Couldn't resist

After seeing Sophie's post, I couldn't resist knowing what inanimate object I am! I'm happy to know that I am malleable and easily adaptable to new situations. It seems there may be lots of new situations coming my way.


Oooh! Look at me! I'm a sock!


Random Object Quiz
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Well, I didn't do my Chapter 9 check-in. I did read through the chapter, but didn't feel that I had any blocks or creative U-turns. I plan to revisit this chapter in the future. I'm still consistently doing my morning pages 7 out of 7 days. And artist dates, well, I can't say that I did anything specific. Right now having time to work on any art is just the medicine I need, and I've managed to squeeze some in. I identified with a number of points Jane Ann brought up in her check-in as well as Suze's comments. I would have to say that having to do this book in a group has made me more accountable. Had I just decided to buy/read it I doubt I would have stuck with it as long or participated as much in the actual doing! I'm going to move on to Chapter 10, but there are likely a number of chapters I will be revisiting sometime in the future.

The computer ate my blogwork!

I posted this all once already! Arrgghhh! Anyway I guess we're on a Monday snow schedule. Last week we also had a bit of a blizzard on Monday. Yesterday it was 70 degrees, today, it snowed. We can sure use the moisture, but I could do without the extremes.

Chapter 8 Check-In

I did my morning pages 7 out of 7. I find them beneficial, though most of the time without tangible evidence of this.

This chapter didn't seem to be so much about time management in concrete terms, but the best advice I took from it is Filling the Form. I have a bad habit of not taking the smallest step, and therefore making the journey, unless I am assured that I can complete it. The journey is reward enough. I need to take the smallest of steps everyday, and before I know it, I will have completed something. Frequently I don't begin a task unless I can work until I finish, and so I'm guilty of putting obstacles in my own way...like I need to clean up, be caught up with everything else before I reward myself with creative work. And I know that without a creative outlet, I'm not the best of company!

I had written so much more, but this will have to do for now. I'm cooking dinner, but I did make time and get some sewing in today. I didn't finish quilting what I was working on, but I'm that much closer to being done!

Fours for me too

Four jobs you've had: medical assistant in a pediatric practice--and I still had kids, operating room technician, private scrub nurse for plastic surgeon, and motel owner/operator.

Four movies you could watch over and over: The Birdcage always cracks me up, Amelie for just the visual, Off the Map, Raiders of the Lost Ark, (only four?), E.T., Close Encounters, Star Wars...

Four places you've lived: Aschaffenburg, Germany; Sao Paulo, Brasil; Dobbs Ferry, NY; Beverly Hills, CA.

Four TV shows you love to watch: Lost, Grey's Anatomy, ER, and I just discovered two new shows, Bones and House

Four Places You've Been on Vacation: LA and TX Gulf coasts, Amsterdam, Paris, Genoa--we covered a lot of Europe the year we lived there.

Four Websites You Visit Every Day: About.com quilting forum, gmail, Route 66 News, bloglines and wherever that leads me.

Four Of Your Favorite Foods: Thai shrimp fried rice, authentic Italian anything, authentic Brazilian rice, beans, and a fried egg, Belgian chocolate

Four Places You'd Rather Be: in my bedroom sewing, in Brazil birdwatching, visiting my friend Rosie in Hawaii where she lives and I've never been, in a cafe in France.

Four Albums you can't live without: I like so many different kinds of music...but let's see right now I'm wearing out Coldplay X&Y if it were an album instead of a CD, Joni Mitchell's Miles of Aisles is always good, Allison Kraus and Union Station Live, and Keane.

Four People you'll pass this on to: Whoever hasn't done this yet in the Journal Quilts Challengers

Chapter 7 Check-in

I felt I needed this chapter, and may return to it when I
forget the lessons in it. (I'm older now, and expect to forget more!) Oh perfectionism...I was taught the other crafts in my life, counted cross-stitch, crochet, etc. by the same dictators that strictly mandate coloring inside the lines. I learned their lessons well, and was probably harsher on my work than they could ever be. I undid countless stitches, because I didn't have it exactly right, and that attitude followed into quilting, where I expected perfection without the learning curve! I'm learning to be kinder to my artist child. And yes, it is much easier not to risk trying than to try and fail or worse yet: "I'll look like an idiot." Aging has helped me be okay with appearing the idiot, as my children will attest to!

Like Sophie, I am more envious of other's situations. I so long to have my own home again, one that is not a public venue. I envy those who are already retired, as that is my goal now, though I know I am the envy of those that have 9-5 lives.

