A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Amazing quote..and so true. I have been very busy the past 6 months trying to balance my life between my job as a commercial appraiser, my art, the stores selling my art, the new products, lots of new designs, lots of new dreams, new challenges, new courses, and reinventing my life with the empty nest and a divorce. I am not happy to be a divorced woman but I can’t change that. It is not my call anymore and it is not in my control. That said, I can tell you that I am learning, or better said, practicing to bounce back.

In our family traditions for Christmas Eve, knowing we are a big, very big family we swap gifts. We usually pick a name from a bag a few weeks before and buy a special gift for that night and that family member. We used to enjoy that activity a lot, always making some sort of funny things for the swap moment. It was always a Blast!! …until our mom died and nothing was the same again. This Christmas, one of my sisters, who lives in USA, shared the idea of a different swap..the White Elephant Swap. For all of you living in USA, it is a common game for any sort of party. Everybody has to bring a gift for any person in the party. That night, after some swaps, I ended up with two books, one of them was: “The Bounce Back Book”…by Karen Salmansohn. Just for me…just for this time…just what I needed.

The first phrase that caught my eye was, “In life, you always have a choice. Be weak, or be strong.” Voilá!! That was it. The book encourages to “Bounce back” everything wrong or negative with a positive attitude and response. For reasons that you may understand, i cried a lot in New Years day. Later that day, as I was in a meditation mode thinking about my life for the past two or three years, I decided I had to change what was wrong in my life with a positive attitude, with faith, hope and a list of new goals. The first one in my list, let go what is not working and do something positive with what you learned or BOUNCE BACK!…. and the miracle I was asking for the past two years happened. I can’t explained how it happened, but it happened. For some reason the pain stopped, the anxiety stopped, the uncertainty stopped. Almost a month later I can tell you that I feel free, lighter, with more energy, more focus, happier, in peace, and willing to bounce back with my new dreams, new challenges, new goals, new art, new products, new ideas, new courses, new adventures and some new important decisions, too. I know I have a lot to give to my family and to the world. I don’t know, but I am doing the same things with less effort, with more passion, with more energy and with more love.

Best of all is that I started, in the perfect timing, an amazing course with Kelly Rae Roberts and Beth Nicholls named Hello Soul Hello Business.

From the very first day I knew this course will be great. It is a light in my life. The lessons learned are the best antidote for overcoming these moments of empty nest and solitude. My energy is back, my enthusiasm is back, MY LIFE is BACK..because I am Bouncing Back everything that went wrong with a positive attitude, with Faith, with Hope doing something positive and very valuable by taking this course. I know deep inside that things will get in the right track, that this is going to be a great year. Two more courses are on my list: The Art Of Business Surface Pattern Designs with surface pattern designer Rachel Taylor and Bloom True: The E-Course with Flora Bowley. Both of the with the amazing Beth Nicholls of Do What You Love.

It is my dream to be part of SURTEX Show for licensing this year..It is a very important goal since last May when I walked the show…and I know I can make it…This is the year to Bounce Back.

I am sharing a few quotes from The Bounce Back Book” that you will love:

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we create our world…Buddha

Things do not change, we change. Henry David Thoreau

Experience is not what happens to a man: it is what a man does with what happens to him. Aldous Huxley

Happiness is a choice, not just a matter of genes or luck. from The Bounce Back Book by Karen Salmansohn

The voyage of true discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes. Marcel Proust

Now I want to share a small sample (very small, indeed) of what I have been doing for the past year in my new path..Surface Design: Leaves, flowers, hearts…still finding my voice here and learning PhotoShop tools to get what I want in them, what I create in my mind and sometimes can’t put in a paper…!

Have a lovely and creative week….Enjoying and been grateful of the life that God has granted us…

With LoVe,

Elizabeth