I challenge you to express your love.

I feel like as a whole, people generally feel under appreciated, and under loved. It breaks my heart to know that people i care about, don't often realize how much i deeply care about them. How i went weeks, maybe even years under appreciating my parents. Or  even more so, how i went decades under appreciating myself. 

Regardless of Valentines Day coming up, i don't feel like many of us express how much people mean to us. I challenge you to go out of your way to tell the folks you love, how great you think they are, how much you care about them, how grateful you are to have them in your life.

Appreciation can make a day - even change a life. 

Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.
-- Margaret Cousins

What goes down, [sometimes] stays up...

There are days where you just. aren't. feeling it.

Days where you feel up then down.

Days where you don't feel the will to continue.

Don't feel the drive in yourself to FIGHT, to march on.

Days where you feel knocked down.

Or Alone.

Or out of hope.

Days where you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Or feel like everyone is further in the race.

There will always feel times of down in everything you do. In every part of life.

Forever.

But just remember what goes down,
ALWAYS comes back up.

It really does...
eventually.
i promise.

YOU are a gem.

:)

:) :)

It's time to bloom!! 

It's time to realize how amazing you are.

How talented.

How much YOU can make a difference.

Every little bit counts!!

Holy COW! I won a grant!

I can't express how excited and thankful i am. I applied for a professional art grant the end of last year, had the paneling a few weeks ago, and was just informed tonight, that i have been blessed with funding to follow my dreams from United Arts.



This grant will give me the opportunity to professionally print and package my 'nightly doodles', will allow me to personalize and inspire through THIS [encouraging] blog Smiles and Thanks, and help me spread words of kindness and affirmation to Orlando and beyond!!

An extra special thanks to Margot Knight, Mary Patrick, Bonnie Hubbard, Rick Lang, Anna McCambridge, Dario J. Moore, Dennis Neal and Jeremy Seghers for believing in all of us, having incredible patience, and devoting your time reviewing our grants. Thank you for offering great opportunity, and helping make our artistic community a more inspiring place!

And even more so...thank you all SO MUCH for having faith in me and my art work. I can't tell you how much it means to me. Thank you.

Sometime is RIGHT NOW and i can't express how excited i am to start this new adventure!
YAY!!!!

MANY smiles and NUMEROUS thanks!
Jenipher

WANTED: part time goals

goals goals goals.
i have PLENTY of them.
yet, but that many.
how complex. :)

this is the beginning of my new list of goals. i feel as though i should compile them into a pretty list in one note book, instead of scatting them about, losing them.


such a shame to lose perfectly good goals.

do you have a list of goals?
are they 'obtainable'?
are they in the same lists of goals that feel like dreams?

I'd love to know!

Have a lovely day!
smiles to you,
Jenipher