Sacrifice isn't always easy, but the reward is priceless!

It never ceases to amaze me that life, without any warning can see just how much you were actually paying attention, and throw something at you that is totally out of left field, taking your breath away while threatening to overtake you! I was recently faced with a string of events that should have wiped me out and left me for dead on the side of life's winding road. Instead, I have found a peace and strength that I knew was completely possible to have in the midst of a crisis, but never really thought I would be able to access something so strong when everything around you comes tearing apart at the seams!

There is only one explanation, and that is God! No matter how far away we ever travel from Him, He always has His hand around us to hold us close. He constantly proves and substantiates that when we least deserve His grace, mercy, and love, it is then where He reaches into the depths of our messes and chaos to show us just how good He is and how His unconditional love has no limits!

So often we hear the phrase that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger, but I firmly believe that whether you are a Christian or not, that God reaches into our lives and fills us with the strength necessary for us to pull through any circumstance and come out on the top of it with greater strength and ability than we had before that particular storm!

What you believe in will always be tested, and usually when the test comes, you will think that you were prepared, but most often times, it hits you in the depths of your life in places that you were never prepared for! Then it is sink or swim, and if you don't know who you are, and have a faith that will endure the fires and trials that come, you will be left completely devastated, questioning everything you thought that you knew.

The love of God is so strong and so powerful that He will reach into every part of who you are, and use the fire of the trial to purify your heart and allow you to become a new person! All of the impurities that are within us, will rise to the surface of our lives as the trials reveal those imperfections. We have a divinely appointed purpose and until we are not cluttered with the imperfections that take away from who we are, we won't be able to soar high like the eagle does and conquer each thing that comes our way!

Sometimes, you will have to make choices that you don't want to make. In fact, they may make you feel like you are going to die inside if you have to sacrifice certain things that are holding you back from reaching your destiny and are only working to control you and keep you in a place that you were never intended to be. It is in those times, where the "dross" from the fire will be skimmed off of your life and you will be a pure vessel that becomes priceless! You are a great treasure! Don't ever let anyone convince you otherwise!

You will be forced to feel the pressure of fear when you are facing a new trial and most will succumb to the fear and retreat back into comfortability, even when they know there is so much more out there for them! Push through the fear, take a stand, and let the Lord and His multitudes of Angels go before you to pave the way into a better life, with an abundance of opportunity that you will never know if you don't press on through the fear! Fear is just an indicator that you are on the right path and that right beyond that point in your life, will be a blessing so big that you can't even contain it. But sometimes it does involve sacrificing things, or people from your lives that are only working to make you weak and hold you back from reaching your full potential in your life and in the lives of others who need what you have to offer!

Just remember that no matter how painful the season, and no matter how great the loss may appear, you will never know what is waiting for you just beyond this trial if you don't push through it. You might run, walk, or crawl through what you are going through, but just don't look back and don't stop! You can do everything that you need to do, and God will place the people in your life who have the resources to make great things happen in your life right now...if you only believe and make a decision that no matter how you feel, you will not turn back!

You will encounter the temptation to doubt yourself and your decisions, but stand strong and know that where one door closes in your life, that God will open others for you and rain down the blessings of heaven into your life. So no matter where you are in your life, if you are going through something so big that you can't breathe, and don't have a clue what to do or where to go, just know that God is with you and ready to give you everything you need to get through it, but you will have to be the one who is willing to take the first step! I guarantee you will be amazed and left speechless at the way things in your life unfold once you make up your mind, and never turn back! Always remember that you can do all things through Jesus who gives you strength! (Philippians 4:13)

Are you dancing the dance of love?

Searching for the most amazing power in the universe is what drives every individual alive whether they realize it or not. When it comes to love and to having everything that love is, I believe that we search outwardly, rather than looking inside to see what has been hand selected for us to discover.

If we continue to search for what we need, we will always come up short because we were designed to love and give that love to others not selfishly seek out how to get ahead at the cost of those around. If we were to simply change our thinking and get our minds onto somebody else and off of ourselves, we could use our abilities and gifts to make a difference in the life of someone we love! It is then that I believe every last thing that we crave, desire, and fantasize about would flow effortlessly into our lives, and trickle down into the exact places that we need it, and at exactly the right time!

Love is the most powerful force in the universe! Unfortunately, it is mistaken for a feeling more often than we care to admit. So when the feelings fade, then so do our perceptions and efforts.

I agree that the feeling that is produced as a result of loving someone is nothing short of miraculous! It takes your breath away, captures every part of who you are, and creates the willingness to do whatever is necessary to shower the one that you love with everything that you are, or ever will become. The passion envelopes every part of you, and a day feels like ten years of the most amazing joy and peace. It is nothing short of ecstasy that appears to deliver sheer happiness into places that we didn’t even know existed within our hearts!

There is nothing that would keep you from making the one that you love know that they are the apple of your eye, and the very essence of your heart. And there is not a day that passes by where you don’t strive to show them how you have changed by loving them, and how they breathe life into your heart every single day just because of who they are…they really don’t even have to do anything to “deserve or be worthy of” your love. For the first time in your life, you truly begin to grasp the concept of unconditional love!

Indescribably, life flows through every part of you and you begin to change in ways that you never even imagined possible, yet you are, and there is no doubt in my mind or my heart that loving someone with genuine love will help you to become younger at heart and even begin to make you look like you have found a fountain of youth because you will begin to look younger as a result of the happiness that radiates from within the center of your heart!

You will become even more beautiful than you already are, as the days become years and yet you feel as if it has only been hours since the two of you fell in love! The mystery and design of love and it's ability to constantly challenge you to become more than you have ever been, and to allow your hearts to become interwoven with each other, growing together as if the two of you are becoming one!

I picture a beautiful dance, where there are two flowing together and moving in stride. Though the steps that you take for the first time seem difficult, and the steps themselves may be complex, it is because of your love and devotion meshed together with your faith in each other, that the dance appears effortless and breathtaking! Such is the dance of LOVE!

Sometimes, it means taking the time to practice above anything else in your life because if you don't learn the steps together you will never be able to flow together as one. Sometimes through the rehearsal you will step on toes or even forget how to complete one of the steps that are supposed to flow into the next move you will make. It may feel choppy and unorganized as if you are making the same motions yet with very little movement.

