Who am I?

I am me. Mother, Daughter, Lover, Writer, Artist, Dreamer.

I like me. She is fun to be around. She has fingers in many pies - sometimes they get burnt (she never learns!) and often sticky, but mostly delicious (that's the pies, not her fingers).

Me is the girl who found the part of her that was missing through blogging and art and has never looked back. Life just wouldn't be the same without paint down her fingernails and a dining table collapsing under the weight of art supplies!

Me is the girl who spends so much time thinking outside the box that she can't remember where the box is anymore. Who needs a box anyway?

Me can't drink more than a couple of glasses of wine without getting extremely tipsy.

Me is the girl who dreamed of running her own eCourse to share her approach to creativity with others. So she went on ahead and did it! It launched this week - it's so exciting!

Me dreams of a house in the country complete with an ENORMOUS art studio. I went from being a Town to a City girl to a Country girl and back to a town girl. I think country girl wins (but not too far from London.... so I can get my fix).

Dream House Hallway

Me isn't very good at walking in high heels but likes to wear them when sitting still.

Me likes to dress like this - but most often can be found in jeans and a flowery top.

Source (it's not actually me in the picture!)

Monsoon dress - my favourite shop

Me is very untidy - my mind is often in chaos, so I can I possibly be expected to put away my shoes or file those papers?

 Me has learnt that being yourself is the route to happiness and that we must have faith in ourselves. Me knows that there's nothing wrong with dreaming so big that your soul grows wings!

Me likes bad jokes and corny word play

Me has actually organised a piss up in a brewery - on more than one occasion!

Me loves being a member of this inspiring online creative tribe that support each other helping all to grow and unfurl their wings.

Me believes in magic and fairies, God and true love.

Me believes that in a former life she may have been turquoise.

Source - me!

This piece of self love (well, you have to do it sometimes!), is for a wonderful blog hop that arty Amy has organised. Find out more about artists and dreamers across the globe in the All together now party where we are all to dress in our best frocks, look in the mirror and like what we see. Leave a comment on this post and I'll enter you into the competition to win the piece of art at the top of the page - the one about whispering hearts.
I created this piece for Inspiration Avenue's Art with Heart weekly challenge.)

This is me

Find me here, there and everywhere:

Facebook - personal
Facebook - creative biz
Facebook - messy book group
Pinterest
Twitter - personal @lisawrightstuff
Twitter - creative biz @wrightbrains
Creative biz site
LinkedIn

Let's party

Well, this is it, another year draws to a close and what do we have to show for it? Quite a bit actually. I feel content, headed in the right direction with a feeling that I've achieved something. I'm also ready to tackle 2012 head on with some ambitious plans intended to stretch and grow untapped potential.

Lately there's been an internal shift - a real desire to keep growing. Not literally, of course, I'm quite happy with my current height and indeed plan a bit of a shrink of certain parts of me - notably waistline...

No, it's a mental thing. Take a peek at the pile of books by my bed and in my Amazon wishlist and you'll find a foray into the world of business academia. I'm devouring Dan Pink, Nancy Duerte, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds... and I'm glued to TED lectures. There is a distinct theme to these explorations and it doesn't take me far from my roots. It's creativity. It's the power of the right brain and its influence over the left. It's my passion for bringing colour, imagination and spark to the workplace; to raising the bar with the way we communicate and engage with our colleagues; to help build businesses that release the potential of the people that work there and above all enjoy what they are doing.

2012 will see my personal growth flow into my business so I can take what I've learned from these masters, mix it with my years of experience and add a little touch of 'me' to help my clients achieve their own goals - and maybe set themselves on a journey they weren't expecting, but one which does them a power of good. Who knows? 2012 is waiting in the wings - opportunity is there for us to grab and I've got long fingers!

***

I was going to use this post to share with you my word for 2012 and reflect on choosing the word PUBLISH worked out for me in 2011... but this is getting a bit long and I haven't even started on explaining what's going on with those two ladies up top! You'll have to come back tomorrow to read that story.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for 2012 - may you dreams and hopes come to fruitition. What are you most looking forward to? What's your biggest dream?

