Word for the Week - Psalm 16:8

Word for the Week

I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand I will not be shaken..Psalm 16:8

30 Days of change - Day 7

Smoothie Love

Smoothie for the day for the 30 days of change...

For this smoothie I used a banana, blueberries, seed mix and ginger. I also added coconut milk - delicious taste.

What are you going to do today to work towards your change?

The smoothie is part of the 30 days of change, click on the image below to see what it involves.

30 Days of change - Day 6

Smoothie for the day for the 30 days of change...

Mix it up a bit today!

Add some different vegetables to your recipe, carrots give the smoothie a nice taste, cucumber has a high water content and the ginger gives it a bit of a kick!

Gratitude's and Celebration - Day 46 - All your experiences ......

All your experiences make you stronger...

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - The beginning page

The majority of people at some point in their life will have an experience that will shake them to the core, but not everyone will react in the same way to the same experience.

After playing around this figure emerges

Layers are added to our lives, each day we walk on the earth there will be key things that we thought would crush us, but as we looked the experience dead in the eye, picking ourselves up, we moved past.  Holding on to life and seeing a purpose to our existence.

We didn't know that we would heal, but we did, we didn't think that we would laugh again but we did.  We never thought we could breath without the pain coursing through our bodies.  But the pain got easier, we still remembered but it didn't hurt as much with each passing day, we were able to exhale.

Our lights once dimmed began to shine again and light up those dark places.  Our minds and our hearts renewed with strength and we were able to face another day.

I am grateful for the love that carried me through many a dark day, and celebrate the grace that enabled me to find the space to breath again, and heal a heart that felt broken.

In thinking about your own experiences, what strength can you find to turn a current situation around?

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - Full of Inspiration!

Have a blessed weekend! If you want to see how I made the journal (click here) Blessings!

30 Days of Change Day 5

Smoothie for the day - Day 5

Add some nuts and seeds to your smoothie...

Lessons learnt - OK there are always lessons to be learnt, and preparation, preparation is at the heart of them.  I've touched on this before and the only way that you can stick to something is by helping yourself successful in achieving your goal and focus not only on what you want to achieve but how you get there as well.

I will also start posting the smoothies in the morning which gives you time if you want to make the recipe and use it in your morning routine.

The smoothie is part of the 30 days of change, click on the image below to see what it involves.

30 Days of Change - Day 4

Smoothie for the day

Today is mix and match day, and I am going to make my favorite smoothie from day 1-3 using up some of the ingredients that I have left.  I'll have to buy some more fruit as I have been making smoothies for my husband and son each morning as well.

I have definity felt some improvement with having the increased vitamins and minerals intake and it should get better as the weeks go on. 

Lesson learnt from yesterday -  

When there are changes to your routine you need to account for the slip ups and put steps in place to stop making bad choices.  

I found some gluten free cake at my mums that I had brought last week that screamed to be eaten with a cup of Earl grey tea!  'Get rid of them' was the faint cry that was drowned out by the kettle boiling.  Loosing my train of thought for a moment  before I knew it I was sitting at the table with a plate in my hand and a slice of cake smiled coyly back at me. 

I need to keep the cake and the chocolate biscuit that tasted a lot like the Milky ways my mum used to get us when we were children, but it had much thicker chocolate - a wide berth!

I am still committed to make the changes and know that this is one day out of many where I can turn things around.  Today I can be and do different

What will you do with your day?

Quotes - Wednesday - Les Brown

We must begin to take charge of our own destinies, design a life of substance and truly begin to live our dreams...Les Brown

30 Days of Change - Day 3

Here is the smoothie for the day, hope you enjoy it.  Tips for staying on track, today - keep it simple, and try not to do too many things at the same time.  Change will come over time and you must avoid comparing yourself to others - because you are unique and you will get to where you want to go in time.

Smoothie Love - Day 3

I had some problems uploading the vlogs, and started questioning myself about doing it altogether, after playing back what I did I started to criticize myself and compare myself to those people who have been doing videos for a lot longer.  At the end of the day what anyone else thinks is not important, what is important is making that change that will enhance my health, and enable me to do more and hopefully bless more.  I will sort it today and put something up!

A few lessons learnt yesterday:

• The more you prepare for the journey, the greater the chance that you will get where you want to go.  I have to get back to preparing the evening meal earlier or the day before to be able to eat before 8pm.
• Putting my trainers and workout gear together ready for the next day, so there is no excuse in not being able to get training.
• Decide what I want to do for the week rather than play it day to day, and it can become automatic

I know there will be more learning along the way, 27 days to go!

