Halloween '08

Happy Halloween!

My friend Talisha was nice enough to take a picture of me in this years Halloween costume when I went and visited her at work.

I thought that the green walls would look good with Halloween colors of orange and black and so added embellishments to the pic in those colors even though they don't match my outfit.

I'm calling this look eclectic sweet punk chic. Vintage 1950's prom dress, denim jacket, vintage 1950's spike high heels, hot pink fishnet tights, antique silver mesh purse, and miscellaneous jewelry. Oh, and of course, pink hair (this time I tried something different, I powdered my hair with blush...what you normally put on your cheeks...with okay results. But at least this year I wasn't coughing up pink spit from that horrible hairspray stuff like I did from a previous year.

I went shopping for thrifty treasures wearing this outfit. A lot of people liked the dress. Some liked the tights. And it was pretty fun. But it didn't take long before the very cute shoes became an ultra pain to wear. I usually wear low heels, not high heels, let alone skinny spike high heels. So I wandered all over the store carrying my shoes (getting my feet pretty dirty) as I found the greatest stuff! I am very excited about some of what I found.

So here are some of my Halloween treasures.

First I fount this awesome, rusty, and huge old treasure box...er, tool box. It's full of all sorts of nuts, bolts, a few tools, and lots of...bark. Little bits of bark from a pine tree. Go figure. But because the rusty color is kind of Fall like I may end up using it in the Fall/Thanksgiving window at the store that I will be doing tomorrow to replace the Halloween one.

Then I have all these little goodies. A train case (to those who know of my suitcase addiction you know I am thrilled to have found this). A bag of pink sparkly felt that I have plans for making into something sweet. A tole painted tray of roses. A little wood tote (will probably paint white and line with some vintage wallpaper I have). A little white wood cart that looks like carved tulips (it will look pretty good in the garden area of the store). A vintage Sunbeam mixer with the milk glass bowls. Two old bread pans. An interesting tray. Some really pretty ribbon with purple flowers on them. An old LDS song book. I don't think I'll get the song book back though. My mom got hold of it and is singing songs from it even as I type. :) It has lots of songs she remembers singing when she was a teen. A children's book from the 60's with quaint illustrations. A Final Fantasy VII book written in Japanese. And a book on scrapbooking. And a pair of modern Japanse sandals. (You can't have them Talisha...lol.)

Which Jane Austen Character Am I?

I just took this quiz and here are my results.

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Maybe I should put on my Regency style dress on for my Halloween costume...too bad I do not have a bonnet to go with it.

Or I could go with my previous plan and wear my vintage 1950's prom dress and show my decidedly unsensible side.

Willing to let go of Perfection

I have been recovering from a disease, a disease for the desire for perfection that results in becoming stuck, frozen, and immobile any time I realize I cannot do things perfectly. In the past I found the easiest way to get unstuck was to turn around in the complete opposite direction as I'd been going in...this could also be known as Quitting.

Yesterday I found another alternative "treatment", an alternative I knew about and sometimes forgot about, but even when I did remember I often did not take advantage of it anyway. And that solution, that cure to my disease that froze me into a state of immobility...is to let go of perfection, to be willing to just get things done even if it means I don't have the beautiful, wonderful, fabulous, looks like it came out of a sweet dream quality, I wish it would have.

This time I was willing to accept the alternative treatment more fully as a friend helped me understand how I reacted when I clung to this disease, why I did, and who I would be without it. (note: here in this post the word disease = unrealistic and/or negative thoughts)

If you've seen my post below about some things I have recently listed for sale on etsy, that is the direct result of learning/choosing how to let go of perfection and be willing to experience that imperfection. I have seriously been putting off this task for months because I knew I could not make the photos, the descriptions, etc. meet up to my "perfect" standard. (Which would probably mean to try to make it look like it came out from a magazine.)

