Category Archives: Creativity

My Word for 2012, Freedom!

Good evening!

I have been giving this a lot of thought for the past few days, what should my word for 2012 be?  Even now, as I sit here with my sweetie and two four-legged girls, I was struggling to decide what word would I love to sum up my life for this new year. I turned to me sweetie, and out of sheer desperation, I whined to him

“If I had one word that I would want to describe 2012, what would it be???”

Without missing a beat, he said, “Freedom”.

My jaw practically dropped onto the floor. DUH!!! That is such a PERFECT WORD for me, and my 2012!!

Freedom in my life is something that I have been really struggling with!!

Freedom from fear!

Freedom from debt!

Freedom from clutter!

Freedom from indecision!

Freedom from my own perceived limitations!

Freedom from negativity!

This is the year that I want to get out of my own way, and live the creative life that I know that God must have put me on this earth to live.

There is a quote from one of my favorite movies that keeps running through my head. It is from the movie Answer Man:

Kris Lucas: Why can’t I do the things I want to do? There’s so much I know I’m capable of that I never actually do. Why is that?
Arben Faber: The trick is to realize that you’re always doing what you want to do… always. Nobody’s making you do anything. Once you get that, you see that you’re free and that life is really just a series of choices. Nothing happens to you. You choose.

This is something that I need to remember, freedom is a choice, that I either take advantage of or miserably neglect. I am already free!!

What a perfect word for me…Thank you, my love, You still know me so well!!!

FREEDOM!!! I am so excited to see what this new year brings!!! 😉

I hope you will take the time to check out my Fly Tribe’s Blog and visit my friend’s sites. I’d like you to meet them, and see what their words for the year are. Maybe you will be moved to adopt one for yourself!

To access these blogs, either click on the red words above, or the “Word Hop” logo on the right side bar. Either will take you directly to the blog where you will find links to their posts! Enjoy!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

“If you want to have a different life, live differently!”

Ta-Dat-Dat-Daaah!!

Good evening!

Tonight is my 365th post in a row!! YEAH!!!! I had set a goal for myself that I would blog every day for one year, and I am very happy to announce that I HAVE MET THIS GOAL!!! 😉

You know, I have learned a lot about myself and of life while blogging this past year, and I thought I would share some of those things that I have learned with you!

  1. If you don’t live your life, you don’t have a life!
  2. Experiences are waaaay more important than material things!
  3. It is ok to ask for help!
  4. Even when you think you are all alone, there is someone out there who is willing to lend you some encouragement!
  5. Even the scariest goals can be accomplished if you are determined enough to make the needed sacrifices!
  6. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you want to do something you should, just doing it feels great!
  7. There is a whole world of people, ideas, and places right outside the door of my little world!
  8. I only know what I know, and I still have a LOT left to learn!
  9. There is a whole community of creative people who are willing to cheer you on!
  10. No matter what you are going through, there is always someone who is going through the same thing themselves!
  11. Kindness and sincerity is always a fan pleaser!
  12. Taking a leap of faith may be scary, but landing further than you expected is always worth it!
  13. You can always do one more thing!
  14. Taking time to do nothing is medicine for the soul!
  15. So is laughter!
  16. You attract to you what you send out!
  17. Even after 17 years my sweetie can still dazzle me!
  18. It is ok to pick and choose your family!
  19. You can’t please everyone at all times!
  20. Learning to say no is so difficult, but once you say it once, it becomes a lifesaver!
  21. Children grow so quickly, but are great at keeping you feeling young!
  22. There isn’t such a thing as being too sparkly!
  23. Sexy doesn’t just come in one size!
  24. You are never too old to begin again!
  25. You really only do get one life!
  26. Just because the corporation owns your job doesn’t mean you don’t still own your career!
  27. It is therapeutic to often let your inner child out to play!
  28. It is ok to have a bad day every once in a while, you are human after all!
  29. People are more precious than gold!
  30. It is ok to listen to my intuition, she knows what she is talking about!!

