I've moved!

Twisted Whimsy has a new website and blog, please stop by and visit us here:
www.TwistedWhimsyDesigns.com

Thanks!
xo
Joanna

RAW Baltimore Semi-Finals!!

Super stoked to have been voted one of the top three accessory designers for RAW Artists Baltimore! Such an honor and motivator to keep doing my heart work.

It's been awhile since I've posted. I can't believe how time moves. But lots of new jewelry love has headed to the shop lately, be sure to swing by and check it out! xoxox

honoring our tide

I have been hibernating but warmer weather is on the way. I heard the peepers, in the woods, on my jog yesterday and knew my soul was starting to stir as well. I can't believe my last post was on the first day of this year.

Most winters I fall into a sadness. This year I had my moments but am learning to honor the ebb and flow that my body needs. 

I am strongest in the morning light. My creativity, my mind, my body are rushing in at full tide when I wake up.

I must be outside for periods throughout the day (and night). Even when the earth is quiet and frozen.  My senses have grown to hear so many sounds of nature, looking up at the stars, watching the moon grow and shrink to dark. I feel small but in a good way.

I love my animals more than people. Perhaps I need to work on this flow but for now they are important to my soul and I will alter my day to spend time with THEM and share my love with them.


I enjoy sleeping. My body needs sleep. My dreams are vivid and full of messages. I cherish that time.  

I need quiet time later in the day, probably more than most people need. To just sit, to be, to do nothing, to rest my mind and not think. I must have moments to not be a graphic designer, an artist, a sister, a daughter. To let the shit of the day wash out with the tide and leave fresh sand and shells to find.

How do you honor your tide?
xo

   

Memory/Gratitude Jar

Reason 5,456,798 that I love Pinterest...
I found this posting for a DIY Memory Jar. What a fun idea, right!

So I decided to make one for myself and include not only good memories for 2013 but all the beautiful things I am grateful for. Then next New Years Eve I can empty it out and reflect on the past year and all the wonder that fill my life.

So super easy to do. All you need is a jar and fun stuff to decorate it with, then just fill it with love.
 
Have FUN! & Happy New Year!
xo
Joanna
 

 

Freebie Fun!

I wanted to pop in and say thanks to all the beauties who joined me for Feel the Love, Pass it On. It was so much fun to create the messages each day, and while I started with the thought to send love and gratitude to others, I was hugged back with reminders to stop and breathe myself.

I hope everyone is having a fun holiday season and this new year brings lots of love and dreams that bloom into reality.


Some freebie fun! Desktop Wallpaper just for you! 

Click on the link for the size you need, a new page will open up...then just right click to save the image and set it to your desktop wallpaper!

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Feel the Love. Pass it On.

Super excited as I sit down to plan out and write some of the emails for Feel the Love. Pass it On. 30 Days of Grounding in Gratitude. A free offering for love and inspiration through out the holidays. (Sign up here on my blog to join the mailing list!)

Each day you'll receive an email with words... images... art and love. And there are some beautiful souls who are contributing to the offering. Shelly Norris was the first to answer my call for people who wanted to participate. She is a bubbling, gorgeous person with a huge heart. 

She recently spread her lovely wings, and started Soul Fire Retreats. Her offering where "Shift Happens" and her vision is to help heal one beautiful soul at a time!

Her first beautiful retreat will be in February and it's not to be missed!
xo

Note to Self

 

As pieces of me crack open in souLstorm, pieces I did not expect to be revealed... I am looking to spider as a reminder to return to my center each day and to commit to my intention and legacy. To stop complaining gather my shit and MOVE my ass out of the stagnant flow.

The following started as a reminder to me but I hope it touches you as well.

 

We organize our time and energy around our goals. They help give direction to our lives. And committing to and visualizing those goals can assist in reaching them BUT it’s not necessarily the same as setting an intention. And often when our goals don't shake down the way we thought they should, we don't have our intentions to bring us back to center.

