It has been raining here alot and so the leaves on the trees are a gorgeous green and the flowers and plants are lush and beautiful.  I have been wanting to paint outside for awhile and so I decided today was the day.  I have a patio with an overhang so I knew that even if it rained in the middle of what I was doing I would be ok.  It was really nice being outside.  I could hear the raindrops on the roof and listen to the soft breeze as the storm went through.  It wasn't like last night with all of its thunder and lightening.  Today it was just a gentle summer rain and it was actually lovely.  So my workdesk this week is my backyard.  Because I am a creature of habit I tend to paint in my studio.  It only took me a few minutes to set my things up outside but the enjoyment I had will last me for much longer than that. 

I wanted to paint something using the colors that are featured in this week's Summer of Color 3 challenge.  The color combination that we are to use this week is orange and pink.  These are two colors I like together but do not use often when painting.  It was fun painting loosely, using colors that I love, but do not often use.  I like how the colors make me feel and I know I will use them again soon. 

Each Wednesday I share a coaching tip.  I try to pick something that everyone can do and that does not cost any money.  I've written about giving yourself credit for your accomplishments, about the importance of taking a breath when you are stressed, and about keeping a reminder journal to help you remember the things that are working for you right now.  My tip for today is to change things up once in awhile and see what happens.  It was fun working outside.  It didn't take long to set up and the rewards were great. I loved using orange and pink and I know I will use them again soon in a painting.

 I am a creature of habit.  I am very aware of what works for me so I tend to do those things.  But I have learned that just as it is important for me to have routines, it is also very important to try something new.  It doesn't have to be a big change to make a big difference.  Sometimes just walking down the aisle in a store in a different direction helps you to see things you have never seen before.  So as you go about your busy life this week is there a small change you would like to make?  Is there something you have always wanted to do but haven't tried yet?  This may be the week.  Remember small changes can lead to big differences. 

I am linking today's post to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday) and Summer of Color 3.  Both are wonderful places to meet exciting and talented artists.

I was recently asked,"What does a Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach do?"  Kaizen means to take small steps.  As a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach, I hope to inspire you to take small steps that will help you to move forward with your dreams.  At some point or other in our creative journey, we all  face blocks such as fear, perfectionism, or procrastination.  I love to share simple strategies with my clients to help them knock down those blocks and have fun while they are doing it. If you would like to know more about my coaching philosophy, please don't hesitate to contact me at ginny.lennox@comcast.net

               When you share your dreams and talent with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin today!
                                                                                                                                                Ginny

                                     "Adapt the pace of nature, her secret is patience."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Creating something new takes time. It takes patience and perserverance.  It takes commitment and a belief in yourself.  Last week I watched my grandson ride his scooter. He put one foot on the scooter and off he went.  No fear, not any hesitation.  It was as though the wind was behind his back and was there just for him.  His body language said,"I'm free and I'm having fun!"  But it wasn't the first time he rode his scooter.  It was the 100th or more.  After his scooter ride I watched him ride his bike alone without his Dad running next to him.  He looked different this time.  His body was tighter, his hands grippped the handlebars, and as he went to turn we could him hear call softly, "Dad".  But when he made it back to us his body language had changed again.  There was a smile on his face, his hands were a little looser, and his body not so tense.  I have a feeling when I see him this week things will have changed a little more.  Because he is being patient with himself and riding a little each day, it won't be long before he will be hopping on his bike and riding as if the wind was there just for him pushing from behind.

I hope that as you start to create something new this week you will be patient with yourself. I hope that you will take your time and enjoy the steps involved to become really good at what you are doing. When you are patient and work at your craft a little each day, before you know it, you too will be flying with the wind at your back as if it was there just for you. 

Have a wonderful week filled with only special moments and lovely breezy days that are filled with laughter and fun.

