Dear Reader,

Thank you for visiting this blog.

We feel perfectly pink blue that we will not be posting here anymore. We hope that, if you happen upon this site, you will still find something that inspires or encourages in some way.  I blog over at It's A Beautiful Life and you are welcome to join me there.  

Here's wishing you a perfectly pink day....

Brenda

Book An Artist Date

Source

My dad used to love to go fishing. He’d load up the truck with his fishing equipment and spend a day reeling in his quota. In later years, he’d sometimes come home empty-handed. The fish were scarce, often because the lake had been overfished.

You may wonder what fishing has to do with your beautiful life. Sometimes our lives feel like overfished lakes. If we keep dipping into our inner ponds – giving and giving – we’ll eventually dry up if we don’t also take time to replenished our ‘stock’.

Author Julia Cameron says that writers draw on an inner resource of images. “This well (is) like an inner pond, one that must be kept both stocked and freely flowing.”

She says writers and artists often ask, “Why is the work drying up just when it was going so well?”

Julia responds, “Very often work dries up precisely because it was going so well. We have simply overfished our inner reservoir without having taken the time and care to consciously restock our storehouse.”

So how do we restock our inner wells? Julia uses what she calls the Artist Date. “An Artist Date is a once-weekly solitary expedition to something festive that interests us.” (e.g. a visit to a museum, quilting shop, pet store, kid’s toy store, a card shop…a place that lets you experience lots of sensory images for you.)

When things get flat and grey, visit your favourite greenhouse or floral shop. That’s one place I love to poke around—the smells, colors and displays always rejuvenate me. Makes my life feel beautiful again.

The next time you feel overfished ... before is even better ... heed Julia’s advice and take yourself on an Artist’s Date. Maybe even go fishing with your Dad or someone near to you next Father’s Day.

© by Brenda C Leyland

Living Beautifully: First Impressions

“Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself.”
~ Hubert De Givenchy, Vogue (July 1985)

SPRING'S in the air. You’ve just gotten a new makeover and your face looks fab! Maybe you’ve added a few new pieces to your wardrobe, but now your hair style needs a serious update.

Brenda Kinsel, bestselling author of several books, including 40 over 40: 40 Things Every Woman Over 40 needs to Know About Getting Dressed, shares this interesting hair tip:

“Go to a new hair designer looking your best self. Introduce yourself to the hairdresser fully clothed the first time, before they get you into a smock. Let the hairdresser see who you are. Here’s a place where first impressions will really help ensure that you get the cut that works with your lifestyle and taste.”

Although what I'm going to tell you isn’t a hair salon experience, I’ll always remember when I first came to the city as a young woman looking for her first job. I decided to put in my application at a temporary agency, hoping that this step would help get my foot in the door of a nice place to work in the downtown area.

But I didn’t think at the time that it really mattered to dress up for this initial interview with the agency – after all it wasn’t an employer who was seeing me. But I began to wonder when the jobs I kept getting were never in those nice offices downtown, but in more casual, industrial kind of places. It wasn’t until much later that I realized the agency's first impression of me was that I was a 'jeans' kind of girl, and so the jobs they sent me to were to the casual jeans kind of sites.

It’s true, first impressions matter...at job interviews, and now we learn even at hair salons. If you haven’t been getting the style you want, maybe you’re giving them the wrong impression of who you are in ‘real’ life.

I never really thought about what I was wearing or how my hair looked when I arrived at a salon; after all, they were going to wash it and re-do it all anyway.  But if they only see me...you... in a way that doesn't reflect us at our most authentic times, no wonder we can walk away disappointed. 

That first impression turns out to be the unconscious standard they refer to forever after. So it's something to keep in mind for all our first encounters... not just in hair salons.

Here’s to living your life more beautifully... more truly you!

Using Concealer

On Using Concealer

The first thing to remember is that a concealer is meant to correct, not cover discolorations.

For discoloration, apply Mary Kay Signature Concealer before the foundation.

For blemishes, apply a matched concealer over the foundation.

