Tuesday 29 September 2015

Versatile Studio Pouches


A few months ago RedBubble introduced these wonderfully versatile Studio Pouches. Made from 100% Polyester, they come in small (9.5" x 6") and medium (12.5" x 8.5") with a YKK zip with metal teeth and
full printed design on both front and back. Simply clean with a damp cloth. Do not machine wash, dry clean, tumble dry or iron.

The fun thing is that they have many uses. I use mine for my Tablet and the medium size can even be used for the smaller laptops or as a clutch bag. It will take your wallet, cellphone, a scarf, spiral notebook and/or journal, a pair of leggings and some one hundred dollar bills with ease! The medium size is also ideal for A4 size documents, folders, etc. and the small size is ideal for make up, as a pencil case or anything else you can think of!












So feel free to pop over to my profile and find a studio pouch or any other product to satisfy the creative you!

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Friday 25 September 2015

Living your dream

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - ©Maree Clarkson

Living your dream is a relative term. Many of us are 'living our dream' without even realising it, going about our daily business 'unconsciously' and unaware of what we've achieved, always thinking about and striving for 'something' to achieve, that something we think is going to make our lives 'perfect'.

Your life is perfect just as it is. Where you are right now is where you're supposed to be. That doesn't mean that you stop wanting and desiring more and better, that is something we'll always be doing. It just means that you must enjoy your journey while heading for the destination. All we have is NOW, and if you can't enjoy now, what makes you think you're going to enjoy THEN? The journey is as much part of living your dream as reaching the destination is.

Reaching your 'destination' could happen next week, or it might take you your whole lifetime to achieve it, and imagine living 'in limbo' while you wait for this wondrous 'destination' to appear, the successful business, the slim body, the huge bank account, being acknowledged as an artist or the perfect meditation. 

When you ENJOY building that successful business, enjoy doing whatever it takes to get that slim body, enjoy saving and building up the big bank account, enjoy sketching and painting and the process of your art, enjoy meditation and the peace it brings, while you are ENJOYING these things and living in the moment, you are also LIVING YOUR DREAM.

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Tuesday 22 September 2015

FOUND by RedBubble!

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - ©Maree Clarkson

My painting, "The dark forest", appeared on the Redbubble homepage yesterday, 21st September 2015. One of their homepage curators picked my image because they thought it was brilliant! And I have a primo spot on their homepage to prove it! Whoot whoot!

Every day RB adds a hand-picked selection of works to the homepage and a number of other prominent places around the site - the call these works "Found by RB".

You might think, "What's all the excitement about?" Well, there's good reason for the excitement! The homepage of RedBubble is the landing page where all visitors and prospective buyers land when they visit RedBubble, so the exposure is huge. Already, as a reult of appearing on the homepage, I have today sold two Throw Pillow covers and a Travel Mug. Hopefully many more sales will follow!

Throw pillow - Comes in three sizes - Small 16" x 16", Medium 18" x 18" and Large 20" x 20" - available as Cover only or Cover + insert.
  • Selected design printed on both sides
  • Concealed zipper for aesthetic wonderment
  • Soft yet hard wearing 100% spun Polyester Poplin fabric
  • Dry or Spot Clean Only
  • Optional 100% recycled polyester fibre insert
Travel mug - 443ml / 15oz
  • Features wraparound prints
  • Dishwasher safe
  • Insulated stainless steel with removable lid
Some more products featuring this image :




There are many more products like greeting and postcards, T-Shirts, Leggings, Pencil skirts, Laptop and phone cases and skins, Posters, Framed and canvas prints, Duvet covers, Tote bags and drawstring bags, studio pouches and Spiral notebooks. Why don't you pay me a visit and take a look for yourself?

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Friday 18 September 2015

Make a contribution

It is a beautiful thing to create, to produce, to go out there in the world and make a contribution.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/mareeclarkson/works/8544363-rhino-horn-myth

When you help others, it’ll come back to you. It’ll help you, in the long run. That’s not the only reason to help others, but it’s a nice side benefit. For example: when you help your readers, they will keep coming back. They’ll share it with friends because they want to help their friends. They will share it on their blogs or on Twitter, because it’ll help their readers too. They’ll bookmark it on delicious, because it’s so useful they’ll need it later. Helping your readers to achieve their goals will help you achieve other goals … but you have to ask yourself how you can help them first.

But it is just as important, if not more so, that we help others to do the same — that we teach others to create and produce, that we encourage them, that we support them and help them to succeed.

Why? Why not just worry about our own creations and productions? What’s so important about helping others to succeed?

If you think of your work as a contribution to the world — great or small — then you can say you’ve made X amount of difference in making this world a better place.

But if you help 5 or 10 people make their contributions, you can say you’ve made perhaps 5x or 10x the amount of difference in making this world a better place. You multiply your contribution.

And if, in doing so, you teach others to help still other people create and produce and make contributions, you’ve just added an exponent to your contribution … X squared, X to the power of 3 or 10 or whatever the number might be. OK, I’m not great at math, but you can see the point: the amount of difference made in this world not only multiplies, but keeps on multiplying beyond and back to you.

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Thursday 10 September 2015

Raise your creative vibration

"The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there." 

W&N watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm - ©Maree Clarkson

I often get asked the question, "but how can I raise my vibration, to be inspired and creative, especially when I'm feeling down? How do I get to feel better? I don't even feel like getting up in the morning."

Being in a state of high frequency (or raised vibration) is of utmost importance if you want to be able to give your vibrant best to your creativity or the people around you. When you're not feeling your best, you can't deliver your best. 

There are a few of the ways that I have found helpful in raising my vibration when I find myself uninspired and at a low point: 

Meditate for 10 or 20 minutes before going to bed, this paves the way for inner calm and a good night's sleep.

