Holidays Galore....Now its Easter

Hi Everyone......It's Easter and as usual in this country we have a few back to back holidays coming up. We have Friday to Monday off.  This Monday I'll be running around with my mom as she is 78 years and I use Mondays to help her do all the tasks she needs done that she wasn't able to get done during the week..You know how that goes. So we are having another holiday on Friday. Yea!!!!!  In Trinidad and Tobago we have lots of holidays, we had one two weeks ago and we have another one this week. Friday is Good Friday, a Religious Holiday. We have a very mixed culture of religions here and its the best. We have Catholics, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Hindu, Moslems, Mormons, and many more.

There are lots of traditions that are followed with this holiday. Many masses and Lenten resolutions and no eating of meat etc. The Lenten season or Lent as it is widely known begins on the Wednesday after Carnival, known as Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday, the last day of the Holy Week. Many Christians observe Ash Wednesday by attending church services nationwide, where ashes in the shape of a cross are placed on their forehead to symbolize repentance before God. Lent is observed for forty days as a time of fasting and prayer in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

HOLY WEEK

Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, one week before Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday commemorates the coming of Jesus to Jerusalem, where people waved palms and laid them on the ground along his path. In Trinidad and Tobago, many churches observe this event by the distribution of palm leaves to followers during Palm Sunday services. On Good Friday, the day Christ was crucified, the Roman Catholic Church in particular retraces the steps of Christ on his journey to crucifixion. This is called the Stations of the Cross. There are church services throughout the rest of weekend, ending with the largest celebrations occurring on Easter Sunday.

Our Traditions for Easter are as follows:

Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns a typical tradition in Trinidad

We try to get a hot cross buns on Good Friday then good luck! Most bakeries would have been sold out from the night before. In Trinidad and Tobago hot cross buns on Good Friday are a staple. The tradition dates back to the 12th century when an Anglican monk baked buns and marked them with a cross in honour of Good Friday. There is no clear reason why and when it became so popular.

Beat De Bobolee

One dying tradition on Good Friday is the beating of the “bobolee”, an effigy, symbolic of Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ. Like everything in Trinidad, this has taken a complete turn of its own. People now design “bobolees” as politicians who are not favoured in the society or even as social outcasts from their specific communities.

Good Friday Meals

Fish must be cooked on Good Friday because Catholic doctrine prohibits eating fleshy meat on Good Friday. Since it commemorates the day that Christ sacrificed his flesh it would be seen as disrespectful to consume “flesh” on the anniversary of His death. Not all Trinidadians are Catholics, but this is still commonly observed in many Trini homes. Eating the seafood with “ground provision” such as yams, cassava, dasheen, and eddoes is also traditional.

Flying Kites

The tradition of making your own kite for an Easter Sunday kite flying competition has become entrenched in Trinidadian culture. The practice began as a religious event, with the kites being made to look like a cross and meant to represent Jesus’ ascension into Heaven. Traces of religious symbolism have been all but lost now, but colourful squares battling against the wind on Easter Sunday is still a comfortingly familiar sight.

Going to the Beach

It seems like Trinbagonians celebrate everything by going to the beach, for obvious reasons. The beach is awesome.

Hope you learned a little more about my beautiful culture of Trinidad & Tobago.

Typical beach lime as part of our Easter Trinidad Tradition

Boosters to Improve your Self Esteem and your Ego

Hi Guys…I would have mentioned in one or a few of my blogs that I am a Leadership Development Coach. I coach executives almost everyday and the one thing I always encounter is that people are people and executives no matter how high level they are everyone has some level of low self esteem about some aspect of their ives. This comes out in different ways via different behaviours. So I wanted to share a bit about that because I believe everyone can overcome their self esteem issues by first acknowledging what it is you’re insecure about then finding the source, counter act the source and then move on.

Do you want to develop an better ego with perpetual self esteem? I want to look at how to develop an stronger ego and always have high self esteem. So lets start at the beginning as I tend to do.

What’s Self Esteem versus Ego

Self-esteem means feeling good about yourself. People with self-esteem: feel liked and accepted. are proud of what they do. believe in themselves. Self-esteem is a positive or negative orientation toward oneself; an overall evaluation of one's worth or value. ... Self-esteem is only one component of the self-concept

• · Your ego is your sense of self. It is your identity and your concept of self.

• · The ego strengthens your capacity to keep your self esteem intact despite psychological distress, internal turmoil and the changing conditions of the world around you.

Ego and Self esteem are not the same. Having a big ego is a negative trait. Having a high self esteem is a positive trait. Many have a big ego and they think they are building their self esteem

In reality the opposite is happening, the bigger the ego, the lower the self esteem. And vice versa, the higher the self esteem, the smaller the ego. Ego is an inflated fake self image. Like thinking you are always right, or thinking that you are above everybody else. People with big ego are so blinded by their grandiose self image that they cannot see the difference between the ego and their real self. They actually cannot see their real self. All they see is their ego and they think it is “self.”

But you can easily spot others with a big ego. People who come across as arrogant, manipulative, selfish, “always right.” are probable culprits. You know the people you can never win an argument with? because they always twist the truth so they end up being right? Bingo.

Self esteem on the other side of the spectrum is a feeling of content and acceptance with self as is. It is not complacency. It is more of seeing self as is, with its strengths and flaws, and accepting that while we can seek to become better people, it is OK to have flaws. It makes us human. Most people will testify to this statement, but few act upon it.

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How to know if you have high self esteem? It is ironic, but people with high self esteem accept others as they are. They are not critical. They do not feel the need to judge others. To the opposite of big ego people who are very critical and always judge others. No body measures to their standards. Even if they admire someone it will be short-lived. Soon enough they will find a flaw and regret ever liking the person.

What is self-esteem?

• 1. like and value yourself as a person.

• 2. are able to make decisions and assert yourself.

• 3. recognise your strengths and positives.

• 4. feel able to try new or difficult things.

• 5. show kindness towards yourself.

• 6. move past mistakes without blaming yourself unfairly.

• 7. take the time you need for yourself.

Signs of Good Self-Esteem

• · You are ok with making mistakes: ...

• · You don't use self-deprecating language: ...

• · You have good posture, and you hold your head high: ...

• · You don't take criticism personally: ...

• · You take chances: ...

• · You allow yourself to shine: ...

• · You don't put up with abuse or maltreatment from others:

Self-esteem is like that, except it is yourself that you love, care for and feel proud of. When children believe they are valuable and important, they take good care of themselves. They make good decisions about themselves which enhance their value rather than break it down. High vs. Low Self-esteem.

EGO

Your ego on the other hand is your conscious mind, the part of your identity that you consider your "self." If you say someone has "a big ego," then you are saying he is too full of himself. “Having an ego” is usually associated with arrogance and is a term used to describe someone who thinks they are better than others. Yet this is only one part of the ego. ... Together, the negative and positive esteem forms our ego. Fear is the emotion that underpins the ego. The ego is really the false self. The self that has forgotten that it is one with everyone around it and one with the Divine Source, with the universe, with cosmos, with every energy possible. When we have thoughts about our self that we agree with we construct a self-image.

The kinds of thoughts that contribute to the self esteem or ego structure are:

“I’m not good at math.”
“I am smart.”
“My freckles make me ugly.”
“Nobody likes me.”
“I am better than you.”

The ego is difficult to define because the ego isn’t one specific thing. It is actually made up of many different beliefs that a person acquires over their life. Those beliefs can be diverse and even contradictory. To further complicate it, each person’s ego is different. If someone were to clearly identify and describe all the parts of their ego and what it drives them to do, you might not get a good description of what yours looked like. The challenge of becoming aware of what your personal ego looks like becomes more difficult because our culture doesn’t reward us for directing our attention inward and noticing such things.

How to Spot the Ego?

The ego is difficult to see, because it hides behind opinions that appear true – our attachment to descriptions of our identity – and because we haven’t practiced looking. You can get a glimpse by noticing certain thoughts, similar to those listed above. The easier way to spot the ego is by the trail of emotional reactions it leaves behind: Anger at a loved one, a need to be right, a feeling of insecurity in certain situations, feelings of jealousy that are unexplained, the need to impress someone, and so on. These emotions can be attributed to the false beliefs that comprise the ego.

Letting Go of the Ego

Because the ego has multiple aspects, it is not practical or effective to dissolve all of it at once, nor is it likely that you could do so. Much like a tree or large bush that is overgrown in the yard, you don’t just lift it out and throw it away – you cut off manageable pieces instead. The same approach is effective with letting go of the false beliefs that make up the ego. You begin by detaching from individual thoughts that reinforce the ego, then let go of beliefs, separating yourself from the false identity of your ego.

Why We Need to Develop a Better Ego?

We are a remarkable species, but the idea we’re as good as it gets is patently false. And our ego is the perfect example of how our mind can often work against our own best interests.

What’s Wrong With Our Ego?

I will defined ego as that ensemble of feelings of either pain or pleasure that we derive from who we are, how we behave and what we achieve. It’s composed of identity, projected identity, behavior and the connected feelings. Our default ego is built to project a positive image of ourselves to the people around us. It doesn’t matter if that projection is fake, it make us unhappy or if doesn’t help us reach our goals. Our ego is built to make us look good. To others first, and to ourselves second.

You will realize our default ego is not about long term growth, happiness, life enjoyment or achievement. It’s mostly about faking, short term thinking and, of course, sacrificing our unique contributions to please the crowd. Our default ego sacrifices our true self and our most honest expressions to seek positive confirmation and people’s approval. It also makes us less confident, because a major trait of confidence is that of acting accordingly to our identity.

Identity Drives Behavior

Our identities, who we are, drives our behavior. Importantly, our identity can drive our behavior even when we don’t feel like doing something. That makes identity an incredibly powerful tool in reaching our goals. It’s because we humans have a tendency to seek consistency within ourselves. When our actions are not aligned with our identity we feel discomfort (called cognitive dissonance). The tendency to keep our internal identities, values and actions in balance is called, as described by Cialdini, is the commitment and consistency principle.

Low Self Esteem: Gap Between Identity & Behavior

Self esteem is our evaluation of our own worth. When we live up and uphold our standards and values no matter what, then we feel worthy. Our self esteem goes up and we are proud of ourselves. For most of us, we rarely do and say as our identities tell us though. That means that for most of us, our behavior is very much out of whack with who we really are. It’s because identities are deeper, which makes them a bit more impermeable to external influences -albeit not fully impermeable-. But our actions instead are strongly influenced by environment and social conditioning, which leads to a disconnect between identity and our actions. Basically, in an effort to look good, we want to project a different identity with our words and actions so that people around will like us, accept us and welcome us.

The problem is that a disconnect between our identity and our actions leads to low self esteem. It’s because we’re not being true to ourselves and we feel like we’re not really in control of our lives.

Social conditioning affects behavior more than identity

Do you know what’s the number one regret of dying people? The biggest regret of dying people is that they’d had the courage to live to their true self! The first step towards a high self esteem and happy life then is to heed your identity a bit more and a bit less what people want you do say and do. Like Tim Grover said, to get what you really want, you first must be who you really are.

How To Have High Self Esteem

When our behavior is in sync with our identity, we have much higher self esteem. But don’t jump to conclusions just yet. Indeed the very highest self esteem is when our behavior matches our ideal identity. You probably know the feeling. It happens when you manage to follow through with actions on what your ideal self would love to do. For example:

• · You disagreed but were fearful of saying it publicly. But you do it anyway

• · Confronting your neighbor wasn’t easy, but you did and you’re proud of yourself

• · She had a boyfriend, but you asked anyway and you’re glad about it

Let’s see first how to eliminate your current limiting identities:

How To Change Self Identity

This is from the wonderful Tony Robbins’ Creating Lasting Change. Also look at how to develop a growth mindset since the changes are similar.

1. Create Disturbance

First of all, you need to challenge your current identity and limiting beliefs. Do you see yourself as guy who is poor socially? No wonder you avoid social situations! Think of all the times you were not poor socially. Think of all the times you enjoyed social situations. The idea is that you want to draw on so many experiences that you naturally and rationally start doubting your beliefs. Maybe there was a time you had a good conversation. Or maybe there’s someone who likes you. Think about those daily If you can’t think of anything, imagine it.

2. Discover What Caused Your Identity

If you can go back to childhood and understand why you adopted a certain identity, that can more easily help you to let go of that identity.

3. Link Pain & Pleasure

Link pain to your old identity and link pleasure to your new identity. Think of the consequences your current identity is bringing you. Think of what you’re missing because of your limiting belief. No friends, no partner, no fun.. That sucks. Now start imagining yourself as a popular man. How good would that feel. With a growth mindset and a stronger ego that’s fully within your reach. Commit to drop the old identity and embrace the new one.

4. Change Physiology

Associate a new physiology to the new identity. The new you moves and speaks differently. Stand straight, shoulders rolled back in and head held high. Your new physiology will help break away from the past and serve as a cue for your new mindset as well.

5. Say It Out Loud

Repeat to yourself who’s the new you. A social man who enjoys people. Say it to everyone so you will have peer pressure to keep you no course as well (Awaken The Giant Within).

6. Change Your Environment

As we’ve seen the environment plays a big role on your ego pyramid. Cut out bad influences and make friends with people behaving more like the man you want to be.

7. Change Your Actions

This is the most important step. Daryl Bem in 1972 first proposed a radical idea at the time: identity doesn’t just drive actions, but it’s (also) the other way around: actions drive identity! It’s because our brain looks at our behaviors and then infers that if we behave a certain way, then it must because we are a certain way (also read Incognito by Eagleman). You can then first develop the habits of the man you want to be, which with repetition will solidify your identity. Eventually, you will not need to force yourself, because what you do is just… Who you are.

