Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky ........... by Rabindranath Tagore

This weekend I have looked back and contemplated the paths in my life, namely those of which have been difficult for me and my family.
My conclusion is, from that hardship there has come betterment and wisdom in our lives.
I see growth and strength....I see compassion and compromise.....I see patience and tolerance.....and I see a love that has flourished and a family coalesced.

Yes, my sunset is colourful .... I am grateful and blessed.

Joyous and Triumphant

Me and my stuff

The craft fair was a success. I had a wonderful time and the atmosphere was a sweet familiar encounter.

Everything went smoothly...lots of room for set up...wonderful fellow crafters surrounding me....and best of all , my lovely daughter Ali by my side. Things would not have gone as smoothly without her. Her grace and calmness set the tone right from the start.

Arriving at 8:00 a.m. with our Starbucks coffee we found our table..we promptly put on table cloths and assembled displays and structures.

I hung my first decoration with shaky hands and suddenly that familiar feeling of "flight or fight" came upon me. I whispered to Alicia "I don't think I'm going to be able to be ready". She just looked at me calmly and said "It's OK Mom, you hang your decorations and I'll do the rest. We have lots of time."

And that's all it took. Her confidence was enough for the both of us. When it was all set up, it was great. Better than I had imagined.

The whole day was perfect. People were so complimentary and appreciative.

Yes, I must say it was an incredible day and I loved every minute of it.

A few pics of my menagerie of handmade eclectic paraphernalia...:)

To Market, To Market.......

To Market......To Market

One more sleep till the Craft Fair. I did it! I’m ready! It has been a wonderful adventure. I have loved every minute of it.....stressful and serene.

I also forgot how incredible it is to do things you truely love to do. It’s hard to believe the last time I did something like this was 9 years ago. Things have changed so much in the crafting world since then.....web sites, blogging and on-line communities, internet exposure for instant knowledge, crafting magazines to keep you up to the latest styles and techniques, ETSY...wow...(that’s my next move)....Yes, so much has changed since I did my last craft show. Back then, for me, it was a very solitude venture.  I’m so glad for the change.

Set up is at 4:00 to 8:00 this afternoon and I have those wonderful, little familiar butterflies in my stomache. 

Thank you all for staying by myside and offering your support this trip around.

                                   It was so nice to have the company.

xox carol

Time to go girls......

Harmonious Momentum

First off, I just wanted to thank all you wonderful ladies for stopping by my blog and tweeking my confidence just at the time when the "What the Heck am I doing" monster was starting to show it's face a little more often than I was comfortable with. Thx, thx, thx.......xo

After a few distractions and getting a little lost from the creative kingdom, I am back on the right track. It's amazing how much you can get done when you just start and move forward  (there's that mantra again, gotta love it).

Having a family pitch in with their support is such an inspiration in itself. Sometimes it's not as obvious as you would like it to be, but if you look at the big picture, it's always there. I had to step back and look at that BIG picture, and what a difference it made (thanks to a big sister that pointed it out for me when I was feeling a little blue and all alone)
How blessed I am...............

I thought I'd give you a look at where I am in my artist ventures.  I still have twenty days left. Two weeks to craft and the rest to do the final preps. Yeh!

....and to all who support me and for the many others you support in your ordinary days.....thank you a million trillion pounds!

craft show here I come............

this is where it all started

loved making these....

I purchased the images on the necklaces from ARTchix Studio
An on-line shop full of amazing art images

I'm almost there!

Moving Forward

This weekend I took the first step towards my next goal for this year......

The Royal Inland Craft Fair in Kamloops, BC

It was something I made myself commit to last year when I realized I wanted/needed to get back to the creative life I left so long ago.
I haven't participated in a craft show for 8 years and haven't left myself much time to prepare, so I'm a bit nervous.

I've decided to just 

"move forward and get done what I can get done" 

(my new mantra)

Just starting has made my weekend very productive..... 

Six more weekends like this and all will be  well!

Mixed Media using techniques from Kelly Rae's "Taking Flight"

Few original designs for Christmas decorations

New Beginnings...love, honor and cherish

My daughter, Ali has just married her love,  Jordan.

 Their wedding....an amazing event. 

Everything was perfect. 

The love surrounding it all was over flowing.

 We all had so much fun.

 So many wonderful people in one place. 

Wow!

I thought I'd share some of the memories of this cherished day. 

Ali and Jordan

Ali and her cherished and amazing Bridesmaids

Book "Lovers"

Roof Top

Another Chapter begins...............

So much to be thankful for. Welcome to our family Jordan!

My Square Foot Garden

June 30, 2010 photo

I have so many different passions in my life,  I thought I might start to share some of them. Give my blog a little more personality......

I love to garden and have been doing so for over 30 years. I should be an expert, but I'm not. Do I still love it? Yes! Every year things seem to go "a-rye" in the fields but I never get discouraged. This year, however, I picked up a new Magazine "The Urban Farm".  Wow! What a great magazine.  I love it. I read through every page.

www.urbanfarmonline.com

They had this wonderful article by Mel Bartholomew on how to grow a square foot garden. I have somewhat been doing the same thing over the last few years. My method, however, was more of the hodge podge garden and I never knew what was coming up were. But I really liked the idea of having little patches of plants here and there, rather than the straight row method.

Mel goes through his square foot garden step by step. It makes total sense and is really quite easy. So I thought this year I would give it a try.

