbon or string for attaching!

3)  mail your tags to me by december 1st (i will send you my address once you email me) as well as $2 in postage and if you live fa, fa away you can pay your postage via paypal, just let me know and i’m happy to arrange it.

4)  i will then mail you back a lovley assortment of 6 handmade gift tags made by creative friends early in december!

i hope you will join in on the fun! i’m so excited to see all of your creations. afterall, homemade has the biggest heart this giving season ;)

Read more >>

here are a few fabulous project ideas for a creative halloween.
fun for kids and and grown-up too… BOO!

• try this really cool and pretty pumpkin painting project by alisa burke (*photo above by alisa)
• read “bone soup” a fun twist inspired by a classic by cambria evans, then make up your own creepy batch
  using juice as broth and adding scary gummy eyes, worms etc. (eating it is optional ;)
• craft this easy pumpkin pinata then stuff it with mini toothpaste, flossers, and kiddie
  toothbrushes for a fun and healthy twist!
• make spicy cajun or sweet candied pumpkin seeds
• spookify your child’s dollhouse and decorate it in a halloween theme
• make little craft goodie bags to give out as a non-candy alternative… glitter glue, stickers, etc.
  all can be found at the dollar store!
• make these simple haunting ghost luminaries out of jelly jars
• sew up this cute candy corn treat bag for your child to carry
• go on a halloween photo safari and capture all of the ghoulish goodness in your neighborhood
• make these pumpkin popcorn treats and have a family movie night watching coraline (creepy for older kids and adults!)
• play this not too scary sountrack for your little visiters, a fun story sung to music
• for a grown up treat, mix up a bowl of this pumpkin spiced wine
  

live the life of your dreams by loving the life you have
november 15 – december 16th, 2010

with mindy tsonas

during this busy time of giving, give yourself the gift of
THIS moment and stay grounded in what really matters.
on our 5 week creative discovery, you will…

read about some of my own messy and raw life experiences that
helped me to find my place in this moment, changing everything
***
download THIS moment Workbook pages filled with
inspiring projects, practices and activities
***
create a clearing in your life for better understanding and greater acceptance
allowing you to begin letting go of expectations, pressure and guilt
***
experience a deeply supportive and kindred community,
with a safe space for you to open up and explore
***
gather beautiful wisdom and insight from special guests
sharing their own THIS moment insights
***
discover every possibility of THIS moment… and transform your life!

there has been a big shift happening in my life these days.  it all recently came to a boiling point when a crisis emerged in my marriage right before my 12th anniversary just a few weeks ago, and significant events started to unfold… or maybe it started when i committed to my dream about creating the wishstudio and life began aligning as i showed up to take hold of my dreams… or maybe it began when i became a mother, expanding my life exponentially after a long fallow season. these are some things i will share with you.

what really matters though, is what i can tell you now from where i stand in this very moment through all the twist and turns of  my journey, that none of it really matters (gasp!) yet it is all greatly significant.  with open eyes, a wide open heart and immeasurable support and love from the kindred community i’ve found right here,  i’ve come to see my life through an entirely new lens – one that is steeped in compassion, love and a deep sense of acceptance and gratitude.

this, has truly freed me.  it means i can let go of regret because all of it was part of seeing me into this moment.  i can let go of expectations and see the abundance of my life as it is. i can embrace the possibilities, because this clarity and love is what really makes magic happen in our lives!  i can show you.

i will share with you the tales and gems of my experiences as well as offer you encouragement to find the joy that exists in your own life through creative practices and compassionate acceptance.  together we will take some measured and meaningful steps, and hand in hand along the way I know you will discover how we truly have the ability to love our lives (the one here at our fingertips!) as we ultimately learn to better love ourselves.