You may become frustrated when you see that the other person seems to understand something sooner or even easier than you do.

Soon, you will both realize, that as you take the time to be patient and attentive to one another that you will both begin to feel confidence rising up within you, where suddenly, you become as one! Even if it means having the willingness to repeat the steps that you don't feel like you should have to repeat again. As you begin to dance, you flow together, not sure of where one begins and the other ends. One leads, and the other follows, but if you were both struggling to lead, then you wouldn't be able to move freely, passionately, and effortlessly. This is how love looks to me now!

When you love someone with genuine love, which is agape love, the God kind of love, there is no doubt that it is never about you. It doesn't any longer hold the attitude that asks what do I need or what am I getting back in return for all that I do. If we give to get something back in return, we will eventually let our emotions control our efforts, and in our own strength we will fail. Then our efforts will become futile because everything we strive to do and become, if it is not solely and unconditionally founded upon genuine love, will never be powerful enough to make a life changing heart driven impact that will revolutionize our lives from the inside out! Do we really want to go our whole lives through and get to the end of them only to realize that everything we did was in vain because we did everything based upon a wrong motive concerning love?

Our motives will determine our success and destiny! True love is completely unselfish and always looks to please the other person without any regard for a reward for ourselves. Love has to love! Love has to open itself and find as many ways as possible to show goodness, and mercy, and utter selflessness not only to those we do profess to love, but especially to those who we feel are unworthy of our love. If we are loving with real love, we will not hold grudges, records of all of the wrongs done to us, and we will go above and beyond ourselves to give away a love that will bless the other person even if we never got anything back in return!

Love is not conditional and self serving. When one fails, the other persons love should be there to shelter your heart and to build you up. Love is guiltless, and only encourages, edifies, and remembers all of the wonderful things that make you who you are.

Mind you it is not wrong to want your love to be reciprocated. In fact, I believe that is what drives us and fuels our ability to keep on going when things get tough. Being loved back and adored is the one thing that will give you strength in places and times where there is no strength left to give.

Obedience opens the door to all that love is, and when we are willing to have an obedient heart and love regardless of what someone else does, we have the wonderful promises that have been made to us by God that will change our lives, and the way we see people, and even the way we see ourselves!

I believe that it is only when we live our life on purpose to love no matter what, that we will find the person that God has personally designed for us to be with for the rest of our lives. This will be the one person that completes you and is your “soul mate”- they will be everything that you are not. You will be like two halves of a whole that come together to make one beautiful work of art designed by God Himself!

When you find yourself in that perfect union, you won't have to wonder what you will get back in return for giving yourself and your love. Love will come to you because you both seek to please each other. The more that you give, the more love you will be given to love with. But, the moment that we stop giving and start simply accepting all the love that someone else is willing to give, we have just lost sight of what love is, and in that we will begin to question, doubt, and allow confusion to trap us into our feelings. It is then, that we need to recall that love is not based upon how we feel, but is a choice that we make from moment to moment. Love makes a decision to love regardless of feeling, circumstance, and builds within our hearts a solid foundation that only becomes impenetrable as you continue to complete genuine acts of love toward another person.

Give and it will be given back to you. Maybe not in the way that you think it should be, or in the time that you think that it should come to you, but you will always receive back from the seeds that you have spent your time planting. If you want an incredible harvest then you need to see what you are planting, and if you don't like the results that you are getting within your life and you think that there could be more than what there is right now, then you need to change what you are sowing and purpose with your heart to pursue all that love is, learn its personality, and strive with all that you are to do exactly what love does.

Even if you fall down along the road, you can never say that you have failed unless you choose not to get up again and continue to press forward in your journey of becoming perfect in love!

The most simple spiritual principle or law of sowing and reaping is give and it will be given back to you, or in other terms, what goes around, comes around. Some call it karma, but regardless of what you call it, what you spend your time giving out, will determine what you receive in abundance later when your harvest comes in! If you’re discontented with what you have in your life right now, then look at what you have been sowing, and change it right now starting today! Will it be easy? For some yes, and for others it will take them the course of their natural lives to learn consistency in living a different way than they do now!

Discovering that you are in control of your life and destiny through the way that you love, or don’t love, can be an incredible awakening! Most of the time we will find that if we are honest with ourselves that we haven't ever loved someone with our true heart. We generally give according to what we hope to get back, and then if and when we are rejected, we become devastated when things didn't happen the way that we had hoped or expected. Most of the time we place unrealistic expectations on those around us, and then we blame them when they fail us in some way that to be honest, most of the time they are not even aware of the fact that they did anything to hurt us.

So now what do we do? We thought we knew what love was, and in an instant we might have a realization that we haven’t got a clue! In order to gain a full understanding of love you must study its personality, follow after it, and line our life and actions up with how love handles itself. Pursue love and go after it with passion! If we aren't striving and working to know love, we may very well miss it because how do you know what something is if you have no idea what it is that you are looking for?

If you were never taught what something is then you won't know how to value it and maintain persistence for it. For instance, if you were to go one day to an run of the mill garage sale, you would find that people will gladly rummage through someone else’s things to try to find the best value and the greatest deal right? If they aren't sure what they are looking at when they get to the sale, then they will miss an opportunity to realize that an item that they have just laid their hands onto is very precious and valuable. They may look at something and say this is junk, but in reality, to another person who comes along to look at the very same item, they would see that it is extremely valuable and worth a great deal of money.

People can devalue something because of their lack of understanding, and it gets bypassed and left by the wayside, forgotten and thought of no more!

They never knew what it was worth!

The next person will come by and browse through the "junk" but this person found a great treasure. The difference is that this person knew what they were looking for, and knew what it would look like once it was cleaned up and restored. They had vision, and a true desire to take something that didn’t appear beautiful to the eyes at that moment, and use their gifts to cultivate making something that someone discarded and found no value in, into something magnificent!

Their knowledge and understanding enabled them to find a true treasure, and to see what most people could only pass over without a second look. Not understanding that love is completely unselfish and is unconditional will rob us of the chance to really live! Once we know that love doesn't hold grudges, or keep a running tab of hurts, and that it forgives as quickly as it was offended, and it is never competitive, we will choose to keep looking forwards with love, and not quit!

