2011: Color of the Year

Thanks to my friend BETH NICHOLLS of England, who I was fortunate to meet at AN ARTFUL JOURNEY in February 2010 - I've discovered Pantone's Color of the Year, 2011:  Honeysuckle.

At first read, you might envision a yellow color - after all, most honeysuckle blooms are yellow. 

But this, THIS color - this engaging and vibrant PINK - is spot on.  (or spotT on, with two t's - if your name is Lorrie, with two r's !)

And here in Southern California, I first met a to-die-for honeysuckle variety known as "Pink Lemonade" - isn't this luscious?   I still "need" one in my own yard, because the colors & the scents are ... heavenly.

So I pose the question to you, as Beth did to readers of her blog, DO WHAT YOU LOVE ...

What is YOUR color for this new year, 2011?

I am adopting Pantone's HONEYSUCKLE, paired (pun intended) with a PEAR GREEN of sorts. 

Coincidentally, I came across my box of these notecards ON MY DESK as I was reading Beth's blog post about color:  "Nantucket" thank you notes (by Peter Pauper Press, Inc.) available at Barnes & Noble -
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?r=1&isbn=9781593591892&cm_mmc=Google%20Product%20Search-_-Q000000630-_-Nantucket%20Thank%20You%20Note%20Cards%20Set%20of%2014-_-9781593591892

I encourage you to visit Beth at her DO WHAT YOU LOVE site/blog http://dowhatyouloveforlife.com/ - I think you'll be happy you did! 

Happy New Year to you all,

Davielle, aka PRINCESS MAGPIE

FLYING LESSONS underway

Friends, I am not about to let my dream for MAGPIE'S ART NEST be put on the back burner, as they say, and so I have (a week late) signed up for Kelly Rae Robert's online class, FLYING LESSONS: Tips + Tricks to Help Your Creative Business Soar ...

{above, Kelly Rae teaching us at An Artful Journey - February 2010}

In case you don't know what Magpie's Art Nest is all about, you can visit my other blog at http://iamprincessmagpie.blogspot.com for further details.

I think e-courses are truly the way to go when you want content that you can really ponder.  It's online, you can re-visit the information, and if the instructor has made it accessible for printing, you'll have that hard copy that so many of us appreciate months down the road when we need a refresher.

Kelly Rae and her friend Mati Rose (McDonough) were co-instructors for the workshop I took earlier this year with my friend, Ann Deakers ... we made our own FUNKY CHUNKY COFFEE TABLE BOOK and what a keepsake it is!   Cynthia organized the most amazing Art Retreat (An Artful Journey) I can imagine, and Los Gatos was a beautiful setting.  Just far enough away from home that we could really feel we got away, and driveable, too.

But back to FLYING LESSONS.   I've never had a desire to fly an airplane, but these are the kind of flying lessons I can really aspire to.

If you are so inclined, I invite you to join me on this journey.

Visit Kelly Rae's website by clicking on the title of this blog post - it will take you there in a flash!  (or just click on the FLYING LESSONS button on my sidebar ...)

-- Davielle

I'm still in RETREAT mode ... and that's a good thing

I have had a handful of friends asking me ... "when are you going to blog about An Artful Journey?"  and ... "when can we see the pictures from An Artful Journey?" ... and "what did you think of An Artful Journey?" ...  I mean, really, I could hear Kelly drumming her fingertips next to her keyboard, just jonesing for my first words.  :-)  {thanks, Kelly - I'm glad you want to read what I thought of AAJ.}

Well, to be honest, I've been hoarding the experience ... the memories, the newfound friendships, the sights and scents and sounds, The Presentation Center, and for said hoarding, I do apologize.  I need to - no, I want to share it all, with you all.  Really, I do.  But you have to remember:  Magpies are Hoarders Extraordinaire, and so in this instance, I'm going to really take on the magpie's persona and say "that is what I was doing ..."  Forgive me.

So.  I cannot possibly put into words just how it went for me.  I have a feeling there are plenty of other AAJ participants that are still processing just what happened, just what we all experienced {and while it was unique to us all as individuals, there must be some commonalities to what happened for us all - am I right, ladies?}.  I will TRY, though, to give it a shot {putting it into words, that is}.  It may take several blog posts to get it all out, and to try and get it just right.