***

So, moving swiftly on. The ladies are a couple of crazy witches brewing up a wild party night. Inspired by lovely Amy's live class, they began life as a couple of models cut out of Elle and stuck onto some scrapbook paper. I gave them a makeover ready for tonight's festivities (them being so not happy with the black and white look)... They were both expecially pleased with the hair - their own being scraped back in a dull ponytail. They are brewing up trouble for tonight... beware of strange haired ladies wanting to kiss you come Midnight....

Here's the full version

Once upon a time... Part Lisa

This week for PPF I present to you the girl with the red hair. You saw her eye last week but now she's ready to tell you her story. She has already been on many adventures... She is Part Lisa in the Once upon a time neverending story begun by Amy and hosted on her blog.
The last time we saw our heroine and her trusty flying steed Pegasus she had been living in narcotic-induced stupor on a land of cotton candy clouds and sweet tea. Only when she broke the mirror did the pieces crack and reveal what truly was... or was it?

***

Part Lisa...

The pieces spiralled out of the ornate frame jagged and sharp. The girl with the red hair watched them fall down, down, further and further through the cotton candy cloud. She felt weightless and dizzy and struggled to focus her vision on what was happening around her. Everything seemed to fracture at once. Cracks and chasms appeared in the sugar pink walls and the sweet grass. She heard a distant whinny – Peg was panicking as the world began to disintegrate beneath his feet.

A wild wind swirled around them. The girl saw tea cups, cotton candy and lollipops sucked into a cruel maelstrom alongside vestiges of the ‘real’ world she had left behind so many moons ago. Burger wrappers, car tyres (that’s tires for you US folk) and empty coke cans bounced off jars of marmite. What was happening? Where was Peg? Where were the Goldwaters and, what on earth had been in that tea? She felt the pull of the vortex and reached out in fear…

The girl took hold of Mrs Goldwater, but recoiled in shock as the once kindly-looking woman began to take on a new form… dark and scaly with green sinews and yellow eyes. Mrs Goldwater began to cackle as the demon within her was released. A long, pointed tail shot out the back of her flowery sun dress (quite ruining the lovely pattern) and horns ruffled her once beautifully coiffed curls. The demon sneered at our heroine and reached into the storm and pulled a bedraggled and terrified Peg towards her. Swinging her gangling legs, she climbed aboard the poor horse and disappeared in a cloud of … well…. It looked like cloud.

The girl with the red hair felt helpless as she span in the sticky mixture of cotton candy, tea and a crazy wind. In the distance she saw Panda Goldwater. He seemed to be beckoning her to him, but there was no way she was going anywhere near him, having seen what had happened to his wife. She was beginning to wonder why she’d trusted anyone called Panda in the first place.

But Panda was determined. He fought his way closer to the red-haired girl shouting an entreaty to put the mirror pieces back in place.

“You must complete the story” he shouted above the roaring wind… “she has to see her face”…

Not knowing to whom he was referring and frankly beginning to wish she’d never set out on this crazy adventure in the first place the girl with red hair made a decision.

She dived forward through the cloud to chase after the sparkling shards. She was still gripping the ornate frame which was fortunate. The clouds rushed past her face pulling at her long tresses and whispering secrets in her ear (things like why pop songs have a middle eight… and the hidden power of marmite).

Further and further she fell into the spewing foam of blue and white. But all was not as it seemed (again!). The clouds were not made of moisture, wool or cotton candy - they were made of words and letters. A thousand waiting to be pieced together and retold.

Far down below through the fairy tales she spied the glints of what could only be broken glass and she reached out , her anticipation mingled with fear… A fear that only intensified as she saw that she wasn’t the only one heading for the glass jigsaw… The demon and its unwilling mount Peg were gaining on her.

Poor Peg looked so frightened, but it gave our heroine heart. She would fight off the demon, fix the mirror, save Peg and show someone their face (but not necessarily in that order); but first she needed to take a small diversion…

To be continued...

