Lessons and Thanks

It has been nearly a week since the CREATE New Jersey retreat.  I have had some time to get my hands dirty and incorporate some of what I learned into my own work.  Before sharing, let me tell you about Julie Balzer's workshop in stamp carving.

I "met" Julie through her blog, Balzer Designs, when I was first investigating the world of mixed media art, and particularly art journaling.  I did Julie's "30 days in your journal" online class, and it definitely transformed my approach to making art.  (The class is ongoing and self-paced, so you can take it anytime.)  So I was excited to study with her in person.

Julie could be a stand-up comedienne -- and I definitely didn't expect that from her!  She is down-to-earth and extremely entertaining.  She broke down stamp carving so beautifully that every person in the class created gorgeous patterning stamps.  Here are some of my creations: 

The coloration in the last one comes from one of the most exciting lessons from this workshop -- learning to make our own inkpads.  Very cool.

Here are two pieces I created since I came back, incorporating many of the techniques I learned at CREATE (you can see how I used the circle cut out of the purple stamped page!): 

 

I used some of the painting techniques I learned from Joanne Sharpe and Cindy Wunsch, the collage papers I made with Jane Davies, and stamped papers and actual stamps I made with Julie.   Although these two pieces are influenced by the workshops I took, I feel like they look like "me."  Here are some things I took away about myself:

1.  I'm embracing my childhood nickname of "Messy Jessy."  My mixed media style is a bit rough around the edges -- I don't like being confined to neat and pretty lines or having to have things line up precisely.  Some of the women in the stamp carving class made the most gorgeous, intricate stamps -- but I liked it best when my lines were a bit more jagged and uneven.

2.  Even though I don't love my handwriting, I like using it.  Although there are great lettering stamps and fonts out there, I like when a sentiment looks like I wrote it -- even though the lettering might be uneven or messy at times.

3.  I can't help but work in a triage zone!  My work space inevitably looks like a hurricane blew through it, and that's ok with me.  I like having all my supplies out where I can see them, and to me, it is controlled chaos even if I look like I'm completely disorganized!  So even though I clean up after each project, I'm going to stop trying to have an organized workspace as I'm working.  It just doesn't fit my style.

Zentangler Dilip Patel has a lovely tradition of thanking the people who commented on his previous post.  Because I am so grateful for people's comments, I am going to adopt this tradition.  So big thank yous to Gloria, TangleWithLinda, Teddi, Lynn, Debbi, Diane, Natasha, Mary, Marjl, Lisa, Carolyn, Tracey, Anne, Candace, Pauline, Linda, Sabina, JKW, Giggles, Wednesday, Karen, IHannah and Ginny for leaving such kind comments on my last post.   

And finally, a shout out to Veronika, Erica, Sally, Ida, Lyria, Shari, Martha, Ruth and Sandra and all the other amazing women I "arted" with last week!  I hope to see you again soon!  UPDATE:  I forgot to mention Carolyn Dube -- whose blog I have so admired -- and who I had the pleasure of taking a class and having lunch with!  It was SO NICE to meet you.

As always, your words mean the world to me!  So if you are moved to comment, know it makes me very happy!

It's Friday, Friday, Friday!

A quick post today before the weekend...

Here are some amazing blog posts I've read this week and videos I've watched:

• Julie Fei-Fan Balzer finding inspiration on a trip to Provincetown and showing how she sees art layouts in almost everything!
• Every single video by the "One Minute Muse" on You Tube;
• Watching this beautiful canvas come together by Christy Tomlinson.

The One Minute Muse videos inspired me to use modeling paste on this design, which I did for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge, as well as for the Run With Scissors Day 27 Prompt, which was "what touched your heart today."  Here's the sketch, and here's my interpretation.  It's hard to see in the scan, but the circles around the main design are all raised with the modeling paste.  It was so much fun and I hope to use it more. (Next time, I'll remember to take some pictures of the process.)

What touched my heart yesterday (and frankly touches my heart daily), was my sweet husband tip-toeing into our room at 4:45 AM to go to bed.  He works four nights a week, and tries so hard not to wake me when he comes home.  He wakes up every day at noon, and then does all he can to give me time to paint.  He does the laundry, keeps the kitchen clean, takes our younger daughter to many of her afternoon activities, and is just the nicest, kindest, most open-hearted person I have ever met.  I learn compassion, patience, and kindness from him on a daily basis.  So yesterday morning, when he unintentionally made some noise when coming into our room, I thought it's fine, because every morning just gives me another day to love him.  (collective awwwww.....)   I'm going to link this up to Try it On Tuesday's Anything Goes Challenge, and the Anything Goes Challenge blog, which has a Polka dot with a birthday theme prompt.  I think this would make a nice birthday card, don't you?  Also, please go to Paint Party Friday and check out this, and all the great work there.   

