But for viewing pleasure, here are some pictures from the cruise.
Okay, so this new photo upload from blogger is taking way too long. Here is a link to flickr for some more pictures from the cruise.
I live with stage IV metastatic breast cancer that has caused 3 brain surgeries and leukemia that required a bone marrow transplant. . I like to write about life - and I don't hold back! My mission is to always remind myself and others anything is possible,
Monday, February 28, 2011
Cruisin’ back to reality
I think that is the hardest part of a vacation – getting back to reality, not having someone cook and serve me, instead me cooking and doing the serving and laundry. But we are back, laundry is washed, folded and put up and I have a very, VERY long list of stuff I need to get started on.
But for viewing pleasure, here are some pictures from the cruise.
But for viewing pleasure, here are some pictures from the cruise.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Pure Bliss
I have found my pure bliss – teaching creative classes to the younger population. Saturday I had a Valentine’s class at my church and had 5 yr olds – 11 yr olds. I love the way the children are so open to letting their creativity shine through and really embrace what they are there to do – make cards for people they love.
The light in their eyes after they were done and I was dotting on them and their creations was something so special and something I will never forget.
Yesterday I had an afterschool class at a high school nearby for 12 teenagers. Now, this was a little – ok a lot different from the younger kids, but it was great fun and fulfilling in a different way. I had a few of them tell me that they were not creative and didn’t want to take part; however, their teacher insisted everyone take part! Those who told me they couldn’t do did some of the best work. Others completely let themselves go and created their own designs, while the few teachers – male if I might add – ate it up. They were very apprehensive when they got there and ended up loving it and really getting into the creative process.
Working with children/teenagers etc was so rewarding to me. I feel like I got as much out of the classes as they did and I can’t wait to do more!
The light in their eyes after they were done and I was dotting on them and their creations was something so special and something I will never forget.
Yesterday I had an afterschool class at a high school nearby for 12 teenagers. Now, this was a little – ok a lot different from the younger kids, but it was great fun and fulfilling in a different way. I had a few of them tell me that they were not creative and didn’t want to take part; however, their teacher insisted everyone take part! Those who told me they couldn’t do did some of the best work. Others completely let themselves go and created their own designs, while the few teachers – male if I might add – ate it up. They were very apprehensive when they got there and ended up loving it and really getting into the creative process.
Working with children/teenagers etc was so rewarding to me. I feel like I got as much out of the classes as they did and I can’t wait to do more!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
January Recap
I was rereading this post to see where I started and where I am now and I am proud to I did this without knowing I did it – odd, I know!!
- One goal a month (stolen from Happiness Project)
- Work on said goal daily (stolen from Happiness Project)
- Review goal daily (stolen from Happiness Project)
- Make Vision Board for year (working on now – will post pics when done!)
- Play “don’t break the chain” on wall calendar:
So really, what all these little steps are going to help me do is simple – do something – anything – I don’t care but I will work on my goals daily and remind myself of what I want to attain with them.
In January I really worked on 2 things: counting calories and business – all be it in a different way than I had intended to at the beginning of the year. I am very excited to say that the boring task of counting calories on a daily basis has completely paid off - 8 pounds since January 3rd! SWEET! And in a weird way I am now enjoying the game of counting – how can I get a (1,000) calorie most days between food and working out, what can I eat that keeps me the fullest the longest for the how many calories, and most of all, it is nice to see what I put in my body.
Business – I have really hit a creative stride. I feel like I have finally found myself in my creating and I am loving every minute of it. What I don’t love – the social media side of everything. I usually yell at my computer anytime I am trying to do something new with typepad and/or FB – ARGULA!!
February goals:
Do more workbooks with Ian.
Gget all my “social media” sh*t linked and working and after our cruise (oh yes, we are going on a cruise!!!) send out a huge grand-opening email/evite for my etsy shop.
What do y’all think would be better – email or evite (I know they are kind of the same but not really) or would both be overkill? Not sure what to with that one.
- One goal a month (stolen from Happiness Project)
- Work on said goal daily (stolen from Happiness Project)
- Review goal daily (stolen from Happiness Project)
- Make Vision Board for year (working on now – will post pics when done!)
- Play “don’t break the chain” on wall calendar:
So really, what all these little steps are going to help me do is simple – do something – anything – I don’t care but I will work on my goals daily and remind myself of what I want to attain with them.
In January I really worked on 2 things: counting calories and business – all be it in a different way than I had intended to at the beginning of the year. I am very excited to say that the boring task of counting calories on a daily basis has completely paid off - 8 pounds since January 3rd! SWEET! And in a weird way I am now enjoying the game of counting – how can I get a (1,000) calorie most days between food and working out, what can I eat that keeps me the fullest the longest for the how many calories, and most of all, it is nice to see what I put in my body.
