Yes, it has been a long time. I’ve been hibernating during the winter. Now that spring is officially here, I’m ready to fully show up.

During the month of March, I’ve been taking Blog Boss with Holly Becker. I admit I’m a bit addicted as this is my third eClass with her! I wanted to share my latest developments on my ideas for my new blog through a mood board — this was one of our most recent assignments.

My true confession is that this isn’t the first mood board I created for this assignment. I started out with creating a digital mood board of images I’d been collecting to try out a new color palette: pink, mint, gold and black. I love all of these images.

Then, I created a handmade mood inspired by the digital one:

But, I realized that this color scheme wasn’t what I REALLY wanted. I was kind of bummed, however, this is often part of the creative process. So, I went back to a mood board I made a year or so ago. To my surprise, I discovered that I liked that color palette better — the vibrant colors were resonating with me.

As you might have guessed, I created a brand new mood board (first photo) that I like much better — a combination of my first and last mood board. It is all still evolving, but now I feel like I’m going in the right direction.

During the past couple of weeks, I’ve been taking another online class with Kat Conte called Muse: A Video Portrait Workshop. This video will premiere on my new blog as part of my Artisan Vignette Series. I filmed Laura Canfield demonstrating the Raku pottery process. One characteristic of making Raku pottery is the Japanese idea of “perfection in the imperfection.” Well, I definitely experienced THAT while creating my mood board!

Creating vision boards is a fun and powerful way to focus your creative energy in the direction you wish to go.

Not only will you learn some mixed media techniques, but I’ll also guide you in how to reflectively assemble your words and images into a collage that reveals your passions and preferences.

You’ll take home a visual reminder of your heart’s desire to keep as a daily inspiration.

The workshop is limited to 12 participants. Cathy sent out a special invite to her folks at A Sheltering Tree and as of now there are only a few spots left.

Date: January 12, 2013

Time: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Location: A Sheltering Tree, 406 S. Chestnut St., McKinney, TX 75069

Cost: $55 (includes all art supplies)

To Register:  Click HERE (or go to ashelteringtree.com and click on Branching Out) to take you to A Sheltering Tree (you may pay through paypal or send a check)

UPDATE: The afternoon workshop is FULL. But, I have good news! We are opening a second workshop on January 12, 2012 from 9:00 am -12:00 pm. Click HERE to register or go to ashelteringtree.com and click on Branching Out.

For several years now, Leonie Dawson has created bright and colorful sheets to set the tone for the new year. This year, Leonie has created a new set of worksheets specifically for your business. And let me tell you, Leonie is one successful entrepreneur so she knows her business stuff.

Yep, I’ve already ordered both the Life and Business sheets.

I plan on getting together with a good friend of mine so we can fill out the biz sheets together.  The personal sheets, well, I’ll schedule some quality alone time to fill these out.

If you aren’t familiar with Leonie, I previously did an interview with her. Click HERE to read the interview.

If you are interested in ordering your own set of worksheets, then click HERE. (full disclosure: I am an affiliate.)

I’m eager to create an incredible 2013. How about you? In the comments section below, tell me about one dream you have for 2013!

(images: Leonie Dawson)

I know Robert and his wife, Kaci, from their artisinal market on the McKinney Square. Their fresh lunches are all about whatever ingredients are on hand that day. When I found out that Robert was offering a Farm to Table cooking class, I signed right up.

The drive from McKinney to Luscombe Farm through country roads was the perfect way to decompress. Once I arrived, I felt refreshed and ready for class.

Upon entering the classroom I was greeted with a plate consisting of raw milk brie, fig preserves, crackers (Doctor Kracker) and a glass of wine. Nice start!

Cooking is quite intuitive for Robert. Even though he doesn’t use exact measurements, he does believe that cooking is about technique combined with innovative thinking plus a big ole dallop of love.

The first mantra of Farm to Table cuisine is cooking what is in season. Robert is also quite keen on paying close attention to the source of his ingredients. Luckily, in McKinney, we have several options including Local Yocal Farm to Market , our excellent McKinney Farmer’s Market and artisanal products that Roberts carefully selects to sell at Patina Green.

The menu for the day:

-Appetizer-
Chicken Sausage
Swiss Chard
Sweet Onion Aioli
on Crostini

-Starter-
Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque

-Main-
Lamb Meatball
Brown Butter Radish
Goat Cheese Sweet Potatoes
Braised Bok Choy

The appetizer was quite good. The homemade aioli or mayonaise is what gives it that extra zing. This recipe for Aioli can be used as a salad dressing, a spread on a sandwich or to drizzle over whatever you can dream up.

Sweet Onion Aioli
2 egg yolks (from pasture raised chickens)
2 Cups olive oil
1 Tablespoon vinegar (cider or tarragon or your choice)
3 Tablespoon mustard
1/2 Cup carmelized onions
Pinch of sea salt

Blend all ingredients in a Cuisinart.

