Happy salutations, Two-Thousand-Twelve!
It's really quite nice to meet you and your nice, clean slate of possibilities. I would like to dirty up your spotless surface with my mish mash of goals for the next 3 to the 6 to the 5. On this list I shall include the important but predictable resolutions such as being a better wife and mother, continue leading a healthy lifestyle, self discovery, getting organized, more balance, more flossing, more patience and more random acts of kindness.
I have recently acquired a few used and abused goodies to assist me in some of my more challenging New Year's Rezzers:
Rez #1) Becoming a better decision maker with help from Magic 8 Ball.
I've been a lady-in-waiting to find Mr. Right Magic 8 Ball. I refused to buy a new one because I knew I'd run into him at some point and I burst into a joy explosion when I find something that is on my wish list while on the vintage hunt. Going to Mass Production Plastic Landfill Mart and grabbing it from the toy shelf is so not the same. I was at a favorite thrift recently and saw some creepy ceramic pixies for the shop. As the evil elves and I were having our stare-down, the corner of my eye saw him:
My two blue pupils locked with his single black and white pupil and I cradled his round husky body gently. So what if he's got a bit of a belly. The holidays just happened, haven't we all gotten a little rounder? With a magic wink, he told me it was love at first sight. After all, he loves a girl who is choice challenged, a great belcher, AND loves scuffed up goods at pennywise prices. He proceeded to tell me his divine purpose in this lifetime was to help me with decision making. I asked him if we'd be together forever, and he replied, "It is certain."
I am a horrid decision maker. I bolded that because it's not just horrid, it's horrid. Case in point: I will agonize over the decision between 2 cans of tomatoes on the grocery store shelf. But this one has more sodium! This one has a better volume-to-price ratio! Is the inside of this can lined with PVCs? We don't even want to discuss how annoying it is ordering with me at a restaurant. Now I can consult with Ocho when I need to make critical decisions. Should I wear the black yoga pants with the hole or the black yoga pants without the hole? Should I paint the dining room teal blue? I do need a change in there, it's been a week since I've done something different. I don't do well with the staleness of a house that never changes. Ocho's also a good guy to have around when Hubby and I argue. We can ask for his opinion on whatever matter is in disagreement. Hubby doesn't know this, but Ocho usually sides with me because he likes my shake style, which is more rock-a-bye-baby than I'm-gonna-strangle-you, and he thrives on the music I play for him during the day. He's sort of like a plant that way.
Pretend Rez #2) Use every little ounce of time to my advantage without distraction.
Real Rez #2) Work on improving productivity and don't be so hard on myself when I waste 2 hours pinning on Pinterest.
I'm looking forward to improving productivity with my new friend in the Sweet Love Studio. Let me introduce you to Notorious Biggy Hourglass:
When I have a yucky-like-barf task at hand (anything business-ey, calling the cable company, photo editing, housework), I will flip Notorious Biggy Hourglass and I cannot do anything else during that hour. Not even an email check, because that leads to some link or another, which leads to youtube, then comes the drooling over Pinterest food porn. The next thing you know I'm flinging open the kitchen cupboards, there are crumbs everywhere and condiment slop on my black yoga pants with the hole. A regular old clock just wouldn't be the same. I enjoy seeing the sands getting sucked down through the glass and watching the time disappear in front of my eyes. Plus I totally dig having sand in my studio in the dead of Wiscosota winter.
Rez #3) Make more time to focus on creative projects.
Notorious Biggy will help with this one too. I want to find more days to flip him and give myself 1 hour of some form of non-job related creativity. The "Be Fly" inspiration board is the place where I started tacking up some of my creative ideas and drawings. I have some projects that have been lurking around in my mind which I'd like to work on this year and hoping by tacking up ideas where I can see them, it will help keep me on track, and maybe even finish something! I'm super awesome at not finishing things except for the leftover food on my kid's plates. I've always got all these great ideas but it's super hard for me to focus on one idea and follow through. (With the exception of Sweet Love Vintage, which was started on a whim and to my surprise is still here almost 3 years later!) I've learned that with every creative thing I've ever started, it has lead me to something new and different, and I grow right along with it. This used to scare me and I hated that I could never stick to one thing and go with it, but I have realized that living a creative life for me means learning, evolving, making mistakes, growing, expressing, and the desire to inspire others through humor and visual storytelling. My stories can come in the form of painting, decorating, photography, writing or drawing.