I did morning pages 6 out of 7 days. This is probably a long lasting habit. It was easy on vacation since I didn't have online access, and really needed to fill my early morning time with something.

Socks! A couple of years ago I treated myself when ordering some fabric online to a pair of Laurel Burch socks. I wore them for no reason at all. I still need to write my mantra and place it where I can easily remind myself of it. Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong. I have heretofore subscribed to the notion that being hard on myself was the key--and though it didn't work, it only reinforced my resolve to be harder still. Duh! Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!

I had many artist dates. Walking on the beach picking up treasures has got to be one of my favorite pastimes! I have many trinkets to make into a windchime. Instead of buying a pair of socks, I treated myself to another pair of Crocs, which were on sale at a shop on the Strand in Galveston. Last summer I bought a pair of Airwalks which though they looked similar were a pale, cheaper version of my original Crocs. My feet need all the kindness I can afford to give them. I still want to make a collage!

My Christmas cactus is still going strong and has been blooming since Thanksgiving. Unlike my artist child which still needs coddling, it thrives with neglect. Of course in the summer, I can't get away with not watering my plants for the extended periods I do in the winter. Happy New Year everyone! 

Benign neglect

Boy, it's been a long time since I've blogged. We had company for Christmas and it was just busy, busy. Then as soon as they left we took off in our camper for the TX Gulf Coast. I forgot to water my plants for some time before I left and then was gone 10 days. They survived, as I tend to favor succulents, and this one thrived from the benign neglect by sending up a flower spike.

We came home to balmy weather in the 70s which was great since there was a lot of unloading and laundry to take care of. Then yesterday we had a blizzard! I'm not complaining about the much needed moisture, but wish our weather pendulum didn't have to swing to such extremes. The heat is on this morning, and besides baking a chicken tonight for dinner, I'm already contemplating what else to bake to warm it up in here.

I managed to do morning pages throughout most of our break. I enjoy them, and I feel they really do help me purge things I really don't need to drag around with me all day. Need to still do my Chapter 7 check-in and then get busy on my Journal Quilt. Had soooo many ideas that I didn't commit to paper, and now where have they gone? 

Artist date

Well, I finally made it out of town, and got a bit of thrift store shopping done. I found this irristible elephant which of course I thought should be less than the $1.99 price tag. My artist child prevailed, and I'm so happy because I really like him.

I also found a 100% wool coat from Austria. I had decided I had plenty enough wool to play with, but at $1.50, I couldn't resist. My husband also helped me treat myself to a more expensive new pair of glasses which were part necessity, part luxury.

So rather than waste more time on the computer, which I'm really trying to limit, I'm off to play with my stuff. 

Chapter 6 Check-In

So another week gone! Time to check-in again. This past week, I missed doing morning pages one morning, and that was today. I also slept in past my usual 5 a.m. wake-up. I'm woefully behind on doing all the chapter tasks as well. I'm usually picking up stones, so that wasn't much of a stretch. And I did bake something...more than once. I cleaned my sewing space, and then messed it up again. I'm in the midst of playing with my new passion--felted wool.
Besides lasagne, the extreme cold also sent me baking muffins, potatoes, and a pork roast. The weather finally improved, but only after freezing our laundry room, and a couple of the motel bathrooms. Fortunately it all thawed out without major incident or repair.

I've managed to stay fairly productive, despite the arthritis in my hands rebelling against the cold. No actual artist date this week again. I feel that just taking the time to work with my "stuff" is enough. Tucumcari is rather lean in terms of places for artist dates, even though we have two dollar stores. Perhaps in the coming week, I'll get out of town a bit. I've got to finish some projects for Christmas.

Hope everyone will still keep in touch via their blogs, so we don't lose our newly found momentum. 

Bake something!

Like Pat, I connected with Chapter 6. It seems that up until Chapter 5, I have been going through the motions with the exercises, but haven't really felt like I was accomplishing very much. Now I feel like it has more meaning for me. Funny how differently it goes for each of us. I suspect that we're all in different places in our lives, and perhaps we can only absorb a certain amount of it. It would explain why people seem able to do the work more than once.

Since New Mexico is being gripped by the extreme cold temperatures usually reserved for more northern climates, I thought I'd do Task #4 and bake something. I decided on lasagne, making the noodles out of the fresh spinach I had bought yesterday. I decided it was a very holiday dish...green noodles with red sauce, and white cheese! If that isn't a bit of synchronicity... I don't know but I think a lot of the cooking I do is capital-A art. Cooking has been a creative outlet for me when I didn't have time for other expressions of creativity. We always had to eat! 