 

With goals the future is what our mind is occupied with. Setting intention, at least according to Buddhist teachings, is quite different than goal making. It is not oriented toward a future outcome. Instead, it is a path or practice that is focused on how you are "being" in the present moment. Your focus is on the “now”, this precious moment, in the ever changing ebb and flow of life. We set our intentions based on what matters most to us and then align our worldly actions with our heart values.

 

Intentions need love, we can’t just set them and then ignore. We live them every day, by surrounding ourselves with reminders, filling our baskets with our “word”, meditating on them, reflecting and committing to them. Through these actions our intentions bloom.

 

Being grounded in our intentions is what helps us regain our mental footing, a way to establish ourselves in a context that is larger and more meaningful than our goal-oriented activities.

 

Each time we reconnect to our intention, we move closer to finding your own authenticity and freedom.

 

In that moment, you are remembering yourself and grounding your life in your heart's intention.

 

xoxoxox

Stepping into my Shadows...

When I was eight I was terrified of the night, of going to sleep, of being swallowed up by the darkness and not being able to wake up. When I was nine a ghostly figure floated at the top of our staircase, this didn't do much to calm my fears of shadowy corners. For most of that year I slept on the floor next to my parents bed. Even through my teens I would wake with such an intense fear of being alone in the dark, I would go sleep on the floor in my sisters' room. (My youngest sister sleeps with her eyes open, so most nights she'd freak me out too and I trod back to my own room.)

This year, December, marks 20 years since I lost the love of my life and best friend.  It happened at midnight. Knock on the door. A car ride so clear I can still see the rain drops on the windows and the street lights reflecting dark shadows into the car. I prayed for the best but I knew in my heart he was gone. When the words were spoken, I fell to my knees in a corner devoid of light.

For months I couldn't sleep, the dark screaming its silence in my face. On a curvy, long road at dusk the car started to fall into the arch, depths of dark wintery trees to my right. What if... what if I just let go of the wheel and drift into the trees. What if I let the darkness swallow me, maybe the pain will stop. I eventually made it around the bend and continued straight, on the road, leaving the bare trees in my rear-view mirror.

My bed has contained only one for many years and my house shelters me at night like a safe cocoon. I sleep well. Still, I've yet to make friends with the shadows. Even sunglasses block too much light most days.

But today, in SouLodge, I begin a decent with Black Panther, I'm eager to discover her offerings. My battle with shadow begins....

Feel the Love...Pass it On....

For many of us it's fall, which brings with it less light, colder temperatures, nesting and going within. I get tired, my motivation drops, the sadness sets in. No green leaves, only bare branches blowing lonely in the wind. I also start to get overwhelmed by the start of the holidays. So many people rushing everywhere to spend money they don't have, feeling obligated to buy gifts for loved ones they never see. Bells jingling at the grocery store entrance asking for donations to dozens of causes. Commercials and movies and traffic. Who is having Thanksgiving dinner, where is everyone going to sleep. Days off spent driving to family events.

But what if...

What if we slowed it down a bit, took a breath and noticed what is good in the now?


30 Days of Gratitude from Joanna on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/50925830
(music by Florence and the Machine) 
*Big thanks to Shelly Norris of Soul Fire Retreat for her addition of artwork to this video*

Life is complicated and often a hot freaking mess. But practicing gratitude means appreciating the gifts that are present in our lives and appreciating every small blessing. Often when things feel uphill there are tiny seeds of learning being planted for us to sprout.

Create a sacred practice around even the smallest blessing...

The goal is to bring gratitude to every experience, even the not so awesome-sauce ones. Life has its own ebb and flow. Learning to appreciate the tides can make for a much more delicious life. When this becomes a true daily practice our world can shift in ways we never imagined.  

Join me in breathing in the gratitude-love and sharing it with those around us.
For 30 days, November 24 - December 24, you'll receive a love note from me. An inspirational message, a prompt to feel the gratitude for the moment.

It will come in the form of an image, words, collage, art, straight love... handmade by myself and other wonderful souls who also wanted to share.

The offering is free, just sign up for my mailing list here on the blog. Your first note of gratitude will arrive on Nov 24th.  

Feel the love of each note, breath it in… and then pass it on. You can forward the email to a loved one or friend. Print it and leave it randomly for a stranger to receive, or even use it as tags for holiday gifts.

