Julie Unplugged: Mistakes

November 19, 2013

Happiness is Finding that Just Right Technique

This is how I've wanted my photo layering to look for eons!

Something very exciting happened!!

After many attempts to get some of my photos layered in the way I like them to be or inserted into collages or mixed media pieces, I finally found a method that gives me the effect I want. I literally wanted to jump up and down and have a big hug fest with Virginia Woolf, her sisters and TS Elliot but I thought since they are all long dead that wouldn’t work out.

Here is the stalled mixed media piece I’ve been working on, wondering why TS Elliot of all people would be the “star” of one of my works. I started this in July, I believe – it was a long time ago. The layers of paints tell me. The color of the deepest layer is “Oildale building” or something like that. I know it has Oildale in the title.

Close up: Virginia Woolf and her sisters on mixed media piece

Here is a close up. I love how the words "writing" and "blood" show up clearly. Those are from one of T.S. Elliot's writings.

It was one of the recycled paints I got for free last summer. At last point they were specializing in not such wonderful shades of… primarily beige.

Anyway – now that I was able to try the trick of printing on tissue paper and then affixing the tissue paper with mod podge (I’m also going to experience with some other mediums as well) I can’t believe the perfection in the result.

I edited this photo first, I cranked up the contrast which I think will help a lot with black and white photos. I love the crispness and the simultaneously gritty effect it has.

I made progress on several other pieces, but this was by far the most exciting in probably about a week. Today I plan to add a photo of Edna St. Vincent Millay and perhaps a shot of Steepletop, her estate in Upstate New York which I visited last April.

Thank you for reading! I can’t wait to celebrate with you!

<< --->>

You may still join Art Every Day Month - Leah Piken Kolidas has been inspiring many of us for years! Check it out -

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 08:51 AM in AEDM2013, Literary Grannies, Literary Grannies from A to Z, Literary History, Mistakes, Mixed Media | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

November 14, 2013

Repurposing Art from 2008 & Making New Art in 2013

Watch this blog for more creativity (and inspiration for you) from these images & quotes.

We are smack dab in the middle of Art Every Day Month and y'all, I am tired. Seriously tired, wiped out, there are so many cool things I want to do but the thought of lifting my finger to create anything - even this silly blog post - feels beyond my means right now.

For quite a long time tonight I watched mixed-media artist's doing their thing and salivating over their supplies but while fun and future driven, it doesn't do anything for my art right this moment.

I just took the last half hour to do something about it. Tonight I am sharing two images I just made for upcoming "Inspiration for Your Blogging, Writing and Creativity" posts.

Here is basically how I did it:

An old watercolor I photographed, cropped and edited mildly on pixlr = new "product" entirely

This was from one of my first ever watercolor paintings called "Boom Boom Boom" - I have had several people interested in buying the final mixed media piece, but for now I am using it to repurpose old art into new.

I searched my Flickr photos for watercolor paintings I have done in the past and selected a couple I thought had promise as backgrounds. I put them into the pixlr.com photo editor. First, I cropped - I only wanted certain pieces of the images to appear.

On the quote that is by me - see my signature there? I wrote it, I painted it - it is mine... you are looking at the lower half of an abstract watercolor painting I created in 2008. You know I have been all into repurposing and upcycling? Well, here I go again!

I've also noticed, by the way, one of my very popular pins on pinterest is one in this series and the background is a slice of a recent mixed media piece. Well, the image does something or it is all Abigail Adams words doing something - what I do know it is working so I am testing to see how these work on replicating that success.

Another popular pin is one of my own quotes on a simple altered photo of clouds I took who knows when.

I really enjoy playing with images - and I don't linger over them at all.

It is more zip - zap - zoodle dee dee - and I'm done.

These images took me about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Feel free to ask me questions if this concept is new to you. I didn't think I could EVER figure this stuff out but hey, I have, and while I know there may be better or different programs, for now I'm content with Pixlr.com and my own photography and painting.

Oh, yes. It is Friday. This means over the weekend I can get myself dirty and covered with stuff as I begin making backgrounds, etc, for next week's art every day month posts.

I have never had such a satisfying November!

>> -----<<

You may still join Art Every Day Month - Leah Piken Kolidas has been inspiring many of us for years! Check it out -

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 09:24 PM in AEDM2013, Art Begets Art, Mistakes, Mixed Media, Repurposing, Self Care | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 18, 2013

Showing for It a Tidbit at a Time

You would never guess from the number of my posts on the Creative Every Day Weekly Check In that my creativity has actually been at an all time high lately.

I know, I know – I don’t have much to show for it!

Here’s the thing: I am so close to being done on a couple mixed media pieces – I smile as I say that because for the first time I completely took my time and added layer after layer after layer and they are not half bad. I feel almost like I know what I’m doing enough to follow my intuition and feel good about what I am creating!

To the right here is the start of one of those projects.

Now, since I don’t have anything finished I would normally not show you anything and not even show up.

I decided I should just show a taste of creative progress. Tonight when I was stuck with language – the words were not flowing at all – I decided to edit a couple photos.

Actually, I edited the same photo twice, but I really like how they turned out.

What do you think?

Here is the first editing job I completed....

And here is the second one:

Thanks for bearing with me. I hope you forgive my lack of presence and support me for showing up… now.

I look forward to the inspiration I receive from you and hopefully this small slice of creativity may inspire you, too!

Have a week filled with passionate creativity!

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

And for the first time I am also linking to Inspire Me Mondays from Create with Joy - welcome one and all!

Posted at 08:29 AM in Creative Every Day, Mistakes, Mixed Media, Passion for Creativity, Photography | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

September 01, 2012

Blog Dare: How I'm Gearing Up for Fall

BlogDare: August 30 - How I'm gearing up for the Fall.

The prompt says August 30 but I am really writing on September 1.

Life has been like that lately. I intend for something and then life walks past me before I am able to lift myself from my chair. It isn’t the Bakersfield heat that is doing it, instead it is the way I have been holding on to stuff there is no need to hold onto.

I made a fascinating observation the other night.

I haven’t made any long term goals for myself since my brother died five years ago.

I had so much pain that year I guess part of its echo was “Don’t plan anything because life isn’t a forever thing anyway, you’re heart is going to be crushed consistently anyway and guess what, it is like John Lennon said, ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.’”

My first book bore the title, “Don’t Let it Take Two Death Threats” and it told the story of my “escape” from a conventional lifestyle after two of my clients with severe schizophrenia threatened to kill me. I experienced more personal growth during that time than ever before but somehow I lost track of those lessons in some of my intervening years.

Back to the prompt: how I’m gearing up for the Fall –

I am using this week as a mini-home-based retreat to focus on clearing away old projects and making space for new projects. My eldest daughter is leaving for her semester at University of Edinburgh in Scotland tomorrow, so everything will instantly be simplified.

That is the biggest thing I am doing right now to gear up for the Fall: I am stepping back and looking forward at the same time. I am not letting it take two death threats or the anxiety of skin cancer or anything else for that matter get in the way of my primary mission – being a part of changing the world for the good via writing, creativity and just me being myself and helping you, my reader, just be yourself.

There is great freedom in this, like the smell of the Autumn air, or the crisp moments between darkness and sunrise.

I’m so grateful you are reading.

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!)

Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is

also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield.

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Posted at 11:48 AM in Autumn, Blog Dare, Blogging, Goals, Inspiration, Long Term Goals, Mistakes, Mommy Blog Dare, Reinvention | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 15, 2012

What is the Hardest Part of Parenting? #SummerBlogChallenge

Summer Blog Challenge Prompt August 15. What is the hardest part of parenting?

I could go Pollyanna today and say something like, “Hardest part? Why, parenting is all a cake walk in the park and the kids always adore your every choice and sit at your feet, wondering how they got so blessed to have ME as their Mommy!”

That is only partially true, after all.

The hardest part of parenting for me is the continually need and practice of letting go.

It is ironic, because that is such a huge part of parenting: we raise our children to be confident enough to fly on their own wings, not on ours.

My children, for the most part, do this.

I’m thinking this morning how much I have been looking forward to the first day of school.

This is true for the most part, but it is also very difficult for me to not know how things are faring for my child. I jump at every ring of the phone. I worry my child will need me and I won’t be able to know telepathically.

I think a big part of that worry is knowing more than likely my child will come home that first day excited about the new year and all the promise it brings.

Or in Katherine’s case, it is she will come home in December, so happy to have spent her Fall in Edinburgh.

There are other tough challenges along the way, but watching them leave and being detached from their outcomes… that is the most difficult moment I face as a parent each and every time.

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!)

Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.

Did you enjoyed this essay? Receive emails directly to your inbox for Free from Julie Jordan Scott via the Daily Passion Activator. One inspirational essay and poem (almost) every week day. Subscribe here now -

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Posted at 09:02 AM in Creative Home, Julie Jordan Scott, long ago memories, Memories, Mistakes, Mom-Schlep, Mommying, Motherhood, Parenting, Parenting a Child on the Autism Spectrum, Parenting Teens, Summer Blog Challenge, Writing Inspiration, Writing Prompt | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

August 12, 2012

Beginnings (in some cases again) - School, Work, Life & Creativity

I sit at my desk, thinking about beginnings and not sure where to begin.