Yellow will correct red, purple and brown.

You should use concealer only on discolored skin areas. Applying to surrounding areas will create a ‘halo’ effect (normal skin color does not need correcting).

Also remember that concealer is dryer than foundation so it adheres better and will emphasize lines.

Information gleaned from Mary Kay literature

30-Second Inspiration: Give Your Dreams Air

“If only I could...” So often we sigh over our dreams and then thrust them away because we think it’s a waste of time to hope for something that can’t happen. Although the obstacles may be legitimate–finances, health, family–we shut down our desires before we even give them air to breathe.

There’s a lovely old movie, Enchanted April, where on a soggy, miserable afternoon two women happen upon the same newspaper ad:  ‘To those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine. Small medieval Italian castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April…’

You feel their longing, even as they push the ad aside. It’s impossible. Too many hurtles. No finances. And what will their husbands say. Yet they yearn. Dream. Ponder. When they bravely step over their inhibitions, that dream becomes reality and changes their lives forever.

Things won't change for the better…until we allow ourselves freedom to dream.  If you’ve been closing the door on something, I invite you to open the door and give it room to breathe again.

Photo source:  glittergraphics.com 

Living Beautifully: Do It With Joy!

"Do it with joy."

It was the phrase I heard in the stillness one early morning

as I got myself ready for the day.

Do it with joy?

Whether it's a perfectly ordinary day
or a day that's up-side-down?

Whether it's a day filled with bad news
or the need to make a hard decision?

Whether it's facing the same old, same old?

The dentist's chair?

A new situation that makes me feel so, so uncomfortable?

Yes! Yes!

For, as I have been discovering...

Making the choice to go about our days in the spirit of joy will shift things

in our hearts which somehow shifts the atmosphere around us!

When I choose joy over anxiety,
joy over feeling despondent,
joy when I'd rather disappear and not face the situation,
joy even when I'm tired and w-e-a-r-y of heart

...whenever Joy arrives she brings her strong companion, Strength.

 And with that strength comes a growing confidence that
I can pull my shoulders back and face whatever 'it' is
because this affliction - thankfully - too shall pass.

So today, I invite you to join me, and in whatever you must do,
choose to do it with joy....

And, I'd love to hear how that works for you!






Photo source:  The Graphics Fairy

Living Beautifully: You're The Queen

YEARS AGO I had an opportunity to hear Miss America 1980 Cheryl Prewitt-Salem speak at a women's conference.  She was an inspiring speaker and I'll never forget the one thought she shared on being happy...how we as women have the ability to choose to be happy... any time, any place, any situation.

As a young woman, I was surprised to learn that the choice for being happy was always within my reach. I guess I'd assumed up until that point, when the grumpies made their appearance, I just had to live with it (as did everyone else around me) until the mood passed, and happy came back.

It was such a startling idea for me.  You mean I didn't have to let the bad mood run its course, that I had the ability to choose?  Every. Single.Time?  Even on those PMS days?

Yes, yes... when I took hold of that idea, I found it to be true. And it changed my life!

I learned that we do not have to pick the ball even if it's been thrown into our court.  I don't know if Queens hold out scepters to their subjects, but if they do, as the Queen of my world, I do not have to 'hold court' with grumpy bad moods.

I get to choose who lives in my sphere.  I get to choose whether my mood rules me... or... I rule it!

Most times it's such a split second choice -- between going ahead and 'letting it all out' -- or being more graceful and deciding to be happy even if I'm not 'in the mood'.  

Let's be honest here.... some days it is not easy.  At all.  Sometimes I don't choose happy in that first moment, but, what I have found is that the decision I made that day long ago has governed most of my days ever since.  (I think that's a good batting average.)

Being in charge... being able to choose to be happy, no matter what, literally changed my life for the better, for the more beautiful.

It can do the same for you!

Be the Queen..... choose to be happy.... live beautifully!


