Gratitude Challenge: Day 20

Gratitude Challenge: Day 20:  Evidently today I need to be grateful for calendars because I obviously don’t know what day it is without one.  I just posted yesterday’s challenge which I thought was today’s. See what I mean.  I never have been good with dates.  I am in awe of those people who can remember what year it was when they moved into a certain house or went to work at a job.

At my age, (which I usually have to count backward to recall the exact number) I have to save my concentration and memory for less accessible things than dates on a calendar or numbers in a cell phone.  I am grateful I can at least find the calendar. 

Hugs,

Diana

 

 

Gratitude Challenge: Day 19

Gratitude Challenge Day 19:  I am grateful for the Internet.  Don’t laugh at my addiction.  I remember the first time I heard that screechy dial-up sound when my cousin’s computer connected to the Internet so my mom and I could send an email to Russia to my brother who was living over there.

It was very expensive to send mail to him and if you sent a care package, (even more expensive) you were almost guaranteed that he would not get it as you sent it.  So we tried email. Oh my!  I typed in my pre-written letter and a few days later he was able to get to a computer at the university where he was studying and send a reply. 

I was forever more hooked on the Internet.  And look at us now.  I know it has changed our lives in both positive and negative ways and I won’t bore you with my views but I will bore you with one more story.

When the movie, The Internship, came out my husband and I went because it was about two not-so-clever dudes getting an internship at Google.  Everything was going along fine until the scene where the not-so-clever dudes show up at the Googleplex in Mountain View California.  I have been to Mountain View, so I was looking for landmarks I might know until the Googleplex showed up and then out of nowhere, I burst into tears.  I couldn’t stop sobbing for the longest time.  My long-suffering sweet husband looked over at me in shock. 

What I was finally able to tell him, something I didn’t even know myself until that moment, was that I was distraught and sad because I realized that I would never work for Google - my time had passed.  I think about how I love technology even though it makes me want to pull my hair out, working for Google was the face ofwhat I thought might still be ahead of me and the tears were shed because I couldn't even believe my fantasy anymore.

Anyway, I guess I will have to remain satisfied to be a techie wanna-be.  I am still grateful for the Internet making the world smaller.  It is a wonderful and dangerous thing and I am so grateful that I was around when it was invented.

Hugs,

Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 18

Gratitude Challenge: Day 18   I am grateful for all the things I have not said.  I know that there are surely people somewhere whose mouth never gets them into trouble.  I unfortunately do not own one of those models.

I have had my share of instances when I wished I had refrained from sharing the first thought that popped into my head because once the words are out there, it’s so hard to take them back. But I have to tell you, there is a world of advice that I have not given, emails written and not sent, or lies I could have told but didn’t.  What I am most grateful for are the comments and responses I want badly to write on Facebook but don’t.

Don’t get me wrong.  I still stick my foot in my mouth on a regular basis and have to apologize often.  I know I am not alone in this because celebrities, politicians, and public figures do it all the time.

In the lifelong process of learning discernment, I have noticed a flaw and it is this:  You don’t get credit for what you don’t say.  There is no chorus of angels that sings openly because you kept your mouth shut.  No one ever notices.  Nobody pats you on the back.

Never do I hear my internal critic say:  “Atta Girl, Diana, I’d like to applaud your restraint.”  My critic beats me up because I didn’t let that rude person have it, but in this day and age there are people who will shoot you if you shoot off your mouth.

So if you are like me and work desperately hard to keep your unsolicited thoughts, opinions, and advice to yourself in spite of the temptation to share it with the people out there who need it the most, but will appreciate it the least, let me be the first to publicly give you credit, kudos, and applause for what you don’t say!  

Hugs,

Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 17

Gratitude Challenge Day 17:  I am grateful for my hands.  I use them to express myself through making things.  A while back I injured my left hand by slamming it in a door and immediately a big egg-shaped knot popped up on it.  It was very tender, painful and bruised for a long time.  Fortunately I could still type and paint and use it for crafty goodness, and it didn’t seem to interrupt the dish washing one bit.

