CreativeSteph13

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!

Excellent Adventures in Savannah - 13 Things to See, Do and Eat

Went back in time for a few weeks as we traveled on an Excellent Adventure to Savannah, Georgia. It's a place we had never visited, but always wanted to. One of my former co-workers lived there for a few years and she sent us an insider's view of this wonderful city.

Architecture, History, Southern Food, Trees, 22 Park Squares, Southern Hospitality, Gardens, Food, Food and more Food. Did I mention Food? Such a treat to experience all these amazing sites. There are too many to fit into one page, but here are some of our highlights.

And yes, I picked up my old southern accent in just a few hours - how ya'll doing today?

13 Things to See & Do & Eat in Savannah

Wormsloe Historic Site

400 Live Oak Tree Canopy 1 1/2 miles long. Planted over 100 years ago to celebrate the birth of a baby. They're called Live Oaks because they only shed a portion of their leaves twice a year. The "Spanish Moss" you see hanging from the trees actually isn't Spanish, nor a moss. It's part of the pineapple family (so weird) and gets its nutrients from the air and rainfall. Both the trees and the moss are protected.

Davenport House

A favorite tour with a very knowledgeable docent who shared great stories of the history and remarkable architecture. Look at the curved staircase and newel post. The floor you see is actually a "floor cloth". To protect their wood or marble floors, they would commission an artist to duplicate the floor on a waxed canvas cloth that was put over the actual flooring.

Bonaventure Cemetery

Eerie and beautiful at the same time. For any of you who saw the movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, this is where part of it was filmed. The famous Bird Girl of Savannah Statue has since been moved to a museum.

St John the Baptist Cathedral

The oldest Catholic Church in the country.

Forsyth Park
30 acres inside the Historic District.

Historic District

In 1955 much of Savannah was in danger of being demolished. Seven women got together to form the Historic Savannah Foundation and made it their mission to protect and restore over 350 homes.
Look how these houses have two staircases. The ladies went up one side and the gentlemen, the other. (So no one could see the ladies ankles).

Mrs Wilkes Dining Room

If you want a taste of true southern food, this is the place. One of our favorite experiences. Like an old fashioned Sunday dinner on steroids. They're only open 3 hours each day during the week and they don't take reservations or charge cards (say that with a southern accent). What a memory - we waited in line for almost two hours (and it was so worth it). We chatted with our neighbors in line and we all ate family style. We "passed" the bowls and bowls and bowls of food for the first 10 minutes of the meal and still didn't get to everything.

Paula Dean Store and The Lady & Sons Restaurant

Fried Green Tomatoes, Shrimp & Grits and SWEEEEEET Tea.

(that's my sweet momma next to Paula's picture)

Picked up a "Gooey Butter Cake" chapstick - fun!

Rocks on the Roof

Some friends from my California days took us to this rooftop restaurant/lounge on top of the Bohemian Hotel with great views of the Savannah River. And we got to experience a true East Coast storm - haven't seen one of those in ages.

Mercer House & Museum

Famed home of musician, Johnny Mercer, who wrote songs such as Moon River, Too Marvelous for Words, Baby, it's Cold Outside, Tutti Fruiti and many more. Also featured in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil based on a shooting in the house (they refer to it as the "incident").

The Olde Pink House

Build in 1771, this 16,000 sq ft Colonial home survived several huge fires in Savannah. It's been a home, a bank and also housed Union General York during the Civil War. It's called the pink house as the color of the bricks leaked through to the stucco causing it to turn pink. It's now a restaurant and was featured on the TV Show, The Best Thing I Ever Ate. And it's also haunted!

Great Food & Shopping

Zunzi's, Leopold's Ice Cream, Green Truck Pub, B & D Burgers, Byrd's Famous Cookies, Savannah Candy Kitchen, City Market & River Street and SO MUCH MORE>

A Trolley Tour

A hop on/off trolley tour is the best way to see the Historic District as parking is very limited and very crazy. We got a two day pass so we didn't have to rush and could eat at different restaurants, take time to explore the museums and homes and just hop on the trolley when we were done.

This visit is already a treasured memory.

Happy Exploring!

Love, Steph

DIY Easy Planter Stones - a simple project to brighten up any room

Plants are a beautiful accent to your home decor and really brighten up a room (as well as make the air cleaner). But sometimes the soil in a planter looks less than appealing. Even with new soil, it often looks a little dingy.