Some tips I learned from Robert:
1. Extra Virgin Oil is the first press and has a stronger flavor. Virgin Oil is the second press. Pure Virgin Oil is the third press so it has less of a strong flavor and is better for cooking over a higher heat — good for sauteing.
2. Cut ingredients in uniform sizes so that everything cooks at the same time.
3. Consider buying from a farm vs. a store. He prefers minimally processed.
4. Free range doesn’t necessarily mean the animals are free to roam since the spaces can be small. Instead, Robert recommends pasture or farm raised.
5. Use a hand mixer to directly puree soups in the pan.
6. Strain soups to refine the texture.
7. Don’t overwork cold meat, as in making a meat loaf or meat balls, as this can make it spongy. Once all the ingredients are blended, let it sit for a minute.

Butternut Squash is in season right now, and Robert made a scrumptious batch for us.

Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque

To make soup for 10:
2 1/2 pounds of squash (Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Put the halves of square onto a tray. Drizzle some olive oil and sea salt over the squash and bake for an hour at 375. It will come out brown and carmelized.)
1 quart of stock (chicken or beef)
1 onion chopped
1/2 quart cream (essential to use good quality cream)
Heat ingredients in pan. Use mixer in pan to puree the ingredients.
Add juice of 1/2 lemon.
Add a pinch of salt
Then, strain the soup to refine the texture and take out any impurities.
Garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds (roast pumpkin seeds in oven with olive oil and sea salt) to add texture.
Finish with a drizzle of Basil Olive Oil from Texas Olive Ranch.

Everything Robert prepared was superb. I could really tell the difference in using high quality ingredients combined with Robert’s expertise.

For a grand finish, Leslie Luscombe served us a fresh apple cake.

Besides experiencing Robert’s terrific cooking class, I was delighted to see Luscombe Farm which is a great venue for a cooking class. Leslie is well known in North Texas for her jalepeno jellies. I bought a jar of her Peach Jalepno Jelly which Robert uses in his recipe for Smoked Cheddar Biscuits with Jalapeno Jelly and Ham. This recipe can be found in Edible Dallas Fort Worth The Cookbook which I also bought!

Both Patina Green Home & Market and Luscombe Farm have online ordering! Patina Green has an assortment of all kinds of wonderful items from botanical to jewelry to candles to curiosities to garden and decor. Leslie Luscombe sells her jellies which includes a nice selection of gift sets.

Bon Appetit!

“Movement is my medium and my metaphor. I know that if a wave of energy is allowed to complete itself, it yields a whole new wave, and in fact that is all I really know. Riding these waves means joining the cosmic dance that, as Dante says, ‘moves the sun and the other stars.’” -GABRIELLE ROTH

One of my beloved teachers made her transition yesterday.

Around 25 years ago, I first met Gabrielle Roth when she was teaching a weekend workshop in Berkeley, CA. It is fair to say that my first experience of the 5Rhythms was life transforming. And that was just the beginning. I continued to ride the Wave over and over again through many more workshops and with her tribe in Mill Valley.

If you don’t know who Gabrielle is — she is the creator of the 5Rhythms (staccato, flowing, chaos, lyrical and stillness) which provides a map to your innermost being through moving.

Thank you, Gabrielle, for truly being one who danced your own path while lighting the way for so many of us to dance our own unique path.

Today, I will dance the 5Rhythms with deep appreciation for this magnificent gift she gave to the world. My spirit will join Gabrielle’s in the dancing realm.

Last week I created a digital mood board to get the creative juices going again for the look and feel of new site. In last week’s post, I also included a photo of a hand made Mood Board I created a year ago for my site.

I’m finishing up my second week of  Blogging Your Way Boot Camp with Holly Becker of the wildly successful blog, Decor8. One of the assignments was to create a Mood Board. So even though I made one last week, I was eager to refine my design aesthetic using  water colors, hand lettering, patterns and images related to travel, art and cuisine. A new color palette emerged: mint, coral/pink with pops of blue and yellow.

Would love to hear about your experiences making a mood board in the comments below.

By the way, I’m LOVING Holly’s class!

UPDATE: I was delighted that Holly included my mood board in a blog post about mood boards!

There were 45 artist and five Art Centers on the tour. My husband, friends and I went on only on Sunday afternoon, but I was able to cover some ground. There was quite a mix of art mediums, quality of art work and a variety of creative spaces.

I love letterpress cards and stationary so it was a treat to walk into Rhonda Camp Warren’s Color Box Design Studio. She gave us a demonstration of the printing process while she served us Katherine Hepburn’s recipe for brownies which were divine. I bought the botanical cards and blue bird gift tag pictured below.

Rhonda Camp Warren

One of our favorite stops was Marty Ray‘s incised pottery studio. She was happy to tell us a little bit about the sgraffito process which is drawing the designs into raw clay. Then, she hand paints her designs. I may have to go back and buy one of her vases.

Marty Ray

Janet Reynolds painted both of the paintings below. I especially like the encaustic painting of the birds.

