Tag Archives: Art Journaling

Blossoms of hope by Staci Kennelly

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Posted by kritzau on January 18, 2012 – 3:32 pm
Filed under A Beautiful Mess, Finding Hope
Staci Kennelly is mom, teacher, mentor and housemaid to three wonderful and amazing girls.  In her spare time she enjoys playing hooky with her husband and children, cooking yummy food, exploring new cities, collecting vintage cameras and photographing all of it. 
My Japanese Magnolia tree is one of my favorite plants in our yard.  It is a big beautiful tree that is green all of spring and summer.  Come autumn, all of it’s leaves slowly loose their color and fall.  Then the tree sits there for weeks, bare.  The whole thing is this great gray stick. Each year, this is when my heart seems to fall in love with my tree more. Not because of what it is, but because I know what is coming.  You see, in the middle of winter, when all of my garden is sleeping and waiting for spring, my Japanese Magnolia blooms.  It doesn’t have a single leaf on it…  only pretty pink flowers.  This giant gray stick is suddenly a bursting with life!
©2012 Staci Kennelly
The first year we lived in this home, I thought I had killed it.  It was just so bare.  But now, I know that when it is bare and seems to have nothing else, that is when I am to be reminded of the years past.  That is when I reach back and remember the Januarys filled with pink flowers.
©2012 Staci Kennelly
Hope is like that.  We do not need to be reminded of hope when our soul is in a spring season.  Spring is  full of new life.  Summer is filled with freedom and warmth.  We seem to carry summer’s warmth into autumn.  But when winter comes, sometimes, its cold reaches so deep into our soul that we forget what  warmth and freedom felt like.    This is when we need to remind ourselves of years past.  We can remind ourselves of our own beauty and our own strength.  We can remind ourselves of the times we fell, only to rise up again.  Winter seasons in my life no longer hold fear or worry.  They are a time of great hope.  For I know, right there in the middle of winter, I will bloom.
©2012 Staci Kennelly

RELAUNCHING A BEAUTIFUL MESS!!

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Posted by kritzau on January 4, 2012 – 9:04 pm
Filed under A Beautiful Mess, Art Journaling, Home.Food.Garden, Poems and Blessings, Spiritual Direction

Well the site never got “turned off.”

This may have been providential in the midst of shifting my focus to my new site kristinritzau.com (which still exists).  As I have been doing some vision planning for 2012, something became quite clear… TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER. Through the workshops, events, and open mic nights, this has been so evident and so refreshing.  As I thought about it, this is what ABM was birthed out of – a safe space to be yourself, authentic and true.  Why not have a blog where we can continue this community?  Where others can join when they want to and contribute.  Where we can find our voices and share our gifts as well as honor and respect other people in the space.

So here we are in 2012, with a website that never got shut down, and a philosophy to support it.  So why the heck not?  I am over the moon about this idea so here it goes: Each week, at least to start with, a different voice will be featured sharing an original essay, photo, collage, art piece, or poem.  These ideas will revolve around a seasonal prompt which will change every four months.  So for example, if the prompt for this winter is “Finding Hope,” then you would use that to create something to share with this community and your own of course.  It could be just a short poem to a picture that inspires that prompt in you to a story to a painting (which you would take a picture of)… hopefully it will make sense as it begins.

I have contacted a handful of people to initiate the blog which will start next week, but as we get the ball rolling if you feel like you want to contribute something, send me a message and I will send you the prompt for this season.  And remember TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER! Happy New Year everyone.

Savoring Summer

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Posted by kritzau on June 23, 2011 – 3:01 pm
Filed under A Beautiful Mess, Art Journaling, Home.Food.Garden, Workshops/Retreats

Summer is here.

The corn reminds me every morning by growing inches each day, just soaking up the heat. Likewise, the tomato garden on the other side of the yard is not complaining.

That’s a good thing because we are about to leave for a week of contemplative prayer and no technology – therefore, no blogging.  A week of slowing down, savoring life as only one can when disconnected from all things savvy.

