Author Archives: Goodwin Ardith

Flubber Recipe – Treat Your Inner Child

What is your second memory? How far back can you go? The very first memory I can recall is of our house burning when I was five and the second memory I can recall is of licking Play-Doh during Kindergarten. Since it's Saturday and its what I consider to be a day of play, I must share this recipe and website with those of you who have wee ones still at home, and maybe with some of you who are still connected with that "inner child." My first memory can wait.

My Master's degree is in Early Childhood Education but I had to retire from teaching due to orthopedic issues. I miss being around children, their exuberance for life, their mess, and their laughter. Every once in a while, when I am surfing the net I will come across an idea, a person, or an image that reminds me of how I used to teach and feel it's worth sharing. The image below is what caught my eye, after my visit to Pinterest turned up weird photos of goo. "Flubber" as it is called, causes me the greatest amount of fascination, next to Play-Doh that is. If I had Flubber as a child, my mom would probably still be finding little piles of green goo in our house, 40 years later because it would have consumed me.

The recipe and image drew me to this website, but what amazed the educator, artist, and thinker in me were the images and descriptions of how the children in this daycare play. "I WANT TO PLAY IN THIS DAYCARE!" That is what kept screaming in my head as I saw how much mess, and fun, and creativity was happening in this place. It made me miss teaching and exploring so much. I don't know a whole lot about the folks that run the MountainTop Family Daycare, but I do know this. If I were still teaching, I would swap stories and ideas with them because it looks as if those kids are happier than pigs in swallow!

If you are brave enough to make Flubber with your kids, I do hope you will share some pics here. I would love to live vicariously through your experience, and, if you are looking for creative, play based, activities for them, this is a great website to use as a resource. (Caution: play clothes are required,

Check out the MountainTop Daycare website here: http://bit.ly/nAtWz0

The Flubber Recipe can be found here:
http://mountaintopdaycare.blogspot.com/2011/06/flubber.html
(Flubber is made with Borax, no licking)

Google+: View post on Google+

I am thinking we need to see some images called #FunkitatedFriday (no telling what…

I am thinking we need to see some images called #FunkitatedFriday (no telling what that might turn up, lol!)
I shall start. This life size wooden artist mannequin was at the Scott's Antique Show in Atlanta and was almost 7 feet tall. I would have so l loved to have it, but it was out of my price range. Totally funky, eclectic, and fabulous!

Google+: View post on Google+

Images of an Artist

Being a creative helps me see the world differently. One of the things I love most about being an artist are the objects around the studio that become layered in paint. The average person might see this as mess, but for me, even when looking at my paint shirt covered in dried acrylics, I see art. At first glance, this image looks like an abstract painted with intent. In actuality, it is a tiny section of my paint smock glowing with random creativeness. I can't imagine not seeing the world through creative lenses. Have you taken a closer look at your painters smock lately, your brushes, your palette? Share the art that is to be found there.

Google+: View post on Google+

Sigh….guess I will have to get used to the hashtags

I tend to find them distracting and they take away from the beauty of G+ for me….then again maybe I just need to embrace them and hashtag every post. What are your thoughts about them? Love, Hate, or Indifferent?

Google+: View post on Google+

Are you a CREA+TIVE? Are you an artist or creative type that shares your passion…

Are you a CREA+TIVE? Are you an artist or creative type that shares your passion here on Google+? If so, you might want to check out the CREA+IVE website created by +Sara Ataie She curates the CREA+IVE group and features Google+ artists, which I am featured this week. One of the things I love most about Google+ is connecting with other creative types and Sara makes that so much easier!

Embedded Link

CREA+IVE: FEA+URED
FEA+URED. This weeks featured Google Plus CREA+IVES. +Ardith Goodwin. Be Creative, Live Creative, Share Creative. She calls Mobile, Alabama home but shares her love of art and writing with a global co…

Google+: View post on Google+

I just installed this Google+ WordPress plugin to cross post with my website and…

I just installed this Google+ WordPress plugin to cross post with my website and am super excited about it. If you have a WordPress website or blog and post a lot publicly, you might want to consider using +Daniel Treadwell 's plug in. Comments and +1's even import as well!

Embedded Link

Crosspost your Google+ posts to your WordPress blog with this plugin
Software developer Daniel Treadwell has released a WordPress plugin, Google+Blog, which makes it easy to automatically crosspost your Google+ posts to your blog.

