di-did-it: you are worth the time

Click here to find my OWOH post or scroll down 2 posts. But first...

This is too imporatnt not to be shared. So powerful, so inspirational, so beautiful! If not for OWOH I may never have found Di of di-did-it and never seen this video. I hope you will take the time to watch and find the time to create....

di-did-it: you are worth the time

Be Happy, Be Healthy, Be Safe,
Tess

P.S. Find my newest article "How to Use Ground Beef, Chicken or Turkey To Stretch Your Food Budget" published on AC here.

Snowy Inspiration

Happy Sunday, I had so much fun creating and photographing these wonderful words in the snow yesterday and today. I just couldn't wait to share with all my online friends.

Be Happy, Be Healthy, Be Yourself,

Tess

P.S. See More Here on my AC site.

January's Journal Challenge Days 23 and 24

Greetings all, We woke to a light dusting of snow and colder temperatures this morning. I was so glad to be home when I got off work yesterday and to know that we could actually have a decent meal for supper. Chuck grilled steaks even though it was cold outside and I baked us a potato. We usually have a salad or vegetable too but decided not this time. Then after supper we played dominoes until bedtime. No crafting or journaling or painting happened yesterday I sadly admit. But, sometimes our spouses need our attention and our creativity needs a break. I woke feeling refreshed today and even though I have a mound or two or three of laundry to do as I am doing my daughter and her families laundry also this weekend I felt great and like it would be a nice slow day. So far I've started a pot of soup, washed and dried several loads of the laundry and I made this:

I revisited the earlier watercolor drawing I had done on regular paper and decided to try it on watercolor paper and to change it up a bit. In honor of Valentines Day I decided to paint blossoms of "Hearts and Soul". I used watercolor pencils and drew on watercolor paper this time. I found a small brush works good for me to wet the colors with. The butterflies are stamps painted with water and then rubbed with the watercolor pencils. The stamp design is from a set of stamps I bought from the Unity Stamp Co. 's August Kit of the Month called "remember happiness". All of the designs from this set were created by JessiLynn of Vol.25. She is a wonderful artist and designer and has a great blog and etsy shop. Check her out.

Yesterdays challenge from Misty was to create something inspired by your favorite artists. I kept this in mind when creating the painting above. Two artists came to mind, Jodi Ohl of sweet repeats and Jessi Lynn of vol25. Jodi loves hearts as does Jessi. I wanted to use one of the stamps I had bought that Jessi created . I chose the title "Hearts and Soul" because I truly believe that both Jodi and Jessi pour their hearts and souls into everything they create. OMG, I could say this about every one of the wonderful artists I have found here in blog land. Here are some links to some of my other favorite artists that seem to inspire me everyday:

Misty Mawn

Nina Bagley at Ornamental

Jude at Spirit Cloth

Red Velvet Art (Four of the loveliest and most talented young ladies I've ever come across.)

Sweet Repeats

Art du Jour

elvie studio

and so, so, so many more.

Of course there are those other artists, the ones long gone that inspire us all. Such as da Vinci , Picasso, Renoir and Monet. And I can't leave out Andy Warhol.

Today's challenge from Mist is to create a piece of art and give it away. I'm not sure how to do this but I do know what I want to do. I would like to give this watercolor painting away to someone here that continually comments and encourages me. I will gather some surprises; papers, artist trading card, cloth and maybe even some upholstery fabric swatches to send with this little painting to this person. The painting is rather smallish. It measures approx. 5 1/2" X 9" and is Staedtler Karat Aquarell Watercolor Pencils on Canso 90 lb. watercolor paper. I used Sobo Premium Craft & Fabric Glue to attach the dictionary word. I will put all commenters (to this post) names in a bowl and have my husband pick a winner on this coming Monday evening, 6PM CST. The winner will then just need to send me an address and wait for their surprise to arrive. Good Luck!

(I must admit I feel foolish as I am thinking right now, "Who will want this?" But I worked hard on it and giving of oneself is a good and postive thing so here goes....)

Tess

Have you encouraged someone today?

There are times when one of those generic e-mails that are sent around and around the world finds it's way to your inbox and you can really relate to it. This happened to me today. I often wish the author's name of the wonderful quotes or essays were included in these e-mails but they usually are not. We take a chance of infringing on someones copyright if we reproduce the content on a blog or website. Sometimes the content makes taking that chance worth it. If anyone knows the author of the following I will gladly give credit where credit is due. I enjoyed this immensely and am sure you will too. Read on:


Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants. The race began.... Honestly, no one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as: "Oh, WAY too difficult, they will NEVER make it to the top!!" Or "Not a chance that they will succeed, the tower is too high!" The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher…The crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!" More tiny frogs got tired and gave up....But ONE continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn't give up! At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top! THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it? A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal? It turned out....That the winner was DEAF!!!!
The wisdom of this story is: Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or pessimistic because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you -- the ones you have in your heart!
~ Author Unknown


Always think of the power words have. Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions! And remember everything that you say and write will affect another.


Therefore: ALWAYS be.... POSITIVE! And above all ~Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams!