How to Believe on Demand

Do you know what you want to experience in the future?

How sure are you on the scale of 1 to 10 that it will come true?

Is it hard to believe that nice things that you want will happen to you?

I know where you are. Been there, done that, and bought a bunch T-shirts.

For a very long time, I could not understand how people can believe something on demand.

I could believe what seemed believable and only hope what seemed less believable even on a good day.

But even the Bible seemed to suggest that we can ask for what we want and receive it IF WE BELIEVE IT (Mt. 8, 5-13; Lk 18, 1-8; Jm 13-18 etc.).

Not to speak about all the Law of Attraction teachings.

In the 40 years of my spiritual quest, I had come far, even experienced more than one personal Christ revelation, but believing that I will experience what I want was still a closed chest.

And then, it just sprung open: a friend mentioned Neville Goddard, I googled him, started reading, and BAM! I knew how to believe and consciously create my future!

It turned out believing is FEELING as if the desire HAS BEEN FULFILLED already.
And there is no doubt I can do that. :)

Now, I am enjoying consciously creating all kinds of experiences for myself and others more and more easily and naturally.

And having so much fun with it!

And helping others to learn that, too!

I have created two Facebook groups for that: Success Without Stress With Rita JC and Optimal Health With Rita JC .

Feel free to join us according to what you want to change now: you financial situation or your health.

Or schedule a FREE chat with me here and let's talk!

Are You Thinking About Writing?

Here are top writing tips by Barbara Kingsolver shared in this interview with Amanda Patterson.

1. Quit smoking in the hope of growing old. It takes a long time to write. People go to books for wisdom and older authors tend to have more of it.
2. Notice. If you're writing, you're a writer. If you're talking about it or thinking about it, I'm not so sure. Writing is ninety-eight percent work and two percent magic.
3. Plot comes first. The plot is the architecture of your novel. You wouldn’t build a house without a plan. If I wrote without a plot, it would just be a pile of bricks. Characters are your servants. They must serve your plot.
4. Pay attention to your passions. They are the key to starting and finishing the book you are meant to write. I don’t believe in talent. I believe in passion. 
5. Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.
6. You can do hard things. When I wrote The Poisonwood Bible, I would practice writing one scene from the viewpoint of each of the four daughters – until their voices started to sound authentic. 
7. I research a novel six ways to Sunday. I don’t want to lie to the reader; I want you to trust me.

Makes totally sense to me. How about you? Let me know in the comments, please.

Daily Routine For Creative People

Today, I stumbled upon this article by Sarah Green.

Not that I can agree with author's personal preferences, but I found lots of stuff to ponder in it.

And, to me, the ending seems to be just brilliant:

"Being forced to follow the ruts of someone else’s routine may grate, but they do make it easier to stay on the path.

And that of course is what a routine really is — the path we take through our day. Whether we break that trail ourselves or follow the path blazed by our constraints, perhaps what’s most important is that we keep walking."

There is no doubt it's true in my world. How about yours?

My Loyal Helper

Hi there!

I'm working at a translation right now.

Have to work like a mad one if I don't want to continue doing it the whole night through.

So, no time for writing actually.

But look at my desk!

My journal and pens are still extremely close by

and I manage to find time to write down something now and then. :)

To see more of inspiring creativity jump over to this site:

Creative Every Day

You know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

It Might Be Finished

Today, I worked a bit more at the painting from yesterday and it might be finished until I decide otherwise. :)

What do you think?

And I got even a nice byproduct: these stripes of paper towel soaked in dry pigments and acrylic medium. :)

To see more of inspiring creativity jump over to these sites

Paint Party Friday

Creative Every Day

And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

Experimenting With Pigments

Today, my youngest son and I are experimenting with pigments again and I'm loving it. :)

To see more inspiring creativity jump over to these sites

Paint Party Friday

Creative Every Day

And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

Baby Steps

After months of not touching any art supplies, I'm starting to add color to my plain and boring diary pages and doing it more or less every day.

Nothing fancy, just playing with water soluble soft pastels and acrylic varnish. But it's a start, right? :)

To see more inspiring creativity jump over to these sites

Paint Party Friday

Creative Every Day

And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

About the power of NOW and enjoying the moment

Another post by a guest :) This time, by Corina Stupu Thomas. Sorry for the strange shape of the article! Blogger has been naughty on me again :( Enjoy!