However, the thing that jolted me more than anything else was when my husband and I were at the movies and we were going to hold hands; I couldn’t stand the pain and that made me sad that I couldn’t connect through simple gentle touch.

I don’t ever want to take my hands for granted.  I ask a lot of them.  Paint a straight line. Tie this knot.  Thread that needle.  Pet a kitty.  Tend to a loved one.

I would be devastated to lose the use of my hands.

Hugs, Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 16

Gratitude challenge Day 16: I am most humbly grateful for a peaceful, restorative good night's sleep.

Here are a few quotes about sleep:

  • I'm so good at sleeping, I can do it with my eyes closed.
  • Sleep is my drug, my bed is my dealer, and my alarm clock is the police.
  • Dear Sleep, I know we had problems when I was younger, but I love you now.
  • I want to sleep but my brain won't stop talking to itself.
  • Day is done, night has come.  Today is gone, what's done is done.  Embrace your dreams through the night, tomorrow comes with a whole new light.

Here's wishing you some good zzzzz's.

Hugs, Diana

 

Gratitude Challenge: Day 14 and Day 15

Gratitude challenge Day 14: When I went to bed last night, I knew I had not posted my gratitude for the day. I think I was having a hard time sharing my gratitude when so many are suffering, and I'm not just referring to Paris, but suffering all over the world. How can I say publicly that I am grateful that I didn't lose my loved ones, my family isn't struggling in a refugee camp, or that we aren't going to miss a meal today, when that is what I was feeling.

When I compare my troubles to many others, I have none.  My aches and pains become petty.  My aggravations become irrelevant.  My goals in life seem too grand. 

I am sad that the world is cruel and that there are horrible people who do horrible things to others.  Maybe that is where I can find my gratitude.  I am not one of those horrible people who is filled with hate, lack of judgment or open mindedness, and intolerance.

I am grateful that I don’t wake up every day with a need to impose my beliefs on others and a need to hurt you, murder you or denigrate you if you don’t believe my way.  I am not that person.

That is my gratitude for Day 14 and for today Day 15.

Gratitude Challenge: Day 11

Gratitude Challenge Day 11:

I am grateful for the people who have served our country past, present and future.   If you are a veteran, thank you for your sacrifices and for the ones made by your family. 

I am not proud of how veterans are treated in this country especially when it comes to medical care and treatment for PTSD or in benefits for family members.

I think salaries are skewed for the military and there is so much unfairness in the system that Congress needs to live on your salaries for a while and things would change.

I can’t imagine how hard it must be to do the jobs that you have done, but I am glad that you were willing to do it and I appreciate you for it.

Respectfully,

Diana

Day 10 Gratitude Challenge

I am grateful for coffee. The kind I like best is home-brewed, smoking-hot, loaded with waaaaay too much dollar store creamer in a cup my mom bought for me at the Salvation Army for a quarter.  But I’ll have what you’re having too.

I am grateful that my sweet husband gets the coffee “plug-in ready” before we go to bed.  Rod is one of those people who sleepwalks for the first hour he is “awake.”  I have seen him make coffee in this fugue state and it’s not a good idea.

My mother’s coffee pot is a 1970’s electric Corning Ware percolator that takes 16 minutes of chugging, snorting, and straining alchemy to turn coffee grounds into coffee gold. 

Things you can do while waiting for your first cup:  Feed cats in three places, wash the after dinner dishes from dessert and snacks from the night before, check your email, clean up cat puke so your mother won’t see, change into your day clothes, charge your phone, refill the creamer container or you can just lean against the counter and curse the pot repeatedly for sixteen minutes. Either way, there is no rushing perfection.

We may have one of the only mug trees left in America.  This little treasure holds 6 cups which doesn’t make a dent in our cup population, but makes it handy to see if you brought your cup in from out in the yard while you were drinking coffee and communing with nature. 

When you plug in the coffee pot, you have to strategically place your arm between this tower of pottery and the knife block.  If you’re sleepwalking, your arm won’t fit or go quietly.

