Something is happening in The Creativity Studio next Saturday, June 13, and I wanted to make sure you knew.

This is the very first Guest Creative session at The Hummingbird Nest. And it felt right that we begin with this.

We’re going to paint a hummingbird.

Artist and watercolor coach Chris Vabre will guide us through a 45-minute watercolor session. We’ll begin with a short arrival practice to settle in, and I’ll share a little about the symbolism of the hummingbird before we pick up our brushes. Chris helps students who don’t think they’re very good become confident painters. She believes your uniqueness is your superpower.

You don’t need any experience. You just need to show up.

Saturday, June 13. 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm MDT. Free and open to everyone.

Register Here!

Can’t make it live? The replay will be available afterward.

What to bring

• Watercolor paints. Chris will be using mostly pink and aqua, with some brown or gray.

• Watercolor paper, preferably 140 lb / 300 g. Chris will be using a 5 x 7 sketchbook. Very small sizes can be tricky for beginners.

• A medium round watercolor brush, about three-quarter-inch bristles.

• A pencil and eraser for sketching. A polymer or kneaded eraser works best.

• One or two cups or jars for water rinsing.

• Paper towels or a rag to wipe your brush.

About the Guest Creative Series

Once a month, I open the doors of The Creativity Studio and invite a guest artist, maker, or creative practitioner to lead us through something hands-on. A skill to learn. A process to explore. Something to make together.

Think of it less as a class and more as an afternoon in someone’s studio, where you are welcome to pull up a chair and try.

Some sessions will be live on Zoom, where we gather in real time. Others will arrive as a recorded video you can return to whenever the moment is right. Either way, the studio is open, and something is always being made.

For the creatives who join us, it is also an opportunity to share their work with a warm and growing community of women who appreciate handmade, thoughtful, and beautiful things.

If you are a maker, an artist, a teacher of something creative, and you would love to be a guest in the Studio, I would love to hear from you. Reply below and tell me a little about what you do.

Guest Creative sessions like this one will be a regular, once-a-month offering inside The Hummingbird Nest membership, launching soon. This first one is my gift to everyone.

I hope to see you there.

Warmly,
Kathy

A little about me

Hi, I’m Kathy. A guide, a gatherer, a maker of sacred space, and a woman who found her way home to herself after years of putting everyone else first.

For years, I wore many hats at once. Single parent, community manager in a role I was promoted into before I believed I deserved it, event organizer. And later, a family caregiver. Learning all over again how to give without losing myself in the giving. Caring for everyone, in every direction, all at the same time. What I had to learn, slowly and imperfectly, was that I mattered too. What I found on the other side of that, through stillness, creativity, and the women who gathered around my table, became everything I now offer.

There’s a place at the table with your name on it.

Visit The Hummingbird Nest Website

A glass jar. A few found words. A tealight. This simple creative project takes less than an hour and leaves you with something luminous to carry into your stillness practice. No experience needed. Just curiosity and a quiet afternoon.

Warmly, Kathy

A Creative Invitation A Light Made Of Words

939KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

A little about me

Hi, I’m Kathy. A guide, a gatherer, a maker of sacred space, and a woman who found her way home to herself after years of putting everyone else first.

For years, I wore many hats at once. Single parent, community manager in a role I was promoted into before I believed I deserved it, event organizer. And later, a family caregiver. Learning all over again how to give without losing myself in the giving. Caring for everyone, in every direction, all at the same time. What I had to learn, slowly and imperfectly, was that I mattered too. What I found on the other side of that, through stillness, creativity, and the women who gathered around my table, became everything I now offer.

There’s a place at the table with your name on it.

Come in. Find a comfortable spot.

If you're like me, you have a mountain of journals waiting to hold your thoughts.

Today I gathered mine. Some from a drawer, some from a tote, a whole stack of them by my desk. I really wanted to run out and buy a brand new one, but that seemed silly with so many half-filled pages still waiting. So instead, I paused for an hour and made something.

I chose one journal and gave it a new beginning. A Receiving Journal, in honour of a beautiful practice I've been sitting with, incomplete, and begging for my attention. A 30-day quest to make room in your home, your body, and your life, for everything you've been calling in.

All month, I've been noticing both small and generous receivings already coming my way. Two hamburger buns from our local bakery, given with a smile and "these are on the house." A spa treatment, a gift from my daughter on our weekend away. Imagine what might come if I really leaned in.

Download the tutorial below; it will walk you through making your own. All you need is a journal, a little time, and a willingness to begin again.

Warmly, Kathy

PS.
The studio is always open. Come back whenever you feel like making something.
PSS. Journaling prompts are coming soon to The Garden. This makes the perfect companion. One practice opens the images. The other opens the words.

MY VISION JOURNAL COVER

Vision Journal Cover Tutorial

3.68KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

A little about me

Hi, I’m Kathy. A guide, a gatherer, a maker of sacred space, and a woman who found her way home to herself after years of putting everyone else first.

For years, I wore many hats at once. Single parent, community manager in a role I was promoted into before I believed I deserved it, event organizer. And later, a family caregiver. Learning all over again how to give without losing myself in the giving. Caring for everyone, in every direction, all at the same time. What I had to learn, slowly and imperfectly, was that I mattered too. What I found on the other side of that, through stillness, creativity, and the women who gathered around my table, became everything I now offer.

There’s a place at the table with your name on it.

Visit The Hummingbird Nest Website

On a quiet afternoon, when your hands need something to do.

a note from the studio —

Today, I want to give you a little sneak peek inside The Creativity Studio.

Come in. Find a spot at the table.

There’s no agenda here. No project to finish by a certain time. No one watching to see how it turns out. Just an invitation to be creative.

The Creativity Studio is a simple place. A place where your hands get to do something just for the pleasure of it. You don’t need to be creative to be here. You just need to be curious. Or restless. Or in need of an hour that belongs entirely to you.

To begin, I’d like to offer you something I hope becomes a small ritual each time you visit. A glass jar. Some found words. A tealight. And a poem that is entirely yours, lit from within.

Download the PDF below, gather a few simple supplies, and make yourself something luminous.

Warmly, Kathy

PS. The studio is always open. Come back whenever you feel like making something.

A Creative Invitation A Light Made Of Words

939KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

A little of what’s ahead in The Creativity Studio

If something in you wants to make, you’ve come to the right place.

The Creativity Studio is just getting started, and in the weeks ahead I’ll be adding new creative invitations, some seasonal, some to mark the holidays, some for your home and celebrations, some just because. Consider what’s here right now your first taste.

What I’m especially excited about are the Guest Creatives. Once a month, I’ll be welcoming someone in for an up-to-one-hour session, and our first guest is watercolor coach Chris Vabre of Octopus Connection. Chris will be leading us in painting a hummingbird in watercolor. I know. Perfect, right?

Date and time coming very soon.

A little about me

Hi, I’m Kathy. A guide, a gatherer, a maker of sacred space, and a woman who found her way home to herself after years of putting everyone else first.

For years, I wore many hats at once. Single parent, community manager in a role I was promoted into before I believed I deserved it, event organizer. And later, a family caregiver. Learning all over again how to give without losing myself in the giving. Caring for everyone, in every direction, all at the same time. What I had to learn, slowly and imperfectly, was that I mattered too. What I found on the other side of that, through stillness, creativity, and the women who gathered around my table, became everything I now offer.

There’s a place at the table with your name on it.

Visit The Hummingbird Nest Website