Make a One Page Book, Inspired by Alisa Golden

What??? Tutorials!

Tutorials are everywhere!  Artists in Blogland has a monthly "Techniques on Tuesday" tutorial going on.  The challenge over at Inspiration Avenue this week is to share a tutorial.   Every Tuesday, Kristin Dudish has been doing a tutorial try-out and inviting others to try it too and link up.  Carolyn Dube's Gelli Plate class is up and running with lots of great tutorials.   So, I decided to do one as well. 

I love books!  As you know, lately I've been loving altering old books.  Recently I got a this book:

and decided to try the simplest one - the X Book!

This was so much fun, and easy to make.  The instructions in Alisa's book are very clear and easy to follow, although I do recommend folding and cutting a blank sheet of paper before doing your project.  To give you a sense of how user-friendly the book is, here is how Alisa portrays the folding and instructions:

Best of all, the book is on sale right now at Amazon!  You can see more on Alisa Golden's website and blog.  

(Here's another You Tube tutorial on the folding process, if you need some more guidance, and a "hands free" one with a slightly different take.)

Of course, I had to add my own spin to it -- adding in journaling cards, inclusions and tags...

Thank you for visiting! I read and treasure every comment and will answer any questions as quickly as I can.  Linking to Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Everyday at Balzer Designs, and Creative Everyday.  Hope to get around to visiting everyone this weekend!

Eye & Art Candy

Last time I posted I was in a total funk.  I got lots of great advice in the comments - so thank you!  (One piece of advice I haven't tried yet is to paint a portrait of the inner monster that narrates the negative soundtrack.  Here's the link - I will definitely do this one day soon!)  After getting outside, I was able to shift.  When I came back in, I worked on this page, which I'd started yesterday, thinking I would paint something with another jar.  But as I started doodling, something else happened completely.  And in the end, I was happy.  Art DOES make everything better!

Sunday night was the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  Usually we have a big dinner in Pine Lake, and last night was no exception.  Forty families doing a potluck together is a wonderful thing.  However, my dad was under the weather and he and my mom weren't able to get up to Pine Lake -- they were home in Brooklyn.  I could feel the tug of war in my heart.  My sister and brother, Aunt, Uncle, cousins and friends were all up at the lake, expecting us.  But I decided it was more important to be with my folks.  Luckily, my husband and Samy agreed; so I cooked and brought dinner to Brooklyn.  Here's a mandala I drew while talking with mom in the kitchen (of course, she greatly improved the food I made!).   Mom and Dad - may the coming year be sweet and bring you health and happiness.  Shanah Tovah.

Today, Freddie took Samy to play tennis and then she had a friend over. I was able to spend the whole afternoon in my studio!  Here's the progression of what I created.  It went through a lot of variations.

 and some string.  Now I'm happy!

The Diva's challenge this week is to create a Pinwheel for Peace.   Here's my attempt.  I used a template of an origami pinwheel, however my design ended up looking more like a kite because I added extra triangles...  I did use the tangle called "pinwheel," though (and escalator & clothesline)!

Finally, I received two envelopes with lovely Artist Trading Cards -- from Linda Phinney (who's Imagine card is hand stitched and who also sent me a tag too!) and Andrea at Falling Ladies - who paints the most magical, wonderful watercolors.  Aren't they gorgeous!

There's a new challenge up at Scrapping the Music - check it out.  These songs are so much fun and inspiring.  And your submissions don't have to be scrapbook pages.  Heck - have you ever seen a scrapbook layout from me?  So go take your art journal or zentangle tile over to STM and play along!  In my next post, I'll tell you about what I did for the challenge. 

Remember -- we're less than two weeks away from Fall Fearless and Fly.  I can't believe the amazing artists who have agreed to do guest posts during this challenge.  Carolyn Dube and and I are so excited.

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

Faces, Tangles, and Journal Pages oh my!

I love mixing styles -- can't you tell?  Fairies are on my mind because Inspiration Avenue is gearing up for the Fairy's Tea party on September 23.  And when the Diva's challenge this week was to break free of the traditional string, fairy tangles seemed the thing to do!  Then, A Year in the Life of an Art Journal challenged us to say something to ourselves of 10 years ago.   So I decided to put them all together!

