During these past few weeks, I’ve grown quite attached to my journal and it now goes with me everywhere.  It’s like having a little creative companion to inspire me throughout my day.  I look over and hear my co-conspirator asking me, “Hmmm, what mischief shall we get into today?”

After surviving a shower with my journal, I ventured into taking it for a swim with me last week.  This was quite a leap considering I seriously contemplated putting my journal into a ziplock bag before bringing it into the shower!

I swam a little on my own first, scoping out the pool.  Being the good rule-follower that I am, I even found myself glancing over to the pool rules sign to make sure there wasn’t any wording about bringing strange, foreign objects into the pool!  I felt self conscious as I brought the book into the water with me, concerned about what others might think.

But in the end, I just took a deep breath and plunged right in, journal in hand.  It was quite exhilarating!  Then we lounged together poolside and worked on our tan.

Here’s a quick video of me checking out the damage ;).

My journal was sopping wet, so my husband suggested wrecking it further with a hairdryer.  I’m amazed at the volumizing effect even without a diffuser or mousse!

Here’s my journal at the beginning of my Intuitive Painting class with Chris Zydel.

And here’s my journal after a good, messy session of painting.  What fun!!

Through all this play and destruction, I’m learning some helpful lessons from creative wreckage that apply to my life in general:

• Thinking, anticipating, fretting, and plotting about something that stretches me is usually a lot scarier than actually just doing it.
• By stretching myself, I discover new edges that challenge me and empower me to grow.
• I feel even more invested in my creative endeavors after I’ve taken a risk (whether it turned out the way I wanted it to or not).
• I’m capable of way more than I think I am.

What life lessons are you learning from your creative wreckage?  I’d love to hear.

For week 3 of the Next Chapter’s Wreck This Journal adventure I played with getting a little more messy.  I dabbled in food stains, dragging the journal and other fun stuff.

My partner in crime, Emmett, helped me drag the journal down the street in the video below.

We didn’t get very far before the string snapped, but the cover certainly got scuffed up. I think it ended up for the best that the journal detached from his leash. I didn’t think through the positioning and he ended up peeing on the string which was really gross.

I warmed up to the food mess by putting a few stains on my stain page.  Who knew that blueberry soy yogurt has such adhesive properties?  The pages were glued together after the yogurt dried.

While savoring a tasty raw food meal from Cafe Gratitude, I figured I’d commemorate the delicious lunch in my journal (even though it says to document your dinner - so rebellious! Haha!).  I smeared on some raw pasta puttanesca zucchini noodles and fake meatballs and garnished with a sprig of watercress from the side salad.

I took my journal with me to intuitive painting class.  Instead of using a paper towel to dab my brushes, I had fun using my test page.  I will continue to use this page for my paintbrushes for the rest of the book club.

My leftover paints made a colorful palatte for my handprints!

And finally after this week’s mess, I cleaned off my journal in the shower! Haha.  Really, I had been avoiding this because I hate water-logged pages.  Oh well!!

I love Jamie’s vlog post about attachment this week.  Great insights, Jamie.

This morning I did a video shoot for BlogHer’s The Juice.  The fabulous BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardin interviewed me about creativity and writer’s block.

If you haven’t seen these weekly video clips, check them out.  They’re quite informative.  From fitness tips to healthy meals to work/life balance, it’s about “more of what you want, less of what you don’t!”  My clip will be up at the end of August.

The crew was super friendly and I had a blast!  I also loved that they had a professional make-up artist on-site and we did a quick photo shoot in the garage afterward.  Yes, this Leo felt like a star, at least for a little bit :).

What fun it’s been wrecking this week!  AND seeing all the other creative destroyers participating in the Next Chapter.

Reflecting on this week, I noticed that I stayed more in the realm of “art” making rather than pure destruction.  It was still quite a stretch for me to bend pages, to color with random crayons that I pulled out of a bag without looking/color coordinating (gasp!), and to add three-dimensional objects that make the pages all unwieldy.  For goodness sake, my book won’t even stay closed now - which I guess is a good thing… haha!

I also had fun asking friends to play with me, starting off with my friend Amy.  Amy and I met for the first time in person at lunch today and she was so sweet that she brought me a little present.  I opened it up to find that she gifted me with sparkly gemstone stickers (which was perfect for Wreck This Journal, even though she didn’t even know about it!).  I invited her to stick some stickers on the book.

Here’s my friend Amy “wrecking” my journal - isn’t she adorable?

You’ll see that there was food still on the table, but I wasn’t ready to document my meal yet. ;)  My excuse?  Well it was lunch, not dinner! Haha.

This is one of my favorite pages so far.  Once I started putting fruit stickers on, I had the urge to draw the fruit that went with it.  The Dole sticker just looked like it could easily turn into a banana!  And then I jotted down my random thoughts about the fruit.

