When has creativity rescued you?

 "Leo Scarf"

Has there ever been a time in your life when bad experiences, stress, medical emergencies, or family troubles totally overwhelmed you?  But - then, you discovered a few creative moments helped to lessen your pain?  I would really like to hear how "creative salve" helped you at certain troublesome times in your life.

This was my recent experience:

The One World One Heart 2011 event was an amazing glimpse into the creative world of over 800 bloggers.  It began Jan 31st and ended on Feb. 17th, 2011.

I learned a lot through this journey. Creative people are extremely willing to share the wonder of their discoveries and talents. They are a delightful group. 

Just before OWOH began my father became seriously ill.  He was hospitalized twice before coming home again on Valentines Day.  (Our special gift.)  He's in delicate health, but holding his own right now.  He's 93!

I'm blessed to have my dad in my life.  I cherish all the moments I spend with him.  While he was in the hospital I spent many late evenings (since I was too worried to sleep) visiting the OWOH creative blogs. I found diving into the world of other creatives helped keep my mind from my worries.  Now, I feel even closer to all who participated in the OWOH event. Thank you!

Also, I discovered keeping my hands busy helped calm my mind during the hours spent with my father in the hospital. ...Well, one scarf turned into 4, and I dubbed them "Leo Scarves!" They are very special.

I developed quite a reputation at the hospital.  A nurse I had never seen before asked me if I was the woman who crochets!

 

One World One Heart - Winner Announcement

This was the first year I participated in the One World One Heart blog hopping event, and it was delightful.  Thank you, Lisa Swifka for giving us this chance to meet so many other creatives and have such a good time!
 

It was a breathless flight!!!

At midnight I lit a candle asking for blessings to all who participated in the OWOH event, and then I picked the winners name....

Drum Roll, Please.....

...And, the winner of my Shabby Chic Denim necklace is: 


# 864 - Barbara Rosenzweig!!!!  US
http://barbararosenzweig.blogspot.com/
Barbara - please email me with your mailing address within three days so I can send you your gift.  :) Thanks

    http://www.restylestudios.etsy.com

PS...Barbara - I love love your beautiful watercolors!

One World One Heart - blog event

Hello - Welcome to my Blog.

My name is Linda Lamore, and I am a creative adventurer.

I live in Ipswich, Ma, USA. A place of beautiful inspiration. I love making jewelry, exploring digital photography, and I paint watercolors,too.    I also dabble in mixed media, collage, and I enjoy working with fiber. I'm new to felting, and I'm teaching myself how to crochet.
Recently, I decided to start a line of upcycled - eco chic items. I take tee shirts, jeans and other upcycled fibers and create new items such as necklaces, bangles, purses, scarves and very neat cuff bracelets. This is addicting and fun.

I love to go exploring with my camera.  I collect sea glass, shells, drift wood and other natural items to add to my creations. Some days, I think I should concentrate on only one creative venture, but my muse wants to try lots of new things.       Do any of you have this happening to you?

I would love to hear about your passions and creative adventures.

Don't forget to leave a comment with your email address so I can enter you into the One World One Heart contest.              I'll be announcing the winner on Feb. 18th as a blog post. I will also contact the winner directly by email.

Good luck, and I hope to hear from you.

Below is a picture of the prize I'm offering. It is a lovely shabby chic necklace created from denim jeans and other fabric and fibers. 


Just hit "comments" to leave your message.  Thanks - Can't wait to hear from you.  Also, I'd be honored if you decide to follow my blog!!!

...muse gone wild

Perhaps, it's because of winter closing in on me. Longer days inside. The dark showing up at 4:30 PM...but something has happened - my muse has gone wild!

She wants to play and she dances from one project to another. She drags me to book stores and libraries to look for books on all sorts of neat, creative subjects. She frequents YouTube, and search engines, and can't stop learning. It's been fun - almost a little naughty. Maybe, I should focus on other things.....BUT...I will admit I'm surviving the winter and learning, too.

The snow has become a great subject to photograph. I enjoy sharing my pictures and blogging about our recent storms. On the morning of the December storm I took a few beautiful pictures while the street lights were still on. I may even enter them in the next art association show. We'll see. I usually stick to showing my jewelry creations and paintings, but why not - photos, too? See what my muse is doing to me?