 ***

"Most folks are about as happy
as they make up their minds to be."
~ Abraham Lincoln


***

Photo source:  miss america.org

Graphic source:  glitter graphics.com

Living Beautifully: Live From Your Heart

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WE LIVE in a society where the language of the mind—reasoning and logical ideas—rules. But I have come to recognize in my own life, especially as a woman, that when I live more out of my heart than my head, I am more alive and more in tune with who I really am inside.

Author and speaker Mark Virkler considers the language of our heart to be pictures, emotions, spontaneous thoughts (intuitive), and faith. The language of the heart speaks beauty and hope. It speaks truth in love. It is different from the language of the mind.

I've talked before about choosing work and projects that make our hearts sing. When I’m working on a project because my mind tells me “It’s a good idea, you’ll make good money at it,” but my heart says, “I don’t like it, I don’t care how much money’s involved,” guess what, only my head is happy. But if the project touches beauty, love and hope in some way, as well as money, then my head and my heart are both happy.

Grace Note:

We’ve all heard the phrase a picture is worth a thousand words. So right now, picture a project that makes your heart sing. Something that matters to your heart.  When we live from our hearts, we love, we care, we reach out and make a difference because our heart is touched. If we would allow our hearts more time on the floor, I believe we would be happier, more content, and more passionate about our lives.

Watch for Updates

We've got some new materials in the works...

and we'll be posting soon.

In the meantime, do as the snowman suggests

and think happy thoughts.

Wishing you a wonderful New Year!




Photo source:  Rose Petals from Heaven

Living Beautifully: Are You Craving Colour?

DO YOU EVER get so busy or you've worked so hard on something that you've grown weary in body and soul? Or maybe the weather has been rainy or snowy for weeks, and the world just doesn't seem as bright and beautiful at the moment? In fact it begins to look a little gray around the edges?


Well, that's how I must have felt one morning a few years ago when I made a visit to my blogging friend Katherine's blog at Sew Me Something Good. I felt as if I'd been dropped into a large paint tray or a new box of crayons. My soul must have been craving colour! I felt like a sponge soaking it all up.

If you've noticed your world looking a little gray, here are 13 ideas that might help you add a new splash of colour and zest to your life:

1. Visit Katherine's blog.


2. Visit a quilting/fabric store in person.


3. Buy a big new box of crayons (the biggest box you can find) and a colouring book or blank art book. Now spend some time playing with all the wonderful shades and hues.


4. Go to the nearest scrapbooking, stationery or paint store and let your eyes rove over the displays of paper and colour samples.


5. Add more colour to your home. If you've got beige walls, buy some new cushions in some stunning new colour.


6. Alexandra Stoddard puts brightly coloured pencils in a holder and sets them on her desk.


7. Fill a jar with jellybeans or jube-jubes. A friend once gave me a jar full of jube-jubes -- they looked like bright jewels on my desk.


8. Buy a new scarf for your fall jacket. If you are normally conservative in your choices, be bold and outrageous -- choose a colour you wouldn't normally pick.


9. If you've still got fall colours in your neighbourhood, go for a walk in it. Bring autumn branches and berries into your house and set them in a large vase.


10. Visit an art gallery. Or visit your child's school -- their walls are often displayed with vibrant and joyful art.


11. Buy a magazine with lots of great photos, e.g. art, photography, quilting, scrapbooking, sewing.


12. Buy a handful of blossoms from the florist shop.


13. Enjoy checking out the new season's line of lipsticks.

   

Now go live your life more beautifully...

 photo source:  glitter-graphics.com

BIZ Builders: Now Is Always Best Time

"Never ever, ever leave a place of learning
without taking immediate action.

~ Jenny Flintoft

former Director of Association of Work At Home Women

WHAT? You mean right this minute? You mean I can't just add that great new idea to my pile until I find the time to tackle it?

No! No! Not according to Jenny Flintoft, an online businesswoman dedicated to helping women in business.  In a recent tele-seminar, she challenged her listeners to take immediate action when you learn something new.  It's crucial if  you want to change a habit or complete a project. It's especially so, if you are serious about moving forward in your business.

