Category Archives: Self Improvement

Be It Ever So Humble!

Good evening!

Jason and I are happy to report that we have made it home from our visit with our family, safe and sound!! We were a little unsure that that would happen because on our return home, when we stopped on our way out of town to get gas, our car decided not to start! EEK!! Thankfully we have AAA and they were able to send assistance to us, and we were only delayed 45 minutes in total!! So, I say, I am soooo thankful that we have made it home safe and sound!!

I would love to tell you that since our return home, we have been productive, and unpacked everything and put it all away into it’s proper places, but that would be so untrue!! We got home at about 3:30, and then by 4 we were so zonked, that we decided to go take a nap, and have only just awoken within the past 15 minutes. So, our day is pretty much gone!! 🙂

Jason is in the kitchen cleaning up all of his baking evidence, as I sit in the living room, chatting with you, while at the same time, I have a virtual fireplace crackling on my television. It is strangely soothing. LOL! Does anyone else know what I am talking about?? Or is it just me who is loving this little “program”!?!? 😉

Anyway, I don’t actually return to work until Wednesday, which means I will have some active thinking and planning to do tomorrow. I have realized that my health life is spiraling out of control, nutrition and fitness-wise. I am not sure that I have actually taken the time to plan a healthy meal in almost 3 weeks, and the good Lord Himself knows when I have purposefully done any kind of exercise. That is soooo unlike me, and soooooo very UNACCEPTABLE!!! It is causing me to sit on the sidelines and watching my life go by because I am either too sore or too tired to do anything else.  SO, this has caused me to want to take a good hard look at what is working and not working in all areas of my life, so that Jason and I can have the life we want, and not the life that we accidentally stumble into!! I will keep you posted!!

Tomorrow may just turn into a vision board day! I will have to get creative on how in the world I am going to share pics with you because my camera is still on the fritz, which by the way, is very discombobulating!! (Ooh!! I love that I got to use that word, that may just have to be my word of the day!!!) 😉 Ok, so I digress!

“Either you live the life you create for yourself, or you live the life that someone else creates for you. You choose!” ~Me

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! :-)

Setting Up Shop!

Good evening!

So, my sweetie and I made it to Roseburg! WHEW!!! We headed straight to my sister’s house, picked her up, and long story short, Jennifer, Trina, Sweetie, and myself all ended up at the Douglas County fairgrounds so we could set up our booth! Of course I forgot my camera, so I will be taking pics of our booth first thing in the morning, but I have to admit that we were all pleasantly surprised that we were able to make it look so nice, PLUS fill up a double booth!!! My sisters have been hard at work creating handicrafts all year to make this weekend possible!

I had the opportunity to pull all of my old jewelry out to sell in the booth too, which really made me nostalgic for creating jewelry again! I will make sure to take pics of those too!

I wanted to especially share one thing that happened this evening that has really made this trip worthwhile already and that is, after we had finished setting up the booth, Austin met us at Denny’s and we all sat down for dinner. As we all held hand so my sweetie could pray over our dinner, in that moment, as I was holding Jennifer and Trina’s hand, I had great feeling of being blessed that I was able to be in that moment with my family. It was a priceless feeling that I have really been missing lately! God is good!! 😉

With that, it has been a long day, and we have got to get up very early tomorrow to go finish any last minute preparations, so I am going to call it a night and get some much needed sleep!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Flurry of Activity!

Good evening!

This evening has been a FLURRY of activity!! My sweetie and I are frantically getting everything ready to go down to Roseburg for the weekend. My sisters and I have rented two booths down at the Douglas County Christmas Fair, and we are going to be selling all sorts of hand made goodies! I will make sure to take plenty of pictures all weekend of everything and anything! Our good friend, Don is going to be coming over and babysitting our two little girls – thanks, Don!!! So, I know they will be in good hands!

We still have some more housekeeping to do before we go, and I need to make sure we get EVERYTHING packed into the minivan, because I am leaving work at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon to head out, and we are leaving straight from there.