For one thing, I've started crocheting again. I haven't touched a crochet hook in years...or a knitting needle for that matter. My enthusiasm for upcycling has been leading me to experiment. I've been making tee shirt yarn, and I have tons of new ideas I want to try.


While exploring yarn, my curiosity has led me to purchase a Mother Marian "Meggie" kick spindle spinning wheel. It's a great invention. I can't wait to get going on it. I'm sure there will be a learning curve. I haven't had the chance to play with it yet. I want to use it to spin unusual yarns. Stay tuned. I'll let everyone know how coordinated I am. Not sure I'm going to be able to do all of this yet, but I'll give it a shot. I'm impressed by the simplicity of "Meggie." She's beautiful.


There's more...valentines, and felting...writing down my dreams in the morning, creating beachy jewelry while I watch it snow. Such delights!!!

I've been inspired to try lots of new things when I should probably be focused on one or two projects. I can't seem to help myself. My muse just wants to play and play and experiment and have fun. Does any one else have this happen to them? I wonder.

I'd love to hear where your muse is taking you. Are others experiencing a winter creative explosion or is it the opposite with the winter bringing you down? Let me know.....

More snow? Really?

The weather people were right - more snow and then it turned to rain as they predicted. Below is a picture I snapped shortly before the storm turned to rain. The snow was falling in big flakes and it looked extremely New Englandly and quite pretty.

It's still raining - or at least, doing some sort of precipitating out there right now at 10 PM. I'm really worried about some of the pine trees and bushes on my property. I tried to shovel, shake and pull off some of the snow where I could reach, but some of my trees are all bent over and miserable. I can only hope they survive. More snow will arrive on Friday. I can't keep up with it all.


Below is a pic of my neighbor's house that I snapped from my living room. The snow was really coming down hard at the time.

Early this morning a few birds visited my feeder. This Cardinal sure looks cold. Could he puff up any more than this?

I'm almost out of bird food!

Wow!

Thanks to unusual weather patterns, there's snow on the ground in 49 out of 50 US states, including Hawaii. Florida is the only state without the snow!

Amazing!

Early Morning Picture

I was up early this morning and I snapped a few pictures while the street lights were still on.

Here's one facing my back yard.

Snow of Jan 12,2011

It's almost 5 PM and it's still snowing. I went outside to knock the snow off the tall bushes and small trees and I soon found myself deep in the snow. It's kind of heavy and sticky stuff. I'm sure I'll lose a few bushes after this storm.

Anyway, I can't help myself. I have to post some pictures of the storm.

Back yard.

The bush by my front door is bent down so low it's touching the azalea in the front garden. I discovered this when I was trying to get the snow off of it. I was wondering what I was standing on under the snow. I was shocked to realize I was standing on my pretty azalea.

I thought we might loose power, but we've been lucky so far.

My house...

You can hardly see my house!

My front door is like a cave of snow.

Here is my neighbor's house The snow really coming down.

Thunder Snow?

OK...I remember once when I was little girl hearing thunder during a blizzard we were experiencing in New York. It really freaked me out. I didn't know that could happen.

Well, today the weather men are talking about "thunder snow" which may happen during the big snow they are predicting to start tonight. I guess, there was some thunder snow during the snow storm we had after Christmas recently. When there is thunder snow we could see as much as 3 to 6 inches of snow in one hour!!!! WOW!

So, what is thundersnow, really?

I found this explanation on the Internet:

As a storm cloud gathers up warmer air (such as air over a lake or ocean surface), the air rises in the cloud's structure and creates a churning of air masses within the cloud. This turbulence mixes snow crystals and supercooled water droplets in the cloud and the turbulence knocks off electrons from the water particles, causing positive and negative charges in the cloud to separate.

The negative charges collect at the base of the cloud and are attracted to positive charges either on the ground or in nearby clouds. As the negative charges rush toward the positive charges, the positive charges rise and meet them and this creates a bolt of lightning. The lightning heats the air to about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the air to quickly expand. The air then cools and contracts, creating a "clap" of thunder.

That's what scientists believe happens, anyway. It's roughly the same process involved in creating a regular thunderstorm.

