This ole' world is moving - drag along!

Whatever you can say about this world - one of the most beautiful things about it is that everything in it is constantly changing and evolving.

Sometimes it can feel overwhelming, especially when I'm really, painfully aware of the change. I might get frightened about losing something to the change. Or just frustrated at the fact that every minute I am missing a thousand things because I can't be everywhere and things are not coming back.
But let's hear the good part: The fact that everything is constantly shifting means that I, too can adjust my ideas and choices again and again. Life is no one-way street. It's more like a maze where every turn you choose is a good one because you will discover important things along the path that you take.

Still, sometimes the movement makes us dizzy, and we like to create an air of stability around at least some parts of our lives. Be it our home, our partners, our beliefs or daily routines. Some people feel the need for this more than others.
I like to make lists and charts of everything in my head. It gives me the illusion of control. That's why I like schedules, too.
But after some time I just discover that they don't really fit with my way of life. I like the idea of stability at first, but as soon as I get too cosy with something, I feel the urge to break it up. It makes me feel like I'm sitting on a huge pile of gold like an old dragon, too scared to move away from its lair, from fear of losing its treasure.
I don't want to get stuck anywhere in life.

Well, that's quite a big chunk of the philosophy cake for you, but I've been thinking along these lines ever since last week. It's changing-time again, and I like it. I can feel the excitement rise in my soul. Dreams and plans are more important these days and other things get pushed aside.
I hate having to do anything that is a regular. I want to dwell on the new experiences.

And before you ask: Yes, I'm gettin to the point. ^^
I've decided that ***Monday Friend*** will not be a regulare feature anymore. Mondays just come around too often for all the work that I have to put into these posts. I will still do them, just not every week. It will take pressure off and let me enjoy it when I do it, and that's how it should be.
I'm still trying to do the self portrait every week because that does not take a lot of time.
I know a lot of people loved the Monday posts and I hope you can understand that doing them every week is quite a chore and whilst there are wonderful bloggers out there who have a great schedule for their blogs and stick to it, I just don't seem to be one of them.

Look out for a post full with lovely links to check out for you tonight!

Thanks for reading!

***Monday Friend*** - Happy Birthday Tali!

This week, I want to dedicate ***Monday Friend*** to Tali. She stayed in Zurich for a while and we became very good friends. Now last week she went back home to Brazil, and I miss her. Also, it was her birthday two days ago and since I couldn't send a present, I thought this would be a good one.
It is a surprise for her, so I did not ask her for five things. Instead I wrote a list of five things that I love about her and made an illustration with these:

1. Spontaneous and funny: I admire Tali for her ability of enjoying the moment. Even though she has a lot to think about in her life she has not lost her ability to jump on opportunities and laugh at life like a kid. I have had such funny moments with her. I think everybody needs a friend who will "cookiemonster" a sweet in a bar and wears squeaky-red heart-shaped sunglasses.

2. Self-confident: She has a bunch of fantastic piercings and tattoos. Even though the Brazilian ideal woman has long straight hair, Tali proudly stands by her gorgeous short curls and looks just fantastic with them. She is wise enough to listen to her guts and for example walk into a tattoo parlour and insist on a smiley face on her finger tip because she knows she needs one now, regardless of what people tell her.

3. Honest: I can talk to Tali about everything and we have had lengthy discussions about almost all sorts of topics in this world. Be it late at night, cuddled up under our blankets, drinking coffee on a sunny afternoon or on an early morning train to our next adventure. Tali has the ability to talk from her heart, however  hard the things going on in there might be and I am so grateful for this.

4. Patient: Although she never parts from her phone and likes to be in contact with people as much as possible, I have never heard a single scoulding word from her for being a social scatterbrain or just plain communicatively lazy. Another thing I am eternally grateful for. ^^

5. Courageous and curious: During the time that I knew her, Tali has taken so many risks and done so many adventurous things that another person might not to throughout their whole life. Be it everyday sillyness like no-pants tram rides or leaving silly post-it notes everywhere, or moving to some completely different places, leaving her family and friends on another continent, and learning to ride a bicycle after years of not using one... she's the girl!

Happy Birthday again, Tali. I hope you had a great party, because you deserve it! :o))
Love you!

