Confetti is one of the happiest things on the planet and I love making it. Thinking of confetti as “a mess” is not in my system – when people bring that on as a reason not to sprinkle confetti, my brain just suffers a little black out… Confetti can, in at least 97% of the cases, brighten up my day. Now today did not need brightening up for me, but maybe someone’s out there who may need some cheer! Here you go, a home-made-confetti heart, I hope this helps :-)
Not only was yesterday International Peace Day. It was World Gratitude Day, too! So my heart for today is inspired by gratitude.
I like gratitude. Every morning and every evening I write down the things I’m grateful for. At least 3 things in the morning and at least 3 in the evening. In the beginning it felt a bit strange and it seemed hard to get to 3 things. But a year onwards and I easily write a list of 6 or 7 things, sometimes even 10. The smallest things, the most random things, all those things I tend to take for granted. The longer you do this, the easier being grateful comes to you. Magic! And the good thing is, gratefulness, like happiness, shines. It beams right out of your face! So I’m turning into this advocate for gratitude…and before you know it, so will you ;-)
At this very moment I’m grateful for so many things, that I’d like to share some with you. In case it might be inspiring to you…
I’m grateful for my very loving and golden friendships; I’m grateful for my amazing and loving parents and brother; I’m grateful for the sweet and thoughtful responses on my hearts; I’m grateful for my creativity that’s boosting; I’m grateful for the fact I live in a country where there’s no war; I’m grateful for you, reading this blog!
And now onto the heart of today. I drew one heart, created two others out of it and then failed to choose one. So you’ll get 3 hearts from me. An amazing 3-for-1 deal! Enjoy!
#43 – the drawing mixed with a confettied “thank you” I once made.
#43 – a negative
#43 – the original heart
Today’s heart from me to you is a cheesy one. In light of tonight’s full moon I cut a little heart out of cheese. As children’s stories say the moon is made out of cheese, it seemed logical. For the background I used a photo of the moon in its fullest glory. And they match well together, moon and cheese! What if those children’s stories are true…?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
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#22
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[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Day 21, three weeks and counting!
Compassion, compassion, it’s a difficult one. Today the weather was Summery. I wore a short skirt and went to the park. And I got whistled at and checked out by a guy. Not my type. And I felt like I could explode! Couldn’t he mind his own fucking business?! Other women may recognise this ;-)
And then I inhaled deeply. Exhaled and thought “compassion, that’s my goal, compassion”. I didn’t even have to analyse the why’s of this guy! I left it there and continued my walk, then found a nice spot in the sun and had a very relaxed afternoon enjoying the warm sunshine. No frustration, no anger. Just enjoying and relaxation.
It takes some practise and I won’t be faultless after today, but boy oh boy, to just let it be and not let negativity take over. JOY!
And whilst enjoying the sun I created today’s heart from little gem stones I found earlier today when I was clearing out my study. They’re old, as in childhood-memory-old! And so useful today.
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
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[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Oh yes, you caught me there! I missed day #19… The heart was ready, but I just didn’t find a moment to post. But that’s okay. I’m compassionate towards myself ;-) And today you’ll get two hearts from me instead. How lucky do you feel now?
Yesterday’s heart I created on a party last Saturday with the help of a friend. Shadow and light and the famous hand-made heart on a rough old factory wall. The lights create two shadows, two hearts. They look so bold!
The heart for day #20 I made from a game for children. Totally different than yesterday’s heart, but I think it’s pretty colourful and cool, too.
How is your heart doing today? Are your actions and thoughts slowly growing more compassionate? Towards yourself and others?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
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#19
#20
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[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Late night bloggin’. I created a heart earlier this day, but didn’t find the time to post it. But here we are.
The third quote-heart, another of my favourite quotes. Anne Frank. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. I don’t expect I’ll solve all wars in the world and find THE answer to world-peace (although I sometimes dream I do, but always wake up having lost the clue of that dream), but this phrase from the extraordinary Anne Frank always gets to me. I put it on my inspiration wall. It motivates me to follow my heart, to do my bit for the world no matter how small it may seem. It even motivated me to finally go ahead and start this little heart-project!
And I say extraordinary Anne Frank, because it simply is so. All those wise words she’s written, at such a young age. It blows my mind, time and time again.
Today’s heart from me to you I drew myself, then mixed in a picture of Anne Frank and added some dried flowers from my collection (indeed, I have a collection…). I hope this quote and heart will reach you, inspire you. Know that even the smallest gesture, the tiniest act of kindness, can make a difference for someone. So why not go on and do it?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
 
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Good day!
I’ll keep it short. Just promise me this: SMILE TODAY! It’s good, it’s fun, it’s healthy and…it’s contagious!
Today’s heart from me to you exists of one of my favourite quotes; Smile! It confuses people. Because it does, really. Ever smiled to a total stranger or had a total stranger smile at you? Things like that make my day. The sudden connection and kindness. It’s beautiful! I drew a heart and mixed in a picture of…… my mouth. Laughing out loud. Oh yes, that’s my smile.
Now go and smile until it hurts!
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Leave a picture of it in the comments or use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Today I did some scribbling and doodling and I spoke about self-comapssion with friends. It’s interesting to see that so many people struggle with self-compassion! Why, people? Why is this so? However, I guess it’s good to know I’m not the only one coming a long way.
When I say I’m working hard to get more compassionate towards myself, I don’t mean I sit and meditate all day. Simple things help me focus on self-compassion and self-love during the day. For example focussing on what I would love to add to this world. I would love to create “tools” that help people develope a positive picture of themselves, that help developing self-compassion; and no kidding, I’m working on a book on this specific matter! Other “tools” I’m creating are gestures that you can give to other people to show you care – my cards for example. Doing this makes my heart skip and puts a smile on my face the moment I think about it. I can be my authentic self and that feels good! I love that feeling and slowly my self-love grows. Baby steps, but day by day it gets stronger.
Whilst scribling and doodling today I created a heart with one of my favourite quotes. Be the change you want to see in the world. From Gandhi. Speaking of meditation, writing a quote about 20 times is meditative! I added a picture of planet earth, for the extra drama ;-)
What change do you want to see in the world? And what steps are you taking towards it?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Hello again!
Heart number 14 is ready for you. This time created with my PicsArt app. I used a photo of an artwork by my friend, artist Mirjam Bakker (the heart made out of cutlery. Do check out her other work too, it’s fantastic!) and mixed in an image I used in one of my moodboards. The result below, dreamy, full of love. And a little bit of lust, too…
My head was filled with thoughts on compassion today. How about your head? I’m gonna dig a little deeper into a subject that kept popping up: what about compassion and yet not liking someone or, finding someone annoying? Later more on that ;-)
With love,
Tess
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Day #11. Today’s heart from me to you. Another rainbow coloured heart. Using pencils, fineliner and ruler.
What are your thoughts on self-compassion? Are you as kind to yourself as you are to others? The way your mind speaks to you, would you accept that from anyone else? Share your thoughts and – if you wish – create a heart or take a picture of a heart you found. Use #aheartaday.
With love,
Tess
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, there’s too little of it, this world needs more love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts. To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Homemade. Every day I will create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Confetti In Your Face 