Allowing yourself to follow your heart........

Amazing things do happen when you follow your heart.  Sometimes I get stuck in a negative thinking pattern: worrying about not doing things perfectly, stepping on peoples toes, getting drained by making sure everyone else is happy while I am screaming inside.  I am wholeheartedly going to try to change my thought pattern.  Kelly Rae Robert's class has opened my eyes to the empowerment I have inside me.  I have also been reading the book Small Change Little Things Make a Big Difference  by Susan Terkel.  Which reminded me of about the Law of Inertia: objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay rest.  Small changes are better than no change at all.  Get movin' so I can stay movin'.

So after another frustrating family outing I came home and instead of sitting there and stewing.  I came home and created without thinking; just following my heart. I got my paints out and made a mess.  I had been saving this canvas for years waiting for the perfect moment.  I was intimidated to start because I had never painted on canvas before.  I didn't even know where to start.  I just did and watched in wonderment.  I enjoyed feeling the freedom of just being true to myself.  It came out exactly how I wanted it to, so far.  I still have the gluing to do.  That is always my most dreaded step.  This time, instead of fretting that it wont look exactly how I planned, I will be exhilarated that I accomplished my first canvas.

While Kiah and I were walking to my mom's the other day we saw a hawk.  I always get excited when I see one because I totally believe in Native American animal spirits and love the hawk's message.

excerpt from http://www.animaltotem.com

Hawks piercing shriek tears through the air. In its shrill cry lies an important message which represents illumination. Hawk teaches us to scope out the situation and focus on our talents, trying to draw them out. Hawk learns to see the big picture in order to understand the past, present, and future. Hawk asks us to be observant of surroundings so we won't get distracted from our path by others. It also reminds us not to get caught up in minor annoyances so we can maintain our inner balance.

Chris' opinion was published in our local news paper and Kiah had a minor part in a movie yesterday.  So it was an exciting day for them.

This week my goals are to:

Finish my canvas
Post a new item on etsy
Catch up on Kelly Rae's class
take some pics.

Not to much; I don't want to overload myself.  Small steps!

Hope everyone has a nice week!

So this is what good housekeeping looked like in 1917

Now that's the life; sitting around in a nice gown, drinking wine and having a smoke.  Looking like you have no cares in the world.  No screaming kids, nagging husband, grouchy granny, laundry, cleaning, dinner to be made.  Just complete serenity.  I wish I was there.

On the pursuit of happiness........

 

I am happy to announce the winner of my giveaway...........#68 Dyylannn.  Thank you all for participating.  It was a lot of fun, I hope to do another one soon.  I used the random number generator on random.org to pick the number.

I can't believe it has been a month since the last time I did 10 things about me.  So today I am going to do 10 things I love and 10 things I hate.

I 'll start with the things I hate~

1. BP CEO Tony Hayward
2. tomatoes
3. snakes
4. know-it-alls
5. that my sister can't do everything she wants too, because of her disease
6.  the smell of dirt and grass
7. when I tell my man to pull over so I can take a picture and he ignores me.
8. that we don't have our own house
9. days when I feel that the only reason I am around is to service my family- zombie slave as I call it.
10. feeling uninspired, overwhelmed, and good for nothing

Things I love~

1. my family
2. purple
3. garage sales
4. black coffee
5. books
6. butterflies
7. photography
8. nature walks
9. the rain
10. making crafts

Well, this week ended up being a really good week.  I found out Schmaps Guide did use my photo.  Yeah!, my first publication.

I am also a $100 richer.   At the beginning of the year my old "woman's" doctor sent me a bill for $24.00 dating back to a service that was provided 2 years prior.  If I didn't pay in 10 days they were going to send me to collections.  I knew I had paid them.  I asked them to send me all the statements and had my mom look at them; she used to be a bookkeeper.  Come to find out, they owed me a $102.00.  It took them 6 months to finally get their act together and give me my money.  I sent letters every month to remind them, asking them for the same courtesy they expected out from me.  They wanted their money in 10 days, but when it was the other way around, they took 6 months.  Ridiculous.  I hate big business, who don't care about the little people.  So Women's Care for Life:  You are forever banned from my good thoughts,  if anyone ever asks me about your business  I will give them the most detailed awful review you can ever imagine.  But thanks for being greedy over $20.00 'cause now I am $100 richer.  Ha!

