This blog post is a part of the following blog hops:
Wordless Wednesdays At 5 Minute Mom
Happy Spring! Wordless Wednesday
Tag Archives: hope
Plan Ahead – Editorial Calendar And Marketing Planner For Creatives, Artists, Bloggers and More (Free PDF)
Creating relevant content for the upcoming months, means to be up to date on major and minor holidays. But it gets more complicated, when you add to these often celebrated holidays those minor and less often remembered celebrations, such as National Pancake Day or the Summer Solstice.
This information can be not only useful for bloggers, who can plan their content around those holidays, but also adds a volume of potential marketing possibilities for Product on Demand Artists, Photographers, Writers, Affiliate Marketers and other creative people who have an online presence.
In order to make it easier for you to plan your marketing strategies for this year, I have combined a list of strategies and lesser known holidays and celebrations, as a gift for you. Simply click on this link: Editorial Calendar And Marketing Planner Year and download it, to print out to build your own strategies for the upcoming months.
Please do not alter this pdf in any way. You may share the PDF with your friends, in a non-commercial setting, but only un-altered.
Download it now!
Editorial Calendar And Marketing Planner Year
Because it is Friday, which on this blog means, it is time to talk about gratitude – I wanted to share with you what I am grateful for this week:
- I am grateful that despite the fact that my husband was stuck in snow this morning, while traveling in Dallas, he was safe due to the fact that he had snowchains with him. Apparently everyone has been driving safely, because he has not seen an accident. That is a very good thing.
- I am grateful that instead of being in snow, I am in Las Vegas to 85 degree weather. I will cherrish every moment of warmth today.
- I am grateful that my daughter is feeling better after having had a cold. She was invited to a picnic last weekend, and got promptly sick, due to the fact that it was still a little bit more windy then everyone expected. But she is on the mend now.
- I am grateful that it is Friday, which means it is bill paying day. It might seem a little weird to be happy about paying bills, but I am grateful that I can, when I know how many have to make decisions between eating and paying the electric. I am blessed in every way, and I am grateful for that fact.
- I am grateful for the abundance of items I have on my list this week. I am exited to share with you those wonderful new products, and some special deals, which I have carefully weeded through. More on that over the next few days. (Some of these are for you pet owners out there)
What are you grateful for this week? Share with us here, or write a blog post, and join the many blogs that are participating in the following blog hops:
Finding Happiness In Gratitude
Happiness can not exist in the absence of gratitude.
If you are looking for happiness, you will not find it in the search for new experiences, nor in the absence of desire. Happiness is found within the moments of appreciation, the time when we stop and express with every aspect of our being, a deep felt thank you.
No need for a deity or special place, just a simple act of thankfulness for what is right in front of us, can be the most profound spiritual act of your daily routine.
Taking a few moments of deliberate gratitude throughout the day, not just a part of your morning routine, brings back a more level-headed approach to live. When there is so much recognition of what there is to appreciate, there is less worry, less stress, less fear.
At no point and time, does this imply not thriving for more. The opposite is more the truth. In these moments of gratitude, we make space for more, more life, more kindness, more openness for ideas, a deeper focus.
When gratitude is chosen, the happiness it brings with it can be life changing. All we have to do is start with a simple “Thank you”.
I recommend the following books about Happiness and Gratitude
This blog post is a part of the following blog hops
Celebrate The Small Things
Thankful Thursdays by PepiSmartDog
Thankful Thursdays by Frog Lilypad
No Rules Weekend Blog Party
Monday of Many Blessings
Be Inspired
Disclaimer: The above post contains affiliate links, see Disclosure page for details.
Prison
Prison – A Haiku
self-imposed is
the prison holding me now
I long to be free
If you or anyone you know is suicidal, please contact your local help centers or call 1-800-273-8255. Please get help. The world is a better place with you in it.
Light And Dark
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.
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:
If You Were Here With Me In Las Vegas – A Weekend Coffee Share Post
Hey there, glad to have you here again for coffee. Do you like this cup? It is one of my own designs, and yes, you can take it home with you.
I hope you do not mind that I will use your visit as an excuse to stop organizing my Zazzle stores for a moment. I did not bake anything this week, too busy, but I bought us some streusel cake.
So this week had been another busy one. I am trying to get ready for a few things, first the above-mentioned stores have to be ready for the upcoming holiday season. I have given them and myself a week to make them just the way I want to. By next Saturday, they better are that way.
Also, NaNoWriMo is only a month away. I want to have the first draft of a book finished by then and use that month to edit the mess I wrote. I say mess because the first draft is always a vomit draft – just a bunch of stuff written on paper – it is the subsequential stages that carve out a true story. Apparently this story will the intro to the town most of my Paranormal fantasy series will be centered in. So the details have to be right at the end. And they will be – hopefully.
