I just know that you're going to love this.

Marisa Haedike, an artist and designer in LA, contacted me yesterday about her company, Creative Thursday. Marisa has had her hands in everything from furniture and bedding design to graphic and web design, however she decided to follow her heart back to painting, something she has had a genuine passion for since childhood. Seeing other painters with blogs featuring daily and weekly works, Marisa decided to start a "daily painting" blog herself, she sells small original acrylic paintings with new ones posting every week on Thursdays. But we're just getting started here...

In addition to her paintings, Marisa has her own podcast show weekly called Creative Thursday "Looking at life through rose colored glasses". She creates a mini "documentary" with each audio program. It's all about living the creative life and going for what you want. I listened to Episode 10 "In the Beginning" last night and really enjoyed it; it felt like she was speaking from a script that I wrote - we have so much in common. I'm sure you'll say the same thing after you listen in. It's nice when you hear something that so closely relates to your own life, beliefs, dreams. Of course, she throws in tips and ideas that you may have never thought of, too. For me, the big draw here is that I love listening to someone speak some passionately about creative living and doing what you love, and hearing her positive words almost acts as confirmation that everything is okay. If you walked out on a very comfortable career to pursue your dreams (like me), that you haven't lost your mind. You are simply living the life you should be living. I can't tell you how good it feels to hear that on days when recruiters call my house looking for me, offering me some attractive bait to rope me back into the world that I came from.

Marisa is a creative life coach of sorts, that voice that will give you gentle push on days when you feel down. She's the voice of reason that may be already in your head, but hearing it from her seems to make more sense. Please take a moment to listen in on a few of her podcast shows and let me know what you think. This is a new venture for her, so I'm sure she's also interested in your opinions and suggestions.

(images from marisa haedike)