One Little Word 2014

One of the great things about One Little Word is that as much as I want to be the one choosing the word, this year the word has chosen me.   That word, the one that chose me is Mindful.  I flirted with the idea of going with Story.  It's a great word, and fun.  I do like telling stories.  Ask anyone who knows me.  Heck, read my posts.  But telling stories alone is not what I need to focus on in this new year.  What I need is to be Mindful.  And the stories can come out of that!

I did find a lot of wonderful quotes about the importance of stories in one's life.  I will incorporate those into my work in the OLW class.  And I'll share them here.  It's just I have a lot of important personal work to do this year.  And to do it, to grow, to glow, to move forward, everything needs to be infused with mindfulness.

 

I got the January prompt for my OLW class.  I'm really excited to start working on it.  It's all about intentions and defining my word and because it is Ali Edwards there is lots of opportunity to add art & creativity to this first page.  It also asks for a photo of me and I have a great idea of what I want that to be.  But you know, to take a photo one needs a camera!  And my camera's battery and charger have gone missing!  I know I had it at my dentist appointment in November. . . . where the heck did I put it down when I came home?  I know where the camera is, with the memory card inside, so no pictures have been lost.  It's just no new ones can be taken until I find the battery and charger (or wastefully have to buy another).  Ugh!

Have a wonderful day today.   My family will be watching the Rose Parade and between oohing and ahhing about pretty floats and the incredible use of flowers, I'll be exploring Mindfulness!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Being Mindful, Telling Stories

Since 2011 I have participated with Ali Edwards' One Little Word. 

 

In 2011 my word was Celebrate!

The word was always with me, in small ways and large.  It was glorious.  The next year I chose "Create" first, then switched to "Abundance."  What with one thing or another I never really did much with either word (or concept, I'm sorry to say).  I never even got around to choosing a word for 2013.  Struggling as I do to think of the new year starting in January didn't help either.

As a person who loves words, One Little Word calls to me.  And for 2014 I was determined to find a way to have a word that spoke to me and could begin in January when Ali's class begins.  Last September, when my year begins, I started thinking about words for 2014.
 

 I find it interesting the nouns that push me along.  My kids are great at shoving me in directions I need to go, but can't always see.  Travel always opens my eyes to possibilities.  It is easier for me to see where I want to go when I am somewhere else.  And recently the waistband of my favorite pants told me it was time to exercise.  

I began Yoga classes in early December.  For me, everything about Yoga is spiritual, ordered, thoughtful, balanced.  I wanted to bring those qualities into every part of my life.  I started thinking --how can I live a deliberate life?  Is there a word for that?  I stated my intention for a couple Yoga classes as listen for my word.  And I started what I always think of as fun, Library research!  I searched dictionaries and thesauri online.  I found a possible word, so I then went to the library mostly cuz I love looking up words in the OED.  But after dictionaries I branched out to other reference books.  Oh the things you can find in the reference room on Art, Literature, Religion, Education, Psychology, etc.

I determined on the word Mindful.  It was perfect in almost every way.  It just wasn't fun, jazzy, spendiferous.  It wasn't celebrate, the word that so perfectly defined my best year in memory.  But OK, Mindful is a grand word and maybe it was ok to have a calm, quiet word.  Do I want to have a calm, quiet life?  NO.  But maybe this is what I needed.  So I checked the catalog for books on mindful/mindfulness and I found Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally by Patti Digh.

In the preface, Digh states, "...we make sense of our lives through story.  Writer Flannery O'Connor said, 'A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is.  You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate.' " (p. xi)

And right then, reading that, I knew what 2014 was going to be about for me ~ being mindful and telling stories.  Stories are spendiferous!  They can be jazzy and fun.  They can also be mindful, kind, connected, artistic.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what this brings to my life next year.  How it may teach me to share stories in ways meaningful for the listener/reader, to find more real life connections, to help me believe it is alright to tell my stories.

