Light And Dark

Tree With Roots by Claudia H. Blanton

Welcome! Would you like some coffee? The following post is part of the Weekend Coffee Share Blog Hop, and contains links to my artwork, and stuff I actually buy (affiliate links). 

If you were here with me, having coffee – or tea – I got some yummy imported Japanese green tea, if you prefer the latter – I would welcome you to Linzer cookies, and new pieces of art. You would probably notice that this week, I have been working in contrasts – either creating very dark pieces, such as “Anger”, and “Masks“,  or light ones, like “Tree With Roots”. No colorful “in-betweens”, no “something in the middle,” but each on the opposite ends of the color spectrum and theme.

Why, you might ask, would I go from a subject matter such as Domestic violence to something really light in such a short period of time?

My answer to that question is  balance. While I enjoy working on both ends of the contrast, I find myself is automatically balancing my creations, often without noticing, and almost never intentional. I do the same with writing, instinctively seeking the balance that the Universe seems to crave.

Tree In The Dark by Claudia H. Blanton

It is  concept present in all of the celebrations of this season, no matter which spiritual connection one chooses to follow. The light, peace and hope of what is bright, and warm, piercing through the darkness of the Winter months, creating once again balance.

Do you embrace the contrast of dark and light? Does it show in your creative process, or do you enjoy one side of the spectrum more, when you are being creative? Is that an intellectual process for you, or are you creating instinctively?

This blog post is a part of the following blog hops:

Weekend Coffee Share

Tater Tots And Jello

 

 

Best of Zazzle – Fall Edition # 1

I love Autumn, in all of its colorful glory. This season’s holidays are my favorite – the fun Halloween celebrations, as well as the gathering of family and friends for Thanksgiving. Every year we carefully change our decor, the bright and deep reds, yellows and oranges surrounding us with every step. I try to make this change special for our children, as we do not always life in a place where we can truly appreciate the change of colors and temperature – like right now in Las Vegas – by adding some extra fun decor for them.

If you like Fall as much as I do, you will probably appreciate the following designs of independent artists surrounding this theme. They have captured my attention, and maybe you choose to bring them into your home, as I have done before.

For more information about the individual product, click on the image, or the link below the item.

Fall Pathway Postcard

Fall Colors At Portland’s Japanese Garden – Poster

Autumn Oak Leaves Mug

 

A Touch Of Autumn Serving Tray

Happy Autumn Postage

Tree Fall Wedding Binder

Aren’t these beautiful? As always, thank you for supporting independent artists with your purchase. You are truly appreciated!

Question:

What is your favorite season? Do you have any special activities you plan during that time of the year that you look forward to the most? I would love to hear from you!

Have a wonderful day!

Claudia

Best of Zazzle – Halloween Edition #2

Best Of Zazzle – Halloween Edition #1

 

Click on the individual pictures for more information on the individual product. As always, please support independent artists! Thank you!

Taking Chances – A Celebrate The Small Things Blog Post

 

Courage by SimpleStrongWords

Welcome to my weekly Gratitude post – part of Lexa Cain’s “Celebrate The Small Things” blog hop. Why not join us?

Taking chances takes courage. Sometimes it takes moving outside of one’s comfort zone, putting yourself out there, no matter what, even if it means whatever the endeavour it can fail.

I have been wanting to create a design and lifestyle blog for a while. This week I am celebrating my first post upon it. Does it mean that it will succeed? I don’t know, but at least I can try.

Trying new things, and following through on a commitment also takes courage. I celebrate my children’s decision to eat differently, ethically. My daughter is vegan, my son turned vegetarian a few months ago. Both of these choices take commitment and conviction. I am proud of their consciousness of how to live a more positive life.

I celebrate the beginning of September, which always means to me to switch gears toward the Fall and Winter seasons. Even though I love heat, I love the colors and energy of Autumn, and even though this year, I will not be seeing much of that in person (Las Vegas is not known for the foliage, lol), I am emerging myself into the design and creativity that this season brings with it.

What are you celebrating this week? Have you accomplished something that you want to share? Join the blog hop here! 

Blessings

Claudia

Celebrate The Small Things – Las Vegas Edition

 

Vintage Las Vegas Poster

;

I am happy to back blogging, and to be joining you all in this weeks “Celebrate The Small Things” Blog Hop, hosted by the wonderful Lexa Cain.

We finally completed  our move to Las Vegas, which was not just relocating ourselves but our entire business, and as you can expect that took some time, especially considering that we are also in the midst of expanding. So I am grateful to be sitting in my apartment (albeit small) typing this post and connecting with you all. Thank you for all of the encouraging words and well wishes we received since we announced our move, and throughout it. This meant a lot to all of us.

I am also grateful that the pets (two dogs and the cat) did well on the trip from Tampa to Las Vegas. We drove, so this took a while, but they all adjusted fine to the trip, and are now comfortably resting in our new place.

The people in our neighborhood are very friendly, so that is also wonderful. I am grateful for everyone greeting each other, as well as for the some short conversations I had with fellow dog owners. Our place has a special pet court yard which has grass (a luxury in the middle of the desert), and there is a dog park within two minutes walking distance (thank you to the neighbor who pointed that out to me)

It’s almost fall time, and I am so grateful that I can switch my attention from summer decor to fall decorations. I am launching my home decor and lifestyle blog within the next few days, and I am looking forward to sharing some of the beautiful finds, I have already run across (and of course I had to purchase some of them, I just can not help myself).

