Elephant Girls and the Crazy that is My Life

Oh hello there world, it's Tam here checking in rising from the depths of chaos that is a childcare-less holiday life in which sign ups for Life Book are EXPLODING, emails are backing up, I am super sleep deprived and crabby (at times) yet want to fall to my knees daily in deep gratitude of it all.

My life; it's amazing, and blessed and also has its hard and out of control bits. I'm writing this at 5am, because; without childcare nor any other family support: thereisnotime thereisnotime there. is. no. time. But I am so glad that that is one of my only worries.
If Iook at what other people struggle with in life (hello Syria, hello Sandy Hook to name only 2 extreme tragedies) and I know how incredibly blessed I am. :) that's not to say that any of my "suffering" is less real. I just know how to put it perspective and move on again.

But let me paint you a picture: who would've thought that little children catch viruses and colds this often? I don't think we've had an illness free hour in the last 2 months or so. And illnesses with little kids is not just 'oh a little bit sick no problem', no, it's: 'omgoddoom nosleep, whiny difficult children omgoddoom sort of thing'.

And who would've thought that 2 little children make this much noise making it impossible for me to have a normal conversation with my husband. One morning, I kid you not, I was trying to talk to Andy about the curtains for the new house (I know, we've become incredibly domesticated, but mostly, we are concerned with curtains because the house doesn't have double glazing so cold cold cold), anyhoo, I was trying to talk to him about curtains while I had Dylan screaming in one ear and Elliot in the other. It depressed me SO much that I couldn't even just talk to him for 5 minutes about curtains (let alone about how he is doing or how much I love him ...) that I started sobbing and shouted: "WHY WON'T THEY LET ME TALK TO YOU?!!!!!"

So yes, my life is blessed and awesome is so many ways, and also: I just need break from this kid malarkey. We don't have any family nearby so we never have any support apart from childcare and she is away for the holidays, for us, it's just non-stop; work, kids, sleep, work, kids, sleep. Neither Andy nor I ever get to just anything for ourselves and then when we ARE with the kids, it's usually hard (it's ALSO fun, but it's also HARD).
And again: for this to be my only 'problem' means I am deeply lucky. :) But if any of you want to babysit for let's say 5 weeks, I will worship you forever. ;)



So, now that I've covered the parenting pains: amazing amazingness is happening in Life Book land: we almost have 1200 people signed up! Can I hear a "holy cow"!!? It IS all holy and sacred, we are going to be making miracles all year, I'm SO happy and so excited about Life Book 2013. Wowowowowo. :D Thank you to all of you who have signed up: I love YOU! :D And of course: if you want to join in on this fantastic course make sure to sign up here.



I've been thinking about my word for next year, and the word 'health' keeps coming up for me. I really want to tackle my physical health in a radical (yet healthy/ positive) way and I'll be running an art/ health course early next year too, and I'm going to make next year all about my health, physical, mental, emotional. Yay. :) I'm ready.

Also: elephant girls. They've been coming to me in my art, a lot. Lookit:

First there was she. I love her. The kindness in her eyes makes me feel safe. 

She has piggy, cat and bunny rabbit girlfriends. :) I love them too. 

Then I loved the elephant girl so much, I wanted to make a 3d version of her. 

She was made out of creative paper clay, which is awesome stuff. 

Here she is wearing a poncho. :)

Then I wanted to draw bunny rabbits, pigs and elephants and girls, again! 

And then, this one came through only yesterday, based on another painting of mine 'Lady with Roses' I wanted to make an 'Elephant Girl with Roses' and I'm so in love with this one. So in love. :) 

Christmas was fun because it's Dylan's first year he's actually vaguely understanding the concept. He loved opening presents (and telling everyone before they opened theirs what was in their present, lol). 

I will leave you with some recent pics of the brood who both drive me crazy and to the edge of blissful love. 

I wish you all a fabulous new year, may it bring you joy, abundance, love, self acceptance and a groundedness in the now. I send you love, truly.

And don't forget beautiful people:

Mission Kindness

.Mission Kindness.

