be yourself: live with passion

forgotten treasures...

I love finding treasures that I had forgotten I had.

Earlier this week, our pond waterfall started slowing down...almost to a crawl.  We love the music from the falls and with our weather cooling down, I love opening the back door in the mornings and hearing the splash of the water.  It was sounding more like an annoying drip than a musical splash!

Guessing that the slow down had something to do with pipes and tree roots (especially because the water level in the pond seemed to be going down faster than normal),  Vern started digging around the pipes, looking for any suspicious activity from the roots.  In the process, he pulled out our little fish sculpture.  I had forgotten I had it...it was tucked behind a potted sago which had doubled in size over the last year and totally covered the fish...

Here's one of the fish...the first one posterized in Photoshop and the second one rehued and resaturated, then posterized...I had fun playing with the photos...

         

   

I was happy to see my metal fish again and placed them on one of the wooden benches in the yard.

Oh, by the way, Vern did find the culprit...here it is...looks like a prehistoric fish.  It's a mass of roots which invaded the pipe by way of one single, skinny root from the mesquite tree.  That one root produced this ugly mass of feeder roots which were sucking down a lot of water.

Mission accomplished...the pond waterfall is fast...and musical.   And, as a cool serendipity, a forgotten treasure is now on display...again.

               

THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG!!!!!

For about the last week, Tena and I have been stalking Amazon to see if all of the info about our second book had been posted.

We are happy to report that LIFELINES is now up and available for pre-order!

We are really excited about this book...we loved Artful Memories...we love Lifelines even more.  This is the book cover...snippets of projects as well as sneaky peeks of entire projects.   How cool is that?

We love the theme of this book...it's all about relationships...personal connections...people who are important in our lives.  This book is just filled with our "heart and soul"!

Our editors, Jessica Gordon and Jessica Strawser, have done a wonderful job with pulling the book together and our graphic designer, Marissa Bowers, pulled out all the stops with the cover...she is currently working on the interior pages...I just know I'm going to love what she did!  And our photographer, Christine, was just awesome to work with during our step out photo shoot.  Nice people...more cool relationships to remember and create about!

We can't wait to see the finished book!  We are so excited about it!

Hope you check it out...hope you order one...hope you love it as much as we do!

les fleurs...

Can't seem to get enough of them.

The colors are outrageously gorgeous.

New, from Prima, brought to me by two enabling chicks, Amy and Kelli.  BTW, check out their new Polka Dot Chicks blog...it just exudes enthusiam, just like they do!

Some new fall projects with flowers are in the works today!

                        

                        

                        

Have a bloomin' great day!

being wowed by the ordinary...

Do you ever wonder what happens to some children that changes them from enthusiastic little beings, excited about life and the little things, to bored, disinterested teens?  Why the same little girl who was awed by the sparkle in a piece of quartz can barely muster up any enthusiasm for a brand new pair of diamond earrings?  And, why that little guy whose eyes lit up at a new Hot Wheels car now isn't interested in a set of wheels unless it's a brand new, top of the line sports car?  Somewhere along the way, for whatever reasons, they forgot to be wowed by the ordinary.  Ditto those stories for lots of adults, too!

When I began blogging earlier this year, I wanted to be sure that I included lots of photos and lots of stories so that my blog would be interesting...no, correct that to fascinating...to read.   I quickly found out that my life is pretty ordinary and for my blog to be fascinating, it would end up being a collection of fictional short stories.  I wasn't traveling to exotic and exciting places every week, I wasn't ordering the latest and greatest in product on a regular basis, I was living in the same house, shopping in the same stores...you got it...living an ordinary life.

What I figured out early on was that I would have to extract some "WOW" out of my ordinary life...look for the unexpected, focus on something small that brought me pleasure, smile at the simple things.... take those pictures and share those stories.

So, when I heard Stacey Julian talk about surprising yourself every day when she inspired us at Creative Escape, I found myself nodding in agreement.  That was it...exactly.

                   

Yesterday, as I was strolling around the backyard with my camera, looking for the unexpected, trying to surprise myself, I followed the buzz of the bees over to the coral vines.  Obviously they brought a thrill to the bees so why not capture them?  So tiny, yet so detailed, they cascade all over our back wall.  Love the pink color, love that they feed the bees and the hummers,  love that they survive an Arizona summer (in fact, THRIVE in the heat).  Ditto on the vincas...still in bloom after lots of 100 degree days.