Ten years ago, I was a 44 year old mother of an 11 and 1 year old.  Samy, then 1, demanded constant interaction and connection.  She was sweet, loving, cheerful, and exhausting.  Mariel, then 11, was just starting see me as a separate human being, and of course beginning to notice that I was less than perfect.  That summer, she developed Bell's Palsy as a result of lyme disease and her face was partially paralyzed (it has since gone away).  Her dad and I were in an extremely acrimonious phase of our often turbulent post divorce life and were only able to communicate through a mediator.  Needless to say, life was stressful.  Now that Mariel is 21, and Samy is 11, most of my days are calm and joyous.  I learned so much about myself and life over the past 10 years.  Even though Samy still loves to chat, she can also become immersed in a book.  Mariel's dad and I have an uneasy friendship, and of course, Mariel is glorious and all grown up now -- 21 and a senior in college.  Ten years ago, I couldn't imagine that I would be in a place where I would spend significant time painting, meditating, practicing yoga, and working in my garden.  And although the journey was sometimes difficult and traumatic, the years seem to have flown by.  Sometimes you have to look back at your past and smile at how far you've come!

The challenge at Stampotique is to use orange, mustard and navy -- not colors I usually use too much.  But I love how they all worked together in this piece.

The lady in this art journal page was inspired by this photo on the Moxie Fab blog.  I'm sorry I didn't photograph the process on this page -- the background went through so many different variations -- and most of the time I hated it so much!  But in the end, I rescued it and now I like it -- something I wouldn't have believed I could have said even 2 hours ago!

I got the idea to add the rectangle for journaling from this great video on Roben-Marie Smith's blog.  If you haven't seen her tutorials, check her out.  She's amazing!  Also, she is closing out her online art shop and there are a lot of great deals to be had!

I watched another great tutorial on layering stencils on Ronda Palazzari's blog.  She has created albums to store all her stencils, and shows how she decorated the album covers.  This tutorial is applicable to all sorts of projects, and I highly recommend it!

Speaking of Ronda, she will be our first guest artist on "Fall Fearless and Fly," the challenge Carolyn Dube and I are co-hosting at Artists in Blogland.  Every other week, there will be artistic prompts designed to get you thinking about setting intentions and shedding emotional baggage to step into 2013 as your bravest, most fearless self.  Have you ever done a juice cleanse?  Think of this as an art cleanse!  Any medium goes, and Aritsts In Blogland has great prizes and giveaways.  Each week, there will be an amazing guest artist participating!  Carolyn and I will be kicking off the art on October 1st.  Here is the line up of our guest artists: Rhonda Palazzari, Jane Davies, Maria McGuire, Marcia Beckett, Dina Wakley, and Joanne Sharpe!


While you are waiting for October 1st to roll around, check out the websites of these amazing artists & grab the blog button to help spread the word about all the fun we’re going to have!

Happy Paint Party Friday and Show and Tell Saturday and Creative Every Day!

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

See the Wonder

My younger daughter Samy worries.  If you met her, you wouldn't believe it.  She is so outgoing, warm and connected.  She is a wonderful actress and singer, and wouldn't hesitate to launch into a song if you asked her.  The last thing you would think is that she worries, but she does.  For example, while doing her summer assignment on The Giver (a great book btw!), Samy had to list 12 milestones or traditions that children in the book celebrate.  She couldn't even begin, because she could only think of 9.  What about the other 3?  She couldn't stop focusing on what she didn't know -- even though what she did know was so much greater. 

We all do this -- we focus on what we're not -- not thin enough, not pretty enough, not good enough.  Even many of the amazing artists whose blogs I follow are hard on their work -- and I think it's beautiful!  We all have so much to offer -- so much to give -- and so much to celebrate.  Embrace your positive.  That is my message for today!  In that spirit - here is my contribution to The Diva's challenge to use Mooka and Assunta in a design.  I hope you like this butterfly, a caterpillar no longer.  Ta Da!

