Caitlin Boyle is on a mission—to shift us away from negative
“self-talk” and become more accepting of our bodies just the way they are. 

To further this mission, she started Operation Beautiful to share positive messages anonymously through post-it notes.  
 
I joined the positive message post-it note “club” and had fun
leaving positive messages on corkboards, bathroom mirrors, and even on the back of a bike.  

So why not join in and be a part of turning the tide?  

It’s easy, cheap, fast, and fun!  

Just keep some post-it notes and a pen with you and post a positive message when you feel moved to.  

You never know the smile you’ll bring to someone’s face or the
lift to someone’s heart.  Haven’t we all had challenging days where a few kind words could make all the difference in the world?!

Get going and share the love!  An added bonus, you’ll feel good
too!

Check out her books as well.  (Affiliate links)

The National Organization for Women (NOW) sponsors the “Love Your Body” campaign as a way to help women and girls move past impossible beauty standards perpetuated by the media to a place of self-celebration and self-acceptance.

This year “Love Your Body" day is October 16, 2013. 
  
To celebrate, give yourself a HUG!

NOW also hosts an annual poster contest to celebrate the “Love Your Body” campaign. The winning posters are featured on the NOW website and used to promote “Love Your Body” events. 

Poster submissions are due in December 2013. Click here to find out more.

To learn more about NOW’s “Love Your Body” campaign and obtain educational materials, visit the “Love Your Body” website.

For all those who love to paint and draw and for all those who want to paint and draw but feel too intimidated--you've got to meet Carla Sonheim.

Carla quickly puts her students at ease and gets everyone laughing and having fun in her art classes.  And, you'll be amazed how under her experienced tutelage you can create all sorts of creatures from doodles that look really cool!  I've experienced this myself firsthand.

For a taste of Carla's teaching, you can check out her free online tutorials or take an online class.  Go to her website to sign up for her newsletter so you can learn about her in-person classes as well.  She's even got a summer art camp starting on July 22, 2013.

She is the author of several books. Her Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises To Make Drawing Fun has sold 45,000 copies.  Way to go, Carla!

Click on the book covers below to learn more (affiliate links).

 

Love animals?  Help animals!  And the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF) makes it easy.  They publish the Humane Activist five times a year.  It only costs $10.00/year to subscribe.  Each short newsletter includes updates on legislation that supports or hurts our animal buddies.  

A great feature is their section on HSLF-supported animal protection bills before the U.S. Congress.  You then just email or call your senators’ or representatives’ offices and let them know you'd like them to support the specific bills listed.  It's easy--just give them the bill number listed in the newsletter.

Once you find out the contact information for your senators and representatives, post that phone number someplace for easy access—like your refrigerator.  And/or add their email addresses to your email accounts.   

How to find your senators and representatives?  Go to www.hslf.org/leglookup or http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml. 

Take action NOW!  And boost your good karma today! 

I had so much fun with my Mail Art assignment that I did as part of my online art class that I hope to inspire you!

Make your own envelope or buy one.  If you make one, it allows for more creative possibilities. 

To create an envelope, you can find envelope templates on the web, unfold and copy an unused envelope you have, or just fold and glue or tape paper in such a way that you could actually send something in it.

Collage cut out images from magazines, use rubber stamps and stencils, draw, paint, do whatever you like to do.  Embellish with glitter or confetti.  Create an insert in the form of a letter, post card, or some other novelty you come up with.

Just have fun!

To start you thinking, I've included photos of what I did for my art assignment.

And here is my artist's statement for this particular piece of art so you can see my thinking behind it and the materials I used.

“Walking with Finney” ©Kathryn V. White

For this Mail Art, I used two color prints of my digital photographs—one of a tree truck graced with a wooden heart
and one of my dog sitting on a park bench.  I used these prints to create the envelope.  The tree print is the outside of the envelope and the picture of my dog, who is my heart pal, is the
inner illustration of the envelope.  His darling, happy, little face is the focal point upon opening the envelope.  
 
I also utilized decorative handmade paper, red construction paper, rubber cement, scissors, a glue stick, tape, two bird stencils, and a paper punch that cuts paper into the shape of a small bird.  
 
For the insert, I used leaves I picked up from my walks with my dog.  I painted the leaves with acrylic gel medium so that they would be flexible and not tear into pieces over time.  I also included little red bird “confetti” for the insert.  
 
The assortment of birds I’ve cut out and collaged and used as “confetti” represent the birds that I see and hear on these walks.  The leaves are gifts of nature that I find beautiful and enjoy collecting each year.  The leaves and little birds that I did not glue onto my envelope can be given as gifts by the receiver and so the circle of gifts—from nature, to me, to the recipient, and on to others reflects the circle of giving and receiving
which is a wonderful and nurturing part of the circle of life. 
The confetti birds also represent to me the fun of life.

