Happy Tuesday to you. I hope you are finding your week is going along well and that you have maybe even managed to get in some creative time. Even if it’s not a lot-a quick sketch on a napkin or a doodle is all you need to show your creativity how important it is to you. I hope you can do that for yourself this week.
This post is planning to be a long one so you may want to make yourself a cuppa sit back, relax and enjoy. Or, if you just click here because the idea of a Mobile Art Studio is really appealing and you want to learn what that is exactly, click here and you can jump to the video where I attempt to tell it all in a more concise manner all from the inside of my mobile studio.
As for you daring folks, drink in hand, who have decided to read on-I hope you enjoy!
A few weeks ago I was taking part in an online class and the topic of Artist Dates came up (if you are unfamiliar with the concept an artist date comes from Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist Way” and the idea is that once a week you venture out solo to refill your creative well.) I shared in this class that I was being called to make my minivan into a mobile art studio and venture out once a week on a little solo adventure. I also mentioned that I really want to gather with a group of fellow creatives and have creative camping weekends but until I found such a group I thought it was a great idea to start this solo adventure. A way to call in the energy of what I was seeking so to speak.
The group loved the idea and the woman leading the class said that she totally could see me sharing the whole series on my blog with photos of my mobile studio and that I need to run these creative camping weekends! She went on to say that she saw me appearing in a Stampington magazine with my van.
It was so sweet and genuine and totally scary because I had already been called to all this by my lovely spirit guides/muses. In fact as she was saying this, sitting beside me was an image I had just 2 days before cut out from a Stampington magazine. The image was for my New Moon page and was of a bus that had been converted into a backyard art studio. I had taken the image out because I had wanted to call in the energy I needed to start my little minivan mobile studio.
I have to say I do love synchronicity and I believe wholeheartedly that The Universe loves to speak with us in fun and unique ways. For me, this felt like The Universe giving a physical voice to the calling they had been whispering to me the past few weeks. Telling me that I was on the right track and this was where my creative work needed to start.
So what can I do with a such an idea but run with it?
I am a big picture person. I can instantly jump 5 years into the future and see the amazing thing that can be created. I see what this site can be and do and what my other sites can be and do and to be honest? Seeing things that way is awesome however it can make it hard to actually get anything done. Having ideas like I want to make a zine and do podcasts and videos and road trips and share them here-wow it’s so cool and it fills me with a kind of energy where I feel like I am bouncing around inside a pin ball machine. Grounding that energy? Finding a starting point? Doing something small like write a blog post for this huge idea?! This idea is huge it needs so much!
Only, it’s just an idea right now. It’s not the big picture awesomeness that I see in my mind.
Not yet.
So, I am learning to ground the energy and start where I am instead of leaping to the finish line. I am learning to do one thing.
Like learn to camp.
Yea, my whole life I have been on one camping trip. Ever.
So perhaps, learning to camp would be a cool thing to do before say, hosting a camping group? Probably 🙂
Of course, I don’t have to learn to camp today. I don’t need to camp to start. And that’s where the mobile studio idea came to me. I have been watching a lot of minivan home tours on YouTube. These awesome people have turned their mini vans or regular vans into a home on wheels. I mean, that is freakin’ cool.
A home on wheels? That is my retirement plan.
Well, actually, my retirement plan is to not retire because I am doing all this really cool creative work and why would I ever want to retire from that? Living in a van though? Traveling the country? Traveling the continent? Yea, definitely doing that.
Right now however there are 5 people in my family, 2 dogs, 5 cats, a rabbit named Frank and 2 guinea pigs.
So living in a van now? Well, it would have to be a really, really amazing van.
Still, I love watching the van tours. It is also what sparked the idea to make my mini van into a mobile studio. I don’t have plans to camp in my van just yet but I did think it would be a lot of fun on the weekends to convert my minivan into a mobile studio. I have claimed my weekend mornings for my work so being able to hit the road, be in my own space for a while, find some pretty spots to pull over, open up the hatch and create sounds pretty cool. It’s a lot cheaper than rent for a studio space, I can move it wherever I want if I find I have some noisy neighbors plus I can hit the Starbucks drive-thru so really it’ a win all around!
Now, I am someone who when I throw myself into things I go full on. Fortunately my amazingly supportive husband is my grounding wire and is totally supportive (and even a little excited) for my idea but is helping me take those needed baby steps without going overboard, head first into shark infested waters.
“You keep me safe and I’ll keep you wild.” Pretty much could have been our marriage vows.
