Mystery Blogger Award

First of all, I want to say how grateful I am for receiving this nomination from Emily.  I  was also blessed to do a Showcase Sunday with her, which you can find here!

The rules for the award are as follows:

  1. Put the award logo/image on your blog.
  2. List the rules.
  3. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
  4. Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well.
  5. Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
  6. Answer the questions you were asked.
  7. You have to nominate 10 people.
  8. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.
  9. Ask your nominees any five questions of your choice, with one weird or funny question.

Created by: Okoto Enigma

Mystery Blogger Award is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging, and they do it with so much love and passion.” 

– Okoto Enigma

Let’s get started!

Three Things About Me

  1. I absolutely LOVE to throw birthday parties, pretty much for anyone that will let me, even though I stress myself out sometimes.
  2. Sharing my southern accent with anyone outside my inner circle scares me. It’s something I have been made fun of more times that I would like to admit.
  3. I have recently fallen in love with audio books. I listen to them at work and while I draw.

Questions I Received

If you could learn a new language instantly, what would you choose and why?

I would definitely learn Spanish. First of all, I believe it is an amazingly beautiful language and I have always been fascinated by it. Secondly, I would greatly benefit in my career if I were bilingual, with Spanish being my second language.

What book(s) do you reread over and over?

I haven’t. Once I read a book, I’m done with it. However, if there is a movie to be made, I like to reread it before the movie is released.

What’s your favorite comfort food?

This one is easy. Anything southern is a comfort to me. I love any foods that stick to your bones like rice and gravy, pinto beans and rice and country fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

Do you plan your blog posts in advance, or write them as the ideas come?

Although I should plan my blog posts, most of them are on the fly, how I feel that day and what feelings I want to share in relation to the art that I created.

If you could have any mythical creature as a companion, which would you choose?

I would choose a dragon. Hands down, without hesitation.

 

The Questions For My Nominees

How did you know you wanted to start blogging?

What would you say is the main idea behind your blog?

What movie or book do you most relate to and why?

Do you like your picture taken?

If you were a star wars character, who would you be?

And Last But Not Least…My Nominees!

I do not have 10 bloggers to nominate, but I will at least nominate these three.

Mom Journeys

Watching the Daisies

The Contented Crafter

 

2017 Year in Review

Happy New Year!

I want to create a special post that sorta sums up my year for 2017. You know that although I had been blogging since 2016, I only got my own website in 2017. Boy have I been blessed with this outlet to share my creativity and inspire others to do something creative every day.  There are several things that I am going to discuss, to include my subscription to Sketchbox, My first Mandala Collection, Christmas Gifts I created and my favorite creations of the year. So grab your cup of coffee or your favorite beverage and lets get started!

SketchBox

For those of you that don’t know, Sketchbox is a monthly subscription box for artists to try out different mediums. I have really been excited by everything that I have been able to create using the products I have received through these boxes. Some of my favorite products include a watercolor sketchbook, a full sepia Copic fineliner set, and last but not least watercolor pencils, this is only to name a few. If you would like to go back and review my unboxing posts you can visit them by clicking on the links below.

May  

June

JulyJuly Grab box  

August

September

October

 November

December

Mandala Collection I

For me, this was a huge accomplishment.  I wanted to start a collection of the mandala that was similar and yet different at the same time. For this collection, I chose to draw my mandala on gradient paper with black fineliners and a white gel pen. I was so happy how each one came out so different than the ones before.  Prints of these will be available in my shop once I get it all online. Stay tuned for this special collection. Each one of these mandalas are so special to me. I wrote a different post for each one, which you can visit below:

Mandala #1

Mandala #2

Mandala #3

Mandala #4

Mandala #5

Personalized Gifts

One of my favorite things to do is create something beautiful and personal for my friends, family, and co-workers. I truly enjoy the look on their face when they realize it is not only an original, but there are no others like it in the world. I want to share these few gifts with you.

Personalized Parties

Every birthday that happens in my house is a reason to celebrate. With the birthdays spread throughout the year, we are able to party all year long! Starting in February with my two from my previous marriage celebrating, then moving to my youngest two in June, oldest two in July and 3rd oldest in November. Mix that in with all the holidays and we rarely don’t have a reason to bust out some exciting party decorations. But also, because we have so many celebrations, It’s important that we get creative with them all, most of the decorations were homemade. Check out the following posts about my under the sea themed party for my youngest two.