Day 28's RWS prompt was to "list 10 journal prompts that you could possibly use in your journal, after this class is over."  Over the past few weeks, I have been cutting words out of the New York Times' headlines to use in art journaling.  I randomly pulled out 10, and created prompts based on them.  It's hard to read my handwriting, so I'll write them below.

1.  Taking a Chance:  When did I take a chance - a leap of faith - how did it turn out?

2.  How Well They Teach:  Who do I see or have I seen as important teachers in my life?  What did I learn?

3.  Inventing the Future:  Where do I want ot be 5, 10, 15 years from now?

4.  Sacrifices:  What have I given up in the past to live the life I lead in the present?  What would I give up now to lead the life I want to lead in the future?

5.  Radical to Mundane and to Radical Again:  What once seemed new that now feels old and boring?  How can I see it as new again?

6.  Future Imperfect:  what is different about my life than what I once expected it to be?  How is the way it turned out perfect or imperfect?

7.  Triumphs and Defeats:  What do I see as triumphs and defeats in my life?  What have they taught me?  Have I ever learned more from "defeats," than "triumphs?"

8.  Security:  What makes me feel safe and secure?  Where do I go for comfort and refuge?

9.  Divided by God: What does "God" mean to me?  How does "God" or the sacred figure in my life?

10:  Friendship:  What do I value most in a friendship?  Who best embodies this in my life?

11:  Lifelong Fan:  What have I consistently been a fan of, or valued, in my life?

12:  Sink or Swim:  What challenge do I need to just "jump in" to?  What does "sink" mean to me?

If you use any of these as inspiration (and feel free to do so), please link back and let me know!

As always, thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Wednesday Mashup & Updates

Wednesday Mashup:  Welcome to Wednesday Mashup, where I make something out of whatever is on my table from the days before.  No thinking, no planning, just clean up by creating.

   Here's what was on my table yesterday:  Lots of medium, scraps of papers, and a playbill from Once on this Island, which we saw at the Papermill last Saturday.  (Yes, there is also deodorant on my desk -- why, you ask?  I don't know.  It's not an art supply!  But ... I am truly showing you what was actually on my desk yesterday morning -- and the deodorant is back in the bathroom.)   We always bring home too many playbills; most end up in the recycling.  But...what if I make a journal out of the playbill?

 

First, glue and staple a bunch of the pages together to thicken them, and then tape the inside seams:

Second, randomly glue down pieces of reclaimed book pages, scraps, old paint experiments -- whatever is on the desk!  Knock back with gesso, and dry thoroughly.

Add paint, stencils, stamps -- whatever is in easy reach.  No planning, just go.  Experiment with color combinations.  Use scraps that didn't fit into anything else.  And voila, a ready to go journal with NO BLANK PAGES. 

 

Don't know yet what I'll use this for, and the cover is still blank, but I will show you when I finish it.  It was fast, furious and fun, and now I know what to do with extra playbills, magazines, etc.!  If you've "up-cycled" something like this, please link to it to share.  And if you know an arty use for deodorant, I'd love to hear it!

30 DAYS IN MY JOURNAL UPDATE:  It's hard to believe that June is almost over.  I'm going to miss the prompts from Run With Scissors so much.  It's been so great to get to know the other artists participating.  The prompt for day 25 was "my wish for you is..." Since school let out, it has been so relaxing for my daughter Samy, age 11, not to have to get up and out the door in a rush.  She has really spread out and been relaxing -- reading a lot, drawing, playing with friends.  She has no schedule until July 17, when she goes to sleep-away camp for 3 weeks.  So I my wish for her was the joy of endless summer.  

I remember well the feeling of the school year ending and the stretch of 2 magical months before the next school year.  That feeling that I could reinvent myself out of the grind of school days.  I could go to camp and morph from a caterpillar into a butterfly before September!  I call this the "power of the pause" -- and even though we are not school kids anymore, it's important to find those pauses -- between sleeping and waking, being in the studio and closing the door/turning off the light to step into other parts of our lives, etc.  Just a moment to stop, take a breath, and remember that we can emerge at any point and at any moment.  

