tips Archives - Relentlessly Purple

Advice To Ensure You Remain Happy & Healthy Year-Round

Uncategorized / 5 months ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Mental health advice - Woman holding smiley balloon — Pexels

Self-care is so important these days with all the hustle and bustle that comes with life and having a busy schedule. You simply can’t afford to not put yourself first and make taking care of yourself a top priority. Let today be the day you see your value and worth and realize you have control to make impactful changes in your life. If you’re ready to reset and get a boost of energy and motivation then you’re in the right place. The following information contains advice to ensure you remain happy and healthy year-round.

Get Moving & Stay Physically Active

It’s not just about getting daily exercise anymore but it’s also important that you move more throughout the day. It’s especially vital if you have a sedentary job or lifestyle currently. Stay physically active by joining a gym or creating a home gym for yourself. It’s also beneficial to get outside in nature as much as possible and break a sweat by running, walking, or hiking. Working out can be enjoyable if you choose the right activities for yourself and listen to music.

Nurture Your Mental Health

Your mental health is another critical factor as it relates to your overall well-being. Be sure to nurture your mental state regularly and check in with yourself. If you notice you’re feeling down and out of sorts and can’t seem to shake it then you should highly consider seeking out mental health treatment. These professionals know what they’re doing and can help get you to a better place with your thoughts, feelings, and emotions as well as how you view and process life.

Maintain Healthy Relationships

Surround yourself with good people if you want to remain happy and healthy year-round. Who you choose to spend time with regularly matters and has an impact on your mood and life. Once you find the right people then make sure you make time for them and reach out to stay in touch. These can be personal as well as professional relationships that you work hard to maintain.

Eat A Balanced Diet

What you eat throughout the day can also impact your mental health and happiness. It’s not always easy to eat a balanced diet but you can do so if you focus and are more mindful about the foods you choose to eat. Try to grocery shop and cook for yourself if possible, which will allow you to better monitor what you’re eating and portion sizes. While eating out is convenient you may take in extra calories and you’ll notice you spend more money this way.

Get Enough Sleep Nightly

Getting a good night’s sleep is vital when it comes to your mental and physical health. It’s one area of your life you should never skimp on. Remain happy and healthy year-round by getting into a bedtime routine and on a sleep schedule. You’ll wake up feeling much more rested and energized to seize the day when you go to bed at a decent hour. Invest in a comfortable mattress and bedding and make sure your bedroom is dark enough and set to a good temperature so you can fall and stay asleep.

3 Tips for Balancing Out Parenting and Self Care

Parenting / 2 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Image credit

Practicing self-care as a parent is something that feels a little too far out of reach at times. Being a parent, no matter if you’re a mother or father is really just an incredibly tough job. It’s a job that you’re constantly doing around the clock and there aren’t any breaks or timeouts like a normal job may have. Regardless, parenthood is simply a beautiful experience that reminds you of how far you’ve come with your little one. While we’re taking care of our children, we can’t neglect ourselves either.

Parents tend to constantly put their children or others before themselves. This can be good, it shows your dedication, but it does mean that sacrifices are made such as sleep and even a decline in health. It’s important to focus on self-care habits as these affect the mind, body, and soul. Here are some ways to help change your mindset so you can begin focusing on your little ones and on yourself too.

Do not guilt yourself for your needs

Parents tend to guilt themselves for not putting in enough time and energy doing other things. Self-care tackles mental health and it can be a way to help improve your mentality as well. You need to first start with yourself and understand that you’re not a bad person for wanting to have time to yourself.

You’re not a bad parent for wanting to take care of yourself and tend to your needs. If you want to tend to others’ needs, such as your children, you need to focus on yourself so you can properly be there to help the ones you love. So first begin getting it into your head that you need breaks, you deserve breaks, and you have to take care of yourself.

Know that your sleep matters

Parents and lack of sleep go hand in hand, it’s the dark truth, but it’s something that eventually gets accepted. You may have even seen some funny memes online about the lack of sleep that parents get. While it may be one of the facts in life, it’s important to know that your sleep matters and you have to try and get it.

