A Page From The Silver Linings Playbook

Whew! What a week!  Almost everyone I talked to or encountered this week, had some complaint or some big crisis that came into their lives.  My week was full of stress and challenging. 
MickeyGrrrl's health took a dip, she's still hanging in.  My part-time office job was full of time sensitive projects.  It seemed like one thing after another.
It is a positive attitude coupled with my ability to create things, however small, saved my day.  In all the junk that was going on, I found small moments of bliss and relaxation.  I reached out to folks with talk of creativity and encouraging them to discover what their art is. 

On Friday, I rented the movie, The Silver Linings Playbook.  I really liked the movie and it's message of a positive attitude.  The movie's characters were so human, so flawed.  It was a perfect choice for the week I had.  MickeyGrrrl was by my side watching.

Life happens.  Sometimes it is good happenings.  Sometimes it is less than wonderful happenings. We all stand at choice to find and seek the silver lining any all of it.

Here's to creating a truly great week.

Until next week...create to feel great!
20 projects complete!  32 to go!


This week's project was to help out my boss... a fabric screen to keep his cats out of the living room and stop them from ruining the hard wood floors.

Still Figuring This One Out

This week I read and heard from several sources that the number one dream/life killer is negativity.
Yes.  This I know.  Yet what I'm still attempting to figure out is why then is there so much negativity?  Why do we gravitate to it like bees to honey?  What is it about negativity that makes it so attractive?  Why do would we ever want to kill our dreams and life with it?

Here's some of the conclusions/ my answers I'm still working on, but are my food for thought on this.
Negativity is easy.  If we stew in negativity, we don't have to do or want to do anything else.  No one really and honestly gets annoyed at negativity, because we find it so attractive. Misery loves company. So, if you are in a funk, folks sometimes will almost celebrate with you.  How sad, but I've seen it time and time again.
Here's what I do know, folks who are moving forward in their lives no matter at what pace, have little tolerance for negativity.  They usually pick up their pace to move away from it.  This why it is important to engage your creativity to assist you in moving away from negativity.  Because as attractive as negativity may be to all of us.  Creativity is even more attractive.  We are truly drawn to the creativity process, be it your own or someone else's.

Suggestion instead of allowing negativity to kill your dreams/life, allow creativity to help you build the boat (in whatever shape or form) to paddle away from it, and into the beautiful light of life.
Just a suggestion.

Until next week...create to feel great!

19 projects complete! 43 to go!

This week's project is an art doll for a swap-bot challenge.  We had to use a sewing pattern, a flower, a pen or pencil, and pieces of jewelry to create something.  I came up with an art doll.  Broadside said it looks like I'm watching way too much RuPaul's Drag Race.  Maybe, but my partner who received the doll loved it.

Full Embrace

I did a craft fair this week, and besides making a ton of fun money, my table was in a corner with two of the most creative women I've ever met. It was a small fair with only a handful of vendors.
It was a sunny day, buying traffic was light.  The three of us made the most sales (really the only sales).  Shopper kept stopping by and saying that the corner was alive with high energy, they had to stop by and see what was what.
I believe that folks were attracted the positive creative energy.   It was more than they could resist.
The lesson I learned from these two creative women was to fully embrace who you are and then find a way to fully express it in the world, and think of how it serves others.  Simple yes.  Easy, well no.
That is only because we get scared.  We start to think what others think of us is more important than what we think of our selves.  That mind set is not only deadly for artist, but for anyone wanting to live a full rich life.
Embrace who you are.  I have often said love is joyful acceptance.  Embrace, Accept,Express.   It really is that simple.  Try it for a week and see what happens.

Until next week...create to feel great!

18 projects complete!  44 to go

This week...I made sausages with casings.  I attempted to take photos, but they really didn't look that good, but they taste fabulous!  More homesteading...
I also got my additional raised beds built, filled and planted.  Stay tune for more adventures in Homesteading.

Don't Induce Labor

A good friend of mine is waiting to be a first time Grandma.  She was telling me that is it common for women to ask the doctor to induce labor.  Many women do this because they are done and want to have the baby on their schedule, not nature's or the baby's.  I know sometimes doctors have to induce labor for the well being of mom and baby, I get that, but to have a baby on a mom's busy schedule, because she's done.   I don't understand that mind set.  Have we gotten so impatient with our lives and schedules, our multi-tasking and wanting things our way only that we force birth before nature and baby are ready? Wow.  That boggles my mind.  Yet I see it everywhere.  As a society, we want things now or sooner.  We want things our way.  
What happened to letting nature take it's course?  I stand guilty of wanting to force things.  Wanting things to happen faster and quicker.  In those times, I find I'm on edge and nervous.  The only thing that happens faster and quicker, is I get crankier faster and quicker out of frustration.
I've talked a lot about being in the moment and allowing things to flow.  It's critical to life.  In the moment is where all the love and lessons are.  Allowing life to flow, allows all the good to come to us.  We know what to do to make our life happen in the best possible ways.