So, here is my mini plan. I am going to start planning out little minivan adventures. I am going to have an art bag and I will be adding some cute items to make the van feel cozy and homey and inspiring to work in. I am going to plan (hopefully) at least 1 mini adventure (or as my friend Michael Nobbs would say, “tiny adventure”) a month. I will have a destination point that I can drive to and from in one day but the real destination is the drive. I want to explore, follow where the wind takes me and see where I stop, where I end up and what I do with the time I am exploring.
I might pull into a parking lot because a song lyric spoke to me and now I have to write/paint/draw.
I might drive to a Starbucks 45 minutes away just because it’s a prettier drive than the one 10 minutes from my house. (Not might, I actually do this regularly. Love it.)
What I hope this will be is fun, inspiring and a neat adventure to chronicle.
Want to join in? That would be lots of fun and really cool!
What I hope is that you will be inspired to start where you are with what you have. I never, ever, ever want to promote the idea that any of us need anything other than what we currently hold in our possession to get anywhere we want to go. So while I love to look at the neat things people buy and awesome craft supplies and goodies the whole point of what I am doing here is to start here. I don’t need to go out and buy things-no one does. The point is to begin right where I am and let this be an evolution. I want this to be a journey where I am focusing on the journey and never on an end destination. (As cool as those creative camping workshops I am going to host are going to be it’s still not about that-yet).
So maybe you don’t have a mini van maybe you have compact car. Awesome-start there.
Maybe you don’t drive or don’t have a car. Great-start there.
You just need an adventurous heart you don’t need wheels. If all you can do is sit on the balcony of your apartment and watch the world under your feet-let that be your mobile studio. If you can wander to a park bench or an outdoor cafe let that be your mobile studio. If you aren’t able to leave your bed or chair make a bag of goodies that you love and inspire you and let that be your mobile studio. You need to buy nothing, you don’t need to be anything more than you are right now. Let’s adventure together meeting up where we are and as we are right this moment!
So what am I planning to do?
Well, during the week Mary Margaret is still the vehicle we use to adventure in as a family. However, because of the genius that came up with the idea of stow-and-go seats, my plan is to easily convert her into my mobile studio in less than 10 minutes and then back again to the awesome grocery-getter that she is during the week.
She’s kind of like a creative super hero going from Mom Car to Awesome Creative Mobile Studio Star in a single fold.
Next week I am going to share my first creative play in my mobile studio. I had just over an hour to play with some creative supplies and try out of my set up. If you would like to see that post be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and I will send it out to you when it’s live next week.
I hope you will join me in forming your own version of a mobile studio and if you are please comment below. I want this site to have it’s own little community. A place where we can all start to recognize one another and share our creative journeys as we go. So please comment below and let me know what you think and what your plans are for your own mini-adventures.
If you would like to watch my little welcome video to this new series you can check it out below. I originally created this post and video with the intention of sharing it on a separate blog I have called The Creative Spiritualist. Having been journeying with all this for a bit now I have decided to just keep all my creative work here on The Dreaming Dilettante. I am forever trying to separate out aspects of myself and I think my life is showing me that we are meant to show up wholly ourselves-not just in little pieces so I am joining the two blogs together here. I wanted to mention that so when you see the intro of the video you aren’t confused 🙂
I do have a site that I have dedicated to my spiritual journey that I will be keeping separate for now. I think of it as my ministry page and it is still in it’s early stages but I would love for you to visit it here if you feel called.
Until next time…
Michele, aka The Dreaming DilettanteMobile Art Studio: The Journey Begins
Happy Tuesday to you. I hope you are finding your week is going along well and that you have maybe even managed to get in some creative time. Even if it’s not a lot-a quick sketch on a napkin or a doodle is all you need to show your creativity how important it is to you. I hope you can do that for yourself this week.
This post is planning to be a long one so you may want to make yourself a cuppa sit back, relax and enjoy. Or, if you just click here because the idea of a Mobile Art Studio is really appealing and you want to learn what that is exactly, click here and you can jump to the video where I attempt to tell it all in a more concise manner all from the inside of my mobile studio.
As for you daring folks, drink in hand, who have decided to read on-I hope you enjoy!
A few weeks ago I was taking part in an online class and the topic of Artist Dates came up (if you are unfamiliar with the concept an artist date comes from Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist Way” and the idea is that once a week you venture out solo to refill your creative well.) I shared in this class that I was being called to make my minivan into a mobile art studio and venture out once a week on a little solo adventure. I also mentioned that I really want to gather with a group of fellow creatives and have creative camping weekends but until I found such a group I thought it was a great idea to start this solo adventure. A way to call in the energy of what I was seeking so to speak.
