July 4th Favorites - Yummy, Crafty and Fun Home Decor

Halloween: Doors & Front Porches

Easter DIY - Fun Things to Create

Halloween Decor Favorites

 

Garden Favorites

 Make your outside world beautiful and functional with unique
Garden Favorites from small businesses in the United States. 
See more here.

A To Do List Art Piece that will Make You Happier Every Day

I love To-Do Lists (like that surprises you). I've got lists for everything. There's something about those little check marks that make me feel like I've accomplished something (and that I actually have a little control over my hectic life). But even if you complete your list, it's only for a short time, and you'll only to have more items to complete later on.

So how about a To-Do List that makes you happier every day? 

I put together some of my favorites in a bright mixed media art piece. Focus on these each day and, you can have a life that's full of more joy, and more peace, and whole lot more happiness.

Encourage Someone 

(a compliment, a happy word, people love to be noticed)

Laugh A Lot 

(there's usually something funny - even in the not-so-funny moments)

Try Something New 

(keep learning, be bold, get out of your rut)

Say Thank You 

(such a lost art - if you don't express gratitude, you're expressing ingratitude)

Listen with Your Heart 

(not just your ears, look beneath the surface of the words) 

Enjoy the Little Things

(make a concerted effort to look for moments of joy)

Be Yourself 

(it's exhausting to keep a mask on - put it away and let the real you shine through)

To Do List by CreativeSteph13

Hope you accomplish everything on THIS TO-DO List.

Love, Steph

BEE Art...................Bee Happy

Bee Happy, Kind, Strong and True

 

Hope you'll BEE Happy this week!!! 

Love, Steph

Prints available in my online Etsy Shop

Make Everyday an Excellent Adventure - New Art & a New Way of Living

When I left my corporate job years ago, one thing I promised myself was to enjoy life more. To jump off the never ending, always busy, no time to breathe, treadmill that unfortunately is most of our lives. Rest, relaxation and fun was something you tried to fit in when the work was done (and it never was). 

 Oh the Places You'll Go - Dr. Suess

Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventure.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things - Henry Miller

So I have since decided to try and make each day an Excellent Adventure. And make sure I schedule fun on my calendar, along with work, not just wait for "when things aren't so busy". 

And you don't have to go anywhere to have an adventure. Adventures are big and small. Sometimes it's hitting the road to discover new places and sometimes you discover something in your own backyard or in a book or in a moment. It's just a matter of looking.

I would have loved to have learned this when I was getting ready to head off to college or start a new job. When our focus gets smaller and smaller until it's only the size of studying for our next exam or working on that next project, or staying later and later and later at our job, just to play catch up. (Hindsight is always 20/20). 

I worked on this piece on and off for several months and just hung it on the wall in my office (to help remind me to get out of my office). 

Hope you have an excellent adventure this week!

Simplifying and Soul Whispers

Beware the barrenness of a busy life. Socrates

Focus on being productive instead of busy. Tim Ferris

Never get so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life.

So many of us have busy, busy, busy lives.
Is your typical response to the question of "How are you?" an automatic response of "I'm So Busy."
We are surrounded by a culture that constantly says your life isn't good enough until it has more.
Busy is better. Do more, Work more, Buy more.
MORE, MORE, MORE.

Do you feel that you have so much on your plate that you can't enjoy or appreciate what's happening in the moment? You're always in emergency mode. You know it's too much.
You know you feel overwhelmed. You know you want something better. 

In my old job I use to joke that I lived in the future, because I was always working on projects months away and planning and organizing things for future days. I rarely thought of the current moment, only of future moments. 

In my new career I decided, I wanted to actively embrace a different lifestyle. One that centers around enjoying every day instead of thinking "someday" I'll have more _____? (joy, peace, fun, etc.)
This has inspired my new art piece, When She Simplified Her Life, her Soul Whispered Thank You.

Art available in my Etsy Shop

 Here are 2 things I'm doing to help me bring about a more simplified (and peaceful) life.

