I believe in myself

I believe that the Universe always arranges situations for us which we need in that moment. It happens to teach us something, or to open our eyes to notice something, or simply to help us to learn a bit about our self. 

Last week I ran into a hungarian lady in the middle of town and we had a short chat. We never met before, so it was quite interesting the way she suddenly started to talk about me like she knew exactly what kind of person I was. I needed to meet her that day. She came to help me.

I don't think I ever said that it was easy to be an artist. Because it wasn't. I believe I try my very best to create beautiful artwork and try what I can to promote it. But as she opened my eyes I am not doing all I could about promoting, because I don't talk about my art constantly whereever I go.

This week I had a situation on the bus where I was feeling exactly this. I never have conversations in the street or on a bus with strangers. And this time a lady beside me seemed like she was interested. She asked me if I was going to work, but instead of giving her my business card I said I had an appointment and stopped talking. I didn't want to tell her about my appointment, but felt uncomfortable mentioning that I actually work from home, because I am an artist. I played the situation in my head a couple of times, but then I did nothing. I wish I was more brave. I wish I was better at promoting myself. I wish I believed in myself more.

That day, the nice hungarian lady advised me to make a painting just for myself, with the title "I believe in myself" Well, today I did it, and it looks so beautiful that I actually do believe in myself, so next week I will try to go a step further and do something brave.

Here is this pretty little lady, who believes in herself:

I believe in myself 5x7" print

I listed it on my website, because I thought I was not the only one who needed a little reminder to believe in myself. 

In case anyone wanted to give some support to help me believe in myself more, feel free to visit my website or Etsy shop and order that little something you have been thinking about since, it would make such a difference! Thank you!

New paintings

I think I finally recovered from the spring holidays. I found the most beautiful patterned papers for my paintings in a shop I'd never look for them and started to use them right away. Next day I had to get some new canvases, that's how inspired I feel.

The first print is already listed on my website, will have to list it on Etsy as well. The original will only be available on my website though.

I already loved it at this stage:

And here is the ready artwork:

Let your kindness shine like the sun 5x7" print

And here is the second ready artwork:

You are here to let miracles happen 5x7" print

I can't believe I almost forgot how much happiness it gives me when I paint. Today this 2 paintings were the only thing I did. I haven't done any cleaning what I planned for today (oops), but it's really rare that whatever I do on the canvas looks good, so I thought it would be better not to stop. 

There is still some more in progress, can't wait to continue with those.

Next week I'll have an exciting new venture, more on this later.

I wish you all a lovely weekend!

What I have been up to...

After a little blog-silence here I am to tell you what I have been up to recently. Go and get a cuppa, it may be a long one...

The spring holidays made me think a lot. I felt upset a lot of the times that I couldn't take my daughter to some interesting place, because I don't have a car and we only went out a couple of times when our friends took us out (we are lucky girls), but it would be so nice to just go down, sit in the car and go. I would like to be free. I have been planning to learn how to drive for years now, but there was always some reason (mostly financial) that I couldn't start. Now I'm not going to let it go. I will start it no matter what. I have got the theory dvd from my little sister, so that's a good starting point, then I will magically get some money for the driving as well... I so want to do this for my little girl. I feel horrible sometimes when I'm taking her to school in the rain, or dragging her shopping and all those kind of things... Please send me some positive energy to be able to start it, I would so appreciate it!

My living room colour scheme make-over went on really well in the holidays. I did some surprisingly good changes and I think they look awesome. Let me show you some examples:

This was a jar (spaghetti bolognese from the polish shop, yes, I'm not kidding), I painted the inside with acrylic paint mixed with a little water, without using any brush, just moving the paint-water mixture in the inside of the jar, then removed the excess. Once dried I decorated it a little lace and that's it, a pretty new vase. Made some more of this, will need to get some more flowers : )

This clock was once lime green, and after a little nail polish, it looks like new and matches my new colour scheme a lot better : )

I love this photo of us, but hated the golden frame it was in until I changed it : ) Don't forget to take off the photo in case you do this project! I first applied a thick layer of white gesso to cover all the gold and to create a nice tooth for the acrylic paint. I intentionally left some of the white show, I think it looks a lot better this way, than if I created a solid red colour. And we got a new frame!