Remember:      When you share your dreams and talents with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin today.
                                                                                                                                                 Ginny

Patience and taking small steps are a large part of the Kaizen-Muse coaching philosophy.  If you have ever thought about working with a creativity coach or would like to know more about what a creativity coach does, I would love to talk to you.  My email address is ginny.lennox@comcast.net

The pastel above started my painting journey for the week.  The artists who are participating in Summer of Color chose citron green and turquoise as the two colors that are to be used in our work this week.. They are two of my favorite colors and I use them in most of my paintings so I was excited to get started. I loved the colors in this painting but I definitely did not feel like the painting was finished.  My next attempt at completing the painting was to add grass or weeds to the foreground and it looked like this:

It drove me crazy that the weeds on the left were leaning to the right while the weeds on the right were standing straight up.  So I changed the painting again.  I am starting to have the confidence to change things that I don't like about my paintings.  In the past I was always afraid I would make the painting worse so I would leave it alone even if there were things that I did not like. But my confidence is growing and hopefully my skills will follow along. 

I am happy with the final version of my painting because it represents a tiny step forward on my artistic journey.  I am learning to see what I want to change and then I take the steps necessary to make those changes. Making a change, whether in life or in a painting, is not always easy.  It takes time, it take patience, and it takes confidence.  I have the time, I have the patience, and I am building the confidence.  For that I am very grateful this week.

As many of you know each Friday I share what I am grateful for during the week.  Yesterday I found this quote and I thought you might enjoy it as much as I did.  

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense out of the past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.  
                                                              Melody Beattie, author, from Gratitude:  Affirming the Good Things in Life

Have a great weekend filled with lots and lots of special moments.

               When you share your dreams and talent with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin today!
                                                                                                                                            Ginny

                                Please be sure to visit the artists at Paint Party Friday.  You will be so glad that you did.

Wednesday's Walk began as a way to share a Kaizen-Muse Coaching tip each week.  It continues to be just that but along with my tip of the week I am also including a picture of my desk so that you can see what project I am working on as part of WOYWW.  It has been fun sharing my desk with the other artists at What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Now I am going to add one last thing to my Wednesday's blog just for the summer.  While traveling through the blog world I kept reading about Summer of Color and how much fun it was to participate. So I looked into it and decided to challenge myself and join.  Each week two colors are picked by the artists to be used in any creative project of your choice.  This week the colors were citron green and turquoise.  They couldn't have picked two better colors for me.  I use them all of the time.  They make me feel calm and energized at the same time which is why I like them so much.  On my desk are several paintings using these colors.  The paintings are all pastel but I used different materials to paint on which makes them look very different.  I am anxious to see what next week's colors will be. 

Now on to the Kaizen-Muse tip or strategy for the week.  Using a TahDah List.  Many of us use a to do list.  We write things down, we check them off, and then we begin a new list for the next day.  That's a wonderful way to get things done but it is even better if the final thing you do is recognize what you have completed.  That's right a TahDa List.  Our brains naturally go to what we haven't completed or what we need to do next.  But if we stop and celebrate what we have completed, we can retrain ourselves to remember and celebrate all that we are accomplishing.  Success builds one small step at a time.  If you keep your TahDah list where you can see it each day, it can be a great reminder of what you have accomplished.  Your TahDah List can be as simple or as extravagant as you like.  It is important to celebrate each success along our journey. Keeping a TahDah list is a fun way to do just that.    

                When you share your dreams and talents with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin!
    
I love sharing the strategies that I learned becoming a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach.  In our daily lives it is so easy to feel overwhelmed or to put things off for another day.  If there is a project you would like to start or finish, or if you are going through a transitional time in your life and have thought about working with a coach, I would love to talk to you. You can reach me at ginny.lennox@comcast.net  Let's begin the magic for you today!

                                                     "Be open to the magic."  James Cameron
I like to start each week with a quote that reminds me of all of the wonderful opportunities that are available to me each day.  The words "Be open to the magic" are a great reminder that there is magic to be found each day if we are open to seeing it!  Watching a flower grow, a baby laugh, a puppy run are all magical when we slow down and experience the event and the emotions that go with it. Spending time creating something and losing yourself in the flow is magical.  When you look up and realize that the picture is completed, the story is written, or the photograph has been taken but you don't know where the day has gone because you have been so completely involved in the process of creating - that  is magical. 

I love the word magic.  For me it brings forth a feeling of something special, something I am fascinated by but can't quite figure out, and something that I would like to recreate over and over again.  But I also know that many times something magical happens only once and so I want to be really present to experience it.  This week my goal is to be open to the magic and see what happens.  It is exciting  just thinking about all of the possibilities.  I hope that this week you will join me and allow yourself to "be open to the magic."  New adventures might be right around the corner for all of us.