8. The Daily Mental Grind

Especially in the beginning you will tend to slip back to your old mental habits. It’s important you stay vigilant and every time you catch thinking or saying anything not in line with your new identity, change it immediately.

Your New Stronger Ego

Some people suggest you should destroy your ego. I’m not sure that’s necessary. A high self esteem is useful. Pride is useful. You should use your ego to propel you forward. All aspects of self are useful. Wouldn’t it be great if the more you fail the stronger you get? It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Changing identity is easier than it sounds. It’s because when you know how it will help you, you will be motivated and you will find pleasure in the process -that’s the beginning of your framework happiness-.

Ego: Summary

Identity drives behavior. When identity and behavior are in sync, it means we are living to our true self and we have a healthy, high self esteem. The highest self esteem is when our behavior matches fully with our ideal identity -the person we would really love to be-.Finally, we can and we should change our identity (ie.: what we build our self esteem around) in a way that empowers us and best helps us reach our goals. When you live and act like the person you want to be, you will move towards your goal while living a naturally fulfilling and joyful life (and with perennial high self esteem).

References

• Ego versus Self Esteem: The Illusive Difference by Ammar Mango

• What’s the driving emotion of the ego by Dr. Shefali

• What is the ego? By Gary van Warmerdam

• Lucio (M.A. in communication sciences) is a member of APA and a researcher of human nature.
  
  
  

How to Delegate, Coach and Handle Interruptions via a Planner

GET YOUR PLANNER TO HELP YOU DELEGATE BETTER HERE

Hi Guys....I wanted to do a bit of advertising...yes I know I hate that to but I want to mix it with a bit of info about what I do for a living. Kinda like a day in the life of Gail (gafra). So as you know I recently set up an Etsy store and in it I sell digital planners. The planners are for different types of uses but mainly, the business planners were created based on my knowledge of coaching. I own my own Leadership Development business that I run with my husband and our job is to go into companies to help managers and executives lead their team better and even make moves forward to develop their personal lives.

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I meet so many corporate people who give everything to the companies they work for but they put hardly anything into growing their personal lives. The stories i could tell....but I won't as that goes against client confidentiality, but what I want you my friends to know is that I designed the planners to help individuals who have a team and aren't sure how to delegate properly or how to coach their team mates, or how to handle interruptions be they from your team members or your family and friends....that the planners are built to carry you through a process to help you solve that challenge.

So for example, the delegation planner has forms to help you determine how do you personally feel about delegating and if you're open to doing it then what are the tasks you want or ned to delegate. This can be for your small, in-house business with you and your team of one or two or even a bigger business or simply with your family members, because yes you do delegate at home it just isn't called that. Even at home you need to determine what tasks you should and shouldn't be doing then decide, as with a business, who should do what tasks, or who is best suited to do the particular task or who would do the task best.

The Coaching Planner, like the delegation planner also has forms to help you plan out who needs some coaching within your small business or even within your family. Is there someone in your family who needs some help understanding how to deal with a particular situation or challenge...all that involves coaching. the forms help you understand what you ned to look for and what is the process to start doing the coaching process.

Interruptions...we all get them! Some more than others and we tend to not deal with them in the right way, to decrease them. If you have a team or if you have friends or family, then you will be interrupted and sometimes at the worst times when you really need to concentrate. My coaching planner like the others is designed to carry you through a process to better determine what needs to be done to manage these interruptions or even reduce them to nothing...wouldn't that be marvellous.

OK so I'll share a few learning on each area so you can learn more compared to me just babbling and selling my planners.

Delegation

Delegating is a critical skill for anyone with a team. Delegating involves working with an team member to establish goals, granting them sufficient authority and responsibility to achieve the goals, often giving them 1) substantial freedom in deciding how the goals will be achieved, 2) remaining available as a resource to help them achieve the goals, 3) assessing the quality of their effort and attainment of the goals, 4) and addressing performance issues and/or rewarding their performance. Ultimately, the person in charge retains responsibility for the attainment of the goals, but chooses to achieve the goals by delegating to someone else.

The successful delegation of authority as a leadership style takes time and energy, but it's worth the time and energy to help employee involvement and employee empowerment succeed as a leadership style. It's worth the time and energy to help employees succeed, develop, and meet your expectations.

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How do you delegate?

1. Learn to let go. ...

2. Establish a firm priority system. ...

3. Play to your workers' strengths. ...

4. Always include instructions. ...

5. Don't be afraid to teach new skills. ...

6. Trust, but verify.

The Advantage?

The Advantages of Delegating Tasks. To be effective at work, you often have to delegate tasks to others. Assigning subordinates responsibility over a task not only takes some of the load off your shoulders, it can also help your junior staff members to grow and develop.

Coaching

A coaching leader must not be confused with a coach, but does have coaching skills. The leader has these skills when he is able to develop and improve the performance and competences of his employees. The basis of the Coaching Leadership Style is the dynamic interaction between the leader and the employee.

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The Approach

A direct approach involves a transfer of wisdom, where the coach provides advice or direction, probably based on their experience and expertise. This is a widely-recognised, fairly traditional approach.

It's stated that coaching is an ongoing partnership that supports clients to produce fulfilling results in both their personal and professional lives. The coaching process allows the leader to deepen their learning, improve their performance and enhance quality of life.

A good coach offers support and assistance to those he or she is coaching to help them implement change and achieve desired goals. Professional development is a team effort. It's usually not wise to simply cut the person free after a session and expect him or her to achieve everything on their own.

Successful Coaching is a powerful relationship in which client and Success Coach work to improve the quality of the client's life. Through dialogue, inquiry, goal setting, accountability and general motivational techniques, the Success Coach supports the client to assume full responsibility for creating a fulfilling life.

Benefits?

Benefits to coaching an individual include: improvement in individual's performance, targets and goals. increased openness to personal learning and development. increased ability to identify solutions to specific work-related issues.

Interruptions

• To cause or make a break in the continuity or uniformity of (a course, process, condition, etc.).

• To break off or cause to cease, as in the middle of something:He interrupted his work to answer the bell.

• To stop (a person) in the midst of doing or saying something, especially by an interjected remark:May I interrupt you to comment on your last remark?

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How do you manage Interruptions?

1. Keep an Interrupters Log. ...

2. Analyze and Conquer Interruptions. ...

3. Put Your Phone to Work for You (Not Against You) ...

4. Catch Your Breath. ...

5. Learn to Say "No" ...

6. "Available" and "Unavailable" Time. ...

7. "Invitation Only" Time. ...

8. Uncontrollable Interruptions.

How do you manage distractions?

1. Clear Physical and Mental Clutter. ...

2. Create Your To-Do List. ...

3. Avoid multi-tasking. ...

4. Have Regular-Timed Breaks. ...

5. Know The Best Times To Work. ...

6. Remove Distractions. ...

7. Limit Your Caffeine Intake.

So to go back to selling a bit...ugh...My planners are created to help with these processes without you having to now find a way to do some of these activities. So I encourage you to try one or if you have a friend who needs help with this let them try it. If they have any issues or questions I'm here to answer them just let them email me at gfrancistt@gmail.com. I'm here to coach.

Steal Like An Artist…by Austin Kleon….. The Review

Hi everyone…I wanted to talk a little about this book that I really enjoyed. I read most of his books because he touched my artistic mind and touched on areas that I was in two minds about or upon which I needed some direction. His books helped me allot when I needed it. His other books were:

· How to sell your art online

· Steal like an artist

· Show your work

I’m going to talk about his book “Steal Like An Artist. Work by artist and writer Austin Kleon has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and on PBS NewsHour and NPR’s Morning Edition. He is also the author of Newspaper Blackout. The concept of the book is based on:

Creative License

Artists and creators throughout history have known that, as Pablo Picasso said, “Art is theft.” Every innovator has built on the work of others, using ideas, formats or things in fresh and exciting ways. Originality doesn’t exist. Everything is a confluence of influences, thefts, mutations and interpretations. Even the Bible says, “There’s nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Whether you’re an artist or you’re simply looking to add some creativity to your life, consider these 10 ideas:

Read this book, really good. www.gafra.org

He made me realize through this book and the others that Artist have many opportunities out there are we don’t have to live by that old slogan “poor artist” One things he said, “ You can’t go looking for validation from external sources” because once you place your work out there you can’t predict how people will respond to it. Some may like it and others may not. I have seen that happen many times. Pieces that I disliked even hated were the pieces that were sold first or the pieces people loved the most. So strange…

Kleon said to get comfortable being misunderstood, disparaged or ignored because it comes with the territory. Just stay busy creating so that you don’t notice or you don’t care. But still hold on to the complements and even comments of appreciation especially if they were written as we all as artist need that encouragement or boost when we’re in that period of decline. As he said keep a praise file.

Another point that caught me was to keep your day job because it will take a while to get to the point where your art sustains you financially. I haven’t reached that point yet. I make a small amount to balance back what I put out to create my art plus a little extra but from my balance sheet I can see that most times my expenses far outweigh my sales income, so I have a ways to go to be comfortable leaving my job to paint full time.

He encourages us to get a Calendar and plan out your work and your goals for achievement , so that when you complete or accomplish something and tick it off you feel a swell of achievement and this gives you a boost to continue and it also build your self confidence. Included here is keeping a log book of all that you do everyday down to the smallest detail. I’m not sure I would do this, I prefer a journal to write my thoughts or simply listing out my to do tasks and goals. Tracking everything I do isn’t something I think I need. He says that in having a log of the small details it helps you to remember the big details. Again I don’t think its necessary but it can be valuable for someone who tends to forget things and wants a reminder

This point I really liked….”do business with who you befriend, who you choose to be around” and “a good partner keeps you grounded”…I like this because I know my husband is my biggest fan and he is always encouraging and always open to giving me feedback and he points out the pieces he likes and those that may need a little more work. I’ve tried to get him to paint as well but although he tried it once he just wasn’t into it. His creativity comes out in his gardening. He can bring any plant to life and he has converted our small back yard into a peaceful sanctuary…I just love sitting and relaxing there. When I need to take a break and commune with nature I simply go in my backyard…I don’t need to go any further and its all due to my husband’s “green thumb”.

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Kleon mentions that when you’ve gone blank creatively then do less to get over the creative blocks.. Place some constraints on yourself, such as, paint a painting with one colour, paint a painting in only 10 minutes, shoot a movie with your iphone, create something with what you have at hand right there and then. This can sometimes lead to your best work. I’ve done this, for example, I gave myself a 30 day challenge to paint landscapes in 10 minutes every morning, just before going to work so I don’t have time to think about it too much, if at all. It has really prevented me from becoming too detailed and I feel a lot freer to simply do whatever I feel without the restrictions/rules of drawing/sketching first.

Another idea he shares that made me feel better is that we all steal ideas from each other but what you don’t do is plagiarize or copy exactly what the other person has done, you put your style to it and eventually you develop your own style. That used to make me feel bad because when I was learning to paint we got exercises to paint or try to copy someone else’s piece to get an idea about what technique they used to get the painting to look the way it does. My art teacher then, after many classes we would then have to acquire our own photos and paint them so that we got the basics of composition and then used our new learnt style to paint our photo.

I am very good at copying and it comes easy for me but I hate knowing that it isn’t mine or that I didn’t think of painting a piece that way

Kleon ends the book with the quote by Saul Steinberg, which says “ What we respond to in any work of art is the artist’s struggle against his or her limitations.” So what makes us interesting is what we leave out of the painting versus what we put in, the same goes for people…Kleon states…what make people interesting isn’t just what they have experienced its also what they haven’t experienced yet. So we need to embrace our limitations and move forward. I struggle with that everyday of my painting journey. Some days are better than others and some are not but I continue on my journey of artistic discovery until I reach where I think I want to be, for now I’m not there yet. I absolutely loved the idea and concepts behind Steal Like an Artist. I often think the same , but I don’t put it as eloquently and so well written, plus I couldn’t agree more with the author.

So check this summary of Austin Kleon’s Book….Steal Like an Artist:

Steal Like An Artist – The Content

1. Steal like an artist.

2. Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.

3. Write the book you want to read.

4. Use your hands.

5. Side projects and hobbies are important.

6. The secret: do good work and share it with people.

7. Geography is no longer our master.

8. Be nice. (The world is a small town.)

9. Be boring. (It’s the only way to get work done.)

10. Creativity is subtraction.

Bullet Summary

· There is no such thing as original art: everyone builds upon others

· Immerse yourself (/steal) from your favorite artists: imitate and then emulate

· When you realize you’re not quite like them, you’ve found your own voice

AMAZON’S REVIEW OF THIS BOOK.

Give Up Originality

There is no such thing as a completely original form of art. No person lives in a vacuum and no art is created in a vacuum.
Everyone is influenced by the world and the artists that live around you and came before you.

Some artist can be pushed against the wall by the erroneous concept of “originality”. Don’t let that happen to you.

Austin Cleon says that art creation is a bit like making children. Same as the DNA of two people combine to give new life, new art new art is the mixture of different influences to create something new.
That means that the artistic process start when you find the right art to build upon -or to steal from-.

Start Imitating Your Heroes

Sure you can’t plagiarize, but you can imitate them.
Steal Like an Artist recommends you live and breath the artists you like. Learn what makes them tick, reproduce their own art for your own consumption. Then branch out to the three people that your favorite artists most learned from.

Eventually, you will realize that you are not quite the same as any of your artist -the author calls them “weaknesses” that you can’t quite replicate the same way-. You have your own style and you can make your own contribution .
You’re another branch in the tree.

Keep Hobbies And Leisure

The author recommends that as much as you love your art, you shouldn’t drop other hobbies and passions of yours.
They make you a more rounded individual and they are creative sources that will inspire you in your art.

Similarly, don’t hole in at your workplace or home studio. But go out, or even change city and live in some other country.