The more I think about it, the more I recognize that far too often I've been a 'hearer of the word and not a doer', not just in business but often in my personal life as well.

Hearing and giving assent to a great idea it is NOT the same as taking action to implement and make it a part of your life.

How often have I heard something new, been totally inspired, and then added the idea in my already bulging mental notebook, somehow thinking that just because I got 'goosebumps' from some amazing piece of information, it would automatically change my life. Maybe I thought it would happen by osmosis (smile).

Jenny closed her seminar by challenging her listeners to choose one thing they had learned and to take immediate action to implement it -- just as soon as we got off the phone.

My first thought You mean right away? Oooooo....I have to admit, it seemed abit too fast for me. But that's exactly what I needed!  A fast start, so I wouldn't lose the momentum and end up putting that idea in the same place where so many others have ended in the past.

When will there be a better moment? I'm reminded of a line I heard from that classic movie, The King and I, with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, where the King says:

"Now is always best time."

Yes, now is always best time.  I'm ready to action that, are you?

Photo source:  Glitter-Graphics.com

Living Beautifully: Clear Out the Clutter

A SIGNIFICANT ASPECT of living a beautiful and successful life includes taking the time to clear out the accumulation of waste and clutter.  Whether it's our homes, our desk or home office, as Alexandra Stoddard tells us in her book entitled Living A Beautiful Life:

"...we must clean out the excess baggage in our lives on a rational and regular basis. ... There comes a time when you must take action; make a ceremony out of serious straightening up.  Plan for it."

Alexandra goes on to say that when she worked as an interior designer years ago, at her office, they had one day once a month where they made no outside appointments and they would attack their files, clean up all the clutter and create order.

"A few hours of chaos and suddenly you feel exhilarated, just from throwing out. ... A regular, serious attack on mess and unnecessary clutter, performed with a glad heart, makes you feel in control of all the parts of your life you care about."

Whether your home needs it today, or your workspace or office, turn on some glad music, put your heart into it for a few minutes or hours.  Let your fingers clear out the mess and set things to rights.  If you're like me, you'll find as you do that, your mind also starts clearing out its own confusion.  And before you know it, ideas uncover themselves in unexpected ways.

Take time this week... to set your physical space in order.  You'll be glad you did.

Now go live beautifully... and successfully!

Quotable

B e a u t y ...

When you look into a woman's eyes 

and see what is in her heart.

~ Nate Dircks

An Empowering Moment: Just Be

OUR LIVES get so busy, but there is nothing wrong in giving ourselves permission to take a few minutes to stop and 'just be'.

Author Elizabeth Sam recommends that we 'make time every day to stop running, stop planning, stop multi-tasking, and be still. If five minutes a day is all you have, start with that.'

Stop right now. Do it! Take a deep breath and say, Self (put your name in here), I give you permission to stop what you're doing and be restful for 5 minutes. And, I release you from feeling guilty.

You'll notice a difference -- a sense of calm will start to settle. The stress and tension will melt. You'll feel balance returning. You might even notice that the birds are singing. Ahhhhhhh!

Now go and live beautifully...

Photo source:  Microsoft Images

Picture Perfect

"Treat your friends as you do your pictures,
and place them in their best light."

Jennie Jerome Churchill
(1854 - 1921)

Biz Builders...Yes You Can!

SOMETIMES IT'S JUST one small step that a person takes in a new direction that leads to a happier life. Most often this begins in the way we think about things.

Did you ever stop to think that taking just one tiny apostrophe and a single letter of the alphabet from the word CAN’T suddenly changes everything?

Right there in front of you, you’ve got a word that says you CAN!

Do you think thoughts that lift you up (where you think you can) or pull you down (where you lament that you can't)?

 
There's a quote by John C. Maxwell  I often look at pinned to my little bulletin board:

"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily."

What if this is the key that makes your desires and wishes more within reach?  Would you be willing to take a tiny step towards it?

Yes, you can!

Now go live successfully!