Right before going to bed last night, I got inspired to do the office supplies page. So, I rummaged through our stash of post its, staples, paper clips and such.  The most satisfying act was making labels with my P-touch.  I also forgot how toxic White Out smells.  That, mixed with Sharpies might have added to the creative flow!

I decided to sleep with my journal before it got too messy and gross ;).

And today after lunch with Amy, I stopped by my friend Kate’s house.  I handed her the book and asked her to do something destructive to this page.  She made me hang out in the bathroom with the water running so I couldn’t hear what mischief she was up to.  When she called for me to come out, this rogue seamstress and my Kiss the Paper cohort showed me the cutest sewn awkward heart.  I love it!

Given my resistance, it’s obvious that the next place to venture into is the gross land of food, licking pages and perhaps bringing it in the shower with me (I really, really hate it when my books get wet and water logged!).  Well, as they say, “What’s in the way is the way!”

The Next Chapter book club starts up again this week with Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal.  Thanks, Jamie for a great pick!

As I mentioned in my Juicy Pens and Thirsy Paper post last year, I don’t write in my books.  I don’t dog ear.  If I do for some odd reason need to markup a book, I’ll do it very lightly… in pencil.  It goes without saying that Wreck This Journal poses a challenge for me!  Author and artist Keri Smith urges us to roll up our sleeves and get messy with challenges like take the book in the shower with you (are you kidding me?!) or cut through several layers of the book (yikes!) or lick the page (gross).  Hmm, I may need to ease myself in with more innocuous activities like writing on the grocery list page or tracing my hand.

Fortunately, my intuitive painting classes encourage me to get messy, make ugly art and just be in the creative process.  I’ll definitely be tapping into that as I work my way through Wreck This Journal.

I did give myself a head start by buying a used version. It’s still blank inside, but it’s already a little run down and it’s got a black remainder mark on the edge.  I needed to have it broken in rather than cracking open a pristine copy.  Perhaps that’s cheating a bit, but it’s what worked for me! ;)  I even loved how the envelope it came in has seen better days.

Given that during the 12 Secrets Next Chapter adventure, I shared that I could use more fire in my life, I chose to kick off wrecking my journal by doing the “burn this page” page.  Here’s a video of my first attempt.

After I got the hang of it and wasn’t worried that the whole book would go up in flame, I got bolder and played around more with the burnt edges.  I actually like the effect.

I’m looking forward to meeting other Next Chapter wreckers this summer and playing together!  Here’s to wrecking!

Last week I was in New York for Book Expo America, the largest trade show of the publishing industry.  For this first-time conference attendee and aspiring author, the show was overwhelming but also quite educational and inspirational.  I learned about and met various publishers and got a better sense of what goes on in the professional world of books!

I picked up several advanced copies (one of the show perks!) and I’m excited to dig in.  Plus, I got a sneak-peek at some cool titles coming out this fall including: Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey and the Craft Inc. Business Planner by Meg Mateo Ilasco.  Definitely check these out!  I was drooling.

I was so busy wandering the halls and soaking it all in that I didn’t get to any of the seminars.  Heard there were some good ones on social networking and e-books/Kindle.  During my roaming, however, I happened to bump into the brilliant and witty author Karen Salmansohn who I saw speak last year at a Ladies Who Launch event for her awesome book Bounce Back.  She was tremendously helpful and offered valuable feedback and insights into some of my projects.  I am so grateful!  Plus it was fun to see her in action giving love advice for her new book, Prince Harming: Break Bad Relationship Patterns for Good Using the Timeless Secrets of Aristotle. Man, this woman is sharp and hilarious!

My friend Cami Walker’s forthcoming book 29 Gifts: How One Month of Giving Changed my Life was featured at the Perseus Books booth.  I loved reading an excerpt from the samplers they had out and loved seeing her book cover (different from these samplers) displayed on a big screen at the booth, too.  She has an amazing personal story.  I’m thrilled for her, her book and her giving movement.

And not only did I get to hang out with my college roomie, Matea, in Brooklyn before the show, I also got to reunite with my friends Rae, Moon and Lesley from Kimberly Wilson’s March Hip Tranquil Chick Retreat.  Lesley was actually at BEA as well representing the Girl Scouts.  I was impressed by the programs and accompanying books they have for helping young girls build leadership skills.  Things sure have changed since I was a Brownie!

I’m still integrating all that I learned from my research, the contacts I made and the guidance from my book coach.  And I’m extremely excited about the next chapter of my own book ideas!

During the past few of weeks at Chris Zydel’s intuitive painting classes, I’ve discovered two more important lessons in my creative process:

• A lot can be produced in just 10 minutes
• All you need to get started is 70%

A couple of weeks ago, as class was winding down, I found myself checking out and feeling done with my painting for the day (even though there clearly was room for more!).

Chris came over and asked, “What’s next?  What are three things that could show up in this painting now?”

I pondered, “Maybe a cloud or a dragon’s head or a bird? ”

“Which one has the most juice for you?” Chris inquired.

I responded, “The dragon’s head, I guess.”

“Great, so that’s what’s next!”

