The past month, I have been deep in the Christmas greeting insert for The Chautauqua's Christmas issue. It's been a challenge and a half, as I almost had it together the end of November, and then the file quit working - I couldn't save, I couldn't make changes, I couldn't do anything! I had to start it over from scratch. Did that, and was going along fine until the 2nd file quit working like the first one! They were the ONLY files on my entire computer that refused to work! I freely admit, there was a LOT of screaming going on in this house. I managed to not throw the computer across the room, or out the window. I created a completely new template and started all over AGAIN from scratch and was able to make it work - thankfully! That was more excitement and stress than I needed. By the time you read this, the Christmas issue will be at the press!
To help me recover from all of that, I made it to Alix on December 7th for my annual picture with Santa. Nothing like time with the Jolly Old Fella to put life back into perspective. My first stop was the Alix Christmas market, where I bought some baking and stocking stuffers. Then to the Fire Hall to see Santa. My sister and niece were ahead of me, and my niece suggested the two of us get a picture together too!
Celebrations:
- The end of October I helped my niece put together a short yoga routine that she could teach her class for an assignment. She taught it in November and got a great mark!
- I was surprised to see that my Christmas cactus was blooming on November 19th!
- on Dec. 3rd, I made my 1,700th DAILY post in Inner Circle! WOW! I have never shared so much of myself, so publicly, for such a consistent period of time before. For me, the posting is less about accountability so I can create, as I would be creating something no matter what, but about really stretching out of my comfort zone and sharing more than just what I've finished. Part of the reason why I was finally able to start sharing these letters with you each month is because of all the daily dates I posted in Inner Circle.
- Dec. 9th I put my Christmas lights up in the solarium and outside along the base of the solarium. I also put my wooden Santa and Rudolph figures in the yard. Seems like a pathetic display, but it's better than nothing, and the lights are bright and cheerful looking.
- I published two more comic strips in the paper and posted them online.
Recently Completed:
Since the last newsletter, I've completed...
- 4 watercolour play faces on 9x12 mixed media paper. From left: east/sunrise…south/noon…west/sunset…north/midnight
- More playing with the Walmart set of watercolours (and gel pens) on the pad of 4x6 watercolour paper.
- I completed more mini collages on 4.5x6 mixed media paper.
In Beth's Kitchen:
On November 17th, I made 15 cups of mountain ash berry juice. This is a total experiment, so fingers crossed.
On November 30th, I sautéed grapes (with orange, basil & thyme) as an experiment. Oh my Yum!
- I got a pint of dried beet greens once I crushed them, and a pint of dried carrot tops.
Jigsaw Puzzles:
Since my last letter, I completed a 1,000 piece puzzle.
UFO (UnFinished Object) Update:
- More craft items were taken to my sister. What she didn't keep, went into the ongoing yard sale here at the house. The last trip ended up being another adventure as it was right after the large dump of snow the last weekend in November. I made it over to her house without getting stuck in the snow, and I carried the 4 large heavy boxes into her house okay. When I was leaving, I discovered I had somehow managed to lock my keys in the car! And, I was parked in such a way that my brother-in-law couldn't even get his vehicle out to drive me home. It was a VERY cold 20 mins walk home to get my other set of keys and then back to get my car! Thankfully it happened in town, and was an easy problem to fix.
- I recently watched a short class by Minette Riordan on Zentangle - while I like the look of tangling, it's not something that interests me as a practice - and closed another tab on my ipad. I had some other really short freebie classes that I watched - closed the tabs. I also decided that there were a lot of freebie classes that I had signed up for through the years that I am NEVER going to do so closed those tabs.
- I have had the first 3 (?) novels in the Outlander series for awhile (Mom read them, so it HAS been a while!) and have been going to read, but haven’t. I started the first one at the beginning of the year, and then life happened. I started it again recently and finally finished it the first week of December. Onto book 2!
Courses and Challenges (free and paid):
- When I purchased Miriam Schulman's book "Artpreneur," it came with a bonus online class. I started the class in November, which involves creating a journal page for each of the 12 chapter titles as affirmations. So far, I have 8 of them completed. I’m using Inktense pencils and Posca paint pens in a journal I made.
- I took Kiala Givehand’s chapbook course back in October 2020, and it came with her 7 Books in 7 Days course, which I recently started. When the 7 Books course first came out in 2018, I did her free mini version of it, so I didn’t think I needed to make new versions of the books as I still have most of the original prototypes from the freebie class. I’m watching the videos for book 4 now, and I think I will end up making new versions of the books - we’ll see.