We need to grasp that love always sees beyond any faults or issues that a person has and needs to concentrate on how to build the other person up-Always! When you realize that love is not moved by what it sees with our mortal eyes, but moves eloquently in absolute faith, then you can begin to take a glimpse of it's completeness combined with its absolute devotion, commitment, and inability to fail!

If you are attempting to love in your flesh and with your feelings, then it will be utterly impossible to put off the distractions that life tends to throw our way, and you will become weary and run the risk of throwing in the towel. When you lean on God for your love, only then will you find the ability to walk out your life in the image and character of God himself, because He is LOVE.

You simply begin to know that there is no room for excuses or blame, and you will begin to live with the desire never to make any! You realize that when you love with all that love is that it doesn't matter about being right and you certainly don't want to open the door to having pride tear down the one that you love. So you go above and beyond to love, create peace, and develop a soft heart even in the times where you are rejected the most! Love never stops loving. You may get knocked down, but get back up and continue the journey! The more you do, the more your heart will be filled with a love you can’t contain, and an endless compassion for those who don’t know what true love really is!

You begin to think differently, and act differently. You begin to easily submit to your significant other and choose to create peace so that it surrounds your most valuable and priceless gift- and that is the one that you love. I know that love is the most powerful and passionate gift that has ever been made available to us, and there is nothing that can stand up against love. It weakens every wall, and builds up every insecurity over time with trust. Fear becomes obsolete, and can't remain in the presence of love. There is such peace in love, and absolute contentment that most of us will miss out on only because we weren’t willing to do the work that love is willing to do!

Love gives you the ability to see through all circumstances, lean on the love of your life, and believe your best for them always and at all times. If you are living in the will of Love, you won't have time to be consumed with what you aren't getting, thus becoming selfish and self centered. Make sure that you place the love of your life higher than yourself, and make sure that you are finding ways to discover new things together about yourselves and giving all that you are to each other every single day.

We could all say that if we really knew what love is, then we would have made different choices. The reality in this moment and in this page of time is that now we do know! We are empowered to live right, and live full of giving with our heart, mind, will, and emotions! We should be living freely without fear and knowing that we will get every last thing that we have ever wanted in life and things beyond our imaginations if we will just choose to live out our love.

Everything begins with a choice. If we don't choose with all conviction and belief to love, then how can we say that we ever started? We deceive ourselves in believing that we have made a true choice to begin something that we have never really begun. Agape love is loving without limits~ Loving as God loves us, and without excuses. If we aren't living out our lives with expectancy, then we may just miss the love of our lives, and never even know that we missed it.

Let love envelop you!

Be prepared to give all that you are, but look forward to receiving as you have never received before! Love will change the way that you see, and it is unparalled to anything that you can begin to fathom, but without a choice, and unwavering belief, you will never know what you were too afraid to do. And likewise, you will never know the abundance of blessing that you missed out on as a result of not being willing to live a life of love!

Love will blow your mind, because there is nothing else on this earth that can impact your life the way that love does! Making different choices will bring satisfaction into your heart, and that will open the door for you to let love in. Love is the only thing that will be able to last into eternity-there is nothing like it, nothing that could replace it, and nothing that you will be more grateful for in all of your life once you choose to receive it!

This blessing of giving the love inside of you to the one that God has given to you to share your life with will open the doors to the ballroom in life where you will begin to learn this dance of love. And then as you dance your heart will remind you that this is a dance that you will do everyday for the rest of your days~ Flowing as one and continuously falling in love over and over again in every new day that comes until you take your last breath. This is love!

How to get your work "seen" as an artist... Part 3

I am so sorry if you have been following this recent series that I didn't take a few moments to share with you that the newest addition to our family is a gorgeous English Bulldog and Husky mixed 12 week old puppy! Her name is Fiona! So it has been somewhat like having a new baby again and she has never been trained before in any way and isn't being such a happy camper learning that there are things called rules :-)

If you have missed Part 1 or Part 2 of this series, please get cozy and go back to read them! You'll be glad you did!

I hope you are having an Xquisit weekend, as we move on to the final portion of how to get your work "seen" as an artist. Combined with the steps I gave you in part 1 and part 2 of this series, you should see very quickly that your attitude will begin to change as you purposely choose to see things from a different perspective. Things that have actually worked to hold you back in life, can liberate you and launch you into a place where you know you can do anything, and then maybe for the first time in your life, you actually do!

So you've developed your plan, taken the time to educate yourself in some of the key steps you can take to get started, and you're taking advantage of technology to lead the way in how people will become familiar with your name and your work! You should be proud of yourself because most people don't even get that far yet they wonder why something hasn't worked for them and then they become discouraged.

When it is time to begin spreading the word about your art, you should determine what the best ways are to accomplish this. If you don’t have a direction to go or a starting point, you will sit there paralyzed and able to do next to nothing. You have determined that you have fabulous pieces of art, but right now you and family or friends are the only ones admiring them at a close distance. So what to do?

Step One: Business Cards

Before you say having business cards is a given, there are some things you should know. First, you should have cards that stand out and attract attention. Use an image of your art on the card. A good place to get affordable, professional business cards is vistaprint.com. You can get all kinds of nice promotional items for your art at this website. Highly creative professionals use Vista Print.com

Secondly, don’t forget to put your online portfolio address and email addresses on the cards. This way people not only have that nice image of your painting on the card, they also have a way to view your portfolio, recent creations, and a way to contact you.

Thirdly and most simply, once you have your cards, use them! Here are a few, but definitely not all the ways you can begin handing your card out:

1. Whenever you mention being an artist, slip that person a card.

2. Whenever you sell a piece, give the buyer a card.

3. Leave a card with your tip.

4. Put a card in the frame with each of your works so that people will know who created it.

5. Give many cards to family and friends so they can give them out to people they know. Branch out and use your immediate resources to get other people spreading the word for you!

Step Two: Internet Networking

Networking is easy when you do it on the internet. The easiest ways that I have found are:

1. Make your email signature your name and link to your portfolio

2. Join business forums and groups on the web. Meet others, ask questions, and make friends. Remember to make your post signature like your email’s, and leave a copy of your website there too!