In Her Shoes

HOW DO YOU KEEP your customers coming back? It’s not just about getting in touch for her next order, but it’s about treating her in such a way that builds loyalty and trust between you. So how can you do that?  Here are six 'shoe-in' tips:

• Think like a customer. Put yourself in her shoes. Remember how you like to be treated when you’re the customer. Look at your business from her point of view. What does she see when she steps into your house to pick up product? How quickly does she receive her order? Is it all there? Have you listened to her needs and desires? Is her encounter with you a bright spot in her day?

• Make her feel luxurious. Do you remember those movies where the heroine goes shopping in New York and the back seat of her convertible teems with beautifully wrapped packages? It all feels so luxurious, doesn’t it? Why not make your customer feel luxurious when she shops Mary Kay.

• Be happy about what she does purchase, not what she has not. You don’t want your dream to move up the career ladder more quickly translate into making your customer feel that she’s not buying enough. Little purchases add up too. You don’t want her leaving feeling defensive or pressured.

• Find a common bond. Sharing laughter over similar funny experiences, or finding out that you both love old movies connects your relationship at a more personal level.

• Remember her birthday. Family and close friends usually do, but it’s a nice touch when even your beauty consultant remembers. Send a personal card or e-note. Offer a discount on anything she orders during her birthday month, but don’t do it just as a business tool; she’ll pick up if her birthday is just about doing business.

• Treat her like royalty.  Make her feel important and your customer won't think of going anywhere else.

On another note, I think this also a great recipe for finding and treasuring new friendships. Yes?

Now go and live beautifully!

Living Beautifully...Scatter Joy

S-c-a-t-t-e-r   joy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson



Click here for a short movie entitled Finding Joy.
by Simple Truths




You have to sniff out joy.
Keep your nose to the joy trail.
Buffy Sainte-Marie




Joy is the infallible sign
of the Presence of God.
Rev. Joyce




There are souls in this world
which have the gift of finding joy
everywhere and of leaving it behind them when they go.
Frederick Wm. Faber




Heaven, the treasury of everlasting Joy.
Shakespeare





Wishing you JOY for the journey! 

Thank Heaven For Girlfriends

“IT IS ESSENTIAL to our well-being to have girlfriends. It is the key to a happy marriage, I tell ya. If you are expecting your husband to give you the kind of empathetic/sympathetic, active-listening, chocolate-sharing, soul-baring experience that you can only achieve while inadvertently sniffing a shared nail polish bottle, you are barking up the wrong tree, Fifi.”

Anita Renfroe, If You Can't Lose It, Decorate It! Perpetual Calendar, 2008

BIZ Builders...How's Your Harvest?

IF YOU KNOW anything about gardening and growing things, you will know that there is a definite pattern of sowing and reaping. You can never harvest anything unless a seed has first been planted. In other words, you can't expect strawberries if you haven't first sown a strawberry seed.

This same principle plays an active role in every other area of life. If we want to experience the good things of life, we need to sow seeds of good things. We must first give in order to receive.

Sometimes we need a witty, new idea. I used to teach kids and one thing I enjoyed was creating games and interesting bulletin boards for them. At first I only had a few simple ideas, but as I used them, other new ideas would start to develop. My mind would begin to whirl and I'd say, Oh, I could do that or this. If I worked on it this way, then I could also get that...and that...and that.

I began to realize that creativity begets creativity. The more ideas I dreamed up, the greater the flow of other interesting ideas. Pretty soon I had files of ideas, and everywhere I went something would trigger brand new ones.

Were those possibilities always there? Probably, but until I put something into action -- ie until I planted the seed I already had -- I didn't get a harvest for something larger.

Everyone knows you can't multiply zeros -- 1000 x O still equals O.

What kind of good things are you looking for? Do you need a great new idea? Some encouraging words? Help with a project? New techniques? New friendships? Fresh opportunities?

Start with what you have, plant that seed, and then expect a harvest. Remember, the more seeds you plant, the bigger the harvest.

Now go live successfully!