Inspirational Image for a Monday

Today's Inspirational Image is from Chapter 10 of my book, Walk In Your Own Footsteps. When we share loving, uplifting, and supportive news about our friends and family, we spread love. When we engage in gossip, we do just to opposite. Sometimes, it's helpful to evaluate what information we share and make sure it conveys the love we want to transmit with our words and actions.

Have a blessed week!!

Inspirational Image

Getting ready for the Mariposa Festival

Happy Monday!!

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Day of the dead skull to be used for a pendant

Hey, there! I hope that your Monday morning is full of promise for the coming week. Since my mom, Maralee Lowder, and I are heading south to the Mariposa Festival this weekend, I'm going to be out in the garden shed creating pendants for the event. It's kinda funny. I have made so many butterfly pendants so far, yet the new images I've been working on are "day of the dead" skulls. It's been fun to do something so different. To follow you'll see what I came up with. I just love the imagery, especially the bright colors

Special Mother's Day painting for a wild momma's pendant

Sunflowers always make me feel happy inside. This one will make such a cute pendant.

I had a wonderful time teaching classes at Trezher's Gift and Gallery in Sacramento. The students came up with wonderful projects. I find it so humbling to offer a group of people a framework to create within, then watch them come up with completely unique works of art. The shop owner was so happy with the class that they booked four more for the coming year!

That's me on the right, teaching a class at Trezhers Gift shop in Sacramento, CA

Enjoying Success

Sunflower painting for pendant

Hey, all! 

Today I'm crazy busy getting ready for the last night of the gallery exhibit at Little Relics and getting materials together for my class tomorrow. I've been feeling overwhelmed by all the activity I'm doing related to my book and art. The last few days I've actually been thinking, "once this stuff is over I'll be able to get back to my real life." Funny, huh!?! I've been working my booty off to get my businesses going and now that I'm seeing success, I'm stressed because I'm behind on the laundry... *sigh*

So, I've decided that I'm going to stop worrying about what I'm not doing and enjoy what I AM doing! I thought I'd share a sunflower mini mini paintings with you, today.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Laura P.

Creativity, Commerce, and How to Measure Success

Things have been really taking off for my art business lately. It's been awesome! I've met amazing people and had so much fun. I'm feeling successful at promoting my art. Am I making tons of money? Well... no.

Walk In Your Own Footsteps is doing well, too. People contact me to tell me how much the book has helped. I've been creating Inspirational Images on a regular basis and people are enjoying those, too. Does this mean I'm making gobs of moolah? Well... no.

So, today I've been evaluating my definition of success. Do I strictly measure success with dollar signs, or is it also about waking up excited about my life and sharing my joy and hope with others. Obviously, I consider the latter to be as important as financial reward. But, I gotta admit, increased financial reward would be a cool.

All this being said, I'm happy to be working from home and available for my family. I LOVE knowing that, when I'm artistically inspired, it is my JOB to bring the ideas in my head into the world. I don't have to feel guilty for taking time to create, it's what I'm supposed to do!

Today's Inspirational Image reminds us that when we judge each other we create distance, and when we accept people we can experience love. Today, I choose to love. I hope that you do, too.

Blessings,
Laura P.

choose love

Sugar Blues

For the last few days, I've been kicking a sugar monkey that's been on my back for too long. Just like ridding ourselves of any vice, sugar has been a worthy adversary. I've been cranky, had headaches... not to mention cravings. Oh, and don't let me start about the social pressure. Everywhere I look there's cute cupcakes, yummy looking cookies, ice cream, hmmmm. 

I'm sharing this because eliminating sugar from my diet is not any different than letting go of any addiction. We can become addicted to alcohol, drugs, food, cigarettes... Those are obviously addicting substances. But we can also become addicted to our own chemical process when we are in certain situations such as drama-filled relationships, risky behavior, anger and rage. The bottom line is that kicking addiction is tough. It doesn't matter if it's an obviously bad drug, a negative behavior, or a socially acceptable one, changing behavior is rough. 