Janet Reynolds

Betsy Doan’s yard art is colorful and fun.

Betsy Doan

Matt Bagley had some striking prints to be sure.

Matt Bagley

The expansive backyard of Cynthia M Daniel is the perfect venue for her whimsical yard art.

Cynthia M. Daniel

My own town of McKinney has an art tour (MAST) coming right up the weekend of November 10-11. I’ll be back with my report of this studio art tour.

Jill Steenhuis

It hardly seems possible that one year ago this month I was painting in Aix-en-Provence with my friend and exquisite artist, Jill Steenhuis. Her vibrant, colorful paintings and her zest for living a true artisan life are pure inspiration for me. My week with her was my first time to experience a sense of place through painting, and it was life transforming.

Two years ago, I took a two-day workshop from Jill in Dallas. From the meditative practice of getting our palettes ready to her exhuberant encouragement to paint from our hearts to capture the essence, energy and feeling of what we are painting, I was under Jill’s spell.

I KNEW that somehow, someway I would go paint with her in her beloved Aix-en-Provence where she has lived for the past 30 years. Dreams do come true.

Jill welcomed our small class (five students) to her home the first day. I felt like I had stepped into a French storybook house. I couldn’t get enough of her restored country home complete with a swimming pool, fig trees, olive trees, a stable for Jill’s horse, magnificent art studio and terraces for dining and painting.

Jill’s House

Jill’s Art Studio

The land of Cezanne and Van Gogh came to life through Jill’s eyes. Her masterful knowledge of the masters inspired us as she took us to Chateau Noir (Cezanne and Jill both had their studios here), Mount Sainte Victoire, the seaside village of Cassis and the flower market of Aix-en-Provence. One night, we hurried to a field to paint the setting sun as Jill read her own poetry to us. It was divine and sublime.

Jill reading her poetry at sunset

Yours truly painting a still life of roses

with Jill in Cassis and my painting of Cassis

Jill has written a magnificent book, Art, Soul & Destiny: An Artist’s Journey from America to Provence, which is filled with luscious photos of her paintings and drawings as well as her soul provoking poetry.

Jill’s book

I’m delighted to announce that soon I’ll be getting another dose of Jill’s inspiration! She will be in Dallas in a couple of weeks to teach a workshop (of course I’m going) and for an exhibit of her recent work. Visit her Web site, Art in Provence, for details.

Who inspires you right now? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Inspiration Board for My New Site

Hello everyone! I’m back from taking the summer off. It has been a time to recalibrate to be sure! It is a new season and all sorts of new ideas have been percolating. One of which is a brand new site with a fresh new direction. I’ll be sharing my journey on this endeavor over the next few weeks. We can all learn so much from each other.

Today begins Holly Becker’s Blogging Your Way Boot Camp! If you aren’t familiar with Holly, she is the author of the the wildly popular design blog Decor8. One year ago I took the Blogging Your Way 1.0 ecourse which was fabulous. To be honest, I haven’t implemented yet the goldmine of ideas that Holly offered. The main reason being I thought my brand new site would be up by now, and I wanted to save those ideas for my new site.

Mood Board from Blogging Your Way 1

In the meantime, I’ve made a few changes to the look and feel such as a new photographic header to reflect my new direction. I also changed my tag line and the name of my blog to my name. This may all change again as my new direction continues to evolve.

I’m shifting from a focus on the expressive arts and creative expression to a focus on art + travel. Experiencing a sense of place, whether at home or traveling, through culture, cuisine and the arts. I’m truly excited because this is where my passion is right now.

My inspiration board helped me pull together the look and feel for the redesign of my new site. I want it to have a modern and global vibe with elements of water color, textures and hand drawn typography. I also included my first mood board from Holly’s class that I took before. You can see the similarities and how the look and feel is evolving.

What do you think of my new direction? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Links for Images used in my Inspiration Board:

1. Wanderlust

2. Mandala (I painted this)

3. Orange Chevron

4. Flower Market Painting by Jill Steenhuis

5. Moroccan Water Color

6. Books and Coffee

7. Photograph of Woman Sitting at Table

8. Turquoise Stripe

9. Trangerine Stripe

10. Macaroons

11. Illustration of Woman at Window

My friend, Tammy, is the creator of the wondrous art blog, Daisy Yellow. Her site has oodles of fun and colorful inspiration.

She also has an uber cool zine packed with all kinds of goodies for art journaling and art projects. Yours truly wrote an article, Experiencing a Sense of Place through Painting, for the newest issue.

To receive a free copy of this issue, tell me a place that you would like to paint (at home or anywhere) in the comments below. Two winners will be announced next Friday on June 15.

June 15: UPDATE: WINNERS of the Giveaway

I randomly selected the numbers 4 and 17 — so the 4th and 17th person to comment will receive a free copy of the Daisy Yellow Zine.

ChocolateLoverToo

Shari Adkisson aka NM Creatrix

Congratulations!!!