Challenge of the week...to stop forcing things to happen in life.  Allow what happens to happen when it to happens and see what happens.  Please don't induce labor in your life. (The only exception is if you are endangering yourself or other.)

Until next week...create to feel great!
17 projects complete ! 45 to go!


For this week's project I tried my hand at a mixed media collage.  The theme...love.

Week Over

This was an intense week for all of Human Kind.  I'm more and more convinced that this Campaign still is needed and has value.
My boss was in Boston, for his work with Runner's World, and was about a 1/4 mile from the finishing line.  When he returned to the office on Wednesday, his only about the events was, "There are more good guys than bad guys in the world."  He witnessed first hand all the strength and courage of people helping people.
It reminded us both of a Mr. Rogers quote

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers -- so many caring people in this world." -- Mr. Rogers

 I think that says it all for this week.

Until next week...create to feel great.

16 projects complete! 46 to go!

This week's project is an apron fit for a Queen.

I Wonder

Over the time I've been focusing and writing this blog I've come to really understand that if I put forth positive energy and intentions, guess what comes back to me?  Positive stuff.  Negative energy and intentions set out in my thoughts, words and deeds will also reap negative stuff.
So simple.  Really a duh moment.  Yet how often do we struggle and wonder why negative stuff just keeps happening?  When positive stuff happens we usually don't question why it happened, we are either too busy celebrating that it happened or figuring out a way to make the good stuff go away.
I have often heard the saying that goes, "You can't afford the price of a negative thought."  It's true.
Negativity is "expensive".  On the other hand the positive is free and easy.  So why do so many of us stay away from something that is free, easy and in large available quantities?  Could it be another old saying "if it is too good to be true, it probably is?"  I think that saying really only needs to apply to buying a used car, informerials on TV, fad diets and get rich quick emails.
And really if we begin and learn to focus on positive, life becomes a flow.  And easy.
I will say, it is
challenging to shift those negative thoughts.  They don't go away quickly.  Yet they do go away with awareness and a focus on positive. 
Here's my tip of the week for a quick shift.  Whenever I'm in a situation or thought process that is negative, I play the "I wonder" game.   I simple ask myself "I wonder... (fill in the blank)?"  I wonder how I can change my thoughts?  I wonder what I can do to move into the positive?  I wonder how I can be more positive?  I wonder why I'm feeling...angry, scared, unsure, worried (or whatever)?
Try it.  See if this doesn't help you move from whatever negative stuff your dealing with to a clear place where you can move forward and begin to create something bright and wonderful for yourself.

Until next week...create to feel great!
15 projects complete! 47 to go!

This week's project is a little case to hold cable knitting needles and the cable needle ring I made last week.  I gave to a friend for her birthday, as she knits beautiful projects and is focusing on cable right now as well.

Smart and Wise

My husband, Broadside, says that MickeyGrrrl is the most stubborn cat he knows.

I think it has served her life in a lot of ways.  I think her stubbornness has kept her alive.  She's also a very smart and wise cat.  She knows when to stand her ground.  She knows her boundaries and she knows what she wants and doesn't want.  She makes very smart and wise choices.  I don't see her as stubborn. I see her as making smart and wise choices.
For me being stubborn is about being right no matter what.  This blindness usually gets in our way for making smart and wise choices that serve our best life and best self.  Stubbornness often is a cover for fear.  We stubbornly cling to something out of fear that if we let it go, then what.
The "then what" is we just might need to make a smart and wise choice.  We may have to give up being right.  We may have to change something. It just might serve us better to be open.  Being stubborn is approaching life closed down.
I know this personally in my life.  I see it everyday around me.  It makes for unhappiness. It causes fights with others.  Depression, anger and sadness.On a physical level it causes illness and tightness in the body.
Being present for making smart and wise choices, is very liberating and frees us.  It is the ultimate feeling of having our face in  warm sun and breeze blowing softly as we float down a calm river.  I don't know about you but I love that feeling.  I love it more than stubbornly holding on to ideas, beliefs, ways of being that are not serving me and getting me toward that feeling in my life.

Are there parts of you life that you are stubbornly holding onto, just because, and they are no longer serving you?

Until next week...create to feel great!

14 projects complete! 48 to go!

This week's project is what I'm calling a cable needle ring.  I love to knit.  I love to knit cable stitches.
The stitch uses a special needle.  A needle that I want to keep handy, but I never know where to put it.  This handy little ring keeps the ring out of the way, and yet I always know where it is.  Sweet!