What is Sparkles…

Sparkles is a creative e-course. For 31 days, you’ll go on an adventure designed to awaken your creative spirit and fill you and your days with sparkle. Each day, you’ll receive a quick-to-read, quick-to-do inspiring creative exercise in your inbox. Lessons come from an amazing array of creative guides from a wide range of disciplines (e.g. photography, writing, painting, sound, dance – even food!) They’ll show you how to get creative, even when you feel like you have no time at all!

How the Sparkles e-course works…

• Register whenever you are ready to begin.
• You won’t need any super-special supplies. Just something to write on, something to write with, some way to play music and a camera. So, with a journal, some markers, pens and crayons, an MP3 player and a camera, you’re all set.
• Within a couple of days, you will start receiving a Sparkles lesson in your inbox every day for 31 days. Each sparkle is a creative prompt (an invitation to dance, write, scribble, imagine etc.), a quick and easy exercise to awaken your creative spirit in 5 minutes or less.
• Dive into each new sparkle and let the magic begin!

And the magic doesn’t end when the course is over. With Sparkles, not only will you infuse your month with creativity but you’ll also walk away with fresh tools in your creative toolkit. You’ll be able to come back to your favourite sparkles again and again and continue to fill your life with creative joy.

Meet Your Teachers…

The most amazing creative teachers have come together for Sparkles. They are here to inspire you and to help light your creative fire! You’ll receive lessons from: your host, Jamie Ridler, Goddess Leonie Allan, Jennifer Louden, Leah Piken Kolidas, Mindy Tsonas, Carmen Torbus, Patti Digh, Fabeku Fatunmise, Kimberly Wilson, Jennifer Lee, Chris Zydel, Jenn Gibson, Ken Robert,  Madelyn Mulvaney, Claudine Hellmuth, Chris Kay Fraser, Tracey Clark, Rachelle Mee-Chapman, Christine Claire Reed, Danette Relic, Amanda Oaks, Suzie the Foodie, Kate Swoboda, Christen Olivarez, Annabel Fitzsimmons, Susannah Conway, Connie Hozvicka, Andrea Schroeder, Christine Mason Miller.

Learn a bit more about all of your instructors here.

So, are you ready to Sparkle?

Registration is only $31.

The wonderful Jen Landis of Pincurl Girls interviewed me about Sparkles and how 5 minutes can bring your creativity to life!

Are you ready to sparkle?

Tomorrow’s the Day!

Goddess Leonie is the founder of the Goddess Circle – a tribe of goddesses who are discovering the creative, soulful, meditating, joyful, mama & business goddesses inside them! She is also one of your Sparkles Instructors.

Register for Sparkles March 22-24th and be entered in a draw to win a copy of Goddess Leonie’s 2011: Creating your Goddess Year Workbook & Planner. Sign up to be on the advance list and receive notice when registration opens.

Coach and Creator of Board of Your Life
Tanya Geisler says…

“I adore what you’ve created here. Sparkles fans the embers of our innate creativity into warming, dancing flames. It hands us the fan to find our own rhythm, knowing all too well there are times that our creativity wants to be stoked and other times just quietly witnessed. With Sparkles “I don’t have time” gets a big, huge –timeout! I really enjoyed Sparkles and would recommended it to anyone who is looking for permission to be more creative (and has beaten themselves up for not knowing “how”) Frankly, anyone at all! Even people who are self-described as creative will get the chance to explore different aspects of their creativity…so many moods, so many mediums to be explored and enjoyed.”

Tanya Geisler is a coach and the creator of Board of Your Life. You can find her at TanyaGeisler.com.

]]> http://findyoursparkle.ca/sparkles-testimonial-tanya-geisler/feed/ 0 http://findyoursparkle.ca/5-minutes-leah-piken-kolidas/ http://findyoursparkle.ca/5-minutes-leah-piken-kolidas/#comments Sat, 19 Mar 2011 04:00:30 +0000 admin http://findyoursparkle.ca/?p=35

In the midst of a busy day, it’s wonderful to know that 5 minutes is all it takes to add a bit of creativity into my life. I know that life is more sparkly and rich when I can add little bits of creative goodness (like a doodle, a dance, or a photo) into it. Recently, I’ve been loving the iphone app, Instagram. In less than five minutes, I can snap a photo, add a cool filter, and share it with friends. Using it has opened my eyes to all the lovely moments there are to capture throughout the day and I feel more aware of my surroundings!

Leah Piken Kolidas is one of your Sparkles Instructors. She is a mixed-media artist and creativity guide living near Boston, MA with her husband and their four fuzzy cats. She can be found at CreativeEveryDay.com.

Register for Sparkles between March 22nd and 24th and you’ll have a chance to win the print of your choice from Leah’s Blue Tree Art Gallery. (Due to shipping, Leah’s giveaway is open to registrants in North America) Sign up to be on the advance list and receive notice when registration opens.

Creative Instigator Ginny Lennox says…

Last year my word for the year was Sparkle and this year I chose Yes to be my word. So when I had the opportunity to Sparkle with my good friend Jamie I definitely said, “Yes” and I am so glad that I did. I really looked forward to the creative prompt that was sent to me each day. Each prompt was simple, took as little or as much time as I wanted to give it, and definitely sparked my creative energy. I had fun taking pictures, writing in my journal, and meditating. There was something about hearing from another creative person each day that really inspired me to stay in touch with my creative side. If you are looking for a fun, satisfying way to stay creative, I highly recommended that you add a little “Sparkle” to your life.

Ginny Lennox is a retired educator who loved to see the joy in her students’ faces when they completed a creative project. She is now working with women of all ages to help them claim and celebrate their creativity. She can be found at Special Moments In Time.

Words can drive me crazy.

