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"Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come, we have only today. Let us begin." -- Mother Teresa. A fitting quote just as we enter a new year. I'm not quite sure of where the time has gone, it's flown past far too rapidly. And I have tons of wonderful work to complete as yet, so off I go to organize 'stuff' before I launch myself into what awaits me in 2016 ... Cheers.

As always, the printable above (as well as the rest from 2015) is free to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter, so if you'd like this to print at home, then just sign up HERE. Cheers.

"Follow your dream". I think that pretty much says it all. I live mine daily. I work at what I love and love what I work at. Everything else ... well, if it's something I love it becomes a part of the dream too, something else to work on, to aim for.

Are you following your dream? I hope so -- but if not, perhaps this print might give you a bit of a motivational start-up kick. It's free to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter, so if you'd like this as a printable (as well as the rest from 2015 so far), then just sign up HERE. Cheers.

I'm in recovery mode. College is finally over with for the year, the exhibition was finally taken down (our bit anyway, the rest of it goes on till the end of June), and I'm taking a deep breath before I sit down and organize my life, work, and art.

I have a very exciting new project to work on next year, and will be starting on it very soon, so will fill you in on it once I have everything settled. All I'll say now is that it's something I've wanted to work on for a very long time and am looking forward to it and rubbing my hands together in glee - can't wait to get it going.

Meanwhile, here's my printable for June: “Believe in Miracles. They happen every day."

As always, it's available as a free printable exclusively to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. Click here to sign up and have access to all of the free printables of 2015: Floating Lemons Newsletter.

I'm taking a few days off to enjoy a break with good friends, and then it's back to the drawing board. Wishing all of you a week full of miracles, great and small. Cheers.

This is a fun one, and I do love the quote:

"Alice: This is Impossible.

Mad Hatter: Only if you Believe it is."

Enjoy it, no matter what you believe. As always, it's available as a free printable exclusively to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. Click here to subscribe: Floating Lemons Newsletter.

Wishing you a week full of positive belief & energy. Cheers.

Here are a few in-progress images of my watercolour steps ... before I took it into photoshop for a clean-up:

I truly do believe that there is no limit to love or loving. You can give one person all of your love and still have an infinitude left over for your family, friends, pets, neighbours, your work, your life, the world. It's immeasurable -- and powerful too, yes, because when it's given freely and unconditionally it gives the giver all the strength that comes from the joy of the giving of it.

Valentine's Day is celebrated in February. This month, why don't you express your love to all of the special people in your life. Spread the love and experience the joy of it.

I normally give my monthly free printables away only to subscribers of the Floating Lemons newsletter, but this month I'm giving this one away to anyone who wants it, freely and with only one request: that you in turn give it away freely and not use it for any commercial purpose. To get the free printable (A4 size), just click on the very first image of this post, or HERE.

If you'd like to sign up for the monthly newsletter, and receive future free printables or giveaways, just click HERE.

Wishing you an abundance of love. Cheers.

Wishing everyone a new year full of positive energy!

It's been a year of huge changes, a few setbacks and (multiple) stresses, and a LOT of learning-new-things for me. It's been quite amazing and I've loved every second of it, even those moments (a few) when I felt like giving up completely. Well, I can be pretty stubborn when pushed, and that comes in handy sometimes ... I refused to give up, have ploughed on, and am looking forward to the changes speeding my way (oh yes, they are there) this coming year. Yes folks, I'm taking my own advice and embracing a life full of infinite possibilities.

I received a lovely parcel through the post that wraps my year up beautifully: the calendar created from the monthly free printables I illustrated this year as give-aways for the subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. Couldn't believe how well it turned out, I love it. I haven't got my good camera with me (had to use the trusty iPhone) and of course am still in temporary quarters, so excuse the not-too-great quality of the photos below. Hopefully you'll get a goodish idea of how lovely it looks, up on the wall. A huge thanks to Zazzle for the amazing job printing it ...

"I Choose" Positive Affirmations Calendar 2015 by Floating Lemons for Zazzle

I don't want to overburden this post with too many images, so have placed the last 6 months of the calendar over at the Floating Lemons Treats blog, so if you'd like to see them just click HERE. And if you want to gift it to yourself or anyone you know who might appreciate some positive motivational quotes, click HERE.

Let me know what you think of it, and please forgive me for being just a teensy bit proud of myself at the moment -- not just of having created the art, but for having stuck to my promise and delivered an illustrated quote monthly even through the chaos of moving to a new country and (re)joining College!