Then there was an other thing that made me pretty nervous these days. My daughter had baptism today and I was stressing over the cake quite a bit. I have to admit that I only made one cake before that was covered with icing. (before I always made chocolate covered ones) And my friends say it was quite good, I was very worried about this one. What if the icing gets wrinkles or tears, what if I can't write on it properly, what if the flowers turn out ugly... loads of scary things for an amateur. Have a look at the preparation:

I made 80 little flowers, used 75 at the end, so it was quite a good guess. : )

Got this kit to help me form the letters. I slightly pressed each word into the cake, then used the icing bag with a tiny hole on the end to write... with very shaky hand... Note to self: next time practice it more before you write wriggly letters on the cake! : )

I thought icing was my enemy, but we are getting closer now, next time I'm only going to worry about the letters, the icing actually went pretty well.

This is the result : ) What do you think? (I do take constructive criticism, it was only my second iced cake, I know I need to practice this a lot more and I would be very happy to learn)

And here is my pretty girl, she was so happy to dress up like this, and that I let her hair down. She is a real girl : )  I realized this in the spring holiday too (I told you I was thinking a lot), that whatever I do it's because I want to make her happy. I started my business because of her, I want to drive because of her, I got baptized because of her (I never mentioned that here, but now you know) and I want my business to get successful, because I want to show her that you can achieve your dreams if you really work hard. She is my best supporter and the best daughter I could have wished for. Ok, I'm getting sentimental now, better stop it here : )

Now that the cake making is not in the way anymore, next week I'll have a lot of work to do. Have some almost ready paintings to finish and some serious projects in the works, I hope not to disappear for this long again. See you soon! : )

Let's get healthy!

Recently I had a feeling, that I should really do something about my diet. I don't pay any attention to what I eat, I have far too much thing to do, I'm usually happy if I have any idea what to eat next at all. I'm sure I haven't eaten nowhere near my 5-a-day. And the worst thing is that, I had no idea how to change this.

Sometimes I have some healthy eating madness, and go to buy some fruits and vegetables, but that's it, I eat one when I get home - if I'm lucky - and then forget about the rest... This was going to have to change!

Unfortunately I'm sure I would not be able to change my cooking habits much, so what else I could do?

Then I had the idea to get a juicer. Oh my! Just bought it yesterday and I feel, now we are healthy! Those beautiful fresh fruits when I prepare them for the big juicing, I wish I took a photo that stage! Simply gorgeous!

We started with fruits, though added carrots and beet root already, even a small piece of cucumber. My daughter doesn't like the idea of the green juice, but with some trick I'm sure we will get there.

Today we went for a princess drink. She would never eat beet root just like that. Look what I did with it:

Pretty, isn't it? : ) She finished it all!

If you were thinking of getting a juicer, I would say go for it! It's the best thing to drink all those vitamins. : )

Get magic into your life

Dreams are very important to me. I call myself a dreamer and I am proud of it. I love dreaming about every aspects of my life. It's not that I only dream about my life, but I also make plans how to make them come true. I believe this is quite a process.

I love making mess when I'm painting, but otherwise I need to be organized. I need rules, and systems that make things easier. And I can't live without lists. I have every kinds of lists. My dreams are on a list as well. I love ticking them off. And I love adding new dreams to my list too!

Let's make a list to outline the way I do it:

• list your dreams
• prioritize your dreams
• break them down to smaller pieces
• make another list about the small steps (as small as possible)
• start working down the list
• imagine your dreams coming true soon, get excited
• tick off the steps that are done
• create another list about the amazing things happening to you to remind you to go on, in case   you fell off the track
• celebrate your dreams coming true
• make new dreams

The list of amazing things is a bonus. You can keep it for as long as you want and you can look back and always remember those small things that made you happy one day. If you haven't listed them you would have forgotten them long time ago.

Another important list for you to make, and you can keep this going daily if you like... List the things you are grateful for. 

If you are positive and happy for what you already got, it's a lot easier to get what you don't have yet. Before you get upset about something you haven't got (yet), think about what you are grateful for. You will be surprised how much you got already. With this kind of thinking it will only grow.

Are you a list keeper too? What kind of lists do you keep? 

Please note, whenever I talk about dreams, I mean the ones we have while we are awake, not those ones we get when we are sleeping ; )