Share Your Work

The author says there are benefits in being unknown and obscure, such as the total freedom of failing and experimenting.
Eventually you want to reach a certain level of fame though. The best way to do that is to share everything you do.

When you share you will receive some harsh criticism. The author says it’s important you don’t allow the negativity to drag you down or sidetrack you through anger.
And if you can’t stop anger from getting to you, then you can use that anger for a source of creativity.

Praise File

Austin Kleon recommends not only that you use anger as fuel, but also that you save all the praises you get.
You can then read through all the praises you got when you need an uplift.

My Note: I personally am strongly against idea as it trains your ego to depend on other people’s praises. Praise should only be used as a feedback tool, but not to derive ego satisfaction. Sophia Amoruso I recently read also is of the same opinion.
Read more here:

Real Life Applications

Stop Stressing About “Copying”
I write a lot of reviews here so I end up speaking with authors. And quite a few of them hold many grudges against anyone who “copied” their work.
Yet I rarely think their work has been copied. It had quite a different flair in my opinion. Don’t stress about copycats too much. As Prada CEO said:

We’re not interested in creating products that nobody wants to copy

Just make sure, of course, that they’re not copy-pasting your work and that you find your own voice even when you re-interpret old concepts.

CONS

One-Idea Book
Albeit I like the idea, Steal Like an Artist rotates around one single idea basically. I felt the same for the 5 Second Rule for example.
But that might be a bit unfair to say as some of the other tips can also add quite a bit of value.

PROS

Brief and Easy
I might even been even shorter -but I often think that-, but it’s certainly not long and drawn out. And it’s very easy and pleasant to read.

Great Concept
I loved the idea. There’s no such thing as new and 100% original. So don’t stress about it, consume all media and feel free to say what’s already been said… But with your own unique

References

· The power moves by amazon (book reviews)

· getAbstract AG

Credit Card Fraud, What do you do?

Hi everyone…can you believe my card was hacked?. You hear about these things happening, like your identity being stolen or your card being hacked but you never think it would happen to you. I have to admit though that as I was doing more business online via the blogging, setting up my Etsy shop and having to ensure my sites are well done and presentable I was registering for more platforms that had to help me do all the different aspects of a website, my mind ran on whether my card would get hacked.

But I thought I was safe well it seems I wasn't. The worst feeling in the world is when you use your credit card and it’s declined when you know it has money on it or at least supposed to, not only that, you know you haven’t reached your limit or gone on any shopping sprees, so whats going on? So I did some research because I realised that something was wrong so I checked my account only to see a set of transactions a that I definitely did not do, especially as I live in Trinidad and these were transactions that took place in California.

Someone bought food, and sneakers with my card. I definitely couldn’t order food from a restaurant in California while living in Trinidad. I immediately called the bank manager and he put me onto the officer who deals with these issues. They told me to complete forms for each transaction that I didn’t do and then send it in to them.

It will then take 2 and a half months to know the results based on their investigations. Still no surety that I would get it back. They stole $750USD, most of which belongs to my daughter, so I definitely want it back. It’s a shame I’m not a hacker so I could go online myself and find the thief and make them pay for what the've done. Cyber crime is just to difficult to solve, it makes you feel helpless and there is so much of it going on today.

These days thieves don’t wear masks and they don’t arrive on horseback totting guns; they do their dirty deeds from the comfort of their own home. Whether they steal your actual identity or they hack your credit card, all it takes is for one fraudulent charge to ruin your day.

So let me share with you what I learned about Card breaches from the research I did:

Our credit card information can be stolen right under your nose without your credit card ever leaving your possession. Unfortunately, most victims of this type of credit card theft don’t find out their credit card details have been stolen until after the credit card has already been used. Often, fraudulent credit card charges are the first sign that credit card information has been stolen.

How Thieves Steal Credit Card Information

In many instances, thieves don’t steal your credit card information directly from you. Instead, they get it somewhere else in the credit card processing chain. Here are a few ways thieves can get access to your credit card information.

1. Hacking into other businesses. Thieves can steal your information by breaching a company where you’ve used your credit card or a company that handles some aspect of credit card processing. Since data breaches target entire organizations, sometimes millions of consumers have their credit card information stolen. Most mega data breaches – like Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, and Anthem – make headline news

2. Skimming. A credit card skimmer is a small device that captures your credit card information in another otherwise legitimate transaction. Thieves secretly place credit card skimmers over the credit card swipe at gas stations and ATMs then return to retrieve the information captured.

​Sometimes a counterfeit credit card ring recruits cashiers, waitresses, or other workers to skim customer credit cards. You hand your credit card to the cashier for processing and when you’re not looking, the cashier will swipe your credit card through the skimming device.

3. Installing malware or viruses on your computer, tablet or smartphone. Hackers can design software that’s downloaded in email attachments or other software and sits on your computer undetected. In one instance, hackers take advantage of public wi-fi to trick people into installing malware disguised as a software update. The software monitors your keystrokes or takes screenshots of your page and sends the activity to the thief.

4. Tricking you. Thieves set up traps to trick consumers into giving up credit card information. They do this by phone, by email, through fake websites, and sometimes even via text message. In one scam, for example, you verify some personal information in a call that you think is your credit card issuer’s fraud department. It’s important that you only give out your credit card and other personal information only in transactions you can be sure are safe.

5. Old-fashioned dumpster diving. Throwing away documents or receipts that have your full credit card number printed puts you at risk of theft. While dumpster diving doesn't happen as often as in the past, it's still important to be aware of the possibility. Always shred these documents before tossing them in the trash. Unfortunately, you can’t control how businesses dispose of their records. If they fail to shred records that contain credit card information, the information is at risk of being stolen.

What Do Thieves Do With Your Credit Card Information

1. Use it to make online purchases. Thieves can use your credit card information to buy things over the internet.

2. Sell it. Credit card information can be sold over the internet for $5 to $100 in the U.S., depending on the type and amount of information that’s sold.

3. Create cloned credit cards. Thieves can make legitimate-looking credit cards by programming your credit card information on a gift cards or prepaid credit card. When the card is swiped, the transaction processes just like it would if you swiped your actual credit card.

How to Know If Your Credit Card Information Has Been Stolen

This kind of credit card theft can go undetected for several months. It’s not like a physical credit card that you notice is missing. You likely won’t know until you notice unauthorised charges on your credit card account.

Don’t count on your bank to catch instances of credit card theft. This is so true as I was the one who noticed due to my card being declined. I don’t think the bank would have noticed anything, at least it depends on the bank. Some banks call you to double check any transaction they feel looks suspicious as per your spending trend. Your credit card issuer may call you or freeze your account if they notice purchases outside your normal spending habits, but don’t take for granted that your bank will always notify you of potential fraud.

What to Do If Your Credit Card Info is Stolen

• · Monitor your credit card often and

• · Immediately report fraudulent purchases, regardless of the amount.

• · Read through your transactions once a month when your credit card statement comes.

• · Once a week is better and daily or every other day will let you spot fraudulent purchases before the thief can do too much damage to your account.

• · Some credit cards can send real-time transaction notifications to your smartphone.

Sometimes thieves test to see which credit card numbers are valid by making a small charge of a few dollars or pennies that would likely go undetected. If the small charge is successful, the thief knows the credit card number work and will go on to make bigger purchases with the credit card information.

• · Don't ignore small, seemingly innocent credit card purchases. Even something as small as a few cents could be a sign that your credit card information has been compromised.

• · Pay attention to news regarding hacks and data breaches. News reports will often include the name of the store affected and the date or date range the data beach occurred. If you shopped during that time period, there’s a chance your credit card information was stolen.

Do You Pay for Fraudulent Purchases?

Legally, you are not responsible for any unauthorized purchases made with your stolen credit card information – as long as your credit card is still in your possession. (With debit cards, you must report unauthorized transactions within 60 days of your bank statement being sent to you.)

You must report the transactions to your credit card issuer so they can investigate and remove them from your account.

Keeping Your Credit Card Information Safe

If you use your credit card at all, anywhere, your information is at risk.

There is a number of things you can do to keep your credit card information safe.

• · Use strong passwords,

• · Be cautious about where you use your credit card,

• · Always use secure websites, and

• · Avoiding storing your credit card details in your web browser.

Protecting Accounts That Use Your Credit Card

It’s not just your credit cards that are at risk. Other accounts that use your credit card are at risk, too.

• · PayPal,

• · Netflix,

• · HBO GO,

• · ITunes, and other accounts.

Unfortunately, it’s tough to circumvent theft with these services, considering many require you to store your credit card information to even sign up for an account.

As mobile payments becomes mainstream, you can expect digital pick pocketing to increase. There’s already an Android app that allows thieves to wirelessly steal mobile payment information just by standing near a person who has credit card information stored on their phone.

What to Do If Your Card Data Is Breached

1. Cancel Your Card

Call your bank or card issuer and request a new credit or debit card. If a debit card was involved, you'll also want to change the PIN on the account. Some banks and issuers automatically shut down your card and send a new one when they know it's been compromised.

2. Check Your Accounts

You'll also want to check bank and credit card statements for suspicious activity or purchases, as well as going online to check recent activity.

If your card is used before you're aware of the data breach and its used by a thief, you'll need to make sure you dispute the charges with your bank or card issuer immediately.

This process can be a bit lengthier with a debit card, but you'll want to flag any potential debit

3. Change Passwords

Your next step is to change your passwords on those accounts, as well as the password to any account that's been breached. If you re-use some form of those passwords on other accounts, it's a good idea to change those, too.

Other Options After a Data Breach

Assuming you've reported any unauthorized transaction immediately to the credit card or debit card issuer and since a card can easily be canceled, you may not need to take additional action other than keeping an eye on your card statements and credit reports.

What Do You Do?

1. Yes, it’s serious, but don’t panic.

2. Call your bank and the credit reporting companies.

3. Send written notification to your creditors.

4. Monitor your statements and correspondences.

References:

1. How Your Credit Card Information is Stolen and What to Do About It by Latoya Irby

2. 4 things to do after your credit card has been hacked by Pamela Britton- Baer

3. 3 things to do if your credit card or debit card is involved in a data breach by Brian O’connor

How To Share Your Work With Your Team

Hi guys…do you know what I do? Well this post is going to give you an idea of what I do daily as a business coach, at least one of the areas I cover in that capacity, but I’m doing it through one topic at a time, that I encounter and have to assist my clients with almost everyday…DELEGATING. Delegating to your team members. Yes the entire aspect of delegating is normally seen as simply giving someone something to do, but it encompasses way more than that. For example, say you have 4 team members who work with you. Out of those 4, two work well and are reliable and you’re sure they will finish what you give them, but then there are the other 2 who don’t seem to be as reliable or tend to make errors and never finish on time.

So what tends to happen because of this? You tend to give the 2 that work best most of the work and give the other 2 less…. but is that fair? NO!! it’s not. Don’t worry, I understand why it happens that way, you have deadlines and you want to get the work done and you don’t have time to give up to deal with the other 2. However, as their leader, the right thing to do and what your responsibility is, is to make sure the work is evenly distributed despite each individuals’ ability or lack of. What you need to do is track each person and after tracking them and evaluating their individual strength and areas for improvement, then take note of what tasks you need to delegate and decide who can do each task best. Those who fall short then some level of coaching, training, guidance or instruction has to be provided to those individuals.

So lets look at this activity called DELEGATION. What is that?

Delegation is assigning responsibility and authority to someone in order to complete a clearly defined and agreed upon task while you retain ultimate responsibility for its success. Delegation incorporates empowering your teammates through effective leadership, and may be directed in any direction and used in any organization.

Delegation is important for 1) efficiency and 2) development. Delegation improves efficiency when it allows work to be transferred to people whose skills are a better match for the work. So one purpose for delegation is to save you time. Delegation is your most powerful time management tool, and it is also your most powerful learning and development and empowerment tool.

The Advantages & Disadvantages of Delegating Tasks. To be effective at work or your business, you often have to delegate tasks to others. Assigning team members responsibility over a task not only takes some of the load off your shoulders, it can also help your junior team members to grow and develop. Delegation enables you to focus on more important tasks or tasks for which you are better suited. The increase in time reduces pressure and stress. This allows you to concentrate on your remaining tasks and allocate more time for other tasks.

Hi I’m GaFra

Visit my new Etsy Store “teaprint” right

HERE.

1. Imporve time management

2. Build trust within the unit and team

3. Allows you to spend time on other more important tasks

4. Helps develop your team members

What you need to consider when you delegate:

1. Always provide feedback.

Make sure to contribute both positive and negative feedback, so the person you're giving responsibility to will understand what he or she is doing well and how they need to improve.

2. Be sure to keep an eye on things.

Monitoring the work of people will both motivate them and help you to catch problems as they arise. An inexperienced team member will need more oversight.

3. Be clear about what you want your employees to do.

Make sure employees understand the responsibilities they are assuming and that they accept them. Ask them to confirm their understandings with you.

4. Delegate the right things.

Delegate recurring tasks, detail work, attendance at some meetings, and activities that will be part of team members' future responsibilities.

5. Provide guidance when necessary.

If the work veers too far from the planned guidelines, take immediate and decisive corrective action. You're not doing anyone any favors by stepping back entirely from your assignments. Mutually agree on a plan to return to the targeted goals. If the situation doesn't improve, end the assignment and move on.

6. Give employees the authority they need to get the job done.

Any delegated task must be accompanied by a delegation of authority--that is, the power and resources to get the job done. Authority may include giving the employee power to spend money, seek assistance from others, or represent the department or company.

7. Have the right attitude about delegating.

Leaders sometimes view planning as a hindrance to getting their best work done, but planning to delegate is an investment in your people, your company's culture, and in your business. It's a good thing, not a bad thing.