One Little Word -- Blog Hop February

OVER-ABUNDANCE

I didn't do the prompt for this month.  I meant to, even as late as Feb 28th I thought, sure, I can do this.  And I haven't.  Still I signed up for the blog hop and I'm not going to bail on that.  So as I was driving around yesterday, assiduously avoiding being at home where I might work on the assignment, without my camera where I might take suitable photos, I thought.  What was so tough about this assignment?  What was the assignment?  What was so difficult about dealing with abundance this month?

"This month is all about cultivating an awareness of the ways in which our words exist in the world around us." 

Had I done this?  Not consciously.  However, this whole month I have been distinctly aware of how much stuff exists in the world around me.  And that has made me aware of the excesses of my word.  Over-Abundance -- too much to the point of overwhelm!

 At the beginning of the month a friend and I went to a large wholesale gift show.

Aisles and Rows of stuff to buy for one's shop.  Handmade jewelry, fancy china, stationery, books, linens galore.

Beautiful things.  Things from all over the world.  And every choice a company offers! 

After three days I thought my head would explode.

I returned home to an exciting prospect and a new direction for my shop. *I'll tell you about it when things are finalized.*  But it means the shop needs to be open, and also spacious inside.  And for the shop to be open a person needs to be able to walk in the front door.  And for a person to walk in the front door, etc, a lot of s-t-u-f-f needs to cleared off the floor and out of the shop.  I was confronted once again by an over-abundance of things.  

 I've been clearing out and doing displays simultaneously.

Here are 2 shelves ready for shop opening.

Pull back and you see chairs to be painted, ribbon to be priced and display pieces to be properly placed.

 Pull back further and you see what my month has been like.  And this is so much better; you can now see the carpet!  This is the over-abundance of things I have been dealing with.  I hesitated to show this full size. . . whew that's a lot of ****  Not the sort of photo I want permanently in my pretty OLW notebook!   So, I'll get to this month's assignment eventually.  Knowing what's going on with me always helps with stops & blocks.  I'm actually looking forward to taking photos that express abundance in a way that supports me.   It was not a very pleasant thought that my head might explode!

 

 

This blog hop goes live at 8 am pst, so check back after that if you're here earlier.

And now on to the next stop in the blog hop:

Margie            http://xnomads.typepad.com
Melissa S         http://blog.mshanhun.com
Sharyn            http://LaVieEnChic.com
Kimberlee         http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com
Jill              http://jillconyers.com/
Cheri             http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com
Cindy             www.cynthiacrysdale.com
Jenn              www.studiojenn.blogspot.com
Monica            http://scrapinspired.com/
Catherine         http://myview-catherine.blogspot.com/
Naomi             http://poeticaperture.com/
Jamie              jmpgirl.blogspot.com
Coley              www.coleybelle.blogspot.com
Melissa C          www.smudgetime.com
Donna              http://holimess.blogspot.com/
Monica B           http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/
Veronica           www.veronicanorris.typepad.com
Heidi D            http://mommy.heidimdavis.com/
Lisa               http://backtoallen.com/category/one-little-word/
Nikki              www.inkyart.com.au
Devon              http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com
Amanda             http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com
Brooklyn           www.everysnapshot.com
Kristina           http://hrinspirationfromthe403.blogspot.com/
Jen R              http://jenritchie.com
Kara               http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com
Eydie              www.whatwecreate.net  
Ruth               http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com
Missus W           http://www.mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/
Marilee            http://rose-brier.blogspot.com      <===== you are here.  Next is Cindy.
Cindy              http://seriousplay.typepad.com
Kaylea             http://www.myscrappylife.com
Dawn G             www.sunshineandcreativity.com
Rebekah            http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/
Becky              www.becky-handforth.blogspot.com
Orange Gearle      orangegearle.blogspot.com
Katrina            www.katrinasimeck.com
Jo                 http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com     
Nicky              Www.seejanebake.blogspot.com
Beth               www.thesingularlyordinary.blogspot.com
Kelly              http://mindingmynest.com
Tere               http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

One Little Word - Blog Hop January

My word for 2012 is Abundance.  Every month, as part of an online class with Ali Edwards, I receive a prompt -- that month's assignment.  For January, we are exploring our word:  "Name it. Claim it. Invite it. Define it." 