Then, there was the sumptious dinner that Ashley prepared.  Loved being surprised that way...not having to plan or prepare the evening meal.  She made a spicy chicken sloppy joe topping over a corn bread "pizza", one of the recipes from her new Rachel Ray cookbook called 365: No Repeats.  Actually, she can feel free to repeat that one any time.  Paired with a wonderful chopped salad, it was an awesome meal.

You know, after months of focusing on unexpected things in daily living, the surprises, I've come to the realization that I really don't live an ordinary life...ordinary in terms of being boring, totally predictable and colorless.  I found out that I can still be WOWED by the simple things in my everyday life...yay!

Hope that you find something simple to WOW you today...

IS IT HEART SURGERY?

Perfectionism...

It plagues me...frequently.

It paralyzes me...occasionally.

In growing up, striving for perfection was as natural as breathing.  My parents are perfectionists... three of my four grandparents strove for perfection regularly...the mantra around the house was "It's better to do one thing and do it right than to do dozens of things that aren't right."  "Right", of course, meant "perfect".

Several years ago, I was going through a period of paralysis.  I just couldn't figure out how to get everything done and get it done right, i.e., perfect.  Trying to keep a balance between home and family, business, teaching memory arts, publishing deadlines, church and much needed down time had me totally stressed out.  Stressed to the point of being able to do nothing.

During this same time, Vern had been listening to a CD which dealt with this same issue.  He recommended that I listen to it...I have to tell you that listening to that CD really changed how I approach tasks, to do lists and priorities...every day.  The common sense words of wisdom came from a man named Dan Sullivan, founder of The Strategic Coach, a company that coaches entrepreneurs on how to best use their time, delegate responsibilities to others and create free time to relax and recharge.

The gist of his motivational talk was that those of us who lean toward perfectionism have goals that are like the horizon.  Picture walking on the beach with the horizon stretched out in front of you.  It doesn't matter how far or how long you walk, the horizon doesn't appear to move...it's out there...just as far...just as unreachable and unattainable.  That's what perfectionism does to the attainment of goals.

The epiphany for me was how priorities for perfection needed to be set.  Dan's example was that, if you were undergoing surgery, say, for example, heart surgery, you would want your surgeon to be a perfectionist.  Definitely yes!  He went on to say that most of what we do in a day isn't heart surgery and that, for most things in life, 80% is good enough.  It gets the job done.  It allows you to move on.  Wow!  That was powerful!  Folding laundry at 80% was OK, as was weeding the garden, making the bed.....what a freeing thought.  It was like a weight had rolled off my shoulders.

What I had been doing was treating EVERYTHING in life like heart surgery.  And, when I got only half of my To Do List completed, I felt like I was unproductive...a failure.  What I needed to change was how I approached the To Do list, as well as making sure that what I had listed was, in fact, do-able!

Yesterday, I woke up energetic...feeling ambitious, probably over-ambitious!  Started thinking about organizing my studio...completely...getting all the laundry done, unpacking stuff from CE.  WAIT A MOMENT!   Horizon goals...again.

I created a list...much more realistic...much more doable...lots of things that could be done at 80%.  After all, it took me 4 months to get my studio into the condition it's in right now...4 months of bringing home new product, 4 months of creating projects, 4 months of piles.  It wasn't going to get done in one day.  So the list included putting away trunk show projects from CE, extra supplies and tools I took with me, and putting away all of the new paper I'd gotten in the past few months.  It was doable.  It wasn't 100%...but then, it didn't need to be.

So, the mantra around the house now is, "Is it heart surgery?"

Sure creates a lot of freedom...freedom to not be perfect...freedom to get things done at 80%...freedom to choose when to exercise my perfectionism...freedom to relax...freedom to play.

a rose by any other name....

is still a rose. 

So, yesterday I'm looking through the new Crate & Barrel catalog and I experience this strong sense of déjà vu....a been there,  done that kind of feeling.

The colors featured in their fall catalog take me back a long time...back to when I first got married.  Home decor has always been an area of strong interest for me and decorating our first home was just a delight. 

This was back in the very late 70's.  The colors of the day were the rusts, browns, golds...and of course, the avocado green which was so prevalent in appliances.  The same avocado which covered the surfaces of our first refrigerator.   Hmmmmm...

When I saw this catalog, I was totally intrigued.  The colors were the same but the NAMES of the colors were totally different.  They sounded appetizing, something you would be excited to buy...something that could make you salivate a bit, something new and fresh.

Instead of Harvest Gold, there's Mango.

And, Sienna instead of Rust.

How about Chocolate instead of Dark Brown?

Mushroom takes the place of taupe.