Dear friends, I've been up since 3am this morning. First Elliot was awake, then the muse came to visit hitting me with inspiration. And then the muse went back to sleep but I didn't. Instead I started reading the news on my Guardian app and ended up reading the stories of the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings.   I've been pretty much keeping it together since the news, as an empath I can get deeply affected by the tragedy and suffering of others, but reading the names of the little children, the heroic teachers, and yes even thinking about the deep and utter pain and agony the shooter must've been in, meant I cried for about half an hour. Tears flowing, I kept thinking: "we need more love in the world, we need more kindness in the world". What if Adam (the shooter) had experienced more love, more kindness, more support? (I know, sometimes even all the love and kindness in the world can still not help someone but still ...). So I thought; "what can I, what can WE do to send more love and kindness into the world right now?" And then I thought: "we are artists". We can send love and kindness into the world with our art. So, in the vain of Michael de Meng's art abandonment project, I encourage you/us all to make a piece of art with a loving kindness message on it, and to go out and leave it somewhere for a stranger to find. If you don't have time to make your own, use my free printout by clicking here.             I made these digitally and you can print them out A4 (standard printer paper, card stock or photo paper) cut them up into 4s and hand them out to people in your neighbourhood, to people in cafes or hang them up in libraries/ schools, wherever you want. On the back of the cards you can print the address of the Kindness Gang Facebook Group (all included in the PDF) which I've just set up.   I'm thinking: let's not stop here, let's continue to do random acts of kindness and make the world a better place, please come and join the group HERE. Recipients of your art can leave msgs there, and you guys can connect there and share your kindness project and inspire each other. Also, if you've left art with a loving kindness message somewhere, or a postcard, please take a photo of it and share it in the group, this will inspire others to follow suit. :)  Let's not give up on humanity, let's create more love and kindness in the world ACTIVELY. you never know if your small (yet HUGE) random act of kindness makes a difference to someone's life somehow. Other ideas to create more love and kindness in the world;   Pay for a stranger's meal/ coffee at a restaurant Volunteer at a homeless shelter Buy a bunch of flowers for your neighbour out of the blue Call up a friend or a family member you haven't spoken to for too long Smile at shop assistants Be kind to salesmen on the phone Life is short, love and kindness are of the essence. Consider yourself hugged. I love you all, Tam

♥♥

The Willowing Arts Calendars are here! :) Wahoo!

Ola snuggabugs! I hope you guys are all less snot-infested than I am. I'm so sick, eugh, it's getting annoying. Little kids just keep bringing in the bugs, it's tiring, but I know that this too shall pass. 

On with the happy news! I'm back with not 1 but 2 Willowing Arts [printable] Calendars for 2013! Woohoo! :) 

Last year the printable calendar was hugely succesful! For those who don't know: I offer my calendar as a printable so that I can make them affordable for all of you lovelies! (If I order mine from a printing place and resell them, it gets really expensive for all involved, but if you print them yourself I can make it affordable, yay!). You can print them yourself however way you like and once you're finished with the calendar you can keep the bits of art as keepsakes! 

Fun no? :) 

So, this year I'm offering 2 different kinds. 1 That is portrait, the other is landscape. The portrait one includes details of my paintings but not the full paintings, the landscape one includes the entire paintings. See below what the calendars look like. 

Hope you will buy one or 2! If you buy them both you get a bit of a discount. 

Enjoy lovely ones and a deep heartfelt thank you for always supporting me. I'm so lucky and blessed to have you in my life!<3 font="font">

Willowing Arts Calendar 2013

Landscape - ONLY £3.99 (GBP)

Buy now - Landscape Calendar

Only £3.99 GBP

(approx $6 USD)

Or buy the Portrait Calendar - also only £3.99 GBP

Buy now - Portrait Calendar

Only £3.99 GBP

(approx $6 USD)

Or buy them both for only £6.99

Buy both calendars!

ONLY £6.99 GBP

(approx $11 USD)

Once you sent payment through, you will receive an automated email with the download link(s) in it.

Thank you groovy friends!

Big hugs,

Tam x

Animals Friends and Life

Hello blog o' mine. I'm sorry for neglecting you, but my two babies have been sick for the past 2 weeks and work has gone crazy and I find myself with so much to say/ do and so little time.


So Imma gonna bullet point my face off here, just to keep you a bit more up to date with what's going on in Tam Land!

1. We're moving house! We finally found a place that's not too shiny and not too old and broken (we don't want super shiny because the kids will WRECK it, but not too old and stinky either for obvious reasons), it's in the middle of nowhere with a massive garden and a large spacious space (ha). We're so excited! :)

2. Elliot turned one and I'm mid way writing his birthday letter. The poor kid is a typical 2nd child and doesn't get half of all we did for Dylan but I WILL write him a birthday letter. I will I will I will. :)

3. So the plague came to visit (again) which meant Dylan ended up in hospital several times with his breathing issues and ambulances and doctors were called and came to the house and now Elliot has it too and he wakes up every 10 minutes at night leaving me deeply devastated, depressed and tortured. How come they don't advertise that children are weak little things and basically can't cope AT ALL with 1 little virus? Before I had children I wasn't bothered by a little cold virus here and there, now I'm plotting chemical warfare on the fuckers. I hate viruses so much, it's consuming me. Last night I was lying in bed with a screaming baby (who couldn't breastfeed because his nose was full of snot and wouldn't calm down whatever we did) and I could feel this RAGE growing inside of me, aimed at viruses. Elliot is already an atrocious sleeper, but when he's sick, it turns nuclear ... Death to ALL viruses, seriously, I don't care if it's messes with the entire universe's ecosystem ... Ok, end complaining. (Most of you who know me, know that I am generally a very non--violent person, but viruses (and mosquitoes) drive me into violent rages!! ;)

