In The Studio This Week

Lots happening in the studio this week!

A custom order from Etsy that I've been working on . . .

A lady from Vancouver found me

and one of her mom's favorite sayings is,

~ live by what you trust, not by what you fear ~

Isn't that awesome?

I loved it!

So here's photos . . . the gloss is still drying around the beads . . .

so the photos are "fresh"

Excited about my business facebook page!

Have you "liked" it yet? 

You can give me the "thumbs up" here: 

Jodene Shaw, Mixed Media Art & Photography

Also getting ready for upcoming events:

Pinedale Bazaar, Saturday, November 5, 2011, Rapid City, SD, 8:30am-3:00pm

~

Art Moms (and friends) Holiday Boutique in Sioux Falls, SD

Check out the info here:  Art Moms LLC

So, I'm making art like crazy!

~And loving it!~

I {may} be at the Sturgis Holiday Open House on November 18-19 also.

Will announce this when it's "for sure" on the fb page!

My "Studio" music this week has been this:

"What If We Were Real" by MANDISA.

An album loaded with TRUTH and powerful messages!

Love this song:  The Truth About Me

Creating new backgrounds with

my new Adirondack Alcohol Inks

and loving this

"patterned" background:

~ Proverbs 31 is my inspiration for this one ~

which reminds me of both of my grandmothers

in their own unique way.

And my little creative artist is working

by my side:

on her "Moxie Girl" kit that I am thinking

we need to use for our Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts.

I adore Operation Christmas Child

and Moxie Girls.

Have you heard of them?

Check out "OCC" here:  Operation Christmas Child

~ Love sharing Jesus with kids with all my heart ~

~ There's no greater difference in a life than wholehearted belief in and love for Him. ~

And here is "Moxie" message:

Here's a fun idea for this weekend:  Pumpkin Mess - age

It's a little tradition I do with my kids & at church last year.

Not sure who to give credit to . . . received it via e-mail several years ago.

But the message sticks & is SO good.

Here's to a great week in your studio!

Mother's Encouragement

Every so often my mom has read my blog or facebook posts

and does not comment online

but waits for a face-to-face word to share.

And so her words of wisdom came to me this weekend

at, of all places, Chuck E. Cheese.

"You're too hard on yourself," she told me.

"Grandma Edna always said about her house,

'Clean enough to be healthy.  Dirty enough to be happy.'

Some days when Marlene and I would come home from school,

she would be quilting or doing an upholstry project,

the lunch dishes would still be in the sink and on the counter,

and her project was all over the dining room.

We would look around the house at the mess,

and she'd say, 'Why don't you girls do those dishes?'"

My mom's story about my Grandma Edna

makes me laugh with relief.

I was glad to know she was that way.

Because that is exactly what happens to my house

when I am shoulder deep in a project with tunnel vision for it's completion.

My Grandma Edna and Grandpa Tommy

were two of the happiest people I have ever known.

And everywhere I went with them,

people greeted them with huge smiles.

We would walk in the Senior Center in Miller, SD,

and the men would say,

"Heyyy, Tommy!"

and Grandpa Tommy would have a teasing word for them

and then sit down to play cards.

"Clean enough to be healthy.  Dirty enough to be happy."

Ok, so maybe I don't feel quite as condemned about my housekeeping.

Although, I still get a little crazy about it,

I guess that is when it is not clean enough to be healthy

and it is way too dirty to be happy . . .

Thanks, Mom.

I post pretty pictures, and art, and celebrations,

but I am a real woman that gets overwhelmed and frustrated too

with big stuff, but often with the little day-to-day stuff.

So, I have to remind myself to find beauty in the mess.

And I have respect and grace for those

trying to do this life well,

but that fall down, get in a pit, get frustrated, break,

and do their best to get back up again,

get put together again

with God's help.

Gracing myself & gracing others
flows out of the well of grace
that I receive from Jesus.
Giving what I've been given.

I heard this song by Mandisa
while I was folding laundry today
 that said,
"Can't live my whole life wastin'
 all the grace that I know You've given..."
 That's what I'm talking about.
Beating myself up is wasting His grace.
Listen to "Waiting for Tomorrow" by Mandisa here:
Waiting for Tomorrow



Linking here . . . be encouraged . . .

