Category Archives: Beauty

Slowly But Surely!

Good evening!

I know that these pics may not look like I am making much headway in my art studio/office clean, up but I feel like I am doing A LOT!!!

My sweetie helped me locate, and assembled this perfect little bookshelf to put on top of my craft dresser, My new motto is storage, storage, storage!! I have spent a good portion of my day sorting supplies and putting all like items together. Tomorrow will be more about getting things out of there for donating to charity, recycling old magazines, and papers, putting everything into their new homes, and decorating like a banshee!! That is my FAVORITE part!!! 😉

I am loving the green on the walls, I had dabbled with the idea of changing it, but to be honest with you – it is just too much work!! So, I am sticking with my gut and just working with it! I am adding baby pink, silver, and baby blue into the mix!!  Also adding the cubicle bookcase on top of the dresser and some lovely white curtains, is making this place feel so much nicer – even though there is still sooooooo much left to do!!! I think the room is taking on a much softer  girlier-glam feel! I know that is hard to believe when looking at these pics, but it really took me 5 years to get it into the state that it was in, so it is going to take me a little while to get it back to ship-shape!! 😉

I must confess, that I was so overwhelmed when I went in there to start this morning, that I decided to go shopping instead! Nice, right??? I bought some replacement essentials like bed pillows, and towels, which we were in desperate need of new ones!! Then when I got home, Jason helped me first thing, and I was still sooooo overwhelmed!! WHERE THE HECK DO I START??? Well, when I had taken Linda and GG’s craft class, they started with a meditation, so I thought I would give that a try! It TOTALLY worked!! I realized I had to stop feeling guilty and forgive myself for letting the room get to be such a disaster. I then made the decision to open my eyes, find one thing to toss, and one thing to put away. That seemed easy enough to commit to, so I did it, and then did again, and before I knew it I was on a roll!!

Anyway, I have a lot of work ahead of me for tomorrow, but I am excited to see what I can get done!!

TO-WANDA!!!!
(a la Fired Green Tomatoes, for those who are not in the know!)

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Tarte!

Good evening!

I wanted to share with you some more pics of the FABULOUS little shop that I had my jewelry class at on Sunday, Tarte!!

Right from the entry way, this little shop is a welcoming feast for the eyes!!

Sparkles, and baubles, and trinkets, oh my!!

I just love the feel of their scrumptious fabrics, and yummy goose down pillows!!

They even make keys look tres chic!!

This gives me so many ideas for fun and creative ways to display my own jewelry collection!!

I could just go home with one of EVERYTHING!!!

Who knew mannequins could be so inspirational??!!

I just DROOLED over this large antique-inspired sign!!

Hello, please wrap this up, I will TAKE IT!!! 😉

What a comfy looking reading spot!!

Every where you look in this store there is more couldn’t-you-just-pee-your-pants ADORABLENESS!! I know that might be hard to imagine, but just go with me on that!! 😉

Isn’t this the sweetest little boutique??? The only downside to it, is that I wish I was at least 3 times as large!! This place is a cross between Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Amelie, and Penelope all rolled into one!! This is probably mu number 1 FAVORITE little boutique for FABULOUS treasures, and inspirational ideas for my own GROWN-UP-GIRLY-WONDERLAND!!!

Poor Jason, he is not going to know what hit him!! I sure do LOVE THAT MAN!! 😉

“Nothing bad could ever happen [Tarte]”!!! 😉

I couldn’t have said it any better myself!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

The Farmhouse Show!

Good evening!

Jason and I had such a GREAT time today!!! 😉 We headed out to Turner, Oregon to check the Farmhouse Show! I was very excited!! and Jason was hesitantly going along for the ride, with his book in hand in case he got bored, HOWEVER he ended up getting MORE INSPIRED than even I was, and that is saying a lot!!! He is now talking about building furniture, which you HAVE TO KNOW I LOVE!!!

First thing I want built is some small bookshelves that can be used on top of a pair of matching dressers that I have in craft room! I could SOOOO TOTALLY use the extra storage space!! But, I digress! I wanted to share some pics of some of the FABULOUS merchandise that was at the Farmhouse show!

I hope you enjoyed all of these pics!! These have really inspired me and have given me ideas on how I want my art studio/craft room to look!! I will keep you posted of my progress!!

As for tomorrow! I am off to my next craft class! I am going up to Tarte in Aurora to learn some metal smithing skills for making cuff bracelets and charms! I will post pics tomorrow! I can’t wait!!!

