Archive for the 'Go Ahead - Create It!' Category
-image-Jealousy Map
Here’s a little exercise from Julia Cameron’s The Artist Way to help you move from jealousy to blessing. It’s called the Jealousy Map (TAW p.124) and all you need is a piece of paper:
When jealousy bites, like a snakebite is requires an immediate antidote. On paper, make your jealousy map.
WHO - WHY - ACTION/ANTIDOTE
Couldn’t be simpler. Just fill it out. Who are you jealous of? Your friend? Your sister? One of the bloggers you read?
Why are you jealous of them? She has a good relationship with their husband? She’s taking painting lessons? He’s getting his book published?
It doesn’t matter whether the person you are jealous of is famous and well-entrenched in the field or your dreams, or just your next-door neighbor, the solution is always grounded in action. If that’s what you are jealous of, what can you do to start working towards making that a reality in your own life? Should you ask your husband out on a date (or even look into counseling)? Maybe you need to pull your paint brushes back out or look into classes yourself. Or maybe it’s finally time for you to settle down and start writing that book.
And, if I were to add my own wisdom to Julia’s exercise it would be to add a column called
BLESSING
and challenge you to think of a way you can bless the success and forward motion in their lives so that you can start to see a bit of it seeping into your own life!
Posted by Megan @
12:06 pm |
-image-The Official Contest Announcement
I thought I’d give the Girlfriends Art Contest it’s own post to make sure you hadn’t missed it, cause I’d sure hate to not get to see all the beautiful and lovely things you would have come up with!
So, for those of you who didn’t know: I’ve decided to hold a Contest. I’m putting together a small line of greeting cards especially meant for women to send to other women. I’ve got a creative line already set up with art and words, and I’ve got six fun and quirky cards written - but no fun and quirky art. I was pondering this dilema yesterday and decided that the solution must be to simply hold a contest for greeting card art. Let’s call it the:
Here’s how it works, I’ll share three of the insides I’ve got here for cards and you pick two (or all three) that you’d like to illustrate. Then draw whatever comes to mind. Send me your art at muse @flamingrenaissance.com (without the space obviously) and I’ll judge the contest (well, not alone, Wakizashi and a few nameless others will help me). The winner of the contest will have their art published on a small line of greetings cards that will be sold through Everyday Renaissance - and besides the prestige of saying you won and being able to show people your cards you’ll get a contract for 20% royalties on all the cards sold.
Phew… You may submit original art, or you may submit works you’ve already done that you feel suit the cards (as long as you still own the rights to that art). I don’t want to give you too many constrictions (and lose out on a potentially great idea), so instead I’ll give you four words to guide and inspire you. Think: Girlfriends, Cute, Quirky, Fun!
So, if you are interested then here’s the final piece you need to get to work:
Card Text #1 - “Just a little note to remind you that You Matter to Me.”
Card Text #2 - “Shine, Baby, Shine. There’s no one more fabulous than you!”
Card Text #3 - “Laugh and the world laughs with you; Cry and I’ll be right over with the ice cream.”
Submission Deadline is September 29th. Winners will be announced by October 6th.
I can’t wait to see what you all have to send in!
Posted by Megan @
6:42 am |
-image-Creative Results and My Newsletter
Some of you may or may not have noticed that I have a sign up form for a newsletter in my side bar. In fact, I know some of you have signed up and I owe you an apology because you’ve gotten nothing from me as yet. My excuse is that I’m changing systems, you signed up with Constant Contact and I’m changing to 1ShoppingCart, but I’m still trying to figure out how to make the new system work. It’s a crappy excuse for not keeping in touch with you though. So, my apologies. I’ve got an idea of the direction I’m going in, and I’m excited to start sending stuff out to you and tt’s on my list of priorities to get this all worked out this month. (Actually, I’m going to take the newsletter signup down for now, I’ll repost it when I’m up and running.)
(It’s been pointed out to me that some of you may not realize that Flaming Renaissance is the blog of myself and my business, Everyday Renaissance, through which I coach, speak, and teach on all the kinds of things I blog on: being creative, living abundantly, discovering yourself. Which is why I have a blog with a newsletter… I’m working on Everyday Renaissance’s website and full and complete launch as we speak; I’m planning to have exciting news by the spring! I’ll keep you all posted)
Anyway, on with the interesting stuff.
