10,000 Hours & A Journal Page

My daughter is a dancer. She has been dancing since she was four...just an itty bitty thing then. Now, she tells me that her dancing will help her when she is an actress and singer. She is 7. Watch out Hollywood! ;) It is an amazing thing to witness the seed of a dream. You know what I mean? The first time someone starts to really speak of what they want. Of course over time things can change - but, the beginning is truly breathtaking. 

We recently switched to a new dance studio, and my little performer is having to work her little tail off to "catch up" and train differently.  We have had many talks about dedication, time, and effort. I think the key to it all is finding what makes your heart soar... your passion. Then it doesn't all seem like a chore. You should have seen her little determined face as she practiced turning over and over again last night down our hall. As she worked and worked, I could slowly begin to see her face fill with joy. Not because she was doing the turn "right" or "perfectly", but because she was trying her hardest and getting better. It was joy sprinkled with pride and accomplishment. 

 Recently my hubby said that in the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he states that is takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. 10,000 hours! Seems like a ton of time and it is. That's a lot of dancing or painting, gardening, singing, cooking, snowboarding...or whatever it may be. It reminded me that I need to show up at my studio table. Just get there and paint. I need to make time...every day. If I am going to get those 10,000 hours in I need to get busy. Lol. I surely don't want to become a master of blog surfing or pinning. Ha! I am not really serious about that, but you get what I mean. Time management! :)

With all this dance on the brain, I painted this sweet little dancer last week. Obviously inspired by my very own darling twirler made it very fun for me. Just a quick sketch, a layer of gesso, and some acrylic paint. I used watercolor crayons too as usual.

 I found these word/phrase stickers that I thought would be fun for my journal. They have a very artsy, creative theme. Super fun! The company that made them is Cosmo Cricket and I spotted them in the scrapbook section at Joanns.

I added the words, "follow your heart" along the side of her dress. 

That's what I want for my little Sugarbean - you and me too...

No matter what it is or where it may take you...follow.

AND dream...dream BIG! 

The journey will be worth it! :)