3. Join artist’s groups. Learn where you can advertise your art, and find artist job boards.

4. Write! Write articles about how you create your art, or just art in general.
If you are not a good writer, then seek one on the Internet possibly under Craigslist or any other popular websites. Call colleges to see if they have any students willing to “intern” and write for you for free basically for the practice! Then post your articles on a blog or free article service along with your biography and a link to your amazing portfolio.

Step Three: Shows and Contests

The easiest way to get your art seen by the most people locally is by entering an art show or competition. Your town, no matter how small, should have some kind of art show, craft show, or art contest for local artists. Contact your chamber of commerce to find out more information. Find out about all the nearby towns’ events as well. By entering local shows, or group shows, in nearby towns or cities, you will create a name for yourself and begin to create your own “presence” within the local community!

If you are an artist, you know very well that creating your art is only the first step. Once you have completed a piece, the next step is to put it up for sale. You have worked very hard to create your piece, and put your heart and soul into it. Now you have to go from artist to salesperson, and ultimately become a businessperson. For who knows every inch and detail of your artwork more than you do? Who could describe passionately everything that was poured into that particular piece than you can? The answer is easy! Nobody but you can do what you can~ Not the way you can do it!

Artists are usually not trained in selling, so we end up learning to sell our work on our own and from others. Selling art is not easy, because of the extreme competition, but there are many ways to sell that I have listed for you within this article. Galleries, shows, and online are just a few ways to get your work out there.

Most shows are free to enter or require a nominal entry fee. Aside from winning money, most events allow browsers to buy the art they like. The show or contest usually will take a small cut of the profits you make by selling a piece, but you don’t have to sell your piece at that time if you don’t so choose. Take the interested buyers name, address, and the piece they are interested in and then send them more about it after the show along with similar pieces within the same color schemes as the one they were interested in. Kind of like the concept of knock off colognes, if you love eternity you’ll love this one too!

There are plenty of ways to get your work seen by those who want fabulous art. It takes passion, and persistence, but if you want something badly enough, you can succeed! Remember that you are the only one who can make something happen for yourself, and it will be up to your determination, attitude, and perseverance if and when you will get where you want to go. Now my only question is this~ What are you waiting for?

How to get your work "Seen" as an artist...Part 2

I hope that you are having an absolutely Xquisit day today! Today's post is a bit lengthy so get cozy and pour another cup of coffee before you begin reading! I hope that you have already read part 1 of this series on how to get your work seen as an artist, but if you haven't, then go back and do that once you are finished reading today. Today, I am going to get to the "meat and potatoes" of how to get your work seen as an artist in the local market, which then will give you an idea of what you need to do to take your work national and even international.

This is so exciting, but remember that success only comes in our lives by doing specific, measurable actions. So it is important to know what you are going to do before you just decide to wing it and then wonder why it flopped. Its not that your creations were a flop (which is the direction our minds tend to gravitate when something is not a hit or success the first time around), but you need to ask yourself two important things. Did you have a solid plan that you didn't deviate from and secondly, who is your audience?

Always remember that there has to be an audience for your work and sometimes it takes realizing that you just haven't found it yet. The best way to find that audience is by the process of elimination. Begin to research the galleries in the area that you live within. Once you find galleries that you think would be interested in your work, you can begin to send them copies of your portfolio on cd-rom’s. Sending out your portfolio is a much more effective way to getting your work seen. Don’t be fearful of the rejection letters that may follow! Use them as motivation to propel you forward into discovering more creative ways of getting your work seen in the local market!

While attempting to get your work seen locally, expand your promotion throughout the state that you live in, and then nationally. Some artists have actually had massive success taking their work Internationally before they ever book a gallery or exhibit even locally. The beauty of this is that there may not be many people or galleries that value your work locally, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Many larger cities have a wider variety of people to market to. Thus giving you a greater chance to be seen!

Do the same thing with other local cities that you have spent time working in. Never stop researching! Research is very time consuming and can take a long time to complete but continue to send out your cd’s while doing your research. Send out as many as you can afford.

You will learn that by submitting your work to galleries, shows, group shows, flea markets, traveling art shows etc. that your chances of getting seen are greater and you could essentially be able to make a living as an artist from these various efforts. There is power in numbers. Statistically, the more you submit and send out, the more probability that you will book your work somewhere, or in multiple venues.

The reality of this is that it’s a lot of hard work. You will encounter such things as self-doubt, face the anxiety of an inconsistent income over and over again, possibly deal with depression, but you have to decide if you would have it any other way because you are actually doing what you are passionate about and want to do in your life with the gifts that God gave you to create with.

Here is in my opinion the very first thing that you have to do no matter who you are, or if you are an artist or not. People fail for a lack of a well executed decision and plan for their lives, projects, or art business. Decide what you want to do, make a plan, and then do it no matter how you feel, or who says it can’t be done the way you see it!

Then, what you need to do is to realize that the way our lives are right now are a result of the choices that we made yesterday. It is our choice to be an artist, to be angry, or to get frustrated. Ultimately, we choose to let that rejection letter discourage us if it has that impact on us once we read it. You can prove everybody wrong and live from your work, but you have to believe in yourself and you have to believe that it can be done. If you can’t see it before it ever comes to fruition the chances of stumbling or falling when it gets really tough is great! But if you believe in yourself, there is absolutely nothing can stop you but you!

Next, figure out what you want. Do you really want to be rich and famous or do you just want to make a living as an artist? Do you want both? Are you good enough to be both? Do you want to make great masterpieces that everybody wants when they see them, or do you just want to be the best you can be and learn who you are in the process?

Once you have figured out what you want, you have to make a plan on how to get there. Set goals, and then draw up your business plan. Once you step outside your art studio it is all business! But you are creative and so this is where you will develop your “edge” above the rest!

If you find yourself in the position of a full-time artist, you will see that 50-75% of your time will be spent managing your business of being an artist. Take responsibility for your life, develop a business plan, and follow through with it no matter how discouraged you may become. Take all of the things that are negative in your life and try to find the positive in them. Negative situations will keep you from achieving what you want to do. Rejection letters show that you're actually successful so why are afraid? Let me show you why I say this.

Statistically, the more rejection you get, the closer you actually are to getting your acceptance letter! The statistics show that it takes 7 No’s to get 1 Yes! So you have to find in yourself the will to move forward no matter what. As artists, it’s no secret that we are creative people. So use that concept always to your advantage in everything you do, think, say, and create!

