Today I am grateful for my new nephew; I can’t wait to meet him!!
Art is therapeutic and colour heals - bringing home an original painting by Belinda will light up your living space with a daily explosion of life & happiness. Belinda Fireman's colourful, inspiring art is guaranteed to lift the spirits, generate positive reflection and make you smile.
People who have bought Belinda's paintings say they can't stop looking at them, that they derive joy from them each day. Her paintings make wonderful, enduring and meaningful gifts.
Testimonials:
Shipping for all paintings and artware in this online store is available to customers in the USA and Canada. For international customers outside of USA and Canada, please email Belinda directly for orders instead of using this online store.Gratitude Tuesday
Today I am grateful for:
- Getting some painting done this morning (a big accomplishment with a 6-year old painting in the same room! We actually painted together for 1 1/2 hours, with very little talking! I’m amazed.)
part of a work in progress!
- Colour! The more I paint, the more I appreciate colour. Just check out the secondary colours from my cooking last night!
- Financial wellness
- A long phone call with my online friend Denice – one day, we shall meet!
- My daily dose of Sammy – photo and video updates of my adorable, brand-new nephew!
- Feeling closer to my brother, now that we are both parents. My respect and love for him is growing every time I see him with his son (he has a SON!! WOW! I’m still blown away by this).
Gratitude Tuesday
Today I am grateful for people like Lori Portka. It is people like this who make the world a better place to be.
Lori is an artist who I “met” online – I can’t remember how exactly, but I follow her on Twitter and keep up with her blog. She has been working on an amazing project for quite a while now called, “A Hundred Thank-Yous: a gratitude project by Lori Portka”. She has painted 100 paintings for 100 people in her life. After an exhibit of the paintings, she is going to give them away to the people they were made for. Isn’t that seriously amazing?
A HUNDRED PAINTINGS.
To give away.
That just blows me away. I can’t quite imagine how this project has affected her, but I’m sure it has, and deeply. In her television interview (finally, some “good” news!), she said it changed her as an artist. What an amazing thing to do. I wish I could be there to see the exhibit! I would love to take on something like this… someday!
Gratitude Tuesday
Today I am grateful for:
- My brother Nathan visiting us this past weekend. We played board games, went dancing, he went for a bike ride with the kids, we ate sushi, we listened to music – a great weekend. My only complaint: too short!
Feel the love!
- A stress-free clothes shopping experience with all three kids. Decisions were made promptly, and there was no fighting. Can’t ask for much more than that!
- Painting! I am so thrilled that every time I start painting, I have so much fun. This is still such a new experience for me (the fun, I mean!), and I’m loving it. Nathan painted with me, too!
First layer of the painting! Loving it already.
Gratitude Tuesday
Today I am grateful for:
- Spending the weekend with my Dad. My Dad visits often, and we always have fun. This time we played “Bang” and my Dad was the dealer.
- 3 more sleeps until my brother is here for a visit! Can’t wait.
- That we feel all that we do, and we aren’t like the people in “The Giver” by Lois Lowry (which I am reading right now – great book, by the way).
My hubby (lookin’ good in a suit) with my Dad!
Gratitude Tuesday: Weekend Getaway in Banff
Today I am grateful for:
Spending the weekend in Banff with my daughters. It was our 6th annual “Girls-only” trip to Banff!
A fun hike up Johnston’s Canyon, without too much complaining! And yes, they carried the stuffed animals all the way up!
A double-room upgrade after being next to two yappy dogs in the “pet corridor”!
The view out our window after getting the upgrade.
Back-alley roughness made beautiful.
Close encounters with nature.
Bonding time.
Fun-loving hubby and son to come home to.
Gratitude Tuesday and some sold paintings!
Today I am grateful for:
- Chef Stephen (who cooks amazing lunches for the kids at our school) and his yummy dinners. I bought one tonight and it was delicious.
- My amazing friend Shelley. I have been seeing her for Belief Re-Patterning sessions, which are so powerful. Shelley gave me a copy of the new book about this technique, by Suze Casey (who is also in Calgary – yay!). Thanks, Shelley!
- Dr. Brene Brown and her wonderful blog and books about vulnerability. If you get a chance, read her post from April 15. I loved it.
- Crying with my kids while watching “Hugo” today. They are so sweetly innocent, still.
- Selling a bunch of my paintings recently! I am grateful that there are people who enjoy my art and wish to hang it on their walls. Here they are:
The first two are paintings I made for Matt and Meghan.
Here are the paintings in their new home:
I sold these two paintings to Amy:
Deborah bought these two:
And these are two that I sold to Monica. (I am also making a large painting for Monica, and I am very excited to see how it is turning out! More on that later!)
Gratitude Tuesday and Happy Birthday MOM!
Happy Birthday to my amazing, beautiful, creative and inspiring mother, a.k.a. MA! My mom has given me so much: my love of rainbows, my competitive streak, my parenting style, my scoliosis survival, my knitting and crochet knowledge, my love of yarn and books, and the list goes on and on. Thank you Ma, for everything you do. I love you. xoxo
Today, I am grateful for:
1. My mom spending last week with us and taking care of the kids and cooking while I danced for 6 days straight during the Core Connexion teacher training! My mom rocks!
2. Spending the weekend dancing with my BFF, Angela!
3. The supportive and wonderful dance community.
4. Warm weather is back!
5. My back supports me.
6. The feeling of slipping between freshly laundered, high thread count, sheets. Oh, and our amazing mattress.
Everyday Gratitude
I was listening to a parenting podcast today and the topic was how to make gratitude a habit for children. The women spoke about gratitude being a skill that children need to learn, mostly by watching their parents modelling it! I hadn’t really thought about that before, but it sure makes sense. They also spoke about how the more we experience gratitude in our lives, the happier we are. How true!
To this end, I am going to write down things I’m grateful for (I kept a gratitude journal for about a year, over 4 years ago – it’s been awhile!), and start a dinner-table-“What I am grateful for”-thing.
Today, I am grateful for: my health, my family, abundance, the sun shining today, and spring.
Post Vacation Hangover
Post Vacation Hangover
Symptoms (may include but are not limited to):
- Procrastination in the extreme. This includes checking your Facebook/Twitter/blog comments/Pinterest/Flickr every 1/2 hour. This would also include extensive research (and by “research” I mean watching videos) of puppies.
- Thinking about what you want/should be doing instead of actually doing it. In my case, this means think about how I would like to be painting, but time is running out to get in a good session, so it’s not worth it. Then, feel guilty about not doing what you should be doing.
- Eating. I don’t just mean meals, I mean eating to fill up time so that there is no time to do what you want to do (see above).
- Thinking up
excusesreasons why you need to “take it easy”. After all, you were just on vacation. Life is tough. Seriously though, I always seem to get sick after a holiday, so now it’s time for a second vacation! Getting sick means taking a break from working out, which means lower self-esteem, which means feeling guilty about all the above. - Wishing you were where you were a week ago (see below) instead of where you actually are (oh yeah, and then feeling guilty about not living in the present moment):
At Hollywood Studios (fake San Francisco!)
Cure:
Start doing what you want to be doing. For me, this means painting. After painting for 2 hours today, suddenly I have ideas, I want to work out again, I stop feeling guilty about procrastinating, and my self-esteem goes up. Yay!