***Monday Friend*** - Krista

Hello and happy Monday!! I'm so excited about today's Friend because she is one of the artist girls out on the Webbs that I absolutely adore! Meet Krista from Saturated Canary. Krista makes illustrations of cute little girls that she sells in her etsy shop.

On her blog you can read about her family life, see her great outfits and more of her crafty side. Krista is also a big pro in keeping fit and her posts about working out are really inspiring. 

Here are Krista's five things:

1.  The Lord and my family.  I've been married for 9+ years and have two children, a girl and a boy.  My church and family mean the world to me.  I am so thankful God gave me two beautiful, fun, healthy kids to enjoy and a great husband who makes the best dad.  And, bonus (!), he's easy on the eyes;).

2.  Keeping in shape.  I feel like it is the most selfless thing I can do for my family-- working out keeps me feeling good and that makes me a better mom and wife.  I love to run and play sports.  We play tennis and golf...I love to lift weights.  It just feels good to stay active and set myself up for a long, healthy future!

3.  Going on dates!!  Phil and I try to have a date night once a month.  Just go out and eat, talk, laugh-- just the two of us.  It sounds really cheesy, but we are best friends.  We love to go to ball games, movies, and the bookstore.  And we have occasionally dropped the kiddies off at my mom's and gone home to snuggle and watch movies for hours:).  It's so nice to just talk and chill out together.  I love him so much! 

4.  My artwork.  Ever since I was little, I've loved to draw.  I enjoy creating characters.  Sometimes they are inspired by people I know.  Sometimes by a person I meet.  Other times, it is a song or a memory.  I'm so thrilled that my love for art has rubbed off on my daughter, too!  She sits for hours coloring and drawing.  Being creative is so important to me, and I'm so happy to see that desire grow in her, too!

5. Future goals.  I need to have things I'm striving for-- so setting goals and dreaming up new things to try is hugely important to me.  I want to always be moving forward.  And I hope that my kids grow up and remember this quality about me.  And that they have a piece of it, too.  Being a dreamer is a good thing!!

You might know this face from a previous post where I talked about how much I love Krista's dreadlocks. She is quite the extension queen and the next time I have some, I definitely wanna go for Rapunzel, too! ;o)

And of course, she is a big inspiration for me with her sweet little illustrations that she makes. She has so many ideas and styles for her girls, I am really amazed at how every time there is a new one - she looks just different and absolutely individual!

Thank you, Krista, for sharing your list with us!!
Have a nice Monday everyone, watch out, the weekend's zooming towards you! You might want to wear a helmet... ;o)





Check out my previous Monday Friends!

Do you wanna be a Monday Friend? Please contact me and I will be very happy to include you in a future post! Email me at little_yaga (at) gmx.ch

Like ***Monday Friend***? Please support me by grabbing the button from my sidebar for your blog. If you drop me a line I'll link back to you!
 

***Monday Friend*** - Leah

Well, you know Leah because she just posted an interview with me on her blog last week.
Now she is here in turn. :o)
I wanted her as my Monday Friend for last week because she is Swiss and we've celebrated our national holiday on 1st of August, which is supposedly the date our confederation was founded in 1291. I thought it would be great to introduce you to a Swiss Monday Friend as a sort of tribute to the country.

by Leah

Well, it didn't work out exactly how I thought because our internet connection that week was so bad I could barely open blogger. Just posting a plain-text apology took me about an hour because the connection was so slow and broke off every few minutes.
But that's life and we won't let it get in the way too much and am just posting this a week later now.

Here is Leah's illustration:

(You might notice that it is not as colorful as others - since I was traveling I only had a limited color palette. It was big fun anyways! :o))

This is what Leah said on her list:

1. Photography: Probably my greatest passion. Wherever I go I take my camera with me. Especially when I'm traveling I enjoy having my silent companion with me. It's hard to explain what the fascination of photography is. For me it's the possibility to capture the beautiful and special things in everyday life.

2. Writing: I enjoy writing a lot, and I'm really glad that it is also a part of my job. In my free time I write a diary, random texts, my blog and sometimes something that resembles poems. Writing gives me an outlet for what I feel and think.