So, have a fantastic and safe New Year's Eve and an even more fantastic 2015. Cheers.

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ooops, almost forgot! As of the 30th of January the "I Choose" free printables from 2014 will no longer be available for download, as I'll be starting something new for 2015.

So if you're a subscriber and haven't yet grabbed one of the above, then do so very soon (you can see the 12 designs HERE, though they are formatted as A4 pages for you to download, for easier home-printing). If you haven't subscribed yet and you'd like to be able to grab one or all of them as free printables, please sign up for the newsletter soon as I'll be mailing out an extra issue just before the 30th, with the download link, before it disappears for good. Cheers!

I'm counting my blessings. And apologising for being one day late with this blog post and my newsletter! I've had to attend to practicalities and real life stuff. Who'd have thought moving to another country would take up so much time and energy ... ha ha. It's been a mad scramble to get any art or work done. Internet is intermittent at best here in the depths of the beautiful English countryside, so let's hope this gets posted today. I'm counting my blessings, and there are a multitude of those in my life daily.

Here's "I Choose to Count my Blessings", the illustration/affirmation for September. It is now, of course, another of the monthly free printables that I'm offering to all subscribers of the Floating Lemons newsletter. To sign up just CLICK HERE, and you'll get access to the previous 8 free printables as well as this one.

Wishing you a wonderful day and week full of sunshine, love and delight. Cheers.

I can't believe that it's already June, the year seems to have flown past and it's once again time for our monthly text design which is, "I Choose to Make a Difference". Because I do. Do you? We can all begin with doing one positive thing daily, and bit by bit we can, together, change the world.

Just a quick recap for those of you who may have only just started reading my blog ... I decided at the beginning of the year to illustrate and post, on the first Saturday of every month this year, a positive affirmation beginning with "I Choose ...". I used to be pretty skeptical as far as affirmations are concerned but have placed cynicism aside and am now a convert. They work.

I'm offering all the designs as A4/A3 free printables to those who sign up for the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter, so if you want to print them out at home for your personal use, or pass them onto friends, just click HERE to subscribe. We've had a really great response, which is wonderful, thank you to everyone who signed up!

Here are the newsletters so far, from January to June 2014:

Choose to make a difference today ... and spread the positive energy. Cheers.

Seven years ago I mustered up the courage to make a huge change in my life, despite having been offered my "dream job". I left Australia and moved to France to instead work on my art and build a career and business from it. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.

I can't say that it was easy, and I've encountered quite a few bumps along the road, but I learned tons, and dogged determination has gotten me this far, with a small but thriving business and a huge love for what I do. Now, however, I'm again faced with massive new decisions to make, both in my work and personal life, and it's time to once again find the courage to make changes for the future. To follow my dreams. So this text design is particularly appropriate and will be my mantra for the days to come.

I've also placed it against a white background for the free printable that will be made available to the subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter, as all that black may be a bit of a problem for home printers to handle. Both will be available, so you have a choice of whether to print it against white, or black if you think your printer can handle all that ink!

To sign up for the newsletter and get access to the previous free printables as well, just click here.

WIshing you the courage to follow your dreams. Cheers.

Still working on sketches for my e-course, The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design Module 4 ... I did some doodles and sketches with geometric, floral, and typography themes in mind.

I'm not sure if the final results below would be considered strictly geometric but hey, I drew grids and shapes and then got carried away filling them up. There are florals there too, so perhaps I managed to work on two of the themes at one go. Oh, and some typography too ...

The second one is still unfinished. I 'work' on it whenever I have time, i.e. when I'm uploading designs onto stores. I used to have a dodopad in high school, and used to colour it in with magic markers, does anyone remember those? These grid doodles reminded me of that, and the whole exercise is teaching me tons about colour, and is fun to boot.

I did some typographical sketches with a holiday theme:

I love playing with text design. And some of you may know that this year I've decided to do a monthly design based on "I Choose ..." as a positive affirmation, that I make available as a free printable to the subscribers of the Floating Lemons Newsletter. It's a hugely wonderful experiment in typography for myself, and these are the ones I've come up with so far, for January till April:

They count as typographical exercises, wouldn't you say? Next month I'll be doing "I Choose Courage", as I'm going through huge changes in my life that require a large amount of deep breathing, and I'll be plunging into a different life and lifestyle. Scary, but also very exciting. I'm thoroughly enjoying the text designs and the affirmations that are emerging, and hope to do a calendar with them at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, I'll be away for two weeks as of next week. I shall try to blog as much as possible, but as it's my dad's 80th birthday that we're celebrating, I may not be able to do that, so forgive me in advance. I'll be posting up at the facebook page, so follow me there if you want a peek at my updates, and to see photographs of whatever inspiring bits I pick up from the United Kingdom and Istanbul (yay).