The plugin lets …

Google+: View post on Google+

Added two new Miniature Collages which are 2.5" by 3.5" that I create for…

Added two new Miniature Collages which are 2.5" by 3.5" that I create for art swaps. Marilyn and Audrey, two of my favorite beauties!

In album Collage Artwork (36 photos)

Google+: View post on Google+

Do you have insight or knowledge about the Pineal Gland in the brain by chance?

Do you have insight or knowledge about the Pineal Gland in the brain by chance?

I used to pray for dullness……I really did, but it just wasn't in me, around me, or in my stars. For the most part, I have accepted that. Weirdness though, that is something that I know well, am fond of, and even now expect. Life would be most boring without the occasional dose of weirdness. Any time I visit the doctor, I usually leave with a hefty does of weirdness, so when he told me my Pineal Gland was enlarged, I looked at him with the usual look…..weird.

I don't know diddly squat about the Pineal Gland, but after Googling it, searching through some interesting and some "one brick short of a full load" videos about it, I am perplexed. Not because it is enlarged, but at the haunting similarities I have in my life with what some believe the Pineal Gland connects me to, such as light receptors, melatonin, awareness, imagination, psychedelics, etc. (especially if you have seen my art, lol!)

My question to all of you is this:

Are any of you familiar with the function, belief, spiritual connotation, and philosophy surrounding the Pineal Gland? If so, I would love some insight as to what your thoughts about it are. I am but a sponge, fill me,

(This is what I call my JarJar Binx look, hahahha)

Google+: View post on Google+

I don't share publicly about anything political for the most part but for +Daria…

I don't share publicly about anything political for the most part but for +Daria Musk I am making an exception. Whether you agree with the movement or not, I applaud her heart, her ability, and her desire to give back. It is refreshing to see. If you visit her website and join her mailing list you can get a copy of this song for free!

Reshared post from +Daria Musk

FREE SONG FOR THE 99%
Last week I posted this video, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Movements all over the US along with the amazinG+ coverage by our own +Michael Mozart and conversations about it hosted by +Alida Brandenburg. I was so moved by the reaction to the sonG+ and want to offer it here for free, for us, for everyone.

Use This SonG+ As You Wish, It's For You
It can be a battle cry, comfort, uplift, shout out, slow dance, a shoulder to cry on or a hand to pull you up…
Some songs change the temperature in the room and the molecules in your body, as a songwriter and singer I just try to get out of the way and let them come through… I know when I get to the high notes of the bridge of this one, my hairs stand on end. When I sang this I felt a rush, a mix of emotion so many of us are experiencing, I was taken over by a collective feelinG+.

"This ordinary town,
This ordinary life.
Just take a look around,
These things don't happen twice.
This ordinary city,
Right underneath our feet.
This ordinary sky,
It's looking down at me.
This ordinary love,
This ordinary school,
This ordinary me,
This ordinary you."

To Get The Song
Just visit www.dariamusk.com and enter your email into the "Join Mailing List" tab on the left. It will send you an email back with the download link.

This is an original song called "Ordinary Town". +RAM Rich (on the piano) and I wrote this a few years ago, with New York City and "ordinary towns" all over the world in mind… Of course the truth is no matter where you live, brave souls, G+niuses and people everywhere make any city an extraordinary town. What's happening now in NYC and all over the US and here in this community is extraordinary.

Please feel free to share the song, the video and the post in solidarity
And if you like share your 99% stories in the comments or re-shares.

You Occupy My Heart
Your G+rl,
D

#OccupyWallStreet #Occupy

Google+: View post on Google+

Day 265 – Exploring My Truth is my next One Collage at a Time addition

Happy Wednesday friends!

In album Ardith Goodwin's One Collage at a Time (109 photos)

Day 265 – Exploring My Truth
This morning, and several days the past few weeks, I have been wrestling with the difference of knowing myself and knowing the truth. What occurs to me is that I tend to perceive the truth about ideas or issues based on my point of view or perception. This may not be what leads me to the truth though. For me, making the effort to pic apart the actual truth from what I believe it is, reveals a great bit of insight as to how my desires affect my behaviors. Today, I am coming to grips with this: the truth in knowing that I must not believe I have all the answers, that my understanding of a situation will be wrong at times….most humbling this is.
http://ardithscollage.blogspot.com

Google+: View post on Google+