blackhawks win Stanley Cup after 49 years + i take a leap & return after 10 months hiatus...

CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews celebrate. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Tribune)

photo courtesy of ChicagoTribune.com

hip, hip hooray for the Chicago Blackhawks!!! 4-3 in overtime game 6 in the Championship Series...history has been made! CONGRATULATIONS to a very dedicated and hardworking team...no matter how difficult or long the road was for them...they never gave up! So proud of the whole BlackHawk Team!!!

This BIG WIN tonight has inspired me to take a courageous leap to return to my journal~Labour of Love~ after a very long hiatus. Last July 2009 was the last time I felt safe here. In August, I stopped writing here and closed my blog due to several very disturbing series of events that had me thinking twice about the blogosphere and people in general. I had to deal with people crossing the lines, attempts of harming my family and invading my privacy. In my early twenties, I had to deal with an obsessed stalker that nearly cost me my life. Last year, something similar had happen but with not 1 but 2 obsessed-crazed STALKERS!!! So, I closed down my blog for obvious reasons.

BUT, enough is enough!!!! Just like the BlackHawks overcoming doubt and adversity, I really feel like why should I stop my world because of a couple of fanatics (per Dictionary.com: Fanatic=a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal, synonyms=enthusiast, zealot, bigot, hothead, militant. Fanatic, zealot, militant, devotee refer to persons showing more than ordinary support for, adherence to, or interest in a cause, point of view, or activity. Fanatic and zealot both suggest excessive or overweening devotion to a cause or belief. Fanatic further implies unbalanced or obsessive behavior: a wild-eyed fanatic.) ?

I've been stressed out beyond belief not only from these crazy incidents but also because my plate of responsibilities have been quite overwhelming these days and have put me in such a creative slump since last August...and this past Monday, my creative juices were flowing as I stumbled on to several inspiring Creative sites all in a couple of hours! So, enough is enough! I'm taking this leap because I've missed so many of the good-hearted people+kindred spirits that I have met through my blog. I need to complete + send several packages that I promised to a few kindred spirits before the hiatus took over my life...My hands + heart ache because it needs a creative outlet to release tension and to seek more of my hidden passions.

photos courtesy of Maegan Beishline

One of the sites I was so fortunate to stumble upon was, Creativity Boot Camp by Maegan Beishline. Please stop by her blog and soak in a lot of inspiration! I'm going to do my best to try to play catch up...this 'Free' On-Line class started Sunday, June 6th. This program will end June 18th, 2010. They are on Day 5-theme=grow. Maegan gives some sound advice/information about how to go about understanding our creative side. She gives us a theme word and we choose our medium to work with and create something that reflects the theme word. There is alot of reflection going on too but I am so far behind that I have to play some catch up with the daily assignment photos and I promise to work on the writing/discovering part soon...

Here are my interpretations of days 1-4 and my choice of medium will be my camera: (go here to see more interpretations via other kindred spirits)

1) Ivory:

2) Picnic:

3) Multilayered:

4) Heavy Metal:

The last few days have been fantastic...using more of my camera to capture the true beauty of everyday things...and getting out of my comfort zone (and exploring the outside environment) are such breaths of fresh air! Tomorrow I'll work on the theme "grow" as it's the last day of my lil' munchkins' school...hurrah! Thank you Maegan for creating this on-line class...reaching down into my soule is going to prove to be a wide awakening for me...looking forward to the next several days...

bonne nuit

xoxo jo;)