 

I am participating in Artists in Blogland's ATC swap.  I never made an ATC before.  In fact, I had never even heard of them and wasn't sure what the point of doing them was.  But then I received these adorable cards in the mail from Marcia Beckett and I was so thrilled!  Aren't they just beautiful?   UPDATE: ATC means "Artist Trading Card" -- a phrase I only just learned myself.

Receiving them made me so happy, and also inspired to create the 6 I needed to make for my part in the swap.  I used these fashion ladies I painted once upon a time, and embellished them with bits and pieces of some of my other paintings and voila!  I liked them so much that it was hard to part with them -- but off they went to Utah, Kentucky and Germany.  It is so fun to think that my artwork is going around the world!  Receiving and making ATCs was so enjoyable that I'm going to make some more!

One of my big fears is painting big... Because of my work as an illustrator for greeting cards and tableware, I've never painted bigger than what fits in my scanner -- so 11 x 14 is the max.  But I have decided to tackle this fear, and also explore the intersection of yoga and art by taking Flora Bowley's e-course "Bloom True."  I just signed up!  It starts September  10 and I'm very excited.  

Imagine; mixed media on canvas.  16 x 20. $250

So that this course is not too much of a shock, I bought a few big canvasses.  This one is 16 x 20.  It's called "Imagine," and is mixed media on gallery stretched canvas.  Digitally, I added the words "you see the wonder of the fairy tale," which is a lyric from "I Have a Dream" by ABBA, one of the songs in Scrapping the Music's August challenge.  (The original only has the hand painted "Imagine" on it.  And it's for sale!!)  If you haven't visited Scrapping the Music yet, check out their August challenge -- it is so much fun to be inspired by music and lyrics, and the Design Team is so supportive.

Linking up to Creative Every Day, Paint Party Friday, and Artists in Blogland (links are on the sidebars).  Cheers!

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

The Wonder of Summer

I am honored to be Artists in Blogland's monthly challenge winner for July.  Thank you!  I love being part of the AIB community.

One of the things I love most about summer is watching my garden.  In the Phantom Tollbooth (one of my favorite books), a conductor leads an orchestra each morning at daybreak and twilight.  But instead of music, the musicians and their instruments play the colors of the sunrise and sunset.   Each season, as first my irises, then my roses, and then my black eyed susans bloom, it is as if somewhere, a conductor, is calling them forth.  It is pure magic, and each season, I marvel in wonder at the beauty of nature.

Coming back to New Jersey from Pine Lake yesterday, the sight of my garden lessened the sadness of leaving the lake.  Here's what greeted me:

 

In honor of summer, and my garden, I painted this canvas.  The words say:  I look in wonder at the magic of everyday life.

 

It's funny -- yesterday I felt so blue.  Perhaps it was knowing I'd be leaving the lake for a while and my vacation was over.  Yesterday, the weather was pristine -- the sky was blue and clear, the humidity low and the sun shining.  And yet, I felt dull and flat. The beauty of the world contrasted sharply with the sourness and impatience I felt inside.  No matter how much I tried to remind myself of the charmed life I lead, I did not feel blessed.  I felt adrift and without purpose.  (I hadn't painted in 3 days...hmm....)  The best I could do was stay quiet and remind myself that things change -- this too shall pass.  Thankfully, it did.  I swam some laps in the lake before leaving, and then was greeted by my beautiful garden upon returning to New Jersey.  Nature has such a way of lifting the spirits.  All was right again!

Artists in Blogland Challenge for August is "Wonder."  Anything Goes' current challenge is "Summer Days."  And Try It On Tuesday's challenge is "Anything Goes."  So I'll be linking up there.  This piece was made with 5 elements:  canvas, acrylic paint, a stencil, stamps and stickers, so I'll also be linking up with The Second Floor Challenge and Out of the Journal.

Here's a tangle for the Diva's challenge this week, which was to use Shelley Beauch's tangle "Brayd."  Zentangle is the name of the game at Inspiration Avenue this week, so linking up there as well.

 

UPDATE:  I had so much fun with Brayd, that I did another.  Again, I couldn't resist using "paradox" inside the triangles -- my pen just wants to go there...  Thanks Shelley for such a versatile tangle!

