Elsa Mora

So Hard

Dear friend,

I am going through a hard time right now trying to process a sad news: my oldest brother who lives in Florida with his wife and daughters has been diagnosed with cancer. We just found out about this yesterday and it has been so hard. At first I reacted in a calm way, I think that I was a little bit in denial, but now it just hit me and I am in shock. 

He will have an open-heart operation soon and then chemotherapy. The tumor is located in one of the arteries on his heart. This is going to be a difficult process for him. But we're all close now supporting him and each other. My Mom is devastated as you can imagine. I am planning to fly to Florida for the operation.

Please, send lots of positive thoughts to my brother Rene so he can have a successful operation and recovery.

I will try to come back here when I have a chance.

Thank you so much in advance for your support.

Elsita

Nine Characters :)

Here are some cute characters that I created the other day.

I should make tiny paperclay dolls out of these little people :)

How I created them:

Step one: I drew the design on paper with a pen and I scanned it at high resolution. (Above)

 

Step two: Using Photoshop, I applied another image on the drawing (this image/layer is a picture of a very old page from a book) 
 
 

 

Step three: I colored the figures on a third (transparent) layer, also using Photoshop, in the multiply mode to get the watercolor look.

If you're familiar with creating digital art, these three-step explanation will make sense. Otherwise this is something that you could learn by exploring Photoshop tutorials out there on the internet. That's how I learned to do this thingy.

Happy Monday!

Elsita :)
 

Emotional Eating

 

Do we eat for the right reasons?

What's our relationship with food?

A few months ago I started having some new mental clarity about food. 

I started thinking about how often we see food as a comfort thing and as a security blanket. The problem starts when we completely lose the sense of what food really is and we start using it as a refuge and as a scape to deal with life problems/pressures.

 

I am talking about emotional eating. This is something that I have been dealing with in a mild way for a long time, without even knowing it. It is something that affects my relationship with food. 

The other day I had some singular call from my inner alarm clock, a little voice that said: why don't you do a little research on emotional eating? Why don't you see if someone can give you some ideas about this kind of problem and how to deal with it?

 

So, I started my research and that's how I found what I now consider a treasure! I am talking about a book written by Roger Gould. You know how some people have a gift for something in particular, they deeply understand one particular area of life and see things in that area that the rest of the people can't see. I consider Roger Gould one of those gifted people. He is an authority on adult psychological development and emotional eating is one of the areas of expertise.

Reading his book has opened so many new doors in my mind! Now, I can finally understand how the cycle of emotional eating works and how I can stop it.

If you find yourself eating for the wrong reasons now and then, this book could help you a lot. I highly recommend it.

And now I wish you a happy Friday and a fun weekend!

Elsita :)

(And HERE is something sweet to look at :)

 
 
 

Sibling Rivalry :o

 

u

kWe're now experiencing something totally new between Natalie and Diego: sibling rivalry. Some of this rivalry/competition is happening in such a funny way :) Here is a little story to illustrate this:

Above you can see how Natalie drew her version of the girl in one of her favorite books. She came running to show it to me saying: Mommy!!! Look what I did!! Of course, I praised her and she was very happy and proud.

hh

 

Diego observed everything with a quiet presence but then, in one second, he run away! I wondered what he was up to. 

He came back to me a few minutes later holding the drawing above plus the cover of one of his favorite DVD's and he said, just like Natalie: Mommy!! Look what I did!!!

I praised him the same way that I praised Natalie and he was so proud!

Yay!!!! For the first time Diego is feeling like competing with Natalie and that says a lot about his brain development. As simple as this looks it's a pretty sophisticated thing for child with Autism.

 

In the end I don't want them to be rivals of course. But I am sure that that will never be a real problem in the future. Because they absolutely love each other.

:)

My twitter

Dear friend, 

I just wanted to let you know that I had to cancel my old Twitter account due to some technical problems. But I was able to start a new one. Today I wanted to invite you to follow me over there if you have an account as well, because it wasn't possible to transfer my old contacts to the new account.

HERE is a link to my new Twitter

See you there!

Elsita :)

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ALSO, I WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL RIGHT HERE

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