10 Loves (ok, maybe 11)

Altered Doll by Lani, textures from Kim Klassen and  FlyPaper Textures.

Here are 10 or 11 loves in response to Kim Klassen's invitation over at Beyond Layers.

I love Prospect Village, Nova Scotia and my life here, hubby & home, dogs, cat, friends, and the landscape.
I love and totally respect the Atlantic Ocean.  It's awesome and serious.
I miss the Pacific Ocean.
I love Taiwan and all things Chinese. 
I love my wild, crazy, color filled Chinese growing up years.
I love Chinese food.  My last meal on this earth had better be hot and sour soup with great dumplings.
I love altering old dolls.
I love distressed, worn, old textures.
I love making my own art journals.
I love making jewelry, art, sock monkeys, and puppets.
Last but not least, I love chocolate.

New Heart, what I learned from 6 Degrees of Creativity

Morning Pages Collage by Lani, texture from FlyPaper Textures.

Sadly, the workshops over at 6 Degrees of Creativity are almost finished.  It has been a great pleasure and a wonderful learning experience to be a part of the workshops.   Gretchen Miller put together a video of her art journal that she worked on for my particular segment, Six Easy Lessons for a Happy Artist's Life.  I love this kind of review!  Very inspiring and a really good termination exercise.  I thought why not create a blog post and some art work about what I learned over all during my time with 6 Degrees of Creativity?

There is plenty of inspiration within 6 Degrees of Creativity to learn and enjoy so much, since the workshops were about art-making, connection, & collaboration.  I learned a very simple method of building community, and that is art exchange.  We had so much fun with the sock monkey exchange and the artist trading cards exchange.  A lot of good, creative feelings were encouraged through these exchanges.

Sock Monkey "Little Red" came all the way from Italy to join my monkeys.  Her maker, Lizzie, is most welcome to come visit Nova Scotia any time!

Here is my ATC treasure!  Thank you so  much Gretchen, Brenda, Gayle, Petrea, Suzanne, and Marina! 


From Cathy Malchiodi, I got a lovely reminder to place gratitude where I can see it.  Create art around the theme of gratitude and hang it somewhere that I will see every day.  Looking at art work created from this perspective creates all sorts of good brain chemistry!   From Jenny Navarro I learned the importance of layering, creating depth and using lovely non-toxic materials to create magical transformations.  Oh my gosh, and from Katarina (Kat) Thorsen I re-learned the importance of having fun as we made and played with and exchanged many sock monkeys!  So much fun!  And from Kristina Bell DiTullo I was reminded to explore the everyday in relation to art and social issues.  Lovely discussions and sharing happened here!  

One thing I learned from Gretchen, was to create a collage with a word or idea which you are wanting to hold in mind or work with for the little while.  (See Gretchen Miller's Revolutionary Art Journaling process for more art and details.)   Compassion has been a part of my personal revolution for the past two years, trying to animate it in my life.  Having been very well trained in judgement and critical thinking, this isn't always so easy.  So I believe the greatest thing I learned from 6 Degrees of Creativity was to find new ways to build and work with compassion in art and everyday life.

“What I want in my life is compassion, a flow between myself and others based on a mutual giving from the heart” – Marshall Rosenberg

Collage by Lani, texture from FlyPaper Textures.

"Where Dreams May Go"

Collage by Lani, Inspiration from Misty Mawn's Open Studio

Within your heart keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go, and sheltered so, may thrive and grow - where doubt and fear are not.  Oh, keep a place within your heart, for little dreams to grow
-Louise Driscoll

Thank you, Misty!

Stress Busting

Collage by Lani, texture from FlyPaper Textures.

One of my favorite exchanges over at 14 Secrets was a delightful Angelic exchange.  Participants listed what areas they would like angelic energy type assistance with and their partner sent them as much positive angelic energy, art, and ideas as possible.  My partner wished for assistance with stress at work and at school.  Well now the interesting thing here is the more I look for ideas and create little art pieces for her, the happier I got and the less stress I felt.  Very awesome experience.  You can read about my favorite stress busting ideas on the other blog, AND I found a couple of new ones to share!

The first one is pretty cool, and simple.  It's the research of Stephen W. Porges on the vagus nerve.  Really awesome material available out there in the virtual world.  Here's one little article to whet your apatite:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200706/mind-your-body-higher-road-relaxation

Another source of stress busting material is the research of Shawn Achor and here's a fun, informative, entertaining, stress busting Ted Talk for you.


Have fun and may your stress be busted!

Susan Tuttle's give-away.

Collage by Lani with help from Photoshop of course.

There's a wonderful give away on Susan Tuttle's website.  She's got a new eWorkshop coming up and it's well worth the look.  Spread the news and you might win a spot in her course!

Small, delicate, beautiful things...

Collage & drawing by Lani

Lee Chung-Ryoul, the director of "Old Partner" said, "I want to focus on small, delicate stories.  There's a beauty in things that aren't necessarily glamorous.  …I want to film something you can feel, not necessarily see."

I like that.  Small, delicate, beautiful things.  Everyday things that you might miss if you aren't careful.

So here's a brief list of small, delicate, beautiful things:
1. The Korean movie "Old Partner"
2. An amazingly beautiful writing App, Ommwriter
3. A lovely morning walk with "the boys"

Edward walking the dogs in a park in Halifax.

What are the color of your dreams?

Collage by Lani, texture from FlyPaper Textures.

What are the color of your dreams?  Playing with space, light, and color here on the Lani Puppetmaker Blog Spot.

Collage by Lani

 Here's to creating space for the unexpected!