Friday, April 6, 2012

My Very Short Spring Break


I meant to take several days off work but that didn't happen. However, without having all the evening activities this week, it still feels like a vacation. I've had so much more time at home to cook, organize and paint and now I have three days off in a row! I do have to clean and cook for Easter, but other than that, nothing on the agenda. Yea!

I may sign up for the new 21 secrets this weekend. I'm ready for new projects. I finally finished my 2011 art journal. I now know better than to put a year on the cover.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Spring Renewal


While things are coming to life around here finally, maybe my blog will too?

Thankfully, art has not been dormant in my life, only the blogging aspect. Things I'm currently working on:


  • Painted an awesome curtain rod for my bottle cap curtain - after a clear coat or two it should be ready to hang by Saturday



  • My bottle cap curtain - I'm so lucky to have so many friends willing to have a beer or bottled root beer and pass along their caps to me! And because they know what I'm doing, they are trying new beers with interesting caps. After all, it's good to try new things!



  • Working in my journal



  • Painting with acrylics. My daughter is in art club and art class at school. She is soooo happy and has discovered painting on canvas with acrylics. I just ordered 2 dozen 4x4 acrylic boards from Dick Blick for a ridiculously low price and they arrived yesterday. My son (15) even got into the fun and painted a very cool design in black and green on one. And this all started with art club needing more cheap canvases. Yeah! They will get 24 larger size canvas boards but we're keeping the small ones for us.


  • Art on Saturday will involve Easter eggs! Can't wait. Yes, I'm just a big kid.
  • And try new recipes (cooking counts as art to me). I found this fabulous new (to me) blog that has healthy and delicious looking recipes. The Chili Lime Chicken Burgers were a hit and I'm looking forward to trying more at Iowa Girl Eats.



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Type Z?

Sarah Bray's 90 Minute Workday post has had me thinking about how I work best.

I'm probably closer to a type Z than a type A, maybe a type W? I definitely spend a lot of my day doing other stuff, like writing blog posts, surfing the net, playing words with friends but I always manage to come through and finish projects on time. I make lists, try to prioritize and work on projects but I have the hardest time working on the boring ones and an even harder time working on ones that I don't think will make a difference. It may be time to for some reevaluation.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

To-Do Lists

I've been sharing an email conversation this week regarding to-do lists, sparked by this article about Leonardo DaVinci, ADHD and creativity. I loved the variety in the accompanying illustration by Wendy MacNaughton - everything from pick up a specific book to "Draw Milan". A friend sent me her list that ranged from considering how to be a more concientious consumer to grade papers. Here's my list:


Put away outdoor table and chairs
Put up Christmas lights
Grocery shopping
Bring framed photos of my kids to work
Send updated photos to the grandparents for Christmas
Take my car in for repairs
Get haircut for Andrew
Laundry
Think about my faith
Art journal page – Grace Like Rain
Make a plan for Christmas shopping
Finish service line projections for FY12 and FY13
Monday Scorecard (yes, I know it’s Tuesday)
Neurosurgery market analysis
Prepare agenda for Dec. 13th FCO Board meeting and send out so members will prepare ahead of time
Send FCO December Concert Press Release Info to President
See if band boosters need help on Saturday
Check home email – FIRE bands playing on Saturday? And e-pethealth registration
Knit socks
Schedule time with Andrew to work on his family life project for Sunday
Schedule riding lesson? Talk to Erin first
Pick Taurus up from garage
Map Thanksgiving
Get out the rest of the Christmas CDs
Ask Andrew to practice violin
Reschedule Friday phone call
Start work physician listing criteria
Finish painting Erin’s closet doors

And just so I don't forget - add these to the list of blogs I want to check on regularly:
http://thehappypainter22.blogspot.com/
http://www.joojoo.me/
http://aweebitwarped.blogspot.com/

And here are some quotes I've been saving up for possible art journal pages:

"Yes, and imagine a world where there were no hypothetical situations.”Jasper Fforde

“The cucumber and the tomato are both fruit; the avocado is a nut. To assist with the dietary requirements of vegetarians, on the first Tuesday of the month a chicken is officially a vegetable.”― Jasper Fforde

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently,as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.”― Thich Nhat Hanh

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories,instead of theories to suit facts.”― Arthur Conan Doyle

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently.”Bill Watterson

“I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”― L.M. Montgomery

"It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem."G.K. Chesterton

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."

"Curiosity, especially intellectual inquisitiveness, is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions."— Tom Robbins

"Never underestimate how much assistance, how much satisfaction, how much comfort, how much soul and transcendence there might be in a well-made taco and a cold bottle of beer."— Tom Robbins

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth,but most of them pick themselves upand hurry off as if nothing ever happened."— Winston S. Churchill

quan-da-ry [kwon-duh-ree, -dree] 1. a state of perplexity or uncertainty, especially as to what to do; dilemma.

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any."~ Orson Scott Card

"I'm interested in having fun with ideas, throwing them up in the air like confetti and then running under them."~Ray Bradbury

"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy.You can't "try" to do things. You simply "must" do things." — Ray Bradbury

"No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time."— Lewis Carroll

"A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all."Rita Mae Brown

"I was a little excited but mostly blorft. "Blorft" is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been blorft every day for the past seven years." — Tina Fey

"With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?"~Oscar Wilde

"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way."~Wayne W. Dyer

“Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.” ― G.K. Chesterton

“Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.” ― G.K. Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions

“There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” ― G.K. Chesterton

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” ― G.K. Chesterton

“Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.” ― G.K. Chesterton

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” ― G.K. Chesterton

“Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.” ― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics: The Annotated

“Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.” ― G.K. Chesterton

“There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.” ― G.K. Chesterton

“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Monday, November 14, 2011

No Fast Food For Me This Week

What a fun weekend! Last week I decided that I wasn't eating fast food this week, which meant I needed better planning. I also had one new recipe I was dying to try. Michael did the grocery shopping last Thursday evening and I picked up my one ingredient for the recipe I wanted to try on Friday. Sunday, I was prepared for cooking. I made Baked Barley Risotto with Butternut Squash (from December issue of Real Simple), freezer burritos, prepared crock pot meatballs and made enough rice for side dishes to last the week.

The Baked Barley Risotto with Butternut Squash was really dinner last night for Michael and I. I didn't expect my kids to even try it with squash in it. Andrew had some and liked it. I guess his tastes are maturing. Michael and I loved it and I will definitely be adding this to my regular cooking rotation now that winter is here.

Today for dinner we are having crock pot meatballs with orzo and steamed broccoli. Tuesday, meatloaf from the rest of the ground beef and Thursday burritos. I love it when a plan comes together.

And still enjoying the Habit Blog. It's led me to some new (for me) amazing blogs. Here's a few I've checked out this week:

At Upper Pond (must try the marble loaf cake)
Twenty Two Pleasant (Again, another recipe to try - ginger cake)
This is Marzipan (amazing photos from a different part of the country)
Little Red Hen (I follow this via Tammy at daisyyellow too - quilts, knitting, farm, nearby)
Urban Prairie Forest (beautiful pictures)