Creativity with the Kindle Fire

My daughter gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas and I was initially skeptical of its value to me.  I'm an avid reader and have been known to finish a book in one day.  I love my books; I love having bookcases full of them and stacks of them by my bed.

Some of my creativity related books.  Recognize any of the titles?

When I moved from a 3 bedroom house to a small 2 bedroom apartment, I weeded out a lot of reading material.  I donated to thrift stores, to the public library and even took stacks of books to the local used bookstore and donated over $100.00 worth of book credits to a friend when I moved.  Five bookcases stuffed with books became three bookcases and then two.  I know my kids were entertaining thoughts of my having only one bookcase, or even none, but I couldn't even contemplate letting go of more.

I'm pretty sure that my kids are hoping that having the Kindle will mean that I'll stop collecting physical books.  But do I think that it will replace the feel of a book in my hands, the touch of pages on my fingertips or the visual beauty of having book spines lined up in glorious color on a shelf?  Definitely not!  I am, after all, still the little girl who spent hours each day at the library around the corner (I ran into my favorite librarian 20 plus years later - and she still remembered me!) and dreamed of having a library of her own.

I have to admit though, that I am liking this whole Kindle thing!  A month after the holidays, I have over 200 ebooks saved to this new electronic gadget of mine, most of which I've found for free via a newsletter - Kindle Buffet.  I actually started collecting ebooks in October, using Amazon's free Kindle for PC or Mac program.

And, while that's wonderful enough on its own, what is really making me love the Kindle is that I've discovered that I can download videos to it from my computer and this is where the creativity with the Kindle Fire comes in.

Yes!!!  Art videos, art journaling videos, craft videos...oh, my goodness!

Do you like the background?  My four year old grandson and I created it together with homemade alcohol ink sprays and tissue paper!

I'm over the top excited because it means that I can not only watch my videos from last years Willowing's Lifebook  class, but also from Effy Wild's Book of Days class, Stephanie Gagos' wonderful workshops and Sheri Ann Ponzi's Angels In My Studio workshop - but I can also take the videos with me into my corner of the bedroom studio!  Woot!

That may not seem like a big thing.  But I wasn't often able to watch the videos on my computer because my computer stopped doing whatever it needs to do to allow it (can you tell I'm technologically challenged?  Lol) and I haven't been able to find a solution or afford repairs.  Not a problem with the Kindle!

It also means that my fibromyalgia, fibro fog, arthritis and disabilities won't be as detrimental to my creativity because I won't be having to travel from the computer desk in the living room to my art table in the bedroom.  All of that back and forth traveling just wasn't helpful for my pain levels OR my memory issues.

Creativity with the Kindle Fire - oh yeah!  I'm totally looking forward to getting back into my art journaling and other creative projects this year!

Are there things that interfere with your own creativity (whether or not you have health or disability issues)?  Have you found ways to move around the roadblocks and challenges that keep you from creating? Please share...it's something I always need help with, and I know I'm not alone!

Shared on the Friendship Friday link-up

Shared on Paula's No Rules Weekend Blog Party

Create Your Incredible Year

I've just printed up my copy of the 2013 Create Your Incredible Year workbook, planner & calendar!  I love it and think that it's going to be an incredible advantage for me this coming year!

It's a super popular & useful tool to help you plan out and create your most incredible year in life or business (or both - this years includes a business component - hooray!).

The Create Your Incredible Year workbook, planner and calendar has been in existence for four years, during which thousands of women have used it with the most amazing results. It’s been used by entrepreneurs, artists, mamas, creatives, coaches, teachers and women of all ages, giving them simple yet powerful tools and techniques to help them dream their biggest dreams and to actually MAKE THEM HAPPEN too.               

The 2013 Planners Are Here!!

Both workbooks are filled with dozens of pages of worksheets AND a printable calendar to help you dream, manifest, set your intentions, plan & grow your amazing year. Everything is illustrated in vibrant colors with lovely, uplifting drawings (they'll make you smile)… perfect for you to print out & get thoroughly inspired by!