I am not exactly sure what to expect from this Christmas bazaar, but I am excited to be getting to spend some time with my sissies, and to be able to sell some of my hand made bead and wire jewelry. It has been sitting in the house, some of it for up to five years, I have got to sell it, and make room for new creativity!

Back in 2007, I had opened my own jewelry business, and I did pretty well at making a nice selection of treasures, but because of some health problems that my sweetie was having, I decided that I needed to focus my attention on getting him better, so I put all of my jewelry-making supplies away. I get a little sad whenever I see them now, because I really do enjoy making jewelry, but really haven’t given myself permission to get back into making my little baubles! I think that after this weekend, that is going to really change! I would love to see myself start making jewelry again, with a focus on soldering, mini collages, ephemera, personalized memorabilia, and inspirational and sassy thoughts! 🙂 That sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!! 😉

Anyway, as much as I am enjoying my view of our lovely Christmas tree, and part of my book collection (see picture above), I have got to get going and get the rest of my to-do done for the evening, so I can go to bed before midnight!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Treasure Hunting!

Good evening!
The other day, I had the opportunity to go treasure hunting, and I thought today that I would share two of my finds with you!

I found these two spectacular pieces at Aunt Bee’s here in town! I was absolutely flabbergasted when I first laid eyes on them, I just KNEW they had to come home with me! They were a little spendier than I am used to spending on a whim, but I knew that they would be a great investment and a great addition to my ever growing art collection. That sounds so cool to me! 😉

These pictures make me long to visit Europe. I dream of what it would be like if I could live there someday. Maybe live in the countryside of France, or the hustle and bustle of an Italian Villa, or maybe even live on a remote and isolated  emerald isle of Ireland. DREAMY!

I can imagine myself walking endlessly, just enjoying the scenery, or holding hands with my sweetie as we enjoy the sights of Europe together. Reading on a blanket under a shady tree, or sloshing in puddles while wearing my wellies, and the rain is coming down pitter-patting on my umbrella, that of course I would have right on hand! I would love to see the magnificent architecture, and learn about the vast history, and I would be proficient in every language – ok that may be pushing it, but I think you get what I mean. I would love to be blend in with the locals, and live the culture the way that they really live it. Living life, loving life, enjoying my friends and family! That would be AMAZING!!!

Someday, you will see. I am not sure how, and I am not sure when, but it will happen!! And when it does maybe I will be able to see these actual scenes first hand. For now, I will settle with enjoying my European view through these small paintings that I will truly treasure! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Chunky Dunker’s Information Session!

Good evening!

Well, as you may be able to tell by now that we did not have a typical Chunky Dunker’s session this evening. Instead, my sweetie and I went to a 2 hour bariatric surgery information session down at the hospital. The physicians and staff of the bariatric clinic told us all about the differences between lap band and the different kind of gastric bypass surgeries, all of the risks, preperations, pre- and after care!! It was very informative!

I am not sure how I feel about it for myself yet, but I know that Jason is close to making up his mind and I am more than happy to support him in whatever decision he makes. As for myself, I will keep you posted! 😉

I am tired, it is getting late, and I have a lot to think about this evening, so I am going to cut this post short, and say G’night!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! ;-)

Chunky Dunker’s Night!

Good evening!
Tonight is Chunky Dunker’s night here on Christinaville. Chunky Dunkers is an open and informal support group for anyone who has any kind of health and fitness goals. We are here to cheer each other on, share advice, ideas, hints, tips, recipes, and just be an all around encouragement to help each other in achieving our goals.  So, please feel free to grab a cup of coffee, and meet us in the comment section! The more the merrier!

With that said, I am very happy to report that I have lost 10.4 pounds!!! Which, when I think about it is kind of surprising, because even though it has been slow going, it has been 3 months, I was sure that it was going to be much harder than it actually has been. My sweetie has been very supportive in putting together healthy breakfast, lunch, and snacks every day, and I have been working at being mindful to watch my portion sizes, and to take my time in eating. Baby steps! Baby steps!