The group loved the idea and the woman leading the class said that she totally could see me sharing the whole series on my blog with photos of my mobile studio and that I need to run these creative camping weekends! She went on to say that she saw me appearing in a Stampington magazine with my van.
It was so sweet and genuine and totally scary because I had already been called to all this by my lovely spirit guides/muses. In fact as she was saying this, sitting beside me was an image I had just 2 days before cut out from a Stampington magazine. The image was for my New Moon page and was of a bus that had been converted into a backyard art studio. I had taken the image out because I had wanted to call in the energy I needed to start my little minivan mobile studio.
I have to say I do love synchronicity and I believe wholeheartedly that The Universe loves to speak with us in fun and unique ways. For me, this felt like The Universe giving a physical voice to the calling they had been whispering to me the past few weeks. Telling me that I was on the right track and this was where my creative work needed to start.
So what can I do with a such an idea but run with it?
I am a big picture person. I can instantly jump 5 years into the future and see the amazing thing that can be created. I see what this site can be and do and what my other sites can be and do and to be honest? Seeing things that way is awesome however it can make it hard to actually get anything done. Having ideas like I want to make a zine and do podcasts and videos and road trips and share them here-wow it’s so cool and it fills me with a kind of energy where I feel like I am bouncing around inside a pin ball machine. Grounding that energy? Finding a starting point? Doing something small like write a blog post for this huge idea?! This idea is huge it needs so much!
Only, it’s just an idea right now. It’s not the big picture awesomeness that I see in my mind.
Not yet.
So, I am learning to ground the energy and start where I am instead of leaping to the finish line. I am learning to do one thing.
Like learn to camp.
Yea, my whole life I have been on one camping trip. Ever.
So perhaps, learning to camp would be a cool thing to do before say, hosting a camping group? Probably 🙂
Of course, I don’t have to learn to camp today. I don’t need to camp to start. And that’s where the mobile studio idea came to me. I have been watching a lot of minivan home tours on YouTube. These awesome people have turned their mini vans or regular vans into a home on wheels. I mean, that is freakin’ cool.
A home on wheels? That is my retirement plan.
Well, actually, my retirement plan is to not retire because I am doing all this really cool creative work and why would I ever want to retire from that? Living in a van though? Traveling the country? Traveling the continent? Yea, definitely doing that.
Right now however there are 5 people in my family, 2 dogs, 5 cats, a rabbit named Frank and 2 guinea pigs.
So living in a van now? Well, it would have to be a really, really amazing van.
Still, I love watching the van tours. It is also what sparked the idea to make my mini van into a mobile studio. I don’t have plans to camp in my van just yet but I did think it would be a lot of fun on the weekends to convert my minivan into a mobile studio. I have claimed my weekend mornings for my work so being able to hit the road, be in my own space for a while, find some pretty spots to pull over, open up the hatch and create sounds pretty cool. It’s a lot cheaper than rent for a studio space, I can move it wherever I want if I find I have some noisy neighbors plus I can hit the Starbucks drive-thru so really it’ a win all around!
Now, I am someone who when I throw myself into things I go full on. Fortunately my amazingly supportive husband is my grounding wire and is totally supportive (and even a little excited) for my idea but is helping me take those needed baby steps without going overboard, head first into shark infested waters.
“You keep me safe and I’ll keep you wild.” Pretty much could have been our marriage vows.
So, here is my mini plan. I am going to start planning out little minivan adventures. I am going to have an art bag and I will be adding some cute items to make the van feel cozy and homey and inspiring to work in. I am going to plan (hopefully) at least 1 mini adventure (or as my friend Michael Nobbs would say, “tiny adventure”) a month. I will have a destination point that I can drive to and from in one day but the real destination is the drive. I want to explore, follow where the wind takes me and see where I stop, where I end up and what I do with the time I am exploring.
I might pull into a parking lot because a song lyric spoke to me and now I have to write/paint/draw.
I might drive to a Starbucks 45 minutes away just because it’s a prettier drive than the one 10 minutes from my house. (Not might, I actually do this regularly. Love it.)
What I hope this will be is fun, inspiring and a neat adventure to chronicle.
Want to join in? That would be lots of fun and really cool!
