I nearly always carry my camera with me.  I am ready to snap anything that might be interesting to share in my blog, or use as an image in art.  But, you know what? I hardly ever actually get it out and use it.

Partly because I’m not a good enough photographer to catch things quickly that actually turn out good.  But mostly because I’m embarassed.  I dont’ want to look like a tourist plus I worry about people getting upset with me for taking their picture.

I hadn’t given it a lot of thought until yesterday when I saw such an amazing thing and would have loved to have taken pictures of it.

I was in the dollar store when I looked out into the parking lot and saw a very, very large man stuck in his car window - half in, half out.  Apparently when he returned to his car, a car had parked so close to him that he couldn’t open the driver door.  Why he didn’t go around to the other door, I can’t imagine, but he didn’t. Instead, he thought it would be a good idea to crawl in the window.

The driver who parked next to him finally returned and moved her car, but by this time the poor guy was just stuck.   He was able to gradually push and push to get himself unlodged and get out of the window.  Then he opened his door, got in and drove off.

But, alas, I have no pictures.  I only have pictures of my sweet grandbabies :)  They let me take all the pictures I want.

Do you take snapshots of random things?  If so, please leave a comment with any  suggestions on how I might get the nerve to start taking more photos.  Or how you approach situations where you want to take pictures.

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This is a day of wonderful happenings!!  I’m a featured artist today on Skwiggazine.

Skwiggazine is an online community for artists. Their mission is to inspire and promote each other.  Please take a look around and see if it you think it might be a community for you.  I’ve been amazed at the dedication and altruistic help that they offer the members!

My art and bio will be posted at noon today on the front page. Not sure what time zone, so it may already be up.

I’m just so danged blessed!! 

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His name is Alex.  Don’t you just love this?  In case you can’t read the small print on Lotus’ monitor, she’s on the Creative Clown site :)  Go visit her blog to read Alex’s description of his drawing.  It’s wonderful!

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I am presenting  the  Arte Pico award to the following five blogs.
To be listed is considered a “special honor.” The Arte y Pico Award is meant to be paid forward to bloggers who merit recognition for their creative efforts.

A Creative Journal by Heather

Back Yard by Eliza

Layers Upon Layers by Cyndi

Honor Yourself by Terri

Judith Heartsong by Judith

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Journaling is a great way to get rid of the garbage in your head.  Everyone has some - worries,  deadlines, to do lists, “I’m too fat”.  This brain garbage keeps us from being able to reach our creative thoughts.

It’s hard to be creative when you have all that chatter going on.  And it’s often not just one “voice” that’s chattering.  It’s a din of voices all vying to be the center of attention.   If a creative spark does break through the noise, it’s hard to remember it later because of the junk that’s happening.

Journaling allows you to get all that garbage out of your head an onto the paper.  I don’t know how it works, but it really does clear your mind.  After you’ve written it down, your mind will be quieter, cleaner.

The results last a while, too.  Your mind will be clear for a while after you’ve written all the junk in your journal.  If you journal regularly, you’ll find that your mind becomes clearer and clearer just from writing the garbage and getting it out of your mind on a regular basis.

I find that when I clear my mind in this way, I am then calm and can find my creative ideas and keep them.  In the past, I have kept a “junk journal” where I wrote nothing but the buzz going on in my head just to clear it out.  Now I have one journal for everything.  The junk goes right in there with the art and all my profound thoughts

Try doing a brain dump.  My friend, Kristina, calls it “spiritual vomiting”.  Declutter your brain and make way for your beautiful creativity to shine through.

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I believe that it’s important to look into our past to find clues that will help us live better today.  Finding the causes of some of our behaviors gives us information we need in order to change those behaviors.   Understanding how I adapted to my environment as a child has given me valuable insight and allowed me to choose how I respond in most areas of my life as an adult.

But where is the fine line between using the past as a tool for growth, and dwelling in the past?  The key difference is whether we are living in the past or just visiting it long enough to get what we need to heal.  Recognizing patterns in our responses requires that we find the first time we had that response.  Taking that trip back to childhood is necessary but we don’t have to pack a trunk and make it an extended stay.

