Attitude of Gratitude

I was reading a book (The Secret) today that talked about the importance of gratitude and it got me thinking. If you are thankful, there is no way that you can be unhappy. So, I decided that Thursdays should be Thankful Thursdays. I have so much to be thankful for! Here are a few things:

1) My hubby--he is so great! We have been married for almost 10 years! We have had ups and downs like any couple, but for the most part it has been great! He is one of the nicest guys that you could ever meet. I am so thankful that he has been a part of my life!

2) Beauty--she is such a great dog! It is amazing how much joy she has brought into our life. I never would have thought that I would love an animal so much!

3) My education--I have been so lucky to have the opportunity to not only go to college, but to go to law school. It was hard work, but I am so thankful to have been able to do that.

Create

create (krē-ˈāt): to bring into existence; to produce through imaginative skill (Webster's Dictionary)

I like to think of myself as creative, but I rarely sit and think about what that actually means. So today I looked up the word "create" in the dictionary and was struck by the power of the word. "To bring into existence"--that has got to be one of the most powerful things are person can do! I know that I often dismiss my creations as silly, unimportant, and frivilous, but they are no such thing. I find joy in creating, and joy is powerful. So, go out and create and find joy!!

101 Things in 1001 Days

I came across this website and thought that it was a fabulous idea! The gist of the idea is to make a list of 101 things that you want to do in 1001 days (about 2.75 years). The things are supposed to be measurable and take some work on your part. I am a big list maker and goal setter, so this sounded perfect.

It turned out to be much harder than I thought it would be to come up with 101 things, and it actually took me about a week to do it. The good news is that I completed 2 of the things on my list while making the list, so I have a start! :) Some of them are going to be hard, but some will be easy...hopefully they will all be fun!

Here's the list:

101 Things in 1001 Days
1. Record song for grandma
2. Sew an article of clothing
3. Sit for boudoir photos
4. Learn to design a logo
5. Go bungee jumping
6. Finish a marathon
7. Write a book
8. Walk/swim under a waterfall
9. Wear red lipstick in public proudly
10. Make a necklace
11. Interview a homeless person
12. Be able to do a full pull up
13. Swim a mile
14. Be comfortable driving a stick
15. Take a solo road trip
16. Get to my healthy weight
17. Learn to snowboard
18. Sing karaoke
19. Design a cool blog header
20. Scan in all our photos
21. Spend a whole (work) day in bed just cause
22. Take a cooking class
23. Watch Casablanca
24. Fly a kite
25. Visit a winery
26. Learn to use photoshop adequately
27. Go to a pumpkin patch
28. Go ice skating.
29. Go skinny dipping
30. Make a quilt
31. Sell something I made (even if for $1)
32. Watch Breakfast at Tiffany's
33. Get my room organized
34. Have a garage sale
35. Finish cross-stitching projects
36. Write a children's book
37. Watch the sun rise
38. Cut my craft stash in half!
39. Identify 100 things that make me happy
40. Start a daily meditation routine
41. Start a business
42. Brush up on Spanish
43. Go through personal training course
44. Find my passion
45. Make bedroom curtains
46. Learn to make a great latte
47. Learn to ride a motorcycle
48. Kayak here
49. Go white-water rafting or river tubing
50. Go to art museum
51. Go on a picnic with my hubby
52. Dance in the rain
53. Learn calligraphy
54. Learn to straighten my hair
55. Eat breakfast in bed
56. Carve a jack-o-lantern
57. Have a outdoor candle-light dinner
58. Learn to poach eggs
59. Take a backpacking trip
60. Go to a hotsprings
61. Camp out in the living room
62. Plan a surprise for Gess
63. Wear red nail polish
64. Organize my recipes
65. Have wedding pictures retaken
66. Spend a day as a tourist in Seattle
67. Go to a drive-in
68. Go to an amusement park
69. Spend a weekend without TV/internet
70. Hike near Mt. Rainer
71. Make contact with an old friend
72. Get rid of clothes that I don't truly love
73. Read The Secret
74. Finish Beck book
75. Finish The Artist's Way
76. Go camping
77. Go to the fair
78. "Camp" in the backyard
79. Go to the San Juans
80. Go down a water slide
81. Build a website
82. Have a snowball fight
83. Go to Bainbridge Island for the day
84. Take a yoga class
85. Take a pilates class
86. Take a kickboxing class
87. Make my music playlists
88. Can something
89. Make my own spa product
90. Make a project out of The Big Ass Book of Crafts
91. Make a purse/bag
92. Get a makeover at one of the makeup counters
93. Make a pizza on the grill
94. Pick new volunteer venture
95. Jump on the bed
96. Blow bubbles
97. Decorate the sidewalk with chalk
98. Plan a dream vacation
99. Bake bread
100. Go rock climbing
101. Celebrate finishing the list!!