Hopefully all of you also had a great week! It will be fun reading what you guys wrote, and if you have not joined in with this group of wonderful bloggers, but would like to, just follow this link and add your blog to the list!

Till next week!

Claudia

Gratitude – A Celebrate The Small Things Blog Post

It has been way too long since I have participated in the “Celebrate The Small Things” blog hop, even though I think it is one of the most positive link ups around. So without further ado, this shall be remedied today.

There is so much to be grateful for anyway. We are finally getting over whatever this viral infection was, that the entire family suffered from for almost two weeks. It feels good to be able to breathe, without coughing my lungs out. I am very grateful for that.

My dog (the hyper- allergic one I wrote about before) is getting her fur back! That took a while, but it is all coming back now, finally. She has made such a tremendous improvement since we went all crazy and changed, well just about everything, including me making her dog food from scratch.

I am grateful for the fact that the design part of our business is working well. I got more ideas than I know what to do with (which is a normal state for me), and I am itching to implement every single one of them.

I am also grateful that I am writing again like crazy, not just flash fiction and haiku, but also on the trilogy, but I know better to even try to come up with a publication schedule until after the move. While I do not mind taking on a lot of work, I know better than to overdo what I put upon myself. After all, we still have the transportation aspect of our business to run, and I do homeschool both of my kids.

I am grateful that I have come across so many different cool bloggers over the last  few weeks, and I had a chance to learn so much from them. Implementing these lessons will take me a little while, but that is okay. There is always something to learn, isn’t there?

So, now I am wondering what you are grateful for? What have you come across this week, that made you appreciate the world around you just a little more? Oh, and check out the other bloggers participating in this link up here! 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Blessings

Claudia

Earth Day – A Haiku

Screaming frustration
a little too late to win
one day not enough

We dedicate one day — one stinking, single day — a year to take care of something that we should be taking care of every day. You might say, this is better than nothing, but in the big picture of it all, it is nothing. This day is simply an attempt to make ourselves feel better, to give ourselves a pad on the back for talking about our future and taking some action toward a better tomorrow for our planet.

But, I am frustrated because I know many, who will make up for that one day they actually did something for Mother Earth, by polluting it worse the next. Earth Day is fine in the classrooms, but in everyday life, every single day needs to become our Earth Day, and every day we need to do our best to lessen the damage we have done to the only place we ever will call home.

Friday Gratitude: 5 Reasons To Be Grateful – A Celebrate The Small Things Post

I found myself looking forward to this post “Celebrate The Small Things” (via dear Lexa Cain)  post this week because there is so much to celebrate!

1. The #MarWritingChallenge is going great! Everyone who is participating is doing such a great job, and I am honored that I am the one to guide them through it this month. This is definitely something I will do again in the near future.

2. Avalon-Media – our soon to be new business adventure is beginning to take shape. I will not reveal too many details, as these can and may change a little, but essentially speaking, we will be offering our own e-books, positive resources and down the line some e-courses. By we – I mean, my husband and I.

3. I am getting better at managing my dogs severe allergies. Well, only one of them has allergies, the other one suffers from anxiety – always has – as a result of the shelter and the too early separation from her mother. My allergy-dog had to be switched to home-cooked foods and has to stay away from even the tiniest flea – which is a chore in Florida. But we are getting there.

4. I love creating posters, infographics and all of that stuff via canva.com. I have been learning a few things from their extensive tutorials, as well as some wonderful people who share their thoughts via YouTube, and I love creating with it. So no more boring pictures!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! Looking forward to reading what you were grateful for!

Better Late Than Never – Celebrate The Small Things

I am so behind on blog hops this week! But I think I have a reasonable excuse, considering that I have been writing up a storm. Besides working on reviews (thank you for everyone who has sent me copies of their work, I love you all, and will post the reviews soon), and writing on my own Fantasy series (not sure yet, it if would fit more into Urban Fantasy, or Dark Fantasy, well the books will help me discover how dark I am going to go with this), I have been slammed busy.Oh and we are planning for my daughter’s prom (her boyfriend’s prom, actually – we home school, so no actual prom here), a move, running our business, and yes, I got to edit a freaky little horror script I just finished writing.

I am utterly and happily grateful for all of the above! This might be crazy, but I actually like being busy. I did forget to mention, that I was chosen to lead the #MarWritingChallenge on Twitter! Yay! Basically the concept behind that is, that we encourage others that sign up to write at least 500 words per day, or edit their projects for one hour a day, and log their process for accountability. I am basically the lead-cheerleader on Twitter, but we do also have a Facebook group. I am so grateful to be a part of this! (for more info check out our main site http://writingchallenge.org)

It has warmed up! Finally the weather resembles some kind of Florida spring – which supposed to mean, I am supposed to be sweating, and hiding by the air-conditioner. That has not happened until yesterday. I loved turning on the AC! Felt like winning. We can not complain here, because our weather was not marginally as bad as for the rest of the East Coast, but I am reveling in the warmth right now.

So, I hope you had a great week too. What did you guys do, and what are you grateful for?

P.S. I am also grateful that people I rooted for, won at the Oscars! Yay to winning!