I would love for the pics I took to be better than just in focus and the lighting decent...I would love the pics to be so amazing that you hardly want to look away from them and you itch to buy the items shown. I'll look at other pics on etsy or on some of my favorite blogs or online stores and wish I could accomplish things like they do. And sometimes I try...and then I Freeze! So for the sake of getting things done, for the sake of peace of mind and sanity, for the good of my health, my heart, and the good of my bank account, and so much more, I am willing to let perfection go. I will always strive to improve and do better than before. But striving for the impossible to the point where I make myself sick over it, or I actually lose my job over it (bye bye job writing for a local newspaper because I was terrified of not being perfect), and all the other many ways this disease has impacted my life is just not something I am willing to put up with from myself anymore. I think I deserve better. I think I deserve to have a life. And without "perfection" I think I have a chance of having one...one that is happy, peaceful, and carefree.

So the work I do won't look as wonderful as if it came out of a magazine. But it will be a good job. And it will get done.

The first step is to admit you have a problem. The second is to let it go...

Suddenly etsy...

I've finally got around to listing a very few things on etsy.com again. (If you're by any chance interested in checking the items out you can click on the pics and they should take you to my etsy shop).

First are some vintage bingo cards and markers that I've managed to successfully sell on etsy before. The red (alright, it's kind of orange), white, and blue coloring makes them fun for any body wanting to use them for an Americana themed collage art.




Next I have some vintage and very kawaii (that's Japanese for cute) hair barrettes, with yellow kitty cats, turquoise strawberries, pink apples, blue stars, and peach hearts. I think they'd be great for someone who's into the Japanese Street Fashion look or any other funky style. or of course you could be normal and just give them to a sweet little girl to wear in her hair.




And last (for now), a funky vintage beaded purse almost just like one I remember from my childhood.



I have a confession to make regarding the beaded purse...the one like this that we had when I was a little kid, only it was bright orange...well I used to pick the plastic beads off of them and chew them...hey I was four or five. I chewed on those little pegs from the "You sunk my battleship!" game too. This may only paritally account for why I am so weird today.

That's all I've listed for today, but there will be more later. In fact, you might see somethings I actually made myself, and not just vintage things. Something more shabby chic like even maybe.

Beauty of Spirit in Clothing

If you like Christian clothing then you've got to check out the clothing company at www.C28.com. This is probably one of the coolest Christian clothing lines out there that doesn't end up being cheesy, dorky, too cutesy, etc. Their t-shirts and other products are Art (in my opinion) with a message.

I really love this t-shirt shown on the left, with this quote on it, "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you..." - Psalm 42:5-6

And right now they are having a sale on select items (including the tee shown on the left...it's only $10) right now until Saturday. So this moment is one of the best times to check them out.

Now if there were only a Mormon t-shirt clothing that made stuff as great as this (or maybe there is and I just don't know about it).

Don't Believe Everything You Think

Okay so I'm posting three times in one evening...maybe it makes up for the times I didn't post...or maybe it's just annoying. But I forgot I was going to post this last night and so there you have it.

This was one of my latest projects I did yesterday...

I took one of my favorite quotes, "Don't Believe Everything You Think" ('cause sometimes we get caught in a rut of believing stuff that just isn't so and makes us stuck in our lives) and using this funky font that kinda reminds me of the steampunk style, made it into a graphic and applied it to apparel on CafePress.com.

Although it's just simple text I think it turned out pretty cool.

If you'd like to see the other products it's on (mostly other kinds of shirts) you can see them at
http://www.cafepress.com/QuestionThinker

Cake Love - A Man With Passion

Reading on one of my dear childhood friends blog about her attempts to bake a cake from a recipe book by Warren Brown reminded me of when I first saw this man who went from being a lawyer to baking cakes being interviewed on tv. I love reading and hearing about people who are passionately following their dreams. Usually I end up reading about women following their dreams of opening their "business of bliss" who inspire me to think maybe someday I can do that myself. But Warren Brown is one of the men who I have heard about that inspires me as well.