 

Get Rid of Stuff & Write Everything Down

Get Rid of Stuff

Too much stuff = stress & mess

Take a fresh look at your stuff - do you love it? If not, make it go bye bye. 

(Someone else will appreciate it.)

Look at your monthly calendar - What's taking up your time? (meetings, committees, 
clubs, projects, appointments, etc.) If you don't love them, start cutting one thing a month.
This also includes all your kid's activities.

Look at what's coming into your Inbox

Organize your inbox - set up folders in your email and create rules so emails go directly into them. This is great for sales, coupons, newsletters, bills. When you're ready to deal with them, they're in one folder waiting for you, instead of clogging up your inbox. Unsubscribe from anything that isn't needed.

Look at your closets, your shelves, your garage, your purse - what needs to stay, what needs to go?

Look at your books, magazines, subscriptions. Are you excited to read them or do you feel stress when you think about them? If it's stress, get rid of them.

Write Everything Down

 We love to fool ourselves that we can remember things but all that does is cause you pressure as you try to remember or, even worse, that horrible feeling when know you've forgotten something.

Every time you have a future appointment, future due date, have to call someone, have to buy something, you're waiting for a response by a certain date, put it in your calendar or To Do List. Once you move it from your brain and put it on paper or electronic reminder, you'll be amazed at how peaceful you'll feel knowing it's in one place (and that's not your already overloaded brain). It's also helpful to write the next day's to-do list before you go to bed so the minute you start to relax, every single thing you need to remember doesn't start swirling around your brain. 

(Also keep a notepad by the bed for anything you forget).

Here's to a more simplified and more lovely life.

Our souls will thank us.

Love, Steph

Stormy Days and Sunshine Art

With gray days comes lots of time in the studio and bright cheery art. (now available in my Shop)

We've had a BIT of rain here for the last several months/years/decades days.
I love that feeling of being wrapped up in a cocoon of warmth
when I'm all tucked inside and a storm is raging outside.

Don't friends and family create their own cocoon of warmth for us?
Even with storms raging all around us, they make the days much brighter.


A friend is what the heart needs all the time.
Henry Van Dyke

Friends are the Sunshine of Life

 

Hope you feel warm inside your own cocoon this week!

Love, Steph

Blessings From Above - New Art + a little instant gratification

After I wrote about the sweet surprise my dad had for my mom here, I wanted to capture that special feeling and put it on canvas. Something that would remind me of the deeper and long lasting love of family and encourage me to be the type of person who thinks of others and tries to be a blessing in their lives.

 (Even if you have to be a little sneaky - thanks dad!)

So I created this canvas called Blessings from Above.  I love looking at it everyday!

 (I'm trying something new and have added an Instant Digital Download section to my Etsy Shop - that way you can buy art online and download art straight to your computer and print it out yourself - instant gratification - online art - no waiting! ) 

 

Hope you have a blessed week!

Love, Steph

Be Patriotic and Crafty for July 4th with a DIY Wood Flag (make it in a few hours)

Today is the BEST Day Ever - A Life (and Art Piece) full of Joy

Last year a sweet friend of mine commissioned a piece of art for a friend who was going through some pretty horrible health issues and the future was perilous and unknown.  YET, this man, and his family, had the most wonderful attitude.

Whenever someone asked them, "how are you doing", their reply was always....

Today is the Best Day Ever.

It's easy to be happy when things are going well. Imagine having such a positive attitude, such hope, such a beautiful spirit, that you viewed each day as so special (even when things weren't going well)?

Creating this piece helped remind me of all the joy that is waiting for us, even in the midst of not-so-great circumstances. We get to choose to have that perspective of looking for the good instead of the bad. We get to choose to see the wonder each day, each person, each.....

We all know people who lift us up and are wonderful to be around. 

And we all know people who are the opposite.

What type do we want to be?

Hope today is the Best Day Ever for you!

Love, Steph