Let's feel the love and gratitude for every special moment and share it with others.

I hope you'll join me.
xo
Joanna

Day Ten

Open sliding door to deck... cat flies out to deck, dog stumbles quickly out after cat, I run out after both of them. Cat soars down deck stairs to yard, dog trips all the way down the stairs after cat, I run down the stairs after both of them. Cat circles chair, dog circles chair, I circle chair. Cat runs back up the stairs, dog trips all the way back up the stairs, I run up the stairs after both of them. Cat runs around table, dog runs around table, I run around table. ENOUGH, I laugh out loud! What they hell am I doing, everyone inside! Cat runs back in the door, dog trips in the door, I walk back in. Hello neighbors, did you enjoy the circus show :)

Day Three

*Ralph Steadman, Alice in Wonderland

Sharing my ever deepening gratitude for my souLodge and souLstorm sisters. I've never met any of them face-to-face but there is a deep connection to them all, they are forever woven into the fibers of my heart and soul for many lives to come.

These are real women, changing the world with a fierce love. And moving mountains so others can experience joy and success and happiness and peace... find discoveries and connections and healing.

They will travel down the rabbit hole and hand you a light, they will send you energy from across the globe, they will hold your hand and lend you a shoulder. They use my favorite word - fuck - almost daily. They dream without limitations, honor each other and covet generosity. They make me laugh every day, respect my dance with the shadows but etch the pathway with brightness so I can find my way out.

I've learned more from them in the past year, and am inspired by them hourly.

Aho my sisters. Much Love!

xoxo

Day Two

 

Grateful for early morning walks with Crosby, especially in the fall. When the air is cool but the sun is still warm. When you can smell wood smoldering from fires the night before. When the neighborhood is still asleep and the night crickets are peeping but the birds are starting to wake up. When the cars are quite and you can hear the wind move from tree to tree...When the sky is so blue you can see the sun and moon at the same time...

(I'm even grateful that we have to stop every five steps so Crosby can sniff and pee and ponder what's in the grass.)

What are you grateful for today?

21 Days

Yesterday marked day 1 of 21 days of gratitude and self-care, in honor of the bravest woman I know. She knows who she is and I want to document the next 21 days she'll be away from me, to let her know she is on my mind every second and I am next to her, holding her hand every brave step she takes.

I drove myself to my favorite park for a jog, so that her sweet air could coat my lungs. Sat with my tea in the backyard at sunset...grateful for the healing that mama earth brings us every day and grateful for wet noses that are never far from my side...

I wrote these words...
All is Well (thank you Maya)

I wish to live...
light, lively, abundant, 
vibrant, liberated, knotless, 
colorful, rich, accepting, 
forgiving, loving, open, 
humorous, inspiring, gentle, 
mindful, layered, rich, 
explorative, full, connected

When you unschool those negative thoughts that fire in your brain to your heart, amazing things WILL happen. New affirmations are mapped, connections are made and discoveries unburied. 

How do you wish to live?

The View From Here

Cooler air blew in while I slept last night. You can smell fall in the air. Just like that summer is gone. A little sad to see my favorite season go but craving pumpkins and apple cider and cuddles on the couch with warm soup.

Rediscovering a Old Love

You know that moment when you rediscover a lost love? When you realize the thing you’ve been doing everyday is kind of it, but not really, and you began to hate what it has become but then something clicks and you fall in love again? Yea, that moment. Just. Had. It.

Hello my Dear computer,
I’m sorry I have been neglecting you for so long. You see I sit in front of you every day and create boring ads for Medicare. I get asked to find images of Hispanic people (but they can’t be too dark). I get asked to show we are cutting edge by showing an image of a machete (not just a knife) cutting the top of a pineapple off (mind you, again, we create Medicare marketing materials – can you say not appropriate!)

But I digress…

I grew to despise you. On Sunday nights the thought of having to sit in front of you for the next 5 days made me drink numerous glasses of wine and sit in a stupor of irritation.

