Daytime on Friday will be full of workshop activities. Please make sure to bring your complimentary Red Letter Typesetter Alphabet - all trimmed up and ready to use - to the afternoon workshop sessions along with your other tools. (Your alphabet stamp set will be sent to you by mail as soon as your full retreat fee is paid.)
The Alternate Path (9-11:30 am)
Meditative Arts Building
Instructor: Cassie Schindler

We will all start our weekend “balancing” act with this wonderful workshop (Vesta and Jessica will be students too - we can use some balance!)

The session consists of both “exploration and creation”. As Cassie, our workshop instructor, puts it, “Life is all about making good choices. Every day, every minute, we are given the opportunity to choose - and it’s up to us to make the appropriate selections...those that feed our souls and keep us in balance”.

Artwork and Creativity often take a back seat to the crazy schedules we map out for ourselves each day, and all of us who love to create, would love to create more time for creating!

This session demonstrates the “art” of prioritizing. You will identify and examine the areas in your life where you have direct control, influence and “prioritizing power.” Then, you will create a piece of artwork based on those chances to choose.

During the session, you will share ideas (small group participation involved), compare notes with others and begin to build a workbook/journal that is truly designed by, for, and about YOU. You will choose the elements and content for this beautiful one-of-a-kind piece which will go home with you to serve as a reminder of your commitment to your own balance and well being.
11:30-1:15
Today we suggest you enjoy a wonderful lunch at the Blue Heron right on the premises or have something you have stashed in your room, because our lunch time is a little short for going out (unless you want to make a fast food run). Saturday’s freeform timing will more easily lend itself to going out for a lunch date.
What is a Creativity Chain?

It’s sort of a cross between a charm bracelet or treasure necklace and a bead curtain!

The idea is that this multi-strand chain (you decide the number and length of the strands) is made up of a variety of meaningful talismans - which you create - and which remind you of goals and intentions that are important to you. You hang the strands in a doorway at home where you will encounter them daily and must brush up against them or otherwise pay them attention. We all know that attention is what causes our intentions to manifest, so this is a powerful “create your life” tool - fun and beautiful as well! And it goes home easily in your suitcase.
Creative Components (1:15-5:30 pm)
The Willows Building
Instructors: Vesta and Jessica
This afternoon, you will spend two hours with Vesta and two more with Jessica learning a potpourri of techniques and ideas for making components for your creativity chain. Choices will range from metal charms to handmade beads, picture frames, mini secret keepers, arty envelopes, and on and on. We are still adding to the list.These will truly be multimedia workshops and there will be no pressure to get the pieces finished, but rather to get the techniques learned and possibilities in mind for your full day of Open Studio time on Saturday - when you will actually create all the pieces you want for your chain.
Vesta created this pretty strand from Sheer Heaven.
Friday night is all yours to do with as you please. A favorite local activity is to go downtown and attend gallery openings which happen every Friday night between 5-7 pm (listed in the local paper). And, the museums, including the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, offer free admission on Friday evenings until 8pm. Santa Fe is full of world class restaurants - and there is even one on the Sunrise Springs premises. Maps and restaurant suggestions will be provided to you at the end of the Friday workshops.

Or, you may want to rest or write in your journal or just chat with friends.
This is one version of a beaded Sheer Heaven envelope you might choose to create as a part of your Creativity Chain. It can hold any message you wish to “send” yourself.
Use these arrows (which are actually another Creativity Chain component) to navigate through the itinerary pages.