Week 5 Check-in

Well, with the previous posting I did, I forgot all about checking in. It was a good week. I did morning pages 7 out of 7 days. I have a rhythm for my morning now. I feel they do help clear the way for positive thinking.

I can't say that I did anything that qualified as an artist date. I didn't schedule anything. Well I did spend a good deal of time researching longarm quilting machines and reading up on them. But then that leads me to my task...

Honestly, my favorite creative block is...the internet. This computer is a powerful tool that has the capacity to suck me in whole. I can lose myself for hours, possibly days. I sit here hour after hour under the guise of research...or just looking for ideas. I think that computer deprivation would have been a much better task (punishment?) for me. But because of this awareness (and public confession) I'm going to limit my time on here. I generally have 3 hours in the early morning when I'm doing all my essential computer stuff. I'm going to really try to limit myself to that time, and then perhaps an hour in the evening. I don't need to sit down and check mail, or anything else periodically throughout the day. The cartoon is my attempt at illustrating indulging.

I did do some sewing and have added a few things out in our lobby for sale, but I know I could have been much more productive. And so in keeping with my new resolve, I'm off to sew more.

My favorite chapter

I must admit that Chapter 5 of the Artist's Way is my favorite chapter thus far. I so identified with its message that I had my husband read it. He is participating in this process with me as I draw him in to discuss a lot of the book. I didn't see it at all like Tracey.

I believe Julia Cameron sums it all up with the first sentence in the chapter: One of the chief barriers to accepting God's generosity is our limited notion of what we are in fact able to accomplish. This hardly implies that we simply pray for whatever material things we want and presto we will get them. In my life this thinking translates to being open, to taking off the blinders and seeing the immense possibility that is available to all of us. We tend to back ourselves into a corner, and then see no other avenues or possibilities for ourselves. If anything I pray for enlightenment, for being able to see a wider range of options. It sounds deceptively easy, but time and again, I have to remind myself that there is not just one option, one correct answer, or only one way to do something.

For whatever reason, whatever events shaped us to be the person we find at this moment of reflection, we have a tendency not to believe that there is abundance, and that we can tap into it. The other thing that happens frequently, or at least it does to me, is that because we have such a narrow vision, we mistakenly pick a course and try obstinately to follow it even though we are given many clues that tell us it isn't the way. I'm sure you've had days where everything just flows...the universe is aligned for you, and you can do no wrong. And then, there are the days where nothing goes right, when you think you should just hide, and wait for a new dawn. Another piece of sage advice from this chapter: We must learn to let the flow manifest itself where it will--not where we will it.

Of course a lot of what I've read applies to where I find myself at this moment in my life. We own a historic motel, and after events earlier this year in which we moved to MN to care for an ill relative, we shut it down and put it up for sale. This wasn't the first time we had it listed, and after almost a year of being on the market, it seems we are no closer to selling it. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a bad gig. I have four months in the winter when it is very slow and allows me to pursue my hobbies and passions. We returned late in August and reopened it. We've decided to take it off the market at the end of the year, and make the best of it here. I'm frequently reminded that it isn't an all or nothing life, that I can pursue some of my dreams concurrently with owning and operating this business. I realize that maybe there are better or at least different things in store for me here still, things that with my narrow vision I am incapable of imagining, and I shouldn't see not selling as defeat. And here is my Wish List Exercise:

1. I wish the motel would sell. (I know...but I still would like to sell it.)
2. I wish I could lose 50 pounds. (Of course that would fix everything...NOT!)
3. I wish I would buy the longarm.
4. I wish I would make better use of my time.
5. I wish I lived somewhere more rural.
6. I wish the wind would stop blowing.
7. I wish the decorating was all done for the holidays.
8. I wish I already had the longarm.
9. I wish for good health.
10. I wish I didn't worry about spending money.
11. I wish my mom was still alive.
12. I wish I could dance with abandon. (and that it didn't need to include alcohol)
13. I wish the mailman would bring me something besides ads and bills.
14. I wish the day would freeze at the moment of the most spectacular sunrise.
15. I wish I didn't have to cook some days. (but there is such a lack of alternatives in this town)
16. I wish I was still young in body.
17. I wish I could really embrace abundance.
18. I wish I didn't feel so restless for a change.
19. I most especially wish for inner peace.