Business – I have really hit a creative stride. I feel like I have finally found myself in my creating and I am loving every minute of it. What I don’t love – the social media side of everything. I usually yell at my computer anytime I am trying to do something new with typepad and/or FB – ARGULA!!
February goals:
Do more workbooks with Ian.
Gget all my “social media” sh*t linked and working and after our cruise (oh yes, we are going on a cruise!!!) send out a huge grand-opening email/evite for my etsy shop.
What do y’all think would be better – email or evite (I know they are kind of the same but not really) or would both be overkill? Not sure what to with that one.
Monday, January 31, 2011
check it out....
I teamed up with an old friend who sews super cute stuff to do a week's worth of blog give a ways - be sure to check it out and sign up to win!!
http://leopardsandlilies.typepad.com/where-sweet-meets-sassy/2011/01/valentines-advent-tree-give-a-ways-too-much-fun.html
http://leopardsandlilies.typepad.com/where-sweet-meets-sassy/2011/01/valentines-advent-tree-give-a-ways-too-much-fun.html
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Note to self:
I AM NOT GOOD AT PICKING OUT PAINT COLORS!! Period, the end.
No matter what I do, no matter how many swatches I get, no matter how many sample colors I paint on the wall, no matter what - my paint picking out skills SUCK! SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!!!!
And I have no estimation skills either.
Here is how it went:
I bought 6, yes 6 grey samples and painted swatches on the kitchen wall.
3 whites for trim
4 browns for accent wall
After much debate, I decide to pull the trigger and say we are going to use sterling on all the walls....top left.
Go to Home Depot, buy 5 gallons, 1 gallon of white for trim and 1 gallon on brown for accent wall.
Monday morning: Painters arrive. Please note, they speak hardly any English and my friend Teri was here with me when they came to give me the quote and did the talking for me. She wasn’t here Monday morning.
Do my best to ask how much more for them to paint all the doors – now that I realized (with the help of Teri pointing it out to me) that if we are painting the trim, we will need to doors painted as well. Yes, they painters asked me if I wanted the doors painted and I said no.
Okay, good – doors are now going to be painted.
They get to work, Ian is not a happy camper being as he is being kicked out of the living room.
We will leave to go over to Sylvia’s for much needed mommy talk and for the kids to run themselves ragged. Come home about 4 hours later.
First coat is on the living room – UH OH – not looking like the swatch I picked out. Maybe because it is wet?!?!? Now trying to hope for the best.
Eric comes home – he looks at it and tells me it will be okay – it will be what it is. NOT GOOD. I needed him to tell me that it was in fact not lavender and that he loved it. He.did.not.say.that.
It doesn't look THAT bad in this picture, but in the evening and night time, with the lights on, the color of our floors and couch, it looked lavendar. NOT what I wanted.
Monday night.
We decide that we don’t want this color, yes the color that we have FIVE gallons of, in the kitchen as well. They hadn’t started the kitchen so we were good in that aspect.
Tuesday morning.
Me and Ian load up, at 8:00 a.m., hit the donut store and to home depot to get a tile out of our back splash color matched – nope, that can’t color match it because the color is under glass. With the help of an employee, we match the tile to a swatch. Get a gallon.
When the painters get here, I tell them to paint the kitchen a different color. He looked very confused at what I was saying.
We leave again, come home in the afternoon – kitchen looks great. Living room still looks lavender – ARG!
Tuesday night.
We decide that we have to love the new paint and at this point, we hated the lavender that was glaring back at us.
Wednesday morning.
I use my phone translator to figure out how to ask them how much to repaint the living room, entry way and small hallway off the bathroom downstairs. Okay, price worked out.
Take Ian to MDO.
Come home, paint piece of wood with kitchen color, head to Home Depot yet again. Eric was going to meet me there in about 30 minutes. The nice lady noticed I was looking pretty panicked and asked if I needed help – YES, I NEED HELP!! So after she went through all my choices, I told her my problem, she picked 3 all new choices for me. Eric got there, we picked Elephant skin, got 3 gallons.
Brought the paint back home.
A few hours later, it was painted and it was BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, I LOVE IT!!!
The pictures don't do the paint colors justice but they are wonderful!!
Now however, I have about 2.5 gallons of the sterling (lavendar) color left, 1.5 of elephant skin and little parts of trim, kitchen and accent wall – which I am good with those being left over.