I hope you have enjoyed following my blog for the past year!! By no means do I plan on stopping now, but I may not be quite so hard on myself if I don’t blog EVERY SINGLE DAY!! I will continue to share my stories with you to hopefully provide encouragement to someone to try something new, or to let someone else know that they are not alone, or to even just share something inspiring!!  Thank you so much to those of you who stop by every day to see what is going on, those who comments and offer words of encouragement! I hope that I have given to you even a small slice of what you have given to me, I appreciate you!! 😉

In the next coming weeks I have some ideas to give my blog a fresh new take that I have been toying with, and I hope that as I start to implement some of these ideas that you will continue to give me your honest feedback, and encouragement! I always look forward to hearing from you! 🙂 I am so very excited to see what this next year brings!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Loooong Day!

Good evening!

This is going to be a short post for a very looooong day!!! 😉 I am working extra hours at work for the next 3 days so that I am able to work only 1/2 a day on Thursday and get on the road to my spend the weekend with my family in Roseburg!! YEAH!!!

I can not even wait!!! 😉

I have been doing a lot of searching on Pinterest this evening, and the thing that I am mainly looking at is hair and makeup styles!! I know, kind of superficial, but for someone visual like me, I really can use some inspiration!!! 😉 I thought I would share some of my finds with you this evening!!!

Ok, so I might be a little obsessed, but it easy to see how that can happen, right???

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Hangin’ at the Manse!

Good evening!

I have had a pretty good day today!!

  • Had a yummy brunch with my sweetie!
  • Got all of the laundry done in the house – which if you would have seen our massive pile of dirty clothes, you would have realized what an AMAZING accomplishment that was!! 😉
  • Helped my sweetie pain on a Victorian doll house for a little while! (He has been contracted to refinish one for one of his clients!)
  • I have read a little in a romance novel I have been reading!
  • I have watched one too many episodes of tele off of our Netflix!
  • Had a GIANORMOUS, but extremely delicious dinner with my sweetie!
  • and am now sitting in my living room enjoying my family, while the Christmas lights are on, my sweetie is writing, and I am getting ready to spend a little too much time on Pinterest!! 😉

Talking of Pinterest, is anyone else as completely addicted as I am???? Oh-em-gee!!! I can open it up and start rifling through pics, and before I realize it 2 hours have passed!! I am sooooo ENAMORED!!! It’s all good though! I have always loved collecting photographs of all things inspiring – I have about 15,000 different pics on my computer – I know, a little obsessive, right?? But I have been collecting photographs online for about 5 years, so n average of 3000 pics a year – I can handle that!! Maybe I just need to be a photographer so that I can start collecting some of my own inspiring shots!!! 😉

Talking about photography, I am getting ready to sign up for an online photography class. It is not your typical, technical type class, but more about how to take more artistic and expressive pics using whatever kind of camera you may have available. Right now I have a normal point and click, but someday soon I hope to have a real big-girl-camera, with lenses and everything.  WOULDN’T THAT BE AWESOME????? Oh man, that idea just jazzes me SO MUCH!!! 😉 I can’t wait!!! Anyway, the class is given by Darrah Parker, and if you click on her name it will take you to a page telling about her class. I can’t wait!!

Anyway, I just noticed the time, and realized it is later than I thought it was (it is about 8:45 her, and I am an early to bed kinda gal!!), so I am going to skee-daddle to get ready for bed!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

 

Package In the Mail!

Good evening!

Do you ever get excited whenever you get a package in the mail???

or is that just me???

Well, tonight, after I got home from work, I found a package in my mail!! YEAH!!! 😉

Yes, I really do get that excited!!

In it, was my new 2012 Curly Girl calendar. I am not sure if you know who Curly Girl is, but she is one of my FAVORITE artists. She is a collage artist specializing in uplifting and girl power type artwork!! I am sooooo excited for the new year so that I can put it up in my office!!

I also received a new book called, The Right-Brain Business Plan. This book is by Jennifer Lee, and I have been drooling over this book seemingly FOREVER!!! I finally decided it was time to break down and treat myself to this little book! It is basically a book that helps visual people, like myself, visually map out a plan of action to get to where they want to be. I have needed this kind of help for a while now, because for some reason I seem to get all excited about something, get overwhelmed and then sabotage myself and end up back at the beginning of my progress!! So, I am at least hoping that this book will have some fun, and creative ideas for getting inspired!!!

