Mixed Media Art, Healing & Wellness with Willowing: November 2012

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

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! :)

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: