A Twist of Nature

Adopt the pace of nature:  her secret is patience.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have always followed a spiritual path where nature and creativity were my teachers and house of comfort. After the end of my first marriage that being related to Domestic Violence, I ventured out even more towards a healing path and in doing so, this path led me towards helping others.

I shared my journey with domestic violence, teenage pregnancy and depression with others through my writings and blogs. For the most part, my life experiences was and still is my journey on this place we call Earth.

As many know, I went to school for Psychology as I wanted to be a counselor. Helping others is a big part of my life and, at the time, Psychology seemed to be the route to go. In my heart, I knew I wanted to help others at a deeper level - there was more to give and offer. In my article, Make a Wish and Follow Your Bliss, I share how I struggled with bringing my true purpose in life to fruition.

Helping others was key, finding a path in which to do it was a struggle. I knew that I was highly sensitive, caring, giving, and kind; more so than the average person. I wrote an article called, Let The Truth Be Told about being an Empath; something I never realized about myself until recently.

Through much hair pulling moments, depressed days, and sleepless nights, I realized that being a Life Coach was the path for me. With this revelation, I was battling with how am I going to do this? What *type* of coach do I want to be? What elements do I want to use? What tools do I want to bring to the table? How can I be authentic? What other coaches inspire me? The list can go on.

Willow Creek Studio had many twists and turns along the way. It's part of the journey, the soul growing along with many shifts and changes. 

My true essence and life experiences is what I can bring to the table. The Elements: Nature and Creativity. The Outcome: helping others find their Life Purpose, Awaken Their Souls and make their dreams come true. How? Through Creativity, Nature, Self-Healing and a whole lot of Self-Lovin'.

The Journey of Dreams

"Life is a journey; not a destination" Ralph Waldo Emerson

The world today is filled with Soul Catching Dreamers! We all have bleeding hearts to reach our dreams destination; the good news is that there is no destination. The Journey of our Dreams lingers on each and every day because whether you believe it or not; you are already living it.

There are many meanings to the word Dreams. One of my dreams was to see Stevie Nicks in Concert and this dream came true! It was truly the best time of my life and I finally saw her in person with the best people in the world; my daughters, parents and sisters.

I have a shit load of Dreams! Working in the restaurant business, I always wanted to be a Restaurant Manager. After 30 years of being a server, bartender and hostess, I finally became manager. This dream was short lived only to realize that when I finally got there; I didn't want it anymore.

You May Say I'm A Dreamer, but I'm Not The Only One! The truth is, we're all dreamers. We dream of owning a business. We dream of visiting another country. We dream of having a family. We dream of finding true love. We dream about writing a book, selling our paintings and owning a coffee shop. We dream a lovely dream!

Every day you live your Dream! Putting pen on paper; you lived your dream today. Writing in your blog; you lived your dream today. Being kind to someone; you lived your dream today. Making a video for your viewers and readers; you lived your dream today. Writing an article; you lived your dream today. Sharing your life experience with others; you lived your dream today. Painting a picture; you lived your dream today. Creating a Facebook page for your business; you lived your dream today. Designing a website; you lived your dream today. Ordering business cards; you lived your dream today. Taking a workshop; you lived your dream today. Accomplishing a goal, any goal; You are living your dream!

With every desire there is a starting point; with every dream there is no finish line! Seeing Stevie Nicks was my dream; making it happen was the goal. I saw her in concert, end of story. When it comes to making our dreams come true, our life purpose; business dreams - well, to me, there is no finish line to this kind of dream! Your Dream IS who you are! Your dream IS your true being! Your dream IS your calling in life! Experts say, First you have to have a dream and then make that dream a goal: I guess it depends on the dream.

Whether it starts out as a hobby, a craft or a weekend extravaganza; you are putting your energy into your dreams! Free of Charge or Charge a Fee - each and every day you are truly living your dream!

Italian Wedding Soup

Photo Credit

(My Recipe Creation)

Italian wedding soup got its name from an Italian phrase si sposono bene. There are many meanings to this Italian Traditional soup. Spinach represents money, tortellini represents unity (the wedding band) and it is represented for its marital occasion.  

This wedding soup is a hearty dish filled with meat and vegetables. This dish can be created in many different ways.

Soup Ingredients:

4lb. Whole roasted chicken
1 package fresh spinach
1 package cheese tortellini (or small pasta shapes)
Salt and pepper to taste

Meatball Ingredients:

1 large egg
1/3 cup fresh parsley
1 small chopped onion
1 tsp. chopped garlic
½ cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 lb. Turkey chop meat (or combine beef and pork chop meat)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place chicken in a pot and fill with water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Simmer chicken for about 2 hours. Keep an eye on the water as it will evaporate.

2. To make the meatballs - add the ingredients in a large bowl and blend well. With a teaspoon, scoop out the mixture and form into a ball. Place the meatballs on a cookie sheet covered. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes. Put meatballs aside.

