LOVING YOURSELF THE WAY YOU ARE

I wanted to add some more thoughts on my post from 2 days ago, "30 days of gratitude", because I have more thoughts to post!

I was watching "Rudy" last night on AMC and there was a line in the movie about the secret to being happy is to be grateful for the life you have now and for who you are now . (not in those exact words but you know what I mean)

I posted my piece, "Air" (from the 4 elements series) today because she is giving herself a hug and is truly happy because she believes in herself and she is happy with who she is inside and out. I think one of the most things to be grateful for is for how WE are now. I have been trying to love myself just the way I am everyday and be grateful that I get to have a strong body for doing all the dogwalks that I do everyday and to have the strength to go to the gym afterwards.

As I am writing my 5 pages of gratitude every morning I try and be grateful for as much as I can think of that has to do with my body and my self love. It takes alot of effort but it definately pays off!

Have a wonderful and creative day!

Michelle

To purchase "Air" greeting cards, and for more inspiration please visit my shop:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11374521&ref=em

A LIFE IN HARMONY

"A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing."

I love this quote from Maya Angelou. I have this posted next to my desk to remind me how important it is to have harmony in my life.

My poor little harmony was awfully out of whack over the holidays, but thankfully, over the last few weeks I feel like I have brought myself back to my center, to a life in harmony.

I am going to the gym on a regular basis, finding a happy medium between social activities, family, work and my absolute favorite time, my art, meditation and my journaling time. And now my morning 5 pages of gratitude time!

I really do not do well when I am not taking care of myself. I have been striving to live in harmony, and making that a priority for a long time now and of course it cant always be perfect, but I try to keep some type of peace in my life everyday.

I was inspired by Maya Angelou's poem, above, when I created "The Harmony Angel" and I hope you enjoy her! Have a wonderful day!

Michelle :)

To purchase the "Harmony Angel" print please visit my enchanted shop:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12205097

30 DAYS OF GRATITUDE

For the last 4 or 5 months I have been writing everyday what I am grateful for and keep a record of my daily abundance as well. I have noticed that lately I am feeling the benefits of this.

Yesterday, as I was visiting my friend, Lexi, the 14 year old golden retriever, I felt so much joy and so much love for her and connected with her like I have never felt with her. I sat on the rug with her and was kissing her head and told her that I loved her and she kissed me on the chin. She has never done that before and it was just so sweet.

I am reading a book that has a chapter on gratitude that says the more you are grateful for your life as it is you will recieve moments of bliss, joy and love because of it. She also went on to say that for 30 days she wrote 5 pages of gratitude every morning and after the 30th day her life was filled with an abundance of bliss because of it.

I started my 30 days this morning and it was easy to fill the 5 pages. I cant think of a better way to wake up! I am looking forward to more blissful moments with my doggie AND people friends!

Would love to hear what you are grateful for today! I am absolutely grateful everyday for being able to connect with all of you and for your lovely comments. Thank you!


To purchase "Water" print, please visit my enchanted shop:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16278015

KISSING COUPLE UPSIDE DOWN!

I scanned my little kissing couple sketch upside down but I still wanted to share them with you!

I have had love, love, love on the brain lately!

Thank you all for your lovely comments about living your own enchanted lives!

Have a wonderful day!

Michelle :)

LIVE AN ENCHANTED LIFE

As I was dogwalking early this morning with my little friend, Pepper, a cute little Schnauzer, I started thinking about how I could live an enchanted life everyday. You know how somedays you just wake up and there is magic in the air from the moment you get out of bed? How would I bottle that feeling so I could feel that magic anytime or anywhere?

I started to hear really pretty birds singing as we walked and saw a little hummingbird check out Pepper. We had a lovely visit from a very handsome black lab who came over to us in the park to say hello.

I realized that all of those little moments were enchanted moments. They were daily mundane little moments but if I looked at them as enchanted and magical moments, I saw my life as being FULL of enchantment all day long!

So everyday I will be looking for the little pixies of enchantment to tickle me and make me giggle and to make me feel the wonder of a child as I did many moons ago! :) What was your enchanted moment today?

To purchase "Emerald Enchantment" cards please visit:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11475497

LOVE IS IN MY SKETCHBOOK

I am so in the "Love" mode lately! Which is always a good thing, right? I have been drawing love fairies, kissing couples and wedding cakes and toppers in my sketchbook, on napkins and in notebooks everywhere!

I have been wanting to do a Happily Ever After "peace" and some cute couples for valentines day.

I better stop writing and get crackin! I hope you enjoy my little sketches and thank you all again for inspiring me! You all feed my soul with inspiration and love and friendship every day! I dont know what I would do without you!

Have a wonderful day!

BEAUTIFUL GIFTS

"Thank you, God, for all of the beautiful gifts I have to give" is the way my journal entry began this morning. I went on to write about how grateful I am for my art ideas and inspirations and for all of the people that I get to share them with. i had tears rolling down my face as I wrote!

I also asked for help to keep me motivated and to keep working towards my goals, even when my other business gets crazy busy and takes my art time away.