What I hope is that you will be inspired to start where you are with what you have. I never, ever, ever want to promote the idea that any of us need anything other than what we currently hold in our possession to get anywhere we want to go. So while I love to look at the neat things people buy and awesome craft supplies and goodies the whole point of what I am doing here is to start here. I don’t need to go out and buy things-no one does. The point is to begin right where I am and let this be an evolution. I want this to be a journey where I am focusing on the journey and never on an end destination. (As cool as those creative camping workshops I am going to host are going to be it’s still not about that-yet).
So maybe you don’t have a mini van maybe you have compact car. Awesome-start there.
Maybe you don’t drive or don’t have a car. Great-start there.
You just need an adventurous heart you don’t need wheels. If all you can do is sit on the balcony of your apartment and watch the world under your feet-let that be your mobile studio. If you can wander to a park bench or an outdoor cafe let that be your mobile studio. If you aren’t able to leave your bed or chair make a bag of goodies that you love and inspire you and let that be your mobile studio. You need to buy nothing, you don’t need to be anything more than you are right now. Let’s adventure together meeting up where we are and as we are right this moment!
So what am I planning to do?
Well, during the week Mary Margaret is still the vehicle we use to adventure in as a family. However, because of the genius that came up with the idea of stow-and-go seats, my plan is to easily convert her into my mobile studio in less than 10 minutes and then back again to the awesome grocery-getter that she is during the week.
She’s kind of like a creative super hero going from Mom Car to Awesome Creative Mobile Studio Star in a single fold.
Next week I am going to share my first creative play in my mobile studio. I had just over an hour to play with some creative supplies and try out of my set up. If you would like to see that post be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and I will send it out to you when it’s live next week.
I hope you will join me in forming your own version of a mobile studio and if you are please comment below. I want this site to have it’s own little community. A place where we can all start to recognize one another and share our creative journeys as we go. So please comment below and let me know what you think and what your plans are for your own mini-adventures.
If you would like to watch my little welcome video to this new series you can check it out below. I originally created this post and video with the intention of sharing it on a separate blog I have called The Creative Spiritualist. Having been journeying with all this for a bit now I have decided to just keep all my creative work here on The Dreaming Dilettante. I am forever trying to separate out aspects of myself and I think my life is showing me that we are meant to show up wholly ourselves-not just in little pieces so I am joining the two blogs together here. I wanted to mention that so when you see the intro of the video you aren’t confused 🙂
I do have a site that I have dedicated to my spiritual journey that I will be keeping separate for now. I think of it as my ministry page and it is still in it’s early stages but I would love for you to visit it here if you feel called.
Until next time…
Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante
I am sitting in my writing spot on a gorgeous Sunday. If I am being honest, I should be making dinner but instead I am enjoying some crafting time and catching up on my blog writing.
cupcakes. I knew right away that I wanted to make something out of clay so I pulled out the air dry clay and had some fun. I was inspired by 
Sure they are wonky and lopsided but to be honest that is something I love out of clay pieces. I don’t know if it makes me feel like a kid again but when I see whimsical, bumpy, lopsided clay pieces I just always smile-and these little guys really made me grin!
colors to give it a bit of uniform look and have it feel more like a set. It was a lot of fun and because of their size the clay dried overnight and the paint dried almost immediately so I was able to go through and paint all 3 in about an hour. I finished them all off with a gloss varnish. I did notice when I was taking photos a few spots that need touch up that I will take care of but otherwise they are done and super cute!
glitter but I am almost thinking a secret treasure of some kind. I even have some mini crystals that would be perfect for inside.
I hope this post finds you well. This week had me getting back into my handmade felt dolls and I managed to finish 2 for 
was invited to a birthday party that is Harry Potter themed and I thought it might be fun to make a little add-on present. I purchased 
I am really happy that I finished up my self-care angel doll too! She was sitting very patiently waiting for me to finally see her face and clothes and I am so happy with how she turned out! Right now I have her on my decorative shelf in the kitchen and I just love the brightness and color she brings to the room. If you are interested in making one of these beautiful creations be sure to check out 
How was your weekend? I did struggle to feel productive at first but in the end I managed to get a lot of work done on my second blog and even some painting on what will soon be our new bedroom.
I wanted to make a felt creation. I found a super sweet pattern on Etsy 
Once I finished the ice cream cone I decided to make the Popsicle which is so super cute! I couldn’t be happier with her (and yes I did make a second one for my son as well :). So that was lat week’s prompt.
I hope this post is finding you well and looking forward to some creative time this week.