Well, ironically, I am looking forward to the school year beginning so I will have more time to work uninterrupted on my various projects. As the Summer wears on, I feel less and less motivated to do anything much less my longer-term, more energy, more to clean up and put away and take out and put into place. So I don’t bother.

Speaking of which, I need to begin my chores on a more excited level, too.

I love all the school supplies on sale.

I am not looking forward, and I am, to Katherine’s semester in Scotland starting. I know she will have a blast. I am not sure how well I will endure.

I am excited to begin using my new antique desk. This desk has served me in its make shift way – though it is too high for a desk and since it has no drawers, I have ended up with stacks of stuff on the floor around me all the time. I just don’t like it. Argh.

AND I am excited to begin painting the exterior of my house with Katherine, which we will start once the little kids are back to school.

This is the longest five minutes ever!

I still have a minute and thirty one seconds left!

I am a believer in do-overs.

I feel like this school year includes plentiful “do-overs”. My choice lies in the willingness to accept what is and not judge myself for doing-over again.

I am excited about a massage I will get during the first week of school. My body wants to begin feeling like itself again!

I look forward to new beginnings with Writing Camp, too. I have lots of new ideas to implement and yesterday’s “A Time to Write” reminded me how much my work is valued. One woman who I knew but didn’t know very well until yesterday gave me an excited hug and said, “You make it all so easy! This class was so great!”

I loved the smiles.

I am grateful I was alert to them.

And now that I’m on a roll, the timer goes off! >> giggles <<

**********************

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (in the sidebar) at Jana's Thinking Place.
Link up your post at Jana's Thinking Place
Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!)

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Posted at 09:55 AM in Creative Home, Family, Mistakes, Mommying, Motherhood, Parenting, Parenting a Child on the Autism Spectrum, Parenting Teens, Self Care, SOC Sunday, Spirituality, Word-Love, Writing, Writing Camp, Writing Inspiration | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

July 27, 2012

Step One to Prepare Yourself for Your Next Phase of Leadership: Soul Assignment Accepted

Ever now and then my worlds collide. This week I have been working on what I am calling my Soul Assignment Accepted: Studying Women Leaders so that I may be a more effective leader.

Today at BloggyMoms Blog Dare we were to being our blog posts with...

Let me ask you this: so naturally my mind went immediately to leadership.Whether you are prepared or not, I need to ask you this: what are you doing right now to prepare yourself to be a better leader?

You might think, “I am not a leader, I am a stay-at-home-Mom (or) I am a clerk-typist (or) I work part time at a movie theater as I am going to school.”

Try this on: We are ALL leaders, some of us just don’t know it yet.

Every time you are out in public or choose to live the life of a hermit at home, your actions are speaking and people are watching. They might not have a telescope or a microscope watching your every move and they might not be taking notes, but someone is witnessing what you do and what you don’t do and to them, it speaks volumes both about you and the life you lead.

Did you read that:

“It speaks volumes both about you and the life you lead.”

You might have thought before you started reading today that what you did or didn’t do didn’t matter, it didn’t make a difference, it doesn’t impact others but I am here to remind you it does.

Merriam Webster defines a leader like this: a person who leads: as a : guide, conductor b (1) : a person who directs a military force or unit (2) : a person who has commanding authority or influence c (1) : the principal officer of a British political party (2) : a party member chosen to manage party activities in a legislative body (3) : such a party member presiding over the whole legislative body when the party constitutes a majority d (1) : conductor c (2) : a first or principal performer of a group

Congratulations – you are the guide, the conductor, the person directing your life force. You are the commander of influence over your life and also its principal officer. You have been chosen to manage your life activities and preside over its whole legislative body!

WOW! You are the principal performer of your life, not the person who did or said or “made you” feel this way or that way. No.

YOU are the leader of your life.

YOU make a difference in your life and the lives of others so tell me, now: what are you doing right now to prepare yourself to be a better leader?

What WILL you do today to be a better leader right now and tomorrow and the next day?

You know what else?

I believe in you as a leader.

Perhaps that is your first task: to begin believing in YOURSELF as a leader.

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!)

This is my Ultimate Blog Challenge Writing for the Day. Be watching for my challenge posts which will include Writing Prompts, Writing Tips and General Life Tips and Essays. This is Blog 20/31 for July!

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Posted at 12:24 PM in Blog Dare, Creative Every Day, Creativity, Education, Family, Fear, Leadership, Leadership Development, Loving Life, Mistakes, Mommy Blog Dare, Parenting, Passion, Women Leaders, Writing Challenge, Writing Inspiration | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 17, 2012

Letters to My Teen: Don't Let it Bother You

I wrote this yesterday as if I was speaking to my fourteen-year-old daughter, Emma. I imagined a friend was mad at her... which, by the way, turned out to not be the case AT ALL!