Now it is time for you to find your own way. Be a leader in your market and not a follower. You might love Monet or Van Gogh, but let your passion lead the way with your heart. Don’t try to copy someone else, or that takes all originality, passion, and “You” out of what it is you are creating!

If you have set goals for yourself you need to ask if they are they the right goals? Do not set unrealistic goals that you do not have control over. If you would like to have 10 shows this year, then as I said before, there is power in numbers. Send out 100 portfolio packets, and this will increase the probability that those shows will happen for you within that year!

So here you are. You are an artist. What are you going to do? That's easy, you should do what needs to be done! First and foremost, you have to be honest with yourself! Are you really an artist? No one else can decide this for you. Is the work that you do coming from the depths of who you are? If it does not then you need to give yourself some time to work that out. You don’t want your work to be more about your desire to make a living from art than it is about the integrity of who you are.

Always remember, that you will need to make many compromises to be a full-time artist, but never compromise your work. Since artwork is the kind of product that is valued subjectively, a limited-edition print from someone nobody’s ever heard of is worth very little. The problem artist’s face is a problem of supply and demand. Because their dreams are so common, they are competing against many thousands of capable and creative people whose mission is the same. And mind you that they are not just inexperienced amateurs, but people who may have many more years of experience than you do.

Unfortunately, the people who can truly appreciate passionate art are few. To accomplish your goals, you will have to find the most inexpensive, and effective way to sell your work to the public. So simply begin in the community of which you live.
The typical art buyer buys pretty things to hang on the wall. Many are people who make purchases when on vacation. They are out looking for something neat or unusual that they couldn’t find near the area in which they live. Most of the time, they don’t know anything about signed limited editions, and they wouldn’t care even if they knew what they were.

The bottom line is however good your art may be, it has little or no commercial value without a value being established which usually comes through an art broker. Commercial value for commodity art is created almost entirely by an art broker because they can create that value, and recreate it over and over again. Thus, developing your art into a “brand.”

If you are an artist and are thinking of having other people sell your art, you must be willing to pay what they, not you, think is a reasonable commission. If they are doing all of the work, it would be entirely feasible to pay them an 80% commission and you the artist would only be getting a 20% commission on a piece you poured all of your heart and soul into.

After all, they are responsible for getting your work "out there, seen, and brokered out to the public." They should be paid a higher commission for that work, resources, and their connections. The question you must ask yourself is whether or not you can live with that?

You can visit every retail vendor for whatever kind of art it is that you are creating and try to make a 20 % deal, but this is a very expensive, time consuming, and very unlikely method. You can become your own broker and market your art locally and/or through the Internet. Ebay is a fabulous tool, but don’t allow it to be your only way of doing things because then it can become your crutch, and if that “crutch” is removed at some point, you can fail and fall flat on your face because you didn’t have other venues in which to get your work seen!

Locally, you can sell your work at flea markets and traveling art shows. You won’t make a lot of money doing that at first, but you will make some, and it will be easy to develop a mailing list of customers who should be happy to buy from you on an ongoing basis. If you keep at it for a few years and procure a few thousand first-time buyers, you could easily be making $50,000 or more a year by intelligently and persistently marketing to them.

Selling someone at a flea market or art show is a considerable accomplishment. It takes personal interaction and a high level of interest on the customer’s part. Turning that kind of a buyer into a long-term customer would be relatively easy.
Besides direct selling, you could get into direct-response marketing by setting up an Internet business to sell your art. Here are some simple steps to begin to make that happen right now for you!

1. You should set up a website, but keep it simple and not spend too much time and money on it. There are many places to set up free web hosting. Google it or go to www.000webhost.com

2. Invest the majority of marketing time in going out to other websites and e-mail lists and promoting your name and artwork.

3. Promote your name first by teaching people about art and how to appreciate it, what separates good art from undesirable art and exactly how to interpret what you are looking at. Each person will interpret each piece differently because beauty is in the eye of the beholder concerning art.

4. There are plenty of places where you can write articles and give advice for free. You should encourage people to respond to your articles, and then add their names to your mailing list.

5. Create two e-mail services: one that teaches people how to appreciate art, using your own artwork, and another that goes directly to people who have purchased or expressed interest in your own personal work. In this second service, you would talk about your art, the projects you are working on, and your next limited editions.
You might think this kind of work is boring, arduous, or too commercial. A lot of artists feel that way. They would rather be creating than marketing. They are willing to place great value on the work they do in creating the art, but they place very little value on the work brokers do, which is where commercial value is created for their work.

In reality, the broker is an artist as much as is the producer of the artwork. Your art is just as much about transformation, and imagination. The only real difference between the two is the end result. The artists goal is to create a material object. Unfortunately, that creation has no commercial value until it becomes a brand. The broker seeks to take something that has no commercial value and transform it into a work of art that does!

You actually have the unprecedented opportunity to become twice the artist you already are. First, by creating and making your art, and secondly, by selling it and creating your name into your own personal brand!

So take these steps that I've given you today, write them down or print them out so that you can reference each point specifically and easily. Then begin to develop your plan if you don't already have one, and last but not least, come back tomorrow when I give you the remainder of the steps necessary to becoming a "Brand" while getting your work seen by the public! Enjoy your day and be blessed. You are loved!

How to get your work "seen" as an artist... Part 1

Today I am going to go into a little bit of a different direction that I have been lately. I want to address the things that are important to do with your mind, thinking, and ultimately your actions if you ever want to do more than entertain the idea of being successful.

Success comes first within our minds because we need to believe in ourselves and know with absolute confidence that we are able to win before we ever set out to do something. That transpires first and foremost within our thoughts. Our thoughts then become the foundation of our actions. That creates an open invitation for success or failure, but it all begins with the way that we think, and how much we believe in what it is we are doing. Sometimes you will be the ONLY one who believes in what you are doing.

I am an artist. I write and I paint. Those are my passions and they are what I have spent my time believing in and cultivating within myself. We are all artists of some kind in our lives. Maybe you can't write or paint, but you can sing, or bake, or you are a rock star in your field of business and area of expertise! Though my post today addresses many things from a painters/artists perspective and how to get your work seen by others, you can actually take each of the things that I speak of and simply change it up a little to incorporate what I am saying into your own life.