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

As If I Could Forget

Dilip Patel, one of the regulars in the Diva's Design challenges, often uses the challenges to add to his Zentangled Ganesha series.  Dilip, although this design is not a true Ganesha, I did it in your honor.  Namaste!  I am linking this up to Inspiration Avenue, where the prompt is "perfectly pink." 

 

Since I wrote this post, I learned that Dilip's father passed after struggling with cancer. My heart goes out to Dilip and his family.  May your memories always be a source of joy and the love of those around you always be a source of strength and comfort. 

The Diva's challenge this week was hosted by Erin Koetz Olson.  She has a great blog, and is also a paramedic and is participating in Relay for Life.  She created a mandala to bring attention to this worthy cause.  Here's what I did:

 

Of course, I HAD to add color, and had fun using my gel pens and markers.  I can't resist bringing my mixed media self to the Zentangling world!  I know some of my tangles are unorthodox, and appreciate sharing them with this great community.

For anyone visiting me from the Diva's blog, please check out Paint Party Friday, where I am the featured artist this week.   I think it would be so great for some of the wonderful artists from the Zentangle world to link up to PPF and share what they are doing. I am also linking up to Creative Every Day and Artists in Blogland.  

Have a wonderful week.  If you are moved to comment, please know that 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.

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!

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.

Contentment

"May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks."  J.R.R. Tolkien 

This quote, and the Diva's Monday challenge, inspired this design, which uses crescent moons and auras, to portray a sun spreading its wings.  

Tonight, I had dinner with friends from a camp I attended in the early 1970s.  One of the people who I hadn't seen since 1973 asked me to tell him about my life.  When I told him about my different jobs, kids, husband, etc., he asked me if I'm happy.  Happy is a funny word -- to me it implies a giddiness and euphoria that I don't walk around feeling most of the time.  Sometimes I feel especially happy -- like when we bought ice cream for all the children in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus after finishing our last day of house building, or while I'm doing something special with my daughters or Freddie, or during meditation.  But most of the time, what I feel is deeply content.  

I struggled in the past with unhappiness and discontent.  I have seen unhappiness and grief in others, and strife, struggle, and suffering.   I am grateful to be in a place where I don't wish for anything for myself.  I wish for things for others, and for the world, but I am content.  Not complacent, but content.

Life is like a rainbow.  You need both the sun and the rain to reveal its beauty.  

Here's a video about contentment.  Thanks for visiting! 

UPDATE - because it's hard to resist putting words on my designs, I added these in photoshop:  

 
Also, I practiced pea-nuckle with help from this video from TangledUpinArt and now feel a little better about it! Thanks for the help!!  I look forward to adding color to this soon.



ANOTHER UPDATE:  Here is the tree with color.  I think it makes a nice design for Rosh Hashanah. 

Beautiful Dreamer

It's been a full week.  My dad is doing well, thankfully.  He goes back to the doctor tomorrow for what we hope is the all-clear.  On Monday, I spent the day at the Surface and Textile (Surtex) Show  at the Javits Center in NYC.  My wonderful reps, Laurie High and Parker Fulton, were there and it was so nice to see them.  There are so many wonderful artists and so much inspiring work to see.  One artist, named Elizabeth, really struck me with her beautiful work, which you can see here.  It was also nice to see the familiar faces of Sue Zipkin, and Cathy Heck, among others.

This week's Diva challenge was to use the zentangle pea-nuckle.  One of my favorite entries is this gorgeous, ethereal design by LeeAnn.  My efforts were very unsuccessful, and the tangle ended up morphing into the woman you see in this design.  If you look closely, you will see my feeble pea-nuckle attempts in her "shirt" -- all other evidence has been painted over!

Onto the design - the song "Beautiful Dreamer," was the last song written by Stephen Foster and was published in 1862.  It was featured in the movie "Gone With the Wind," one of my favorite films despite it's political incorrectness.  As a child, I was drawn to the independence and defiance of Scarlett O'Hara, and while also appalled by her selfishness and cold-heartedness.  I fell in love with Clark Gable, and also with the costumes and scenery.  I saw the movie at least 10 times!