Until tomorrow,

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

As Promised!

Good morning!

As my hubby and I finish up and get ready to head out for the day, I thought I would stop and take a moment to post those pics I had promised from last night’s belly dancing performers!

Yes, she is actually dancing on top of glass!! AMAZING! 😉

We really did have such a GREAT time last night!! The costumes were beautiful, the dancers varied and extremely talented, the music was energetic, and the room was just electric! I can’t wait until it is MY turn to get out there and show my MOVES, but first I had better get out there and keep practicing so that I can HAVE moves!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day! 😉

A Late Post!

Good evening!

I am sorry this post is getting to you so late! I completely lost track of time this evening!! 😉 I was playing in my craft room with my friend, Cicily! We were both collaging our little hearts out! I can’t wait until we get to do it again!! 🙂 I will have to take a moment sometime tomorrow to take pictures of our newest works in process for you to peruse!! The funny thing is, that we were sitting on completely opposite ends of the room, and our color schemes are almost identical!! TOO FUNNY!!!

Well, I am ready for my class on Wednesday, and because of lack of class space, I am going to have to find some kind of alternative activity for Saturday, since my encaustic class will have to wait until the next round!!! HOWEVER, I picked up all of my supplies this afternoon after work, and I am ECSTATIC!! I truly can not wait!!!

Oh! and I am excited to say that I am going to take a Zumba class next Monday evening! My first Zumba class ever!! I am all about making movement fun, and I have heard nothing but GREAT things about Zumba, especially one of the classes that is offered a few blocks from my place! I will give it a try for one week, and then I will decide if it something that I can commit too!! I will keep you posted!!! 😉

As for me and right now, I am zonked!! It is so far past my bedtime that all I can do right now is tell you G’night…and

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

A Day of Collage Play!

Good evening!

I have had the most MAGICAL weekend, and it is still only Saturday!! I want to tell you all about my LOVELY evening with my sweetie last night, but I have decided, with his blessing, to save that story for tomorrow!!

You see, today I had a FANTASTIC mixed media collage artist class that I just couldn’t wait to share all about with you! I also know that all of the ladies from the class will be looking for the pics of their art projects too, so I wanted to make sure that I was able to get these up and out there into the universe so that our momentum would not die down!!

You see, I had heard about this class a few weeks ago, which I told you about earlier, but money was tight and I was thinking that I was not going to be able to make it! Well, when the class got closer, I was trying to think of everything and anything that might give me reason not to go!! You see, I was letting my inner critic get the better of me, and I was chickening out!!! Thankfully, my sweetie came to my rescue, told me to go to the class, and next thing I know it is 11 PM the NIGHT BEFORE class, and I am online searching for the Keizer Art Association online and I signed up for today’s Collage Play class!! WHEW!!! 😉

I wasn’t sure what to expect, seeing that I have never done collage before, but on my way to class I was getting more and more excited and couldn’t wait to get started! The class was being taught by Salem artists Linda West and Glenda Goodrich AKA “GG”!! I was the first one at class, like usual, and they were there smiling, and extremely friendly! I was still pretty nervous, as I have a tendency to be in these situations, but they were ABSOLUTELY WELCOMING!!

After every one arrived, they opened the class with GG taking us through a guided meditation, and it definitely set the right tone for the day!! This rang especially true for me, when she told us to tell our little inner critic that they could go find a nice shady place and go take a nap for the day!!!

The whole idea for this class was that we were going to play, and create mixed media collages using decorative and handmade papers, paints, ephemera, ink, all sorts of baubles,  trinkets, ribbons, buttons, beads and ANYTHING ELSE WE COULD GET OUR HANDS ON, quite frankly!! 😉 It was as if someone had walked right into my crazy filled to the brim craft room, and told me that I WAS NORMAL!!! 😉

These were some of my supplies! 😉

We had such a GREAT time!! They only rule was, was that there really were no rules except that we had to leave our inner critic at the door!!!

Both Linda and GG demo’ed all sorts of hints, tips, and new techniques!! and all of us ladies had fun ripping, and gluing, and glittering, and laughing as the day seemed to literally FLY by!!! There were 5 students in the class, and both instructors got to make some collages too!! I was ABSOLUTELY IN AWE of the AMAZING talent that was in that room!!