3. Animals: I love nearly all animals but most of all the furry ones. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, I don't have a pet at the moment. I had to leave the family-cat behind when I moved out of my parent's place. But I'm very glad, that she hasn't forgotten me and still enjoys cuddling with me every time I visit.

4. Taveling: I discovered the fascination of travelling at a very young age, when I moved abroad with my parents when I was ten. I couldn't wait to finally get 18 to be able to travel abroad by myself. I've already been to a few places and countries in the last five years, but there are still so many to see.

5. Friends and family: All the things mentioned above wouldn't be worth a thing if I couldn't share them with my wonderful parents, sister, a few good friends and of course my beloved.

Leah's blog is called "Splitter von Glück" - "Chips of happiness". I love her clear and clean pagedesign. It matches her style of writing and photographing perfectly. She writes in German, but even if you are English speaking, do visit her anyways. Since her posts are centered around her beautiful pictures, you will have more than enough to enjoy there!
For example a photographic list of what she has been up to all week:

by Leah

One of Leah's weekly projects is a photographic challenge that she sets for herself. Every week she randomly pulls two criterias for a picture from two jars and then tries to incorporate them in a photography during the next few days.
Last week, Leah's picture got the directions "glass" and "deep depth of field". This is what she came up with:

by Leah

I am absolutely in love with this picture! :o)
Do you wanna know where Leah is gonna spend her holidays this year, and maybe win one of her selfmade postcards from on the way? Head on over to "Splitter von Glück" to try your luck!

Much love




Check out my previous Monday Friends!

Do you wanna be a Monday Friend? Please contact me and I will be very happy to include you in a future post! Email me at little_yaga (at) gmx.ch

Like ***Monday Friend***? Please support me by grabbing the button from my sidebar for your blog. If you drop me a line I'll link back to you!
 

***Monday Friend*** - Hollie

Happy Monday, once again! :o)
I must say, ever since I started ***Monday Friend***, I really like Mondays. I hope you feel similar! ;o)
The lovely lady that you can see in her little world down here is Hollie from Mermaid's Closet. She is one crafty lady, changing the world with a gluegun in her hand and sharing the beauty in her etsy shop.

You can see that one of the things Hollie loves to do is writing because she didn't only share her list with me but basically wrote the whole blog post for me - and much better than I could ever have. This is why I will now shut my mouth and let Hollie do the talking! <3

Hello to all, and many thanks to yaga for this opportunity! Crafty love! There are so many things in my life that are important to me so I have created bullet points within the 5 things. Sorry for the novel-long post!!

1- CREATION:

I feel I was made to make. I've got the bug. Since I was a little girl, I had it. It was encouraged with both of my parents being artists, and thus the idea of getting my hands working followed. Creation touches every aspect of my life. I will break it down...

Cooking: My mother has passed down a taste for gourmet. Our visit to Europe at my ripe age of 8 or 9 must have something to do with it, as well. The Parisian omelets, crepes. The cafes hidden behind ivy covered buildings, the pattiseries on our drives from here to there. I am very passionate about food, but especially vegetables and cheeses. The creation (usually in cast iron, or slowly oven baked), process (wooden spoon, tasting, candles lit, spices) , placement (shabby white linen, wooden handled cutlery, a view out the back window) and action of enjoying food with those you love is a very sensual part of my daily life and never ceases to hook onto new ideas and further growth. In another life I would've been a Chef with my own restaurant ;)

Gardening:

Seeing I was in an apartment from the moment I was married on, my green thumb closed under the rest of my fingers in a fist. I missed the soil, the color and the growth with a vengeance. Having moved to California in the past month and seeing plenty of room for gardening, the green thumb emerged and with it's reinvention, came with it joy. The purity of gardening is what gets me. The stability of seasons, the sun, rain. Plants, veggies, flowers are needy only for a handful of things, all that I can give them. When they begin to wilt, I water and then they stand up strong and proud again. It never gets old! Gardening is how I attain my purest high, and within that high I sense purpose. As humans we were created to create, to help grow, to make things beautiful. Smell the soil and feel your brain burst!