There will be a few different parts to this series that I am starting today and so I hope that you will take the principles that I am sharing with you and apply them to your business, or your passion. Let's see just how far you can go in life simply by knowing a few key and very important elements to getting things done in your life and ushering success in to whatever you put your hand to!

As an artist, I personally have heard and read about the multitude of artists voicing their anger, frustration and pain about being an artist. Their sense of self worth can diminish, and that can affect not only your work, but your life, and even relationships with others.

Many times artists question whether or not to continue as an artist, but the reality is that if you give up after all that you have learned in creating the pieces that you have, you will never be more than where you are right now. You will never truly know the possibilities of what could have been if you had only known the right avenues to proceed (with your art)!

When you are dealing with an idea or a work of art that you have created, you open yourself up to either facing acceptance or rejection. You become completely vulnerable because you are dealing with someone’s choice and their personal tastes and opinion regarding the piece of art that you have created and poured all of your passionate heart into.

There are certain things that you must do as an artist if you want to be a success, and let me remind you that what you consider to be success will always be different from what another person declares success to be. Success must first begin with a decision that we are going to be successful!

Remember that success is not an accident when it comes, but it is the result of specific, measurable actions that you have taken to propel yourself forward! Never let ANYONE tell you that you can't do something.

Just relax and remind yourself that inability has more to do with attitude. Keep your head up, believe in yourself, and don't move away from your plan. Attitude determines your approach and your approach determines your successes or failures! Remember that the right attitude will usually supersede your level of ability and take you beyond your present level and into a realm where dreams come true. Attitude is everything!

Come back tomorrow when I continue to show you how to turn your life around and have success in everything you do whether it is in being an artist or the things you do in your every day life! Can't wait to see you then and have an xquisit and fabulous day! You are loved!

Reflections on the miracle of life!

As a woman, there is usually nothing more exciting than the expectation of the day you will deliver your new born baby. From the moment you hear those precious words "I'm Pregnant" you realize that the gift of life is now growing in your belly and you eagerly wait, watching your belly grow, cravings come, and moods change!

I have to say that with each baby I have been blessed to deliver, it was like being pregnant for the first time all over again. You learn so many things with each new pregnancy! Ultimately you find yourself working to stockpile these new pieces of information within your memory as the day approaches when you will deliver your beautiful creation into this new world!

This is all that I could think of as the nurses whisked me away down a long corridor to the operating room! But I wasn't being wheeled away to have a C section, I had just delivered my 4th baby and I was bleeding to death! It was the year that all of the nurses were on strike and all of the nurses were from various parts of the country. Few were even from here. Nobody knew where anything was, they were all unfamiliar with everything, and so they had trouble finding the operating room.

On the way there, each of my previous deliveries flashed quickly through my mind. Why couldn't this one be like those? Granted with each delivery they each got easier, but this one was working to take my life and leave my precious children and newborn baby motherless.

Tears streamed down my face as I remembered with my first son how labor had taken 39 1/2 hours for him to finally make his appearance. Pushing for 40 minutes because I didn't have the urge to push from the epidural seemed ridiculous, but it worked wonders for the pain! He was the biggest of all of my children and when he was born, the miracle of live enveloped me and I knew that his being born would change my life for the rest of it!

With my second baby, my daughter, my angel, true labor was about 2 hours long and that was the first time I found that incredible urge to push! WOW, that is forever etched within my heart and mind. Something you work so hard to control, but ultimately it battles to control you~ and the race is on! I was about 3 weeks early with her and they broke my water because the contractions weren't dilating me any further. Then they started pitocin to induce the whopping contractions that came so hard and so fast that when the doctor walked in, he didn't quite get the scrubs on all the way, and in less than 3 pushes, my gorgeous and perfect daughter arrived and was placed upon my deflated belly.

Then there was my third baby, my second son. He wasn't scheduled to arrive for yet another 3 weeks but just like my daughter, he had other ideas. Nearly the exact same scenario happened with this baby as with my daughter. They broke my water, induced pitocin, and attempted to give me an epidural. The lady didn't give it to me right and the medicine made my head feel like it was in a vise and having its own contraction! Needless to say, I would deliver him without pain relief~ Au natural!

My baby was coming too quickly, and I had only been in labor for and hour and 20 minutes. My doctor was out of the country, the doc on call was not close enough, and so with a 3rd attempt at getting the doctor to the hospital, they found one shopping at the mall next to the hospital, and he rushed in to deliver my 3rd little bundle of joy!

Now with my 4th baby, I had a tough pregnancy. I nearly lost her when I was 3 months pregnant. There was gushing blood like a fountain, and I prayed all the way to the hospital for God to save my baby. I expected to hear the worst when they did the ultrasound, but she was fine, but I was hemorrhaging. They said that if they placed me on bed rest, then it may allow the pregnancy to heal in that place from which I was bleeding.

Well, that hemorrhage finally stopped, and finally I began to heal so that the flow of blood was blocked. She grew normally, and I loved being pregnant and dressing in trendy, stylish maternity clothes from A pea in the pod! Throughout my pregnancy, baby wanted to start coming early. I spent lots of time in bed, and about 6 weeks before my delivery date, she decided to give us all a scare. I raced to the hospital for them to stop my labor, and they gave me a shot for my babies lungs so that if she were born that early, she would have had a protective coating on her lungs to help her survive.

All quieted down for about 2 more weeks, and then the contractions started coming all over again. With that many false alarms you begin to get desensitized to the urgency of going to the hospital for fear that they will just send you home again! So I stuck it out through the night with these horrible pains rippling their way from side to side throughout my belly. The next day, going on barely any sleep I was still having steady contractions. Tired, crabby, and a little frustrated that even with medicine the contractions were not decreasing, I finally called the doctor later in the day, right around dinner time.

They said once again to get into the hospital, and so I spent a little time with my other children to explain that I was going to the hospital and I would maybe be having their baby brother or sister today. I drove to the hospital alone so my husband could watch the kids in case I would just come home again. We did get a babysitter to wait on standby in case I really was in labor and going to have baby that day.

They timed my contractions once I got to the hospital and I was only dilated to 3. So I began to walk the halls in hopes that it would speed up the contractions and the process. No such luck. I was a month early at this point and the doctor had to decide if he was ok with breaking my water to deliver my baby. I was exhausted from trips to the hospital, medicine to stop labor and waiting for my precious angel to arrive. So he made an executive decision to break my water and let me have baby today!

