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How about some pops of color for your winter daze?
So you see...
I was supposed to be organizing last week -
When I popped onto Craigslist for a quick browse and found this sweet lil' desk. I loved it immediately and it fit right into this little spot like a glove.
Isn't treasure hunting the bestest?
Especially when it's unexpected?
I find treasure hunting to be relaxing and exhilarating all at once.
The bonus of this little piece is that it has its original working key.
Through the secret keyhole right there, insert hearts galore!
<3 <3 <3
Since my wall peeked out a little I thought I would show you my floral mural I painted last year.
I meant to take photos sooner but time just escaped me.
I should have taken a picture before I put the mantel shelf back up.
My favorite butterfly is being covered up right now but I'll take more pics in the future I'm sure.
I guess I just love a beautiful mess.
Maybe a plain mess to others, but layers of florals and old things have my heart.
One day (a few years ago) I bought an old painting at an antique store and the seller also had the artists paint palette. I have plenty of my own palette's, stacks really from years of use, but having someone else's seemed magical in its own way so I had to have it.
There's so many ways to bring happy pops of color into your home.
Spools and paper flowers are good for that, especially when it's not flower season.
I bought this record a while back (you might recall) because I just loved the colors.
It was such an easy way to bring some of my fave colors into my home.
I have a few John Derian plates that are always fun too.
I got the little bubble blowing girl in 2006 or thereabouts.
I am enjoying the petals and leaves peeking out around my bed.
I had no idea they would work well with the shelf up too.
I had not intended to put it back up but I left the brackets in the wall just in case.
I camouflaged them with paint into the leaves and petals and now I'm glad I did.
Plus I love a shelf to place artwork and candles and any random little assortment of treasures.
I'm in love with the little ledge on the desk because it gives me a place to use as a dressing table too.
To place my jewelry + etcetera's.
Tea and happy things.
What more can one ask for?
I love these hand tinted vintage postcards.
Another way to add a pop of colour.
Once you crawl into bed you are surrounded by a forest of red mushrooms at the foot of the bed.
Perfect place for dreaming...
Or water coloring, which I do happen to do sitting in bed from time to time.
I know, I live on the edge ;-)
I'm so glad I painted flowers on the wall.
It adds so much happy, especially when the winter garden is sleeping.
I think we should all paint on the wall at some point in our lives.
When I was 11 my parents let me paint on the walls, it opened the flood gates to my love for creativity.
They also let me paint my furniture, which I enjoyed profoundly.
I painted all sorts of designs and colors - several times actually.
I know a lot of us here love to paint on furniture, it's such a huge undertaking but so incredibly rewarding when you are done.
So, what about it, you feel like painting on your wall?
Show me if you do.
I'm sure some of you have already.
Well, it's a beautiful day out and I hear the breeze and sun calling me.
It's going to get really cold tomorrow they say.
Not as cold as some of you at all though, I'm certain of that.
The other day we were over on Instagram chatting and I decided on a whim that my phrase for 2019 would be, Unlock the Magic.
I loved that a bunch of you decided to jump on the bandwagon.
But where do we begin you ask?
It's such a huge statement.
And "the magic" seems so massive and vast.
Where does one even procure such an intangible thing?
When I was around 19 years old I made a pact with myself.
(after a bit of a new age spiritual moment, I'll spare you that tale)
I would spend the rest of my life in search of & cultivating peace within my soul and my own magic.
I decided right then and there that I would dedicate my life to creativity and all the needs of my heart and soul.
I knew for me, that was my path and nothing more.
I shunned anything or anyone that made me feel bad and I reminded myself that no one could come in and disrupt my life if I did not let them.
I obviously had had some things happen to me by that point that I learned my lessons and decided to do something about it.
And so, this would be the journey.
I don't know how I knew, but it was a message engrained so deep in my soul.
It was all I could follow.
And honestly, I felt that I would die if I did not follow this.
It was the only option for me, and so I set out to find myself on this path of peace and creativity.
I only tell you this because even though I do not have all the answers about magic and life (nor do I always feel peaceful and creative, which is normal and okay), I do have a few that I found out about myself, that I think are universal, that anyone can take from.
The most important thing to know is that the magic is already within you.
Yep, it's right there, right now.
You may have felt it already, you may know it is there and not know how to tap into it.
You may have had the box totally open at one time and then it closed and you may have been trying to get there ever since.
You may even think your magic is gone or lost.
Heck, you might even think you don't have any magic within you.
Wrong.
Totally wrong.
We've all been there.
The truth is -
The magic is there and the first and only thing keeping the door shut is....
All your thoughts and worries about the past.
All of your thoughts and worries about the future.
All of the bad thoughts you carry about past things that don't matter anymore.
The second thing keeping the door closed...
This is the most crucial thing really.
Since you are the keeper of the magic, the only thing keeping you from it is...
You.
The most rotten way we do this is by having false expectations of who we think we should be.
