Tag Archives: Life

Random Thought Kinda Post!

Crown HeaderGood evening!

Tonight is the first night in a really, REALLY long time that

  1. I got off of work and home at a normal time
  2. I have no pressing commitments, appointments, or really anything needing my full attention right this minute!

Let’s just have a moment of silence, join me, will you???

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Do you feel that?? Yeah me too!! It is the feeling of peace!!

I know I haven’t really posted anything besides Art Journal Thursdays in a really long time, so I thought I would sit down, and just fill you in on what has been going on in my life right now! 🙂

Well, to start! As you may remember, I had been taking a hiatus from my career – I wasn’t sure how long it was going to last, but I was very fortunate to be able to hang in there, being a full-time artist for 6 months – and man it was fun!!

BUT…mama’s got bills to pay!!!

and although I have big dreams for a full time creative career in the future, I realized I had better get to work if I was ever going to have a chance of making those dreams come true!

So, I was lucky enough to have a girlfriend refer me to a job at one of the company’s I had left, and before I could say “BOO” I was back at work, doing what I do!!! 😉

I am officially a Project Associate, which I am not sure exactly what that means yet, but what I have figured out is that I am getting paid to HELP. MY. NEW. TEAM. and that feels sooooooo good!!! 😉

And let me tell you about my new team!!! They are happy, fun, supportive, and really ALL AROUND AMAZING!!! I have to say I am feeling like one lucky girl right now!!!

SO, as all of the pieces of my life are falling back into place again, after getting tossed up into the air, it has taken me some time to get back to where I have some breathing room, and I think I am finally there!

So where does that leave me now? Well, I am working, hard, and trying to focus on the best of every situation I run into! I still try to art as often as my tired self will allow – my sleep has been suffering so I have to figure out how to make that more of a priority here too soon! I am happily dedicated to getting my weekly YouTube videos out, and LOVING all of the feedback that I have been getting, and am still teaching my monthly Soul Book Clubs, which is probably still my FAVORITE time of my month!!!

I am looking to the future, trying to figure out how to best put together an online soul+art class, and I am also working with a new friend to try and come up with a Yoga/Soul/Art retreat for later this year, that I am thinking is going to be SO AWESOME!!! I cannot wait!!! 😉 Our ultimate goal is still to have a small farm, out in the country somewhere, and be able to host soul+art classes retreats and classes from there!! COULD YOU IMAGINE??? OMG – I COULD JUST FAINT WITH THE EXCITEMENT OF IT ALL!!! 😉

Anyway, there is more to come, and I will try to make sure to take and share lots of pictures, and keep you posted with any new going ons in our lives!!!

Life is soooooooo good!

Here is to living a Beautiful Creative Life!! 😉

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If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Just a Quick Post!

Crown HeaderGood evening!

I just thought I would pop in and add a quick post!

I keep coming across a recurring theme in the signs that keep popping up in my world, especially this past week! I am a huge believer that signs are real and I believe that signs are little hints from the Universe to help you find the path that has been created just for you and to help you stay on that path!

This week, I keep seeing and hearing hints that self care is just as important to having a creative life as is the actual act of “Arting” (yep, that’s a verb in my world!) This has been a message that is trying hard to put itself front and center during almost every moment of my day!

So, in my new role as woman who consciously listens and acts on what her subconscious is trying to tell her, I have decided to try and put together a list of ways that I can incorporate self care into my already busy days! 🙂

  • Wake up consciously saying that “Today is going to be an EXCELLENT day!!”
  • Roll over and kiss my sweetie and take a couple of minutes to snuggle! That is a QUALITY way to start my day out on the right foot!
  • When I finally do get out of bed, take a few minutes to stretch, and take stock of how all the parts of my body is feeling!
  • Drink a cool glass of water as soon as getting out of bed as possible! HYDRATE! HYDRATE! HYDRATE!
  • Get your booty outside! Take a walk, chase any patch of sunshine you could find (it is Oregon after all!), this doesn’t have to be strenuous, just do it!
  • Take time to sweat, on purpose every day! I find that if I do this in the name of playing, than I have a much better time of it – swimming, jumping rope, playing ball, playing tag, racing my sweetie, dancing, playing on monkey bars, etc. etc.
  • Take some time, every day, to get quiet! I know this a hard one for some of you, but you would be sooooooo surprised what your soul will try to communicate with you when you just get quiet enough to hear it!
  • Be conscious about what you eat/drink all day! Fuel yourself with real, whole, nutritious foods!
  • Try to minimize stress, at the very least, do things that calm you to counterattack stress, such as meditation, yoga, nature walks, breathing exercises, etc.
  • Make time to play/laugh every day! This can be done with friends, co-workers, family, someone you meet at the grocery store – it doesn’t matter! Laughter truly is healing!
  • Pamper yourself – give yourself a manicure, or a pedicure, take a long luxurious bath, maybe with bubbles? How about using your favorite body cream, give yourself a deep conditioning foot rub, or how about treating yourself to a facial, deep conditioning hair treatment, or even a simple face mask!! Ooh! that really sounds good!
  • Cut some fresh flowers for your house!
  • Take yourself to bed early to catch up on that juicy book you’ve been wanting to read!
  • Call a friend that you have been wanting to catch up with!
  • Take yourself out for coffee, or a fancy lunch date!