Crafty Saturday--Christmas Cards in August!

This Saturday my good friend Tasha came over for some card-making goodness! Our boys went to a football game, so we had plenty of quiet to help the creative juices flow. And a nice pitcher of Sangria to help!

We decided that we would get an early start on Christmas cards. I made a really simple design and finished up about 20 cards.

I also came up with another design, so I might make these next time:

I am inspired by the Handmade Challenge so decided to make some cards to send as a gift to Gess's aunt for her birthday. I am happy with the way they turned out!

Crafting is good :) (Sorry about the picture quality, I realize now that I can't take pictures at night on our glossy kitchen table!)

Book Review: The Red Tent

A great friend of mine recommended Anita Diamant's Red Tent to me, saying that the book changed her life. With that kind of recommendation, how could I not read it at the first opportunity? (Of course, I also used it as an excuse to place a book order of over $25 through http://www.amazon.com/ to get the free shipping, but that is another story!).

What can I say, I loved it! The Red Tent is a fictional story of a biblical character who is only briefly mentioned in the Bible. The book gave me pause when thinking about reading all of the genealogy lists in the Bible. As a kid, we would just skip right past those and think that they were incredibly boring and a waste of space. This book, however, is a reminder that there is a story behind each of those names, and it may be an amazing story like the story that Diamant tells of Dinah. I love how the story is about women in biblical times--a population that is often overlooked. There is plenty to reflect on in this book as well, the role of women, the treatment of women, relationships with other women, relationships, hardship, moving on after tragedy...I could go on and on!

Two More! :)

I {heart} photoshop :)

I'm Learning Photoshop!!

I started messing around with photoshop last night and feel like I am making progress! I designed my blog header--what do you think??

Also, I just designed a "monogram."  I like monograms (obviously) so I will probably play around with it some more!

Okay, I did another design:

Drool: I want these shoes!

I went shopping with my friend today and she introduced me to shoe store that she likes and we both fell in love with these shoes. They are cute, with just a little bit of sass and sportiness. I want!! Gotta figure out why I **need** these shoes!

New Pictures are up!!

Shortly after my last entry Clane told me that our pictures were up on his blog. They are SO good!! Seriously, if you are getting married anywhere you need to call Clane (he loves to travel, so he will come where you need him). He does amazing portraits, so if you are interested shoot him an email, you won't regret it! He is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and his photos are amazing!!

Anyway, back to me :) Here are the pictures posted on his blog (I don't have the files yet so I can't post them here).

Family Visit

Gessner's mom, sister, and niece were here for a visit last week. It was a lot of fun!!

Hannah bought Beauty a costume--can't you see how thrilled Beauty was?!

Our good friend Clane took some portraits of us...this picture was taken by Diana as we were playing around, tickling Uncle Gessner (I will post some of the portraits when we get them).

Here's one of the animals howling!

Hannah and Barb in front of Pike Place Chowder in Pike Place Market

Me and Hannah hanging out at home

Hannah huggin Beauty

Playing in the trees!

Hannah holding onto Uncle Gessner's foot

Book Review: Shoe Addicts Anonymous

I will confess that I was a bit weary when Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison was picked as our next book club selection. It has a bright pink cover and the title screams "silly girl" to me, but I dutifully bought my copy and started to read it right away. I ended up enjoying the book immensely! It is a good "easy" read, but the characters also really have a lot of depth. The women in the book could be you or your coworker or your neighbor. I related particularly to one of the characters. It reminds me of my book club--a group of really different women brought together by a common element (for us the gym). So thanks for picking the book Leslie! I really loved it!!

