Three weeks of work
Three weeks of work
Building Love
Nature Faces
Its been awhile since my last post. Was anyone else’s holidays crazy this year? Yesterday was the first day I was able to get back into my artistic groove.
Soon I’ll be preparing for the “Spring into the Arts” art walk in my hometown. I think this year I’ll offer custom on the spot nature leaves and commissions for nature portraits. We shall see 😁. The good news is I’m back. See ya next week!
Playing in the Fog
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This winter in Michigan has been pretty different from previous years. We started off with a later snowfall and shortly after it has since melted away, which has made for a lot of foggy days. Luckily, I’ve been fortunate enough to capture the mysterious winter fog on two of my days off <3.
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On this particular day I had to get work done on my car, on my way back I saw this scene and quickly ran home to pickup my camera. This inspiring moment lead me to a spontaneous long adventure of aimlessly exploring the back roads. When I stopped on the quiet roads, I made sure to put on my car’s hazard lights, just in case.
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I was captivated by the sight of this fog. Looking deeper into the reason behind its allurement I came to an interesting discovery. Fog hides what can normally be seen and shows something that normally is not seen, water in a sort of gaseous state. No longer a liquid(rain) or a solid (snowflake), but suspended in-between the heavens and the earth. There is still a mystery to it though, that I still can’t define…
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As the fog lifted I continued my three hour adventure and ended it peacefully at the “John Wilson Park” in Athens ❤ where I left my snow hearts trademark.
Woods Shrouded in White
12-14-18
I won’t go into too much detail about this day other than hearing the rain lightly fall was breath taking! That and I really learned a lot about my camera’s lighting settings.
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Do you ever have moments when you feel one with your surroundings? I tend to get little “messages” from nature when I connect to these places in time….
When I was taking pictures, I happened to gaze on something in between the double paned glass. I laughed when my focus came upon a water droplet that had dried in the shape of a heart ❤ Wow!
Short Break
With the holidays quickly approaching , I have decided to take a short break and will begin again on the 3rd of January. May you all have a wonderful holiday and a happy New Year! ^_^ ❤
Expansion of Gratitude
Today marks 30 days of writing in my gratitude journal. I’ve never been able to finish a whole month before, so this day is special to me. So I thought I’d share some of my pages with you ❤ ! As you will see I don’t really limit myself in any way of how I’m supposed to write the things I am grateful for. I just kind of go with how I feel in that moment:
Little Surprises
I touched on some of the effects of focusing on this practice in the last post “Self Care”, but I thought I’d elaborate on it more in this post.
- I’ve been witnessing myself thinking about things that I am grateful for as they arise throughout the day.
- I’ve been telling friends and loved ones how much I am truly grateful to have them in my life.
- I’ve noticed I feel, hear and see the gratitude’s that people have of myself and they are so much easier to accept.
- Life just seems fuller and more true, if that makes any sense…
This experience has been quite profound for me, and I’m glad I take the time each day and night to write 5 things that I am grateful for. I think I’ll continue it another month 😉 . Oh! And I’ve even started seeing hearts in nature again. ❤ I’ll leave you with this last picture and then see you again next week! ❤ (((Hugs)))!
Can you see the love? ❤
Self Care
Burned down by my own flames, a Phoenix rises….
Transforming
A couple of months ago I mysteriously disappeared from the blog without warning. The day after my last post I had lost all control of myself and where I was going. I needed a break, one that would force me to slow down completely, change aspects inside and out that weren’t working, and to rebuild the way I talked to myself. After 3 months, I finally feel like myself again and I am grateful I’ve done the work to get here. The majority of tools that I’ve used were from my psychologist and from self exploration of TEDx talks on YouTube. If life ever gets you down in the future, I hope these daily tasks can help you as much as they have me. ❤
Gratitude Journals
This past month I’ve paid more attention to my own self care. I colored and designed the gratitude book above to write in every day and have kept it up since November 6th. I like to write about the things I’m grateful for with colorful gel pens, my inner child likes it that way and the more colors mixed in the better, lol. I even get creative and draw pictures or doodle in spots. I write 5 things I am grateful for before bed and in the morning.
This daily practice has ignited spontaneous gratitudes throughout the day, which is a pretty interesting shift. If I forget to write the extra ones down, I remind myself that I said them earlier in the day and that is okay too. I’ve heard of the positive effects of writing down gratitude’s before, but now I whole heartedly understand it’s benefits.
