The Lake

A walk to the lake inspired this tonight.

Rainbow sightings are special.

Whitewater State Park

IMG_4401

By the river, in the sun
Originally uploaded by BrianaCreates

Had a great time at Whitewater State Park this weekend. Did some family camping. Haven't been camping for awhile, so it was good to do the car camping style to break myself back in. You can see more photos from the weekend on my flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianacreates/sets/72157624004944475/

Meet the Creative Motivator

Hello! This is the Creative Motivator, part doll, part me, part Universal Energy, part SARK, perhaps?? She is the first needle felted doll I have ever made.

I am very proud of her nose.

The back of her head got a little flat, but I still like it.

Oh, and she has a tushie.

She also wears colorful clothing, like wide legged jeans.

She has boobies, too.

She is not complete yet. I like that she can be seated on a shelf, or even carried in a purse, as she is pretty flat and light weight.

It all started with this stuff, some felting needles, and a little sunshine and lemonade.

What creative projects have you been working on?

New Necklaces

I made a couple of necklaces this week. I will be posting them soon in my etsy shop. Beading is so fun. I hadn't done it for awhile, but it is something that I used to enjoy a lot. It feels good to be creative, in any medium. For me, as long as color is involved, I am pleased!

By the way, this necklace has a "sister" that is slightly longer than the one shown. They look great worn separately, or together. I will photograph the longer one soon.

Happy Sunday!

-Briana

Book Review: The Journal Junkies Workshop

I purchased my copy of The Journal Junkies Workshop: Visual Ammunition for the Art Addict from amazon.com here. I definitely recommend this book to all visual journal keepers.

I read the book from cover to cover this morning with my morning coffee. (Okay, I was in the chair for two hours, but the coffee was there, too). Even though I was familiar with many of the techniques shown and discussed, Eric and Dave put a new perspective on visual journaling. They are educators, and so am I, so this appealed to me. They also use very practical materials and discuss various techniques with those easy to carry and easy to clean up materials. Image transfers are also demonstrated, which is always nice to be reminded of, because they just look so interesting in a journal. These two artist-educators keep it simple, yet interesting. Oh, yes, they also inspire, and share pages from their own journals. You can see more of their work on their blog here. Support the artist-educators and be inspired to keep a visual record of your own life through this book.

Weekend Pics

In case you'd like to see the kinds of turtles that we have here in Minnesota, I took a photo of this information board from inside Lake Maria State Park. This is where we spent part of Mother's Day this year. We had a fabulous picnic.

At Lake Maria State Park, there is a sign that caught my attention. It reads, "RARE TURTLE CROSSING". I just had to have a picture. I saw some turtles, but they were too far away to know if they were the rare ones.

I tried to catch the huge morning sun rising one day this week on my a.m. commute. The photo turned out kind of interesting as you can see the sun through my rear window, and the night driving rearview mirror.

Our good friend Erin came over to have some chill time this weekend.

This shot amazed me, as my husband is surrounded by a heart from the embers from our fire. (OOH, I love the symbolism here!)

Evening Walk

Can you spy the great horned owl?

peek-a-boo, I see you, deer

dirt, a rock, and the sky

I really need to go to bed, but I wanted to post something on the blog again today.

These are pics from an evening walk I took with my hubby two nights ago.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, by the way. What is your favorite Mexican dish to eat?

New Scarf

After seeing all of the long hippy dresses and scarves and shawls at the May Day festival, someone had to get a new "hippy scarf" from Target! (It was even on clearance). What sales have you scored lately? Post a comment and a link.

Have a great week!

May Day Celebration Photos (May 2nd)

We made it to the May Day festival, but not the parade yesterday. Here are some photos from our time there. I'm also including a slideshow of the parade. The slideshow is on flickr, and the photos were taken by Mark Wojahn. The photos in this post outside of the slideshow were all taken by me.

I liked the look of this group.

I think this band was called I Like You. They were great for this event.

This tiger beast was by far the most interesting one that I saw up close.

It was a terrific day for people watching.

Aren't these tiger boats the coolest? It is the year of the tiger, so there were a lot of tiger outfits, costumes, and beasts at the May Day festival yesterday.

Many people were in costume. Many people were on stilts (very impressive).

Powderhorn Park from the hilltop.

Bloomington Ave. and Lake St. is where it all began.

A Plethora of E-Courses

Hi All,

I am in love with e-courses. There are so many incredible ones out right now. Here are some that I know of and would recommend:

Bohemian Babe e-course to Kick Start Your Summer by Pop Fizz

Flying Lessons with Kelly Rae Roberts

Urban Journal with Roben-Marie Smith

Mondo Beyondo with Andrea Scher and Jen Lemen

Unravelling with Susannah Conway

Creative Goddess E-course with Goddess Leonie

Later I will post about SARK'S Anytime Adventure.

For now, enjoy browsing the web! It is so rich with information and opportunities. Aren't we lucky?

Smiles to you,

Briana

Friday Night Out

Last night we went out to eat with a couple of our friends. We went to Brasa. It was really fun there. It was a small restaurant, but they had outdoor seating, too. At the end the sun came out, but it was still quite chilly to be eating outside. The cool thing about this restaurant is that all of their meat was from local farms and was "raised well". It was not too expensive, yet really tasty. If you have the hankering for some southern style cookin' and lots o' meat, I would recommend Brasa.

Then we went to Wilde Roast Cafe. That was really fun, too. You can find out more about that place here.

Happy May Day

Happy May Day to you all! It is fun to think about the days when people would drop off may day baskets to neighbors, friends and family. It's not too late if you feel inspired to gather fresh fruits and flowers in honor of the blossoming season of spring!

OR if you are in the Twin Cities area, you might consider going to the May Day parade on Sunday May 2nd from 1pm-7pm. You can find out more information here.

Regardless of where you are, I hope you feel energized on this day and that you take a moment to see something beautiful around you. Happy May Day!