Monthly Archives: May 2011

I Want My MTV!!

Good evening!!

I want my MTV, HGTV, Discovery, and OPB!!! Who am I kidding I REALLY want to watch the tele right now!!! ANYTHING!! I am only on day 3 of my no television, magazine, books, movies, internet right now, and I AM TELLING YOU!!! Mamma is having some SERIOUS withdrawals!!! I never realized I used television as a crutch! I had a rough day at the office, and all I could think about was getting home, plopping down in front of the tele and watching me an episode of Bones!!! But alas, no! Not tonight!!

Our girl Faye – “Uhm…when can I take this leash off?”

Our Girl Sophie – “Hey, mom? Where’s my sunglasses?”

But, I guess that is the point isn’t it??? To realize what silly things we fill up our time with instead of spending time working on your creativity!! Last night, I got a MOUNTAIN of laundry put away, that had been sitting on the table in my bedroom for at least 3 weeks. THEN when I got all of that put away, I decided to go through my closet getting rid of anything that no longer seemed to fit my idea of who I am – or who I am becoming!

If it didn’t fit, it was out!

If it made me feel like frump girl when I did wear it, it was out!

If I’ve never worn it, it was out!

It is time that the “things” in my life better reflect who I am and what I love!! I realize that “Christina” is still a work in progress, and “I” am rather fluid right now, but I DEFINITELY know what I am NOT!! So, I have gotten an itch to start editing, and purging some belongings that no longer represent or honor my authentic self! I think that my Artist’s Way journey has made that much easier to do than it was in the past! Making room for new but clearing out the old!!

“Mom, we have to tell you what daddy did!”

So, I may just end up with a REALLY ORGANIZED HOUSE!!! Which I am kinda the idea of!!! 😉

“Tag, daddy! You’re it!”

So, tonight instead of watching the tele, or reading of any kind, I decided that I was going to take my girls out for a walk – it has been a while! My sweetie decided to come out with us too!! WHOO! HOO!! So, that is what all of these pics are!!! My girls!!!

“Which way did he go? Which way did he go?”

Our little brown dog is Faye, and the white one is Sophie!! Besides my sweetie, who is my gentle giant, they are the loves of my life!! Faye is deaf, has been since birth, her little tongue is always sticking out because her jaw is too short, and she is the older of the two!! She is as sweet as can be, unless you are a little kid, in that case she is just TERRIFIED of you!!! 😉

“Hello? Anybody in there?”

Sophie, on the other hand, is little diva of the two, and she has got her daddy wrapped around her tiny little paw – because that man of mine, SPOILS HER ROTTEN!!! and she basically LOVES ANYONE who will sit and pet her!! LOL!! 😉

“RUN!!!”

We knew it was time to go back to the house when we got the signal from Faye, which looks something like this:

“That is it! I am starting to perspire, and I am sure that is NOT healthy!!”

I love my little family!! I can’t wait until we have our little farm so the girls are able to run free whenever they want to!! They just LOVE playing in the grass, and so do we!! It makes me feel like I am a kid again!!!

Maybe there is something to this no TV thing??? Who would’ve thought???

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Note to Chunky Dunkers: I will see you for our weekly meeting tomorrow evening!!! GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!! 😉

A Challenging Weekly Challenge!

Good evening!

As many of you may already know, I have been following the 12 week program, called The Artist’s Way. I am in week 5, and I have to tell you that doing this program may be ONE OF the BEST things that I have ever done in my adult life to in my quest to bettering myself!! I have been consistent with my Morning Pages, every singly morning, whether I want to do them or not, and I have gone above and beyond on making sure that I get my artist’s dates and weekly questions done EVERY SINGLE WEEK! However, I think that week 5’s challenge is going to be the one that REALLY tests my resolve!!!

This week’s challenge is supposed to help you listen in on what your inner voice is saying by avoiding any and all outside media. So, the challenge for this week is that I am not supposed to read any books, or magazines, watch any television, or movies, or play on the internet.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!

I didn’t realize what a crutch these things have been for me until I tell myself I am not allowed to do any of these things!!! I think I have used a lot of these activities to just “numb out” over things in my life.

How many of you do that?

Is it only me??

Let’s just say, it may be a very long week!!!

