Category Archives: Motivation

A Thankful Friday!

Good evening!

I am sorry I am getting around to posting so late, but I have busily, and happily “arting” as we now call my art studio time in my house!! I have made quite the mess this evening, and I am going to have to make sure it all gets cleaned up before I go to bed this evening, otherwise, I will have some difficulty doing my morning pages in the morning, if there is no room at the inn, so to speak!!

Jason is still away, camping with the guys, and I am sure that they must be having a lot of fun!! He will be back sometime tomorrow, in the meantime I am just busy toodling around then house, running errands, and “arting” my life away!! I just LOVE that!! You know, arting, as in to art!?!

Anyway, we have had some questions in my department at work about our organization structure, teams, and who is going to land where doing what. Well, this morning was the meeting where we all FINALLY found out what was going on, and to sum it up, the CIO said, that “Most everyone has had their cheese moved”, and when he put up the org chart – he wasn’t kidding!! We are almost all moved around! My team has been split and I am moving, along with two other of my teammates, to another team! Whew!! I think, after thinking about it all day, that these are going to be good changes, and no matter what happens God always puts me where he wants me!! So, I am not going to worry about it, and continue to do my best, WHEREVER THEY WANT ME!! 😉

Let’s see, what else? Oh, my morning pages! I realized this morning that I have been doing morning pages for 11 weeks!! it feels like I just started doing them yesterday! So, what that means is that week 12 is my last week in this journal, which I will have COMPLETELY FILLED UP! (one of my life list goals) YEAH!! and I will have finished going through the entire Artist’s Way program!! I have the 2nd book ready, of the 3 book series, and I have another journal already on standby for being able to continue charting my course!!

I am so absolutely lucky to have stumbled on that morning pages book on the clearance rack, and for having a sissy who so very graciously, not only sought it out, but found, purchased, and sent me a copy of the Artist Way book in the mail!!!

WOW!!

WHAT A LUCKY GIRL I AM!!! 😉

Anyway, on that note, and the fact that my puppies are ready for bed, my little fat one is on the floor snoring at my feet even as I speak!!! It is time for me to call it a night!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Fearless!

Good evening!
I thought the word “Fearless” would be an appropriate term for this evening!! I just got done with my belly dancing class, and I am feeling TERRIFIC!!! Tonight was the last class of a three month session, and we are now off for a 3 week span until the next round of classes start. That is a little bummy, but I MUST tell you, that I just CAN NOT BELIEVE that I DID IT!!!

pssst…Let me divulge a HUGE secret to you right now, I am a 320 pound woman, and I am

BELLY DANCING!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!?!?!

I still have to pinch myself to make sure that I am ACTUALLY living my life and not just dreaming all of this!

Within the past 3 months, I have found a confidence that I NEVER thought possible, and NOW I REALIZE NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! My momma was right, I CAN do anything I put my mind to, if I am willing to do the work to earn it!! Man, she was ONE SMART COOKIE!! It is too bad that it took me 35 years to learn that she was telling me the ABSOLUTE truth!!

Something happens to me when I am dancing! Time flies, I feel like a child again, and even though I am sweating and starting to get sore, I push through because I am having such a FUN TIME, and for one brief moment, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and say, “WHO IS THAT WOMAN? I WANT TO BE HER!!! and I look again, and realize IT IS ME!!! LOL! 🙂 THAT, my friends, is called GROWTH!!

I think I realize that THE KEY, for me is to find the FUN IN FITNESS!! Dancing, swimming, hula hooping, skating, bike riding! These are the things that I NEED to be doing to get healthy, but not doing them to get healthy, but just for the act of bringing more fun into my life – fitness will come, if I can play in this kind of way!

So, for now, my word is FEARLESS! I can do it! I just have to be FEARLESS to take that first step, EVERY SINGLE DAY!! FEARLESS!! I can do it, and I know that you can too!!!

Something to think about: What is something that you can do to add a little more FUN back into your life???

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

Back to the Art!

Good evening!

My youngest sister, Trina, has gone back home *SNIFF*, so life is returning back to normal around here, at least for a few days!!

I decided to come straight home this evening and get back to do some serious creating!!

You can’t be an artist if you don’t take the time to create!

One of the biggest mental blocks that I have been struggling with is that I have a tendency to really judge my creations rather harshly, which I would NEVER do if it were a friend of mine creating them. So, I have decided that I am going to create a piece and just put it out into the universe so that it doesn’t matter what I think of it, good or bad!! The point is to get the art expressed, to get it out there and move on, and in doing so, learn, try some more and get better!

I have been doing some art for the past week or so, and I have decided that today would be the day that I would share it with you – AKA, the Universe!!! 😉 If you would like to comment on any of them, that is fine, but please be kind, I am just learning, and experimenting!!

Like Coco Chanel once said, “I don’t care what you think about me, I hardly ever think about you!” AND although, NOT my sentiments exactly, I understand what she was trying to say! This is the thing that I have to remind myself about my inner critic. I don’t care what you say, it is not worth listening to anyway!

So back to the art:

Here is a sketch I did while I was sitting in the car with all of the windows down, listening to the ocean waves crashing on the beach! That was a GREAT moment!!

