Our Newest Family Picture

Here is our recent family picture with everyone. Our oldest daughter was home from college. So now you get to meet the whole Callan bunch.

Through My Camera Lens

Matthew, Age 2

Shona Cole, Author of The Artistic Mother Interviewed on Diva Craft Lounge

Shona Cole was a guest on Diva Craft Lounge. She was interviewed by Danielle and Rayme about her book, The Artistic Mother, a Practical Guide for Fitting Creativity into Your Life.  Their show is 30 minutes long in all and is posted on their site once a week. You can watch the show she was on or listen to the podcast on iTunes. She comes on at about the seven-minute mark. If you watch the show you can see them flicking through her book and holding up the pages they are talking about.

They talked about lots of things concerning her book:  how she chose to write about motherhood and art, about the contributors to the book, her favorite project in the book and more. She also mentioned The Artistic Mother Art Group I am hosting here on my blog and how awesome it is to see a group of women doing the book's workshop and keeping each other accountable and posting their art.

To hear/see the show  she is on go here. You can listen to past shows and interviews in their archive.


She has also written a great post over at The Wish Studio titled The Artistic Mother: Living With Vision. It's an awesome read.


***If you are new here, I am hosting an online art group where we are working through the 12 -project workshop in Shona Cole's book, The Artistic Mother, together and blogging about our progress and visiting and encouraging one another. The purpose of this group is to learn how to balance our time between family, life's responsibilities and creative time for ourselves; to learn how to fit a little creativity into each day; to nurture our own souls so that we can be better moms and wives and to prevent burnout and depression. Please click here to read all of the details and leave a comment there if you would like to join us. In my sidebar, you will see a blog roll for the participants of this group if you would like to visit around. There is also a Flickr Group for The Artistic Mother if you would like to see the projects we have been doing in this group. The book can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other bookstores as well as Amazon. You may also visit the author at her blog, An Artful Life.

Happy Birthday to my Big Princess

Happy birthday to my beautiful daughter Kimberly. She is now 17. She is a sweet, loving girl, a blessing to her family. She is a wonderful daughter always willing to lend a helping hand. She's my personal trainer and my personal fashion consultant, all for the price of room and board. Pretty good deal for me I would say. She's loves her siblings and loves hanging out with them. I know her many friends love her, too. You can wish Kimberly a happy birthday on her blog, What To Wear, if you like. I know that would be a nice surprise for her

Welcome to Our Newest Artistic Mother Member & her Latest Project - Phenomenal!!!

Please join me in welcoming Emily of Super Stitches. She is 9 years old. She has a blog where she blogs about her art, craft and sewing projects; and she also happens to my daughter. She has been doing these projects right along with me and asked if she could join our group. I thought: Why not? I hope you will help her feel welcome and visit her when she posts her Artistic Mother projects and any other time it strikes your fancy, too. Below are photos of her vision banner. Lovely. Isn't it? I'm not sure which day Emily will be posting her vision banner because she will be doing a giveaway on her blog starting on Monday. You can keep an eye out for her posts on my blog roll for The Artistic Mother's Art Group in my sidebar. She'll move to the top when she posts something.

***If you are new here, I am hosting an online art group where we are working through the 12 -project workshop in Shona Cole's book, The Artistic Mother, together and blogging about our progress and visiting and encouraging one another. The purpose of this group is to learn how to balance our time between family, life's responsibilities and creative time for ourselves; to learn how to fit a little creativity into each day; to nurture our own souls so that we can be better moms and wives and to prevent burnout and depression. Please click here to read all of the details and leave a comment there if you would like to join us. In my sidebar, you will see a blog roll for the participants of this group if you would like to visit around. There is also a Flickr Group for The Artistic Mother if you would like to see the projects we have been doing in this group. The book can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other bookstores as well as Amazon. You may also visit the author at her blog, An Artful Life.

Thank You for the Condolences

Sorry it's been so quiet around here, but I haven't really felt like blogging or creating this week since I've just lost my mother-in-law. We've been crying buckets of tears, had the memorial service and going through photographs and her things. Because of my commitment to you, regardless of how I feel, I plan to start getting back into the swing of things next week. I would like to thank each person who left a sweet comment either here, in an email or on Facebook. It's nice to know you care, and I could feel your love and support. It's been very difficult to lose my mother-in-law as you can well imagine, especially for our children. Grandmothers are very special.

I have a very special post planned for Monday. I will be introducing you to one of our newest members and one of the projects she has made. Prepare to be amazed.