Nonetheless, I like what the BlogDare from BloggyMom's prompt created for me. It even prompted a follow up post which you may read here.

Monday July 16, 2012

Don't let it bother you.

These past choices you thought were the right ones, the faded brick colored blocks that created the foundation you walk upon now daily.

You can’t let them bother you.

What you can do, though, is pick your foot up and put it down. You can learn from the choices made that weren’t, after all, the best for you.

You can forgive yourself.

You may request forgiveness of others.

You thought your choice was the best choice for the moment. Some may fault you for this. You may let their judgment go and pray they will, eventually, return to you if not with compassion at least with a willingness to let it go, too, to let the bother be exfoliated from their system.

Don’t let it bother you because the bother lasts so much longer than the originating choice and follow through did. Make reparations. Smile. Breathe deeply and aim for now and your next nows.

Don’t let it bother you that others don’t understand you and may not even want to take the effort to understand you.

Don’t let it bother you that the past you is more than a tiny bit embarrassing to the now you.

Some people may have found her cute. Even though you abhor that word, cute, let it be, my love, just let it be.

Keep writing away any pain that comes when you forget to not let it bother you.

Then pick up your foot and put it down. Repeat. Again. And. Again.

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!)

This is my also my Ultimate Blog Challenge Writing for the Day. Be watching for my challenge posts which will include Writing Prompts, Writing Tips and General Life Tips and Essays. This is Blog 9/31 for July!

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Posted at 12:58 PM in Befriending Fear, Blog Boost, Blogging, Family, Fear, Forgiveness, Friendship, Julie Jordan Scott, July2012, Kindness, Living the Question, Memories, Mistakes, Mommy Blog Dare, Mommying, Motherhood, Notes to My Children (and Yours, too, Perhaps), oops!, Parenting, Parenting Teens, Summer Blog Challenge, Ultimate Blog Challenge | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 14, 2012

Rules include No Rules, Curiosity and A New Way of Looking at Perfection

It is difficult to think up just one piece of advice I would give to my child. Perhaps my first piece of advice is that advice is usually not a "one size fits all" sort of thing. I, instead, wrote tidbits of advice for each of my three children and then, at the bottom, some more general guidelines... that work for me and I trust will work for them, too.

Specific #1)

You don’t have to be perfect every time and please don’t worry you could ever disappoint me because that, my love, is impossible.

Specific #2)

Be yourself. Stay curious. Give people a chance, especially those you may feel the urge to judge at first… give them a chance.

Specific #3)

The only reliable rule about life is there are no rules.

General advice to my children and the rest of the world:

Don’t be in a hurry to find “the answer” – instead, live the question, as Rilke said. Experience everything fully rather than “ice skate” across the surface of life. Allow life to meet you, greet you, embrace you.

Look around the room (stage, office, store, boardroom) you are in right now and know you have a lot more in common with everyone else in there than you think you do. Perhaps not hobbies, politics or sports teams – but I bet you have had similar experiences and felt similar emotions. Love those people accordingly. They are each someone’s baby girl or baby boy or they wish they were, at least once, loved like an infant is loved, naturally, without doing a thing.

This post was a part of the Summer Blog Challenge

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot

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Posted at 03:28 PM in Advice, Asking and Living the Questions, Blog Hop, Bloggers, Family, Living the Question, Mistakes, Parenting, Parenting a Child on the Autism Spectrum, Summer Blog Challenge, Writing, Writing Challenge | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 02, 2012

Flagpole: A Poem for Monday

I am a poet. It has been in my blood since birth, or possibly in my mother's womb or possibly deep within my Father's blood or Grandmother's and spilled into the DNA that made me long before it made me.

I used to publish almost daily on my poetry blog. You may find my poetry at JulieJordanScott.com It has been a long time, though, and I am thinking perhaps this particular adventure in Summer Blog Challenge is a call to reawaken.

The poem I share today has been sitting dormant in a notebook of mine where most of my poems have been living lately. I never stopped writing, I just stopped publishing. Perhaps my feeling of vulnerability was stronger than the compulsion to share myself and my words freely.

That being said, thank you for reading... and I would love, love, love any thoughts, comments and conversations - simply so I will know you were here, you read, and you care enough about me continuing to say something.

Flagpole

She watches as the others
raise her mistakes on the flagpole
at dawn
Her spine withers by
midmorning coffee clache
Where is she Where are you
where are we safe?
Where is she Where are you
Where are we running to and from?

A wise mother asks, "What have
you ever traveled toward more
than your own safety?"
The tarnished bronze ropes
rip holes in her skin and
scramble her memory
Did the others ever lower
her mistakes on the
flagpole at dusk?