*********

THIS Moment will take you on an eye opening, heart spilling, and meaningfully creative journey!  the 5 week ecourse includes:

• daily posts (mon-thurs.) filled with images, essays, and stories from my own life, as well as from special guests who’ve shone a light for me along the way, will serve as your inspiration and guide.
• accompanying daily downloads, which will become the pages of your very own THIS moment Workbook,  with prompts for you to scribble words, make messy and meaningful art, as well as practices and creative projects to help keep you focused on the true beauty of your life… right here, right now.
• a printable piece of art that will serve as your THIS moment Manifesto, to hang somewhere special and remind you to practice the present.
• a private space for sharing your art and thoughts with class participants. here, you can make connections while inspiring and supporting one another throughout the course.
• a complete copy of the ecourse posts in a downloadable PDF for you to take with you at the end of the class.

REGISTER NOW!
$70

*take advantage of early bird registration ($60) from now until nov. 5th!

fall is in full swing here in the northeast. it is absolutely my favorite time of year! the energy is radiant. the colors are rich and warm. there is a beautiful theme of gathering and giving, gifts and treats. it is time to enjoy the fruits of your labor from the months behind you and spend some time sharing around the table with family and friends. this centerpiece project is perfect for such occasions this season and work great as the central decoration for your table or entryway or even as a beautiful hostess gift! i love the white pumpkins because they have such a soft and pretty look and put a little unique spin on decorating this time of year.

what you will need:

one white pumpkin
a carving knife
a pumpkin scraper or large spoon
a piece of florists foam (to fit snugly inside the pumpkin)
dried or fresh flowers
ribbon
trinket or embellishment
handmade gift tag

start by carving your pumpkin as you would a jack-o-lantern, removing the top and scraping out the seeds and the pulp. cut your piece of floritsts foam to fill the inside of the carved pumpkin. you may want to cut it into a block just a smidge big and gently push it in to fit snug and secure (you want it to wiggle as little as possible). trim and arrange your flowers by poking them into the florist foam. you can think about height and composition for a little drama or simply create a wild-flower arrangement. i used fall hydrangeas just beginning to dry.

embellish your centerpiece by tying on a pretty piece of ribbon and adding a little something special that notes the occasion – the little tin “live” was added to this housewarming gift i made. you can use holiday picks or any found objects or treasure that might add charm and meaning to your piece. if your are giving this as a gift, a handmade tag is a lovley finishing touch!

have fun playing with size and color and different adornments. you can scare them up for halloween or fill them with fallish abundance for thanksgiving. painting or decorating the pumpkin is a fun twist on this projects as well. and don’t forget to water your flowers (if they are fresh) when you reach your destination!

happy fall everyone. xo

by michelle ensminger

Today I need something simple…something that speaks to me of the things I value most…stillness,
passion, spirituality, beauty, meaning…I need a handful of things that remind me to breathe, to savor,
to open my heart wider…I need words, ordinary words, I can tie to the empty branches until the leaves
return…

be
sip
bevy
peony
dapper
ukulele
allegory
quadrille
chartreuse

I need a few things that make the heart skip a beat, that make it leap in giddiness…things that demand I
not give up on myself, on my dreams, on the whispers that sometime seem impossible…I need the very
human things that, taken together, make up our soft lives…

om
tea
kiss
dream
poetry
passion
kumquat
dandelion

I need the arched entryways of portals that lead to other places within me I haven’t explored yet…I need
my own fragile humanness, my impermanence, my broken parts and pieces…I need the salt in the sea
air, empty dirt roads, still starry mornings…I need a collection of things that mean nothing to anyone but
myself…

xo
yes
gust
bijou
lupine
skylark
speckled
tangerine
hydrangeas

Today I need just a few verses, gathered in my pockets and lining the fringe of my skirt…I need the sweet
evidence of the poetry my life is spinning when I’m not watching…when I’m not trying.

if you read my blog you know i have been going through some pretty significant personal changes. there is a shift happening that is rearranging my molecules just beneath the surface.  i’m not becoming a different person, just more of who i am meant to be – right here, right now.

