Living the Creative Life

Do you live the creative life? What is a creative life?? While I don't know the politically correct definition of that, I do have a thought to share from a personal experience.

While most people at first glance would attribute a creative life to being artistic, I believe it goes way beyond that. Many times designers are given projects or products that we know very little, if anything about. But, being the creative people we are, we jump at the task to not only experiment, but also to learn something new and find a sense of accomplishment once the task is completed.

While I'm confident that I am very knowledgeable about the craft industry, I know absolutely nothing about auto mechanics. I'm literally one of those people who should own a 'Auto mechanics for dummies" book.

For some time now, I have had either one headlight on the left and none on the right or the right one would decide to work and the left one would take a break. If they both decided to work, well, it was a toss up on which one would give out first. I think they were playing games with me. While my husband would send the car to the shop to get fixed, I on the other hand love a challenge. I discovered that at one point in time both headlights had shorted out and burned the casing on which the wires attach to make the bulb light up. Being the creative thinker I am, I was able to rig up a new casing, wrap it to death in electrical tape and viola!!!!! I HAVE HEADLIGHTS!!!!!! BOTH OF THEM!!! And they actually stay on!!!!

I love the creative life!!! Why?? Because it challenges me to rise to the occasion no matter what the situation, take chances and learn something new. And you know what? Success feels good!!!

FREE PROJECT SHEET - From the Project of the Month Club CD

There's nothing like the smell of gingerbread baking on a winter day. It's been a long time since I've had any gingerbread.. or for that matter anything other than a clay gingerbread baking in the oven! My Grandma Campbell looooved gingerbread cookies!!

Now, with the weather getting colder, it's time that I bring out and display my collection of winter characters; snowmen, penguins, my ice skating clumsy polar bears and so on..... Thanks to my friends, I have quite an impressive collection of them

I love them all, especially ones given to me by my clay friends. Each time I look at them, it reminds me of them, my grandma...and it just makes me smile!





This little gingerbread is not only fun to make, but fun to give as a gift. Just drop me an email and I'll send you the full size version.





I have several winter character project sheets available on my website. Simply click here. You can pick your "FAVE 10" and save some money too!

MAKING BEADS WITH BEAD ROLLERS - TECHNIQUE VIDEO IS UP AND RUNNING

I wish posting videos could be an every day thing. But, unfortunately it won't be. Here is actually the first video that I shot and produced. This video took me longer to edit and so that's why it's just now coming to you.

Here's a little You Tube viewing tip: Im sure this works with any YouTube video. If you notice at the bottom of the YouTube viewing screen there are some buttons. The second button from the left (next to the play button) will allow you to view thumbnails of all the videos that I have currently running. If you slide your pointer over the top of one, it will list the video name. So maybe you already know this...but if you are like me and new to all this advanced technology stuff..you might find that little feature pretty handy. The menu button allows you to either embed or copy the URL to another site. Please email me for permission to do this so that I know where links are being placed.

Please keep checking back on the blog or on my website for more video updates and mini video classes. Without further adieu....enjoy the show!

Bead Making Videos on You Tube!

Remember the post where I said, "Persistance pays off"? Couldn't be more true in this case. It's finally here and I'm so excited to present the first... in what I hope to be a long series of short how-to videos!

It's been a very educational experience to say the least, with moving furniture for the shoot, setting up lighting, tripods and all kinds of electrical cords, I really thought for a while I was in a real studio and not just my house. After loads and loads of takes...mostly for technical reasons...and for reasons that I couldnt even remember the name of my book or what I was doing at time...it's finally here!!!

My goal is to have a DVD available as well as "mini" classes for you available on my website. So that's all coming up! I have to say, this was loads of fun!

So sit back...take about a 6 minute break...grab a cup of coffee (ice tea for me) and enjoy...(sorry folks- it's not long enough to break out the popcorn!)

Learning from your mistakes...Persistance pays off!

The last couple of days have been extremely frustrating. In an attempt to update the website, I ended up deleting it. I had a back up copy, so I wasn't that concerned until everything...and I mean everything .....I tried didn't work. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get my pages to upload, the server kept cutting me off and dropping the connection. FRUSTRATING... This was day 3 of my efforts.

But, amidst the frustration and a few tears, I was able to get the site to load this afternoon. How? I left home! I took the computer with me to the doctors office and guess what? They had wireless internet. I thought what the heck? Let's see if my website uploads while Im here...and it did! So I sat there, in the office, frantically uploading pages to my site. Most of it is working, I only have a do a few tweeks!

Now, looking back on that experience, I thought about what I learned. First of all patience and persistance ( sometimes Im not too good in that category). Thru many phone calls to tech guys, I learned how to do FTP (file transfer protocol), I learned how to connect my new camera to my computer without buying a webcam! All of this is useful for those online classes I intend to hold and have going in January. Now, I'm learning video editing.

When you get a chance, check out the new website. I re-formatted all the Project of the Month club's so that you can buy the entire collection - that's over 130 projects folks!...... you can by your "fave 10 - just pick em' out and let me know which ones when you check out" or you can buy each project individually. Think of each as a little mini class. They're full of step by step photo's and instructions. They will come to you via a email download along with a disk in the mail. The only exception is the "entire collection" it's way to big....

Here's what's coming up on the website in the near future:

A new gallery - jewelry, figurine and papercrafts/digi-art
New Online Class Schedule
New Videos
New products - I've designed a line of unique wooden scrapbooks...look for these online in the near future
And eventually, a guest book.

Thanks to everyone who responded to the blog poll. I appreciate your time and thoughts!