in an attempt to stay inspired and get better organized i began compiling a life book. it is a combination planner, inspiration board, to do list, idea book, and journal that was inspired by both keri smith who carries one all purpose journal, and my old days as a children’s clothing designer where we used to always work from a big white binder called “the book”. i was tired of toting around so many seperate things… a notebook, a folder, a monthly flip calendar, my datebook, and my journal. too much stuff!

i found a great recycled paper binder (that came in lots of colors at $2.99 a piece!) at target – of course. i will collage the organic brown cover with doodles and inspiring things i’ll collect over time. it totally reminds me of the days of those blue fabric covered school binders with the inked up sentiments of high school love and friendship (remember those?).

by jen lee

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by christine mason miller

No matter how much preparation, brainstorming, mind-mapping, and the like, a blank page can still be daunting. I mean, it’s a blank page – it’s empty – and that means there is work to do, maybe a lot of work. I’ve come to expect no less than five drafts of my essays and stories, but I’ve gone through as many as thirteen revisions. A blank page not only means there is much work ahead of me, it also means I have to be prepared to do some mediocre, even crappy, writing at the beginning in order to find my way to the good stuff. I fill those first blank pages with the basic shapes and general ideas. It is only in the later versions that the fine-tuning begins, after I’ve dumped and deleted countless words and fragments from my earliest drafts.

Here’s the other thing about a blank page:  It means anything is possible. It means I might be taking my first steps towards that timeless space of the “zone”, where I feel the work of a higher power flowing through my fingertips. It means I might be opening the door to a story I wasn’t even aware was within me. Recently, I sat down with a blank page, started writing, and discovered an entirely new voice, one that served me in ways I’d never experienced. Without the blank page, that voice would have lay dormant. Now that I’ve found it, I want to let it run wild, to fill as many blank pages as it wants.

With a blank page, there is also the possibility that an idea I have for a piece of writing – an idea I’m convinced is going to be brilliant – will fall flat. There is the possibility I’ll never quite figure out how to make a certain story shine alongside the potential for a fuzzy, unfocused idea to unfold in perfect assemblage. But if I don’t pull up those blank pages and do at least a little bit of spilling, then only one thing is certain to happen:  Nothing.

Blank pages aren’t for keeping clean, and they aren’t merely flat, empty surfaces for the placement of two-dimensional words. They are vessels, meant to safeguard and carry my stories forward as I give them shape and smooth out their corners. With a blank page, I have everything I need – an invitation to dive in, and see where a story wants to take me.

by connie hozvicka

If you want to be a painter–then paint.

Before you flood your mind with wonderful techniques and theories and how to’s on getting this and that just right–simply paint.  Experience the joy of portrait pink next to burnt umber.  Become so used to the paintbrush in your hand that it starts to feel like you grew another arm.  Let life pour into your heart and drip from your brush the way it wants to be.

Not how you think it should be.  Or how it actually looks in reality.

The truth is nobody’s going to care if your painting is a tornado of scribbles when it was suppose to be the evening sunset.

And if they do– just smile and realize they don’t possess the heart of a painter. (Like you do.)

Because contrary to popular opinion–painting should be a fearless act.  At it’s core  it should empower you to believe in yourself.

Yourself–not what you do, or how you act, or what others tell you about yourself, or even all those labels and roles you tape to your pretty little self.

If you want to paint–then paint.

Pick up that brush and inform your mind that today you will unleash your creativity through colors that only excite you–with brushstrokes that purely ignite you–in compositions and images that arise from somewhere deep inside you.  And if you make a mistake–you make a mistake.  Whoopy-de-doo.

You see, I want you to know that everything that flows from your brush is a sweet honest expression of beautiful you.  It’s your glorious truth–peppered with flaws and gorgeous hues.  With images that might scare you–or cutesy little unicorns.

You are a world of swirling color.  A paint splattered galaxy of infinite emotions.

You are exquisite no matter what your outside shell looks like.  (And no matter what that fool might have told you.)

And your painting is just like you.  So stop worrying that it isn’t perfect.  That it may never make the cover of some shiny magazine.  Or that it means nothing without a price tag attached.

Because if you want to be a painter…then paint.