~ More Difficult Than I Ever Thought It Would Be ~

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches on the soul ~ e. dickenson. 
{Available in Etsy shop}

~ reminding myself that life is one moment, one step, at a time and there is grace for all the stuff that I fall down in and grace for everything that is so much more difficult than I ever thought it would be twenty years ago when I thought I could do anything and everything with perfect excellence ~

~ thinking today about grace ~

~ God's grace that catches me when I fall and sets me back on my feet again ~

~ receiving that grace ~

~ gracing myself ~

~ rather than shaming myself ~

~ gracing others ~

~ rather than thinking they should have that fixed, under control, handled ~

~ knowing I need it ~

It's why I placed my artwork here above my

grace-needing kitchen sink

~ because it's one of those places I most need grace ~

~ grace has me thinking ~

~ about how life is more difficult than I ever thought it would be ~

~ kind of like how before a person has kids . . .

they know how they will raise them,

and how those kids will behave ~

~ until their own child is humbling . . . making a person eat their own words ~

~ I've got grace for mamas. ~

Grace for those that couldn't nurse and gave up.

Grace for those that nursed beyond what social rules said was ok.

Grace for those with fearful, cautious, obedient, clingy kids.

And grace for those with courageous, determined, button-pushing, line-crossing kids.

Grace for those whose kids are constantly fighting and wondering . . .

will they even be friends when they are adults????

Grace for those whose kids are adults . . . and aren't even friends.

~ grace has me thinking ~

~ about those who went for their dreams with all the wrong motives ~

~ and failed and beat themselves ~

~ like a body tossed against the rocks by the waves of the sea ~

~ sacrificing what was important ~

~ I've got grace for those with broken dreams ~

~ and those who dared to dream a new dream ~

~ grace for those who dare to stand up again after being broken ~

~ grace has me thinking ~

~ about how it is easy to judge a life I am not living ~

~ grace has me thinking ~

~ about how I used to feel so guilty about crying in front of my kids ~

~ about showing weakness, tears, vulnerability in their sight ~

~ how I used to be afraid of breaking in my own sight ~

~ afraid of failure ~

~ yet how I have learned that we all break sometimes ~

~ and life goes on ~

~ and God's grace puts me back together more beautiful than before ~

~ gives me grace for others ~ compassion ~

~ grace shows my kids that breaking, failure, and weakness does not need to stop you forever ~

~ it's not the end of the world ~

~ I used to be determined not to break ~ not to show weakness ~

~ But I have found grace in brokenness

that allows the false and the temporary to crack and fall off

to reveal the deeper

foundation

character

truth

that lies beneath.

The brokenness bathed in grace

lets the real-ness,

the authenticity

come forth.

And the broken masks fall away

to beautiful truth . . .

maybe messy,

maybe imperfect,

maybe shabby,

maybe limited,

maybe not able to do it all,

maybe not having it all together,

but beautiful, authentic, true,

bathed in grace.

I love what my friend & mentor Joan C. Webb says,

"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."

~That's grace.~

{Love her book The Relief of Imperfection}

Linking with these inspiration artists here:

Sunflower Art

Simply

excited

to share

new

art

with you . . .

Truly.

What you believe, is how you will live.

That is how important belief is.

What you believe about yourself, about others, about life.

You will live the truth of your belief.

Sometimes I have to stop, take a breath, and ask myself,

"What am I believing today, in this moment?"

And then ask myself this question,

"Is this thought that I am believing true?"

"Am I going to choose to believe this, or something else?"

We all believe something.

It might as well be true.

Hold out your hands

to feel

the

luxury

of the sunbeams.

~ Helen Keller ~

Better is one day in your courts

than thousands elsewhere. . .

For the Lord God is a sun and a sheild . . . Psalm 85

I found this sweet little childrens song

in my great-grandmothers hymnal ~

"Jesus wants me for a sunbeam"

Joining my friends . . . in their studios . . .

Copyright 2011 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.