The "Scrapping the Music" "b" challenge this week was to do a design inspired by song from a favorite movie.  So this dreamy lady emerged in response to that.  I was actually able to find a copy of the original sheet music, which I printed out and collaged over the layers of gesso that covered up my failed pea-nuckle, and then added layers of paint, stamping and collaging. 

I keep learning the lesson that sometimes failed attempts at things can lead to something new and exciting!

Two dream quotes that I love and wanted to share:  "Every great dream begins with a dreamer."  Harriet Tubman and "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."  C.S. Lewis

Lately, my dreams involve having few or no commitments or appointments -- being able to read under a shady tree, paint as long as I'd like, and spend time in my garden.  Also, I am missing the joy I get from our service work in Guatemala working with From Houses to Homes, and dream of returning there soon -- maybe for several months this time...

What do you dream?

Taking it to the Second Floor

Julie Fei Fan Balzer posted the Second Floor challenge today, which was to create something inspired by circles using techniques outside of your comfort zone.  What to do?  After sketching, painting, doodling, I was coming up with nothing.  Also, Laura posted her Diva challenge today, which was to do something in sepia tones.  My initial thought was that I wasn't going to participate because one color family, let alone sepia, just isn't my thing.  I LOVE color -- the more the better.  But then, a light bulb went off  --- combine the challenges.  Do something inspired by circles in a color palate outside of my comfort zone.  What would it feel like to limit myself to colors in the sepia family?  And here's the result. 

I started off with a big circle, but then immediately felt confined.  But I decided to press on.  Sepia reminded me of nature, and so I drew a tree.  I've been wanting to draw these chickens ever since I saw them in a Zentangle book.  Using circles (well ovals) in the tree, filling in the grass with more circles, adding lots of gold circles behind the tree, and using circles to border the original circle, was fun and inspired lots of variations.  I went out of the sepia family with touches of green and red, but there's brown mixed in to everything.  I like it!

My takeaways from these challenges:

1.  Never say never.
2.  Experiment with different colors - put aside the tried and true for something different.
3.  Sometimes creativity can emerge from confinement and limitation.

Supplies used: H2O paint, Sakura pens and Koi watercolors.

Kindness Matters

I feel very honored and surprised to be named the winner of the "Scrapping the Music" challenge last week for my design: "Sparkle."  This was a very heartfelt design - inspired by the death of a friend's mother and I am so glad it resonated with the "Scrapping the Music" people. 

It was really great to have this positive news today, as this was a difficult weekend on certain levels.  On Saturday, my family came over in the morning for Mother's Day.  Later in the day, we had a "Hunger Games" themed birthday party planned for Samy, my (now) 11 year old.  Unfortunately, right at the start of my family party, my brother and I exchanged harsh words, and he ended up leaving.  My brother has a difficult history in my family - he is almost always angry at my mother, my sister, or me.  On Saturday, it was my turn, and I am not proud of how I handled the situation.

As a yogi, I work hard to look at life's joys and sadnesses as all part of the circle of our lives.  All of my training on the mat is designed to help me take a deep breath before reacting, so as to not make difficult situations harder; and to realize that challenging moments, as well as positive and happy moments, all have the nature of changing.  It is not wise to get too attached to any of them.  And yet, despite all my study, meditation and practice, sometimes my wits abandon me and I do not act skillfully.  Saturday was one of those moments.   Later in the evening, I sent my brother a long text of apology, which is all that I can do.  And yet, it is hard to let go of my disappointment in myself.






But this is part of my training too.  When you do or say something you regret - recall it, express remorse, try to remediate it, and resolve not to do something like that for a reasonable amount of time.  And then move on.  Don't wallow in guilt - it doesn't make things better.  So this new design - "Kindness Matters," is my way of processing, remediating, and hopefully inspiring myself and others to react with kindness - with the best we have to offer.  It will always make things better. 

On a lighter note, the "Hunger Games" Party was a success - 8 girls created "arena" outfits for themselves, stood in hula hoops before a siren announced the start of the games, and then tried to eliminate each other with water guns and water noodles.  Lots of fun was had by all.