HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016!!

I know it has been quite awhile since I have posted here... it is almost a year since the last blog, yet the photo is still current of me on a beach in Costa Rica!!!!...  No polar vortex for me.

I did not paint a single rose last year... ok maybe one order.  I guess I needed the break from painting small to pushing my limits to take on a big project!!.. So I got out my chalk paint and painted my new kitchen!!..  yes we have moved so now my paint room is in boxes in a tiny room and an outside storage shed... I had to purge a lot of items I have collected over 10 years that I was going to paint one day... guess someone else will get that chance now.

Check out my new page "Home Decor - Before & After".. this is the journey of our new little "cottage on the lake".  The old 50's cottage with 80's update got another facelift from us.  Keep checking back as I post more B/A pics as we move along in our decorating.. of course not for a few months yet wink wink!!

I love July!!!!
I love the Summer!!!
I love July because it is my birthday month!!!
I love to celebrate my birthday in the summer!!


So I always feel July is a "re-start" for the year.. the NYE Resolutions are long packed away with our Christmas decorations, the February Blues lasted til April this year... and it barely feels like summer in Ontario these days.


With the pool being warmed up that means shorts, tank tops and bathing suits... (I know the paint brushes have been put away and now I am dealing with the real flowers (and their overextended guests, Mr Milkweed and Ms Dandy Lion) to get inspired for next round of painting...


In the meantime, my attention focuses back to my health.  Remember May is my "remembrance month" as I lost both my lovely ati & mami then (9 & 2 years already)... I am the only one that can look after me so I have focused again on sharing a healthy lifestyle with my family and friends.


Previously I spoke of Purium, a greens food based program.  It was a wonderful product however hard to promote... we still do not want to deprive ourselves of our yummy tasting foods and the texture of food in our mouths....


Yep, you guessed it... I have followed my friends, who are the experts in direct sales industry, to the Number 1 weight loss and fitness challenge program in North America - Visalus-Body by Vi Challenge.


I have been challenged to LOSE IT or BUILD IT... so I am converting pounds into 10lbs of muscle....


I invite you, correction, I CHALLENGE YOU to do it with me.  Just think of where your health will in 90 days from now and 1 year from now!!!


If you are interested in finding out more... please visit our website at 
http://jmdcooper.bodybyvi.com/

You have nothing to lose but the lbs itself....


Please follow my painting on FB, as I have some children's furniture that I am working on in chalk paint!!  
cheers
diane
#weightloss #ASCP  #chalkpaint  #bodybyvi  #visalus

This weekend June 14 & 15, I will be attending the beautiful Peony festival at the Oshawa Valley Botantical Gardens.  It is my first time participating with my handpainted items at this show.  Even though the pink rose is my favourite, the pink peony is a tight second!!


Wow.. I can only imagine how pretty and how fragrant it will be there!!!


Hope you can make it!


diane

Click on the logo to access their website.
#peony #peonyfestival #oshawapeonyfestival

 Just in time for Mother's Day!!!


Please visit my FB page or website pages for many beautiful gifts for your Mother, Mother-in-law, favourite Aunt or for yourself.


Most of my items are at my home studio...so lots of good pricing...25% off til Sat May 10th

Hi everyone,
Hope that you have been getting thru this really tough January if you are anywhere in the "polar vortex" area!!!... I have been extremely lucky and have been away from all the dreariness of my least favourite season.

So this year, we are fulfilling one of our goals and we are being snowchickadees down south.  Remember when I talked about goals before (if not, here is a reminder)... when you make goals, MAKE THEM SPECIFIC!!... one of my goals is to have a cottage in the summer in Ontario, and spend winters down south.  Of course, I naturally thought of Florida..as most Ontarians do... but...

my husband, who has been more specific all year long last year, and put it out almost daily to the universe that he wanted to spend the whole winter in Costa Rica... (he was down there in March for 3 weeks... and fell in love with the Ocean).. This is from a man who I could never get to vacation down south and fry on a beach with... "no boring south for him.."

I'm glad that he was clearer on our goal than I was.  I put in the finishing touches and stated "We will be in  a gated community house, with a pool in the complex and MUST be walking distance to the ocean"... and we got that in Playa Bejuco, Costa Rica.

As anyone who has seen the sun set over the Pacific, it is a nightly masterpiece from God...we bogey board from 4pm til the sun sets around 5:30pm....I know strangely early from a Northern's perspective as we think of hot summer weather with the sun setitng at 8-9pm...Nope here it is pitch black by 6pm...365 days of the year... 12hrs day/ 12hr night).

Anyways I wanted to share a piece of the masterpiece with you...a 10minute video of the sun setting in all its glory... (you can jump forward in the video, unless you stop, grab a drink and visualize yourself there of course  - to see the wonderful colours).

pura vida,
diane

PS...I am posting this video to SHARE with you only - an escape to the tropics.. that is my husband voice at the beginning...not much talking thru it

 As we head into another New Year with our list of wishes, hopes and dreams for the magical change over of the clock, I find that sometimes my list has been the same year after year after year.


Do you feel the same?


My father (who I still cannot believe has been gone for 8 years) always quoted a Slovenian saying which roughly translates to:
Time is Ticking...Saying Nothing


So as the time ticks away silently in the background, I get surprised when I realize I am in my 50's!!! what?? when did this happen... I remember when my dad turned 50 and he couldn't believe it either...said he still felt 25... so do I... but now he has gone and what did he do between 50-77...only 27 short years... what will my life be like for the next 30-40 years... if I don't plan/make goals... nothing will be done but wondering where the time went


As I sit for the next few days contemplating 2013, and our family goals, my goals for 2014..I wonder what I will come up with.  Having had a lot of "big dreams" in my life already met, what can I come up with for the next year??  
There have been many of you out there reading my blog that have read through the Transformation posts.  If it resonated with you or if it is a major challenge for you... why not do it anyway?


if not Now, then When....


tick, tick, tick, tick........


Wishing you many Blessings and the happiest of New Years!!  May Health, Happiness, and Joy fill 2014...


kindest regards,
diane


PS.. $50 gift cards expire Dec 31/13... so not to late to get one and start the New Year in transformation.  Send me a message and I will send you a number.