I called my husband and told him he needed to get to the hospital and that we would be having our baby. Then the doctor came in to break my water~ and the waiting game would begin. I sat there thinking that I may never know what it is like to have your water break on its own and with that my husband walked into the room. Then once my water was broken, my contractions totally stopped! That's when they quickly decided that they would start pitocin to make the contractions start up again. Not my favorite choice, but now that my water was broken, they had to help me get active labor going again.

It was a little after 9 pm when they broke my water and then they started the pitocin at about 9:20. There is no happy medium with that stuff- for me at least. I had one minor contraction that was slightly uncomfortable, then the second contraction was a whopper! Totally took my breath away and I couldn't even talk or get sound out except to whimper as the tears flowed down my cheeks and dripped onto the pillow.

It was now about 9:35 or so and there was a few minutes in-between that contraction and the next, but already I had dilated to 8 with only 2 contractions on the pitocin. There was no time to give me any pain medicine or an epidural so it looked like I was going to have another baby Au Natural! Unbelievable!

Then the 3rd contraction came and I nearly came unglued and with it came that awful urge to push and I couldn't stop it. I tried my breathing exercises and everything, but I couldn't breathe through this one! Then I felt my baby crowning already, and the end of the bed hadn't even been taken off yet. It hurt so badly that I physically took my hand and tried to push the baby back inside!

The nurses couldn't find my doctor because they didn't page him right and later found out he was in the lounge waiting for me to dilate. Well, with all the commotion and baby coming out right then, they grabbed another doctor from the hallway to give me an episiotomy quickly, and as he did that I didn't even have to push again because my baby came flying out with such force that she landed on the end of the bed and nobody caught her! If that end of the bed hadn't been on, she would have landed on the floor and been hurt. Luckily, she was fine!

They put her onto my chest and I struggled to see if it was a boy or a girl so I was crying and sobbing and in between breaths, I was finally able to get out the words to ask whether it was a boy or a girl. They told me I had a girl and she was perfect. She had a perfectly round head because she wasn't crowned for more than a few seconds, and she was beautiful!

That is when my doctor surfaced, to finish off the delivery. About 5 minutes went by and he was ready to leave the room and let the nurses do their job when the nurse ran into the hallway to call the doctor back to tell him that the bleeding wasn't stopping. I later learned that you can bleed to death in only a few minutes after delivering a baby if there are complications. So they needed to work fast.

They swept my little angel right off of my chest and whisked me out the door to head for emergency surgery. I began to pray and repent for my sins because I knew that if I was about to die, that I needed to be sure I was ready to face my maker with a clean heart. At that moment, I knew more than in any other moment of my life, that I was ready to go if that was God's plan for me. And just like that, all of this that I have shared with you, came flooding through my mind and heart. I said one last prayer for my family and asked that God would let them know me, remember me, and know Him if it was my time to go.

As we got into surgery, the doctor was there and before they even got the cart totally stopped, they were giving me the medicine to go to sleep. As I drifted off to sleep I heard the doctor reprimanding the staff of nurses because they didn't know where anything was and this was a life or death situation. And with that, everything went dark.

It was 11:00 or so that night when I groggily began to open my eyes from surgery. Everything was hazy and the pain excruciating! They told me that they didn't know where the bleeding was coming from and that they weren't sure if I would make it through the night. I had a blood transfusion, and played the waiting game to see if I would live to see my newest gift~ my baby.

They thought I may need surgery again to do an emergency hysterectomy if they couldn't get the bleeding to stop. They moved me onto a super cozy bed in recovery, and kept me there for the remainder of the night. I had more medicine that put me to sleep and when I awoke at about 6 the next morning, I was being moved to a room on the maternity ward. I was alive! I was that much closer to holding my baby again.
The bleeding continually decreased and the medicines that they gave me worked to keep my comfy.

Then the moment arrived that I would hold and see my precious baby girl again. As they handed her to me all swaddled in a blanket, I wept tears of joy. She was so tiny. When she was born she was 5 pounds 6 ounces, but when we left the hospital a few days later, she was only 4 pounds and 14 ounces! I knew that I was given a second chance to journey this life through with my newest angel, and that she would have the chance to know me, and love me! That was the greatest gift I have ever received, and today she is nearly 8 years old, strong, smart, passionate, and as gorgeous as ever!

I'd love to know your thoughts about your own experiences on giving birth, or the miracle of life within your own life! Please leave a comment, or your story here or at Xquisitlife's new site under blog posts! Have an Xquisit and Fabulous day and I send my love to you on this gorgeous winter day!

Just a reminder about some new things you need to see on Xquisitlife.com! Don't forget to sign up for my email postings under the email button on the right side of the page today...many are in the race for the prize, but will you be one of them? The games have begun! Remember to refer as many people as you know and once they sign up, you are that much closer to winning! Plus, don't forget about your special FREE gift that I am going to send you just for entering your email! Have a fabulous day, and don't forget to check out my newest line of champion clothing on the site for Men and Women! I have hand selected the coolest fashions by Champion that you can't find in the stores! With Valentine's Day approaching, please click the perfume button right above this post to get your sweetie his or her favorite cologne or perfume for loads off the retail price! You won't be sorry! Please comment about your thoughts on the clothes and perfumes! I love knowing your thoughts!

Love to you all today!

How are we doing on our New Year's Resolutions?

Have you ever noticed that the older you get, the faster time seems to fly by? Birthdays come quicker and Lord knows it was just summer and then it was time to take out my winter clothes and prepare for the holidays once again!

So many times we ignore the fact that time doesn't stand still for anyone, no matter who you are, or how badly you just need a minute to breathe. Then the next thing you know, you look up and all of the sudden you look back to when you were in High School and its been just about 20 years since you've graduated! Where did the time go anyway?

The years keep steadily moving faster and faster, as we approached yet another New Years, and of course we must keep tradition of making our fabulously unattainable resolutions. Too honest? The truth hurts sometimes. In all reality, we should just decide to put on a life of discipline instead of making resolutions that we are apt to lose by the wayside of life.