What I woke up to this morning...

Isn't my hubby sweet? :)

Cry over a spilled latte?

I got in my car after work tonight and noticed a distinct smell of coffee...a smell I love...but then it hit me.  My mother-in-law spilled an entire grande latte in my car on Sunday.  My husband tried to clean it up, but I have a feeling that after a few warm summer days, the milk is not going to be a smell I love!  Gotta get my steam cleaner out!!

Painting: Circles

This week's prompt for Creative Construction is "Circles." For some reason I find that painting circles is very relaxing. I am not sure exactly what it is, but inevitably if I get in a painting "trance" I end up with a bunch of circles at some point. I have a bunch of paintings with circles, so for today, here are a few of my favorites.

Self-Conscious

We had portraits taken today, by a great friend who has taken ours before and I feel comfortable with him. But for some reason when the camera comes out or when I feel like someone is really looking at me, I tense up. I feel like when someone is looking a me, they are seeing all of the flaws. Seeing the flab, the wrinkles, the teeth that aren't white enough--seeing all of my imperfection magnified. Seeing how ugly I am. In front of the camera is not the only time I feel this way, but it is an example of when the feelings are really magnified. There are times--many more times than I would like to admit--that I just don't feel comfortable in my own skin.

It is embarrassing to say this, and to do so in such a pubic manner. I am 30 years old, nearly 31, so you would think that by now I would be comfortable with myself. I have been married for nearly 10 years to a man that clearly loves me, with all my flaws. So why can't I just love myself? Why can't I look at myself in the mirror--really look--without cringing? Do other people see someone that I don't see? Is my self-concept so distorted that I can't see the real me? Or is this me?

I look at a lot of pictures, pictures of wedding and portraits and I love to see women--regular woman--who have so much self-confidence and so much "spunk" that comes across in the photos. I think that I have some spunk in here somewhere--in fact, I know that there is a lot of "sass," but how do I get it to come out? How can I really be comfortable letting that out. I want to have that captured in a photo. I want a person to look at a picture of me and think "That woman likes herself and is comfortable with herself. She has personality." But is this is dream? Can I ever be that woman? Can I be her? Or am I just NOT that woman? I want to be the woman that wears bright red shoes and stands tall as she walks into the office. I want to be the woman that runs into the ocean, getting her beautiful dress wet, but not caring. I want to be that women that can look at someone without fear and let the real me come out. But I think that this may be asking too much.

Boo's Boo Boo

We often call Beauty "Boo" (and other embarrassingly sappy things). Today she had to go in to get her monthly blood draw before she starts her next round of chemo. Usually she is fine, but today I heard her crying from the back room at the vet and my heart sank. The tech said that for some reason Beauty got upset when they stuck her (I can think of a reason!). They had to put a bandage on...which was actually pretty darn cute. Here are some pictures of her sporting the purple bandage. If it hadn't hurt her so much, I would say that she was just trying to make a fashion statement!

My very last one...

For now :)

This one was designed by Christine of clkmtl custom designs.

Beauty as a puppy

Beauty is almost 8 years old, but it seems like she was just a cute little puppy yesterday.  Here are some cute baby pictures!

My Husband the Mountain Man

This picture was taken in June we went up to a friend's grandparents' cabin for a nice long weekend. Gessner was carrying his camera to take pictures of the scenery and a shot gun in case a bear or cougar came our way!

Painting: Self Portrait

A couple of years back I took a course at Bellevue Community College called Intuitive Art.  The underlying idea of the class was to get out of your own way and let the creative art come out.  So we worked with inexpensive materials and didn't spend a lot of time trying to create something monumental.  It was just go with the flow and you will create.  It was an awesome class and I have a few pieces from the class that I really one.  My favorite is a larger than life self portrait.  It is huge and loud, but I LOVE it.  It is not living room appropriate, but I have it hanging up in my craft room.  Something about it speaks to me still, even though anyone else looking at it probably thinks that it was part of an elementary school art project. I love it though, so that is all that matters!!