Creatively Fit!

I've been sticking to my walking routine for eleven days straight! It's been very exciting sharing with my new Creatively Fit teammates. Everyday I've been walking for fitness and creativity. I put on my walking shoes, grab my camera, step out my front door and start walking! You would think that it would get boring, walking and taking pictures everyday of the same thing. But I am quickly learning that the world around me is ever changing and there is always something new to discover, right outsidemy own front door.:)

Here are some of my favorite photos from my first week and a half of getting Creatively Fit.

We would love for more people to join. So far we have the following locations represented, Florida, North Carolina, Indiana and Alberta, Canada.

I have so many chalkboards to photograph and post. And I have a home improvement project that I'm working on and hope to share here shortly.

In the meantime, check out Creatively Fit.

Thank you to everyone for your kind words and well wishes. Your support is so very much appreciated.

Sunday News

Well, today I'll be playing a bit of catch-up. It's been a busy week! Heck it's been a busy and crazy 2009!

The Job Front

To start, for those of you who don't know, on Feb 18th my husband was laid off from his job as Executive Banquet Sous Chef (I know, a very long and fancy title) from a very large Resort and Convention Center in Central Florida. Needless to say, it shook up our world a bit. I have been a stay at home mom(freelance artist) for the past eleven years. Before that I was an art teacher. So jumping back into the crumbling job market was not looking too promising. We were scared.

Having a few months to sort things out (thanks to severance, and a tax refund) we started reviewing our options. Hubby could start looking for a job immediately or we can start planning that business we always wanted to start, The Bagel Business. We opted for planning the bagel business. We gave ourselves three months to write the plan and take it to the banks. After three months of working 8 hours a day together on the plan, we were ready to present it to the banks. We were immediately slapped with a reality check! To make a long story short we learned, "It takes money to make money." Hmm, Where have I heard that before?

Feeling a little defeated, we understood that it was time to put the bagel business on hold and get on with the job search. Having three months left of our life savings, the heat was turning up. Hubby started looking for a job again (and I started looking for a teaching job.) The news was terrible, unemployment was up. He networked, nothing. He submitted hundreds of resumes via internet search, nothing. Then finally a call, from a really good company! Then an interview, then a tasting, then another interview, then another interview, then cooking with the Exec Chef, then another interview, then finally an offer! (this was all with the same company and the entire process took about 6 weeks.) Then meet with human resources for paper work and drug tests and background check. "We'll get back to you in a couple of days." A week later, nothing, no phone call, no email, nothing. We were feeling wrecked! Did he really have this job? My husband was confident. To me, without a start date there was no job. (And now we are running out of money). I nagged, Call them, email them. He did and nothing, no answer. We were in the dark. Then, finally a call, Friday evening! You start Monday. A huge sigh of relief.

We made it through the unemployment hell. But not without a few wounds. This is a great company, hopefully with a lot of opportunity to grow, but we take a huge step backwards. The position is lower than his previous one and there is a huge pay cut. I am still looking for a teaching job and I have started advertising a little more aggressively with my mural business. Starting to get some calls again.:) We are also still selling our chalkboards. This business is really starting to pick up. We've sold 20 on etsy so far! We're really enjoying working on this together. Although it is going to start getting a little more difficult since the chief chalkboard maker now has a full time job. But no complaints, well make it work!

I pray for everybody out there who has lost their job. Stay positive and keep moving forward. I hope for the best for everyone.

Chalkboard Update

I will be doing a chalkboard photo shoot later and add some pictures here. We've got lots of new chalkboards. So come on back later to check it out!:)

Catching Up

I have received a couple of awards from some wonderful blogger friends. I am so honored to have them.

The first one is from Kathie @ my net finds. This award was created by Kathie and here is what she writes about it on her blog:

I made this award for the special bloggers who take the time to not only read my posts, but also leave comments, respond to comments, form blog friendships with and support others, answer blogger questions, etc.....the ones who are a real "gem" in the bloggy world. The bloggy world wouldn't be the same without you!

The only rule for this award is that to accept it, display it proudly on your blog for all the bloggy world to see your greatness and/or pass it on to other bloggers as you see fit.

I accept this award and will proudly display it and share it with other awesome bloggers.
Thank you Kathie, you are a true gem!

The next award is from That Design Girl another wonderful blogger friend, who has join my new blog Creatively Fit!! Thank you for the award. I am a two time recipient of this lovely award. I will be passing this award on to many lovely blogger friends.
I will be back to add my list.

That Design Girl also tagged me to tell 6 random things about myself. This is a tough one. OK here goes.
1. I can touch my nose with my tongue. My younger son inherited this "gift".
2. I performed in musicals when I was in college. I had a wicked solo in the production of "Hair" In the opening of the second act I had to walk from the back of the theater, down a catwalk, through the audience wearing platform boots, singing angelically "My body is walking in space..." Here's a picture of the get up that I wore. The second act was called "the trip" I was George Washington:)
And here's the whole cast "tribe" Can you find me? Wonder what the gangs up to today? This was 19 years ago!!
3. I attended 6 colleges and received degrees from two, B.A. and M.S.. And I'm thinking about going back to school again.
4. I'm a slightly out of shape size 6, soon to be in shape, thanks to Creatively fit. One week of walking and my gluts are already feeling tighter.
5. I went to my Jr. Prom with one of the Baldwin brothers, hint the youngest.
6. I have naturally curly/wavy combo hair and I hate it.

Ok that was semi painless.

Here are the rules for the tag:

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random and/or revealing things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your post entry is up on your site.