Because the world needs more painters FEARLESS with a paintbrush not more perfect paintings.

here’s to ocean blues, drippy cones, sandy feet, and lots of soaking in the summer sun!

xo, mindy

Read more >>

by jenica mckenzie

what is keeping you from art?

from finding YOUR artistic community?

from taking the time to get messy and throw technique out the window?

my fears were that no one would come, that i would spend my time and energy and no one would even show up! what if they thought my house was messy?  what if my kids were rotten in front of new people?   and then i realized that if someone invited me to an art night all i would feel is gratitude, finally a place to to safely just BE.

so here’s my challenge to each of you:

GO GET MESSY

play with paint, charcoal, dirt, mud; bake something delicious and share it with someone; knit yourself into a knot; clean out your closet and repurpose some of your uglies.  whatever feeds your heart and makes you feel alive, how bout you commit to spending one hour this weekend getting messy and remembering what feeds you.  your heart needs it, or you wouldn’t be in this group. ;-)

trust your mess

RAW night this thursday…

if you live in the colorado springs area, shannon root is hosting a RAW night on thursday. connect with her on facebook for more details – go shannon!


join our RAW facebook group here and grab tour button!

{fabulous RAW photos by the lovely gretchen}

by rachel awes

*a GIVEAWAY invitation*

rachel awes is a psychologist, art playgroundist, writer, wife, mother & friend,
who loves listening to the beauty in people.

find her words and work here:

airstream art night love at teena’s (sassy model, ninabeana)

one thing is for sure, life has a huge blind side.  amidst the crazy hot weather at the top of the week and sending my oldest off to summer camp, launching the summer session of  my THIS Moment ecourse, recovering from an all-out birthday celebration for my mom and 2 year old, reconnecting with a couple of great friends, and spending a few splendid creative hours with some fab ladies in the cutest vintage airstream camper, life still has it’s own agenda.  no matter how i try to plan, control, organize, and anticipate life is simply unpredictable mix of highs and lows.

the baby said “Iyou!” (i love you) for the first time.

and we finally got the answers we were looking for about our youngest’s allergies (along with a sobering dose of reality – which you can read more about here)

the roller coaster of life can be completely disorienting at times.  it made me think of Parenthood (which my husband and i watched again recently) and the scene in which the little, wise, old grandmother is musing on this very analogy… how the ups and downs of the roller coaster both terrified and exhilarated her, how she felt like those who just rode the merry-go-round were missing out on something more, and how even though it was unpredictable and frightening it was what she loved about that ride – the thrill of it all.  contrived? yes, but oh so true.

truly, i wouldn’t want it any other way.  i do love me a wild and thrilling ride!  and that’s the thing, you play hard and live hard the payoff is always spectacular but sometimes you have to bear the bruises.

Read more >>

JOIN…

it’s summer reading time!

i love summer reading and i have a nice and easy-breezy stack of books and magazines on my bedside table and in my beach bag.  i’ve also been taking the time to sit read more blogs.  i recently realized that i’ve been so focused on writing and creating for my blogs, that i’ve lost that big chunk of that time i used to carve out for myself to visit others.  while i do get to hop around my favorite virtual spaces to say a quick hi and search for inspiration regularly, i have not taken those leisurely strolls through blogland like i used to.

way back when, i remember loving those hours where i would sit and click and click, and read and read, and find the most beautiful images and words one page after another… it was what really inspired and propelled me to write on my own blog and connect with others.  it’s how wishstudio came to be.

so this summer i feel like it’s time to pay homage to the blogs i love, old and new, and spend some quality time reading and going deeper into the blogworld once again.  i’ve decided to slow down, turn the focus away from creating content, and enjoy a couple of splendid hours per week of just sitting and exploring other blogs.  that is why we all work so tirelessly to exist in this space, right?  i am so excited to come by and see you, and be captivated all over again!

are you with me?  ready to spread the blog love during the great summer blog read?

grab a button (above), a cold drink and a comfy chair, and let’s start reading!  the inspiration lounge is a great place to begin…

by jacqueline drake

Easier said- than actually done right ? For some of you that might be an easy task. You might actually thrive in complete and utter chaos – and then there is the rest of us. That chaos that Iʼm speaking about is our crazy busy lives we have with our children, spouses and the rest of the family and community .It is in these demands, wants and needs that is the actual fabric of our lives. So we strive to find a balance in being a mom and an Artist and being able to weave this chaos into a beautiful masterpiece.

As mother- artists we also have the greatest opportunity to be that central beacon of creativity and calm that our families come to rely on. So my questions to you are these – How do we get there? Why is it sometimes so hard to get there? How do we become that calm Zen Mamma in the storm? The answer actually, is not so foreign to us as mother artists. We simply need to Create -to find it.