Day 25's prompt continued into day 26 for me.  I took Samy to get a mani/pedi, and had a pedicure myself.  (my hands are a lost cause!)  While on the chair, I drew my feet to memorialize the moment.  They're not the best feet, but they get me where I want to go!  I'm going to link this to Summer of Color and Paint Party Friday too.  Please go check out the amazing art on those two sites!

Second Floor Challenge: Every few weeks, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Nathalie Kalbach challenge you to go beyond your usual limits.  This week's challenge was to use a pencil - whatever that means to you and however that inspires you.  Hmmm - I had already sketched my feet, and honestly, a pencil doesn't do much for me.  It creates marks that I then want to cover over in paint.  But I just bought some cool looking woodless graphite pencils that could be used on their sides for broad strokes, and with the sharp points for detail.  I had started a page with these egg shapes I had cut out of prior experiments.  My initial thought was to turn them into cake pops, or lollipop flowers... but while I was at the town pool,  I started doodling and stroking with the pencils.  I HATED EVERYTHING I DID!  So when I got home, I painted over a lot of it, and the result is at right.  I have a lot to learn about pencil work!  My first thought was to write "Perfection is overrated."  But I like to try to put things in the positive, not negative.  And then I thought that perfection is not something to strive for or aim toward.  It is right here in this moment.  Right here, right now.  And so that's what I wrote!  As always, messy mistakes can lead to magical moments.  So thank you Julie and Nathalie.  In the end, I like my page!

LICENSING NEWS:

I just completed the designs for a new line of "Nibbles n' Nosh"® plates and bowls for Aviv Judaica.  Here are the plates.  Hopefully they will soon be in a store near you!   And... Aviv is re-releasing a latke chef line I designed, which will be available for Hannukah!.  One of the greeting card companies I license to has asked me for some Easter themed designs.  So if you have any inspiration you're willing to share, please let me know!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Inspiration

I was away at our summer place this weekend.  Of course, I had to pack an enormous bag of art supplies to take with me.  Somehow, I don't feel complete unless I'm carrying my journal around with me everywhere -- even if I don't write in it.  I just have to have it near...

The Run With Scissor's prompt for Friday, June 23 was "free choice."  On Thursday, I was at our town pool and watched a bunch of little girls playing mermaid.  This was one of my favorite games as a kid.  I had really long hair, and loved to swish it around under water and pretend that my two legs were one fish tail.  My friend Margie and I used to have contests to see who could stay under water longest. (Margie was the best!)  So I decided to paint up this mermaid in honor of all the girls out there, swishing their hair and pretending to have fish tails!  I'm going to link her up to Paint Party Friday and Creative Everyday as well because I like this gal. Her saying:  Don't wait for your ship to come in.  Swim out to it!

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's post today was about 5 things you know are true.  Her 5 things were all about art, but they made me think about what I know to be true in life.  And then, as the universe would have it, RWS's day 24 prompt was to make a top 10 list.  Janel made a beautiful journal entry about Gandhi.  I reacted to this by thinking more about all the wisdom I know to be true. Some of it is from my parents, some of it is from books I've read and teachings from wise people.  But here's a list -- in no particular order:

1.  you can always find something beautiful to see and nice to say. 
2.  things seem very different after a good night's sleep.
3.  even the most difficult soil can yield a beautiful garden if you cultivate it.  (this is directly inspired by my mother, who refuses to let rocky, hilly soil intimidate her.  It's also a really nice metaphor.)
4.  everything you learn, and every effort you make, has a purpose.  (this is inspired by "The Phantom Tollbooth" -- one of my all time favorite books.)
5.  kindness really matters.
6.  if you can do something about it, why get upset?  and if you can't do anything about it, why get upset?
7.  you will be happy if you can forgive for the past and be grateful for the present. 
8.  whatever you decide to do in life, find a way to make the world a kinder, more beautiful place.  (Inspired by a great children's book - Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney.)
9.  Every person wants to be loved and happy.  In this way, we all have something in common.
10.  Sooner or later, you will reap what you sow.

