Have you ever gotten so frustrated wishing annoying people would change so your relationship with them would get better?  I have so totally been guilty of that!

Instead of that, what I try doing now is the above quote on loving someone.

It's not always the easiest thing to do, but think of the times you have really messed up or hurt someone by just not thinking a situation through far  enough, and how awesome it felt to be forgiven, or even if not totally forgiven, loved anyway is spite of the hurt you caused.

What also helps me is to remember that I will ALWAYS be disappointed if I expect my "Oranges" show up as "Apples".  Oranges aren't apples and will NEVER show up that way, so I can avoid a lot of resentment and disappointment on my part by remembering that!

Have a Truly Sparkly Day My Loves!

Tobi and the pixies

God gives you nothing you cannot handle

Awesome

The two wolves

 

A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said, 

"I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. 

One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. 

The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one." 

The grandson asked him, "Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?" 

The grandfather answered: "The one I feed." 

Which one will you feed?

What Stories Are You Writing Today Darling?

 What stands between you and what you most desire? 
 What stories have you written to explain why you cannot achieve your dreams yet?
Your answers might relate to a lack of money, time, support from family, or all of these. 
Obstacles can seem so numerous, so obvious, and so tough to change.
You can relate to obstacles in many ways. Typical responses are to explain them or resist them.
Both responses take a lot of time and energy. And both anchor you firmly in the past, keeping your focus on areas of your life that are not working. 
To immediately generate alternatives, remember a simple analogy...

 Imagine that you’re driving down a scenic highway. Suddenly you come to a huge rock in the middle of the road.

At this moment you have several options. You could try to explain how the rock ended up there. You could also go into resistance mode, complaining about the carelessness of highway construction or the lack of state funding for rock removal.
Or, you could bypass all this negativity and remove the obstacle from your life at once. Instead of explaining the rock or resisting it, just drive around it.

When faced with obstacles, people often respond with questions based the stories they have created to interpret an event, such as:
- Why am I so alone?
- Why does this always happen to me?
- Why am I such a failure?

However, you always have another option. You can ask questions that help you drive around any obstacle in your life- questions that help you write NEW stories- more positive and empowering stories.
Questions have uncanny power. Questions direct your attention— and along with it, how you think and how you feel. If you want to create different thoughts, feelings, and results into your life, then ask different questions.
Start now by skipping the why questions and begin asking what questions, such as:
               1) What’s the lesson here?

Experiences do not come prepackaged with empowering lessons. Everything hinges on how you interpret experiences, and your interpretations can change over the years. A single event can take you a step closer to emotional contraction or expansion. It all depends on how you interpret that event...the story you attach to it.
Instead of resisting a challenge, just lean into it. Ask yourself: How can I interpret this event in a more powerful way? What’s a positive lesson that’s waiting here to be learned?
                  2) What’s my next action?

This question shines a spotlight on solutions. No matter what happens, you can choose what to say and do in response. Rather than manifesting resistance or explanation, you can choose your next action.


Successful people hold a bias for action.
Add inspiration and intention to the mix, and you gain an unstoppable momentum.






















Sparkly Hugs, Tobi and the Pixies!

When did it become okay to be just okay?

Hello my sparkly friends!!! 

  I just found this post i had written a few years ago on my makeup artist website.  I thought it would fit nicely into Sparkle Mining, so here it is... bear in mind it was written to makeup artists and artists in training, but i think it applies to us all!

It is REALLY LONG, but worth it I think.

I am adding some pink pictures for Pink Saturday!

Take the word "Okay" completely out of your vocabulary 

unless you are enthusiastically responding to someone's request!

When did it become "okay" to just be ok?  We think of the word Okay as being positive, but if you take a long hard look at it, it really means "Bare minimum".  If you just finished a job, would you feel complimented if the photographer described your work as "Okay"?  

Would you feel 

great if you overheard your man describing your 

relationship as "Okay"?  

If you fall down the stairs and someone runs up to ask you if you are "Okay" he really means is it really serious- should I call an ambulance?"  I think you may be starting to get the picture.

So why is it that we let ourselves do an "Okay" job when we don't think we are being paid enough or that the job might give us something of value in the future?  Think about it dear ones.

 We are all aware of how broken our economy is right now.  Politically, everyone seems to have a group at which to point the finger of blame. 

  It dawned on me the other day that the state of our economy is the fault of nobody but ourselves! 

 We have become lazy, 

spoiled children full of expectations and self 

importance but not wanting to put any effort in!

   We live in a society that has been blessed with the freedom to create anything we desire.  As both mom and dad are now in the workplace, the need for conveniences to help us multi task resulted in a lot of really wonderful things- like the IPhone with an "App" for anything, the ability to rent newly released movies from your couch instead of going to the video store, and someone who will cut your lawn once a week so you can come home to a beautifully manicured yard without having to force your kid to do it.

My realization of all of this came simply from looking in my local "Pennysaver" for a landscaper to do a spring cleanup aka "Rake all the leaves in our big back yard that my husband has promised to do since last November but never got around to doing."

One ad in particular caught my eye:  

"Bla Bla Bla Landscaping...We Show Up!"

"WHAT???  Are you kidding me?"  I thought to myself.  "No wonder this economy is where it is!"

Think about it-  

when did it become ok to list 

"Showing Up"

  as a job skill and reason for me to hire 

someone?? 

If I hire this guy, should I be happy to pay him for just pulling up to my curb? Can you imagine making a business card that says

 "Tobi Britton Makeup Artist... I Show Up!"

Or

 "Take a class with Tobi- she will show up."

Are you laughing or crying yet?

The last time I checked, "showing up" was the only way you could do a job. 