That Peace happens when we are creating a beautiful piece, or making collages or when we feel so inspired to pick up our cameras right at that very moment. It is from stringing beads to painting a large canvas to clipping and collaging photos. the act of creating falls into a slow methodical state. It is this methodical state that we all go into while we are creating and we find a great sense of calm and groundedness.

There are many words that people may use to describe this place where their minds might go when creating something. Some people call it in the Flow or in The Zone. My favorite comes from the a Zen Buddhist teaching, from the book” The Tao of Painting” , “Wu Wei “-meaning to silence the mind and then the work is allowed to express itself. I have found that there is no other form of therapy, counseling or even exercise that can give me that kind of grounding peace in my hectic life.

After studying many years in the healing arts and going back to art school, I developed my own unique and intuitive style in my own creative process. and it is in this process that I find inner peace and the centering that my family and others need me to be. My technique is finding that space and then taking it a step further and making it into a prayerful mediation. I then set an intent. Some might call it a mantra, or even a positive affirmation. In Sufism it is call Remembrance. I then use that when Iʼm painting to return me to that place of centering and calmness.It is in this place that I truly am connected to a divine energy and source.

It is so wonderful to know that us, as creative mothers have this abundance source of calming, centering and grounding energy so we can be that beacon of creativity and to help us get through the day and to weather all the storms that come along.

by connie hozvicka

Before I began to write this post I was listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer answer people’s questions on Hay House radio.  Each person that called had issues that were causing them much sorrow or anxiety in their life.  Real issues–mostly in regards to relationships, parenting, and finances.  But things that all of us go through on a day-to-day basis.  Things that make us human.

And Dr. Dyer was very patient in listening and very acute in picking up the subtle contradictions each of the callers would make.  Then, towards the end he would ask each caller what  kind of art do you make–music, writing, painting, knitting?  How do you create?

Some of the callers responded with “oh, I’m not really an artistic person”, or “I used to paint before my husband died”.  And one sweet caller burst out to tears and said “she always wanted to be a writer”.

Dr. Dyer’s answer always involved helping the caller look at their problem from a different perspective and his remedy or prescription at the end was to go out and create art.  Write a paragraph.  Paint a painting.  Knit a sock.

He told each caller–that THAT was what was missing from their lives…not their husbands, their children that went off to college, or the boyfriends that never showed them affection.  The answers to their soul–the balm to their anxiety and suffering laid in their own pure power of creativity.

The thing is I completely, 100% agree.

Every month I’m sure the majority of us put on our accountant jackets and balance our monthly finances.  Night after night tons of us slap on our imaginary chef hats and whip up our family’s dinner.  We are dedicated life counselors and career coaches to our friends during their late night phone calls. We are nurses and doctors when our loved ones are sick.  We take on all of these other roles with out any thought or any worry–but when it comes to expressing our own creativity, many of us fear that we are not good enough—no, no, not me…I’m not an Artist.

Just like you wouldn’t leave your son’s knee bleeding and infected–or you wouldn’t ignore your family’s hunger or let your finances go straight to hell.  Why deny your soul of what it craves and keeps asking you for?  Why refuse to feed the one thing that actually gives you the real strength and energy to do all those other things?

I know I keep saying it over and over again, but it’s really that serious.  We each need to express our own creativity.  And if you are one of those that are going to exclaim that you’re not an artsy fartsy or you couldn’t draw a stick figure if your life depended on it–I refuse to hear your story.

We are all creative beings, there just is no getting around it.  Maybe your creativity involves a glue stick or a hacksaw or maybe collecting and creating things out of pure junk.

But before you begin to grumble and complain when things are not going your way–be like Dr. Dyer and ask yourself when was the last time you created some art? When was the last time I simply let my soul play?

Jennifer Lee is the author of The Right Brain Business Plan, the founder of Artizen Coaching, and a certified coach, artist, and yogini who believes in living life in full color.  her brand new book recently hit the shelves and here, she shares a bit if her inspiring book journey…


how and when did you know that the Right Brain Business Plan needed to become a book?

I had no idea when I created my first Right-Brain Business Plan on my kitchen table back in 2007 that it would turn into a book. I did know, though, that I wanted to write a book. In fact, I had a mini handmade book on my first RBBP to represent that very goal. And now that little book is on my book cover!