Here is the picture of what I was actually looking at!

Here is a mini collage, that helped get me unstuck creatively! It is only about 4 inches by 6 inches – THAT, I felt, I COULD commit to!! This took me less than 20 minutes, but I really like it!

This is one of two gel skins that I created a couple of days ago!!

Here is the other gel skin. My only problem now, is that I am not exactly sure how/where to use them!! I may have to create a collage just to feature these skins!! 😉

Here is an experiment on wood that I have been working on! It was gorgeous and then I thought I “messed it up”, but decided to keep moving forward with it anyway! I am really loving how the light plays through all of the blues, greens, silvers on this piece. This may have to become a background for an awesome word, or a fairy or such!! It just seems very dream-like to me.

Wanting to use EVERY opportunity as a possible creative one, I did this little doodle while I was doing my Artist’s Way homework (for week 8, as you can see), but also people watching! So these rough sketches are a mish-mash of all sorts of people I was seeing.

Here is a continuation on one of my very first pieces, and I think that I am very happy with it. It represents a well-used life to me. About all of the people who come and go in and out of your life, and leave impressions behind of themselves – both good and bad! Yes, I think that this one is FINALLY done!

And last but not least, this one is a collage that I have been working on, and finally finished! I think that this is a happy collage, one that reminds me somehow of the sky, wind, movement, and dancing!! I see dancing when I see this one!

Well, at least that is my take on it all! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say!! I will continue to create and use my bravery muscles to keep sharing, no matter how dreadful I think something might be – again, not the point is it!!!

I would encourage all of you to get out there, find what you are good at, put your bravery muscles to good work and get your creativity flowing!! I can’t wait to see what you make!!

Until then…

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Some More Weekend Pics!

Good evening!

This is the last evening that my youngest sis in town, so I am going to try and get in some more quality time with her before I have to head off to bed! I wanted to make sure to share some more pictures from our fun weekend!!

After Megan’s soccer game, we had to stop over to mom’s to pick up something, I can’t remember what, but when I had gotten back to the car, this is what I found – Trina reading, “The Witch Has an Itch”. You know there is nothing like some hardcore, intellectual reading for my dear little sis!! HAHAHAHA!! 😉

Trina had been pestering us all weekend to take her to eat at Love, Love! So here we are, and here is one HAPPY girl!! 😉

Next stop, Borders!! Apparently we are ALL BOOKWORMS!!

Reading a cookbook – such concentration!

Next stop our house, and decorating treasure boxes!! Mine is a butterfly!

Trina is making a box to hide a surprise for someone back home! Wink! Wink! 😉

and Megan, made a treasure box for some of her jewelry! 😉

Next, it was downstairs to make french bread pizza! YEAH PIZZA!! 😉

Here is Chef Jason, doling out the ingredients and the instructions!

YUM! Doesn’t that pizza look good??

For dessert, a few rounds of Uno, which I totally got my booty whomped!! Even the 8 year old beat me!! Oh, well! You can’t win them all!! 😉

Finally, we all ended up in our pj’s to watch the movie Tangled!! We were a bunch of very giggly girls!!

SOOOO MUCH FUN!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Megan’s Last Soccer Game of the Season!

Good evening!

This weekend we got the opportunity to watch Megan’s last soccer game of the season!!

Here is “Coach Lynette” AKA our sis!! and I just love that in this pictured John and Christopher are wrestling in the background – I hadn’t realized that when I took this picture!! LOL! 😉

This is how we found Morgan, hanging out with Michael, taking pictures – just like Michael!! HOW SWEET!! 😉

Here is my sister, Trina, watching the game!!

 

Trina let me do her hair that morning, and she even liked it enough to wear it for the day!!!! I LOVE BRAIDING HER HAIR!!! 😉

 

Go Pink Panthers!!

Megan’s tongue out is for balance!! She is very AERODYNAMIC!! 😉

Jason and Trina watching the game!

“Hey coach, my shoe keeps coming untied!!” 😉

“Michael, let me help you “Fix” your hat! Can you see now??”

Here are the ‘boys’ playing to get a wooden egg that Uncle Jason has under his foot!

I know it is hard to tell in this picture, but Uncle Jay-Jay is actually spinning Morgan all the way around!!! WATCH OUT CHRIS!!! 😉

This is what the kids call “Tunnel”! Whenever you finish a game, the adults make a tunnel with their hands and the kids run through while everyone is whoo-hoo-ing!! I think the next day I have a bad day at work, I am going to request a tunnel too! That will cheer ANYONE up!! 😉

Here is the entire Pink Panther team!!

Megan and her Uncle Jay-Jay!

Jason and his sis, Nette!! Aren’t they cute?

Here is Megan after her awards ceremony! She won the “Dazzling Defender” medal!! and she is A DAZZLING DEFENDER!! I am just so proud of her – it is always amazing to me to see these pictures of her and realize just how grown up she is getting!!!

Well, I have waaaay more pics of our time together – her soccer game was just the beginning, however it is getting late, so I have decided to share some more of our pictures tomorrow!!

Until then…

Have a FABULOUS evening!