I mean, it goes without saying that if you are not there, you can't work!   Thinking a bit more on this topic, 

I began to wonder when as a society did we decide

 it is ok that such little effort was alright? 

  Just think- there will be plenty of people that will actually CALL this 
 misguided man because they probably had other landscapers not show up. 

  I will bet anything that those landscapers that had a problem showing up for jobs
 will have 
 NO PROBLEM showing up on the unemployment line!

Is this really the message we want to send to our 

kids as well as to ourselves?  

I know that landscaping has nothing to do with makeup, but the same type of apathy and laziness shows up in our industry as well, and many of us are guilty of it on some level or another!  I have seen a lot of it in aspiring makeup artists who expect to take a class and instantly become a makeup artist without investing any time or work.  I have called past students to give them an opportunity to observe a real shoot and the first question is "How much will I get paid"! 
 You KNOW I never called them again!

I have seen fledgling makeup artists with a little experience under their belt actually think to themselves while assisting an established makeup artist 
"This isn't so hard, I could do this easy, no problem- she's not so great".

What they fail to understand is that the reason the shoot runs so smoothly and seems effortless, is that the established artist has paid his/her dues by working on anything and everything they could get their hands on and built up the experience to quickly know how to handle any situation.  

So who's fault is this lazy way of thinking?

It is ours- by trying to make it easy for our kids, we have made it harder by not teaching them that anything worth having is worth working for.  

If you are "One of those kids now grown" then the best thing you can do for 
yourself is to stop taking stuff for granted and 

Instead if asking "What am I getting"  ask "What can I do" "What can I contribute- what can I give?"

What that means you have to start viewing opportunities that come your way as gifts to make you a better artist or person.

You have to take a brutally honest look at where and how you have been lazy, or expected something you didn't deserve because you didn't make an honest effort to obtain it.

We as a nation have to retrain ourselves to stop expecting someone to "fix it " for us and start fixing things ourselves.  That is how we can make things right again.

So my dear artist, let's start to retrain ourselves.  

SET BIG GOALS for yourself, and learn to enjoy the work needed to obtain those goals.  

You will soon find that in this economy, which by the way I believe is part of a big plan, that it is no longer Okay to be just OK.

Let's stop looking for the easy way, the silver bullet.

BECOME the Silver Bullet~

In Light and Love,

Tobi Britton

Something To sparkle about- It's Pink Saturday's 4th Birthday, andThis Cowgirl with Spirit is 73!! Seriously??

HELLO My sparkly Friends!!!

OMG- Looky what I have found-

Say hello to Mimi Kirk- 

My new Sparkle from the inside out inspiration Angel!!!

I just came across Mimi Kirk yesterday while googling for something- I forgot what, but OMG wow is all I can say! 
When I read that she was 73 years old, 
I was completely in awe by how incredible she looked. She was born in 1938!!

When I visited Mimi’s website
the story of of her healthy lifestyle she embraces  inspired me to revisit my experimenting with juicing  raw food. 
This was Mimi 4 years ago before raw food

and after just four years of eating right!
 I have taken Mimi on as my personal  role model( she doesn't know it yet)! Her  care of her body and her diet has made it possible not only for her to look and feel like a much younger person, and glowing health makes it easy to live life abundantly. Here is what I found out about Mimi…

Mimi prefers a raw, vegan diet – she says it makes her feel so much better after eating raw foods than cooked foods. She is also happy knowing that eating vegan is compassionate towards animals. She became a vegetarian back in her 30's because of the cruelty aspect.  I found this quote 
"My energy level is amazing and I think I look better than I did when I was just a vegan and not eating raw foods. 
I think one can still eat processed foods as a vegan, but there is not much of a chance when eating raw that you will be consuming processed foods. So I think, personally, it is a healthier choice all around that I have embraced.”

When did she start eating this way?
When Mimi turned 69, she became a raw vegan because as she says "my blood pressure and cholesterol were up and I was starting to feel arthritic pains in my joints." 
LOOK at what 4 years eating raw will do!!!

According to Mimi, after just six months, her body had healed and everything was normal- all without taking any prescriptions drugs.

So what makes Mimi Sparkle?
Mimi believe passion for life, love, friendships, looking forward to the future, exercise, passion, compassion, laughter and knowing how to manage stress all contribute to a long, healthy life.”

Her philosophy?
“Love.”

So my sparkly friends- the beauty of Mimi for me is that she is not linked to any new diet product or exercise machine- she is living proof that what we put in our bodies as fuel determines how our "engines" will run.

You can't put french fry oil in your car and expect high performance...

Your engine will seize and you will be left with a pile of junk.

I don't know about you, but want I to look and feel like Mimi when I am 73!

You don't have to go cold turkey and join an ashram-

Start by simply adding 1 or 2 fresh veggie/fruit juices like my fave- Organic Apple, celery and Ginger.

If you don't have a juicer yet- try them at your local healthfood store and see if you like them.

I started this morning with a juice and plan to greet each day that way- and begin to add raw recipes a little at a time.

We will see about full on Raw Food later... lol

If you want to try Mimi's recipes

this is her book

I ordered it yesterday.

Mimi also wrote
Cowgirl Spirit
Solid women, Strong friendships and 
Stories from the frontier 
HOW
can you not LOVE this gal???

I have a link to it on the sidebar!

 Since it is Pink Saturday's Birthday this weekend,
Here are some lovely raw Pink veggies!!

Enjoy My Sweeties!!!
Sparkly Hugs,
Tobi and the Pixies!
Linking To
Pink Saturday
NiftyThriftyTuesday- It cost me Nothing!