Junkie

Kirsty

I can't get enough of online courses it's true. Amy's been hosting live lessons where we all paint along together (and some of us drink wine too.... and eat marmite on toast - mainly those of us in the timezone  where a) consuming alcohol at that time of the day is socially acceptable; and b) we have eaten marmite long enough for us not to question its looks and taste.

Last night Amy had a little help from Manon who taught us how to create her quirky girls. As you can see I put a lot of effort into her face, but regrettably by the time I got to clothing, limbs and background the wine was starting to have something of an effect! I quite like her though. She makes me smile! Seems fitting to post Kirsty for Sweet Saturday too.

These sessions are naturally helping with Art Every Day Month - it's a real community feel as we all sit across the globe dibbing and dabbing with our brushes and colours.

On Monday I start another course. This time something very different for me - Surface Pattern Design. I met our teacher Rachael Taylor at the Do What You Love Retreat earlier this year. She is quite an inspiration (and also The Happiest Person on Twitter!). More on this to come! (Can't seem to get the picture to work - there's a tiny box underneath this sentence that will take you to more info!)

Ladies and ladies

Sybil

Day 7 of Art Every Day Month. A change is in the wind. Here we have a monochrome portrait drawn in a sketchbook rather than a yellowing page from a book.

The coal is running low, the water is barely bubbling.... Is the steam is running out on my 'girl on a book page' series...?

Well, actually yes and no. Sybil here was the result of working alongside Amy and the gang again during a live chat and online class. Unfortunately, she only got this far before my feed dropped and I couldn't log back in again. We were going to add colour and collage and all sorts for the full mixed media ensemble... but I can catch up later when she posts the video.

It was interesting that I lost my connection just as the final episode of Downton Abbey was about to start on TV. I had planned on recording it for later in the week, but felt it was fate decreeing that I should pour myself a glass of wine and watch it 'live'. It was as I was viewing that I realised she looks awfully (or maybe a teensy bit) like Lady Sybil!

Now back to the book page ladies... Three more to show you though I'm not very impressed with any of them. Time to take a break I think. I feel some collage coming on...

Comfort

Sereena - fae of the woodland

Lisa

(She reminds me of my buddy Priti Lisa - check out the pic of her dressed as Frida, although she doesn't have the white make up with animal markings!! It's on her sidebar just above the followers box -  It's her birthday today too. Happy Birthday Lisa!)

Group therapy

Rebecca

I am so buzzed! I've just spent two hours in the company of other artists while we created together. I enjoyed a glass of wine while I painted Rebecca here. Not everyone thought it was appropriate to be consuming alcohol - it being 9am in the morning and that... But I was OK because it was 8pm for me :)

That's the beauty of the online live art demonstration - we're all in the comfort of our own time zones and homes... Big thanks to Amy. She showed us how to paint a cat on fabric and then seal with wax. It's amazing how cat-like this piece is eh? Well, I confess I did do the cat as well, only I don't do fabric and sewing, so attempted to use a flocked piece of scrapbook paper and it didn't quite go to plan. So, as I'm addicted to faces right now (see most of this week's posts), I just couldn't resist another one - especially as everyone has been so encouraging - thank you!

You may spot a subtle difference with this piece, it being on sheet music rather than yellowing prose. It's all part of a cunning plan to multi-task. See, this fulfills the criteria for The Butterly Effect music prompt and of course Paint Party Friday AND Art Every Day Month. Phew...

She has a very wonky-shaped face, but I'm cool with that. I'm literally slinging these portraits down - I'm more interested in the shading and taking a really loose approach... Maybe tomorrow I'll try and fix her up a bit.... Maybe not.... I wonder what I'll create next?

Art Every Day 2 or more accurately, still day 1

OK, so this is going to be a slight confusion, since I actually created this yesterday evening. Thing is, I'm not going to have time later to create AND post - I'm a busy girl don't you know?