It’s one of those rare British summer afternoons ... warm, sunny, with such a beautiful light, with lots of brilliant flowers waving in the garden in the afternoon breeze ..... The truth is that all of these are here year in and year out but I rarely paid attention to them.



.... I was way to busy, rushing around.... worrying about past, future, arranging meetings, postponing meetings, doing, doing, doing.

Now I’m learning to enjoy the moment more, to open my eyes and really, really see that life is actually a series of NOW(s) and realizing that each NOW is valuable.





Earlier today, I decided to hold my business planning session with myself .... not in my office at home but ... in a coffee shop on the beach front, about 30 minutes walk away from the house along the seafront promenade.



As a reformed workaholic I have to say that this was a good thing for me.

What stopped me from doing this before? Nothing and nobody! Nobody but myself and my own limiting belief about what looked and seemed right or not.

I wonder in what areas of your life you are actually the person standing in the way of a positive or creative change in your life?



I’m inviting you to ... try something new today ... I’m inviting you to take a break and ....remind yourself of the things you are grateful for at this very moment. You can doodle about this, write your thoughts down, record them by taking photos on your iphone, sketch ..... Why not create a habit of this .... and create a “Gratitude journal”.

About Corina Stupu Thomas

My mission is to help women reconnect with their unique voices, reframe the unhelpful stories they believe about themselves and empower them to live the life they long for through intuitive coaching, art, writing and so much more! 

You can follow me on my blog at www.searchingforhappiness.typepad.com and see some of my paintings at www.corina-stupu-thomas.artistwebsites.com

Celebration In My Studio

My youngest son Pēteris is turning 16 today.

As some of you know, me, my 2 youngest kids, and our 7 pets happen to live in my studio.


So YAY! Sun is shining and there is a celebration in my studio today!

And I have been very creative: the food and the drinks we have on the table didn't cost much more than $10 all together! One more YAY! :)

My Creative Space

Last week, I had only a couple of small translation jobs. Money is tough and might get even tougher, if I don't get more work very soon. And my body decided to play naughty and jumped into a fibromyalgic flare as well. The constant pain and foggy brain makes me tired, but it's bearable.

Even more than that, talks about printing and gel plates in some of the art groups I'm in, and, especially, some videos about it inspired me to create some lovely paper sheets (20 to be precise) using monotyping for the first time ever and a couple of other techniques on top of the print. These are some of my favorites so far, but I haven't stopped working even on them :)

I really love the process (especially, the unpredictability of each print) and the fact, that I can use just what I have and get results I really like. Most of the sheets are pages from my kids' old school work books and I do the printing on my kitchen table (round 90 cm in diameter) just covering it up with some pretty thick plastic sheet. :) And creating series comes all natural with it as well, as there is always too much paint for just one sheet of paper :)

The creative juices are flowing even more at ease after I stumbled upon really inspiring and down-to-earth videos by the American artist Skye Taylor. This is the one I like the most so far.

To see more creative spaces visit this site and be inspired

Or even join us for A Piece A Week or Creative Every Day

My Creative Space

Last week has been pretty productive in  my studio. The cold is gone, and, on some days, we can even see the sun. It feels like spring, and that always gives me heaps of creative energy.

I continued my research on Wabi Sabi in a more practical direction: did some more experiments with coffee...

And, one snowy morning, I took the camera with me, when I went out with the dog. To take shots holding our crazy girl on a leash was quite a task and, pretty soon, it started snowing too heavy and I had to pack in the camera not to damage it, but I managed to get some shots I really liked. You have seen them probably on Facebook already. This is one of them (by the way: I live in the house to the left in the background).

Visit this album to see more.

Another thing was to get rid of the cheery bright colors in some of my paintings, that I just couldn't stand any more. Do you remember images I showed you here about a month ago? Must have been sidetracked by all the bright and cheery paintings and art journal pages I see in the art groups. But my muse brought me back to my senses. :)

Just one example.

After these phases I thought the painting could be finished, but, somehow, I didn't like it (sorry for the blurry image, it was taken with the smartphone).

As soon, as I realized, it's the bright colors I don't like, I took some old flower wrap paper, brown and white acrylics, and black ink, and moved on.

Might still do some tweaking here and there (struggled a load with the left upper corner), but my muse is happy again.  At least, for now. :)

And some more of my colorful WIPs have got a brown-black-grey-ish layer on top of the cheery stuff as well. :)

To see more creative spaces visit this site and be inspired

Or join us for A Piece A Week or Creative Every Day

My Creative Space

The last one has been a really busy week for me with regular translation projects to work at and our dog girl been spayed on Thursday.