Hayley- When I grow
Marie- Emma Calls Me Mama
That Girl Blogs
Olive Rue
Teddy Started It!
Simply Sanborn

And finally in the news ...
Where's the confetti, fireworks, streamers, red sirens...

I have exactly 100 followers!!
Correction-Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. After I wrote this post I came back to find that one of my followers flew the coop. I hope I didn't say anything to offend. Oh well, 99 is a great number. My son was #99 in football last year, 99 red balloons, and we're going to party like it's 1999!!:)


Have a great Sunday everyone!

Friday's Featured Follower

Happy Friday's Featured Follower!!

That Girl Blogs!

That girl is funny! Reading That Girls Blogs is like reading a sitcom. Remember those? Actually, That Girl Blogs is a cross between a sitcom, a reality show and a blog. And she really does remind me of Marlo Thomas, remember That Girl? I loved That Girl!! A few years ago there was a That Girl marathon on some retro channel (TV land, I think). I stayed up all night watching one after the other.

The major differences between That Girl and That Girl Blogs are That Girl was a single girl, actress, in her 20's, living in New York City, trying to become a star and That Girl Blogs is a married mom, blogger, in her 40's(just 40 and I only know this because she is having a 31 days of birthdays celebration) living in California, mother of four and she already is a bloggy star!

ThatGirl refers to the kids as, thelittles, TheTween, and TheTeen(actress and future ThatGirl) and of course there's TheHusband.(Didn't find a post, but I'm sure there is one.)

But I did learn in this meme award post that TheHusband was once TheMayor.

There are so many more fun posts, so head on over to That Girl Blogs and show some bloggy love!

And of course, ThatGirl gets the Butterfly Blogger Award to display and share!

Thank you for following! Who will next weeks Featured Follower be.

Get Moving Part II

I am embarrassed to admitt I've been slacking. This is the pet portrait from my first giveaway. Yes, my first giveaway from last month. (I have all ready shipped out my second giveaway a couple of weeks ago. So I'm not a total slacker.) This portrait will be a gift for the winner's daughter (All Strung Out). Her birthday is in a couple of weeks. I plan on getting this out to her tomorrow or Saturday, the latest. It is still a work in progress. I will finish it up today.

It's been almost a whole week and I'm still walking! Please check out our new blog Creatively Fit. We are still looking for bloggers to join our team. Our mission is walk, click, connect and stay fit!

Below is my favorite picture from this morning's walk.

Get Moving!

I'm posting this on Amy's Round Robin because we would love for more bloggers to join our Creatively Fit Team! Stop by Amy's Round Robin to see more great ideas!



Today I decided to start walking. I haven't been feeling very motivated to go to the gym lately. There is nothing creative about lifting weights. So I decided to merge physical exercise with a creative exercise. I will be taking my camera with me as I walk my way into shape. I walked from 7:00-8:10 AM this morning and photographed the sunrise, beautiful warm lights and cool shadows.

Every morning (or at least 3-4 mornings a week) I will walk for 45 minutes to 1 hour and try to capture interesting images with my camera. Some days I may focus on a theme like trees or shadows, other day may be more random. I am working on a new blog to document my journey. Would you like to participate in my Creatively Fit blog? My goal is to build a blog team of Creatively Fit walkers. We could share our pictures from our daily walks and record our physical progress. Sound like fun?!

Sketch, Sketch, Sketch..,

I have rounded up several sketches that I did a while ago . I was participating in the, sketching from life, forum on wetcanvas.com. This is the best site for artist! Sketching from life on a daily basis is one of the best ways to improve ones skills as an artist. I wish I was more disciplined. If there was one bit of advice I would give about becoming a better artist it would be to sketch something from life everyday, devote at least 30 minutes a day. I should really practice what I preach.

Sketch items from around the house. Short 30 minutes or less contour line drawing.

Do some longer studies using shading to add dimension and depth

Sketch larger objects, focusing on proportion.

Accessories make good subjects for sketching!

Go out in the fresh air and sketch some trees. Experiment with different media.

Food is another excellent source for sketching. Who knew macaroni and cheerios could be so interesting!? Experiment with different media, pencil, acrylic, colored pencil.

Quick 30 second or one minute gesture drawings are excellent exercises in observation and drawing. I did these during my son's gymnastics class.

Another classic subject matter is the portrait of others and yourself.

Always remember, Practice makes perfect. And Patience, Patience, Patience.

Friday's Featured Follower

This weeks FFF is another Redhead!! Introducing The Redhead Riter as in "writer".
I was not able to find redhead riter's real name, although, I did find the name of many other family members including her lovely teenage daughter Alyssa, who is not a redhead. For some reason, I keep thinking Riter's name is Rita. I guess that's because I had a friend, growing up, named Rita and she was Irish (and I associate Irish with redhead) but she was not a redhead. Isn't it funny how associations work. Ok are we confused yet?

For the sake of this post I will refer to my FFF as red:)

Anyway, as the title of the blog suggests red is a wonderful riter, I mean writer.:)

This is a very thoughtful blog that requires time to get to know. From red's writings I can tell that she is a very kind person, loyal to family and friends and brutally honest! Read more about her honesty in post I Think I have a Man Gene

There is so much to uncover and discover about The Redhead Riter.
She offeres many inspirational thoughts, reflective moments, and practical, money saving solutions.

I hope you will hop on over to The RedHead Riter and show some bloggy love.

I would also like to award The Redhead Riter with my Butterfly Blogger Award. This award is for you to take and display proudly on your lovely blog!

Thank you for being a faithful follower!
(If your name is somewhere in your blog and I miss it, please forgive me:))

If you are a faithful follower you may be my next FFF

Have a fantastic weekend!
Cindy