Can you feel the rage seething off me here? ;) I know, instead I look angelical, but the rage is there, truly! ;)

4. Because I hardly ever get any time for anything to do with just ME, I am trying to give myself 30 minutes every day to some art in. This to save my sanity and possibly to save the world ;). So, this week these awesome little animal friends came to visit telling me to calm down and that 'this too shall pass' and to 'take it easy peasy' :) Still a work in progress, but I'm loving them:

5. Christmas is around the corner and this is the first year that Dylan has any kind of understanding of what 'presents' mean and what a Christmas tree is! So he and Andy had great fun buying the tree and decorating it, but it also came with a lot of drama because Dylan 'wanted the tree to stand IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM'. He was heartbroken to find out it couldn't just stand in the middle of the room. Hilarious. The drama that is the life of 3 year olds. Ha.

6. New Art Supply LOVE! :) I finally ordered some dabbers, distress stains and a gelli plate! I ordered mine off the wonderful Dyan Reaveley, she has an online art shop over here: www.afth.co.uk and guess what?! She included a FREE sample of her amazing new mixed media art journal in the package! My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw it! I'm SO excited to be using it, I have heard so much good stuff about the journal! :D I'll will do a review when I have a chance! Haven't tried the gelli plate yet, but will do soon and let you know how it goes! 

7. Because we'll be moving house mid January and my internet connection might be sketchy for a while, I'm preparing the first 3 months of my Life Book 2013 lessons in the next couple of weeks! This hilarious fun page was created for the first lesson, we'll be setting some goals for the year AND appreciating our blessings right now too! :) Preparing lessons for courses is so much fun. :)

8. I managed to create a little video for my 'art saves' story for crescendoh.com, I'm very proud of it, hope you like it! :)

Art Saves - Tam's Story from Tamara Laporte on Vimeo.

Ok groovy art gang. That's it for me. Poor Dylan is wanting me to make a den with him and I keep telling: "another 10 mins Dylbee", so I better get to den making.
Big hugs and love. Dear reader: I appreciate you. 
xox Tam

A Christmas Whimsy Mini Art Workshop - now on sale! :D

Hello beautiful friends! As usual times are busy in the land o' Tam. I have been mostly working on Life Book 2013, finishing the video migration process and finalising this awesome cute little Christmas Whimsy workshop which IS NOW OPEN FOR REGISTRATION! :) I say registration, but all videos are up already, so once you send payment through and I've added you to the group, you can start straight awaysies. Wahoo!

American friends: hope you had an awesome thanksgiving. We don't do that stuff over here in Europe, but it always looks like a special time to me, so hope it was good. 

Before I announce all about the workshop, just a quick overview of 'business in Tamland'.
Elliot is turning 1 year old this Sunday. Now that is crazy. So so so soooooo fast has it all gone. Wow. We'll have a small little celebration on Sunday and I will share it here on the blog. :) 

Dylan is delightful. He's finally turned some sort of corner and has entered a phase wherein you can actually reason with him and he is fairly responsive. This is so nice for us. SO. Nice. 

I'm going to be curating on www.crescendoh.com in the 2nd week of December, so cool! I'm trying to create a little inspiring video for my 'art saves' story, but not sure if I'll get that done in time. Anyhoo, once I start the curating, I shall announce it again so you guys can check it out. 

Life Book 2013 now has over 610+ magical moonbeams signed up, how freaking cool is that?! I'm already planning my first lessons for the first couple of months and have some super awesome ideas! (Want to join the 610+ awesome artsy people who have already joined? Click here).

But of course, before that we have Christmas and new year and winter and sparkly lights and cosy nights and the smell of pine, maybe even snow! (See what I did there? My blogging skills are so awesomesauce I led into my Christmas Workshop ;)) Ha ha!

Willowing Arts Proudly Presents: 

A Christmas Whimsy Mini Workshop with Tam Now Open to Join!

 

Well the above ad says it all! Come create your own magical Christmas Whimsy and learn how to turn your painting into a Christmas Card over on moo.com

Sign up now by clicking on the 'buy now' button

ONLY £14.99 GBP

(approx 23 USD)

I hope to see many of you there! And for now I wish you all a groovy Christmas and a wonderful new year (I know a bit early, but I'll wish you again, it's fun! ;)).

Oooh, look what just arrived! My Christmas cards that I made with moo for this course!! 

They look AWESOME! I'M SO HAPPY WITH THEM! :)

Life, Art and Rock & Roll, sort of.

DUUUUUDES. Mad week, totally mad. Some of you may know (if you subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on FB) that blip.tv have decided to delete my account with them! ALL my class videos are/ were hosted by them, so it meant that out of the blue all my class videos were gone! 