Before the day was over everyone had made all sorts of treasures!! So much so that we could have opened a gallery! We were really all quite thrilled at not only how much we had made, but at how good all of the pieces turned out to be!! There really was some INCREDIBLY talented women in that room!!! 😉

Everyone’s tastes and working styles were so different, but it was agreed by all that everyone that it was fun spending the day creating with other creative spirits!! I know for myself, it was quite the change from crafting by yourself!! There is something absolutely electric in the room, when you are all using your creative energy!! I think it was GG that mentioned that her and Linda have a once a month craft day where they get together and spend the day crafting! I told them that I was going to have to borrow that idea, because I think that if I am wanting someone to craft with their HAS to be SOMEONE out there who would want to craft WITH SOMEONE too???

Here is a Show-and-Tell of everyone’s handiwork!!

This is Maggie and her lovely artwork! She was inspired by some FABULOUS quotes that she had found!

This is Terri and her lovely artwork! She was inspired by this stone that one of her girlfriends had given to her. There is a shape of a tree in it’s markings!

This is Julie and her lovely artwork! She was inspired by her extremely supportive husband!

This is Vickie and her lovely artwork! She was inspired by her recent trip to Hawaii!

This is one of our lovely instructor’s Linda, and she was inspired by the neutral pack of supplies that she had gotten to create this first piece of art, and her second piece was inspired by her niece, who’s birthday is coming up!

This is our other lovely instructor, GG, and her art work was inspired by the nature theme of supplies that she had chosen and the 3D bird that she fell in love with that Linda had created that was also came out of her pack!

Here are my two art pieces. These were inspired by my love of all things red, and some of the great images that I found that I thought represented me and my journey to rediscover my creative self.

This class was such an AMAZING experience! I know I must be saying it over and over again, but it is ABSOLUTELY true!! It was so great to be in a class that was so freeing and open, and to be able to play again as if were all little girls back in kindergarten was pretty special!! I think the thought that summed up the entire day perfectly, which was said by Maggie, was,

“Art isn’t always well behaved!”

What a GREAT quote, and one that I am learning to hang my hat upon!!! Thank you, ladies!! I had such a good time “playing” with you today! I hope that we get the chance again in the near future!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Night of Private Lessons!

Good evening!

Tonight was my belly dancing class, just in case you have been hiding someplace and hadn’t heard me say it for the umpteenth time!!

BELLY DANCING THURSDAYS!!!

WHOO! HOO!!

Hee! Hee!! Hoo!! Hee! Hee!! Hoo!!

Ok, I have gotten myself back under control!! 😉


Tonight I wanted to share a bunch of pics that I took this morning while I was taking a walk to go into the office. It was very cold here, and foggy, and I thought that the world seemed very ethereal and magical this morning with all of the hazy fog. So, I took some time just finding some shots that I thought were BEAUTIFUL! I would love to hear your thoughts about them!!

Ok, onto my class this evening. When I started this belly dancing class about a month ago, there were 5 of us, then we became 6 for a couple of weeks, last week we dropped to 4, and I am not sure what happened this week, but there were only 2 of us there, and the other lady had to leave early! BUMMER!!


BUT TO MY SURPRISE! I got to have about a 20 minute private lesson with the dance instructor and one of the students from the advanced class! That was really awesome, and that means that I know some dance moves that everyone else doesn’t!! YEAH!!!


HOWEVER!!! There are two moves that I am going to have to really practice on! They are both spinning moves and you do this thing with one of your feet that you do a 180 degree turn, and let me tell you MAMMA IS GONNA HAVETA FIGURE OUT TO SPIN THIS SHIP IN A SPLIT SECOND!!! SHEESH!! Let’s just say it is going to take me some practice, and maybe some slippy socks!!! LOL!! 😉

I can’t say it enough! I truly LOVE this class, I look forward to it all week!! It is exhausting and energizing all at the same time! I am becoming better coordinated, balanced, and graceful, three things I thought could never be associated with me, and through lots of practice, I am getting better, and better, a little every week!!

While I was waiting for the instructor to get there, I was sitting out in the waiting area with a tall, graceful woman, who looked to be in about her 80’s. She was VERY OBVIOUSLY a dancer, with a dancer’s body and a dancer’s posture! So I got to talking to her, asking her questions, like I have a tendency to do, and I found out that she has been dancing since she was 6, she has 4 dance instructors because no one can keep up with her, and she tells me,

“I can’t help it, when my feet hear the music, they just can’t hold still, so I have no other choice but to get up and let them dance!”