Music:

I grew up around music, with my father on his guitar playing songs he had written, and mom singing harmony. There was also encouragement for me and my sister to get involved. Within that safe place emerged my love for singing and music as a whole. A deep love. My sister picked up guitar all on her own and continues to write music that always brings me to tears. Genius lyrics and notes. I picked up more on harmony and voice, feeling most alive when projecting. The shyness I was born with makes singing a challenge for me to do regularly in public. But when it happens I come alive. Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, David Bowie, Simon and Garfunkel, The Smiths- they are big pieces of my puzzle, and it is rare I create something wonderful without them. From folk to country, to electronic, to pop, classic rock, indie and instrumental - I love it all!

Crafting:

The actual creation of art, or wearable pieces is a near holy experience for me, As most artists will tell you it is. When you are in your element everything BUT creating shuts off and you reside in a magical place. Stoked from the heart, the electricity of brain function at it's best takes over, and then the hands do their work. I have to be in a certain place of mind to let creation happen. With the recent move it has been turned down low, with so many other things to focus on. I look forward to our house being fully furnished and then I will feel ready to get back into it. Etsy is a love of mine. Also my team, Indie Free Spirits. A group of over 500 Etsy sellers with a love of earth, creation and off beat style. I adore leading them, providing team challenges and just making new friends via the team page.

Writing/Blogging:

Writing is a huge love of mine, up there with crafting and cooking. I have found that all I must do is feel something strongly, sit down with a pen or at the computer and simply write. Brain has less to do with it than heart does. Hands are the outlet, and with the aid of their instinct, my heart finds it way onto page. It feels almost impossible how this can happen. With my love of writing makes way for my blog (mermaidscloset.blogspot.com). Though I rarely post personal poems and such, my style shines through. I have a goal of sharing more writing therein! I think blogs should be real and not held back. I am also a lover of books. They greatly inspire my work. Such as Louis L'amour novels, sci-fi like John Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids" and "Chrysalids". Medieval historical like "Outlander" and Autobiographical like Dave Eggers' "Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius", Steve Liddell's "honest Lee". My most recently finished novel "The Dirty Life" by Kristin Kimball, was lifechanging and renewed my love of gardening and reinvigorated my passion for supporting local organic farming and turning our backs on agriculture.

2- HUBBY-FAMILY-FRIENDS:

I feel I was made to be a wife. I have been married to my first boyfriend, Philip for almost 4 years now and we are still, if not more in love now than we ever have been. Both of us have had challenging upbringings that we could look at and let effect our own relationship, however we do the opposite. We look at the negative and say we can learn from it. How can we pick up and do things are way? Also the hardships have made both of us very discerning, patient and real. We are careful with our words, and spend alot of time cuddling the ugly away. Life is hard these days, especially for couples making it work. I find that alot of affection, loving reinforcement and time having innocent fun keep love strong and alive. We have no children at the moment and don't have plans to make them anytime soon ;) We are totally kid people, me especially and one day we plan to start a family when the time is right.

Family- I am very close to my one and only sister, Hannah whom lives 1 minute up the road from us with her husband Jeph. They are also artists and with that fact comes the comfortableness to be ourselves around them. We have so much in common and it is a blessing to be so close to them. I am also close to my parents who move around the States, gypsy-like for work. My dad, a creative genius is now managing 4 talk stations for CBS in Las Vegas, as my mom is a support to him and an artist as well. They live a mere hour flight away, and I look forward to experiencing a closer relationship with them, as we have always lived so far away from them since we got married. My parents have taught me so much, opened my eyes to amazing things, and provide a safe place for me to fall, even now. I am thankful for their support, and also for their teaching me and my sister such good standards, based on the bible from the moment we were born.

Friends:

My friends, especially since moving here have proven to be a bubble of laughter, comfort, inspiration and happiness in my life! I am thankful for each and everyone of them who are unique and amazing in their own ways. I am a very social person and I can never get enough time eating at Mexican taquerias then going thrifting. I love creating amongst friends, better yet just spending time together talking. Good friends are hard to come by, so cherish them! 

