Creativity – Melissa Schlies

My Fall Bucket List & How Fall Helped Me Find Contentment

For as long as I can remember, fall has been my favorite season. It has the perfect weather to wear a sweater, but not need a jacket. To drink a hot, fall flavored latte without overheating. And to turn on the oven, and bake a pie. But ten years ago, Tony and I entered into a difficult life season, and fall became even more dear to me. Fall has the perfect weather to wear a sweater, but not need a jacket. To drink a hot, fall flavored latte without overheating. And to turn on the oven, and bake a pie. [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-10-13T23:20:23+00:00October 14th, 2021|Categories: Anxiety, Change, Conflict, Contentment, Creativity, Depression, grief, Habit Making, Health, perseverance, Self Care|Comments Off

This Season, Be An Amateur

"When did we stop doing things just for fun?” —Annie F. Downs For my birthday last week, Tony and I made pizza for our stay-at-home celebration. As I shared a few weeks ago, I’ve been learning how to make sourdough bread, and pizza felt like the next step. I made the crust from my sourdough starter. I followed the directions so carefully. And still for most of the process, I felt like I was holding my breath. Trying new things feels scary. I am still so new at working with fermented yeast, that I always have this little touch of [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-03-28T21:34:56+00:00March 29th, 2021|Categories: Anxiety, Balance, Creativity, Failure, Fear, Habit Making, Health, Practice|Comments Off

Change is Coming

About a month into my freshman year of college, I was recruited by a local youth pastor to volunteer in his youth ministry. Two months later, after I fell in love with the students and was invested in the program, he announced he was leaving. Suddenly, my volunteer role began to get a whole lot bigger. There are times, you don’t see change coming. Whether good or bad, it seems to fall out of the air and land right in front of you, interrupting your path. At times, altering it forever. Thankfully though, this isn’t the only way change occurs [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-11-08T18:20:12+00:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Change, Creativity, Preparation|Comments Off

This Holiday Season, Don’t Be Afraid To Go Your Own Way

When most people think about Halloween, they think about carved pumpkins. Kids in costumes asking for candy. And, they probably think about almost everything spooky. I think about Chinese food. Now, I realize that may seem random. So I will explain. But first let me say, Holidays don’t always have to be what they’ve always been. This is something my mom taught us growing up. By doing so, whether she knew it or not, she created for us some incredible memories. And, it all began with Halloween. When I was a baby, my mom became a Christian. Not the go-to-church-every-Sunday [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-23T15:38:58+00:00October 29th, 2020|Categories: Change, Christmas, Creativity, Freedom, Habit Making, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Making Decisions, Social Distancing|Comments Off

On Turning Four, and Celebrating Small Wins

Last Friday, melissaschlies.com quietly turned four. I hadn’t planned on mentioning it. After all, who celebrates four years? Typically, anniversaries are commemorated in fives. Not only that, but I thought I’d be further along in my writing journey by now. When I hit “publish,” on my first post, I had big dreams. Mostly of writing books. But also of creating a space on the internet to help others grow, find hope, and also, pursue their purpose. And, to some extent, I do feel we’re beginning to do that last part. Only sometimes, when we have big goals, it makes it [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-09-30T22:32:02+00:00October 5th, 2020|Categories: Courage, Creativity, gratitude, Hope, perseverance, Success|Comments Off

Staycationing This Year? Here’s Five Ideas to Make it Feel Like a Vacation

For us, this past spring brought cancellation after cancellation. Small trips Tony and I were looking forward to fell quickly in succession up against shelter in place orders. And all the unknown factors surrounding COVID, has definitely kept us from planning any faraway trips for this summer. So other than trying to squeeze in a possible trip to see family, it looks like we may be staycationing this year. Anyone else? Only, we also don’t want to spend the entire time doing things around the house or catching up on our to-do lists. The point of a vacation is to [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-06-15T18:50:31+00:00June 15th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Creativity, Health, Staycation, Travel|Comments Off

Creativity—Why even Try?

This post was originally slated for March, but then the Pandemic hit. Today, as we begin to open our world back up, it feels like a good time to revisit the topic of Creativity. As now, more than ever, we may need to be creative. A few years ago, Tony and I went to our first Michelin Star restaurant—by accident. We were on our dream trip to Tuscany, and we were late getting back into the town where we were staying. Online, I’d found three possible places for us to eat, but when we went to the first two, there were [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-05-27T12:59:19+00:00May 28th, 2020|Categories: Beauty, Calling, Courage, Creativity, Habit Making, Health, perseverance, Self Care|Comments Off

What if You’re a Success, & You Don’t Even Know It?

Two parts boredom and one part hope that someday soon we’ll be moving, had Tony and I cleaning out our room last weekend. And I mean, deep clean. We emptied out our closet, drawers, and my bookcase. But the treasure we found, was a lot closer to the surface. As I am terribly allergic to dust, Tony dismantled the small mountain of stuff on my dresser and dusted everything. Then I came in, wearing my COVID mask, to sort things out. But just as he was finishing, he held up a small piece of hemmed fabric that I’ve had on [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-05-11T13:23:45+00:00May 4th, 2020|Categories: Beauty, Calling, Creativity, Identity, Success|7 Comments

Five Virtual Activities to Revamp Your Screen Time

A few weeks ago, a Social Distancing Meme appeared in my Instagram feed. On the top half it read “Isolation without kids.” Underneath it showed photos of a couple smiling as they did yoga, played a game, and read together in bed. It also showed a woman painting, while in another photo, a woman was planting a garden. Then, on the bottom half, the meme read “Isolation with kids.” Underneath it showed a photo of kids in a hot tub overflowing with bubbles. There was one of a baby covered head to toe in Skippy Peanut Butter. Then there was [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-22T23:50:39+00:00April 23rd, 2020|Categories: Balance, Creativity, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Books To Help You on Your Creative Journey

I have a confession to make. In case I haven’t shared this before, I can be a little too independent in certain areas of my life. In some situations—even if I am a total newbie—I jump right in, assuming I will figure things out as I go. Of course, this doesn’t mean I don’t always do my fair share of internet surfing first. Before I baked my first loaf of whole wheat bread, I looked up at least a half a dozen recipes before landing on the one I wanted to try. And when it came to doing my first [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-19T18:33:42+00:00March 26th, 2020|Categories: Creativity, Good Books, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Preparation|Comments Off

My Fall Bucket List & How Fall Helped Me Find Contentment

This Season, Be An Amateur

Change is Coming

On Turning Four, and Celebrating Small Wins

Staycationing This Year? Here’s Five Ideas to Make it Feel Like a Vacation

Creativity—Why even Try?

What if You’re a Success, & You Don’t Even Know It?

Books To Help You on Your Creative Journey

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