You can look into getting a Moses Basket for your baby and have it right next to you at bedtime, this way you can immediately tend to your baby in your room and get back to sleep. Alternatively, you can talk with your partner about taking shifts and days in balancing out who will tend to the kids and who’ll sleep.

Think of the little ways to get yourself feeling good

There are plenty of ways to help your soul feel good such as eating your favorite sweets, getting yourself a little gift you’ve had on your wish list, but you should think about the things that will make you feel physically good as well. This includes eating healthy meals that will nourish your body. A healthy meal is going to drastically help in giving you more energy and making you feel physically better. The same can be said with regular exercising, even just doing a bit of movement each day such as walking can do wonders to how you’ll feel.

Tips for Making Prints of Your Artwork – Guest Post

Uncategorized / 4 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We have a fab guest post today full of tips for making prints of your artwork! I know a few of my readers are amazing artists so here are a few handy tips.

Your art is no doubt very important to you. It’s a form of self-expression, and every piece of art contains a little bit of you. Whether you want to print your artwork for friends, family, or even yourself (it’s okay to proud!), or you would like to make multiple prints to sell, there are many things to consider in order to make the most quality art possible. Here is everything you need to know about printing your art.

Criteria of Quality Printing

Resolution and Print Size

Artwork in your computer is made up of pixels. Essentially, images are measured in either DPI (Dots Per Inch) or PPI (Pixels Per Inch). The main difference is that DPI measures the amount of ink dots on a page, while PPI measures the number of pixels on a computer. Most digital photos are recorded at a resolution of 72 DPI. However, the standard resolution of a printed image is 300 DPI or PPI. In other words, that’s about 1200×1800 pixels for a 4”x6” image. Therefore, you need to make sure your art is at the standard size before printing.

That being said, make sure to take into account the size of your print when looking at pixels. For example, if you are printing something that is 12×24 inches, the pixels should come to 3600×7200, which is still 300DPI.

Ink and Surface Material

Ink is an important factor in printing quality art. Pigment-based inks are considered to be much higher quality than dye-based inks.

Similarly, the type of paper used to print the artwork is important. The best material to use is watercolor paper, rag paper, canvas, or any specially designed paper. Both the ink and the paper material should be labeled “archival”, which ensures quality printing.

Fine Art Printing: Giclée

If you’ve never heard of giclée, your probably thinking, what the heck is that and how do you pronounce it?? Well, it’s a high-quality printing option and it’s pronounced zhee-clay. Essentially, giclée is the first and only fine art print to be made with an inkjet printer. There is a major difference between giclée and digital printing, however. While digital printing is convenient, it is not an option that is made to last. Digital prints are not considered to be archival like giclée prints are because the materials are of lower quality.

In the end, giclée prints will not fade or be damaged by sun or humidity and they will invariably stand the test of time. The nice thing about giclée is that it is known as one of the best forms of fine-art printing and combines all the criteria of quality printing mentioned above.

Where Can You Print Your Art?

With a Printing Company

There are hundreds of printing companies out there, including many that specialize in giclée. With the quality of this type of printing, however, comes a more expensive price.

On the other hand, not all artists create fine art prints. If giclée printing isn’t something you are interested in and you are looking for a cheaper printing option, companies like Zoe Print have affordable options. You can get a custom quote and easily see if it’s the right printing option for you. Additionally, if you want your art on a brochure, business card, flyer, invitation, newsletter, postcard, or poster, Zoe Print is the perfect option.

At Home

You can always print your art at home. If you have a standard printer, you can print your artwork with that. However, as discussed before, digital printing produces a lower quality than fine art printing. As an option, you could purchase a printer that has a giclée option. In addition to the costs of paper and ink, purchasing a fine art inkjet printer can be costly. However, if you plan on making a large amount of art and are considering selling it, investing in a quality printer might be a good option for you.

Print Your Art Today!

Now that you are an expert at making prints for your artwork, you’re ready to share it with the world. No matter what kind of art you do -drawing, painting, photography, or other- you can easily create amazing prints of your artwork. Whether you decide to try giclée printing or go with a more affordable company like Zoe Print, rest assured nothing is more awesome than you sharing your art with the world!

#VicksTricks & Our Tips To Help Beat Colds

Britmum's Linky Challenges / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

This post is an entry for the #VicksTricks campaign. I was sent a lovely package to help us out including Vicks First Defence. Very comforting to have on standby in this cold weather!

