Tag Archives: Downtown Salem

Good Morning!

Art

Getting Inspired (Photo credit: A.Currell)

Good morning!

I just wanted to stop by and say GOOD MORNING!!! 😉

Life is a little hectic right now, but I am feeling pretty darned blessed!! 😉 I am on day 10 of having family visiting, which I am really loving, but it is wreaking havoc on my sleeping schedule. I am so dang worried that if I go to bed on time then I am going to miss out on something fun or memorable, so I just hold out for as long as my exhausted body will let me, and then as soon as my head hits my pillows, I am OUT!!! 🙂 Which, as you can guess, makes me more tired the next day, and even more tired the next day, so forth, and so on!! 🙂

So, here I am, on this Wednesday morning, at about 5:30 am, relishing this dark quiet morning all by myself in the peace and quiet. The only sounds I can hear right now, is the soft hum of a fan that is on downstairs, and some intermittent street noise as cars drive by on their way to who knows where. It is a pretty peaceful morning! 🙂

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hang out with my sweetie and my sister as we introduced my sister to all sorts of fun places throughout downtown Salem. (I swear my sweetie and I should just buy one of the old buildings down there, and move in!!!) One of my missions, besides showing her some cool places to check out, was to start collecting a plethora of photographs!! I don’t know about you, but I just LOVE blogs that have a lot of juicy, colorful pictures, and I am going to make the effort to make sure that I have plenty of eye candy on hand so that This Artsy Life can have some of that flavor too!!

Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to process any of those pictures yet, this is so much more time intensive than anyone can imagine, unless you have taken the time to do this yourself! 🙂 But, I will be utilizing these as often as I am able to fit them in!! I just LOVE photographs!! So, more to come on that!! 😉

I also wanted to tell you about the Right Brain Business Plan Summit Recap that Jennifer Lee had so graciously hosted yesterday at lunch time. It was an online summit recap, lasting only about an hour and a half, but it was chalk full of so much good information that I really feel blessed to have been able to listen in. I wrote copious amounts of notes, as you might imagine, but my biggest takeaway was a visual aid that she had all of us draw for class. It took something that was easy to understand and made it fool proof, and completely tangible!! Maybe, if I am feeling froggy I will take a picture of that, and share it with you all this evening! 🙂

Wow! I feel like this post was just so random, but I really just needed to get it all out!! I am sure many of you know exactly what I am talking about!!! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY day!! 😉

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Calling All Belly Dancers! Or Would Be Belly Dancers!

Good evening!!

I am sorry to be getting to my post so late this evening! In all honesty my sweetie and I have taken it upon ourselves to stay up extra late tonight because it is our FRIDAY night for a FOUR-DAY-WEEKEND!!! WHOO! HOO!!

Anyway, I have had a very FANTASTIC evening! I had my Artist date with myself!! I am a very lucky date, after some shopping at the art boutique, I took myself out to Venti’s for a healthy dinner – YUM! Then  I sat and read a magazine,while I enjoyed the cafe’s ambiance,  and patiently waited for belly dancing class to start!!

Now, you might be sick of hearing me talk about belly dancing, but I have to tell you!!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!

Tonight, i even got brave enough to ask the instructor, Jody, if I could take pics of the advanced troop doing a dance for us!! and wouldn’t you know it???

SHE SAID YES!!!!!!

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

OK, so I pulled my camera out, as if I were giddy kid getting a long awaited for present at Christmas and these are a few of the pics that I was able to capture!!

Even in still pictures, don’t they just look great!!! These ladies are the ladies that I want to emulate!! I hope that there will come a day that I will be in this group having a blast and dancing my little heart out!!!

I want to take a quick moment to invite anyone who might be reading this, if you have had any inclination, or any interest no matter how fleeting in giving belly dancing a try – I HIGHLY recommend this class. This class has completely changed my beliefs about what my body can and cannot do! I couldn’t not have had this new found confidence if it weren’t for this dance class!!

Jody is a fantastic instructor, she is extremely patient, and after one of my very first classes,  I reported to my husband, that I couldn’t believe I was actually able to do some of the moves because she kind of tricked us into them!!! She breaks them down, and then when you put all the pieces together – a MIRACLE happens – YOU ARE BELLY DANCING!! and the prince is PHENOMENAL, SERIOUSLY!! For 3 months of weekly classes, it cost me less than $10 per class!!! SO ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT!!! If anything, try it for just ONE class!! I am sure you won’t be disappointed!! 😉

Anyway, I am going to ske-daddle off to bed, because it is WAAAAY past my bedtime! but, if you live in the Salem area think about taking this class, maybe you will have the same kind of AMAZING experience that I am having!! Call RJ Dance Studio at (503)363-3341 or go to RJ Dance Studio’s website to get more details!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

My Flexible Saturday!

Good evening!

I have had a really nice day today! If you read my post this morning, you know that I was heading out for a day downtown.

My first stop was my favorite clothing store, Torrid. I had ordered a cardigan that had come in, and I had some items that I needed to return so I was happy to oblige the need to go! Here is a pic of the cardigan that I took in the store last week.

So, of course, I just HAD to try on some clothes!!! You know, to get ready for Spring!!! 😉 This is a pic of the clothes I had picked out to try on – I had planned on taking my time and being there for quite a while!

What you may not be able to see is that these clothes are hung two levels deep! I really was determined to find the perfect somethings!!

Here is what I wore there:

This cute little top came home with me.

Cardigan, yep, that one came home too!

Another white blouse, guilty! Although, as you can see from the picture, this one is going to need some kind of undershirt. I am actually debating taking this one back, what do you think??

After I tried this shirt on, I got a call from my dad. My dad, and his wife, Trudi were in town, by my house and wanted to visit, so I cut my downtown trip short, and zipped over back to my side of town. Once I got home, we headed over to a pizza place for yummy pizza and a very nice visit. On my way, I told myself, “Self, don’t forget to take pics this time!” and of course, I did!! So, unfortunately, no pics!! Maybe next time!!! 😉

After Dad and Trudi went home, I didn’t want to go back to downtown – we are trying to conserve gas, and I was looking forward to getting a manicure, so I was going to get bummed about it, but instead of throwing a pity party for myself, I decided to step up the loveliest nail salon – the one I had created in my living room!!! You can see that they even served me a refreshing drink with cherries – YUM!! 😉

My hands were in need of some SERIOUS attention!

Here is the before shot:

Here is the after:

Of course I chose red! It is still my FAVORITE color! The color of PASSION!!! 😉

That is the end of my pictures for today, but I did get to run a couple of other errands and then spend some time hanging out with my sweetie after he got done with work today. After I am done here, I plan on snuggling with him on the couch and watch another episode of BONES!! I really do LOVE that show! Bones and Booth should just knock off all of this foolishness and just get together already!! WHEW! I am glad that is out in the open!!! 😉 We are still somewhere into season two, so it will takes a month or three more to get caught up, but slowly and surely – we will get there!!

OH, and for those who might be curious, I came home from Torrid after purchasing 3 cardigans, 2 blouses, 1 tank top and 1 blazer!! EEK!!! Maybe I had better stay away from the mall for a while, what do you think??? HEE! HEE! HEE!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Note to Chunky Dunker’s: Dress for your body as it is today! Even if you are in the process of losing weight. Purchasing clothes that are too small for yourself because you may fit into them someday could backfire, and you will wind up with a closet full of a lot of somethings that make you feel bad because you can’t fit into them. (Take my word on that!) YOU CAN DO IT!!! 😉