I wrote this little poem on our travels, in the RV. I was thinking about dreaming big, not giving up… doing good things, enoying family, letting your inner light shine, and serving a higher purpose.
It reads:
The world is a heavy weight
upon the shoulders
What will give you strength?
Will you buckle beneath
the weight?
Will you stand up and be great?
Will you listen
when your soul cries out?
Or ignore it and let the fire
burn out?
Will you let the world
pass you by?
With inaction, distraction…
compromise?
Or, will you be deliberate
in every step you take?
Will you walk toward your
goal… Daily, not wait?
What will it take for you to
wake up from your slumber,
To walk in the light, in all
God’s wonder?
What calls you? I would love to hear from you, please do share in the comments below 🙂
Just wanted to share this with you all. It’s something I have struggled with recently, and I’m trying to put my foot down and break out! Raaaaaaawwwwrr! It’s time we allow ourselves the freedom to be who we are, who we want to be, who we aspire to be, imperfections and all…
For me, I don’t know if it was because I had kids or because I became a Christian, but around that time, my concept of self and ego went right out the door. It seams like I lost myself.
‘I gave my children everything I had, but I think I let my own light diminish a little.’ (CLICK TO TWEET)
Christine Hassler
For a long time, I felt like I was at the grind, trying to just be a good parent and a good person. Trying to be PERFECT… and failing completely because we can’t be perfect, right, no matter how hard we try. Realizing my imperfections, I thought, why not take it even further? I proceeded to (figuratively) flog myself for my failures.
I do this with art, too. I have even projected my perfectionism onto my oldest daughter (Ok, that was hard to share, but it’s true. She tries so hard to be perfect, just like me.) After constantly scrutinizing myself, I started to feel like a failure, as a person. Can you relate to this at all?
Gosh, this is pretty heavy conversation here… So, why am I telling you all this? Well, for starters, I want to change. A good way to change, is to verbalize it. Second, maybe you feel similar and we can relate. Or maybe you (like me) need to give yourself permission go let YOUR light shine!
Let’s see what Christine has to say about it, over on The Daily Love, and then please do come back to share how YOU feel! Isn’t it time we consciously seek joy and goodness, and spend our time laughing…. playing…. joking….!
Finally, here is a fabulous little affirmation graphic from my sweet friend and cohort, Ohn Mar Win. Remember YOU ARE enough!
I mean….. Doesn’t everyone want to live authentic? It’s not as if we want to live fake, haha. But seriously, can we ever truly live totally authentic? Can we ever truly ‘Let Go’ and just be who we want to be? And why am I asking this question after all? Well, when it comes to blogging, I feel like a total failure, seriously. I never know what you would like to ‘get’ from my blog, what can I give to make it worthwhile? I know I totally rock 😛 but will you? And then, how much of me do I let you see?
Of course, we probably all wonder if others even have time to stop in. Why should they, they have busy lives, right? …..And I’m practically a stranger? So, I decided to take a nice little online course at Creative Live called Build a Successful Creative Blog, by April Bowles, to find out how to carry on with this bloggy stuff.
So, that class was awesome! It gave me tons of ideas and thoughts on blogging…. In honor of it, we are doing a blog tour where we all give our favorite blogging take-aways from the course. If you can catch the free rebroadcast, totally do it, but it’s way worth the purchase, if you can swing it (plus then you can re watch at your own convenience) So….What was all that GOOD STUFF!?! Well, I couldn’t possibly tell it all here. So, I will tell you 11 of MY take-aways:
Give freely
Build trust with your readers by giving them something of use.
Hmmm… What would you like?? Feel free to comment below.
Build anticipation
Anticipation builds excitement, which in turn makes your business fun. Yay fun!
Share your best (don’t be scurred, there will be more)
Always share your best. Don’t hold onto it in fear that you won’t create something new and wonderful. The act of sharing actually helps you to generate the new ideas and acts like fuel to your creativity and business.
Plus, your gift will be totally awesome, rather than less than best.
Ways to monetize
April gets you thinking about how you can monetize your blog with your own business and talents. Think monthly subscriptions, retreats etc.
How to find and build your tribe… and add them to your circle
Joining groups, comment on blogs of people you would like to be buds with. Don’t lurk and stalk, engage.
Be yourself (be authentic)
But how? 🙂 …. Write like you’re talking to your BFF, that way you attract similar people. Oooh good idea! Plus, fake people suck and eventually, others will see who you really are, so it’s better to be yourself, no surprises.
Make subscribing easy (oops, I blew it)
You should make it easy for people to follow your blog and have a newsletter for easy sign up
How to generate blogging ideas (yes please!)
April gives us some blogging ideas in the course that pertain to our businesses and she also blogged
“52 Blog Post Topics for Creative Entrepreneurs.“
Blog regularly
People like consistency. They like to know when to expect another post. Plus, it’s more professional. It gives you credibility.
Get a notebook (Love this idea!! Great way to infuse yourself into your blog!)
Divide it into sections and write down ideas when they come into your mind.
Stuff I love, Stuff I hate, Stories of my Life, Things I Find Funny, Favorite Words, Attention grabbing headlines, things to remember
You’re suppose to struggle
Remember, it takes time to get there. Have faith, you will get there! Enjoy the process, YOLO.