There was one more thing in this package I received, but I am not at liberty to share what it was, because it was a Christmas gift for my sweetie, and he reads my blog faithfully!! I am SOOO NOT going to spoil that surprise!! 😉

What else happened today? Well, we had our Christmas luncheon at work today. It is always such a nice treat to have a delicious meal, served by our administration!! Plus, we usually take a bit of a longer lunch so we can just take some time to catch up on how everyone is doing. It was really quite a treat!!

I realized today that it is only one week from tomorrow until we are traveling down to Roseburg to see family for Christmas. I am just so excited to get there, and just hang out and have some fun!!! I will have to see if we can have our friend come over and babysit our girls while we are gone. I really do hate leaving them, but they really need to stay in there own habitat!! It is just safer for them!! I am hoping to someday have an RV where we can have a mini home away from home and then they could easily travel with us, but until then, a dog-sitter it is!!! 😉

Alright, that is enough rambling for one night!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

The Magic of Christmas!

Good evening!

This evening my sweetie gave me the best story. He was in the restroom at the store. There was a little boy and his father at the sink, and the little boy had decided he wasn’t going to wash his hands. The dad said to the little boy, either you wash your hands, or I do it for you, but if I have to do it for you then you will have to send one of your presents back to Santa. Well, Jason said the little boy started to wash his hands as if his very life depended on it. Very funny!! 😉

I am finally feeling better. I have a little bit of a raspy voice still, but I am feeling much better. Cough is to a minimum, and I only have a very minor sore throat! This is all a MAJOR improvement to what I had been feeling!! So, I made it through work today, whoo! hoo!! We had a pretty good day!! There was an ugly Christmas sweater contest that was so much fun to watch!! The winner of the contest was a surprise to us all because he is someone who is very quiet and seems to keep to himself, so we all had a pretty good laugh at that!!

This evening, I was even feeling good enough to get myself to the beauty salon and got my eyebrows waxed!! Yeah!! I now have two perfectly groomed eyebrows, instead of two bushy caterpillars!!! I also picked up some hair products, as I have been running out, but my favorite purchase of the night was two new OPI nail polishes. They have a line of Muppet inspired colors! I am soooo in love with them!!! I purchased Divine Swine, and Meep, Meep, Meep! Pictured below:

Pretty right? There is one or two more that I am thinking about stopping to pick up tomorrow; Warm and Fozzie, and Rainbow Connection:


Ok, so I may be a little obsessed, but can you blame me?? Anyway, that is my night! I am off to spend some quiet time with my sweetie!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

 

A Quiet Evening!

Good evening!

I am having a nice quiet evening at home, well that is except for the sneezing and the coughing – that is a little noisy, but seeing that I am the one doing it, I will excuse it!! 😉 My official plan for this evening is to continue spending this evening cuddled up on the couch with my girls while watching French movies!! I just LOVE doing that!!! 😉

This evening, for my blog posting I thought I would share some more Christmas Craft Fair pics from the Douglas County Christmas Craft Fair from last weekend! Most of the items I have purchased while there were used to decorate my drab cubicle at work, and I am just LOVING the change of scenery there!! The market has also really got me thinking about officially starting my own business where I can sell refinished home furnishings and one-of-a-kind home accessories, but that is another blog posting!! 😉

As I enjoy the rest of my quiet evening…

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Cute Surprise!

Good evening!
I got home this evening, and Jason told me that he could hear murmuring coming from under the Christmas tree, so on further inspection this is what I saw…

Closer…

Do you see what I see?

Isn’t that too cute???

You see, I collect Santas and usually they come from my sisters every year. This is a tradition that my mom started in 1997, 2 years before she passed away. Well, apparently Jason has been Mr. Sneaky and has gotten me one this year too. I can’t wait to see what he looks like, but apparently Santa is going to be sitting, er-uh, standing under my tree all season! It is a really good thing that Christmas is coming soon. I am just too antsy to want to wait to open my presents!! 😉

I am off to go spend some time with Mr. Sneaky!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

 

Feeling More Like Me!

Good evening!

I have just gotten home with my sweetie, and I am sitting here with my girls keeping me warm! I have to tell you that I am feeling so much better than I have in the past few days! Thank you for all of the get-well-wishes, your encouragement means a lot to me!