i’ve been thinking about the different aspects of my life, my wants and my wishes, my work, my roles as a mother, a wife and so on. they are all a part of the same delicious stew, but just as with cooking i am always tempted to add just one more thing… a dash of this and a sprinkle of that. also just as in cooking, more isn’t always better.

i am looking at my life with a mindful awareness about what i am adding to it these days. it think we often times confuse “more” with “better”, and the things we want to run towards or add are really distractions from what we want to run away from or avoid.

karen maezen miller and i recently talked about this metaphor of running (as in a marathon, which is a pretty grueling proposition that most human bodies will balk at)… are you running towards something or running away from something? there is often a fine line between the two. i see in my own life this fine line exists with my creative work. really, i love my work. it fulfilling. it’s fun. it’s a way of expressing myself and reaching out to others. though i do see that at times that in running towards work, i might really be running away from something i’d rather not be doing, so i have to careful and mindful of this.

{read part two of this post on my blog}

by tracey clark

by lisa hofmann

This summer my daughter and I embarked upon a collaborative painting project as part of an Art a-Thon campaign to raise money for one of my favorite charities, Half the Sky Foundation. Our July calendar somewhat empty, I figured working on a painting each week would be a fun way to keep my almost-6 year old busy and away from computer games, DVD’s, and television.

I will admit, I harbored expectations of gleaning inspiration from my daughter’s wildly imaginative interpretations of her world which include rainbow colored dinosaurs, dogs in various shades of blue, and fairies that can make me younger whenever I complain about being old and tired. And then there are her humorous phrases like being “egged up” (buttered up), “minute-tized” (hypnotized), and loving me “all the numbers” (which means a lot.)

What I did not expect was to encounter my dormant Perfectionist.  When I think of children making art, I see giggling faces freely slapping color, shapes and lines onto paper.  I imagine a kind of prelapsarian freedom of invention that seeks only to delight the individual creating the work.  I had expected to be free from notions of right or wrong as my daughter and I, paint brushes in hand, spilled our wildest dreams into each piece. After five paintings in five weeks, I can say the outcome was more than I had hoped for, but the process was a journey to heal my insecurities when it comes to understanding myself as an artist.

Things started off smoothly enough. For each piece, I let my daughter decide on the subject and she had lots of ideas.  Then we would move on to colors.  Now, my daughter’s favorite color is blue of which my paint collection has a wide range.  So we started with a blue fish.  I gently suggested we add additional colors just to help the fish stand out and she accepted my advice.  But in subsequent paintings, we sparred a bit with the issue of too much blueness.

Quickly things deteriorated from there. First there was the way she holds the paintbrush, squashing the bristles and moving over the same area again and again while leaving other sections bare.  She would either pick up a huge glob of paint, or barely any. Her brush would be dry or else soaking wet.  Watching her, I could feel my impatience boiling up, my hands twitching as I resisted the impulse to grab the brush and “do it right.”

Now, I am not new to doing art with my child.  And I remember well the intense frustration as I tried to coax her into using larger brush strokes to mod podge a cover of her art journal she made a year ago.  “Honey,” I would say, anxiety creeping into my voice, “You have to move a little faster or else the brush will get dry and gunky on you.”  I confess, at that time I did snatch the brush out of her hand with the pat phrase “here, let me show you an easier way to do it.”

It is tricky.  On the one hand, I do not want to instill in my child the sense that she is not capable of learning things on her own. I want her to experiment, allowing the mistakes to be doorways to new discoveries.  On the other hand, I recall the frustration I experienced when I was an older child and I was aware of the gap between what I wanted to express, and my inability to use the tools that would allow me to translate my ideas into forms and into art.

Each painting took us deeper and deeper into the process of learning and then letting go, allowing spontaneous play to guide us.  As I shared with my daughter my understanding of how to approach painting a star or a moon or balloon, I then ceded more and more of the actual painting process over to her.  I abandoned painting outlines of all the forms beforehand and allowed her paint them herself.  I stopped questioning her color choices: green, red and yellow stars?  Sounds good! I offered feedback, but the final decisions were hers.  Sometimes she took my suggestions  - like giving a lion a darker color for his mane  - and other times, she clung to her ideas.