Now on to getting stuff back on the walls, curtains, new rug, backsplash put up (yes, we have it picked out) and stairs redone (yes, I think Eric and I are going to attempt doing them ourselves) and then the downstairs is done!!! I am hoping to have a home warming party in late April/early May for Eric and I's birthday - here is hoping...and working.
No matter what I do, no matter how many swatches I get, no matter how many sample colors I paint on the wall, no matter what - my paint picking out skills SUCK! SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!!!!
And I have no estimation skills either.
Here is how it went:
I bought 6, yes 6 grey samples and painted swatches on the kitchen wall.
3 whites for trim
4 browns for accent wall
After much debate, I decide to pull the trigger and say we are going to use sterling on all the walls....top left.
Go to Home Depot, buy 5 gallons, 1 gallon of white for trim and 1 gallon on brown for accent wall.
Monday morning: Painters arrive. Please note, they speak hardly any English and my friend Teri was here with me when they came to give me the quote and did the talking for me. She wasn’t here Monday morning.
Do my best to ask how much more for them to paint all the doors – now that I realized (with the help of Teri pointing it out to me) that if we are painting the trim, we will need to doors painted as well. Yes, they painters asked me if I wanted the doors painted and I said no.
Okay, good – doors are now going to be painted.
They get to work, Ian is not a happy camper being as he is being kicked out of the living room.
We will leave to go over to Sylvia’s for much needed mommy talk and for the kids to run themselves ragged. Come home about 4 hours later.
First coat is on the living room – UH OH – not looking like the swatch I picked out. Maybe because it is wet?!?!? Now trying to hope for the best.
Eric comes home – he looks at it and tells me it will be okay – it will be what it is. NOT GOOD. I needed him to tell me that it was in fact not lavender and that he loved it. He.did.not.say.that.
It doesn't look THAT bad in this picture, but in the evening and night time, with the lights on, the color of our floors and couch, it looked lavendar. NOT what I wanted.
Monday night.
We decide that we don’t want this color, yes the color that we have FIVE gallons of, in the kitchen as well. They hadn’t started the kitchen so we were good in that aspect.
Tuesday morning.
Me and Ian load up, at 8:00 a.m., hit the donut store and to home depot to get a tile out of our back splash color matched – nope, that can’t color match it because the color is under glass. With the help of an employee, we match the tile to a swatch. Get a gallon.
When the painters get here, I tell them to paint the kitchen a different color. He looked very confused at what I was saying.
We leave again, come home in the afternoon – kitchen looks great. Living room still looks lavender – ARG!
Tuesday night.
We decide that we have to love the new paint and at this point, we hated the lavender that was glaring back at us.
Wednesday morning.
I use my phone translator to figure out how to ask them how much to repaint the living room, entry way and small hallway off the bathroom downstairs. Okay, price worked out.
Take Ian to MDO.
Come home, paint piece of wood with kitchen color, head to Home Depot yet again. Eric was going to meet me there in about 30 minutes. The nice lady noticed I was looking pretty panicked and asked if I needed help – YES, I NEED HELP!! So after she went through all my choices, I told her my problem, she picked 3 all new choices for me. Eric got there, we picked Elephant skin, got 3 gallons.
Brought the paint back home.
A few hours later, it was painted and it was BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, I LOVE IT!!!
Now however, I have about 2.5 gallons of the sterling (lavendar) color left, 1.5 of elephant skin and little parts of trim, kitchen and accent wall – which I am good with those being left over.
Now on to getting stuff back on the walls, curtains, new rug, backsplash put up (yes, we have it picked out) and stairs redone (yes, I think Eric and I are going to attempt doing them ourselves) and then the downstairs is done!!! I am hoping to have a home warming party in late April/early May for Eric and I's birthday - here is hoping...and working.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Mushy, gushy, oushy
Yes, I am aware most of the above words (all of them!) are my made up words that I usually reserve for Ian bo-bein. But after my day today with “my girls” I just feel all mushy, gushy inside – I love my girls. I never thought of myself as a stay-at-home mom and a big part of that was because I was afraid of not having the daily social contact with the outside world.
This group we have formed has slowly been progressing over time and I realized today that we are so much more than a “neighborhood group of friends.” We are the kind of friends you look at with envy (I know I have looked at others with that envy), we are the kind of friends I wasn’t sure existed after high school (I had VERY high standards after my high school group who I still am great friend with today), we are true friends - who are all completely ourselves with and for that, we all accept and love each other. I never thought I would be a part of something this great again and it makes me a better mommy, person, woman and so much more.
So to the mushy, gushy part (as if that wasn’t enough??) – after realizing this I realized even more so how completely blessed and 100% fortunate I am in life, love, family matters and happiness. Sometimes it is hard for me to over look the two things that I am not sure about in life – more children & cancer. And yes, if I look at those as individual matters they can consume me, get me all worked up and almost drive me crazy, but when I look at my life as a whole – those two pretty big matters don’t make a dent in all the other blessings I have.