3- LIFESTYLE

A huge part of my life that not only gives me a direction to go, but also goals and beautiful things to look forward to. I won't go all biblical on you but I'll simply say I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses. A good chunk of my time is spent voluntarily teaching people who are interested about bible truths, and ways we can apply them to make for a peaceful life now and in the future. Many people have a skewed view of the JW way of life, but honestly we are just like everyone else for the most part. Only difference is (a) we take bible direction seriously, and (b) believe in a life here on earth in a paradise, as opposed to life in heaven. The ministry keeps me busy, positive and helps me to focus on helping others which is the best cure for depression or frustration with the state of the world. Me and my husband set goals for bible reading, for doing more however we can, and this keeps our relationship stronger than ever. This part of my life is the most important.

4-EARTH

I'm in love with the earth. Nothing makes me happier than to run far away from the city and get into the woods. Nature serves as an antidote for frustration and sadness in my life, and I can never get enough of it. Animals, trees, moss, mountains, soil, fresh air, sea, lake- All things I couldn't live without. The earth is a thing of beauty that continually inspires creation, sparks happiness and reminds me of what really matters. I am not one for cities, bustling activity or the grit of society. Alot of my friends disagree, since there is much inspiration to be found in cities. To a point I agree, but more than ever I yearn to become a mountain woman. Living off her own garden and creating away from it all. This not being a realistic way of life at the moment, I try to spend as much time in the trees as possible and this is what keeps me sane. My favorite thing is to be cold. I love that California has sweater weather!

5 - DREAMS

I feel as though alot of my time is spend up in the clouds. It goes along with writing, where I love to invent worlds, places, scenarios. They always parallel my own life either now, or from years past. I find that expanding on experiences and using symbolic ideas and visions provide a healing bandaid as it were. This way I can share the pain in a more appropriate way with the world, and therein in the idea others can find comfort themselves. I would say that my main way of sharing these creations of mind are via Treasuries. My curations act much like a daily diary for my emotions and visions. I post them on Twitter and Facebook for all to see. I am moved by photography most, and thus alot of my curations are purely fine art related. In time, there is nothing I desire more than to get deep into photography and share it with the world!

Thanks a million to you Hollie for this great peek into your fabulous life, and thanks to YOU, you fabulous guys, for reading!







Check out my previous Monday Friends!

Do you wanna be a Monday Friend? Please contact me and I will be very happy to include you in a future post! Email me at little_yaga (at) gmx.ch

Like ***Monday Friend***? Please support me by grabbing the button from my sidebar for your blog. If you drop me a line I'll link back to you!
 

***Monday Friend*** - Twinkie

Let's have a freaky Monday together! Because I'm really freaking out about the girl who's visiting us today: Twinkie is one of my style crushes - and I don't say that only because I want her to knit a food scarf for me! ^^
You don't know what I'm talking about? Well, that's why I want to introduce Twinkie Chan to you today.

Twinkie blogs at Twinkie's blaaargh - about all the impotant things in her life... and what those might be you can find out by looking at my illustration:

This is what she shared with me:

1) Family - I have a wonderful, supportive family. Everyone is super funny, smart, and loving in their own special way. I count my close friends as my family, as I've known many of them years and years and years. They inspire me to  keep trying to accomplish great things, so I can make them proud and give them something to gossip about! :P

2) Being Crafty - While I mostly focus on crochet, I have been gluing and stitching and painting for my whole life. The women in my family have a mantra: Go home and make it! Not only can you save money, but you can also express yourself in a unique way by making your own clothing, accessories, or home decor!

3) Books - I was an English major and I worked in publishing for 10 years. I always wanted to write books, and I ended up selling other people's books to publishers. I thought that once I quit the business, I would have more time again to read real books (when you work in publishing you end up spending all your spare time reading manuscripts), but now I'm just crocheting all the time! AHH! I sneak in my reading on air planes or at the hair salon. I still hope one day to write my masterpiece!

4) Bibi - I have two dogs, but my dog Bibi is my baby. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her. I feel so close to her that I gross out my boyfriend when I tell him I feel like I gave birth to her. I love to rub her big feet all over my face even though I know she has been stepping in poo all day.

5) Color - When I first started working after college, my boss told me I couldn't wear jeans, and that I had to dress more conservatively. During the coming years, I would wear a lot of black, since it was easy to coordinate separate pieces. One of my interns called me "post-goth." But now that I work from home and for myself, I can wear whatever I want, and I am overdosing on color! It just makes you happy.