Last night was actually rather lovely. I had to do some work after my son had gone to bed, but once finished, I was bursting with creativity and inspired by my earlier work I attacked old book pages and drew faces. I wonder if it was some subliminal uprising against writing. I'd been crafting words all day... clearly I needed some escape!

However, I WILL create today... It will just have to wait until evening. It's time to start work now, so must dash...

Join in the Art Every Day of November challenge here.

A date for your creative diaries... Tomorrow the wonderful Amy is hosting a live workshop. Well, I say evening because that's what it is here. It's 2pm CST (whatever that is!). Here in the UK we have the 'proper' time - GMT (I know, it's 'mean' but what can I say... some bloke in Greenwich decided he wanted to own it and so he did! We can't knock him for taking the initiative).

Today's/yesterday's piece is oil pastels, coloured pencil and acrylics on old book page.

I love this interview!

... Because it's with me! No, seriously, this is just a bit of fun I found at Amy's site. Amy is a positive delight and if you've never discovered her wit and wisdom then I suggest you pay a visit. She's posted this interview-yourself-technique which thoughtfully helps bloggers find something to write about. Do join in. I might sling in a few interrogations of my own. Perhaps we could all swap a question out with a new one (it's a good way of getting rid of the one you don't want to answer!).

While I'm on the subject of Amy - and giving her a bit of free PR - I should also mention her Neverending Story which will evolve, chapter by chapter, author by author, across the globe... It began this week with a somewhat folically-based tale about keeping domestic animals on your head. I shall be intrigued to see where the cast of characters (many waiting patiently for their cue in the wings... or possibly on the arms) will take my imagination when I take the pen in December.

So, without further ado... I have placed two comfortable chairs facing each other and will now flit back and forth between them while simultaneously swapping costumes to give the real authentic interview technique...

1. What is your name and stuff? and any other good information... like bank account details?

My name is Lisa, but I also answer to Mums, Mumma, Babes, Dreamer, Clever Writer, Dreamer and Super Dooper Artist! I am practising the power of positive thinking a great deal these days too...

If you want my bank account details, you should talk to some guy with an Eastern European sounding surname who 'borrowed' mine for a time. Although since he is currently being investigated by Her Majesty's Constabulary, I would suggest you approach with caution.


2. What is super hot about you? (Don't you Dare skip this one. Answer it!)

Oh dear. I've already pushed the boundaries by daring to say I'm a writer and an artist. You do ask for a lot don't you? Well, err.... today I think I'm dressing pretty hot. I've got my rock chick look on that miraculously makes me look like I've lost half a stone in weight and (I hope) knocks about 5 years off my age. Who needs a diet when clothes can work the same magic?

3. Don't lie or cheat: what is under your couch right now?

Probably a lot of dust and pet hair, a few sweet wrappers, a toy car and a cat toy. I should have kept my cash there too as it would have been safer than in the bank!


4. When was the last time you shaved your legs?

About 18 years ago... now before you all go yeuuuuuhhhhhh, I don't shave but I do epilate. For the uninitiated, an epilator plucks the hairs out. It's a bit like waxing but the pain goes on a lot longer. After a few times (or was it years?) the agony does diminish I promise!


5. What dance would you most like to learn?
Definitely Argentine Tango (though I would require a sexy Latin partner that knew exactly what he was doing).




6. If you could choose a new name, what would you name yourself?

Always. I'd keep my surname though.

[there's a joke here... think about it.....]


7. Have you ever had plastic surgery?

No. However I once had some stitches in my face after minor surgery and had to go out on my 19th birthday looking like someone has squashed a fly on my cheek. It wasn't really the look I was after...

I'll tell you who has had loads of plastic surgery though.... Barbie! (see photographic evidence above!)


8. Are you afraid of the dark?

Only when accompanies by spooky woooohhoooooooo noises or mysterious creaks and bumps.

9. Are you a hermit?

Only on Mondays


10. Why do you blog?

Because it gets me out of the house without actually having to leave it (especially on Mondays - see Q9).

So, there we go. A little bit about me that doesn't really tell you anything at all (apart from slightly reaffirm my eccentricity).

Do partake and share your results!