Read more at: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=99629

Inner Excavation...

This Christmas was the first year my family decided NOT to exchange gifts. I will admit it was a wise choice, yet it felt kind of strange at the same time. Gifts aren't the most important part of the holiday, but I always enjoyed the exchanging a lot. It turns out that avoiding the Malls, spending almost nothing on gifts, and not having to do a lot of wrapping was a great idea.

Still - I'm the biggest kid in the family and I knew I'd miss the giving. (I've always thought of myself as sort of a "Mrs Santa.")
So, what did I do?

I gave myself a gift instead!!!

I decided to buy a book. It arrived before Christmas. The book is called "Inner Excavation - Explore Your Self through Photography, Poetry, and Mixed Media" written by Liz Lamoreux. This was a great choice. I've been doing some of the exercises. I already love to take photos, I write from time to time, and paint. The book is a nice boost for my creativity. Now, I plan to keep my camera with me whenever I can, and use the book often.

I think it's neat that Liz has my last name within her last name. Anyway, I'm sure I will benefit by looking more closely at myself and the world around me. What a special gift!

I guess, I can't get completely away from giving gifts! I did give my tree a special gift this season. It was a cool find from a Church rummage sale this fall. I rescued this adorable glass ornament made in Poland for my tree.

See what else I've been up to.....

You can now find my "Eco-Chic" denim cuff bracelets in a wonderful gallery store in Vancouver, BC Canada. The store is Starfire Gallery and the website for the gallery is:

www.starfireattheferries.com

These bracelets are crafted from gently used denim jeans. I add color to the fabric by felting with wool roving. Then I add fiber or ribbons, and an antique button for decoration. Very unique - one of a kind bracelets. I'm thrilled to be represented by Starfire Gallery.

Starfire Gallery
Horseshoe Bay
6607 Royal Avenue
West Vancouver, BC
V7W 2B8

If you are in Vancouver please stop in and check out my work. It's a friendly lovely store.

What Have I Been Up To in 2010???

The above necklace is an example of my new line of "Eco-Chic" jewelry.

Find it at: www.ReStyleStudios.Etsy.com

2010 went by at record speed. I've never had a year go by so quickly. I'm not sure why this happened because it seemed like a bland year. I didn't do anything amazing or travel to far away exotic places, but never-the-less time flew by.

Every new year I sit down to write a list of what I've learned in the past year. In 2010 I learned to to accept my life as it is. I picked up a book about finding JOY, and in it there was a saying which totally fits my new way of thinking. "What is, is." Such a simple statement. For some reason these words add a bit of comfort to my life and a way of accepting what I can't change.

This doesn't mean I'm going to sit back and not work on improving myself and my life. It just helps me adjust to the limitations before me.

OK...moving on:

In 2010 I decided it was time for my Jewelry and other creations to get out into the world. I now have my enamel jewelry and other pieces in a wonderful gallery store in Newburyport, MA.

My work can be found at the Sisters We Three

on 57 Pleasant Street in Newburyport. I love being represented by these three sisters who work diligently to keep their store vital and intriguing.

http://www.sisterswethree.com/

Here are a few examples of the jewelry I have in this store:


This is a sterling silver wire bracelet created with an unusual heart shaped artisan lampwork focal bead. The heart is wrapped in silver wire creating a "captured heart."

This is a reversible enamel pendant that I made through multiple firings in my kiln. I love its beachy look and versatility.


Here's another earthy looking unique enamel piece. As you can see I enjoy creating heart jewelry.

Find more of my jewelry designs at: www.LamoreAllure.Etsy.com

In 2010 I allowed my creative muse lots of freedom. She began designing "Eco-Chic" jewelry which I'm totally excited about.

I now create awesome "EcoChic" jewelry by upcycling jeans, tee shirts, and fiber into necklaces, bangle bracelets, scarves, purses, cuff bracelets and more. I've dedicated a new website to this endeavor. Below is one of the neat purses I created using denim jeans as my fabric, and a lovely necklace, too.

You can see what I've been up to by going to: www.ReStyleStudios.Etsy.com
Thanks for looking. I hope you love my creations as much as I love making them!