Showing posts with label New Years. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Years. Show all posts

Friday, January 2, 2015

A Soul Full Year

    


 In my newsletter "Tree Talk" I mentioned my word of the year. I like to choose one word to focus on, rather than a list of resolutions... that way I can have several resolutions within a word. The word I chose was Soulful. In which, all things I do, create, and feel must be done with soulful intent, and from my center. I must feel this soulful feeling every single day. 
     In my newsletter I mentioned that I am an avid house cleaner. My house is practically spotless, and I love it. I never used to be that way until I moved. I put everything in it's place and was very bothered when things got messy. I've found it's the same way with feelings.
Thoughts and feelings are very habitual..
      When my house was spotless, I noticed that I myself was in a much better mood. Not just a happy mood, but I was grounded, clear, and at peace. I spent a lot of 2014 depressed and trying to overcome depression. Like I said, thoughts and feelings are habitual. But in this new home with the new energy, and all things in their right place, I felt grounded.When my house was messy, I felt messy. 

      I noticed this soulful feeling when my house was clean and I felt grounded. I felt a vibrating in my ears, and a warmth in my heart. It's a little tricky to explain, because I think everyone feels it differently. But it's that soul connection, Spirit, centered and grounded that everyone has access too. 

     I of course have felt it several times in my life. The first time I really noticed it was when I was very little and playing the piano alone in the house. I would fill my house with piano music, never taking my foot off the pedal. This is what my piano teacher called "muddy music." But, I loved it. I noticed it again was when I was attending a mantra chanting ceremony at the Krishna Temple nearly 7 years ago... and then several times again with my favorite music, and certain soul sparking conversations.. but it wasn't until I discovered that having a clean house would help me feel it all the time. 

This post isn't exactly about keeping a clean house but instead it's more of a metaphor to keeping your own energy and thoughts clean. Because like my house, when anything is out of place, I feel bugged, and fuzzy. 

When anything is out of place within my energy I can't paint, I can't write, I tend to argue with Sterling more, and I honestly don't get much done. I spend more time on facebook or pinterest than I should... so this soulful feeling is very important for me to get work done!  

Some of my favorite ways to achieve this soulful feeling is to take a good bath, with salt, candles, crystals, coffee, and a good book. I'm just not deciding I like baths thanks to Jenica (Sterling's sister, but also my sister cause I love her lots and lots). I also love a good cup of tea or coffee while I sit and look out my window. Cleaning the house helps me achieve this feeling, so does yoga, and meditation. 
At first, in order for my house to be totally clean, I would have to scrub all the dishes, vacuum everything and clean up for about 3 hours. But it gets easier.. much like achieving this grounded feeling. Learning what it feels like in your body is the first step. Pretty soon when you don't feel it, you will begin to crave it. 

Once a week I have a big house clean where I vacuum, change the sheets, dust, shake out the pillows. I sage the house, light some candles and make the house spotless. 

Once  a week I take a salt bath. Salt is a neutralizer, and helps clear energy. I do a long crystal meditation and make a night out of it. 

Daily, I make my bed, wash the dishes and counters. I straighten up the small things and keep it all in order. 
And as part of my word of the year, I plan on daily soul upkeep. Tea meditations, yoga, and creating from my center. 

When I first started to contemplate what my word of the year should be, my first thought was just creating, daily checklists of what to accomplish, how many things I need to do each day... and I suddenly felt sick. I knew that that was setting myself up to fail. Because sometimes I can finish 5 things in a day, and sometimes I can finish 5 things in a week.. so I knew that deadlines and checklists would be a bad idea. 
Instead I chose to meditate on it. In the Lunar class that I teach at Sacred City, we were all deciding on our intentions for the New Year and I walked everyone through my process of reaching my center through meditation. 

During this meditation, I felt to focus on feeling soulful daily. I knew that that would be enough. Because through that soulful state I would be able to create all the things I needed to within the perfect time frame. No stress, no worries, just creating from my center. 



Today I started with my tea meditation and follow it up with some quick yoga. Immediately, I felt clear and grounded and ready to create. 

Here's too a soulful year full of soul. 








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Friday, January 3, 2014

One. My Word

It's been awfully quiet here on the blog. 
I've made some resolutions this year, like everyone else.
And that's one of them. 