3. When your chicken is done, discard from the pot and place in colander. Let it sit and cool down. Add your meatballs and spinach in the chicken stock. In another pot, boil water and cook your pasta.

4. While your pasta is cooking, cut your chicken in bite size pieces and place back into the home-made stock. Discard the skin and throw away. Cook for an additional half hour.

Tips and Warnings:

*Place cooked pasta in the bowl of soup. Don’t add pasta to soup pot as the pasta will expand and get soggy.
*Don’t cook the meatballs in its entirety in the oven as it will continue to cook in the soup.
*You can use other pasta shapes besides tortellini. Try pastina, ABC’s Orzo, Stars and other small pasta.
*Purchase organic foods and fresh vegetables.

Silence Project

Join us in the Silence Project. It's a special day for you to take time out from technology, noise and idle chatter: a time to plan a special day for you to tap into your true being.

Meditation helps to Calm Our Inner Voice - to allow us to hear in silence. As the Dalai Lama reminds us, "Silence is sometimes the best answer."

Share your Silent Day on your blog and then post a comment here. Support Silence and Peace of Mind by visiting other participants, leaving a comment.

Check out The New Pic for the Silence Project!!!

Whimsical Wednesday~Dream Wheel

Indulge yourself every Whimsical Wednesday as I challenge you with a creative project, writing prompt, word, picture or creative idea. A form of freewriting and art challenges helps your creative juices to boil over with ideas.

Grab your favorite paints, markers and sketch pad as this Whimsical Wednesday you will be designing a Dream Wheel! Follow this photo as your guide! Draw or paint a huge circle in the middle of the page and make four lines leaving you with four boxes to play with!

On a separate piece of paper write down words that describes your dreams, what is entailed within those dreams and make a list of things that you will be participating in within your dreams!

When you have it all written down, paint and color your list in a sketch pad. Get your fingers drenched in colorful, whimsical paints, have fun with this and enjoy the creative process.

Chasing Dreams

In 1997, my parents bought me the Simple Abundance A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach as a Christmas gift: I wrote a review on July 29th, 2006 Here. This book truly changed my life and inspired me to write my book Rainbow Wishes and Colorful Dreams back in 2003.

I may have published my book in 2003, but I was researching and writing it back in 1993. Yes, it took me ten years to get this book off its feet. Once the book was published (self-published), I wanted to promote the shit out of it. However, depression kicked in like a bat out of hell!

No matter how much I was depressed, I looked towards Healing Through Creativity as my therapeutic outlet. I would write, draw, paint, create and I even had up to Seven blogs! Regardless of the dark hole I fell into, I always worked towards Chasing My Dreams!

I designed projects that would be left undone. I wrote for e-zine magazines that included Suite101.com and became a Managing Editor for the Health and Wellness Section in 2002. I wrote for five columns including a Women Abuse column and a column called Celebrating Life.

In the comfort of my own home and the amazing internet at my fingertips, I came across Julia Cameron The Artist's Way. This is what helped me to write even more so. This is what helped me to search deep into my soul as to what I was put on this earth to do.

I wrote an article called Making a Wish and Follow Your Bliss; I stated in this article, "The meaning of 'success' to me was truly about achieving my greatest self and to live out my purpose in life. Through endless searching, creative therapy, and battling with depression, the answers started to fall into place; the funny thing, the answers were always there."

I am a writer, a creator, a mentor, a coach and above all else I am a Dreamer.

I love helping and inspiring others to make their dreams come true. Finding your true life purpose and making your dreams come true is about connecting to your soul. What feeds your soul? What makes you sing and dance? What is it that you find yourself absorbed in?

Making our dreams come true is not hard at all. One has to identify the meaning of dreams and the meaning of success. What I have come to realize about myself is that no matter where my dreams take me on a personal and business level, I love what I do therefore nothing will stop me.

I am a struggling artist and I love every minute of it.

Being creative sets my soul on fire. Being creative allows me to inspire and help others to make their dreams come true. My struggles and life experiences is what allows me to help others. I have walked the talk and I have accomplished many things in my life. I have overcome depression and domestic violence. I have worked my ass off in chronic pain as I wrote an article about it called When the Pain Brings You Down and Your Heart keeps You Going.

If I can do it, so can you! One thing I know for sure, is we cannot run from ourselves. If we are not Chasing our Dreams, believe me, our Dreams are Chasing Us! When your dreams are chasing you, that is your soul letting you know it means business!

Follow your heart, listen to your higher self! The word Dreams has different meanings. A dream can be seeing someone in concert, visiting a different country, having a successful business, being a paid artist, and so on.

What are you waiting for? Chase Your Dreams!

Dawson Oracle Cards

I re-created Leonie Dawson's  2013 Create Your Incredible Planner and decided to make Dawson Oracle Cards! Yes! I ripped apart the Planner to smithereens and made colorful, whimsical Oracle Cards.

 I felt like I was playing with Paper Dolls and getting intouch with my inner child! I used Index Cards, Ink Pads and a paint sponge.