So, if you decide to make a change today that will be really great, think of one small change you can make and commit, as I said before it doesn't have to be for 30 days, you could do 3! 

30 Days of Change - Day 2

Alright then, starting a challenge and making changes in your life is not always easy, and you have to remain flexible, that being said it was great to make a start towards change.

Starting as I mean to go on with the smoothie from day 1

I was able to do most of the things planned, didn't quite get to drink a litre of water for some reason, and ended up eating dinner past 10 pm, because I was trying to do too many things at once!  A bit of sabotaging going on there I think...

Here is the smoothie for today

I have managed to drink the water and will be doing some exercises shortly, which will involve spending time in the garden:).  I have yet to upload the vlog for each day, but I will be keeping it simple, and will be sharing on the vlog and just letting you have the smoothie for the day on the blog.  

Your welcome to join, you don't have to do 30 days, you could do 3, 5, or 7 what ever will kick start you to change.  You might just want to change one thing, why not start today, and share how you are getting on!

30 Days of Change - Healthier Lifestyle

I have committed myself to make a change in my lifestyle to hopefully impact on my health, starting today.  The changes include:

• Exercise - minimum half and hour
• Drinking Water - Minimum 1 litre
• Having a Smoothie - Once a day
• Pampering session - for encouragement - once a week
• Cut down on sugar
• Eat more fruit and vegetables
• Not eating after 8pm

There is no time like the present to make that change, however small you want to make it, do it for you.  I wanted to use it as a way to kick start my healthy routine, loose some weight and get into a couple of really lovely dresses in my wardrobe!  A small change each day can add up to something worthwhile.

I will be having a smoothie every day to make sure I get all those vital nutrients, here is what I had today, I mixed mine with oat milk but you can use water if you wish!

Here is the smoothie for day 1

I will be doing a vlog of the journey - (keeping it simple) and posting the smoothie recipes here.  Hope you come along for the ride, start where you are and make a commitment to your own health and well-being!

If you are going to join, do share what change/s you will be making, and let me know how you get on so I can come and cheer in your corner!

Material Mondays - who shall have a fishy on the little dishy

What do you do with your fabric scraps?  I had been seeing how you can use different products on fabric using paints, stencils etc and in my post on painted fabric I showed you how you can use old clothes and create some interesting effects.

I found that my sons old school uniform trousers and white shirt were good at holding the paint, and worked really well when making fabric journals.

Painted fabric used to make inside of journal that was previously a bag 

There is always some bits left over and there are several things you can do with them.  Here I decided to make some little inspiration fish.  These are little stuffed fish that you can put an encouraging word or phrase.

They are really easy to make and you can sew them by hand or use a machine, add some ribbon to decorate and some frayed bits at the end for the tail.

Put some encouraging words on the side, either stitched or stamped

They were then stuffed and the end sewn up.  The eyes were attached and you can also add words either stamped or you can stitch it on prior to sewing together.

 You can also add bits of string if you want to create a mobile of fishes, you can attach them to card, add them to your journal, or add some bling and give them as gifts.  This is a really great project you can do with the kids, give it a go and let me know how you get on!

Fish are having a siesta!

If you are interested in learning how to sew or make a range of projects you can check out Craftsy who run online classes and at the moment have a selection of free online classes for you enjoy.

Recycled Projects - Tissue Paper

Recycled Projects - Tissue Paper

What do you do with the tissue paper that comes either with a gift or wrapped around an item of clothing - throw it out? reuse it to wrap something else? or use it in your creative projects? 

Well I thought I would show you a couple of great uses for them that involve a bit of creative thought and a mind to play, and are always going to produce really great results!

Firstly, the tissue paper can be used to create texture in your creations.  You apply glue to the surface and then add the tissue paper, once it is dry you can paint it in your color of choice, adding additional layers to your work.

Secondly you can use the tissue paper to clean your gelli plate once you have got all the prints off.  You can build up a number of layers of paint, then use the tissue paper in your work in that way to create a background.

What I have been finding really useful is using either shop brought stamps or making your own Handmade stamps and applying to the tissue paper you can create transparent layers to use within your art work.

selection of tissue paper that has been stamped

Here is one of the stamps that I created 

Here are some of the handmade stamps, check the link above to see how to make some of your own.  They are easy to make and you can get your own unique designs.

Once you have decided which design you want to use you cut it out and apply it to your art.

Here are a selection of stamped tissue paper that I used within some of my art journals.

Handmade stamp flower design

From the brought stamps I used quite a few bird designs

As well as butterfly wings

Once applied I painted them to the color of choice.