As grateful as I am for coffee, the best part of waking up is not the coffee but who I get to drink it with.  Come on over and I’ll make a pot. 

Hugs, Diana

 

Gratitude Challenge Update

Gratitude challenge Day 7:

There was nothing finer than spending this cool, rainy day in my comfort zone ; sweat pants, fuzzy socks and a nap. Grateful for down time.

Gratitude challenge Day 8: 

I am grateful that I don’t like professional sports any more and I don’t have to pretend that I do.  I only like the Super Bowl for the snacks.

Gratitude challenge Day 9:

 I am grateful to be the constant recipient of my mother's delicious cooking. Chances are if you have been around my mother she has fed you something good to eat. Yesterday it was strawberry pie. Tonight it was broccoli cheese soup. She enjoys trying out new recipes, but she seldom follows it exactly after the first time.

She also leaps buildings in a single bound. I love your cooking, Mom, but I love you even more.


Gratitude Challenge: Day 6

I am grateful for books; the libraries where you can borrow them for free; the book stores where you can pay to own them and for a place to read one in peace.

The first time I went into the downtown Houston library I had my version of a Gomer Pyle moment while gawking at the sheer number of available books.  Gawwwleee and Shazam.  The astonishing thing is that they trusted me enough to allow me to take out a stack of books I could barely tote.

I love to listen to audio books while I paint.  Listening to a story helps me ignore the critic inside my head and can help me to keep working longer.  If you don’t know about Overdrive and One-Click Digital, you should.  They are library services that allow you to check out books and audio books to be read on your Kindle or in the browser of your computer for only the cost of a library card.

Downsizing was hard when we moved from Houston to Lufkin and I grieved a long time the loss of things that I held dear.  Thankfully I got to keep the husband, the cats, and the books. 

Cheering you artfully on,

Diana

 

New Gratitude Journal

I found this small Websters' New Compact Dictionary at Treasure Hounds in Lufkin yesterday and I decided to create a new gratitude journal.  You can never have too much gratitude.  As I understand it, just thinking about what you are grateful for can cause happiness.  Works for me.

I was particularly happy when I found this unbleached waxed paper in the kitchen last night.  The brownish color looks like the paper is old and went through some event to age it beautifully.  You can see it sticking out of the pages in the last photo.  I use waxed paper to keep in between the pages while I'm using glue to keep it from going where it doesn't belong.

I like using these kinds of napkins for images.  It's easy to just slop on some decoupage glue underneath and on top of the napkin and the transparency allows what's underneath to show through.

I went through the book and gently tore out every other page so that when I add images back into the book, it doesn't get too bulky and thick.  Then I glued two pages together to make them thicker so they become a better support for the mixed media I will use.

I was ambitious when I started this journal, thinking I would try to do a spread every day to illustrate my gratitude but I can realistically see this won't happen.  Not that I'm not grateful, you understand.

I am already getting a case of holiday dread.  My mom went to a charity silent auction the other day and bought some outdoor ornaments that are really nice and cute, but they were in the living room floor for a day before we packed them in a box to be dragged out later.  We still have Halloween pumpkins on the porch that need to be turned into Thanksgiving Harvest Pumpkins and later into pumpkin pies.  Sigh.

I would be grateful for a long vacation where massages and adult beverages were celebrated and the only decoration I had to think about was what designs I wanted on my manicured toes.

Cheering you artfully on,

Diana

Gratitude Challenge

Gratitude Challenge

Day 1: I am grateful for the rain and that we traveled safely home in spite of it.
Day 2: I am grateful for my friends near and far who love me just as I am.
Day 3: I am grateful that I get to work at home doing what I love surrounded by people I love.

Day 4: Gratitude challenge Day 4: I am grateful for my glasses. A few months ago I graduated from the maximum reading glasses to "real" glasses. I went to Houston so that I could get a get a good buy at a place there. They made me a pair of glasses and sunglasses with bifocals. It was a spiritual experience to see in a new way.

