Empty Nest necklace

I have a dear friend whose daughter just went off to college.  Wondering how to support her, I came across some how-to tutorials on Pinterest for making a nest necklace (this one and this one).  I also found a quote which said something like "They may leave the nest, but they never leave your heart." Inspired, I made this:

Take care of yourself

A friend of mine came over last weekend and wanted to do some healing art.  We each worked on an intention.  Mine was self-care.  Self-care is such an interesting thing.  We know we need to do it and it is the last thing we do.  I am really working on self-compassion and giving myself permission to take care of myself in my practice right now.

 I had this idea of how do I fill my cup.

 And I realized, there are a lot of ways I sabotage self-care.

Just a fun, quick, little piece to get creative juices flowing again.  I like how the cup kind of looks like it has wings in the final piece.  The red around the cup is actually paint that I've peeled off of a table I'm refinishing.  Some of the wood of the table stuck to the paint.  I love how this looks.  Which means I'm stuck with the heat gun and peeling more paint rather than going to another method which might be quicker.  Oh well.

Stay Cool

A lot has been happening at my house-- three sets of back-to-back guests within 2 weeks.  My husband left on a business venture for 3 months.  School is getting ready to start.  My art has suffered, but this card has a good message for me.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out.  I didn't decide to add wording until I'd already carved out most of the fan.  I drew the words on backwards, directly onto the block.  Glad I didn't get any turned around!  I'm going to carve another set of words: "You got this" to go on the inside of the card.  Stamped with black Versafine inkpad and rubbed Tim Holtz wild honey distress ink on edges.