These were just the tip of the iceberg! Check out these links to continue on with the tour and hear from other bloggers who took the class:
So, back to living authentic…. Do you ever feel like you have bottled yourself up so much in perfectionism, that you don’t even know where to begin cracking the glass you’ve encapsulated yourself in? …To get to the person you want to be? Well, I do. You ever just want to break out of your norm? I love change. What exactly does living authentic mean? Well, you don’t need a list on this one, just follow your heart. Problem is, what if your heart changes depending on how the wind blows?
Today I am a watercolor painting, Roxy or OP kind of girl. It is Summer after all. On a cool day, it might be acrylic painting with a scarf tied around my head, long brown hair flowing, no make up, puffy eyes, Boho style kind of girl. What does your ‘authentic’ look like?
My totally awesome hubby of 19 years got me these awesome artisan earrings! EEk! Now, I don’t get excited about jewelry often, but these are breathtaking! Love them! and him! He is so thoughtful!
Okay, so, if you want to see this artists other amazing work, check out her BOLDB Etsy page!
The care instructions that I received from Britta:
The best way to clean the wood and resin would be with conventional spray cleaner which you first spray on a cloth and then clean the surface with the cloth. Later you can put 1 or 2 drops of vegetable oil on a cloth and rub it in ( not too much). This makes the wood and resin look more shiny.
To clean the earring hooks a disinfection spray which you can usually get from jewellery would be a good choice.
There was a time when I never thought I could become a professional artist because I wasn’t sure how I could embrace new work (and still keep it mine). I felt resistance & doubt about my own abilities. Lilla Rogers reassuringly maps it out for you, but this is no get “commercial art” quick scheme, where you just read the directions and now you know…. It’s the experience, as a whole, that teaches you. It’s everything! … The directions, the guidance, the gentle reassurance, the experiences, the community, the freshness, the explosion of ideas!
Wow! Mats A and B have really taught me how to get past those issues, and SO much more!! These are invaluable lesson to ANYONE even considering commercial art, and most definitely, your straightest path to your commercial art goals! I feel confident now, that the only thing that could possibly hold me back, is my own inactivity.
Thanks so much for EVERYTHING, Lilla and Beth, for the fabulous course & art soul nourishment!
Please, don’t hesitate to ASK questions below or make comments based on your own experiences!
Vivayne 🙂
Let me share this cute little video made by Antonija M, a MATS alumni.
Just popping in today to show you this little tidbit of designs inspired by jiggly, wiggly….Jell-0….. Yep, that’s right Jell-0, as in the molds, the squares, the shots! oops...shhhh…
In February, I signed up for the Lilla Roger’s bootcamp course to help me build my portfolio. This bootcamp is nothing like the first bootcamp I ever attended for the Air Force, no no, this one is much more fun!
You get one assignment per month, for 6 months, and yep, you guessed it, the March assignment was gelatin inspired!
So, at first I was resistant, because I’m a REBEL like that… hmmm, what can I do here?… but then as I started drawing, it all just POUREDOUT! I was also INSPIRED by my daughter, who just turned 9, hence the reason I didn’t run with the RUM AND TEQUILA version I had in my head, haha. I did toy with red hair (which was great) and then brown hair, but IN THE END, went back to that blondish. I’m sure I will PLAY around with that in the future. I had a lot of FUN with this, drawing it, coloring it.
I am hoping to work myself out of this pillow SLING as soon as the physical therapist gives me the go, and REVISIT this design! I have lots of other tidbits to add and I really want to DEVELOP this into something more than this single image. So if you like this, FRET NOT, I will be re-visiting it to add some patterns and play with color, etc. What kind of surface COULD YOU see these tidbits on? Or maybe a pattern of these designs on?
I submitted a super LIGHT version to the Lilla Rogers bootcamp page, but I think adjusting the levels (as above) helped, as you can see the difference.
Trying to smile through the pain for a selfie. just had shoulder surgery on Friday. Hey, can we just count this as my no make up breast cancer awareness pic, its all the rage on FB right now.. Thank goodness for instagram editing! I’m out of commission from drawing at the time. It’s putting a cramp in my creativity for sure.
This is really effecting my MATS class. Hooked up to calf compressor & icing machine. Compression socks & shoulder sling…ugh. Kind of stuck being attached to this machine.
But as you can see, I made it through the surgery, safe & sound yay, so it’s on to physical therapy, bleh. I will try to post some pictures of some previously made arts. I have a jello project to share with you, when I am up to sitting with the laptop. I’m posting from my cell phone.
Hi all, just wanted to share this little invite with you. I had to do it in a hurry so I nabbed some images I had setting aside that I still needed to develop. What do you think?
Guess what? I received the following email about my newest cuckoo design, it said:
Hello Vivayne,
Congrats! We’re excited to let you know that your Print “The Great Cuckoo Escape” has been selected to be included in the Society6 Shop.
The Great Cuckoo Escape – Home Deco
That means, not only is my newest cuckoo design in my personal Society6 store, it is also in the main Society6 store! Yay.
….And, even better news is that they gave me an AWESOME discount to promote my shop, so of course, I placed my order!! See the picture above 🙂 I can’t wait for it to arrive!
So, the deal is FREE SHIPPING and 5 BUCKS OFF and here is a PROMOTION link in case you feel like shopping too! I have only a few designs up so far. I should get some more in there!
Here is the original design I have posted on the Lilla Rogers website. I ended up cleaning up some of the texture for the phone case in Society6 though:
