What an amazing significant birthday for her.

She’s studying abroad and it really baffled me how I might celebrate this important day with her long distance.  I tossed a variety of ideas around and decided on this one.

She will completely not expect this from me, and it will be a memory she will have forever.  Mostly it gives her a bit of me, creatively and in an indulgent chocolate way that celebrates her.

Happy Birthday My Kate!

Project 21

21 bars of chocolate

21 handmade collages to wrap them in

21 days of chocolate until I see her next.

In January I attended two highly regarded what I like to call “think tank” conferences.  I am in a place in my life and in my business where I am ready to think outside the box again!  I came out of both of those events pumped!!

One evening during the January conference I couldn’t sleep…too many possibilities swimming in my brain.  I got up, made some tea and 45 minutes later had create what was for me a profound mind map.

In sharing this at my BNI meeting I was encouraged to partner with the life coach of the group to co-teach this technique.

It didn’t take much encouraging to work with Donella,  I just love her.  What was cool however, was when we sat down to discuss the potential of a workshop we simply created one – boom!

LOVE that!!!

Here is what we are up to:

What:   Heart Of The Matter Workshop

Please join us for  a morning of inspiration, direction, discussion, and reflection. Together in silence, we will mind map and collage our way to the path of our hearts.

When: Saturday March 6th  8:30  – 11:30 A.M.

Where: Normandy Village
1100 N. Beech Street
Bldg. 12A;  Normal, IL 61761

Fee:  $40.00
The fee includes room, snacks, some supplies, experienced coordinators’ compensation.

To make this even more deliciously fun, the fee is reduced to $35.00 each,  if you bring a friend.

Payment at the door, cash or check please.

Request:  Please bring magazines you have around the house – 5-10 or so will be plenty; favorite pencils or markers if you have them; your own beverage if you prefer something other than water; and if you can throw some scissors in your purse that would be great too.

Additional request:  Your on-time arrival will help all of us experience this workshop more fully; your courtesy is appreciated.

Who are these crazy facilitators?

Karen Hanrahan is a blog author, community wellness educator, closet creative and collage artist.  NEW to the Bloomington area, she brings 17 years of nutritional consulting to the table. Her passionate advocacy is prevention of illness through nutritional supplementation.  She created her first mind map in a course called Self Expression and Leadership 13 years ago.  Her collage work began when she studied the writings of Julia Cameron. Both types of media are part of what guides her personal and work goals. Sharing this technique with others fosters her belief that possibility strives on.  Blog: Best of Mother Earth

Donella Hess-Grabill, is a life coach and life-long educator with the necessary degrees, various related certifications, and over thirty years of working with people of all ages and stages.  Some of her favorite memories include times when she has nurtured students to self-discovery through language arts, or when she was a part of clients’ experiences of creating meaning, aliveness, and empowerment in their lives.  Donella has used life mapping and collaging extensively for her own personal and spiritual growth.  It took her only moments to decide that doing this workshop with you on a Saturday morning was what she wanted to do.

Wayfinder Solutions Professional Life Coaching
“Connecting Who You Are to Where You Want to Be”

Registration requested by March 2nd

The Workshop will be held at this location for a minimum of 8 participants.   If less, we have an alternative plan, if more that means we’re making more muffins!! Too Fun!!

If you are local to this area and care to pass this on to the woman you know – gosh, we’d really appreciate that!!

flickr image credit

Yup - prior to 1997, I had nothing to do with computers.  I was a terrible typist, dyslexic queen of america and had no understanding of the internet.   That was all geek stuff. I can thank my ex for introducing me to computers, and the internet and the potential it would bring for my work. I had always known that I learned and processed things differently. I was challenged my whole life because of it but email and computers really helped me actually SEE this. I was 37 yrs old before I understood the depth of which my dyslexia hindered me.

What does this have to do with the SOBCon 08 commercial contest? 

The contest seemed really techy to me, so much so, that I wasn’t going to participate.  I felt in over my head.

Yet in my head all these ideas kept popping up.

Creatively I had to find a way to participate that was me.

Thus this post about the 4 collages that I did on Sunday.

Collaging for me is a very tactile, creative outlet.  It’s remarkably visual, pleasing, simple to create and always insightful. Plus the collages I made brought to life the ideas I had about what blogging has meant to me. 

I then decided that I needed  to add text to the collages. Originally I thought this scrapbooking software  could help me.  Turns out it was too complicated, plus the files were not easily duplicatable

Then Liz Strauss, the dear, suggested that I create a power point slide show with inserted text

(Oh yeah !!  I did that once! )  

She then suggested, as only Liz can,  oh just convert the power point to video using free software 

(thats a handy dandy thought! )

and sooooo I did!!  Is that techy of me or what?? 

Except when I uploaded my video to utterz, the images were really fuzzy and too small.