So I wanted to show pictures of the garden before we leave so I can see how much it grows while were gone.  And to update you on its progress since I posted not too long ago about the adventure of homesteading we embarked on a couple of years ago.  It has been great hearing about what all of you are growing and getting encouragement too.

I hope to come back from this retreat rejuvenated for this new season with lots of inspiration, love and energy for what is ahead.  I am working on quite a bit of new material and (drum roll) … a new design for the website that will be amazing!  I can’t wait to share it with you. So it’s a good time for a break and I hope you are getting some vitamin d too.

I also wanted to invite you to the homestead for another Beautiful Mess Workshop event.  July 30th I will be hosting another creative day here where we’ll explore what it looks like to discover our true voices and find safe space with other women.  It promises to be a memorable day that many women have connected with over the past couple years. I hope you can make it! And if you have come to one in the past, it would be great to have you back too as new explorations always emerge.  Please click here for more information.

See you soon! Happy Homesteading.

You’re Invited….

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Posted by kritzau on May 31, 2011 – 10:18 am
Filed under A Beautiful Mess, The Book, Workshops/Retreats

Join us with your friends on Saturday, June 18th at 7:30pm in Monrovia, California for an unforgettable evening of sharing from the heart. 

Register now to share your original:

* essay
* poem
* spoken word
* song
* photograph
* painting

We will meet the weekend before Summer Solstice to celebrate the changing of seasons. Using that prompt, please create something, or pick something you already have with a similar theme to share. If you would like to just come and savor the evening, you are welcome to do that as well!

Please RSVP for this memorable evening garden party by clicking here. If you would like to participate in the evening, please comment on this blog and Kristin will be in touch with you shortly with more information. Drinks and appetizers will be provided. Tickets are $5 a person at the door.

Making a Mess in Colorado

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Posted by kritzau on May 23, 2011 – 6:25 pm
Filed under A Beautiful Mess, Art Journaling, Workshops/Retreats

A lot of paper was ripped in the past four days. And with every tear, I pray that something in the world was stitched up.

I flew to Denver last Thursday.  It was the fourth trip I’ve been on in a month.  This spring has encompassed another country, another county, another state, and all different kinds of amazing events and people at every stop.

The three events scheduled for this past visit flew by, but not without moments to pause, to meditate, to share, to laugh, to rip, to cry, and to heal. I met over 30 women this past week (and even more up north in Modesto) who are longing to find depth, connection, and growth in their communities and with themselves.

(centerpieces for the event at Big Valley Grace Church in Modesto)

A trend is emerging at these workshops of women being reintroduced to the right side of their brain: the creative, intuitive, fluid and often ignored or undervalued side. Through ripping up magazines, finger painting and throwing “normal” structure out the window, we began to breathe a little easier, deeper, and truer together — all at different rhythms, but side by side nonetheless.

It wasn’t without rules though.

“Rules?” You might ask, “I thought perfectionists were trying to recover from those?”

These were different: Read More »

Shadow of Myself: A Confession

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Posted by kritzau on April 4, 2011 – 7:58 pm
Filed under A Beautiful Mess, Art Journaling

I forgot something the last couple of months and for that I must apologize.  You made me remember.  I have forgotten myself.

Last week when I pieced together the pictures of our homestead, I was struck by the surge of energy I had in working on it as well as the almost 200 visits (and counting) to that entry in particular.

I’ve been in a season of emergence. A season where new dreams and desires are materializing while also colliding with other’s expectations and voices.  In this process, I lost my voice.

It wasn’t abused or beaten down – it just became hidden while I tried to envision my life in and through other people’s eyes.  My writing became project driven and uninspired.  It was hard to show up to myself and to others around me.

This all happened quietly and subtly.  Writing and expressing myself were harder as I tried to think about what others would want to read instead of what I wanted to say. Creating was even worse as it became forced and bland. And I was eating quickly and too much – trying to take in as much of life as I could, but it was never satisfying and left me feeling ill and bloated. Some people call this a funk. Read More »