I am so grateful for all of your comments, this has been a place that I love to post, and feel safe sharing my art and ideas. Thank you all for everything!

Here is the "Love Fairy" sketch. She is in the works, I promise!

Have a wonderful creative day!

Michelle :_

KREATIVE BLOGGER AWARD

I was just nominated by Julie-Ann for a Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you so much, Julie-Ann for your kind words. She described my work as a fresh joy to the heart. I love that! And that is exactly what it brings to me and I hope that it gives people who see it the same feeling. What a beautiful compliment, thank you Julie-Ann.

Please visit her blog for a real treat. Lovely place and such lovely words and images. A visual feast for sure!

http://heavenleighart.blogspot.com/

FINDING HARMONY

I am posting my "Harmony Goddess" today because I found my own little "peace" of harmony this weekend.

As I was running from dogwalk to dogwalk this weekend (it was another crazy weekend with my petsitting business) instead of making my self stress about it I decided that in between my walks I had a few of hours yesterday.

I wanted to go home and watch football but decided to meet a friend for a movie and then afterwards I went to my favorite childrens bookstore and spent a long time looking thru all of the wonderful illustrations. Such lovely books there!

I then went next door to the giftstore and looked at the Papyrus cards, (my favorite line) and tried on all of the hand and body lotions! Yummy!

I woke up this morning and had so much inspiration to work from in my sketchbook. I had filled my soul up with things that I love, images that feed my heart and soul and though I am still tired I feel happy and refreshed at the same time. It was a nice gift to myself yesterday and it paid off this morning! Harmony can show up in funny ways! Hope you recieve some today!

WINTER IN THE ETSY TREASURY

My little "Winter" goddess was chosen to be featured in an Etsy Treasury last week. She is Part of the Four Seasons Series and it got me thinking that I'd like to do another series. I've also done the Elements series, Water, Earth, Fire and Water so I was thinking perhaps some flower fairies or maybe something a little sweeter like the cupcake fairy series or more candies to go with the peppermint fairy. Its so much fun to play with these ideas in my sketchbook.

I was working (playing rather :)) on the Love Fairy this morning in my sketchbook and I have her the way I want her in pieces, I just have to get her together in one piece!

I hope to be posting her sketch this week! Have a wonderful and creative week everyone!

FIVE THINGS I DO TO KEEP MY MIND AND MY LIFE BALANCED

I was tagged by this lovely artist, Kathy Kardif, to list these 5 things. I love this list and so here is my list:

1. work on my art everyday

2. meditate everyday

3. sketch for at least 10 minutes a day

4. go to the gym

5. giggle as much as possible!

6. get plenty of sleep

7. get together with friends and laugh

8. being grateful for my family and friends

9. Believe that love will find me again

10. Think positively!

Okay, that was 10 but I could keep going!

Please visit Kathy's amazing blog for enchanted inspiration!

http://kardif.blogspot.com/

Here are 5 more people that I TAG to list the same. Their blogs are amazing!

http://fotf-constellations.blogspot.com/
http://carynlynnduncan.blogspot.com/
http://krissysart.blogspot.com/
http://www.sarkjournal.com/
http://timewithtascha.blogspot.com/

NEW BEGINNINGS, NEW GOALS

As we all do every January, we make new year resolutions and sometimes they stick and sometimes not.

I actually started back in November because I think of them as not resolutions, but my life goals. I was having a conversation with my friend Jamie a while ago about having great ideas in our heads but if we never write them down and do anything about them they stay in there flying around and we keep floundering and fighting with our goals.

So I decided to make a weekly goal sheet with the date and the goal that I want to make happen and the actions that I have taken to attain my goals. I have been super crazy busy with my other business but at least with the entries on my goal sheets every week, even if its just a couple, I see progress. And that is what is the key. The progress and seeing something tangible coming from it will eventually lead to more and more success. And it feels great!

Another journal I have been keeping daily since about September or October is I keep a daily abundance and gratitude journal. Every night I write down how I observed my abundance and also what I am grateful for. I sometimes write 2 or 3 pages of what I am grateful for, there are SO many things. (I write about all of you alot! :))

So my goals for this year are to submit my work to at least one company to license my work and to approach one licensing agent at least once a week.

What are your goals? Did you think of new ones for 2009? Are you struggling with old ones? Did you write them down? I would love it if you would share all of your goals, I love hearing from you guys, it really inspires me alot.

Have a wonderful and creative day!

Michelle :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year my dear friends! I hope you all had wonderful holidays and are enjoying the new year. Back to work! (or should I say play?!? at least for me it is!)

I have been SWAMPED with my petsitting/dogwalking business but hope to be back to blogging in the next couple of weeks!

Until then, fill me in on your holiday plans, what did you guys do? What did Santa bring you? Did any of your dreams come true? What are your goals and Enchanted Inspirations for the new year!?! Please share!

As for me, I have lots of new sketches just waiting to jump off the page for 2009. The Love Fairy, a wedding cake topper illustration and a kissing couple for Valentines Day, a new mermaid portrait, and lots more Enchanted Inspirations!

Michelle :)