So I found his business's website Cake Love and in the "about Cake Love area" of the website I re-read the story of how he started this biz. If you love cakes, or you enjoy hearing stories about those who have dropped living a life of what success is "supposed" to look like based on what the world tells them is success, you might enjoy reading it as well. And well, Warren Brown is pretty cute as well so you can check that out as well. :) http://www.cakelove.com/about_story.php

I <3 Google Reader

In the past I have always checked my friends blogs infrequently. Although normally at least a little technical savvy, I never could figure out how to "subscribe" to them with the RSS feed thing or any other way that it's possible...okay, I admit I never really tried or I likely would have figured it out. But thankfully one day I was checking out my cousin's blog where she said she was probably the last person on earth to know about Google Reader to help her keep track of the blogs she reads. No Katrine...I was the last person on earth to know about Google Reader. So I Google'd it and in a few moments I had everyone's blogs entered in and I can now check on whether a new blog post has been made as easily as I check my email. So now if you feared I rarely read your blogs you can now fear I will read them far too often.

Miracles of Transformation Do Occur

One of the books I've been reading is The Gift of Change by Marianne Williamson.
I came across this part here which I really felt summed up a lot of what I've discovered to be true.

"Miracles of transformation do occur, and they can occur in each of us.
Whenever our outer world remains stuck, it is incumbent upon us to look, not outward, but inward. It is a call to find the places in ourselves where we are holding on to old ways--where we blame others rather than taking personal responsibility for our woes: where we judge others instead of blessing them; where we are hard rather than vulnerable and open and kind. These issues hold the hidden keys to unlocking our unsolved personal mysteries. To achieve breakthroughs in the external world, we had best achieve internal ones. For the level of consciousness is the level of cause; addressing problems at their cause means addressing them inside our own selves. Addressing problems only on the level of their effects--in the outside world--is failing to address them deeply at all."

oh, sheep!

Once again I forgot to check the Cedar City calendar. This place is always full events that I forget about. Such as parades. Which because I forget about them I don't realize I need to leave for work early so I can deal with traffic issues...And not be late as a result.

Today I at least thankfully left five minutes early. Otherwise I would have been held back by over a thousand of sheep plodding along Main Street for probably 20 minutes or more. As it was I just barely missed being surrounded by them.

I was driving along and was startled to see the flashing lights of police vehicles and wondered what was going on. As I got closer I exclaimed, "Oh, sheep!" as I remembered it's the annual Livestock and Heritage Festival. Thankfully I was able to turn on a street to the just right in front of the slowly oncoming cop cars and...sheep. As it was I then had to deal with other vehicles trying to avoid the sheep and was five to ten minutes late. But at least it wasn't the twenty to thirty minutes late it could have been as I watched the multitude of white fluffy creatures move on by. :)

Photo: Watje11

A poster I made...

I just found out that Rachel Ashwell, of the Shabby Chic business, has a blog on blogger.http://rachelashwellshabbychic.blogspot.com I am happy to add this to my list of blogs to read as I've loved perusing her books in the past.

So anyway, the people in my church found me again. They apparently misplaced me for awhile. I had been called to be on the Enrichment Night Committee over a year ago. (For those that don't know Enrichment Night is a time for women to get together and learn new things, whether it be skills or spiritual things, etc.) But shortly thereafter I never heard from them again and I was never informed of any further meetings beyond the first two or ever asked to help out again. I guess that's what happens when you don't attend church regularly. But apparently there is a new Relief Society presidency and they have promised, or was that a threat :) that they Would be calling me to let me know about the meetings and asking me to help out.

So I present to you the first things I have done for my church's next Enrichment Night activity.
(Name of the ward I go to has been blurred out to protect the paranoid...namely me.)
It's kind of boring, but at least it's also kinda cute. And it was easy to make. I just printed the words out on cardstock of different colors, cut out the shapes, adhere them to posterboard, and put on glitter (the messiest part).