Meanwhile, have a fantastic week and don't forget to experiment joyfully. Cheers.

I loved working on this text design - it really strikes a deep, personal chord, as I've been using this as an affirmation for the last year and it has worked wonders in my life. So I'm passing it on, and hope that you choose to fill your lives with the possibility of facing all its challenges fueled by positive energy. It really does make a difference.

As always, this monthly illustration is available as a free printable for subscribers to the Floating Lemons newsletter, (next issue will be out on the first Saturday of this month, the 5th of April) so go ahead and sign up by clicking on the image above, or right HERE.

Here's the original sketch that I scanned in and then worked on digitally to get the finished piece:

Wishing all of you a day full of brightness. Cheers.

I'm working on a few different projects at the moment, all in progress, all squeezed in whenever I have a few minutes free. Here's where I was at the beginning of the week:

I'm glad to say that I'm pretty much done with the "I Choose to Fill Myself with Positive Energy" text design for the April free printable (for subscribers to the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter of course!), and I'll reveal all when the time comes. Meanwhile ...

I went a completely different direction with my Jelly assignment for MATS Bootcamp, and have managed to totally confuse myself. Should I go with something more along the lines of last weeks sketches, here, or stick to a slightly more geometric rendering of jelly moulds, as above? argh. We shall see. I may have to sketch a lot more jelly before deciding.

Meanwhile, here's the progress on a sketch I'm doing that will, perhaps, end up as a Thinking of You card up at the Two Smiles for HP (Hewlett-Packard) site.

I drew it, scanned it in and decided to experiment with some brand new digital pastel brushes that I purchased from Kyle T Webster. Oh my, I love them. Now that I've been deprived of Corel Painter (it just will not work since the last OS update and I don't want to invest and buy the upgrade only to discover that doesn't work either. I was, needless to say, hugely disappointed) these, along with his real watercolour brushes, are making digital painting a delight once more.

Here's a quick peek at what I've done so far ...

I'm using them exactly as I would my pencils on paper and there are layers and layers of colour being built up. Still have a way to go as yet, but I'm quite pleased with the way it's turning out so far.

Back to work! Wishing you a wonderful day loving what you do and doing what you love. Cheers.

Be joyful! March always seems such a transitional month for me. Winter hasn’t quite shed its icy coat but there are signs of balmier spring weather sneaking into the air. A perfect time to choose to feel Joy, especially on those grey, cloudy mornings.

I wanted this illustration to feel natural, simple and spontaneous, so out came the watercolours, and I painted using bright, cheerful pinks, greens, oranges and blues, ending up with the above piece. Here are a couple of sketches:

The above text illustration is available as part of a series of monthly free printables for the subscribers of the Floating Lemons newsletter. If you'd like to sign up to receive them, just click here.

Wishing you a day full of brightness and joy. Cheers.

Some of the students from my wonderful Make Art That Sells class decided to get together and hold a Blog Parade, thanks to Linda Tieu, and I'm honoured to be a part of such a talented group.

I've been struggling these past couple of years to get my business up and running. The first year was difficult and hugely disappointing as I depended on the wrong people. My bad. It set me back, and not only did I have to start all over again, but I had to pick up the debris left over from that big mistake. Still, I refused to get depressed over it and carried on, strengthened by my love of what I'm doing and faith in where I'm going with the business.

It's not an easy thing, getting the right-brain creative side to work hand-in-hand with the left-brain business side of things, but I'm now getting help from a good friend who has the professional background and is whipping me into shape, as well as direction from a brilliant e-course I'm taking at the moment, the Right-Brain Business Plan.

Apart from that, the classes I've taken this last year have been an incredible boost to my art. I feel as though I'm still searching for a 'style' and the journey, full of adventurous experimentation, is absolutely wonderful.

So my latest piece seems particularly apt for this Blog Parade. It speaks for itself.

