2015 Goals: March Update

Keeping accountable, what did this Rock Girl accomplish in March 2015?

COMPLETED GOALS FOR 2015

• Be healthy enough to be entirely free of daily medicine. COMPLETED!  CHECK!  DONE!  ADIOS MEDS
•  Travel to New Orleans, LA  COMPLETED!  Went to NOLA March 24-27th with my sweet Mom!
•  Continuing my education
  • Spring course: Payroll Accounting ENROLLED!  Starting March 30, 2015
  • Summer course: Comprehensive Spreadsheets ENROLLED! 
  • Fall course:  Intro to Office Software ENROLLED!
   
   

• HEALTH GOALS 
• Continue to exercise daily.
•  Walk 5-6 days a week, averaging 3-5 miles.  ongoing
• Go to gym 2 days a week for strength exercising.  ongoing
• Use FitBit to monitor my steps, reaching daily goals of 10 flights of stairs and 10,000 steps a day. ongoing
• Journal my blood sugar twice a week, food intake, exercise log. ongoing
• Post my progress on a  weekly basis on my results from my gastric sleeve surgery, after 3 months on a monthly post. Weekly seems very self centered so I will be posting updated on a monthly basis going forward.

• Run two 5K races by October 2015.

• Make two new meals a week, post my results on a weekly basis. ongoing

•  PROFESSIONAL GOALS
• Reaching my 2015 goals at work.

• ART GOALS
• Attending "Art Is...You" retreat in Minneapolis, MN in September.

• Creating a horoscope series of paintings.

• Creating new Creepy, but Cute drawings.

• Create a series of Day of the Dead canvas art.

• Sell 10 paintings this year. 

• Attend an art walk.

• Participate in art online classes, post weekly of any projects created and works in process.
• Willowings: Life Book 2015  http://www.willowing.org/life-book-2015/   Ongoing!
• Art5Academy: Documented Life Project http://www.art5academy.com/the-studio/the-documented-life-project-free  Honestly, nothing has really spoken to me to create.  Still not giving up!
•  Christy Tomlinson: SheArt and Art Society
• http://www.scarletlime.com/workshops.html
• monthly art project: The Art Society   Behind, I purchased all my materials...just trying to find the time!

•  TRAVEL GOALS
• Paris, France
• Portland, WA 
• Austin, TX

•  BLOG GOALS
• Post the following:
• Monthly goals update  Kinda....
• Weekly post new recipes  Sorta, good intentions, I will do better!
• Weekly post health update/sleeve progress  CHECK!
• Weekly post new art CHECK!
• Increase follower on blog and Facebook

As a commitment to myself, I will be posting a monthly update on my blog to see my  progress throughout the year.  

Feeling a Little Loopy-Zendoodling

Feeling a Little Loopy by Bobbi Jo Hickman

I was focused on creating a ZenTangle journal page.  

re sIf you are not familiar with ZenTangle Art or Zen Doodling, there is a wonderful book to help introduce the process called Totally Tangled by Sandy Steen Bartholomew.


 
I love that with just a few supplies, 3x3 paper or ATCs, Sharpie pens, I can create while on the go.  I find the practice to be relaxing and meditative.  There are so many ways to create designs, the repetitive nature of the process helps instill the focus I require which helps me perfect my pattern making skills, as well as, boost my confidence and comfort levels using new patterns.   Allowing me to experiment with new patterns it has been so helpful to me as it has allowed me the confidence to introduce new pattern designs to my media art. 

What a Cocky Cardinal

My journal page is impressed by the hard cold midwest winter.  Seems the only bird flying about is Illinois' state bird, the cardinal.

He was created in my journal using acrylic paints, watercolor, and a black sharpie.

The design of the bird was inspired by one of my favorite artist, Charlley Harpers.  The art brilliantly captures my love for animals and simple line design. You can see more of Charley's work at Charley's website.

 

 

Art is a Work in Progress!

Hi Rock Girl Peeps!

I am sorry but this week has been busy for me, so I do not have any completed pages to show you today. 
However, I do have a lot of Art in the middle of the process.  I thought it would be good to see my art in a different creative stage instead of just the completed piece!


SKULLIES GIRLS ON CANVAS

Here are three of my skullie girls that I am working on.  They are all created using acrylic and Golden fluid paints.  Each are on stretched canvases 8X10.

ART JOURNAL
 Red is for Roses....again just began working on this page.  I think I am going to redo the blue dripping paint in a more bright blue and online the roses in journaling.   Not sure, so if you have any ideas, please share!

