living artfully

live a better life

September is a big month for online classes! There are quite a few that I was tempted to join, like...

• Shimelle Laine's "Learn Something New Every Day"
• Elise Blaha's mini book workshop
• Cathy Zielske's "Me: The Abridged Version" at BPS
• Jessica Sprague's "This Old Photo: Restoring Vintage Snapshots" 
• Crystal Wilkerson & Kristina Proffitt's "Blog Design Basics"
• Willette's "Finding Your Joy: Capturing Your Life Thru Photos"

If only there were more hours in a day! I'm still thinking hard about "Me: The Abridged Version," but the rest I'm passing on for now. Instead, I'm using September for personal growth.

I learned about The Personal Excellence Blog through my blog friend Lee, who has a special talent for always sharing the most inspiring links in her thoughtful posts. The author of the Personal Excellence Blog, Celes, is inviting readers to join her in September for a challenge to Live a Better Life in 30 Days.

Every morning for the month of September, Celes will be sharing an activity that helps to move you toward living a better life. The activities, which take 15-45 minutes, will be posted on her blog or you can subscribe via email. I plan to keep a private journal and an open mind... depending on the activity, I may post about the challenges here, too.

I'm very excited to take this opportunity to grow a bit! Do you have any plans for classes in September?

 

creative style

In the last month, I haven't had as much time to be creative as I'm used to. I've also been feeling not quite myself. I've believed for a while now that I need time to be creative to be my best self and I can't help but think about the possible connection between my lack of creative time and my mood and energy levels.

I recently came across a quiz on creativity while reading 17 west lane. Have you thought about your relationship with your creativity? Take the quiz from Psychologies magazine to see their take on your creative style.

I wasn't surprised by my results and found the description mostly accurate. For me, creativity is a release.

For you, creativity is first and foremost a form of expression: it creates a special link between the internal and external worlds. It allows you to get a grasp of your powerful emotions, by moulding them into a physical form. In fact, the most important thing for you is to be able to release your emotions. You need to be able to touch them or look at them in concrete form, and to do that you have to find a way to make them come alive. This is how your desires and anxieties take shape. Keeping things bottled up creates a tension that can only be resolved once you have expressed how you feel. [...] Creativity is principally cathartic. It relieves a deep need, an almost primal, archaic impulse. For you, being creative is about having the power to give form to something you feel...

 

I really do believe that spending time doing creative things is cathartic to me, that it is something I need to do. I get so much joy out of scrapbooking, playing with our cameras, or testing new recipes in the kitchen.

Life is good right now, but busy. I'm going to relish every minute of creative time I get! I'd love to hear your thoughts on creativity and this quiz!

 

chicago mini album

Earlier this summer, we had the best trip ever to Chicago. It was just a weekend trip, but we managed to visit so many amazing places... and I managed to take 200 hipstamatic pictures!

I knew that I wanted to do something special with the hipstamatic prints and the memorabilia, so I decided to alter a 4X6 photo album into a mini scrapbook. I picked up the album while in Chicago at Paper Source, while browsing the shops in Lincoln Park. I think the cover is the perfect nod to the vintagey photos inside!

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To create the album, I started with a 4x6 vintage camera photo album by Galison. I removed the wire rings contained within the album, then cut the spine in half to create separate front and back covers. Once I had all the patterned paper cut to fit within the album, I used a bind it all to put the whole thing back together with new wire rings.

 

 

We really managed to visit a lot of places in just two days! If you have any questions about the places we visited or the supplies used in the album, please leave a comment and I will be sure to get back to you.

Now I'm really missing Chicago! Good thing we'll be there again in two weeks for the Renegade Craft Fair. Have you ever been to Renegade?

 

right now

Right now I am...

reading the omnivore's dilemma


listening to mumford and sons

starting to collect priti nail polish




celebrating his arrival one year ago this month
 

thinking about starting a recipe blog

starting to raise money for breast cancer research

preparing for my brother's wedding in October

spending way too much time at work

and generally missing all things crafty!