I was thinking about the resolutions I wanted for this year. 
So many many things flooded my mind. 
Yoga daily, wake up by 9, blog every day, meditate, every day, do art every day. 

But, I'm NOT a strict person. I have lots of self discipline, but I know, that if I don't wake up at 9, i won't do yoga, then I won't blog, I probably won't get anything done on the list of 5 if I don't do one. So, I scrapped it. I scrapped just about everything on my resolutions list. 

And my word for the new year? 

One. 


Yes. One. Very simple. But, it means so much to ME.

One means me. Looking out for me. Relaxing, not being stressed, figuring myself out again. Because apparently that's something you need to do often. And, instead of focusing on doing 5 things a day, my big goal, is to do One. That one thing that I will do daily? Art. That's the only thing I'm requiring myself to do. 

This means I might not blog as much. But that also means the blog will be meaningful. There were too many times last year that I did a blog, just because I was trying to reach my quota. Not a lot of heart was put into it..
I will wake up when I feel like it. If I wake up at 9, great. If I wake up at noon, great. Because I'm going to listen to my body, and put myself first, be number One, and do what I want to do, when I want to do it. I will meditate when I feel I need to. I will do yoga when I feel like I need to. 

All these strict requirements I've placed on myself are gone. And it feels great. Because I haven't felt any Oneness in a while. I've felt disappointed, stressed, frantic and cloudy. Dropping all of this has been like a rebirth. 



For the past few days, I've woken up when I wanted to, even gone back to bed. I woke up and painted or worked on art. Since the new year I've even finished one piece. The one above this. I have yet to name it, but it will be in the shop soon. I will also have limited edition prints. 

I also worked on a self portrait over the holidays. It was a lot of fun to bring out my charcoals. It's been a very long time. Since college I think. When I was told "Real artists don't draw. They paint." I'll be doing a lot more drawing this year I think. 



 As well as painting of course. Because if it weren't for that art class, I wouldn't have learned to paint. 
And today I'm working on the cover design for Cinderskella's sequel. 

I have big plans for this new year. Other than my One resolution, I do have lots of goals. I'm hoping to make 2014 the biggest bestest year. With lots of art stuff going on. 


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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

The Perfect Dresses

Happy Christmas Eve! 
I've been working on getting presents wrapped, the house cleaned, an everything ready for tonight.
Tonight Sterling and I will be watching movies, sipping hot cocoa, and eating cookies with our pups. 
It's not the most glamourous Christmas Eve, but I think all the glamor is for New Years Eve.

Sadly, this year I won't be throwing a party.

You guys know me and my love for sparkly party dresses. For the past two years I've hosted little get togethers at my home with sparkly lights, wine glasses,  and party dresses. This is the first year I won't be having one. While I don't miss the clean up from the party, I do miss shopping for the perfect dress! Finding the perfect jewelry, matching shoes, and a mini bag. 

I'm still unsure what I'll be doing this year for New Years. 
I do know that if I were to throw a party I would wear the most sparkly dress there is. 
I've even found the best one stop shopping site for all sparkly dresses needed. 
I normally don't like dresses to be over 30.00, and a lot of things from Tideby are very cheap, and on sale. I initially wanted wanted to shop around and pick just one or two picks from my "essential" holiday party list, but I had a hard time deciding on just one look.

I couldn't even pick just one clutch! So, I included nearly a whole page of the selections. 


What is your favorite kind of party? Which dress would you choose? 
I bet you will have just as hard of a time deciding as I did! 















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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Resolutions

I made the resolution to blog every day like I used to. I'm running super late today, but here it is. And some quick photos of New Years Day. We had a candle light resolution ceremony, planted a tree together, and of course our regular morning date.
I'll be back to blog a little later!











Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Years!

Last night we threw a little New Years Party at my house.
We all wore our party attire, ties and sparkly dresses. 
Even Wicket wore his bow tie. 
Until we put him in a "Puppy Burrito" so he would stop barking and screaming at guests.
Here are a few photos from last night. 
Please excuse the blurry party photos.




















I've got a few resolutions to share with you.
1. Blog every day.
2. Get back to video blogging. 

It's going to be a good year. 

I hope you all had a safe and happy night last night!