Under the Sea

Octopus Guard

Sea Sponges

Jellyfish Mood Lighting

Furniture Painting

The absolute highlight of my year was creating a beautiful work of art for my mother. She brought this table to me and gave me no restrictions other than she wanted a Charity Original painted on top. Painted?! I’ve never painted anything detailed like the creations I have made.  Check out how this table progressed by clicking on the links below:

Scallopped Table #1

Scallopped Table #2

There are several other projects that I completed this year for Christmas Gifts to include a 12×12 personalized mandala painting on canvas, a monogrammed lazy susan and a phoenix staff for my best guy friend. All of these projects were special in their own ways and were hard to keep a secret for as long as I could since I love to share my progress pictures with the special people that received these gifts.

My Favorites of the Year

 

Final Thoughts

I do want to send out a special thank you for all of you that have supported me this year. I couldn’t have done this without you cheering me on. Special thanks to my fiance’ who has stuck by my side while I have spent the long hours trying to make something out of nothing. I love each and every one of you and I can only hope that in 2018, we will see a lot more growth from CraftyArtistKC. Help me make this year a good one by sharing my site with your friends family and social media accounts. I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Let me know in the comments below, what was your favorite project or post from this year!

Missing in Action?

No, I am not missing. But, I do want to share a beautiful adventure that we are on. We are working towards buying our first home together. Between house hunting and now narrowing in our our preferred home, I have been very busy.   It doesn’t help that most of my supplies are packed as well. Armed with only a .05 pen and an inexpensive sketchbook, I have been doodling when I have some down time. You can catch them all on my Instagram as I do them. I also have a few within this post, nothing spectacular, just doodling.

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So where does that leave us? The site? Well, hopefully in the month of October, I will have a lot to share about home decorating DIY’s and I will want to share my adventures of building my own Art Studio/Office from scratch! Are you excited? Because I know that I am.

So, do not fret, I am returning in full swing. This site is too important to me.  In the meantime, If you have any tips/tricks for moving and organizing you would love to share, I would love to read them in the comments below!

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Bullet Journaling – Refresher

If you haven’t heard of bullet journaling, it is a minimalists way to schedule your life. This is a system that combines several of your journals, schedulers, and calendars into one easy to keep track of book. Or so they say. Now before you get offended, hear me out. I tried this system back in November of last year, you can read that post here, and I failed.  My failure had nothing to do with the system and more to do with my perfectionism. I wanted beautiful spreads and amazing visuals on each page. Eventually, it became too much with the holidays and I never made it to December. To be honest, I don’t even know where that notebook is currently.

Now, lets discuss why this system failed for me. There are several reasons, some of them mental and some of them physical. These range from not having the right notebook, to not making the time, and not putting forth the effort. “Oh, I don’t need to write that down, surely I will remember it!” Famous last words. I never did remember it and I never did write it down.

Excuse #1: Not having the right tools.

Now, don’t think that you have to have the most famous bullet journal or the most expensive pens and products to do a bullet journal. You just have to be happy with what you do have. You can just use a composition notebook and a bic ballpoint. You don’t need the fancy supplies to get started, and honestly, I wouldn’t go out and buy them until you have created the habit.

However, in my mind, I didn’t have the right supplies. I didn’t want to use the inexpensive supplies I had on hand because I have to get excited about a new habit, or it won’t form. If I don’t have crisp, clean notebook and a pen just for it, I won’t be happy long enough to continue.  So, I bought the Leuchitturm 1917, which is like the official bullet journal. I did not buy pens for this, because I already have my Staedtler Triplus Fineliners that I love and work perfectly.

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Excuse #2: I can’t make my spreads look like those on Pinterest

This is a very very common misconception. The spreads are beautiful, and one day, I will get there. But it is better for me to form the habit with the minimalist attitude. So, here is a picture of my year at a glance spread below. You will see that I just made it simple. I also added a thin piece of washi tape across the top, not even perfectly lined up *gasp*, so that i had a quick reference to jump back to. *personal information is blacked out*

I decided to only do 6 months because that would carry me to the end of the year. When the next 6 months arrive, if I am still doing bullet journaling, I will add it to it then another 6 month spread. Besides, who wants to get bogged down on trying to keep up with a full year at once. Guess what else? I only used black and white on this page. I want to get into the habit before I learn new ways to create the same spread. I highly recommend this way of thinking.

Excuse #3 – I don’t even know what I should track or that I want to track.

If you look online, especially Pinterest, you will find a huge list of trackers. But I say NAY! Don’t get bogged down with all the trackers available. Add trackers as you want to, and how you want to. Throughout the process you will find that you will come across things that are important to you specifically that you want to track. For me, I want to track my 100 mandala challenge! This challenge is important to me and something that I want to complete before the end of the year. Here is a look at how I am tracking this, in my 2-page tracker spread.