8. Consider the skills and interests of your people.

When assigning a task, consider each person's demonstrated skill, interest in the task, and current workload. Know his or her record of success on similar assignments--how they work with others, when they operate best, and how well they work under pressure.

9. Set clear expectations.

Explain both the overall goals of the task along with the standards that will be used to measure results. Make sure the goals are specific, attainable, relevant, and measurable.

Daily I see leaders who aren’t delegating properly so work is piled on a few who get frustrated and overworked, then begin to complain or may simply leave after a while. You simply need to take the time to get those that are slower or are making errors, to train them up to a higher level to be able to handle the tasks assigned to them. If after continuous coaching and training the individual does not improve then they are not a good fit for the position and may have to be moved to another position where the work is simpler or it may be a case where their competency has reached its peak and they are unable to process the type of work being dealt with in their unit. Then serious decisions need to be made about the individual with some consultation with them.

Be a great leader and if you know you suck at delegating and things just aren't going as they should then I hope this short post helped in some way. Even if all it did was to make you aware of some of the things you need to do when you delegate then I'm glad for that small benefit you got. If you're interested, my Delegation planner can help you to delegate better, it isn't expensive and you'll gain great benefits on how to follow the process, just follow the forms as they are and soon giving your team members work to do will become a breeze. and this time you will rake in the rewards via smooth sharing or work and deadlines being met.

This is just one topic I deal with daily. I’ve simplified it as much as I can here for this post but Delegating is a process and as I created in my Delegation planner, there are forms in there than can guide you through the proper process for delegating. Check it out.

See you soon and I’ll be talking about another area I deal with and that is handling interruptions.

Reference:

· Wikipedia

· Management Skills blog – what is the purpose for delegation

· Advantages & Disadvatages of delegating Tasks by Dianne Heath

· Delegation is an art by peter economy

The Art of Being A Black Woman with Natural Hair - Part3

The Art of being a black woman with natural hair. What is true beauty? www.gafra.org or www.gafra-art.org

This photo shows me in the days when I had relaxed hair. It was great and especially when I travelled. I don't know what it is about cold weather but my hair loved it. It flowed and was bouncy and I looked amazing. I used a curling iron to set my hair as I really couldn't handle having curlers in my hair. Firstly, I couldn't sleep like that and secondly I hated having anything on my head.

That's why I never wore wigs or went the way of weaves etc. my head couldn't handle the heat. Yes my hair looked great and I was proud of it. The only issue was sometimes my hair didn't style the way I wanted. The curling Iron didn't seem to keep the curls long enough and my hair was very thin so although it fell nicely it was very light and the style didn't keep.

So that takes me to the 6 reasons relaxed hair isn't always the best style for you:

1. Too many Chemicals

2. Relaxing Thins the Hair

3. Breakage

4. Slow Hair Growth

5. Inability to Style

6. Very costly

1. TOO MANY CHEMICALS

Relaxing places a lot of stress on your hair follicles via the chemicals being used every 3 or 6 months depending on how often you relax. When I first started straightening/relaxing my hair I did it every 6 months. I had a jerry curl so I had to cut it short then start the relaxing process. But after a few years I relaxed every 3 months then every 1-2 months. The more often I relaxed my hair the lighter it got. I was encouraged to do deep conditioning, which I did but I didn't see any real improvement because of them.

2. RELAXING THINS THE HAIR

As I mentioned above my hair got thinner as the years passed and I had started relaxing my hair from the age of 16. By the time I was 46 my hair lacked body and it was difficult to keep the curls or the bounce.

3. BREAKAGE

My hair had a lot of breakage and even though I deep conditioned as much as I could nothing changed. So my bathroom was continuously covered with bits of hair on the floor. Whenever you combed your hair there were strands everywhere. it was worrying and a bit annoying.

This photo shows me in the days when I had relaxed hair. It was great and especially when I travelled. I don't know what it is about cold weather but my hair loved it. It flowed and was bouncy and I looked amazing. I used a curling iron to set my hair as I really couldn't handle having curlers in my hair. Firstly, I couldn't sleep like that and secondly I hated having anything on my head.

That's why I never wore wigs or went the way of weaves etc. my head couldn't handle the heat. Yes my hair looked great and I was proud of it. The only issue was sometimes my hair didn't style the way I wanted. The curling Iron didn't seem to keep the curls long enough and my hair was very thin so although it fell nicely it was very light and the style didn't keep.

So that takes me to the 6 reasons relaxed hair isn't always the best style for you:

1. Too Many Chemicals

2. Relaxing Thins the Hair

3. Breakage

4. Slow Hair Growth

5. Inability to Style

6. Very costly

1. TOO MANY CHEMICALS

Relaxing places a lot of stress on your hair follicles via the chemicals being used every 3 or 6 months depending on how often you relax. When I first started straightening/relaxing my hair I did it every 6 months. I had a jerry curl so I had to cut it short then start the relaxing process. But after a few years I relaxed every 3 months then every 1-2 months. The more often I relaxed my hair the lighter it got. I was encouraged to do deep conditioning, which I did but I didn't see any real improvement because of them.

2. RELAXING THINS THE HAIR

As I mentioned above my hair got thinner as the years passed and I had started relaxing my hair from the age of 16. By the time I was 46 my hair lacked body and it was difficult to keep the curls or the bounce.

3. BREAKAGE

My hair had a lot of breakage and even though I deep conditioned as much as I could nothing changed. So my bathroom was continuously covered with bits of hair on the floor. Whenever you combed your hair there were strands everywhere. it was worrying and a bit annoying.

4. SLOW HAIR GROWTH

My hair refused to grow. To make it worst every time I went to do a relaxer my hairdresser needed to trim the ends and once she did that my hair stayed that length until 2 months later when I went back for my touch up. So my hair stayed short and thin. I dispaired because a woman's hair is her beauty. It's what makes us feel good about ourselves. I builds our confidence. A bad hair day for a woman is a really bad start to her day.

5. INABILITY TO STYLE

With the thin hair, split ends and breakage, my hair didn't style as I wanted so I was continuously putting it in a bun. That is not a good look for me. I liked my hair open and flowing. This look was no fun and quite boring, but when I styled it in the morning within 30minutes of stepping outside on my way to work my hair went limp and looked messy. Not a good look for a Business Consultant. This was not a good thing for me.

6. COSTLY

Last but not least relaxing is very expensive. I live in the Caribbean and our climate can be very humid and dry. So your relaxed hair draws in the moisture and gets very flat. To relax my hair cost USD $100 and that lasted 1-2 months so I was spending USD $600 per year. That seems not so bad to you but in Trinidad you multiply that by 7 as our conversion is $7.00TTD to $1.00USD. So every year I was spending TTD$4200.00. Then my daughters also had relaxed hair and you know who had to pay for theIr hair? Me of course, so that's USD$600 by 3 women/girls. USD$1800.00 = TTD$12,600.00 a year. What do I spend now to do my hair?.....hmmmmm NOTHING!!!. My hair products costs TTD$700 or USD$100 and they last me the entire year or more.

So relaxing wasn’t necessarily the best style for me but it was all I knew and what I grew up with. It started with my mother and I continued the same process. We are never really encouraged to keep our natural hair or taught how to maintain and comb our hair to place it in styles that we enjoy. Instead we were taught that our hair was too unmanageable and relaxing was the best way to manage it. I can't really blame my mom. There weren't many products around at that time to help them and they didn't have the time to do research so they did what was popular and easy.

Inspiration is a necessity for Artist

Inspiration Is a Necessity for Artists

Hi guys….there are always times when an artist has a day or days when they feel uncreative or uninspired. Sometimes the days become weeks or even months. Lately I haven’t been feeling to paint. I think in starting my Etsy Shop teaprint and creating as many printables as I can, my satisfaction started coming from creating these digital products rather than painting. This period of lack of artistic inspiration is a common phase for every artist, however, all of us that love to be creative, suffer quite a bit from these stages. We feel like we’ll never be able to create anything good in our lives, ever again.

That is happening to me right now and I would like it to end immediately, but at the same time, I’m afraid to go back to my easel and face a potential lack of feeling or excitement like I normally feel. I read a few articles about this and one artist indicated that she had developed some special “go to” activities that help you get over the temporary impasse and go back to your art with renewed passion. So if you're feeling like me right now, I want to share this with you, maybe this information will help you like it has me. The 10 steps were as follows:

10 Tips to Shake Away the Creativity Burnout and Find Artistic Inspiration

1. Inspiration Is a Necessity for Artists. ...

2. Keep Your Art Supplies and Tools Easily Accessible. ...

3. Just Show Up at Your Studio. ...

4. Take Lots of Pictures of Things and Places You Like. ...

5. Collect Reference Photos and Keep Them Organized. ...

6. Start Doodling.

7. Try something New

8. Network within the Art community

9. Read books that inspire your creative genius

10. Participate in Art challenges

11. Create for the sake of creating

I was doing some of these and some I wasn’t, but my real beef was my uncertainty about what was my style. I think that is why I wasn't feeling to paint. Deep down I’ve been trying to figure out, what is really my style? because I look at the work of other artist and its clear what their style is. To me it’s because all of their pieces kinda look the same or are similar in design. Do I want that for my work? But do I have a choice? From what I see the customers seem to want that look, they want to be able to identify you through your distinct look, rather than be confused with a combination of work that could have been done by a number of artist. I’m beginning to get it. at least I think I am. From reading and researching this is what I learned:

Style in drawing is a collection of attributes that make drawings unique. Each period in the history of art is characterized by the style of some groundbreaking artists. For example, modernism is characterized in part by Cubism, a style developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

Here are common drawing styles:

• Abstraction/Nonrepresentational: Artists who work in an abstract style make drawings that are usually about shape, line, value, color, and/or texture. Practitioners of the nonrepresentational style of drawing include Piet Mondrian, Joseph Albers, and Al Held.

• Art Nouveau: Artists who work in an Art Nouveau style make drawings that are illusionistic but primarily flat, that are highly pattern driven, and that usually incorporate fluid, curving lines. Practitioners of Art Nouveau include Gustave Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley, and Alphonse Mucha.

• Manga: Artists who practice the Manga style make drawings based on the Japanese comic book style developed in 19th Century Japan. Practitioners of Manga include Osamu Tezuka and Machiko Hasegawa.

• Post-impressionism: Artists who practiced the style called post-impressionism made drawings based on light (the preoccupation of the impressionists) but with more attention to geometric shapes. This style includes some purposefully expressive distortions. Practitioners of post-impressionism include Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne, and Vincent VanGogh.

• Realism: When artists draw convincing representations of reality, the style is called realism. Practitioners of realism include Leonardo Da Vinci, Jean Augustus Dominique Ingres, William Beckman, and Steven Assael.

• Surrealism: Artists who draw dreamlike and sometimes startling works based on pure imagination are practicing surrealism. Practitioners of surrealism include Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, and Yves Tanguy.

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This PRINTABLE PLANNER will help you manage our interruptions so that you have more time for important activities.

My style is a combination of or lies between abstraction/nonrepresentational, post impressionism and realism. The design is still all over the place but I’m getting closer to a definitive type of design for my Acrylic abstracts. With my watercolours, I’m still figuring that one out. Again as I read in another article, I need to start drawing again.

DRAWING ON THE POSSIBILITIES

The joy and personal satisfaction of creating a drawing is both an incentive and a reward.The process of drawing and realising you can enriches all aspects of ones life. The article said to think about the following as you consider the possibilities inherent in drawing:

• Your drawings illustrate your personal perceptions. Drawing challenges you to communicate what you see in a non-narrative language. Drawing allows you to speak without words. Your drawings serve as a journal of your artistic journey.

• Through the eyes of an artist, you appreciate everything around you from a whole new perspective. Drawing is seeing. As an artist, you visually explore the world with a whole new purpose — to find drawing subjects!

• Drawing is relaxing, mentally challenging, and emotionally stimulating. You CAN draw, and you can improve as much as your interest, patience, and commitment take you. The most important thing is that you are drawing. You are making art.

• There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to draw, but rather an acceptance of diversity and recognition that every drawing, no matter how much you dislike it, provides a chance for you to figure out something new (even if it’s “I don’t want to do that again!”).

• Every new skill requires practice

• The three most important elements of discovering how to draw are practice, practice, and more practice!

• The key to knowing when you’ve practiced a specific skill enough is when you’re happy with your results.

Get your FREE DOWNLOAD: An EASY GUIDE on “How to Paint an Abstract” OR my LOOK-BOOK

I've read this and heard this many times....you need to be drawing everyday. I also see this being done by one of our great artist here in Trinidad Jackie Hinkson. He is constantly posting his drawings in instagram....so what's up with me? Again my uncertatinty or lack of decisiveness in solidifying what my style and will be from now on is what keeps me back from moving forward. I still feel as if having one style might be boring but not making that decision is preventing me from moving forward.

What is Style?

Your style is a combination of your voice, techniques, color choices, compositions, subject matter, media, and more all wrapped up. Your style is what binds each of your pieces together into a unique and cohesive collection. The best part is that it continues to evolve over time.  Even when you’ve found it, it starts to change.

We can learn so much from looking at our own art. So as I am unsure  if I’ve found my style, I need to start by asking myself a few questions:

• Are there elements of design that tie your pieces together?

• What themes show up in your art most often?

• What kind of subjects are you drawn to? Many or a few?

• What kind of art do you enjoy creating at the moment?

• Does your art stand out against the work of other artists?

Its said that when someone is still in the exploratory phase of their art, when an artist jumps around between many subjects, or when their pieces are lined up together and appear as if they all could come from different artists–they haven’t quite figured out their style yet, and that is me to some extent. But at least there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this! It takes time and a lot of work to eventually know your style.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

Copy the World Around me

Mimic nature. Study light, form, color, and shape. Take figure drawing classes. Set up a still life in my living room. Work on my technical skills regularly to introduce a new perspectives and style path.

