"Sweet Dreams" 25.06.2014

"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."
- Vincent van Gogh

...

Why are people so obsessed with knowing things for certain?
Nobody wants to make a decision unless they're 100% sure that this is the right one. But it's impossible to know. You can't predict the future all you can do is assume that what you're going to do will have some predictable effect on your life, but there is no way for you to actually know, for you to be certain of the outcome of your actions. Of course, making predictions is useful, you shouldn't decide to do something risky without analysing all possible outcomes and then only if it's worth the risk you should proceed. Quite often all we think of is the immediate future which gets directly affected by our decision, rarely we consider the long term effects of our actions. All we can do is analyse and predict, but we will never be 100% certain that what we're doing is right. We'll only know when we finally see the long term effect of our decision. 

People are impatient. Who wants to wait for years in order to see that their investment will pay off? Who wants to wait for  years to see if what they love doing will become the only thing they ever have to do?

All we have is here and now. And that's all we have for certain.

Okay, people like to feel in control of their own lives, and indeed, there are some aspects of our lives that we are able to control, but many things are out of our control. We can't control other people, we can't make them react how we want them to react in order for the scenario from our heads to become real. Some people try to manipulate others... Recently I realised how easy it was for people to manipulate me. I would always do the opposite of what they're telling me to do. Let's say they were giving me advice, no matter which side they stood on, I'd be on the opposite side arguing against them and if they were persistent with their argument I'd end up doing the opposite to what they were suggesting. I realised how easily that could be used against me. Now I know and I can control it and stop people from doing so, but not by controlling them, but by controlling the way I react to them.

Oops.. I've gone a bit off topic... :)

So as I was saying earlier, nothing in life is certain and all we can do is try our best to keep up and to stay on top of our lives so we actually feel like we're in control :)

It is IMPOSSIBLE to predict the future. 

All we have is sweet dreams. Sweet dreams about the future, sweet dreams about things that may never happen.

...

My latest painting is called "Sweet Dream" and it was inspired by Ed Sheeran's song ''I See Fire''.. 

As I was listening to his song an image formed in my head and it just had to turn into a painting :)

Here it is: 

Oil on a 18"x14" canvs.

As always Oil paints by Winsor and Newton. This time from the Artists' range :)

Lots of Love,

Marlena

How to make scrambled eggs in a microwave.

You're feeling a bit lazy and feel like scrambled eggs are the perfect breakfast for the day?
You're craving scrambled eggs but dont want to have a lot of washing up to do?
So you decided it's an amazing idea to make scrambled eggs in a microwave! 
I getcha!
You're on the right page! :)


RULE NUMBER 1.
If you don't want your eggs to taste like plastic, You DON'T make scrambled eggs in a microwave. 
RULE NUMBER 2.
If you don't want eggs that are like a chewing gum, you DON'T make scrambled eggs in a microwave 
RULE NUMBER 3.
if you don't want a really hard to wash plate you... See the pattern? YES! You DON'T make scrambled eggs in a microwave! 

So if you dont mind getting disgusting, plastic-like eggs and then having to struggle while washing the plate, here's how you do it.

1. Get a plate
2. Get an egg
3. Add some salt and pepper.
4. Place the egg and the plate in a microwave for about 40 seconds
5. Take it out, move it about the plate to make it scrambled.
6. Back in the microwave for a minute.
7. Take it out and eat.

Optional: 8. If you hate it as much as I did feel free to make a painting :)


Enjoy! 


Here's a painting inspired by my disgusting breakfast:

This is my first ever painting of food and it's better than those disgusting eggs. 


Lots of Love, 
Marlena 

Soul Mates - 27.05.2014

''A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing'' - George Bernard Shaw

...

Today I wanted to talk about love... Many people have no idea what love is and neither do I, because everybody has their own definition of love. So I'll just describe it the way I think is correct. For some people love is when they feel like they need to spend a lot of time with somebody, for others love is when the person they're with cares about them and gives them attention. 

 Some people think they're in love when they feel happy around another person, but the truth is, a lot of people make us happy; our friends make us happy, our parents usually make us happy, even our pets make us happy. Does that mean we love them? We do, but in a different way. It's not necessary a romantic love. And that's the type of love I want to talk about today.

I love my friends and I'm very grateful to have them. I also love my family. And I even love my cats... but romantic love is something entirely different. 

In order to be happy in a relationship you have to be ready to be in one. You can't go into a relationship thinking the other person will cure you of your low self-esteem, or they'll help you love yourself.

They simply can't do that. You need to know how to love yourself in order to know how to love another human being.

You'll never appreciate their love if all you want is affection and compliments. You have to give something in return. Sure, receiving is important, but what's more important is communication and mutual respect. People who think they're not good enough to be loved desperately look for somebody to love them and they end up in toxic relationships, where they're either the only ones giving, or they're the only ones receiving. Either way it's not a good relationship. There has to be a balance.

People who aren't ready to be in a relationship will think they have nothing valuable to give the other person because they think they're not worthy of their love, so they end up giving them their everything, which in the end destroys them or they end up taking everything the other person gives which destroys the other person.

I don't believe in the idea of soul mates. Well I do, people who just get on with each other unbelievably well do exist, but that doesn't mean that we should spend our lives looking for our soul mate. Sometimes working through difficulties in a relationship makes us value it more. Nearly every couple can work through their differences, as long as they both keep on trying.

...

I'll look like a bit of a hypocrite now, since my newest painting is called ''Soul mates''. I felt like the name is fitting because it shows two waterfalls that exist together in harmony. Behind them is a larger body of water. When I was painting it I wanted to show that they're a part of something bigger, they're together, in one painting, but they're not dependant on one another. If one of them stops, the other waterfall can keep going. Yes, I know, I'm making myself sound crazy... but what can I do :D

The song of the week is Set me on fire - Bella Ferraro because it's what I was listening to while I was painting :)

So......  ''Soul Mates''

It's as always done using Winsor and Newton's paints. 

It's a black and white painting, from my ''Mars Black'' series. The second photo was taken with a flash and I just love the way it looks so I decided to publish it as well :)

Lots of Love,

Marlena