Simply Margot - Seven Gardens

My Studio Space I wanted to give you a look at my Art Studio Creative Space.  It used to be a family room when my kids still lived at home. It allows me several work spaces and lots of storage. A Multi Purpose Work Space where I can work on making paper flowers, drawing, painting, beading. I do most of my glass fusing work on this table. My small kiln generally sits on the small desk to the right of the white door. It's not shown in this photo. This space also allows me to teach small classes from time to time.  Mosaic Work Space  I like to have a dedicated space for mosaic work. It is generally time consuming and having a dedicated space allows me to leave projects out so that I can come back and work when I have time.   Lots of Storage Since my art interests are varied I need space to store the things that are not currently being used. I seem to cycle through my various interests.  I have some display space for finished projects in the hallway outside of ...

Creativity and the Butterfly Life Cycle    by Margot Jurgens Thanks to Unsplash photographers: Nathan Dumlao, Yoal Desurmont and Boudewijn Huysmans. I dreamed about a beautiful butterfly. It was like a family pet that followed us around. One day it became weak and was no longer thriving. I decided to released it in the yard and hoped that nature would revive it, and it would not stepped on or eaten by a dog.   Most often we think of butterflies in their adult glory as they grace the fields and flowers with their marvelous beauty. I generally think of butterflies as a representation of transformation taking place in the lives of people. The well known story of how the ordinary, even ugly caterpillar eats and eats and one day becomes creates a cocoon from which it eventually emerges as the delicate beautiful butterfly. We celebrate the butterfly for emerging from the mundane. The mundane process is all to soon forgotten and rarely celebrated.   The b...

Not quite a month ago I got a text from my friend Bill. He works for Visit Spokane and they had gotten a request from a tour company needing extra tour guides, for a one day job taking a bunch of people by bus to some essential oil farm. They needed to hire tour guides for 11 busses to essentially greet people as they got on an off the bus and to play bingo during the hour and a half long ride to the farm. Plus pass out snacks and tell them a little bit about Spokane. Sounded fun and easy. Im in! I was able to clear my schedule to make it work,  so I called and told the contact person that I was interested. She wanted to know if I was comfortable talking in front of people. That was an easy yes. So the day of the event arrived and I got to the Davenport Grand Hotel at the appointed time and got my two yellow back packs. One full of prizes and bingo supplies the other with snacks. I found out that I was assigned to bus number 7. My bus held 53 very excited people who were Youn...

One of the ways that I process stress is to write or do something creative. Today I needed to take some time to narrow down what was really causing the stress and tension. I could give it names of people in my life but really its not them its my heart and my responses that are the problem. There is part of me that has believed the lie that God has abandoned me. That God doesn't care that I am uncomfortable and tired in the present moment. I know these kinds of thoughts are outright lies. I am a daughter of the King of Kings and I am in covenant relationship. Sometimes it takes dreams or visual things to help me discover what is really going on in my soul. Sometimes I just need to stop and remember to bless the Lord Oh my soul and forget not all His benefits. I can't do much to change the people around me but I can deal with myself and how I am choosing to respond. I can forgive and I can pray, particularly for the more difficult relationships in my life. My prayer is that God w...

Giant Paper Flowers Miniature paper flowers  I have never been much of a gardener. In fact I have struggled to keep even the most hardy houseplants alive. But this has been an area that I’ve wanted to grow in. So rather than continue to garden by creating miniature paper flower gardens in coffee creamer cups or make giant paper flowers.  This year I have experimented with container gardening and hydro gardening. While not all have worked out like I had hoped. I measure success a little differently, for me I have learned things with each failure. Learning in my mind is a success even if at times the lesson learned come with pain or required some personal sacrifice. I want to live fully and not just watch people do interesting things. My Salad Garden from seeds I planted I like to think of my life as a kind of living art work. Rich with texture and shading and beautiful colors. There is so much to explore and every day, even those most mundane in nature there is an...

$500 Original Bird Mosaic Project  $100 New Bird Project I decided I needed to re think the mosaic I’m doing for the Spokane Symphony’s Christmas Tree Elegance event. The original project was turning out to be a bigger donation than they could use. It’s about $500 dollar project. I’m my mind more was better but each tree has a dollar limit on the amount of donations they can receive. So I’ve started a smaller simplified $100 project. I just have the burgundy crazy paving to finish up then I can do the grouting and finishing work. The first mosaic still has a quite a bit of blue glass to lay some green leaves need finished and the yellow for the big sun flower. Im finding between taking care of my family and my massage business that I have limited bits of time to spend  working on these kind of projects. Which makes commission work difficult for me in this season of my life. On both of these pieces all the glass is hand nipped and then glued one piece at a time int...

So I'm starting a new blog because a light bulb turned on for me and suddenly all the seemingly unconnected, things that I love and do came together in one BIG revelation. "Mom you are what ties all those things together" my daughter Nanette casually says in a conversation about social media. Wait...rewind...could it be that simple? She went on to advised me to make my blog or my posts about me and the things that I do. It's so simple that it's profound. It's funny how the answer you've been searching for for years can be there right in front of you and it takes someone else to see what you had missed because it was so obvious and too familiar to consider. I'm interested in a lot of diverse things and I have been so focused and frustrated trying to fit them all together that I have gotten caught in a loop. I should just do those things and share about why they are important to me and along other things that I find interesting. I invite you to j...