Creative Headgear

I SWEAR I’ll be back later with a real post, but for now, I just wanted to let you know I put up today’s blog post over on the Everyday Artist blog. Go see me making an absolute FOOL of myself while rocking out wearing the family’s hats.

My first blog post is up…

…over at Everyday Artist. Come discover the hidden writer in yourself.

(I’ll be posting again tomorrow too, but it won’t have anything to do with writing. Promise.)

5-4-3-2-1… Blastoff!

The site is officially launched! The one I was telling you about yesterday. The one I’m really, REALLY excited about.

Sweet, kind, fiercely talented Danielle Donaldson asked me a week or so ago to be on her team. I love me some Danielle, and once she filled me in on the whole concept, I was MORE than happy to accept. The new site is here. (Once you get there and poke around for a bit, click on the “Team” link. That’s right… I’m “The Yard Dawg” and if any of you try to cross me, I’ll chew your asses off. LOL!) On the site, we’ll highlight Danielle’s digital designs, photography in general, and being everyday artists in many aspects of our lives.

We also have a blog. Secretly, I most excited about the blog. (Well, not so secret anymore. Sorry Danielle if that was the wrong thing to say. LOL!) There are 4 of us that will have a set day every week to blog (my day is Thursdays), with the 5th day being for guest bloggers, kid bloggers, etc. (we won’t blog on weekends). Each of us has a certain “specialty” that we’re best at/do most often/were chosen for/etc., but there will be a lot of cross-posting about particular aspects of artistic stuff too.

I’ll use a lot of my posts to get everyone to think about writing. Not novels, mind you, because hell, even I haven’t written one of those (yet). Just little stuff. Crazily fun writing exercises… Writing ideas that make you think (or not think if you’re so inclined)... Journaling projects that get your kids involved… Some easy stuff… Stuff that involves a little more thought… Generally, all aspects of the writing spectrum. Most people assume that keeping a journal involves long paragraphs, daily updating, etc. but it doesn’t have to be like that. My goal is to make people realize that capturing their moments and memories through writing don’t have to involve a lot of work. I even have writing and art projects in mind that involve nothing more than jotting down (literally) one word a day. It’s going to be FUN. I promise.

But I’ll also be posting about other stuff. Scrapbooking, easy home projects to create awesome artwork for your walls even if you’ve never scrapped a page in your life and don’t have the software tools to do what some other people can, make you realize how words and lyrics and nature and all sorts of other things can inspire us all, “art” in the sense of just looking at yourself and realizing that your everyday responsibilities as wives, mothers, sisters, chauffeurs, coaches, house cleaners, etc. (whether you realize it or not) make you force yourself to be creative and invent things and ideas that you normally wouldn’t.

There’s also a set day on the blog to get our kids involved in being creative and give other kids motivation and ideas for discovering their inner artist. Art knows no age limit, so we’re hoping you all realize that your kids are artists too and can often spark that inspiration in us (and other kids their age) that we didn’t even know was there.

It’s a new project, which means transition. So bear with us and let us grow and develop. We all have the same goal in mind and I promise that as we each blog over the next few weeks, you’ll watch us all grow and develop and find our own groove. I’m REALLY hoping that you’ll take the journey with us and pick and choose which posts you most relate to (or ideally, choose all of them! LOL!). Figure out where the “inner artist” in you really shines and then run with it. And if we manage to turn our vision into a reality, you’ll start to realize that you’re an artist in ways you didn’t even think about before. :)

So add the blog to your feed reader (and then actually read it), join in on the challenges when we post them, comment when you feel inclined to, and join the Flickr group (Tink & the two Kelly’s, I’ll kick your ass if you don’t… LOL!), and allow yourselves to grow right along with us. I swear on all things holy that if you stick with us and help us iron out the kinks, we’ll get you on the right path. I have WAY too many friends that say, “I wish I was as creative as you,” without even realizing that they ARE creative… just not in the same way I am. We ALL are in our own ways, and the blog is going to be about discovering how to figure out exactly in what way you are.

So here we go. Buckle up and ride along. :)

Where do I start?

Hmmm… starting points are hard for me, generally speaking, simply because I’m a rambling sort of chick. I jump from thing to thing… lose focus and then gain incredible focus at the drop of a hat… have too many thoughts swirling to possibly get them all down… So let’s get started.

Since being laid off, I’ve been busier than I was when I was working if that’s possible. But it’s almost all good, FUN busy stuff and not that “busy” that makes us want to rip our hair out (although I’ve had my fair share of that too).

But my biggest sucker of time has been a new adventure I was invited to participate in. I’ll give more details in the next few days, but a crazy creative friend of mine asked me to help her launch a new website with a fantastic concept. It does involve digital scrapbooking to an extent, but it’s so much more than that (in our heads anyway). It’s about discovering and nurturing the everyday artist in all of us.

Art doesn’t have to involve paint or scrapbooking or pencils or photography. Although all of those kick ass, “art” is so much more than that. It’s how we live everyday of our lives. It’s what we see when we look around in our everyday lives. It’s how we come up with solutions to the normal stuff in our lives. It’s the simple notes we jot down to our spouses and kids. It’s the recipes we event and the organizational solutions we come up with. It’s all of that and more. And the new site is going to reflect all of that. Me and 3 other women are going to do our damndest to make each and every one of you realize that you all have an inner “artist” in you begging to get out. And we’re also going to make you realize that you’re all creative in your own way and that the things you do everyday that you wouldn’t think twice about is art in it’s own way. I’m pumped. Excited. Motivated. Inspired. And I promise we’ll do our best to make the rest of you feel the same way.

I’ll be back in a day or two to post the link to the new site. It may take us a bit to really get in the groove and get the site exactly the way we want it, but I promise you that if you all take the time to transition with us, you won’t be disappointed. More details soon. Pinky swear. But right now, I have shitloads of stuff to do for the launch and I’m going to get my ass fired before I even start if I don’t get it done. So stay tuned. I really don’t think you’ll be disappointed… ;)

Let’s just let the pictures tell the story.

Since I obviously can’t be trusted or depended on to actually write any content on here these days (which is sad, since I’m often damn hilarious), I’m just going to post lots of photos of the past few weeks in our lives. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a total cop-out, but I’m cool with that. A picture speaks a thousand words after all, which means I just wrote 15,000 or so of them…

It’s fishing season here. The girls love fishing season.

Hannah continues to let everyone (including the Tooth Fairy) know who’s in charge.

Hannah’s dance recital is coming up soon.

We’ve all been doing lots of reading lately.

I made exploding photo boxes for Mother’s Day. Looks like a box, but when you take the lid off, the sides “explode” to reveal several layers of photos.

My girls get more beautiful by the day. :)

More later. I’m off to watch tonight’s “House.” :)