Before I left town, I stopped back by there to get the frames adjusted to fit a little better. By the time I got home I wished I had left well enough alone. They never fit again as well and after I got through screwing around with trying to adjust them myself, I couldn't wear them at all. Back to my reading glasses except when I could use my sunglasses.

We went to Houston this past weekend and I took my glasses back. The kind lady there adjusted and adjusted them to no avail, then looked up my prescription and found that when I had them adjusted the second time, the technician switched the right and left lens in the frames accidentally! No wonder I couldn't see!!! I am also grateful to her that she told me the truth. I am so glad to see without squinting or guessing.

See you tomorrow!

Cheering you artfully on,

Diana

Happy Halloweenie!

Hello My Pretties,

  • Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. 
  • Everything's better with a little magic.
  • The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
  • Let's make a little magic before the night is through.

Here's wishing you all treats and no tricks!

Day is over, night has come.  Today is gone, what's done is done.  Embrace your dreams, through the night. Tomorrow comes with a whole new light!

Cheering You Artfully On,

Diana

Drum Roll for the Quilt Show!

International Quilt Festival Houston 2015

October 29-November 1, 2015
George R. Brown Convention Center
Houston, Texas

Hours
Wednesday (Preview Night): 7 p.m.-10 p.m. (general public)
Thurs., Fri., & Sat.: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Sun.: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Daily Admission
$12 adults/$9 seniors & students
Children 10 and under free
$42 Full Show pass (includes Preview Night)

Drum Roll for the Quilt Show!


As long as I can remember the Houston International Quilt Festival has occurred at the end of October which allows us participants to Trick or Treat in The Colorful (if temporary) Land of Quilts.  If the evil rule-makers would lighten up, we could all wear roller skates under our costumes and strap a pillow to our behinds while we plundered and pillaged the vendor aisles.

When our pocket books played tricks on us and refused to be forth-coming with any more cash we could settle down with our pillows among the quilts for a nap.  Wouldn’t that be a treat?

Instead of that pleasant fantasy here are some tips that will help you through if you decide to make the trip.  Whatever you do make the trip!

For first timers:

Layer your clothing.  You never know what Houston weather will throw at you.  Wear comfortable shoes and bring pain meds if you got ‘em. 

Raid the couch cushions.   I don’t care if you never wave a stitch at a quilt or piece of fabric; there will be something you can spend your money on at this event.  Just sayin’.

If you hate long lunch lines, brown bag it.  If you have a small bladder, plan ahead because there are lots of women just like you.  If you grow impatient with your shopping partner, consider splitting up and meeting somewhere at a certain time; too much time can be wasted on a heard of gawkers meandering down the aisle.

For seasoned attendees: 

You’re a big girl.  You know that the quilt festival is the ultimate creative treat and that escaping the show without too many credit card receipts is the hardest trick.

P.S.  And the quilts are breath taking, heart breakingly beautiful, and a testament to brilliance and creativity, predominately made by women.  Expect to be inspired and your creativity to be energized.

Cheering You Artfully On,

Diana



Happy Museday 10-27-2015

Are you a fan of Halloween? Do you enjoy the scary parts? There are people who get their kicks from the adrenaline rush of fear.  Not me

I love Halloween but I don’t like being afraid.  I prefer the sugar rush from all the candy, thank you very much.

Being afraid of walking down a dark alley at night is self preservation.  Being afraid of doing something connected to your creativity can feel like that too.

scaredy_cat_1500.jpg

Here are 3 tips to help you unmask your fears so you can energize your creativity.

1. Break whatever you are afraid of into tiny pieces and just focus on what you can do for a limited amount of time.  If you are afraid of the blank page in a new journal, flip over to the middle or the back and draw a one inch square.  Tell yourself you only have to do something in that square for two minutes. Rinse and repeat.   Focusing allows you to get past the “big picture” fear and make it more manageable.  It also leads us to the next tip.

