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If I could jump into Israeli illustrator Gal Shkedi's head for a few minutes, I'd search around for the inspiration behind this illustration, with which I am truly in love. I love the idea and the sentiment, and it makes me think: maybe we all have our balloon man in the sky, showering us with happiness and goodness, and all we have to do is look up to see him? (Or her?)
{If you'd like to see more of Gal Shkedi's work, please click on over to his website, his flickr page, and his vimeo page. He's super talented!}
I hope you all have a glorious Wednesday!
I recently received a copy of this book, and it's just darling!
A journal to celebrate what makes me happy? Yes, please!
One of my favorite parts of the book is the "Spontaneous Happiness Generator" pages, sprinkled throughout the book. They are snippets of things that make people happy, in their own handwriting, and each one made me smile.
A few samples:
"Tea parties with my granddaughter- a cup of sugar water, graham crackers, + a sweet little girl."
"Waking up every morning and looking at trees."
"Daily good morning text messages from my father."
The book is terrific, because it's basically a place where you can document what makes you happy-- lots of room to write things down, questions and prompts to spark your happiness and get you thinking in a positive and fun way, and to discover and celebrate the special things that make you happy!
The authors say "you'll create your own personal pick-me-up that you can flip through whenever you want."
You can pick up a copy right here-- I can think of a few people in my life who I'd like to gift with this book-- the holidays are coming! Is there anyone on your list who would love The Happy Book?
What if we gauged everything by the level of happiness it inspired us to feel? What if every morning our intention was to feel good? What if we asked ourselves in each situation "does this feel good to me?" And if the answer was no, then we'd have a choice to change our thoughts, our behavior, our life, for the better. To feel good!
If I listen to myself and only myself, instead of what is "supposed to" make me feel good, according to other people, isn't that the ultimate freedom? What works for ME, not based on what anyone else thinks?
Now that is something to practice, people!
{ps- I was part of the Design Your Life series on Jess Constable's blog Make Under My Life yesterday, and you can check it out right here if you're interested! There's a funny picture of me at the top.} :)
Have a terrific weekend!!
{by david plant, from advice to sink in slowly}
Oh man, what a life-changer this one can be.
This makes me think of letting go judgments. You know those times where you judge someone or something in a split second, and then your mind is made up and you've put that person/experience in a convenient box in your mind? Let go of that. Those things you believe are just TRUE, because that's what you've known and believed your whole life? Let go of that, too, because maybe it's an old belief that's not serving you anymore. Maybe letting go of what we think we know will just open our eyes a little bit to someone else's unique experience. Do you ever wish you could see the world through someone else's eyes and mind, even just for a minute or two? I do.
Maybe what you think is true and "the way that it is" isn't true for everybody. That's a doozy, too. You mean I'm not right? I just think what I think, and you think what you think, and it's all right and true, all at the same time? Whoa. Let it go and see what opens up for you...
{and a couple of links:}
*advice to sink in slowly website
*david plant's website
You know what I think is amazing? That someone of I've never met in person (Aimee), who lives in Lawrence, Kansas, a place I've never been, saw this door with the word love scrawled across it as she was walking around her town, and she thought of me. Then, she took the extra step to email me the photo she took of the door, because she thought it was a perfect image for Pecannoot. WOW.
What would we do without the internet? There are so many people out there that I feel are my dear friends that I've never met in person! (Aimee is one of them, obviously.) :) And without the internet, the probability of my ever even knowing these wonderful people exist is pretty much zero. Amazing.
So, thank you to Aimee for sending this photo over, and if you don't already read Aimee's blog, Artsyville, I highly recommend it! It's one of the most colorful and inspiring places in blogland, in my opinion. (And if you remember from way back, Aimee did a fantastic illustrated interview for us here!)
*Big thanks and big hugs, Aimee! I hope to meet for real one day!*
Spring. Inspiration in Bloom.
I am so thrilled to announce this project that I've been working on for the last few months with 3 incredibly inspiring ladies:
*Michelle Ward
*Jess Constable
and
*Carolyn Rubenstein
Spring is about dialogue. We will be creating monthly conversational video posts and blog posts around specific topics-- topics that you want to hear about and participate in! That said, we need your input.
The theme for our first video, which will launch the week of Thanksgiving, is gratitude. What questions/comments/experiences do you have around the idea of gratitude? Through sharing our own experiences and tossing around ideas suggested by you all, we hope to inspire not only ourselves, but also you in the process!
Head on over to our Spring website to learn more about the project and to leave us comments. (You can add comments here, too, or even email us if you want to!)
We have a badge, too, that you're free to put on your blog if you're inspired already:
We can't wait to hear from you and start exploring the topics that emerge!
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