         Remember:  When you share your dreams and talents with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin today!

Each Friday I join the artists at Paint Party Friday to share what I have created that week.  It has become something that I really look forward to.  This week's pastel is painted on velvet.  I ordered a sample packet of pastel paper which turned out to be really interesting.  I found that I like working on colored paper better than white and that I probably won't be using velvet very often.  I like soft dreamy colors and when working on velvet the colors are much more intense.  It was definitely interesting to experience all the different effects I got just by changing the paper that I use.  

Each Friday I also share what I am most grateful for that week.  Some weeks it is a simple but perfect cup of coffee, other weeks it is something little more special and once in awhile it is a very special event or celebration.  This was one of those weeks.  On Tuesday my husband and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary.  I am not really sure how that happened because we both feel like its just been a few years since we walked down the aisle in Orange, New Jersey.  The past 46 years have been filled with lots of wonderful memories. They have been filled with every emotion a person can experience, with highs, with lows,and everything in between.  We were married in the days when people didn't write their own vows, when almost everyone said,"in sickness and health through good times and bad."  Whoever wrote those vows that we all said knew what they were talking about. I think the thing I am most grateful for this week is not only the wonderful memories we have but the things we still have to look forward to.  For example, my husband wants to teach me how to drive his motorcycle. I am not the most coordinated person but he was able to teach me to snow ski at 50 and snorkle a little later than that.  No luck with scuba diving but I am willing to try to drive the motorcycle.  The only reason I share this with you today is to remind everyone that it is never too late to try something new especially if you trust the person who is teaching you. So if you happen to see someone who looks like she would answer to the name Nana on a bright yellow Honda driving down the road, don't forget to wave.  It just might be me.

Remember:  When you share your dreams and talents with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin today!

I look forward to writing my Wednesday's post.  It is the day I have chosen to share a coaching tip as well as get to visit all of the wonderful people who share their workdesk on What's on your Workdesk Wednesday.  (WOYWW)  It's fun to meet new people and be inspired by what they do and where they work.

Wednesday's Walk started because I often do my best thinking as I walk. And so I've made a commitment to share some of the things I think about as a Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach each Wednesday.  This week I have been thinking about the importance of making a commitment - to yourself and your dreams.  I am not one to write my posts way ahead of time.  I like to get up on Wednesday morning and write my post for the day.  That's just me.  This morning when I got up I knew I had things to do for my husband, needed to get ready to visit with my grandchildren, as well as do some other things that needed to get done.  My old self (which tried to creep into my thoughts) thought I'll just write the post later after I get everything else done.  The new self said, "Wait a minute!  You made a commitment to yourself to share a coaching tip each week.  Your commitment to others is very important but so is the commitment you made to yourself."  So I took a second to rearrange my thoughts, decided what I should do first (write this post), and then got to work on the other things I want or needed to do. One of the things I write about often is how we can move ahead and make progress on our dreams if we take small steps.  This is very true.  But there has to be a commitment to those small steps.  If you want to make a change, start a business, create a new hobby, it can all be done by taking one small step a time.  But small steps will only become big changes if we are commited to taking those steps.  I love coaching women who are beginning to make changes in their lives and need a little extra support. I'm commited to helping them find the time to make those changes.  I am commited to helping them overcome the obstacles that may stand in their way such as perfectionism or overwhelm.  So my coaching tip for today is -  taking small steps towards making your dream or dreams come true works. It truly works!  But you have to be commited to taking those steps in order to see where they lead you.  It is that commitment that makes what was once a beautiful idea become a beautiful reality.  What commitment and small step would you like to make and take today?

If you have ever thought about working with a coach I would love to talk with you.  Please don't hesitate to contact me at ginny.lennox@comcast.net. I will be glad to answer any questions you may have. 

Remember:  When you share you dreams and talents with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin today.

                           "I found out there weren't too many limitations if I did it my way."   Johnny Cash

I was really surprised when I saw who said the above quote. I thought it was Frank Sinatra because of his song My Way but it doesn't matter who said it, it was the perfect quote for me to see this morning.

