Wild Birds Unlimited...Thank You!

Yesterday I brought 4 of our gourd bird feeders into the Wild Birds Unlimited store in Glendale, Az.  I showed them to Victor, the owner of the store and he LOVED them...really praised our artwork and creativity.  He is going to take them into his store on consignment and we are thrilled.
Here are pictures of the bird feeders...

The birds absolutely LOVE our bird feeders too....they just all flock around, above, below and IN the feeders.  So fun to watch!

Monday Morning...almost the end of August!

Almost the end of August!  Maybe it will begin to get cooler, here in Arizona....maybe.

This weekend my husband started working on a new gourd...doing a new technique...He is so good at learning various carving techniques.  I am excited to see this one.  I'll take a peek out in the garage and let you see.....

Hard to know where this is going right now...but you will be amazed and surprised when he's done.  I know I always am!

Have a great day!!

Carolyn

one more...

Rainbow, Baby Lion, and Butterfly Native American

 Here are our latest creations......

Good Morning...

Good Morning..
Lyle and I have almost completed 2 new gourds....pictures this weekend....one is a bird feeder gourd...large and very beautiful with a theme of rainbows.  It was Lyle's idea and we both love the looks of it.

The other is a long gourd that looks like a tree trunk and peeking out of the hole on the trunk is an adorable baby lion.

Wait til you see these...I plan to post them this weekend.
Have a great day!
Carolyn

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

All of the gourds you see here can be found and purchased at my online store... http://www.chrysalisgodgourds.com

Deco Butterfly Gourd, view 1

Deco Butterfly, view 2

Native Holder

Serenity

Stippled Butterfly Gourd

Under Angel's Wings

Watercolor Flight, view 1

Watercolor Flight, view 2

Watercolor Flight , view 3

Sorry for the problem with this post yesterday.  Must have done something wrong...."Who, ME????"

Lots of pictures coming Sunday of gourds we've completed

Lyle and I have completed a number of new gourds and we are excited to share them with you....will take pictures and post them tomorrow, Sunday.

Schedule some face time with YOU

Good Friday Morning!
This morning I received an important reminder in my email that perhaps would be meaningful to all of us as we are dealing with our busy lives....


A quote by Charles Richards:  "Don't be fooled by the calendar.  There are only as many days in the year as you make use of."


BUT...."make use of" is not just about everybody else time....also about making use of time for YOURSELF time.


With all our organizers, palm pilots, calendars, personal assistants, sticky notes, etc sometimes we let these things rule our lives.


It's important to create space for our personal time.
We need to make the most of today (for ourselves as well as others) because tomorrow is never guaranteed.

working on several gourds...FUN!

Yesterday, Wednesday, I did lots of work on gourds...have several orders and I am delighted!  Thanks!

Wednesday

Went to the gym this morning as usual....3 miles on the treadmill and happy to be there!
Home now and doing more work on our gourds.
We're looking forward to attending a Gourd group meeting tonight and meeting other Gourders.
Have a great day!
Carolyn

insight into learning

There is no difference between living and learning...it is impossible and misleading and harmful to think of them as being separate. - John Holt, author

Insight into learning
Every season in life is full of learning experiences. One step leads to the next and we can draw on the past and walk confidently through trials as our wisdom grows. Our thoughts eventually turn into our habits, which determine where our lives go. Put your dreams in capable hands--your own. Don't let the "wisdom of the world" become the internal voice that guides you. What has your own life taught you? What experiences have brought you to where you are now? Think about what it takes to overcome the roadblocks in your life. What skills do you need in order to achieve you goals? Take a writing class to jumpstart the book you've always wanted to write. Shadow a friend who knows how to sew, or research a trip to the country you have longed to visit. The common denominator for all successful people is having the right tools to realize their goals.

Lyle's Stippled Butterfly Gourd...almost done

Stippled Butterfly Gourd...almost done

creative weekend....

Lyle is learning to stipple on gourds...This weekend I painted 5 large butterflies on this gourd.  Then Lyle took his dremel tool and he has been stippling around each butterfly, creating a textured background around the butterflies.  We are both delighted with the results so far.

It is so fun to be learning new stuff and sharing the creative process together!

I'll show you the gourd when it's complete.