Isn't she the coolest? Thank you so much Twinkie for sharing your list with me. Now, if you haven't already, click one of the links and head over to explore her colorful worl, I promise, it'll be worth it! :o)

Thanks for reading!

Check out my previous Monday Friends!

Do you wanna be a Monday Friend? Please contact me and I will be very happy to include you in a future post! Email me at little_yaga (at) gmx.ch

Like ***Monday Friend***? Please support me by grabbing the button from my sidebar for your blog. If you drop me a line I'll link back to you!
 

***Monday Friend*** - Lisa

This week I wanna introduce you to the blog of Lisa: "This is Something Infinitely Interesting!"

Lisa is very sympathetic and her comments always make me smile. That's her, with her five important things:

She wrote to me:

1. Family/Girlfriends- I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people that surround me. They are what keeps me grounded and keeps me going everyday.

2. Goals-  I love having short term and long term goals, it gives me a sense of direction. Its a way to accomplish some things I always wanted to do or something I haven't done before. I love the adventure of the unknown and trying new things.

3. Letters/Postcards- I joined the pen pal project this year and I am in love with it. I love getting to know people from around the world, and how different our lives are. Its like christmas when I get a new letter or postcard; pure joy.

4. Traveling- I have been bitten by the travel bug ever since last year, and now I am trying my hardest to not let life hold me back from adventure and experiences. There are so many places I want to visit and one day I will.

5. Music- My biggest guilty pleasure is music, the way it sounds and moves you. Music has always been a way to escape, a little piece of serenity. No matter what day i am having music always makes me feel better.

I like to read Lisa's blog because it is very different from most other blogs I read: She has a very personal and chatty style that makes you feel like you're listening to a friend telling you a secret...
Her topics are also mostly personal, about her travels and things that she finds inspiring or dreams about. And, of course, her goals and what she does to achieve them.
Since she's so down to earth and close with her readers, you can really relate to her efforts and it is very inspiring to see how she ticks off one thing after the other from her list.

Hop on over and say hello! :o)

Thanks for reading!

***Monday Friend*** - Cindy

Today's Friend is Cindy from Tea House Moon. Cindy is a biology student and she writes about the crazyness of her studies, funny things she does with her friends and great stuff she finds on the web.

Cindy and I met through my first Monday Friend: Sarah. We have visited each other's blogs ever since... and now the circle closes and Cindy is a Monday Friend, too. :o) I loved making her picture. She just recently blogged about swings and playgrounds, so I thought it would be funny to give her a swing to sit on.

This is Cindy's list:

1. Faith and family - both have always been very strong and intertwined with each other. My parents had amazing faith while they struggled to immigrate and started brand new lives in the U.S. None of it would of been possible without their strong faith in God. And plainly through their example and my own experience, I have felt the passion of deep faith and l hold it dear. 

2. Living life to serve others/the human connection - the need and the want to be beneficial to others really drives my life and academics. I hope to go into medicine one day because in the end, I believe we're all connected in our way and fundamentally we all need to stay whole for as long as possible. 

3. Learning - I've always felt that learning and acquiring knowledge (whether it's from a textbook or from life lessons) makes me desire to keep exploring the world and to enjoy what I have here and now and be prepared for what is to come. People think that learning stops after schooling, but in the end it really never does because you learn all of your life.

4. Running - I'm not a good runner....don't even ask me for my mile time haha but I really do love it because the sport itself and the people I've met through it have helped me in extraordinary ways. It's a love/hate/I'm motivated/I'm lazy relationship and just the fact that I still try makes me love it even more because I could of gave up a long time ago.

5. Laughing with people - I find laughter is the best medicine. Cliche? Yes. True? Even more so. This could be with family, friends, and people I've just met. I think to have a sense of humor and to enjoy what you can makes a world of difference to someone else and to you. Life would lusterless without being able to laugh. 

Tea House Moon has just recently dressed up in a new design that I absolutely adore. And even though she forgot about it, Cindy had her first blog-anniversary in June.
She has such a fun way of writing and I can really imagine sitting together with her and a cup of tea and hearing her tell her stories, making me giggle.