I can’t wait to hear how all of you are doing, I will see you in the comments section! 🙂

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! ;-)

Sharing the Style!

Good evening!

As you may remember, I have been looking into putting together some new looks for myself. I have been busy perusing some magazines, and I have come up with some tear sheets that I am pretty happy about!

I love the big curly hair, and the even bigger flower!

Again with big glamorous Hollywood style hair, and I am a sucker for cat-eyes!

Ok, so it is obvious that I have a thing for big hair and cat eyes!! Now if only I can figure out how to recreate the look on myself! Hmmmm…

I love this fun, feminine style!

Hello?? Wingtips anyone??? I need at least 3 pairs of these this Winter!

I love this boho hairstyle! Cute!!

I am also having a lot of fun playing with colorful eye makeup applications!

Simple, sweet, awesome hair accessories, I love the freshness of this look!

Cat eyes, and pig tails! Seriously??? Super-CHIC!!!

So after going through all these pics from my style-file clippings, I would sum up my dream style with adjectives like:

  • glamorous
  • bombshell
  • creative
  • ultra-feminine
  • diva-esque
  • dramatic
  • fun
  • sexy

Tell me, what do you think? 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

 

Keeping the Momentum Going!

Good evening!

Here is a warning that this is going to be a quick post! The time change that happened yesterday was GREAT for making the weekend relaxing, but for my workday, it made it seem like it just draaaaaaged on forever!!! SHEESH!!

Click on picture to enlarge

I just wanted to take a few minutes to share with you a couple of scarves I have recently finished crocheting! Even though I hadn’t been doing too much creating in my art studio over the past few weeks, that is, until this past weekend, I did make a point to try and keep something creative going and these scarves is what I chose to keep me busy. The white one is for my sweetie, and was done with all rows of half double crochet, and double crochet.  I thought this would look great with his winter coat!

This variegated one was created using all double crochets, I am not sure who the other one is for yet, but I I thought this would be fun to let the color be the interesting part of this scarf.

Anyway, I am planning on crashing early this evening! Hence the short post, but I have been putting together my style file, and I will be very happy to share some of those pics with you tomorrow!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

I Love This Sunday!

Good evening!

This has been such a COOL Sunday! We got an extra hour today with daylight savings time, and it has really made a HUGE difference in my attitude for the day!! I knew today was going to be the PERFECT kind of naked lazy-do-whatever-you-want Sunday!!!

I woke up early this morning, and spent a little time reading!  Even got to take a mini-nap before breakfast, yes I go t up THAT early!! After my nap, I had a leisurely breakfast with my sweetie, and then made a b-line to the art studio!! (Jason LOVES my art studio time because it means that he gets to spend that time hogging the Netflix, watching EVERY low-budget horror movie they ahve available!!!)

Earlier this week, I had gotten inspired to create two pieces of art for my drab office cubicle! So I had a lot of fun getting these started.I have some more textures, aging, and motivational thoughts to put on these still. I am planning on taking my time and getting these done over the next week. It will be hard, because I am not exactly the most patient person, but I am really am very excited to see them hanging in my office cubicle!!

So, without further ado, here are the pieces I have been working on, please keep in mind that these are a work in progress, but I am very excited how they are turning out so far!

I am not really sure what to say about these, but when I look at them they really make me happy!and the little maps, and word puzzles that I have chosen to accent these have sentimental value to me! I really just can’t wait to see these finished!!!  😉

This is how I wish I could always make art, just get whatever is in me onto the canvas, without worry about what others might think of them, or worry about whether or not they are commercial or sale-able.

Art for the sake of art.

So what do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!!!

Being creative is where my bliss is coming from.

Life is good.

Today has been great.

I am feeling greatly blessed. 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