If I can tell you how my childhood affected me in some way that I don’t like, and I can also tell you how I’ve used this knowledge to be closer to who I want to become then I’m healing the broken places and becoming stronger.  But if I just want to tell you how hard I had it, that’s not helpful to me or you in any way.  It actual weakens us to relive, over and over, the hurts we’ve suffered.

Forgiveness of those who hurt us, and of ourselves, as well as gratitude are the best tools for living in the here and now.  This is what makes us able to be strong in the broken places.  Resentment, self pity and staying in the role of victim hold us in the past, rob us of our joy and prevent us from spreading love.

Journaling about past hurts is a wonderful tool to help us move from resentment and anger into forgiveness and release.  Try writing about a past hurt when you feel ready.  Write all the details you need to write until it’s all out.  Only then should you move to work on forgiveness.  It may take a whole journal to get it all out, but once you start you are on your way to becoming stronger.

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I really like it but not a lot of my friends are on Twitter, so I’d love it if more creative people joined in the fun. It’s a cool way to keep up with what’s going on in your friends’ lives throughout the day.

If you want to join and follow me go to http://twitter.com/zura and choose “Follow” after you’ve set up your Twitter account.

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The idea is to use the items that cross your path during the day.  By using ordinary items from your daily activities, you create a page in your journal that tells about your life but isn’t necessarily colorful or well constructed.

This image is a page out of one of my gluebooks.  You’ll see some torn papers from some bills I got that day.  THe brown sack is from Cracker Barrell where I bought a candle (the drawing).  In a catalog I got that day was an advertisement for a book (?) called The Wilder Sister (the image in the lower left) and I identified with that title.  The other words and images are things that I came across somewhere during the day that resonated with me.

If you’d like to look at some more professional gluebook artists, check out these sites:

http://www.squidoo.com/gluebooks

http://www.flickr.com/groups/gluebooks/

http://www.gluebooks.com/index.html

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/gluebook-2002/50481

Go glue something! 

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Walk through the different rooms where you eat, sleep and live. Bless the walls, the roof, the windows and foundation. Give thanks for your home exactly as it exists today; sift and sort, simplify; and bring order to the home you have. Realize that the home of your dream dwells within. ~ Sarah ban Breathnach

Being somewhat displaced, I’ve been very aware of what the word “home” really means lately.  All but my most personal belongings are in a storage building 600 miles away.  It has taken me several months to develop a sense of home where I live.  It has, however, given me the opportunity to look at what it is that makes a home.  It’s not the furniture I own,  nor any of the items used to adorn.  It’s the heart of the person who resides there and how they express themselves in their dwelling.

I recently saw Mister’s home for the first time.  It told me so much more about him than anything he could say.  It’s a fantastic old home with all sorts of nooks, crannies and possibilities for creative expression that blow the mind!  But, more importantly it told me that his priorities are faith, family and fun…with a bit of being well organized on the side.

Our homes, in many ways are an exact symbol of our lives.  If we are waiting for someday to appreciate our home - til I get new furniture, til I get it painted, til I get a new home - we are unable to be truly grateful for the heart of it now.

One of my favorite quotations is “Home is where they love you.”  That, and that alone, is what makes a home a home.   The physical objects in the home are not important, but what dwells within the soul of a home is.  What does your home say about you?

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Because I was working at Artella at that time, I got very busy and didn’t have time to lead the group the way I wanted, so I just offered to course as a download and you could go through it at your own pace.

Now that I have more time, I’m starting it again as a group course.  This session will begin June 30th.  Everyone who signs up will be taking the course together.  We will all participate in my Fun Journaling yahoo group, along with the people who have taken the course in the past. To read about the course and sign up, go here.  The course will not be offered again until this group finished the course.

If you’ve taken this course before, and would like to sign up again for only $5.00, you can re-take it with us!  Just click here to sign up.

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