Supporting Artists and small businesses - Dona Zarzanga

Calavera Sugar Skull Handpainted Planter

I do think we should support artists and small business if we believe in them and their artwork.

Thus, and as we're approaching Samhain/Halloween, I would like to present you the artwork of a friend of mine: Dona Zarzanga.

She has new items. I think you'll love her pieces.

I am torn between the vases, any of the cats or the owl.

She ships abroad, all the way from our corner of the world - Lisbon, Portugal -, in case you were wondering.

I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do.

Sugar Skull Cat Day of the Dead Red Portuguese Heart

Sugar Skull Owl Day Flowers & Bone

Frida Khalo Sugar Skull Cat

Welcome to the Dark Side...

Just kidding, but that is what I'll be ranting about in this post.

No, I'm not offering cookies. I'm offering something better: something for you to think about. Because we, the ladies, also have brains, and we should not be afraid to use such important parts of us.

Image taken from here.

Ever since childhood we, the ladies, are taught that we must repress our darker side: we always have to be polite, we always have to smile and keep our best behaviour, we must smile when we're angry or sad, when we're forced to do stuff we hate, that annoys us.

We are raised to be people-pleasers at our own cost, our well-being and happiness.

And then the world goes nuts when we snap in the middle of a lousy week.

Ladies, we're like the Moon - we have dark sides too. Though I'm not saying we should act upon our dark sides, we really need to find balance.

We need to face our dark sides, befriend the darkness within and stop being scared of it, of what the world might think of this new discovered friendship.

We need to find balance in everything in life. Our darker and lighter sides, our happiness and other people's. Because, ladies, we only live once, and we deserve to be happy, enjoy our own lives and stop allowing others to live through us. They had their chance, now it's our turn.

Be happy, ladies. Be free. Be whole and complete in yourselves. Join the dark side.

Being a woman...

...and not needing someone else's validation: here's a hard concept for some people.

Image taken from here.

For some odd reason, some people seem to think that a woman is not complete in herself, and has to be in a relationship and become a mother in order to gain status.

For an even odder reason, some people seem to think that a woman can only feel validated when men compliment her.

Here's a few little secrets:

• Not all women want to be in a relationship or believe in it, for that matter;
• Not all women want to be in a relationship with men;
• Not all women want to have children;
• There are women that actually know what they bring to the table and don't need compliments from others to realise it.

So... Will this society ever stop being chauvinistic and patronizing towards women?!? 

Because this is getting old, and more annoying by the second...

October 4th - World Animal Day 2015

On October 4th the world celebrated World Animal Day 2015.

I wished for the day when World Animal Day will be deemed unnecessary.
I wished for a time when Animals will no longer be tortured in vile experiments.
A time when Animals will no longer be abandoned nor tortured.
A time when Humans will stop seeing themselves as above all species and start treating other Animals as their equals and as having the right to their lives and dignity.

As long as a World Animal Day is needed, I will celebrate it with a heavy heart.

World Map of Endangered Species. Image taken from here.