As you can tell, I drew  a simple mandala and also included the website where I got the challenge from. I then write a date on the number and color it in. This is my favorite spread so far. It appeals to my artistic side, as well as my need to track this challenge.

Excuse #4 – I’m too depressed/anxious about keeping up with something else.

Yes, depression and anxiety is something that we all have to deal with at one time or another. Some of us even struggle enough to be medicated. But that is what is so great about the bullet journal process, if you miss a day or a week, you can jump back in and there are no predetermined pages that you use up. You determine how and how much you use your bullet journal. I decided to try to list all the things that make me happy and put it at the beginning of my journal. This ensures that even on the days that are considered my lows, I have something to keep me from going under. Take a look at this below.

Excuse #5 – I’m too busy

Honestly, we are all too busy if we believe it, but the truth of the matter is, we can make time for anything! After planning out my first two weeks, I saw just how busy I wasn’t. I was too busy to add work, but not too busy to add fun. So I knew by looking at these two almost blank weeks, that I would see just how much time I really had to play with. Of course, I didn’t mark down all the ER visits and power outages and mom life with many many kids, but outside the home, I didn’t have much obligations. My next step is to track my hours, find out where everything goes. Check out these two weeks below. As you can tell, they are all really really simple.

So as you can tell, I didn’t want to do anything too crazy and I wanted to keep my trackers simple. At the beginning of each week, I also track my social medias. This shows me if I am doing a good job or if I need to work harder. Because I am just starting out, I feel like my numbers are embarrassing, BUT everyone has to start from the bottom.

I hope you enjoyed this walk through my bullet journal. Remember, you don’t have to wait until January 1st, to start. You can start in the middle of the month like I did. The objective is to start somewhere. Do you bullet journal? How successful are you with keeping it up. I would love to know your bullet journal experiences in the comments below!

Look Beyond Yourself

I saved your child on the playground

While watching mine have a blast,

I smile and nod when your child told you,

When you come around at last.

I picked up what you dropped before me,

You didn’t give it a second thought,

You just kept walking away clueless,

With your mind on what you haven’t bought.

I actively listened to you on your time,

When you’ve experienced injustice,

When your day is the worst you’ve had,

And today more than before you’re pissed.

I add-on more tasks than I can handle,

Because only I can do them right,

You pile the work on top of my stack,

Because you know I don’t put up a fight.

But who is watching my kids,

When I need adult interaction.

Who picks up after me,

If I space out in action,

Who is there to listen to my thoughts,

When I feel so close to breaking down,

Who can I delegate tasks to,

Without making a inconvenienced sound.

You see someone put together,

You think everything is just fine.

But if you took the time to look closer,

You would see me slowly dying

So when you have someone on your life,

That constantly gives all they’ve got,

Make sure you help refill their tank,

Before one day you find their not.

I wrote this poem this morning. I look around me at people who try their best to be everything to everyone. They want to make sure that everyone is taken care of. They wouldn’t allow someone to feel bad because of them. They have such a high amount of Empathy, that they are often forgotten, swept under a rug or take advantage of.

So I wrote this to ask you to just look beyond your own circle. Find these people in your life and make sure you tell them how important they are. Make it your priority to build up the people around you and actively listen when someone is in need.

Have you ever felt like this?

Bullet Journal

Well, creating a bullet journal is a fairly new concept. I decided to jump on the bandwagon because the perfectionist in me loves the idea. so I hope to add each month’s pages before I add my personal data to them so that you can see what I am up to artistically.

Most bullet journals start with a year at a glance. So here is mine, created over the next 15 months.

After this, I decided to add some writing prompts that will help me remember those things we miss daily with our kids.

Next, I wanted to add a few prompts to write about myself. This part is particularly important to me because of the recent death of my sister-n-law. Now we are trying to put together everything we can are about her for her son who will, undoubtedly, want to know about her one day. God forbid anything should happen to me, but should something happen, there will be some information here for my kids and family left behind.

Next, I looked over some thought provoking questions that I want to answer in this journal. So, I decided to write them all down and then as I answer them, I will write page numbers to correspond with the location of my answer for each.

So, beginning in November, I decided to give you a preview of that months starting page.

 

Have you ever started a bullet journal? How did you stay focused and keep it up? I would love to know your bullet Journaling stories in the comments below.

When children think they are helping.

So what can I say about this except, my 2-year-old felt like I was doing it wrong? She, in all her glory, decided to “help” me with my project I had already spent 2 hours on. At the moment, in which I noticed, she looked up at me, pen in hand, proud of her accomplishments. Me, on the other hand, wanting to scream.

This teaches us all a lesson. Our kids watch us and want to mimic us. So make sure what you are teaching your kids, is how you want them to grow up. They will learn by example.