But lately I’ve remembered how you help me and what I love most about you. So let me reintroduce myself, my name is Joanna and I’m a graphic artist (it has taken me over 10 years to say that with some sort of confidence) and when I create from my heart and for my souls work, we make beautiful magic. You help me combine sexy art made from my hands with amazing photo-technology. You help me show the depths of my imagination and bring the seeds I’ve planted to life.

Now while the computer I use at ‘work’ is a substandard PC that I often want to throw into a busy street so various people can run it over multiple times. I love you my Apple and I am back, ready to create, to draw visual notes that will make people’s heart sing. I am ready to share with others the great work you and I do and how it can help them too!

Look out world, my Apple and I are back in a heated relationship and it’s gonna get steamy!

Invisible Ceilings and My New Day...

Lots of questions, discussions, shedding, idea-storminations… happening with my souLodge sisters and then ahhhh, a magical Soul-Storming hour…

I don’t often speak well with words, they often come in small bursts or blurbs of thought that only my soul might understand. My heart sees with imagery more often and so I share with you a few words from what shines in me today and a picture to input in the universal GPS (heart you big Maya for that one)

 

A realization – Every time the lottery gets large I find myself dreaming of having just a portion of that kind of money and visualizing how I would spend my days if I did.

Why do I need to gamble to live the life I fantasize of? What if my heart work sustained me with bounty, allowed me to play out my days doing what I love and sharing that with others. Why do I put limits on my income and what is possible in my heart? I don’t need to win the lottery to pay off my student loans and old credit card debt; to be happy; to stand barefoot in the grass with hands-raised each morning to the east saying thank you.

I am ready to bust open that portal of universal energy of bounty; to share my hearts work; to not live on autopilot with a default of numb.

I want my life to rejuvenate ME every day. I want to consciously create a legacy that shows gratitude and kindness to this universe, to give back and let it sustain me well.

I’ve seen so many women in my life live with this invisible ceiling of possibility.  Our journeys are all different but so much is available to us in this world, if we invite it to the party. So much of our energy is what we surround ourselves with. Art, metal, stones, crystals and gems, sacred talisman and guides - they carry energies that can help balance and protect us on our walks.

Soul work, dream work, journey work is hard, it kicks your ass to the curb and leaves you crying out amounts of snot that no tissue can absorb, then it picks you up and carries you through the front door and hands you a celebratory cocktail.

I take that cool drink today and say cheers - screw that ingrained teaching that I have to live with an invisible ceiling. I hereby promise to un-school my brain from that societal bullshit.

What is your default? How can you break through your invisible ceiling and let your leaves and branches breathe and show their light? 

Aho. 

PS - Stay tuned - big changes coming to Twisted Whimsy as my hope is to help adorn your journey and provide you with pieces of my heart that you can carry and soak positive energy from. 

 

Looking from Above

Sometimes we have to close our eyes and reopen them with a new perspective.

We look forward so much. In the car, our eyes are glued to the traffic ahead. At work, we glare blindly straight at the computer screen. Or ahead from the couch to the TV or iPhone.

I learned a lesson the other week, so focused on my task to clear out overgrown brush in my yard... I didn't look down to see the poison ivy surrounding me (which led to the most horrible itchy rash I've had since the chicken pox when I was 7!) 


We can learn a lot from our winged friends, as they circle and soar from above. Taking in the big picture, which helps them focus on what sustains them.


Love to Pixie Campbell and my SouLodge sisters for their continued support and inspiration to see views I never imagined.

Use your flight to its highest abilities. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and look at life with a new perspective. Aho.

 

Rooting in Solitude

I love to be in the mix of my community, my family, hear the noise and the laughter and occasionally the tears. But it’s draining as well and I often need to step away, be alone.

People used to tell me that was because I was introverted or shy like that was a bad thing.

But I’m learning that going into solitude is ok. 

Fills my cup, replenishes, place my feet on the ground and and feel my soul connect to the earth and what’s important.

Let nature wrap her warmth around me like the safety of the womb. Listening to my heartbeat and what the rhythm yearns for.

Be wide open to the world around you, reconnect to your inner child, don't be afraid to sit alone and reground your soul.

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