Springtime Inspiration and Thankful Things

When did it get to be the end of May? Even though June 1 is not the official first day of summer, it always has kind of been that way in my mind. Remember being a kid in school and when the month of June rolled around it was like home free? After a very up and down month, I am refocusing my attitude and energy and inspiration. One thing that has been amazing to do lately is go on little adventures with my camera on gorgeous sunny days and try to capture that magical feeling of spring. I am super amateur when it comes to photography, which is kind of nice because there is pretty much no pressure to make things look a certain way. I just do what I want and have been so so happy with the results. I love laying in the grass to get a certain angle, or pulling some sort of contortionist move to capture branches the way I want. Getting weird looks from people makes it even more fun. 

I became very frustrated with myself during the "downs" this month because honestly, it's not that bad. Frustrations at work and a feeling of not having enough time to do what I really want got to me this month, like a lot. Sometimes I would just want to sit on the couch and watch TV, but then feel guilty because I knew I should be drawing, painting, or working on something. That feeling of like I had to do it really took the fun out of something that I otherwise love, yet due to my job I have limited time to work. Pretty much a vicious cycle of frustration.

So to get through the downs, I started thinking of little things that I am thankful for, kind of a reminder that there are about a million good things to notice at any given time. Some of what I came up with...

1) walks in the sunshine with no set destination

2) laugh out loud funny random internet pictures

3) new paintbrushes, markers, paper, art supplies in general

4) cool showers after a long run

5) listening to music by the pool

6) the feeling of 5:00 on Fridays

7) weekend trips

8) pizza delivery

9) a nice bottle of wine

10) air conditioning

11) bracelets

12) nights with 1,000,000 stars

13) having the patio door open and feeling the breeze

14) discovering other inspirational people

15) websites like Etsy, Pinterest, and Flickr... more inspiration than you can handle

16) good books (and being able to read them)

17) music. Spotify. blast a song and sing it loud. instant mood lifter.

18) baby animals

19) a soft bed at night

20) flowers. lots of flowers.

Being grumpy is selfish I think. Kind of lost that knowledge this past month and was a bit too self-pitying. Time to turn it around. Bring it on, June!