My Mail Art honors my memories of my walks with my dog, my love of my dog, and my enjoyment of the beauty of nature.  I like the layering in this piece—not only that the piece includes collage, but the papers I used ultimately come from trees.  I also
include a picture of a tree as well as leaves that are real leaves that I have picked up on my walks.  
 
The tree has a wooden heart that was made by hand and added to the tree. As far as I know, this is the only tree in the park that has a handcrafted heart kindly attached to it (the heart hangs on a wire that is attached to a branch, it is not nailed to the tree). 
My mail art is also one of a kind and handcrafted with love.

As people view my artwork, I want them to think about what delights them about nature, who they enjoy spending time with, how good it feels to be sharing a beautiful day, what they have given in love, and what they have received that has deepened their happiness.

Oh, the glories of technology!  You can avoid the ravages of inclement weather, the cost of postage, and maintain your favorite connections by sending a free e-card from the Guggenheim Museum's website or a free e-card from the Museum of Modern Art's website. 

MOMA has a much larger selection, but you may find the Guggenheim's less overwhelming.  On either website, you'll probably find something you'll like with artwork by such luminaries as Marc Chagall, Dorothea Lange, Odilon Redon, Robert Delaunay, Cindy Sherman, Fiona Banner, Franz Marc, Vincent Van Gogh, Robert Indiana, Georgia O'Keeffe, Garry Winogrand, Louise Bourgeois, and Mark Rothko.  The MOMA website also includes a variety of search engines to help you find your perfect e-card art.

So if you are looking for a fun way to say "hello" that has more pizzazz than a tweet, text, or email--send an e-card today.

Your friends and relatives will be glad to hear from such a class act!

What are you waiting for?

Need a little creative juice, but don't want to start a big project?

Think back to simpler times when fabric loops, popsicle sticks, and pipe cleaners were craft supplies of choice.

And why not start with pipe cleaners? 

There is something incredibly soothing and satisfying in twisting soft, pliable, and colorful pipe cleaners into fantastical flowers and other shapes. 

Many thanks to Susan Lee-Pullen and her Women's Creativity Group for this fun project suited for instant gratification.

The World Rhythm Festival returns to Seattle Center from April 12-14, 2013.

Bring a drum or just yourself and be ready to shake, rattle, and roll!

There is nothing cooler than being a part of a large group of people playing their African drums together--something about it gets right into your body, heart, and soul!

Free admission and free workshops--it is hard to get any better than this!

For more information, click here.

Wow!  As soon as I learned about this I had to drop everything and write this blog sharing the news!

For all you library lovers, book lovers, and DVD lovers--here's your chance to increase the number of libraries across the planet!

I came across this idea on Tara Reed's blog, who learned it from Kelly Rae, who learned about it from someone else.  Don't you just love the Internet?!

So here's to increasing the square footage for sharing knowledge, fun, abundance, and all good things!

Check out the Little Free Library page to see lots of photos of people's creations and a map of these little libraries across the nation. 

Instructions for those interested in building their own click here.

For those of you that don't feel particularly handy, you can order one pre-made from the Little Free Library website.

And if you do decide to move forward with this idea, please share a photo!

Recently I completed the five week Bloom True online art class by Flora Bowley.  It was alot of fun and I learned some new painting techniques and approaches for creating my paintings.

I'm uploading photographs I took of one of my paintings--basically how the painting changed from week to week  I just went with the flow of what I felt "called to do" each time I approached my painting.

I'm thinking the last version will be the final--though that could change!

It is that time of year for the 2013 Seattle Times Peeps Contest.  The deadline has already passed to submit your entry to the contest, but you can still upload pictures of your peep creativity to their website.

For a dose of fun, go there now to see what people have created!

And even if you choose to not submit, it is still fun to create your own art, dioramas, sculptures, and art projects of marshmallow peeps.  Find some friends and family to do this with and take the peep challenge on!

Shown on this blog posting is one of the marshmallow peep dioramas created at Susan Lee Pullen's Women's Creativity Group in March 2013.

I recently enjoyed Eric Telchin's new book, See A Heart Share A Heart, and was inspired to look for hearts as I walked my neighborhood. 

I've found hearts before (see my blog post He(art) in the Park), but with Eric's book in mind, I was on a mission to find as many as I could in nature or as natural as you can get while living in an urban area! 

And you know what?  I found we are most definately surrounded by love.