In the end, we have five paintings we both are proud to have made.  We raised over $800 for charity and have plans for future projects. For my daughter, I saw a growing confidence in her ideas and her ability to manifest them.  Working with her, I realized the importance of letting go of control and trusting the process to carry us forward as long as we honored communication and respect for the other’s perspective.   For me, the process was one of coming to understand my inner Perfectionist who was born by being told she was talented, creative, and smart but never heard about the hard work, messes and mistakes, discoveries and disasters that are a necessary part of growing into one’s gifts.

And this is the lesson I am embracing and hopefully sharing with my child: it is the process that matters, not the end result.  The process is where the juice is, where the excitement and disappoints lie.  As an artist, what drives me to create again and again is the discovery of the unexpected that resides within my imagination and in my heart.  But to access this creative flow requires basic skills, understanding of materials and a willingness to learn, ask questions, seek assistance and then be brave enough to toss it all aside when answering to your muse, yourself, or your spirit’s delight.

I am a recovering Perfectionist.  But from the inspiration of my daughter, I am learning to cede control and surrender to the process.  I am learning to value play and experimentation, knowing the inner teacher will emerge when I need her.  As an artist, I’ve come to recognize my role to be that of a creative explorer: seeking out new perspectives; allowing myself to be lost and then found; mapping out the intricacies of my heart and my dreams in paint and pencil; and savoring each step along the way.

It is said when the student is ready, the teacher will manifest.  Right now my teacher has a yogurt smoothie mustache and is waiting for me so we can begin to paint a polka dotted horse flying through a rainbow filled sky.  Together we will paint from a place of trust in each other and in ourselves.  It will be magical and messy and who knows what else may materialize as we work?One thing I do know, the horse will be blue.

by kate swoboda

Writing on kindness today, I find that what I really want to acknowledge for a moment, and hold tenderly, are those parts of us that can feel anything but kind.

The parts of us that feel we’re too tired for compassion, too worn out to make that stretch when someone has just been rude.

The parts of us that see the kind acts of others and then compare ourselves, thinking that someone else has got it figured out–but not us.

The parts of us that feel frustrated by our own lost tempers or passive-aggressive behaviors–the parts that ask, “If I know better, then why don’t I do better?”

The parts of us that wonder sometimes whether or not we even have a kind bone in our bodies.

I want to cradle gently the parts of us that feel we’re lacking and not enough. I want to hold the small spaces that feel constricted. I want to comfort those parts of you that won’t cut yourself a break.

Hurt, pain, suffering–they come up in life. And when we meet these feelings with unkindness, with an unwillingness to even throw ourselves a bone, they stick around a lot longer. Yet we’re oddly conditioned into not “cutting ourselves too much slack” in the screwups department. Doing that, we’re taught, could cause us to run amok, forgiving any transgression.

Here’s a radical thought: Why not forgive any transgression? Why not find the kindest possible point of view in light of unspeakable pain? Why not extend that compassion first and foremost to our own souls (thus teaching ourselves how to extend it to others)? Why not let go of the resentments towards our parents or former friends?

What have we got to lose–other than some old, tired baggage?

Of course it sounds easier said than done, but I’m committed to the belief that in fact it’s easier to forgive than to carry around the old muck. I’m not successful in every moment at using kindness as my tool, but by golly–I’m racking up more and more of those moments. They are my lilly pads along the way. Each kind moment seems to pave the way for the next one.

As a society, we are most inspired by those who emerge from horrific circumstances to shine bright. The people who do this are not superheroes but everyday heroes–and they would love for all of us to join them.