I've got some decorating projects I want to finish and I plan to keep plugging away on my little drawing art blog. I look forward to the creative path it leads me on. Instead of being fearful, I'm embracing the nervous excitement of the unknown and fully living my creative life by making more time for it, even if it's just one hour of sand through the hourglass at a time. You should consider getting your dirty paws on your very own Notorious Biggy and make some time to live creatively. Tell the story of who you are through a new hobby, cooking, making music, decorating your spaces, writing or simply get out the Crayolas and play. It's pure goodness for the soul, I promise.
Rez #4) Be more in the present reminded daily by Gramps Om.
I have a slight obsesh with 1960s Japanese posable dolls. Their huge eyeballs and long snake-like limbs excite me more than this nutcase. When I found Gramps the first thing I did was play with his freak-show-flexible bod and settled on a nice meditative om pose. A little reminder for me to slow down and breathe, let go of past events that don't serve me and not project worries of the future. Be grateful. Be present. Remember that this is right where I'm supposed to be. He will also remind me to meditate daily, something I want to do so badly. I try most days, as in today and yesterday. This article on 7 Ways Meditation Increases Creativity makes me want to prioritize it even more.
This fella has nothing to do with meditation, but you should know he makes me want to talk in "french accent voice". I am over the Parisienne moonlight giddy for mid century Dakin Dream Pets:
Le peu-peu skunk avec beret and moostaash is tres ador-a-bluh! J'adore big time! Moi wasted much time one soleil day on le ebay and la etsy searching for more ah-nee-mals to add to le collek-shee-own. Bonjour, majhor dee-strak-shee-own.
My quirky misfits will all gather on my newly installed shelf to the left of the inspiration board. Did I ever mention I live in an "I Spy" book? Let's play! I spy, with my little eye: A sunny bunny, conjoined elves, 39 alphabet letters, a real preserved baby duckling, one creepy doll head, a red fire hydrant, a ratty bed head, a rainbow colored army, 2 xylophones, Snow White and 6 dwarfs, a cross dressing bull, 2 wind-up chatter teeth, {this is fun!} a jovial alligator, 3 elephants, a bride and groom, a baby with no arms, 12 clown heads, 1 zebra, an albino deer, a boy named Butch, and 3 monster finger puppets. That is only a handful of what you can see in the pictures and I'm so grateful to have such a fun space to work in filled with things that are totally representational of who I am and what I love. If you aren't smitten with your workspace, please resolve to fill it with things that make you smile and inspire you daily.
As if I can fit any more characters in my studio, I had absolutely no choice but to make room for this furball:
A giant vintage Wile E. Coyote complete with furrowed brow and sinister grin. No way in the ACME factory was I going to let him get away. Now I will remain on the lookout for a jet pack and his nemesis. Meep meep!
I can't leave you without a peek at this living, breathing furball:
I thought I better clarify living and breathing, so you didn't think it was a disturbing piece of 19th century Victorian taxidermy. He goes by the name of Bogie and he is chillin' like a villain on the new-old 1970-something chair that sits in the corner waiting for a human or furry visitor. This book nook also doubles as a spot for me to sit and peruse my growing library of favorite books.
That about sums up my 2012 plan. I am going to do my best to make that clean slate of possibilities filthy with goodness this year.
My wish for you is to dirt-ify your clean slate with gratitude, lots of belly laughs, healthy living, happy thoughts, a creative life, and most importantly, {insert your big dreams here}.
Hey Ocho, can we make it happen?
And old Fords. I've been obsessed foreva and eva.
The flexibility rocks. I work on and off constantly. It does include nights and weekends but there's time off here and there and everywhere. Workin' 9-5 Dolly Parton style just isn't me.
I get to be on the fly. Every day is a new adventure! Sometimes the adventure is nothing more than a trip to the post office, lunch at school with a kid, and a spur of the moment decision to drive somewhere. Not sure where, maybe Jack's Junkyard. Shucks. Forgot to brush. Jack won't notice, he's missing molars.