Make sure to enter my giveaway before it's too late!! It ends on June 15.

 

Vintage Goodie Giveaway

My Tut message for today.......

However long your dreams take to come true, Rebecca; no matter how prickly, thorny, or bumpy the path; and whether or not you even remember these words, if you stay the course, I can promise you this:

1 - They will come true.
2 - You'll recall the entire journey with fondness.
3 - You're going to miss shopping in complete anonymity.

Sure as snow.

Whatever,
 

The Universe

I thought it was appropriate for all the dreaming I am doing for the Mondo Beyondo workshop. I still haven't found out if the Schmaps Guide to San Francisco will feature my photo yet.  But if they do it will be one dream off my list.

This the image I am using for the Echo "Rouge" challenge.  

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go? 

By Shel  Silverstein

I have been very busy since the kids are out of school.  It's hard work trying to convince an 8 year old why it is bad to play games all day.  If I tell him to read he looks at me like I am off my rocker, and he loves to read.  For some reason he thinks summer means I can do whatever I want, whenever I want.  

 Here are some recent vintage finds.  The orange book on the top is by one of my favorite children's author and illustrator Joan Walsh Anglund.  The vintage bird ornaments and mink bow tie were given to me by this lady at a garage sale.  I can't believe the birds made it through the day.  They are so fragile, when I found them they were at the bottom of a box with a bunch a misc. junk on top.  When I asked how much they were she said "Oh, those weren't supposed to be out there!"  So I offered to give them back.  She said she believed in karma and wanted me to have them.  We got to talking and I told her I was a crafter/hoarder and she started rummaging around finding all these things she thought I would like.  Have you ever seen the movie Labyrinth.  There is a part where this lady is trying to give Sarah all these things and they are surrounded by all this junk.  It reminded me of that.  She was a cutie though and and so gracious for giving me those ornaments.  They are a least 80 years old.  The rest of the stuff I got at my favorite little thrift shop The Unicorn.  

Hope everyone is having a good week! 

Better Homes and Gardens makes it so easy

They share some super easy ideas here. I love the side table they made out of an old ladder and frame and I have to make a butterfly canvas like the one the have here. The boys wouldn't like it, but I would.

A Home Decor Makeover with Crafts

Love is in the air and apparently strep throat too.....

Well, it is officially summer here.  Kiah's last day of school was Thursday.  The prior Saturday he started complaining of a sore throat, but I didn't really think anything of it since he is prone to allergies.  So we went ahead and took my sister and her boyfriend out to Santa Cruz.  It was the cutest thing seeing them go down the boardwalk hand in hand.  Her in her scooter and him in the wheelchair.  Ahh, young love.

 Kiah was not better by Monday; still a sore throat, a tummy ache, and a slight fever.  I set him up for an appointment early Tuesday.  He wanted to go to school even though he felt crappy because he didn't want to miss the last three days of seeing Nina, his 2nd grade sweetheart.  It turned out he had strep throat.  Go figure.  As soon as he took the first dose of antibiotics he started to feel better.

I am amazed at how many people commented on the giveaway.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by and a special thanks to the people who decided to follow.  You all made my week.

I am taking another one of Susan Tuttle's workshops.  I haven't had much time to do it, but I did do a couple pieces. The bokeh texture was made from some pics I took of bubbles purposely making them out of focus.The stained glass and Venus de Milo photos are from morguefiles.com.

She had a lesson on adjustment layers .  I never messed with adjustment layers before.  I made the above photo's background more pink by messing with the photo filter adjustment layer.

Next time I have some vintage finds to share.  Hope everyone has a good week!