There's something special about people with a common passion getting together to support or practice the subject of their enthusiasm. It could be an uplifting worship service where the singing seems as if straight from Heaven and the fellowship warms your heart. It might a really great sports game where all the fans are engaged, and the players seem to absorb the energy in the gym. Or it could be when a group of creative souls get together to share the thing that lights their cre8ive fire. That's why I wanted to be part of the Cre8ive Klatch. You can be a part of it, too. Follow the blog and join the Facebook group! We're first introducing the contributors, so head on over and meet the crew. Today is my day. Y'all may think you already know more than you need to know about me...and....um...that's probably true. But there are some other really awesome ladies on deck. You'll want to meet them. :)
When I was a kid living in the tiny little town where I grew up, going to the mail box every day was exciting. We used to get big fabric zippered bags of library books we ordered from the public library in the closest big city 60 miles away. People sent cards back then. I had pen pals and a long distance boyfriend or two who sent letters. Before computers, email, Facebook, texting, blogs and all the other modern conveniences that make it so easy to stay in touch now, I wrote long, long (really long) letters and mailed a lot of cards. I really love it still. I just don't take the time to do it anymore There is an inverse correlation between the numbers of hours I spend on computers and the legibility of my handwriting, which makes writing long, long letters less appealing.
But I still love going to the mailbox especially when I find something in there more fun than bills.
This summer, one of my favorite other artists to follow on Facebook and Instagram, Roben-Marie Smith had a giveaway of her newest class called You've Got Mail....Art on her blog. I was so excited to win a seat! But the summer turned out to be completely crazy with camps for my girl and my mom having surgery and my son going to college. I was able to watch the videos, but I didn't get to do any projects until the last couple of weeks. I have had a complete blast turning protein bar boxes and used manilla envelopes into fun art to help keep the United States Postal Service in business and make some mail boxes happy.
This is great class. It's very affordable and you have forever access, two prerequisites for me. The other is that it be AWESOME!! This is that, too!
I guess this blog has been serving as a stand-in for my long letters from long ago. But, I'm working on my penmanship so that I can send these off, too. May the good Lord bless you with a happy mailbox! <3 Lori
PS--Click here to check out the other bloggers participating in Blogtoberfest!
Yesterday was homecoming in our school district. As I was bringing my daughter home from school and she had her headphones jammed in her ears (as is usually the case these days with this well-practiced teen), I was thinking about homecoming and how this town doesn't feel like my "hometown". You know what I mean?
We live pretty far from school, so I had a lot of time to think. I started thinking about my school years and my mouth literally fell open and I lost my breath a little bit. I started counting decades on my fingers, and I realized that in two years it'll have been THIRTY YEARS since I graduated. That cannot be right.
*Our team mascot was the Bulldogs. The fact that the yearbook is called "The Kennel" is really quite disturbing. Someone should be punished for that.
But it is. I counted three times and then used the calculator when I got home. Thirty years. Dang. We moved in the summer between my sophomore and junior years. Because of that rather badly timed move, the old school is closer to being my hometown because I was there longer, but I didn't graduate from there. I graduated from the other school, but I was only there two years. I always kind of felt hometown-less.
::cue the tiny violins::
So all this thinking about "home" and what that means, as well as a custom order to make some little canvases for a homecoming get together of girlfriends brought a realization to me.
It doesn't really matter where life takes you. When you are with friends, you are home. That's the message the little canvases now carry for those girlfriends. And, because the sentiment struck me so much, I made a few more. And I'm giving them away! There's one giveaway on Instagram for two sweet little 3 x 3 canvases with the "My Friend My Home" message (one to keep and one to gift). All you have to do is follow me, share the giveaway photo (take a screen shot of it and then post it), tag me @LeissnerArt, and use the hashtag #myfriendmyhome. We'll draw on Wednesday night!
There's another giveaway on Facebook to celebrate reaching 700 friends! (Wow! That's so cool!) These are 4 x 4 wrapped canvas blocks. You can hang them or sit them on a shelf. And again, there are two...one for you and one for your friend! For that giveaway, just share the image from the FB post that uses the image below, tag my page @LeissnerArt and use the hashtag #myfriendmyhome.
Here's the small print. Both drawings will occur on Wednesday night. Also, I'm sorry, but these giveaways are open to US addresses only. I just can't afford international shipping for a giveaway. I hope you understand! xoxo Thanks for playing, friends! May the good Lord bless you this week with good friends who make their home in your heart. <3 Lori
It's been a long time since I've been here. I'm sorry. I'm making things like a mad woman for the arts and crafts show I signed up to do in July, which seems far away on the calendar but is very close in my head. So close it is sucking my breath from me. When I take time to think about it, though, I feel pretty good that I now know I can create under pressure, something I was not at all sure of until now.
products piling up on the ping pong table
I've been posting some of the stuff I'm making on Etsy and on my Facebook page as a kind of bets- hedging method. I'm sure all artists feel this way at one point or another..unsure if what they are making appeals to anyone but them (and their mom. :|) I'm feeling some of that uncertainty as I pile up the things I'm making and when I go to Hobby Lobby for paint but come out with paint plus 10 new surfaces (albeit little ones!). I really hope this works, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much in case it doesn't. I'm trying to be brave.