Morning Pick Me Ups
I have this saying taped to the first lamp I turn on each morning. Instead of “It’s gonna be a great day,” I edited BJ Fogg’s Maui Habit to better suite my personality by saying wonderful. I even throw my arms up in the air with enthusiasm! This has had a good effect on how I wake up for work each day, lol. Not gonna lie, some days just don’t turn out, but I have noticed a change in my waking up routine being more positive. Which I still see as a gain 😉 .
Mirror Reminders
***Written with a dry erase marker***
This talk really inspired me 🙂 ❤ . I find myself saying this phrase whenever I feel self conscious about myself throughout the day and I say it in a way like I’d talk to a child (with excitement and a high pitched voice, lol).
YOU ARE ENOUGH
This is also written on my mirror with a dry erase marker. I got this idea of reminding myself “I am enough” from Marisa Peer’s talk. Over the years I’ve struggled with the thought of not being enough, having enough, or living enough, so this one really hit home for me. I haven’t added a daily reminder to my phone yet, but plan to try it out this week 🙂 .
Knowing Your Wants and Needs
I didn’t know what I wanted or what my needs were when I was lost in my stresses a few months back, but when I stopped and really thought about what was important to me, they started to emerge. One other Mirror reminder that I say to myself is to honor my own self love and care so I made it personal. I break down my needs of massages, exercise, and creative outlets into a more playful phrase:
“I need touch, movement, attention, and play from myself. These are my needs and I intend to seduce myself with them.”
Lol. I got the seduce myself part from a different talk, that I can’t seem to find but, it felt right because it sounds more interesting to fall in love with yourself through seduction. I’m consciously enticing myself to be more attentive to my needs and accomplishing them. I have briefly loved myself before but it was kind of an ego approach of wanting to “Be good.” I want to create such a strong and solid foundation so that the next time I build a glass castle, I will still remember a love for myself that is concrete and constant.
“Setting the Heart Free”
Loving Myself So I Can Love The World
I no longer wish to give my heart and self love away to others, instead I am creating a love so strong in myself that it overflows my own needs and helps heal others, even the world. It may be a tall order, but lately I feel anything is possible as long as I stay true to who I really am. ❤ (((HUGS))) Thank you for listening my friends, I am ever so grateful of you. See you next Thursday! You Are Enough 😉 !
Simple Beauty Day 43
Shine through,
shows true,
The heart inside,
Continues to thrive.
Simple Beauty Day 42
Persicaria Maculosa ~ I have no idea how to pronounce this plant, lol. But it was pretty ❤ 😊.
Simple Beauty Day 41
The life of rain gives life to others and makes them so much more than what they were. ❤
Guest Post:Dal Shoesmith
I’m really excited to write this post about a local artist in my hometown! I was really inspired by all of his work, as you’ll see 😉.
This past Sunday my mother and I went to a gathering that we bought tickets for during the heart of art event, back in May. Dal Shoesmith, the artist, showed everyone who attended the ceramic process of Raku.
The Raku party was hosted at the artist and his wife’s charming home. Everywhere you looked you would find art.
From the beautiful gardens.
To the pottery that seemed to blend in with the natural surroundings.
The variety of his work really made me feel better about my own variety of art. That its okay to do something different with your medium of choice ❤.
I think I was also inspired by his connection with nature and how his work flows with the wind, birds and greenery.
I found this piece in his workshop and felt like nature was curious about his art and process as well 😉😊.
Okay after gushing about his museum like home 😊 back to the special event! Raku!
The piece I went home with was the one on the left ❤.
He showed us how he takes a raku piece that’s been in a hot kiln and places it in a trash can filled with combustible materials, like shredded paper. After a while, he takes the piece out and sprays it with water, then dowses it when it cools down a bit.
One cool thing I learned was that during the kiln to trash can process, the longer a piece is exposed to the air it will quickly start to oxidize and turn more green. So its important to move fast unless that is what you want on the pottery.
To learn more about Raku, I found this interesting link.
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/category/firing-techniques/raku-firing/
Just a Bit More
I’d like to end this post with a few more of the other wonderful work that Dal is known for around town, his gnomes.
I just love their faces and attention to detail! 💞 Here’s one last piece that bid us farewell as we left this fun experience…
I am soo grateful that my mother bought tickets for this event. I got so much more out of it than I ever imagined! That and I ran into my awesome 5th grade art teacher again 😊 too!
I look forward to his future showings and for chances to meet other local artists! Till then, see you next week for another guest post about local artist Emma Nightingale. ❤
Simple Beauty Day 40
I found this leaf on my walk today and just love the colors! 🍃💞