July 30, 2010 photo

I LOVE IT!!!  I have hardly had to weed or thin out my plants. The varieties  I was able to put in the garden, almost doubled. It's also easy to reseed when one crop is done.

July 30, 2010 photos

Yes, after 30 years, I think I finally found my method and style of gardening that suits me.

Thanks Mel and the Urban Farm team!

Farewell to the Flight - Hello to the new Passage

I can't believe that our ecourse with Kelly Rae Roberts has come to a close. I won't say end because something like that never ends.

We were given an abundant amount of valuable information during the 5 week experience - we met many new friends - we came out of our boxes to experience the energy that was hovering around us.

How wonderful the experience was.

 Now we are.........

 to soar on our own

to use the knowledge we have gathered

and to live the creative life we imagine

I am ready to enter into this new passage. It will be slow at the start (because of my precious daughter's wedding in August), then steadily escalate....

http://kellyraeroberts.com/ecourses/

Kelly Lish's Give Away......oh lucky me!!!

                                                                    BEGIN......
                                                 http://www.etsy.com/shop/kelsetsy

What a incredible feeling I had when I checked my comments tonight and there was one from Kelly Lish.

Oh lucky me! I am the winner of Kelly Lish's give away that she posted yesterday on her blog.

I am so fortunate to be able to choose any print from her etsy shop. Oh my, there are so many I love how can I pick just one....

The one I ended up picking is called "BEGIN"...... I thought it to be a very good symbolism with
 Kelly Rae's flying lessons.

Begin......that is what I will be doing after the course is over.

Yes, I will begin..........

Thank you so much Kelly Lish. I am one happy Girl.
  
ps....I also have to thank Kolleen from Kolleen's blog "Heartwingedsisters" that is where I saw Kelly's link to her blog.    Thanks Kolleen,  

BIG and AMAZING.......one more week to go and we will be flying on our own...

My journey with Kelly Rae (an online e-course: "Flying Lessons")  and my many classmates has been ONE interesting journey. 

My heart has been touched in a new way.

The first two week of the class were energizing and motivating.......then the chaos of life takes hold.

Still running in the background is the classroom...busy and active. I sit silent and watch. I feel frustrated and alone, but not for long. 

Inspiring and supportive voices become loud to me again and make me attentive. 

I realize there must be patience in the process..... In MY process. 

Everyone's journey will be unique.... MY journey will be unique.

But in the end, we will be in the same BIG and AMAZING  place.......

My dreams are big and amazing

my reality (right now) is small

my steps are tiny

but there will be many..many...many

......c.a. gourley

Success.....

Well, I finally managed to get my blog fixed up and away from the green monster it became. I took Risa's suggestion and just did the new design feature that blogger just put out. There's still a few things I can't figure out. Like changing some of the colours here and there and the sizes of the fonts. I will save that for another day.
I am loving Kelly Rae's Flying Lessons. My favourite lesson so far is about the retreats and workshops. One day I will take part. This class is really inspiring and is creating a lot of different feelings in my soul that I have never experienced before. Coooool......is all I can say.
I am off to read the Q & A for our second Saturday. I love the Saturday posts tooooooo.

Oh My, Oh My!

I hit one button too many. There I was, deciding to change my blog to three columns instead of two. Well, I didn't have much success with the new blogger design, so I thought I'd try the google method. It was going along so good, I went in and changed the Html (or whatever that is called). It all made perfect sense. Wha-la, I finished. Saved my changes. Went to check .... only two columns. It didn't look bad, but it was still two columns. Went back to where I made the changes and thought, oh I'm just going to go back to my original look....pressed this other button that said go back to classic look (I guess i didn't originally have the classic look) so I pressed it and went to check again. ..... and YUK, I almost cried, I did gasp....then just laughed. What was I thinking ....I have never seen such an ugly looking blog....oh my, now what am I going to do. It's late, I'm tired and I feel like the colour of my blog .........green

I thought this picture would go well with the look of the new blog. Drawn by my daughter, ali.

Learning

One week into Kelly Rae's e-course and I have a whole stack of information. Kelly warned us. But she also said we don't have to do it all at once. That's the beauty of this class. We have the information and we can get to it/ experiment with it at our own pace. Working full time leaves me a little anxious about the whole thing, but if I can just remember that I am aloud to pace myself, all will be good.
Today I felt really good about  a few things that I tried.  I made a few reply comments to some fellow students, I set up a RSS feed on my blog (still have to figure out what it actually is) thanks to one of the classmates who let everyone know how to do it and I took Kelly's advice and tried a web site she recommended to edit your pictures.The picture I used was a pencil drawing of my mother when she was about 20 years old. She just turned 80 this year and is still as beautiful as she was then. .

Love you Mom.....................

Flying Lessons

I just registered in Kelly Rae Robert's e-course, "Flying Lessons". It's going to be an incredible journey and I am looking so forward to it.
It is a busy time for me right now, planning Ali and Jordan's wedding for August,  but it will be great to schedule time for this unexercised creative soul of mine.
Two wonderful things to focus on for the next couple of months.
Yes, this year keeps getting better and better.

New (Years) Adventures 2010

Wow 2010.......when did that happen! It feels like it is going to be a great year. Lots of good changes and exciting and wonderful adventures.

Ali (my baby who is 23) just left today for her adventure to Central America. Starting the first week off with her fiance, Jordan and his family in Cancun, then off on their own to Nicaragua for the rest of the month. 

I'll be eager to hear all about it soon. One month can seem like a breath compared to the last ten years that have just gone by. Carpe Diem!!!!!