After making this list, I wasn't sure what the art should be.  Luckily, today's Diva challenge was to be inspired by your home.  What I love best about my home is my garden, and so I tried to be inspired by my roses and other flowers in this piece.  I colored it with the beautiful palate inspired by the ice cream flavor "Baseball Nut" -- rasberry, vanilla and cashew nut.  (I'm not sure what this has to do with baseball -- perhaps only Baskin & Robbins knows for sure -- but thank you to Summer of Color for suggesting the color scheme.)  Then I journaled my list around it, and am linking it up there and at Inspire Me Monday as well.  

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Adventures in Mint...

This title seems to be an oxymoron - right?  Mint is the color I've always associated with old school hallways and hospitals, cracked  bathroom tiles and my grandfather's 1960s Cadillac -- the first car I ever drove in that had electric windows.  I have shied away from it, and would certainly never pair it with the word "adventure."  But what a surprise to find out that mint green is no longer an old fogey color -- it's been current and trendy since spring of 2011! (Obviously I am behind the times.)

Mint green is the Summer of Color's week two challenge color.  And so I decided to give it a try.  I was influenced in the layout by Mojo Monday's sketch 246.  It is really a challenge to try and let the imagination run free while following the spirit of someone else's sketch and color palette.  It makes you stretch.  As I worked on this, I had no idea what the sentiment would be, and for most of the time, I was feeling like it was a complete disaster!  But in the end, I really liked how it turned out, which inspired the saying:  "Seeing life as an adventure is the best way to learn."  Notice the "cadent" pattern around the design -- I've gotten better at this since the Diva challenge this past Monday, and seeing all of the beautiful work other artists have created in response to that challenge.  So once again - deep gratitude to the community of artists out there in the blogosphere!  (According to Wikipedia, the term blogosphere implies that blogs exist together as a connected community, or as a collection of connected communities, and it certainly feels that way to me.

Today I hit "send" to register for several workshops in Create's Mixed Media retreat in Somerset, NJ, starting July 18 (my birthday!).  I am so excited for this -- it is truly an adventure to look forward to, and I know I will learn so much!

Also this week, I was fortunate to license this design to Leanin' Tree.  So hopefully you'll see it soon in a store near you!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

So Much to Feel Good About

Dad and Freddie on Father's Day

This weekend was father's day.  My parents make a point of not celebrating what they call "Hallmark holidays," but, truth be told, my dad loves when we "recognize" him on this day.  And there is so much to recognize about him!  He was the child of Polish Jewish immigrants who came to the US (illegally I might add) in between the two world wars, with nothing in their pockets.  Moving in with relatives in Brooklyn, NY, they watched from afar while their village in Lodz, Poland, was decimated by the Nazis.  My dad raised pigeons on his roof, and was somewhat of a high school delinquent.  (He and his 4 best friends had a contest to see who could graduate high school with the lowest GPA!) But then, after working on the docks, he decided to turn his life around, and ended up graduating from Brooklyn Law School at the top of his class, as editor in chief of the law review.  He also, in his late teens, learned how to play tennis, starting a lifelong passion that has led him to successive Maccabi games in Israel as captain of the men's senior tennis team.  In July 2013, he will be inducted into the Jewish Athletes' Hall of Fame in Tel Aviv!  He has always seen life as full of possibilities. 

One of his greatest gifts to me is teaching me about the power of forgiveness -- view life's trials as lessons to learn from, and then let them go and move on.  To quote from a wonderful book, "A Spiritual Renegade's Guide to the Good Life," "We cannot be happy in the here and now if we continue to harbor grudges and remain full of bitterness, sadness, and anger about what others have done to us in the past."  My dad has lived this, and has always focused on what is good in life.  And we have so much to feel good about.

This phrase is in the song "It's a Good Life," by One Republic,  the subject of Scrapping the Music's challenge this week.  "We have so much to feel good about."  It's so true and I wish everyone would remember how much we have to be grateful for.  On this page, I altered 3 pictures of my beautiful daughters (my older one is not going to like the fact that it looks like she's wearing a burkha...), added lyrics from the song, and filled the background with "cadent," the Zentangle® that is the prompt for the Diva challenge this week.   Looking at this page makes me so happy that I am going to enter it in the Try it On Tuesday challenge too!  My girls are such a blessing in my life.  And not to leave out my mom, I doodled this over the weekend! I realized that "mom" upside down is "wow."  And my mom wows me all the time.

Albert Einstein said: "There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle."   I choose the latter!

Thank you so much for visiting and, hopefully, commenting. It means the world to me!

Weekly Roundup!

