Turning 55 Has Been A Turning Point!

Oh My Goodness, so much to share with all of you today and I will try to keep it down to a short story-sized post!  Firstly on  May 27th I turned 55 and this EXCITES me beyond belief because I believe that double-digit birthday years are powerful and life changing, especially if you pay attention and leap onto the opportunities that present themselves through the year.  Let me explain: 

At the end of my 22nd year I began planning a trip to China for three weeks; I was a single mom with two children working as a waitress (so you would think not very possible) but as I worked toward that goal everything just fell into place allowing me to take this life-changing journey.  (And it really did change my life but all that in another post!)

The year I turned 33 I met "Mr. Awesome" (my husband now) and even though I had sworn off men for the rest of my life I took one more chance with my heart and am I ever glad I did because our life together has just gotten better and better ever since.

The year I turned 44 I took a new job with a start-up oil and gas company, a decision that allowed me to retire forever from office work five years later at the age of 49!

And three weeks ago I turned 55! So now can you understand my excitement?  And guess what? The awesomeness is starting already! 

This is me on the night of 55th birthday...

Here are just a few of the things that have happened in the past few weeks: 

Just before my birthday I was selected as the only Canadian on the Mixed UP Magazine design team.  Something I have wanted to do for a long time is to be able to share my work through tutorials and articles and now I AM! 

Three days after my birthday I received my first commission cheque from the Fly In The Fibre, a local store that is now carrying a bit of my work (only 100 pieces! grin).  So I actually got a "pay cheque" for being an artist... Swoon!

SOLD - on the very first day!

A few days later I arranged to teach two mixed media canvas classes in the area, putting myself out there as a mixed media artist and instructor for the very first time.

Not only did both classes sell out, but the first class was a wonderful experience with seven happy students each leaving with a beautiful finished piece that was entirely their own.

Then last week I met another amazing mixed media and fabric artist who lives just up the road from me.  She runs a business called The Art Barn Studio and we have already played together with making our own paper out of blue jeans, and she is teaching me how to make  Junk Journal.  This past Monday we played with Pebeo paints creating these "pours", (happy dance).  It turns out she is another Soul Sister and I can't wait to hang with her more! 

 

And finally this mornning I discovered that I was featured in Nathalie Kalbach's June newsletter with the Elephant tin project I created using her stamps for my Mixed Up Mag blog tutorial last month!(Go HERE to see the tutorial).  And it's only been three weeks since I turned 55!

You know, 10 years ago I started saying "jokingly" that when I retired I would spend Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday working in my glass studio and Thursday, Friday, Saturday working in my paper & paint studio and Mr. Awesome would get Sundays (although I could see him losing Sundays pretty quickly, grin).  But you know, here I am 10 years later doing EXACTLY that! Working full time, every day in my studios (yes, I have TWO) with never enough time left over for my glass, and loving every minute of my life. 

Me and Leah Wilson, who taught me how to make "Oliver" my felted owl.

It really is true that if you love what you do, not only will you "never work a day in your life" but also you will wake up every day full of energy and ready to leap out of bed to get going!

And this is Oliver... the big one on the right.

I just want to say a heart felt Thank You to all my wonderful and faithful blog followers, some of whom have been here since the beginning seven years ago. And to let you know to stay tuned because I think you are going to like some of the changes I am hoping to make to my blog over the next few months!

Some of my new pieces...

As always, Thank You for popping in today to see what I am up to and please do leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing!

Lynne Mizera, Mixed Media Artist

Creston, British Columbia, Canada