I believe being HAPPY takes practice. Here are 25 awesome ways to practice happiness.

While I love to create art with paints, paper, scissors, and glue, I also do love finding higher tech ways to spur my creativity.​ I use these apps and programs in a variety of ways... Sometimes I take my "hand-created" art, scan it into the computer and then play with it digitally. Other times, I create art or graphics completely digitally and still other times I use techy tools to inspire my non-techy art.

Here are my 5 favorite creativity digital apps and programs.

1) Adobe Creative Suite:  Adobe is the workhorse for creatives - with good reasons! 
My first introduction to an Adobe product was in the late '90's when, as an advisor to a college newspaper, I helped students layout the paper in Adobe PageMaker. Once I got past the initial learning curve, I LOVED the program and transitioned seamlessly into Adobe InDesign. Currently, I use InDesign a tons! Through InDesign, I create images for my website and social media, do the layout and design work for prints, cards, and other products and create logos, business cards, plus so much more. 
Adobe Photoshop is another program in the Creative Suite that I use all the time. Specifically, I use Photoshop to edit color and manipulate images.
Lastly, I have dabbled with Adobe Illustrator and have found it to be a powerful tool - and a bit overwhelming. Becoming proficient in Illustrator is on my bucket list and I look forward to learning it.

3) Canva: I was recently introduced to Canva (thank you Ali!) and now I use it all the time! Through Canva, I create professionally looking designs for facebook and instagram posts, email headers, and more! They have tons of drop and drag images and photos that are fun and unique. Plus, there are a plethora of fonts to choose from! Canva makes it is easy to create a graphic that fits my style and get the look that I want.

5) Animoto: This is my go-to place to create video and slideshows. It is so easy to use - I have created professional looking videos by simply drop and dragging images and video clips. Animoto has music library and a variety of templates allowing me to get a the exact look and feel that I want.

Make it a HAPPY day!

I freaking LOVE to doodle! I have filled up sketch books with randoms doodles and I sincerely think that doodling makes me a better person.

The doodle is a powerful tool! 
It taps into creativity, 
    reduces stress and, 
        is a great way to practice happiness.

Here are a few of my favorite doodles...

Grab your favorite writing utensil and take a moment to doodle! You won't regret it!

Make it a HAPPY day!

​Throughout 2018, I create a piece of optimistic, happy artwork every week for my One a Week Art Challenge. I challenged myself to meet this goal and I was committed to it and succeeded. 

But to be honest, 2018 was a hard year for me and I learned that choosing happiness is not always as simple as it sounds.

In our country's current political climate, when truth and facts are blurred and integrity and ethical behaviors are not the norm – it is SO easy to feel the negativity. It is SO easy to be consumed by seeing the bad in others and SO easy to forget to find the good. On top of that, personally, during 2018 I experienced a series of circumstances in which I was disappointed and let down by people that I trusted and respected. Candidly, there were times throughout the year that I felt like I had lost my faith in humanity.

Had I not had this One a Week Art Challenge in 2018, I know that I would not have remained as optimistic as I did. That's how ART taught me that Happiness is BOTH a practice and a choice.

How do you practice HAPPINESS?

Make it a HAPPY day!

For a LONG time - a really LONG time - I have been saying that I need to exercise. And, many times, I started, but after a week or two, I would lose motivation and quit.

As you may know, during my One a Week Art Challenge in 2018, I learned TONS about the power of persistence (read about that here). So, I decided to attack my lack of exercise with the same commitment...so on April 22, #100DaysofMOVE began.

Yep, from now until July 31, I will exercise everyday. Spring is blooming here and the weather has been nice, so thus far, my exercise has been walking around my town.

What does this have to do with ART?
Honestly, when I started this 10 days ago, I would have never imagined how much this would connect to my artwork. But, #100DaysofMOVE, has been filled with lots of inspiration in some of the most unexpected places. To keep me motivated, I am documenting my walks with photos.

​Here are some of the inspiration that I have found on my walks.

This has proven to me - yet again - that inspiration is everywhere! I just need to remember to look for it! Thank goodness that #100DaysofMOVE reminded me.

I hope you enjoyed a peek into my daily walks!

Make it a HAPPY day!