(I know, I know... the dirt looks dirty -haha)

I love Mexican Beach Pebbles (although they're a lot bigger than pebbles). They're

smooth and are often used for walkways or patio-scapes. Got these at Home Depot for around $11 and will only use a small portion of the bag so I can do several projects with the one bag. They have a couple of stone sizes so select what works best for your planter. I chose a natural color but I've also seen them in white. The natural color is pretty enough but I wanted to ratchet it up a bit with a little paint.

Select the stones - I chose a variety of stone sizes (small, medium and large).

For my 13" pot, I used 45 stones. Just make sure you have enough to cover the top of the dirt and add several extra stones so they can be stacked up in the planter to cover any open spaces.

Wash and dry the stones to remove any dust and prepare the surface. I washed them inside a colander so it wouldn't scratch my sink and they were easier to move. When completely dry, start the painting.

Wanted to paint the stones to accent my decor colors so I chose a red. It was a little too bright so I mixed it with some raw umber to tone it down. I used acrylic paint, but maybe in the future I would just spray paint them as it was a little messy. Painted one side with a foam brush and placed them on an egg carton for drying. It took about 15-20 minutes drying time between coats. Did 2-3 coats.

Once finished, I sprayed the stones with two coats of clear acrylic spray paint.

Loved the final look! Such a simple thing, with a big return.

I think I'll do this for my outdoor patio planters too.

Happy decorating.

Love, Steph

Collect Moments (not things), Gratitude is my Attitude and more - Sunflower Art

Sunflower Art with some of my favorite quotes and sayings -
all to inspire a sweeter, more positive, joy-filled life.

Hope your week is sweet!

Love, Steph

Easy and Fun Easter Letter Project - add a splash of creativity to your Spring

Supplies

Cardboard Letters

Scrapbook Paper (3-4 coordinating colors)

Craft Paint

Mod Podge

Flower Punch

Buttons

Glue

Stamping Ink

Cardboard Letters - you can get them at most craft stores. I got mine at Hobby Lobby. I selected letters for Easter, but you could also choose Spring, Bloom, Bunny, etc.

Choose paper for each letter.

Reverse the letter and trace it on the back of the paper (to avoid pencil marks) and cut out.

Paint Letters White (regular old craft paint).

Glue paper letters using Mod Podge or Gel Medium; use 2-3 coats.

Dry thoroughly between coats making sure the paper edges are securely glued down.

Punch out flowers from coordinating accent paper.
You could also purchase paper or silk flowers

Lightly edge each letter with black ink to add dimension.

Glue Flowers - I chose to just decorate the bottom of the letters,

but use your creativity and make it your own.

Add buttons to accentuate.

Action Steps

Paint Cardboard Letters

Cut Paper to Match Letters and Glue

Edge with Ink

Add Flowers and Buttons to Decorate

Display

Happy Decorating!

Love, Steph

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

Win Your Closet Organizing Battle in just 6 Steps (no matter what type of closet)

Turn this...................................................................... into this

I've always found it fun to to change out my decor each month.

So I really loved that my new house had a very large hall closet to store all things decorating.
However, it has since morphed into a catch all for everything - all piled on top of each other.
If I ever needed anything, I usually knocked over several other things in the process.

I want to share with you my general plan for organizing closets. This example is for a hall closet, but the steps will work for any closet or storage area.

Measure the closet and sketch out a general plan for where you'd like things to go. Think about how often you use things and put the regularly used items in a central easy-to-get-to place. Once I did this, then I bought storage bins.
It's important to purchase the storage items you want AFTER you've measured and figured out what will work best for your closet. Don't buy storage first, even if it's super cute. (I know this is sooo hard)

I ended up purchasing these Modular Drawers. I got Medium Tall, but there are all sorts of
sizes to fit your needs. You can get them on Amazon, Ebay, etc.

I only bought a few (haha).

Empty out Everything.
(This is a much easier method than trying to move things around).

Sort everything into categories (holidays, type of decor, etc.)

This is also a great time to weed out anything you don't love.

Play around with the layout a bit. This part will take the longest as you move things around to get the most out of the space. Start putting your sorted items into bins.

Then label the bins.
(If you can't quite decide what to label things, just use post it notes until you like the categories.)

Let me tell you about a FABULOUS website called Canva that allows you to create all sorts of forms and graphics and labels for free. They also have graphics you can buy for only $1.

I went in and found a cute label, typed up my titles, downloaded it,
printed them on my Full Sheet Labels and then cut them out.

Love, Love, Love this site.