Last week I posted the Walk in This World Exercise to make a list of 20 Creative Things, I promised I’d share mine just as soon as I had it, so I’m making good on my word.
Here is, in brief, my 20 Small Creative Things I Could Do:
1. Go for a Walk
2. Have a long luxurious bath
3. Buy Comics
4. Read Comics
5. Laugh - uncontrollably
6. Read a good book - a fictional waste of time
7. Buy Flowers
8. Do Nothing
9. Watch birds fly
10. Write down the poem for Wakizashi
11. Go on a photo scavanger hunt
12. Try a new recipe
13. make and send cards to friends
14. Give something away
15. Draw something from Life
16. Write off of a prompt
17. Indulge in a chick flick
18. Surf for online art
19. Buy someone’s art (I really like these, especially the “Goddesses”)
20 Scrap a page
I showed you mine, now you show me yours!
Posted by Megan @
6:47 am |
-image-A Challenge to be Creative
I wanted to share the other creative task in this week’s Walking in the World challenge - I figure it will give you something to do while you are waiting for me to return from my retreat.
Create a list of twenty creative acts (small to large) that you could do today (this week).
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I haven’t made my list, I’ll be working on it while I’m away (I’m post-dating this post, so you are seeing it while I’m gone) and post it when I come back. In the meantime, you can work on your own list.
Sure, paint a picture, write a story, or play the piano can go on the list, but if you keep getting stuck on actually doing these things try being a little more creative (could “Make a list of creative task” count as a task on the list?) like, make new curtains for the living room, buy new sheets for the kids’ rooms (with fun designs and colors!), make desert to go with dinner, use apples in tomorrow’s recipe… etc…
Make a list of twenty creative tasks you could be doing and then, do one of them!
Posted by Megan @
6:37 am |
-image-Dreaming
I’m not making a New Year’s Resolution post. it’s my vow. Which is probably ok considering that by now, a whole week into January, the resolutions have probably already slipped your mind.
Instead, I thought I’d jump back to a pre-Christmas conversation we were having on Destiny and Purpose.
I’ve been thinking about dreams. For years, I’ve been trying to remember what my childhood dreams were; for the life of me I can’t seem to recall any of them. I think, I think, I wanted to write. I’ve always loved to read and to hear stories so that seems only natural. But to be honest, I don’t actually remember them. (I think I must have lost hope very young, and dreams really do need hope to survive.)
At first, I thought if I couldn’t remember my childhood dreams then I had no dreams at all. (Like there is some kind of rule on dreaming.) Now, I know that’s not true. Many people do find peace and joy when they finally take hold of their childhood dreams (or some evolution of those dreams). But, others of us find our answers (and ourselves) in grown-up dreams.
When I first started contemplating my dreams again I didn’t actually have any. Five years or so ago, I had no dreams, it’s kind of hard to believe knowing me today. So, when I decided I wanted a dream again I could only come up with two simple, little, dreams. (They didn’t seem to have a lot of guidance in them, but they were mine.)
I wanted to travel. I want to see the whole world from the Grand Canyon, to the streets of Venice, and the Great Wall of China. Travelling is my ultimate dream and one I share with my family.
The second dream was a little more vague than that. it wasn’t really a full idea, I didn’t even have words for it, it was just an image in my mind. Me, on stage, speaking in a big auditorium. Then me looking out at the audience, thousands of women who had come to hea me speak. That was it. No idea how or why I got there, but that was my dream, so I held onto it.
I had those two lonely dreams for sometime before I started figuring out the other pieces - my passions and purpose. The funny ting about dreams though is that once you give them space to exist; once you give them hope that they might come true, they start to multiply. More dreams, more hope, more possibility. Now, I have a whole page of dreams I’d like to accomplish (I know it’s a full page because I just wrote them all down last week for my 2007 Guidebook). A page full of dreams where, just a few years ago, I had none.
Sometimes when I look back over the last few years of my life (which have caused some real change in who I am and where I’m going), it’s hard to remember which revelation came first; so many things overlapped and dominoed into the next thing that they are all tangled up in my memory. But, I do distinctly remember, the dreams came first; they came before my ideas of purpose and knowing what I really loved; it was really my dreams that drove me even deeper into my journey. Little as they may be, it turns out, dreams are pretty darn powerful!
On Living Abundantly: You Don’t Know Me
Posted by Megan @
2:04 pm |
