Leanne Shawler, Artist

Today I have mopped the kitchen and dining room floors including under the fridge because our dog recently died of kidney failure -- imagine oceans of pee. I am incredibly grateful to him that when he couldn't wait for us to get home from work, he went on the tile. So yes, I'm mourning my 16 year old dog, who we had for about 10 years of his life. Adopted as an adult with his brother who died last year ... This also might be a Sarah Bessey fan-post, because I have a large number of links from her blog. She writes really really good stuff, folks, if you don't follow her yet. It's probably way past time for me to buy her book... Who are your Somewheres ? The people you can say anything to. (Sarah Bessey) What is your motivation? (Sarah Bessey) I used to think God wanted a lot from me. (Sarah Bessey) . Oh, yeah, this one really resonated. To the young women reading "Jesus Feminist" (Sarah Bessey) Phew. Here are some other great blogs I've ...

I am going to start out by saying, I could do with a serious purge of stuff. That said, I have so much because I've flitted from scrapbooking to 3D creations (birdhouses) to fabric creations to painting on canvas to art journaling. It shows. On the other hand, I've gone from working part-time to not working to working full-time, so I know there are projects I really want to get to. (Like the Madonna art display quilt from a swap I was in several years ago.) I've taken a break from this blog party for the last couple of years, but if you want to see how my creative space has changed and developed (just in case you haven't seen enough creative spaces for one day!), you can see: in 2009 in its barest of bones (I didn't participate in the blog party, but wanted to show in 2010 how my room, which is a small third bedroom, had looked before.) in 2010 which is like a complete reveal with an additional post on my homemade hanky curtains in 2011 after an overha...

Which sounds like the lyrics of a song but here goes: 1) When you upgrade to OS 10.10.3 and PhotoShop Elements (6.0) crashes on trying to open jpg files to edit. What to do? Drag the files to the app icon and voila! Edit and save to your heart’s content. 2) Birthdays can last for more than one day. Sometimes up to two weeks! I have the cakes (and toasted marshmallow milkshake ) to prove it! 3) I had to be shown how to use tumblr. My Computer Science degree is officially useless. 4) Texting during the Great Silence probably counts as breaking the silence. So does, I learned, reading and writing in your journal. One is supposed to be still as well as silent. our room at Mt. Calvary monastery 5) Reading in a group "From Teilhard to Omega", a collection of essays edited by Ilia Delio. Teilhard was a Jesuit whose writings were banned but appear to have recently sprouted wings. The interesting thing I learned was that Teilhard's central theology i...

I took a break for a couple of years from participating in Where Bloggers Create , although every year I lose about a day and a half of my life poring over everyone submissions. There is time to sign up if you want to share your creative space on your blog. On or around July 11 (which is when the party starts), there'll be a place on Karen's website to sign up as part of a link party. There are more details on how to do that on her site as well. So -- stay tuned! (And thanks to Sandy at Quill Cottage for posting about it!)