I’m a writer, but sometimes, I can’t get anything out at all. I’ll be sitting in a bus shelter trying to express something in my note book — something about life and now and this hard sidewalk and the fact that everything changes how heartbreaking it is, and words just can’t seem to channel any of it. It’s like there’s a volcanic crust over my warm, roaring heart and nothing can get out.

Do you know what I mean?

But then, sometimes, a single word will break right through and open me up like a summer window. Like this one, scribbled on the wall of an alleyway, on a street where I fell in love, five years ago.  I was sad the day I found it, jawbones heavy as I dragged my sandaled feet along the sidewalk, wishing I could see the future, wishing I could write about the feelings building inside me. Dream, the wall said, as if telling me, Come on, Honey. No one told you to work this hard.

That was all I needed. I pulled out my note book and my hand flew, filling page after page after page.

Creativity shouldn’t be effortful. It shouldn’t be complicated or frustrating. But finding these small moments of grace – the graffiti scribbled on brick walls, the sunbeams swaying in kettle steam, the wet cat tracks on dry porch steps – can take some reminders. It helps to have some company on the road.

That’s one of the reasons that I’m so excited about SPARKLES. It’s an invitation to take a warm hand, which will gently nudge us, every day, to look up, to listen closer, to swing our hips and laugh our ways back to our own natural flow of creativity, into the words our hands want to write and the notes our throats want to vocalize, into that lava, that’s always there, just waiting to break the surface.

Chris Kay Fraser is crazy about words and is one of your Sparkles instructors. You can find her at fireflycreativewriting.com. ” We all have the ability to express ourselves in unique and dazzling ways, so what holds us back? For years I have been searching for the answer to this question, while running art classes in Northern Ireland, poetry workshops in Chile, creativity retreats all over rural Ontario, and countless groups in the back room of my sweet little house in Toronto. I have discovered a few small truths, which I aim to share whenever I can. I currently run a host of small in-house workshops on all elements of writing, work one-on-one with people who have big stories inside them, and administer two correspondence classes in writing memoir and love letters. I spend my free time writing, drinking tea, biking around Toronto, and taming my teeny-tiny backyard garden.” Chris.

Register for Sparkles between March 22nd and 24th and you’ll have a chance to win a spot in Chris’ Love Letter class! Sign up to be on the advance list and receive notice when registration opens.

Makeup.

One Hallowe’en I was trying to decide what to dress up as and I realised that what I wanted more than anything was a chance to wear really amazing makeup.

I thought about it and wondered… Why don’t I wear really amazing makeup every day then? Or at least some days? More than once a year at Hallowe’en?

The answer was that it just hadn’t occurred to me that I could do that. When I say amazing makeup I mean bright colours and lots and lots of sparkles – exactly what most people would call “too much”.

But my creative spirit started jumping up and down at the thought of wearing amazing makeup every day. Her eyes grew big at the thought of buying more amazing makeup in more amazing colours.

Bright colours and sparkly things.

So, I thought why not give it a try?

The next morning I took a few minutes to play with eyeshadow as my creative spirit giggled with happiness.

Hey! This is like making art.

And even on days when I don’t have time to make “real art”, I can create tiny sparkly little canvases on my eyelids.

sparkly turquoise eyeshadow

Playing with tiny vials and tubes of gorgeous colour.

And now when I go out into the world, I literally sparkle.

But it’s more than that. It’s the magic of taking that little bit of time, every morning, to play with bright colours and sparkly things. It sets the mood for my day and lets my inner SparkleDiva out.

Andrea Schroeder of ABC Creativity is one of your Sparkles Instructors. She a Creativity Teacher, Coach, Healer and all around Magic Maker.

Register for Sparkles between March 22nd and 24th and you’ll have a chance to win Andrea’s Sleep Well, Wake Refreshed, Enjoy Your Day Meditation Kit, a meditation kit for creating Totally Awesome Days. The kit contains nine different meditation mp3s and a workbook for getting the most out of your meditations. These meditations can help you bring more joy and positivity into your days – even if you have never meditated before! Sign up to be on the advance list and receive notice when registration opens.

I like to draw and often do, but I used to only wish I could.

Of course, I always could.  I just wouldn’t.

But then one day I did.  I drew a little here, I drew a little there, and, before I knew what was happening, I was hooked.  Now I can’t imagine my life without this creative outlet.

What were my costs?  ?  A series of five minute investments.

What was my return?  A love to last a lifetime.

What will you receive in return for your small investments?  I bet you’re dying to know.

Ken Robert is one of your Sparkles instructors. Ken is a writer and an accidental artist who encourages people to lead lives of quiet inspiration through his blog, MildlyCreative.com.

The Five Minute Switch: Fooling Myself into Creativity

My body is my instrument. As a dancer, daily maintenance is important, but as an older dancer (now 42), daily maintenance is imperative.

And though I am a fairly disciplined person with vast stores of will power (gained over a lifetime of struggling with and defeating depression), I still have days when instead of moving my body, I would prefer to eat tootsie rolls and whine my way to the end of the day.

On days like this, I have to fool my brain — because that is what is getting in the way. If my body had her way, I would never stop dancing, so I wouldn’t have to think about how to start!

On Tootsie Roll/Whine days, sometimes all I can do is convince my brain “just five minutes.” Just five minutes of light stretching and deep breathing. Just five minutes on my noodle so that lower back pain doesn’t turn into something more. Just a five minute walk to feel my feet. Just five minutes of playing with a piece of choreography.

I tell my brain, just this five minutes and then you can have your tootsie rolls, and before I know it, five minutes easily turns into more, and if it doesn’t? So what. I got in that five minutes — five minutes more than my resistance wanted.

Christine Claire Reed is one of your Sparkles Instructors. Christine is a dancer and healing movement instructor. She can be found at Bliss Chick.