Here goes:

It was amazing.  It was eye-opening.  It was warm, and welcoming, and beyond my wildest expectations.  That's saying a lot, 'cause I have a most vivid imagination, and I often have great expectations.  AAJ organizer and "mother" Cindy O'Leary did a spectacular job putting all this together ... from the location (The Presentation Center) ... to the instructors - which read like a "who's who" in Mixed Media:
Albie Smith http://albie-smith.blogspot.com/ ,
DJ Pettit http://djpettitt.typepad.com/djpettitt/ ,
Leslie Riley http://www.lesleyriley.com/index.php ,
Nina Bagley http://www.ornamental.typepad.com/ ,
and of course, Kelly Rae Roberts http://kellyraeroberts.com/  
& Mati Rose McDonough http://www.matirose.com/index.html )

... to the beautifully quilted and embellished and filled with ephemera "Welcome" packets ... to the activities ... and between Cindy and Stephanie, we all felt well cared for and well managed.
 
"Managed?" you might ask.  Imagine if you can:  100+ women (and a few brave-soul husbands!) gathered all together.  At times, it had to feel like herding cats .. and yet, Cindy could get our rapt attention with a quick "ladies ???" and a little "ahem".  Worked like magic, every time.

It was magical.  It was perfect.  It was a new concept in Art Retreating, far as I know .. we each registered to spend the ENTIRE workshop (starting Friday night to breakfast Monday morning) in ONE workshop, with ONE instructor (except for those of us with the Dynamic Duo of Kelly Rae and Mati Rose) ... which meant that we had to fill just ONE supply list, and UNLOAD our supplies into just ONE classroom - for the duration of our stay.  Can you imagine that?   It SOOOO worked, I don't know why this concept hasn't been tried before.  I loved it!

AN ARTFUL JOURNEY was my very first art retreat experience -- and I'm thinking I just might be spoiled by it.  Guess we'll just have to rally 'round Cindy to make that FIRST ANNUAL REUNION happen in February 2011 - same place, same time, same participants.  Wouldn't THAT be magical, ladies?

So I don't know how much more I can say tonight.  Mark just returned from a three-day bike race in Vegas; I am coming off a three-classes-in-a-row Chris Cozen "high" {at the gracious-as-always Stamping Details in Poway, CA}, and I'm looking forward to my Monday morning class with Jane LaFazio and all my friends in there. 

I've got so much art on the brain, I even woke up at 4:20 am on Saturday - and could NOT go back to sleep.  And again, it was an early Sunday morning for me - I had to wake Rocky up, if you can believe that !!!

I am so tired, I can't even post a few random photos to whet your appetite for more blog posts about MY experience of AN ARTFUL JOURNEY.    Well, okay. Here is ONE:

this is how my work space looked Friday morning, right after we finished our GROUP SWAP - we each made little swap goodie bags for everyone in the group.  And COOL TREASURES we all received!  Our workshop had the distinct pleasure of including the 2 AAJ ladies who traveled the furthest to join us:  Beth from the UK, and Cathy all the way from Australia.  Can you believe that?!

And let me just end it like this for now:   what AN ARTFUL JOURNEY opened up for me is such an exciting place inside, I'm guarding it like a newborn.  The dream I have long held to actually "work" in the art field is blossoming, and I am hatching (there's that magpie reference again!) a plan.  And there has been a virtual flock of ideas flowing today that just can't be stopped.  It's so fun!  Wait - did I just use another magpie (bird) reference?  Oh my!

Speaking of winged creatures ... one of my guardian angels, my mother Edith, passed away six years ago today.  It was a Sunday then, too (Leap Year). 

I am ever grateful for a couple of things about her journey to her better place: 

One - she died the day before our daughter Kristina had a horrific car accident - and yet, Kristi walked away with only a few (large and severe) hematomas to her torso.  She had just left work, it was late and dark, and she was thinking of her Grandma Edie and praying that Grandma was at peace ... when it happened.  The policeman who first arrived on the scene told her he could not believe his eyes when he found out SHE was the driver of THAT vehicle.  THAT, my friends, was my mother, protecting her grandchild from harm.

and

Two - I inherited my spirit and my creative talents, if you will, from my mother.  I also inherited these traits from my father's side of the family - every single one of my auntie's had such great taste & style - truly, they did.  But it is to my mother that I owe the most - she encouraged my artistic tendencies, and she always always always believed in me.  When I returned to school to study Interior Design - at the ripe old age of 38, Mom was my biggest supporter.  Thanks, Mom, for that.

And so I believe that all these new ideas, this new DREAM that is forming, is due, in large part, to my mother - who continues to make her presence known to us, the family she left behind six years ago today.  I doubt that this is a coincidence.

I love you, Mom.

-- Davielle  

Going on Retreat ... AN ARTFUL JOURNEY, here we come !!!