It's been such a full week!  Here are three designs from Run With Scissors  (RWS) daily prompts.  June 12 - what are your favorite places?  I started to journal about Pine Lake Park - where I spent and still spend all my summers; Park Slope, Brooklyn, where I grew up; NYC; Antigua, Guatemala, where we do service work with From Houses to Homes and where we have a godson and family; just about everywhere in France... and then I realized that none of it would matter without my family with me.  So I gessoed over everything, and this soulful lady emerged.  (the blueprint for her face is from Balzer Designs' Maude stencil but now she looks nothing like it.)  Anything Goes asked for designs inspired by travel, so she's going there too!

Wednesday's RWS prompt was about someone who inspires you.  As a child, I loved reading about Joan of Arc.  I was inspired by how she listened to her inner voices and had complete faith in her path, even though so many people thought she was crazy or a witch.  One of my favorite paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is this Joan of Arc.  I used to go "visit" it when I was in high school (I went to the original "Fame" school - the High School of Performing Arts). 

Inspired by my friend and wonderful artist Jennifer Levine, I painted up a homage to St. Joan.   It was a challenge to stay current with all the prompts, because I am in the middle of creating a new line of "Woman of Valor" products for Aviv Judaica.  Here's an example of the new line I'm working on.  You can see the older mug on the right, and the die line and design for the new mug on the left. 

 

But in between comments and revisions on the Woman of Valor line, I was able to work on my rendition of "St. Joan," which I finally finished today. (Note the Balzer Designs leaf stencils!)   In addition to adding this to the RWS 30 Days in Your Art Journal Flickr' pool, I'm also going to add it to A Year In the Life of An Art Journal.  The June 15 "Whatever and Whatnot" prompt is "If you could be a character, who would you be and why?"  And even though I would not want to be burned at the stake, St. Joan is pretty amazing. I hope she inspires you as much as she's inspired me. 

Yesterday's RWS prompt was "what roles do you play?"  Like every other woman, I do too much.  (The other day Samy said:  "I can multitask too -- I just can't do two things at the same time." (!) This was brilliant, because really, neither can I, and neither can anyone.  Our brain just toggles back and forth between tasks until we're crazy.  Check out this book -- The Myth of Multitasking; how doing it all gets nothing done.)  I thought of the Hindu goddesses with many arms and hands -- sometimes I wish I had them, or, like Michael Keaton in the movie Multiplicity, I had a few clones of myself.  But really, what I want is to just SLOW DOWN!   In fact, yesterday, I had a moment in the car where I felt so intensely -- I CRAVE STILLNESS.  So, on my goddess arms, I wrote advice to myself.  Stop! Relax! Just Say No!  As Ellen Degeneres says, "Procrastinate NOW.  Don't put it off."  Will I listen?  We'll see...  

I really like my lovely goddess, and am also submitting her in Try it on Tuesday's Anything Goes challenge.   

So now onto a little shameless self-promotion:  I'm training to participate in a 12 hour yogathon (yep - 12 hours) on July 14 to raise money for "Off the Mat and Into the World," a terrific organization that takes the philosophy and physical practices of yoga to different communities as a tool for peace, empowerment, and community.  So if you want to help, please visit my page and consider making a donation! 

That's all for today -- thanks for visiting and please leave a comment.  It means so much to me.

Circles of Love

Today's Run With Scissors' prompt was to create a design about how you love.  I decided to do a heart, with the way I love all around it.  So here are what I think are the key things about sharing love:

• listen well
• speak kindly
• give without expectation of receiving
• when you receive, be gracious
• give the benefit of the doubt
• share the joys and the sorrows

These are written around the heart.  Initially, I was just going to paint the heart with a watercolor wash, but instead, I used the  Diva's Challenge  to use "eccentric circles" (i.e., not perfect), to fill in the heart.  And of course, there are lots of oddly shaped circles around it too.

Yesterday's Run With Scissors' prompt was to make a list of projects to complete over the summer.  At first, I couldn't think of any!!  Maybe it's laziness or maybe it's getting older, but I don't have lots of "to-dos."  So I created some, including cook dinner 2x a week.  We tend to order in a lot, so cooking 2 dinners a week will be a big improvement over take-out.  I used Julie Fei-Fan Balzers' Edith stencil to begin the face, and then made it my own.  I might give her a bindi -- doesn't she look like she might wear one?  By the way - one of my designs was featured on Julie's blog today.  I feel very honored.