Prepare a bubble bath, adding some flower petals and essential oils like Bergamot, which has anti-depressant and anti-septic properties, light a candle and have a deep, long soak, emptying your mind of all the worries or negative thoughts that have been plaguing you.

Pamper yourself by going for a facial or a full body massage. Massaging the skin gets your blood and circulation flowing, releases toxins and results in better looking skin, better feeling thoughts.

Take some quiet time and read a book. Whether it's fact or fiction doesn't matter. Reading results in your attention being focused elsewhere for the time being, away from you problems. 

Switch off the TV and listen to some inspirational tapes or music. Soothing music is a good way to calm your thoughts and listening to positive words and statements will raise your vibration immediately.

I stay away from the news as much as possible, editing the negative and not putting my attention to it. There is a lot of negativity in the news. While you may treat the news as just facts, exposing yourself continually to them may affect your subconscious mind. Reading negative news about the economy, for instance, may make you think that you have no chance, that there is no way for you to get the great future you want. It won’t do you any good since it will only make you discouraged. Even worse, the negative thought may eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

The important thing is to ACT and do something, anything, to move yourself out of your current negative vibration. Without ACTION there is no attraction! 

But one wants to cultivate a more permanent habit of being in a high frequency and therefore stimulating inspiration and creativity as much as possible. 

Many years ago I discovered that rising early (4.30am most mornings) really sets me on the path of raised vibration for the rest of the day. First, I make myself an aromatic cup of coffee (discovered this wonderful Jamaican blend!) and take it outside to watch the sunrise. The birds would already be stirring and I watch them busying themselves with greeting one another and flitting from tree to tree. This is when I do my daily Gratitude Journal, giving thanks for my blessings and setting my intentions for the day. I also quickly flip through my to-do-list, reminding myself of the most important things to be done, (like sketching and painting!) and setting them as priorities on a new list (I'm a great list maker!)

My creative space in my Studio

This is also when I find it to be an ideal time for doing a quick sketch or starting on a new painting. I have set up a little cupboard on my patio, containing most of the necessary sketching and painting equipment so that I don't have to rush around preparing everything. During Winter, when it's still too dark and very cold, I make use of my studio where I do most of my art work, watching the sun rising over the Bluegum trees as I sip my coffee.

Afterwards, having a quick squizz at my e-mails ensures that I can deal with the most important immediately, leaving the rest for a quiet time during the day and, if there's still some time left over, I finish off a couple of chores.

Then at about 7.30am I have a relaxing bath, not rushing it, and get dressed for the day. The greatest benefit of rising early for me is that I can get a couple of tasks done before the rest of the household stirs and business starts demanding my attention. It also gives me direction and inspiration for the day, knowing that I have some interesting things to look forward to in my day ahead and that some of the work has already been taken care of. 

Here are some more benefits of rising early and how to do it : 

Quietude
No kids yelling, no babies crying, no soccer balls, no cars, no television noise. The early morning hours are so peaceful, so quiet. 

Sunrise
People who wake late miss one of the greatest feats of nature, repeated in full stereo vision each and every day — the rise of the sun. I love how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colours start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colours.

Exercise
There are other times to exercise besides the early morning, of course, but while exercising right after work is also very enjoyable, it’s also liable to be cancelled because of other things that come up. Morning exercise is virtually never cancelled. 

Productivity
Mornings, for me at least, are a very productive time of day. You can do some writing in the morning, when there are no distractions. 

Goal time
Got goals? There’s no better time to review them and plan for them and do your goal tasks than first thing in the morning. Set at least one goal that you want to accomplish this week. And every morning, you decide what one thing you can do today to move yourself further towards that goal. And then, if possible, do that first thing in the morning. 

Commuting
No one likes rush-hour traffic, except for Big Oil. Commute early, and the traffic is much lighter, and you get to work faster, and thus save yourself more time. Or better yet, commute by bike. (Or even better yet, work from home!)

Appointments
It’s much easier to make those early appointments on time if you get up early. Showing up late for those appointments is a bad signal to the person you’re meeting. Showing up early will impress them. Plus, you get time to prepare.

I know many night owls who are highly inspired and creative. What methods do you use to raise your vibration to be inspired and creative? Share some of them with us here...

From Zen Habits

Sunday 6 September 2015

Plan your life beautifully!


Who doesn't love a good notebook or a diary/journal? I've been journalling since a child and notebooks are just a total weakness of mine, used for anything from jotting down ideas to keeping track of recipes or what's happening in my garden.

In this day and age of technology and everything being stored on computers or in the cloud, I still find nothing more exhilarating and satisfying than putting pen to paper in a beautifully crafted notebook or journal. Fountain pens is another passion of mine and there's nothing I love more than writing with some beautiful ink on a good quality paper.

RedBubble now offers "Spiral Notebooks" and "Hardcover Journals" beautifully printed with my artwork of your choice.

Spiral Notebooks
Size 6" x 8"
  • 120 pages
  • Cover 350gsm, paper stock 90gsm
  • Front cover print from an independent designer
  • Available in a selection of ruled or graph pages
  • Handy document pocket inside the back cover
Hardcover Journals
Size 5.2" x 7.3"
  • 128 pages
  • 90gsm paper stock
  • Wrap around hardback cover
  • Fully printed design on the front and back
  • Available in a selection of ruled, graph or blank pages
Here are some examples and for the full range, click on the links above :

 Hardcover Journal

 Hardcover Journal open

 Spiral Notebook


















 Together with the notebooks and journals, you can purchase matching items like Tote bags, T-shirts, phone cases and covers, laptop sleeves, scarves and much more. Please feel free to browse my portfolio for a great selection of items!

Have some hilarious good fun and a happy day!

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