Practice. Practice. PRACTICE.

If I’m only doing art in my head  (chronic procrastinators know what I’m talking about!), my style won’t develop. If I only do art  a couple of times a month or less, I won’t see much progress. I have to try to create as often as I can. Every day is best, but a few times a week is perfect.

I have to release my expectations and just have fun.

One article says when you have a precise vision for what you want to create, you limit your perspective and create a blind spot. Finding your style often involves knowing who you are as a person and embracing it. Being an artist isn’t just a career or hobby, it’s a lifestyle. The more you weave art into your daily life and your personality into your art, the easier it will be to cultivate your style, but all of this takes time.

CONCLUSION

Creating and showcasing your personal style is a wonderful achievement. Some artists develop early, and some take years to find their rhythm and voice. Whatever pace you need to work at is the right pace. Honestly, I’m still working on mine.

Don’t try to force your style, but exercise your art muscles whenever you can.

My conclusion for self...I know what it is I should decide. I resist it because of my beliefs about the choice, but it has already been made deep down in my heart. So now its to accept and move forward. With my acrylic abstracts I will stick to the style I've developed. With my watercolours I will stick with 2 themes - landscapes and architectural/urban scenes.

DECISION MADE!!!!

Reference:

• How to identify common drawing style by Brenda Hoddinott, Jamie Combs. Part of Drawing for Dummies Cheat Sheet

• How to find your style by Kelly Marie

• 10 Tips to Shake Away the Creativity Burnout and Find Artistic Inspiration by Robie Benvie

ABOUT ME

Hi guys, I’m Gail Francis better known as “GaFra”

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The Art of Being a Black Woman with Natural Hair - In the Beginning

Today I'm talking about why I started the last post about being a black woman with natural……….to me everything is an Art, even the art of beauty and finding who you are based on how you look and what is considered beautiful. This post goes back to when I was younger and having natural hair was not something that was part of my life. I don't remember what my natural hair looked like because my mother started pressing my hair from the age of 5 or 6 and all I remember is my hair being either pressed with an iron comb, that was heated on a stove, or my mother using chemicals in my hair to make it softer.

Get your printer to print your poster and WHALA!!!

One day my mother's friend who normally came to straighten my hair couldn't make it, so my mother decided to do it yourself. She placed the chemicals in my hair and told me to sit down and relax, but as I sat there my hair started to burn or I should say my head started to burn, so I call out to my mother but Mother's….you know how they are… she thought I was simply being annoying and complaining, so she shouted at me to stay put because I only had a few more minutes. So I sat and waited with my burning head. I guess that’s why relaxers never bothered me after.

The burning got worse, until I couldn't take it anymore and I called out to her indicating that I think I needed to wash out the relaxer. When she finally came to check on me I heard her make a strange sound, like a “ohhhhh” so I asked what was wrong she didn't answer. She hustled me to the sink and started washing my hair. I kept hearing her make these mewing noises and as I looked in the sink I saw pieces of my hair washing down the drain. Now I got really anxious especially when my mother was finished and she looked at me with a horrified expression. I got really scared so I looked in the mirror and I wanted to scream…. all the hair on the right side of my scalp was gone there was a huge bald spot, I started to cry immediately and while I cried my mother tried to smother the sound because she was more concerned about my father hearing me crying and coming to check because he would have ben furious. All she kept saying was “don't worry It will be fine”, but all I could think about was I had to go to school tomorrow looking like a bald freak.

 What ended up happening?... I had to take hair from the top of my head and make a bang at the side of my head. If the breeze blew too hard, the bang would raise up and show my bold spot…so embarrassing…. it was the worst experience ever. So that  is all I knew, I grew up with my hair going through these different processes in order to make it easier to handle.  The greatest complaint of most parents with kids with natural hair is how difficult it is to manage the hair and to keep it neat. That is why they try these different methods. The  hair is difficult to comb, its hard to take out the knots, that is why getting it to be smooth and easy to manage is why the start so early in a child’s life.

My hair went from pressing, to relaxing and then eventually to Jerry-curl. I stayed with Jerry-curl for quite a few years and then I discovered relaxers/straighteners. I relaxed my hair for most of my life, but I came to this point of wanting to go natural for a few reasons:

1.     My hair no longer took to the relaxer. You start off doing relaxers every 6-8 months, when you first start, then it goes to every 3 months, then every 2 months and then almost every month.

2.     My hair looks dead and lackluster. The setting wouldn’t stay. The curling iron didn’t keep the style.

3.      I also reached a point in my life at the age of 50 where I realized that I didn’t want relaxed hair anymore. I wanted to experience my natural hair. I got very curious. I saw a few women with natural hair and it looked amazing.

4.     It was on my mind a lot. I considered it a lot. It was a turning point for me. I was at a Crossroads in my life and transitioning from relaxed hair to my natural hair was a statement. A statement of change, of freedom, of removing boundaries and doing and being totally me.

Before you make that decision or decide to go through the transition, you sometimes think about what will happen when your hair starts to grow out from a relaxer, it starts to look awful, untidy, so women hit that point of having a bad hair day and they immediately begin rethinking their decisionto go natural. I needed to know more about that transitioning. I needed to know more about what natural hair entailed. Was it easier to handle, was it more work, was it just as costly as a relaxer or were there styles I could easily put my hair in when I didn’t want to style it? All these questions were on my mind and I wanted answers and I'm one of those people I do a lot of research.

I love doing research, I love reading. I love gathering the information, so that is what I did. I started looking at blogs, reading what ever looked interesting or would answer one of my questions. I went unto Pinterest, which is my favorite search engine and looked and pinned masses of pictures. I started doing a board on all the stages of natural hair transition, hair care, hair products, hair blogs and much more. But in looking at all of these pictures on Pinterest I fell in love with the short natural hairstyle. The shortcut was just very sexy and so cute, to me it was a fantastic look.

Read more in my last Blog on this topic.

Inspiration is a necessity for Artist

Hi guys….there are always times when an artist has a day or days when they feel uncreative or uninspired. Sometimes the days become weeks or even months. Lately I haven’t been feeling to paint. I think in starting my Etsy Shop teaprint and creating as many printables as I can, my satisfaction started coming from creating these digital products rather than painting. This period of lack of artistic inspiration is a common phase for every artist, however, all of us that love to be creative, suffer quite a bit from these stages. We feel like we’ll never be able to create anything good in our lives, ever again.

That is happening to me right now and I would like it to end immediately, but at the same time, I’m afraid to go back to my easel and face a potential lack of feeling or excitement like I normally feel. I read a few articles about this and one artist indicated that she had developed some special “go to” activities that help you get over the temporary impasse and go back to your art with renewed passion. So if you're feeling like me right now, I want to share this with you, maybe this information will help you like it has me. The 10 steps were as follows:

10 Tips to Shake Away the Creativity Burnout and Find Artistic Inspiration

• Inspiration Is a Necessity for Artists. ...

• Keep Your Art Supplies and Tools Easily Accessible. ...

• Just Show Up at Your Studio. ...

• Take Lots of Pictures of Things and Places You Like. ...

• Collect Reference Photos and Keep Them Organized. ...

• Start Doodling.

• Try something New

• Network within the Art community

• Read books that inspire your creative genius

• Participate in Art challenges

Create for the sake of creating

I was doing some of these and some I wasn’t, but my real beef was my uncertainty about what was my style. I think that is why I wasn't feeling to paint. Deep down I’ve been trying to figure out, what is really my style? because I look at the work of other artist and its clear what their style is. To me it’s because all of their pieces kinda look the same or are similar in design. Do I want that for my work? But do I have a choice? From what I see the customers seem to want that look, they want to be able to identify you through your distinct look, rather than be confused with a combination of work that could have been done by a number of artist. I’m beginning to get it. at least I think I am. From reading and researching this is what I learned:

Style in drawing is a collection of attributes that make drawings unique. Each period in the history of art is characterized by the style of some groundbreaking artists. For example, modernism is characterized in part by Cubism, a style developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

Here are common drawing styles:

Abstraction/Nonrepresentational: Artists who work in an abstract style make drawings that are usually about shape, line, value, color, and/or texture. Practitioners of the nonrepresentational style of drawing include Piet Mondrian, Joseph Albers, and Al Held.

Art Nouveau: Artists who work in an Art Nouveau style make drawings that are illusionistic but primarily flat, that are highly pattern driven, and that usually incorporate fluid, curving lines. Practitioners of Art Nouveau include Gustave Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley, and Alphonse Mucha.

Manga: Artists who practice the Manga style make drawings based on the Japanese comic book style developed in 19th Century Japan. Practitioners of Manga include Osamu Tezuka and Machiko Hasegawa.

Post-impressionism: Artists who practiced the style called post-impressionism made drawings based on light (the preoccupation of the impressionists) but with more attention to geometric shapes. This style includes some purposefully expressive distortions. Practitioners of post-impressionism include Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne, and Vincent VanGogh.

Realism: When artists draw convincing representations of reality, the style is called realism. Practitioners of realism include Leonardo Da Vinci, Jean Augustus Dominique Ingres, William Beckman, and Steven Assael.

Surrealism: Artists who draw dreamlike and sometimes startling works based on pure imagination are practicing surrealism. Practitioners of surrealism include Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, and Yves Tanguy.

My style is a combination of or lies between abstraction/nonrepresentational, post impressionism and realism. The design is still all over the place but I’m getting closer to a definitive type of design for my Acrylic abstracts. With my watercolours, I’m still figuring that one out. Again as I read in another article, I need to start drawing again.

DRAWING ON THE POSSIBILITIES

The joy and personal satisfaction of creating a drawing is both an incentive and a reward.The process of drawing and realising you can enriches all aspects of ones life. The article said to think about the following as you consider the possibilities inherent in drawing:

Your drawings illustrate your personal perceptions. Drawing challenges you to communicate what you see in a non-narrative language. Drawing allows you to speak without words. Your drawings serve as a journal of your artistic journey.

Through the eyes of an artist, you appreciate everything around you from a whole new perspective. Drawing is seeing. As an artist, you visually explore the world with a whole new purpose — to find drawing subjects!

Drawing is relaxing, mentally challenging, and emotionally stimulating. You CAN draw, and you can improve as much as your interest, patience, and commitment take you. The most important thing is that you are drawing. You are making art.

There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to draw, but rather an acceptance of diversity and recognition that every drawing, no matter how much you dislike it, provides a chance for you to figure out something new (even if it’s “I don’t want to do that again!”).

Every new skill requires practice

The three most important elements of discovering how to draw are practice, practice, and more practice!

The key to knowing when you’ve practiced a specific skill enough is when you’re happy with your results.

I've read this and heard this many times....you need to be drawing everyday. I also see this being done by one of our great artist here in Trinidad Jackie Hinkson. He is constantly posting his drawings in instagram....so what's up with me? Again my uncertatinty or lack of decisiveness in solidifying what my style and will be from now on is what keeps me back from moving forward. I still feel as if having one style might be boring but not making that decision is preventing me from moving forward.

What is Style?

Your style is a combination of your voice, techniques, color choices, compositions, subject matter, media, and more all wrapped up. Your style is what binds each of your pieces together into a unique and cohesive collection. The best part is that it continues to evolve over time. Even when you’ve found it, it starts to change.

We can learn so much from looking at our own art. So as I am unsure if I’ve found my style, I need to start by asking myself a few questions:

Are there elements of design that tie your pieces together?

• What themes show up in your art most often?

• What kind of subjects are you drawn to? Many or a few?

• What kind of art do you enjoy creating at the moment?

• Does your art stand out against the work of other artists?

Its said that when someone is still in the exploratory phase of their art, when an artist jumps around between many subjects, or when their pieces are lined up together and appear as if they all could come from different artists–they haven’t quite figured out their style yet, and that is me to some extent. But at least there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this! It takes time and a lot of work to eventually know your style.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

Copy the World Around me

Mimic nature. Study light, form, color, and shape. Take figure drawing classes. Set up a still life in my living room. Work on my technical skills regularly to introduce a new perspectives and style path.

Practice. Practice. PRACTICE.

If I’m only doing art in my head (chronic procrastinators know what I’m talking about!), my style won’t develop. If I only do art a couple of times a month or less, I won’t see much progress. I have to try to create as often as I can. Every day is best, but a few times a week is perfect.

I have to release my expectations and just have fun.

One article says when you have a precise vision for what you want to create, you limit your perspective and create a blind spot. Finding your style often involves knowing who you are as a person and embracing it. Being an artist isn’t just a career or hobby, it’s a lifestyle. The more you weave art into your daily life and your personality into your art, the easier it will be to cultivate your style, but all of this takes time.

CONCLUSION

Creating and showcasing your personal style is a wonderful achievement. Some artists develop early, and some take years to find their rhythm and voice. Whatever pace you need to work at is the right pace. Honestly, I’m still working on mine.

Don’t try to force your style, but exercise your art muscles whenever you can.

My conclusion for self...I know what it is I should decide. I resist it because of my beliefs about the choice, but it has already been made deep down in my heart. So now its to accept and move forward. With my acrylic abstracts I will stick to the style I've developed. With my watercolours I will stick with 2 themes - landscapes and architectural/urban scenes.

DECISION MADE!!!!

Reference:

• How to identify common drawing style by Brenda Hoddinott, Jamie Combs. Part of Drawing for Dummies Cheat Sheet

• How to find your style by Kelly Marie

• 10 Tips to Shake Away the Creativity Burnout and Find Artistic Inspiration by Robie Benvie

What to do After Cutting your Natural Hair

Hi Guys…. So from my last post you heard how I never really experienced my natural hair and I really didn’t go through a transition. I simply cut it all of. But when I did that I was ready mind and body to deal with how I would look. As I mentioned I looked at soooooo many Pinterest sites, of pics of women with short natural hair cuts that I was already excited and in love with the look. So that weekend, armed with my photo of how I wanted my hair to look, I organized with my father’s barber and set off to get my hair cut..

