[i] LoveLife

The creative energy...

...is palpable.

I feel excited - like I'll burst of ideas. I need to create things today! Back in October - the moment I decided to change focus - the creative juices started to flow again. Ebb and tide. Pattern. Love it. Like it's crashing over me... I need to paint, to create, to write - to celebrate - to shout out about everything new again.

If I work backwards to explain... Originally, I wanted space to hammer out exactly how I would make the leap from full-time designer - to quarter-time designer and full-time artist -to make room for family life and long-term happines... That's the January 2007 plan. And, really - that was the inspiration for a blog. I know, to many people it seems like a step in a smaller direction - but, I've haven't been excited about a redirection in a long time. I don't design for the money. I do it for life. Life is changing now and I'm ready to head back to where I started - creating art. Painting. Drawing. Writing. Ah.... I am so excited.

Then came scrapbooking. I'm secretly captivated. It's not something I was interested in before - but, there are truly talented artists creating beautifully layered and textured images out there and it draws me in. The patterns and looseness. It pulls me. That brings me back to Ali Edwards. She used to be a full time designer - and now she created a better life. SO inspiring. I owe her a big thanks. I would never consider myself a 'crafter' - but, I will admit to experimenting with some photo book layouts digitally. I just put together a wedding album/collective for a gift for our parents this Christmas and I loved it. Shhhh.  Everything is scanned and applied digitally. Just like work - only with reckless enthusiasm. Photoshop CS is one my closest friends. I sent the book (with the help from my mac savvy photographer friend, Ian Clark) to the Apple site to be created into hard cover books. Lickadee-split easy. So, in essence - I think I just created my first scrapbook. Weird. Feels weird.

Mostly, scrapbooking has reminded me of the loose and line-based art that I did when I was a kid. It's reminded to just get dirty - get messy - and get creating again. Seems, that's part of the pattern... getting excited, getting going, getting off track for a while and getting back to business.

Getting back to life.

Out of the blue...

I was inspired.

My inspiration wasn't entirely out-of-the-blue, but the call from the man I don't know with the compliments that landed squarely where I needed them was out-of-the-blue. Out-of-the-blue perfect. It's those things - those days - those moments that move me. And I moved. I sat down and let the feeling filter through words and visuals that couldn't help but contain the inspirations and excitements that I've been collecting on my searches.

Searches... inspiration is everwhere. It finds you. I've been ferociously scouring blogs with avid curiousity - watching and listening to what different people are doing with their lives - for their lives. Months back I got an email out-of-the-blue from Ali Edwards. She found my book and she found inspiration there. I didn't know then that it would be her site and blog that would be a GIGANTIC catalyst for change in myself. HUGE. I owe her a big thanks. I owe her the BIGGEST BUCKET of gratitude out there. She's a 'Life Artist' - that kind of gave me some life back. Check out Ali's blog, as well as a few of my other favourites; Annie Hafermann, Claudine Hellmuth, and SuperHero Designs. So much inspiration here... So much more than the sum of their professions - it's the fuel these women move with - that really fires me up.

LoveLife went out early this week because of the out-of-the-blue inspiration. Today's image is about the things - especially lately - that happen when you aren't expecting them.Like Blue. I've had so many blues on my mind... The ocean - I just got married on my favourite island surrounded by the bluest ocean. His eyes - I married a man with the nicest, most genuine, very blue eyes - they make me feel so safe. Blue is calm. And baby blue... well, for the first time in my life - I'm entertaining the scary idea of having a child... and it's out-of-the-blue exciting... so much blue.

Seems we always think we're the only ones experiencing the good and tough stuff life brings to us... until we see through each other's eyes and put ourselves out there. I am so inspired. Change is happening right now. Not completely, but oh-so-deliciously out-of-the-blue... So cool.