2. Confidence building is fear-busting.  If you are afraid your skills aren’t good enough, take a class, practice, watch videos on You Tube, read a how-to book.  Skill building is a necessity of any art.  Treating your creativity as a priority strengthens resolve, makes your art more valuable and sends a message to both external and internal critics that you take your art practice seriously.

Our internal critics try to make us believe that we should be born knowing how to do things.  If we are so creative, why don’t we how to mix paint intuitively? 

3. It is important to begin to recognize the spooky lies we have rattling around in the closet of our mind.  Fear is Blockhead’s (the name of my internal critic) weapon of choice to keep us from being who we really are doing what we really love to do. 

When Blockhead says you will be ridiculed if you share your work to a Facebook group, check it out so you know the truth.  Are others routinely ridiculed?  The artist groups I belong to on Facebook are very supportive and encouraging.  If you can’t decide if what Blockhead says is true, ask a trusted friend.  (Hint): If Blockhead is whispering in your ear, he is usually lying.

I hope these tips will help you energize your creativity and overcome your fears.  Save the scary stuff for Halloween.

Cheering You Artfully On,

Diana

Happy MuesDay 10-20-2015

Me: Hello, is this my muse?

Muse: Who is this?  And how did you get this number?

Me: It’s me, Diana, you know, the artist and lazy part-time blogger.

Muse: You’re going to have to be more specific.  There’s a lot of you.  Have you heard of the Internet?

Me: Sure.  How do you think I got your number?  I’m the one from Energize Your Creativity.

Muse: Oh, it’s you.  What do you want?

Me: Some splendid ideas for starters.  I’m a little short in the idea department. 

Muse: What are you working on?

Me: Oh, I’m in between projects right now.  I’m waiting for inspiration to strike.  Isn’t that where you come in?

Muse: OK, invent something that will help me screen my calls.

Me: That’s already been invented.  It’s called, caller ID.

Muse:  Marvelous, where do I get it? 

Me: If I tell you are you going to block me?

Muse: No, it’s against the Muse Code of Ethics.  Now I really must go.  Taylor Swift just blew through another relationship and is about to pick up a pen.

Me: You’re Taylor Swift’s Muse?  I have the same Muse as Taylor Swift?

Muse: You have the same muse as a lot of people.  Muses have an eternal abundance of ideas, inspiration, and creativity to share with a world of people.  I have a very busy schedule. Why give out great ideas to people who don’t do anything with them?  It’s just more rewarding to deliver inspiration up to someone who is part-way there.  If you don’t show up, then why should I?

Me:  I dunno.  I just know you’re hard to get in touch with sometime.

Muse: Wait until I get that caller ID.

Me:  Hey! A dial tone is not inspirational!

Well you heard it here.  You gotta meet you muse part-way, even if it's just a tiny step.  I guess I better start stepping up.

Cheering You Artfully On,

Diana

Halloween is Creeping Nearer

Halloween is creeping up on me this year.  My broomstick needs a tune-up; my crop of pumpkins and candy corn has wilted in the heat (It was 98 degrees here today!) and I haven't stirred up a batch of witches brew since last year. 

What is wrong with me?

Last year, I made these cute little Halloween books, we decorated the front porch with a spider web and big plastic spiders.

We saved milk jugs for weeks and weeks so I could paint ghost faces on them.  We cut holes in the back to enable us to insert a battery operated tea light so the ghost was lit up from inside.  They were cute.  My poor husband would go turn them all on at dark and then have to go out and turn them all off before bed time.  He is my hero.

Anyway, none of that has happened yet around here and I think it is all to blame on the weather.  Nobody wants to do anything outside when there is a heat-wave in mid-October. 

Here are some of the tags I made for my little spell books you are welcome to use however you like.

Don't make me get the flying monkeys.jpg

Well, My Pretties!  I hope you are feeling the spirit more than me.  We need Mother Nature to drag her cold front through this part of the country so we know it is time for Halloween.  And I need to get out of these flip flops and find my pointy shoes and hat.

Cheering You Artfully On,

Diana