I arrived and waited a few minutes then It was my turn for the chair. I showed him the look I wanted and he seemed fine with it. I have to admit that when he started cutting I got a little nervous but when he was finished I was a little disappointed. I found it looked like a short afro but I knew that I still needed to go home and wash my hair so that my natural curls could come forth.

That was the turning point. At home after washing my hair the beauty of my it came out. I looked adorable…if I say so myself…in fact I got so many complements that week, I knew for sure I had made the right decision. So now what? I enjoyed my low cut, I looked really good, but my goal was to see how long I could grow my hair . That was my goal and it would be quite a journey.

So what does one do after cutting ones hair so short? You have certain choices:

1. Remain with the short hair forever. Especially as it's the easiest hairstyle to deal with. No combing, no setting, no effort, no stress, nothing to do. You can go to sleep and get up without having to do anything.

2. Grow your hair as long as you can get it.

3. Choose a mid length hair length that you feel comfortable with.

But this post is mainly about the after care. Luckily, with your hair that short all you need to do is maintain your hair care and stick to a good hair care routine. You can vary the routine at times for a change. Even try different products if you’re bored with the products you’re using. But always treat your hair well and make sure your hair is happy.

The routine I used will grow your hair but you can either continue to cut it, trim it, or let it grow. What is that routine? With all the research I did I developed my own routine based on all the information I had gathered. to start, You need to know what products your hair likes, what oils work in your hair, you need to decide on a natural hair care process/routine/method, and you need to know what is your hair goal.

Mine was to get my hair as long as possible, this meant:

1. Ensuring that my hair was always well moisturized.

2. Ensuring that I used the products that worked best for my hair.

3. Committing to a routine

4. Always being very protective of my hair.

In my next post I’ll go into details on the products that worked for me and those that didn’t, but for now let me explain my process:

I started off purchasing a whole gamut of products that I eventually had to give away. From all the research for my hair I used:

1. A Leave-In Conditioner

2. Hair oil or oils

3. A Styling Cream

4. A Styling Gel

5. Sulphate free Shampoo and Conditioner

6. Large Tooth Comb

7. Silk Cap or Pillow Case

8. Spritz bottle with water (only used if hair wasn’t already damp from co-washing)

I decided to do the L.C.O Method, which means the process follows along the lines of using:

1. A Leave-in conditioner first then...

2. A Styling Cream and finally rubbing in..

3. A Hair Oil Mixture

My routine is to:

1. Co–wash my hair then wrap my hair in a T-shirt (don’t use cotton or normal towels as they dry out your natural hair). Co-washing is washing your hair with conditioner only. Conditioners hold some shampoo ingredients so they do clean your hair but without stripping away the oils within the hair follicles. You can do the entire process of shampooing and conditioning if you feel your hair is dirty but it isn’t necessary. I co-wash my hair three times a week maybe more depending on if my hair feels grimy.

2. Use the Jersy to soak up most of the moisture. I wrap it while I do other things then rub my hair fairly vigorously to remove most of the water from my hair.

3. Place a coin-sized amount of leave in conditioner in your palm and rub all through your hair.

4. Do the same with your styling cream then do the same with your oil. Ensure it is rubbed all through your hair especially on the ends.

5. Leave your hair in a wash and go style or do a twist. Don’t ever comb out your hair with a small tooth comb. This pulls the hair and makes it more difficult to handle. Finger comb your hair, open up sections with your fingers.

6. Do the process above when you’ve returned home from work. Then I normally sit and twist my hair, either in corn-rows, individually or in rows from a center part.

I chose to do the LCO Method versus the LOC method as my hair felt nicer when I put the oils in last. What I don’t do because it affects my hair, is:

1. Wash my hair with Shampoos and Conditioners that contain sulphates.

2. Wipe my hair with a towel.

3. Let my hair dry before twisting. For me the twist comes out wavier when its done while my hair is still damp. Ensure that you aren’t doing this process too late in the evening, so that you don’t go to bed with your hair damp. Use a dryer on mid heat so your hair is fairly dry if you need to go to bed.

4. Comb my hair with a comb. I only use a huge tooth comb when I’m co-washing, to remove tangles. Other than that I finger comb my hair only.

5. Sleep on a silk pillowcase (you can get this on amazon here) or with a silk cap. This prevents the hair from drying out. Cotton or polyester bedding will dry out your hair.

The next morning I undo all the twists in a counter twist direction (it’s easier) and fluff out any spaces between the twists. Twisting can be tiring on the arms at first but the more you do it the easier it gets, then your arm no longer hurts while twisting. I never comb my hair with a comb. I finger comb only

I mixed my own hair oils based on all the information I had gathered. In using certain oils individually I saw the effects of each oil on my hair. I tried using hair rods but ugh!! I can’t sleep with them in my hair as they give me a major headache the next day, so no curlers or rods for me. Because of that, I had to find another way to get the curly style and twisting was and is the best method for me.

I also tried plaiting my hair in corn-rows. That came out ok but when I tried to loosen the plaits the ends got knotted and the waves are not as nice. Another style method is doing individual twists (not in corn rows) then wrapping them into a bantu knot. The next morning you have a nice thick wave with a curl at the end. It gives you an almost sixties hairstyle. A very nice look.

Surprisingly I didn’t do many deep conditioning treatments. I trimmed my hair sometimes if I felt the split ends were really bad. I used natural household ingredients to give my hair a deep clean and all of this will be mentioned in my next blog post

I will share on the specific products I used in my next blog so look out for that.

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU MIGHT LIKE…..

Hi I’m GaFra

Please continue to read my blogs and send me your comments and feedback. I really want to hear from you.

10 Things I Love About Trinidad

Hi Guys...in my last post I talked about Carnival because that was the season at the time. With this post I want to tell you a little more about my beautiful twin Island...TRINIDAD & TOBAGO….yes I’m giving you some more snippets so you can get a better idea about life over here. So to start I'll do it like the typical countdown. Now I’m going to mention 10 things I love about my country but there are hundreds more but I don’t want this post to become an ebook.

1.     I LOVE OUR FRIENDLY NATURE

In Trinidad we are so friendly that you might encounter or as we say “bounce up” a person 3 or 4 times for the day at different places and you would still be greeted as if we just saw you.. With a smile maybe event stopping for a short chat. We enjoying chatting and even though I saw you an hour ago I will still smile a greeting at you when I see you 3 hours later at the grocery.

2.    I LOVE HOW WE CAN HAVE FUN ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT

Trinis (pronounced trin-knees) like to what we call “lime”. Liming means getting together to talk, drink, eat, listen to music or play games on the spur of the moment or even planned. There are planned family limes, spur of the moment friend limes, beach limes, after work limes, night time limes and so on. We don’t say we’re going to visit, that is just too formal for us. We say I’m going to lime by my friend or there is a lime by “Smokey & Bunty” later. You get my drift…

3.    I LOVE MY SUNNY COUNTRY

We have sun most of the year. We have basically two seasons, dry and rainy. In fact right now its extremely bright outside and sunny. The sky is a beautiful cerulean blue, the mountains are green and our weather is just so invigorating. That’s why most Trinis go to the beach on the weekends because it’s bright and sunny and hot as heck. But our heat is a nice heat followed by lots of breeze and birds chirping and fabulous blue skies. Our worst weather is during the rainy season, which starts June and runs to December. Our dry season is from January to May, so we’re in the dry season right now but we will still have some rainy days occasionally, mainly if a tropical depression is in the vicinity. But that’s great though, its great for the plants and it helps cool down the heat.

4.    I LOVE HOW TALENTED OUR PEOPLE ARE

For a small Island we’ve made many milestones. We’ve had two Miss Universe, in 1977 and in 1988, and we’ve had a Miss World, who happens to be a friend on mine and we’ve had many Olympic Gold medal winners in different sports. We have one of the most famous cricketers in the world, Brian Lara and others. Our music is unlike the rest of the Caribbean. Soca, which unknown to most Americans and Europeans, is even more popular in the Caribbean than Jamaican dub music. We have Noble Prize winning Authors. Our children play Pan and are well rounded. Steelband is well known all around the world and I can mention even more, but that will do for now. An island the size of a pin head to the rest of the world. hmmmm

5.    I LOVE OUR MIXED ETHNICITY

Our culture is a melting pot of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds….from Portuguese, Spanish, East Indian, Syrian, Chinese, African.

The population is mainly comprised of blacks (the descendants of former slaves), East Indians (originally brought to the island as contract laborers from northern India), whites, and Chinese, many of whom are racially and culturally intermixed. The ethnic makeup of Trinidad is dominated by two groups, roughly equal in size: blacks, descended from slaves brought in to work on cotton and sugar plantations beginning in the late 18th century, and Indo-Trinidadians, or East Indians, whose ancestors were primarily labourers who immigrated from the Indian. I am afro Trinidadian with east Indian, Mulatto and Carib. Caribs and Arawaks were the indigenous Indians that were found oon the Island by the English settlers. You will find people with East Indian surnames but they look black or a person mixed with chinese and east indian ethnicity with an african black surname. We also have caucasians, who are mixed with portuguese and something else (could be any one of the other races). I love the mixtures.

6.     I LOVE THE FOOD

 Our food is a combination of the cultures. So you can get Indian food, Arabian food, Creole food, Spanish dishes and more. The key or basic meals we eat I found out recently is very similar to what they eat in most Caribbean Islands as well as in Brazil. That meal is lentils and rice with stewed chicken and salad on the side. A side-walk or street food we all love day or night is doubles. This is eaten at the side of the road where the vendor sets up his box and serves you the doubles on sheets of paper. Our typical breakfast would be doubles, if that’s what you’re feeling for or scrambled eggs and fry bake. Lunch is white rice, peas, and stewed chicken or pelau or callaloo, rice and stewed chicken. Dinner would be what we had for lunch or Crix biscuits and cheese with a cup of tea. You can google the recipes easily.

7.    I LOVE OUR MUSIC

I have to be honest when I was young I didn’t really appreciate or Pan music or our calypso music, but as you get older you start to understand and get into the beat. Plus the first time to attend a Panorama competition and list to 16 Steelband groups play different or popular calypso songs you feel so different. The effect is amazing or when as the different pan sides are waiting to go unto the stage to perform their pieces and they are practicing on the sides, to walk through them as they practice is again an amazingly enjoyable experience. The sweet music and harmony that can come from a tuned steel drum is just awesome. That is why people come from all over the world just to experience playing pan in our Panorama competition.

8.    I LOVE THE LOOK OF MY COUNTRY

Trinidad is made up of hills and lots of vegetation. We have the largest round-about that has an array of trees for example the Poui which flowers coming close to rainy season. It’s a beautiful yellow or different shades of pink and they pop up all over the mountain side. It looks so pretty and when the flowers fall the ground looks like it’s sprinkled with yellow or pink dust. Just beautiful…. I enjoy visiting our botanical gardens which houses a variety of trees native to Trinidad. We have about 386 trees that are native to Trinidad, such as, the bougainvillea, Chaconia or National flower, Crown of thorns, Hibiscus and many more. We have lovely nature tours and places where you can spend a few days and watch the hummingbirds of which we have the most number of species. Places like Asa Wright Nature Centre, Yerette for the hummingbirds and visit an old Cocoa house in Lopinot.

9.    I LOVE OUR TWIN ISLAND OF TOBAGO

Trinidad is the business hub of the Caribbean with our skyscrapers and many banks and businesses. It’s like the Las Vegas of the Caribbean and Tobago our twin Island is like the sanctuary and place of relaxation and get away. Trinidadians go Tobago to get away and relax when they need some R and R. Tobago is very slow paced, more relaxed and has the better beaches. The food is amazing and the people are even friendlier than Trinidadians.

10. I LOVE OUR LACK OF DRAMA

Yes…every country has some type of issue, because of our location we do have outsiders trying to use here as the go between for drugs and guns but the gangs or individuals that are involved in that tend to be harming each other and many countries are having that problem of controlling the greedy, drug cartels, gun runners, human traffickers but here at least we aren’t in a war with anyone, our economy is doing fine, our Government is working hard to make sure things run smoothly despite the fact that politics can be a hindrance rather than a help, but we manage. And as one Calysonian said in a song, our treasury could bun down but we will still be partying. I remember once there was a hurricane warning and we were asked to stay indoors, but no, not Trinis, some people were having hurricane parties…yep no matter what is happening we tend to keep a light spirit and still look for the good side of life…as we tend to say here…life is way too short to fuss too much or to fuss on the small things.

On an aside another thing I love about my country is the fact that we are very religious in that most of us believe in some type of higher being. Most believe in God and we put our faith in him to help us through whatever trial we may be facing. My life is guided by him and all that I have he has blessed me with and I thank him everyday for his goodness. Thank you Jesus.

So that’s it people…I hope you enjoyed getting a sneak peak into some of what the lifestyle in Trinidad is like. Hop you enjoyed it and as one of my followers mentioned…she would love to visit Trinidad for Carnival and I said…heck yes…its something to experience at least once, especially jouvert. Bye for now and check you for my next post.

Completed At Last

Hi Guys,....sorry about being late with my blog but as you saw from my last post we were having Carnival over here and that is like a huge celebration for 3 weeks straight and on Ash Wednesday everyone is either sleeping, took a day off, at the beach or working (kinda). Tinis like to party and when Carnival rolls around its constant events and fete. I went to only 4 this year and I played jouvert.