We finished decorating for Christmas in the office today. I just love that!! We have Christmas garland, a tree, lights, ornaments, ribbon, etc. etc. It just makes the whole place feel warmer, cozier somehow! Plus add Christmas music to the mix and it just makes it feels so much easier to be there.

Jason is busy making me another hat. I know he had made me one already, but he liked it so much that he confiscated it for himself and I don’t ever get a chance to where it myself, so he is now in the process of making me another one! YEAH!! I can’t wait to wear it!

Update on my tattoo…well, it is still healing, looking like a peeling sunburn at this point, and the feet are really blurry, but I am told that is because it still healing. I hope they are right, because I will be sad if it doesn’t look like the feet print I first remember seeing! They were super cute, and I haven’t seen them since! I was hoping that, now that it has been almost a month they would be healed, but apparently not yet. I will keep you posted!!

OH, talking about updates, I thought I would give you an update on my 36 things list for my 36th year of life. Just a reminder, here is the list again:

My 36 things!!

  1. get a passport
  2. jog a mile
  3. blog every day for a year – Almost done, should be finished on December 20th!!
  4. go to Women of Faith with my sisters
  5. take 100 pictures of historical buildings all over Oregon
  6. take a decorating class
  7. make homemade marshmallows
  8. plant a garden
  9. take the train
  10. go camping
  11. blow bubbles out the car window
  12. go for a walk in the rain
  13. clean out the garage
  14. get out of debt – again
  15. hike the longest trail at Silver Creek Falls
  16. go on a walking tour of downtown Portland
  17. take a cooking class
  18. get a tattoo – DONE!!!
  19. pick strawberries
  20. get my nose pierced – again – I’ve decided that I do not want to do this again – I enjoy scrubbing my freshly washed face vigorously with a towel!! Anyone who has ever had a nose ring get pull out doing this, knows that you don’t want to do this!! OUCH!!! 😉
  21. bake homemade cinnamon rolls
  22. take an art class
  23. set up a website
  24. teach myself how to take a picture using manual camera settings
  25. make at least 12 pieces of art
  26. lose 32.6 pounds – I have lost 15 pounds so far!!! 😉
  27. put at least $1,200 in savings – I have been able to squirrel away $200 so far!
  28. visit a ghost town
  29. teach an online class
  30. make homemade yogurt
  31. read the entire Bible
  32. crochet a queen-sized blanket using a difficult stitch – DONE!!!
  33. volunteer at a homeless shelter
  34. take a French class
  35. make a wild dance mix playlist. dance to it.
  36. carve pumpkins with my niece and nephew – DONE!!!

So apparently today is a day of randomness, so I have one more for you! My sweetie and I headed to Jamba Juice after work today. I got my usual Strawberry Nirvana – YUM!! But my sweetie tried something off of their “underground” menu called a “White Gummy”! Well, he has been ranting and raving about how delicious it is all evening! “I just can’t believe I am actually drinking something that tastes like a gummy bear!!” Isn’t that just so funny!?!?!?

So, there you have it!! now that I am feeling better, I guess I just needed to get some random topics out there into the universe!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

 

All Done!

Good evening!

I am very happy to report that we are all done with the Douglas County Christmas Craft Fair! We ended up doing much better than we did last year, but it was still a really hard weekend, with a lot of work, and it is up in the air whether or not we are going to do this again next year! In all honesty, we can’t decide right now because we are absolutely pooped!! 😉

We got back to Jennifer’s place, ate a healthy dinner, and then had some fun playing Wii! Trina totally kicked our booties, but we still had fun! 🙂

Then we spent some time, while trying not to gall asleep, watching some new Christmas cartoons, The Gift of the Night Fury, which is the new How to Train Your Dragon Christmas cartoon, and then we watched Ice Age, a Mammoth Christmas Special. FUN! FUN! FUN!! 😉

Now, it is time to call it a night, and get some sleep. Tomorrow, we will be up around 5 am, to help unload the van, and start heading back to Salem. I know that is early, but Jennifer has to get to work rather early tomorrow, so we need to get a very early start!

Until tomorrow…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