{If you click on the link / title above, you will be taken right to the page that introduces the Retreat I am going to with Ann Deakers, February 18 - 22, 2010.  Although OUR Retreat has been sold out for months & months & months :-), there is also AN ARTFUL JOURNEY Retreat scheduled for July 18 - 22, 2010 -- and registration for that Retreat is now OPEN.}

SO ... what does this mean, exactly?  We've all heard the word "retreat", and in several contexts.  Right?

I found it interesting, and a bit shocking, that the definition that I usually attach to the word RETREAT is ... barely defined by Webster's {my mother's old Webster's is the one I use, dated 1956 and bound in leather} ... I define RETREAT as a ... getaway to a place where one is focused intently on ... relaxing, or learning something new, or spending time doing something we love to do -- as in "a spiritual retreat", or "an art retreat" ...  I even think of "a board retreat", as in ... when an organization's Board of Directors meets annually "on retreat" so they can be intently focused on ... their Mission.  

Isn't that what most of us think these days, when we hear the word RETREAT ???

I would venture to say, though, that my father, Frank - a World War II veteran -- would automatically think of ... the "real" definition of the word Retreat:

"to withdraw; 1.  act of retiring, or withdrawing, as from what is difficult, dangerous, or disagreeable.  2. a place of seclusion, privacy, safety, or resort; a refuge; asylum; hiding place; den.  3.  an asylum for insane persons, inebriates, etc.   4. (had to do with aeronautics)    5.  The withdrawal, esp. when forced,  of troops from the presence of an enemy."

THOSE are the definitions that I think ANY military veteran would ascribe to the word "retreat".

I, however, did find one last, almost hidden, definition in Webster's that I can work with:

"To make a retreat; to withdraw."

AND THAT, my friends, is what an ART RETREAT means to me {as would a spiritual retreat}.  For one to "make a retreat" {ie, to leave behind their everyday life for a period of time, to just get away}.  To "withdraw", certainly, from our everyday responsibilities, and worries, and life. 

Ann and I are about to "withdraw" from our lives in San Diego to spend 3 full and artful days with artists KELLY RAE ROBERTS { http://kellyraeroberts.com/  } 

{ Kelly Rae ... and Kelly's hands .. from her blog }

and MATI ROSE McDONOUGH { http://www.matirose.blogspot.com/ }, who are co-teaching our workshop at AN ARTFUL JOURNEY, where we will create a "Funky, Chunky Coffee Table Book".  You can imagine my excitement to actually, finally, be taking a workshop from the mixed media artist that started me on this mixed media "adventure" I have been on:  Kelly Rae.  I have art in my home from both Kelly Rae and Mati Rose, and it inspires me daily.

{ my "whole-hearted" elephant from Mati Rose McDonough ... 2009}

For me, an ART RETREAT means ... focused and relaxed time with like-minded friends where we just ... get & stay CREATIVE, where it's expected that we will get MESSY, where we are sure to have fun, and for me, it's a place where I find a lot of grounding, and even spiritual growth ... because my passion for art and creativity is something that comes from my SOUL.  I have found that the friendships created in art classes or workshops are some of the most amazing in my life.  ART is the common denominator that brings us together, and no matter how disparate the rest of our lives might be from each other's, it just Does. Not. Matter.

The beauty of AN ARTFUL JOURNEY, for me, is that it is being held on a "campus" known as THE PRESENTATION CENTER ...

in Los Gatos, California.   Click here to see what I'm talking about: http://www.anartfuljourney.com/retreats/presentationcenter.html

And I would be remiss if I did not mention CINDY O'LEARY, the fearless organizer of AN ARTFUL JOURNEY.  All her hard work is about to come to fruition, and I know that I speak for all the Retreat-ants when I say "thank you, Cindy".

What I am especially looking forward to, besides the art and the new friendships to be forged over the time we all spend together, is that it seems that The Presentation Center ... is mainly used for SPIRITUAL retreats -- a place of serenity, beauty, stillness, and plenty of Mother Nature.  The history of THE PRESENTATION CENTER can be found via this link:
http://www.presentationcenter.org/About%20Us/history.html

Right there on their website, is this comment: 
"Escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Take time to communicate more clearly and deeply with your colleagues."

 And that, my friends, is exactly what the word RETREAT means to me.

I dedicate this post to my beautiful friend Ann, to whom I am ever grateful for the gift of  her friendship, for the role she has  played in my ... blogging; in my discovery of mixed media; and for encouraging me all along the way of my Creative Discovery Journey.  I love you, Ann, and I think you are the most amazing woman! 

We'll be back on Monday evening .. you can expect a mighty long post after I return, with plenty plenty plenty of "visuals".

--  Davielle