My girls are regularly coming down with some nasty cold or bug especially with Eva at school, it’s completely unavoidable! We’ve all felt a bit rough over the last week so our #VicksTricks package couldn’t have come at a better time. We usually know they are coming down with something when they get a temperature, something 60% of parents agree on according to research carried out by Vicks. We use infant Paracetamol to help bring down a temperature. When the girls are ill we spend a lot of time snuggled up on the sofa having cuddles.

50% of parents agree irritability & tantrums are another one of the first signs their children are coming down with a cold. My girls do get irritable and rather emotional, it can be difficult to soothe them with just cuddles and other distractions are needed.

Here’s a few ways we keep them amused:

Read books – My girls love being read to when they are poorly and occasionally fall asleep.
Watch films – New or old favourites keep them occupied for an hour or so at a time. (If you’re lucky they’ll fall asleep haha!)
Colouring in – I tend to find their favourite colouring book.

Almost half of parents agree another sign their little one is coming down with something is loss of appetite. It is most definitely a tell-tale sign with my girls as they LOVE food! It can be difficult to get them to eat but we do have a few tricks.

We offer these

A small snack buffet – Kids are even fussier when ill so we keep it small and simple cucumber, cheese, breadsticks/crackers & fruit.
Yoghurt! – No matter how ill my girls are they never turn down a yoghurt.
Fruit smoothies – Tasty and filling!
Warm Chocolate milk – Helps soothe them off to sleep.

We use Vicks vapour rub to help the girls breathe easier and to clear up any nasty coughs. We find tying a muslin square with Vicks on to the bed post helps them sleep much easier too! Did you know it’s great for kids aged two years and older, but it’s proven to work just as well for adults too.

The Mr cooks up his delicious magic soup in the slow cooker for dinner with meat, potatoes, stock, pearl barley, lots of onion & garlic and any other veg we fancy throwing in! It is a magically warming soup which has helped us get through soo many colds over the years. It can be kept over a few days too, it just needs to be warmed by the bowl.

Talking of magic, have you seen this magic #VicksTricks video?

What tips & tricks do you use?

Calming Hobbies For Anxiety

Anxiety / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’m focusing on calmig hobbies after I wrote about anxiety last week and how I’ve really been struggling. It is really affecting me, along with depression mostly because I suffer from chronic pain.

Calming Hobbies For Anxiety

I asked readers for tips to help me feel less anxious constantly. One tip I recieved was to write down every thing I want to get off my chest at night and the other was to find a hobby to keep my mind focused.

I have managed to pick up the yarn I needed to finish my knitting project and half way through knitting a scarf too. I have been making an effort to knit a few rows every few hours.

CBD Oil

While not a hobby, per se, since we’re on the topic of anxiety, I felt like CBD was worth a mention as something that you could take alongside doing these hobbies to give you a little extra help, since CBD Oil can also be extremely helpful for anxiety, among other things. There are so many companies that sell a variety of products containing CBD oil including gummies, creams, and capsules, such as Blessed CBD. Having tried them myself I can safely say they do provide some health benefits, however dosage may need playing around with to find the perfect dose for you and your individual needs

Writing And Knitting

Every night on my notes I write down everything that has been frustrating me. Knitting, along with writing whats on my mind each night, does feel like its helping. As I write, it feels like a weight is being lifted. With knitting, I think about less and less with every stitch focusing only on the next stitch.

I noticed a lot of my writing each night is about how my pain has limited me throughout the day. It makes me feel useless as I tend to end up sat on the sofa, trying to focus on not moaning too much. However, over the last day or so, I’ve been focusing on my knitting whenever I’m on the sofa. Doing this, I at least feel like I am achieving something, watching my projects grow.

Coping Better

My pain levels have escalated throughout the day but im still feeling positive. I havent had an attack in a few days now and I feel a bit more positive in general so I’m going to keep up the writing and knitting and once Ive finished Izzy’s blanket and scarf I plan to attempt learning crochet!

Thank you for the tips and keep them coming in if anyone has any others 🙂

Relentlessly Purple

Tag: tips