“But there’s only 10 more minutes of class,” I proclaimed (or should I say whined!), thinking I wouldn’t have time to finish something new.

“That’s okay, just see what you can do,” Chris encouraged.

I grabbed a brush, dabbed some red paint and went to work.  Lo and behold within less than five minutes I had finished the dragon’s head and included fire coming out of its mouth!  Who knew I could get so much accomplished in such a short amount of time?  What a good reminder, if I just spend even 10 minutes on something - a creative project, writing, planning - that I could actually get more done than I thought.  And I have a great place to start from the next time I can pick back up again.

The next week, I showed up to class late, tired and a bit discombobulated.  I had forgotten my wallet at home and had to turn back.  By the time I finally got to the studio, I realized I had left my iPhone in the car and had to walk back to get it.  I was already eating away at my painting time and was getting mad at myself.

I sighed as I started to gather my brushes and paints and said to Chris that I was feeling like I wasn’t fully present yet.  I was only about 70% there.  And of course the wise and loving Chris said, “Hey, that’s good enough!”  I sat down and got to painting.  Before I knew it, I was sucked in.  Images and color poured on to the paper one after the other.  I don’t even know when the shift happened, but I went from 70% barely there to 100% in the creative flow.

Often times when I’m not feeling totally in a creative mood or I’m slightly distracted, I’ll think that I’m not in the space to create.  So, I don’t.  I don’t write.  I don’t paint.  I don’t do yoga.  I don’t work on a project that I need to.  Because I’m waiting to already be engaged at 100% in order to get started.  What I took away from class last week was that it’s okay (and even enjoyable and quite productive) to ease into it.  To begin from where I’m at, 70%, 50% or merely 10% and go from there.  Momentum will build and if it doesn’t that’s okay, too.  At least I got started!

I’m really appreciating all of the lessons that are emerging through this creative process and I look forward to discovering more gems in class this week.

And now for the two lucky winners… (and a special offer below)… Drum roll please….

	The winner of Joyce Schwarz’ book The Vision Board: The Secret to an Extraordinary Life is Kirsten Olsen.
	The winner of my Unfolding Your Life Vision Kit is Kim Nicol.

Congrats to these lucky ladies! Enjoy envisioning your bright future, Kirsten and Kim!

And since everyone is a winner in my book, I’m offering a special on my Unfolding Your Life Vision Kit for the rest of this week only: From now until midnight Pacific Friday, May 22nd, 2009 shipping is free for U.S. and Canada purchases and $5.00 off International purchases.

Can you believe were almost half way through 2009? Geez, where did the time go?! Have you been making progress toward your vision for the year? How bout some extra inspiration and tools for manifesting your big visions for the second half of the year?

I’m hosting a Vision Board Double Giveaway. There will be two lucky winners:

• One winner will receive the book The Vision Board: The Secret to an Extraordinary Life by Joyce Schwarz (retail value: $24.95) - I’m a featured artist in it!
• The other winner will receive one of my Unfolding Your Life Vision Kits (retail value: $35.00) to make a portable vision board.

Both are great resources for envisioning what you want in your life and making it happen.

To participate in this giveaway, please enter your contact information below by Tuesday, May 19th midnight Pacific. Your name will be submitted into the drawing and youll be signed up to receive my monthly Artizen Coaching newsletter thats full of inspiration, creativity and resources. You’ll also receive my colorful, newly re-designed free article 10 Tips to Awaken Your Inner Muse. Even if you already subscribe to my newsletter, you can still enter the drawing. We respect your privacy and will not sell, rent or disclose your contact information and each newsletter comes with an unsubscribe link in case you no longer wish to receive information from us.

Deadline to enter is Tuesday, May 19th at midnight Pacific - this giveaway is now closed. The two winners  will be announced on Wednesday May 20th by 9:30am Pacific.

We Can Do The Impossible from Hatch Network on Vimeo.

Last Tuesday in San Francisco, my fabulous friends Allie Covarrubias and Claire Fontana unveiled their new venture called Hatch Network, a business education network for women entrepreneurs.  They’re building a platform for women entrepreneurs to grow their company at any stage of the business lifecycle - from launching and beyond.  I can’t wait to see this program take off!  My friends the amazing financial planner Cathy Curtis, fellow coach and leadership graduate Jane Inch and Ms. Elegant Ergo herself, Ruth Lowenhardt are three of the mentors who will be leading Hatch pods in the coming months.  They rock!

I’m always inspired by the drive, passion and energy of my fellow Bay Area women entrepreneurs.  Check out the super cool video above for interviews with ladies from the Hatch community (including me!).

Several women entrepreneur groups have sprung up across the country.  Check out these awesome resources:

• Hatch Network
• CRAVE Business
• The Savvy Collaborative
• SMARTY. Be Your Own Boss
• Savor the Success
• Collective-E

And if you know of any other groups that target young, smart, savvy women entreprenuers, please let me know.  I love sharing great resources!