Art and Soul Inspirations....

I was lucky to get into Tracy Bautista's class "The Art Book" at Art and Soul" in Portland this past week. I feel so spoiled since I only live ten minutes from the whole event! Tracy's class was a palette of delicious creativity! She was a delight and shared so many fun techniques with a variety of paints and everyday tools. We spent the day getting our hands covered in all the colors of the rainbow and creating our own papers with cool designs and patterns. Then we cut those papers in a variety of sizes, assembled them together and handbound our own unique journals! I have been wanting to create something special to record all of the "Divine Whispers" that have been moving my heart towards each new step in my own journey. This book was exactly what I had been dreaming of! So I look forward to the day when it is overflowing with experiences, treasures, images, stories, dreams and inspirations...and I look back through the pages and see how the story unfolded!

First we painted and played to our hearts content!

Next we cut our designs into shapes, collaged and created our journal covers!

Then we bound our pages and wove beautiful ribbons, fibers and embellishments into the binding and wah-lah! (well it was a teeny bit more involved than that haha)


What a pleasure it was to sit and soak in all of Judy Wise's wealth of experience and wisdom in her class "So You Want to Sell Your Art"! What a generous and insightful soul she is. I so appreciated Judy's advice and perspective on being generous and giving as an artist. She was rich in sharing the wisdom of living in a way that allows us to freely release our gifts into the world without getting caught up in holding too tightly onto "what is ours". Her creative heart and calming spirit truly inspired me! Had fun running into fellow ZNErs Gina Smith and Tina Curtis too!

I was sad to have missed the vendor night at Art and Soul but was so inspired by the moving stories of healing and lives being restored that were shared at the ARMS (Abuse Recovery Ministry and Services) annual fundraiser banquet my husband Dave and I attended that same night. We hosted a table and shared the evening with our Moms and friend's Dave and Meg Wilson . It was a sweet time to be with my dear soul-sister Shelby as we each were honored to participate in a video presentation for ARMS which debuted that evening. It was such a reminder of how God weaves lives, hearts and circumstances together to redeem our pasts and usher in new hope for the days to come!


"Sweet friends you offer gentle hope and renewal to my spirit"