Okay Beautiful Blossoms … let’s not complicate this one. A smile is POWERFUL! It is an instant pick-me-up! Even if you fake it, a smile will do good things to your body!!!
It’s chemical, people! We have Happy Hormones!
You smile; your facial muscles move; your brain gets triggered; feel good chemicals get released; and voila … instant mood lifter!!!!
So what are you waiting for?
Are you smiling right now? Why not? … You could be … !!!
You’ll note the upturned corners of my mouth … my teeth beaming … my cheeks rounded and up … it’s as though my lips are stretching to meet my ears.
You smile, you feel better! Easy peasy!
What’s not to love?
A heartfelt moment to be seriously serious.
I’m actually totally serious above, even if a bit silly. But as a blossom challenged by perimenopausal hormone shifts, fluctuating hormone turbulence, and a state of ever depleting estrogen and progesterone levels, I get these horrible, terrible, life-crashing, grief-striking bouts of sobbing tears accompanied by incomprehensible bereft feelings that clench my stomach and make eyes leak like rivers.
These moments totally suck!!!
So … for my beautiful blossom who suffer depression, anxiety (I have that, too, and I know how bad anxiety bites the biggy, too.), etc, … if you’ve got a regular case of the “sads” or “scaredy cats,” I just want you to know … I’ve tried with every PINK molecule and energy light in my body to smile in these sobbing moments, and I’m usually NOT successful.
In these acute moments, sometimes we have to give ourselves the necessary time to process the moment.
THEN, as soon as we can, we can smile to help continue our upward journey take us upward faster and happier!
And might I also just add … if you are a blossom with clinical depression and/or anxiety, please keep seeing your therapist, doing your therapy in all its many forms, and please keep healing! Smile when you can, cuz it really does help! And know we are here for you in the biggest loving, hugging way possible!!! Holding you on your journey and helping you get to the other side of your challenge!
Know that you are always welcome here! Know that I am hugging you so big! And with so much love!
I really hope my smiles, hugs, and loves, in all their forms can bring joy into your day and life, and help to brighten your spirits!
Quick Highlights Benefits of Smiling
Studies have shown the simple act of smiling is the fastest way to perk you up and brighten your day. Even if you “make yourself” smile … it still releases your brainz happy juices!
Stress reducer
Immune system booster (makes you healthier)
Pain reducer
Lowers your BP
In short … a true kindness to you!!!!
And … it’s a kindness that can be shared for free!!!!
What can you do right now to help you smile?
As you likely know, I’ve got lots of Smile Tools in my tool kit!
I spend mindful moments just breathing and taking in the nature around me!
I yoga, yoga, yoga, yoga, yoga, and more yoga!
I slurp (yep, I actually slurp as necessary!) on fruit smoothies!
I watch the creatures being all creature-y in Bog-landia behind my Starry Cottage lil home!
I hug my honeybun!
I watch funny/happy/uplifting movies/videos!
I tell jokes!
I write funny stuff!
I read funny stuff!
Uh, I’ll just up and start smiling … just to be smiling!
I silly dance around in my Starry Cottage!
… just to name a few …
I encourage you to make tool kit of smile-inducers! And you can start right now by listing off 3 things you can do to smile! (Like go back up and see me smiling at you! Or check out my awesomely fun “doodle Gogh!”)
Be the smile in your day! Be the smile in someone else’s day, too!
Well, Beautiful Blossoms! I have loved spending this happy, loving time with you and creating these very special “doodle Gogh” arts for you! I hope I have brought fun, silliness, smiles, and love and big hugs into your day today!
So. Story time. LOL. Pauli comes home from work about a month ago and says, “They’re having a holiday door decorating contest at work …”
No need to
finish that statement. “Challenge
ACCEPTED!!!”
Challenge Accepted!
In under 90
seconds I’d grabbed the nearest writing implement (a blue highlighter) and a piece
of paper, then super scribbled up my instant idea. Pauli was eating BBQ at the time, and he
smiled as the ink spread. A couple of
drops of BBQ sauce later, and he nodded.
He loved it!
Insta-scribble door decorating idea conceived … with 2 drops of BBQ sauce from Pauli!
“So we’re in?” he asks. “We’re SO in!”
LOL.
The Power of a Smile – Our Purpose!
You know I’m all about the power of a smile! Smiles make people feel happier. And happier is healthier. And happier and healthier at the holidays means we can eat more chocolate with less guilt. LOL. Let’s be real. I never feel guilty about eating chocolate! Chocolate is filled with powerful phytochemicals and antioxidants and it comes from the cacao plant … so it’s salad at its most delicious!
Back to those smiles! It’s the holidays, and the holidays can be stressful for many. Even unhappy for some. I want to do everything I can to make the holidays have smiles and happiness as much as possible for all!
So. Let’s get to decorating the happiest, smile-inspiring door yet!
Planning Stage!
For planning purposes, I knew I wouldn’t be able to doodle-art all the elements on my computer … my printer doesn’t print door-sized art … lolz … so I decided to get bulletin board paper and paint the larger scene, then doodle-art the detailed fun bits (like Santa and Rudolph) on my computer to be printed out on cardstock, cut out, and mounted with mounting squares to the painting for a 3-D effect. … oooooh, giddy clapping … sounds squee!
I ordered the bulletin board paper, and while I was waiting for it to come in, I started doodle-arting!
My Doodle-arting Begins!
Quick trip through clipart searches for some style inspiration, and voila, I was off and doodle-arting to my heart’s content!(Doodle-art time is so calming and peaceful, and it makes me feel really happy! Gets my brain all destressed and relaxed. Love it! Hope you’ll give it a try … even just for fun. It’s really good for you!)