DRAWING

I love creating Whimsy Girls, I was taught how to create both the Skullie and Whimsy Girls by Megan King Saurez.  She does some great instructional classes, well worth the money.  Plus, she often has BOGO on here classes!  Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.meganscreativebliss.blogspot.com/

I think that am going to use this piece to create my Beacon Girl for LifeBooks 2015!

Question for you...do you create your art one at a time or do you have multiple projects going all at once?

Enjoy!

Peach Spinach Vanilla Protein Smoothie

Peach-Spinach Vanilla Protein Smoothie

I am really enjoying the process of creating smoothies!  I was not a smoothie person before my surgery, but going through a two week "fasting" process I discovered a new found appreciation for them!

Ingredients

INGREDIENTS
1 cup spinach leaves
1 cup frozen peaches
1/2 cup slice banana
1/2 cup light vanilla soy
1/2 cup fat free vanilla  Greek yogurt
3-4 ice cups
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

DIRECTIONS:
Place all the ingredients in a blender.  Blend at high speed until smooth!

DRINK UP! FEEL GOOD!

I just found this link about healthy food choices and they had a  chart for creating the best smoothies!

 

Below is the link for more healthy food choices!

http://pulptastic.com/24-must-see-diagrams-will-make-eating-healthy-super-easy/?utm_content=buffer65e26&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer




Hope you enjoy this refreshing smoothie!  It is a great way to start your day or for a special treat!

Week #4 Health Update FItBit

Week #4 Health Update

 I am trying hard to focus on my food choices and reaching my daily activity goals.

Here is my FitBit Progress for last week:

I have to say I love my FitBit!  It has changed my life as far as exercise.  I am not a gymrat nor do I enjoy sweating.  So wearing this has become a true motivator for me.  I just walk, walk, walk and climb stairs.  When I  first started, I just did 2,500 steps daily and 3 flight of stairs.  Each week I  increased my daily goal, example, the following week I did 3,500 steps and 5 flights of stairs.

 

My little FitBit helps keep myself accountable for it all!  I hate ending my day with only a flight of stairs left to met my 10 flight daily goal or only have 500 more steps to get to 10,000.

Big Bonus, it tracks my weekly progress so I can show my doctor and nutritionist my activity levels.  (Again, with the accountabilty).  

As part of my 2015 goals, I want to make more of an effort to track my daily activity.  

For the week of January 16 to January 21 the total is....

TOTAL STEPS=84,141

TOTAL STAIRS= 98 flights

TOTAL MILES=35.61

TOTAL CALORIES BURNED= 17,521

TREADMILL

TOTAL MILES=6.79

TOTAL TIME AT GYM=193.45, 3 hours 22 mins

If you are not tracking activity, I strongly suggest to start!  It truly has changed my life, remember I have lost over 40 lbs last year simply because I increased my daily activity, just by walking.

Remember that is takes only one step to start your journey!

 

 

 

 

Art Feeds Your Soul Watercolor and Lettering Journal inspired by Joanne Sharpe

Happy Art Wednesday!
Working on Week #3 in LifeBook 2015, and this week's lesson was with the very talented Joanne Sharpe!
She is known in the art world for her creative letter designs.  Her lesson was on how to create whimsical lettering to our art journals.

The art journal page was completed using watercolors, black and white pens, and a ruler. I love creating floral motifs especially when they are whimsical!  ( LOVE the word WHIMSICAL!!!!)

I loved the process of creating this colorful piece, I think it really hit home and brought back a lot of fond memories of elementary school penmanship/cursive classes.  I was always told I had good penmanship for a "leftie"!    Do you remember using that special penmanship paper with the lines?  I do, I loved it!  I think I loved cursive because it was so unique for one person to another, an individual's style was shown through their signature.

Joanne Sharpe suggests to keep a "marble" notebook to test pens, markers, watercolor designs, and fonts.  Using the notebook will be ease the pressure of making mistakes and enjoy the creative freedom to find your whimsical lettering style! I personalized my new lettering art journal and will be carrying it with me to start my exploration of lettering, fonts, and general trial and errors for my art journal.  I plan on filling the journal with quotes and inspirations and hope that it will be become a useful resource for my future creative endeavors.

To create my personalized journal, I took a blank comp book covered it with scrapbook paper.  The scrapbook paper covering the book is The Paper Studio Kirby Teesdale pack which can be purchased at Hobby Lobby.

If you are interested in Joanne Sharpe's book here is the Amazon link for ordering:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Whimsical-Lettering-Joanne-Sharpe-ebook/dp/B00IRKYON4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421816939&sr=8-1&keywords=joanne+sharpe

Embrace your whimsical signature!