 

My finished page

 There are 5 cards with specific prompts and 4 cards to use as we are called.
Where one puts each card in the holder is also up to individual choice.

 Some of the other participants have specific colour schemes.  I'm not sure if I do, tho I like how everything looks so nice with the Japanese origami paper.  I have a feeling next month other colours will call to me and the album will end up a rainbow, or perhaps I should say an abundance of colours!

The cards in the next 2 photos were my favorite to make.  On both cards, the printed words were done on my computer.  I had to figure out how to fit the words on the cards and how to get the right color so they can be read but also act as a background for the stamped images.  I'm not the daughter of an engineer for nothing.  I liked the challenge!

I typed two sentences over & over again on this card.  The first talks about how the superlatives of Love fill all space.  The second sentence is "That is enough."  One of the concepts I am exploring is "what is enough?"   So this seemed a perfect background for my 2012 word.

I typed up all the synonyms of the words on my thesaurus card and ended with the sentence I used on the gray abundance card.  I stamped the sunflower on white cardstock, added gold embossing powder, then cut it out and attached it to the card with a mounting square to give dimensionality.
 

 Title Page attached to January prompts.

I was pretty obsessive about this month's assignment.  It's funny cuz I didn't think it had to be perfect.  It just had to look "right."  So, I started out doing all the prompts in my own handwriting.  It didn't look bad and generally I like my handwriting.  But it didn't look spectacular and I really wanted this to shine.

I know better than to compare myself to other artists.  Now knowing better and actually not comparing are of course two different things!  Still I know my competitive side and work really hard not to be held hostage by her!  So at least I finished version 1 before going to the class gallery to see what others had done.  I saw how some people had used typefaces instead of handwriting and I thought this looked really good.  So version 2  had all the prompts typed.  Again, it didn't look bad, but it seemed a little too much the same (which is just a nice way of saying bor-ring).  Version 3, which is what you see here is a combination of handwritten cards and typed cards.  I also changed the card stock from stark white to a softer white, slightly thicker & textured paper.  You should have heard my poor printer -- it did not like the soft white card stock -- and it sounded like an injured animal from Jurrasic Park.  Version 3 also included re-writing one of the prompts.  As I said, obsessive.  But now, DONE! And I'm pleased.  It is a nice beginning to my album.

Margie of Nihao, Cupcake is sponsoring this OLW blog hop.  So you may have come here from Carmen's blog.  I'm going to send you on to Kristina.  Click here to see her word.  Then she'll send you on to the next blog.  I'll be out of town when this post appears and I don't know what sort of internet connection I will have.  Which means I may not be able to get the list of participants added to this post ( it wasn't available when I left home)  Please click here: Nihao, Cupcake.to see everyone.  Bye and thanks for hopping by!

Marilee

One Little Word

One Little Word is a concept and a class with Ali Edwards.  2012 will be the second year I have signed up for the class and as the old year ends and a new year begins it is fun to look at the word that shaped 2011 and watch as my new word shapes 2012.

 Celebrate was my word this year.

And what a year of celebration it was.  2011 was my year of soixante.  Apparently in french this is the end of decade numbering; the next decade is soixante-dix, etc.  It is a pinnacle not an end!  This was pointed out by a dear young woman I met last summer in France.  Her mom is my age and she is my daughter's age (this kind of stuff matters to me!) and it was a joy to spend time with her.  Her take on age and numbers was refreshing and helpful and after that I just stopped worrying about the number!  I also loved being in a country where women of a certain age are admired and revered and not ignored.  Wonderful to see how much the French admire the wisdom years of living bring.
 

I have worn this Lisa Leonard necklace all year.

It has been a reminder of the word.  And sometimes it has just been a secret that even little things are worth celebrating!

So what is in store for 2012?

 

It chose me and it's perfect!

 I actually thought my word for 2012 would be "Create."  I bought a new Lisa Leonard necklace and everything.  But as I was talking to a friend about the whole "one little word" concept, it became apparent that "Abundance" was my word for the year.  So to the necklace I added a charm I got at Silver Bella and now wear it to nudge my creativity.