If you are living with a behavior that you feel is not good for you, you have the power to choose again and let that go. It may not be easy, but it will be worth it! 

Blessings,

Laura P.

Take actions that support your own personal walk

Living our best lives

I have lived parts of my life thinking that I just needed to hold on till things got better. That's not a bad way to live, sometimes it's the only way to survive things. However, some of those years I could have been enjoying the company of people I would have to say goodbye to and I didn’t even know it at the time. I also lived in a nice home, had good friends, and many other neat benefits that I didn’t fully enjoy. I was so busy white-knuckling the scary stuff, I missed much of the nice parts. And, of course, much of what I feared never happened anyway.

Today, I try every day to focus on the wonderful people and good things in my life. Letting fear of the future hurt my present is very destructive, so I avoid that fervently. Choosing to live our best lives every moment of every day, is the best way to have happy productive lives.

Blessings,

Laura P.

Good choices inspire courage

 

Spring Fever Friday

Hi, all! Sorry I missed you yesterday, my youngest son is home sick and that became my priority. He's going to get better today, medicine has been called in and we'll go get it in a bit.

I think, like many people, I have this feeling that when I finish a project I'm working on right now, life will get easier somehow. That once this big thing I have going is done, I'll be able to do the stuff I want to do. Or, at least the things I think I should do.

When I was 21 (25 years ago) I was working on my wedding and told a co-worker that I would be glad when it was over and life would settle down. She just laughed. She said life never settles down. I think she's right. I think, now, that the trick is to make sure that what our lives are full of is stuff we want. Every time we say "yes" instead of "no" to what we don't want, we stuff we don't want to become priorities in our lives. We are giving up what we want in favor of what we don't. Work is a necessity for most of us. Making the best of it is a first step to living happily ever after. Second, is definitely carefully choosing how we spend our "not working" time.

Remember the immortal words of John Lennon, "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." Life is made up of what we actually do, not what we plan to do, or intend to do. It is always only the actual action that we take. I hope that this weekend you find some real big fun in your life and enjoy every minute of it.

Blessings,
Laura P.

ps. I'm especially pleased that today's inspirational image is from my own art work. I hope you enjoy it.

It's Spring and everyone is busy!

I have the gardening bug bad this year. No insects, fortunately, but the desire to get outside and play in the dirt is irresistible. I'm not the only one around my house with the bug, either. My sweetie went to home improvement centers yesterday to get supplies for a raised veggie bed with me. When we got finished running around, I went to lay down for 5 minutes... (my code for a nap) and was so pleased to watch large shiny black birds outside my window snapping twigs off a tree for their nest. There were two of them in the tree. One working away, the other supervising. I couldn't help but speculate as to which was the male. I'll never know, but they seemed to be working together. So, work has waited while I enjoy the garden. I'd call it working in the garden, but it's so much fun, I can't think of it that way. :)

Today's Inspirational Image has no pictures. It's the first of it's kind. I was working on the words and decided that I didn't want to distract from the message with any images. I don't know if I'll do many of these, we'll see how well received it is. I like it though. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Blessings,
Laura P.

Wrapping things up & making decisions

The last few months have felt like a crazy swirl of activity. I have so many projects in process that I am in danger of being strangled by all the loose ends. So, I'm gonna make a list (yeah, I know another list) and start finishing projects and wrapping things up. Starting with getting my book off to the publisher and including organizing my kid's bedrooms. Whew! The list seems daunting already. But, worth it. 

While on a walk a couple of weeks ago, I saw the sign I used for today's Inspirational Image. I laughed out loud because it contradicts itself within a couple of feet! It got me thinking of how so many of us have been taught to look outside ourselves for guidance. Often times, the people and institutions we trust to lead us are not very good at directing us and we really need to learn to make decisions for ourselves. Be it church, school, or other people in general, many of us allow others to direct our lives. Isn't it time to start making our own choices and live with the outcomes? Good or bad, they are the result of our own choices. 

Well, I guess that’s it for me today. I hope you have a wonderful day and make good choices for yourselves.

Blessings,

Laura P.