What is one–just one kindness–you could extend to yours

***a special karma session of Today: BEGIN

join Christine Mason Miller as she guides you on those first tender steps of that dream project, while at the same time supporting a great cause!  during this special october session of Today: BEGIN (opening next wednesday) 100% of all workshop proceeds will be donated to marianne elliott’s seva project of raising money for HIV/AIDS in africa. it is a wonderful way to give to yourself and give to those in need.

in christine’s 2 hour workshop, in a beautiful and supportive environment full of her art and wisdom, participants will give a project or a creative idea some time and attention with exercises to create a working to do list.  you’ll make a commitment to taking the first step and then create an inspiring piece of art and encouragement. together, we will explore all the things that are holding you back and encourage you to create your own “perfect time” to begin, rather than continuing to wait for some other magic moment.

the initial class launch will be on monday 10.13.10 and the workshop will be available for participants to work through until sunday october 19th.

for $25 make a difference in your life and in the lives of others! you can register for the workshop here.

by michelle ensminger

This summer my family did something we’d never done before—we hosted an art exhibit in our home.  And not an exhibit for just any artist.  This exhibit was for our 7-year-old son.

i’ve had this idea cooking up for a while, and i finally got to make a few for some sweet creative friends.  they are great to throw in your bag for on the go if you don’t want to lug around a whole bound journal, and are also perfect for tucking in found little scraps or treasure you find along your way.  i love how they came out, and i will be making more to add to the shop opening later this month.  in the meanitime, i thought i’d offer you this project to try at home!

what you need:

2 swatches of fabric
a vintage or new button
pinking shears
an assortment of blank papers
12″ ribbon
your sewing machine and a nice sharp needle
an iron
needle and thread
any embellishments you want to add

start by cutting two rectangles (approx. 8×12 – but you can make your scroll any shape or size) of fabric.  i used two contrasting but somewhat matching prints.  sew the rectangles together around 3 sides, leaving one of the short sides open.  turn the rectangle right side out and press it with you iron to neaten it up.  trim the open side with your pinking shears and tuck in the end of your ribbon between the fabric layers, in the center.  sew the side closed securing the ribbon.

choose your journal papers and trim them all to fit inside of your scroll (approx. 7×11 but feel free to play with layering).  i used notebook paper, parchment, graph paper, ledger paper, novelty note paper, and other fun blank pages to add to my scroll.  stack the papers up and align one side, then sew them all together.  attach the papers to your scroll at one end by sewing them on along the same seam where you just joined them together.

lastly, sew on a button by the ribbon on the outside of the scroll.  you are finished!  roll up your scroll, wind the ribbon around, and tuck it around the button – violla! you are ready to capture any inspirations on the go.

you can add all kinds embellishments to the interior pages or the fabric of your journal scroll.  sew with different color threads, used different needle patterns, embroider, add stamped images, stickers, etc… the possibilities are endless.  happy journaling!

by jennifer mcguiggan

Sometimes I wonder how I would think if I didn’t have language. If I didn’t have words, how would I love? How would I know myself or anyone else? I know it’s possible: babies and animals think and love, and they don’t use language like we do. But for me, thought and language intertwine. Words wrap themselves around my heart, nestle deep into my soul, and teach me how to be.

Words connect me to myself and to the world around me. Words give shape to our stories and connect us to each other. When we write – on a blog, in a letter, in an essay or article – we send pieces of ourselves out into the world and invite others into our stories. When we write, we figure out who we are.

For me, writing is a process of discovery, a way to divine what I think and feel. Writing is an art and a craft, a way to transform little marks on a page into written works of art. Our stories are some of the most precious gifts we can give to ourselves and to each other. Sticks and stones can break our bones, as they say, but words – words can free our hearts.

* * *

I invite you to join me this October in The Word Cellar for a writing adventure called Alchemy: The Art & Craft of Writing. In this online course for creative souls, we’ll explore the magic of transforming something common (words) into something special (your beautiful stories). We’ll combine craft lessons, invitations to inspiration, and supportive community to deepen and w i d e n our writing.