Lifebook Changed My Life, (And So Did "Meeting" Effy Wild!)

In Effy's post today, as this month I Blog Along With Effy Wild,  she "Nudged" us to write about someone that had a positive influence on us and to share this person with others.  Also today the registration opened up for Lifebook 2018.  Coincidence? I think not!

It only took a brief moment of self reflection to determine that the biggest positive influence in both my personal and Art life has been discovering and working through my Lifebook lessons. 

Lifebook 2013

 I stumbled across Lifebook in 2013 through a link on Christy Tomlinson's site as I was looking for her "She Girl" on-class, a brand new concept to me at the time.  To be honest the reason I signed up for Lifebook was because the frugal, French-Canadian farmer genes kicked in: "Why pay $50 for one class from one instructor when for $100 you can get 52 lessons from 26 instructors?" It's was a no brainer and I immediately signed up, bought the course and watched my first on-line art instruction video with Tamara Laporte.

Lifebook 2016

That was a  life-changing moment for me!  I could write a book about all the ways this amazing experience changed how I see and feel about myself and my art, but Hey... Tamara already did that this year and it's due to be released in 2018.

Lifebook 2015

I now have Lifebook lessons from 2013 to 2017 downloaded onto my computer and I am off to add 2018 today.  And even though I have yet to finish all 52 lessons in any given year I will continue to sign up. 

Lifebook 2017

Why?  Because I am working through the lesson's on my own personal schedule, in no particular order, one lesson at a time.  This works for me, and each Lifebook year and each Lifebook lesson is always different from the previous and I learn something from every single one. 

Lifebook 2017

I have learned so much on my Lifebook journey these past five years, growing both as a person and an artist, but if I had to pick just one thing out of the many, many gifts and lessons I have received it would be this:  

Lifebook 2015

By making the commitment to complete the Lifebook lessons I made myself a priority, and as big a priority as taking care of my family and my home.  Art became my work and making Art was given value.  I was no longer "playing in my craft room"  but "Working in My Studio".  And this was HUGE for me, because as a woman and a caregiver everyone else's needs always seemed to be more important than my own, and my needs never seemed important enough to make it to the top of list.

Lifebook 2016

So go check out Tamara Laporte and  Lifebook 2018 today ... it may be the best gift you ever buy for YOURSELF!

Various Lifebook lessons completed early 2016

I am Blogging Along With Effy for the month of September, come join us.

Lynne Mizera - Student, Artist, Woman of the World

My First Post of the Year - 2014

I cannot believe it is 2014... this year I will celebrate my 52nd birthday I really never thought that I would live this long (see this Post for why) 

But I AM here and doing better than I ever thought I would or could and Loving my life... 

And like many other people I like to spend a bit of time reflecting on the past year and looking over the next few months of this new year to see where I am at and if I am still heading in the same direction and more importantly ... if I still WANT to be heading in the direction that I am going!  

For me 2013 has been a year of personal challenges and physical obstacles on many different levels of my life but these challenges have caused me to re-evaluate what I thought I wanted in my life, to establish where I am heading right now and to make me really think about what I want to do with my future - always uncomfortable but never a waste of time. 

I have come to realize that I LIKE who I am and how I am and how I live my life... but that there is always room for improvement and I will continue to make those adjustments as required... 

I have also realized this year that I can embrace my inner beauty and allow myself to feel pretty every single day no matter what the outside cover is looking like... 

I realized that I LOVE to Laugh and I missed doing that for a while this year... but I am doing it again

I also realized that I really do still LIKE people - in general and in specific - but that in future I will be more selective about who I "let in" to my heart and soul...

But the biggest thing for me this year was realizing that HOME is not a place but is a feeling I hold in my heart; a feeling that is tied to the people I love the most in this world and that I am ready to move on... 

2013 was also the year I unchained my inner artist from the basement of my soul, allowing her to fly free... and WHAT a journey that has been...smile! 

But I realized that I MISS scrapbooking and that although I am loving my Art Journey... I need to make sure that I scrapbook more this year - and you will get to see all of it as I just have to share with you...

So thank you for sharing my 2013 with me and Happy 2014 everyone... I hope you keep coming back to check in on me as I continue to travel (and share) my journey....

Happy Days.... Smile

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera

 

My ART Journey...

It feels like FOREVER since I have posted any pics of my art journey.  I have been so busy trying to keep up with the crazy number of on-line courses for which I have signed up AND trying to meet all my art and friend and design team commitments, that I haven't had a minute to stop and photograph and post any of my projects, so in the interest of time (and my NEED to SHARE) I thought I would just create one HUGE ART POST.... with pics of a lot of the stuff I have been playing around with these past few months... ENJOY!!

This is an ART Journal page I created for a Circle Journal I am currently participating in... I Loved it so much that I had a hard time sending it off.

The request was to create a page with an Art Journal feel using a quote from van Gogh... I used my dylusion sprays, water color paper, Donna Downey's flowers stamps by Unity stamps and my favorite dragonfly by Magenta stamp - 

Because I loved this entire page so much I am now creating a canvas using these colors and this design.

These next photos are the March lessons from my Life Book 2013 classes... I am learning all kinds of great art techniques through this on-line course... it's like going to ART School! Here is a journal page about messages from my heart to the people I love...

This next pic is kinda cool... my first ever attempt at painting people that I drew... Big "Me" and Little "Me" - it was an amazing experience... and a caused me to access and drain a deep pool of sadness that I didn't even realize I was carrying around. You can feel the emotion coming off the page!

Now I really struggled with this next assignment because I had to choose an animal to represent myself... and after some research and reflection (and a tarot card reading)... I chose the BADGER!  A seriously COOL animal!

This was also my first creation using the Mantra - "Don't THINK.. Just DO!" and I have to tell you it really does work.

These next three photos are from a fun Life Book exercise to set some ART goals for ourselves in this coming year - and again I just allowed this page to evolve, trying not to think too much, and I do love how the doodling turned out..

Again it took me longer than I thought because I really wanted these goals to mean something to me... 

and I have to say that I really love how my Goal "cards" turned out - created from a deck of old beat up playing cards!

So that's it for now... although it is already June (Really?!) I am now starting on my April Life Book lessons but I am not worrying about it at all.. As Mr. Badger Says... "I am just Walking my OWN path at my OWN pace!" Grin 

Thanks for stopping by and sharing with me again... and PLEASE feel free to leave me a comment - I do LOVE hearing from you!

Cheers! Lynne