Attitude of Gratitude #1

It used to be a regular practice of mine to keep a gratitude journal. For many months now I've lapsed from keeping that up. But life always seemed to flow smoother (despite the bumps) and be more pleasing when I wrote regularly. So I thought, for today at least, to write down what I'm grateful for here in my blog.

I am grateful for my health. For the past few years I have struggled with health problems. I've had times that were so bad that it literally took every bit of strength and determination I had to just get out of bed in order to make it to the bathroom, and I'd come back to bed and collapse. Slowly I learned about various nutrition supplements that have helped, but never completely. I've learned to not take my health so much for granted. This past month however I've seen dramatic changes in my health for the better. I still struggle, tire easily and faster than most. But I've accomplished so much in this past month without becoming bed ridden that it's close to miraculous. I am very blessed.

I am grateful for learning about the power my thoughts have upon me. I attribute my better health in large part to learning how to deal with the pervasive negative thoughts I've carried around with me most of my life, that permeated me from my mind and into my body and soul. Robbing me of energy, peace, and good health. I've experienced such dramatic changes in my thinking over several months, and I feel those changes emotionally and physically too. Perhaps I have a long way to go. But if negative thoughts could be weighed I'd say I've lost at least a half ton of negative thinking already. I am extremely grateful to have learned that not everything I have believed about myself and other is true. And that through learning that I have more love within.

I am grateful for letting go of clutter. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post I had a yard sale and took most of what was left over to the charitable thrift store, Deseret Industries. Every now and then, in this society since many of us tend to gather more than we need, it's important to let go. It's a time of removing old layers no longer needed, to reveal the fresh and new underneath. Although sometimes I struggle with letting go, afraid that somehow I'll make the wrong choices, still it's liberating. Lightening my load. I believe that sometimes with letting go of physical things we also let go of thoughts and beliefs we had attached to those items as well. Letting go of objects that remind us of painful times, for example, can be a symbolic ritual of letting go of the painful thoughts and emotions regarding those times as well.

I am grateful for this furry little animal that just climbed onto my lap right now. This cat reminds me not to take myself to seriously (she seems to take herself pretty seriously...or maybe that's just me projecting my own stuff onto her). I am grateful to her coming to me and Insisting I show her some affection when she so desires I do so. At this time in my life I probably give more of myself to this gray bundle of fur than to anyone else. She teaches me patience and kindness...and just makes me laugh now and then.

I am grateful for creativity. Creativity is such an important part of my life. So much of what I do, even a lot of the ordinary and mundane things, I somehow put a spin of creativity into it, or at least I would like to. I seem to often be happiest when I am challenging my mind with how can I do this better, make this look cooler, what would be unique and look wonderful, etc. I don't often succeed at coming up with anything, but I at least like to try. Whether I am taking some baking soda, dish soap, and essential oils to make my own cleaning products to clean the sink with or re-arranging a store display in the hopes of making the place more inviting, comfortable, or beautiful or making a crazy collage out of old bingo cards and other ephemera the expression of creativity brings so much joy to me.

Okay, I think that's five...the amount I would normally do. I'll try to remember to do some more gratitude entries in the future.

Yesterday Was T-shirts

So yesterday I daydreamed about...t-shirts. Designing t-shirts. I have a couple designs on www.cafepress.com that I did many, many years ago. I shan't show them to you because they're terrible...but I leave them up on cafepress because every now and then they sell.

In the past year I've been learning to use an image editing program called The GIMP which is like PhotoShop, but it's under a general public license, which means it's Free. And I've been getting so I'm decent at using it and becoming more creative with it. So I'm thinking, why not make some new designs that are better than my old ones for cafepress or any one of those other businesses like it out there.

So I spent much of the day reading up on t-shirts, image editing programs like Gimp and Inkscape (another free program that I downloaded today), learning about vector art, and downloading brushes and fonts and such. I even joined an online forum that's all about t-shirts. Yup. Another day where I got really useful stuff done (yeah right). But at least I expanded my horizons a bit more and had fun with it.