At the beginning of the week, I discovered a good amount of sea glass laying around in a box for about a year unlisted. I sorted them and shot pics of each of the batches. Although the images aren't the best because of the lack of day light, I started to list the batches one by one in this section of my supplies shop.

Don't know how, but I managed to finish the knitted set for my sister, to add some details to the new batch of cards I showed you last week, and to put some paint down on these 2 new canvas boards as well.

And I received some new unique cards from my swap partners

by Gail Cohen

by Jann Parkes

by Michele Bishop

by Aneeta Bhandari

by Shelly Penko

The first cards I received you can see here and here

To see more creative spaces jump over to this site and be inspired

My Creative Space - Two Portraits and a Zentangle

Last week I tried to make some ATC/ACEOs from pieces of corrugated cardboard inspired by Tracy Verdugo's class in Life Book. But as soon, as I realized, how tiny they'd have to be, my muse vetoed the cutting and I continued working on the pieces, as they were (really small for me anyway). One of them is finished now

And these are some of the stages it went through.

The other one looks like this for now.

Last night, I started my first ever Zentangle on a sanded piece of cardboard repurposed from a chocolate box. This is, how far I have gotten with it.

I'm sure, there will be more lines or even some shading or colors, but I have no idea, what kind of, and I like it! :)

To see more creative spaces and to share yours jump over to this site !

My Creative Space - Paintings

Today, I almost forgot to post the resume of my creative week. Could be because of the huge renovation going on in the apartment right below ours and making my day much more loud and chaotic....

Anyhow, the "Spirit of Water Lily"  is finished, i.e., I have put it away to stop fiddling on it :)

A "Magic Jug" is painted on the repurposed chocolate box from last week

You can see some phases of my process here.

Another painting has got its first couple of layers...

... and looks like this for now.

And I'm thinking pretty much about the way I create and discussing it with my friends on Facebook :)

Two ideas:
1. a painting is never finished completely, you can add something to it even after 10 years,
2. you should like your creation after each session of working on it :)

To see more creative spaces, jump over to this site and be inspired!

My Creative Space - Filling up the Well and Being Brave

The past week, I didn't paint much. Two of the days were occupied with trips to the town, the rest of the time I mostly did things to fill up my inner well, as Flora Bowley suggested for the week 3 of the Bloom True e-course I'm doing right now: I read a book, watched a couple of movies (nothing extra-ordinary, but good enough to feed my imagination), spent peaceful days in our home and out in the nature paying much more conscious attention to and learning to appreciate my unique surrounding with all my senses, and captured part of it in sketches and photos.


Sure thing, I painted a bit almost every day as well. So this painting could be next to finished

Below are some of the phases it went through (unfortunately, I forgot to capture the first layer I had so much fun with: covering the canvas with snippets of my kids old school works and some white wall paint)

Today, I tried to do one of the assignments suggested by Flora for week 4: to be brave and paint a whole painting only with quadrates.  To be honest, the fear of wasting a canvas and some pricey paints for an unknown (crappy?) result really spoiled the process for me this time. I hope this experience allows me to enjoy more the next time I try to be extra brave with my paintings, as I pretty much like the result of this one :)

To see more creative spaces jump over to this site!

My Creative Space - Blooming

HAPPY SOLSTICE, EVERYONE!

This week was pretty much occupied with translations and finding a new routine for all of us with our new family member for me. But much time was spent painting inspired by the e-course Bloom True with Flora Bowley, her prompts and the community of bloomers on FB. Now, there are loads of WIPs of various sizes on various substrates, and I can't wait for the next painting class, which is tomorrow.

I even bought 3 new paints today.

Jump over to this site to see more creative spaces

My Creative Space

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy for me because of a school break and a course for German teachers in the town. But I have done something in my creative space every day as well. Sometimes, it was just a couple of details added to the front cover of my newest art journal...

... or a quick page to capture my mood.

But there are a couple of spreads with loads of experiments inspired by videos and gifts from my on-line friends as well...

 (If you recognize any of the cut outs on the left hand side of this spread, please, let me know!)

...and a page capturing my feelings about others possibly thinking I'm getting old :)

 I even managed to start using letter stamps making hearts and prayer flags for my sisters in the Book of Days by Effy Wild ...

... and started knitting a tussah silk pullover for a friend/customer in Russia. :)


To see more inspiring creative spaces and to show off yours, if you like, jump over to Our creative spaces