Wings and the word inspire was stamped onto the tissue paper

Armed with a few ideas, I am sure that you will look at tissue paper in a different way.  Try it for yourself and see what you can come up with.  You can reuse and recycle it, and create so many things, let me know what you decide to do, and share your images! 

Gratitude's and Celebrations - Week 45 - Focus on what you can do....

Gratitude's and Celebrations Journal - The beginning page

Right now, focus on what you can do......

Are you one of those people who have a long list of things that need to be done.  You start the week out with a plan of how everything will get done and then when the end of the week comes you find that there are bits of things done and not much you can tick off your list?

I start to see the image coming out of the page

With the best of intentions and resolve I set out this week with an arm load of tasks.  I have always been one of those people who want to maximize the use of my time so end up trying to do several things at once.  To a certain extent I do like working like that, but understand that sometimes you need to try a different strategy and prioritize and move down the list one at a time.

Gratitude and Celebration - keeping the focus

Summon the toothache - it knocked me for six, what started out as sensitivity or so I thought has turned into a full blown infection some how and as I take antibiotics and painkillers while I wait to get an appointment with the dentist to decide either get root canal or have the tooth taken out,  the pain seems to be travelling around my upper and lower jaw, back of my neck and rests in a dull ache in my temple - all this from one tooth!

Page nearing completion

Life still goes on, and this has forced me to think about the priorities of what needs to be done, being active and going for a walk took my mind off it temporarily - not quite the way I wanted to start my fitness routine:) but it worked.  I had to look at what I could do within what I am experiencing, the toothache reminded me of what we (I) take for granted, and how in a moment our health can change.  

I am grateful and celebrate that I am able to make the decision to take better care of myself and see some results over time.  Beginning Monday, I am going to take the next 30 days to kick start my health and will share with you tomorrow what I will be focusing on.  Check out my post from last year about an all round fix-up - taking health for granted.

Time to Focus....

Will you take the time to join me to a healthier way of life? What can you do for you that will really make a difference to how you treat yourself. What do you need to focus on at the moment?

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - Full of Inspiration!

Have a blessed weekend! If you want to see how I made the journal (click here) Blessings!

How did you do that? Things to do with Paper Stencils!

I shared on Saturday some cool Paper Stencils that I was inspired to make after seeing Matrices site and having a go.  Here are some more that I created, and I will at some point share with you some of the designs that I manage to make.

Creating new styles, these would make really cool reusable stencils!

I promised I would share some of the cool effects once you cut them out that you can get, you can use your Gelli plate apply the stencil and transfer an image to paper and you also get paint on the stencil itself.  Because the paper is quite thin your unlikely to use the stencil to transfer an image again, but you can use the stencil in your art and they can provide you with some interesting backgrounds.  By creating the paper stencil on thicker card or paper you will be able to use it a number of times, even try transferring the image to an acetate sheet and cutting out.

Once you start cutting you are not going to want to stop, you can come up with some really pretty designs as seen above.

 Here is one that I used with the Gelli plate, using a selection of colors will add to the effect

Simple cuts in the paper can create interesting results

 I got more adventurous with cutting and came up with more intricate designs, but due to the thinness of the paper once you had put it on the gelli plate they tore when being picked up.  I guess if you used it with sprays it would have been easier.

I wanted to see how they would print on fabric and used this design on the gelli plate

Chamois leather used on Gelli plate with paper cut

  Here is some cheap chamois leather that I printed on, and it came out quite well.  I am and looking forward to making something with it and will show you next week in Material Mondays.

Once you have used the stencil in on the gelli plate you have some really interesting colors and designs on the paper and you can use these to make your own wrapping paper by sticking it to your paper of choice

Paper cuts used on gelli plate can be used for other creative projects!

 I am going to attach some of mine to some white or black card and frame it as it, I think these are gorgeous.

Another thing I did with some of the thinner cut outs, was to apply them to journal pages as a background layer.

Paper cut applied to journal page

 After it dried I began to sketch out an image, keeping it simple and trying to keep as much as the design of the paper as possible.

Once dry add your image

 Once I was satisfied I added gesso and started painting

Adding gesso and paint to paper cut

 It was interesting starting a painting in this way, seeing what comes up as you add more colour

 Not being prescriptive as to what you wanted the finish piece to look like, but enjoying the play

And here is the finished painting.  

Mixed media Painting using Paper cutting

I am sure there are other things you can do with the paper stencils, if you come up with some ideas do share.  Check back for Material Mondays to see what I do with the Chamois leather.  Stay blessed and be a blessing!