It's a Fab World

 Today's the last day to post a design for the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger, so I wanted to get this design up.  Here's the trigger design: 

 

The colors are definitely "manly," hence the name for the Tuesday Trigger - "Mantastic."  The shape reminded me of both raindrops and flower petals.  So here is what I came up with.  For the Walk, Dance or Just Get Wet design, I created a stencil from a silhouette I found on the internet.  I used the part I cut out as a mask, and sprayed red and blue ink to create a positive and a negative design using  Balzer Designs' blazonry stencil.  Then I stenciled the man using black acrylic, and wrote on him with a Sakura silver gel pen.  It wasn't enough, so I stamped a little, doodled a little, and eventually was happy.  I like how the colors and the shape of the blazonry stencil echo the beautiful rug.  These are color combinations I don't often use.  So I was happy for the challenge.  And I love the saying -- make the best of every situation!

For Run With Scissors June 9 prompt (what would you shout out loud today), I made a background using the colors in the Tuesday Trigger, taking my cue from a great Art Journal Cafe tutorial.    I love this saying.  We can't just sit and wish and dream about our future -- we have to go out and make it.  Seize the day!!

I've Had the Time of My Life

Scrapping the Music's 200b challenge is to create a design based on a song that has a special meaning for you and someone you love.  I chose "I've Had The Time of My Life," from Dirty Dancing.   I loosely used the layout from Mojo Monday's Sketch Challenge to guide the composition. 

Anyone who knows my husband Freddie will tell you that he is an AMAZING dancer.  In fact, we met dancing.  In October, 1998, I went to a singles weekend at Club Getaway in Kent, Connecticut, where Freddie was on staff.  I was dancing with someone else when the d.j. started playing "Disco Inferno."   I asked the guy with whom I was dancing if he could do the hustle -- my favorite dance "back in the day."  "No," he said, "but see that guy over there -- he can really dance.  Ask him."  That guy was Freddie, and as the song goes, we danced all night.  9 months later he asked me to marry him, and we've been dancing through life together ever since.  Because I was the guest at Club Getaway, and he was on staff, the movie and this song kind of reminds us of us.  Check out the video of that great last dance here (the leap is at 3:22).  Above is my sweet husband watching the Gas Lamp Players' tribute with me last Saturday night.  As I said then, he is truly the wind beneath my wings (another great movie song!)  (By the way, the white shading behind the dancers was motivated by this blog post from Balzer Designs.)

The day 8 prompt for the 30 Day Art Journal Challenge is:  If you were able to design the house of your dreams, what would it look like?  My dream house would be a little moss covered cottage with window boxes and lots of trees -- kind of like a fairy house in the woods.  As long as my family is there with me, any house is home! 

Oh -- and here is day 7's piece -- the prompt was to think about what makes you happy.  I LOVE ALL THESE PROMPTS.  They really get my creative juices going!

May Your Heart Be As Free As Your Toes

Today's prompt from Run With Scissors was to journal about summer -- what you love most about it.  Summer for me as a child always meant packing up our house and relocating an hour north to Westchester. where we had a bungalow in a small community called Pine Lake Park.  This 65 family community has a lot of history for me -- my grandfather was the first co-op president; my mother started going there at 13; I took my first steps on the beach there; and my parents, aunt & uncle, cousins and siblings and I all have cabins there and continue to summer together.  It's a place where I feel the spirits of my grandparents in the wind and the pine trees, and where my children are growing up with the same sense of family and community that nurtured me.

The first week at Pine Lake always involved walking around barefoot and toughening up our feet, so that we could go without shoes all summer.  Being barefoot all the time symbolized the freedom we had -- running through the park -- our parents knowing that someone was feeding us lunch and the collective community would keep us safe.  At Pine Lake we had, and now my children have, the kind of freedom that kids don't really experience these days.  Now, we're all about play-dates and cell phones and checking in all the time.  For me, summer is about the heart being as free as the toes!

Balzer Designs Second Floor Challenge this week was to use found objects.  For the flower stems in "Summer," I used cable ties.  I have a set of them in bright blue, hot pink, and grass green.  I don't need them to tie up cables, but they're so pretty, I couldn't want to throw them out.  So I used the green ones for the flower stems.  Years ago, I was throwing out some boxes that cushioned new windows for my house.  As I tried to fold them up, they took on the shape of houses and altars.  And after some paper mache, paint, paper and other found objects, here's what happened. Hmmm - I have to get back to that!!

Thanks for visiting!