I'm not sure if by tomorrow I will have forgotten all about the t-shirts or not. Well, I won't forget completely...rather thoughts about it may be misplaced for a week or more. And in the meantime I'll find some other thing to occupy my mind and hands.

Book Finds! And Serene Photos.

Okay so over the weekend I probably got rid of at least fifty books (probably more) by donating them to the local Deseret Industries thrift store...only to today go there and end up buying some more. But only a few! And one of which I've been wanting a copy of forever! (It's the Shabby Chic book shown on the far right...it's been written in, but that only adds to it's charm...plus I only got it for $1.50...a steal. If I had got it from amazon.com I would have had to pay that plus shipping.)

I'm not as excited about the Martha Stewart book, but for $1.00 and the original price being $17.99 I decided not to pass it up. I know I'll get some Good Things out of (sorry, couldn't resist).

And the Williams-Sonoma Entertaining book had so many good recipes in it that I just really, really wanted it. I want to make the Tomato Tart on page 225 sometime soon. And there are some recipes I'd like to try out for Thanksgiving...but I'm not really sure that will happen.

A few weeks ago I went to the annual Presbyterian church rummage sale, and afterwards decided to go to the Canyon Park somewhat nearby and sat watching and listening to nature. While I may not be as gifted as my numerous photographer friends and family (how is it so many people I know are great photographers?) I thought these pics I took on the spur of the moment aren't half bad. (You can click on them to view them larger.) So I thought I'd get around to uploading them and sharing them. The usually small river is just a small stream at the moment. But I still think it looks very pretty, and very serene.

“There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations.” ~ Washington Irving

Letting go...sort of.

Recently the consignment store I help out with did a major clear out of merchandise consignors had in the store. And a lot of my own things that I had on consignment there were cleared out as well...some of it to my sadness (although honestly some of it really had to go, had been around too long, didn't fit the store's image, and/or was just a buying mistake in the first place).

I tried to part with some of it via a yard sale, but as it was a spur of the moment thing there wasn't really any time to do much in the way of advertising. (Although I think the signs I made were great...and I did get a lot of comments on them...how often do you drive by and see a suitcase sitting on the side of the road with a yard sale sign affixed to it?) And I'm kinda off the beaten track as well. So much of it got hauled off to charity after the yard sale was over.

But there were some things I just haven't seemed to be able to part with (even though I hardly have room for most of what I have). Yesterday as I sorted through things, trying to convince myself to part with even more, I decided to take two little vintage plates that got rejected from the store and put them on the wall in my room. (They look really great with my little Hello Kitty robot thingy doll, don't they?)

I still have a box full of stuff I haven't yet been able to convince myself to part with. But at least I can boast that a whole van full of stuff though is now gone...with a mix of things that had been in the store and from my personal belongings. It feels both good and sad at the same time to let so much of it go. But it feels like this is a time in my life where I'm ready to move on, new chapter, new stage in my life. And letting go of material things I no longer need is an important part of that. I've been letting go of much mental clutter over many months. It's time for some of that physical clutter to go too.

One more van full of stuff donated to charity...and I should be good. ;)

eclectic dreams

For those who really know me, they know I have eclectic tastes, styles, and...dreams. I dream of doing and being many things. I'm constantly daydreaming about new ideas, new wishes, new business/career ideas, things to make, home decor ideas, new ways of viewing the world, thoughts, life, etc, etc, etc.

So here for the first time I venture into putting all those thoughts, dreams, etc. into full public view. Get a peek into the chaotic mind/world of this daydreamer.

Explore my world, as I explore it myself as well. Learn about me as I learn about me. See what I think about, dream about, explore. From the mundane, to the philosophical, to the purely frivolous, and perhaps at times to the pure silliness as well.

“Writing, like dreams, confronts, pushes you up against the evasions, self-deceptions, investments in opinions and interpretations, the clutter that blinds, that disguises that underlying, all-encompassing design. . .”
Toni Cade Bambara