Silence The Voices (and Make Something)

I recently clicked on a link to BlogFrog and found (yet) another way to spend lots and lots of time. What's nice about BlogFrog is that there are communities of like-minded individuals there, and they are active on their blogs. It's an easier way to find new blogs to follow than lurking on the blogs I've found by reading other blogs. Sometimes that works, but having the communities seems to be easier for me.

While reading through the discussions, I commented on a few and surprise! I received replies! One in particular got me thinking. It told me to silence the voices (in my own noggin) that told me my blog wasn't good enough. Just getting a little validation was enough for me to stop procrastinating on the one thing left in my 'reinvention' of me.

My original idea was to get my creativity going and start painting and writing. Well, I've got the writing thing down, but got side-tracked by opening an Etsy shop and then filling it with vintage things 'just for now'. My real plan was to sell stuff I upcycle or create from scratch, but well, procrastination is my middle name.

So, today I silenced the voices and upcycled something and started an actual painting! Ok, enough with the telling and onto the showing -

This ugly little 4th of July tote needed some loving:

First things first - take off the stars and stripes:

Prime and paint:

Stenciled with the french word for Spring:

And since it looked a little 'new', I glazed and lightly distressed it for a 'worn in' look. This was my first glazing project - what do you think? Do you glaze?

Look! There's actual life in my garden!!

This pic shows the glazing a little better. Still working on the photography skills...

*Update* Here's a real closeup of the glazing/distressing - YAY macro mode :)

Here's a sneak peek at the painting project I started:

It's a start,  which is actually very important as I seemed unable to start a painting until my new BlogFrog friends helped me realize I was the only one holding myself back.

I'm linking this project up to: