Happy Wednesday, friends! As usual, I have a talented blog friend here sharing her loves and love-me-nots of the week for my weekly series. Today I'm excited to have Danie here from Pasadya
You'll come to love her in all of about 5 minutes {the time it will take you to read through her post!} She's a kind, talented, artist, designer and sweet friend with a big 'ole heart. Her artwork takes my breath away. Let's here what she's loving and not loving so much this week!
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Hi, everyone! I'm Danie, and I'm an artist who recently started her art business called Pasadya (pronounced pah-sah-jah). I love Michaela's genuine voice and heartfelt ideas in her writing, and her everyday happiness never fails to put a smile on my face, so I was honored when she asked if I would like to share a few of my ideas of what's to be loved and not.
Hope you all enjoy!
Ohh, where to start? It would be dishonest of me to say that I don't love about 1.5 millions things, but let's keep this short and sweet, shall we? Should we begin with the obvious? Okay, then!
1. EXPERIMENTATION
Truth be told, I am an honest-to-goodness art fart. Have been since I was fresh out of my diapers for the most part. Like Michaela, I went to school for interior design, which is still dear to my heart. After I graduated and got married to my childhood sweetheart, I just couldn't get that little nagging voice out of my head to go for my dreams and become an artist. One voice said, "You'll be wildly successful...you just wait and see!" while the other one said, "Are you going to starve? Maybe now is not the time...or ever." Thankfully, the second voice has so far been proven incorrect, especially with the undying support of my loving husband, who was the one that pushed me to begin all this.
Sob story and hurdles aside, this is what makes me heart flutter and what pushes me to create new things constantly. I work in different mediums and styles, but I especially love acrylic abstract painting and line art fashion illustrations. I'm beginning to dabble in watercolor more and more, and I'm also beginning to fall back in love with color. Almost one year ago, you would have seen only black and white line art, but now I'm beginning to experiment with digital color. Finally, you say! Yes, yesss, I do love it. A few years ago, you wouldn't even catch me using anything close to Photoshop, but now I'm all over it. How long did it take me to learn? Absolutely forever, but now that I look back, it was all worth it.
Here's to future experimentation! Let's not be afraid to work outside of our comfort zones.
2. WINTER
Photos taken by me in Denver, Colorado | 1, 2, 3, 4
I used to whine when I was little about how I hated the cold, didn't like how the night pushed itself into the daytime before 8:00 PM, blah, blah, blah. You grow up, though, and you learn to love the change of the gorgeous seasons. I'm from Texas, so we're actually still in fall mode, but I have to tell you that I'm looking forward to winter! Who can resist the snow, hot cocoa, and warm cuddly things? Not this lady.
3. TRAVELING WITH MY HUSBAND
I absolutely love traveling with my family, but when it's a trip with only my husband and me, it's total hilarity plus adoration. A no-brainer favorite trip of ours was our honeymoon to Hawaii in May 2011. He drove the windy and narrow road to Hana while I gritted my teeth, squeaked every once and a while out of fear when cars squeezed by, and covered my eyes constantly. But don't worry...at least over half the time I had my eyes open to take in the breathtaking view, of course.
I hung my head out of that rental car SO MUCH during that trip. How could I not? Places like this make me realize how small we are and how great God is. I need to remember that every day.
Dun dun, duuuuun. What's not to love, you ask? Lots of things, unfortunately. Well, come to think of it, they're mostly love-hate relationships. Point in case:
1. PROCRASTINATION
I get so giddy with excitement when I try a new style and love it, but I have this gigantic small problem of actually finishing a piece when I'm...say...80% through. Currently, I told myself that I would complete 3 particular pieces of art once for all weeks several days ago. It's a small bump in the road, but working more efficiently, perhaps on one painting at a time, would benefit me greatly. I think the biggest thing holding me back from truly finishing bigger pieces is the fear of messing them up at the finish line. Know what I mean?
2. UNGRACEFUL SLEEPING
Our daughter dog is a beloved child of the home, and she sure is quite the sidekick during the day to bounce ideas off (ha!) of and keep me entertained while I work, but MAN, is she infamously talented in the snoring department. Anybody else have a dog (or any animal / human, for that matter) with a short snout that makes it impossible for them not to snore?? When I say it's loud, I mean it's L-O-U-D. As in, I-need-to-shut-the-door-to-the-next-room-in-order-to-drown-the-horrendous-sounds loud. Oh well. At least when I look at her in her sprawled out snoring slumber, she manages to melt my heart because she has to find the softest area to nest in, and she never fails to bring her choice of toy along for the ride. Who would have thought she would decide on a hard, green rubber ball, of all choices? Uncomfortable, but beloved, I guess.
3. GETTING SICK
Before this past summer, I hadn't gotten sick for over an entire year! Over 365 days, people! That was pretty much amazing after I realized it, but almost immediately after jumping for joy at the realization of staying well for almost a year, I fell ill...for a week. As of right now, I'm recovering from being stuffy, hoarse, bedridden, and wrapped in giant sweaters and ugly sweatpants over Thanksgiving, and my fingers are crossed that just maybe I'll be back to normal tomorrow.
Even though getting sick isn't the greatest, it makes me realize how much I take health for granted. This needs to happen every once in a while to put me in check! I was brought to thankful tears two nights ago while my husband rubbed my back until I fell asleep and I thought about how blessed I am to have a caring husband who is always there for me, a mother-in-law that makes me breakfast in bed and puts the humidifier next to the bedside, and a mother that drives across town just to make sure I have Airborne and Advil, along with the rest of my sweet family and friends. It breaks my heart to see the homeless on the cold streets in the busy cities, and I couldn't imagine being physically ill on top of the omission of family, friends, and shelter. It's times like these that I realize once again that I'm not the person in need of help, and I have to reach out and give just as others have given to me.
Thanks so much for having me, Michaela! And to all of you sweet readers, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. :) Happy holidays!
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Thank you, Danie! Doesn't her trip to Hawaii look divine?! And I think we can all agree that being sick is always on our loves-me-not list! Go say hello to Danie today.
What are YOU loving this Wednesday? Have a great day!
Love,