I had been working on a whole different book about creativity for about a year with my book coach. When I was getting ready to go the Book Expo America with my proposal in hand, my intuition told me, “Bring a sell sheet for Right-Brain Business Plan, too.” And so I did. As I talked with different publishers they consistently showed more interest in The Right-Brain Business Plan, and it was then I knew it was ready to born.

what was one challenge that you encountered but then overcame on you book journey?

Getting that first rejection letter was tough. I cried. I sulked. I worried that no one would ever offer me a contract. Of course other rejection letters came, as did signs of interest, too. What helped me through that painful waiting period was getting great guidance and support from my book coach, and leaning into my community of creative cohorts who kept cheering me on. Also, painting out my frustrations and worry was quite therapeutic!

what was one of your favorite moments in writing The Right Brain Business Plan?

The most memorable moment for me was holding my book in my hands for the first time. I remember thumbing through the pages and being so excited seeing all of the colorful photos of the featured plans. And I remember how much I loved the smell of my book!

did anything surprise you about this process, and what did you learn from the unexpected?

One of the most unexpected things about this whole process was realizing just how much the Right-Brain Business Plan concept resonates with people from around the world. When I hosted my Right-Brainers in Business Video Summit during my book launch, I was amazed that we had participants all the way from Barbados, South Africa, Iceland, Hong Kong, and Lebanon. It underscored for me how much creative souls are yearning to bring their gifts out to the world through business and how much they want to do it in a way that’s authentic to them.

what is next for you and the RBBP?

In terms of what next for me and the RBBP, I’m turning my e-Course into a home study version so that people can participate on their own time. I’m also going to launch a Right-Brain Business Plan® licensing program so that other coaches, creatives, and facilitators can lead in-person workshops and use the materials with their individual clients.

***giveaway*** Thanks for hosting me in the wishstudio, Mindy! I’d love to giveaway a Right-Brain Business Plan book/kit combo to a lucky member of the wishstudio community. So, please write a comment below about what you’re passionate about and we’ll pick a random winner on wednesday, july 13th.

***and the winner is… playcrane! (thanks for sharing your passions everyone ~ so very inspiiring ;)***

thanks, Jenn! i loved hearing these juicy details of your book writing process as the story behind a book always add to it’s meaning and life.  i know your words and work will continue to spark creative fires everywhere!

by kate swoboda

Running has been on my mind, lately, because–well–I’ve been training for Bay to Breakers, a 7.47 mile road race. I’m finally going to make my grand comeback from a foot injury that defied logic yet was this incredible teacher and shape-shifter, in the way all things are terrifying and murky when we are in the midst of them and praying to come out on the other side.

Here’s what is on my mind these days: how training for a race is this really translatable lesson in knowing when to push ourselves and when to hold back, in life.

By nature, I’m a pusher–someone who can easily identify what she wants, jump in there, start messing around, and then push through when the going gets tough. The work in the midst of that becomes knowing my limits, because it is all too easy to cross that seemingly invisible threshold between rising to a challenge and masochistic, overbearing, unnatural pain.

Like most things, this quality of mine is both the source of my superhero powers and my kryptonite. At its best, it results in passion, commitment, determination, and teaching me the very definition of courage, allowing fear to be part of the process that transforms me. When the doctor(s) told me that I would simply need to wear an orthotic for the rest of my life to deal with my foot injury, and that running was out of the question, I said, “No. That’s not how my story is going to end.” I did not give up, and eventually I found the doctor who fixed my foot, and then I did the rest with the power of my mind, taking a 30-minute walk every single day for a month in which I recited in my head: “With every step I take, my foot is getting better and better. With every step I take, my foot is healed. With every step I take…”

Lesson One: Commit to your own truth, despite the naysayers.

Lesson Two: Never, ever–ever!–underestimate the power of your own mind.

At its worst, this pushing quality is exactly why I’ve had so many fits and starts with running. My previous attempts to re-establish myself as a runner after an injury now strike me as laughable. Over the course of a few years, I started and failed to rehab my injury because I went straight back to immediately miles and miles at a time, pushing  myself to run at a fast clip…and I inevitably re-injured or caused myself some other malady that required taking 4-6 weeks off just to recuperate.

Lesson Three: “Go hard or go home”  is a mantra of fear recited by the insecure.

So in October of 2010, my new mantra was: “Just do what you can do.” I went to the gym and walked, because that was what I could do. A few weeks in, I had this hit of, “I want to run!” and so I lightly jogged for a few minutes (chest heaving) and then went back to walking. By early December, doing this jog/walk dance, I could jog for up to ten to fifteen minutes at a low speed.