In addition, I have been working on gourds that a friend in Florida wants for her Church craft fair in November.

Wow!

OK....I just settled down, into bed, with my book by Marianne Williamson "A Return to Love."  The first paragraph I read made my say "wow!" and get up and run to my computer.  I just really want to quote what she has said...it is exactly what I feel and want to keep feeling....Here it is:

"The highest prize we can receive for creative work is the joy of being creative.  Creative effort spent for any other reason than the joy of being in that light-filled place, love, God, whatever we want to call it, is lacking in integrity.  It diminishes us.  It reduces inspiration to mere sales."....pg. 174

Yes, I know I must learn to market and yes, that is not where I am the happiest or the most able.  But when I lose the balance between marketing and creating I find that to be a big mistake for me AND for my creativity.

Thank you, Marianne.

Have a good night everyone....now I shall go back to bed and read.  :-)
Carolyn

So much to learn....

Hi new followers....I am glad you visited my blog.  I did not grow up with computers and the internet (born in 1942) so I'm still learning. I'm not too bad with a lot of it but this blogging stuff is really new to me.  :-)
I tried to make a comment on Bird in a Tree Creations blog and I couldn't do it...got a message that I don't have permission yet or something.
I tried to become a follower of Dirty Brush blog and I couldn't see how to do it.
Help.....
Good for our brains to keep on learning right?
But it can also be frustrating.
thanks,
Carolyn
carolynm16@cox.net          I do know how to do emails

Good Friday Morning!

Happy Friday!
I took some pictures this morning of my work space and thought you might like to see my crowded, messy but happy little work space.  I like it and so does my old cat Kareem.  Though I don't let him get in too often because he gets into stuff he shouldn't.

Here's Kareem.....

I spend a lot of time in this space and love it all.

I know where everything is (most of the time).

Now it's time for me to do the things I plan to do today....learn more from my ecourse with Kelly...work on the gourd I started...work on the gourd my husband wants to start stippling.

Maybe I'll make time to get a haircut, too!

Have a great day and a great weekend!

Carolyn

Cafegive....HopeKids....my Zazzle store

Hi again...if you read my profile you probably saw that I bring artmaking to HopeKids....kids with cancer and other life threatening illnesses.

I got involved with HopeKids after my granddaughter was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 6.  Thank God she is now 13 years old and healthy and cancer free.  HopeKids is a wonderful nonprofit organization that provides free activities and events for the HopeKid and his or her family to attend.  The event I do is a monthly art club event.
You may wish to visit the HopeKids website.... www.hopekids.org to find out more about what they do and where they are.

Anyway, I just learned that if you go online ( http://cafegive.com/?cause=hopekids ) to shop at some of your favorite stores a percentage will go to HopeKids.

How cool is that?

Even cooler for me, though, is that amongst all the stores cafegive has is a website store called Zazzle...a place where you can order all kinds of work done by artists.  And guess what???!!!  I already have a store on Zazzle!  So if you like something in my store and order it then a percentage goes to HopeKids!

Life is Good.
God is Good.

Carolyn

Hello my friends!

Hello!
Well, I started this blog long ago...long before I really knew what blogs were all about. 
NOW I am beginning to learn about the magic of blogging...I signed up for a course with Kelly Rae Roberts...an artist I just learned about last week.  You can see her wonderful art at her website:
www.kellyraeroberts.com
I saw her art for the first time last Friday, August 5th when I went into a church gift shop and bookstore to talk with the manager about taking some of my God Gourds.  Well, there are no accidents...no coincidences are there? 
Here I am just beginning to learn how to market my God Gourds and I find Kelly Rae's beautiful art work.  I looked up her website and that was where and how I discovered her ecourse on marketing your artwork.  AMAZING!
Well, I debated with myself a bit about signing up for the course since it was going to cost money I am not yet making through my art work.  But then I decided to push past my doubts and hesitancies and JUST DO IT!
So I signed up and have started reading the first week's worth of material in the course.
It was there that I began to read about the magic of blogging.

So NOW I will begin to pursue and discover what Kelly Rae is talking about as I blog more often.  I am making a commitment to blog 2-4 times each week.

Thank you, Kelly for your inspiration!
Carolyn