I'll be using mine to help me get clarity on what I need 2013 to be. What I want to create during the coming twelve months (and my new year is going to be filled with new, positive changes!). And most importantly, I'll have help in knowing how to make those things happen.  It's going to be an evolutionary tool in the sense that it's going to help me evolve my life into more positive, prosperous spaces!

For more information on getting your own set of workbooks, the planner and the calendar, click Create Your Incredible Year

And, just to let you know, I am an affiliate as well so if you choose to join me in creating an incredible year for ourselves, I will earn a small percentage (and will be grateful for that as well!).  

I've Won!!

I am SO excited to learn that I've won Elizabeth's recent giveaway, posted here.  And I won, not one wonderful prize, but two.

Excited probably isn't the best description though - maybe over-the-top, jumping-up-and-down and wanting-to-dance happy would be closer, lol. 

I'd been sitting at my computer when I read Elizabeth's email and let out a very loud 'Woot' and then immediately had to get up and burn off some of that happy dance energy, singing 'I've won!  I've won!  Woohoo! I've won!'  My movements may be limited, but moving was the only way to deal with that level of energy. 

What, exactly, did I win?  The first was this beautiful pillow with it's colorful and whimsical art: 

A bicycle, bird, flower and hearts - what's not to love??  This is one pillow that I won't be sharing with my grandson.  I love him to pieces, but he's a toddler - and messy like most toddlers.  No messes on my new pillow, please!

The second is a place in the upcoming E-Course: Mixed Media-From an Original to Multiple products, which begins in early January!

With all of my focus having been on getting through several major flares (I've called them my A-Z flares because everything had massively amplified - pain and other symptoms from my fibromyalgia, arthritis, degenerative disc disease and feet), making huge lifestyle changes and finding ways to survive with a severe shortage of income, I haven't been making art.

I think that the New Year will see me in a new, healthier and more balanced place, and being in Elizabeth's course will definitely help to give me new incentive and motivation to bring art back into my life.  Woohoo!  I am SO ready!

You can find more information about the course by clicking the link above.  Maybe we'll be classmates!  Be sure to visit Elizabeth's shop, gallery and blog too!

A New Class - And A Giveaway

Are you interested in evolving your art into products to sell?  Multiple products?  Need some help with strategies, planning, pricing and selling?  Well, then I think I've found the perfect class for you!

Elizabeth Gonzalez spent twelve years in ceramics before falling in love with mixed media in 2009.  Her work adorns homes throughout this planet of ours!  The information on her newest class, Mixed Media: From An Original to Multiple Products can be found here and you can also visit her website where you'll find links to her gallery, blog and shop.

Oh, and please - check out her wonderful giveaway!  She's offering six different gifts/products and multiple ways to enter.

The giveaway is on her blog, so check it out and see the lovely things she's giving away.  I love her artwork...but there's also a chance to win a spot in her class.  But you need to hurry - the giveaway closes on November 20, 2012!

And yes, it's been a long time since my last post, I know!  I promise an update soon.

A New Giveaway!

Woohoo!!  Gifts Of Compassion is having our second giveaway - a chance for you to win $20 in CASH!

I've been loving doing the social media management for a new project, which I wrote about in a previous post. Gifts Of Compassion speaks to me on so many different levels. My ability to be creative; to translate that creativity into healing energy; to be a part of something giving back and gifting the world with positive, uplifting words, art and connections. Being connected to other artists in a shared project and dream. To be able to facilitate connection and communication between you and the people in your life.  And to be able to earn a small income for the first time this year.  Oh, and the fun of handling the social media end of things, which is, after all, something outside of, yet connected to, my creativity.

Gifts of Compassion was birthed two months ago and, to celebrate, we're having a wonderful new giveaway!  You have a chance to win $20.00 cash - yes, cash!  Not a gift card; not product - but cash that you can use in whatever way you choose.

Simply go to our Etsy shop, explore our art cards, and make a purchase!  Our prices are very reasonable and range from $5.00 to $12.00.  We have ten artists represented (with an 11th being added soon!) so there's a wide range of styles, subjects and messages to choose from.  There will be art there that will speak to your heart!

Look over the graphic below for all the details.  And then hop over to the shop and enter the giveaway!!  It's open through July 31st...so get moving!  And, let your friends know too.

