Hello One World One Heart!

Welcome to my blog, One World One Heart neighbors!

Thanks for stopping by!

My name is Shelly Massey, and I'm excited to be participating in this event for the first time.

I currently live in Middletown, Ohio, but as an adult, I've also called South Carolina, Kansas and Washington (state) my home. I'm an artist, but also a workshop instructor, a wife, a mama to a two and a half year old daughter, and a manager and senior analyst for a software company based in Washington state.

In 2011, I'm realizing some big dreams. I'll be teaching at at least three art retreats - Artfest, Art Unravelled, and Art Is. And I'm even working on setting up a couple more for this year! It's been quite an adventure so far... one that has stretched me quite a bit, but it's been worth it.

I hope you'll leave a comment to let me know you were here. At the end of the fifth and final One World One Heart party, I'll be giving away the following package to THREE people randomly selected who comment on this post.

The prize package:

• An art print of my original collage
• A collage paper pack of vintage papers
• A copy of my original coloring book of doodles (fun for all ages!)
• Two of my original greeting cards

Here are two of the art prints I'm giving away. (The other one is at the top of this post.)

Thanks so much again for stopping by! I plan to make it around to all of your blogs to say hi too!

Happy One World One Heart Party to you!

P.S. Here's a link to the One World One Heart blog links --> LINK (I'm #415 on the list.)

Happy exploring!

One World One Heart Party Starts Tomorrow!

Hi! There's a great event that starts tomorrow called One World One Heart. Between now and mid February, bloggers from around the world send in blog post links to Lisa of A Whimsical Bohemian. She collects them into a big list so we can all visit and get to know each other. Participants put giveaways on their blogs and everyone leaves comments on the giveaway post to say "HI, nice to meet you" and for a chance to win the giveaway.

Check back tomorrow for my "HELLO One World One Heart" and giveaway post. Looking forward to visiting as many of the participants as I can to say hi. (This is my first year participating, but last year there were around 1,000 participants I think!)

Whiny Doodle

Fair warning: Today's doodle is a wee bit whiny. I moved all my art stuff to our basement so that (in theory) I could continue making art while the remodeling stuff is going on. What happened is that ten zillion other things ended up down there too - and it's all stacked up in piles that cannot be ignored very easily. So, I guess only more doodles until I get some time to clean up down there.

Check this out!

Last year I took Jennifer Lee's e-course "The Right-Brain Business Plan" as a way to help me move forward with my goal to become a full time artist and workshop instructor.

Recently, I was approached to do a Spotlight for Jennifer's website. I was thrilled and honored!

Here's a link the site...you can see my spotlight if you scroll down or if you go to the Spotlight button.

LINK

Be sure to check out the rest of Jenn's site too. Her class is a great help to anyone trying to pull together a plan or trying to figure out how to move ahead with a business idea.

Doodles...

Well, it's been a whirlwind around here. There's time to breathe between the gusts though so I've been continuing to doodle in my little journal.

Back to playing with Harper, working, doodling and dusting (I have dusted and vacuumed more in the last two months than in my whole life. Oh wait, that's not really saying much considering my previous history for dusting and vacuuming. Well, it's still A LOT. The remodeling is coming along, but we probably still have a month of dust - er, I mean work - left.)

Motivation

So sometimes what motivates me isn't a success, it's a failure.  You see, I made the art journal above and the journal box for a workshop class proposal.  It was my second take on the journal in a box idea (the first one didn't make the art retreat workshop cut either), so I was a bit disheartened when I found out that I wouldn't be teaching this class.  So how does that motivate me?  Well, now I'm determined to use the dickens out of this sweet little journal.  All of the recent doodles I've posted have been in this little journal, and I love it more and more.  I guess this is another one of my "find your happy place" moments... I don't like for a good thing to go sour because of something out of my control, so I try to find a way to make it happy (or at least happier) so I can feel better about it.

Goals

I'm still adding goals, but this is what I have for now.  Last year's mid-year goal setting after Artfest certainly helped me to stay motivated and on track.  Announcing to the world, "Hey, here's what I'm going to do!" helped keep me accountable.  I didn't meet all of those goals, but I don't really think that's the point.  I had a target, and hit the bullseye from my point of view.

Back to our regular programming...

I've been working on this off and on since Thanksgiving or so, and I finally finished it last night. It's my entry for the Cloth Paper Scissors 2012 "On the street where I live" themed calendar contest. Keep your fingers crossed... I really want to win!