There's a lovely, positive energy in the air, and the support of fellow students is a bonus I hadn't counted on and consider invaluable, even though haven't yet had the time to fully engage with everyone in the groups. I'm hoping to participate more, very soon!

Meanwhile, head on to Gabriella's site next, and enjoy the blog parade!

Wishing you a wonderfully creative day. Cheers.

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." -- George Bernard Shaw.

Simply handwritten.

Sketched this out a few months back, actually, and I thought it would be perfect for this time of the year ... as it's time to let go of all the clutter and reorganize for the New Year.

Which is exactly what we're trying to do for the business (and personal life, not that I have much of one!). A lot has happened this past year and now we have to look back, reassess, and cut out what isn't working. Then cross the fingers and hope that the coming year will be even better than this one has been so far.

Are you letting go of clutter in preparation for the New Year? Any New Year's resolutions? I'm still working on those ... Cheers.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

From LEISURE:

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

-- William Henry Davies

I'm not a huge coffee drinker. It's my morning cuppa, definitely, and I always order coffee rather than tea when I'm seated at a cafe somewhere, but really, the rest of the day is spent gurgling down numerous cups of tea ... Still, I've become rather addicted to that morning wake-up jolt, and I'm lucky enough to have a friend staying who makes a mean caffeine that tastes far better than anything I could brew up -- so I've been inspired to sketch out a little typographical homage to it.

I've recorded a bit of the behind the scenes process for you. It started out as a sketch in my moleskine graph paper journal:

Then I cleaned it up in Photoshop and 'painted' it black:

And finally readjusted it and added a drop shadow and colour, though I'm still not 100% satisfied with it yet, so I may play around a bit more till I'm happy with the colour choices:

Suggestions, constructive criticism and comments, are, as always, extremely welcome! Hope you coffee addicts out there enjoy it. Cheers.

Original typography © Mariana Musa

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I have a couple of places into which I hand-draw quotations on an irregular basis: a small moleskine specially set aside for text designs, or my large moleskine journal. They're not cleaned up at all and not necessarily "pretty", but I thought I'd start sharing them as I do like the quotes themselves.

This one is from the large journal, quite apt for the moment as I'm trying to regain the balance between work (far too much of it recently) and Life (enjoying the small pleasures of ...).

A bright, cheerful text design. Hand drawn then digitally painted and cleaned up.

Happy For You cards and matching gifts at Floating Lemons Typography @Zazzle

My best-selling design needed freshening up. So I whipped it into cleaner shape. Also set it against a red background:

And I'll be adding more colours to it bit by bit. And now, back to my drawing ... Cheers.

Fabulous 40 black red cards and matching gifts at Floating Lemons Typography

Fabulous 40 black white red cards and matching gifts at Floating Lemons Typography

The whale was requested by a friend as a fun drawing, so is not meant to be an accurate representation! I went through hundreds of photos on the internet of Humpback Whales (as whales are momentarily unavailable in my area to pose for pics), sketched a whole load of them for practice, and then put them aside and drew one of my own.

This was drawn between guests and summer socializing, which is why it has taken this long -- I'm refusing to pressure myself as far as work is concerned at the moment as there just isn't enough time in which to do everything. Am enjoying the final long days of warmth with good friends, and I know I'll eventually catch up on it all once the weather turns cold and I morph into a work-obsessed hermit once more :)

I did manage, however, to begin a series of Silly Numbers and Letters which I am posting slowly, as and when I get them done. Drew them out in marker pens, scanned them, cleaned them up, then fiddled around a bit on photoshop. Here's Silly Number One for you in pink (I have both the Numbers & Letters in red, blue, pink, orange, lavender, lime green, chocolate and white. Yes I tend to go overboard at times, what can I say?) and the Silly Number 1 chocolate Invitation Envelope for which I received a Today's Best Award on Zazzle :) Cheers ...

Whale cards, stationery & matching gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle

Silly Numbers 1 cards, stationery & matching gifts at Floating Lemons Typography at Zazzle

Received news from Zazzle telling me that my "Fabulous At 40Rty Dark Card, has been hand-picked as an example of creativity at its finest", and that out of the billions of designs on Zazzle, this was chosen for being one of the best. It will appear at the top of the 40th Birthday Cards page in the "Featured Designs" section for approximately 2 weeks.

AND this Fabulous at 40rty Card has received the same Award but is to be featured for 2 weeks on the 40th Birthday Gifts page.

Just had to share :)