Dreams and Donations

I felt so behind with everything this week that I was in a constant spin trying to get things done without really getting things done!…Really neglected Mondo Beyondo and I was doing such a great job with focusing on this for one hour every day and then just lost it this week! So tonight, I decided I was worth spending time on and after the gym, I sat down with a nice cup of tea and spent a good 2 hours catching up….it really centered me again, asking me to take another look at my Dream Big List and asking some challenging questions, prompting me to Be Vulnerable, Be Brave, Be Flexible, Be Open and Be Trusting… I’m almost ready to share but please give me 2 more days to be all of those things so I can post it out here for all to see… (Yikes)

So something good to end this manic rollercoaster week is that I’m very happy to have donated art to two worthy causes. Friday night, a framed “Inspiration Tree” print will be auctioned at the Hoboken Rotary Club for the Hoboken Rotary Foundation & Hoboken University Medical Center Foundation and then on Saturday I have donated $100 worth of art cards, prints and other items to the Haiti Fundraiser being run by a friend of a friend in Brooklyn at their new bar “Woodwork” If you are in the area, check it out. Kelly Rae also posted another dose of her daily inspiration by donating an original painting of hers in exchange for monetary donations to the Haiti fundraising efforts and to assist a dear friend of hers, some lovely comments posted if you get a chance to read them.

So happy thoughts for Friday……Do something that makes you smile lots this weekend, with people you love and places that inspire you. Alternatively give yourself just one hour to do whatever you want to do if your weekend is too manic. You are so worth it.

Image above is a detail of one of my "Wisdom in the Trees" Series. Original, prints and cards available in the shop. :-)

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Glorious Glass

Such a gorgeous day weatherwise today. I was excited to wake to the sunshine and in anticipation of week two of my stained glass window glass at the Jersey City Artschool. I dabbled a little with glass about 10 years ago mainly painting on glass bowls and other items and a little stained glass design but its great to work with this medium again and the new possibilities are so endless that my head is spinning thinking of all the fabulous designs I could try out. Of course I was a little ambitious with my first design I drew out, so im trying something a little simpler.

Class #1 was really all about drawing out my design and getting to grips with cutting the glass, so this week I jumped straight into cutting and was sooo pleased to get most of the design cut out without too much breakage. (see top photo). The light coming into the studio was amazing so choosing glass was a lot of fun to see how it would look against the light.


Keith who teaches the glass has some fab work and he really opened my mind to the different types of designs you can now produce with stained glass. 4 weeks left of the class and I'm excited to see how i get on next week where i actually start soldering the pieces together YAY!

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Ladies with Intention for 2010

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about the joy of ritual, vision boards and setting intentions for 2010. Well over the weekend I held a little brunch with some girlfriends where we all came along to create our own vision boards for the year ahead. We had a wonderful afternoon, magazines all over the floor, champagne, food and some great chats. Some even stayed at my place into the evening, creating their vision boards, talking about what each picture or series of words meant to them, discussing dreams and goals and also offering advice and support to others in the group. It really was an inspirational, creative and exciting day… I felt exhilarated by the end of it and I know others were too, excited to get their boards up on their walls at home (either publicly or privately) and most importantly a great start to making things happen for 2010. I'm pictured above with mine, which is not finished yet!


The other lovely little idea which we repeated again this year was to bring an inspirational gift worth $5 or less, wrapped and also including an inspirational anonymous message inside. We all sat down with a glass of champagne and randomly received presents. We then went around in a circle each opening our gifts and reading the message out loud. It was so lovely to hear what friends had written and given and everyone felt a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

To also offer ongoing support we will also circle back regularly using a private group feature on a community we site we all use to track progress, discuss thoughts and support each other with completing everything on our boards for 2010! Cant wait for when we all get together again to see how we are all doing.

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The Time is Now! Listen to your Universe.

Day 4 of the Mondo Beyondo Course and I have to say I’m loving it! There are posts every day, which at first I thought would be a little too much but they are such fabulous thought starters that I cant wait to log on to see what delights await. We are also just getting to know the other souls on the course too so its wonderful…. There is another funny story there which I may elaborate on another time, but my friend Diane is also doing the class and we are both in the Lavender group, now the universe is trying to tell us something as Lavender comes up in our lives often, so we are hoping that Mondo Beyondo might help us work out why!...anyway….

So before I got to check out the course, I had a dentist appointment and not that I am ever eager to get to the dentist I was early so picked up the Oprah Mag “O” in the waiting room (well actually, it was sitting next to me screaming to be read when I sat down)….. upon opening it I found a story on “The Art of Perfect Timing”, discussing how some tune in to their timekeeping impulses and recognize when the time is right to go for it! (which others sometimes perceive as “Lucky”). Author Martha Beck goes onto say “Ironically, the only way to access your inner guide about the future is to fully occupy the present. By noticing everything you're feeling—physically, emotionally, and intuitively—in any given moment, you maximize your awareness of the "exquisitely refined" nonverbal timekeeper nudging your noggin.”