Each picture from the planner had its own meaning behind it which is why I chose to recreate the planner into Oracle Cards.

I decided to leave some areas blank and open for more creativity. I love to take my time, feel things out and search for the perfect pictures as there is so much watercolor fun available within the  2013 Create Your Incredible Year Workbook & Planner.

 The planner had a notebook image that says *Things To Do To Make It Happen;* perfect for Oracle Cards! I will be adding my own meaning, ritual and intention behind each card.

So here you have it; a complete re-creation and creative combustion from the 2013 Create Your Incredible Year Workbook & Planner!

Heal Through Creativity

I have been through a lot in my life; haven't we all? I've experienced domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, depression and fibromyalgia. Life kicked my Ass and threw me some amazing curve balls, but I did manage to out run those obstacles through therapy: Creative Therapy.

Healing through Creativity is my choice of drug. Creativity is a form of healing in itself. I will therapeutically heal myself through the Creative Process. Creative therapy is like meditation; focusing on an object and letting everything else go.

"Creativity healed me. I don’t know that I could think of any word that I get more inspired by than the word healing." SARK
 
Through all I've been through, I always turned towards creativity as my healing outlet; through the written word, crafts, paintings and helping others.

Heal Your Spirit With Your Creativity. Release your inner self and struggles onto a canvas and through the written word. Whether you are struggling with depression, grief, or battling with your dreams and goals, dive into creativity. As a Creative Life Coach, the Creative Therapy Process helps me to heal and therefore helps me to be more creative within my work/business. Through the Creative Healing Process, I get an A-ha Moment - then I quickly write my current ideas in my Dreamcatcher Journal.

The Creative Process is Healing in Itself. It's not about the perfect picture or writing the American Novel; it's about the process, the healing, the enjoyment of jumping into a world of creative bliss. Creativity is our birth right; it's about fingerpainting, scribbling, doodling, gardening, cooking, drawing, painting, writing, dancing, singing, banging on the drums, and Freedom of Expression!

Express Your Freedom! Release your pain and sorrows! Start fire to the flame! Let Go! Start Playing!

Are you ready?

It's time to play! Hop on over to Whimsical Wednesday and absorb some Whimsical Challenges! Start undressing your Freedom to Create!

Coloring Outside The Lines

I am every English Teacher's worst nightmare! As a Creative Life Coach/Writing Coach, I inspire my students and clients to *not* focus on grammar or perfection; I encourage them to focus on their incredible desire to create!

The key ingredients towards becoming creative in your personal and business life are Coloring Outside The Lines and Breaking All The Rules! Natasha Bedingfield sings it the best, "I break tradition-Sometimes my tries are outside the lines. We've been conditioned, To not make mistakes, but I can't live that way, no."

Creativity is the Colors of Our Soul! It is the Rule Breaking Desire to express our deepest emotions without taking the time to worry about perfection. It is a time to release our inhibitions! 
  
Inhibitions: inappropriate conscious or unconscious restraint or suppression of behavior, often due to guilt or fear produced by past punishment, or sometimes considered a dispositional trait; a mental state or condition in which the varieties of expression and behavior of an individual become restricted.

When being creative we have no time to waste worrying about how to spell to, too or two. During our artistic adventure we have no time to waste worrying about whether throwing dirt on our canvas is really the artistic choice to make. When creating and working on our dreams, we cannot worry about whether we fit in or whether our ideas and creativity will meet the standards of society!

The important steps within creativity is preparing, expressing, and illuminating our thoughts and creative desires! When we release our souls to simply create and be free, all the *other rules* will come into play.

Are you ready?

It's time to play! Hop on over to Whimsical Wednesday and absorb some Whimsical Challenges! Start undressing your Freedom to Create!

Dawson's Life Edition

I finally ripped apart Leonie Dawson's 2013 Create Your Incredible Year Workbook & Planner. I had this pretty blank scrapbook I found at a local dollar store. The Ribbon and Mulberry Paper was already on it and was the perfect book to work with. As you could see, I cut the workbook down to the image, glued it with the infamous Elmer's Glue Stick and Voila! an awesome cover! Check out my Business Edition!

I decided to design this book with Watercolors!! I started the book with this image as it reminds me of an Ocean Goddess! I love the ocean and visit her often.

Affirmations: lots and lots of them!

This year I want to give myself the Gift of Self-Love! And this year I would like to release my Inhibitions! Ha ha! Are you now singing Natasha Bedinfield? "Reaching for something in the distance - So close you can almost taste it - Release your inhibitions - Feel the rain on your skin!"

 Ritual Days: Instantly I thought of Sundays and Tuesdays and there they were already written for me; Switch off Sundays and Creative Tuesdays! I also need to have lots more walks on the beach!

Word for the Year: New Attitude! I wrote a post about Word Resolution and New Attitude was my 2013 Word for the Year!

Books I Like To Read and Places I Like To Visit. I would like to read some Buddhism Books and visit Italy and India!