I am happy. I am loved, in love and love. I am healthy. I have a wonderful family (don’t get me wrong, they drive me a little crazy at times!) I have friendships of all kinds and across the country. I am creative and have a wonderful supportive husband who believes I can make my hobby a business.
It is easy to get caught up in what I don’t have, what I want, how fast I wish I could run, etc. but then I think about those things and I know even if I had all that it wouldn’t matter without all my other mushy gushy stuff.
This group we have formed has slowly been progressing over time and I realized today that we are so much more than a “neighborhood group of friends.” We are the kind of friends you look at with envy (I know I have looked at others with that envy), we are the kind of friends I wasn’t sure existed after high school (I had VERY high standards after my high school group who I still am great friend with today), we are true friends - who are all completely ourselves with and for that, we all accept and love each other. I never thought I would be a part of something this great again and it makes me a better mommy, person, woman and so much more.
So to the mushy, gushy part (as if that wasn’t enough??) – after realizing this I realized even more so how completely blessed and 100% fortunate I am in life, love, family matters and happiness. Sometimes it is hard for me to over look the two things that I am not sure about in life – more children & cancer. And yes, if I look at those as individual matters they can consume me, get me all worked up and almost drive me crazy, but when I look at my life as a whole – those two pretty big matters don’t make a dent in all the other blessings I have.
I am happy. I am loved, in love and love. I am healthy. I have a wonderful family (don’t get me wrong, they drive me a little crazy at times!) I have friendships of all kinds and across the country. I am creative and have a wonderful supportive husband who believes I can make my hobby a business.
It is easy to get caught up in what I don’t have, what I want, how fast I wish I could run, etc. but then I think about those things and I know even if I had all that it wouldn’t matter without all my other mushy gushy stuff.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Truth be told…
Well, hmmm this year started with a bang – not really the bang I wanted but a bang – luckily not my head on the floor!! After a frightening fall down the stairs last Monday morning while carrying Ian, my New Year did start with a bang! He was fine, my foot - well not so much! It is a "soft tissue sprain" - whatever that really means?!?! Now, I am stuck with this lovely boot on for the next 3 – 4 weeks...I guess it could be worse...I know it could be - I have had it worse!
Truth one: those stupid little calories that I can’t even see add up quickly and DO matter – a lot!! And wine has way too many calories but oh they might be the best 130 calories of my day! After a week of counting, I am down 4 pounds – whoop, whoop!!
Truth two: I am honestly VERY surprised I haven’t fallen down the stairs sooner than this. And according to my sister, she is surprised too!
Truth three: I haven’t started on any of my other New Year’s goals. I have all the stuff cut out of magazines, pictures printed and a design layout that I want to use on my vision board.
Truth four: I had a mammogram last Monday and all is well!! I am looking forward to the oncologist appt this month because this will mark two years! 2 out of 3 years is a big deal!!
Truth five: I have been putting more time and energy into my L&L blog than this one lately – sorry for that but I am enjoying making things so much!
Truth six: I missed Ian when he went back to MDO on Wednesday.
Truth seven: Eric and mine date night on Friday night was wonderful, much needed and much overdue.
Truth eight: I am about to start “soliciting” L&L Creative classes to businesses around town and I am scared out of my mind. Luckily my dear friend Kate is going be with me the first few calls I make – YIKES!
Truth one: those stupid little calories that I can’t even see add up quickly and DO matter – a lot!! And wine has way too many calories but oh they might be the best 130 calories of my day! After a week of counting, I am down 4 pounds – whoop, whoop!!
Truth two: I am honestly VERY surprised I haven’t fallen down the stairs sooner than this. And according to my sister, she is surprised too!
Truth three: I haven’t started on any of my other New Year’s goals. I have all the stuff cut out of magazines, pictures printed and a design layout that I want to use on my vision board.
Truth four: I had a mammogram last Monday and all is well!! I am looking forward to the oncologist appt this month because this will mark two years! 2 out of 3 years is a big deal!!
Truth five: I have been putting more time and energy into my L&L blog than this one lately – sorry for that but I am enjoying making things so much!
Truth six: I missed Ian when he went back to MDO on Wednesday.
Truth seven: Eric and mine date night on Friday night was wonderful, much needed and much overdue.
Truth eight: I am about to start “soliciting” L&L Creative classes to businesses around town and I am scared out of my mind. Luckily my dear friend Kate is going be with me the first few calls I make – YIKES!
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