Hello dear friends!

It’s nice to have rituals in our life. A way to anticipate what will happen, yet also a way to leave our expectations aside and let the mind relax and flow. But how do those rituals start? Definitely, when we choose to create them!

It turns out that a new year is here, and I may have found a new ritual, yay! My friend Sheli invited me and my family to a Vision Board Party last New Year’s Day. It is something very simple: you are given a sheet of paper and you can draw, paint or create in whatever form you want, how you envision your year. What is it that you’d like to happen, how you would like to feel, who would you like to be.

Wow! In the moment, at the party, I just felt like grabbing an old magazine, cut out some shapes, words, colors and make a paper collage. Later that week, however, I came up with the idea to add on some inspirational tags to it. Phrases and words that connect directly with how I’d like to live these next 365 days.

Also, I’m in the process of developing my hand lettering and watercolor use. So guess what, I combined all those ideas and what you see in the pictures is the result. The fun part was to try the watercolor washes and effects, and of course my crafty daughters joined me too. Nice about the watercolors is, that when you want to use them as a background, you have to wait for them to dry, put some heavy weight on top of the papers so that they flat, and just wait until the next day to use them. The following day I added some stamping to them, using my hand carved stamps in matching colors. Last but not least, I wrote with watercolors the meaningful messages I wanted.

I can add more inspirational quotes if I like during the year, I can spread them around the house as kind reminders of what I’d love to remember from the year to come. Start creating those precious moments in my year that I hope to treasure in the future as unforgettable.

So what are your rituals for the beginning of the year? How different would you like this new year to be for you? Send me your ideas in the comments and let’s get inspired together!

Wishing you the best of weekends, stay tuned!

Love,

Maria