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Feeling a little bumped around from some less than pleasant life experiences? Love art, scrapbooking, paints and paper? The amazing Melody Ross, who's life and how she's handled it is an inspiration in itself, has once again created something beautiful out of thin air. I've been a fan of Melody's for quite awhile and am absolutely in love with her Artsy Urban collection over at GCD Studios. By a series of unexpected circumtances that shall forever remain a secret ;) and some people with some incredibly large hearts, I came to the place to be able to take Melody's Soul Restoration class online. Her Brave Girl Camps sell out months in advance, and being that I can't travel to Idaho and hike up into the hills with two broken ankles and a broken leg right now, lol, I was pretty excited to see that she offered this art therapy course online. We all have our own troubles in life, travel our own paths and have different things thrown at us. Last year was a real doosey for me, as some of you know. Ron was laid off for 8 months, my dad was diagnosed with a serious, incurable health problem, then throw in a major accident and health problems for me and a glitch where Ron works that left us without health insurance, etc. etc. You get the picture. And believe me when I saw I've only scratched the surface here. We were reeling, and still are. I was looking for a place to put some of this stuff and needed some kind of immediate tools to use in daily life in trying to deal with all of it. Honestly, I needed to be able to sleep again. Soul Restoration has helped. I think it teaches you some skills to navigate your way thru things that you'd rather not have to navigate thru. We'll all have those things to work thru. We all need these skills. We all need to be able to find that little girl again, the one that was so full of joy and hope and had the whole world in front of her. Remember her? ♥ Art journaling is incredibly powerful. Melody uses it beautifully. Here's my journal that I'm still working on, and will continue to for months and years to come. It started out as a plain black artist's sketch book. I love how crinkly and thick the and deliciously texturized all the pages are becoming with all the amazing art techniques we've learned. There's so much more to it all than what we can possible get at in a blog post. Promise.
Here is a photo of one of my mini albums I made during the course. There are detailed photos a couple of posts down on my blog if you'd like to see what's inside. I love this album, so much.
There are many more projects, too. But honestly, it's not really about the art. That seems funny to say, because it kind of is. You'll see what I mean when you take this journey. And...you'll meet some amazing friends along the way, too. And come away with a new way to do art, and probably a few projects that will turn out to be lifelong favorites of all the things you've ever created. The first online course called Soul Restoration One (6 weeks) starts again April 5, 2011 and is $99. After that you'll be all ready to sign up for Soul Restoration Two (also 6 weeks). This is for graduates of Soul Restoration One only, starting June 7, 2011 also $99.
If you're participating in the blog hop, which I hope you are!...you arrived here from Kai over at Enjoy the Ride and the next blog in your Soul Restoration Blog Hop journey is Lacey over at Winter Window. If you're hopping on midstream, here's a complete list of the Brave Girls participating in this amazing little blog hop.
Judy at www.bepresentbereal.blogspot.com
Pippa over at http://pjbear-determinedscrapper.blogspot.com
Sandi over at http://sandi-mybravesoul.blogspot.com
Leslie at http://wordsofmeproject.blogspot.com
Juel at http://colorfulmoments.blogspot.com/
Kai at http://www.enjoytheridetoday.blogspot.com
Angie here at http://thefeathersinmynest-mommiextwo.blogspot.com/
Lacey at www.winterwidow.blogspot.com
Kathy at the http://shockingpinkthread.blogspot.com
Lynn at the www.rubyrabbitstudios.com
Sandra at www.skippingwithobie.blogspot.com
Stephanie at http://mycreativewish.blogspot.com
ZuZu at http://www.zuzu.typepad.com/about.html
Sami Jo over at www.herhousehold.blogspot.com
Rebecca at the www.flyoverpilgrim.blogspot.com
Dawn at http://www.seekingsense.typepad.com/
Donna over at the http://orangalicious1.blogspot.com
Rana at the http://definitivedesignsbyrwilson.blogspot.com/
Judy at http://mycraftingroom.blogspot.com/
Trisha at http://adgb.blogspot.com/
Kas at http://www.whispersandwishes.blogspot.com
Shelley at renaissancewyoming.blogspot.com
Deb at www.aswewalkalongtheway.blogspot.com
Jennifer over at www.studiojenn.blogspot.com
Dawn at http://dawnhueser.blogspot.com
and Stephanie at http://earthmothr.typepad.com/out_of_my_head/
I'm going to give a prize in a drawing for those of you who will sign up to follow this blog and also leave me a comment. ♥ I'll hold the drawing on Monday and notify you by your contact info from following. I'm going to send one of you blog hop participants and/or visitors this beautiful vintage inspired journal, so you can start journaling right along with us! You can alter it inside and out with fun art techniques if you like! (Drawing for US residents only.)
We'd all love for you to stop by, leave us some love. You know the routine of paying it forward when visiting blogs, right girlfriend? ♥ This little hop is just one way we can show Melody how much she means to each and every one of us. Don't you want to come on and be a Brave Girl, too? ;)