I know that every step of the process so far has been, just that, a process, and so far I have learned something new about myself all along the way!! So, for this week’s challenge I thought something that might get me through this challenging week would be to have some activities on hand, so that I don’t have to try and figure out what to do at the last minute – a la “I’m bored” style!! Not that I would really have anyone, but my poor sweetie to whine to about this, but I digress!! 😉

Some optional activities for this week will be:

  1. Writing
  2. Drawing
  3. Painting
  4. Cleaning
  5. Organizing
  6. Kissing
  7. Swimming
  8. Walking
  9. Cooking
  10. Baking
  11. Skipping
  12. Dog walking
  13. Photographing
  14. Miniature golfing
  15. Sculpting
  16. Bowling
  17. Dancing
  18. Stretching
  19. Sleeping
  20. Meditating
  21. Day dreaming
  22. Recycling
  23. Volunteering
  24. Making Love
  25. Twirling
  26. Laughing
  27. Card playing
  28. Any game playing in general
  29. Dressing up
  30. Playing make believe
  31. Making a video
  32. Playing with makeup
  33. Listening to music
  34. Blogging
  35. Decorating
  36. Furniture arranging
  37. Collaging
  38. Nature walking
  39. Yoga
  40. Mani/Pedis

That is a pretty healthy list, and some of these things really excite me to think about being able to do this week!! There will be no need to “Numb out” this week, I can just get out there and

LIVE, LIVE, LIVE my life!!!

You know what Auntie Mame always says,

“Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death!”

OK, so I realize that is a movie reference, but I didn’t watch it, I am just recalling it, so I think that counts as being compliant!!! LOL! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Blast From the Past!

Good evening!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there, or those Aunties, Sisters, Girlfriends, or Daughters who sometimes have an active mothering role to someone special in your life out there (that covers just about all of us, I think!!)!!! Today, my sweetie and I got to have a lovely visit and a great big ol’ lunch over at our mom, Linda’s place!! It was a bunch of fun!!

Happy Mother’s Day mom!!! 😉

Today, I wanted to share some of the pictures I took of Camp Kuratli up in Boring, Oregon yesterday. This is the Salvation Army camp that me and a lot of friends grew up going to every Summer. We had music camps, family camps, young adult/teen camps, and community camps. It seemed at times that we lived at camp almost all Summer long. One yea, I remember we made it home for EXACTLY 3 days all Summer, which gave us just enough time to wash all of our clothes!! I am not sure exactly how we were able to function without washing our clothes!! We must have smelled SOMETHING AWFUL!!! 😉

Here is what you see when you first get into camp. The main office is on the right, and the gymnasium, which I know we called something else, but I can’t seem to remember what is on the left of this pic.

Here is another pic of the large gymnasium! We hosted a lot of concerts here!

This is the old craft house and the stairs that all of us kids would race down to get to the shower house so we could get into the pool first during free time!!

Here is the caboose AKA Canteen (where we would wait in line to buy all sorts of candy and junk food!!)/Nurses Station – at least it was when we went there as kids. I don’t remember it quite looking so fresh, but we all sure had a fun time playing all over this thing!!! 😉

The camper cabins are all spaced out around this large loop. Here a few of those cabins.

You couldn’t really call being out at Camp Kuratli as roughing it because all of the cabins had indoor plumbing, running water, and space heaters! This place was really more like a resort for kids. 🙂 Here is some more of that loop of camper cabins!

Here is a pic of the other side of the circle, I am not sure what everything is now, but back in the day the building on the far left was the rec hall, which was where we could go during free time to play board games and stuff in case it was raining – although most of us spent EVERY free time in the pool – we figured we were already wet, so who cared if it rained??? The next building is the mess hall, and in front of that is the flag pole where we would line up every morning for revile, lowering whatever item of clothing happened to have gotten raided the night before (usually some poor camper’s underwear, of course!!), raising the American flag, saying the Pledge of Allegiance and then prayer for the meal. The next building was where the staff washed their laundry! I have no idea what that tiny building on the far left is, I don’t remember that, but it is right at the top of those stairs that you saw in the craft house pic. and a little farther to the right is where the caboose lives.

Here are a couple of pics of Merlo Field. This is up behind the circle of camper cabins, and this, for me, has changed the most dramatically since my days of going to this camp. This used to be a great open field!! Now it houses the camps swimming pools.

It sure is still beautiful though!! I know it is hard to tell, but up in this bit of forest is a very large house, and I remember whenever the campers would get really loud, the owners of the house would complain, and for some reason that made all of us campers laugh!! Like we were doing something right!! Even thinking about it now, still makes me smile! 😉

But mostly it was and is all of the lovely trees, the creek that runs through the camp, and the fact that we were right in the middle of the MOST BEAUTIFUL Oregon forest that helped make this camp special to all of us kids.

Here are a few panoramic views of the main circle, please feel free to click on these, or any of the pics to see them at full size – they are pretty large!!!

I hope you enjoyed these pics as much as I enjoyed taking them and reminiscing about this AMAZINGLY FUN time in my life!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

I’m Getting Married in the Morning!

Good evening!

Ok, I’M not actually getting married in the morning, and it isn’t ACTUALLY in the morning, it is on 9-10-11. But my BFF Dawn is getting married, and her sis, Heather is Dawn’s Maid of Honor, and I get to be her Maitron of Honor!! We are so excited!! 😉 We spent the day up in Portland taking pictures of the place where she is wanting to have her wedding, and to go search for the perfect wedding dress! So, I wanted to share some of those pics that I took from our day!!