This is just a short list of all of the possible self care activities you can try! I am sure you have a BUNCH you can ad to my list! Tell me in the comments what you would add! 😉

Here is to a Beautiful Creative (quality safe care) kind of life! 😉

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If you want a different life, live differently!

Feeling Inspired!

Good morning!

I am feeling inspired! I am feeling empowered! I am feeling a great satisfaction in knowing that I am taking care of myself, in small ways, every day, little by little!

I ran across this video this morning, and could not WAIT to share it with you! 😉

Living a beautifully creative life does not only mean spending time being artsy, or creating masterpeices outside of yourself! It is also about creating the YOU that YOU want to be. It is taking care of yourself, in only ways that you may understand that you need taking care of! Me myself being a plus sized gal, I understand that it may not be fashionable to be a healthy thick girl, but honey, I am here to tell you!! Even at the size that I am now (I have recently lost about 70 pounds, but have about 55 more to go), I am far and away doing better than the old me who used to sit on the couch 24/7 like someone was going to come and take it away if I didn’t stay sitting on it!

Get up, get moving, take a walk, go swimming, ride a bike, find a way to play like you did when you were younger! Know that living a beautifully creative life is more than what you create art-wise, it is also about HOW YOU LIVE!!! So get out there and put some LIFE into your LIFE!! I am cheering for you (CAN YOU HEAR ME???) 😉

Here is to living a Beautiful Creative Life!! 😉

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If you want to have a different life, live differently!

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty!

The_Secret_Life_of_Walter_Mitty_Movie PosterGood afternoon!

My sweetie and I have been working on trying to have a  date night most every Friday evening of the week, and this past Friday, we chose to go to the movies and see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty!

I have to tell you, I LOVED IT!!

For those of you who don’t know, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is actually a remake of the movie, by the same name, that starred Danny Kay, and came out in 1947.

This movie is about a quiet but sweet man, named Walter Mitty, played by the loveable Ben Stiller, who was living a very ho-hum, non-remarkable life, and because of this he had quite the imagination and could be found zoning out into some seriously adventurous, and exciting daydreams. Well, when his job, and the job of most of the people at the company he is working for, and had been for the past 15 or so years,  find that their jobs are in danger, Walter Mitty has to take a real life adventure to locate a famous photographer, someone he has been working with since his start at the business, to track down a missing photograph; and what an adventure he takes!! Jumping out of a helicopter flown by a drunken pilot, shark attack, erupting volcano, and some serious long-boarding, are just a few of the amazing adventures he finds himself on.

I found this movie to be visually exciting, and very inspiring. The imagery is beautiful, and there is a lot of CGI going on, but because I too am someone with quite an imagination, I did not find it distracting! I loved the overall message of:

“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer,
to find each other and feel. That is the purpose of life.”
– The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

This message really resonated with me.

I think I find myself relating to Walter Mitty. I haven’t really gone anywhere, haven’t really done anything terribly noteworthy, and I know that if I wasn’t consciously making changes to rebuild my life, every day, then my life would still be a cycle of get up, go to work (AKA, my golden handcuffs), come home, crash and burn, get up and do it all again tomorrow! I know I am not alone in this – I am starting to begin that this is what “normal” people do, which is why “normal” is nowhere that I want to be any longer!

Thankfully I have made the decision that 2014 is the year that all of that monotony ends, but this movie just reinforced what I am just now learning – there really is life out there if you are willing to stop dreaming and go out and live it!!! 🙂

Here is to an ADVENTUROUS Monday!! 🙂

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If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

A Girl With Too Much Time On Her Hands!!