Good intentions are fabulous, but unless you decide to make different choices in your life day to day, your life will never be given the opportunity to change for good, much less keep a resolution that we claim we are serious about this time.
What are some of the real resolutions we might decide to do in our lives that would actually work to benefit our lives instead of sapping our energy and life out from under us coupled with that hint of failure of unmet expectations of ourselves if we find that we haven't stuck to our resolutions?

Have you bothered to ask yourself lately exactly how you are doing on your resolutions anyway?

One thing that I thought about while writing this, is what kinds of things should we be working on in our lives to have better discipline? Do we ever think about things like unforgiveness, or mistrust in another person, and what those kinds of things are actually doing to our lives when we hold onto them?

What if your life has been secretly filled with unforgiveness and you have been living a wretched, bitter life pointing your finger in blame at another person for what they did to you and how they have hurt you? Do we ever resolve to have greater faith, or live in forgiveness toward others, or maybe just resolve to be kind and more patient with others who don't do the job the way you thought it should be done? I will let you be the judge and answer that one for yourself!

I personally spent 20 years being imprisoned by unforgiveness, and bitterness that had enveloped my whole entire being. Every choice that I went on to make in my life became stained as result of classifying myself as a victim. Instead of facing the things within me that needed to be changed for real because they affected my entire personality and being, I would sweep those things under the rug, and resolve something I deemed more important like losing weight (even though I never needed to) or some other superficial object of my choice at the moment.

Ultimately I justified choosing the resolutions I did and in doing that of course I never was disciplined enough to actually change and so then I was introduced to the roller coaster that I would spend riding for most of my life.

I found that even when the ride would appear to slow down at times throughout my life, the ride never seemed to come to an end. Then it was like new tracks were being continually added to this coaster in my life as I faced new and unexpected twists and turns that threw me in a direction that I was never prepared for!

Waiting for the ride to come to an end so that I could finally get off, it would be much to my surprise that each time I passed the unloading area of the coaster, I realized I was trapped on a ride that perpetually rode on! Once again hearing the click, click, click of that old track beneath me, I knew I would soon be nearing the top of that monstrous hill all over again.

I anticipated the brief pause at the top of the coaster where for a moment the rider can see for miles around and in every direction because everything at that moment appears to be very clear! It was there that I would get a chance to see where to go from there, and know where to go once the ride was over.

For a split second in time when you reach the top of that hill, you can actually lose yourself in the moment and feel as though you are sitting on top of the world! You even find yourself fearlessly raising you're your arms high above your head so that the gentle breeze can flow through your fingers.

Then without warning you feel a sudden jerk on the car where you are seated. Reaching out for dear life, and just in the nick of time, you grab tightly onto the bar that holds you from falling out of the car as you begin to tip forward over the top of that enormously high hill. Then passing the point of no return, you descend rapidly, plummeting down the first drop of the great coaster!

You've ridden this ride before and you think that you know what lies up ahead, but somehow the tracks are not the same this time around and you have no idea what lies beyond this second for you. Fear and panic set in as you scream out loud for someone to stop the ride, but nobody hears you. Instead, your ride whirls on.

It's dark, then light, then you're up high and all of the sudden your down low again! Your stomach is in your throat, and all you want to do is get off of the ride! Yet it won't stop and there doesn't appear to be any end in sight! All at once everything goes dark, and you close your eyes tight hoping and praying that it will stop.

When you feel the ride slowing down, you open your eyes to see that the cars are pulling underneath the canopy where you initially got onto the ride. You see that there is an exit opposite the side that you got on. Will you get off of the ride this time, or will you miss it again? Even though it looks simple to get on and get off of this roller coaster, you still have to know how to get the coaster to come to a complete stop. Or you will just continue to pass the exit by and wind up riding over and over again.

Is there a familiar ring to this story within your own life? Have you ever been on the ride of your life and not been able to find a way off of it? Scared and panicked, have you made choices that you never should have made, but felt helpless to stop? Nobody seems to hear you when you scream out that you want to get off, but you know deep in your heart that if you could get the ride to stop, you would definitely get off!

I've learned that it is up to us when that ride ends, or how long we stay on it. I would venture to say that the ride never really comes to an end on this roller coaster of life until we take the time to learn how to put on the brakes and bring it to a complete halt. How do you do that? By discovering why we are the way that we are today, and by deciding to make right choices no matter how we feel.

It took me many years through the most horrific roller coaster rides in my life to learn that it was up to me how long I would remain on the ride. I always had the ability to get off by making different choices, and yet I ignored what I already knew to do. Things I did throughout my life were based upon the way I felt. I felt like people owed me a special dispensation because I was abused as a child, and somewhere down the line I had developed a victim's mentality. Overcoming that would be one of the greater challenges of my life.

First and foremost, I thank God for taking everything in my life that I have obliterated with my pathetic, ignorant, rebellious, and selfish choices, and I thank Him that He consistently longs to show me His mercy, grace, and restoration. I have a very colorful past filled with poor choices, but I know now that if you make different choices, become conscious to the things that you really need to change in your life, and incorporate the discipline to make those changes possible, that you will no longer need to make resolutions each year that pressure you to do something that you aren't willing to give up yet.

Only resolve to do something when you are tired of being in the same place that you are, doing the same thing that you have always done, and getting the same results you've always gotten because it is then that you will take the necessary steps to make a change that will be permanent and last you the rest of your life. Stop making resolutions that you know you aren’t willing to do the work involved to get the results that you desire!

Most importantly, resolve to be honest with yourself, and allow yourself the opportunity to change for the rest of your life by learning how to love yourself, and others. Forgive often, live wisely, and always tell the truth. If we were to resolve to do these things I can guarantee you that your whole world would change and the things that you would like to be different in your life, would be!

That is something that you can take to the bank! Try it and see, but if you don't try it, you may never know the blessings that you are missing out on. Resolve to live the best life you possibly can for the rest of your life, and then learn the discipline it takes to help you get there in each day that you are blessed to be given!

Please take a moment to stop by Xquisitlife’s newest site by going to: http://xquisitlife.ning.com today! It’s just a simple site, but I can assure you that you will see many exciting topics to do with motivation and inspiration pertaining to how to live your best life right now!

Take a moment right now to become a member here and enter my fabulous contest at the top of the page where you will receive a FREE GIFT, and then take a peek over at the new site! I can’t wait to see you there, and I pray your day is fabulous! Love to you all!