  Someone asked me if I find the quote first and then the picture or select the picture and find a quote to go with it.  There really isn't any special way that I choose what goes with what.  Today it was interesting how the combination came together.  I really like the above painting. To me it looks like the ocean (which was my intention).  I know it is very loosely painted and is open to interpretation which I think is fine.  I love when people see all different things in my work.  As long as it touches them in some way, I am happy.  So when my husband, who likes very realistic work, didn't see anything, I was disappointed. I began to doubt myself which we all do from time to time.  I began to wonder whether I really should put this painting up on my blog today.  So I closed the blog, had a cup of coffee, and came back.  When I went to my Weebly site the quote that appeared was the one above.  "I found out there weren't too many limitations if I did it my way."  What a perfect quote for me to see today.  I realized that if I don't post my painting I am limiting myself.  If I don't share my painting, someone who might enjoy it or be insired by it, won't get to see it.  So I decided to do it my way and share. 

 I know that I can't paint like anyone else.  I know that I can't please everyone and it's really hard if you try.  But knowing something and putting it into practice can be two different things.  I am pretty good about doing things my way although I am also known to be a people pleaser.  So the next time I start to put limitations on myself, I am going to step back and ask myself is is this how you want to paint or write or exercise, etc.  How do you want to do it?   I am pretty sure the answer will be loud and strong, "I am going to do it my way."  Won't you join me this week in living life your way?

         Remember:  When you share your talent and dreams with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin.
                                                                                                           Ginny, certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach

My goal for the month was to paint a picture every day of the sky and clouds.  I didn't paint every day but I did paint  20 out of the 31 days so I feel good about what I accomplished. This week I hung many of my paintings across a wall in my studio.   I have always felt that my paintings all looked the same.  But when I saw them hanging together I realized that althought the theme was often the same the paintings were different.  The sky might have been a morning sky or it might reflect a very sunny day or that a storm was coming up.  There is usually water in my paintings but it might be the ocean, or a river, or the lake. Hanging them up  together was a great way to step back and evaluate what I am doing and learning.  I realize that most of you already know what I am just learning but it always fun to share something new (at least new to me) with others. 

It was fun to challenge myself in this way.  I am not sure what I will do for the month of June but I think this is a good way to keep growing and learning while really enjoying myself. 

My post would not feel complete without a few words about what I am grateful for this week.  As we begin this summer, my husband is feeling so much better than he was a year ago.  It is wonderful to be able to see him really enjoy what he is doing each day.  We have learned never to take anything for granted and for that I am very grateful.  

        Remember :  When you share your gifts and talents with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin!
       
                                                    Linking with Paint Party Friday and Creative Every Day

Wednesday is the day designated to sharing a Kaizen-Muse coaching strategy with everyone.  But it is also becoming a day to visit WOYWW (What's on your workdesk Wednesday)  It is fun getting to see what everyone else is doing and it also a great reminder to clean up my desk at least once a week. 

This week it was easy to combine both of my objectives.  On my desk is my Reminder Journal which I really love.  A reminder journal is kept for the specific purpose of reminding yourself what is working or what has made an impression on you that day.   Each page is dedicated to only one thing.  It can be a compliment you received, a quote you want to remember, an explanation for a new technique, the solution to a problem or whatever else you want to remember.  Most of us easily remember what does not work.  It's normal for our brains to go there.  But it is often more difficult to remember what really works for us.  Not for somebody else.  But what works for us.

What I love about the way this journal works is that on each page you are to write only one sentence or one quote, etc.  It should be a quick way to remember something that is important to you or something that made a difference in your day. 

So the quick, easy, and really important Kaizen-Muse strategy I'd like to share today is the importance of the Reminder Journal. Remind yourself of what you have accomplished.  Remind yourself of what steps you have made towards making your dream come true.  And remind yourself of how truly unique and special you are.  And last but not least remind yourself that the world is waiting for you to share your talents and gifts them. 

             Remember - When you share your gifts and talent with the world, magic happens.  Let the magic begin!

If you would like to learn more about the idea of a Reminder Journal or any other Kaizen-Muse strategy, please do not hesitate to contact me at ginny.lennox@comcast.net.  It would be great to meet you!