And I have many many MANY students!! So panic, shock, horror! Turns out that I was in violation of the terms of agreement on blip.tv (they don't allow you to host videos that you charge for). A friend did recently tell me, but I figured that because I'd been with them for 3 years and they'd never said anything, that I was in the clear. (I was also a pro member who paid them for their services, so I assumed all was a-ok). I know, don't assume eh!
Anyhoo, so I've been migrating the millions of videos that I have to vimeo this week, it's going ok, but it's a HUGE task taking forever. So, it's been a seriously crazy week over here you can imagine! 

Well, while I'm waiting for the videos to upload, I've been working on my Christmas Whimsy Workshop which opens for registration in the next 2 weeks or so. It's a mini workshop in which we'll be creating this cutie:

I'll also go over how to create your own Christmas cards with your creations over at moo.com who create beautiful cards! As part of the workshop we'll also host a Christmas Card workshop! 

Before the whole video drama, I've also been working on some new art, both are still in progress, but am excited about these two:

Cute birdies on top of lots of texture! Eeeeee! :D

And this one is a detail of a painting which will be called: 'Watching over You' - it shows a little girl asleep in a bed with her little teddy bear and an angel in the sky, the girl's bed is surrounded by a dreamlike landscape of a boat on water, little awesome houses and other dreamy stuff. :)

I'm excited to finish both when I have a minute. :)

And then there is Life Book 2013! So many people are signing up, I feel so blessed and so excited for the new year. I have some awesome lesson plans already. We're going to have such a fabulous awesome year together! Do you want to join Life Book too? Over 560+ people have already joined, WOWSA! :) Come and join us too by clicking here.






Running online art classes that include healing themes is such a fulfilling experience for me. To help people get in touch with their creative fire and also to help people grow on a personal level and feel more at peace, it's just such a rewarding job. I <3 my job!! :D
I received this amazing email today from the wonderful Anateresa (published with permission):

"Dear Tam,

Today while watching the World of Whimsy video, my cup runith over with thanks for this incredible woman that has taught me so much over the past two years. YOU.
First, it was your wonderful way of teaching something that has been difficult for me in art, shading faces...actually drawing faces in general and making recognizable art that I love.

Second, bringing together other like artists that bring the same easy way of teaching artistic techniques to someone who has not had formal training since high school, in Life Book. Though I have not posted my work in the forums I have been taking each lesson and adding it to my artistic life. So much so that I am in the works of developing my own business that I can do from home.

Lastly, for introducing me to Non-violent Communication. I heard you mention it on numerous occasions but today the info sunk in while watching week 2 of wow. So much so that I stopped the video and downloaded three of Marshall Rosenberg's books on my iPad and ordered the workbook on Amazon (it was not available for download). For years I have felt this constant anger and it has come out sadly in the way I treat my children. My daughter has a personality that requires a lot of patience, something that I have always lacked, and I shock myself with the words that I say to her. I hear my mother voice in the negative things I say. Not that is a bad thing she did the best she could with very little role model regarding being a parent and my father worked late through most of my adulthood. I loved my mother (still do even though she as been gone for over 3 years), she was my best friend, my rock, my wind beneath my wings but at times she was controlling and wrapped up in what society saw and was negative (or as she would say realistic) in how she guided me regarding my future. Which considering the horrible physically abusive life she had until the day she married I can understand why that is, and she did her best not to repeat that physical violence in raising me. One thing she was able to do that her mother was unable to was say she was sorry after she said something hurtful. But those scars stay deep within you building up. Now I feel I need to stop the cycle of negativity with my children and in my life. So thank you for arming me with tools that I need to make this change in my life, my relationships and my children. I am looking forward to Lifebook 2013 and I signed my sister-in-law up so that might help motivate me to stay on track. Teehee!

Thank you Tam you are my angel on earth. Bless you for posting the Octopus Girl video that was the first step in this wonderful self healing, life altering journey.

Anateresa
Sent from my iPad
www.anateresa.ca

I feel SO blessed to be contributing to people in this way. It's just so fulfilling to know that the work I do makes a difference in this way. I feel humbled and awed at times. :)) And so so HAPPY! :)

Anateresa is referring to non-violent communication which I cannot recommend enough as a brilliant tool for creating happy relationships with others and yourself. Learn more about NVC here: www.cnvc.org




In the mean time life with the two kidlets is happening! It's finally getting a bit easier (touch wood!). Dylan is more grown up and understanding and Elliot is delightful. Elliot will be 1 on the 25th November! One year already, goodness, time flies. Here are some pics of my boys lately:








That's it for now groovy art gang. I hope you are all well and swell and enjoying your lives. 

Love and muffins. x

PS. I'm willowing on instagram where I post a lot of my daily art & family pics.