Road trips are the best

Funny that my last post was of Bass Lake and the follow up post is about Bass Lake...that's synchronicity folks!  Abby and I got to go on our annual mother-daughter road trip last weekend to Bass Lake and this time we both brought a friend.  She brought Emilie and I brought Kat and the funny thing is we all gell like magellin...haha.  Now that Abby is 15 she really likes hanging with her friends and I understand, I am just grateful she still likes hanging out with me too.  I am amazed how all of her friends are so engaging and fun.  The older generation (Kat and I) delight in watching them be girls and dance, and sing and have fun.  They don't roll their eyes at us oldies when we do the same, they join in!  It's wonderful.  Let's just show the pictures as they show all the fun...I am soooo happy to have my camera back after over a month of it being at the shop getting repaired.  You all know how much I love that thing.  I am a picture MANIAC!  Now that I have it back it's picture time...(.da..da..da..da...da.da...da..da..dance music plays..)  ok, well here are some of the pictures which I always post on facebook (BTW) but there are some of you (Robin) who don't do facebook so herre ya go...

Abby and Emilie at the Frosty shop awaiting their ice cream cones...

Emile's first time to Bass, she loved it...who wouldn't?

everything is so beautiful there....so peaceful...

first tutu silliness...

best view on the lake, right in front of the cabin

new yellow tutu is amazing in sunshine

I like jumping in tutus...

falling is funny too..

Kat is my soul sister

these girls can dance...and kick...

mother daughter love bump

a moment in time...

hmmm, look what I found..

Art journaling

girls having fun on kayak

Abby and Emile got these boys to don tutus...

and then we had some car trouble....

but our taxi driver Jeannie was fun

and the next morning it was WINTER...

beautiful and still

then we had Fork's for our Finale and Ramon donned a tutu

and we drove home under an intense sky

it was a whirlwind of sun, fun, thrifting, car trouble, art journaling, hair cuts. good food and friends, laughter, good movie (Jack goes Boating), yoga, picture taking, did I mention tutu's?, snow, rain, hail, sunflower seeds, and much more.....what can I say except Bass Lake is the best.  The weather went from 78 degrees on friday to about 36 degrees on Sunday so it was the full spectrum.  But we did it all and even with car trouble had a great time.  Just goes to show you, with tutu's, good friends, and a good attitude everyday is beautiful.

Inspiration

For those of you who know me, and for those who don't, you probably know that I am linked to tutu's.  Right?   Right.  Do you know WHY?  Maybe some do, but most probably don't.  Wanna know??  Thought so..all thanks to a Bass Lake road trip 2 years ago with my daughter Abby.  We went on our mother daughter road trip in May 2009 .  While on the road we stopped off at a thrift shop (our usual thing) and saw a red tutu hanging on the clothes rack, and we thought..."FUN".  GOOD.  Let's get it!  So we did.  Later that day, we were kickin it at the cabin, and we decided to go take some pictures.  (Our usual thing again) so we went to "Bee beach" which we nicknamed because yes there were lots of bees there once, hence the term "bee beach".  So we grabbed our red tutu and we start shooting......here are the pics...

cute...so cute.  right?  Having no idea how this tutu thing would become a phenomenon we just laughed and twirled on and on....

 Abby rocked that tutu as she is a dancer, but I had to have a turn too...even though I'm an old lady I still like to kick my heels up..

I loved it, I felt so fabulous twirling about...we took tons of shots...laughing the whole time....

the light was perfect and the mood was joyous...when we were done we threw the tutu in the air...

and marveled how gorgeous the tutu looked against the blue sky, like a giant flower... I call this "Exuberance", it captures the essence of our experiences that day.  Later Abby and I feasted on Miller's burgers...yumm...