2013-05-09 2Good evening!!

My sweetie has been work every night for the past three weeks, so needless to say someone has WAAAAAAY too much time on her hands!! This evening, I ran to our local super center, whose name shall remain unnamed!! Picked up a whole plethora of toiletries, house supplies, and jammies – some women turn to chocolate when they are lonely, I turn to shopping for jammies!!

ESPECIALLY SCRUMPTIOUSLY SOFT JAMMIES!!!

Is that just me? Or is there anyone out there who also needs a therapist!??? 😉

Anyway, since my sweetie is working in town, my habit this week has been to stop by his worksite and take him a healthy snack and visit with him for a few minutes while he enjoys his snack! THAT has probably been my FAVORITE times of the week!! I dream of someday having a child, and being able to take little him or her out to daddy’s job site and share some goodies and memories with him in that way!! So, I feel like I got a bit of a taste of that future this week!!! Tonight’s snack was some skim milk – his FAVORITE!! Some clementines AKA Cuties – so yummy!! and a bit of beef jerky, which is really great and easy way to get some protein in for us post bariatric patients.

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After I met the gentleman he is doing work for, a very nice man, I zipped on home and made a big pot of a lean-ground-sirloin-chock-full-of-vegetables-and-beans kind of mixture to use to stuff baked bell peppers! They are currently baking in the oven, and they are making the house smell so delicious!!! I will top with some skim milk mozzarella and they will be ready to serve!! I know my sweetie will LOVE those!! Those are one of his FAVORITE of my meals!!! 😉

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My official plan for this evening after I finish blogging tonight will be to spend some quality time with the new Country Living magazine that came in the mail today – one of my NEW magazine subscriptions!! I figure that if I were to get my magazines via subscription then it would save me money, so I immediately subscribed to FOUR magazines!! EEK!! I hope I have time to sit and really read them all!! Oh, at least I will sure have a hell of a lot of fun trying!!! 😉

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Before I go, one quick word on all of the pics in this post. These would explain why I called tonight’s post, “A Girl With Too Much Time On Her Hand!!” because while I was waiting for the bell pepper stuffing to cook, I decided I would spend some eh-hum…”quality” time playing with my camera!! 😉 HEE! HEE!! 😉

Man, I could really use some more girlfriends…any volunteers???? 🙂

Anyway, I can hear the oven beeping at me, telling me dinner is ready!!!

With that…

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening!! 😉

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If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

 

Mid-Week Update!

Good evening!

This is going to be a short post, someone has got a lot of homework that she is wanting to get done this evening! Yes, I am talking about myself in the third person, you will have to forgive me – I have a lot going on at the moment! 😉

Anyway, yesterday was the first day of Brave Girls’ Soul Restoration II class. If you remember, I had just finished doing the Soul Restoration I class last week, and I have been impatiently waiting for this second class to start. Well, it has, and the homework for this week has me delving deep into who I am and what I want! Even though I have done this kind of work in the past, I can tell that this time is gonna be different! I am not sure if it is because Melody Ross, our fearless leader,  is so amazing, or if it is because I am pairing this soul-work with creating art, or if it is because I am really truly ready for this!! Who cares? I am ready, and I am so excited to see what the next few months brings!! and of course,my lovelies, I will keep you all posted!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

 

 

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

Motivational Quote of the Day!

Here is your motivational quote for today!

“The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out who you are, seek to determine what you want to be.”
~Neale Donald Walsch

Have a FABULOUS afternoon!! ;-)

A Day of New Labels!

Good evening!

I tried posting this morning, but alas, my other PC was misbehaving!! So, let’s try this again!

This morning after doing my morning pages, I realized that I live my life with all of these labels all over myself that I either have given to myself, or I have let other people put on me. Labels like nerd, dork, chicken, unworthy, fat, etc.

So, today I decided to create new labels for myself. Empowering labels like,

  • Spiritual
  • Creative
  • Healthy
  • Photographer
  • Writer
  • Traveler
  • Entrepreneur

When I hear these new labels they get me excited about the possibilities of what can be, and they feel like they are true to the authentic me. I think that is a HUGE step in my journey to create myself, and all that “Self” entails!!!

What labels have you given yourself? What labels have you let others give you? If you can re-label yourself with any labels you wanted what would they be. Please let me know in the comment section above, I would love to hear your thoughts!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!