She was right, not 5 minutes later, there was a private lesson going on in the next room, and the music started playing. She got up to watch, and before you know it she was dancing all around the waiting room, and down the hall! It was actually quite beautiful and made me smile all the way down to my liver. 😉

I pray that when I am 80 something, I am able to say,

“I can’t help it, when my feet hear the music, they just can’t hold still, so I have no other choice but to get up and let them dance!”


If only we were all so lucky to find a physical activity that gave them this much joy and pleasure!! I am truly blessed!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

What Happened To Chunky Dunkers???

Good evening!

I have to make a confession, I am a grumpy-fuss-bucket tonight! If I were my own daughter I would tell myself to go to my room and take a nap! Which I will do, eventually but right now I wanted to make sure that I at least touched base with tonight!!

I am sorry to say, that because of an emergency at work today, I have missed tonight’s Chunky Dunker’s Club meeting!! I have just gotten home from the office, for the second time today, and man am I ever beat!! Sheesh!! Long story short, it is all fixed, crisis averted! and both Chris and I, who was with me all this time trying to help me fix the issue, will be back in the office in less than 8 hours. UGH!!!

Man, I really owe that girl for all of her help!!

THANK YOU, CHRIS!!!

I need a vacation!! I am dreaming of taking a road trip with my sweetie! I just need to find out where we should go?? He wants something with Indians and old west history, I want something with lots of antique stores and FABULOUS shopping venues! He wants mountains and I want oceans! I want a 5 start hotel with room service, and he wants to be able to pitch a tent wherever his heart desires!! Let’s just say, we don’t exactly agree!!! LOL!! However, we do agree that we ALWAYS have fun when we go on vacation together!! So, in the end, it should be a blast – no matter where we end up.

Anyone have any ideas???

Any reasonable offers will be taken into consideration!!!

Hee! Hee!

Oh, I did do something ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS tonight!! When I left work today, the first time, I went over to Russell Salon and Day Spa, and had an appointment with my FANTASTIC hairdresser, Lauren Forgione. She very graciously squeezed me in for a deep hair conditioner treatment, and I got my bangs trimmed! and because it is Lauren, THE BEST HAIR STYLIST EVER!! She even straightened my hair for me, which YOU KNOW I JUST LOVE!!! She consistently goes above and beyond in making me feel like THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD, and today, I just really needed that!!  She was even gracious enough to take a picture of me under the hair dryer, however, I realize to be REALLY fancy, I should have been reading a Allure magazine or something, but I felt pretty damn AWESOME getting pampered one way or another!!

So that is what all of these pics are of! Me under the dryer, and two of my after shots! I really LOVE having curly hair, but SOMETIMES I really LOVE seeing a new me with straight hair!!!

WHAT DO YOU THINK???

Do you see Edward and Bella in the background here, yes, I really am a nerd – I don’t just play one in real life!! 😉

Alrighty, well, it is waaaay past my bedtime (hence the aforementioned grumpiness), and I have to be awake and alert at 5:30 tomorrow morning to do my morning pages, so I am off to beddy-bye!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

A Night Playing With Glass!

Good evening!

Tonight Jason and I had a special date night, a date where we went and learned all about glass fusing/slumping! We went down to Create a Memory here in Salem, Oregon, and for a mere $25 you got a intimate 2 hour class where you learn everything and anything you could ever need to know about this fun art! I would highly recommend this class. They let you design your very own 4X4 art piece which is included in the cost of the class, but they let you design larger pieces for a nominal fee more. So, I chose to do a 6″ x 6″ piece and it only cost me $10 more! They don’t care how long you take to actually put your art piece together, so since Jason and my design was so intricate, I am going to head over there tomorrow to work on it a little more!!

Plus Create a Memory is actually a pottery painting place where you can purchase pottery pieces, and paint them, and the studio will fire them for you, so they have TONS of choices for that kind of stuff! That project might be next!!!