Cindy has recently started a new blog feature. It's called "Expand your vocabulary". Every week she picks a word that is not so known and challenges herself and her readers to learn it by using it in daily life and making up little stories around it to help memorizing it. I'm such a fan of this and I'm really looking forward to next week's word already. (By the way: This week's word is convivial - and you can find out what it means over at Tea House Moon ;o) )

Thanks to Cindy for answering my question and being such a supportive commenter all the time!
------------------------------



Check out my previous Monday Friends!

Do you wanna be a Monday Friend? Please contact me and I will be very happy to include you in a future post! Email me at shinybubble (at) gmx.ch

Like ***Monday Friend***? Please support me by grabbing the button from my sidebar for your blog. If you drop me a line I'll link back to you!
 


Thanks for reading!

***Monday Friend*** - Rachael °2

Hello hello on this Monday! I'm so excited to share a new friend with you this week. She is an artist I really admire and I can't believe she agreed to be on my blog.
It seems that adorable bloggers all go by the same names... today's Monday Friend is our second Rachael. But both her and her blog are so unique you don't have to be scared to mix her up.

Rachael Caringella writes talk2thetrees - a blog about creating, adventures, wise words and other interesting things in her life.
Rachael sent me the sweetest list and since I've been reading her blog for ages it wasn't difficult for me to come up with a picture of her and her most important things:

This is Rach's list:

1. Nature, I love to be outside playing barefoot in the forests. Climbing trees, climbing mountains and walking in the grass are delightful. I love trees. (As you can tell by my name!) I used to talk to trees when I was little.. I probably still do. It's healthy for you AND the tree. I love to go out playing with my little puppy Wicket. He is a silly guy who loves to run around outside! Mother Earth is beautiful and I try to never forget that.

2.  I love to create. I always have ideas in my head and tons and tons of projects going on. Painting is my favorite form of creating, next would be knitting/crochet. My favorite subjects to paint are trees and people. I love to paint people with big wide wondering eyes and little pixie hats. (I also make and sell matching pixie hats!)
Creating is a great outlet for me.. it keeps me crazy. Everyone needs a little crazy in their life.

3. I love taking photos. Sometimes after an outing or adventure my boyfriend asks if I had fun... My answer is always, "You saw me taking pictures right?" That normally means I had fun. I bring my big camera everywhere and I am constantly snapping photos. I think it's important to take photos and "document" your life.

4. I LOVE adventure. I love to explore and travel. I love new and exciting things. I often go on adventures with friends. I'm always the one to go in the abandoned house first. We travel to ghost towns, forests and caves. I plan on traveling the world once I can afford it a bit more. Exploring is a very important thing to me. I get bored very easily, especially when I stay in one place. Life should be an adventure. People should be adventurous.

5. Positivity is a huge thing for me. I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. I used to take pills for it, but they didn't seem to help. For a while I was in a very low place. I was with a person who was very abusive and negative and I had to break free. I did my very best to not express any negativity on my blog. I tried to get through it by finding happiness and beauty. Then I got hit again when my darling Mowgli passed away. This hit me harder than the divorce did. Mowgli was my everything.. and I was devastated. But I had to pick myself up and find beauty and happiness again. I try to never complain on my blog. I only try to post positive things... because I'm sure there is someone out there who is going through similar things I went through. They need to be lifted up, not dragged down.

I really think this list speaks all for itself and I don't want to talk it dead with tedious descriptions of things that will be much more delightful for you to discover on her blog. I'll give you a secret tip though: She sells all her wonderful artwork: Paintings, hats and jewelry on etsy and I would totally recommend you to have a look at it, it's amazing!

What I love about Rach's blog is that it shows a lot of both; her personal and her artistic life. In fact, it is hard to take any aspect of her personality of blog or the list that she made and look at it as something isolated. It seems like it is all linked and woven into each other - just like nature. I guess that's what makes her blog so authentic.

Thanks a million Rachael, for being my Monday Friend, it was very special to me!
-------------------------------

Check out my previous Monday Friends!

Do you wanna be a Monday Friend? Please contact me and I will be very happy to include you in a future post! Email me at shinybubble (at) gmx.ch

Like ***Monday Friend***? Please support me by grabbing the button from my sidebar for your blog. If you drop me a line I'll link back to you!