False expectations of how we think everyone else is doing compared to ourselves.
And all the self doubt and mean bashing you do to your own self.
We are all our own worst enemies.
The best way to combat those negative thoughts is to respond to them with, who cares.
Who cares?!
Whenever you get a bad thought say, who cares?
Ask yourself, do I really care?
Honestly truly, do I really care?
Chances are you don't truly care about half of the negative thoughts swirling in your mind keeping you from having a nice day.
The worst part is that we alter our feelings and mood by not only having these bad thoughts but then by reacting to them.
It's okay to have bad thoughts, it's human nature, but we can acknowledge that they are just thoughts and thoughts do not always equal reality.
When you start to worry about the future you have to say, everything always has a way of working itself out.
Haven't you found that in life?
You worry worry worry and then somehow something happens to fix it?
Or even if something bad happens, you somehow get through it?
We are resilient human beings, but we don't always realize it.
These are just some of the things keeping us from unlocking the magic that is right there within you.
So, how do you begin to unlock it?
The most valuable lesson I have learned is that it doesn't take some earth shaking thing to happen for your inner magic to crack wide open.
Nope, no siree.
In fact, unlocking the magic takes a handful of tiny things.
Yep, tiny things.
Little tiny things will unlock the magic.
Imagine that?
Trust me, you don't need to unlock the entire box of magic within you.
Even just a little bit is all you need to change your life.
The same way you don't need to use the entire bottle of dish soap to wash one plate.
Just a little bit goes a long way.
The magic lives within the things that bring you joy.
The things you truly love in life.
It's like being in love.
That giddy feeling you get inside your soul when you feel love is already inside you, it's just awakened by someone or something.
But it was already within you.
Same with magic.
These are all just feelings after all.
Which is ironic because feelings make up most of the everythings.
The reason I'm using my books to talk about magic, especially Alice in Wonderland, is because books give us the permission to believe. To live in fantastical worlds and allow ourselves to believe for a moment that they exist.
Don't they though?
The imagination is a real thing.
One of the greatest gifts.
And it is one way to access your magic.
By dreaming and believing.
Using your imagination for good thoughts instead of for bad ones is key.
We all have to live in the real world, but that doesn't mean that we have to put our magic away completely.
It means, you go do your stinky real life stuff and then you know how to refind your magic.
A map to yourself.
Life can be tough and rotten, no reason to then go and box up your magic too.
Your magic is sometimes all you've got in the face of this big crazy world.
Sometimes you can hear the magic calling and you may say, I'm just too lazy, I'll answer later.
This is where I find the most important lesson is.
Magic finding doesn't have to be some epic grueling thing.
Like I said, it's all in the little things.
If you are too lazy, do a lazy thing that awakens the magic, like read or watch a fabulous movie.
Just get off your phone when you do them.
Ask yourself, what are 3 things that you love to do?
They can be totally minor things, but these are the little things that unlock that magic within.
I'll tell you a few places where my magic lives in my own life.
My magic comes to life when I go into an old book store (the scent and pages give me butterflies), when I sculpt clay and especially when I throw on the wheel, a sense awakens within me that I can feel. My magic peeks out when I sit with a stack of paper and pencils. It's in hugging my dogs, it's in going for a walk whilst listening to my favorite music. It is in a quiet antique store playing classical music. It is late at night in my studio, flinging paint for no reason, with good music blaring. It is in my garden at all times of the year. It is in nature, it is in faffing as the Brit's say (decorating or moving things around your house), it's on a walk where I take a basket to collect nature findings. It is in good memories, and sometimes it is even in tears and thoughts that melt my heart. It's often just going outside and not thinking about anything else but the moment, puttering around my garden, feeling the air - these are all the little ways I unlock the magic within me.
And once you unlock the magic, it's your job to allow it to flourish.
If you are creative, jump into your creativity, remember what you were doing when you felt the magic and come back to it next time.
Your joy is within you, as is your magic and passion.
It's your job to know how to listen to it, unlock it and nurture it.
So, now what do we do once we unlock the magic?
We know it is there, we know we want to do something with it.
The answer is very easy, do whatever you want.
Give yourself permission to do it.
Whatever it is that you've been wanting to do.
If you have been wanting to paint or sew or dance under the moonlight...
Whatever your magic is pushing you towards, do it.
Now, that can be the hard part.
Getting past your own self to do it, but by golly, if you feel the magic do something with it.
If you feel the magic late at night, just write a list about the things you would like to do.
Writing things down is crucial and imperative.
When you get an idea or have a wish, write it down.
Ask yourself how you can go about making it reality.
Writing down your wishes and thoughts and inspirations is the most incredible thing you will do.
Especially because often those things just pop in and out of your brain in seconds.
And in a busy day, instead of doing any of them you might instead watch a mindless show, kill hours on your phone and lose sight completely about the unlocking magic thing you were talking about - we all have done that.