To give you an idea of what my doodle process looks like:
How I doodle. Scribble, scribble, outlines. Start to create color palette. Doodle. Scribble. Digi-erase A LOT. And Ta-da! I eventually get my tweaks just the way I like them!
For my design plan, I needed multiple door smile-making happies: Santa, a sleigh, Rudolph, some stockings filled with LOVE, a Christmas tree, a snowhuman, and a wreath!
Here’s all my happy, smile-making door decorating doodle bits!!! Stockings, wreath, Santa, sleigh, Rudolph, Christmas tree, and a snowhuman!
Next up, the door painting. The bulletin board paper had arrived!
I’d had Pauli take a whole bunch of measurements of his door and surrounding area to help guide me. His door isn’t quite 3 feet wide, and I’d found 2 feet wide white paper for the painting … and by awesome luck, we found some amazing nighttime looking paper with stars – PERFECT for the outdoor scene portion of our door. OMG-Totalloo SQUEE!
Christmas digi-doodles from my beginning days of computerized scribbles!
Time to Paint!
Pauli helped me hang the bulletin board paper up, and I got to sketching in the outlines.
Pencil sketch to guide my painting!
All doodle-sketched in, I grabbed my paint brushes and my acrylic paints and got going on the background first. (The nice thing, to me, about acrylic paints is that they blend well, and they dry pretty quickly. So it’s fairly easy to keep layering in each bit and layer. Also, they’re water-soluble, so super easy cleanup!)
Getting the background painted in!
And then, layer by layer, my doodle-art started coming to life! Every new color brought me happiness and big smiles to my heart. And Pauli got more excited with each stage – especially when I got the fire all done … he loves the fire in the fireplace!
That’s me … doodle painting in the flames of the fire!
First and second floors done! Just need the roof, banner, and fireplace rug. (You’ll see those in the door assembly pics!)
Door Assembly Time!
All the while I was painting, Pauli got to cutting out all of the 3-D decorating bits. Scissors and exacto-knifing it up. I’d be painting in my studio room, and I’d hear him out in the living room … “You’re kidding, right? You don’t really expect me to cut around all these little lights on the antlers, do you?????” LOL. I’d smile and keep painting, and he’d get back to exacto-knifing the details. His poor little finger is still hurting. But a partner-project is a partner-project, and sometimes we just have to take one for the team … Getting people to smile isn’t always the easiest of work. LOL (No worries … I’ve been TLC’ing his little finger back into happiness. In all fairness, cutting out is really hard work, and Pauli did an amazing job!)
With everything painted and all the cut-outs cut out … it was time to assemble everything! Pauli went to work armed with the night sky paper and mounting squares. He did a great job getting the sky in place!
Pauli gets the night sky background up!
Now for the painted house scene parts! After work, Pauli came home to get me … sweat pant p.j.’s, silly hair, and all, but ready to go! And off to Pauli’s work we went. Once there, assembly was pretty straightforward. Each bit is its own piece: the roof with chimney, the second floor windows with candles, the Happy Holidays banner, the first floor fireplace, and the fireplace rug (bottom of the door finisher).
Look at it all coming together!!! Up go all the painted house scene parts!
Finishing Up & The Big Reveal!
All we had to do was double up the mounting squares to add depth and use them to add the final happy, smile decorating bits!!! Oh, and a lil bit of white paint for some smoke coming out of the chimney! And here it is the … the big reveal …
Ta-da! One very happy holiday door ready to make smiles and share happiness!!! We’re both very SQUEE with how it turned out!!! Also for fun: note the door-side stocking detail offering organic candy canes for fun and holiday cheer!
A cool and fun unanticipated location artifact is how the hallway lighting outside Pauli’s door lends perfectly to the scene setting with the inside of the house being all lit up, and the outside of the house being dark, like at night.
But so you can see the details all come together, I asked Pauli to take a picture with the flash. It over brightens the door, but you can see Santa and Rudolph so much better!
Big Flash and over bright, but now you can see Santa and Rudolph better!!!
Holiday door decorating contest? Challenge accepted! We hope you love our door! We hope it makes you smile and feel a delightful spark of happiness! We wish you a very happy holiday season filled with love, happiness, laughter, and kindness!
More from Mary Kate
This was a pretty big art project. It took Pauli and me a week to do. If you like the idea of Arting It Up for happiness, but don’t want to take on a big project … I’ve got the happiest little activity sampler for you! It’s a 7 day Arting It Up challenge. Instead of doodlebugging everything out from scratch, I’ve given you daily cute, happy, little coloring scenes that only take a few minutes to color, but give you precious moments of peaceful, restful, relaxing time to yourself. And I’ve added in some space for you to have gratitude and love yourself for something you’ve done each day. In short, it’s simple happiness for you that will also help you feel healthier. And it’s FREE … just click below!
Ready to take my Arting It Up for Happiness and Healthiness: Color Me Happier 7 Day Challenge?
Each day support your healthiness with feeling less stress, less anxiety, more happiness and more positivity!
Easy, fun, happy, silly, adorable, and totally supporting you!
7 days of Love and Big Hugs!
Delightfully cheerful & colorful art will lift & brighten your smile!
11 loving, big hugging, and supporting pages include proven happier and healthier promoting strategies:
Looking for a gift that will put a smile on your face and help you feel happier? Treat yourself or someone you love to these Big Loving, Big Hugging daily inspirational POSitude cards!
Get Your POSitude On!
Feel happier! Supported! Loved! Hugged!
Bring brightness and goodness into your day, and into your life!
Get inspired every day with a deck of my new POSitude cards! Available in my Etsy shop. Check them out and learn more, now!
Until next week …
If you start to feel overwhelmed this holiday season, love yourself and take the time you need to breathe and heal. Feel love and happiness, take time to laugh and breathe, share kindness, and know that I’m hugging you with the biggest BIG LOVE so tight!