It was a glorious Mother daughter weekend.  One of many.  And it started the tutu train down the tracks.....choo choo....after seeing our tutu pictures and remembering our joy in the tutu frolic,  I thought...."maybe there is magic in that red tutu", and I brought it to my next event, a birthday party.  Well, I was right, there IS magic in that tutu, and in every tutu I have seen since.    Every time someone puts one on, they light up and smile, they become young, silly and happy.  I have since taken hundreds of tutu pictures.  There are sooo many and I have put many on my website.  If you haven't seen them go to www.hipchickdesignsca.com and enjoy the slide show.  I need to compile a book and also make cards, it's just on my long list of things to do see.... Now I sell these "magic tutus" and this has been catching on quickly.  I love that such a simple thing, a pettiskirt, is making people happy.  It's helping my business by showcasing who I am, a silly artist named Carrie who dances about in a tutu skirt for fun and thrills.  Seems like there isn't enough fun and silliness in the world and I am happy to help spread more of that about if I can. This weekend is another mother daughter Bass Lake road trip.  This time we have both invited a friend, it's so fun  we love to share.  Of course there will be tutus and we hope some sunshine too.  I know the tutu thing will wear off sooner of later...for now it's a fun ride and people are enjoying it.  I know I am.  That's the fun thing about inspiration, you never know when or where it will strike.

But once it does you go with it, you just know, ya know?  I will know when it's done and then I will move on to something else...most likely the next thing will plop in my lap just as the tutu's did.  That will be fun.  Until then we shall all dance around in out tutu's and be silly.  Life's too short not to be, and I admire people who can let their hair down and let loose.  It's liberating.  Exhilarating.  and for this Hip Chick, essential.  Thanks again for taking time to check out my blog, I love to hear from you, what inspires you? I shall end with this adorable picture of my darling daughter at Bass Lake when she was about 1 year old.  Priceless..

Open Studios and following your gut

Open studios was this weekend and it was a big success.  We artists love having people come out and share in our spaces and in our love of creativity at the Arsenal.  Thank you to all who came out to support us.  We had newbies who ooooohhhh'ed and ahhhhhhh'ed and then we had familiar faces stop by to lend support and buy some of our wares.  We love those folks!!  We gear up for this for months and we always say, "We should do this more often" but truth be told it wouldn't be as good if we did it all the time.  It's better to have something fabulous only occasionally as it keeps it's allure that way.  Here are some pictures I took with my Itouch.  Sadly my Nikon is in the shop and I won't even go there about how upsetting it is.....back to happiness and goodnesss......here's the montage...................................

the entry

the gorgeous Jan Ely stopped by... 

my daughter Abby and her friend Louise helped a lot

                                            

Cami and Olivia came to check it out

                                                    

and of course Terence came to hang in his spot.

                                                 

Lee wanted to rock a tutu....who am I to refuse?

Hip Chick with Hermann chickalicious

                                                    

Molly, Carrie and Carrie again...

                                                    

   tutu lovers.......

                                                        

 Hip chick with sweet Sandi all in bloom...

                                            

these artsy girls grabbed at my chocolate cake.....

                                          

 Scott was kickin it in his studio

                                                  

Hip Chick in her signature tutu

                                              
                                    

my helpers took a time out to be creative....always welcome at Hip Chick's!

                                        

now this shirt should be mine!  LOVED IT!

                                          

 If there's a party, Alexander is there!

                                              

two sassy hip chick's

                                                    

 All hail the Queen....

                                                  

new friend Erica and her art

Felix and Lynn dropped in for some fun

sassy friends Fran and Mary 

the shop

The pictures show the fun, that's what I love about taking them.  We artists love to show off our work though and I am happy to say I sold many of my art pieces.  It's just VALIDATING to have someone buy something you made, ya know?  That's the best feeling there is, as a creative person, lemme tell you.  

So today I vegged all day.  Yummy.  Spring is here and I couldn't be happier.  Cause I'm like the weather, "when it's cloudy, I'm cloudy and when it's sunny, I'm sunny".  This weeks weather looks to be nice and warm and I intend on making the most of it, I hope you do too.  Thanks again to those who were able to come, and thank you for those of you who couldn't, but who are taking the time to read my blog.  I appreciate YOU too, and I will be going online for those who want to buy hip chick goodies but live too far away.  I wanna help you out!  What can I say, I am just nice like that....