Want to know when it’s time to push, and when it’s time to loosen the reins in your own life?

Lesson Four: Listen. Watch. Wait. The cues are always there.

When I decided to start getting active again, I kept listening. Waiting. Watching. I was practicing tuning in to what felt right for me, what my limits were, and accepting my limits rather than pushing against them.

Some weeks, what I could do was alternate between jogging and walking. Other weeks, tuning into my body and noticing where things felt tight and sore, I elected to spend my entire time on the treadmill, walking. No pressure. Also? No racing, no pressure to train or increase speed or mileage.

But then I received my annual registration notice for Bay to Breakers. I hesitated for a long time, really pausing before I filled out the form. Was I really going to do this? I flipped through my calendar, looking at the months that spanned between me and the race. I was tuning in, listening. Did this “feel” right? Okay? Would it upset the delicate balance of the mild training I’d just started, to run this race?

I hit the submit button and registered, willing to find out.

Lesson Five: You can always pay attention, re-evaluate from a place of presence, and shift course if needed.

So now I needed to work with pressure, even though it scared me. How do you work with pressure when the only kind of pressure you know is going full throttle? And isn’t “pressure”  what being an athlete is about? “No pain, no gain,” said Cher in the 80’s.

But there was another sign hanging up at my gym: “Smiling is optional. Finishing’s not,” it said, above a photograph of a woman lifting weights.

Taking a cue from that sign, my new mantra was born: “I just need to finish.” That was it, I decided. I wanted to finish that race. I’d enrolled in it three years in a row, and never even made it to the starting line. Now, however? I was going to finish–even if it meant walking the entire way.  I would “just do what I could do” (mantra 1) and “just finish” (mantra 2).

Lesson Six: It’s okay to commit to finishing something, even if you’re not going to be a superstar.

I began going to the gym and running the entire time I was on the treadmill. I had days where I felt resistant, where I just didn’t waaaaant to. I kept listening, tuning in, considering. Many of those mornings, I simply told myself that I’d head to the gym and if I had too much resistance, I’d walk instead of run. That never ended up happening.

Lesson seven: Sometimes, it’s enough to just start moving.

The first time I was able to run three miles, I came home shining with pride. Pre-injury, the most I’d  ever run was three miles. To be back to three miles again felt like a milestone. Within weeks of hitting that milestone, I was able to up my mileage to four miles, and then to five. Then the shin splints started. I knew why they were happening–in my newfound running confidence, I’d gotten sloppy about icing and stretching.

Lesson eight: It never, ever, ever works out well when you neglect self-care.

I’d be lying to you if I said that I took all of this in stride. No–I cried. I cried in fear that I might have re-injured myself, and out of frustration that I’d need to take time off from running in order to rest the inflamed muscles.

I took one week off, and then came back…my endurance was better than ever. The rest had allowed me to cross yet another threshold–one of running five miles and no longer feeling like an exhausted wreck, afterwards.

Lesson nine: Stepping back is not equivalent to failure.

And now, race day–petrified, surrounded by throngs of people…

“ All I need to do is finish. I’m doing great…with every step I take, my foot is better and better. With every step I take, my foot is healed…”

I passed some, and others passed me. “All you need to do is finish.”

My legs felt lighter some miles, heavier during others. “All you need to do is finish.”

I thought of every mile logged. I thought of the day the injury occurred. Mostly, I felt gratitude for of all of the love and care and support I’d received along the way. I didn’t care how long it had taken me to get here. I only cared that I was here.

Lesson ten: All you need to do is finish.

you will need:

recycled mason jar(s)
white paint/prime
hammer
flat head screwdriver
vintage wall paper
card stock
letter stamps or marker
vintage fabric
hole punch
ribbon
you wishes!

summer is a wonderful time to make these pretty jars to collect all of your lovely wishes!  use your cleaned, recycled mason or sauce jars (any size or shape will work!) for this simple project.  these are also great to give a memento, filled with wishes from family and friends to an honored guest on a special occasion.

1.  using a flat head screwdriver and hammer, make a slot in the top of the jar lid

2.  prime and paint lid in you favorite shade of white

3.  rip vintage fabric into strips and tie on a bow to embellish

4.  create a “wish jar” tag using card stock backed by pretty vintage wallpaper, stampt the words or write them on, then add a coordinating ribbon to tie it to the jar

5.  write your wishes (for yourself or for someone special!) and fill the jar

project inspired by heidi wallingford, of Birds of a Feather

happy wishing!