Drat. 

So I re- created larger images in power point – reconverted it to video and now the darn thing wouldn’t upload  at all – perhaps it’s too large ?

I even thought proudly and in such a resourceful way, that maybe I could upload it to Flickr.  I do that when my picture files are too big, but alas utterz wouldn’t nibble on that either. 

So I really do have a video entry to the Get My Message SOBCON08 Contest…you can view it here  

I even have some music to go with it, how to insert that of course is a whole different conundrum
 
Maybe I’ll win that nokia phone!! Of course if I did, I’d have to figure out how to use the darn thing.

where are the tech geeks when you need them flickr image credit

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean

Besides being able to meet people that intrigue me, impress me, and tug at my intellect, my heart and my creative spirit.  I also am going to dig into the trenches with other like minded individuals, bloggy folks and all, and learn and develop what might be next for my blog.

One of the activities for the conference is to make a commercial for our Blogs. Utterz Herd is sponsoring the contest and everyone who participates has the chance to win a Nokia N95  Man – that phone is pretty darn sweet. 

As you can see the guy at Utters Herd is a total video dude. Personally it’s going to take me a while to do video anything. I completely appreciate video as a medium, however for me I prefer something a tad more organic.  I have no idea if this is on track for a commercial, since I am rather non - commercial in spirit and all. However this idea kept coming up in my head so I went with it.

I made these collages and applied a new technigue so that it took me only about an hour to complete all 4. Isn’t that the coolest thing?

I am rather pleased with them as a series. 

I have access to software that can add fonts right into the image, just can’t install it into my system right now, hopefully I can get some help with that before the weekend.

Otherwise this is my commercial – what do you think??  

Best of Mother Earth Blog Commercial:   

I Never Knew….

That what I think about and what is important to me

Could make a difference for so many …. SIMPLY by speaking it outloud.

My Blog:  All Things Wellness

Best of Mother Earth:  www.bestwellnessconsultant.com

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Collages by Karen Hanrahan

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean
 
How do you celebrate Earth Day?
If you’re not cleaning green – what’s stopping you?

I really like its play on light, its varied texture and the weathered,well travelled and very wise eye. Most of it’s linear qualities are pointing up. I like that. The staircase rail in the center makes me feel grounded somehow, centered (!) I can imagine myself holding onto it and swinging around onto the stairs. The handles on the doors signifies opportunity to me.

I am experimenting with producing pieces that are smaller, these are 8 1/2 by 11.  Producing in themes and selling them as limited signed prints.

I printed 5 in color and 5 in black and white.
 
Vision I

Vision II

Which version do you like better?
Is $45.00, shipped – a fair price?

WLTL Lyons Township High Schools Radio Station — one of the number one high school radio stations in the country – is having it’s annual Rock-A-Thon this weekend to raise funds for the station. Donations are being accepted at 708.482.9585

The station is broadcasting live thanks to LTTV

My son now studying Radio Production at Columbia, got his humble beginnings at this station, his freshman year, on a dare. He proceeded to land a DJ slot for a really funny monologue about road rage. He went on to Radio Management and to win significant several awards for the station.

My daughter too has participated in radio as a DJ, WLTL presents, and gets quite involved in the antics and hype for the rock-a-thon. Last year they organized a survivor show, this year promises to be a blast.

Below her T-Shirt design was picked for this years T-Shirt

While this isn’t really a collage, it’s close enough!!

spontaneous scanner collage here.

the inside little zippered part of my coin purse is host to these tokens

it all began at thanksgiving at jenny’s 2 yrs ago. each of us got an angel from her trip to ireland.
at the time i needed an angel to watch over me – this was the beginning of my collection

as a friend jenny encourages boldness in me, she’s a no nonsense friend and one of the most authentic people I know – we always always laugh when we are together, she’s really the angel

the inspire piece came next from margaret, she told me I was an inpiration to her oh my gosh she of course is a bigger inspiration to me, not to minimize her thoughts of me, it’s just true.  She is one of the best listeners on the planet, when I have different sides to an equation she sees them as a whole, she has the uncanny abilty to advocate what’s best in a very non-judgemental way – on the back is a butterfly – her signature and logo for the what if organization she founded that feeds families in Haiti

in st louis with jenny on a trek to take her boys to camp we found the cool cat and other great novelty pins, Since, i love cats, i wear glasses, and i’m cool -  the cool cat pin was a must to add to my collection of tokens

“things happen for a reason”  i purchased after my divorce this past june …in my head and heart I thought remind me please why this needs to happen – I didn’t want my relationship with him to be over, of course the saying has meaning in all kinds of ways and can be applied to much much more than an end of something, I just have to believe it’s message.  This particular token has a silky sheen to it (see the swirls the scanner picked up on?) and a wonderful weight to it 
 
the pewter heart I gave to myself also after the divorce …it was as if to say hey love yourself darlin everything’s going to be OK…these little love icons comes from sundance- I give these to folks who mean something to me, but giving myself one reminded me I need to start with me. They get really warm when you hold them in your hand.