I was just about to sign off and I saw my topic titile said "open studios and following your gut" and I didn't talk about about guts yet...so I guess I better.  Guts.  Hmmm.  a messy, gooey, topic really.  haha.  I put that in my Title because if I hadn't followed my gut I wouldn't have been participating in Open Studios at all.  So it is by following your gut that you get these sparkely gems that you never would have dreamed of until they present themselves.  I encourage you to just try to do that thing you love, just sometimes, and see what happens.  We are called to it, and if you don't listen, then you will miss out.  And that's sad.  I know fear is a powerful forcefield and it can convince us that we aren't good enough, that we don't have the time, the money, the degree, the influence, the space, the energy, the passion, the whatever we need to have to do it.  But we do.  It's only a matter of doing it.  I promise.  It's only a matter of saying yes.  Yes I will try, yes I will do that thing, yes I will do one tiny little step towards that enormous goal that seems so big I could never get there.  And then before you can believe it, you're there......so what's stopping YOU?

"love yourself"

Playing hooky and taking action

The yin and yang of life...just as I thought of my title I thought of ying and yang...let's see what it means..."In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang are opposite forces that form a whole. Everything contains both yin and yang in a balance that is always changing, such as hot and cold, day and night, and health and disease. ..." yep, pretty much thought that's what it means. So my blog today is one of yin and yang. I will share about a day spent being in action for a good cause, "Invisible Children", and a day playing hooky (today) because that is what my soul said I needed for balance.
First I will share about my action day. Ironically it was spent in silence. WHAT? ME-silent for a whole day you say? Yes, it's true. I committed to 25 hours of silence for 25 years of war thanks to my daughter Abby. She was at school last Monday when "Invisible children" came and shared their dedication to helping children in Africa who are threatened by Joseph Kony, an evil psychopath who abducts children to become soliders in his 'army'. Abby was so affected by their plight she committed to the 25 hours of silence campaign and shared the struggle with me. I was happy to join her as 1. I care about human rights causes 2. I support my daughter when she is passionate about things 3. I could do this. So we donated money and got tshirts that said "Invisible children" and we didn't talk for 24 hours. I ran a couple errands and passed out cards explaining my silence and the response was respect and support. It was a learning experience for me to be hampered by my silent pledge and to deal with life without words. There was writing on tablets, texting and the like, but no words. I admit it was hard, but I committed to it and I love a challenge. There was an event in San Francisco for breaking the silence that Abby and her friends wanted to go to Monday night.  I was eager to see others in silence and I chaperoned the girls. Kat ,my friend, joined us as she is always up for supporting a good cause and she is a real trooper.   We all got on Bart and went into the city, SILENTLY.   There are always fun characters in the city and these guys were funny...

being as we got off right in front of the forever 21 mecca we power shopped for 45 mins and then grabbed subway and headed to the event. They got everyone organized and inside all IN SILENCE...

the girls were really into it and that was inspiring to see

once inside we signed letters to congresswomen asking for help, and we waited for the countdown.

here is the countdown video...
It was fun to scream as loud as possible and really fun to be able to talk again!! The speaker from Uganda brought it all home as he thanked us for our efforts and help. He shared how much it is helping and how wonderful the Americans have been in supporting this cause. After the speaker there was a small band and then a small dance party and then it was over. All in all it was a really eye opening experience and one I was proud to have taken part in.  It's so easy to leave it to someone else, and yet just doing one thing, can make a difference. I was happy to share helping another person's plight with my daughter, as it is by example that children learn. I was proud to take action and do my small part in making the world a better place on Monday..

Today was the opposite of Monday as I wanted to take the day OFF.  I have Open Studios this weekend which is a huge fun filled event that brings in lots of people.  The event is free if you are reading this and can come to Benicia this weekend.  It's Saturday and Sunday from 11-5 and the day is filled with food, drinks, raffles, art and of course TUTUS.  All the artists open their doors to this weekend and the weather looks to be spectacular!  Woo hoo!  I just love bright sunny skies so I can open the doors up and let the warm breeze inside the shop.  I have been making many collages and such in preparation for the weekend so today I just felt like chill-axing.  I took my dog on a long 5 mile hike on Las Trampas ridge.

my mangy dog Chester..It was a beautiful spring day that beckoned me to play...

the cows were chill-axing too..