Gifts Of Compassion

Gifts of Compassion is a new project started by Sung-Hee Regina Hong, who was inspired to create something that would benefit the people whose stories she had featured on her blog The Beauty Of Sorrow .

The project, now in its beginnings, consists of an Etsy shop  featuring art created by those people – all of whom live with chronic illness, depression and/or disabilities or have healed while moving through major life challenges.  Our art has enabled us to move through our challenges with grace, gifting us with healing and keeping us connected to ourselves and the world around us.

It’s Regina’s dream; our dream; to be able to share those gifts, and facilitate them within you,  and to give each of you a simple, healing way to connect with the people in your life.

 It’s also our dream to nurture and build a form of income for ourselves.  For some of us, our challenges have affected our ability to have, and keep, mainstream employment.   This is especially true for me.  For others, it is part of who we are, to want to earn an income doing something we love so well; that we can put body, heart and soul into our work and offer it to you from our hearts.

There are currently 37 postcards available through Gifts Of Compassion, highlighting the work of seven very different artists, with five more artists being added in the very near future.  Each artist has a title, such as King of Sorrow or King of Lupus.  I’d like to introduce them here and if you click on their names, you’ll be able to read their stories on the Beauty Of Sorrow blog. 


Sung-Hee Regina Hong - King of Sorrow

"...a creative way of looking at pain, healing by sharing sorrow, and letting people know that they are not alone and that we are there for each other."

Jijo Jacob - King of Faith

Keri Colestock - King of Lyme Disease

"My art was my saving grace as staying home in bed was not an option."

Ady Almanza - King of Friendship

Nancy Baumiller - King of Woman/Women

"We have choices...and choosing to be happy is the greatest one! Self-love!"

Lainey Parker - King of Artistic Depression

"There are statistics that show a higher percentage of artists, writers, and other creative souls deal with depression more so than other types of people."

Cynthia Hanna - King of Fibromyalgia/Disabilities

"Art connects me with my intuition and provides me with a symbolic, visual language…a way to process whatever comes up, whether it’s joy, pain or any or the myriad things between. And sharing the process of learning, experimenting, healing is healing in itself…"

We invite you to watch the video (above), to visit the Gifts of Compassion shop, and to share both our art, our shop and our purpose with others - and of course, to purchase our healing, uplifting art for yourself and others in your lives.

Doing the Happy Dance

I love visiting other peoples blogs. Making new discoveries, being inspired and awestruck at the things others create and lifting my spirit with color and creativity!  There is so much talent, beauty and simple awesomeness online.

And I'm always on the prowl for creative resources - especially those that fit my current budget, which is zero.  Yes, truly zero.  My creativity has been drastically curtailed, not because I've run out of materials, but because I dread the day that I do.

When I do find resources, it's time for a happy dance and a heart felt hallelujah!  Seriously, I wish I could tell each person that offers freebies just how much their generosity means to me; how much their thoughtfulness feeds my soul!

As just one example, today I was visiting April Cole's blog (you should definitely visit!). She's a wonderful artist and each week she features Friday's Lovely Links highlighting online discoveries that she's made.  And one of her links was for free chevron patterned papers.  Hooray!

When I clicked the link, I was taken to Mel Stampz and it truly was time for that happy dance, lol.  Not only did I find links for the chevron papers, but also thirty-nine (yes - 39!) other gorgeous papers.

And a wonderful page full of links to templates - tons of templates.  Moustaches, dress forms, animals, birds, tags - more than 100 separate items!

And to top it all off, she has tutorials!  I love her Ribbon Spool Box with hidden compartment

but there's so much more - including one that will teach you how to access and print the papers, collections, templates and printables that she has stored on her Flickr account!

So, my creative gypsies, join me in my happy dance! Have fun visiting, exploring and creating with all the generous, gorgeous gifts on this wonderful site!

If you have a site or blog of your own that includes freebies, I'd love to feature it here!  Or, if you know of someone else who offers them.  Just let me know in the comments and I'll be in touch.

Sharing on The Trendy Treehouse Share Wednesdays and
Whatever You Want Wednesday at Free Pretty Things For You
Check Me Out Saturday at I Am Only One Woman
Show Off Your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans