The story continues ...

In order to get motivated to create the memory book for my Aunt Anne's 90th birthday, I googled "scrapbook stores in LA" and found the website for in West LA - Sweetpeas and Snapshots - It's a vintage scrapbooking store unlike any scrapbooking stores I've ever seen - while browsing the site I saw that they taught classes and one of the upcoming classes was being taught by one of my former coaching clients - Norman Dixon (It's In The Cards)- I signed up for the class - Norman reps Anna Griffin and periodically teaches a class using her papers and designs -

Although I adore Norman as a teacher, I found that I wanted to find my own creativity in creating a page so I signed up for a Kelly Kilmer class - creating a bound journal with paints and more - Now this was art! She gave us permission to get messy - get wild and that there are no mistakes in art! I love my first attempt at binding a book - although the cover is busy with no real focal point - it's all my design! I was hooked!



I signed up for Kelly's blog (had never read a blog before) and as happens - one link led to another and I had jumped in the deep end of the pool with this art thing - I thought I was just going to make a memory book for my Aunt - but it became so much more. I gave myself permission to explore my art for the first time in my life - to let go of those "dream stealers" in my life who don't "get"it - I started doing this for me - I have never felt so free and so excited in my life.

All the times I would go to art stores and never want to leave, or go to a museum and spend hours just sitting in one room looking at the paintings - or the time I sneaked into the Uffizi Gallery at closing and literally ran up the back stairs to view the "Birth of Venus" and other Botticelli works (or as I like to call it "Venus on the Half-Shell") because I was leaving to go back to America the next day (but that's a story for another blog on another day!)

From the time I signed up for Norman's class - November 19, 2006 - my life has changed forever. By taking a chance - being pro-active when I didn't even know exactly what I was doing, I opened up a whole new world. I challenge each of you - what are you waiting for? What world is waiting for you? Jump in the pool - just do it - the water's fine and I believe you will know how to swim! Let me know how it's working for you - peace!