It was so wonderful to have the day to just do whatever I wanted, even though I did manage to get some productivity in there as well.  I will be better for it come this weekend, and I hope you can all come out and visit me.  With that, I'm out.  Thanks for checking in on Hip Chick's adventures.  Love the comments, love to hear what you are up to too!!  Happy spring......

Women in Art support each other

I am only now connecting the dots, 16 years later, between my Women's Studies and Art major in college. I attended UCSC from 1993-1995 as a "Re-Entry" student which means, "old lady over 25 or some such thing"...I was married, and had a son Alex, when I finally grasped higher education. I had no idea what to major in prior to transferring to UCSC, I just wanted a Bachelor's Degree. But you have to major in SOMETHING so I figured I would major in ART, and then I took a Women's Studies class, just before I transferred and I dug it so I thought, "maybe I can do both?" and I did. I was a double major and I felt like I was clever to get two degrees for the price of one...always a schemer, always looking to get the most for my money...haha. It was a perfect marriage. I made Art and learned about women, and loved the contrast and connection between the two subjects. Then I graduated. 32 years old and I got my degree. I was proud. It was hard. Now what...what the heck do you do with a Women's Studies/Art degree? I had another baby...and went back into full time motherhood. Ironic. And this was my story for 13 more years....

I quit art, never really thinking I was good enough to call myself an "ARTIST", even with an Art degree, and I didn't know what the heck to do with my Women's Studies teachings....become a Women's Lib leader? I worked odd jobs every now and then to get a fix for empowering myself, only to eventually quit after a year because it wasn't really "IT". I even went back to school and got an Interior Designer certificate from Las Positas college, thinking this was really going to be "IT". But it wasn't. I liked rearranging furniture and I loved to make things look pretty but I couldn't see myself working at a fancy Interior Designer showroom and ordering drapes, couches and rugs for fancy clients. I could see myself as the "Design on a Dime" type of designer but I never really got it off the ground. I am great at school, and then not so great at putting my learning into a "career". But wait, there is a happy ending!!!
I finally turned a corner in 2009 when I recommitted myself to art. I read the "Artist Way" and it lovingly guided me to my passion-Art. Oh yeah. I liked art once. I just never thought I was good....enough....so I decided to try it again. And that lead me to where I am now.

On a whim I looked into art studios and I found Benicia, completely off the radar and yet perfect for me. Affordable and funky=perfect. I started painting again. I was happy. I had a place to play and create. I made it cute. Adorable. I had a bed, a record player and an easel. I was in heaven. Then I had a good idea..."I can make it a shop AND a studio", and sell things and make enough money to pay the rent. So I opened Hip Chick Designs officially in January 2010. And I have been doing it for a year and a bit and I only recently realized this huge realization. "THIS IS WHAT A WOMEN'S STUDIES/ART MAJOR DOES FOR HER CAREER" She has a shop and art studio that facilitates women connecting through creative endeavors. Only 2 months ago we had our first art class at the shop and it was such a smash hit that it launched subsequent classes from then on. The energy of many women making art together is palpable and it validates my usefulness.

I facilitate women connecting through art in my space. WOW. Right on. This makes me feel truly valuable. I didn't even plan this all out. It is leading me, and I am along for the ride. I just made a commitment to do art, and see what happens. I have also made art friends online that are influencing the direction of my art immensely. My last post was all about my breakthrough in art thanks to the brave girls classes empowering me to be kinder to myself. Art therapy. As I was doing my 'homework' and making art that says "you are enough" I internalized it and realized we all need this validation. Women are too hard on ourselves. We expect soooo much of ourselves and we give ourselves no credit. That is sad, that is silly, that is not what I want for the women's movement. I want to empower women to live their dreams, to embrace their passions and to love themselves. This is the point. This is the women's movement that matters to me.

