There are a few items needed to create a vision board, but only one primary rule is that there aren't any rules! No matter how hard you try, you cannot mess this up.

First, you need to grab a pad of paper and a pencil. Write down your goals in the following areas: relationships, career and finances, home, travel, personal growth (including spirituality, social life, education), and health. This is your starting point that triggers your mind to search for bits that feel right.

Next, you'll need a base to assemble your assortment. Deciding on a size will determine this. If you want to make it big, use a sheet of poster board, foam-core board, or corkboard. I like to create my vision boards on a small scale because I tuck them into my daily planner, surely to be viewed every day. In this case, I use a decorative file folder, cut it to fit the A5 size, and punch holes, so it slips easily into my binder.

Scissors, pins, tape or a glue-stick will be used in putting your board together. I use double-sided tape. If embellishments make you feel great, collect fun markers, stickers, stamps, or anything else you can think of to deck out your board. Just go for it!

Where to get images? Magazines, catalogs (yes, these have LOADS of terrific bits to incorporate), and revisit those Pinterest boards too. Simply download choice images from Pinterest to your computer or phone and print them from your home printer. The sole purpose is to represent feelings you want to experience, quotes of those goals and ambitions, images of places you want to go, reminders of events, people, postcards from friends, and just about anything that will inspire your personal affirmations. You want to bring everything on this board into your life in one way or another. The point is to make this something special you will want to look at and admire each day.

After I assemble and tape all the images in place, including a snapped photo of a meaningful tarot or oracle card reading, I like to write a few keywords in my own handwriting from my mission to fill in the blank spots. This adds an even stronger personal stamp to my vision board and solidifies subliminal motivation.

This is all about you, meant for your eyes, your heart, your mind. Be brave and experimental. Find exciting images that captivate that deeper desire. Dream big. Have fun! Allow and invite magic into your life. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe even more.

Visions boards 101 - try it and see for yourself... xoxo-Sonya

Well, Halloween might not be celebrated quite the same as usual this year, but there are many fun, creative ways to capture the spirit and enjoy with your close clan. Whether you are planning a social-distanced Trunk or Treat within the neighborhood, keeping your kiddies close at home in a devilish den, or crafting the night away, this gathering of festive frights will inspire. I've mustered various ideas collected from my favorite Pinterest trove to share with all of you. Feast your eyes and fancy your talents with these fine imaginative details.

There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch. ~ Robert Brault

Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows' Eve. ~ Ray Bradbury

By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes. ~ William Shakespeare

A mask tells us more than a face. ~ Oscar Wilde

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. ~ L.M. Montgomery

Amid pumpkins, prose, and panics, enjoy a very Happy Halloween! xoxo-Sonya

My fingers smooth over the surface back and forth slowly. Each card feels like suede. The soft matte finish is luxurious in my hands as my eyes admire the watercolor images. Symbolic yet straightforward, the pictures quickly relay the card's significance. This is such a treat for me. I imagine the moment equates to a longtime baseball collector's discovery of coveted cards in a newly purchased pile. 

Call me woo-woo if you like. But just as one resonates with a new novel or a well-fit ceramic mug in cupped hands, a deck of divination cards can inspire a deep connection. Though many visit readers of tarot cards to foretell a curious future, they are much more than prophetic. Tarot and oracles like my new Roots & Wings Oracle Deck are simply vehicles to access answers to soulful questions, direction, and obtain counsel from one's own well of divine guidance.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready... The teacher will Disappear. ― Tao Te Ching

The Garden Spread is a simple five-card layout to procure lessons of personal reading. Cards can be shuffled, cut, and even shuffled some more as the querent focuses thoughtful energy on an area desiring insight and growth. It can be work, creativity, or a relationship with oneself.

In the first position, named the Seed, is the heart of what you want to grow. It suggests a reminder for how to begin moving forward or a way to view and appreciate it. I placed the Balance card in the center of my spread. Balance is about "finding compromise in being pulled in different directions. Don't forget the seed must not only grow up but also down."

The second is the Soil & Roots representing your foundation and what you are building upon. My second card was the Star, "a blessing from the universe, energy flowing from the sky to the land, bringing inspiration and hope and a sense of renewal."

The Sun is the third card position denoting the raw energy for growth and where I placed the chosen Moon card. "Connecting with the waxing and the waning, it is a reflection of light and pull of the tides; the reminder that the moon is still full and complete even when shadowed from the sun."

In fourth place is Water, like rain representing what refreshes and nourishes the journey for growth, providing relief along the way. I selected The Divine, "an aspect of the feminine, pure flowing emotion, rooted and overflowing with sympathy and compassion."

And last, the Weeds show space where to be conscious of how you could be overtaken on a journey of growth. My card was Time telling me to "give things time, don't rush this growth."

The oracles speak, providing roots to grow and wings to fly. Ask, believe, receive...xoxo-Sonya

 To my mind, one does not put oneself in place of the past, one only adds a new link. – Paul Cézanne

When I was five, I recall an ominous painting framed in gold, covering a quarter of the living room. It was of a massive ship sailing on a stormy ocean. Malachite, aquamarine, and midnight blue colors accented foaming waters and billowing sails lending depth, movement, and grandeur. The painting scared me. It took up the whole wall behind the sofa, propped almost as high as the apartment ceiling. Maybe if it had Mr. Rogers at the helm, I would have sat on the couch instead of on the floor a foot away from the television watching Sesame Street.

What started as a joke [between Pollot and his wife] led to a bigger question:  Could I paint something funny or nostalgic into an unwanted painting, and without changing the aesthetic, change the meaning and make it wanted again?  Once I started down a path to answer that question, I found that it captured my attention more than anything I'd done in the past. ~ Dave Pollot

The joke wound up changing his life. With an undergraduate degree in computer science, Pollot spent fifteen years of his early career writing software for a living. Painting was something he only did casually until repurposing thrift art in 2012 consumed his operative attention. Painting elements of pop culture from the movies and video games of his youth on abandoned art from the thrift stores mirrored many of the thoughts and experiences about balancing creativity and life. His ingenuity has amassed an impressive following on social media, and fans can shadow his prolific and philanthropic deeds on Instagram and Facebook.

I've always loved the idea that art is deeply personal. I'm telling my own story with each piece, but every one is a little bit like a mirror, reflecting it's meaning back to the viewer through his or her individual perception.  More generally speaking however, there are a number of recurring questions and ideas that my work often deals with.  I think that my body of work has challenged the idea that any one piece of artwork is without a place, especially if it can be retrofitted to reflect a more culturally relevant set of ideas. It's also questioned the idea of who (generationally and otherwise) can claim ownership of the pop culture of a given time period – it's sought to introduce a younger audience to older artistic styles, and a potentially older audience to a broader set of pop culture.

Modified masterpieces - the ultimate repurpose and recycle for the contemporary collector... xoxo-Sonya