- Amanda Sophia's free mini Divine Woman Awakening course on the Celtic Wheel of the Year - Samhain (pronounced saa-wn), which began Oct. 31/Nov. 1, is a time of releasing. A couple of years ago, I had moved mom's lift chair (recliner) into my bedroom to have a comfy chair to curl up in when I'm reading - truthfully, I personally don't find that chair to be comfortable in the slightest! Not like Mom did! I am super thankful we had it as mom really did need it, and it made life much easier, but I haven't liked it as a chair, and I always feel sick and sore after I've sat in it for any length of time. I finally decided to get it out of the bedroom on Nov. 12th. After figuring out how to take it apart (yippee!) I managed, with MUCH struggle, to get it out to the hallway by myself. My plan was to put it back in the living room, but after walking by it most of the day, I admitted that I didn't want it at all, let alone in the living room, but what to do? I also wanted to move the armchair from the living room to the bedroom for a comfy chair, but there was still too much clutter and chaos between the two rooms for me to do that myself. Thankfully, a friend showed up later that day and we put the lift chair in the basement (till I can come up with a plan for it - anyone need a lift chair??? It’s for sale), and we moved the armchair to the bedroom! That left a lovely open space in the living room - my plan was to shift things around so they weren't so scrunched, but I needed to move all of my mini collage pieces off of the dining room table so I could spread out as I worked on the Chautauqua Christmas greetings. Instead, I set up a temporary (it WILL BE temporary!) mini "collage corner" in that open space, and that should make it easier to complete more mini collages because I can actually see and access what I have. During one of our Inner Circle Persist days, I took a stack of pictures I'd saved years ago and glued them onto the cards for the backgrounds.
- Amanda Sophia’s free Geomancy & Land Healing course - I learnt about dowsing. Maybe I'll be able to dowse the house and find the still missing teapot??? I completed this course on November 24th.
- To get moving on my drum playing, I pulled out a 5 Day Drumming challenge from an old email series. I watched the videos for Days 2 - 5. Then I started watching a free introductory course on drum playing.
- Recipes, Remedies, and Rituals Ayurveda course practices: eating only my personal portion size for each meal and doing abdominal rubbing throughout the day to help with digestion/elimination and overall relaxation of the body.
Works in progress:
Currently, I'm working on...
- a 9x12 page of watercolour play
- playing on the 4x6 watercolour paper pad with my "fancier" watercolour paints
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- I pulled out the nylon and started covering wire coathangers again. The nylon is no longer available, but I was able to get some from a gal who bought a bunch at an estate sale a few years ago. I have loads of "sturdy" wire hangers, so should be able to make quite a few in the days and weeks ahead. This is a nice activity for the hands, and the hangers make great gifts.
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- seated forward bends! Still a challenge and I'm only doing my seated forward bend in the tub when I have my evening bath. Rather than focus on how far my nose is from my knees, I'm focusing on how far my nose has moved from when I started.
Middle: 26 weeks (1/2 year!) - Aug. 19
Bottom: 33 weeks - Oct. 7
- "Mystery activity” I have done a little bit on it EVERY day for just over 15 weeks! That’s over 100 days!!
Featured Art for Sale:
"Magical Moments in my Day Journal: for the extra special moments all around me" 6x9 lined journal $15 purchased from me or you can purchase from Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CJLKZ3KB
Please contact me at thechautauqua@gmail.com or phone 403-352-3837 to make a purchase.
Upcoming Projects:
- I offer Pay-What-You-Can Distance Reiki/Energy Healing sessions. Energy healing works great from any distance and I've sent Reiki healing as far away as Queensland, Australia. Please, contact me to set up your healing session.
"I have been suffering with Long COVID for over a year and have tried every healing modality in the book to get my energy back. Beth has been gifting me with healing Reiki energy for quite some time now and I have, for the first time in over a year, started to feel like myself again. Much of my weakness has dissipated, and the dark cloud that I have been stewing under has lifted. Thank you Beth. ♥️" - Carla, Esthetician, Nova Scotia
Thanks for reading, and as always, feel free to share with anyone you think might enjoy it.
Beth
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Back issues of this newsletter are found here: https://thechautauquanewspaper.blogspot.com/ under the category "Artist Newsletter"
To support my artistic journey, please consider purchasing my artwork, items available in person at 4910-47 St, Mirror, AB
or make a donation via
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Your support and kindness are always greatly appreciated, and I look forward to bringing you joy and inspiration! Thank you so much and have a marvellous day!