And so we start another week and almost another month. It's about this time of year that I get antsy for vacation. We are not sure we are going to get one this year together since we'll have one high school graduate heading off on an as yet unknown adventure and another one entering high school. Some friends of ours were headed off today to Myrtle Beach. I've never been there, but it's caused me to start thinking about a beach somewhere and to think rhyming beachy thoughts.
The Sea
I wish that I could
See the sea.
And let the waves
Wash over me.
So very happy
I would be
If only I could
See the sea.
May the good Lord bless you until we meet again with things to do, people to love, and sights to see.
My week, or at least the last parts of it, from instagram and some silliness from YouTube~~
My week started off beautifully when my "Love Birds" accompanied a great message about persistence from Brave Girls Club. Sqeeeee!
I got a happyhappyhappy shipment from Blick's Art Supplies with a load of canvasses and some other fun things to use during the holiday weekend.
These 4 x 4 canvas panels became spirit gifts for our girls basketball team who competed in the Area playoff game on Friday. They didn't win, but they played their hearts out. I heard they liked their little keepsakes.
Super sized red velvet cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting and Neocolor II's for Valentine's Day. :::googlyeyes:::
I restarted on a canvas that was a reject from my Flora Bowley class. It was a joy to paint over that ugly thing. When I got the this point, I stewed on it a while and didn't really want to go farther because I liked it. I sought advice from my arty friends and had a closer look at it and decided I could do some things.
This is not a very good photo. I need to figure out a better photo set up for night time picture taking. But this is what happened. It looks better and brighter in person. I've done a little more black detailing and need to do a little more coloring and paint the sides and it'll be good to go! The words are from the chorus of "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons. It was playing on Pandora while I was painting. When I hear it, it makes me happy and sing at the very top of my lungs. I've looked up the lyrics, and, honestly, I don't know what they may have meant to the writers. But to me, these few words are all I need.
Whatever it is that you are waiting to do until the "right time", do it. It's time to begin, isn't it?
And finally, a little silly thing from YouTube to share. During halftime of the girls' game, the student section made a video. The kids gathered costumes from who knows where. My son was wearing a gigantic blond wig and a collection of Mr. T-like Mardi Gras beads. You might be able to pick him out on the left side of the stands about halfway up.
I'm not counting on this week being as great as last week. But I'm already blessed way more than I deserve, so I'm grateful to God for dumping that bucket of happy on me last week.
I hope He has a bucket with your name on it this week.
I went to get my hair done today, which I really needed because I have two teenagers at home. Since it takes a few hours, and I'm antsy waiting so much, I always take a big stack of stuff to do. I read my Somerset Studio magazines, make lists, and sketch sometimes. I got these little journals a while back from Target. They have really durable, happy-colored covers and lines so my OCD doesn't get itchy when I try to write in them. I love them.
I was going to write some notes in it. When I opened it, though, I realized at some point I had designated it as a poetry journal. I found this silly poem I don't remember writing. It's dated May 15, 2012. It's not titled, so I'm calling it....
Grand Theft
The cat lost her mind.
The cat took my phone.
She went through my wallet,
And then she left home.
The dog asked to borrow
The keys to the car.
He said, "See ya later!
We won't go very far."
It's crazy! I know!
My pets ran away
With my car and phone.
Oh man! What a day!
I yell to my pets,
"Come back! You can't drive!
You also can't talk!
Can I get change for a five?!!"
But now I am petless
And carless, to boot.
They've left me alone
And taken my loot.
You cannot trust mammals.
That's what I've heard.
Now I've seen it first hand.
And I'm getting a bird.
"Date Night" available as a print in my Etsy shop today!
May the good Lord bless you today with sweet mammals in your life.
"I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am."
Syliva Plath
The Bell Jar
A wicked smart, mature-for-her-age, 16 year old girl posted this on her status on Facebook the other day. It hammered me in the head. It spoke to me so loudly that I immediately wrote it on my fresh, clean table paper.
And then it taunted me.
It needed to be something.
Something special.
I mentioned a while back in this post my love of boxes. My friend Susan of Susan's Charming Trinkets hooked me up with another huge stack of boxes. This is my box shelf in my new arrangement upstairs.
Since I replaced my desk with folding tables and lost all my drawer space, I need a place to put all my Pitts and Sharpies and Microns and Inkssentials. So I combined my need for a pen/pencil box with this quote that spoke to me.
Now I have a really special pencil box.
I still don't like to call this space upstairs a "studio". The title "artist" still sticks in my throat. I don't want to assume an identity that is not mine to assume. But, you know what?
I am. I am. I am.
Praying the Lord blesses you this week with that which quiets your braying heart and turns the harsh, loud cry to a sweet melody.
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