 

Title Page

One Little Word notebook.

As I wrote to a friend, who is also taking the course, 2012 is going to be all about being expansive in all aspects of my life:  Creativity will certainly be a part.  So will finding the funds to put a new, badly needed roof on part of our house!  I look to see abundance of spirit, creativity and peace as each month I delve a bit deeper into my word.

If that sounds like fun, join me on the journey. 

Have a Very Happy New Year!

2011, A Year to Celebrate!

I was born in a year that ends in 1, so this is a decade birthday for me.  Thinking about it last summer, I kinda freaked out.  I know it's only a number, still it sounded old to me.

Don't get me wrong . . .

 . . . I love my birthday, I always have . . . 

(That's my younger brother sitting next to me.)

   . . . I think of my birthday as this special, all-about-me day.

You can't really tell from the photo, but that was an amazing cake!  It was angel food, the kind with a hole in the center.  My mom was really good at cake decorating and she put a Barbie-like doll in the center and frosted her torso and the cake to look like a fancy ball gown!

These girls are ones I was at school with from 3rd grade thru HS graduation, or most of them anyway.   Two of them were at the  surprise "Sweet Sixteen" party my parents threw for me.  I was kinda delighted to see I remembered their names (my mom helpfully wrote them on the back of the photo).

 Ah, sidetracked by memories . . .

Back to how I got to declaring 2011 "My birthday year."

I was ready to make a big deal about this year's birthday, I just didn't know how to do so without making a big deal about my age!  (which I didn't want to do). I thought maybe I would celebrate for a month.  Jodie, at everything vintage, does.  If you want to see how she celebrates her birthday to the max, start here!  It is very impressive.  But I knew I would never be able to post everyday for a month!

 It's a birthday!  Every journal needs a little BLING!

I mentioned the birthday commemoration idea to a friend from high school, who turns the same daunting number and she said, "Hey Marl, it's taken you a long time to reach this age," (don't you love the honesty of old friends?)  "you should celebrate for a long time."

 

Age doesn't matter.  Friendship does!

And that was the seed of an idea.  To celebrate for the entire year.  It has taken on a life of its own, it's no longer about me and getting to a certain age.  It's about the word and the possibilities and having fun and going for baroque!  It has been such a wonderful process.  I have had the best time planning, and the year has only just started!

It's all pretty fluid, this year.  I mean, how can you plan out an entire year.  Well maybe some people can, but not me.  I change EVERYTHING, drives my son nuts.
But I did come up with some template ideas:
Travel, each season.  Mark that aspect of a year.
Make more art.  Just do it!

Have projects.  Take time for things I have ignored . . .

Get through the horrendous piles of magazines all over the house.  Read, rip out, recycle, give to the library mag exchange.

Read books . . .                                      

Art books for projects.

"The Classics:"  F. Scott Fitzgerald & Wm Faulkner because I assiduously avoided them in college and feel I should have read them.  Jane Austin &  Huck Finn & Steinbeck because I loved them the first, second or third time I read them!
Go Deep:  Delve into a subject that interests me.  Currently it's Native American culture, Crazy Horse and the warrior tribes.  Or the early women's movement in America -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Seneca Falls, et al.

Would art-making be easier if the worktable was kept clear?

Create!

maybe even get published.

Happy Pink Saturday.  Again, thanks Bev at How Sweet the Sound for hosting this great group of posts!

 Things completely unrelated to this post, but having to do with my daughter!
I was amazed when I saw the photo of me sitting in the chair.  I look so much like my daughter when she was this age.  Neither one of us has ever seen the resemblance, but that cute smile is a ringer for my sweet girl!

I had dinner with her last night and she had nice things to say about how I have aged.  It was sweet.  At 23 (silly girl!) she has been worried about getting older and looking like a wrinkled old crone.  She said that looking at me she realized she didn't have to look bad when she gets old, cuz I don't.  I recommended my pricey, but effective skin care regimen.