And, my favorite?  Citrus instead of Avocado.

The thing is...the colors are identical.

It's a fascinating thing how things that were old are new again and how color schemes are resurrected and touted as though they are newly discovered and totally original.

Know what? I think I'll pass this time around.  I've had my fill.  And, as they say, "A rose by any other name is still a rose." 

I'm happy with my cottage reds, shabby whites and vintage greens.

I like my stainless appliances.

Please don't let them bring back green refrigerators.

And if gold/rust , oh yes, excuse me, that's mango/sienna shag rugs come back, please don't tell me.  I don't think I can handle that again.

If this is your palette, enjoy the rich colors, salivate over the color names, buy that green refrigerator.  Who knows...25 years from now, you might get a good story out of it!

a good hair stylist...

...is worth her (or his) weight in gold.  Indeed.

Since the fall of last year, I have missed her.

Sydney took an early maternity leave when her doctor advised her to get off her feet...her second little boy was born premature and that was after weeks of complete bedrest in the hospital.  After Isaac's birth, Syd decided that she would stop working and be a full time mom to her two boys.  Who could blame her?  Ah, but the very selfish side of me said, "But who's going to cut my hair?"

A good stylist is hard to find.  One that is also your friend is even harder.  In fact, several months ago, one of our business clients told Vern that for her, it was easier to find a husband than a good hairdresser!  She was dead serious!  Funny...

I've had adequate hair cuts since last year...Ashley's experiences were way less than stellar.

You can imagine the rejoicing around this house when Syd called over the weekend and asked if we would be interested in having her do our hair again!  Absolutely yes...absolutely no hesitation!  Ashley and I were so excited...we were doing the happy dance...we were singing the Hallelujah Chorus!  Even Vern got on the phone and told Sydney he was excited because he wouldn't have to listen to us moaning about our hair!  Tee hee...

Nothing like a good haircut to put me in a great mood!  Thanks, Syd!

QUIRKY...

                        

Yesterday, when I was washing and refilling the dogs' water bucket, I looked over at the pot on my patio and saw this image.  Feeling a bit loopy from doing financial reports for my accountant all weekend and greatly in need of some lightening up, I just started to laugh.  This frog has been stuck in the pot for years but for some reason, I never saw his goofy face staring at me at this angle.  Thought I'd share his quirkiness with you...hope it makes you smile!

in a perfect world...

In the past couple of weeks, I have found myself using this phrase quite a bit...interestingly enough, I've heard Vern use it a few times this week...must be contagious.

So, I started thinking abut the perfect world thing.  While we may not all agree on how to get there, I'm sure all of us would agree on the big, serious things that would constitute a perfect world- peace, no hunger, no poverty, etc.  What I wanted to do with this phrase on this Friday morning was to play, to dream, to add some humor.  And, I'd love to hear your comments about your perfect world.

If I was perched on a high branch looking down at my world, here are some of the things that would make my world perfect:

*My refrigerator would always be clean and free of those suspicious containers with unidentifiable stuff and fuzzies...

*My bathrooms would always be clean and I wouldn't be the one cleaning them...

*My studio would be a guest house in the garden with enough storage space to accommodate every new purchase I brought in.

*Jeanette would be my neighbor and would help me keep the studio organized.

*There would be no ants (had an invasion in the house yesterday), mosquitoes, roaches or flies.

*My self-pruning desert trees would also be self-cleaning!

*I could scrapbook ANY time I wanted!

What fun...this list could just go on and on...what would make your world perfect?

Hope you have a perfect day and weekend!

September 12 of 12

Yesterday, I really had to focus to do this...it was the 12th of the month and I needed to take 12 pictures of my day.  All I could think about was taking a picture of my bed and my pillow...the weekend finally caught up with me! :))  Here are the photos of my twelve-of-twelve day...

My day started with coffee, breakfast of cranberry walnut bread spread with almond butter, out to feed the pond goldfish (which were in such a frenzy, all I got was a blur of color), and tending the last of the summer flowers. 

Then there was packing away my basket of paint, just looking at the boxes that needed to be unpacked (mind you, all I did was LOOK!), popping in to Ink It to format the next quarter's classes, of course, buying new stuff which included new books and mags, new stamps from invoke rubber stamps, more new stamps from Lost Coast Designs. 

I ended my day by running down to ASU to change out vehicles with Ashley, catching a date night with Vern at the Chuckbox, where we occasionally had lunch years ago when we worked in that part of town, and seeing the dust storm sweeping through the campus on our way home.  Definitely a low key day for me!  Definitely welcome!