The first thing we did was headed to Camp Kuratli out in Boring, Oregon (yes, that is really where it is located). We all grew up out there, and that is where Dawn and Erin met! So, they are thinking about getting married in the Tabernacle out there.

It is mostly the same as we remember, except for some minor details like the layout of the stage.

but those same old orange chairs, we are going to have to get creative in decorating to hide those uhm…ugly chairs! 😉

The ceilings are IDENTICAL to how we remember them from when we were younger!

We were just a little shocked and taken aback by just HOW BROWN this room is!!! I don’t remember it being quite so brown!!

Hmmm…I wonder if we can call on a Fairy Godmother to put her wand to work and create some wedding magic!! 🙂

Next on to wedding dresses!! We ended up going to this little boutique up in Portland, and for the life of me, I can’t remember what it is even called, but they were very friendly and were even able to make some time to let Dawn try on a few dresses. It is prom season right now, so the place was

H-O-P-P-I-N-G!!!

Here is Dawn dressed as a ballerina! Isn’t she cute?? 😉 No, this is her getting ready for the dresses to be delivered. Her criteria was a knee length, flowy, champagne colored, strapless dress that she could pair with a black sash around her waist.

Taking a break while chatting it up on the phone!!!

Here is dress #1. Very creative idea, the outer layer of this skirt kind of reminded me of fancy war camouflage netting!! Fun, just like Dawn! 🙂

Here is dress #2. Can we say Grecian goddess? But, maybe a little too “boobie” for her special day!! 😉

Dress #3. We are getting closer, the bubble skirt on this was really great, and she really like the cut of the bust, plus I really like the detail at the waist.

Dress #4 was MY FAVORITE!!! A little vintage! A little Glam! and ALL CHIC!! 😉

I just LOVED the detailing at the waist on this one. Unfortunately the tulling was REALLY itchy on this one! Dawn’s arms would have been red from rubbing against this skirt all night!

Here is dress #5. Another bubble skirt option, and I liked the delicate slope of the bust on this one, but something about it just wasn’t right.

After lunch, we made a stop at one more place, and we were able to find her THE PERFECT dress, however it was so late in the day, no one thought to toke a picture of it! DANG!!! Our Bad!! 😉

I would have to say that we did have a lot of fun hanging out, catching up, giggling, seeing the old camp, and searching for the perfect wedding dress!! No worries Dawn, finding the perfect dress is, at least for me, the hardest part, and you did that IN ONE DAY!!! 😉

You go girrrl! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Finally Friday!!

Good evening!!

I wasn’t sure that this day would get here, but now that it is, I am soooo thankful!! I really need a break from work!!

My sweetie and I spent some time down at Borders this afternoon, and of course, I bought a little too much!! HOWEVER, all of my purchases were well thought out and pre-planned, so I don’t feel guilty!! 😉

Oh, and before I forget, I wanted to make a correction to yesterday’s blog!! The person who left me the “Smile” note and the paperclip was my other co-worker Julie!! Who knew that they BOTH had perfect handwriting!! LOL!! (Julie AND Chris!!) I am going to have to work on my penmanship!! Thank you for the VERY LOVELY note Julie, YOU REALLY made my evening, and I am still smiling just thinking about it!!!

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!!

Now that I am trying to find the art in everything, I wanted to share a few pics of things that have inspired me in the last few days!!!! I would like to thank both Chris, and Julie for letting me raid their desks to get some of these images!!! 😉

I am just GA-GA about this color this season!! This orange is such a HAPPY color!! 😉

This little wand was from my niece Megan’s birthday a couple of years ago, and EVERY TIME I see it, it reminds me of how much I love that little girly of mine!! 😉

This is the top view of a really pretty paperweight I have on my desk at work!! This green has always been such a calming color for me, so thankfully, I have this color EVERYWHERE on my desk!! 😉

This was from Julie’s desk, and it EXACTLY matches one of Chris’ pictures on her wall! I just thought that was funny!! Most women who share an office “cycle” together, not us – we all seem to dress like triplets on accident!!! 😉

How could I POSSIBLY leave out my Eiffel Tower??

This is a little pottery box of Chris’ that I am almost CONSTANTLY playing with because it is just SO CUTE!! 😉

I have always LOVED glass paperweights, and this is the one that is on Julie’s desk! If I remember correctly, she actually MADE this!! SO IMPRESSIVE!!! 😉

I am sure that this last one, which just happens to be the front of a card that Chris received from one of her customers is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!! I just LOVE how these seemingly unrelated colors just go soooo well together, just like me and my friends, and co-workers Chris, Julie, and myself!!

Have a GREAT weekend girls!

We’ve DEFINITELY EARNED it!!!

😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