So, I mulled this over and when I got home found that today on Mondo Beyondo there was an audio interview waiting for us with SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy), who I had not heard of before. She talked about why dreaming is so important and how dreams continue to shape us our whole lives long. The interview was honest and inspiring and two things resonated with me, that made the connection with the article I mention above…..SARK said “Dreams Don’t Go Away” and later on went on to comment that “The universe knows when it’s the right time”….so when I heard SARK mention this, I smiled to myself as I am constantly saying to friends when they have ahha moments, that “The universe is sending us messages everyday, we just don’t always listen as there’s too much distraction in the world, the ahha moments are when we listen and take action” I have to say that since I got rid of my TV (June 09) and have been spending more time creating, writing, thinking and listening, I have certainly been living more “in the moment” and listening to “the universe”. I know many think I'm crazy for saying that but I have had some cracking ahha moments recently! I think only when you do take notice of those messages and your inner guide sets off that alarm clock in your head that you realize that now IS the right time.

Want to start practicing "living in the moment?" Here's some simple things to get you started

For image Credit click here

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My Word for 2010 and Dreaming BIG with Mondo Beyondo

Okay so im a little behind in setting my intentions down on paper for 2010, but after next weekend I would have spent the first twelve days contemplating, dreaming and planning and I’ll have my vision board completed so I feel that going slow now to go fast later is okay! ;-)

So I’m VERY excited to be starting the Mondo Beyondo ecourse on Monday on dreaming big… I’ve already started to write down some big dreams which I will share (not quite ready yet!) and one of the exercises Andrea and Jen gave the class before we start was to choose a word for 2010 which I think is a fabulous idea! Drum roll plllleeeaassse…



I have chosen “Jump!” or more like “Leap” or “Leap Fearlessly” or “Leap Courageously”… okay so that’s more than one word and now you can probably all visualize me jumping in the air! but I think you can get where I'm going with this. Want to give it a go? There is a great tool to help you think through what you want your word to be, triggers or blockers and also to dream big, so as outlined in Christine Kane’s “ word of the year worksheet” these were the words that I think best described what this year will be. Two of the many questions asked of me were:

Why is this a perfect word for this year?
After a promising start in 2009, this is the year for me to take more courage to follow my dreams…. I’m always trying to do far too much and as we all know this means 100% of ourselves split between all those things which = lots of effort but something probably has to suffer and you cant make EVERYTHING you are doing at the same time a success (unless of course you don’t sleep), so I need to Leap Fearlessly into what I want and also jump away from the things that are not fulfilling my life or contributing those small steps to get to where I want to be. (sound familiar?)

If you were to live this word daily throughout the year, how would your life be different one year from today? What would you have created or attracted? How would you feel?
One year from now, I would be focused and living the life I believe is possible, (which for some reason I’m scared to go for right now!) I would have created and built real connections with a community of artists, taught and shared techniques with others, exhibited, sold and licensed work, attracted people and opportunities to grow, explore and learn. I would feel inspired, admired (for my courage) and most of all an example that dreams can be made a reality, a success.

I will be working on part 2 (Awareness and Elimination, know your triggers) and of course part 3 “Dream Big – Know Your Vision” over the next few weeks, so I’m excited! Cant wait to share.

So dear virtual friends, WHAT IS YOUR WORD FOR 2010?

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First Twelve Days of January - Whats Your Vision?

Oh my I have jumped into 2010! My usual of getting so excited that I want to get everything accomplished now! But after reading Kates blog am thinking I should take a leaf out of her book (or blog should I say) and “Ease” into the year.

So to get 2010 started with ease or speed whatever is your preference, remember to be mindful of the first twelve days. In a recent blog post, I mentioned the “Joy of Ritual” by Barbara Biziou and would you believe it, my friend Diane rang me up after reading that post to say she had already bought the book for me for Christmas before I posted the entry! How great is that! Thanks universe (and Di of course). So under “New Year”, Barbara says that the first twelve days of January are the most important for the year ahead, each day representing the months of the year. So 1st is January, 2nd is February and so on… “By practicing loving kindness, openness and generosity, while giving thoughtful attention to the significance of each day, you will consecrate the coming year.” Barbara goes on to say that one of the intentions for this time is to create a vision board/collage that expresses your resolutions.

This is something that some of my girlfriends and I will be doing at my apartment on Sat 16th. I forgave myself for not being able to do this within the first 12 days, but as I wanted to get creative with friends and hold my 2nd annual "Intentions Brunch", this was the first date available. :-) I’m sure it will be a fabulous exercise for all of us to focus for the year ahead. Last January we shared our intentions for 2009 and exchanged inspirational gifts so will be doing the same a week on Saturday - cant wait!

If you don’t have “The Joy of Ritual” which also walks through a “recipe” for creating the vision board, including burning white sage for purification, check out this blog entry I found on creating vision boards which I liked and thought I’d share with you all. Christine Kane does a lovely job of describing the different kinds of vision boards too.

Vision board image credit

Would love to see photos or hear your thoughts on this ritual and also what your first twelve days are bringing to your 2010…

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