Have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday.

We are Grieving the Loss of My Mother-In-Law

My mother-in-law has lost her fight to live. She had spent one month and one week in ICU. It was up and down. She had a very difficult time of it. It has been a very difficult time for our family; so hard to watch her suffer. But it is over now. Out of pain. Gone to be with Jesus. She will be sorely missed. It's hard to imagine that she will no longer be in our lives. There is now a big hole in our hearts. My poor husband. My poor children. What a loss. I would like to say thank you to all of you who had lifted her up in prayer.

Vision Statement Banner, Week 4 of The Artistic Mother

Here is my Vision Statement Banner as part of Week 4, Page 83, of The Artistic Mother Workshop we are working through together.

I really enjoyed making this. I will hang it on the wall next to my computer where I can see it each day. It will be a huge help in keeping me focused on my goals and vision so that I don't get sidetracked.

In place of the ribbon to be tied to the dowel and the fibers above the group photo, I gathered strips of cotton fabric and zigzagged down center to ensure that the gathers would not come out and to add a decorative touch.

Here is my Artistic Vision Statement typed up for you for easier reading:

I am a creative wife, momma, homemaker and daughter of The King of Kings, The Holy God.

I do not live by my emotions. I spend time each day doing something creative regardless of how I feel.

Through daily sewing; mixed media, collage and crafting; photography; poetry and music, I express myself as well as strengthen and nourish my inner self, bless my family and pass on the gift of creativity to my children.

Through practicing my art, I will find the balance I so desperately long for. 

I will seek God daily for wisdom and guidance and allow Him to work through my hands to create beautiful works of art that will bless myself and others and allow me to live a full, rich and abundant life. And as I do this, I am strengthening my connection with God as I allow Him to come alongside me in this creative journey.

The two photos below show my artistic goals. As you can see, I got a little carried away, and ended up making a long list. It is a picture of the lifestyle I wish to live with my family. I truly want this creative life to permeate every aspect of my family's being.

The photo above is of my now 16, about to be 17, year old daughter when she was 2. She is the oldest one in the group shot. Our oldest daughter, who is not pictured, is off at college. She is in her third year of college. She was home schooled all the way through and received a full scholarship. (Sorry for the bit of bragging, but you can imagine our excitement)

Below: Now don't laugh at me. I know you must think I'm silly wanting to make You Tube videos and play guitar and sing at functions. One can dream, right? I'm still young at heart, and I'm a bit of a ham if you haven't noticed yet. Just look through my sewing blog a bit, and you'll see what I mean. I love the camera. I listed that here because I view music as being artistic as well. And I want to keep that goal before me. I would like to go ahead and learn guitar now, but I am already sewing, doing art, homeschooling four out of my five children and running after a toddler; so I better pace myself and save it for sometime down the road, hopefully not too many years away. I must learn patience. It's hard when you have so many things you want to learn; but fun, too.

Now we move  on to Week 5, Page 87 of The Artistic Mother by Shona Cole. We'll be making a butterfly reminder. We will spend two weeks on it to give everyone as much time as possible allowing for life's interruptions. And don't forget the workshop is not just about the projects, there are also poetry and photography assignments in each chapter as well. You will be using the photographs and poetry from these assignments in your future projects. Just do a little each day and don't try to cram at the last minute. Because the whole point of this book is to make creativity a part of our lifestyles, where we do a little each day. Think of all you can accomplish with even 15 minutes a day.

Don't worry if you are just starting or are still working on the earlier projects. Don't stress or rush. You may go at your own pace. Just try to do a little each day, not too much in one day.


When we get to Week 6, I will have a big surprise announcement!!!


Go here if you would like to see an alternative way to make the vision statement banner. You can get creative with these projects and come up with your own version on each of the projects. You are not limited to just doing it the way it is in the book.


***If you are new here, I am hosting an online art group where we are working through the 12 -project workshop in Shona Cole's book, The Artistic Mother, together and blogging about our progress and visiting and encouraging one another. The purpose of this group is to learn how to balance our time between family, life's responsibilities and creative time for ourselves; to learn how to fit a little creativity into each day; to nurture our own souls so that we can be better moms and wives and to prevent burnout and depression. Please click here to read all of the details and leave a comment there if you would like to join us. In my sidebar, you will see a blog roll for the participants of this group if you would like to visit around. There is also a Flickr Group for The Artistic Mother if you would like to see the projects we have been doing in this group. The book can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other bookstores as well as Amazon. You may also visit the author at her blog, An Artful Life.