But i'm really here to talk about my art site and the whole drive to sell my art. I started off setting up an Art blog a few years ago and i also set up an Etsy store t sell all my watercolour paintings. I had just started out and I have to say, things were dismal. After like a year i was so disappointed and demotivated that i closed the Etsy store, and ignored the website.

New time, new zest. I got more involved in my Art and started selling in the Upmarkets here and people loved my work, bought my work and i even gathered a few followers who sought me out to say hello and to let me know how they felt about my pieces. I did a few exhibitions with different groups (no sales with any) and I did my own exhibition (sold some a work). i've learned a lot and now i've reached that juncture in my life where i want some success with my Art business.

I run a successful Leadership Development Coaching business here in Trinidad and we make good money at least enough to allow 2 kids to study abroad and be comfortable. All of our children have their degrees and are prepared  for life and know what they want to become and where they want to be in the future. i  however, always wanted a second business that is fully mine. Yes i started this one and made my husband join me and now he runs it mainly but I want my Art to be a success online and that just isn't as easy as one would think. Online is worse than competing with the many Artist in Trinidad. It's like competing with that number times 100,000. So how does one stand out in that ocean of Online art.

It appears the answer is developing your skill in using Social media. Social Media is the magic wand that grants your wish but a magic wand that one has to understand how to use it or else you'll cause the wrong effect from your spell. I'm a baby to Social mEDIA BUT i'm learning. All this is the preamble to tell you that I'm late with my blog because I'v been updating my Art site on Squarespace and I created another Art site on Wordpress. Plus i've been creating more professional Digital planners for the Business person. They're different in that they deal with Leadership Activities that we normally don't get help with, such as how to plan out how and who you delegate to, how do you manage interruptions from team members, friends, family, and any significant other and how to set proper goals for achievement. Yes my planners are designed to help with these areas.

No I'm not advertising...I Hate when people do that....and I've noticed most of these site are doing that. No i'm imply explaining how I was spending my time and what are the results. So you can go take a look at them on either site. OH YES!!! AND....I also set up a new Etsy shop...DUH...with me it's all about creating and developing all these artistic things, be they digital or hand made... they are so much fun for me but now I think my husband is jealous of my laptop...because i spend more time looking at that screen than I do looking at his face.

This is my new Etsy shop. I just love what I've done with it. lol

Compared to the Etsy store i created 4-5 years ago this one is great and soooo different, but it's all due to how technology now makes it so easy to create when you can get stock pics easily and there are sites like Canva that make creating oh so easy. I LOVE THEM ALLLLLL!! Ok enough of that. I will talk some more later so see you soon.

The Pain of Alzheimers

Hi Guys…today I want to talk about this disease, as recently I’ve noticed how so many people are suddenly being attacked by this disease and it is a hateful disease. I’ve seen first hand what this disease can do and it is heartbreaking to watch, people who played a major part in your life, who were active, smart, energetic individuals turn into confused little children.

I attended a funeral a few months ago of my husband’s uncle who died of the disease. I was totally blown away by the amount of things he had accomplished. He was a vibrant man who touched the lives of many and was involved in politics, the arts and more. He was vital to his village council and more but to degenerate to a man who would run away, destroy things in the home, not recognise friends or even family. This is the height of sadness.

Alzheimers Disease

This disease to me attacks the brain and where in a normal person the brain guides our abilities and bodily functions when the brain deteriorates there is no longer that level of guidance for the body to know how to deal with it’s organs and this is what inevitably causes death. The organs shut down due to no guidance from the brain.So what is this disease called Alzheimers? I wanted to do a bit of research to learn more and I'm sharing what I found. If you have a lived one suffering from this disease or you know someone who has it maybe this will help you understand it a bit more. It helped me.

Alzheimer's disease (AD), also referred to simply asAlzheimer's, is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss).

Every person with Alzheimer’s experiences the disease differently, but people tend to experience a similar trajectory from the beginning of the illness to its end. The precise number of stages of Alzheimer’s is somewhat arbitrary. Some experts use a simple three-phase model (early, moderate and end), while others have found a granular breakdown to be a more useful aid to understanding the progression of the illness.

 SUMMARY:

 What are the symptoms of early onset Alzheimer's disease?

• ·       Memory loss that disrupts daily life….

• ·       Difficulty planning and solving problems. ...

• ·       Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work or at leisure

• ·       Difficulty determining time or place. ...

• ·       Vision loss. Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships.

• ·       Difficulty finding the right words. ...

• ·       Misplacing items often. ...

• ·       Difficulty making decisions.

• ·       Withdrawal from work or social activities

• ·       Changes in Mood and personality

The most common system, developed by Dr. Barry Reisberg of New York University, breaks the progression of Alzheimer’s disease into seven stages.

Here is a summary of the seven stages of Alzeimer’s based on Dr. Resiberg’s system:

Stage 1: No Impairment

During this stage, Alzheimer’s is not detectable and no memory problems or other symptoms of dementia are evident.

Stage 2: Very Mild Decline

The senior may notice minor memory problems or lose things around the house, although not to the point where the memory loss can easily be distinguished from normal age-related memory loss. The person will still do well on memory tests and the disease is unlikely to be detected by loved ones or physicians.

Stage 3: Mild Decline

At this stage, the family members and friends of the senior may begin to notice cognitive problems. Performance on memory tests are affected and physicians will be able to detect impaired cognitive function.

People in stage 3 will have difficulty in many areas including:

• ·     Finding the right word during conversations

• ·       Organizing and planning

• ·       Remembering names of new acquaintances

People with stage three Alzheimer’s may also frequently lose personal possessions, including valuables.

Stage 4: Moderate Decline

In stage four of Alzheimer’s, clear-cut symptoms of the disease are apparent. People with stage four of Alzheimer’s:

• ·       Have difficulty with simple arithmetic

• ·       Have poor short-term memory (may not recall what they ate for breakfast, for example)

• ·       Inability to manage finance and pay bills

• ·       May forget details about their life histories

Stage 5: Moderately Severe Decline

During the fifth stage of Alzheimer’s, people begin to need help with many day-to-day activities. People in stage five of the disease may experience:

• ·       Difficulty dressing appropriately

• ·       Inability to recall simple details about themselves such as their own phone number

• ·       Significant confusion

On the other hand, people in stage five maintain functionality. They typically can still bathe and toilet independently. They also usually still know their family members and some detail about their personal histories, especially their childhood and youth.

Stage 6: Severe Decline

People with the sixth stage of Alzheimer’s need constant supervision and frequently require professional care. Symptoms include:

• ·       Confusion or unawareness of environment and surroundings

• ·       Inability to recognize faces except for the closest friends and relatives

• ·       Inability to remember most details of personal history

• ·       Loss of bladder and bowel control

• ·       Major personality changes and potential behavior problems

• ·       The need for assistance with activities of daily living such as toileting and bathing

• ·       Wandering

Stages 7: Very Severe Decline

Stage seven is the final stage of Alzheimer’s. Because the disease is a terminal illness, people in stage seven are nearing death. In stage seven of the disease, people lose the ability to communicate or respond to their environment. While they may still be able to utter words and phrases, they have no insight into their condition and need assistance with all activities of daily living. In the final stages of Alzheimer’s, people may lose their ability to swallow.

What is the difference between Alzheimer’s and typical age-related changes?

Signs of Alzheimer's and Dementia Typical Age-Related Changes

• Poor judgment and decision-making  - Making a bad decision once in a while

• Inability to manage a budget  - Missing a monthly payment

• Losing track of the date or the season - Forgetting which day it is and remembering it later

• Difficulty having a conversation - Sometimes forgetting which word to use

• Misplacing things and being unable to remember where they were placed. - Losing things from time to time  - retraces steps to find them

I hope you learned something more about this disease called Alzheimers and lets work hard to prevent any of our loved ones from having to suffer to badly via early detection.

References:

• Alziemers.net

• Heartline.com

• Alzhiemers Association

Hi! I’m Gafra

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The Art of Being A Black Woman with Natural Hair

Being black and handling your Natural hair. What is that all about?

Hi guys…..…..i was thinking back to when I first started going on my Natural Hair Journey. this is how it started….I had decided to go natural but I needed to do a lot of research first, as usual. So in looking at many pictures on Pinterest, I fell in love with the short natural hairstyle. The shortcut was just very sexy and so cute, to me it was a fantastic look…..

 So I fell in love with the natural short hair cut and when my relaxed hair started to grow out, instead of transitioning, I decided to cut it all off. So that is what I did. I didn’t bother with going through that annoying stage of transitioning from the relaxed to the natural. The thing is most women are afraid of this choice, why? Allot of women I meet on the street tend to ask me …..”what did you do to transition” and when I tell them I didn't I just cut it all off, most of these women say…OH NO!! I can’t do that I don’t have the face for it”….or “ Nah I Can’t do that I don’t have the shaped head for that”…What they are really saying is that they are afraid of this process because it’s so drastic and it means that they can’t hide behind their hair as the focus of their beauty. To women our hair is a major player in making us feel good about ourselves or to feel beautiful.

 But to me there is no such thing as looking bad with a short natural hairstyle. The bold look is a beauty in itself. It also takes a lot of courage on the part of that woman, to show all of herself, all of her features. To me the short hairstyle looks good on everyone. When your hair is cut that short your face is now the prominent part of you. People see you. Woman fear being seen and with a short cut she can no longer hide behind her hair. She is being seen as she is. I have no problem with that and I had no problem with that. It’s didn’t allow that fear or uncertainty to prevent me from trying what I wanted to.

 I know every single woman is beautiful in their own right and when you go short all you have to do is ROCK IT. You play it up, wear the amazing makeup, wear the huge earrings, wear the head wraps, wear the amazing makeup that makes your eyes pop because you do look beautiful and there's no such thing as “my head isn't shaped for a short haircut”.  My sister-in-law was always wearing wigs or weaves or braids. For as long as I have known her that all she wore. I didn’t know what her natural hair looked like. Never saw her au natural.

And for as long as I've known her it bothered me, I really wanted to tell her to stop it. Stop wearing wigs and weaves because they were damaging her hair. At least that's my opinion. I think wigs and weaves stifle your hair. Your hair needs to breathe, your hair can’t grow if it can’t breath. Your hair gets very badly treated when you wear those “things” constantly. Your hair needs to breathe, and your head is able to feel the air, to finally breathe when you give it a break and a long one from those “things”.

 I finally told her what I felt, I told her she needed to stop wearing those things and she had reached a point where she was going to redo her hair and I think she also wanted a change. My words must have sunk in because as the hairdresser asked her if to refresh the weave?.... she decided to not bother and instead of replacing the weave she told her to cut it all off. She went even further than I did, she went almost completely bald.  

And even though in doing that you saw the patches/spaces where hair had suffered, I told her her face was now prominent and her beauty now shone through. She looked really good. The shape of her face, her eyes, it was like seeing them for the first time. And then my girl stared to ROCK IT. The big earrings, the makeup, she looked GOOD!!!

The short haircut enhances the features you always had but her features with a little makeup and stylish earring and she looked amazing. So my my words to all the women out there…. there's no such thing as you don't have the head shape for a natural short haircut. My daughters, after seeing me go natural they all went natural as well. One cut her hair short like I didi and the other daughter, whose hair was at the middle of her back…. she had a relaxer ….and I never thought she would ever cut it since long hair was a big thing for her…. she cut it all off and OMG!!! she was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

 So don't let fear hold you back you are beautiful. And remember hair grows back. I will talk some more in my next post about why I stopped relaxing my hair.  There are five reasons for me against having relaxed hair. I didn't know about the beauty of natural hair while I was young because my mother never allowed me to experience it and although I loved and enjoyed my relaxed hair, I don't regret moving away from it, but I do regret not having had the opportunity to experiment and experience my natural hair , to especially see how far I could have taken it.  But everything happens in its own time, I'm doing that now, I’m having my experience and I thank you for sharing my story and this journey with me.

 I'll see you at my next post love you all have a great day.

Carnival 2019 in Trinidad & Tobago

Hi guys…..I’ve written about this before but that time has come around again. It’s CARNIVAL IN TRINIDAD!!!!!! Yes people partying for weeks with 3 or more parties happening everyday and then there will be the parade of carnival costumes in the streets on the last two main Carnival days. I wanted to do everything this year…that means going to at least 4 all inclusive fetes, doing Jouvert, going Panorama and also playing Mass but the finances just weren’t holding up so I had to pick and choose which events I could go to.

Just to explain…in Trinidad we have 2 days where different Carnival Bands dance through the streets in their fantastic costumes on Carnival Monday 4th March and Tuesday 5th March. Carnival bands are organized groups made up of participants who pay for costumes fashioned by a designer and assembled by teams of volunteers. The costumed participants dance through the streets to the sounds of a steel band, a soca band or a d.j.

Carnival Costumes in Trinidad & Tobago

Note: Historians say they believe the first "modern" Caribbean Carnival originated inTrinidad and Tobago in the late 18th century when a flood of French settlers brought the Fat Tuesday masquerade party tradition with them to the island, although Fat Tuesday celebrations were almost certainly taking place at least a century.

The 2 or 3 weeks before those two days there are hundreds of events like Steelpan Competitions (know as Panorama), Calypso Competitions (Groovy, Power, Chutney, Calypso and Ex Tempo), All Inclusive fetes, Cooler fetes, and more. All Inclusive fetes are parties you pay around $150USD and you get as much food as you want, drinks of all kinds – cocktails, champaign, mixed drinks – live calypso or Groovey singers….only the best of the best Trini Kaiso and Soca entertainers.

A fête, or fete, is an elaborate festival, party or celebration. In Britain, fêtes are traditional public festivals, held outdoors and organised to raise funds for a charity. They typically include entertainment and the sale of goods and refreshments.

Note: Steelpan- a percussion instrument originating in Trinidad, made out of an oil drum with one end beaten down and divided by grooves into sections to give different notes.