My dad is a very successful man (at anything he tries and in life in general) and he always carries a little notepad and pen in his pocket & he is an incredibly determined person.
He writes down things he needs to do, things he wants to do, thoughts and ideas.
He keeps them alive by writing them down.
It's like little goals.
He lives by this and always tries to get others to do it.
If I don't write my inspirations down I completely forget them.
How about you?
I wonder if Lewis Carroll wrote things down?
You wonder?!
Of course he did!
We would never ever ever have met Alice if he had not written down his most silly and absurdly incredible wonderful thoughts.
Just imagine that?
They could have been thoughts lost in the wind.
In your brain one second and then gone in another.
All these stories and thoughts and ideas were taken the next step.
After magic and inspiration and thoughts...
They were written down.
192 pages of adventures that his thoughts went on.
Imagine that?
And don't forget along the way that...
You are wonderful just as you are.
Your magic is within you.
There is no past or future to squash your dreams unless you let them.
I don't care how old you are.
Grandma Moses became a painter well past 80.
So in the words of Arrowsmith, dream onnnn!
You are you and no one else, and you have hopes and dreams that are valid and beautiful.
So, what are you waiting for?
You have the magic within you.
Find the little tiny things that will come together to unlock it for you.
Write your ideas down, make a list, don't forget the beautiful thoughts that float in and out of your mind.
You don't have to do something epic with your magic.
You don't have to change the world or the lives of many.
You just have to change one life, the most crucial of all, and that is - your life.
Use your magic to enjoy your life.
Let it lead you to the things you love.
What a beautiful inner peace you will find, when you fulfill some of the whims of your heart.
Start with all the small ones.
Read a book again, go outside, put your phone down for an hour or two.
Watch the sunset, draw something.
Write down the whims of your heart.
Things you would like to do.
All the little things.
Then start to do them.
Ask yourself what steps you have to take to do them.
Fulfill your soul.
As Colette said...
I've had such a wonderful life, if only I had realized it sooner.
You have a wonderful life, realize it.
Even with ups and downs.
Trust me, I've had my doozies, but you need the good and the bad.
Every good fairytale is made up of such things, isn't it?
Join me?
Let's Unlock the Magic...
Our Magic.
xoxo,
Vanessa
ps: Just a beautiful song for today, my favorite part of the song begins at 6:40
pps: I am going to try to answer comments in comments section from now on, so we can all chat and share our kindredness from time to time.
Time escapes me on these beautiful autumn to winter days.
Golden hour is sublime, the air is chilly, the garden slowly shifting in the high desert.
The roses hold on.
They love the cool air after the hottest summer.
(summer lasted until October here)
They want to stick around, even some zinnia and basil have held on - until last night that is
Last night the garden baths froze.
Tomorrow the garden will look different.
Just in time for sugar plum fairies and holiday elves.
Baubles are turning up on the mantle in place of the citrus.
The table gets set over and over.
Pumpkins and holly collide.
The laughter of family and friends fills the air.
The end of dinner parties look like this...
Pilar candles almost down to bare wick.
Empty glasses and shoes kicked off.
We laugh until we can't laugh any more singing and playing games.
Such lovely times.
I recuperate in the sunlight.
The garden is cool but bright.
And it's time to bring some green in for holiday décor.
Volunteer mums are everywhere, perfect color to kick off the season.
I collect my favorite baubles and head into the garden to create.
Sparkles and light fill the space...
I grab my tools and walk into the hidden gardens collecting cuttings from trees.
I love turning fresh tree cuttings into wreaths. They are easy to form and will dry into sturdy perfect shapes. Some cuttings will intertwine easily without any wire, but you can use wire too, they make green florists wire, but any wire will do really.
You can hang a favorite bauble from the center of your little wreath, tie a ribbon, or just leave it plain, which is beautiful as well.
I love silly baubles!
Here are several completed tree cutting wreaths below
It must have taken no more than 20 minutes, most of the time spent clipping my cuttings.
Now to hang them and delve into the holiday spirit.
In my mind it is still September.
How it is now mid December I will never know.
I am just grateful for warm cozy spaces to share with loved ones.
My living spaces are warm and happy with twinkle lights.
I am glad you peeked in to clink glasses (and teacups) as well <3
Cheers to you and me, so glad you are here.
Just in time for golden hour.
That spectacular beautiful wonderful light.
I love watching for it every afternoon.
It is so important to take time to be mindful during this crazy season.
Making little wreaths, baking and sitting by the fire reading help me to be present and savor the moment. What are your favorite things to do to stay grounded during holiday madness?
I've been working on some clay sculptures, I hope I can finish them in 2018 ;-)
Hello, my name is Vanessa Valencia and I am an artist living in a lovely part of Arizona. I make all kinds of art, from painting to clay sculpting. I love tending my gardens and cuddling my dogs. This blog is about art, lifestyle, gardening, cooking, crafting & every single little magical thing in between ♥