Amazon is launching an Etsy-like business section for homemade products, and I am trying to find out as much info as I can. I really love the idea, and will be writing about it on the blog, whenever I get info about it. This will be interesting. (P.S. saw some of the pre-launch selection of some stores and darn they look good – impressive stuff)
If you were here with me, I would tell you all of the reasons I do not like living in Las Vegas – the gambling in the grocery stores, the groves of homeless people in the parks, just a little bit away from tourist section, the dirtiness of the city, the personal stories of loss and addiction I have been listening to. It is a hard, dangerous city that takes so much out of so many people. On one hand, I see tourists and people with money (as obvious by their clothing, and expensive cars), walking around and partially stepping over people with no place to live. Poverty is everywhere in the US, but I have never seen it so much in your face and seen so many people act as if it is okay. It is not okay. But for me, a temporary resident only here to work for a few months, there is not much I can do. And that is what is killing me. I do what I can, donate where I can, listen to people’s stories and give a kind word or two. As I worry about the content of my next blog post, they are worried about what to feed their children or themselves. It took me a while to learn that I can not rescue everyone – an affliction my husband and I seem to share – so we do what we can to help. I just don’t feel like it is ever enough.
Okay, I’ll stop with the depressing talk, turning back toward my usual more upbeat self, hoping that you enjoyed your coffee, and I will bid you farewell with a blessing of prosperity and happiness, hoping that you and your loved ones will always have what you need, and wishing that you would share with those who do not.
Blessings!
P.S. Please check out all of the other wonderful people who write as a part of the “Weekend Coffee Share”. Give them some love!
Celebrating The Week With Gratitude – A Celebrate The Small Things Blog Post
“Gratitude” by Allroads
http://goo.gl/xVlNy9
I hope you all had a wonderful week. If you did, why not participate in the “Celebrate The Small Things” Blog Hop and share with us what you are grateful for?
What am I grateful for this week:
I am grateful that I am back on track with my daily exercise. I try to walk a minimum of 12000 steps a day, but when we were all sick that was not possible. Now, thanks to my favorite motivational tool ( the Fitbit Charge) and the fact that we are all well, I am back to my regular routine. At least when it comes to exercise.
I am also grateful that my son has decided to become a vegetarian. That is totally his choice – my daughter switched to a vegetarian diet when she was 12 as well, and now is a vegan – but it makes it so much easier to cook every day, because now instead of cooking for one meat-eater, one vegetarian (me) and one vegan – the only meat I have to cook is for the dogs, unless my husband is home, who is staying on the standard American diet – well, at least for now, there is hope there too.
I am grateful that there is more leakage of the Suicide Squad movie – well, the shooting of the movie to be exact. I can not wait to see Jared Leto play the Joker. As both a Leto and a comics fan (both Marvel and DC), I am so happy for any snippet of info I can get my hands on.
What are you grateful for this week? Is there something you are really looking forward to, or something you experienced that still leaves you in a state of glee each time you think about it? Please share, we all love great news – oh, and do not forget to stop by all of the other wonderful bloggers who are participating in this blog hop.
Blessings
Claudia
P.S The above gratitude poster was designed by Allroads and is available here. Please support independent artists!
The Tea – A Flash Fiction
“Soon”, she said to the impatient child, stirring the tea, the clouds of steam rising above the slightly cracked cup, slowly allowing the brew of roots to cool to a consumable temperature.
She tried not to frown, her eyes filled with a sorrowful smile as she nodded reassuringly at the little one.
This would have to make due for now, no breakfast available to fill their empty stomachs, but at least, the heat the tea brought would allow them to move about in the bitter cold.
For a moment, a flicker of despair rushed across her face, but she caught herself, adjusting it back to the well-practiced facade she had worn now far too long.
Copyright Claudia H. Blanton 2015
The above image is by the talented Samantha Aplin and is available on RedBubble. Please support independent artists, thank you.
The flash fiction was inspired by Lillie McFerrin’s flash fiction prompt “Steam”, and the #1word blog hop prompt “Soon”.
Nightmare – A Haiku
“Nightmare” by Avalon Media http://shrsl.com/?~8nb1
Haunted by your dark
twisted soul perverted lies
nightmares burn so deep
Copyright Claudia H. Blanton 2015
Being touched by darkness, allows us to appreciate being able to see the light. Sometimes the darkness finds itself into my art, nightmares of long ago past, those childhood fears we all come across. Some nightmares are real, others simply a part of an overactive imagination, which can be a curse or a blessing, depending on how you choose to use it.
“Nightmare” both the digital art print above and the Haiku, though, stem from real nightmares, those who haunt us far into adulthood, long beyond the actual occurrences that scarred us so deep. Expressing those nightmares, rather than burying them into a place where they can fester and grow, are healing experiences.
If you are being haunted by your own personal nightmares, try to find a way to creatively express them. Release them by bringing them into the light. And if those nightmares stem from abuse, get help.
May your days be filled with sunshine and your dreams with hope.
If you enjoy this piece of art, you can purchase it on RedBubble as a metal print, framed art piece, T-Shirt amd as a cellphone case here: Please support independent artists! Thank you!
Hidden Words – A Flash Fiction
Words Forever Lost By Avalon Media
I knew it was you, who had been here, marking the words in those many books, a clever way of showing me you were okay, but not clever enough. The same markings that let me here, let him to you, always a step ahead of me, as I stumbled blindly with no resources to find you while he had the world at his disposal. The danger you faced was greater than our love, paying the ultimate price for a forbidden moment together. Now, without you keeping me safe, I will have to be ready to face him alone.
Copyright Claudia H. Blanton 2015
The above image is available as poster, framed art print, on canvas or metal background as well as as a tote bag, and pillow on RedBubble.
Avalon-Media - A LifeStyle Blog 