New adventures in blogging

Hello! My name is Audree and I'm starting a blog :). I am an ordinary girl living a pretty extraordinary life.

I was born and raised in Canada. I always dreamed about being an artist but studied psychology because my counsellor told me so. In 1996, 2 years after starting university, I fell very ill and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (later changed to Crohn's disease). It led me to drop off school and travel for a while. It also gave me the opportunity to reflect about what I really wanted to do with my life. I went back to school to get a diploma in graphic design and graduated in 2000. In 2001, my life took an unexpected direction after I read the Qur'an and discovered islam. I became Muslim and married shortly after that. I started my own design company, Zamzam Design, just after we had our first son. I worked on and off for the following 11 years because God gave us two more sons :). I didn't get much time to draw and paint and I was missing it a lot. In 2013, I took Flora Bowley's life changing e-course and the desire to paint all the time grew and became overwhelming. I didn't want to do anything else in my free time! Creativista was born out of that desire to make more art and my plan was to start hosting creativity workshops and eventually become a creativity coach. But then... 2014. It was a very special year, a difficult, emotional, pivotal year. Just when I was about to start teaching my first workshp, I found out I was pregnant from our 4th son. I had a really hard time accepting the news. Plans changed, stress was high and Crohn's came back. I was in flare-up for months, depressed, exhausted and of course not doing anything creative. A few weeks before delivering my baby, my husband got a job offer in Dubai and we decided to go for it.

I now live in the desert and by the sea, something I would never thought would be possible. I dreamed about living in a warm place by the ocean all my life! It made me realize that dreams do come true and that all my life events, the good and the bad led me to this place. It was just what I needed to spread my wings and soar. From the first day we arrived in the UAE, I decided I was going to paint and to teach and not be ashamed to call myself an artist anymore.

So I did just that. I set up my little studio, took my brushes and paint and started my adventure into the unknown. And everyday since then, I wake up trying to make the world a more colorful and inspiring place.