I also collect rocks,shells, beads and other odd things that warm my heart or connect me to nature or remind me of occasions gone by 

Do you?? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

^{Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean as seen on Oprah}

^{Member of BNI – West Suburban BNI: “Chapter Mentor”
Member, Board Member and Programming Chair of West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs}

Creating Career through Collage (1996)

This collage is something I created when I was building my nutrition practice over 10 years ago, up until then I knew inside that I was clever, creative, smart and sassy, but have never really brought all of that to an expression that could earn me a living. I was a stay at home mom, about to raise 2 kids solo, frightened at the idea of being self supporting and yet beginning to see and believe that I had what it took to move my life forward.

I remember making this and how the words were exactly what I needed at the time.

Words that didn’t scan ( because they just didn’t fit ) include: free, this woman never gave up, heroes, home safe and sound, people helping people

What I love about this collage is that everything about it is pointing up, the window, the fingers crossed for good luck, all the words, I love that the angel and colorful dove had wings of flight, that my future was in the palm of my hand (right hand corner), I absolutely adore the colors in it – the ever present blue and green and the amazing birch trees reaching to the sky in autumn , my favorite time of year and taking all seriousness aside I love the the silly little dog with it’s tongue out.

The most amazing thing about this piece is that compared to what I was then and who I am now. ALL of this came true.

Pretty darn cool.

<sup>Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean as seen on Oprah

Member of BNI – West Suburban BNI: “Chapter Mentor”
Member, Board Member and Programming Chair of West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs</sup>

I didn’t quite have it in me last weekend to put the holiday decor away. A wet basement, from a minor flood this week, had me get it complete and put away yesterday.

It feels good. My decor was shifted here in my move and part of my separation. I didn’t touch it last year so this year in addition to seeing what was in all the boxes I decided to sort and donate things I am no longer interested in. I reduced the whole thing by 2 large bins.   We might ask ourselves why do we have all of this stuff in the first place?  Yet when putting the trees and decorations up this year I admit the process was delightful, celebratory and treasured.

I have a friend who says that Jan 15th  is the politically correct date to keep the tree up etc, after that your then a slovenly slob about it all.

Laughingly I have other friends who never take the tree down and other holiday decor gets mixed in, Valentines Day, Easter and 4th of July.  I think it’s a riot. I really don’t think it’s right to judge someone by whether or not there holiday decorations are put away by a certain time. Seriously who cares.

It’s been rather gloomy here, winter graydom ( a Karen word ) has set in. I am grateful for the weekend and the gloominess so I can putz around

This morning it was raining with small itsy snowflakes mixed in, very mini and nothing that would speak to snow reality. Just a reminder – oh yeah winter
 
Earlier in the month I shared a collage of santa’s that I had craftily put into a frame, this is the snowman version and I love it. I adore all the carrot noses, the pink glitter one on the bottom left and the humor of the snowman couple depicting the famous painting that at the moment the name of escapes me.

Some years I will keep the snowman themed stuff out until March. This year I decided to put it away. I am hoping the landlord will paint the bathroom and the clutter of all the snowman stuff would get in the way.
I was thinking tangerine for a paint color!

The crafty diddy below came with a gift from my friend sue years ago, one year she actually gave me some of these to use as gift tags as a gift. Those are all gone. I couldn’t wait to share them. She makes many of her own gift tags and gifts and I have to say that I admire that. I admire crafters from afar. I frequent quite a few craft blogs actually. I support them by purchasing their work – handmade gifts are so cool.

This little card is something I pull out each and every year and set it in with all the other snowman stuff. It just makes me smile 

I am creative in different ways.   Mostly I am afraid if I get involved in a craft I might get buried in the stuff that comes along with the project. I could swim in buttons, they make me smile ever so, and yet I seriously have to consider that I will never actually sit down and produce something like this.

I did think baby blue buttons on a navy card stock, it’s end dipped in silver glitter would look really cool – a nighttime snowman scene – I’m the idea person. Not the crafter.

^{K a r e n     H a n r a h a n
Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant
Mentoring YOU to Health Success
708.482.0678}

Wellness Consulting Websites:
^{Nutrition and Weight Loss}
Green Clean as seen on Oprah!

<sup>Blog Authoring : Bringing Your Voice to the Internet – Examples of Work

Member of BNI – West Suburban BNI: “Chapter Mentor”
Member of West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs www.wswe.org
WSWE Board Member and Programming Chair</sup> 

^{Causes I donate to:  Green Belt Movement, Global Warming 101, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, What if Foundation, American Forests Campaign}