And in my small way I am contributing to it. By making art that speaks to women, by hosting women gathering together to make something beautiful, by living my dream, and by showing my daughter that when you do what you love, success follows. It's scary at times because I am making this up as I go along, but it's also really exciting. I have no idea where this ride ends, and the twists and turns are always there, but I know it's the right path, the one I was looking for all along. It just took awhile to find it. I hope you find yours, sometimes it takes a lot of digging, and trying different things to figure it out. Just don't give up, because if you are trying then you will get there. "Don't leave before the miracle happens."
I would love to hear if you are living your dreams and how you got there. I am inspired by others stories and I love the support women give each other. I thank you for your support and for taking time to care about mine. We need each other. Alone I am small, together we are mighty.

Hip Chick has a breakthrough

I shared recently that I enrolled in the brave girls club, an online art class that empowers women in art. It's art therapy basically. Very powerful stuff. The adorable Melody Ross lovingly asks her students to be brave and overcome the obstacles that block us in life. Through art. One page, one stroke at a time. Genius. I don't have big obstacles to overcome, luckily. Some women are overcoming cancer, divorce, abuse, addiction, you name it, they are facing it. I think this class is fantastic therapy for them and it changes lives. My only obstacle in my way is ME. ouch. yuck. How can that be? Easy, we all get in our way if we listen to our insecurities. My insecurity is not being "good enough" and this is very common among artists, people in general too. But I am facing it. Head on. I am a brave girl. By facing it we can change it. How? By asking if it's true. Melody (even her name is beautiful) asks us to make truth cards, these are cards that empower us with statements like "I am precious" I am good" I don't have to know everything to be valued". and many many more profound statements. There are pages of empowering statements to choose from and you pick which one speaks to you. and you make an art card out of it. When you are feeling vulnerable the idea is to look at your truth card and ask yourself is what I am feeling true? or is it my old behavior talking to me? This class is only 2 weeks in and it has already made a huge impact on me. I am making art like CRAZY. It has helped me loosen up, Yipee!! This is exactly what I needed. I am playing again. I am letting myself experiment and I am loving what is happening...

I think this says, "You are so brave dear one."
This was a happy accident...which is what most art is..I saw these two old pictures hanging on the wall in the shop and decided to experiment with them. I glued some burlap on them, painted on the burlap and then looked around for things to use on top of that. This is often my process...I saw an old picture and some ribbon and as I was just thinking of my truth statements I used one and WA-LA...it was finished. Then I made this one..to go with it..

It says "Let your wings guide you. You were meant to soar"
and I loved it. I have an obsession with wings as they are my spiritual symbol ( as they are for many people) and my Hip Chick Design sign has wings on either end so this works really well in the shop. I posted the pictures on my Hip Chick facebook page and immediately sold these pieces. wow. This has never happened before. I was just goofing around.....hmmmmm....I think there's a lesson here. Suffice it to say the direction of my art has now changed from traditional painting to mixed media collage. I love the combination of vintage vibe combined with empowering statements. It's exactly what Hip Chick is all about! I am just so grateful to be making art that represents me, for the shop and has meaning. And people like it. This is my purpose, this is why I do what I do. I don't need to get rich, I don't sell my art for much, in fact, it's ridiculously cheap. I sell my art for the joy of it. I love to make something beautiful that makes another's life more beautiful by having it. That's the best feeling in the world. I am going to be adding my art and treasures to my website and setting up paypal for those of you who don't live nearby and want to purchase my goodies. I have been meaning to do this, it's the way of the future. Online selling. My art pieces were $38.00 each. A steal. So if you are looking for affordable treasures you know where to get them. Me. I have more goodies to share but I must get going. We have an art class today at the shop. It's a collage, mixed media class by Stephanie Jordan and it's going to be fun. I am sure I will learn some tricks and I love seeing people enjoying my shop and making art. I will host a class myself in the future, right now I am enjoying letting others teach and I am the student. There is plenty of time and thanks to my brave girls lessons I don't have to do it all NOW. I will let it flow, naturally and gently. Thank you for checking in on Hip Chick Happenings....I love your support!