You dance, jump and “wine” from 3:00pm until midnight. It’s the best EVER!!!!. “Wine” or “wining” is the name given to the dance of Trinidad and Tobago.Talk about a great stress reliever, that is what Carnival is for many. There are people who go from one party to the next then go straight to work, e.g. my daughter’s friend went to a Fete on Tuesday from 2pm to 11pm then straight from that Fete to another one starting from 11pm to 9am the next day and from that she went straight to work for 9am.

Playing Jouvert 4th march 2019 with friends in the Duck Crew

We live for Carnival, the fun, the excitement , the meeting up of friends you haven’t seen in a long time and family from abroad comes just for the Carnival “bacchanal”.Our Festival is AMAZING, FUN, LOVE BETWEEN PEOPLE and everyone gets along with everyone. So in the end I did two fetes although we paid to go to three. My husband was just too tired that day so we didn’t go the Vale Fete. We attended Holy Name Convent’s Cooler Fete. Many of the schools have parties as a means of raising funds for the School. Schools like QRC, Fatima, the University, Bishops have been having All Inclusive Fetes for years. The newcomers are CIC and Holy Name.

We live for Carnival, the fun, the excitement , the meeting up of friends you haven’t seen in a long time and family from abroad comes just for the Carnival “bacchanal”. Our Festival is AMAZING, FUN, LOVE BETWEEN PEOPLE and everyone gets along with everyone. So in the end I did two fetes although we paid to go to three. My husband was just too tired that day so we didn’t go the Vale Fete. We attended Holy Name Convent’s Cooler Fete. Many of the schools have parties as a means of raising funds for the School. Schools like QRC, Fatima, the University, Bishops have been having All Inclusive Fetes for years. The newcomers are CIC and Holy Name.

Even St. Joseph Covent who I know the Nuns said they would never allow a fete on the grounds had to give in to the school partnering with 2 other schools. Fatima and St. Francois to host a Cooler fete because the funds helps the schools build computer rooms, put in new computers, fix areas that are run down and pay for whatever issues the school maybe experiencing. They are normally organized by the Past Students, which removes the headache and stress of organizing an event to them versus the teachers etc. Some of these High Schools are so great at running these events that their tickets are prime.

Ok to continue….I attended my daughter’s high school cooler fete at Holy Name and a Fete called Farmhouse which was hosted in Chaguaramas Prominade…I was WONDERFUL!!! I had a ball. I went with my husband, my girlfriend and we organized to meet 3 other couples there. I “bounced up” so many people I haven’t seen in a long while as well as some of my clients that I call friends.

Me at the Holy Name cooler Fete.

So 2 out of 3 fetes attended. I couldn’t play mass as the costumes were a bit over my budget…that is why some people take loans for Carnival…with the cost of the Carnival costumes, all the fetes, Panorama and more you end up spending a minimum of  $2500.USD, an amount I can’t spend right now. So the 3 Fetes.......one we got the tickets free (Holy Name) and the other 2 combined cost me  USD $250 and then there is JOUVERT!!!!  That’s where different bands of people (which could total 1000’s) in casual t-Shirts and shorts or less get covered in paint or mud, or chocolate, or powder or clay and we dance through the streets following Music trucks and breakfast is provided as well as drinks…soft and alcoholic because this parade starts at 4am in the morning.

Yes people I got up at 1am to get ready to collect a friend, went to the meeting point in my paid for T-shirt (that you can cut up into all kinds of stiles), cup, hat, beads provided for our portrayal. When you arrive you get a drink, listen and dance to music while you wait for when the trucks move unto the road where we follow, dancing and prancing in the streets behind them. OH I forgot to mention that as we are waiting we each go to get paint smeared all overs…on our clothes, hair, legs..…anywhere the skin is showing.

Jouvert in Trinidad & Tobago

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Once the truck leaves the compound then we follow. It drives around the town with us following-dancing behind it, along the way we encounter other bands and we let them pass or we dance with them, but I’m talking about bands with hundreds of people so it only sounds simple. We dance all morning from 4am until 8 or 9am. WONDERFUL FUN!!!.

Inspite of all that prancing I’m not tired, I guess working out in the gym at 5am then walking the hills of Chancellor in the afternoon has built up my stamina. But I will feel it a little later in the day, but for now I;\”m watching the Parade of the bands on TV while I recoup from Jouvert.

I hope one day one of you m readers can come visit Trinidad to experience our Carnival…none of the carnivals in the other countries like Brazil or even Mardi Gras in New Orleans comes close and I’ve experienced Mardi Gras.

Me and my friends at Jouvert 2019

Hi! I’m Gafra

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God is Good and Art is Alive

Hi Everyone, i remembered this post recently and it rejuvenated my feelings about my art and my efforts to build my Art Business. Lately I've been rather slow in getting back into my art. I set myself a challenge to paint a watercolor landscape every day for 30 days and to date I've managed to stick at it. My focus lately has been to build up both of my blogs, set up my Online Course, sell my printables and lastly, set up my Etsy Store.

I've been a little disappointed that no one has bought a single printable or any of my printable watercolour paintings but I guess its because I haven't pushed enough "traffic" to my blogs and to an extent that is correct but I don't want to go the route of writing blogs only to sell an item because I want to continue sharing on topics that interest me. I will continue to offer my art for sale and I hope some begin to love my style, which I have to say I am still figuring out. Art is like introspection. Its looking within and seeing who you are. It's about letting out the energy and power within that dwells within but has a strong urge to be released and that is what I try to do. Let out my inner being.

So this is the blog post from way back when that gave me back my faith in my Art and my painting abilities.

"I've been soooo busy, yes like a crazy person as usual. I've been on a drive to get my art out there and I've been...as you know...doing allot of acrylic abstracts but now I'm doing allot of miniature acrylic abstracts. They have been so much fun, so I'm totally enjoying myself. The only challenge is time. I've been feeling extremely rushed and anxious because when I want to be painting I'm at my other job. But that pays the bills and my art doesn't, at least not yet, so I can't push it aside. Anyway, let me tell you about the great thing that happened.

I say God is good because although I had a weird week of accidents, I visited my favourite art supply store again....yes again and who happens to be there? One of Trinidad and Tobago's most amazing artist Jackie  Hinkson. I love his work and I kinda got star struck. He taught one of my art classes way way back, so I didn't think he would remember me. I was oh so polite to him but he did catch me drooling...so embarrassing. I built up the courage to go talk to him and reminded him of where we met and he remembered the class. (BIG SMILE).

The best part was, when he was leaving, he asked if I still painted and I said yes, but I'm doing some acrylics and less watercolour. However I intended to restart on the watercolours. He said yes watercolours are difficult but keep trying. He also offered to critique my work. Well people, I'm not one to waste or lose an opportunity. I definitely GRABBED that one. The same afternoon as soon as I returned home I sent him an email and 3 of my pieces to critique.

Do you know he really responded  and his feedback was so great and made me feel sooooo resolved to continue my painting and to know that I wasn't on the wrong track. It confirmed me and now I'm off and running. The great thing is, we continue to correspond as I've sent him another watercolour and an abstract to hear his thoughts about them. He encouraged me to do Plein Air, which I know I need to do more often but I tend to avoid it. Plein Air is hard, especially as the paint dries so quickly as you're painting. Below is the Plein Air I attempted once and didn't like, but I will take his advice and do one that is simple and see how that one turns out. Its a painting of the Haynes Manor by the savannah. See what I mean?

Since that painting I've done many more architectural pieces but none Plein air, why because I just don't want to go through packing all the required tools to set up to do a plein air painting. But I have been doing a lot of landscapes to help build up my looseness. See 2 below that were done just last week.

Hi I’m GaFra

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Stages of Female & Male Menopause

Hi everyone, I'm finally going to talk about a topic that isn't really brought up very often. No one warns us women of what we will have to go through when we reach the AGE. It wasn't a very nice experience and it is still happening todate. I wasn't informed by my mother, by friends, no one not until I was going through it myself and I had to go do my research. Eventually I had the conversation with my girlfriends and that was when we brought out all the effects or some of us warned the others of what to expect and what we can do to ease the effect.

For me there weren't many things I could use that helped. I had to ride it out as best as I could, which wasn't much of a help. The hot flashes, the mood swings, the lack of sexual urges and worst the feeling of as if life was a confused ball of nothing. I did my research and although I tried Evening Primrose....that didn't help me. None of the medication recommended worked for me, so as I said, I had to ride it out. Fortunately for me, the hot flashes which would start from my lower areas then move upwards like a flaming fire in my body, changed from flaming heat to just periods of "feeling warm", and that is still happening.

Look at the information I've gathered for you:

Menopause is a normal condition that all women experience as they age. The term "menopause" can describe any of the changes a woman goes through either just before or after she stops menstruating,marking the end of her reproductive period.

What Causes Menopause?

A woman is born with a finite number of eggs, which are stored in the ovaries. The ovaries also make the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which control menstruation and ovulation. Menopause happens when the ovaries no longer release an egg every month and menstruation stops.

Menopause is considered a normal part of aging when it happens after the age of 40. But some women can go through menopause early, either as a result of surgery, such as hysterectomy, or damage to the ovaries, such as from chemotherapy. Menopause that happens before 40, regardless of the cause, is called premature menopause.

Perimenopause or menopause transition, begins several years before menopause. It's the time when the ovaries gradually begin to make less estrogen. It usually starts in a woman's 40s, but can start in her 30s or even earlier.

Perimenopause lasts up until menopause, the point when the ovaries stop releasing eggs. In the last 1 to 2 years of perimenopause, this drop in estrogen speeds up. At this stage, many women have menopause symptoms.

How Long Does Perimenopause Last?

The average length of perimenopause is 4 years, but for some women this stage may last only a few months or continue for 10 years. Perimenopause ends when a woman has gone 12 months without having her period.

Women in perimenopause have at least some these symptoms:

• · Hot flashes.

• · Breast tenderness.

• · Worse premenstrual syndrome.

• · Lower sex drive.

• · Fatigue.

• · Irregular periods.

• · Vaginal dryness; discomfort during sex.

• · Urine leakage when coughing or sneezing.

Some common, normal signs include irregular periods, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, sleep disturbances, and mood swings—all results of unevenly changing levels of ovarian hormones (estrogen) in your body. Read more about how you'll know you're near menopause.

Other common symptoms around the time of menopause include:

• · Irregular or skipped periods.

• · Insomnia.

• · Mood swings.

• · Fatigue.

• · Depression.

• · Irritability.

• · Racing heart.

• · Headaches.

Symptoms of menopause

• · Hot flashes. These cause you to feel a sudden rush of warmth in your face and upper body. ...

• · Night sweats. Hot flashes during sleep can result in night sweats. ...

• · Cold flashes. ...

• · Vaginal changes. ...

• · Emotional changes. ...

• · Trouble sleeping.

The age you experience it can vary, but it typically occurs in your late 40s or early 50s. Menopause can cause many changes in your body. The symptoms are the result of a decreased production of estrogen and progesterone in your ovaries. ...You may find that getting through menopause requires little medical attention.

Do the symptoms ever go away?

Most symptoms of menopause are permanent, unless the woman takes hormones or other medications. Hot flashes usually last about two years, but for 15%-20% of women, they never go away. Insomnia or sleep disturbances also can continue to be a problem.

What is the Last Stage of Menopause?

The 3-5 year period before menopause when your estrogen and hormone levels begin to drop is called perimenopause. You typically enter into perimenopause in your late 40's and could begin to experience irregular menstrual cycles and symptoms such as: Hot flashes. Sleep disturbances-insomnia.

Handling the Menopause Weight Gain

Exercise More Often, More Intensely to Counter Midlife Weight Gain. Start with a mix of moderate and vigorous exercise to burn off menopausal weight gain. Your routine should include aerobic exercises, like swimming, walking, bicycling, and running, as well as resistance or strength training.

Weight distribution changes as you hit menopause, with the added pounds accumulating right around your belly Before, during, and after menopause, your estrogen levels begin to wane and your metabolism slows, making it more difficult for you to lose weight, particularly around your middle. And belly fat isn’t just annoying — it’s also unhealthy. Studies show it increases your risk for heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, and perhaps even early death. Here, 10 ways to successfully fight the battle of the bulge:

Start with a mix of moderate and vigorous exercise to burn off menopausal weight gain. Your routine should include aerobic exercises, like swimming, walking, bicycling, and running, as well as resistance or strength training

Women may not be the only ones who suffer the effects of changing hormones. Some doctors are noticing that men are reporting some of the same symptoms that women experience in perimenopause and menopause.

The medical community is debating whether or not men really do go through a well-defined menopause. Doctors say that men receiving hormone therapy with testosterone have reported relief of some of the symptoms associated with so-called male menopause.

What Is Male Menopause?

Because men do not go through a well-defined period referred to as menopause, some doctors refer to this problem as androgen (testosterone) decline in the aging male -- or what some people call low testosterone. Men do experience a decline in the production of the male hormone testosterone with aging, but this also occurs with conditions such as diabetes.

Along with the decline in testosterone, some men experience symptoms that include:

• Fatigue

• Weakness

• Depression

• Sexual problems

The relationship of these symptoms to decreased testosterone levels is still controversial.

Unlike menopause in women, when hormone production stops completely, testosterone decline in men is a slower process. The testes, unlike the ovaries, do not run out of the substance it needs to make testosterone. A healthy manmay be able to make sperm well into his 80s or later.

References:

1. webMD – Menopause Basics

2. webMD – perimenopause symptoms

3. Healthline – How long do symptoms of menopause last.

4. Healthline - 11 things women should know about menopause

5. Menopause.org – How will I know I’m in Menopause

6. Everydayhealth.com – How can I lose the menopause belly

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