As much fun as this class is, I am still not sure if it is my medium, yet. I know that I will feel it in my bones when I discover my artist medium, and so far, this is fun, but it is a little tedious, and I am not sure if that is too destressing for me!! 😉 HOWEVER, with that said, I cannot WAIT to see my finished piece, I think glass is just DAZZLING, and I really LOVE the colors that I have chosen for myself!! 😉

Here is Jason’s unfinished piece:

His is so zen, REALLY!! I know that might be hard for some of you to believe, but zen is a word that really can describe my Jason to a T! He is Mr. Laid back, easy going, outdoorsy guy! He sometimes AMAZES me though with his art, I forget that he has a whole creative side of himself that I don’t get to see him tap in to too often, but when I do, his work is quite indicative of who he is as a person!! I STILL LOVE that man!!! 😉

Here is my unfinished piece:

My inspiration was quilting squares, so I divided mine up into quarters and I am doing 2 quarters in this similar pattern, and I am going to try to create a plaid type pattern with the other 2 quarters. We will see, I am not exactly sure how I can do that, but I am optimistic!!! 😉

I will definitely make sure to take after pictures once they are finished. We are told that these small pieces only take an hour in the kiln to fire and cool, so HOPEFULLY I can get mine done tomorrow, so that I can share my handiwork!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

NOTE TO CHUNKY DUNKERS: I have belly danced for a half an hour today, I had a mini ham sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin for breakfast, a yogurt for a snack later, a mini dum-dum sucker, and a bite size crunch bar for snack. Had chicken strips and some fries for lunch, and dinner was a large salad, with a side of baked chicken breast, and a diet A&W. I see that around lunchtime is when I start to have problems! Still not my best day, but a little better than yesterday, so I am ok with that! 😉

A Monday of Positivity!

From Tiffany's "Happy Girls are the Prettiest Girls" Shoot

Good evening!

Work did get a little bumpy today, but I knew that it would, right? And it did, of course! There are a lot of changes going to be happening in the next few months, but that is alright. I know that everything is going to turn out alright, it always has and always will.

I have to tell you that all of this tapping into my creativity has given me hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel for my life! I feel like I am learning what my true purpose for being placed on this earth for. I can not yet articulate what I am thinking, but I am learning that it is ok to be creative, and to use my creativity to somehow make the world a better place. I honestly didn’t think that was possible before. I thought creativity was something that you stole moments of while your life takes a break from chewing you up! Sad, really!! I realize that I don’t have to be “chewed up any longer” that I am allowed to take time for myself, without guilt, to replenish and recoup what is the best of me, so that I am ready and able to better take care of others!! That, my friend, is called growth!!! LOL! 😉

I had quite the surprise right before I left the office today! Sometime last week, I had taken a leap of faith and had e-mailed a couple of my FAVORITE photographers/bloggers, not really thinking that any of them would EVER write me back. It was more for the action of stepping outside of my box, and doing something I wouldn’t think I could do. Well, today, quite unexpectedly, I got a return e-mail!!!! When I saw the name of the person sending it, I can not tell you how excited I was to see her name – I literally started jumping up and down inside of my own head!! YEAH!!! WHOO!!! HOO!! I can’t believe she wrote back!!! Anyway, it was Tiffany Kirchner Dixon of The Fancy Farmgirl, and she very graciously answered all of my questions, plus gave me some very lovely encouraging words of advice for getting myself started with photography!!! To say that I was jazzed, was a HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT!! It gave me proof that I was on the right track. I am still not sure what my “art” is, or how it is going to manifest itself, but I KNOW that I am heading in the right direction!!!

Tiffany’s blog (I feel like we are at that place now, you know, first name basis!!) is ABSOLUTELY SCRUMTIOUS!! I love the ebb and flow of her postings, reading about her family, and perusing her DREAM-LIKE photography!! I KNOW that my sis, Alex would REALLY like her work too!! PERFECTION!! The photo above is one Tiffany’s and you can see more of her photography here!

I have to confess that even though that was the MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE to my day, I was soooo thankful to get home today! I had been hankering to get home the entire work day, kind of like a little kid pining for recess during an especially difficult math test!! My sweetie and I finally scheduled some time to have some quality time for right after work! It has been a while since we have both been able to get away from all of the work and distractions of life, and just spend some much needed time together! It is ALWAYS so much fun to spend time with him, sharing out laughter and dreams! He is just such a genuine human being, and he really had this way of bringing out the playful kid out of me!! He is my own personal gentle giant, and really makes my life so much better!! Thank you, Love! You mean the world to me!!!

Well, before I ramble on for the rest of the night, I am going to close up shop for the night so that I can go climb into bed with my love and do some reading before we slip off to la-la-land and have some SWEET DREAMS!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